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A July surge by Chicago Fire FC helps club finally build some momentum in 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

CHICAGO - At the moment, it's easy to argue that the professional team with the most momentum in the Chicago area is playing at Soldier Field. That hasn't been the case that often over the last decade, but Chicago Fire FC has had one of its best stretches of success since they last made the postseason in 2017. Saturday provided another example of that in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. After failing on a few chances to put in the go-ahead goal against Toronto FC at Soldier field, Miguel Navarro sent a ball into the box in the 90th minute for Kacper Przyzbylko. The striker, who'd entered the game minutes earlier, headed it into the open part of the net for the winning goal in a 1-0 triumph.The victory over Toronto FC is the fifth for the Fire in their last six matches, sparking the most enthusiasm in the club in what was another difficult start to the season for the club. That has flipped thanks to the recent stretch before the MLS All-Star Break, which has put the club over .50...

White Sox ACE youth players tour Chicago's connections to Negro leagues, civil rights movement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

CHICAGO -- The White Sox's 17-and-under Amateur City Elite (ACE) program received a history lesson on the Negro league's connection to Chicago and the role it played in the civil rights movement.Players on the White Sox Amateur City Elite (ACE) program took a step back in time Tuesday before they stepped on the field at Guaranteed Rate to play ball to learn about the Negro Leagues players who helped pave the way.Beginning at 35th Street and Shields where the East-West Negro League All Star Classic, known as the East-West game was played at Comiskey Park for decades, allowed the younger generation to step back in time tour that was led by historian Shermann Dilla Thomas of Chicago Mahogany Tours."The East-West game would’ve been the place were African-Americans on the southside. Got a chance to see Josh Gibson and Satchel, Paige and all the greats.," Shermann Dilla Thomas said.For 90 minutes they visit places such as the home where Emmit Till grew up at 64th and S...

GOP to put IRS Hunter Biden whistleblowers at center stage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

House Republicans will put their claims of unequal justice for Republicans and Democrats at center stage Wednesday, bringing IRS whistleblowers before the public to blast the government’s investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of President Biden.The hearing will serve in part as a way for Republicans to give former President Trump political cover as he faces a likely third indictment over Jan. 6, while also fueling a potential impeachment inquiry against Attorney General Merrick Garland.IRS investigator Gary Shapley and an unnamed IRS special agent told the House Ways and Means Committee in May that they were displeased with the investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax matters, accusing prosecutors of slow-walking the investigation and allowing the statute of limitations to run out. Hunter Biden in June reached a deal to plead guilty to tax crimes for 2017 and 2018. In one point of drama, the identity of the unnamed IRS agent will be revealed at Wednesday’s hearing.Republicans h...

Arena Football is coming back to Austin in 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Professional football is coming to Austin in 2024.The Arena Football League, which went bankrupt for a second time in 2019, is making a return under new ownership and Austin was named one of the 16 locales to have teams on Tuesday.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersF1 Sports and Entertainment bought the rights to AFL in 2022 and made the announcement on Feb. 1, 2023 that it would start playing games in April 2024. The embattled league with a unique spin on traditional football was founded in 1986 and had a roller coaster ride with bankruptcy and a canceled season in 2009, only to return in 2010 before running out of money again nine years later.Austin had an AFL franchise from 2004-2008 under the nickname the Wranglers, but it's unclear if that will be the name of the new team. On the AFL's website, team and mascot names are slated to be some of the last d...

Twin Cities Pro-Am continues to draw big names, bigger crowds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

Paige Bueckers was actually nervous on a basketball court – well, a sideline, anyway.A guest coach in the Twin Cities Pro-Am summer league Monday at Minnehaha Academy, the Connecticut guard and Hopkins grad pulled out her dry-erase board and went to work diagramming an action to get her close friend – Orlando Magic guard and Minnehaha Academy alum Jalen Suggs – an alley oop attempt.“First thing she said, she was getting nervous, she said, ‘I don’t know if this is going to work,’” Suggs said. “C’mon, P, we’ve got confidence in you.”For good reason. Most things Bueckers touches on the court turn to gold. And, sure enough, the play successfully led to a Suggs slam. As he ran down the floor, the guard pointed to Bueckers, who sported a big smile.“It was pretty cool,” Bueckers said.“We’re calling that one ‘UConn,’ ” Suggs said.Just another night at the Twin Cities Pro-Am.The exhibition – which consistently features many of the best men’s basketball players to come out of the metro – cont...

St. Paul: Several W. 7th Street businesses resist inclusion in downtown improvement district, say safety is priority

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

At the Apostle Supper Club in downtown St. Paul, restaurateur Brian Ingram flinches before urging loiterers to mosey down the street.“You ask them to move, they throw a brick through the window,” said Ingram on Tuesday. “Our windows get broken every single week.”His two restaurants off the West Seventh Street business corridor — Apostle and Hope Breakfast Bar — have been broken into “probably a dozen times this year alone,” said Ingram, recounting how his establishments’ patio furniture tends to disappear and end up in a small homeless encampment across the street.Not long ago, workers found a patron dead in the Apostle bathroom of an apparent drug overdose. In the past month or so, they’ve spotted three more apparent overdoses on the nearby sidewalk.So when a business coalition invited Ingram to sign a petition in favor of expanding an existing Downtown Improvement District down West Seventh Street, Ingram declined. The pr...

24 hours later, cause of St. Charles home explosion still unknown

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

ST. CHARLES, Mo. – One day after a home explosion in a St. Charles neighborhood sent three adults and two children to the hospital, investigators have not yet identified what caused the home to go up in flames.“Initially, dispatch will say we need X amount of resources to handle this problem, and then when you get on the scene, and it becomes something else or much bigger than you initially thought,” said Fire Captain Kelly Hunsel, St. Charles City Fire Department. “That’s something that we train on all the time.”According to Hunsel, just one adult remains hospitalized.A quick-thinking neighbor heard the explosion around 11:30 a.m. Monday and called 911, then aided the injured occupants who had been in the home when it exploded.“So, having those residents close by and render some aide before our folks got there and alert 911 was really valuable,” Hunsel said.While the investigation continues, St. Charles firefighters are thankful for the more than 60 individuals involved and at the ...

Missouri Supreme Court weighs fate of amendment to restore abortion rights

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Whether Missouri voters get a chance to weigh in on legalizing abortion is now up to state Supreme Court judges, who on Tuesday heard arguments in a case about Republican infighting that has stalled the amendment's progress.Judges did not indicate when they might rule on the case, which centers around a proposed amendment to enshrine in the constitution the individual right to make decisions about abortion, childbirth and birth control. Abortion-rights supporters proposed it after the state banned almost all abortions last summer.The amendment hit a snag in April, when Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey refused to sign off on Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick's cost estimate.Without Bailey's approval, abortion-rights supporters have not been able to start work getting the signatures needed to put the measure before voters in 2024. Clerk shot and killed at St. Louis City gas station They sued, and a circuit court judge last month order...

'We deserve answers' - Nearly 4 months after disappearance of Joshua Amos

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

FAIRMONT CITY, Ill. - Nearly four months after 32-year-old Joshua Amos went missing, Illinois State Police have reopened the search.On Tuesday, enforcement was joined by countless community members for hours, searching through the place where he went missing. Still, the family is left without answers."Think to yourself: if this was my child, if this was my dad, if this was my brother, my cousin, you would want to know; we deserve answers," said Christina Marek, Amos's mother. Clerk shot and killed at St. Louis City gas station Around 150 people searched on a rainy, humid day for Amos. He was last seen early morning on March 19, walking and intoxicated, after a night out with friends in Washington Park.“It was only about 18 degrees outside, he didn’t have a coat on," Marek said.She said he was walking around for several hours in those conditions.The search commenced early Tuesday not far from Ee-Jay Motor Transports, a trucking company, where a security camera showed the last place...

Former Avalanche Alex Galchenyuk to check into player assistance program after outburst during arrest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:20:54 GMT

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Former Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche player Alex Galchenyuk is entering the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program and apologized for hurling threats at officers during his arrest earlier this month.Galchenyuk tweeted a letter on Tuesday apologizing for repeatedly using racial slurs toward an officer in training and threated to have two officers killed following a July 9 traffic stop.“I am deeply ashamed of my recent behavior and I am beyond sorry to everyone I offended and hurt,” he wrote. “It was uncalled for, it was horrific and it has ruined this great new opportunity I was given by the Coyotes. I am beyond embarrassed and disappointed with myself and I feel awful for everyone I have let down.”A Scottsdale Police Department report said Galchenyuk was erratic and aggressive toward officers after apparently crashing a car into a sign.Galchenyuk resisted the officers’ efforts to handcuff him and repeatedly uttered a racial slur toward the officer in ...