Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions after 10 p.m. today. The moon is in Pisces.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

This is a great day to make art, which is good news for your sign as so many of you are artisans. (You can do anything with your hands, even without training.) Enjoy time alone and give yourself the luxury of doing what you want to do.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Iraq vote, Hezbollah threat levelled at US troops in Mideast

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military presence in the Middle East was thrown into jeopardy Sunday, as Iraq's parliament voted to expel U.S. troops from their country while the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said the U.S. military across the region “will pay the price” for killing a top Iranian general.

Hassan Nasrallah said that U.S. bases, warships and soldiers in the Middle East were all fair targets after the U.S. drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the architect of many of Iran's regional military campaigns in recent years.

The two developments were new signs of the backlash from Friday's killing of Soleimani and a number of top Iraqi officials at the Baghdad airport, and further heightened tensions in a region already on high alert and bracing for an Iranian retaliation.

Later Sunday, at least three explosions shook the Iraqi capital and sirens sounded across the Tigris River. The blasts appeared to be mortars or rockets that landed inside the heavily fortified Green Zone where the U.S. and other embassies are based, as well as the seat of Iraq's government. There was no immediate word on casualties. It was the second such attack in two days.

Todd Frazier brings passion, power to US Olympic baseball

LITTLE FALLS, N.J. (AP) — Sitting in the dugout at tiny Yogi Berra Stadium as he prepared to play for the Frontier League’s Sussex County Miners, Todd Frazier recalled reading a quote from former Yankees teammate Masahiro Tanaka vowing Japan’s baseball team will win an Olympic gold medal.

“I didn’t know Masa talks like that,” the 35-year-old third baseman said. “You play for your country, you see some inner beast in people that you’ve never seen before. The quietest of people come out and roar like lions. The loudest of people come out and are like gazelles. And you just see the craziest thing.”

Frazier has experience playing Japan. Back when he was 12 years old in 1998, he went 4 for 4 and pitched two-hit ball over the final two innings as his Toms River East American team beat Kashima 12-9 in the final to win the Little League World Series.

Now near the end of his playing days, the two-time All-Star is the emotional force on the 24-man American roster headed to Yokohama for the six-nation Olympic tournament starting July 28 that also includes the Dominican Republic, Israel, host Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

Most incumbents regain their seats… but not all

When it comes to civic elections, voters like incumbents — but that doesn’t mean they are always invincible.

Can’t have our cake and eat it, too

Last month, the City of Winnipeg said it would soon begin to study ways to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety along Osborne Street, which runs between two of the city’s densest neighbourhoods, where residents walk and bike for many of their daily activities. As someone who lives in South Osborne and who has frequented the shops and restaurants of the Village since my university days over 20 years ago, these changes can’t come soon enough.

Imagine my frustration when I read that this study of the street between Broadway and the St. Vital Bridge will take place “over the next year” to find “quick” solutions. We’ve all been through the COVID-19 pandemic, during which cities around the world found rapid solutions to improve safety and encourage more walking, biking and transit. Entire manuals have been published on easy things our city could try, literally this weekend, to improve the safety of Osborne Street.

Perhaps the reason this project is going to take a year can be found in this quote from David Patman, the city’s manager of transportation: “Osborne Street is currently serving multiple, competing functions … It exists in a dense, pedestrian-oriented development area that is close to rapid transit, which is at odds with the high flow of motor vehicles that travel daily along the corridor.”

Mr. Patman has correctly identified Osborne Street as a “stroad”. A stroad is a dangerous, inefficient combination of a street and a road. Stroads try to be the best of both worlds, and they fail at both. Charles Marohn, author of Strong Towns, offers the best analogy — a stroad is like a futon, which is both a terrible couch and an uncomfortable bed. You try to save money on two functions, but neither is right.