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Whitney Houston’s posthumous gospel collection debuts at No. 2 on Billboard chart

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

Karu F. Daniels | New York Daily NewsWhitney Houston’s musical legacy continues to reach the upper echelons of the Billboard charts.Her recently released gospel compilation, “I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston,” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart. It marks only her second-ever entry on the chart. Her first, the soundtrack to the film “The Preacher’s Wife,” debuted at No. 1 in 1996.“I Go to the Rock’’ features 14 tracks — six previously unreleased live and studio faith-based tracks, alongside popular songs recorded for soundtracks to the movies “The Bodyguard,” “The Preachers Wife” and “Sparkle.” Three of the songs were recorded when Houston was just 17 years old.“You heard the innocence of her voice,” the late singer’s sister-in-law and estate manager Pat Houston told the Associated Press. “You could see where she started and how she ended up with all her hits throughout her career. Any song is a great song of Whitney Houston’s. You heard he...

R&B superstar Bruno Mars to headline Preakness Live in Baltimore

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

Michelle Deal-Zimmerman | Baltimore Sun Baltimore is bringing that uptown funk to Pimlico for this year’s Preakness 148 celebration.Superstar R&B performer and Grammy-winning artist Bruno Mars will headline Preakness Live on May 20 in a concert set to take place immediately following the day’s races.It will be a return appearance for Mars, who first headlined Preakness in 2011.The inaugural Preakness Live event in 2022 took place on the Friday prior to the signature horse race. However, this year the entertainment, arts and culture festival will take over the Infield Fest on the same day as the Preakness Stakes, according to a news release from Baltimore 1/ST and The Stronach Group on Wednesday.The stage for the performance is also being relocated from the center of the infield to “provide an unparalleled view of one of the most exciting moments in horse racing — the view of the final stretch,” according to the news release.The “re-imagined” infield layout will also include a sp...

Bruins notebook: B’s still have something to play for down the stretch

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

The Bruins have essentially won all they can win in the regular season. They captured the Presidents’ Trophy, thus giving them home ice advantage for the duration of the playoffs.But with five games remaining, starting with Thursday’s contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the B’s still have to compete physically and prepare mentally for the oncoming playoffs. And they have reasons to show up for these final games.First, there is the regular season wins record of 62 held by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning, which the club is now embracing as a means to motivate themselves. The B’s need to win three of their final five games to surpass that mark.And even more immediately, they were facing the Leafs on Thursday and the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, two teams that they could conceivably see in the second and/or third rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs.“There’s a lot of value,” said coach Jim Montgomery of the game...

Boston Pride’s Kali Flanagan named PHF’s Defender of the Year

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

Burlington native Kali Flanagan of the Boston Pride has been selected the Premier Hockey Federation’s Defender of the Year for the 2022-23 regular season.Flanagan finished tied for third in regular season scoring among defenders with 16 points on three goals and 13 assists in 21 games, producing a points per game average of 0.762 that led her position.Flanagan recorded a plus-minus rating of plus-20 that led all blueliners, while her average time on ice of 24:52 ranked inside the top five.The 27-year-old has now played two PHF seasons. She helped the Pride capture a second straight Isobel Cup last March. She’s recorded 20 points in 35 career regular season games and five points in five playoff appearances. Flanagan is a two-time gold medalist with victories at the 2017 IIHF Women’s World Championship and the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.She played at Boston College prior to turning pro.BARRY SCANLON 

Yankees hit the road for first time with rising Orioles squad next on the schedule

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

Punching bags no more.The Yankees roll into Camden Yards to take on the Baltimore Orioles for the first time this season in a three-game set on Friday after Thursday’s game was postponed due to the threat of bad weather. However, these are not the O’s of the past where anything less than a sweep was a borderline disappointment.Coming off of an 83-win season, Brandon Hyde’s squad figures to be in the thick of the wild card race with a foundation of young talent surrounded by some strong veterans. The O’s stunned the baseball world coming off of three-straight 100-plus loss seasons (tossing out the pandemic-shortened ‘20 campaign) only to find themselves in the hunt for the postseason until the final month of the season.Catcher Adley Rutschman leads the charge for the Birds. The 25-year-old finished second in last season’s Rookie of the Year voting and got out of the gates to a scorching start. The backstop went 5-for-5 on Opening Day against the Re...

Mets to place Omar Narvaez on IL with calf strain, expected to call up Francisco Alvarez

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

Mets catcher Omar Narvaez will be sidelined for two months or more with a left calf strain.Narvaez underwent imaging Thursday morning after injuring his calf Wednesday in Milwaukee, which showed a medium to high-grade strain. The typical timeline for a return from a calf strain is 8-9 weeks, but calf strains can often take longer to return from. The Mets will place Narvaez on the injured list and are expected to call up top prospect Francisco Alvarez to take his place on the roster.The first week of the 2023 season hasn’t gone according to plan for the Mets. Ace Justin Verlander is on the injured list with a low-grade teres major (shoulder) strain, right-handed reliever Tommy Hunter went to the IL on Tuesday with back spasms and the team was swept in Milwaukee in the second series of the season.Narvaez left Wednesday’s game after feeling a twinge in his calf during an at-bat in the ninth inning. He realized something was wrong with the calf when he was running to first b...

California man who went missing in Mexico found dead months later

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

(KTXL) — The body of an Alpine County man who was reported missing in Mexico in February was found Wednesday in a "clandestine pit" in the state of Baja California Sur, according to the state prosecutor's office. The state authorities said that the body of Wilmer Trivett, 80, was found near the town of Todos Santos, close to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, and that a man and his sister had been arrested in connection with Trivett's death. ‘Grandparent scam:’ The crime that Northern California officials are warning residents about Trivett, of Markleeville, went missing on February 11 as he traveled throughout the Baja California peninsula in his camper truck. His vehicle was found burned on Feb. 23, according to the Associated Press. State officials said Trivett was apparently in a vehicle accident that involved the two suspects, and that the siblings later abducted and killed Trivett. 4.5 magnitude earthquake strikes Northern California The two suspects, who...

Prison guard gets job back after fired for anti-Muslim meme

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut prison guard who was fired in 2021, several years after posting what the state determined to be an anti-Muslim meme on Facebook, has been reinstated to his job.An arbitrator ruled in February that Anthony Marlak’s termination was an excessive response by the state Department of Correction and reduced the punishment to a 25-day suspension. He also ruled that Marlak must be compensated for lost pay and benefits.Marlak, who served as a correctional officer for 14 years, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he returned to his job at the Garner Correctional Institution in March.The Connecticut chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, the country’s largest Muslim advocacy organization, had called for Marlak’s firing two years ago. The group cited a meme he posted on Facebook in 2017, which it said depicted five apparently Muslim men hanging from nooses with the caption “Islamic Wind Chimes.”Marlak, an Air Force veteran, h...

Police: 4 dead in plane crash off Florida’s Gulf Coast

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

VENICE, Fla. (AP) — The bodies of two men and two women have been recovered following a small plane crash just off Florida’s Gulf Coast, police said Thursday.The plane had just taken off from Venice Airport when it crashed into the Gulf of Mexico west of the city’s fishing pier just after 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Venice police said in a news conference. Several people on the pier saw the plane crash and called 911, Venice police Capt. Andy Leisenring said. In addition video footage from the airport and the pier will be reviewed and turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is conducting an investigation, he said.Leisenring said police “were unable to deploy a dive team until we had daylight.” The plane — a Piper PA-32R — was spotted just before noon under about 23 feet of water, he said. Crews also found the bodies of the two female passengers.Authorities identified the victims as William Jeffrey Lumpkin, 64, who was piloting the plane, Patricia Lumpkin, 68, R...

Cattle farmers can rejig to avoid trade spat, bilateral deal gives edge: U.K. envoy

Published Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:24:05 GMT

OTTAWA — Britain’s envoy to Ottawa suggests that an uproar in the Prairies over expanded trade agreements could be overcome if ranchers rejig their use of hormones — and she says an additional bilateral deal between Canada and London would give both countries an edge over Europe.“We have quite similar approaches to trade,” said British High Commissioner Susannah Goshko.“Any negotiation — even when you’re negotiating with friends — requires you to think quite hard. Nobody signs up to something that isn’t in their national interest, as well as in the collective interest.”She was speaking just days after the announcement of the United Kingdom’s ascension to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.The 11 countries that helped craft the deal have approved the U.K.’s membership in principle, though member states will still have to individually ratify Britain’s membership.Ottawa pushed to get the pact&#...