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Bridge: March 12, 2023

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

Let’s apply the “Law of Total Tricks” to today’s deal. The Law (which is really a statistical oddity, not a law) states that the total number of trumps both sides have in their best trump suit equals the total number of tricks available. Today, North-South have nine spades and East-West have 10 hearts, so 19 tricks should be won at heart and spade contracts. Thus saith the Law.Let’s see. If West were allowed to play at four hearts, he would make it easily, losing a trump to North’s king and two clubs when a finesse for the queen failed.When the deal actually arose, South came in with four spades. Most players would have done the same with so much potential playing strength. West, who held three aces and figured he might get at least one diamond ruff, doubled. East, having described his hand — long hearts but weak in high cards — passed trustingly.West led the ace of diamonds and shifted to a club. Dummy played low, and East won and ret...

Ask Amy: My kids are being used as cannon fodder in adults’ battle

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

Dear Amy: I have been divorced for 10 years, after my ex-wife had an affair. She married the man she had the affair with.We share custody of our two daughters, ages 17 and 11. My ex and I have only communicated via text messaging for the last five years, and it is infrequent and only about the children.Recently I found out through my children that their mother is getting divorced from her current husband.My youngest came downstairs crying and displayed a text from her mother’s soon-to-be-ex, which didn’t only throw mom under the bus, but completely napalmed her.He told the children and my ex’s mother via text message that she has been having an affair with a co-worker and that she has done it before (with him). Now the kids are super-mad at their mother.Related ArticlesAdvice | Ask Amy: She blew up at me in the restaurant, and I can’t get past it Advice | Ask Amy: Is it petty of me to feel like I’m being used? Advice | Ask...

His Conviction Relied on Debunked Bite-Mark Science. Why Is He Still Locked Up?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

On a rainy morning in early February, Chad McCrory rose to speak at the headquarters of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles in Montgomery. Wearing a dark suit, a paisley tie, and a white visitor sticker over his breast pocket, he unfolded a piece of yellow notebook paper and placed it on the podium. A small digital timer sat in front of him, set for two minutes. This was all the time he had to explain to the board why, nearly four decades after his mother was murdered, Chad wanted her supposed killer — his 64-year-old father, Charles — to come home.“Julie Bonds McCrory was my mother,” Chad said. “She was taken from me from a very early age. I’m 40 years old now.” Chad had no memory of the murder or his father’s 1985 trial. The crime had traumatized the tight-knit community of Andalusia, where Chad still lives, turning neighbors against Charles McCrory as soon as he became a suspect. But as long as Chad could remember, his father had insisted he was innocent — and most of his fa...

2 foreign tourists die in Kenya nature reserve crash

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Two foreign tourists, German and Swiss nationals, have died after the vehicle they were traveling in veered off the road and overturned in Kenya’s Maasai Mara national reserve, police said Sunday.The crash happened after the vehicle car got stuck in the mud and veered off the road on Saturday, police said.One other tourist was injured and two others, a German and a Swiss national, escaped unhurt. They were part of a tour group, but it wasn’t immediately clear who was driving the vehicle.The injured tourist was airlifted to a hospital in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, Maasai Mara Chief Warden Stephen ole Mining said.Police spokesperson Resila Onyango said the crash was under investigation.Maasai Mara national reserve is a popular tourist destination and features the annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania.Climate change effects are being felt in the expansive wildlife reserve with little vegetation because of five failed consecutive rainy sea...

Dutch farmers, climate activists stage protests in The Hague

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

Thousands of farmers protested in The Hague on Saturday against the Dutch government’s plans to cut nitrate emissions, while environmental activists demonstrated against what they label state support for fossil fuels. The demonstrations were held ahead of provincial elections set for Wednesday. They come after protests earlier this month in neighboring Belgium, where Flemish farmers blockaded central Brussels with 2,700 tractors over a regional plan to limit emissions. Police in The Hague said they stopped an unknown number of tractors that were headed for the farmers’ demonstration Saturday, the Associated Press reported. The city banned all but two “symbolic” tractors from participating, citing safety concerns, according to the report.More than 10,000 farmers participated in the protest, many carrying the upside-down Dutch flags that have become synonymous with farmers’ protests, Reuters reported. Some climate activists broke through police lines and blocked a majo...

Biden says the US and Ukraine are united. Cracks are starting to show

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

The United States and Ukraine have largely been in lockstep since President Joe Biden’s administration pledged support for “as long as it takes” in resisting Moscow’s relentless invasion.But more than a year into the war, there are growing differences behind the scenes between Washington and Kyiv on war aims, and potential flashpoints loom on how, and when, the conflict will end.“The administration doesn’t have a clear policy objective and a clear goal. Is it to drag this thing out, which is precisely what Vladimir Putin wants?” said Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Is it to just give them enough to survive and not to win? I don’t see a policy for victory right now, and if we don’t have that, then what are we doing?”Publicly, there has been little separation between Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, an alliance on full display last month when the American president made his covert, dramatic visit to Kyiv. B...

Nasty nor’easter to dump up to 18 inches of snow in parts of Mass.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

(WHDH — A nasty nor’easter expected to bring up to 18 inches of heavy, wet snow to communities at higher elevations in Massachusetts is taking aim at New England.After a pleasant day Sunday, the next storm system moves into the region on Monday. By the end of the day Tuesday, much of New England will be under a fresh coat of snow.The storm is projected to bring 1 to 3 inches to communities along the coast; 3-6 inches to the I-495 corridor and parts of Western Mass; 6 inches to a foot for the Worcester hills and higher elevations in Western Massachusetts; and a jackpot of 12 to 18 inches for some towns in northern central Worcester county and the Berkshires.We’re also tracking the potential for damaging winds and minor coastal flooding as the storm moves through. Stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest weather updates.

Suspect in deadly Blackstone stabbing set to face a judge

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

A 32-year-old man has arrested in connection with a deadly stabbing in Blackstone on Saturday is expected to be arraigned on a murder charge on Monday. Officers responding to a reported assault on Blackstone Street around 11:15 a.m. found a 42-year-old man who had been stabbed, according to the Worcester District Attorney’s Office.He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His name has not been released.An investigation led to the arrest of a 32-year-old man, whose name has not been released, on charges of murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury. The suspect is expected to be arraigned in Uxbridge District Court on Monday. Blackstone Police Chief Gregory Gilmore said this was an isolated incident and there was no danger to the public.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

ASK IRA: Are there better options for the Heat than Kevin Love, Victor Oladipo?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

Q: At what point does Erik Spoelstra accept the fact that it was a mistake signing Kevin Love and take him out of the rotation? He has played enough games to see if he has a thing left. – Joel.Q: Ira, make it stop. Victor Oladipo doesn’t know when enough is enough. He’s Dion Waiters. If he misses his first eight, he thinks he’ll make the next eight. But he won’t. – Andy.A: I grouped these two for a reason, with the reason being that if you remove someone from the rotation, you have to replace them with someone. With Caleb Martin thriving in reserve, if you don’t start Kevin Love at power forward, then who? (And we know Erik Spoelstra isn’t going to start two big men). Haywood Highsmith? And now that you’re starting Tyler Herro, if you don’t have Victor Oladipo as your spark off the bench, then who? This has been a flawed roster from the start. And when the Heat had the flexibility to make moves at the buyout deadline, power...

Anti-Trump GOP voters mostly loyal in 2022, but not entirely

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:19 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Lauren Boebert’s grip on Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District didn’t seem in question heading into last year’s midterms. But in the end, the congresswoman who gained a national reputation as a combative member of the “Make America Great Again” movement won reelection by just 564 votes. “This was supposed to be a slam dunk for the Republican candidate, the way the district is designed,” said Don Coram, a former state senator who unsuccessfully challenged Boebert in the GOP primary last June. Boebert’s near miss was emblematic of the difficulties Republicans confronted in 2022 and may face again in 2024. While former President Donald Trump holds a tight grasp on much of the GOP base, there is a notable minority of Republican voters who do not consider themselves MAGA members.Most of them, as faithful Republicans, backed GOP candidates in 2022, AP VoteCast shows. Still, the extensive national survey finds these Republicans mad...