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Catholic churches celebrate the end of Lenten season with yearly traditions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. - The last day for the fish fries around St. Louis is Friday. The Lenten season ends with Easter this Sunday.For Catholics in Missouri and across the river in Illinois, Good Friday is a day that brings tradition to many in this faith.In Belleville, Illinois, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, they’re set for their outdoor Easter Mass on Sunday in the Outdoor Amphitheatre. Three masses with a sunrise service at 6:45 a.m. Easter Sunday. Top Story: Fenton clerk recounts terrifying gunpoint robbery and assault On Friday, around 400 people gathered to walk the Way of the Cross, telling the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, his death, and his rising from the dead three days later to ascend into heaven. A tradition marking the end of the Lenten season.A yearly tradition in south St. Louis County is the fish fry at Assumption Catholic Church. It was voted one of the top fish fries in metropolitan St. Louis.They will make more than 1,800 meals Friday ni...

Nearly half of Oakland’s female police officers say they’ve felt harassed, faced discrimination

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

OAKLAND — With two decades of federal oversight likely to be extended next week, new data reveal that efforts by the Oakland Police Department to diversify its ranks are falling significantly short.A recent internal survey found that nearly half the women officers in the department said that they had personally experienced harassment or discrimination. The same number of respondents, 45%, said they had witnessed others being harassed or facing discrimination, and close to a third of those officers said it happened “often” or “very often.”More than half of those officers, meanwhile, said they are not satisfied with how well women are represented at OPD.The survey, published last month, is part of the “30×30 pledge” that police departments across the country have adopted internally to reach 30% female academy recruits by the year 2030.Only 14% of OPD officers last year identified as women, though that’s still a percentage point high...

Letters: Jail ODs | Stop rate hike | Conservative voices | Let freedom prevail | Sacred sites | Liberal policies

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.Lax visitor searchescontribute to jail ODsRe: “8 fentanyl overdoses reported in February” (Page B1, March 22).It is very sad but no wonder that Santa Rita Jail had so many fentanyl overdoses in February. As noted by the 2021-22 Alameda County Civil Grand Jury, controls to protect against weapons, drugs and other contraband being brought into Santa Rita Jail by staff and administrative visitors are weak, placing staff and detainees at risk.In response to the grand jury, Sheriff Ahern said the type of search a visitor receives is based on who the visitor is employed by. The sheriff also stated that the employees of Alameda County who are subjected to background checks based on their employment are not subjected to an extensive search when entering the facility.The jail authorities allow this kind of lax security even after jail employees have been caught bringing illegal drugs into the jail. Th...

FDA ruling: What is mifepristone?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

By Jen Christensen | CNNA federal judge in Texas has said he will suspend the approval of mifepristone, a drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration that has been shown to be safe and effective for more than two decades, although he is pausing his ruling for seven days so the federal government can appeal.The lawsuit from anti-abortion advocates claims that the drug is not safe and that the FDA didn’t study it enough to approve it.Along with misoprostol, mifepristone is one of the drugs used for an abortion via medication, as opposed to surgery.Mifepristone is marketed under the brand names Mifeprex and Korlym, and it’s sometimes known as RU 486.How mifepristone worksMifepristone blocks a hormone called progesterone, which helps the body maintain the inside of the uterus so a pregnancy can continue. A healthy uterine lining is what supports a fertilized egg, embryo and fetus.Without progesterone, the uterus will expel its contents.Someone having a medication ab...

Mavs to sit Irving, 4 others in game with draft implications

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Dallas is sitting Kyrie Irving and four other regulars against Chicago in a game with draft implications and with the Mavericks facing postseason elimination if they lose.Fellow All-Star Luka Doncic will play Friday night with the franchise paying tribute to his home country of Slovenia. But coach Jason Kidd said the 24-year-old superstar would only play the first quarter, and suggested his season would be over after that.The sudden switch from the Mavericks came two days after Doncic and Irving led a rally to a 123-119 victory over Sacramento. The win kept Dallas in the mix for the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament a year after the Mavs reached the West finals.A day after that victory, Oklahoma City beat Utah, meaning the Mavs would have to win their last two while the Thunder would have to lose to Memphis for Dallas to get the 10th seed. The Grizzlies could be locked in to the second seed in the West before the regular-season finale Sunday.“Thin...

Chains and pain: How one Mexican town celebrates Holy Week

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

ATLIXCO, Mexico (AP) — Barefoot, half naked and blindfolded, throngs of middle aged men groan as they drag their bodies along blazing cobblestone streets.Pieces of cactus sit lodged on their arms and legs, and 70-pound chains hang around their necks and clatter around their ankles as crowds watch them pass.For these men, it’s not a form of torture, but rather a cherished tradition that has played out for more than a hundred years in the Mexican town of Atlixco.Every year on Good Friday in the small Mexican town of Atlixco, more than a hundred men make the trek known as the Procesión de los Engrillados — the Procession of the Chained.In this country where nearly 80% of the people are Roman Catholic, the participants believe it’s a way to give thanks or to pay penance for their sins.“It’s an act of gratitude for all that God has given me, and a way to ask for forgiveness for all the bad I’ve done to be a better person,” said Martín Cazares, 42, who has participated in the march for tw...

Kamala Harris leads Tennessee rally, backs ousted lawmakers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris made a last-minute trip Friday to Tennessee where she called for tougher firearm laws and criticized the Republican-controlled state House, which hours earlier expelled two Black Democratic lawmakers for their role in a protest calling for more gun control following a school shooting in Nashville. Harris received wild applause and several standing ovations as she told a crowd at Nashville’s historically Black Fisk University that the so-called Tennessee Three — ousted Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson and a third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, who avoided expulsion by a single vote — were being, in her words, silenced and stifled for standing up for the lives of schoolchildren. “Let’s understand the underlying issue is about fighting for the safety of our children,” Harris said. “It’s been years now where they are taught to read and write and hide in a closet and be quiet if there’s a mass shooter at their school, where our childre...

Reynolds stars as Pirates drill White Sox in Cutch’s return

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Bryan Reynolds homered and drove in six runs and the Pittsburgh Pirates celebrated Andrew McCutchen’s homecoming with a 13-9 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday.Reynolds hit a two-run homer in the third and a bases-clearing triple in the fifth. Reynolds popped up and raced home when the relay throw from Chicago second baseman Elvis Andrus skipped by third baseman Yoán Moncada. Reynolds’ five home runs this season are the most by a Pirate through seven games since Hall of Famer Willie Stargell in 1971. McCutchen, who signed a one-year deal in January to rejoin the team he starred for earlier in his career, went 2 for 5 in his first game at PNC Park as a member of the Pirates since September 2017.The five-time All-Star and 2013 National League MVP received a loud ovation when he stepped to the plate in the first. Home plate umpire Ryan Wills, making an exception to MLB’s new pitch-clock rules, allowing the 36-year-old McCutchen to take in the m...

Con espinas y engrillados: mexicanos conmemoran dolorosamente el Viernes Santo

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

PUEBLA, México – Con fe y dolor, salieron este Viernes Santo a las calles los engrillados, mexicanos que se colocan cadenas y espinas en el cuerpo para peregrinar por el municipio de Atlixco, del estado de Puebla, centro del país.Los participantes acudieron desde temprano al santuario de Santa María de Guadalupe para prepararse y realizar su recorrido, que comienzan con una oración para que todo salga bien.Los hombres se despojan de su ropa para quedarse con una túnica pequeña que simula un taparrabo, que es lo único que cubrirá su cuerpo, mientras unos van descalzos y otros en sandalias. A pesar del rechazo de la Iglesia, filipinos recrean sus famosas crucifixiones en Viernes Santo En video: así es cómo Filipinas conmemora el Viernes Santo Se colocan en el atrio de la iglesia para iniciar el ritual, en el que primero se cubren los rostros con telas, algunas con dos agujeros para los ojos, mientras otros esperan la guía de u...

US judge in Washington state orders feds to keep access to abortion pill, countering ruling from Texas judge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:30 GMT

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — US judge in Washington state orders feds to keep access to abortion pill, countering ruling from Texas judge.Source