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Paddle boat for sale: Why an Eastern Shore town is looking for a new owner

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

The Town of Snow Hill is looking for someone to buy Black-Eyed Susan, the stern-wheeler paddle boat acquired by the town in 2020. (Courtesy Snow Hill)When the small Eastern Shore town of Snow Hill, Maryland, bought a 34-year-old paddle boat three years ago, the goal was to attract more visitors with it and see revenue spike.“On paper, it was a great idea,” said Mayor Michael Pruitt. “We wanted to get people from afar, ride that beautiful Pocomoke River and when you get done, walk back down to your car and say ‘Oh, there’s downtown Snow Hill.’”It worked for a while.But the plan soured last year, when the town learned that a five-year Coast Guard operating permit was about to expire. Before town leaders could renew the boat’s license, it needed an in-depth, costly inspection.The probe discovered at least $600,000 in repairs to make the vessel, called the Black-Eyed Susan, seaworthy and up to code. The tab is almost 25% of the town’s entire operating budget.What’s more, maintenance on ...

Typhoon Koinu strengthens as it moves toward Taiwan

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Typhoon Koinu, traveling westward from the Pacific, was strengthening as it moved toward Taiwan, meteorologists on the island said Monday.The storm was expanding in size and was expected to make landfall by Thursday morning, they said.The typhoon was moving northwest with sustained winds of 144 kph (89 mph) and gusts of up to 180 kph (112 mph), according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. Forecasters predict the center of the storm will hit the island’s southern cities, while bringing heavy rains to the east coast including the city of Taitung.Typhoon Koinu, also known as Typhoon Jenny, is “forecast to steadily intensify throughout the forecast period and may reach its peak intensity tomorrow,” said a typhoon bulletin from the Philippines weather bureau. The storm, traveling at 15 kph (9.3 mph), will bring rains to Taiwan starting Tuesday with its outer bands.Authorities are expected to issue a sea warning Monday night, local media reported, as the storm...

Miami woman says burglar stole French bulldog, valuables and cash from apartment

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

A South Florida woman is pleading for the public’s help in finding the man who, she said, broke into her apartment and took off with valuables, money and, most painful of all, her beloved pet.The 25-year-old victim spoke with 7News about this past Tuesday’s burglary inside her unit in Miami’s Little Havana section.“We don’t feel safe in this house,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified or show her face on camera.The victim said she feels violated and is scared of being at home. She believes the subject has been watching her for quite some time and knew exactly when to strike.“He was here for like a good 30 minutes. He knew we were playing soccer,” she said.The woman said the burglar was captured on surveillance video breaking into her first-floor apartment through her balcony, inside The Vibes Miami Apartments along Southwest First Street.Once inside, the woman said, the perpetrator stole thousands of dollars in cash, persona...

Tory conference descends into Brexit punch-up as protester Steve Bray turfed out

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

MANCHESTER, England — Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray came to blows with a delegate at the Conservative Party conference Monday.Bray, who has for years protested loudly against Brexit outside parliament, became involved in a physical altercation at an event organized by the Bruges Group.Bray was heard to shout “where are your Brexit benefits?” before being accosted by a man attending the event.The pair were then involved in a scuffle before Bray was escorted from the room.IBruge Group fringe meeting at the Tory conference. Nice sandwiches but that was about it pic.twitter.com/drwZGZdbr1— Steve Bray on Mastodon @[email protected] (@snb19692) October 2, 2023Bray told POLITICO afterward that he believed he had been “assaulted” and that he had been acting in self-defense. But he said he would not be pressing charges.The protester has been barracking ministers and Conservative MPs in public for years over their support of Brexit. He can frequently be heard from inside...

Maros Šefčovič hearing: Live updates on new Green Deal chief’s European Parliament grilling

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

Maroš Šefčovič, the Slovak commissioner nominated to oversee the Green Deal, faces a grilling in the Parliament about his expanded portfolio on Tuesday.Šefčovič — a senior member of Ursula von der Leyen’s college known as a steady pair of hands in Brussels — was tapped to take over former Dutch Commissioner Frans Timmermans’ duties as executive vice president, including oversight of the European Green Deal’s rollout, last month. As part of the reshuffle, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also decided to split off the climate-action portion of the portfolio and nominated former Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra as climate action commissioner, a position “under the guidance” of Šefčovič. A member of the center-left Social Democrats, Šefčovič is up for the Green leadership post at a perilous moment for EU climate policy. EU efforts to reduce greenhouse gases are being met with growing resistance as concerns mount over the costs to busine...

Trump’s bashing electric cars. He has lots of company in Europe.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and a chorus of conservative politicians in Europe are sharpening their attacks on electric cars, turning the economic disruption caused by the shift away from gasoline into a campaign issue on both sides of the Atlantic.Trump’s months of broadsides against the Biden administration’s “draconian and indefensible” electric vehicle policies provided a major theme for his visit last week to Michigan, where he told a crowd at an auto parts plant near Detroit that abandoning the internal combustion engine would be “a transition to unemployment and inflation without end.”As for the electric cars themselves, he said Wednesday night, they’re too expensive and “built specifically for people that want to take very short trips,” leaving drivers “panicked” about finding a place to charge. “They say the happiest day when you buy an electric car is the first 10 minutes you’re driving it.”In Europe, meanwhile, electric vehicles are being swept up in a wave of popu...

Scientists who paved way for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines win Nobel prize

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded the Nobel prize in medicine for their work on messenger RNA technology, which enabled the development of the first vaccines against COVID-19. The Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, which is responsible for selecting the winner of one of science’s most prestigious prizes, said on Monday that the discoveries “were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.”mRNA vaccines work by delivering into the body genetic instructions for building proteins that are present in the virus being immunized against. That spurs cells to create those proteins, which the body then recognizes as foreign and attacks; training the immune system and creating protection against the actual virus. In the early 1990s, Karikó, from Hungary, was working at the University of Pennsylvania looking at how mRNA could be used in medicine. She was joined in her research by U.S. colleague Weissman, an immunologis...

EU’s Borrell confident that US will continue backing Ukraine

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

The EU’s top diplomat expressed confidence that the United States will continue to support Ukraine, even after lawmakers in Washington dropped a funding package for Kyiv in order to avert a government shutdown.“I’m sure this decision will be reconsidered and altogether, we’ll continue to be on your side,” Josep Borrell told reporters in Kyiv on Monday, referring to the controversial funding move demanded by Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, similarly downplayed the decision by the U.S. Congress, which he labeled as an “incident.”“We’re working with both sides of the Congress to ensure it doesn’t repeat again, under any circumstances,” Kuleba told reporters, speaking alongside Borrell. EU foreign ministers also expressed confidence that the U.S. will continue backing Ukraine as long as Joe Biden remains in office.France’s Catherine Colonna underlined that “President Biden expressed his commitment, so we have no doubt that the...

Column: A long, bumpy road for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox comes to an end. Now comes an intriguing offseason.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

When the Chicago White Sox dealt popular third baseman Jake Burger to the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline, sending Sox fans into a tizzy, no one could have predicted it also would be a death knell for the Cubs.Burger helped lead the Marlins past the Cubs in the wild-card race, hitting .306 with nine home runs, 28 RBIs and an .871 OPS in 52 games heading into Sunday’s finale. The Marlins went 18-9 from Aug. 31 on, clinching the spot and eliminating the slip-sliding Cubs on Saturday.White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams was fired shortly after consummating the deal with Marlins general manager Kim Ng. His firing had nothing to do with the trade, but in the end Williams not only helped an old friend from the Sox organization in Ng, but also helped deliver the eventual knockout blow to the Cubs.While Williams is toasting himself, Sox and Cubs fans can do a slow burn.The Burger Effect was a fitting epitaph for this unique season of Chicago baseball, in which the Sox ...

Orioles reset: Baltimore’s depth fueled its best regular season in decades. Now comes the real test.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:10:18 GMT

Judging by regular-season wins and losses, Mike Elias has built Baltimore’s best roster in his lifetime.But these Orioles want to be evaluated by more than that. Later this month, they will get the chance.The Orioles’ 101 victories mark the franchise’s most in the 162-game regular season since 1979, three years before Elias, their executive vice president and general manager, was born. Months before his first birthday, a Baltimore team that won 98 games added seven more in October to become the 1983 World Series champion. The Orioles haven’t hung a pennant since.This group can end that four-decade drought. Elias has constructed an overwhelmingly deep roster, nailing his early-round draft picks, making savvy veteran additions and executing under-the-radar trades that paid off exceptionally. En route to winning the American League East, Baltimore posted a winning record against all of the other four teams in what’s regarded as baseball’s most ...