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Dys: Supreme Court takes up religious liberty case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

A favorite sport in the hours and days after the Supreme Court hears arguments in a case is guessing how the justices will rule. It can be a humbling exercise.Yet, in response to recent oral arguments in Groff v. DeJoy, one thing may be certain: The court will address and adjust a decades-old decision from a case that has thwarted religious liberty protections for American employees ever since.  The question is how far the court might go in restoring religious liberty to the workplace.Gerald Geoff is a former postal employee from rural Pennsylvania who joined the U.S. Postal Service because it fit his desire to have a career that allowed him to not work on Sundays. When he joined the USPS, it didn’t deliver on Sundays. The job seemed a perfect fit.That was until Amazon purchased a contract requiring the USPS to deliver packages on Sundays.At first, Groff’s supervisor accommodated him. Groff was willing to work extra shifts and holidays to help out his fellow employees, who then cove...

Rebecca Ferguson adds ‘Silo’ thriller to blockbuster year

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

Before Rebecca Ferguson’s upcoming blockbuster movies, there’s her starring role in Friday’s “Silo,” the 10-episode AppleTV+ futuristic thriller.Conceived and scripted by Graham Yost (“Speed”), “Silo” is set a mile below ground where Earth’s last 10,000 people live far from the toxic surface.  What’s strange is no one knows why or even when the protective silo was built.Ferguson’s Juliette is an engineer whose investigation of a lover’s murder leads to deeper, stranger mysteries about this underground colony.Unlike the upcoming final two “Mission:Impossibles” and “Dune Part Two,” was part of the attraction with “Silo” that it’s original and finite?“Oh, I don’t compare!  I think every decision I make, every character that I choose, it’s a new journey,” Ferguson, 39, said from London in a Zoom interview.  “There’ll be different reasons as to why I take them.“This one, I just really fell in love with Juliette. She’s really cool and she’s vulnerable. And wi...

Editorial: Words won’t stop masked marchers, action will

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

Boston has harsh words for protesters who mask their identities, but rebukes do nothing to discourage  faceless mobs.Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and City Council President Ed Flynn expressed condemnation after an appearance Saturday by the white nationalist group Patriot Front. They hid their faces behind scarves and hats and joined a faith-based protest outside a Satanic conference in Copley Square, as the Herald reported.“Boston stands firmly against the hateful ideology of white supremacist groups, and their presence is not welcome here,” Wu and Flynn said in a joint statement emailed to the Herald.This was a return trip for the Patriot Front. About 100 of them marched through Boston last July, waving flags and keeping their faces covered. Charles Murrell, a 34-year old Black artist was injured in an alleged confrontation with the group.Mayor Wu had strong words then, too, tweeting: “To the white supremacists who ran through downtown today: When we march, we don’t hide our fac...

Dear Abby: Mom wants to help son meet women

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

Dear Abby: My son will celebrate his 40th birthday soon. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 15 and basically lost the years between 15 and 21. Thankfully, at 21, he was given medication that changed his life, and he has been well ever since.He has always wanted a wife and family. Even when he was in his worst mental state, that one desire prevailed. But other than when he was 15, he has never been on a date. I have encouraged him to try a dating service or two, but his lack of self-confidence keeps him from trying. He told me he has never had a real conversation with a woman. His work also keeps him isolated. Still, he insists he very much wants to be dating by the time he hits 40. Any suggestions? — Mom Who Cares in FloridaDear Mom: I do have a couple. Encourage your son to join groups centered around subjects or activities he might be interested in. Whether he meets the love of his life in one of them is beside the point. It will provide him the opportunity to talk with ...

Hollywood writers, slamming ‘gig economy,’ to go on strike

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Television and movie writers declared late Monday that they will launch a strike for the first time in 15 years, as Hollywood girded for a walkout with potentially widespread ramifications in a fight over fair pay in the streaming era. The Writers Guild of America said that its 11,500 unionized screenwriters will head to the picket lines on Tuesday. Negotiations between studios and the writers, which began in March, failed to reach a new contract before the writers’ current deal expired just after midnight, at 12:01 a.m. PDT Tuesday. All script writing is to immediately cease, the guild informed its members. The board of directors for the WGA, which includes both a West and an East branch, voted unanimously to call for a strike, effective at the stroke of midnight. Writers, they said, are facing an “existential crisis.”“The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment ...

Tony nominations: It’s reckoning time for a crowded Broadway

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Broadway has taken audiences to fascinating places this season, from a female-led retelling of the events of 1776 to the enlightened land of Camelot and from a lifeboat bobbing in the Pacific Ocean to a prison in Georgia just before World War I.On Tuesday, all those places and more will be hoping to attract many more visitors with a coveted Tony Award nomination. “Funny Girl” star Lea Michele and last year’s Tony-winner Myles Frost from “MJ” will announce the list. Even a nomination can lure uncertain patrons.There are few certainties, but critical musical darling “Kimberly Akimbo,” with Victoria Clark playing a teen who ages four times faster than the average human, is likely to earn one of the prized best new musical nods, as should “Some Like It Hot,” a musical adaptation of the cross-dressing movie comedy that starred Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.Likely nominations in the play category are Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity with an inter...

Can Biden win again? Here’s how past incumbents fared

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — No president wants to give up the power and prestige that comes with the office after only one term, and Joe Biden is no exception. He’s pushing forward even though polls show a majority of Americans don’t want to see him run again.We went back to look at when modern presidents announced their decisions to seek a second term, what their Gallup approval ratings were at the time and how things turned out for them. One theme: Primary battles are a sign of whether a president will win reelection. That’s good news for Biden, who appears to have avoided any significant challengers. HARRY TRUMANHe was vice president when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1945, near the end of World War II. Truman decided to run for a full term of his own, and he announced his candidacy on March 8, 1948. He had an approval rating of 53% in a poll conducted two months earlier. Truman was expected to lose the general election to Thomas Dewey, a Republican, but he pulled...

Wisconsin Republicans to kill legalized pot, stadium repairs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Legalizing marijuana, paying for renovations at the Milwaukee Brewers’ stadium and creating a paid family leave program are among the more than 500 items proposed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers that the Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee plans to kill Tuesday with a single vote.The move comes as no surprise after Republicans, who control the state Legislature with large majorities, did the same with Evers’ past two budgets and said they would do again this year. The vote kicks off the committee’s work reshaping the nearly $104 billion two-year budget that Evers submitted in February. Starting Tuesday, and likely continuing into June, the Joint Finance Committee will take a series of votes to build its own two-year spending plan which will then go to the Senate and Assembly for approval. Once passed, Evers can make changes through his powerful veto, which is what he did with the past two budgets he signed that included bot...

University of Minnesota graduate student workers approve unionizing

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

Graduate student workers at the University of Minnesota have officially voted to form a union, according to an announcement last week from the U’s Graduate Labor Union — United Electrical.More than 2,400 eligible workers voted in favor of unionization, while only 70 voted “no” in an election this month, according to the union. This is the first successful unionization effort at the university for graduate students. Workers have tried to unionize five other times since 1974.Graduate student workers, who often have roles at the university as researchers, teaching assistants and instructors, are pushing for increased pay and benefits, anti-discrimination procedures and more support for international students, among other demands. The initial launch of the unionization campaign in February was met with widespread support from students.“The energy among grad workers this week was palpable,” Yusra Murad, a graduate worker in Health Policy and Management, said in a Friday news ...

Nuggets 3-pointers: Devin Booker, Nikola Jokic put on a show in Game 2

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:10:42 GMT

Related ArticlesDenver Nuggets | Unsung Nuggets heroes Bruce Brown, Aaron Gordon both X-factors vs. Phoenix Denver Nuggets | Keeler: Chris Paul got dirty. Kevin Durant moped. Devin Booker sulked. It’s official: Jamal Murray, Nuggets are in Phoenix’s heads now. Denver Nuggets | Jamal Murray’s 34-point masterpiece sets tone vs. Suns: “He’s a bad man” Denver Nuggets | PHOTOS: Denver Nuggets 125, Phoenix Suns 107 in Game 1 of NBA playoffs series Denver Nuggets | Kiszla: Gritty, little underdog Nuggets remind Phoenix who’s real team to beat in the West Initial thoughts from the Nuggets’ 97-87 win over the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference semifinals:Ice-cold shooting from deep. The Nuggets’ efficient 3-point shooting in Game 1 did not translate. Denver was ice-cold from behind the arc, going 7-for-27. Point guard Jamal Murray went 0-for-9 from deep even though he...