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By Associated Press NEW YORK — Leap year. It’s a delight for the calendar and math nerds among us. So how did it all begin and why? Have a look at some of the numbers, history and lore behind the (not quite) every four year phenom that adds a 29th day to February. By the

By Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hundreds of mourners attended a funeral mass Saturday for a Kansas City-area DJ who was killed when she was shot during a celebration of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory. Lisa Lopez-Galvan was one of about two dozen people who were shot when gunfire erupted Feb. 14 outside the

By Ian Kuijt | University of Notre Dame The Conversation via AP War doesn’t just destroy lives. It also tears at the fabric of culture. And in the case of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now about to enter its third year, the remarkable destruction of Ukrainian history and heritage since 2022 hasn’t been a

By Wealth of Geeks In mid-January, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State announced it would be the 11th National Park in the United States to require visitors to obtain a permit to access public land. This is a direct result of the most popular parks needing more infrastructure, mainly parking, to handle the influx

By Columbia Missourian via My Courier-Tribune For more than 99% of their lives, periodical cicadas hardly make a sound. Surviving underground on sap and other nutrients from tree roots, they spend a full 13 years unseen and unheard. But when they come out, they come out by the billions, all at once. And they will

By Metro Creative Sunday brunch is a tradition for many families. Though some families may enjoy Sunday brunch at a nearby restaurant, those who enjoy spending their Sunday mornings lounging at home can still enjoy a bountiful brunch that includes some popular staples of restaurant brunches. Therefore, when hosting your next Sunday brunch for family

By Associated Press PHOENIX — Selection Sunday also happens to be the biggest complaint day on the sports calendar. How could they leave my team out? Why is mine playing that far away? You seriously gave (my favorite team) a No. 8 seed instead of 6? Settle down. Selecting, seeding and bracketing the 68 teams

By Associated Press NEW YORK — Nvidia’s stock price surged Thursday after delivering another blowout quarter, setting off a rally in other technology companies that carried Wall Street to another record high. The chipmaker, a central player in the boom surrounding artificial intelligence, reported scorching demand for its semiconductors. The S&P 500 rose 105.23 points,

By Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — Reddit has struck a deal with Google that allows the search giant to use posts from the online discussion site for training its artificial intelligence models and to improve services such as Google Search. The arrangement, announced Thursday and valued at roughly $60 million, will also give Reddit access

By Associated Press WASHINGTON — Several Federal Reserve policymakers warned Thursday against cutting U.S. interest rates too soon or by too much in the wake of recent data showing inflation stayed unexpectedly high in January. Their comments echoed the minutes from the Fed’s last meeting in January, released Wednesday. The minutes showed that most central

By Associated Press NEW YORK — For Americans who lacked savings prior to the pandemic, financial stress is rising. A combination of inflation, increased interest rates, and the end of pandemic-tied relief, such as the moratorium on student loan payments, has led to record credit card debt, experts say. In the fourth quarter of 2023,

By Associated Press GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Bartender Catey Regis had a pricey misadventure buying a used car recently — an experience that speaks to why voters are worrying about the U.S. economy going into this year’s presidential election. Over three years at Founders Brewing, the 25-year-old saved enough money pouring IPAs, stouts and porters

By Associated Press JERUSALEM — International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to gain new momentum Thursday as the White House said a visit by a senior envoy with Israeli leaders was “going well” and other mediators reported encouraging signs from the warring parties. The new signs of progress came ahead

By Associated Press AT&T said the hourslong outage to its U.S. cellphone network Thursday appeared not to be the result of a malicious attack. The outage knocked out cellphone service for thousands of its users across the U.S. starting early Thursday before it was restored. “Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage

By Associated Press DENVER — Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year. Every month, like millions of Americans, Colbert juggled her costs. Pay rent or swim team fees for one of her three

By Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. — Four foreign nationals were arrested and charged Thursday with transporting suspected Iranian-made weapons on a vessel intercepted by U.S. naval forces in the Arabian Sea last month. Two Navy SEALs died during the mission. The criminal complaint unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Richmond alleges that the four

By Associated Press LAS VEGAS — A former FBI informant who claims to have links to Russian intelligence and is charged with lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family was again taken into custody Thursday in Las Vegas, two days after a judge released him, his attorneys said. Alexander Smirnov, 43,

By Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. — The most populous county in Kansas has rejected demands from the local sheriff and the state’s attorney general to preserve old ballots and records longer than legally allowed, shredding materials sought for an election fraud investigation that has yet to result in any criminal charges. Johnson County in the

By Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Republican lawmakers on Thursday voted to make it harder to change the Missouri Constitution amid a campaign to restore abortion rights through a voter-backed constitutional amendment. Currently, Missouri constitutional changes are enacted if approved by a majority of votes statewide. State senators voted 22-9 along party lines to

By Associated Press Messi Mania returns to Major League Soccer as Lionel Messi embarks on his first full season with Inter Miami. But this year, there’s a twist. Inter Miami signed Luis Suarez in the offseason, reuniting the two close friends. The pair, along with former Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, have made

By Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs are signing punter Matt Araiza, who was dropped from a lawsuit in December that had been filed by a woman who alleged she was raped by San Diego State football players in 2021. The signing was announced by Araiza’s agent, Joe Linta, and confirmed

By Associated Press MESA, Ariz. — Catcher Shea Langeliers made a little space to set down a cup of coffee in his locker, then gingerly turned around, careful not to disturb the belongings of teammates JJ Bleday and Max Schuemann that were all crammed into a corner of Oakland’s spring training clubhouse. Playing for the