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Player of the Week: Gainesville’s Cassie Sengul

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

Each week, WTOP is picking one student athlete to be featured on air and online as our Player of the Week. This week’s WTOP Player of the Week is Cassandra Sengul of Gainesville High School in Gainesville, Virginia.Sengul is entering her fourth year of varsity golf for the Cardinals and is coming off a 2022 season that saw her place top five in qualifying for The Optimist International Junior Golf Championship at Trump National Golf Course in Doral, Florida. Sengul represented Virginia and the greater D.C. area in the tournament, which featured competitors from Thailand, Argentina and other countries around the world.Last season, Sengul also placed third in the mid-Atlantic Junior PGA Shenandoah Valley Open and first at the PGA First Tee tournament at Caves Valley Country Club.Despite having cerebral palsy, a motor disability that affects the ability to control muscles, Sengul takes no exemptions as a competitor for Gainesville and walks the course with her teammates and opponents. ...

PHOTOS: San Diego sky lit up by rocket-like light trail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diegans looked up to the sky Thursday night as a rocket-like light trail blazed over the county. The mysterious object was first seen over the region around 7:30 p.m. While some speculated that it was a SpaceX mission, that doesn't appear to be the case. According to the SpaceX website, the company's last scheduled launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara was on Sept. 11.A rocket-like light trail over San Diego on Sept. 14, 2023. (KSWB/FOX 5)A rocket-like light trail over San Diego on Sept. 14, 2023. (KSWB/FOX 5)A rocket-like light trail over San Diego on Sept. 14, 2023. (KSWB/FOX 5)Some social media users as far east as Nevada and Arizona also reported catching a glimpse of the rocket-like object as it soared through the sky.The National Weather Service station in Las Vegas reported seeing what appeared to be the rocket's contrail from their backyard in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.FOX 5 is currently working to confirm what was seen in the...

Escondido school district's gender identity policy blocked by federal judge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- A preliminary injunction blocking an Escondido Union School District privacy policy aimed at protecting transgender students' identities was issued by a federal judge on Thursday, siding with the two teachers who sued the district over the policy earlier this year.The lawsuit was brought by Rincon Middle School Teachers, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, arguing that a policy that requires teachers to get a transgender students' consent to disclose their identity to their parents was a violation of their First Amendment rights.According to the lawsuit, EUSD teachers are required to refer to students by their preferred names and pronouns at school, while reverting to biological pronouns and legal names when speaking with the students' parents.Nondiscrimination policies that prevent harassment based on a students' actual or perceived identity were not included in the scope of the case.District officials say that the policy was put in place to protect transgen...

Citing sustainability, Starbucks wants to overhaul its iconic cup. Will customers go along?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Bethany Patton steps up to the counter and places her pink mug into a shoebox-sized dishwasher. It spins. It whirs. Water splashes inside. After 90 seconds, the door opens and steam emerges. A barista grabs the mug, dries it and prepares Patton’s order — a 16-ounce Starbucks double espresso on ice.For bringing her own cup, Patton gets $1 off her drink.“Saving the environment is important and all, but I probably come here more in knowing that I’m going to get a dollar off,” says Patton, 27, a cancer researcher at Arizona State University. Two friends who came on the afternoon coffee run nod as they hold the cups that they, too, brought along. Just as noteworthy as what they’re carrying is what they are not: the disposable Starbucks cup, an icon in a world where the word is overused.For a generation and more, it has been a cornerstone of consumer society, first in the United States and then globally — the throwaway cup with the emerald logo depicting a longha...

More than 700 million people don’t know when – or if – they will eat again, UN food chief says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A global hunger crisis has left more than 700 million people not knowing when or if they will eat again, and demand for food is rising relentlessly while humanitarian funding is drying up, the head of the United Nations food agency said Thursday.World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain told the U.N. Security Council that because of the lack of funding, the agency has been forced to cut food rations for millions of people, and “more cuts are on the way.”“We are now living with a series of concurrent and long-term crises that will continue to fuel global humanitarian needs,” she said. “This is the humanitarian community’s new reality — our new normal — and we will be dealing with the fallout for years to come.”The WFP chief, the widow of the late U.S. senator John McCain, said the agency estimates that nearly 47 million people in over 50 countries are just one step from famine — and a staggering 45 million children under the age of five are now estimate...

Thousands sign up to experience magic mushrooms as Oregon’s novel psilocybin experiment takes off

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Psilocybin tea, wind chimes and a tie-dye mattress await those coming to an office suite in Eugene to trip on magic mushrooms. For roughly six hours, adults over 21 can experience what many users describe as vivid geometric shapes, a loss of identity and a oneness with the universe.Epic Healing Eugene — Oregon’s first licensed psilocybin service center — opened in June, marking the state’s unprecedented step in offering the mind-bending drug to the public. The center now has a waitlist of more than 3,000 names, including people with depression, PTSD or end-of-life dread.No prescription or referral is needed, but proponents hope Oregon’s legalization will spark a revolution in mental health care.Colorado voters last year passed a measure allowing regulated use of magic mushrooms starting in 2024, and California’s Legislature this month approved a measure that would allow possession and use of certain plant- and mushroom-based psychedelics, including psilocyb...

Iraq steps up repatriations from Islamic State camp in Syria, hoping to reduce militant threats

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq is stepping up repatriation of its citizens from a camp in northeastern Syria housing tens of thousands of people, mostly wives and children of Islamic State fighters but also supporters of the militant group. It’s a move that Baghdad hopes will reduce cross-border militant threats and eventually lead to shutting down the facility.After U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led fighters defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in March 2019 — ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria — thousands of IS fighters and their families were taken to the camp known as al-Hol.Many of them were Iraqi nationals. Today, Iraqi officials see the facility, close to the Iraq-Syria border, as a major threat to their country’s security, a hotbed of the militants’ radical ideology and a place where thousands of children have been growing up into future militants.It’s “a time bomb that can explo...

China economic data show signs slowdown may be easing, as central bank acts to support growth

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s factories picked up their pace and retail sales also gained momentum in August, the government reported Friday, suggesting the economy may be gradually recovering from its post-pandemic malaise. However, despite busy activity in restaurants and stores, the figures showed continuing weakness in the all-important property sector, where real estate developers are struggling to repay heavy loads of debt in a time of slack demand. Investment in real estate fell 8.8% in August from the year before. The decline has been worsening since the beginning of the year. Acting to relieve the burden on banks, the People’s Bank of China, or central bank, announced late Thursday that the reserve requirement for most lenders would be cut by 0.25 percentage points as of Friday.That would free up more money for lending, “In order to consolidate the foundation for economic recovery and maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity,” the central bank said.Friday’s r...

Closing arguments set to begin in Texas AG Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial over corruption charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Closing arguments were set for Friday in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial that has pushed the embattled Republican to the brink of removal over charges of corruption and bribery. The historic proceedings are speeding to an end as Paxton, shadowed for years by scandal and criminal charges, faces a defining test of political durability after an impeachment driven by his fellow Republicans that has widened party fractures in America’s biggest red state. A verdict from the Texas Senate could arrive as soon as Friday.The closing arguments are the last chance for impeachment managers, led by the Texas House of Representatives, to make their case that Paxton is unfit for office over allegations he abused his power in an effort to protect a political donor who was under FBI investigation. One of the charges centers on an alleged extramarital affair Paxton had with a woman who worked for the donor, resulting in a dramatic scene this week ...

Abundant sunshine and temps in the upper 70s make for a spectacular Friday in Chicago. Semmer-like warmth in sight next week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:01 GMT

 Average temperature departures from normalNear/slightly below normal temperatures expected when the high and low temperature are averaged out the next 5 days, but strong warming follows! DAYS 1-5 TEMP DEPARTURE FORECASTDEPARTURE FORECASTDAYS 6-10 TEMP DEPARTURE FORECASTDAYS 11-15 TEMP DEPARTURE FORECASTChicago Weekend PrecipitationFar from a total washout, and not everyone will see rain, but there is a chance for at least some showers (embedded thunder) to come and go both Saturday and into part of Sunday before drier weather settles in. Hurricane Lee Remains a ThreatHurricane Lee still generating maximum sustained winds of 85 mph and while a gradual weakening is forecast Friday night and  Saturday, Lee is still expected to remain a large and dangerous storm.  A Hurricane Watch Is In effect for:Stonington, Maine to the U.S. /Canada border.Mew Brinswick from the U.S. /Canada border to Point Lepreau, including Grand Manan Island.Nova Scotia from Digby to Medway Harbour.A Tr...