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Austin Hays’ Orioles teammates believe he’s deserving of an All-Star nod: ‘It’s been a special first half’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

The Orioles didn’t sink when center fielder Cedric Mullins went on the injured list, and the unexpected slugging of Aaron Hicks and Ryan O’Hearn has largely been credited as the reason — and rightfully so.But that’s also because the way Austin Hays is playing is no longer a surprise. With Mullins sidelined, Hays hit .343 with a superb .909 OPS — close to his season averages. The 27-year-old leads the American League with a .318 batting average, and his .866 OPS is best among Baltimore’s qualified hitters.“He’s been doing amazing,” Hicks said about Hays. “I feel like every time I’m up to bat, he’s either on second or on first. It’s impressive.”Despite his stellar first half, Hays came nowhere close to advancing to the second phase of All-Star Game fan voting. He finished 14th among AL outfielders — more than 400,000 votes away from being top six and advancing. Now, Hays’ chance of making h...

Howie Carr: This week’s installment in the saga of Biden bagman Hunter

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

It was just the crack cocaine talking.You can already hear the excuses Democrats are going to be offering this morning on the chat shows for Hunter Biden’s 2017 bombshell text message to that Red Chinese operative.Using WhatsApp, the smartest man Dementia Joe Biden knows was brazenly demanding to be paid off immediately by the genocidal Communist butchers, threatening to ruin the guy if he didn’t come across with the do-re-mi.But Hunter is not to blame — that’s what all the Democrat mouthpieces will be telling their fellow Democrat operatives with press passes on all the unwatched, unwatchable network TV shows.George, you must understand that Hunter is a victim.Please remember, Chuck, that the poor boy (he’s 53) has a disease. He’s a drug addict and an alcoholic.He’s also a sex addict, Jake, and you know bad that is. Just ask your pedophile former producer who got hit with that 19-year federal sentence in Vermont last week.Shannon, don’t forget that Hunter watched his mother and his...

Trudeau off to Iceland to meet Nordic leaders ahead of NATO, amid Arctic uncertainty

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on his way to meet with Nordic leaders ahead of an upcoming NATO summit and as uncertainty looms over the future of the Arctic. Trudeau is slated to travel to Iceland, which will host leaders from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway over the next two days for an annual gathering of Nordic prime ministers. Leaders from Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands are also attending. Iceland’s government says “societal resilience” will be discussed at the meeting, which is being staged on a group of islands known as Vestmannaeyjar and coincides with the 50th anniversary of a volcanic eruption there.Trudeau is to appear as a guest, and his office says it is a chance to advance common interests with the Nordic nations, which range from protecting the environment and developing clean energy to tackling security challenges. The talks come a little more than two weeks before leaders travel to Lithuania to meet with NATO alli...

Egypt’s president meets with visiting Indian prime minister to strengthen ties

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt met Sunday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday, the second stop of a two-day trip that focused on elevating ties between the two counties.Egypt and India share deep ties that date back to the 1950s, when the two nations played key roles in founding the Non-Aligned Movement, which had sought an alternative path to siding with either with communism or capitalism at the height of the Cold War.Modi, who arrived in Cairo Saturday, is the first Indian prime minister to pay a state visit to Egypt in more than two decades. His two-day stop came six months after el-Sissi was in New Delhi as an official guest at India’s Independence Day.El-Sissi welcomed Modi Sunday morning at the presidential palace in Cairo. He awarded the visiting prime minister the Order of the Nile, Egypt’s highest state honor, according to Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry.Modi’s trip to Egypt has focused on strengthening b...

Adventure of a lifetime: St. Paul teen back from around-the-world bike trip

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

It was in a remote area of Kyrgyzstan, about midway through his 20,700-mile bicycle journey around the world, that Adam Swanson worried he might not make it home.Sick with food poisoning and out of toilet paper, the 19-year-old St. Paul man hitched a ride with two Russian speakers on their way to Siberia for a shipment of watermelons. During the four-hour ride, he and the other passenger communicated by passing his phone back and forth using Google Translate.Suddenly, the driver turned off the main road, and Swanson read the next message on his phone: “We revenge slaughter you.”Instead of Swanson’s intended destination of Osh, the trio were approaching Uzbekistan, a country he wasn’t yet authorized to visit.“We pull off this road and drive for, like, half an hour, and then we come up to this gate,” Swanson said. “The gate opens, and it’s an open lot with one guy and a bunch of relics from the Soviet Union and nothing else.”The passenger handed Swanson his phone. “It said, ‘Get out, ...

Literary calendar for week of June 25

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Nicole Baart (Aaron Baart / Simon & Schuster)NICOLE BAART: Iowa-based author of 11 novels discusses her atmospheric thriller “The Long Way Home,” in which an Instagram-famous teen goes missing and her mother grapples with revelation of dark secrets. 7 pm. Monday, June 26, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.; 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul, in conversation with bestselling Minnesota author William Kent Krueger.MICHELLE BRUHN/STEPHANIE THUROW: Sign copies of their book “Small-Scale Homesteading.” Subtitled “A Sustainable Guide to Gardening, Keeping Chickens, Maple Sugaring, Preserving the Harvest, and More,” this handsomely designed paperback is packed with color photos and facts. 10-11:30 a.m. Friday, June 30, Lake Country Booksellers, 4766 Washington Square, White Bear Lake.MARY CHRISTINE KANE/SANDRA ELIASON: Introduce “True Stories About Love Vol. 2,” made up of 33 sto...

Skywatch: Shooting the moon

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Over the next two weeks, the moon will be very prominent in our sky, starting as a first quarter (half moon) on Monday and becoming a full moon a week later on July 3. It will be the first full moon of the astronomical summer. Without a doubt, moonlight, especially full moonlight, louse up the skies for good stargazing and astrophotography, which are near and dear to me. Despite that, I love, love, love full moons! I call it my magic moon time.I love the names given to full moons by various cultures worldwide. One Native American name for the July full moon is the Full Buck Moon because this is when buck deer begin sprouting new antlers. It’s also called the Thunder Moon because of the more frequent thunderstorms this time of year. My favorite name for the July full moon comes from the ancient Chinese Buddhist tradition. They called it the Hungry Ghost Moon. I am still trying to figure out why.Whatever you call the July full moon, you can’t help but notice that it’...

Letters: I’ve been a proud Democrat for a long time, but spending is out of control

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Yes, a growing concernThe letter Ed Sellner wrote for the June 22 paper about state and local Democratic spending being out of control was right on.The squandering of the recent budget surplus on so many marginal programs is astonishing.I too have been a proud Democrat for a long, long time but these recent policies have really got me questioning.  I’ll continue voting Democrat at the federal level, but I’ll probably go Republican at the state and local levels. I wouldn’t be surprised if other good Democrats are thinking the same thing. Ed Sellner was right, the spending is just out of control.Joseph Bianconi, St. Paul No good choiceI’m not going to vote in 2024.Why? The Republican party is morally bankrupt. They want to interfere with medical treatment for women and LBGTQ persons. They want to cut taxes for the uber-wealthy. They want to gut Social Security and Medicare. They are the party of book bans and limited education curricula. They are the party...

Literary pick for week of June 25

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Allison Blevins (Courtesy of Allison Blevins)Raedial Book Fair returns for its second year Saturday, July 1, at Harriet Island Regional Park, 200 Dr. Justus Ohage Blvd., St. Paul, offering readers a chance to meet more than 20 literary vendors, authors, booksellers and publishers dedicated to uplifting diverse literature.It begins at 11:30 a.m. with a Drag Queen reading hour, followed by 1:30 p.m. author talks and a 3:30 panel about social media’s impact on the discoverability of diverse books.Shannon TL Kearns (Courtesy of Shannon TL Kearns)This year’s guest authors are Shannon TL Kearns and Allison Blevins. Kearns is a transgender man who believes in the transformative power of stories. He is an ordained priest, a playwright/screenwriter and theologian. He’s been a Humanitas New Voices Fellow, a Lambda Literary Fellow, a Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow, and a Finnovation Fellow. His debut book, “In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with...

Ask Amy: Abuse survivor thrives and tells the tale

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Dear Readers: Like you, I’m often curious about what happens to the advice I offer once it leaves my desk, and so I’ve asked readers to send in “updates” to let all of us know how my advice was received, if it was followed, and how things turned out.The responses have flowed in, and I’m interested and often gratified to learn what impact this experience has had on readers.Of all of the updates I’ve received, today’s update has moved me the most.The original Q&A is printed below, followed by the update.Dear Amy: I’m an adult man, nearing 50, with a very difficult family history. My parents divorced when I was 9 years old. I lived with my mother and stepfather. Their relationship was quite twisted, and between the ages of 14 and 15 he sexually molested me, with my mother’s knowledge.I have done lots of healing about this, and today I have a great life.My question is: Now that my mother and biological father are elderly (my stepfather committed suicide), what kind of “allegiance” d...