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Chicago Bulls’ string of slow starts on offense highlights a season-long issue: A lack of consistent ball movement

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

After 80 games, the Chicago Bulls still are struggling to fix a fundamental problem in their offense — how to shake themselves out of a funk.The final week of the regular season has featured a series of slow starts — falling into a 15-point hole Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies, starting 2-for-9 Tuesday against the Atlanta Hawks and opening 2-for-13 against the Bucks on Wednesday in Milwaukee.This isn’t particularly new. The Bulls average 26 first-quarter points, second-lowest in the league according to Swish analytics. They’re able to offset these low-scoring starts with their defense, resulting in a plus-0.7 average first-quarter margin. But when the Bulls open a game even colder than normal, it’s easy for them to slip quickly behind.Sometimes the Bulls wake up suddenly and dramatically in the second half, such as their scorching comeback Sunday for a 44-point swing to beat the Grizzlies. But more often this season, a slow opening quarter has left...

Five storylines centered around the likely upcoming Knicks, Cavaliers first-round playoff matchup

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

It’s almost all set.The most intriguing first-round matchup in the East, a series that would be centered around a juicy storyline — the summer of Donovan Mitchell — and represent a chance for New York to advance to the conference semis for the first time in a decade.There’s still plenty of time before a possible Game 1 of the No. 5 Knicks against the No. 4 Cavs in mid-April, but it’s also the only thing worth discussing as the remaining meaningless regular season games finish.Here’s an early look at the five things to watch in the series, starting with the obvious:TO MITCHELL, OR NOT TO MITCHELLFair or not, the series will serve as an indictment on the trade that didn’t happen. We don’t need to rehash the entire saga, only that the Knicks wanted Donovan Mitchell and watched him go to Cleveland. Since then, Mitchell further ascended into one of the league’s best guards — a strong candidate for First Team All-NBA — and ...

Snag tickets to the 2023 San Diego County Fair Concert Series

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The lineup for this year's San Diego County Fair Concert Series is in the works and tickets are already going on sale. The Del Mar Fairgrounds announced Tuesday the first wave of a musical talent that will be jamming out in Del Mar this summer. Highest-rated things to do in San Diego, according to Tripadvisor Here's a look at the entertainers set to perform on the Corona Grandstand Stage:-- Wednesday, June 7: Train; tickets priced between $40–$95.  -- Sunday, June 11: La Adictiva; tickets priced between $25–$50.  -- Saturday, June 17: Lynyrd Skynyrd; tickets priced between $51–$106.  -- Sunday, June 18: Grupo Bronco; tickets priced between $30–$60.  -- Thursday, June 22: Boyz II Men; tickets priced between $35–$75.  -- Saturday, June 24: Stephen Marley with Hirie; tickets priced between$30–$65.  -- Sunday, June 25: Los Tigres del Norte; tickets priced between $35–$80.  -- Thursday, June 29: Randy Ho...

San Diego County public schools see dip in student enrollment

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Public schools in San Diego County are seeing a drop in student enrollment. New data released from the California Department of Education shows enrollment data from 2021-22 as it compares to the 2022-23 school year.“It wasn’t really surprising. It is concerning,” said Christine Paik, the Chief Communications Officer for the Poway Unified School District.CDE found for the 2021-22 school year, San Diego County Public Schools had 481,102 students enrolled. In 2022-23 school year, the county had 476,760 students, down 1% according to the CDE.CDE numbers found San Diego County is consistent with an enrollment decline statewide, which showed the state had 1% or about 40,000 students fewer than last year.CDE found for the 2021-22 school year, there were 5,892,240 students. Compared to the 2022-23 school year, there were 5,852,544 students enrolled statewide at public schools, according to CDE.“Up to the pandemic, we were seeing a steady increase of about 1% a year," Paik said....

Montreal-Toronto VIA Rail passengers stranded for hours due to fallen debris

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

Several VIA Rail trains between Toronto and Montreal were cancelled as passengers were stranded for hours due to power outages and track obstructions, including fallen trees.Passengers tell CityNews that they have been stuck idle since Wednesday afternoon and are reportedly being told they won’t arrive in Toronto until midnight.On passenger aboard a VIA Rail train from Ottawa en route to Toronto says their train hit a tree in the afternoon between 1 and 2 p.m.“Passengers were told that a train was coming from Montreal to take them to Toronto. At 6:30 p.m., passengers were told this was false, and there was no train from Montreal,” said passenger Melissa Brooks.A VIA Rail official tells CityNews that strong winds and heavy rain mixed with thunderstorms across southern Ontario greatly affected travel, noting they are offering full refunds to passengers impacted — plus 50 per cent travel credits.“Power outages and track obstructions are causing service del...

Philippines tries to bring back small fish key to rural diet

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

TANAUAN, Leyte, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines, a nation made up of thousands of islands, is home to about 1.6 million people who work in fisheries, and the majority of those fishers are small-scale harvesters who collectively catch almost half of the nation’s fish.Years of market pressures, lack of fisheries management and unchecked overfishing from larger commercial fishers have led to a decline in small fish such as sardines that rural coastal communities in the country of about 110 million people depend on. Data is not available on the state of many fish stocks, but the conservation group Oceana has said more than 75% of the nation’s fishing grounds are depleted.The problem of overfishing is especially detrimental to the country’s poorest people, many of whom earn their livings by fishing, said Ruperto Aleroza, an anti-poverty activist who has spent decades harvesting small fish like sardines and round scad from the waters around the archipelago. The small fish are important...

Takeaways from AP report on overfishing’s threat to conch

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

FREEPORT, Bahamas (AP) — No longer a theoretical threat, overfishing across the globe has wiped out species from areas where they once thrived. And one result is that it’s taken off the table beloved culturally important dishes.In the Bahamas, government officials and conservationists are working to save the conch – a marine snail that’s central to the island nation’s diet, economy and identity.The overfishing challenges faced by Bahamians are mirrored in places as different as Senegal, where overfishing has taken away white grouper, long a main ingredient in the national dish of thieboudienne, and the Philippines, where it has depleted small fish such as sardines that are used in kinilaw, a raw dish similar to ceviche.WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE BAHAMAS?“When I was a child, we never had to go that far to get conch,” said Tereha Davis, 49, whose family has fished for conch for five generations in the Bahamas.Davis and others remember when someone could walk into the water from the beach...

B.C. to boost minimum wage to $16.75 an hour, matches 6.9 per cent inflation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s minimum wage will increase to $16.75 an hour, a boost that the government says would fulfil a promise to tie the benchmark pay level to inflation.The new minimum wage is to kick in on June 1, representing a 6.9 per cent increase from the current $15.65 an hour.Labour Minister Harry Bains said Wednesday it is a key step to preventing the province’s lowest-paid workers from falling behind.“These workers and their families feel the impacts of high costs much more than anyone else,” he said in a news release.Bains said the same percentage increase would apply to residential caretakers, live-in home-support workers and camp leaders.BC Federation of Labour president Sussanne Skidmore said the wage hike was “much-needed.”“B.C. is one of the most expensive provinces in Canada,” she said in a statement. “So, it makes sense that we continue to have the highest minimum wage of any province. “But we still have a lot o...

Senegal struggles with loss of fish central to diet, culture

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — In Senegal, the national dish of thieboudienne is entwined in the country’s history and culture. It’s a rich dish of fish, rice and vegetables that literally brings people together – traditionally eaten in communal fashion around a single dish.But the preferred species for the dish is white grouper, and the fishery has collapsed in the face of aggressive fishing by locals and foreign poaching. And there are few other fish to turn to, as overfishing has “greatly diminished” other species in Senegal, where one in six people work in the fisheries sector, according to a report from the United States Agency for International Development.Overfishing like that which has threatened thieboudienne is seen across the planet. In the Bahamas, scientists and government officials are working to save conch, a marine snail central to the island nation’s identity. In the Philippines, overfishing has depleted small fish such as sardines used in the traditional raw dish of k...

US court denies ex-Peruvian president extradition stay

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:32 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A United States federal court on Wednesday denied former Peru President Alejandro Toledo Manrique’s appeal to stop his extradition to his native country to face charges he accepted millions of dollars in bribes from a Brazilian company.Toledo, 77, had filed for a stay on his extradition pending a legal challenge to the U.S. State Department’s decision to send him back to Peru, where he is accused of taking $20 million in bribes from Odebrecht, a construction giant.Toledo argued that Peru hadn’t submitted a charging document or shown probable cause. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in its ruling that Peruvian prosecutors have filed charging documents that are sufficient to support Toledo’s extradition. The three-member panel said statements made by two witnesses in the corruption case who testified against Toledo were enough “to establish probable cause in an extradition hearing.” “Toledo, moreover, admitted that...