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Lucas: Could SD Gov. Kristi Noem be #2 on Trump ticket?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

How many politicians running for president can ride a horse? Few.How many can ride a Harley or an Indian motorcycle? Fewer.How many do both? None.Except for Kristi Noem. She does both, which is not something to sneeze at.She is a rancher and businesswoman frequently seen on horseback and riding a motorcycle, most notably on a 50-mile Legends Ride for Charity at South Dakota’s annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally at the height of the COVID shutdown in 2021.South Dakota, like Florida, remained open during the COVID pandemic.Not that the 51-year-old conservative Republican governor of South Dakota is running for president or vice president.But she is available for the second spot if Donald Trump comes knocking. And he just might.She is articulate, energetic, and attractive, and she says all the things that Trump and his conservative base like to hear.Her stock with Trump rose dramatically last Friday when Noem endorsed him for president at a sold-out GOP fundraiser in Rapid City, S.D.No, sh...

Rubio: U.S. suffers when working-class men can’t thrive

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

A nation without strong and capable men is a nation in serious trouble.Unfortunately, there’s reason to worry about boys and men today.My office compiled research on how men are performing in their vital role as providers. We published our findings for Labor Day in a report titled “The State of the Working (And Non-Working) Man.” The verdict? American men are doing poorly, from the classroom to the workforce and beyond.For one, men’s ability to provide a middle-class lifestyle for their families has fallen. In 1985, it took just 40 weeks of median male wages to cover food, housing, healthcare, transportation and education expenses for a family of four. In 2022, it took 62 weeks of median male wages to do the same. Simply put, this means countless working-class men are struggling to support their families and achieve the American Dream.As deindustrialization devastated communities and destroyed high-quality jobs, millions of men left the workforce. The Biden administration touts a re...

A bright, beautiful spring forecast on NY Fashion Week runways

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

Are you ready for spring? I know, fall’s barely here, but fashion is always three steps ahead, and New York Fashion Week opened its Spring 2024 Ready-to-Wear shows with a bang. Some shows were digital, some were in person. Many were spread across the city, some were in galleries, designers’ studios, and — if you were Jason Wu — in the Sunken Garden at the Chase Manhattan Bank Building in the Financial District.Things got off to a hot start at Rodarte, designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy had flowers on the brain — big huge blossoms and powerful petals. They were there in bold, bright colors and beaded fabrics, and absolutely huge ruffles.One of the most anticipated shows of the week was Peter Do’s debut at Helmut Lang. (He worked for Celine’s Phoebe Philo, and designers Eli Russell Linnetz and Thakoon Panichgul sat in his front row.) It seems pretty safe to say he revived serious interest in the ‘90s brand with his fresh take on bubble silhouettes, loads of denim paired with minimalist...

Editorial: Voters pull out a win for Boston with council ousters

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

In an election-night shocker, both Kendra Lara and Ricardo  Arroyo lost their seats on the Boston City Council.Chalk this up as a win for Boston.In her concession speech Tuesday night, Lara noted: “What a two years it’s been.”The problem for Lara and Arroyo is that those two years were pretty bad, pocked with scandals and unheeded calls for resignation. The Boston Herald was paying attention – and so were those who took to the polls.The push to dismiss the brouhaha over Arroyo’s ethics violations was strong, he was, after all, the incumbent in District 5. Arroyo had admitted that he violated the state’s conflict of interest law and agreed to pay a $3,000 penalty.In Arroyo’s world, that was enough. Despite damaging the council’s reputation, he wouldn’t budge as calls for his resignation grew louder. His defiance showed character, but not, evidently, the kind of character that Bostonians want representing them.Lara also viewed defiance as a show of ...

Tee Thursday: Aruba a fun place to play

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

Now that I’m golf-obsessed, I look at each vacation as a chance, whenever possible, to check out a course I’d never noticed before.But: Aruba? Aruba is all (albeit magnificent) beach, great dining and some casinos, right?Try again. On a recent visit to Aruba, I was able to play a super fun, absolutely lovely 18 holes of golf at The Links at Divi Aruba (https://divilinks.com). And while it wasn’t perfectly manicured (Aruba weather has to make that a challenge), and the 18 came via doing the nine-hole set up twice, I found fun, beauty, challenge and yes, more than a few birdies.OK, so they were actual birds and not low scores, but the time I spend on the course leads me to say this: Don’t miss a day of golf here when you’re next visiting Aruba.We were able, as guests of the Divi and Tamarajin Aruba (https://www.diviandtamarijnaruba.com) to secure an 8 a.m. tee time, getting us ahead of the early September heat. The Links at Divi is open to the public, but does give preferred times to ...

‘A Haunting in Venice’ lacks spirit

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

A third Agatha Christie adaptation from actor-director Kenneth Branagh, “A Haunting in Venice” is the weakest entry in the series, which has really been not much to brag about. “Murder on the Orient Express” (2017) made a healthy $352 million worldwide. But “Death on the Nile” (2022) made less than half that. In this installment, Christie’s fussy Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (Branagh, sporting a mustache in need of a leash) lives in postwar, post-Mussolini Venice in 1947 in self-imposed exile and retirement. Smart-mouthed, famous American author of mysteries Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) shows up to rattle his windows and get Poirot, whose first name she insists on pronouncing with the “H,” jump-started by introducing him, a “non-believer,” to the “spiritualist” Mrs. Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”).The spiritualist has been hired by the distraught former opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly, “Yellowstone”) to make contact with her rece...

Dear Abby: Sober 12 years, but mom harps on mistakes

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

Dear Abby: I’m a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for more than 12 years. My road to sobriety has been long and dark, but I am proud of turning my life around and staying sober. My problem is how my mother treats me about it. She keeps reminding me of all the mistakes I made and the people I hurt when I was still drinking.I also struggle with manic depression and have a hard enough time forgiving myself for my past actions, let alone having someone continually bring up every single one. I try every day to be a better person, and I’m an open book when it comes to my life and flaws.My mother constantly accuses me of falling into my old habits and says I’m lying about it, even though she’s been given truth and proof that I’m not. My long-term boyfriend and other family members can vouch for me. It’s to the point where she’s so in my head and cruel with the things she says that I’m spiraling back into depression, which is taking a t...

As all eyes are fixated on Pennsylvania manhunt, a DC murder suspect is on the run and off the radar

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — While the nation has been transfixed by the two-week manhunt for escaped prisoner Danelo Souza Cavalcante in Pennsylvania, another fugitive drama has been playing out in the nation’s capital with comparatively minimal attention. Christopher Haynes has been on the run for a week, since escaping from police custody at George Washington University Hospital on Sept. 6. Haynes, 30, had been arrested earlier in the day on murder charges relating to an Aug. 12 shooting in the district. His escape prompted a several-hour shelter-in-place order last week for the entire GW campus and brief roadblocks on nearby streets.Cavalcante, a 34-year-old Brazilian national who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, was captured Wednesday morning in southeastern Pennsylvania after an extended pursuit that received wall-to-wall live coverage. Haynes is still at large and awaits a trial.The contrast between the two manhunts has been stark: while the national media has tracked...

Stock market today: Asian shares mostly higher after US inflation data ease rate hike worries

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

NEW YORK — Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday after a highly anticipated report showed inflation accelerated across the U.S. in August, but not by much more than expected. The subdued increase in prices eased worries over the likelihood of another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, leading Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 to surge 1.2% to 33,104.79.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.2% to 17,969.38 on renewed concern over China’s property sector. Major real estate developer Country Garden’s Hong Kong-traded shares sank 4.6% ahead of a deadline for a bond repayment. The Shanghai Composite index was flat, at 3,124.43, while Seoul’s Kospi gained 0.9% to 2,556.60. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.5% to 7,189.70. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to 4,467.44 after flipping between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2% to 34,575.53, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%, to 13,813.59.The inflation rep...

At the University of North Carolina, two shootings 30 years apart show how much has changed

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

Three decades ago, as a University of North Carolina student, he covered a deadly shooting for the school newspaper. Last month, as a journalism professor at the same school, Ryan Thornburg kept his students safe during a lockdown — after another shooting. In some ways, the era of campus shootings has come full circle. Other UNC-Chapel Hill alumni who remember the 1995 tragedy now have children enrolled at their alma mater, where an associate professor was shot to death Aug. 28 (and a where a second brief lockdown was imposed on Wednesday). But vast changes in the way information spreads make their recent experiences less like replays and more like double exposures: new technology, new emotions superimposed upon the same setting.Twenty-eight years ago, there was no way for university officials to alert the entire community that a gunman had opened fire on the edge of campus, killing two people and wounding two others. E-mail existed but wasn’t widespread. Calling home meant long-dis...