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Ticker: CNN TV ad revenues plunge; Ashish Jha to exit White House COVID post 

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

CNN has seen its TV ad revenues drop off sharply this year in part due to plunging ratings.MediaRadar, a New York-based firm that tracks advertising trends, said TV and digital revenues at the network fell nearly 40% year over year when measuring the first four months of 2023 vs. the same period in 2022.The firm estimated advertisers spent about $313 million from January through April of 2023 compared to $513 million from January to April of 2022.This information was released by the firm after Warner Bros. Discovery dropped Chris Licht as chief of CNN following a tumultuous 13-month tenure. MediaRadar did not release comparable figures for other cable networks such as Fox News and MSNBC, but ratings have fallen this year for all three networks.Ashish Jha to exit White House postAshish Jha, the White House’s point person on the COVID-19 response, will depart from the administration next week.The White House said Jha will return to Brown University, where he had served as the de...

Chicago White Sox put reliever Liam Hendriks on 15-day IL, but GM says it’s ‘too early to put it on the flexor’

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol asked Liam Hendriks how he was feeling after pitching the ninth inning Friday against the Miami Marlins.Grifol said Hendriks responded, “We’ll see tomorrow.”“If you know Liam, he never says that,” Grifol said Sunday. “He’s always available and he always wants to pitch. Once he said that, it was a little bit of a red flag.”The Sox placed the reliever on the 15-day injured list Sunday with right elbow inflammation. The move is retroactive to Saturday.Hendriks is 2-0 with one save, a 5.40 ERA and three strikeouts in five appearances since his inspirational return on May 29 after his battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.General manager Rick Hahn said Hendriks is “likely dealing with something fairly similar symptomatically to what he dealt with last year.”Last season, Hendriks went on the IL on June 11 with a flexor strain in his right forearm and returned July 4.“At this point, we do no...

Celtics continue to bolster coaching staff with addition of assistant Charles Lee, per report

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

The Celtics are not messing around when it comes to bolstering their coaching staff.For a second consecutive week, the Celtics have added a highly respected veteran assistant coach from a rival. After reportedly hiring 76ers assistant Sam Cassell last Sunday, the Celtics are finalizing a deal to hire Bucks assistant Charles Lee to be their new lead assistant coach under head coach Joe Mazzulla, according to a report Sunday from ESPN.The 38-year-old Lee was reportedly a finalist for the head-coaching openings in Detroit and Toronto, but when both of those franchises went in a different direction – the Pistons hired Monty Williams and on Saturday, the Raptors went with Darko Rajakovic – the Celtics swooped in for Lee, who has reportedly been on their radar for years.Lee was an assistant to Mike Budenholzer for the last nine seasons, including the last four in Milwaukee before the Bucks fired Budenholzer following their first-round loss to Miami. Last season, Lee became Budenholzer’s l...

Monsoon Season begins in San Diego this week

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The Southwest US monsoon season officially begins this week, which includes portions of Southern California. That's according to National Weather Service which says June 15 through Sept. 30 is the recognized time period for severe weather in the geographic region, including San Diego. California’s second-largest reservoir reaches 100% capacity A monsoon explainedOftentimes, when we think of monsoons we associate them with torrential downpours and mudslides. Though this isn't necessarily inaccurate in some areas of the world, what describes a monsoon is more simple: the shifting of the season to summer. The word monsoon actually comes from the Arabic word mausim, which means “season.” So, a monsoon isn't an individual thunder or rainstorm, but rather a large scale weather pattern that causes our summer thunderstorms, NWS explained. They are caused by seasonal shift in the winds. Why do winds shifts? Well, NWS says the temperature of the land and the temperature o...

Prayer vigil held for mother murdered in San Diego

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A prayer vigil was held downtown Saturday in honor of a woman who was murdered in San Diego seven years ago.Krystal Mitchell, a 30-year-old mother of two, was visiting the region from Phoenix, Arizona with her boyfriend in 2016 when the unthinkable happened: she was strangled to death in a friend's apartment in Allied Garden. Mother of murder victim speaks out after suspect captured The person accused of her murder is the man who traveled with her on that fateful vacation. Krystal's boyfriend, Raymond McLeod, reportedly used her car to escape to Mexico after the tragic incident.The incident prompted authorities to consider McLeod a fugitive, who was then put on the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted list. McLeod remained on the run for six year until authorities found him in the Central American country of El Salvador in August 2022, following a tip that the he was teaching at a school in Sosonate. He was arrested extradited to San Diego from there. Authorities say McLeod h...

Ted Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” died of suicide: AP Sources

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

Ted Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” who carried out a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died by suicide, four people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.Kaczynski, who was 81 and suffering from late-stage cancer, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday. Emergency responders performed CPR and revived him before he was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead later Saturday morning, the people told the AP. They were not authorized to publicly discuss Kaczynski’s death and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.Kaczynski’s death comes as the federal Bureau of Prisons has faced increased scrutiny in the last several years following the death of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who also died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019.Kaczynski had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he wa...

Tories to work with NDP, Bloc to set terms on potential foreign interference inquiry

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

OTTAWA — The Conservative Party is willing to work with other opposition legislators to set the terms of reference for a possible inquiry on foreign interference. Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says he will reach out to the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois next week and begin the work. The Liberal government says it is willing to hold a public inquiry on allegations that China meddled in two recent federal elections, but it wants the opposition parties to come up with its terms of reference, timeline and potential leader.The government is undertaking work to find possible gaps in how it handles allegations of foreign interference, and initially appointed former governor general David Johnston as a special rapporteur to probe the issue. But Johnston resigned from the role on Friday, citing the highly partisan atmosphere around his work.Poilievre says he wants the government to call a public inquiry quickly, and before the next federal election. This report by The Canadian Press was fi...

Hospitalized Pope Francis walks a bit, follows Mass on TV, lunches with medical personnel and aides

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

ROME (AP) — Sticking to doctors’ advice, Pope Francis on Sunday skipped his customary weekly public blessing as he convalesces from abdominal surgery in a Rome hospital, but walked a few steps, followed Mass on TV and did some work, the Vatican said.Francis also ate lunch in his 10th-floor hospital apartment with doctors, nurses, other medical staff and members of his security detail, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a written statement.The surgeon who performed the three-hour surgery Wednesday to repair an abdominal hernia and to remove painful internal scarring that had resulted from previous operations said the 86-year-old pontiff had begun a semi-liquid diet.Dr. Sergio Alfieri also told reporters that medical staff had made clear to Francis their concerns that if the pontiff delivered the noon public blessing and greeting from a balcony down the corridor from his hospital room, he might over-exert himself and tear a prosthetic mesh that was inserted as part of the he...

Airline employee injured after emergency slide deploys in plane

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (KTVX) - A Delta crew member was injured by an emergency slide Saturday after the flight made a diverted landing due to mechanical issues. The plane, flying from New York's JFK International to Los Angeles International, was diverted to Salt Lake City for a mechanical problem, according to a Salt Lake Airport representative.While flying to California, the captain reportedly announced to the 168 passengers on board that there was a problem with the backup system's temperature instrument, according to the New York Post and a passenger who spoke with Nexstar's KTVX.The Post reported the flight landed without incident and the issue was fixed quickly. After passengers were reboarded and the flight was about to take off, the emergency slide accidentally deployed inside the plane. That's when the crew member was injured, according to Delta representatives. The employee was hospitalized and has since been discharged.A passenger recounted the incident to KTVX, saying they were...

Self-driving car hits and kills small dog in San Francisco

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:11:25 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A Waymo vehicle hit and killed a small dog on the streets of San Francisco last month, the company confirmed to Nexstar's KRON. The incident occurred on Sunday, May 21, when the dog ran in front of a Waymo vehicle with an "autonomous specialist" in the driver's seat, according to a company spokesperson.The spokesperson said an investigation had been launched and that an initial review indicated that the Waymo's system correctly identified the dog, which ran from behind a parked vehicle. However, the vehicle was unable to avoid hitting the animal.The dog was hit and subsequently died."We send our sincere condolences to the dog's owner," the spokesperson said. "The trust and safety of the communities we are in is the most important thing to us and we're continuing to look into this on our end."The dog was off-leash when it was struck by the Waymo vehicle.KRON reached out to the San Francisco Police Department regarding the incident and was told that officers re...