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Keller cruises through 6, the Pirates score 5 in 7th to rout the Padres 7-1

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mitch Keller allowed one run in six innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates scored five times in the seventh to rout the San Diego Padres 7-1 on Wednesday night.Keller (9-3) gave up four hits and had five strikeouts and two walks. The right-hander has surrendered one run in three of his four starts since allowing 15 across his previous three.The Pirates have won three of five after a season-worst 10-game losing streak. The five runs in the seventh all came before the first out was recorded. Josh Palacios had a pinch-hit RBI single, and Connor Joe and Henry Davis followed with two-run singles. Nick Martinez hit Jared Triolo, attempting to bunt, to load the bases ahead of Palacios. It was upheld following a challenge, leading to the ejection of Padres manager Bob Melvin for arguing with crew chief Chad Fairchild.San Diego has lost four straight and seven of nine to fall to 37-43.Carlos Santana homered in a second straight game, driving a fastball from Blake Snell (4-7) 42...

'Naive, dumb': Fired prosecutor blackmailed over naked photo

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (KDVR) -- A Larimer County prosecutor has been fired over a nude photo that made him the victim of blackmail."The only person that wins out of this whole situation is the blackmailers," the former prosecutor said in an exclusive interview with the Problem Solvers. "This is why blackmail works, is that people, victims, are afraid to come out and disclose whatever it was that was captured in the first place." Related: FBI warns of ‘deepfakes’ in sextortion schemes The former prosecutor asked the Problem Solvers not to identify him since he was the victim of a reported crime, and FOX31 has agreed.In April, the former assistant district attorney filed a report with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office as a victim of "criminal extortion" after he visited the website AdultFriendFinder.com."I thought it was another, you know, consenting adults online looking to hook up ... the person on the other side of the profile shared some nude photographs and asked me to reciproc...

Cash App scam

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

You have heard that old line about if it wasn’t for bad luck, you would have no luck at all. Well, one South Florida family knows how true that is, after a scammer left him with one piece of bad luck after another. But there was a way to turn things around, after he called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.You often hear about so many Americans living paycheck to paycheck.Marcus is one of them.Marcus Alvarado: “They started to have to lay off people from work, so I was one of them that got laid off.”Without that weekly check, the bad luck rolled in.Marcus couldn’t make his car payment.Marcus Alvarado: “One day, I came out and my car was gone, and I kind of figured that the bank came and picked up the car.”Marcus had to have a car to search for a new job, so he decided to delay his rent payment.Marcus Alvarado: “I kind of used my rent money to – used to get my car.”But more bad breaks blocked that plan. Marcus tried to use his Ca...

The Potemkin lobby shaping the EU’s agricultural policy

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s biggest farming lobby claims to represent all the bloc’s agricultural workers, but Stela Zămoiu doesn’t believe it speaks for farmers like her.Zămoiu, 61, remembers when the land around her was full of smallholders. Today, her three hectares in eastern Romania are surrounded by large, industrial farms. When she dies, she expects her property to be swallowed up by one of her neighbors.“The village has grown old,” she says. “After the elders die, the land goes to the children, and they sell it … I don’t know if there will be land that won’t be taken by big farmers.”She could use help, she says — from the Romanian government or the EU — but doesn’t see it coming. “Politicians take into account only what they hear from big farmers,” she says. “They represent themselves. Not us.”Some 2,000 kilometers away in Brussels, Pekka Pesonen, the head of the Copa-Cogeca farming lobby, doesn’t disagree. European agriculture needs to become profitable, the...

Don’t piss off China! EU prepares to tone down its battle with Beijing 

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

For European leaders gathering in Brussels on Thursday, the question of how to handle the long-term rivalry with the economic powerhouse of China looks like one problem they’d rather put on hold. EU governments still are trying to work out how far to go in severing sensitive business ties with Beijing in order to avoid repeating the bloc’s disastrous dependency on Russia — after their reliance on Moscow for energy supplies was critically exposed by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But despite Beijing’s economic bullying and equivocation over the Ukraine war, some of Europe’s biggest powers now want to turn down the heat on China. An Eastern European official observed that in the days leading up to Thursday’s summit, some Western European governments tried to water down even further an “already boring” draft statement — just to make sure they “wouldn’t piss off China.”For Europe’s politicians, the question of how to handle Beijing is an awkward one. They are...

French police, protesters clash after Macron calls police fatal shooting of teen ‘inexcusable’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

By OLEG CETINIC and ANGELA CHARLTON (Associated Press)NANTERRE, France (AP) — Police clashed with protesters overnight just hours after French President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting death of a 17-year-old delivery driver by police “inexcusable” and pleaded for calm while justice takes its course. It was the second night of violence in the Paris suburb of Nanterre even as the government heightened the police presence in Paris and other big cities Wednesday after the killing triggered a night of scattered violence. Fires could be seen burning at some intersections in the suburb and protesters shot fireworks at police, video from the suburb showed.The death of 17-year-old Nael during a traffic check Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre elicited nationwide concern and widespread messages of indignation and condolences. French soccer star Kylian Mbappe tweeted: “I hurt for my France.” Nael’s surname has not been released by authorities or by ...

Despite rally capped by Adam Frazier’s homer, Orioles fall to Reds, 11-7, in 10 innings for series loss

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

The Orioles twice came back from three-run deficits to send Wednesday night’s game to extra innings, but they ran out of gas in the 10th.After Adam Frazier’s two-run home run in the eighth tied the score, reliever Keegan Akin imploded two innings later, allowing four runs as Baltimore fell, 11-7, to the Cincinnati Reds at Camden Yards.Three of the first four batters Akin faced in the 10th recorded extra-base hits, as the left-hander continued his recent struggles. Will Benson tripled home the unearned automatic runner, TJ Friedl blasted a two-run homer, and Luke Maile roped a double and later scored on a wild pitch.Orioles starter Kyle Gibson was tagged for three runs in each of the first two innings for his second straight rough start. The offense backed him up, though, batting around in the bottom half of the first to take a brief 4-3 lead.The Reds led by three runs again in the eighth, but a two-out rally sparked by Aaron Hicks’ single and Jordan Westburg’...

Defense dooms Red Sox again in 6-2 loss to Marlins

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

Night after night it’s the same story.The Red Sox play a close game and give themselves a chance to win, only to shoot themselves in the foot with poor defense, questionable decision making and erratic situational hitting.That’s how its gone throughout the season, so its fitting the Red Sox ran back the same script again to officially put a bow on the first half.Ill-timed defensive miscues sunk the Red Sox again in Wednesday night’s 6-2 loss to the Miami Marlins, who capitalized on a series of mistakes to score three runs in the top of the sixth. The loss dropped Boston to 40-41 at the season’s halfway point, and the Red Sox have now lost six of their last seven.The trouble started after Nick Pivetta, who had been dominant since coming on in the third inning as a bulk reliever, walked a pair to put two men on with one out in the sixth. His outing was then abruptly cut short by a rainstorm, but the walks proved costly after the game resumed following a 73-minu...

Indonesia’s Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha with feasts after disease last year disrupted rituals

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Muslims across Indonesia on Thursday were celebrating Eid al-Adha, one of the biggest holidays in the Islamic calendar, with full meat-based feasts after fears of last year’s foot-and-mouth disease outbreak waned.Eid al-Adha, known as the “Feast of Sacrifice,” coincides with the final rites of the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia. It’s a joyous occasion, for which food is a hallmark with devout Muslims buying and slaughtering animals and sharing two-thirds of the meat with the poor.Many Southeast Asia nations, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore observed Eid al-Adha on Thursday, while Muslims in other parts of the globe, including in countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan and Nigeria, celebrated the holiday on Wednesday. It varies according to moon sightings in different parts of the world.On Thursday, worshippers shoulder-to-shoulder joined in communal prayers in the streets of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. Mosques flooded...

Wisconsin Republicans try to force a vote on the reappointment of a nonpartisan election

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:05:52 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans who control the Wisconsin Senate, in a surprise move Wednesday night, proceeded with trying to force a vote on firing the state’s nonpartisan top elections official before the 2024 presidential election.The Senate voted to move ahead at a later date with a public hearing, and ultimately a confirmation vote, on the reappointment of Megan Wolfe for a second term overseeing elections in the presidential battleground state. Democrats walked out of the Senate chamber before the vote, objecting to bringing the unscheduled resolution to a vote at 9:30 p.m. on a day that was expected to focus on passage of the state budget.The Republican move was an attempt to get around Democrats on the Wisconsin Elections Commission who a day earlier tried to block the Senate from ever getting a chance to vote on Wolfe’s confirmation. Democrats fear that the Senate will reject her confirmation, which is the same as firing her.The three Democrats on the election...