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From buried grottos to mysterious orbs, could this Northern California property become a Catholic shrine?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

Brut Farris moved into a cottage among the towering redwoods overlooking the Boulder Creek deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California about 15 years ago because it was scenic — not sacred.It didn’t hurt that there was plenty of space for him and his friends to shoot their bows and park their Harleys.So when he stumbled upon a toppled-over statue of the Virgin Mary in a stone enclosure while helping extend the driveway to the edge of a hillside, he didn’t think much  about chucking it into a sinkhole with other debris.Cora Evans, who died 56 years ago, has been declared a “Servant of God” by The Catholic Church, the first step on the path to sainthood. (Courtesy of family)He had no idea back then that the property’s previous owner, the late Cora Evans who died here in 1957, was a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church. He hadn’t heard the stories that she was considered a mystic and fell into deep trances and wrote thousands of pages about walks with God. He didn...

Magic relocating G League affiliate from Lakeland to Kissimmee

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

The Orlando Magic on Monday called for a press conference Tuesday afternoon, when they’re expected to relocate their NBA G League affiliate from Lakeland to Kissimmee, league sources told the Orlando Sentinel.The Magic’s G League team will be rebranded as the Osceola Magic and will start playing at Silver Spurs Arena in November.This story will be updated.This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Khobi Price at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @khobi_price. ()

Love of soup leads woman to help millions through charity

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

Sharon Hapton has been making soup her whole life but, in 2009, she decided to turn this love for making soup into a charity.“I was celebrating a milestone birthday and I invited 30 girlfriends to a soup making birthday party and at night delivered the first batch of fresh soup ever to an emergency women shelter,” said Hapton.Soup Sisters was born on that day. It’s a not-for-profit that started in Calgary and now serves agencies nationwide.They operate in 27 cities in Canada and the United States and run by volunteers in each city with a purpose to provide soup for women and children escaping domestic violence and youth in crisis.“It always amazes me when we’re walking round our beautiful, lovely country how many people are suffering and with things like a pandemic and their recuperation of such things it just impacts even more,” said Kristyn Drever, the director of operations with Soup Sisters. “And it doesn’t even have to be much but...

Maine city reopens arena to hundreds of asylum seekers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Hundreds of asylum seekers filed into a basketball arena in Portland on Monday as Maine’s largest city deals with a months-long surge in immigration that has taxed its already limited housing market.It’s the second time in recent years that Portland has repurposed the Portland Exposition Building — a century-old red-brick gym that houses a minor league basketball team and has hosted everyone from President John F. Kennedy to the Beach Boys — to serve migrants. The floor of the arena was lined with cots as families carried in bags of clothes, food and personal possessions.Communities around the country have been dealing with growing numbers of asylum seekers, and pending rule changes could mean more are coming. A COVID-19 pandemic rule that has suspended rights to seek asylum for many is slated to end in May.It was a massive undertaking to make Portland’s temporary shelter ready for asylum seekers, but it was not as frantic as in 2...

AP sources: EPA car rule to push huge increase in EV sales

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will propose strict new automobile pollution limits this week that would require at least 54% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030 and as many as two of every three by 2032, according to industry and environmental officials briefed on the plan.The proposed regulation, to be released Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency, would set greenhouse gas emissions limits for the 2027 through 2032 model years for passenger vehicles that would be more even stricter than goals the auto industry agreed to in 2021.The EPA will offer a range of options that the agency can select after a public comment period, the officials said. They asked not to be identified because the proposal hasn’t been made public. The proposed regulation isn’t expected to become final until next year.Environmental groups are applauding the ambitious numbers, which were first reported over the weekend by The New York Times. But the plan is ...

US finds WSJ reporter in Russia is wrongfully detained

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration formally determined Monday that a Wall Street Journal arrested in Russia on espionage charges has been “wrongfully detained.”The designation elevates the case of Evan Gershkovich in the U.S. government hierarchy and means that a dedicated State Department office will take the lead on securing his release. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the determination on Monday, saying he condemned the arrest and Russia’s repression of independent media.“Today, Secretary Blinken made a determination that Evan Gershkovich is wrongfully detained by Russia,” the department said in a statement. “Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth.”Russian authorities arrested Gershkovich, 31, in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, on March 29. He is the first U.S. correspondent since the Cold War to be detained for alleged spying.The Federal Secur...

S&P/TSX composite posts small Monday gain, U.S. markets mixed

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index ticked upward Monday thanks to broad-based strength while U.S. markets were mixed.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 79.13 points at 20,275.82.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 101.23 points at 33,586.52.The S&P 500 index was up 4.09 points at 4,109.11,while the Nasdaq composite was down 3.60 points at 12,084.36.The Canadian dollar traded for 73.93 cents US compared with 74.19 cents US on Thursday.The May crude contract was down 96 cents at US$79.74 per barreland the May natural gas contract was up 16 cents at US$2.17 per mmBTU.The June gold contract was down US$22.60 at US$2,003.80 an ounce and the May copper contract was down almost four cents at US$3.98 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Online drug trafficking on the rise, police need resources to respond

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

VANCOUVER — There’s a growing trend of online encrypted drug dealing that a study says needs more attention by police. Richard Frank, an associate professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., says the encrypted markets are attractive to buyers and sellers for lower prices, contactless transactions and a large variety of drugs available. He is part of a research team studying the illegal activity for the Office of Crime Reduction and Gang Outreach, which wants data on the size and scope of the online problem to justify the need for more funding to combat the problem. Frank, who is also the director of the International CyberCrime Research Centre, says the group analyzed eight of the largest so-called cryptomarkets between June 2021 and January 2022.The study showed almost 17 tonnes of drug products were trafficked for $234.7 million in eight markets, with the most popular drugs being stimulants, cannabis, opioids and benzodiazepines.Frank says the first...

3 sought in Delaware mall shooting that wounded 3 people

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

CHRISTIANA, Del. (AP) — Authorities are searching for three suspects in a shooting at a Delaware mall over the weekend that wounded three people and led to an evacuation.According to the state police, the three suspects confronted an 18-year-old man as he was leaving the Christiana Mall’s food court shortly after 6:30 p.m. Saturday and began to assault him. Two friends of the victim began fighting with them, and one of the suspects pulled out a handgun and fired multiple rounds. The original target of the attack and a 16-year-old friend were each shot by three rounds in the torso and lower extremities. The three suspects, described as in their late teens, then fled.The wounded victims were treated at hospitals and listed in stable condition. An 18-year-old bystander who was on the sidewalk outside of the mall entrance was hit by a round in a lower extremity and was also treated at a hospital for a non-life-threatening wound, said authorities, who released photos and video of t...

Macron comments on Taiwan raise questions on EU global ties

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:24:52 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron over Europe’s priorities on Taiwan have raised questions over the EU’s relationship with both the U.S. and China, on the eve of his planned speech on the bloc’s sovereignty in The Netherlands. Macron’s remarks were published Sunday in an interview with French newspaper Les Echos and Politico Europe. “The question we need to answer, as Europeans, is the following: is it in our interest to accelerate (a crisis) on Taiwan? No,” Macron was quoted as saying in the interview. “The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction.”The comments were made Friday, before China launched large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan that simulated sealing off the island in response to the Taiwanese president’s trip to the U.S. last week.Macron spoke to reporters on his way back from a three-day state visit to China, wh...