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Lowry: Skipping the debates working for Trump

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

Woody Allen said 90% of life is showing up. Donald Trump is proving that he overshot the mark considerably.The former president has paid no discernible price for skipping the Republican debates. Arguably, he’s been winning them by diminishing the rest of the field through his absence, while his polling has held steady or gone up a little.The latest forum, at the Reagan Library, will not be long remembered, or perhaps remembered at all.The candidates tended either to overpromise about what they’d do as president in frenzied, rapid-fire fashion, or to talk over one another in squabbles difficult to watch or listen to.If Trump was hoping that, if he failed to show, his opponents would tear at each other in pursuit of marginal advantage in the race for second, third or fourth place, it hardly could have gone better.In fact, it went so swimmingly that one of Trump’s advisors took the opportunity to announce that he won’t show up for the third debate, scheduled for...

Dear Abby: Co-worker moves up, reader stays put

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

Dear Abby: I applied to be a supervisor at the company where I work. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the job. One of my co-workers, who held the same position I did (though with significantly fewer years of experience at the company), was given the job instead. Initially, I tried to shrug it off and continued working as usual. Unfortunately, I find I am no longer able to do that.Since this co-worker is now my boss, I sometimes receive dictation/instruction from them, which makes me uncomfortable. I have begun to feel jealous — I’ll acknowledge that. I have worked here for 10 years now, and the fact that I haven’t been able to move into a higher position has weighed me down. For financial reasons, I can’t resign. Somehow, I have to make this new reality work. How do I rid myself of these feelings of jealousy and learn to proceed with my new boss? — Stuck at Work in the WestDear Stuck: One way to do that would be to remind yourself regularly why you are...

One dead in Mira Mesa house fire

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- One person was killed in a house fire Friday in the Mira Mesa neighborhood, authorities said.The blaze occurred around 6:30 p.m. in the 11000 block of Eridanus Court, Mark Reece, a battalion chief with San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD), told FOX 5.Firefighters battled a heavy fire in the second floor bedroom of a two-story home, per SDFD. When they extinguished the fire, first responders found a deceased person. Smugglers damage trucks waiting to cross US border Thanh Nguyen lives in the home, but he was at work when the fire happened. He says his wife called him to rush home when the fire happened.Nguyen said four other tenants live in the home, as well as his wife and five-year-old daughter. He confirmed one of the tenants, who Nguyen said had just got back from the hospital Friday, died in the fire.Another tenant said the tenant who died had a walker and couldn't walk too well. The fire is currently under investigation.

Oktoberfest celebration begins in La Mesa

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

LA MESA, Calif. -- The city of La Mesa kicked off its 50th Oktoberfest celebration on Friday.The free event runs through the weekend and features live music, traditional food and drink, games, and other family-fun activities on La Mesa Blvd and Spring Street.Over 40 food vendors will be on site offering a variety of food including traditional German food, giant pretzels, bratwurst and schnitzel.Competitors can participate in games like Keg Stands, NXPT Workout Challenges, Air Bike Sprint, Sandbag Toss, Farmer’s Carry and Tank Push for Oktoberfest medal and bragging rights. 2 SD-area cities among least affordable rental markets for average income: study Shoppers can browse at the Artisanal Market where there are more than 100 vendors selling unique and hand-made items.Pup lovers can make their way to Dackeldorf Dachshund Village, which has activities from Weiner dog races to a fashion show.On Saturday, Oktoberfest will start at 10 a.m. -10 p.m., while Sunday's hours are noon- 8 p.m...

Things to know about the Nobel Prizes

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Fall has arrived in Scandinavia, which means Nobel Prize season is here.The start of October is when the Nobel committees get together in Stockholm and Oslo to announce the winners of the yearly awards.First up, as usual, is the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology, which will be announced Monday by a panel of judges at the Karolinska Institute in the Swedish capital. The prizes in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics will follow, with one announcement every weekday until Oct. 9.Here are some things to know about the Nobel Prizes:AN IDEA MORE POWERFUL THAN DYNAMITEThe Nobel Prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a 19th-century businessman and chemist from Sweden. He held more than 300 patents but his claim to fame before the Nobel Prizes was having invented dynamite by mixing nitroglycerine with a compound that made the explosive more stable.Dynamite soon became popular in construction and mining as well as in the weapons industry. It made Nobel a very...

Inside the night that Tupac Shakur was shot, and what led up to the fatal gunfire

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The first arrest in the 1996 death of Tupac Shakur came Friday with the murder indictment of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, one of the last living witnesses to the Las Vegas drive-by shooting of the hip-hop superstar. Here’s a look at the hours that led up to the fatal gunfire. TUPAC, SUGE AND THE TYSON FIGHT IN VEGAS On the afternoon of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur and Suge Knight, the head of his music label, Death Row Records, arrived in Las Vegas along with an entourage that included Shakur’s fiancee, Kidada Jones, along with his cousins and friends, to watch a heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. At about 8:30 p.m., Shakur and Knight took their front row seats at the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.Shortly afterward the fight began. It would end less than two minutes later, with Tyson winning in a first-round knockout and taking Seldon’s WBA Heavyweight title.THE FIGHT’S AFTERMATH AND ANOTHER FIGHT At about 8:40 p.m., moment...

Transgender minors in Nebraska, their families and doctors brace for a new law limiting treatment

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — As Nebraska’s new law restricting gender-affirming care for minors goes into effect this weekend, families with transgender children and the doctors who treat them are steeling themselves for change. But exactly what and how much change is anyone’s guess.A key aspect of the law is a set of treatment guidelines that has yet to be created. Affected families, doctors and even lawmakers say they have largely gotten no response from health officials on when they can expect the new rules, which should lay out how and when transgender minors can be treated with puberty blockers and hormones. Many of them fear Republican officials and their appointees in charge of administering the rules are slow-walking the regulations as a way to block treatment for new transgender patients under 19, the age of adulthood under Nebraska law.“There has been no communication,” said 42-year-old Lincoln resident Heather Rhea, who has a 17-year-old transgender daughter. “There’s...

On the brink of a government shutdown, the Senate tries to approve funding but it’s almost too late

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is on the brink of a federal government shutdown after hard-right Republicans in Congress rejected a longshot effort to keep offices open as they fight for steep spending cuts and strict border security measures that Democrats and the White House say are too extreme.Come midnight Saturday with no deal in place, federal workers will face furloughs, more than 2 million active duty and reserve military troops will work without pay and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast will begin to face shutdown disruptions.The Senate will be in for a rare Saturday session to advance its own bipartisan package that is supported by Democrats and Republicans and would fund the government for the short-term, through Nov. 17. But even if the Senate can rush to wrap up its work this weekend to pass the bill, which also includes money for Ukraine aid and U.S. disaster assistance, it won’t prevent an almost certain shutdown amid the chaos in the ...

Prosecutor in Hunter Biden case cut a contentious path in Baltimore

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — Before being assigned to investigate President Joe Biden’s son, Leo Wise built a reputation in Baltimore as a tough and hard-charging federal prosecutor, taking on powerful, and seemingly untouchable, figures — whether a gang of corrupt cops, a police commissioner, a top local prosecutor and even a mayor.Wise’s backers call him talented and savvy, with a knack for navigating complex, headline-generating cases. To detractors, he’s stubborn and uncompromising as well as self-promotional: he wrote a memoir about one of his major cases while still employed by the Justice Department. His approach – aggressive in a way that has won him accolades but riled other lawyers – sets the stage for a contentious fight in the high-stakes prosecution of Hunter Biden.“He holds everything very close to the vest, and he takes every possible advantage that he can take,” said Gerard Martin, a Baltimore criminal defense lawyer who calls Wise a “hard-ass.” “He’s not a guy you can go meet w...

Arrest in Tupac Shakur killing stemmed from Biggie Smalls death investigation

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:29:20 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The first arrest in the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur had its roots in the investigation of the killing of Biggie Smalls. The shooting deaths of the two hip-hop luminaries and rivals — Shakur in Las Vegas and Smalls in Los Angeles six months later — have always been culturally inseparable, and one man, Duane Keffe D. Davis, found himself involved in both investigations. On Friday, Davis was arrested and charged with murder, with prosecutors saying he ordered and masterminded the Shakur killing.Now retired Los Angeles police detective Greg Kading was assigned to investigate the slaying of Smalls — whose legal name was Christopher Wallace — and in 2009 interviewed Davis as a person of interest in the case. Davis had had been at the party at the Peterson Automotive Museum that Wallace had just left when he was shot.Kading had helped build a federal drug case against Davis to get leverage to compel him to talk to Los Angeles police, who to date have made no arrests in th...