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PacifiCorp could be on the hook for billions after jury verdict in Oregon wildfires

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A jury in Oregon on Monday found the electric utility PacifiCorp responsible for causing devastating fires during Labor Day weekend in 2020, ordering the company to pay tens of millions of dollars to 17 homeowners who sued and finding it liable for broader damages that could push the total award into the billions.The Portland utility is one of several owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. The property owners, suing on behalf of a class of thousands of others, alleged that PacifiCorp negligently failed to shut off power to its 600,000 customers during a windstorm, despite warnings from then-Gov. Kate Brown’s chief-of-staff and top fire officials, and that its power lines were responsible for multiple blazes. Over 20 Marshall Fire victims sue Xcel Energy There has been no official cause determined for the Labor Day fires, which killed nine people, burned more than 1,875 square miles (4,856 squar...

R House Wynwood lines up Pride Father’s Day to Adult 80s prom events

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

Pride month is well underway and one Wynwood hotspot isn’t wasting a minute. R House has everything from Pride Father’s Day to Adult 80s prom coming up.But, Alex Miranda was most proud of finishing an entire plate of ice cream cookies.Alex Miranda: “I feel like this is my house.”Athena Dion: “Yes. Well, it is our house.”Is already proud.Athena Dion: “It’s a top-tier show, honey. It’s an experience from the minute you walk into the door to the minute we have to ask you to leave.”But during Pride monthAthena Dion: “I need a stunt double or just like a face mask that I can put on and put off or just stay in drag for all 30 days because it’s nonstop.”Like starting this Friday at 7 p.m.Athena Dion: “Prom was kind of like a scary thing for a lot of us. You know what I mean? You didn’t know if you’d have a date if you’d be accepted, what to wear. So we’re having an adults-only Pride ...

Middle school actress returns to stage hours after serious knee injury during performance

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

One young actress recently gave the term “Break a leg” a whole new meaning when she returned to the stage hours after suffering a serious knee injury during a performance. Seventh grade student Paige Souliotis starred as Wednesday Adams in Pentucket Middle School’s recent production of “The Addams Family.” She and the cast were performing a matinee performance of the show when Souliotis dislocated her knee. “I was pretty worried because, I knew, at that moment, that I wasn’t going to be able to get up,” Souliotis said in a recent interview discussing the injury. The curtain fell as Souliotis’ classmates gathered around her. The rest of the afternoon’s performance was canceled. “She was in so much pain and you could tell,” said one classmate. “So, I was very worried about her.”“We were all incredibly worried about her, whether she was going to be okay,” another student said. Souliotis went to the hospital and doctors told he she needed to be in a wheelc...

Norton track named after coaching legend Kent Taylor

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

NORTON — Speaking under a bright sky with a touch of a warm breeze, Norton High track captain Jake Antosca fought back tears when he spoke of his former coach at the dedication of the Lancers’ track as the Kent A. Taylor Track Monday evening.Taylor, a legend in the Massachusetts high school cross country and track community, coaching teams to several Tri-Valley League and state titles, had a life-changing event in May 2020. One of the most well-liked and popular track coaches in the state, Taylor was diagnosed with a Grade 4 Gliobastoma cancer with an IDH Mutation that resulted in doctors performing emergency surgery, removing 90% of the tumor on his frontal lobe and a secondary lesion behind it. There were setbacks along the way as well. Taylor endured blood clots in his lungs and a deep bone thrombosis.Antosca spoke of Taylor’s courage and unwavering optimism in his battle against the disease.“Many of us will never have to hear the words; ‘You have cancer.&...

Brookline, Lexington advance to Division 1 boys tennis final

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

NEWTON — The stage is set for the Division 1 boys tennis state championships and neither team has lost a match yet this season.No. 1 Brookline (23-0) took down No. 4 Wellesley 4-1 while No. 3 Lexington (24-0) squeezed by No. 2 St. John’s Prep 3-2 to advance to the state final at MIT on Saturday.For Brookline, this is a chance to avenge a loss in last year’s state championship, while the Minutemen revel in finally advancing out of the semifinal.Lexington reached the state championship in 2016 but has otherwise struggled to advance out of the semifinal round for much of the past decade. Head coach Chris Pugliese said he is thrilled for his players.“We’ve had some bad luck in the semis, I’m not going to lie,” Pugliese said. “It’s good for the kids to see that they can get to the state title because they have been heartbroken.”The key to the Minutemen’s victory came from the second doubles, which took consecutive sets and put the first victory on the board for Lexington. Pugliese was th...

Mac Jones plays it safe, Jack Jones shines and more Patriots minicamp Day 1 takeaways

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

FOXBORO — Less than an hour before the Patriots opened their mandatory minicamp Monday, Bill Belichick described the upcoming three-day stretch as an extension of OTAs.Meaning the Organized Team Activities the Pats conducted over the previous month-plus featuring non-padded practices, team drills usually run at less than full speed and players mostly in attendance, but not always.Turns out, Belichick was right in every sense — for better and worse.Offensive tackle Trent Brown missed Monday’s practice after missing a flight, according to MassLive, while star free-agent addition JuJu Smith-Schuster remained sidelined as an injury precaution. Brown’s absence during the regular season would leave the Pats paper-thin at his position. But in a non-padded OTA — er, minicamp — practice, that doesn’t matter.Yet.What did matter was the timing and organization of the starting offense, which again leaned heavily on tight ends Hunter Henry and Mike Gesicki. Both veterans caught...

Red Sox notebook: Daniel Bard reflects on long, unlikely journey back to Fenway Park

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

When Daniel Bard last stepped off the mound at Fenway Park, it looked like his big league career was all but over.Ten years later, he returns to Boston as one of baseball’s most unlikely success stories.Now 37 and in his fourth season with the Colorado Rockies, the former Red Sox reliever is playing at Fenway Park for the first time since 2013, when he began what wound up being a seven-year journey through the baseball wilderness.“It’s wild, man. It’s definitely a little bit surreal, in a good way,” Bard said. “I always wanted to come take my kids to a game here when they got a little older, I didn’t think I’d be playing in it, I thought I’d just be taking them as a fan.”Bard’s last appearance in Boston came on April 27, 2013, when he walked two and allowed a run without recording an out during the eighth inning of an eventual 8-4 win over the Houston Astros. Coming off a disastrous 2012 and starting the year in Doubl...

Pat Sajak announces ‘Wheel of Fortune’ retirement, says upcoming season will be his last as host

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pat Sajak is taking one last spin on “Wheel of Fortune,” announcing Monday that its upcoming season will be his last as host.Sajak announced his retirement from the venerable game show in a tweet. “Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last. It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months. Many thanks to you all,” the tweet said.Sajak, 76, has presided over the game show, which features contestants guessing letters to try to fill out words and phrases to win money and prizes, since 1981. He took over duties from Chuck Woolery, who was the show’s first host when it debuted in 1975.Along with Vanna White, who joined the show in 1982, Sajak has been a television mainstay. The show soon shifted to a syndication and aired in the evening in many markets, becoming one of the most successful game shows in history. Sajak will continue...

Bartender fighting for life after hit-and-run while walking to work

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A 47-year-old man is fighting for his life in the hospital after he was hit while walking to work in University Heights Saturday.Friends and family have identified the pedestrian as Josh Gilliland, a longtime University Heights resident and beloved bartender at Cheers on Adams Avenue.According to police, the pedestrian was standing near the bus lane, east of the crosswalk on El Cajon Boulevard when he was hit. Police said he was "unconscious at the scene and suffered from a laceration to the back of the head, right shoulder fracture, scattered brain bleeds, and minor abrasions." The vehicle was described as a dark-colored Honda Civic or BMW 3 series that was traveling north on Park Boulevard, turning right onto El Cajon Boulevard when the driver hit the pedestrian. Police says "fault is yet to be determined." Billionaire Stan Kroenke joins sports arena development group as majority investor According to Gilliland's longtime companion, Scott Moore, Gilliland had walked...

Former city leaders urge council to vote against homeless encampment ban

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:58 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer along with former police chief Shelley Zimmerman and Alpha Project founder Bob McElroy gathered Monday to urge the San Diego City Council not to pass a proposal that would ban camping on public property.“We need to combine a camping ban with a clear mandate for the city to construct sufficient shelter bed capacity,” Faulconer said outside of the Alpha Project bridge shelter on Newton Avenue in East Village. "That's what we're talking about -- capacity at scale, scale what we see right behind us here at Alpha Project.”According to the latest report released last week by the San Diego Regional Task Force On Homelessness, there been a 32% increase in the number of homeless in the city of San Diego, a staggering 3,300 people, and an all-time high 2,100 of those living on sidewalks and in vehicles just in downtown neighborhoods.    Welcome to Slowjamastan: Southern California’s own ‘micronation’ “This is a humanitarian crisis that sh...