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Chicago Bears free-agency news: 5 free-agent deals are now official, along with the trade of the No. 1 pick

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

In his second offseason with the Chicago Bears, general manager Ryan Poles has plenty of salary-cap space to rework a roster that finished 3-14 in 2022.As the NFL’s new league year approaches, allowing free agents to begin signing with new teams, the Tribune will track all of the Bears’ arrivals and departures and provide insight into what they mean.The free-agency negotiation window opened across the league at 11 a.m. Monday. Unrestricted free agents can finalize deals when the new league year begins at 3 p.m. Wednesday.Column: After adding 5 new starters, Bears GM Ryan Poles can wait for prices to fall in free agencyColumn: Bears’ aggressive start to free agency has one common thread — young players entering their prime yearsWhat headline-grabbing move is next? 5 Bears questions before free agency.Column: Ryan Poles checked a big box on the Bears’ offseason list with his bold trade. Now comes the hard part.Bears trade the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL dr...

RB Justice Hill re-signs with Ravens on two-year, $4.5 million deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

Justice Hill is returning to the Ravens.The 25-year-old running back, whom the Ravens drafted out of Oklahoma State in the fourth round in 2019, is re-signing with Baltimore on a two-year, $4.5 million deal that could be worth as much as $5 million, his agent Andrew Kessler confirmed to The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday.Hill, who missed all of 2021 with a torn Achilles tendon, had his most productive year last season, with 262 yards on 49 carries to go with 12 catches for 58 yards in a career-best 15 games. He was also a significant part of Baltimore’s special teams, which included kick return duties.He joins a familiar and effective backfield of J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards.Last season, the Ravens ranked second behind only the Chicago Bears in rushing yards (2,720) and yards per carry (5.2).Hill has 547 rushing yards and two touchdowns in his career while averaging 4.6 yards per carry. He also has 25 catches for 148 yards. ()

Medication abortions are under fire: Here’s how they work

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

Medication abortions became the preferred method for ending pregnancy in the U.S. even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They usually involve taking two prescription medicines days apart — at home or in a clinic.In contrast, abortion procedures are an invasive medical technique that empties the womb. They are sometimes called surgical abortions, although they don’t involve surgery.In the United States, abortions by pills usually involve the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. As more states seek abortion limits, demand for the pills is expected to grow. But they have been targeted by abortion foes including Christian conservatives who filed suit in Texas seeking to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. A hearing on the suit was held Wednesday. HOW DO ABORTION DRUGS WORK?Mifepristone is taken first, swallowed by mouth. The drug dilates the cervix and blocks the effects of the hormone progesterone, which is needed to sustain a pregnancy.M...

Review: Enter Aly & AJ’s voyage into the sun kissed desert

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

“With Love From,” Aly & AJ (Aly & AJ Music)Disney starlets-turned-indie sister duo Aly & AJ return with a new album, storytelling their way through a big American road trip into a ’70s dreamy and electric landscape through the sun kissed desert.In the duo’s album, “With Love From,” they demonstrate their ability to make their familiar indie-pop sound reminiscent of a time in music where rock stars delivered subdued confessionals — longing for love or coming alive staying up all night on a tour bus traveling across the country. The sisters sound stronger as they ever have as a duo as they let go of ’80s style-synth production to let their voices breathe on the more stripped down, folksy Americana-inspired 11-track album. “With Love From” simply starts off with the country-infused track “Open to Something and That Something Is You.” The perfect song to serenade a lover, twinged with longing, desire and an open heart to love. “After Hours” is a folk ...

‘Just tell Avril I’m not mad,’ says topless Junos protester after being charged

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

EDMONTON — A woman facing a criminal charge after a topless protest at the Juno Awards said she isn’t upset about Avril Lavigne swearing at her and demanding she get off stage.Casey Hatherly, who goes by the name Ever, hopped on the Junos stage on Monday night while the Canadian pop-punk star was introducing a performance. “I really was hoping that Avril would be punk rock and anti-establishment, maybe hand me the mic and let me say my thing,” said Hatherly in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I’m totally not upset about anything that went down.“Just tell Avril I’m not mad.”Hatherly also made a court appearance Wednesday in Edmonton on a charge of mischief.The 37-year-old from Vancouver said it was easy for her to get onto the stage before security escorted her away. “I just walked up there,” Hatherly told media outside court. “It was so easy.”She said she spent the night in custody and officers played Lavigne...

Incomprehension in small Quebec town after pedestrians killed by truck

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

AMQUI — The town of Amqui, Que., was taking steps toward a return to normal life on Wednesday, even as citizens mourned the two men who died after a truck was driven into groups of pedestrians.Businesses on St-Benoît Boulevard were once again open, and pedestrians were venturing back out on the street that was the scene of Monday’s tragedy.Daniel Thériault, who worked as a paramedic for 27 years and now works for the local church, found it hard to hide his anger at what had happened. He described what he saw Monday as a “war zone.”“There’s still anger … when our citizens are attacked, (they’re like) members of our family, because they were part of the community,” Thériault said in a phone interview. Two people were killed and nine were injured when a man drove a truck down one of the eastern Quebec town’s main streets, allegedly hitting several different groups of pedestrians in what police have described as an intentional act.Thirty-eight-year-old Steeve Gagnon is...

Son of Flyers GM Briere apologizes for ‘serious lack of judgment’ after wheelchair video goes viral

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

The son of interim Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Briere apologized on Wednesday for having a “serious lack of judgment” after a video went viral showing a man push an empty wheelchair down a flight of stairs.In the video, which appears to be from a fish-eye security camera at Sullivan’s Pub in Erie, Penn., two men wearing backward ball caps climb the stairs and have a conversation before one of the men – who is wearing a white ball cap – appears to sit in the empty wheelchair at the top of the stairs and wheels it forward, toward the entrance to the bar.After the man with the white ball cap stands up out of the chair, the second man positions the wheelchair at the edge of the stairs. The man with the white cap then pushes the chair down the stairs. A portion of the chair appears to break off as it hits the stairs.The time stamp on the video displays Saturday’s date of 3-11-2023 and counts up from around 11:38 p.m. As of 4:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the v...

Long-used abortion pill in US under threat in Texas lawsuit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A conservative judge in Texas raised questions Wednesday about a Christian group’s effort to overturn federal regulators’ decades-old approval of a leading abortion drug, in a case that could threaten the country’s most common method to end pregnancies.Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk heard more than four hours of debate over the Alliance Defending Freedom’s request to revoke or suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. Such a step would be an unprecedented challenge to the FDA and its authority in deciding which drugs to permit on the market.Kacsmaryk said he would rule “as soon as possible,” without giving any clear indication of how he might decide and leaving open the question of whether access to the standard regimen for medication abortions might soon be curtailed throughout the country.Mifepristone, when combined with a second pill, was approved in 2000 and is used to end pregnancies until their 10th week. It ha...

Construction along Toronto’s Lake Shore causing commuter headaches, standstill traffic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

While traffic on Lake Shore Boulevard near Jarvis Street has been an ongoing headache for commuters, it’s recently become even worse, with some drivers waiting up to three hours in the area.Some drivers tell CityNews they’ve become increasingly frustrated, exhausted, and desperate to get moving.“Absolutely ridiculous. I’m a little bit stressed. I’m nine months pregnant right now, I’m sitting in traffic, and I don’t know when we’re going to get out of this,” said one woman who had been waiting over an hour in the logjam.“[It’s] extremely frustrating,” said another driver. “It takes me 40 minutes to get home when I live 10 minutes away.”CityNews first brought you the story in November when the four lanes of Lake Shore were reduced to one lane between Cherry and Yonge Streets as Enbridge worked to replace portions of a high-pressure natural gas pipeline.A different portion of that pipeline is being repl...

Suburban residents, Metra concerned about new railway merger

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:29 GMT

ITASCA, Ill. — Much to the disappointment of some residents in a number of Chicago suburbs, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board has approved the merger of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern.The deal is worth billions of dollars and proponents say it will be good for the economy, but opponents have long expressed concerns about what it will do to their communities.Wednesday's decision is two years in the making and comes after the board held several local public hearings and reviewed an environmental impact study. "We made this decision because, in general terms, we found that on balance, the merger of these two railroads will benefit the American economy and be an improvement for all citizens in terms of safety and environment," board Chairman Marty Oberman said from Washington D.C.The $31 billion merger will create the largest freight company and run from Canada to Mexico through the United States. It will impact 54 crossings on 20 miles of Metra's Milwaukee Distri...