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How baseball’s new rules are changing the game, and how they aren’t

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

Around this time a year ago, complaints about the state of baseball were not limited to pedants, pundits, and old men yelling at clouds. The league-wide batting average by the end of April 2022 was .231. Mario Mendoza, the light-hitting infielder of the 1970s and 1980s whose name is synonymous with below-average hitting, batted .231 in 1981. To some, the game had changed beyond recognition.As it often does, batting average crept up as the season progressed. By the end of the season, it reached .243, still the lowest over a full season since 1968. Then as now, Major League Baseball decided it was time to change the rules.Batting average is about as helpful to diagnosing the balance between hitting and pitching as a digital thermometer is to diagnosing a sick patient: useful, but incomplete. It tells us a lot about the effectiveness of the new rules, but not everything.Here are a few early observations about what’s changed, and what hasn’t:1. Batters are being rewarded with more hits ...

Ukrainian athletes at California universities try to stay strong, positive while war rages

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

They’re homesick and sick with worry, stuck in a situation where the only recourse is to be a rock for their families, rock stars in their own orbits. To live well.To try to be happy.It’s an impossible mission, but Anastasiia Slivina, a rower at USC, and Yuliia Zhytelna, a tennis player at Cal State Northridge, they’re doing their best.Because the home they’re pining for is Kyiv, Ukraine’s cosmopolitan capital, with all the history and culture and nature running through it, where their families are hunkered down, afraid but “staying strong,” as Slivina put it, “and believing in our win.”Ukraine has been under siege since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022, starting a bitter, bloody battle that’s become the largest land war in Europe since World War II.Zhytelna’s parents and three of her four siblings are there, in Kyiv. So is Slivina’s 19-year-old brother, who isn’t permitted to leave Ukraine, and mother – a doctor who has earned an award from the government there for her work over the...

Man dies in Long Beach after third stabbing on LA Metro since April 6

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

A man died after he was stabbed Wednesday afternoon on a Metro A Line, also known as the Blue Line, train in downtown Long Beach.The circumstances leading up to the stabbing were mostly unclear as of Wednesday night, LA metro spokesperson Patrick Chandler said. Long Beach Police officers responded to the scene before 4 p.m., according to a police blotter update, which also said the apparent perpetrator is believed to have fled on foot.The victim, who died of his wounds at a local hospital, was described only as a man in the update. No further information about him was immediately available.It was not immediately clear whether there was a weapon recovered from the scene or whether the stabbing was targeted.The stabbing, which happened shortly before 4 p.m., comes less than a week after two people were stabbed on separate Red Line trains elsewhere in Los Angeles County on Thursday, April 6.Related ArticlesCalifornia News | Antioch leaders express outrage, dismay over racist...

In reversal, Fairfax Co. schools no longer considering banning pajamas

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia is no longer considering a change to its dress code that would have prohibited students from wearing pajamas or sleepwear to school.Virginia’s largest school system unveiled the proposed change to its Students Rights and Responsibilities handbook, which includes the dress code, last month. But in a statement, a county schools spokeswoman said the proposal is no longer included in the draft of the handbook.More Local NewsMore Virginia NewsMore Education NewsThe school system reviews possible updates to the comprehensive guide every year.“The development of the Students Rights and Responsibilities (SRR) and associated documents is an interactive process and is informed by feedback from multiple stakeholders, internal and external to the organization, as well as updates in response to legislative changes,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.Under the proposed change shared with the school community in March, clothing that wou...

1 killed in Northeast DC shooting inside a McDonald’s restaurant

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

A man is dead after a shooting inside a McDonald’s in Northeast D.C. Wednesday evening, D.C. police said.Officers were called to the 1600 Block of Benning Road NE in the Carver and Langston neighborhoods at around 6:15 p.m. and found a man unconscious and not breathing.Local TV outlet 7News reported that the man has died.The homicide branch is leading the investigation.Police asked the public to look out for a man wearing a white shirt and blue jeans. The suspect, armed with a handgun, was also seen with a black sweatshirt wrapped around his waist.Alert: Shooting Investigation in the 1600 block of Benning Rd NE. Lookout is for (1) black male, wearing a white shirt, bluejeans, with a black sweatshirt wrapped around his waist with twists in his hair, armed with a handgunHave info? Call (202) 727-9099/text 50411— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) April 12, 2023Anyone with more information is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or text 50411.Below is a map of where the shootin...

Pauly Shore reflects on career from ‘Encino Man’ to ‘Bio-Dome’ en route to gigs at DC Comedy Loft

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.” toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley previews Pauly Shore at the DC Comedy Loft (Part 1) $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ga('send', 'event', 'Audio', 'play', audio_filename); }); }); When Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan both won Academy Awards last month for “The Whale” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” respectively, their “Encino Man” colleague Pauly Shore was ecstatic to see his ol...

Trump demanda a Michael Cohen por US$ 500 millones alegando que su exabogado incumplió su contrato

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

(CNN) — El expresidente Donald Trump demandó a Michael Cohen por US$ 500 millones en concepto de daños y perjuicios por el supuesto incumplimiento de su contrato como exabogado personal de Trump.La demanda, presentada en un tribunal federal de Florida este miércoles, acusa a Cohen de difundir información falsa sobre Trump e incumplir sus obligaciones contractuales con el expresidente en las declaraciones públicas de Cohen, los libros publicados, las series de podcasts y otras apariciones en los medios.Cohen, el otrora “arreglador [de problemas]” de Trump, volvió a entrar recientemente en el centro de atención nacional después de que Trump se declarara inocente la semana pasada de 34 cargos de falsificación de registros comerciales a raíz de una investigación sobre supuestos pagos de dinero por silencio realizados a la estrella de cine para adultos Stormy Daniels. Los pagos fueron coordinados por Cohen en los días previos a las elecciones de 2016, y la cooperación d...

Ukraine’s GDP crashed by 29.1 percent in year of Russian invasion

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

Ukraine’s economy plummeted in the year that Russia started its war in Ukraine, with the gross domestic product (GDP) falling by 29.1 percent in 2022, data from the state statistics service published late on Wednesday shows.Ukraine’s export-led economy has been battered by the consequences of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, with the highly restricted access to Black Sea ports hindering crucial metal and grain shipments and the infrastructure industry dramatically weakened.In peacetime, Ukraine’s farmers supplied a tenth of the wheat and half the sunflower oil sold on world markets. Its shipments of grains and oilseeds through the Black Sea fell to zero last March, from 5.7 million metric tons in the previous month.The Ukrainian government has predicted a slightly harder drop of 30 percent drop in earlier forecasts, with risks and uncertainties remaining high. It expects the economy to grow by 1 percent this year, expecting the situation in the transp...

Ukraine’s Naftogaz declares victory over Russia in $5B court battle

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

A court in The Hague has ordered Russia to pay $5 billion in compensation for seizing assets from Ukraine’s state energy firm following Moscow’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea.In a statement issued Thursday, Kyiv’s Naftogaz group announced that the Permanent Court of Arbitration had ruled in the company’s favor in the case the day before.“Despite Russia’s efforts to obstruct justice, the Arbitration Tribunal obliged the Russian Federation to compensate Naftogaz for losses in the amount of $5 billion,” the statement reads, confirming the compensation relates to “the consequences of Russia’s confiscation of our assets in Crimea in 2014.”Moscow had previously threatened to levy sanctions against Naftogaz if the Ukrainian firm pursued the case in court, and has not yet responded to the decision. However, given Russia has previously refused to comply with other international court decisions affecting Naftogaz, securing restitution may prove challenging. Moscow could ...

Court preserves access to abortion pill but tightens rules

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:55:00 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal appeals court preserved access to the abortion pill mifepristone for now but reduced the period of pregnancy when the drug can be used and said it could not be dispensed by mail.The ruling late Wednesday temporarily narrowed a decision by a lower court judge in Texas that had completely blocked the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the nation’s most commonly used method of abortion. The Texas order unsettled abortion providers less than a year after the reversal of Roe v. Wade already dramatically curtailed abortion access.The case may now be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.Mifepristone was approved for use by the FDA more than two decades ago and is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.In a far-reaching ruling last week, a federal judge blocked the FDA’s approval of the pill following a lawsuit by the drug’s opponents. There is virtually no precedent for a lone judge overturning the regulato...