29 Jun 2024

True to word, Carlos Correa back in Twins’ lineup after hit-by-pitch scare

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SEATTLE — In the minutes after the game ended on Thursday, not long after he had been hit by a pitch on the right arm by Diamondbacks reliever Bryce Jarvis and walked off the field in pain, Carlos Correa was already talking about playing the next day.

It seemed improbable, at least from the outside looking in.

After he was hit, he immediately raised his right arm, holding it up with his left arm and walking straight to the dugout rather than taking his base. His hand, at that point, was numb and his reaction suggested he might have suffered some kind of fracture.

But the Twins avoided the worst, getting an X-ray done before the end of the game, which was negative for a fracture.

“We got lucky and it was a legitimately scary time for us but reasonably quickly, he knew that he was OK,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The player normally does know before anyone else if he’s really OK or if there’s a question mark about an injury like that.”

And to his word, Correa was in the Twins’ starting lineup on Friday, hitting second against the Seattle Mariners.

“It was a little scary situation, but I’m glad that I woke up feeling great and we’re back in the lineup,” Correa said. “That’s where I want to be.”

Feeling great? Really?

“It’s going to be sore,” he finally admitted. “But it’s fine. It’s fine.”

And that’s a good thing for the Twins, because their star shortstop has been a key piece in making the offense go, especially of late.

Correa’s June saw him win an American League Player of the Week honor and entering Friday’s game, he was hitting .309 with a .380 on-base percentage and .873 OPS.

His 148 OPS+ is a mark that is both 48 percent better than the league average hitter and well above his own career mark of 126.

“He’s been exceptional. He’s hammering balls on a regular basis,” Baldelli said. “When you see him going the way he’s going, the team goes well. We score runs. When he starts going, too, other guys start feeding off of some of it.”

Willi Castro makes all-star case

Last week, Correa was touting Willi Castro as the team’s Most Valuable Player.

This week, Baldelli was talking up the utilityman’s all-star credentials.

Castro, who has played in every Twins’ game this season, moves around the field adeptly and he’s having perhaps his most productive season offensively, entering Friday’s contest hitting .277 with an .820 OPS. His 2.9 fWAR (Wins Above Replacement per FanGraphs) leads the team.

“I think he’s firmly in that conversation,” Baldelli said. “I don’t know how much more clear it can be that he’s having an all-star season. He’s done a fantastic job.”

No Twins player advanced to the second round of All-Star Game fan voting, which is used to determine the starting position players. The reserves and pitchers will be selected by a combination of the Commissioner’s Office and player ballot, and will be revealed on July 7.

Nobody from the Commissioner’s Office consults Baldelli, he said, but he’s hoping to see multiple players rewarded for their efforts.

“We have several players having fantastic years and I think it would be, I would say, at this point, it would be a travesty to only have one guy on the all-star team,” Baldelli said.

Briefly

Pablo López will take the mound on Saturday opposed by Bryce Miller. López is coming off his most dominant start of the season, an eight-inning effort in which he gave up just two hits and struck out 14.

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29 Jun 2024

Wild trade up in 2024 NHL Draft, select Denver University defenseman Zeev Buium

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LAS VEGAS — With the draft board falling in their favor, Wild general manager Bill Guerin couldn’t wait any longer.

Not even another pick.

After working the phones on Friday night at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Guerin acquired the No. 12 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft from the Philadelphia Flyers, then used it to select Denver University defenseman Zeev Buium.

In order to facilitate the trade, the Wild flipped the No. 13 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft to the Flyers, along with a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft to sweeten the deal.

This was largely regarded as a steal for the Wild with Buium projected to go much higher in many of the mock drafts. As a freshman at Denver University last season, Buium, 18, posted 50 points (11 goals, 39 assists) in 42 games while helping the Pioneers win the national championship.

Elsewhere, the San Jose Sharks made the pick everybody thought they’d make, selecting Boston University center Macklin Celebrini with the No. 1 pick. He won the Hobey Baker as a freshman and is expected to compete for a roster spot as soon as this season.

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29 Jun 2024

St. Paul man sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison for two sexual assaults five years apart

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One of Francisco Alejandro Chale’s sexual assault victims stood before him in court Friday and listened as her sister read a statement on her behalf.

“I went out that night to spend time with my best friend,” she said. “He went out that night to hurt someone.”

Francisco Alejandro Chale (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Chale, 29, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct in April for raping the woman in May 2022 in St. Paul after she got into his car thinking it was an Uber following a night of drinking at a downtown Minneapolis bar.

Chale also pleaded guilty to a June 2022 charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for assaulting a woman in his car in St. Paul in February 2017.

Ramsey County District Judge Joy Bartscher followed a plea agreement, which included imposing consecutive sentences for each offense, and gave Chale a total of 19½ years in prison. Charges of kidnapping to facilitate a felony and false imprisonment were dismissed, per the agreement.

Chale has an open third-degree criminal sexual conduct case in Hennepin County, with charges alleging he assaulted a vulnerable adult in his van in Richfield in May 2021. A jury trial is scheduled for July 8.

Thought it was an Uber

According to the criminal complaint in the 2022 attack, a resident in the 700 block of Slate Street on St. Paul’s West Side reported about 4 a.m. May 15 that a distraught woman had pounded on his door and said she was just raped by an unknown man.

Officers located the woman pacing and crying and wearing a dress that was partially ripped. She was transported to Regions Hospital, where she gave police a statement and underwent a sexual assault examination.

She reported getting into a car she thought was an Uber in Minneapolis and that she was taken against her will to St. Paul where the suspect, later identified as Chale, threatened to kill her and raped her. She said she was able to break away from the man and run to a nearby house.

She told police she and two friends, identified as AG and DJS, had gone to a bar and met up with other people. The woman said she had “lots” of drinks and at closing time she and AG decided to walk to DJS’s apartment, according to the charges.

The woman reported that she was going in and out of consciousness and that she lost AG as they were walking. She said she became more alert when she realized she was in the passenger seat of a car driven by an unknown man whom she believed to be of Hispanic descent.

When the vehicle stopped, the woman said she tried to open the car door because she sensed something was wrong. She said the man then “jumped” on top of her from the driver’s seat and raped her, the complaint read. She said she somehow fell out of the vehicle.

The woman’s sister told police that she received a text from her with the word “Help” at about 3:30 a.m.

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AG reported to police that said she was extremely intoxicated and trying to find an Uber or a ride. She said a car pulled up to her and the woman along Third Avenue South in downtown Minneapolis just after 3 a.m. and they got inside. AG said she told the driver that they were going to St. Paul. He later commented on their looks and touched both the women, she told police. AG said she got out of the car and the driver sped off with the other woman still in the car.

Video and audio from a church in the 600 block of Livingston Avenue in St. Paul indicated a struggle off camera and a male with a Latino accent telling someone to get back into the car. A short time later, the woman is seen running through the church parking lot and then falling to the ground, where she remained for several minutes.

DNA profiling taken during the sexual assault examination, and a known sample obtained from Chale in an unrelated criminal sexual conduct investigation, revealed a match, the complaint says.

Earlier victim met up with ‘Oscar’

The woman assaulted in 2017 told police the day of the attack that she had been introduced to the man by a friend. She reported that she only knew him as “Oscar” and that he had a Facebook profile name of “Oscar Hernandez.”

She told police that she agreed to meet up with him to talk and that they ended up in his car near her East Side apartment complex. Chale told the woman, “You should give me a Mexican baby” and tried to kiss her. She rebuffed his advances, and he locked the car doors and forcibly groped her, the charges say.

She told him to stop, and he tried ripping her pants off. He got her pants partially down and masturbated.

“Oscar’s” true identity was not known to St. Paul police until March 10, 2022, when they received a report from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension stating that swabs taken from the woman’s neck and breast during a sexual assault examination on the day of the assault matched Chale’s DNA, according to the charges.

Investigators located the woman to inform her of the results. She said that though she never saw her attacker again after the assault more than five years ago, she remembered his face and would be able to identify him. A police investigator administered a sequential photo lineup and she identified Chale “with 100 percent certainty.”

‘Did I deserve this?’

The woman in the 2022 attack said Friday that she will always wonder why he chose to rape her that night.

“Why did it have to be me? Did I look easy? Was my dress too short or was I too drunk? … Did I deserve this?” she told the court.

She said she is “feeling the weight of responsibility for standing up for others that went through this nightmare, too.”

She said she hopes she can “feel safe again … that one day I can enjoy the quiet of the night, and I hope the nightmares will stop.”

Before imposing Chale’s sentence, Bartscher asked him if there was anything he wanted to say. “No, ma’am,” he said.

Bartscher told the woman that she was courageous.

“And I say the same thing often to folks like you or people in your situation, but this is only one part of your life,” the judge said. “This should not define you, and I hope that you can make it to a point where you can get beyond this.”

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28 Jun 2024

This is how the US-built pier to bring aid to Gaza has worked — or not

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. military-built pier has been pulled again from the Gaza shore due to rough seas, and its future role in the distribution of aid to Palestinians is uncertain.

Humanitarian aid groups stopped distributing supplies that arrived by sea on June 9 due to security concerns and have not started again. U.S. officials say the pier may not be reinstalled unless aid agencies reach an agreement to begin distributing the aid again. Meanwhile, food and other provisions shipped from Cyprus are piling up on shore, and soon the the secure area on the beach in Gaza will reach capacity.

It’s been a long and difficult road for the pier, which has been battered by weather and troubled by security problems. Here’s a look at how it started and where it is now.

March: announcement and prep

MARCH 7: President Joe Biden announces his plan for the U.S. military to build a pier during his State of the Union address.

“Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” he said.

But even in those first few moments, he noted the pier would increase the amount of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza but that Israel “must do its part” and let more aid in.

MARCH 8: Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, tells reporters it will take “up to 60 days” to deploy the forces and build the project.

MARCH 12: Four U.S. Army boats loaded with tons of equipment and steel pier segments leave Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia and head to the Atlantic Ocean for what is expected to be a monthlong voyage to Gaza.

The brigade’s commander, Army Col. Sam Miller, warns that the transit and construction will be heavily dependent on the weather and any high seas they encounter.

LATE MARCH: U.S. Army vessels hit high seas and rough weather as they cross the Atlantic, slowing their pace.

April: construction and hope

APRIL 1: Seven World Central Kitchen aid workers are killed in an Israeli airstrike as they travel in clearly marked vehicles on a delivery mission authorized by Israel.

The strike fuels ongoing worries about security for relief workers and prompts aid agencies to pause delivery of humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

APRIL 19: U.S. officials confirm that the U.N. World Food Program has agreed to help deliver aid brought to Gaza via the maritime route once construction is done.

APRIL 25: Major construction of the port facility on the shore near Gaza City begins to take shape. The onshore site is where aid from the causeway will be delivered and given to aid agencies.

APRIL 30: Satellite photos show the U.S. Navy ship USNS Roy P. Benavidez and Army vessels working on assembling the pier and causeway about 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) from the port on shore.

May: The pier opens … then closes

MAY 9: The U.S. vessel Sagamore is the first ship loaded with aid to leave Cyprus and head toward Gaza and ultimately the pier. An elaborate security and inspection station has been built in Cyprus to screen the aid coming from a number of countries.

MAY 16: Well past the 60-day target time, the construction and assembly of the pier off the Gaza coast and the causeway attached to the shoreline are finished after more than a week of weather and other delays.

MAY 17: The first trucks carrying aid for the Gaza Strip roll down the newly built pier and into the secure area on shore, where they will be unloaded and the cargo distributed to aid agencies for delivery by truck into Gaza.

May 18: Crowds of desperate Palestinians overrun a convoy of aid trucks coming from the pier, stripping the cargo from 11 of the 16 vehicles before they reach a U.N. warehouse for distribution.

May 19-20: The first food from the pier — a limited number of high-nutrition biscuits — reaches people in need in central Gaza, according to the World Food Program.

Aid organizations suspend deliveries from the pier for two days while the U.S. works with Israel to open alternate land routes from the pier and improve security.

MAY 24: So far, a bit more than 1,000 metric tons of aid has been delivered to Gaza via the U.S.-built pier, and USAID later says all of it has been distributed within Gaza.

MAY 25: High winds and heavy seas damage the pier and cause four U.S. Army vessels operating there to become beached, injuring three service members, including one who is in critical condition.

Two vessels went aground in Gaza near the base of the pier and two went aground near Ashkelon in Israel.

MAY 28: Large portions of the causeway were pulled from the beach and moved to an Israeli port for repairs. The base of the causeway remains at the Gaza shore.

June: big crises for the pier

JUNE 7: The damaged causeway was rebuilt and reconnected to the beach in Gaza.

JUNE 8: The U.S. military announced that deliveries resumed off the repaired and reinstalled dock.

The same day, Israel rescued four hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks in an operation that killed 270 Palestinians.

JUNE 9: World Food Program chief Cindy McCain announced a “pause” in cooperation with the U.S. pier during a TV interview, citing the previous day’s “incident” and the rocketing of two WFP warehouses that injured a staffer.

JUNE 10: WFP said the U.N. would conduct a security review to assess the safety of its staff in handling aid deliveries from the pier. In the meantime, the U.S. military said it would stockpile aid shipments on a secure beach in Gaza.

Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said no aspect of the pier or its equipment had been used in Israel’s rescue operation. The Pentagon says an area south of the pier was used for the return of the freed hostages back to Israel.

JUNE 14: The pier was detached from the beach in Gaza to prevent damage during rough seas and allow the military to reattach it more quickly later, U.S. officials said.

JUNE 19: The pier was re-anchored in Gaza and more than 656 metric tons, or 1.4 million pounds, of aid was delivered in the hours after it resumed operations, Ryder said.

Aid agencies, however, did not restart their distribution of the aid, so workers have been storing it in the secure area.

JUNE 28: The pier is removed due to weather, and the U.S. is considering not putting it back unless aid begins heading again to Palestinians in need, several U.S. officials said.

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