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State boys golf: Spring Lake Park’s Jake Birdwell drives the green on the final hole to secure Class 3A crown

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

Holding a one-stroke lead heading into the final hole of the Class 3A high school golf state tournament, the logical play may have been to take 3-wood off the tee to avoid any potential trouble.But Spring Lake Park junior Jake Birdwell hadn’t hit a 3-wood all day, and feels mighty comfortable with the driver in his hands.“It was just more of a confident play for me,” he said.So Birdwell gripped the big club and let it rip over the trees that protect the dogleg, with no real idea where his ball finished until he approached the green. Yes, the green.The tee shot on the par-4 found the putting surface, all but guaranteeing him a state title.“It was crazy. I didn’t think I was going to hit the green from the tee,” Birdwell said. “It was awesome. I was pumped walking down toward the green. He still could make birdie, so I just had to at least get (my putt) up by the hole.”The “he” in this instance was Cretin-Derham Hall sophomore Joe Honsa, who was in second-place. But when Honsa saw Bir...

State girls golf: Simley’s Reese McCauley wins Class 3A title with birdie on final hole

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

In contrast to past seasons, Simley junior Reese McCauley now makes a point to be aware of her positioning on the leader board within the tournament in which she’s playing.That wasn’t the case even when McCauley won the high school state tournament back in 2021. It’s part of the golfer’s general maturation within the sport.“It actually was kind of nice knowing the score going into 18 (on Wednesday),” McCauley admitted.She was trailing her friend Kathryn VanArragon of Blaine, the 2018 and 2022 state champion, by one shot heading into the final hole of the final round. So McCauley knew she had to make up ground. And she also knew the position she was in during the hole, as VanArragon finally flinched, hitting her tee shot into the fairway bunker. The senior then caught her bunker shot too cleanly, sending it over the green.An up-and-down from there is essentially impossible considering the back pin location. VanArragon went on to make double bogey. ...

New York extends postpartum Medicaid coverage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (WETM) -- The New York State Department of Health has announced that postpartum coverage through Medicaid and Child Health Plus will now last for one year. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! “The entire first year after childbirth can be a very vulnerable time,” said State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald. “The extension of postpartum coverage displays the Department’s commitment to ensure that all individuals who give birth have the vital resources and services they need to have safe pregnancies, no matter their race, where they live, or immigration status."Effective immediately, pregnant New Yorkers will receive postpartum coverage for 12 months following their pregnancy, regardless of how the pregnancy ended. Previously, enrollees would only be covered for 60 days postpartum. Rensselaer County leaders express worry over Burdett Birth Center closing plan New York's option to extend postpartum Medicaid c...

Nuggets Journal: GM Calvin Booth is happy with title, but is already plotting more: “This is not the peak for us.”

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth knows championship windows are fleeting.He was there the past two campaigns when debilitating injuries to Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. robbed the Nuggets of two golden opportunities to make history. With the team finally healthy this season, Booth was in charge after Tim Connelly’s swift exit to Minnesota and tasked with shepherding the franchise to heights unknown.As soon as he inherited the job, he felt the weight of realizing their vast potential around Nikola Jokic. It was his job, he said at the time, to make sure these years weren’t squandered and these opportunities were maximized.That’s why, in trading for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, signing Bruce Brown, drafting Christian Braun and Peyton Watson and even attempting to improve the roster at this year’s trade deadline, Booth was so aggressive. He had very recent evidence of how fickle these openings can be.Monday night, when the Nuggets seized their first championship, the 6-foot-11 B...

Vance Joseph looks to follow in Wade Phillips’ footsteps as former Broncos head coach turned defensive coordinator

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

There are a few times in life when relationships are rekindled after a sour breakup. Sometimes, it takes a willingness to look past the bad moments to mend the bond.That was the case for Vance Joseph.Five years removed from his unsuccessful head coaching stint in Denver, Joseph has returned as the defensive coordinator with a fresh mind. He says he doesn’t dwell on the back-to-back losing seasons that led to his firing after the 2018 campaign. For Joseph, the opportunity to rejoin the Broncos and work with head coach Sean Payton made coming back to Denver worth it.“I’m back now, and my focus is to play good defense with Sean and win games,” Joseph said after Wednesday’s minicamp session in his first time speaking to reporters since his hiring in February.This isn’t the first time the Broncos have brought a previously fired head coach back as defensive coordinator. Wade Phillips was shown the door as head coach in 1994 before returning as the coordinator in 2015, orchestrating ...

2 women sue Longmont hotel for allegedly providing attempted murder suspect access to room

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

Econo Lodge in Longmont is facing a lawsuit after employees allegedly gave a room key to a man accused of entering an occupied room and brutally attacking two women staying at the hotel. Nicole Gallegos and her mother, Carol Gonzales, are suing the hotel for negligence, including negligent hiring, retention, supervision and infliction of emotional distress, as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress, premises liability and liability for the employees’ actions as agents of the hotel.The two women, with representation from Haltzman Law Firm, filed a complaint against the hotel at 10811 Interstate 25 Frontage Road on June 5. The complaint accuses the hotel of recklessly failing to ensure the safety of their guests, failing to follow safety policies such as restricting room access to guests and hiring unqualified individuals.On Jan. 3, Gallegos occupied a temporary resident room, rented by Gonzales. The two had a guest, 31-year-old Cody Czichos, visit the room to eat pizza ...

Former Long Beach EMT gets 29 years for gun, drug trafficking charges, including selling fentanyl to coworker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

A former Long Beach first responder was sentenced to more than 29 years in federal prison after he was found guilty of gun and drug crimes, including selling fentanyl that resulted in the fatal overdose of a coworker, officials with the United States Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.  Cruz Noel Quintero, 43, of Long Beach, who was formerly employed as an emergency medical technician at a Long Beach hospital, shipped methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs across the country beginning no later than Feb. 2018, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Central District of California Office.  In the parking lot outside the hospital’s emergency room, in May 2019, Quintero sold a coworker a white powder he claimed was cocaine for $100. The coworker was planning a trip to Vegas with her partner, a volunteer firefighter and former nurse at the Long Beach hospital.  According to evidence presented during the 43-year-old's trial, the coworker and her partner, n...

Nearly $200 million awarded to house thousands of homeless Southern Californians

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

Nearly $200 million dollars were awarded on Wednesday to move 7,300 homeless Californians out of encampments and into housing.The award was made possible through the Encampment Resolution Fund which is administered by the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency and the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.The grants will be disbursed to 23 projects across 22 communities throughout the state.The fund was “designed by Governor Gavin Newsom and the Legislature to provide communities of all sizes with the funding to move people living in encampments into housing,” according to the state officials.Wednesday’s announcement of $199 million is the third and largest round of ERF grants to be distributed. Previously, 26 communities were awarded $96 million from the fund over two rounds.Grants being disbursed to Southern California include:-Los Angeles County will receive the largest share with $59.5 million to serve 3,000 people on Skid Row.-The Los Angeles Homeless Services ...

Police raid Oakland sites, seize hundreds of catalytic converters, $260,000 in Bay Area-wide theft probe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

Officers from a police task force seized more than 200 allegedly stolen catalytic converters, along with about $260,000 in cash and guns as they simultaneously raided two Oakland locations, the California Highway Patrol said Wednesday.Six men suspected of thefts around the Bay Area were arrested.Police seized about $260,000 in cash and arrested six people after raiding two Oakland sites June 9 in a long-term investigation by the Alameda County Regional Auto Theft Taskforce into an alleged Bay Area-wide catalytic converter theft operation throughout the Bay Area. (courtesy of California Highway Patrol) The seizures and arrests Friday morning by the Alameda County Regional Auto Theft Taskforce —composed of members from the CHP, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Oakland Police Department and Alameda County Probation Department — resulted from an investigation that started in mid-2022 into “a prolific catalytic converter fencing operation and crew responsible for thefts ...

Celebrated book editor Robert Gottlieb dies at 92; guided such authors as Toni Morrison, John le Carré, Michael Crichton

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:47 GMT

By Hillel Italie | Associated PressNEW YORK — Robert Gottlieb, the inspired and eclectic literary editor whose brilliant career was launched with Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” and continued for decades with such Pulitzer Prize-winning classics as Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker,” has died at age 92.Gottlieb died Wednesday of natural causes at a New York hospital, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced. Caro, who had worked for decades with Gottlieb on his Lyndon Johnson biographies and was featured with him last year in the documentary “Turn Every Page,” said in a statement that he had never worked with an editor so attuned to the writing process.“From the day 52 years ago that we first looked at my pages together, Bob understood what I was trying to do and made it possible for me to take the time, and do the work, I needed to do,” Caro said in a statement. “People talk...