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ASK IRA: Does Jimmy Butler deserve more from Heat front office based on what he has provided?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

Q: Get Jimmy Butler a complementary star to play with, make Bam Adebayo your third option, and problem solved for the next three years. Bam is a solid player, just not a number-two option. – Douglas. A: Except that is not how the Heat have designed their payroll, so it will take major, major payroll machinations to reformulate such a structure. At $45 million (yes, $45 million) for next season, Jimmy Butler is being paid like a leading man. The problem is that at $32.6 million for next season, Bam Adebayo is being paid like at least a number-two star. And remember, Tyler Herro will be earning $27 million next season. And that’s not even getting to the $29.7 million due Kyle Lowry for 2023-24, in the final season of his three-year deal. So the Heat, at the moment, essentially have a top-four salary hierarchy in place. Yes, trades can change the equation, but it’s not as simple as a “problem solved” snap of the fingers.Q: This is for you, Vic. – Eli...

Orioles minor league report: Jackson Holliday’s last week in Delmarva among system’s big offensive performances

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

Jackson Holliday’s promotion to High-A Aberdeen might feel as if it came quickly. But by the Orioles’ standards for moving prospects up the minor league ladder, it’s fairly typical.Baltimore sent Holliday, last season’s No. 1 overall draft pick and the organization’s top prospect still in the minors, from Low-A Delmarva up to the IronBirds on Monday after only 25 games for the Shorebirds split across the past two seasons. In them, the 19-year-old infielder hit .323 with a 1.000 OPS, 13 of his 30 hits going for extra bases and seven more walks than strikeouts. In 193 defensive innings at second base and shortstop, he made three errors, though only one came in this year’s 117 frames.But that 25-game benchmark isn’t otherworldly for the Orioles, who seek to ensure their top minor leaguers are continually challenged. Holliday’s ascension is in line with the paths of Baltimore’s top infield prospects, though it’s the fastest for...

Parkinson’s research: Laser light helmet therapy helped ‘improve motor function’ in patients

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

A new Parkinson’s disease clinical trial with patients wearing laser light helmets has shown “promising results,” as the therapy helped “improve motor function” for those facing the progressive neurological condition.In the study out of Australia, the new infrared light therapy helmet on patients living with Parkinson’s helped improve facial expression, upper limb coordination and movement, lower limb coordination and movement, walking gait, and tremor.“This is the first time that there’s really some evidence with Parkinson’s disease patients that this therapy does work,” Geoff Herkes, the Australian doctor who presented the research findings for the treatment at the American Academy of Neurology conference in Boston, told the Herald.“We’re still a long way off from a cure, but this is a step toward helping improve motor function,” Herkes added. “These are some promising results.”The research t...

France under pressure over disabled rights as Olympics loom

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Pascale Ribes and other campaigners for the rights of people with disabilities in France have an invite to meet the French president Wednesday. But because she uses a wheelchair, Ribes won’t risk traveling by public transport to the conference at the presidential Elysee Palace. The nearest wheelchair-accessible Metro line is about a kilometer (half a mile) away and public buses in the French capital — host of the next Olympic Games — can be a time-gobbling ordeal for people with limited mobility, Ribes says.So the president of the lobbying group APF France Handicap will instead ride by taxi in hopes of delivering her message to President Emmanuel Macron that France is lagging in its obligations to ensure equal rights for people with disabilities.Ribes warns that instead of showcasing France, the 2024 Olympics risk highlighting the country’s failings unless there’s quick action to make the Paris Games and the host country more mindful of the needs and r...

Central banks end crisis offer as bank system fears ease

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — In a sign fears about the global financial system have eased for now, major central banks are scaling back their offer of emergency dollar loans to banks, a crisis step launched after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the U.S. fed fears about wider troubles.The European Central Bank said Tuesday that it and other central banks found that pressure on banks’ cash needs has dropped and the crisis credits were not being used much lately.As of May 1, the central banks will move from daily offerings of dollars to any bank that needs them to the previous availability of every seven days. Making extra dollars available has been a tool in times of trouble because banks need the U.S. currency to handle many international transactions. The so-called dollar swap lines were used during the 2008 global financial crisis and the economic turmoil in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to ease the impact on the supply of credit to consumers and businesses. The...

GM, Samsung plan new EV battery cell factory in US

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors and South Korea’s Samsung SDI plan to invest more than $3 billion in building a new electric vehicle battery cell plant in the United States, the companies said Tuesday. They did not announce the intended location of the new factory, which is expected to begin operations in 2026, GM and Samsung SDI said in a statement. GM and Samsung SDI plan to jointly operate the factory, which is expected to make nickel-rich prismatic and cylindrical cells. The companies said it was expected to create thousands of jobs. The project is GM’s fourth joint venture battery cell factory. It has announced three others with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution. A 900-worker factory near Warren, Ohio, is starting to build cells, while plants in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and Lansing, Michigan, are in the works. The announcement coincides with a visit to the United States by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The two countries are marking the 70th anniversary of their ...

Brazil’s Lula visits Spain with Mercosur deal on agenda

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was due to arrive in Spain on Tuesday on the second stop of a European tour aimed at resetting relations and making progress on a long-delayed trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.Following five days spent in Portugal, Lula will arrive in Madrid to attend a business forum this afternoon ahead of meetings with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe VI on Wednesday.The pending EU-Mercosur trade deal will be high on the agenda. The 27-member European Union completed negotiations with Mercosur in 2019, but ratification has stalled.Spain takes over the rotating EU presidency in July, while Brazil will simultaneously assume the equivalent role in Mercosur. Both are eager to finalize pending aspects of the deal. The Mercosur-EU agreement will mean the integration of a market of some 800 million people, about a fourth of the world’s gross domestic product and ...

Stock markets today: Global markets lower before US earnings

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Global stocks and Wall Street futures declined Tuesday as investors awaited U.S. earnings reports and an update on economic growth.London and Frankfurt opened lower. Shanghai and Hong Kong declined while Tokyo advanced. Oil prices were little-changed.Some 170 of the biggest U.S. companies including Microsoft and Amazon are due to report earnings this week. On Monday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.1% after Coca-Cola Co.’s quarterly profit was better than expected. Also this week, U.S. data are expected to show economic growth is slowing following interest rate hikes to cool stubbornly high inflation. France and Germany also are due to report economic growth after surveys showed factory activity weakening.If the economy cools, tech stocks will face a “difficult environment” maintaining high prices that have helped to buoy the market, Edward Moya of Oanda said in a report. He said stocks face “big risks” from corporate earnings and a battle in ...

President Joe Biden announces 2024 reelection bid

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally announced that he is running for reelection in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish the job” he began when he was sworn in to office and to set aside their concerns about extending the run of America’s oldest president for another four years.Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age. He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination, with no serious Democratic rivals. But he’s still set for a hard-fought struggle to retain the presidency in a bitterly divided nation.The announcement, in a three-minute video, comes on the four-year anniversary of when Biden declared for the White House in 2019, promising to heal the “soul of the nation” amid the turbulent presidency of Donald Trump — a goal that has remained elusive.“I said we are in a battle for the soul of America...

Horvat among NHL stars coming up small early in playoffs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:21 GMT

Leon Draisaitl has been lighting it up for Edmonton, Mitch Marner is scoring for Toronto and Roope Hintz is leading the way for Dallas.They are among the top performers early in the NHL playoffs.Then there are some big stars around the league who have not yet made a mark. A week into the first round, Bo Horvat and Aleksander Barkov have combined for a goal and two assists with the Islanders and Panthers, respectively, each trailing their series three games to one. Edmonton starting goaltender Stuart Skinner got the hook before the Oilers could fall into the same hole against Los Angeles.Skinner may not get the chance to rebound right away if the Oilers’ net now belongs to Jack Campbell, but time is running short for other standouts to contribute.BO HORVAT, IslandersAfter scoring a short-handed goal with 2:03 left in a loss to Carolina that put the Islanders on the brink of elimination, Horvat did not even celebrate. New York’s big midseason trade acquisition had been hel...