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'Let's show them': Elmhurst mother starts sports program for special needs children

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

ELMHURST, Ill. -- For a woman who was never into sports, Dena Seidenfuss sure spends a lot of time dragging around equipment.For 17 years, Seidenfuss has been at Access Sports in Elmhurst, ensuring all kids have a chance to get in the game.This isn't a story about coaching as much as it's about a mom going to bat for her specially abled son."I really wanted my son to be able to play, wear the uniforms, hoist the trophies play on the same fields and have the same connection just the same way other kids have with their peers," Seidenfuss said."And then someone said to me 'why don't you start your own?' and I'm like oh, maybe I could do that!"The beginning of what is now known as "Access Sports."In their first year, she had six kids, along with her own four at home. Today, Access Sports has grown from six kids and one sport to 80 participants and four sports every year. ‘Mama Mack’: Markham woman provides guidance for talented teens Behind an easy smile and sweet giggle is a woman wo...

Shop at IKEA? You may be entitled to part of a $24M class action settlement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — Did you shop at IKEA between October 18, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2019? If so, you may be able to participate in a new $24 million class action lawsuit against the furniture giant's U.S. branch — over claims the company included more than the last 5 digits of customer debit and credit card numbers on printed receipts. The lawsuit, Richardson, et al. v. IKEA North America Services, LLC, et al., alleges IKEA North America Services, LLC and IKEA U.S. Retail, LLC violated the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or "FACTA" with these receipts. Jack in the Box wants to help customers pay rent Nexstar reached out to IKEA for comment on the lawsuit but have not heard back yet. According to the official site for the lawsuit, IKEA denies its allegations and "denies any wrongdoing whatsoever," though it has agreed to pay over $24 million in a settlement. The court did not rule in favor of either the plaintiffs or IKEA, it's important to note.Here's what to know:Deadline to parti...

Ohio 17-year-old accused of fatally shooting his father after altercation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

WOOSTER, Ohio (WJW) – An Ohio teenager shot and killed his father after the two were involved in an altercation at a Wooster, Ohio home on Tuesday, according to police.The shooting happened just after 11 p.m. at a home on Gasche Street, according to a press release from the Wooster Police Department. When officers arrived, they found a man with a gunshot wound who was then taken to an area hospital. The man, identified as 42-year-old Anthony Cantley, was stabilized and transported to Cleveland Clinic Akron General hospital, where he later died due to his injuries, according to The Daily Record. Airline investigating after flight attendants allegedly fight Investigators determined that Cantley had been involved in an altercation with his 17-year-old son. Details about the alleged altercation weren't immediately released. The teenager was then taken into custody.The Wooster Police Department Detective Bureau said Wednesday that the investigation was ongoing. No additional informatio...

APD: Man accused of stabbing wife in north Austin homicide

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — In a news release Wednesday, the Austin Police Department said a man was arrested after he was accused of stabbing his wife Tuesday in north Austin.At approximately 3:15 p.m., APD officers responded to reports of a stabbing at an apartment complex in the 11700 block of Metric Boulevard, the release said.When officers arrived on the scene, they found Minerva Jimenez, 30, with stab wounds, the release said. Jimenez died minutes later.Then, at 3:25 p.m., officers responded to another emergency call reporting a man, Jorge Luis Alvarado Blanco, 38, threatening to jump off the west Parmer Lane bridge over North Interstate Highway 35, police said.People who called into 911 dispatch said Blanco wanted to jump off the bridge because he had just killed his wife, the release said. MAP: Where have Austin’s homicides occurred in 2023? Officers arrived at the scene and arrested Blanco without incident, according to police. As of Wednesday afternoon, Blanco is not listed in custo...

End of an era: Cowboys release 2-time rushing champ Elliott

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

The Dallas Cowboys released running back Ezekiel Elliott on Wednesday, ending a seven-season run for a two-time rushing champion who never regained the form of his dominant early years.Elliott will be designated a post-June 1 cut, according to a person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team didn't reveal details of the decision. The move will save Dallas about $11 million under the salary cap this season.Owner and general manager Jerry Jones said the decision was mutual to let the 27-year-old Elliott pursue another team in free agency and give the Cowboys more financial flexibility in building a roster.“This is one of the toughest parts of operating a team,” said Jones, who issued similarly heartfelt statements after the salary cap-related releases of defensive end DeMarcus Ware and receiver Dez Bryant in the past decade. “Moments like this come, and extremely difficult decisions and choices are made. For the franchise. For me personally. For pl...

Legislative Auditor issues critical report on Met Council’s oversight of Southwest LRT project

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

The Metropolitan Council put itself on the hook for huge cost overruns on the Southwest Light Rail Transit project even through it didn’t have the money, and it failed to develop a contingency plan to find the funding, the Office of the Legislative Auditor said Wednesday.In a sharply critical report, the nonpartisan auditor’s office also said the Twin Cities regional governing agency has not been fully transparent about the snowballing costs and delays on the project.Back before construction started in 2019, the Met Council estimated the 14.5-mile extension of the Green Line from downtown Minneapolis to suburban Eden Prairie would cost just over $2 billion and open in 2023. The council now estimates that the line won’t start running until 2027 and that costs will reach nearly $2.8 billion, making it one of the most expensive public works projects in Minnesota history.Even before construction started, the Federal Transit Administration raised concerns about the council...

Gophers Cooley, Knies among Top 10 Hobey Baker finalists

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

Logan Cooley and Matthew Knies of the top-ranked Golden Gophers men’s hockey team are among the Top 10 finalists for 2023 Hobey Baker Memorial Award given annually to the best Division I men’s college hockey player in the nation.Cooley, a freshman with a 12-game points streak, ranks fourth nationally with 50 points and has recorded at least one point in 28 of 34 games this season. He ranks third nationally with five game-winning goals, all five in his past 20 games. He leads all NCAA players with a plus-34 ranking.Knies, the 2022-23 Big Ten player of the year as a sophomore this season, is sixth nationally with 21 goals and his seven game-winners lead all NCAA players. He is one of only five players in Gophers’ history with three overtime goals and the only player to ever do it in one season.The group will be winnowed down to three on March 30, and the winner will be announced April 7 on NFL Network. The other finalists are: Adam Fantilli, Fr., F, Michigan; Sean Fa...

Does ‘Ted Lasso’ end with season 3? What to … believe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

By ALICIA RANCILIO (Associated Press)“ Ted Lasso” returns Wednesday for its third season and while there are certainly questions about whether AFC Richmond will finally go all the way — or if Nate will receive his comeuppance — there’s one big question: Is this actually the last season?The Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series, about an American coaching a soccer team in London, has long been described as a three-season series — but executive producer, writer and star Jason Sudeikis is noncommittal about what comes next.“I’m still in it,” he said in a recent interview.“We’re still editing the last few episodes, so it’s really something that I haven’t had the time to sit with, despite the fact that there’s a lot of wonder and curiosity … from the press or fans — and certainly it seems like people in show business are equally as interested,” he laughed. “That answer will arrive probably when there’s enough space for the question to really land.”Brendan Hunt, who plays assistant coach Beard, (...

‘They were resilient. I’m living proof’: Irish descendants commemorate St. Paul’s Connemara Patch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

Afton resident Leslie Thomas has spent years researching her family’s Irish roots.She’s scoured genealogy sites, traveled to Ireland more than 10 times, and is one of the founders of a Facebook group called “Connemara to Minnesota in the 1880s: The Families and Their Stories.”According to Thomas’ research, 32 of her family members emigrated to St. Paul from Connemara, Ireland, in 1883 as part of Quaker philanthropist James Hack Tuke’s assisted-emigration program, which Tuke started to provide relief during the 1879-1882 famine.Many of Thomas’s relatives settled in Connemara Patch on St. Paul’s East Side, where another group of Irish immigrants – brought to Minnesota by Bishop John Ireland – had already settled along Lower Phalen Creek.“My great-great-uncle Patrick Stewart emigrated in 1883, and he lived right in here,” Thomas said during a recent tour of the snow-covered site, now part of Swede Hollow Park.There’s not much to see now. The homes are long gone, the s...

David French: Don’t let the culture war degrade the Constitution

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

The Constitution of the United States, properly interpreted, provides a marvelous method for handling social conflict. It empowers an elected government to enact even contentious new rules while protecting the most fundamental human rights of dissenting citizens. Political defeat is never total defeat. Losers of a given election still possess their basic civil liberties, and the combination of the right to speak and the right to vote provides them concrete hope for their preferred political outcomes.But if a government both enacts contentious policies and diminishes the civil liberties of its current ideological opponents, then it sharply increases the stakes of political conflict. It breaks the social compact by rendering political losers, in effect, second-class citizens. A culture war waged against the civil liberties of your political opponents inflicts a double injury on dissenters: They don’t merely lose a vote; they also lose a share of their freedom.That’s exactly what’s hap...