Category: News
EPA To Reform $5 Billion ‘Clean School Bus’ Program
EPA To Reform $5 Billion ‘Clean School Bus’ Program
Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is revamping the Biden administration’s Clean School Bus (CSB) program, which focused on installing electric buses at U.S. schools, the agency said in a statement released on Feb. 19. The overhauled program will focus on providing school districts with “increased choice and affordable options” for school buses.
In 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directed the EPA to create the CSB program and provide $5 billion over fiscal years 2022–2026 to replace existing school buses with zero-emission school buses. The Biden administration distributed about $2.7 billion in these funds, 90 percent of which was to fund electric school buses. The rest went toward propane-fueled vehicles.
“There are multiple well-documented examples of one particular bus manufacturer failing to deliver buses altogether despite preemptively receiving tens of millions of tax dollars from the CSB program,” the EPA said.
“To fix these issues, the Trump EPA will seek public input on the availability, cost, and performance of alternative school bus fuels and technologies. This feedback will help reform the program to bring consumer choice back to schools and deliver results for American families, while still fulfilling congressional intent.”
The EPA cited the case of Lion Electric, a Canadian electric vehicle company that was granted $159 million to build 435 battery-powered buses between October 2022 and May 2024.
However, Lion Electric filed for bankruptcy in December 2024. In August 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the company still hadn’t delivered school buses to 55 districts, worth approximately $95 million.
The Epoch Times reached out to Lion Electric for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
In its latest statement, the EPA said it had issued a request for information that seeks feedback from school officials, fleet operators, energy producers, and manufacturers on a wide range of fuel options that can be used by school buses, including biofuel, hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, and compressed natural gas.
In 2023, almost 450,000 school buses were operating in the United States, the Department of Energy said, citing data from the World Resources Institute. As of July 2025, more than 5,100 electric school buses were serving roughly 265,000 students, the Electric School Bus Initiative said in a post published in July 2025.
Biden’s CSB Program
In a February 2023 EPA report submitted to Congress, the Biden administration highlighted the environmental requirement for the CSB program.
Most school buses emit nitrogen oxides and particulate matter in diesel exhaust, which contribute to poor air quality and negatively affect people’s health, especially children, who have a faster breathing rate than adults and whose lungs are not yet fully formed, the report said.
The agency’s CSB program funds the replacement of existing school buses with zero-emission and clean school buses, which will “ensure cleaner air for students, bus drivers, school staff working near bus loading areas, and the communities through which the buses drive each day,” according to the report.
Last year, a group of 17 Democrats in the U.S. Senate, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent a letter to Zeldin regarding the EPA’s decision to freeze CSB program funds, according to a Feb. 28, 2025, statement from the office of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The lawmakers said that CSB funding would support the electric bus manufacturing boom in the United States and create good-paying jobs.
They said that CSB provided health and cost-saving benefits, and they urged the EPA to distribute funding for CSB program recipients with signed agreements, according to the statement.
In its latest statement, the EPA accused the previous administration of intentionally limiting the availability of these fuel options so it could push for electric buses.
“By providing more options to school districts, EPA will ensure they can purchase the right types of school buses for their specific needs,” the agency said.
The data collected from the request for information will be used to revamp the CSB program for the 2026 grant funding round that prioritizes child safety and reliable buses, according to the EPA. The agency said that updating the program is expected to bring auto jobs back into the United States and unleash domestic energy production.
“The Clean School Bus program has been a disaster of poor management and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars,” Zeldin said.
“At the Trump EPA, we have zero tolerance for reckless spending. Today, EPA takes the next step to set the program straight.
“Americans can rest assured that moving forward, the program will be safe, effective, and use reliable forms of American energy.”
According to the EPA, revamping the CSB program strengthens oversight and compliance actions in a way that aligns with President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump signed the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order, which sought the removal of incentives for electric vehicles and promoted market choice for consumers.
In November 2024, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General released a report saying the agency didn’t have adequate oversight to record CSB program rebates for fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
“We found that the EPA failed to implement internal controls to make sure funding was properly allocated for the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates Program,“ the report said. ”The Agency recorded the full amount paid to the Clean School Bus rebate recipients as an expense, instead of an advance, prior to the recipient expending the funds.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/26/2026 – 13:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/epa-reform-5-billion-clean-school-bus-program
Tasa hipotecaria en EEUU baja de 6% por primera vez desde 2022
Por ALEX VEIGA
La tasa promedio a largo plazo de las hipotecas en Estados Unidos bajó esta semana por debajo del 6% por primera vez desde finales de 2022, una buena noticia para quienes buscan vivienda, a medida que se pone en marcha la temporada primaveral de compra de casas.
La tasa de referencia de las hipotecas a tasa fija a 30 años cayó a 5,98% desde el 6,01% de la semana pasada, informó el comprador de hipotecas Freddie Mac el jueves. Hace un año, la tasa promediaba 6,76%.
La tasa promedio ha estado rondando cerca del 6% este año. Esta última baja, la tercera disminución consecutiva, la acerca a su nivel más bajo desde el 8 de septiembre de 2022, cuando fue de 5,89%.
Las tasas hipotecarias están influenciadas por varios factores, desde las decisiones de política de tasas de interés de la Reserva Federal hasta las expectativas de los inversionistas del mercado de bonos sobre la economía y la inflación. Por lo general siguen la trayectoria del rendimiento del bono del Tesoro a 10 años, que los prestamistas usan como guía para fijar el precio de los préstamos para vivienda.
El rendimiento del bono del Tesoro a 10 años se ubicaba en 4,02% al mediodía del jueves, por debajo de alrededor de 4,07% de hace una semana.
Las tasas hipotecarias han venido bajando durante meses, lo que ayudó a impulsar un repunte en las ventas de viviendas en los últimos cuatro meses de 2025, pero no lo suficiente como para sacar al mercado inmobiliario de su letargo, que se remonta a 2022, cuando las tasas hipotecarias comenzaron a subir desde los mínimos de la era de la pandemia.
Las ventas de viviendas previamente ocupadas en Estados Unidos se mantuvieron estancadas el año pasado en mínimos de 30 años. Y las tasas hipotecarias más favorables para los compradores este año no fueron suficientes para impulsar las ventas de viviendas el mes pasado. Registraron la mayor caída mensual en casi cuatro años y el ritmo anualizado de ventas más lento en más de dos años.
Aun así, con la tasa promedio de una hipoteca a 30 años ahora por debajo del 6% a medida que comienza la temporada anual de compra de viviendas en primavera, podría alentar a posibles compradores que puedan permitirse comprar a las tasas actuales a buscar una vivienda esta primavera.
“Suponiendo que las tasas se mantengan por debajo del 6%, compradores y vendedores van a empezar a volver al mercado”, estimó Lisa Sturtevant, economista jefe de Bright MLS. “Marzo es cuando la temporada de compra de viviendas en primavera suele comenzar a intensificarse y, con las tasas en un mínimo de tres años y medio, podría ser una temporada primaveral de compra de viviendas muy intensa”.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
The Bali ‘suitcase murder’: Heather Mack’s murder conviction, Indonesian imprisonment, deportation
Heather Mack — the Chicago woman convicted of helping kill her mother and stuffing her body in a suitcase on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali in 2014 — served about seven years of a 10-year sentence in Indonesia, only to be arrested by the FBI when she landed at O’Hare International Airport in 2021 on a federal indictment that had been filed under seal in 2017.
She pleaded guilty in June 2023 to one count in the federal murder conspiracy case against her in Chicago federal court.
Tommy Schaefer enters plea of not guilty in Bali suitcase murder
Mack was sentenced to 26 years in federal prison in January 2024.
Below are some major points in the case, as found in the Tribune archives.
Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found dead in Bali, Indonesia, on Aug. 12, 2014.
The suitcase in which Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s body was discovered is shown at a police station on the Indonesian island of Bali on Aug. 12, 2014.
Aug. 12, 2014
Heather Mack and boyfriend Tommy Schaefer walk in handcuffs at Kerobokan prison in Denpasar on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali to attend their trial on Feb. 26, 2015.
The body of Chicagoan Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, is found inside a bloodied suitcase placed in the trunk of a taxi outside the luxury St. Regis hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali. Her daughter, Heather Mack, 18, and Mack’s boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, are arrested and detained as suspects.
In the early hours of the same day, von Wiese-Mack and her daughter had argued in the hotel’s lobby after Heather Mack used her mother’s credit card to book a hotel room for her boyfriend.
Aug. 15, 2014
Indonesian police formally designate Mack and Schaefer as prisoners in connection with von Wiese-Mack’s death. The designation comes after they were held for more than 48 hours, as is the practice in Indonesia.
Aug. 16, 2014
This Oak Park home in the 600 block of Linden Avenue was a former residence of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, whose body was discovered stuffed in a suitcase in Bali in August 2014. Neighbors say police were often called to the home where von Wiese-Mack lived with her daughter, Heather Mack.
In the days after the discovery of von Wiese-Mack’s body, past police reports and statements from neighbors show that Mack and her mother had a volatile relationship. Police were often called to their former home in Oak Park.
Aug. 20, 2014
The body of Sheila von Wiese Mack was found on Aug. 12, 2014, stuffed into a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi in front of the St. Regis hotel in the upscale Nusa Dua resort area of Bali.
Bali police say ultrasound and urine tests confirm that Mack is pregnant, as she had said. Earlier, police had suggested the pregnancy might have been a ruse to ensure she was sent home.
Aug. 22, 2014
Police disclose that witnesses reported seeing Mack and von Wiese-Mack arguing in the lobby of their hotel. Police say it is not clear what the argument was about and when it occurred.
Sept. 19, 2014
Heather Mack, left, kisses her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, inside a holding cell on Dec. 8, 2014, at the prosecutor’s office in Denpasar on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
Indonesian police say the suspects have made separate confessions: Schaefer admits to killing von Wiese-Mack, and Mack admits helping him stuff the body into the suitcase. Mack later says she and Schaefer are innocent.
Dec. 8, 2014
Tommy Schaefer, left, and Heather Mack, handcuffed, arrive at Denpasar District Court for their first hearing in a slaying trial in Bali, Indonesia, on Jan. 14, 2015.
Police conclude their four-month investigation into von Wiese-Mack’s slaying. Mack and Schaefer are briefly reunited before being transferred to the custody of prosecutors.
Jan. 14, 2015
William Wiese, right, and Debbi Curran, center, sister and brother of victim Sheila von Wiese-Mack, talks with reporters after a hearing regarding the trust fund of Heather Mack at the Daley Center on June 12, 2015. Wiese is the executor of the trust fund.
Indonesian prosecutors charge Mack and Schaefer with premeditated murder in the death of von Wiese-Mack. The charges carry a possible death penalty under Indonesian law.
Jan. 15, 2015
Mack sues her uncle, William Wiese, for access to von Wiese-Mack’s $1.56 million estate. Mack’s lawyers ask a Cook County judge to force William Wiese, who von Wiese-Mack had named as trustee with control over the funds until her daughter’s 30th birthday, to release funds for her legal defense.
Jan. 16, 2015
A Cook County judge rules that Mack has the right to access a fund established by her late mother to hire a defense attorney. Three months before her death in Bali, von Wiese-Mack placed her $1.56 million estate in a trust to be used for the “health, support, education and maintenance” of her only child.
Feb. 3, 2015
In a series of interviews with the Chicago Tribune, Mack insists she is innocent and says she is “petrified” about her future and that of her unborn child. Mack says she was compelled to contact the newspaper because her Indonesian criminal defense attorney is not being paid from her trust fund as ordered.
She also says there are good Samaritans helping her get food and vitamins and even a bed in her jail cell. She declines to offer details on the people’s identities.
“Indonesia’s been great to both me and Stella,” Mack said, using the name she plans to give her unborn child. She said her daughter will be named after Schaefer’s great-grandmother. She said she has ultrasounds once a month. Her baby is due April 1.
Feb. 20, 2015
Tommy Schaefer, right, talks to Indonesian judges in a court room during a trial in Bali, Indonesia, on March 12, 2015. Schaefer’s girlfriend, Heather Mack, is seated at left in the background.
A Cook County judge denies requests for medical and legal fees related to the unborn child. Lawyer Vanessa Favia, who had worked two weeks on the Indonesian island, seeks $126,000 in legal fees for her role representing the unborn child.
March 12, 2015
Heather Mack looks out from her room window at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, on March 19, 2015.
Testifying at Mack’s trial, Schaefer tells the court that he killed von Wiese-Mack because he was angry after she threatened to kill his unborn baby and choked him for about half a minute. “I was angry, I took the fruit bowl and hit her,” Schaefer said in tears.
March 17, 2015
Mack gives birth to a healthy 6-pound, 1-ounce girl at a hospital near the prison. Mack tells the Tribune she hopes to keep her daughter with her in the prison.
March 19, 2015
Von Wiese-Mack’s friend Elliott Jacobson provides the Tribune with more than 150 emails he said he received from von Wiese-Mack that chronicle her tumultuous relationship with her daughter. Some of the emails show von Wiese-Mack feared for her safety.
March 26, 2015
Tommy Schaefer, 21, and Heather Mack, 19, with a translator during their court appearance in Indonesia on March 31, 2015.
The trial is delayed after newborn Stella falls ill with jaundice. The sentence demand had been scheduled to be read in court, but it could not be read in the defendants’ absence.
March 31, 2015
Prosecutors ask that Mack and Schaefer be spared the maximum possible penalty — death by firing squad — if the three-judge panel convicts the young couple of killing Mack’s mother. The prosecution’s recommendation of a 15-year prison sentence for Mack and an 18-year term for Schaefer outraged the slain woman’s family in the U.S.
April 7, 2015
Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty in the 2014 death of Sheila von Wiese-Mack in Bali, Indonesia. Her daughter, Heather Mack, received a 10-year sentence April 21, 2015.
Lawyers representing Mack and Schaefer argue that there is no evidence of premeditated murder in von Wiese-Mack’s death and seek light sentences if they are convicted. Judges could ignore the sentencing requests.
April 21, 2015
In a unanimous verdict, the three-judge panel in Denpasar District Court convicts Mack and Schaefer in the slaying of von Wiese-Mack. Mack is sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Schaefer, who admitted fatally beating von Wiese-Mack but claimed self defense, receives an 18-year prison term.
May 5, 2015
After prosecutors appeal Mack’s conviction, she files an emergency motion in Chicago seeking more money from the $1.5 million trust fund to pay for her anticipated upcoming legal fees.
June 9, 2015
Kia Walker, left, holds her granddaughter during a visit with her son, Tommy Schaefer, on March 31, 2015, at a jail in Bali, Indonesia.
Mack considers having a local couple in Bali raise her baby until she is freed, one of her attorneys says.
June 12, 2015
Schaefer’s mother, Kia Walker, expresses fears to a Chicago judge that Stella is being sold for $150,000. Mack’s attorney calls the allegation “nothing more than a smearing campaign.”
July 6, 2015
Robert Bibbs, center, a cousin to Heather Mack’s boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Oct. 29, 2015, after being arraigned on charges he aided in the plot to murder Mack’s wealthy mother.
A certified English translation of the written findings of the three-judge panel, made public in Cook County court, offers a closer look at the trial and some of its haunting details — including the last time von Wiese-Mack was seen in public alive.
Sept. 23, 2015
A cousin of Schaefer’s is arrested on federal charges alleging he conspired with the couple to kill von Wiese-Mack. Robert Bibbs, 24, of Chicago, advised Mack and Schaefer about how to kill Mack’s mother, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Chicago.
He pleads not guilty the following month.
Oct. 13, 2015
Sheila von Wiese-Mack and her daughter, Heather Mack, pose in an undated family photo provided to the Tribune by von Wiese-Mack’s friend Elliott Jacobson.
Months after their tearful trial testimonies won them leniency, federal authorities allege recently released text messages between Mack and Schaefer — who refer to themselves as Bonnie and Clyde — expose a far more sinister plot.
Dec. 9, 2015
In written correspondence to a Cook County judge presiding over her $1.56 million trust case, Mack says “with all due respect” to her slain mother, she believes von Wiese-Mack lied and falsified court documents years earlier to gain control over a more substantial inheritance the daughter was due from her father’s estate.
Feb. 10, 2015
Robert Bibbs, a cousin of Heather Mack’s boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, arrives at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Dec. 13, 2016.
Schaefer instructs baby Stella’s court-appointed guardian to cease communicating her health to the court — something Judge Neil Cohen finds troubling.
Dec. 13, 2016
Under an agreement with federal prosecutors, Schaefer’s cousin Bibbs will not be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to a count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a national of the United States.
Feb. 2, 2017
Mack appears to confess on YouTube that she alone committed the killing, motivated by revenge, and that Schaefer was merely part of the crime’s attempted cover-up. She said she entrapped him into that role and expresses her remorse for it.
Feb. 8, 2017
Kia Walker, the mother of Tommy Schaefer, speaks after a hearing on Feb. 17, 2017, at the Circuit Court of Cook County in the Richard J. Daley Center in Chicago.
Mack and her lawyer release a statement saying that the assertions she made in videos posted to YouTube were false and recorded under pressure. The statement said Mack was reading words written by Schaefer.
March 14, 2017
A Cook County judge denies a request from Kia Walker, the paternal grandmother of baby Stella, to get guardianship of the child.
March 17, 2017
On the child’s second birthday, Mack gives custody of Stella to an Australian woman until her release from prison.
June 2, 2017
Bibbs is sentenced to nine years in prison for helping coach Schaefer in the murder in return for a share of von Wiese-Mack’s estate.
June 2018
Heather Mack, center, is escorted by Indonesian immigration officers to an Immigration detention center in Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia, on Oct. 29, 2021.
Mack gives up her claim to her mother’s estate. The financial terms of the settlement agreement are confidential, but court records filed in the Cook County case make it clear Heather Mack will not receive “any property, benefit, or other interest.”
Instead, the beneficiary is Mack’s daughter, Stella, who was born in an Indonesian prison in March 2015 as Mack and her then-boyfriend awaited trial.
Oct. 29, 2021
Mack walks free from prison after serving seven years of a 10-year-sentence. The 26-year-old will have to stay for a few days at the Immigration Detention Center in Bali, while awaiting flight and travel arrangements. She will be deported to the United States.
Her Indonesian attorney said the early release was in part due to a six-month remission of sentence awarded to her by the Indonesian government during the nation’s recent Independence Day celebration.
Nov. 2, 2021
Mack arrives at an airport in Indonesia for her deportation to the United States.
Nov. 3, 2021
Federal agents in Chicago arrest Mack as she steps off a plane at O’Hare International Airport on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges stemming from the 2014 murder of her mother in Bali, authorities said.
She pleads not guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and obstruction of justice.
Nov. 10, 2021
Lawyers for Heather Mack waive her right to a detention hearing on federal murder conspiracy charges stemming from the 2014 slaying of her mother at Bali vacation resort.
The decision means Mack, who was arrested by the FBI after being deported from Indonesia, will be held in custody while the charges are pending, though her lawyers could renew a request for bond at any point.
Dec. 8, 2022
Mack’s release request is denied. She will remain in custody at Chicago’s Metropolitan Correction Center.
June 16, 2023
Mack pleads guilty in the federal murder conspiracy case stemming from the 2014 slaying of her mother.
January 2024
Mack sentenced to 26 years in federal prison. Records show she’s serving her time at a medium-security facility in West Virginia and is eligible for release in March 2044, when she’ll be 48 years old.
February 2026
Schaefer is released from prison in Indonesia and enters a plea of not guilty through the attorney.
Sources: Tribune reporting and archives; AP
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/26/heather-mack-bali-suitcase-murder/
Jets acuerdan canjear a Jermaine Johnson a los Titans por T’Vondre Sweat, según fuente de AP
Por DENNIS WASZAK Jr.
Los Jets de Nueva York acordaron traspasar al linebacker Jermaine Johnson a los Titans de Tennessee a cambio del tackle defensivo T’Vondre Sweat, informó el jueves a The Associated Press una persona familiarizada con el acuerdo.
La persona habló bajo condición de anonimato porque el intercambio de titulares jugador por jugador no puede hacerse oficial hasta el inicio del nuevo año de la liga de la NFL el 11 de marzo.
ESPN y NFL Network informaron primero del acuerdo.
Johnson se reunirá con el entrenador de los Titans Robert Saleh, quien dirigía a los Jets cuando Nueva York reclutó al ala defensiva en la primera ronda con la selección número 22 global procedente de Florida State en 2022. También se reencontrará con el coahc de la línea defensiva Aaron Whitecotton, quien fue su entrenador de posición con los Jets durante sus primeras tres temporadas.
“Nueva York, gracias de verdad por todo. El amor que me han demostrado aquí durante los últimos 4 o 5 años ha sido nada menos que increíble, tanto dentro como fuera del campo. Siempre tendrán un lugar especial en mi corazón. ¡Les deseo lo mejor a todos mis antiguos entrenadores y compañeros de equipo! Gracias a todos por compartir el campo de batalla conmigo”, escribió Johnson en X.
El traspaso de Johnson deja a los Jets con apenas uno de sus seleccionados de primera ronda de 2022: el receptor abierto Garrett Wilson, elegido décimo global ese año. El esquinero Sauce Gardner, la cuarta selección global, fue traspasado a Indianápolis en noviembre.
El acuerdo también coloca a los Jets en posición de potencialmente elegir al mejor cazamariscales del draft en abril —posiblemente Arvell Reese de Ohio State, David Bailey de Texas Tech o Reuben Bain de Miami— con la selección número 2 global, mientras el entrenador Aaron Glenn intenta mejorar una defensa que estuvo entre las peores de la NFL durante una temporada de 3-14. Glenn despidió al coordinador defensivo Steve Wilks cuando faltaban tres partidos y contrató el mes pasado a Brian Duker para reemplazarlo. Glenn confirmó el martes en el combine de la NFL que la próxima temporada él cantará las jugadas a la defensiva.
Johnson, de 27 años, estaba previsto para jugar la próxima temporada con la opción de quinto año de su contrato de novato, pero le ahorrará a los Jets 13,4 millones de dólares en el tope salarial y podría convertirse en agente libre en la siguiente temporada baja. Considerado una estrella en ascenso durante sus primeros años con los Jets, que incluyeron una selección al Pro Bowl en 2023, Johnson sumó apenas tres capturas en una temporada después de romperse el tendón de Aquiles derecho en el segundo partido de 2024.
Tuvo 13 capturas en 47 partidos con los Jets, anotó un touchdown en un regreso de intercepción, forzó un balón suelto y recuperó otro. Johnson, quien registró un máximo de carrera de 7 capturas y media en 2023, ahora deberá aportar una amenaza de presión al pasador en la defensa de Saleh en Tennessee.
Sweat fue una selección de segunda ronda de los Titans procedente de Texas en 2024. El jugador de 1,93 metros y 166 kilos, especializado en frenar la carrera, debería ayudar a apuntalar una línea defensiva que también incluye a los tackles Harrison Phillips y Jowon Briggs, y al cazamariscales Will McDonald.
Sweat, elegido en el puesto 38 global por los Titans hace dos años, sumó tres capturas y 85 tacleadas totales en 29 partidos, incluidos 28 como titular. El nose tackle de 24 años se lesionó un tobillo en el partido inaugural de la temporada de Tennessee contra Denver y fue colocado en la lista de lesionados, antes de regresar tras perderse cinco encuentros, y fue una pieza efectiva en la línea defensiva de los Titans.
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Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Harvey Weinstein contrata a abogados de Luigi Mangione y Sean “Diddy” Combs ante 3er juicio en NY
Por MICHAEL R. SISAK
NUEVA YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein contrató a los abogados de Luigi Mangione y de Sean “Diddy” Combs para que lo representen en su tercer juicio por violación en Nueva York, lo que reconfigura su equipo legal después de negarse a poner fin al caso con una declaración de culpabilidad.
Los abogados Jacob Kaplan, Marc Agnifilo y Teny Geragos confirmaron el cambio en documentos judiciales presentados el martes. Sustituyen al abogado de larga data de Weinstein, Arthur Aidala, quien cedió su papel en la sala para centrarse en las apelaciones del exjefe de estudio y en asuntos civiles pendientes.
Kaplan formó parte del equipo original de defensa de Weinstein en 2018 y se espera que tenga un papel principal en su defensa en el tercer juicio, que incluye una acusación de que el productor ganador del Óscar violó a la estilista y actriz Jessica Mann en un hotel de Manhattan en 2013.
En una audiencia en enero, Weinstein insistió en que “nunca agredió a nadie” y manifestó que su “espíritu se estaba quebrando” tras casi seis años entre rejas.
El juicio, aplazado desde su inicio previsto para el 3 de marzo, no ha sido reprogramado. Weinstein debe comparecer ante el tribunal el 4 de marzo para una conferencia de estado. La publicación jurídica Law360 informó primero sobre la reestructuración del equipo legal.
Kaplan y Agnifilo representan a Mangione en sus casos paralelos estatal y federal por la muerte del director ejecutivo de UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson. Lograron que se desestimaran los cargos de terrorismo en el caso estatal y que se prohibiera la pena de muerte en el caso federal.
Agnifilo y Geragos representaron a Combs, con lo que obtuvieron un veredicto dividido y absoluciones en los cargos de trata sexual y asociación delictuosa, y actualmente figuran entre los abogados que defienden a los acaudalados hermanos Alon, Oren y Tal Alexander en su juicio por trata sexual en el tribunal federal de Manhattan.
Kaplan, Agnifilo y Geragos son socios del bufete de Manhattan Agnifilo Intrater.
“Harvey cree que, después de dos juicios previos sobre este asunto, una perspectiva recalibrada y un enfoque estratégico ofrecen el camino más eficaz a seguir”, dijo el portavoz de Weinstein, Juda Engelmayer.
En un veredicto dividido y desordenado el pasado junio, Weinstein fue declarado culpable de practicar sexo oral por la fuerza a Miriam Haley; fue absuelto de practicar sexo oral por la fuerza a la mujer Kaja Sokola; y el jurado no tomó una decisión sobre el cargo de violación relacionado con Mann. Las deliberaciones terminaron cuando el presidente del jurado se negó a seguir participando.
The Associated Press no suele identificar a personas que dicen ser víctimas de agresión sexual a menos que den su autorización, lo cual han hecho Haley, Sokola y Mann.
Weinstein y sus abogados argumentaron que el veredicto del nuevo juicio estuvo contaminado por disputas internas e intimidación entre los jurados. El juez Curtis Farber, quien también supervisará el tercer juicio, rechazó esa afirmación y le dijo a Weinstein en la audiencia de enero: “Tuvo un juicio justo”.
En su primer juicio, en 2020, Weinstein fue declarado culpable de violar a Mann y de obligar a Haley a practicar sexo oral, pero el máximo tribunal de Nueva York anuló esas condenas y ordenó el año pasado el nuevo juicio. El Tribunal de Apelaciones determinó que Weinstein se vio perjudicado por testimonios sobre acusaciones que no formaban parte del caso.
Weinstein y Aidala, quien argumentó la apelación y representó a Weinstein en su juicio original y en el nuevo juicio, parecieron llegar a un acuerdo mutuo y amistoso sobre el cambio de función del abogado.
“Nuestro trabajo no termina aquí”, dijo Aidala. “Seguiremos defendiendo enérgicamente sus intereses en los tribunales de apelación, donde confiamos en que se abordarán graves errores legales y su condena más significativa finalmente será anulada”.
Kaplan, Agnifilo y Geragos están en medio de varios casos de alto perfil, incluido el juicio estatal de Mangione, cuyo inicio está previsto para el 8 de junio, lo que podría afectar el calendario del juicio de Weinstein. Incluso sin acusadoras aparte de Mann, los fiscales han dicho que podría durar hasta cinco semanas.
Weinstein enfrenta hasta 25 años de prisión por el cargo por el que fue condenado: acto sexual delictivo en primer grado relacionado con Haley. El cargo no resuelto de violación en tercer grado relacionado con Mann se castiga con hasta cuatro años, menos de lo que él ya ha cumplido.
El productor ganador del Óscar ha estado encarcelado desde su condena inicial en 2020, y fue sentenciado a prisión en un caso separado en California que está apelando.
Cancelan Copa del Mundo de clavados en México tras ola de violencia en Jalisco
Por CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — La Copa del Mundo de clavados que se iba a disputar en México la próxima semana fue cancelada el jueves por cuestiones de seguridad.
La competencia iba a realizarse del 5 al 8 de marzo en Zapopan, cerca de Guadalajara, en el estado de Jalisco, donde desde el domingo se ha registrado un repunte de la violencia tras la captura y muerte del líder del Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Nemesio Oseguera.
Una evaluación exhaustiva de riesgos de la situación incluyó la consideración de restricciones de viaje y las recomendaciones emitidas por varios gobiernos internacionales respecto a viajar a México en este momento”, informó el ente rector World Aquatics en un comunicado.
“La seguridad y la participación de todos los atletas siguen siendo una prioridad fundamental para World Aquatics”, agregó.
Dirigentes deportivos mexicanos aún no se han pronunciado sobre la cancelación.
Integrantes del Cartel han incendiado autos y bloqueado carreteras en casi una docena de estados mexicanos, y, según las autoridades, al menos 70 personas han muerto. El CJNG es considerado el cartel más poderoso y violento de México y tiene su centro en el estado de Jalisco.
Aunque la presidenta mexicana Claudia Sheinbaum ha dicho que la situación está volviendo a la normalidad, en Guadalajara aún había temor entre sus ciudadanos.
Cuatro partidos de fútbol de alto nivel fueron pospuestos el domingo pasado, incluido uno en la ciudad central de Querétaro, donde México derrotó a Islandia 4-0 el miércoles en un amistoso. El Atlas de Guadalajara, equipo de la primera división, realizó entrenamientos por Zoom.
El miércoles, cuatro jugadoras de sóftbol de las Jalisco Charros de Guadalajara, de la Liga Profesional Femenina, pidieron ser liberadas del equipo por “motivos personales”. Se trata de la estadounidense Nicola Simpson, las canadienses Natalie Wildman y Janet Lung, y la neerlandesa Eva Voortman.
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Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
After WaPo Axed 30% Of Staff, We Now Learn They Lost $100 Million Last Year – Again
After WaPo Axed 30% Of Staff, We Now Learn They Lost $100 Million Last Year – Again
The The Washington Post lost more than $100 million last year, WSJ reports, citing people familiar with the matter – which explains why Jeff Bezos axed 30% of the newspaper’s workforce three weeks ago, including CEO and publisher Will Lewis.
The 2025 loss matches 2024 – when it also lost $100 million, which followed a $77 million loss in 2023, the people said. So, nearly $300 million in losses in three years.
The Post, long associated with its reporting on the Watergate scandal and publication of the Pentagon Papers, has struggled to adapt to a media landscape defined by declining web traffic, shifting reader habits and intense competition for digital advertising. Like many legacy publishers, it has sought to build a sustainable subscription business while navigating the dominance of large technology platforms in distributing news.
In a staff meeting Wednesday, acting Chief Executive and Publisher Jeff D’Onofrio and Executive Editor Matt Murray outlined what they described as years of overspending and falling productivity. The presentation marked their first major address to employees since the layoffs.
According to people who attended, D’Onofrio said expenses exceeded revenue between 2022 and 2025, reflecting a hiring surge in earlier years that added hundreds of staff members. He did not detail the full extent of the losses during the meeting.
The number of news stories published has declined by 42% since 2020, D’Onofrio said, even as newsroom costs in 2025 were 16% higher than in 2020. The figures highlight the strain of maintaining a large reporting staff amid slowing audience growth.
Murray, who previously served as editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal and took the top editorial role at the Post in June 2024, acknowledged what he called “the painfulness of the moment.” He signaled a shift in editorial priorities, urging staff to be more selective.
“We don’t want or need to do every story or jump on everything that happens,” Murray said, according to attendees. “We’re not a paper of record; there’s no such thing anymore in today’s world.”
Still, he emphasized ambition. “We want to be distinctive, urgent, must-read with every chance we have,” he said.
D’Onofrio assumed his current role earlier this month following the departure of publisher and chief executive Will Lewis. He told staff he is developing a broader strategic plan to stabilize the organization.
“Bear with me, because that will take some time and obvious care, but I’m keen to get going on it,” he said. “And we are going to go after it, and we’re going to go after it hard, because we owe it to this place to do that.”
Three weeks ago in a staff call, Murray told employees that the company had been losing too much money for too long, and had not been meeting readers’ needs. As a result, all sections will be affected in some way, and what rises from the ashes would be a publication more focused on national news and politics, business, and health, and less on other things.
“If anything, today is about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming a more crowded, competitive and complicated media landscape,” Murray said. “And after some years when, candidly, The Post has had struggles.”
Murray also said that search traffic has plummeted nearly in half over the last three years, partly due to the rise of generative AI – and that the Post’s “daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years.”
The Atlantic, of course, painted WaPo’s mass firings as a ‘murder’ – as opposed to a suicide.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/26/2026 – 12:40
Porter County looks to future with updated comprehensive plan
Elevate Porter County, the effort to develop a comprehensive plan for land use and thoroughfares, hosted a workshop Monday evening to engage the community in steering the county’s future.
The last comprehensive plan was completed in 2001. It’s considered a valuable document to aid the Redevelopment Commission, Board of Commissioners, County Council, and Board of Zoning Appeals in managing the county.
“I think it’s overdue,” said Porter County Council President Andy Vasquez, R-4th, who was on hand studying the many displays and questionnaires that asked people to vote with sticker dots on a variety of topics. “Where are we going in the next 20 or 30 years?”
The Porter County RDC is paying $349,000 for the comprehensive plan, economic development research, and an overlay of Willowcreek Road. The county is awaiting review and approval of environmental documents by the Federal Highway Administration before there can be further movement on the Willowcreek Road project.
The Porter County Parks Department already has its own updated master plan. All of these documents can be taken together to guide the use of the county’s 80% unincorporated land.
The comprehensive county plan will result in a 25-to-40-page book that will be presented to the plan commission at the end of the second quarter. That body will then make a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners on whether to adopt it.
Michael Jabo speaks with a visitor to the Elevate Porter County workshop at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso, Indiana, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. Jabo is the director of the Porter County Department of Development and Storm Water Management. (Andy Lavalley/for the Post-Tribune)
In the meantime, the plan commission and RDC are given updates on the process at each of their meetings. Porter County’s Executive Director of Development & Storm Water Management Mike Jabo believes the state is going to become “a little more brisk” on enforcing its statute requiring municipalities regularly update their comprehensive plans.
“It’s wise to keep your comprehensive plan at the ready,” Jabo said.
Last October, Jabo suggested to the Plan Commission that a subcommittee be formed to look into improving the county’s Unified Development Ordinance. The Plan Commission picked four members, the Board of Commissioners picked three citizen members, and Jabo’s office picked three professionals: a surveyor, an attorney, and a residential developer.
Jabo said he and his staff give the subcommittee case studies to consider and vet in the interest of seeing if ordinance revisions are needed. “The UDO, as I see it, is a living, breathing document,” he said.
Elena Shook, of Morgan Township, applies a sticker to a display at the Elevate Porter County workshop at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso, Indiana, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. Visitors were asked to indicate their feeling one various topics via stickers at the workshop. (Andy Lavalley/for the Post-Tribune)
Consultants MKSK and All Together have been working for the past year to gather input at community events and pull data from census track records and public domain statistics, such as workforce data.
“Tonight is just kind of a glimpse of that info,” Jabo said. “Does this information sound good to you? Are you surprised by it? Does it ring true, and what does it tell you about where Porter County is today?”
Porter Township Schools Superintendent Stacey Schmidt said the topics on display around the large conference room are right on the money for the issues that concern her running a school corporation traversed by Ind. 2 and County Road 100 South on the edge of the county, butting up to Crown Point.
“We have lots of subdivisions filling out,” she said. “We kind of are right in some of these questions. How do we use farm land? How do you balance the housing inventory that you have in Porter County?”
A visitor adds a sticker to a display to indicate their feelings on a topic at the Elevate Porter County workshop at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso, Indiana, Monda, Feb. 23, 2026. (Andy Lavalley/for the Post-Tribune)
For Joshua Sutton, owner of Trailyard Outpost adjacent to Creekside Trails, how small businesses fit into the plan is huge. “Not just the large ones, all the last names that we know, is going to make a difference,” he said. “Both the restaurant industry and the retail industry is having a hard time right now.”
And lest they forget the region’s diverse ecotourism impact, Sutton was there to provide input on biking, hiking and paddling. “So much of what I do, too, is giving people maps,” he said. “I don’t want to say it’s pushed to the back, but it’s an afterthought. That’s money on the table.”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Even Banks Now Bow To A Golden Master
Even Banks Now Bow To A Golden Master
Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold,
Although I never expected to say this, if you are still wondering about gold’s future price direction, just ask the big banks…
Getting Real
Emerging from a 2025 in which gold saw 53 all-time-highs and an annual move of 55%, some wondered if this was just another blow-off asset akin to any other, from dot.com stocks to crypto manias.
Such a misunderstanding of gold’s fundamental profile as a strategic monetary metal gained a bit more momentum on Silver Friday, when the CME engineered yet another temporary and entirely artificial price dip/manipulation to bail out the big banks caught in the mother of all silver short-squeezes.
This was not an end to the rise of precious metals, but a capitulation by the COMEX short-sellers (i.e. bullion banks) to get out their surging way.
Of course, when it comes to the legalized fraud in the COMEX or an openly rigged banking system, my thoughts, pen and voice have been consistently and transparently unkind.
Ever since insiders like Larry Summers helped to repeal Glass Steagall and effectively turn commercial banks into levered portfolio managers using depositor funds, the fractional reserve banking system became anything but a trusted counter-party for so-called “wealth management” in general or gold ownership in particular.
In other words, when it came to understanding gold, banks were the last place to find an honest broker or candid price projection.
The great irony behind all the recent bank squeezes and Comex mechanizations, however, is that they signaled an otherwise carefully hidden truth, namely: The big banks already knew that gold’s price moves had only just begun.
The Big Banks: From Gold Deniers to Gold Buyers
For decades, of course, bankers intentionally downplayed gold for obvious and self-serving reasons.
First, gold’s price direction was a direct threat to the “King Dollar” narrative which every banker from the BIS and the Fed to JP Morgan relied upon to compliantly ensure their employment.
Secondly, pushing gold, or even bank gold storage, was not nearly as profitable as pushing the far riskier yet consensus-safe template of topping private equity bubbles and cancerously sick private credit pools.
But as we enter 2026, the greater irony is that even the big banks can no longer hide what sophisticated gold investors have always known, namely: Rock now beats paper.
A Gold New World
In world in which fiat currencies are quantifiably and objectively melting like an ice cube under the heat of over $354T in global private and public debt, as well as $38T of embarrassing U.S. sovereign debt, the jig is up on the declining purchasing power of the paper currencies by which wealth is falsely (and dangerously) measured.
Gold, alas, is not a “rising trend,” it’s the de-facto new Tier-1, primary reserve asset and FX reserve currency in a changing world openly losing trust in paper currencies and sovereign IOUs.
In this changing world, the banks have been forced to change as well.
In 2025, for example, even Morgan Stanley, once fined for illegal price manipulation in precious metals, was suddenly yet correctly recommending a 20% allocation to gold over the “return-free-risk” of USTs.
The Latest from the Big Boys
Even more telling, however, are the still media-ignored messages percolating out of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
Goldman, for example, just made its 2026 year-end forecast for gold at $5400. Key to note, is that Goldman was careful to call this a “forecast” rather than “target.” This is because they wanted to avoid appearing too bullish.
But Goldman deliberately added the words “with significant upside risk” to their forecast, which translates to they actually expect a much higher year-end price move.
JP Morgan spoke far more directly/bullishly, announcing a $6300 gold price as their “base case” for year end, and went on to confess an upside as high as $8500.
Folks, seeing such gold price confessions from two pillars of a banking system historically terrified of rising gold is beyond telling; it’s in fact revolutionary in its implications.
To see banks suddenly joining the gold narrative is not only a confession of the dollar’s declining global role, it’s a signal of a global financial system in open flux.
In other words, even the big banks can no longer ignore the signals we have been revealing for years.
Seeing What We’ve Always Known
This is especially true of the open breakdown in the COMEX exchange, a devolution we’ve been tracking well ahead of their public learning curve.
With precious metals pouring out of the COMEX to a world openly thirsty for physical gold and silver, the exchange simply lacks enough of the physical metals to lever prices effectively downwards.
Take the COMEX silver inventories, which have fallen to 82M ounces. That’s a 75% decline from 2020.
Equally beyond denial for the commercial banks like Goldman and JP Morgan, is the dramatic stacking of physical gold by the world’s central banks, another bank-ignored fact we’ve been tracking for years.
Winds of Dramatic Change – From Dollar Debasement to Gold Stacking
Of course, the primary winds behind these changes had been obvious long before the TBTF banks finally admitted as much to themselves (or their clients).
The most obvious wind has been the hitherto ignored yet openly obvious matter of currency debasement.
When the M2 money supply skyrocketed 40% from $15T to 21T during the Covid hysteria, followed by another surge thereafter to $22T, was it really any surprise to see such an over-supplied dollar so debased (and hence your wealth so constructively stolen) by 2026?
Debasement, though bad for wealth preservation, sure is good for broke governments. Interest payments for Uncle Sam’s bar tab have grown by greater than 3X in the last five years, making it DC’s 2nd largest federal expenditure.
With U.S. debt at historically unprecedented as well as unpayable highs, such debt can be made worthless by making money more worthless—a win for Uncle Sam but open robbery for Joe Sixpack.
Gold, of course, has been quietly keeping score of this rigged game.
Relative to the M2 money supply, it is still grossly undervalued. The M2/gold ratio stands today at 4.5, not even close to the 2.5 level of the 1980’s, which means gold has a long way higher to go in price.
Further QE measures, which have already begun in 2026, will only add more dilution to the USD and more tailwinds to gold. In periods of excessive money printing, gold surges.
In the 1970’s, for example, gold rose 2300% (from $35 to $850). After the 2008 crisis, it moved upwards by 170% ($700-$1900), and during the Covid nightmare, shot up 40% (as the Fed’s balance sheet added $4.6T of mouse-clicked dollars) and would have traveled much further but for the then-current BTC hysteria, which distracted many…
More Winds…
Another wind of change, of course, has been the central bank gold stacking alluded to above. Ever since the watershed turning point in Q1 of 2022 when the US decided to weaponize the world’s neutral reserve currency, distrust in USDs and faith in gold has risen irrevocably higher.
Since that seminal event, and as we warned from day 1, central bank gold purchasing has risen by 5X, from 17 tons/month in 2022 to over 107 tons/month today.
Goldman Sachs estimates that for every 100 tons of gold purchases, gold’s price climbs by 2%.
Given that global central banks from Poland, China and Turkey to India and Russia will conservatively reach at least 750 tons annually, gold’s future price “forecasts” are not hard to measure.
Of course, such central bank buying doesn’t even include the retail sector, which is the last to catch on, ironically due to the fact that their bankers have been telling them for decades that gold was too volatile, despite the fact that it has outperformed the S&P in total return for a quarter of a century…
Despite record inflows to ETF gold in 2025, the average global allocation to gold is still less than 1%, and only just beginning to pick up towards prior median levels of 2%, or even prior highs of greater than 6%.
This growing retail trend (and awareness surge) will only add to gold’s longer-term and secular price momentum.
Bowing to a New Master
Based on these now obvious winds of change, gold’s direction is becoming far less of a debate or the contrarian trade of old.
Instead, the winds and signals in the gold market are calling paper money’s bluff. Gold is now emerging, as it always has throughout history, as a core allocation and superior store of value than paper promises or paper dollars.
As Gresham’s law reminds from as far back as the 1500’s, once investors are made to feel the difference between “good money” (gold and silver) and “bad money” (debased paper currencies) they eventually replace the later with the former.
What we have been tracking for years among the actions (rather than words) of the central bankers confirms this now undeniable pattern.
And what we are finally witnessing among the commercial banks today is that not even these former servants of paper products can deny the new direction of monetary metals.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/26/2026 – 12:20
https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/even-banks-now-bow-golden-master
Around the Southland: Students create ‘pocket hugs’ for veterans; van service opens in University Park, more
Students create ‘pocket hugs’ for veterans in Beverly
More than 40 people, a combination of student council members from St. Cajetan Elementary School and residents of Smith Village, both in Chicago, joined forces to create “pocket hugs” for veterans during the 11th annual Valentines for Vets program at Smith Village.
The pocket hugs, which include a handwritten message of encouragement to a veteran, pairs with a card topped with a ribbon and a small heart made by The Quilter’s Trunk. The veterans are from inpatient and outpatient health care programs offered by the Road Home Program at Ruth University Medical Center.
The program’s senior veteran outreach coordinator, Modie Lavin, a U.S. Marine Corps Gold Star mother, said the valentines mean a lot to those who have served their country but paid a price for doing so. “Some veterans immediately put the heart on their pocket hug into their pocket. Others displayed the card with the heart and message,” she shared via a news release.
University Park gains rentable van service
A new VanGo service is available in University Park, thanks to a partnership between Pace Suburban Bus, the Village of University Park and Metra.
The village is the Pace’s seventh VanGo location and allows commuters to reserve a vehicle for round-trip travel in the service area for just $5. Registered users can unlock a vehicle with a code, use the van for a local trip and return it at the end of the day.
“Reliable transportation is a cornerstone of opportunity, and VanGo gives workers in and around University Park a convenient, flexible, and affordable way to reach jobs,” Pace Chairman Rick Kwasneski shared via a news release.
He was among officials present for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Others were Richton Park Mayor Rick Reinbold, Pace Executive Director Melinda Metzger, Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, University Park Mayor Joseph Roudez III, Pace board member Terry Wells, who represents South Cook County, and Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Kankakee.
Other guests were University Park Trustees Sonia Jenkins-Bell, Karen Lewis, Donnal Fulcher and Gina Williams; former Sauk Village mayor Edward Paesel; Lisa Zeigler and Craig Schmidt from Governors State University; Will County Center for Economic Development President and CEO Doug Pryor; and representatives from the offices of Rep. Jackie Haas, R-Kankakee, and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-2nd.
McCord Gallery showcases art by veterans
McCord Gallery & Cultural Center offers a month of events in connection with its “The Veterans Experience Through Art” exhibit at the gallery, 9602 W. Creek Road in Palos Park.
Art by veterans can be viewed from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays through March 28. An artist reception, which is free and open to the public, takes place 6 to 8 p.m. March 6.
Area residents are invited to have coffee with World War II veteran Howard Hill at 10 a.m. March 21, and a “veterans garage” shows off historic military vehicles and equipment from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 21 and 22.
The center will commemorate Vietnam Veterans day at 11 a.m. March 28 with a luncheon featuring the Joliet American Legion Band. Seating is limited but free for veterans; others pay $10. Registration is required for the lunch by calling 708-671-0648.
Olympics theme stars at Good Shepherd Lutheran lunch
More than 70 people gathered for an Ash Wednesday lunch with an Olympics theme at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Palos Heights. (Melinda Moore/Daily Southtown)
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Palos Heights recently hosted its annual Ash Wednesday lunch with a timely theme this year: the Olympic Games.
More than 70 people gathered to eat a variety of food from countries around the world to celebrate the spirit of the event. The lunch follows a morning service that includes receiving ashes in the shape of a cross on the forehead or hand.
The church’s Congregational Activities Committee creates the theme, sets up the decorations and serves the catered meal that day.
Evergreen Park library hosts gourmet fundraiser
The Evergreen Park Public Library has brought back its popular Sip & Simple
Fundraiser, set for 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 28 at the library, 9400 S. Troy Ave.
Proceeds will go to the Evergreen Park Public Library Foundation to help pay for much-needed updates to the Youth Services area.
In exchange for a $40 ticket, attendees – who must be at least 21 – can try a curated selection of wine paired with locally prepared food including desserts, enjoy a cash bar and participate in raffles for baskets and split-the-pot. The Record Shop on 95th will provide music.
Buy tickets online at evergreenparklibrary.org or by calling 708-422-8522, Ext. 1.
Soda bread contest planned in Palos Heights
Area residents are invited to participate in an Irish soda bread baking contest March 7 at Pass Health Foods, 7228 W. College Drive in Palos Heights – and the overall winner earns a $100 gift certificate along with bragging rights.
Subcategories include best gluten-free Irish soda bread, most unique and best vegan irish soda bread, and each winner gets a $25 gift certificate. A People’s Choice award earns the same certificate.
Entry drop-off is 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. with judging at noon. All entries will be available to sample after the judging. Everyone present can vote for the People’s Choice winner.
Entries must come with a recipe and be on a disposable platter. Registration is required by emailing passhealthfoods@gmail.com or calling 708-448-9114.
Job fair set for teens, adults in Evergreen Park
Job seekers can get a helping hand with finding work, thanks to the fourth annual Teen and Adult Job Fair from 1 to 3 p.m. March 8 at the Evergreen Park Public Library, 9400 S. Troy Ave.
The fair allows residents of all ages to meet with local employers and trade unions, receive free professional headshots to use on LinkedIn and other job sites, and to get assistance with resumes, as well as networking tips.
No advance registration is required, but participants are encouraged to bring several copies of their current resume and dress in professional or business casual attire. Information is at evergreenparklibrary.org or 708-422-8522.
Send news to communitynews@southtownstar.com.
