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Kai Thomas on the ‘surreality’ of winning the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for debut

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

TORONTO — Debut novelist Kai Thomas said he was struck by “surreality” when Margaret Atwood announced he had won the top fiction prize at the Writers’ Trust Awards on Tuesday evening.Thomas, who is from Ottawa, won the $60,000 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for “In the Upper Country,” published by Penguin Canada, at a ceremony in Toronto.The book tells the story of two Black women at the northern end of the Underground Railroad.“It’s all new to me,” Thomas said after the ceremony. “To be able to step into this career and have the work be recognized on this stage is wild. I just feel very, very honoured.”In his acceptance speech, Thomas thanked his family, his editors and his publisher.“I’ve obviously never done this before and having guides like you all is fantastic,” he said. Thomas’s wife and their two young children were in the audience, along with his parents and their partners,...

Influential Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats endorses Ron DeSantis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader, endorsed Ron DeSantis for president Tuesday, boosting the Florida governor as he goes all in on the leadoff caucus state in an effort to trip up Republican front-runner Donald Trump.Vander Plaats is the second major backer DeSantis has picked up in Iowa this month, joining popular Gov. Kim Reynolds. Evangelicals are a crucial voting bloc in Iowa’s Republican caucuses. Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader, has endorsed the eventual winner in every GOP caucus since 2008 and is potentially jeopardizing his streak by picking DeSantis, who trails far behind Trump in polls. His decision will test his sway among Iowa evangelicals, many of whom continue to support Trump.If Trump wins Iowa, he’ll probably go on to be the nominee, “but I don’t think America is going to elect him president again,” Vander Plaats told Fox News host Bret Baier. “I think America would be well served to have a choice, and I ...

Opinion: The Chicago Bears lack vision – literally and metaphorically

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

Every week I’ve watched the Chicago Bears, there has been something about them that just left a nagging feeling in my stomach. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was, until I saw a post on X from a former Bears pro-bowler Monday.Set aside their gut-wrenching loss Sunday and hear me out. Last Week: The clock is ticking on the Tyson Bagent Express I have dedicated a lot of time toward trying to break down what is wrong with Chicago’s pro football team this year.I’ve compared them to their much more successful NFC North counterparts this season – the Detroit Lions – and suggested them as a template for the Bears to take inspiration from. Opinion: The Lions are the template, and the Bears should follow suit I’ve accepted their losing ways as regularly scheduled programming, an inevitable product of general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus having to deal with an insurmountable lack of talent to win with amid year two of a rebuild. Opinion: Loss to Vikings, Justin Fields inj...

Biden orders US flags lowered in memory of former first lady Rosalynn Carter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — President Joe Biden has ordered that U.S. flags on federal government buildings and property will be lowered to half staff for five days in recognition of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 96. Biden's order calls for flags to fly half-staff from Saturday through sunset on Wednesday, Nov. 29, the day Carter will be buried in Plains, Georgia, the hometown she shared with former President Jimmy Carter. PHOTOS: Rosalynn Carter through the years The order applies to flags at the White House, all other federal buildings and grounds, and all military and naval posts, including navy vessels, in the U.S. and its territories, along with all U.S. diplomatic, military and naval outposts abroad.Such orders are common when major federal government figures die, including first ladies. Presidential spouses, though, do not receive state funerals.Rosalynn Carter will be honored with public events beginning Monday in Sum...

Red Wing moves dog park off Indigenous burial ground

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

RED WING, Minn. — The city of Red Wing is moving its longtime dog park from A.P. Anderson Park to a new location after learning the place for dogs to play sat on a Native American burial ground.“We don’t let dogs in our cemeteries,” said Red Wing Mayor Mark Wilson. “But we didn’t know.”Wilson said it was a matter of being educated.A city committee holds quarterly meetings with representatives of the Prairie Island Indian Community, which once owned and occupied the land on which the city of Red Wing sits. During a recent meeting, Wilson said, PIIC representatives shared the news.In a letter dated Nov. 1, 2023, Noah White, tribal historic preservation officer for PIIC, said the tribe brought its concerns to the city in a meeting last August. The letter noted that records of effigy mounds at the site date back to an 1885 survey. While many mounds on the site have been disturbed and/or destroyed, the site — which encompasses much of the overall park space — stil...

University of Minnesota launches Cannabis Research Center

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

The University of Minnesota School of Public Health has launched a new Cannabis Research Center.The center will conduct research aimed at assessing the health impacts of the state’s recent legalization of recreational cannabis for adults, and help inform future policies and practices as the new law is rolled out.When state lawmakers made Minnesota the 23rd state in the nation to legalize recreational cannabis use in May, they set aside $2.5 million in annual funding — to come from a cannabis sales tax — to fund the center in order to better understand how cannabis use affects different Minnesota populations and communities.University officials said the new center will focus on work to better understand how cannabis use interacts with substances such as opioids and alcohol, as well as the health effects of cannabis on underage users.“For young people, their brain is still developing. And so there’s some concerns about the effects of cannabis on brain development,” said public health ...

L.A. County nurses, doctors could soon be giving away gun locks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

Los Angeles County is evaluating a new possible strategy to curb gun violence in the region: giving out free gun locks.Los Angeles County supervisors Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis have proposed a plan that would allow doctors and nurses at county-operated medical facilities to give out the gun locks as part of a "harm reduction strategy."Studies from the Pew Research Center found 64% of American gun owners fail to keep their guns in a locked place, and more than half keep their guns loaded, the L.A. County Supervisors said.Hahn said research has shown gun owners are more likely to use locks if they are given to them by a medical professional. Similar programs are already in place in other hospitals in the nation, Hahn said, adding that she believed it was a "concept we should explore for our own County hospitals."On Tuesday, the County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion authored by Hahn and Solis which directs the Department of Public Health and the Department of Healt...

Study reveals THC smoke can have similar effects of tobacco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

(KRON) -- It's long been known that people who smoke tobacco are at a higher risk of having heart problems. Now, a team of researchers at UCSF have found that marijuana products also pose the same risk.What's particularly interesting is that burning any plant can release toxic chemicals, but apparently eating THC products can be risky too. Since last summer, UCSF cardiovascular researchers have studied 44 people to learn the effects that marijuana has on their blood vessels and hearts. The control group included healthy adults between 18 and 50 years old. Other groups include chronic tobacco smokers, those who smoke weed at least three times a week, people who only take THC edibles and people who aren't exposed to any of these. "We've been doing a lot of research in rats that's indicated that marijuana smoke has similar cardiovascular harmful effects as tobacco smoke," said Dr. Matt Springer, UCSF cardiovascular researcher. "Now we actually see for the first time that the smoke is h...

Suspect arrested after body found at SF's Crissy Field

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A San Francisco man was arrested and charged with murder on Monday in connection with a body being found at Crissy Field on Nov 12., the United States Department of Justice said Tuesday. A police investigation led to Leion Butler, 20, as the suspect in the murder of a victim whose body was found in the Presidio. The victim had a gunshot wound to the head when they were found, the DOJ said. Wife and lover who allegedly conspired to kill her husband arrested for murder in Hayward According to the DOJ, surveillance cameras picked up cars leaving the area of Crissy Field around the time of the murder. One of those cars was linked to the victim.That car was found three days later in San Francisco's Hunters Point neighborhood unoccupied and double-parked with its license plates still attached. Surveillance footage in that area showed someone, later identified as Butler, parking the car and getting out of it. Video also showed Butler wiping down the victim's car ...

Secret Intelligence Documents Show Global Reach of India's Death Squads

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:58:20 GMT

The Indian government’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW, has been planning assassinations targeting Sikh and Kashmiri activists living in foreign countries, according to secret Pakistani intelligence assessments leaked to The Intercept.The intelligence documents identify a series of threats against people living in Pakistan from RAW, which Pakistani security officials believe is working in conjunction with local criminal and dissident networks to carry out assassinations and other attacks. According to the documents, RAW is targeting individuals and religious institutions alleged to support an armed insurgency in the disputed territory of Kashmir, as well as militant Sikh activists living in Pakistan and wanted by the Indian government.The documents offer compelling substantiation for the sensational claim that India has been carrying out a transnational assassination program against its political enemies. The Canadian government first made headlines in S...