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Les McCann, innovative jazz musician best known for 'Compared to What,' dies at 88

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

Les McCann, a prolific and influential musician and recording artist who helped found the soul-jazz genre and became a favorite source for sampling by Dr. Dre, A Tribe Called Quest and hundreds of other hip-hop performers, has died. He was 88. McCann died Friday in Los Angeles a week after being hospitalized with pneumonia, according to his longtime manager and producer, Alan Abrahams.A Lexington, Kentucky, native, McCann was a vocalist and self-taught pianist whose career dated back to the 1950s, when he won a singing contest while serving in the U.S. Navy and appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” the top variety program of its time. With admirers including Quincy Jones and Miles Davis, he went on tour worldwide and released dozens of albums, starting in 1960 with "Les McCann Ltd. Plays the Truth.”He was best known for “Compared to What,” a funky protest song on which he first teamed up with his future musical partner, saxophonist Eddie Harris. Written by Eugene McDaniels and recorde...

Powerful earthquakes leave at least eight dead, destroy buildings along Japan's western coast

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

NANAO, Japan (AP) — A series of powerful earthquakes hit western Japan, leaving at least eight people dead and damaging buildings, vehicles and boats, with officials warning people in some areas on Tuesday to stay away from their homes because of a risk of more strong quakes.Aftershocks continued to shake Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas a day after a magnitude 7.6 temblor slammed the area on Monday afternoon.Eight people were confirmed dead in Wajima city, officials said. Seven others were seriously injured, while damage to homes was so great that it could not immediately be assessed, they said. Kyodo news agency reported at least 13 deaths had been confirmed. “Saving lives is our priority and we are fighting a battle against time,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday. “It is critical that people trapped in homes get rescued immediately.” A quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 shook the area as he was speaking. Japan's military dispatched 1,000 soldiers to the disast...

Thruway toll hikes are now in effect

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

CAPITAL DISTRICT, N.Y. (NEWS10) — If you use E-Z Pass, the next time you check your statement, you will see a five percent bump when you drive through tolls on the Thruway. And if you don’t have an E-Z Pass, you can expect to pay 75% more on tolls. Get the latest news, weather, sports and more delivered right to your inbox! One couple on their way back from Montreal says any increase can be felt, especially when you add the cost of gas.“I just think that everyone feels when tolls go up, especially drivers,” Catherine Birri said. “And it’s definitely a burden, and people who raise tolls just think it’s not. ‘oh, it’s a dollar here, it’s just a dollar there.’ But it really adds up over time.”Nathaniel Fields also thinks about the tolls he needs to pay between New York and Philadelphia.“The tolls going into New York City are already super expensive,” he said. “And we’re a long-distance couple…so it’s already pretty expensive. Because it’s like $20 to go over the GW. So even with that...

Michigan beats Alabama 27-20 in overtime on Blake Corum's TD run to reach national title game

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Blake Corum rushed for a 17-yard touchdown on the second snap of overtime, and top-seeded Michigan advanced to its first College Football Playoff championship game with a 27-20 victory over fourth-seeded Alabama in the Rose Bowl on Monday.Michigan’s defense ended only the second overtime game in the 110 editions of the Rose Bowl when Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe was emphatically stopped as he attempted to sneak up the middle on fourth down from the Michigan 3.Coach Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines (14-0) will play for their school’s first national title since 1997 against Washington or Texas on Jan. 8 in Houston, but only after a late comeback and a hair-raising finish to the Granddaddy of Them All.Roman Wilson made a 4-yard TD catch with 1:34 left in regulation for the Wolverines, who hadn’t scored in the second half until that gritty 75-yard drive led by J.J. McCarthy.Corum then needed only two snaps to score in the first overtime period, breaking tackles and ...

The 10 most expensive homes reported sold in Oakland in the week of Dec. 18

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

A house that sold for $3.2 million tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in Oakland in the past week.In total, 11 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $1.6 million. The average price per square foot ended up at $842.The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of Dec. 18 even if the property may have been sold earlier.10. $610K, condominium in the first block of Moss Ave.The property in the first block of Moss Ave. in Oakland has new owners. The price was $610,000. The condominium was built in 1965 and has a living area of 1,159 square feet. The price per square foot is $526. The condominium features two bedrooms and two bathrooms.Moss Avenue9. $640K, condominium in the 300 block of Adams StreetThe 1,105 square-foot condominium in the 300 block of Adams Street has been sold. The transfer of ownership was settled in October and the total...

Northern Europe’s new naval priority: Submarine sabotage

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

HANKO, Finland — Finnish and British troops undertaking a routine naval training exercise on a recent winter morning will soon have a new priority: protecting undersea infrastructure. Just east of the idling British support ship Mounts Bay — the base of the joint exercise, called Freezing Winds 23 — runs the Balticconnector pipeline, carrying gas between Estonia and Finland, which was ripped open in October. The likely culprit: the trailing anchor of a Chinese-flagged, Russia-bound commercial ship. It’s still undetermined as to whether the pipeline’s raking was deliberate, but by early December, Western military planners had decided they didn’t intend to wait for an answer before responding. Ten countries known collectively as the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) — the United Kingdom, the five Nordic countries, the three Baltics and the Netherlands — said they would deploy a string of ships, including the U.K.’s Mounts Bay, “as a military contribution to the protection...

OK boomers: A politics guide to Gen Z’s internet slang

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

“Vladimir Putin has lowkey been taking Ls, with a mid performance that shows a mad lack of rizz. But he’s got a pick me boy ever since the sus handshake: Viktor Orbán. It’s giving villains, no cap.” If you understood that, then no need to go any further. For our actual readers, you might want to stick around for the next five minutes.POLITICO recently took an L (we’ll get to this in a second) when it ranked the most “rizz” politicians, and our newsroom got flak for not using the Gen Z slang properly. (For the last time, you can “have” rizz but can’t “be” rizz … We’ll explain more below.)As some of the youngest staffers in the office, we thought it was time to restore POLITICO’s reputation and prove that, despite being hardcore politics nerds, we know how to use our generation’s lingo. We’re not here to take part; we’re here to take over … Mid: Saying something is “mid” means it’s average, mediocre, of poor quality. It is one of Gen Z’s f...

Biden’s foreign policy headache in 2024

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

Ivo Daalder, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, is CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and host of the weekly podcast “World Review with Ivo Daalder.”United States President Joe Biden starts 2024 in circumstances that any incumbent would envy.The economy is growing at a steady clip; inflation has edged down; unemployment is at a half-century low; the stock market is ending the year in record-breaking territory; and the president’s most likely opponent is facing 91 felony counts in four separate indictments.Yes, of course, there are major issues still to be tackled — most notably, surging numbers of desperate people trying to enter the country in search of a better life; and Biden’s age is a problem for many voters. But the fundamentals for reelection are strong.So, what could possibly go wrong? The answer to this may well come in the first weeks of the new year, as developments abroad — specifically in Ukraine, the Mideast and Taiwan — could potentially raise major questions a...

Europe’s Silicon Valley? No thanks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

CAMBRIDGE, England — This city wears many crowns: the fastest growing in Britain, the world’s most intensive research cluster and the university with the highest number of tech founders.It also has Britain’s second highest level of inequality and one of the lowest amounts of rainfall of any U.K. city.The tension between those titles has come to a head in the government’s bid to turn Cambridge into “Europe’s Silicon Valley.” Housing Secretary Michael Gove wants to build more than 150,000 new homes there by 2040, more than doubling the city’s size and triple the number local planners had earmarked for the area.“Nowhere is the future being shaped more decisively than in Cambridge,” Gove said in a speech in December. “Its global leadership in life sciences and tech is a huge national asset. But until now… its growth has been constrained.”He envisaged a new quarter with “beautiful Neo-classical buildings, rich parkland, concert halls and museums.” A new development corporation would be e...

Fiery New Year’s Day crash kills 2, injures 5 following upstate NY concert, police investigating

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:20 GMT

ROCHESTER, New York (AP) — Police were investigating after a fiery two-vehicle collision killed two people and injured five others in Rochester, New York, early on New Year’s Day, officials said. The crash happened shortly before 1 a.m. Monday as officers were directing traffic after a concert let out at the Kodak Center theater complex, police said in a statement. A Ford Expedition struck a Mitsubishi Outlander, sending both vehicles “through a group of pedestrians that were in the crosswalk,” the statement said. The collision caused an explosion and a large blaze that took the fire department more than an hour to extinguish. Once the flames were doused, firefighters “located at least a dozen gasoline canisters in and around” the Expedition, the police statement said. That prompted police to bring in an arson team and alert the FBI, police said. Two passengers in the Outlander were killed and the driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. The driver o...