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Federal inmate from California pleads guilty to sex ring leader’s death

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

By Mark Hicks |The Detroit NewsA federal inmate pleaded guilty Thursday to the slaying at the Milan Correctional Institution in 2019 of the leader of an international child exploitation ring, the Detroit U.S. Attorney’s office said.Alex Albert Castro, 42, a former resident of Fontana, California, pleaded to second-degree murder before U.S. District Court Judge Jonathan J.C. Grey, records show. He was originally charged with first-degree murder.Castro’s plea agreement calls for a sentence of up to life in prison, which could be imposed concurrently, partly concurrently or consecutively to a 42-year sentence he is serving for an underlying 2017 federal drug trafficking conviction, officials said Thursday.Authorities linked him and two others to the death of Christian Maire, who had been serving time at the Milan facility for a 2018 conviction of running an international child exploitation ring. The three inmates also were accused of conspiring to prey upon smaller, weaker inmate...

SF Giants add two-time All-Star to catching mix: report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

NEW YORK — The Giants were off Friday, but Farhan Zaidi was busy. Apparently still unsatisfied with their unsettled catching situation, the president of baseball operations came to an agreement with another veteran backstop, according to The Athletic.The club is adding Gary Sánchez, a 30-year-old two-time All-Star with the Yankees and one of the last remaining notable free agents, on a minor-league deal, per Ken Rosenthal. Sánchez, who remained unsigned throughout spring training, will first report to the Giants’ Arizona facilities, and San Francisco will have until May 1 to add him to their active roster.The club has yet to announce the deal, and the terms have not been reported.Sánchez, a former top prospect with the Yankees, was the runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2016 and earned All-Star nods in 2017 and 2019, when he combined for 67 home runs over the two seasons with an .OPS north of .840 in both years, but New York let him walk after 2021, when he hit .204 with 23 h...

Hotline mailbag: The problem with partial shares for Oregon and UW (in the Big Ten), pondering Tulane and Rice, a Pac-8 and more

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

The Hotline mailbag is published every Friday. Send questions to [email protected] and include ‘mailbag’ in the subject line — or hit me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline.Some questions have been edited for clarity and brevity.How low would Oregon and Washington go, in terms of partial revenue shares, if the Big Ten comes a-calling? Why be a beta site for streaming college sporting events when you can be a ‘junior member’ of the Big Ten? — Jon JosephYour phrasing cuts right to the heart of the issue: Would Oregon and Washington accept being “junior members” of any conference?We are highly skeptical, especially given that UCLA would have full membership despite possessing a lesser football program than the Pacific Northwest powers.But there’s another piece to the discussion. And to be honest, the Hotline often feels like we’re in the wilderness on this matter while the public narrative focuses on the media revenue: The expanded College Foo...

Italy temporarily bans ChatGPT over privacy concerns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

By Livvy Doherty and Sharon Braithwaite | CNNRegulators in Italy issued a temporary ban on ChatGPT Friday, effective immediately, due to privacy concerns and said they had opened an investigation into how OpenAI, the US company behind the popular chatbot, uses data.Italy’s data protection agency said users lacked information about the collection of their data and that a breach at ChatGPT had been reported on March 20.“There appears to be no legal basis underpinning the massive collection and processing of personal data in order to ‘train’ the algorithms on which the platform relies,” the agency said.The Italian regulator also expressed concerns over the lack of age verification for ChatGPT users. It argued that this “exposes children to receiving responses that are absolutely inappropriate to their age and awareness.” The platform is supposed to be for users older than 13, it noted.The data protection agency said OpenAI would be barred from ...

Analysis: Your top Trump indictment questions answered

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

By Zachary B. Wolfe | CNN(CNN) — Could he still run for president? Why would the adult-film star case move before any of the ones about protecting democracy? How could you possibly find an impartial jury?What’s below are answers to some of the questions we’ve been getting — versions of these were emailed in by subscribers of the What Matters newsletter — about the indictment of former President Donald Trump.He’s involved in four different criminal investigations by three different levels of government — the Manhattan district attorney; the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney; and the Department of Justice.These questions are mostly concerned with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump over a hush-money payment scheme, but many could apply to each investigation.The most-asked question is also the easiest to answer.Can Trump still run for president if he is indicted or convicted?Yes, absolutely.“Nothing stops Trump fr...

Iranian students grapple with English and its ‘ocean of complexity’ in Berkeley Rep play

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

Now making its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Sanaz Toossi’s play “English” explores the different things language means to different people, and how differently a person may be perceived in a foreign language than in one’s own.But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s at stake for the four adult students in Iran (and their teacher) preparing for the Test of English as a Foreign Language for many different reasons.Toossi is an Iranian American playwright from Orange County. Winner of the 2022 Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding play, “English” premiered off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company last year.“I think there’s been the desire to consume the tragedy of other cultures on stage, and this play doesn’t want to be that,” says director Mina Morita. “It has the joy and simplicity of seeing five people negotiate their own personalities and needs on stage in relationship to this language and their accents and how they’re perceived by the...

Journalist’s arrest threatens reporting from Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The arrest of a Wall Street Journal reporter on espionage charges in Russia has news organizations based outside the country weighing for the second time in a year whether the risks of reporting there during wartime are too great.The Journal and other news outlets continued to press Friday for the release of Evan Gershkovich, He was taken into custody by Russian security officials a day earlier and accused of spying, charges the newspaper vehemently denies.More than 30 press freedom groups and news organizations, including the Journal, The New York Times, BBC, The Associated Press, The New Yorker, Time and The Washington Post, signed a letter Friday to Anatoly I. Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., expressing concern about “a significant escalation in your government’s anti-press actions.“Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalized and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the be...

Muere Carlos Vaca, campeón panamericano de tiro con arco

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

(CNN Español) — El mexicano Carlos Vaca, campeón panamericano de tiro con arco, murió a los 20 años, confirmó a CNN el Instituto de Deporte y la Recreación del Estado de Querétaro (Indereq) este viernes.Estrella en ascenso del tiro con arco, Vaca ganó múltiples medallas y era parte de la selección nacional de su país.Vaca se coronó campeón panamericano juvenil en 2018. En 2021 obtuvo una medalla de oro y otra de plata en los Juegos Panamericanos Juveniles de Cali.La Comisión Nacional de Cultura Física y Deporte de México (Conade), al igual que varios deportistas, expresaron sus condolencias por la muerte del deportista.FOTOS | Los famosos que han muerto en 2023“La Conade y su directora, Ana Gabriela Guevara, lamentan el sensible fallecimiento de Carlos Daniel Vaca Cordero, arquero mexicano, medallista de oro y plata en los Juegos Panamericanos Junior Cali-Valle 2021″, comunicó el organismo en su cuenta de Twitter.También en redes, Valentina Vázquez, una de sus compañeras de la...

Lack of big-name teams could take toll on Final Four ratings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

Cinderella teams make for great stories and busted brackets. They don’t necessarily make for great television ratings, though.After getting a dream Final Four field last year, CBS and Turner Sports have something very different this weekend with Florida Atlantic, Miami, San Diego State and Connecticut making it to Houston.The lack of recognizable names could affect the ratings. Upsets during the first two weeks have seemingly already taken a toll. The tournament is averaging 9.11 million viewers through the regional finals, which is down 6% from last year. This after the first round on March 16-17 averaged 9.2 million, a record for the most-watched round of 64.Last year’s Final Four of Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova resonated even with casual fans because it was loaded with national brands. It also included Mike Krzyzewski’s final tournament as Duke’s coach.This year’s group doesn’t have the same cachet.“The public is telling us that t...

LaMarcus Aldridge, 7-time NBA All-Star, announces retirement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:11:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — LaMarcus Aldridge announced Friday he is retiring again from the NBA.Aldridge, 37, initially retired in 2021 after experiencing an irregular heartbeat in the last of five games he played for the Brooklyn Nets that season. He rejoined the Nets five months after announcing his retirement.The seven-time All-Star was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome — an abnormality that can cause a rapid heartbeat — as a rookie in 2007.Despite the diagnosis, Aldridge was among his era’s premier big men. As the second pick out of Texas in the 2006 draft, he averaged 19.1 points and 8.1 rebounds in his career. Aldridge played his first nine seasons with the Portland Trailblazers before five years with the San Antonio Spurs and his short time with the Nets.“In the words of TB12, you only get one big, emotional retirement… so, on that note…I’m thankful for all the memories, family and friends I made throughout my career. It was one hell of a ride and I enjoyed every min!”...