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Reddick rides a fast car and good fortune into the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Tyler Reddick knows you need to have speed to win a NASCAR Cup Series championship. Denny Hamlin knows just as well that you need to have breaks go your way.Reddick had both going for him Sunday at Kansas Speedway, taking advantage of a late caution and four fresh tires to breeze by six other drivers in the final two laps for the win. It ensured that Reddick would be in the round of 12 of the playoffs for the first time, taking almost all the pressure off the No. 45 team heading to next week’s cutoff race at Bristol.“We have enough speed, we should be able to make it through this first round, and winning certainly helps,” Reddick said. “Going into the round of 12, we can pick up just a little, and then as we go we can keep amping it up.”Hamlin, on the other hand, had a bit of bad luck Sunday. Bubba Wallace and Martin Truex Jr. had a whole lot of it.Hamlin looked as if he would cruise to a record fifth Kansas win as he dominated the last 35 laps. But wh...

2 brothers fatally shot in SW Miami-Dade abandoned home; family pleads for answers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

A shooting at an abandoned house in Southwest Miami-Dade has led to the deaths of two individuals. The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), Homicide Bureau, is actively seeking the community’s assistance in identifying and locating the suspect(s) responsible for this heinous crime.On Saturday, at approximately 5:22 p.m., officers responded to reports of gunfire at 10214 SW 175 St. When law enforcement arrived, they found the bodies of the two brothers, later identified as 19-year-old Alexis Martinez Marquez and 16-year-old Osvaldo Martinez Marquez, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel who arrived at the scene confirmed the fatalities. Ring camera video from a resident who lives in the area showed a red car speeding away, moments after the shooting occurred. Hours later, yelling could be heard on the video footage while neighbors stood outside their homes to determine where the commotion was coming from. While investigators remain without any...

FLPD seeks help from public in locating 73-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

Fort Lauderdale police are seeking assistance from the public to locate a 73-year-old woman.Sharon Hill was last seen Monday morning around 10:30 a.m. in the 300 block of NW 1st Avenue. She was dressed in a multi-colored dress, a jean jacket and flip flops at the time of her disappearance. She is 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighs 170 pounds, and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.Authorities are urging anyone with information about Sharon Hill’s whereabouts to contact the police immediately.

National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month spotlights need for regular screenings for men over 40

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and doctors are once again highlighting how crucial it is for those affected to get screened regularly. “Prostate cancer is very common – because it’s so common, it’s important to be aware of it and to be mindful because so many men do get diagnosed with it,” said Dr. Sophia Kamran, a radiation oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.Prostate cancer is the second leading cancer cause of death behind lung cancer, with the American Cancer Society estimating that more than 288,000 new cases were expected to be diagnosed in the United States in 2023, along with 34,700 deaths.Doctors say many men are anxious about getting screened, a process that involves a PSA test, but stress it’s important to get tested early and often because many factors can influence the results.“For example, bike riding can increase your PSA falsely,” Dr. Kamran told 7NEWS. “Having a v...

Long-lost ‘Star Wars’ X-wing model up for auction with starting price of $400,000

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

(CNN) — A long-lost model of an X-wing fighter used in the original 1977 “Star Wars” movie is up for auction, with a starting price of $400,000.Used in the filming of the final battle in “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” as the Rebel Alliance fight the Empire above the Death Star, the model “represents the pinnacle of Star Wars artifacts to ever reach the market,” Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auctions said.The top two wings of the fighter are both painted with a single red stripe, identifying it as the squadron’s “Red Leader.”The model is part of a collection that belonged to the late Greg Jein, an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated miniature-maker known for his work on “Star Trek” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and will be auctioned on October 14-15.Long known as “the missing X-wing,” it was discovered by a team of visual effects experts, including Gene Kozicki (“Face/Off” and “Flight of the Phoenix”), as they helped Jein’s family sift thr...

War-traumatized Ukrainian bear to be adopted by Scottish zoo

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

(CNN) — An Asiatic black bear, which endured severe trauma in a zoo in Russian-occupied Ukraine, is set to be adopted by a zoo in Scotland.In October 2022, according to posts on a Ukrainian rescue center’s social media, Ukrainian soldiers entered the abandoned zoo in the village of Yampil, Donetsk, which had been under Russian occupation. They found that almost all of the 200 animals at the zoo had been killed.A 12-year-old bear was one of the few left alive. He, too, was badly injured – he had been concussed when a shell had exploded near his cage and was just days away from dying, according to a statement released by the Five Sisters Zoo in Scotland.Now, Yampil – named after the village where he was found – will get a new start in life as he is set to be adopted by the Scottish zoo, after a rescue operation that has so far taken him across the European continent from Ukraine to Poland to Belgium.He will head to his new home, 20 miles west of the Scott...

Dozens of remote Moroccan villages struggle in aftermath of devastating earthquake

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

TAFEGHAGHTE, Morocco (AP) — The toll of the massive earthquake that devastated Morocco could be seen Monday in dozens of remote villages such as Tafeghaghte, where more than half of the 160 inhabitants are thought to have died.With most of the community flattened, survivors worked to clear debris, recover the dead and steer the living away from buildings teetering on the edge of collapse from aftershocks.The villagers toiled in a scene of horror: The air was filled with the stench of dead cattle. Other animals remained trapped in debris. Bloody bandages were strewn around the streets. Although the community has received food and water, it needs much more.“It’s a catastrophe,’’ said survivor Salah Ancheu, who lives in nearby Amizmiz. “We don’t know what the future is. The aid remains insufficient.”The efforts in Tafeghaghte mirrored those happening across the North African country’s disaster zone as survivors worked alongside bulldozers to dig through rubble and hope ...

US sets record for billion-dollar weather disasters in a year — and there’s still 4 months to go

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

By SETH BORENSTEIN (AP Science Writer)The deadly firestorm in Hawaii and Hurricane Idalia’s watery storm surge helped push the United States to a record for the number of weather disasters that cost $1 billion or more. And there’s still four months to go on what’s looking more like a calendar of calamities.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that there have been 23 weather extreme events in America that cost at least $1 billion this year through August, eclipsing the year-long record total of 22 set in 2020. So far this year’s disasters have cost more than $57.6 billion and claimed at least 253 lives.And NOAA’s count doesn’t yet include Tropical Storm Hilary’s damages in hitting California and a deep drought that has struck the South and Midwest because those costs are still be totaled, said Adam Smith, the NOAA applied climatologist and economist who tracks the billion-dollar disasters.“We’re see...

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano alert level is downgraded after latest eruption

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — The alert level on Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, was downgraded Monday with no infrastructure threatened and no threat of significant ash emission into the atmosphere outside a limited area within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.The downgrade came one day after the volcano began erupting again, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.In June, Kilauea erupted for several weeks, displaying fountains of red lava without threatening any communities or structures. Crowds flocked to the Big Island’s Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which offered safe views of the lava.The current eruption was confined to Kilauea caldera within the park. The observatory said it “does not see any indication of activity migrating elsewhere on Kīlauea volcano and expects the eruption to remain confined to the summit region.”Kilauea, Hawaii’s second-largest volcano, erupted from September 2021 until last December. In 2018, a Kilauea eruption destroyed more th...

Senate committee recommends firing Wisconsin’s top elections official in process Democrats dispute

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:41 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican-controlled committee on Monday recommended firing Wisconsin’s top elections official rather than reappointing her, clearing the way for a vote by the full GOP-led state Senate as soon as Thursday.The Senate elections committee voted 3-1 along party lines, with one Democrat abstaining, against confirming nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe for a second term. Democrats have accused GOP leaders of improperly pushing through Wolfe’s confirmation after the elections commission’s three Republicans and three Democrats deadlocked along party lines in a reappointment vote in June.Monday’s vote comes despite objections from the state’s Democratic attorney general and the Legislature’s own nonpartisan attorneys who have said that without a majority vote by the commission to reappoint Wolfe, the Senate doesn’t have the authority to go forward with deciding whether to confirm or fire her...