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Fairfax Co. eighth-grader finishes second at Scripps National Spelling Bee

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.Charlotte Walsh, representing Fairfax County, was one of 11 spellers to reach Thursday’s finals of the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee. (E. M. Pio Roda / Scripps National Spelling Bee)Fairfax County eighth-grader Charlotte Walsh was the runner-up in the 95th Scripps National Spelling Bee.Walsh, 14, from Compass Homeschool Enrichment, survived 13 rounds of spelling and word definitions before being tripped up by “daviely” in the 14th round of the finals Thursday night. She spelled the word “daevillick.”Dev Shah of Largo, Fla., then correctly spelled “psammophile” in the championship round to win the bee and a $50,000 first prize.Walsh was the only speller from Virginia and one of only 11 spellers to survive the first eight rounds of competition to reach the finals of the event, which was...

Mike Johnston fires back about campaign contributions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Tuesday is the last day for Denver voters to cast their ballots in the runoff race, which will decide the city’s next mayor. As part of the last week of campaigning, candidate Kelly Brough released a new ad highlighting political contributions her opponent Mike Johnston received from out-of-state billionaires.Johnston is backed by the super PAC Advancing Denver, which has raised more than $4 million this election cycle. More than half that money comes from three wealthy donors: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former DaVita CEO Kent Thiry. Johnston responds to the criticism this week on "Colorado Point of View." These Denver neighborhoods are at max pot capacity At first, the Denver mayoral candidate highlighted other campaign contributions.“We're very proud of the fact that we have more than 3,000 donations from Denver voters. We have more small donations. We have the smallest average donation size … more total don...

NBA fans in 'Little Serbia' of the US root for the Nuggets

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — The Mile High City will be joined by fans in the Windy City as the Denver Nuggets make the team’s first run at an NBA championship.Chicago is known to have the largest Serbian population in the United States and is at times referred to as "Little Serbia."One of those Serbs is Milos Popratnjak. In 2016, he was in his native country when he watched a young Nikola Jokic take on Puerto Rico in the FIBA Basketball World Cup finals.“I think he had something like a 30, 20, 10 game. It was so effortless,” Popratnjak said. NBA fans loved Nikola Jokic’s answer when asked if he’s the best player on the Nuggets He hasn’t missed watching a game the Joker is in ever since.Vladamir Kurcubic runs Stefan Restaurant Café Bar in Chicago. The Serbian spot will likely be packed with fans throughout the NBA Finals run.“He’s so admirable. Such a good player and one of the best players we’ve ever had,” Kurcubic said.He admits he is a Chicago Bulls fan, but as a proud Serbian and fan of th...

‘Sanctuary’ cast elevates tedious tale of kinks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

MOVIE REVIEW“Sanctuary”Rated R. At the Coolidge Corner.Grade: B+Kinky and notably meta, “Sanctuary” places two very beautiful people played by rising American stars Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott on the screen in very provocative BDSM circumstances and asks us if it is “real,” manufactured by one of its players or just actors playing roles for the camera.Can it be all of those things? Is it a more pretentious “50 Shades of Grey?”Meet Hal Porterfield (Abbott). He’s the heir to a hotel chain dynasty. He lives in the sort of splendor that appears to have been conjured up in the mind of an interior decorator specializing in posh hotel suites. We hear him order a ridiculously indulgent dinner ending with a hot fudge sundae. What is he, 12? He has a dominatrix for hire pretending to be a lawyer named Rebecca (Qualley, “Fosse/Verdon”)). It isn’t long before her true identity is revealed and the fireworks begin…in the bathroom.Directed by New York City-based film ...

Woodward: How an off-mission CDC got COVID wrong

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

How does an agency named the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fail to “control or prevent” a pandemic like COVID-19?Because it was off-mission, said Dr. Brian Miller with the American Enterprise Institute. Instead of intensely focusing on tracking communicable diseases and fighting infections, the agency wandered into “woke” issues like fighting racism and advocating gun control. When a novel coronavirus hit, the CDC wasn’t ready.Miller, who is also a practicing hospitalist at Johns Hopkins University, laid out his case at the Common Sense Public Health Roundtable hosted by InsideSources.“Their mission has drifted,” Miller said, turning attention and resources to “things such as the environment, racism or gun violence.”While acknowledging those are important issues, Miller notes they are far afield from the CDC’s responsibilities.“Take environmental health and climate change, for example,” Miller said. “Would you like the CDC focusing on that? Or would you like the Environ...

‘Shooting Stars’ shoots, scores as winning tale of young LeBron James

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

MOVIE REVIEW“Shooting Stars”Rated PG-13. On Peacock.Grade: B+Based on the 2009 book by Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger (“Friday Night Lights”) and nicely directed by Chris Robinson (“Woke”), “Shooting Stars” is the 1990s-set coming-of-age story of James and his “Fab Four” crew of fellow basketball enthusiasts with whom he played and grew up in Akron, Ohio.When we meet James (Marquis “Mookie” Cook, making his debut) and his closest friends and surrogate brothers Lil Dru (Caleb McLaughlin, “Stranger Things”), Willy McGee (Avery S. Willis Jr, “Swagger”) and Sian Cotton (Khalil Everage, “Cobra Kai”), they are together in the basement of Lil Dru’s house, which he shares with his father Dru Joyce (an excellent Wood Harris), a some time basketball coach and mother Carolyn (Diane Howard). LeBron lives with his single mother Gloria James (Natalie Paul), who is an enormous influence on him and who will work as many shifts as pos...

Franks: Dems give hypocrisy a bad name on education

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

“Public schools are good for your kids but not good for… my kids?”This should be the Democrat Party’s motto. They practice this hypocrisy, and sadly, get away with it. The liberal media is AWOL on challenging them.Democrats would say “let public funds be used only for public schools.” Translation: If you do not have the personal means, you are screwed; you have no school choice. That is not very American. All children should have an equal opportunity at success with no child being trapped in a failing school.Why can’t people take their resources (public funds derived from taxes paid) with them to the school of their choice? Why should only the wealthy be able to choose the school of their choice?The landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 changed America for the better. “With all deliberate speed,” it put us on course for a desegregated educational system meant in the bigger picture to convert us into an integrated society with no second-class citizens.For decades, th...

‘The Boogeyman’ delivers a Stephen King scare package

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

MOVIE REVIEW“The Boogeyman”Rated PG-13. At AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters.Grade: BWorking with writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods – who co-wrote “A Quiet Place” with John Krasinski – and also writer Mark Heyman (“Black Swan”), British director Rob Savage (“Host”) brings us “The Boogeyman,” a film based on a short story by the master of modern horror Stephen King. We all know how much King loves scaring his “children” aka readers with stories about kids being terrified by all the manifold horrors of childhood (psychotic clowns, ghost twins, insane parents, the thing in the water, possessed cars, vampires, etc.). The truth is that King just loves scaring himself (his vast output has not been “work;” it has been a runaway train of addictive self-amusement).In the amusingly titled “The Boogeyman,” King and director Savage go to something as primal as they get: the thing lurking in every child’s closet that comes out and gets them when they are a...

Editorial: BU hit by cancel culture, disruption theater

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

Noise is not wisdom, and obscenities are not the foundation of reasonable argument.Those facts were lost on the graduating students who booed and hurled obscenities at Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav during the May 21 commencement ceremony.Members of the Writers Guild of America picketed outside Nickerson Field, and it was the union’s strike that fueled the debacle.If the intent was to bring about an end to the strike with a favorable outcome for writers, it was a pointless display. If the desired effect, however, was to engage in disruption for disruption’s sake, then the sorry show was a hit.An angry Robert Brown, retiring president of Boston University, called out the alums for “cancel culture.” As the Herald reported, Brown slammed the students  “who were appallingly coarse and deliberately abusive to Mr. Zaslav.”“Our students were not picking a fight,” Brown wrote in a post on BU’s website Wednesday. “They were attempting to implement the cancel culture that...

Dear Abby: Boy’s sensitivity worries his grandmother

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:50:45 GMT

Dear Abby: My grandson is 6 and very sensitive, maybe too sensitive. He’s also lovable, super scientific-minded, good-hearted and generous with his little sister. However, he still uses a diaper at night and has CVS (cyclical vomiting syndrome). It’s heartbreaking. For that reason, he’s on a special gluten- free, no flour, no chocolate diet.The other day at school (he is in kindergarten), they had a presentation with a magician about the danger of drugs and alcohol. Just to let you know, his parents are very much into teaching their kids morals and values, and they only let him watch cartoons like “Paw Patrol” and similar programs. No movies and no TV in general. (Abby, isn’t this too early to introduce the subject of drugs and alcohol to children in school?) My grandson asked, “What are drugs and what is alcohol?” Long story short, he was super scared and started to cry in class.The school called his parents and he came home devastate...