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Disney ‘Pride Night’ takes feud with DeSantis coast-to-coast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

The Disney-DeSantis culture war is now going coast-to-coast.Disneyland in California just announced its first-ever “Pride Night” June 13 and 15.“During Pride Month in June, Disneyland After Dark will bring the first-ever Pride Nite for two unforgettable evenings at Disneyland Resort!” the resort posted on its blog.The park adds: “Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite is a separately ticketed event which celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community and allies.”The event comes as likely 2024 presidential GOP candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis banned discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms in his home state of Florida.DeSantis tweeted yesterday: “Disney’s sloppy and futile attempt to subvert the will of the Legislature and Floridians was uncovered by our state oversight board and their 11th hour agreements will be nullified by the Legislature. Disney’s corporate kingdom is over.”That tweet came as Dis...

Here are the Ravens’ 5 biggest needs entering 2023 NFL draft

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

The last time the Ravens had such a dearth of draft picks, Bill Clinton had just been impeached and Michael Jordan had just retired for the second time. The year was 1999, the Ravens were coming off a dismal 6-10 season in what was just their third year of existence and they had just four selections in that April’s NFL draft.Things also worked out well — Baltimore nabbed future All-Pro cornerback Chris McAlister with the 10th overall pick, took wide receiver Brandon Stokley in the fourth round, and two years later beat the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV with McAlister and Stokley as significant pieces of that championship team.This year, the Ravens have just five picks (Nos. 22, 86, 124, 157, 199) and none in the second round. Only the Denver Broncos with five and Miami Dolphins with four have so few picks this year, and once again Baltimore’s focus will be on cornerback and wide receiver, with those two positions the most glaring needs on a team that went 10-7...

Former Chicago Bears CEO Ted Phillips sells 4-bedroom Libertyville home for $1.2M

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

Former Chicago Bears President and CEO Ted Phillips sold his four-bedroom, 3,860-square-foot house in Libertyville for his $1.19 million asking price on March 31.Phillips, 65, retired from the Bears organization in February. He began working for the team in 1983 in the finance department, and he became the Bears’ president and CEO in 1999.In Libertyville, Phillips had owned the house since buying it in 2008 for $900,000. Built in 2007, the home has 4-1/2 bathrooms, a new mahogany front door, hardwood floors, eight-inch crown moldings and an updated kitchen with new quartz countertops, a work island with a prep sink and newer stainless steel Viking and JennAir appliances. Other features include a family room with a stone fireplace, a formal dining room, a library with custom built-in shelving, a finished basement with nine-foot ceilings and a media or game room, and a primary bedroom suite with a second stone fireplace and a walk-in closet.Phillips placed the home for sale on J...

Loblaw hiring European retail executive Per Bank as company’s next CEO

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

BRAMPTON, Ont. — Loblaw Companies Ltd. is hiring veteran European retail executive Per Bank as its next president and chief executive.The parent company of the Loblaws grocery chain and Shoppers Drug Mart says Bank, the chief executive of Denmark’s Salling Group A/S, will join the company by early 2024.Salling Group operates department stores, supermarkets and discount stores. The hiring of Bank comes as Loblaw chief operating officer Robert Sawyer plans to retire at the end of the year.Galen Weston has been serving as president of Loblaw since 2021 when Sarah Davis retired from the job.He will remain chair of the Loblaw board, as well as chair and chief executive of George Weston Ltd., the retailer’s parent company.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:WN)The Canadian Press

Stock market today: US futures up on US earns, China growth

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

TOKYO — U.S. markets are poised to open higher Tuesday as more corporate earnings pour in and China reported better-than-expected growth to start the year.Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4% before the bell, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.1%.Johnson & Johnson and Bank of America reported earnings early Tuesday, with both companies beating Wall Street’s profit expectations.Johnson & Johnson earned $2.68 per share in the period as U.S. sales grew 10% to $12.52 billion in the quarter. Shares rose nearly 2% before the bell.Like Wells Fargo and JPMorgan last week, Bank of America handily topped analyst expectations, earning 94 cents per share. Analysts were expecting earnings of 79 cents per share.The strong showing by major banks added a sense of calm after two regional bank failures last month. Though it’s still early in earnings season, results so far have been encouraging given the pessimism heading into the reporting period.Results have been...

Thousands join Holocaust remembrance march at Auschwitz

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Thousands of people assembled Tuesday at the former site of Auschwitz for the March of the Living, a yearly Holocaust remembrance march that falls this year on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.Participants in the solemn event included Holocaust survivors who lived through the agony of Auschwitz or one of the other death camps where Nazi Germany sought to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe, and came close to doing so.Some attendees, including people from Israel and the United States, came face to face for the first time with something that has long been part of their psyche: the watchtowers, remains of gas chambers and the huge piles of shoes, suitcases and other objects that the victims brought with them on their final journey.German forces established Auschwitz after they invaded and occupied Poland, and killed more than 1.1 million people there, most of them Jews but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of w...

EU lawmakers green-light visa free travel for Kosovo

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Tuesday gave the green light for citizens from Kosovo to travel freely in Europe without visas from next year.The move means that Kosovo’s citizens will be able to travel in the 27-nation Schengen passport free area, which includes most EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, for periods of up to 90 days every six months.Citizens in the Schengen countries will be able to visit Kosovo without visas too. The former Serbian territory was the last country in the Western Balkans region not to have such travel arrangements with the EU.Dutch Socialist lawmaker Thijs Reuten, who chaperoned the process through the European Parliament, said the move “finally enables the people of Kosovo to easily travel, visit relatives and do business in the EU.”“But it is more than that,” he added in a statement, as the assembly met in Strasbourg France. “This milestone is also an important foundation for the future and ever-closer cooper...

Peacemaker George Mitchell makes poignant Belfast return

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — The first time George Mitchell came to Belfast, it was a war-scarred city of bomb damage and barbed wire.This week the former U.S. senator returned, perhaps for the last time, to a city at peace — a peace he was crucial to forging.Now 89 and being treated for leukemia, Mitchell has not attended a major public event for three years. But he was determined to be in Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 peace accord he helped to bring about.“I love Northern Ireland. I love the people. I love the place. They’ve been extraordinarily generous and hospitable to me and my wife, my family,” Mitchell told The Associated Press on Tuesday at Queen’s University Belfast. “The fact that it might be my last time makes it especially meaningful for me.”With a political crisis that has toppled Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government clouding the peace commemorations, Mitchell said the Good Friday Agreement has been “a rema...

A Canadian astronaut on planning his trip to the moon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, if all goes according to plan, Col. Jeremy Hansen will soon become the first Canadian to travel to the moon. As a member of the four-person Artemis II crew, he will leave low Earth orbit next year and swing out and around the moon before returning to splashdown in the ocean.Jeremy talks to us about being chosen for the team, what this mission will accomplish, its margin for error, and how it feels to be one of the four people charged with taking some of the first steps towards travelling past the moon, to Mars and beyond.“Artemis Is just one more example of how we can do incredible things when we set big goals, we have good intentions, we attract people to come and work collaboratively. We can essentially accomplish the impossible, and it gives me a lot of hope,” he said.You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.

‘Pressure is a privilege’: Maple Leafs look to turn the page on past playoff woes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:56:56 GMT

Toronto Maple Leafs playoff hockey is back.The blue and white will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday night in game one of their first round playoff series — the team and its fans once again hoping to make it past the first round for the first time in nearly 20 years.A tailgate party will be held in Maple Leafs Square and it’s also ‘Blue and White Day’ in the city with fans being encouraged to show up to work or school with their Maple Leafs gear.Puck drop is just after 7:30 p.m. on Sportsnet.Playoff rematch with Tampa BaySame opponent, different result. That’s what Leafs fans are hoping for.Many pundits have Toronto finally getting over the hump in this year’s playoff rematch with the Lightning — the same team that came back from 3-2 series deficit and bounced them in seven games last year.The Lightning have represented the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup final the last three years, winning the cup in 2020 ...