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'I’m never going to give up': Family members search for answers 5 years after disappearance of pregnant postal worker

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

CHICAGO — Family members gathered in Pilsen on Sunday to celebrate the 31st birthday of Kierra Coles, a pregnant woman who vanished from the city's South Side in 2018. While loved ones celebrated the occasion, they say they are still desperate to find out what happened to her."Another year. Every year I hope I don't have to come stand up here and announce that my child is still not home," Kierra's mother Karen Phillips said.  12 buses carrying migrants arrive in Chicago over the weekend For the past five years, Phillps has been searching for her daughter, a postal worker who was three months pregnant when she vanished. "If it was your child, your mother, your sister, your grandmother. You'd be begging for the same help that I'm standing here begging for," Phillips said in a public plea for information. Coles disappeared on Oct. 2, 2018, from an area near East 83rd Street and South King Drive, in the city's Chatham neighborhood. Her car was later found on that ...

Race is on to find Great Lakes shipwrecks before quagga mussels destroy them

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Great Lakes’ frigid fresh water used to keep shipwrecks so well preserved that divers could see dishes in the cupboards. Downed planes that spent decades underwater were left so pristine they could practically fly again when archaeologists finally discovered them.Now, an invasive mussel is destroying shipwrecks deep in the depths of the lakes, forcing archeologists and amateur historians into a race against time to find as many sites as they can before the region touching eight U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario loses any physical trace of its centuries-long maritime history.“What you need to understand is every shipwreck is covered with quagga mussels in the lower Great Lakes,” Wisconsin state maritime archaeologist Tamara Thomsen said. “Everything. If you drain the lakes, you’ll get a bowl of quagga mussels.” Spotted lanternfly: Should you be worried about them? Quagga mussels, finger-sized mollusks with voracious appetites, have become the...

Vikings can’t stop Chargers veteran receiver Keenan Allen

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

The Vikings’ defense knew Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert would be looking for Keenan Allen on Sunday. He has five 1,000-yard receiving seasons under his belt, and the 11th-year pro hasn’t slowed down yet.That’s what makes Allen’s success in the Chargers’ 28-24 victory Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium so galling for Vikings safety Camryn Bynum.“He’s a future hall of famer, really. He’s Keenan Allen,” Bynum said. “We have to know … where the premium receivers are on the field. At the end of the day, we didn’t do our job of knowing where he was at all times.”Maybe it would not have mattered. That’s Allen’s take, anyway, after he caught 18 passes for 215 yards.“Everybody on the field can know where the ball is going, but somebody’s got to make the play,” Allen said. “You can point at it. You can say, ‘He’s going here.’ You can do all this, but you’ve still got to go stop it.”None of the Vikings could stop Allen on Sunday. He didn’t catch a touchdown pass, but he did th...

Vikings cornerback Akayleb Evans had an interception in his hands. It turned into a Chargers touchdown.

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

Akayleb Evans is slowly developing into a solid cornerback for the Vikings. He’s an unquestioned starter in the secondary and has a chance to be a really good player in the NFL. If he lives up to his potential, Evans will look back on his biggest mistake Sunday as a moment that helped him grow.In the immediate aftermath of the Vikings suffering a 28-24 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, however, Evans was having a hard time separating the forest from the trees.He hung his head in the locker room after the game as he pondered how he turned what should have been an interception of quarterback Justin Herbert in a big moment into a touchdown catch for receiver Josh Palmer that ultimately proved to be the difference.“Yeah,” Evans said. “Just a missed opportunity.”Indeed. After reading Herbert perfectly, Evans was in perfect position when he leaped to make an interception. Instead, he had the ball go right off of his hands and land directly in the arms of Palm...

Boost your mobile productivity with a bigger-screen laptop — or one with two screens

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

The more computer-screen real estate you have, the more room you have to spread out, and the more productive you will be. At least, that has been my experience.At my home-office desk, I have three screens: that of my employer-supplied Lenovo ThinkPad laptop, raised to about eye level with a stand, and flanked by 27-inch monitors. This allows me to have three, four, even five windows open and unobstructed.So I feel constricted when I am away from my workstation and trying to get stuff done on a single 14-inch screen. It’s nice that I can grab my ThinkPad and go, but working on it becomes more of a chore because I am no longer able to throw up multiple windows and glance among them.What’s the solution? There are two obvious ones:Use more than one display while on the go.Use one display while on the go, but bigger.I’ve lately been experimenting with both scenarios, which have major implications for the mobile-work crowd.On the multiple-display front, I’ve been trying out Lenovo’s Yoga ...

Pedal the Cause raises millions for cancer research

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

ST. LOUIS – Another year of Pedal the Cause is in the books, but the fundraiser continues through the end of October.Craig Stiegemeier is a cancer survivor.“In 2012, I was diagnosed with a melanoma,” Stiegemeier said. “That's why this ear's a little funny shape. They cut it off, but it had metastasized and spread. I lost a golf ball-size piece of my brain. I lost a right kidney, and all my lymph nodes were full of cancer.”He learned about the impact of Pedal the Cause firsthand, and he rides and volunteers every year.“Pedal the Cause was a big sponsor in all this out-of-the-box cancer research,” Stiegemeier said. “Immunotherapy is one of them, and it was just FDA-approved a few months before I needed it, and now it's my 11th ride.”Around 3,000 people took part in the cycling events on the course, and hundreds participated virtually. There were also around 700 volunteers.“Everyone is affected by cancer,” said Eleanor Goedeke, Pedal the Cause director of communications and marketing. ...

Avalanche newcomers Miles Wood, Ross Colton team up for strong, feisty first impression

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said there were certain elements of the game that his team felt deficient in last season, particularly given the injuries to certain players.Ross Colton and Miles Wood were two of the club’s key additions in the offseason, in part because they excel in those areas. The pair did not need long to show why. They skated on a line together Sunday afternoon at Ball Arena and were two of the most impactful players in Colorado’s first exhibition contest.“For the most part, I think we played pretty well,” Colton said after a 4-3 loss to Minnesota. “I don’t think we spent much time in our ‘D’ zone really, which is always a positive. We had a couple of nice plays out there. We just didn’t capitalize, but I don’t know … first game, I thought it was pretty good.”Wood’s first shift included a scoring chance when he took the puck off the boards and went directly to the net. A few seconds later he flattened a Minnesota Wild player with a huge open-ice hit.“It felt good....

Kiszla: 70 points will leave scar on Broncos that can only be erased by cleaning house

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Like a tattoo in the shape of an “L” on everybody’s forehead, 70 ugly points are going to leave a mark that these pathetic Broncos can’t erase.During the entire 64-season history of pro football in our dusty old cowtown, nothing has been a bigger joke, including the hilariously hideous vertically striped socks of the 1960s. The Broncos have now played 969 regular-season games, and this was the absolute worst:Miami 70, Denver 20.“That was embarrassing,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said Sunday. “Tough to watch.”His team is worse than its rock-bottom 0-3 record in the standings. A once-vaunted defense is broken. And the Broncos are an emotional wreck. Denver gave up 10 freakin’ touchdowns during one miserable and muggy afternoon in Florida.ANALYSIS: Broncos take historic beatdown in 70-20 loss to Dolphins: “That’s the most embarrassing game I’ve ever been a part of”“Tired of losing,” Broncos offensive tackle Garett Bolles said. “I’ve been here seven years, and...

Miami Dolphins honor slain L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

Before taking on the Denver Broncos, in what turned out to be something of a historic game Sunday, the Miami Dolphins honored slain Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Ryan Clinkunbroomer who was a diehard Dolphins fan.  Clinkunbroomer, 30, was killed on Sept. 16, in an ambush-style shooting while he sat at a red light in his patrol vehicle in the Antelope Valley. Just 36 hours after the deadly encounter, authorities arrested 29-year-old Kevin Salazar after a standoff outside of his Palmdale home in connection with the shooting. He has since been charged with murder. The Miami Dolphins honored slain L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer on Sept. 24, 2023. (Miami Dolphins)“Before today’s game, we paused to remember and honor Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, a life-long Dolphins fan and member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who was tragically killed in the line of duty, earlier this month,” the team said in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. ...

A’s drop home finale to Detroit but fans cheer anyway

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:54:40 GMT

OAKLAND — Only a few stragglers remained of the fans who made their way to the field to circle the bases one last time.Included was a group in the familiar green “Sell” T-shirts beating their drums and getting high-fives from security guards while chanting “Sell The Team!” following a 2-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers Sunday at the Coliseum.The defeat dropped the A’s record to 48-108. One more loss on their six-game road trip to close out the season and it will be the most in their 55 years in Oakland.  The 55 home losses are the most since the A’s came to Oakland in 1968 and equals the franchise record set in 1956 and 1964 in Kansas City.The A’s departed afterward for a six-game road trip to Minnesota and Anaheim, playing out the string of season in which ownership gave them no legitimate chance to field a contending team or even one that could approach .500.But rather than get booed off the field, A’s fans chose to cheer, displayi...