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Mike Preston’s Ravens mailbag: Answering questions about Keaton Mitchell’s usage, special teams lapses and more | COMMENTARY

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

Baltimore Sun columnist Mike Preston will answer fans’ questions throughout the Ravens season. Coming off Baltimore’s 33-31 loss in Week 10 to the Cleveland Browns, plenty of questions remain heading into a Week 11 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.Here’s Preston’s take:(Editor’s note: Questions have been edited for length and clarity.)Sad, sad, sad. The Ravens could easily be 10-0, but fourth-quarter meltdowns have been their calling card. Why do the Ravens fold in close fourth-quarter games, letting inferior opponents march up and down the field? Is it possible the team got caught up in the national press clippings before the game with the Browns? And what happened to Keaton Mitchell in the second half after an impressive first half? Either he was injured or he is in Harbaugh’s “doghouse.” Those are the only reasons I can think of. “It’s just kind of the way it went as far as the play calling” is a very poor ex...

Storm to bring rain to San Diego starting Wednesday

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Tuesday is our last day of dry, warm and clear weather before we get a switch up from an incoming Pacific storm.A large area of low pressure churning off the coast of California will bring two rounds of rain here in San Diego County beginning Wednesday and lasting through Saturday.Areas closer to the coast could get scattered rain showers beginning after 10 a.m. Wednesday. There are better chances of widespread rain Wednesday afternoon into early Thursday morning for the majority of the region. There could be some pockets of heavier showers Wednesday afternoon and into the evening.San Diego County deserts and the Coachella Valley may also deal with isolated wind gusts, heavy rain and lightning at times due to chances of thunderstorms. Atmospheric river heading for Southern California: When will it start raining?  Coast and Valleys: 0.40 to 0.75 inch Mountains: 0.50 to 1 inchDeserts: 0.05 to 0.1...

Grape Street redesign would remove parking on busy Little Italy street

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- On any given day, Grape Street from Harbor Drive to Interstate 5 is very busy as cars speed up the one-way street from the San Diego International Airport through Little Italy. And during rush hour, traffic comes to a standstill.Plans to redesign the busy artery, adopted by the San Diego City Council in 2016, hope to address what is expected to be even more traffic with the completion of the Terminal 1 Airport expansion.The design calls for the removal of parking on both sides of the street and increase the number of lanes from three to four. A bike lane would also be installed on the north side of the street. For businesses in Little Italy, the concern is worsening traffic congestion and parking. Tyler Cervenka, manager of the family-owned Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, told FOX 5, “sometimes it gets a little chaotic down here.”Filippi’s is in heart of Little Italy on India Street and now owns its own parking lot. But even with that, it can be tough to acc...

More prevention needed: San Diego shares progress on 10-year homeless plan

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday, San Diego leaders shared a report on how the city is progressing in its community action plan to address homelessness.The sweeping 10-year homeless plan was unanimously adopted by the San Diego City Council back in October 2019. Its intent was to identify short-term goals, as well as serve as a guide for long-term plans to address the city's homeless crisis.In the update on Tuesday, however, the city said that more people are experiencing homelessness than the capacity that existing programs are able to help despite extensive efforts to expand them — a trend that the report says is made more complicated by a lack of safety nets to prevent someone from falling out of housing in the first place.San Diego leaders have long touted that they have doubled the number of housing and crisis response options, including adding 900 shelter beds and 2,545 emergency shelter beds since 2019. The number of permanent housing units have also more than tripled — increasing from...

Ped West to reopen for border commuters heading into the US

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Leticia Ruiz wakes up early each morning in her Tijuana home to get ready to go to work just north of the border.If she's lucky, she might get an extra hour of sleep."I get up at 4:30 to check the line. If it's not long, I can get one more hour. If it is, I have to get up, get ready — no breakfast — and just come over to the border," she said.Ruiz said this is her daily routine as she works at an outlet mall across the street from Ped West, one of two pedestrian crossings at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.Ped West closed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020. It wasn't until January of this year that CBP reopened Ped West, but only to commuters heading north into the U.S. The southbound lanes of Ped West have remained closed. Ped West at the San Ysidro Port of Entry has been closed to pedestrian border commuters since September 14. (Salvador Rivera/Border Report)Back in September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection again closed Ped West so...

ESPN Bet, a rebranded sports gambling app from Penn Entertainment, is here

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — ESPN Bet, a sports-gambling service rebranded with the name of the Disney-owned sports channel, launched Tuesday in 17 U.S. states.Penn Entertainment, which owns the service, signed a $1.5 billion deal with ESPN for rights to the sports media giant’s name in August. Under the agreement, Penn will operate ESPN Bet while ESPN promotes the app across its online and broadcast platforms.A Penn spokesperson said the ESPN Bet app was also scheduled to launch Tuesday afternoon, but did not provide a specific time.ESPN Bet was set to go live in the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.Under August’s agreement, Penn’s rights to the ESPN brand will initially run for a decade with the option of extension for another 10 years. In addition to the $1.5 billion licensing deal, Penn also said it would grant ESPN rig...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai returns to court to defend internet company for second time in two weeks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday was summoned to federal court for the second time in two weeks to testify in an antitrust trial threatening to topple a pillar of an internet empire that he helped build.In his latest court appearance in San Francisco, Pichai spent more than two hours defending the business practices of the Google Play Store, which distributes apps for the company’s Android software that powers most of the world’s smartphones.At times, the soft-spoken Pichai looked nonplussed and frustrated by the confrontational questioning he faced. Other times he came across as a professor explaining complex subjects to the trial’s 10-person jury located just a few feet from a podium Pichai was allowed to use because he has difficulty sitting for prolonged periods.Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game Fortnite, is trying to convince the jury that a Google Play payment processing system that collects a 15% to 30% commission from in-app purchases is il...

North Korea says it tested new solid-fuel engines for intermediate-range ballistic missiles

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday it successfully tested new solid-fuel engines designed for intermediate-range ballistic missiles as it continues to work on developing nuclear-capable weapons targeting its rivals in the region.North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the country’s military scientists tested the first-stage and second-stage missile engines on Saturday and Tuesday. The report did not say when the new missile system was expected to be completed.The North’s existing intermediate-range missiles, including the Hwasong-12 that may be able to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, are powered by liquid-fuel engines, which need to be fueled before launch and cannot stay fueled for long periods of time.Missiles with built-in solid propellants can be made ready to launch faster and are easier to move and conceal, which theoretically makes it harder for adversaries to detect and preempt the launch in advance.The recent tests were an “essenti...

Donald Trump’s lawyers focus on outside accountants who prepared his financial statements

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump blamed his accountants. So did the two sons he entrusted to run his company. Now, as they mount their defense in the civil fraud trial threatening the former president’s real estate empire, his lawyers are too.Trump’s lawyers spent Tuesday digging into outside accounting firm Mazars USA LLP’s role in preparing financial statements at the heart of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, upping the blame with expert testimony from a former federal financial regulator.Jason Flemmons, testifying as an accounting expert, questioned some of the firm’s practices and raised doubts about earlier testimony from Donald Bender, the retired Mazars partner who spent years working on Trump’s financial statements.Bender, the first witness called by state lawyers, testified Oct. 3 that he’d asked a Trump Organization executive for all of the company’s property appraisals — not just ones used for the financial statements — and that he was surprised when he...

Detroit officer to stand trial after photojournalists were shot with pellets during a 2020 protest

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:00:00 GMT

DETROIT — A Detroit police corporal accused of shooting three photojournalists with rubber pellets while they covered protests against police brutality has been ordered to stand trial.Daniel Debono is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 28 in Wayne County Circuit Court on felonious assault charges, the county prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.Shortly after midnight on May 31, 2020, in downtown Detroit, MLive.com photojournalist Nicole Hester and two independent photojournalists, Seth Herald and Matthew Hatcher, encountered Debono and two other officers.Each of the photojournalists was wearing press credentials, identified themselves as news media and raised their hands as they asked to cross the street, Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at the time.Debono, dressed in riot gear, struck all three with rubber pellets that inflicted bruises and other injuries.The photojournalists were covering the protest in downtown Detroit, which was sparked by the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd in Minn...