Month: November 2017

Houston needed seven games to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers, and rode George Springer’s home run streak to the franchise’s first championship

With a World Series title at stake Wednesday night, the Houston Astros jumped out to an early 5-0 lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers and held on to win the first Major League Baseball championship in franchise history.

The deciding Game 7 lacked some of the dramatics of the back-and-forth series that set a record for home runs in a World Series and included two extra-inning games.

But Astros right fielder George Springer punctuated Wednesday’s contest, and his dazzling series, with a two-run home run in the second inning. It was his fourth consecutive game with a home run, and his five total in the World Series tied a record held by two other players.

Springer earned series Most Valuable Player honors for his performance. After the game, he said it was one of the happiest days of his life.

“This is a dream come true. It’s an honor. But you know what, it’s about the Houston Astros tonight and our city and our fans. We’re coming home a champion, Houston,” Springer said.

​From worst to first

Four years ago, the Astros were baseball’s worst team by a large margin, losing 111 games. This year, they were one of the best, winning 101 games during the regular season with a roster full of young stars including Venezuelan Jose Altuve and Puerto Rico native Carlos Correa.

The team was also a sentimental favorite after Houston was devastated by Hurricane Harvey in late August, and players played with “Houston Strong” patches on the front of their jerseys.

“We did this for them,” Altuve said after Wednesday’s game. “I know it’s been a lot going on in Houston since last year, but this is because of them, they are the biggest reason why we’re here playing every day.”

Correa also said it was special to win a championship for Houston and to represent hurricane-battered Puerto Rico.

“Being able to bring joy, happiness to their lives in this moment right now it’s really special. The same for my people in Puerto Rico, I love you so much,” Correa said.

On the field after the game Correa added to the joy of Wednesday night by asking his girlfriend, Daniella Rodriguez, to marry him. She said yes.

​Dodgers falter in post-season

The Dodgers were the league’s best team during the regular season with 104 wins, but failed in their attempt to win their first World Series since 1988.

Springer’s home run knocked Dodgers starting pitcher Yu Darvish from the game, continuing a trend in the series of starters exiting games early because of ineffectiveness. For Darvish, whose mother is Japanese and whose father is Iranian, it was the second poor performance of the World Series after he failed to complete two innings in a Game 3 loss.

The Dodgers acquired Darvish in a midseason trade, hoping to solidify an elite pitching staff that included ace Clayton Kershaw. The Astros made their own trade for pitcher Justin Verlander, who played an integral role in their march through the playoffs and allowed just five hits in his two World Series starts.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described how the final game got away from his team so early.

“The walk, the double, and then next thing you know Springer hits a homer and you’re down 5-0, so it happened very quick. And we did what we could to kind of damage control and keep us in the ball game, but we really couldn’t break through tonight.”

But while the Dodgers scored only one run in Game 7 after averaging more than five runs per game in the series, Roberts said he told the team they should be proud of how they played.

“It hurts. It’s supposed to hurt. But there’s nothing to regret when you leave it all out there,” he said.
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U.S. officials said Wednesday that they have proposed ending the Obama administration’s ban on new uranium mining leases on public land outside Grand Canyon National Park.

The Forest Service proposed the change in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order for federal agencies to eliminate restrictions on energy production. The Trump administration has moved to unravel former President Barack Obama’s environmental regulations aimed at curbing climate change.

“Adoption of this recommendation could reopen lands to mineral entry pursuant to the United States mining laws facilitating exploration for, and possibly development of, uranium resources,” according to a report last week by the Forest Service’s parent agency, the Department of Agriculture.

The Oct. 25 report also said it’s in the national interest “to promote the clean and safe development of America’s vast energy resources.” Nuclear power plants use uranium as fuel.

Conservationists are decrying the Forest Service’s move, saying that past uranium mining in the region has polluted soils, washes, aquifers and drinking water.

“The Forest Service should be advocating for a permanent mining ban, not for advancing private mining interests that threaten one of the natural wonders of the world,” said Amber Reimondo, energy program director of the Grand Canyon Trust based in Flagstaff.

In 2012, then-Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar banned new hard rock mining for 20 years on more than 1 million acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management land near the Grand Canyon. He said he was acting to protect a “priceless American landscape.”

The ban did not affect existing mining claims in the region.

 
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Los Angeles is preparing to stage the 2028 Olympic Games, and hopes to avoid the high costs that have hurt other host cities in recent years. In some cases, financial worries prompted other cities to drop their bid to host Olympic games. But organizers in Los Angeles are applying lessons in efficiency and frugality from previous times the city staged the Olympics. The games in 1932 and 1984 produced significant surpluses. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports.
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In a vast, subterranean space in New York City, three flights down from the largest sound stage east of Hollywood, 80,000 costumes await their return to the limelight.

This is the TDF Costume Collection, run by the not-for-profit Theater Development Fund. The clothing and accessories have been donated from Broadway, Off Broadway, opera, film, and regional productions. And they are all available for rent, but not to anyone, says collection director Steven Cabral.

“We’re not renting for Halloween, and we’re not renting for parties with food or liquids where something could happen to the costume. But if you’re doing something that seems of an artistic nature in some way, we’re going to be able to rent to you.” And, he notes, there’s a little bit of everything in the collection – from medieval suits of armor to outfits from the 1920’s to modern ball gowns.

He says TDF got into the costume business in the mid-1960s, when the Metropolitan Opera was about to move into a new home in Lincoln Center. “They had [costumes for] 22 full operas that they knew that they would not be taking with them, but they didn’t want to just toss away. So TDF took on all of these old productions from the Met, and began to, at a very, very, very inexpensive rate, rent out these costumes.”

High school, college and community theater groups, movie production companies and TV shows have all taken advantage of the incredible variety of costumes in the collection. Opera companies can find whatever they need here.

Cabral points out a gown from a Met production of Lucia di Lammermoor, which was once shipped to an opera company in the Midwest. Cabral recalls a phone call he got later from the company director, who told him, ‘You had one of my singers in tears last night.’

“The person being fitted for this costume was a young opera singer,” he says, “and when she saw the costume, and saw that it had the Metropolitan Opera label, and it said wedding scene, and it said Beverly Sills. The young woman broke down because she couldn’t believe that she was so fortunate to not only wear Metropolitan Opera, but to wear something owned by Beverly Sills.”

Costumes from the Met are built to last, so when they arrive, they go into a small room of “special stock.” After these costumes have seen their share of use, they’re moved into “regular stock.” And once they start looking shabby, they might go into the “distressed” section. Or they could go straight to the semi-annual bag sale, where Cabral says there’s a set price for everything you can stuff into one bag.

“And the rule is, we just don’t ever want to see the costume again.”

Because there’s always a new crop of donations waiting for space on the TDF racks.
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The head organizer of the 2010 World Cup has denied raping a singer and former South African ruling party lawmaker 24 years ago.

Danny Jordaan, the head of South African soccer, released a statement through his lawyer to deny the allegations made by Jennifer Ferguson, who said in a series of online posts that she was raped by Jordaan at a hotel in South Africa in 1993.

Ferguson made the claim two weeks ago, using the hashtag #MeToo, an online campaign denouncing sexual assault and harassment.

In the statement, Jordaan’s lawyer, Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi, said Jordaan denies raping Ferguson.

Jordaan was criticized in South Africa for taking so long to respond, but his lawyer said “Dr. Jordaan’s perceived silence in the face of such serious allegations is because of his empathy with the victims of gender-based violence. Dr. Jordaan has, however, after careful consideration decided to assert his innocence.”

The lawyer said Ferguson’s allegations must be tested in court.

Ferguson said she didn’t report the rape because she was “too ashamed to go through the reporting procedure.” She said she met Jordaan at a hotel where she was performing. She claimed Jordaan followed her back to her room and raped her.
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The steakhouse at Harrah’s New Orleans Casino is now called BH Steak _ instead of Besh Steak.

The change, reported by New Orleans media, comes a week after the casino broke ties with celebrity chef John Besh. The action followed an investigative story by NOLA.comThe Times-Picayune about allegations of sexual harassment involving the business.

The story outlined the claims of women who said they were victims of sexual harassment by male co-workers and bosses in the Besh Restaurant Group. Besh stepped down from his management role in the business after the story was published.

The name BH Steak honors William “Bill” Harrah, who founded the Harrah’s gambling empire in the 1930s.
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The Olympic flame begins a long cross-country journey through South Korea Wednesday that marks the official countdown to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

A plane carrying the iconic Olympic flame landed in Incheon International Airport earlier in the day after a flight from Athens, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games. Moments after its arrival, Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon used the flame to light a ceremonial cauldron and a specially designed torch.

Later Wednesday, the torch will begin a 2,018-kilometer, 100-day relay to Pyeongchang in time for the opening ceremony on February 9, 2018. Teenage figure skating star You Young will be the first of 7,500 torchbearers that will carry the Olympic flame through nine provinces, eight major cities and over 150 counties and districts before arriving at its final destination.

The Olympic flame last burned over South Korea during the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.

Final preparations for the 16-day Pyeongchang Olympics are taking place under the cloud of rising tensions with rival North Korea over its nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile tests, with only 340,000 tickets sold so far.
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