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Real World Economics: Target a case study in culture war headaches

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

Edward LottermanWith apologies to the great literary figures Sir Walter Scott and Bullwinkle J. Moose, here is some wisdom for rueful Target execs: “Into what a sticky morass we fall, when first we practice to please all!”I buy stuff at Target but am not one of those Minnesotans who thinks “our” national retailer holds vast moral superiority over its competitor from Arkansas. Looking at its political contributions and the past era as a member of the retrograde American Legislative Exchange Council, it is clear to me that the company’s leadership has an understanding of national economic issues on a par with that of Gomer Pyle.However, Target makes great efforts to be “a good corporate citizen” including reaching out to and respecting an increasingly diverse U.S. population. So one genuinely feels for them when they stepped on a land mine in the broken, treacherous terrain of our nation’s culture wars by trying to market to and recognize the broad and heterogeneous LGBT+ segment of o...

Crews continue putting out Saturday night warehouse fire hotspots

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

ST. LOUIS - A large fire broke out late Saturday evening at an abandoned warehouse in St. Louis, just a little north of downtown. No one is hurt despite the scare. The fire intensified around 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the warehouse near North Seventh and O'Fallon streets. Officials tell FOX 2 the building was a former timber construction site in the Columbus Square neighborhood. Many around St. Louis noticed thick smoke in the sky around 8 p.m. Some noticed it miles away from the city. Fire crews initially responded to the smoke and reported moderate smoke conditions from one corner of the building. CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Large flames engulf what appears to be an abandoned warehouse near North Seventh and O’Fallon streets in the Columbus Square neighborhood. @STLFireDept is responding. VIDEO: Mary Scott/FOX 2 pic.twitter.com/IIHuTRgV5e— FOX2now (@FOX2now) May 28, 2023Dennis Jenkerson, commissioner of the St. Louis Fire Department, tells FOX 2 that firefighters were preparing to potenti...

Sunny and warm Sunday, temp highs in 80s for Memorial Day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

ST. LOUIS - Nice holiday weekend weather continues. A touch warmer Sunday with plenty of sunshine. Overnight lows will be in the 50s to near 60. A bit warmer again for Memorial Day, with temp highs in the mid 80s. St. Louis radar: See a map of current weather here The warming trend continues into the work week and humidity starts to increase. Possible spot showers and storms chances each afternoon, Wednesday through Saturday.

Keeler: Deion Sanders, CU Buffs don’t need Pac-12. But Pac-12 needs Coach Prime as Big 12 overtures look better every day.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

At Christmas, Brock Huard chuckled. CU and the Big 12, together again? OK, dude. Whatever.At Valentine’s Day, he tittered. (Again?) At St. Patrick’s Day, he guffawed. (We’re still talking about this?)On Memorial Day Weekend, the FOX Sports football analyst and former Washington Huskies QB isn’t laughing at the notion of the Buffs going east anymore.“I would think, if you’re (athletic director) Rick George and you’re the Board of Regents, you’re the decision-makers, you’re going to try to find strength in numbers,” Huard told me late last week. “My hunch is that if you’re CU and your (football) program has been largely down for 20 years, you know what you want? Strength in numbers. And an aggressive (conference) commissioner who got a (broadcast) deal done, will not settle for ‘no,’ and does not, unfortunately, does not have a massive pit left by Larry Scott’s leadership that they’re trying to dig out of.”The Pac-12 needs CU right now, not the other way around. The Buffs are the hott...

Rockies’ power outage leaves general manager Bill Schmidt scratching his head: “We anticipated hitting more home runs”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

Talk about a Blake Street Bummer.The Rockies are on pace to hit the fewest homers and post the lowest slugging percentage of any team in franchise history.Veteran right-fielder Kris Bryant, who signed a seven-year, $182 million contract prior to last season, is on pace to hit 16 home runs this season. Third baseman Ryan McMahon, who signed a six-year, $70 million deal last spring, is on pace to hit 14.But they are far from alone in underperforming internal expectations so far this season.“We anticipated hitting more home runs,” general manager Bill Schmidt said Friday. “If you look at the back of the baseball cards, these guys have had a history of hitting more home runs. But I scratch my head, to be honest with you.”With nearly one-third of the season in the books going into Memorial Day weekend, the power outage in LoDo is jarring. Colorado entered Friday with 40 home runs as a team, ranking 27th in the majors. The Rockies were on pace to hit just 127 homer...

Nuggets Journal: Nikola Jokic intent on last laugh as NBA Finals approach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

Clad in a black tank top and yellow Muhammad Ali shorts, Nikola Jokic plopped in front of a makeshift Finals backdrop on Saturday afternoon and parried questions he’d heard dozens of times before.As the Nuggets waited to find out which team they’d be wrestling for an NBA championship, Jokic was at ease and in control. He was funny, goofy and engaging — three telltale signs that the cornerstone of the franchise was in a good headspace with history on deck.His mood was apparent from the outset when Jokic asked for a box score, picking up on a running joke between him and various Nuggets staffers. Still with five days to go until Game 1 of the NBA Finals, there was little else to do but mess around and tease everyone in his orbit.For the media’s sake and the hordes of cameras that had convened, he did indulge in a bit of reflection.When Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon stuffed LeBron James on the final play of Monday’s clinching Game 4, Jokic admitted it wasn’t the feeling he expected.“Th...

Broncos RT Mike McGlinchey now plays for Zach Strief. His mission: Be like Zach Strief

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

In one of those funny twists of football fate, Zach Strief has been Mike McGlinchey and Mike McGlinchey is now Zach Strief.OK, strictly speaking, that might be overstepping the bounds of the known universe, but if the NFL were actually scripted, the pair would find their respective parts awfully familiar.If this were a family tree, Denver’s new offensive line coach Strief would be at the end of a pretty darn straight line above the Broncos’ new right tackle McGlinchey.Strief, you see, spent years and years as a trusted right tackle in a Sean Payton-run offense. Now he’s coaching McGlinchey, the trusted right tackle in a Sean Payton-run offense.You can understand, then, why the pair has hit it off since Strief arrived here in February and McGlinchey a month later in free agency.“We haven’t dusted off the video clips of Zach yet, but we have seen some stuff from installs in New Orleans,” McGlinchey told The Post with a laugh Thursday. “I just think it’s so valuable to have a coach who...

Walters: Stakes are high for Newsom’s public works projects

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

Gavin Newsom is fond of proclaiming “big hairy audacious goals,” having borrowed the term from a book on successful corporate leadership.However, he has not been particularly successful in delivering on his promises of bold, transformative action – such as single-payer health care for all Californians or constructing 3.5 million new housing units.The hairiest and most audacious of Newsom’s goals is converting California’s massive economy – the fourth largest in the world, according to recent estimates – into one that booms while reducing its carbon footprint to zero in the next 22 years.It would involve, among other things, shifting 30 million cars and trucks from gasoline or diesel power to electricity or hydrogen and abolishing gas-fired power plants in favor of solar, wind or thermal generation.Such massive conversions are technologically doable, but they would be very expensive for consumers, utilities and governments. They would require a lot of construction projects, such as s...

Ukraine’s Kostyuk booed after not shaking hands with Belarus’ Sabalenka at French Open

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

PARIS (AP) — At first, Aryna Sabalenka thought the boos and derisive whistles coming from the French Open crowd were directed at her after a first-round victory Sunday. Instead, the negative reaction was aimed at her opponent, Marta Kostyuk, for not participating in the usual post-match handshake up at the net.Kostyuk, who is from Ukraine, avoided so much as any eye contact with Sabalenka, who is from Belarus, after the match, instead walking directly over to acknowledge the chair umpire. Sabalenka walked toward the net as if expecting some sort of exchange.But this is something Kostyuk has been doing whenever she has faced any opponent from Russia or Belarus since her country was invaded by Russia, with help from Belarus, in February 2022.Perhaps the fans on hand at Court Philippe Chatrier did not know the backstory and figured Kostyuk simply failed to follow tennis etiquette by congratulating the winner after the lopsided result: Sabalenka grabbed six games in a row during one str...

Many Republican insiders in US fear Teflon Don is back

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:47 GMT

NASHUA, N.H. — Republican Party insiders looking to move on from former President Donald Trump increasingly fear that Teflon Don is back.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ technology-challenged but donor-rich entry into the GOP presidential primary cemented his place in the early primary as the chief alternative to Trump.But it will hardly clear the field. And with a growing cast of characters still waiting in the wings to announce their own campaigns, warning signs of a 2016 replay are once again flashing in the GOP. According to interviews with nearly a dozen GOP strategists, former candidates and party insiders, the intraparty dynamics now at play — and Trump’s own alchemical grip on the base — suggest a primary where a constellation of Republicans once again risk splitting the non-Trump vote in early nominating states.“If those people are all still in the race when January comes around, it’s going to be 2016 all over again, and Trump will win,” said Jason Osborne, the New Hampshire Hous...