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Dental partnership puts free smiles on Montgomery Co. and DC seniors’ faces

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

When 64-year-old Gale Williams’ dentist would no longer take her insurance two years ago, she switched her dental care to the Mary’s Center — a community clinic located in D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland.“I got the basic dental care, cleanings twice a year and fillings,” Williams told WTOP.But a few months ago, she needed a partial lower denture, which required five visits filled with X-rays, molds and a payment plan.“At the end of the last appointment, they said ‘You know you don’t have to pay,'” Williams said, of her $800 copay. “No pay. I couldn’t believe it.”The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of California insurance company, picked up the tab. Dentists at the Mary’s Center and Howard University College of Dentistry completed the work. The three organizations have teamed up on a five-year pilot partnership designed to offer free or low-cost dental care to people 6...

Cubs come into matchup against the Diamondbacks on losing streak

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

Arizona Diamondbacks (75-68, second in the NL West) vs. Chicago Cubs (76-67, second in the NL Central)Chicago; Sunday, 2:20 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Diamondbacks: Brandon Pfaadt (1-8, 6.27 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 68 strikeouts); Cubs: Kyle Hendricks (5-7, 3.89 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 79 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Cubs -144, Diamondbacks +122BOTTOM LINE: The Chicago Cubs play the Arizona Diamondbacks as losers of three games in a row.Chicago is 40-34 at home and 76-67 overall. The Cubs have the sixth-ranked team slugging percentage in the NL at .416.Arizona has gone 37-33 in road games and 75-68 overall. The Diamondbacks have a 55-15 record in games when they out-hit their opponents.The matchup Sunday is the fourth time these teams match up this season.TOP PERFORMERS: Cody Bellinger has 24 doubles, a triple, 24 home runs and 88 RBI for the Cubs. Seiya Suzuki is 16-for-39 with five doubles, a triple, three home runs and 10 RBI over the last 10 games.Corbin Carroll has 24 home runs, 53...

Giants play the Rockies after Yastrzemski’s 4-hit game

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

Colorado Rockies (51-90, fifth in the NL West) vs. San Francisco Giants (72-70, third in the NL West)San Francisco; Sunday, 8:10 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Rockies: Peter Lambert (0-0); Giants: TBDBOTTOM LINE: The San Francisco Giants take on the Colorado Rockies after Mike Yastrzemski’s four-hit game on Saturday.San Francisco is 72-70 overall and 40-31 in home games. The Giants have a 29-14 record in games when they hit two or more home runs.Colorado is 51-90 overall and 22-52 in road games. The Rockies have a 35-17 record in games when they out-hit their opponents.Sunday’s game is the ninth time these teams square off this season. The Giants are up 7-1 in the season series.TOP PERFORMERS: Wilmer Flores has 22 doubles and 22 home runs while hitting .289 for the Giants. J.D. Davis is 10-for-35 with three doubles and two home runs over the past 10 games.Elias Diaz leads the Rockies with a .268 batting average, and has 23 doubles, a triple, 14 home runs, 29 walks and 67 R...

Daily Showers and Storms and High Humidity this Week

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

Well Saturday sure reminded us that we are still in the midst of rainy season with the daily downpours back in the forecast.That will be the story this week with that risk for sea-breeze-driven, scattered showers and storms possible each and every day this week. Rain chances will hold at a 30-50% into next weekend as a result of more moisture in place.For our Sunday, I don’t see it being as wet as it was on Saturday. Expect morning sunshine and mostly dry conditions, then the risk for afternoon storms, especially across Broward County and inland areas of mainland South Florida. High temperatures this Sunday will be a degree or two warmer into the low to mid 90s due to more of a delayed start to the storms.Highs the rest of this new week will remain on the hot side, reaching 94F in Miami on Wednesday and Thursday before it drops back down to the low 90s by next weekend. With the high humidity in place, it will feel closer to the triple-digits — if not warmer!For the start...

Musk biographer tries to ‘clarify’ details on Starlink in Ukraine after outcry

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

Elon Musk biographer Walter Isaacson took to social media to try to “clarify” an excerpt in his upcoming book that detailed how Musk purportedly thwarted a planned Ukrainian drone strike.The extract, which describes how Musk told his engineers to disable Starlink satellite communications near Russian-occupied Crimea last year to frustrate an attack on Russian warships, had faced fierce backlash since being published on Thursday.“The Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not,” Isaacson said in a post on Saturday. Instead, he said, military officials asked the billionaire entrepreneur to enable coverage for the drone attack. “Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war,” the author added.But the original excerpt published in the Washington Post said that Musk “secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast...

Sunday stays warm and humid with storms

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

Good morning! We have areas of fog and some mist this morning. As previous mornings, you’ll be able to feel the humidity as you step outside. The morning is the best time to target “drier” hours with shower and storm chances increasing this afternoon and evening.A stationary front is still draped across New England. It has retrograded, but as it moves south through the day it’ll continue to bring the threat of storms. Some thick fog developed overnight. As we increase the space between our temperatures and dew points, visibility will improve. We’ll still have other layers of clouds, so today we’ll see more clouds than sun. Temperatures will be in the upper 70s/near 80. The chance for showers and storms increases early afternoon and lingers through the evening. With the strongest parts of the storms, there could be downpours, frequent cloud to ground lightning and strong wind. If you hear thunder, that’s your cue to get inside and seek shelte...

Ladies once had their day at Chicago’s ballparks

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

In 1919, three years after National League officials stepped in to stop the Chicago Cubs’ plans for a Ladies Day promotion, the team ran an advertisement over the signature of the club’s president asking:“When your husband comes home in the evening in a laughing jovial mood and tells you he was out at Cubs Park and saw those same Cubs whale this or that team, did you ever attempt to picture in your own mind just what scenes he has witnessed?“Well don’t try. Come out on Friday afternoon as the guest of the Cubs and see with your own eyes the scenes that have such a fascination for your husbands, your brothers, your sons, your sweethearts.”Ladies Day promotions once had been common. Charles Weeghman used Ladies Day to promote the Chicago Whales, his team in the Federal League, an upstart rival to the National and American Leagues that lasted only a couple of years in the early 20th century.When the league failed in 1915, Weeghman bought the Chicago ...

The four most important Patriots players Week 1 vs. Eagles

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

The player many Patriots fans are most excited to see Sunday retired this offseason and last played a home game at Gillette Stadium nearly four years ago.Tom Brady will certainly bring excitement to the hometown crowd. But for the first time in 22 years, he won’t be the most important player on the field.Instead, these four players will be key in deciding the Patriots’ matchup against the Eagles.QB Mac JonesIf Jones plays as poorly as he did in 2022, then quite simply put, the Patriots don’t stand a chance against the defending NFC champions. And Jones has his work cut out for him.Bill Belichick has stressed the fact that the Eagles have the most ferocious pass rush in the NFL. They compiled 70 sacks, lost Javon Hargrave but gained Jalen Carter in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft.Jones has played behind a banged-up offensive line all summer. He’s expressed confidence in the group. We’ll find out if he’ll still be pumping up his blockers by Mo...

UK leader Sunak chides China after report a UK Parliament staffer is a suspected Beijing spy

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chastised China’s premier on Sunday for “unacceptable” interference in British democracy, after a newspaper reported that a researcher in Parliament was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of spying for Beijing.Sunak said he raised the issue with Premier LI Qiang when the two met at a Group of 20 summit in India. He told British broadcasters in New Delhi that he’d expressed “my very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable.”The two men met after the Metropolitan Police force confirmed that a man in his 20s and a man in his 30s were arrested in March under the Official Secrets Act. Neither has been charged and both were bailed until October pending further inquiries.The Sunday Times reported that the younger man was a parliamentary researcher who worked with senior lawmakers from the governing Conservatives, including Alicia Kearns, who now heads the powerful Foreign Affairs Com...

Operation to extract American researcher from one of the world’s deepest caves advances to 700m

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:12:38 GMT

TASELI PLATEAU, Turkey (AP) — Rescue teams on Sunday in Turkey successfully carried an American researcher up from the depth of a cave at 1,040 meters (3,410 feet) to the 700-meter (2,297 feet) mark where he will rest at a base camp before they continue the taxing journey to the surface. An experienced caver, Mark Dickey, 40, started vomiting on Sept. 2 because of stomach bleeding while on an expedition with a handful of others in the Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains, one of the deepest in the world, according to experts.A rescue operation began Saturday afternoon with doctors, paramedics and experienced cavers from across Europe rushing to help. They set up small medical base camps at various levels along the shaft, providing Dickey an opportunity to rest during the slow and arduous extrication.“Mark was delivered to the campsite at -700 meters as of 03:24 local time (GMT+3). At this stage, he will set out again after resting and having the necessary treatments,” th...