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Rockies’ power outage leaves general manager Bill Schmidt scratching his head: “We anticipated hitting more home runs”

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

Talk about a Blake Street Bummer.The Rockies are on pace to hit the fewest homers and post the lowest slugging percentage of any team in franchise history.Veteran right-fielder Kris Bryant, who signed a seven-year, $182 million contract prior to last season, is on pace to hit 16 home runs this season. Third baseman Ryan McMahon, who signed a six-year, $70 million deal last spring, is on pace to hit 14.But they are far from alone in underperforming internal expectations so far this season.“We anticipated hitting more home runs,” general manager Bill Schmidt said Friday. “If you look at the back of the baseball cards, these guys have had a history of hitting more home runs. But I scratch my head, to be honest with you.”With nearly one-third of the season in the books going into Memorial Day weekend, the power outage in LoDo is jarring. Colorado entered Friday with 40 home runs as a team, ranking 27th in the majors. The Rockies were on pace to hit just 127 homer...

Nuggets Journal: Nikola Jokic intent on last laugh as NBA Finals approach

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

Clad in a black tank top and yellow Muhammad Ali shorts, Nikola Jokic plopped in front of a makeshift Finals backdrop on Saturday afternoon and parried questions he’d heard dozens of times before.As the Nuggets waited to find out which team they’d be wrestling for an NBA championship, Jokic was at ease and in control. He was funny, goofy and engaging — three telltale signs that the cornerstone of the franchise was in a good headspace with history on deck.His mood was apparent from the outset when Jokic asked for a box score, picking up on a running joke between him and various Nuggets staffers. Still with five days to go until Game 1 of the NBA Finals, there was little else to do but mess around and tease everyone in his orbit.For the media’s sake and the hordes of cameras that had convened, he did indulge in a bit of reflection.When Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon stuffed LeBron James on the final play of Monday’s clinching Game 4, Jokic admitted it wasn’t the feeling he expected.“Th...

Broncos RT Mike McGlinchey now plays for Zach Strief. His mission: Be like Zach Strief

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

In one of those funny twists of football fate, Zach Strief has been Mike McGlinchey and Mike McGlinchey is now Zach Strief.OK, strictly speaking, that might be overstepping the bounds of the known universe, but if the NFL were actually scripted, the pair would find their respective parts awfully familiar.If this were a family tree, Denver’s new offensive line coach Strief would be at the end of a pretty darn straight line above the Broncos’ new right tackle McGlinchey.Strief, you see, spent years and years as a trusted right tackle in a Sean Payton-run offense. Now he’s coaching McGlinchey, the trusted right tackle in a Sean Payton-run offense.You can understand, then, why the pair has hit it off since Strief arrived here in February and McGlinchey a month later in free agency.“We haven’t dusted off the video clips of Zach yet, but we have seen some stuff from installs in New Orleans,” McGlinchey told The Post with a laugh Thursday. “I just think it’s so valuable to have a coach who...

Walters: Stakes are high for Newsom’s public works projects

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

Gavin Newsom is fond of proclaiming “big hairy audacious goals,” having borrowed the term from a book on successful corporate leadership.However, he has not been particularly successful in delivering on his promises of bold, transformative action – such as single-payer health care for all Californians or constructing 3.5 million new housing units.The hairiest and most audacious of Newsom’s goals is converting California’s massive economy – the fourth largest in the world, according to recent estimates – into one that booms while reducing its carbon footprint to zero in the next 22 years.It would involve, among other things, shifting 30 million cars and trucks from gasoline or diesel power to electricity or hydrogen and abolishing gas-fired power plants in favor of solar, wind or thermal generation.Such massive conversions are technologically doable, but they would be very expensive for consumers, utilities and governments. They would require a lot of construction projects, such as s...

Ukraine’s Kostyuk booed after not shaking hands with Belarus’ Sabalenka at French Open

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

PARIS (AP) — At first, Aryna Sabalenka thought the boos and derisive whistles coming from the French Open crowd were directed at her after a first-round victory Sunday. Instead, the negative reaction was aimed at her opponent, Marta Kostyuk, for not participating in the usual post-match handshake up at the net.Kostyuk, who is from Ukraine, avoided so much as any eye contact with Sabalenka, who is from Belarus, after the match, instead walking directly over to acknowledge the chair umpire. Sabalenka walked toward the net as if expecting some sort of exchange.But this is something Kostyuk has been doing whenever she has faced any opponent from Russia or Belarus since her country was invaded by Russia, with help from Belarus, in February 2022.Perhaps the fans on hand at Court Philippe Chatrier did not know the backstory and figured Kostyuk simply failed to follow tennis etiquette by congratulating the winner after the lopsided result: Sabalenka grabbed six games in a row during one str...

Many Republican insiders in US fear Teflon Don is back

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

NASHUA, N.H. — Republican Party insiders looking to move on from former President Donald Trump increasingly fear that Teflon Don is back.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ technology-challenged but donor-rich entry into the GOP presidential primary cemented his place in the early primary as the chief alternative to Trump.But it will hardly clear the field. And with a growing cast of characters still waiting in the wings to announce their own campaigns, warning signs of a 2016 replay are once again flashing in the GOP. According to interviews with nearly a dozen GOP strategists, former candidates and party insiders, the intraparty dynamics now at play — and Trump’s own alchemical grip on the base — suggest a primary where a constellation of Republicans once again risk splitting the non-Trump vote in early nominating states.“If those people are all still in the race when January comes around, it’s going to be 2016 all over again, and Trump will win,” said Jason Osborne, the New Hampshire Hous...

Italy’s Meloni: Good China relations possible without Belt and Road

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday that the country can enjoy good relations with China even without being part of Beijing’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).Meloni gave her strongest remarks to date on the BRI in an interview with the Italian daily Il Messaggero amid speculation that Italy might soon drop out of Beijing’s global infrastructure project, which Rome joined in 2019, drawing criticism from the U.S.“Italy is the only G7 member that signed up to the accession memorandum to the Silk Road, but it is not the European or Western country with the strongest economic relations and trade flows with China,” the Italian leader noted in the interview.“This means that it is possible to have good relations with Beijing, also in important domains, without them necessarily being part of an overall strategic plan,” she added.Her comments come one week after G7 leaders met in Hiroshima, Japan, where they stressed the need to “de-risk” from China.Meloni ...

Vermont’s governor vetoes largest budget in state history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont’s governor has vetoed a state budget that would have been the largest in the state history.Republican Gov. Phil Scott said the proposed budget, which is well over $8 billion, would unfairly raise taxes and fees on state residents. He said in his Saturday veto message that Vermonters “have made it clear that living in our state is not affordable” and lawmakers shouldn’t ask them to take on more burden.Scott called on lawmakers to work with him on a new spending plan. The Vermont Legislature is controlled by Democrats, and adjourned its session by passing the budget.Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore Philip Baruth said the legislature can’t act again until late June. Baruth called the veto “disappointing” and said senators “will need to recalibrate our approach as we work with our partners in the House on a response to the governor’s action.”

Texas House of Representatives votes to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

(CNN) — The Texas House of Representatives has voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, an unprecedented move following a legislative probe that faulted the third-term Republican for a yearslong pattern of corruption, including abusing his office’s powers, retaliating against whistleblowers and obstructing justice.Under state law, Paxton is now temporarily suspended from his duties as attorney general and will await a Senate trial.The vote was 121-23, with two members voting “present.”“The evidence is substantial. It is alarming and unnerving,” said GOP Rep. Andrew Murr, chair of the General Investigating Committee, during his closing statement following hours of debate. The committee recommended 20 counts of impeachment against Paxton.Democrat Rep. Harold Dutton was one of the members voting present. He said the impeachment vote had been rushed. “The process by which we’re getting this done seems to be abbreviated to the point that it just encroaches on due process,”...

Bear wanders into downtown Hartford

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:04 GMT

HARTFORD, Connecticut (WFSB) — A young bear found its way into a part of downtown Hartford on Friday afternoon.The bear was spotted on Albany Avenue around 1 p.m.Shortly afterward, it entered the backyard of a home on Chestnut Street.That is where it climbed into a tree where it stayed for hours, less than half a mile from Dunkin’ Park.Hartford Police, animal control, DEEP, and EnCon Police were all on the scene.Residents who live in the area were surprised to see the young bear. Neighbors stuck around to watch and take pictures.“He was right there, nice beautiful bear. And then somehow, all these people came out and *woop* into the trees. And it’s been there for a while,” said Roberto Perez.“I was in my room just chilling, and then I heard my name, ‘George, George, there’s a bear out in the back.’ So I ran out in the back, and sure enough, there’s a bear out back right in the trees. So I took my little pictures. It was very strange though because you don’t see bears in this n...