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Wildfires in Anchorage? Climate change sparks disaster fears

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Research on a flat spot for air evacuations. Talk of old-style civil defense sirens to warn of fast-moving wildfires. Hundreds of urban firefighters training in wildland firefighting techniques while snow still blankets the ground.This is the new reality in Alaska’s largest city, where a recent series of wildfires near Anchorage and the hottest day on record have sparked fears that a warming climate could soon mean serious, untenable blazes in urban areas — just like in the rest of the drought-plagued American West.The risk is particularly high in the city’s burgeoning Anchorage Hillside neighborhood, where multi-million dollar homes have pushed further and further up steep slopes and to the forest’s edge. Making the challenge even greater is that many of these areas on the Hillside — home to about 35,000 people — have but one road in and out, meaning that fleeing residents could clog a roadway or be cut off from reaching Anchorage at all.T...

OL Reign earn comeback draw in NWSL’s 1,000th game

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

Megan Rapinoe and Jordyn Huitema scored in the second half to pull OL Reign into a 2-2 comeback draw on the road against Racing Louisville on Saturday. The match at Lynn Family Stadium was the 1,000th National Women’s Soccer League regular-season game since the league began in 2013.Louisville (0-1-4) came out with all of the energy to start the match and were rewarded with the first goal seven minutes in. Midfielder Ary Borges’ pass into the middle of the box bounced off a Reign defender and fell to forward Paige Monaghan, who took one touch before sliding it into the far post.As the first half was wrapping up, Savannah DeMelo scored Louisville’s second goal. A Racing corner kick was punched out of the box by goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, but the ball fell to DeMelo, whose shot from outside of the box doubled Louisville’s lead.The Reign (3-1-1) turned it around in the second half. After Huitema was taken down in the box, Rapinoe converted a penalty in the 69th m...

Kershaw dominant over 7 innings, Dodgers beat Cardinals 1-0

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clayton Kershaw continued his dominant start to the season with seven sharp innings, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the struggling St. Louis Cardinals 1-0 on Saturday night.Kershaw didn’t allow a baserunner until Dylan Carlson’s one-out single in the fifth. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner gave up two hits, struck out nine and walked none, throwing 88 pitches.“Four innings, you don’t really think about (being perfect) but it’s nice to get off to a good start like that and kind of get into that rhythm,” Kershaw said. Back for his 16th season on a one-year deal, the 35-year-old Kershaw (5-1) won his fourth consecutive start. He has yielded one earned run over his last three outings, a span of 20 innings. His ERA dropped to 1.89.“They were swinging a lot, which kept my pitch count down, which was good,” Kershaw said. “I mean it’s a tough lineup. (Paul) Goldschmidt and (Nolan) Arenado are two of the toughest at-bats I have in the...

Sounders’ Frei has sixth shutout in draw with Real Salt Lake

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Stefan Frei finished with three saves to help the Seattle Sounders earn a scoreless draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday night.Frei’s league-high sixth clean sheet of the season helped Seattle (6-2-2) earn a point for just the second time in its last 11 trips to Sandy.Zac MacMath turned away the only shot on goal he faced for Real Salt Lake (3-5-1). RSL was trying to win back-to-back matches for the first time in its last nine attempts, instead falling to 0-5-4 following a win.The Sounders improve to 4-1-1 in their last six matches. Seattle’s only loss was a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Portland Timbers, conceding four goals in an 18-minute span after grabbing a 1-0 lead. Frei and the Sounders have yielded just three goals in their other 882 minutes of play this season.Seattle moved a point ahead of expansion St. Louis City atop the Western Conference standings thanks to the Timbers’ 2-1 victory over SLC earlier in the night.Real Salt Lake trav...

Perdomo, Walker homer in D-backs’ 11-4 win over Rockies

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Geraldo Perdomo homered among his three hits and drove in four runs, Christian Walker also homered among his three hits and the Arizona Diamondbacks sent the Colorado Rockies to a seventh consecutive home loss, 11-4 on Saturday night.Corbin Carroll had an RBI single in the first to extend his career-best hitting streak to eight games, but was forced to leave the game in the bottom of the sixth with a left leg injury after hitting the left field wall and falling awkwardly to the ground in an attempt to catch Ryan McMahon’s RBI double. He walked off the field gingerly under his own power and was replaced by Lourdes Gurriel Jr.“He is doing OK. I think we dodged a bullet,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, describing Carroll’s injury as a left knee contusion. “All the tests have come back very, very positive and he’s day to day. So, he was just trying to make a play and that’s who he is. I think the impact on his knee, fortunately it hit the padding on the fence and...

Chara sparks Timbers to 2-1 victory over St Louis

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yimmi Chara scored late in the second half to rally the Portland Timbers to a 2-1 victory over St. Louis City on Saturday night.Chara took a pass from Santiago Moreno and scored in the 82nd minute to help Portland (3-5-2) avenge a 2-1 home loss to expansion St. Louis City (6-3-1) earlier this season.Neither team scored until the Timbers’ Evander da Silva Ferreira delivered on a penalty kick in the 63rd minute.Célio Pompeu notched the equalizer for St. Louis City in the 79th minute with assists from Tomás Ostrák and Rasmus Alm.Portland outshot St. Louis City 15-7 with a 7-1 advantage in shots on goal. The Timbers took one more shot than Cincinnati in a 2-1 loss last week, marking the first time they had the advantage in a match this season. Opponents had taken 89 more shots prior to the last two matches.Aljaz Ivacic finished without a save for Portland. Roman Bürki totaled five saves for St. Louis City. St. Louis City falls a point behind front-running Seattle ...

Where 19 local prospects were taken in the NFL draft, including 4 each from Illinois and Northwestern

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

The Tribune is tracking where players from Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Illinois high schools are selected in the 2023 NFL draft.Day 1Devon Witherspoon, CB, Illinois1st round (No. 5) to Seattle SeahawksA consensus All-American during his fourth season in Champaign, Witherspoon was the second defensive player drafted and the first cornerback off the board. The Pensacola, Fla., native had three interceptions and 14 pass breakups in 2022, didn’t allow a touchdown all season and had the nation’s best coverage grade according to Pro Football Focus.“I’m energetic, physical. I’m a dog on the field,” Witherspoon told reporters. “I’m just very confident in what I do, passionate. I love to show my emotions out there on the field.”It’s the highest an Illinois defensive back has been drafted and the highest the Seahawks have taken a cornerback under the Pete Carroll regime.Peter Skoronski, OL, Northwestern/Maine South1st roun...

MLB Notes: Bogaerts off to hot start, but how have other ex-Red Sox fared?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

It’s hard not to look at Xander Bogaerts and feel a sense of yearning.The former Red Sox shortstop has gotten off to an awesome start in San Diego. Through the season’s first month he ranks among MLB’s top all-around players, entering the weekend with a .316 average, five home runs, a .919 OPS and 1.5 wins above replacement, which ranked tied for fourth in baseball among all position players.Bogaerts has all but carried the Padres during an otherwise disappointing start. Meanwhile, the Red Sox’ first, second and third options at shortstop are all on the injured list, and Kiké Hernández is currently bouncing around trying to help plug other holes as they pop up.What a difference Bogaerts would make in Boston right now.Seeing Bogaerts thrive from afar stings, but truth be told we won’t really know whether the Red Sox or Padres made the right decision until he’s deeper into his 11-year, $280 million deal. Things could look a lot different if Trevor S...

DIY trans care evades barriers in Missouri, other states

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — With her insurance about to run out and Republicans in her home state of Missouri ramping up rhetoric against gender-affirming health care, Erin Stille nervously visited a foreign pharmaceutical site as a “last resort” to ensure she could continue getting the hormones she needs. Stille, 26, sent a $300 bank transfer to a Taiwan-based supplier for a 6-month supply of estrogen patches and androgen-blocking pills. For three weeks she feared she’d been scammed but breathed a sigh of relief when a large package arrived at her home in St. Peters.“It’s definitely a little scary,” Stille said. “Taking a chance like this, I could have my money stolen and there’s not much I can do about it. But I figured, at this point, that the benefits outweigh the risks.”Stille, and others nationwide, are scrambling to form contingency plans as Republican politicians rapidly erode access to the gender-affirming treatments many credit as life-saving. Fears became...

Should school use ‘Warrior’ nickname? Tribe to have last say

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:13:17 GMT

SALAMANCA, N.Y. (AP) — The profile of a Native American man, a braid trailing down and feather jutting up, is tiled into a high school hallway, dyed into the weight room carpet and laid into the turf of the football field at Salamanca city schools.School leaders say the omnipresent logo and “Warrior” name for the school athletic teams are sources of pride here, in the only U.S. city built on land leased from a Native American reservation.But as New York joins states moving to ban schools’ use of Indigenous nicknames and mascots because they diminish Native cultures, the tribe may have the last say over whether the logo stays. When the state Board of Regents this month voted to prohibit public schools’ use of Indigenous names, it included an exception for districts that receive written approval from a federally recognized tribal nation in New York.It has put the tribe in an awkward spot.While the Seneca Indian Nation’s leader has endorsed the ban, some citizens of the nation want to ...