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Nets solidify No. 6 seed with huge victory over Magic, will take on 76ers in first round

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

Friday night was merely a formality.With the Eastern Conference’s sixth and final guaranteed playoff seed hanging in the balance, and a date with a short-handed and low-ranked Orlando Magic team on the docket, the Nets dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s.Then they signed, sealed and delivered the Magic a 104-81 defeat, a Brooklyn victory that punched the team’s ticket to Philadelphia for a first-round playoff date with Joel Embiid, James Harden and the 76ers next week.Coincidentally, the Nets will play the 76ers in a playoff preview in Sunday’s season finale at Barclays Center.The news was delivered at the 4:41 mark in the fourth quarter by the Barclays Center public announcer: The seventh-seeded Miami Heat, who rested all five of their starters plus an additional role player, lost their game to the Washington Wizards on Friday.The only way the Nets could have risked falling into the Play-In was with a loss and a Heat win.Yet Brooklyn’s standin...

Magic reinsert couple of starters back into lineup but lose at Nets

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

Despite reinserting a couple of starters back into the lineup, the Orlando Magic dropped Friday’s road game 101-84 to the Brooklyn Nets.Guard Markelle Fultz (7 points and 5 assists in 18 minutes) and forward Franz Wagner (12 points and 5 rebounds in 24 minutes) were available and back with the starting group after sitting out Thursday’s home loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.Guard Gary Harris was also available off the bench but didn’t play.The Magic sat their starters in the loss to the Cavaliers, the first night of a back-to-back, opting for players who haven’t been in the rotation.But a few of those players — including Fultz, Harris and Wagner — who didn’t play on Thursday were back in the lineup against the Nets.Guard Cole Anthony (14 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists), who was available but didn’t play against the Cavaliers, made his fourth start of the season against the Nets alongside Fultz, Wagner, Jalen Suggs (7 points and 5 rebo...

Heat rest regulars in 114-108 loss to Wizards, will host Hawks in Tuesday play-in game

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

There wasn’t much to be learned from this game for the Miami Heat, with Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love given the night off.Except for what comes next.With Friday night’s 114-108 loss to the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena, the Heat were locked into a seventh-place finish in the Eastern Conference, regardless of the result of Sunday’s home finale against the Orlando Magic.That means a Tuesday 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. home play-in game against the Atlanta Hawks at the Kaseya Center, the new name for their arena.Win that, and it’s on to the playoffs. Lose, and there is a second-chance all-or-nothing home game next Friday night, against the winner of a Toronto Raptors-Chicago Bulls play-in game.“This is our reality and you have to embrace that,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of his team’s first-ever appearance in the play-in tournament for conference seeds No. 7-10. “This is a totally new experience for al...

Avian flu kills 3 California condors in northern Arizona

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

Marble Canyon, Ariz. (AP) — Three California condors have died from avian flu in northern Arizona and authorities are trying to determine what killed five others in the flock, the National Park Service announced Friday.A sick female condor suspected of having lead poisoning was found dead on March 20 and testing showed it had Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), the park service said.Two other birds later found dead also tested positive, while test results aren’t yet completed for five others, the park service said.The birds are part of a population that moves throughout northern Arizona and southern Utah, including Grand Canyon National Park, the park service said.The Peregrine Fund, which manages the Arizona-Utah flock, also captured five other birds that seemed ill and sent them to a wildlife rescue in Phoenix. One bird died and the other four have been quarantined, officials said.Exposure to the virus is expected to rise during the condors’ northward spring migr...

In Nicaragua, Holy Week celebrations limited by government

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Roman Catholics in Nicaragua had to hold traditional “Stations of the Cross” and other Holy Week processions on church grounds or inside churches Friday amid a ban on public demonstrations.Relations between autocratic President Daniel Ortega and the church have frayed to near non-existence since Nicaragua’s government proposed severing relations and sentenced a bishop to 26 years in prison.Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes told The Associated Press that celebrations were held throughout the country “near the churches.”“In absolutely every parish there were celebrations,” Brenes said, though he added they went off “not with all the intensity” of years past.Germán Miranda, one of hundreds of faithful who showed up for the procession at the Managua Cathedral, was one of those who found it less inspiring this year.He said Holy Week celebrations were better in the past when they wound through the streets of the capital. “It was better before, because it was freer.”M...

City to pay $500K to settle bikini barista dress code suit

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — A legal battle over a dress code for bikini baristas at coffee stands is ending after a city north of Seattle agreed to pay $500,000 to the owner and employees who sued over it six years ago. The Everett City Council voted unanimously this week to authorize Mayor Cassie Franklin to sign the settlement agreement with Jovanna Edge and employees, The Daily Herald reported. Plaintiffs had been seeking more than $3 million in damages and attorney fees. Under the agreement, the city will keep most of its rules for probationary licensing of coffee stands and other quick-service business but will no longer dictate that baristas wear at least tank tops and shorts. Instead the city will align dress code rules with an existing lewd conduct standard that makes it a crime to publicly expose too much of one’s private parts. Another provision mandates that business owners post materials for employees with information on how to seek help if they are being trafficked or otherwi...

2 men shot to death near beach in Mexican resort of Acapulco

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two men, apparently Mexican tourists, were killed Friday and a woman was wounded in shooting not far from the beach in Mexico’s once-glamorous resort of Acapulco. Prosecutors in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero said the two men had been visiting a barbershop in the Puerto Marquez neighborhood. A witness said the victims had arrived in Acapulco the day before for the Easter week vacation. She said the victims were on two all-terrain vehicles when assailants rode up on a motorcycle and opened fire on them. The victims’ bodies were found still aboard the ATVs. There was no information on the condition of the woman, who was taken to a hospital before police arrived. Acapulco has been plagued by drug cartel violence since 2006, but in the first months of 2023 the violence has become worse. The Associated Press

Manor ISD announces new Superintendent

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Manor ISD announced Robert Sormani will likely be its new Superintendent. Sormani has a doctoral degree in educational administration and has worked in education for 23 years, according to a Manor ISD press release. He worked most recently for Hutto ISD as its  Associate Superintendent. Before Hutto, he served as Director of Curriculum and Instruction in Manor ISD.Sormani was also a principal in Round Rock ISD for nearly a decade and spent five years teaching US History at Dobie Middle School in Austin ISD, according to a press release.  “On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we are elated to have a person of Dr. Robert Sormani’s character join us to lead our district.  We are confident in his ability to lead with passion, integrity and knowledge.  He is committed and dedicated to include students, staff, parents and community in making Manor ISD the best School District in Texas,” Manor ISD ISD Board President Monique Celedon was quoted saying...

Minnesota man sentenced for aiming laser at Delta flight over western Wisconsin

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

MADISON, Wis. — A federal judge in Wisconsin sentenced a Minnesota man on Friday to two years in prison for aiming a laser at a Delta Air Lines jet in 2021, an act that prosecutors said disrupted the pilots’ efforts to land and putting passengers in “incredible danger.”James Link, 43, of Rochester, Minn., pleaded guilty in January.Laser strikes on planes and helicopters hit a record in the U.S. in 2021. Pilots reported 9,723 incidents, a 41% jump over the year before, according to Federal Aviation Administration figures. The FAA said it handed out $120,000 in fines in 2021. Violators like Link can also face up to five years in prison.According to the U.S. attorney’s office in Madison, the pilots of the Delta flight from Raleigh-Durham, N.C., to Minneapolis-St. Paul on Oct. 29, 2021, reported that their cockpit was lit up three times by a bright blue laser while they were at an altitude of 9,000 feet just west of River Falls, Wis. At the time, air traffic control had just instr...

Tyler Duffey returns to the Twin Cities as an Iowa Cub

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:10:51 GMT

By mere coincidence, former Twins reliever Tyler Duffey finds himself back in town as a member of the Triple-A Iowa Cubs on the same weekend of the Twins’ home opener. Should they meet up here again in just over a month, it will be by plan.Released by the Twins last August after 11 years in the organization, including eight years as a valuable member of the bullpen, the 32-year-old Duffey signed with the Cubs in the offseason with a goal of getting back to the big leagues. More specifically, when the Cubs visit Target Field on May 12 for the start of a three-game series, Duffey’s goal is to be part of the traveling party.“I fell into a place where I am really comfortable,” Duffey said prior to the Saints’ 6-2 win over the Cubs on Friday at CHS Field. “They’ve kind of said, ‘Just be yourself.’ You want to go where you have an opportunity. They have a lot of young guys have who have been called up, but they don’t have a huge veteran presence, especially in the bullpen. Nob...