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Dear Abby: Keeping spark alive long distance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

Dear Abby: My fiance and I are engaged to be married soon, but we live (and will continue to live) in separate cities. We are in our mid-50s with children, and it’s the second marriage for each of us.My fiance isn’t very verbal about his desires, but we talk with each other every day and we live together about half the time. I want to make sure he isn’t lonely and isn’t wanting more when we’re apart, but I’m not an openly sexual person, and I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable engaging in video chat intimacy with him. I have raised the topic with him. He suggested I write to you and see what you suggest. — Long-Distance Wife-to-BeDear Wife-to-Be: If you both agree, I’m suggesting you and your fiance give it a try. If you do, it may not only enhance your married life but also teach you both how to discuss what you need from each other, which could only bring you closer.Dear Abby: My husband of six years has left me for my siste...

At least 4 people shot on campus of Morgan State University in Baltimore, authorities say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — At least four people were wounded, none critically, in a shooting at Morgan State University in Baltimore on Tuesday, according to authorities, who urged students to take shelter on the campus of the historically Black college. The Baltimore Police Department initially said officers were on the scene for an “active shooter situation." Police kept the campus on lockdown for hours and provided little information about their investigation. The address given for the shooting appeared to match a residential building that's on the same block as a city police station.“We’re asking everyone to shelter in place and avoid the area,” police said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. About three hours later police said it was no longer an active shooter situation and said more details were expected at a media briefing. Police spokesperson Amanda Krotki said there were multiple victims with non-life-threatening injuries. Police spokesperson Vernon Davis told the Baltimor...

Tee off inside Petco Park for golf event

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Have you ever wondered what it feels like to drive a ball onto the field at Petco Park? Not with a baseball bat, however, but with a golf club.Starting Friday, Oct. 13, participants will be able to take part in the ninth annual The Links at Petco Park, the Padres said in a news release Monday. The nine-hole golf course set up within the ballpark features an on-field shot from the playing field, new themed holes and locations like the warm-up hole in the Visitor's Clubhouse and the opportunity to win different prizes, according to the team. Chula Vista breaks ground on new park, part of the Bayfront redevelopment Golfers will have their own caddy throughout the entire course, officials said. When finished with all of the rounds, golfers will be able to attend The Links clubhouse at the Lexus Premier Club, located on the Main Concourse, for food, refreshments, shopping or to watch other golfers along the course.Tickets start at $100 per player. The nine-day event goes...

CP NewsAlert: New Democrats win majority government in Manitoba

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

WINNIPEG — The Canadian Press election desk is projecting an NDP majority government in Manitoba.More coming.The Canadian Press

3 Filipino fishermen die in South China Sea after their boat is hit by a passing commercial vessel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Three Filipino fishermen died in the disputed South China Sea after their boat was accidentally hit by a passing commercial vessel, the Philippine coast guard said Wednesday.The fishermen’s boat, F/B Dearyn, was moored in a fishing area in the high seas off the northwestern Philippines when it was hit before dawn on Monday by the passing vessel and capsized, killing its skipper and two crew members. Three other fishermen survived, the coast guard said without elaborating.The three fishermen died due to “possible head trauma” from the collision and their bodies were brought back to shore by the surviving fishermen, a separate police report said.There was no indication that the deadly accident was related to the long-simmering territorial disputes in the busy waterway.Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed sadness over the deaths of the fishermen and said a coast guard investigation was underway.“We assure the victims, their families, and everyo...

Suspect charged in rapper Tupac Shakur’s fatal shooting will appear in a court in Las Vegas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A self-described gangster who police and prosecutors say masterminded the shooting death of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas in 1996 is due to make his first appearance Wednesday before a Nevada judge.Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, was arrested Friday during an early-morning walk near his home in suburban Henderson. A few hours later a grand jury indictment was unsealed in Clark County District Court charging him with murder. Grand jurors also voted to add sentencing enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and alleged gang activity. If Davis is convicted, that could add decades to his sentence.Davis denied a request from The Associated Press for an interview from jail where he’s being held without bond. Court records don’t list an attorney who could comment on his behalf.Davis had been a suspect in the case, and publicly admitted his role in the killing in interviews ahead of his 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”“There’s one thing that’s for sure when li...

Stock market today: Asian shares are sharply lower, tracking a rates-driven tumble on Wall Street

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian markets were sharply lower on Wednesday after Wall Street tumbled as it focused on the downside of a surprisingly strong job market: the likelihood that interest rates will stay high. U.S. futures and oil prices edged lower. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index sank 2.2% to 30,551.85 and the Kospi in South Korea dropped 2.3% to 2,408.68. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng skidded 1% to 17,151.61. Troubled property developer China Evergrande was down 8.5% after plunging 28% on Tuesday.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 1% to 6,873.90. In Bangkok, the SET fell 0.2%.On Tuesday, the S&P 500 lost 1.4% to 4,229.45. The Dow sank 1.3% to 33,002.38, wiping out the last of its gains for the year so far. The Nasdaq composite led the market lower with a 1.9% drop to 13,059.47 as Big Tech stocks were among the market’s biggest losers. Amazon fell 3.7%, Microsoft dropped 2.6% and Nvidia lost 2.8%.The Dow is down 0.4% for the year so far, after being up nearly 8% at the start of August. ...

Child care programs just lost thousands of federal dollars. Families and providers scramble to cope

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

WILLIAMSON, W.Va. (AP) — Kaitlyn Adkins is studying law to help families in her community impacted by the opioid epidemic at the heart of West Virginia coal country.But to do that, she needs someone to help look after her three toddlers. The first-generation college graduate said she wouldn’t be able to finish law school without access to reliable daycare.Providers say millions of children and their families are now at risk of losing that vital service. After two years of receiving federal subsidies, 220,000 child care programs across the country were cut off from funding Saturday. The largest investment in child care in U.S. history, the monthly payments ranged from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars, and stabilized the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.“It feels like they’re just setting everyone up for failure,” Adkins said, dropping her 2-year-old and 1-year-old twins at daycare on a recent morning before an hour-and-a-half drive to class. For years, providers ha...

Michelle Good among authors shortlisted for Balsillie Prize for Public Policy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

TORONTO — Michelle Good is among the finalists for the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.The author of acclaimed novel “Five Little Indians” made the list for her collection of essays “Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada.”The $60,000 award, which will be handed out Nov. 28, goes to a book of non-fiction that advances policy debates.The winner of last year’s Donner Prize for a public policy book, “Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups: Canada’s Quest for Interprovincial Free Trade” by Ryan Manucha, also landed on the short list.“Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence” by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb, which jurors say makes a “compelling case” for retooling systems and structures to accommodate AI, also earned a spot.Rounding out the short list are “Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our ...

US appeals court to hear arguments over 2010 hush-money settlement of Ronaldo rape case in Vegas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:51 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A U.S. appeals court planned to hear Wednesday from lawyers trying to revive a woman’s bid to force international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions more than the $375,000 in hush money he paid her after she claimed he raped her in Las Vegas in 2009. An attorney for the woman is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the dismissal of the case in June 2022 and reopen the civil lawsuit she first filed in Nevada in 2018.The appeal argues the federal court judge in Nevada erred in repeatedly rejecting the woman’s attempts to unseal and include as evidence the confidentiality agreement she signed in 2010 in accepting payments from Ronaldo.A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appellate court isn’t expected to issue an immediate ruling after it’s scheduled to question attorneys for Ronaldo and his accuser, Kathryn Mayorga, during oral arguments Wednesday at a special sitting at the law school on the campus of the Universit...