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Book Review: Rural Appalachian family’s dreams turn dark in new Ron Rash novel, `The Caretaker’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

Ron Rash has made the fog-shrouded ridges of Appalachia his fictional home in novels and short stories over a highly acclaimed career dating back decades. With “The Caretaker,” his first novel in seven years, he returns to this familiar mountain terrain and its remote hill culture.Set in the early 1950s in Blowing Rock, a hamlet in North Carolina’s mountainous west, the novel is a compelling drama of young lovers beset by parental grief and scheming. Often unforgiving elements — the sneer of class bias, community stigma and intolerance — are at work to destroy the youthful lovers.Jacob Hampton, 17, is the son of well-to-do parents obsessed with seeing him enjoy a financially rich future with a suitable young woman they’ve already selected for him. Naomi Clarke, a 16-year-old hotel maid, is not that woman — but Jacob is passionately in love with her and will not be deterred.When the young couple elope, Jacob and Naomi are basically kicked off the prosperous Hampton homestead — even t...

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey says cash found in his home was from his personal savings, not bribe proceeds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

UNION CITY, N.J. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey says cash found in his home was from his personal savings, not bribe proceeds.Source

Sean Payton’s Broncos fall apart in ’embarassing’ 70-20 loss at Miami

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton called Sunday’s 70-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins embarrassing — something that will be tough to rewatch on tape for the players and coaches — in a postgame news conference that lasted less than five minutes.Denver gave up nearly 800 yards of total offense, including 350 yards rushing, and were overpowered by the Dolphins on both sides of the ball. Now they’re 0-3 for the second time in four seasons with few positives to take away from Sunday’s output.“We knew we were playing a real good offense,” said Payton, only in his third game as Denver’s coach, “but we’ve got to look closely at what we were doing. When somebody runs the ball up and down the field like those guys did, and throws it up and down the field, it’s not acceptable.”It was Denver’s most lopsided loss since the NFL and AFL merged in 1970. The Broncos lost 59-14 to the Raiders on Oct. 24, 2010, with Josh McDa...

Colorado native works on uncovering answers to save children at St. Jude 

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (KDVR) — FOX31 and Channel 2 now have less than 3,000 tickets available for the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway. FOX31’s Nicole Fierro took a trip to St. Jude’s campus in Memphis to learn about the lifesaving impacts these ticket sales help fund.On St. Jude’s campus, there are scientists, doctors and patients from all over the world. Dr. Marybeth Lupo, a Colorado native, traded the mountains for microscopes in the heart of Memphis back in 2017.“I grew up in Littleton, just outside of Denver, went to college in Boulder, went to grad school in Aurora at Anschutz,” Lupo said.  Tickets on sale now for the 2023 St. Jude Dream Home Lupo earned her Ph.D. in cancer biology from the University of Colorado Anschutz and her undergraduate degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Colorado Boulder.Her purpose at St. Jude revealed itself right away on her first visit during a graduate student symposium.“When we were ta...

Free Covid-19 tests are now available for order from the US government

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

(CNN) — Covid-19 tests are now available to be ordered for free from the US government.Starting Monday, people can order four tests per US household through Covidtests.gov. People without an internet connection can call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489) to request tests.Covid-19 rapid tests can be taken at home and can be used regardless of whether someone has symptoms. The tests should be good through the end of the year. Some of the dates on the tests may show that they are expired, but the US Food and Drug Administration has extended those dates.The US government previously shipped more than 755 million free Covid-19 tests to people who requested them. The program has been suspended since May. Covid hospitalizations have been on the rise in the United States since July, with weekly admissions now more than triple what they were two months ago.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people test if they have any Covid-19-like sym...

Van Dyke throws for 3 TDs, Parrish rushes for 2 scores, unbeaten No. 20 Miami routs Temple 41-7

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tyler Van Dyke’s dad was a Philadelphia Eagles fanatic, so that meant the family rooted on the team and hit the road for games at the Linc — even if game days for the season-ticket holders meant a 3 1/2-hour trip from their Connecticut home.Van Dyke didn’t recall the exact section he sat inside the big stadium in south Philly but he remembered the seats were up high. High enough that he was almost at eye level to the 2017 Super Bowl banner.Now the starting quarterback for No. 20 Miami, Van Dyke wears No. 9 — just like former Eagles QB Nick Foles — and made a new favorite memory inside the stadium. He threw for three touchdowns and helped the Hurricanes beat Temple 41-7 on Saturday and move to 4-0 for the first time since 2017.“I was looking up at the stadium where he had our season tickets, where we used to sit,” Van Dyke said. “It’s just very cool, and it’s a blessing to play in the stadium where you grew up watching pro football games.”H...

BSO seeks public assistance in locating missing 77-year-old man

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

The Broward Sheriff’s Office Missing Persons Unit is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a 77-year-old man who has gone missing from Pompano Beach.According to investigators, Patrick Mcaleer was last seen on Friday at approximately midnight in the 2900 block of Northwest Second Street. Officials said that Mcaleer has been diagnosed with dementia and may also go by the name “Patrick Wolfe.”At the time of his disappearance, Mcaleer was wearing an orange shirt and black shorts. He stands at 6 feet tall and weighs around 200 pounds, with grey hair and brown eyes.Anyone with information is urged to contact BSO Detective Chris Blankenship at 954-321-4268 or utilize the BSO non-emergency number at 954-764-HELP (4357).

8 injured when JetBlue flight from Ecuador hits severe turbulence as it approaches Fort Lauderdale

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A JetBlue flight from Ecuador to Fort Lauderdale hit extreme turbulence while landing in Florida on Monday, injuring seven passengers and a crew member, the airline said in a statement.JetBlue flight 1256 was headed from Guayaquil, Ecuador, to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for a landing shortly after 5 a.m. when it “experienced sudden severe turbulence as it neared Florida,” the statement said.The injured were taken by paramedics to the hospital for treatment and evaluation, the statement said. The airline said it could not comment on the severity of the injuries. Broward County Fire-Rescue, which treated the injured, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.The airline said the Airbus 320 twin-engine plane was taken out of service for inspection.The Fort Lauderdale airport directed all questions to the airline.

Macron pitches non-punitive green transition with new package

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

France is betting on the carrot rather than the stick to meet its climate goals. French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said that green transition should focus on providing incentives rather than imposing outright obligations as he presented a plan to halve carbon emissions by 2030, the so-called planification écologique package. “We want an ecology that is accessible and fair, an ecology that leaves no one without a solution,” Macron said at the end of a meeting with key ministers involved in the plan at the Elysée palace. The French president stressed that France’s green policy should not be punitive.The plan comes as other nations wrestle with similar choices, with the U.K. rolling back on its climate goals for electoral reasons and Germany increasingly questioning the EU’s environmental agenda. Macron wants to show that he is committed to emissions-reduction goals while not burdening citizens through costly obligations — a perfect example of the centrist pre...

Tensions rise between Germany and Poland as Scholz mulls border checks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:23:55 GMT

BERLIN — The German government is weighing whether to impose checks on the border with Poland in order to stem an influx of asylum seekers, but tense relations between the two countries — and now an open diplomatic row — may complicate those plans.Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is under heightened pressure to crack down on rising levels of irregular migration, with many asylum seekers now coming into the country over the Polish and Czech borders. Officials in Berlin say the government is now in discussions with Poland and the Czech Republic over introducing temporary border checks.But at a political rally over the weekend, Scholz linked the current border crisis with an alleged visas-for-bribes scandal that has rocked Poland’s anti-immigrant government just weeks ahead of a national election in that country.“I don’t want Poland to simply wave people through and then have a discussion about our asylum policy afterwards,” Scholz told a crowd during a polit...