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MONROE COUNTY, Fla — (Editor's Note: The video above is from a previous report)
The state of Florida has given the green light to Oxitec, a U-K biotechnology company, to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in Monroe County starting this Spring.
It’s a controversial pilot program that began in the Florida Keys in 2021 to evaluate the effectiveness of Oxitec mosquitoes to control the invasive, disease-spreading Aedes aegypti mosquito.
According to an email obtained by First Coast News, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) approved extending the experimental use permit on Tuesday. The department says it does not and will not be making a formal announcement related to the issuance of any pesticide registration.
“Yesterday, FDACS authorized the distribution and experimental use of OX5034 AEDES AEGYPTI (EPA EUP NO. 93617-EUP-2) in Florida,” an email from the Division of Agricultural Environmental Services read.
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District has been working with Oxitec on field trials. Since 2021, millions of genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes have been strategically released in Monroe County as part of the Oxitec Mosquito Project.
In March, the EPA approved the release of 2.4 billion more in Monroe County and California over the next two years under an experimental use permit. Oxitec had to get approval from each state before proceeding. The mosquitoes are designed to kill biting females before they mature.
“The male mosquitoes, they don't bite," said Chad Huff with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. "They never take a blood meal from a human at all. They survive on nectar. They don't even have the mouth parts that make it able to take blood. It's really just using the instinctive knowledge of the male mosquito and finding a female, and then limiting the number of offspring that those females are able to have.”
Groups like Friends of the Earth have been calling for more transparency and independent, third-party reviews of the trials before any more mosquitoes are released.
“Poorly done, secretive science and lack of transparency is once again being rewarded with a free pass by government officials who are ignoring the voices of concerned scientists and those most impacted.” said Dana Perls, Emerging Technology Program Manager at Friends of the Earth. “First in Brazil, and now in Florida, government agencies have missed the mark and promoted the interests of a private corporation over public health and ecosystem protection.”
According to the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District – Oxitec Mosquito Project website, the 2022 project is expected to launch the week of May 9.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/state-of-florida-approves-the-release-of-millions-of-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-project-to-launch-next-week/77-06379874-8d49-4196-b5a0-dee4ece6bfcf
| 2022-05-05T14:26:13
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/state-of-florida-approves-the-release-of-millions-of-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-project-to-launch-next-week/77-06379874-8d49-4196-b5a0-dee4ece6bfcf
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VANCOUVER, Wash. — An effort to clear the backlog of DNA rape kits in Washington state fell short of a deadline set by lawmakers.
Washington State Patrol (WSP) was supposed to start processing all new kits involving DNA samples collected in rape investigations within 45 days, starting May 1. It’s part of a law passed in 2019 to address the state’s backlog of 10,000 untested rape kits. That backlog has since been reduced to about 1,700 kits, according to WSP. They hope to meet the 45 day turnaround goal for new kits by the end of 2022.
“We committed to cutting that wait time by 90% from 600 days to 45 days,” said WSP Director of Communications Chris Loftis. “We're almost there. Had it not been for COVID, we would have been there months and months ago.”
RELATED: Washington law enforcement agencies receive funding to expand storage for sexual assault evidence
Loftis said the state receives an average of 193 new rape kits a month. More staff and new robotics at their expanded Vancouver lab allow that facility to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help meet the demand. Kits with DNA samples created before May 1 have been outsourced to labs outside Washington to make more room.
For rape survivors like “Jane,” who didn’t want to be identified, the wait is still frustrating. More than eight months after she survived a sexual assault in Southwest Washington, she is still waiting for results from her rape kit.
“It shouldn't take this long for a rape kit to come back,” Jane told KGW. “You want justice for other people if this has happened to them by the same person.”
Loftis said of the 10,000 backlogged kits they've tested, roughly 25% have come back with usable data. Of those, about 10% contained DNA samples that matched suspect profiles in existing cases, including some from other states.
“That means we have a serial criminal,” said Loftis. “And so the assumption that those [backlogged kits] were of little to no investigatory or prosecutorial value was just simply wrong.”
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/washington-state-rape-kit-backlog-survivors/283-d0fd44da-312c-4602-a7fd-30931877b0c3
| 2022-05-05T14:28:10
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State of Florida allocates $4 million for project that'll widen Fruitville Road
Several local governments in Sarasota County will receive all of the items on their wish lists for state funding this year, as long as those items receive the approval of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Florida Legislature passed the state budget in mid-March, including money for a slew of local government projects around the state, including in Sarasota County.
The Legislature allocated $4 million for a project that will widen Fruitville Road between Debrecen Road and Lorraine Road and $700,000 for a plan to improve the St. Armands Circle streetscape, for example.
The Herald-Tribune has compiled a list of these projects, which all involve infrastructure improvements. However, the governor hasn’t signed the budget yet. DeSantis could remove any of the following projects from the budget through a line-item veto.
Background:Florida legislative session ends with vote on $112 billion state budget
In case you missed it:Sarasota governments ask state legislature for money for street projects and more
Money for the city of Sarasota
- $500,000 for the Legacy Trail extension and improvement project. The trail currently ends just east of downtown Sarasota, and the city wants to extend the path to the downtown area, to north Sarasota and to the barrier islands. The state funding would help pay for the design and construction of multiple segments of the trail.
- $400,000 for the Main Street streetscape improvement project, to enhance Main Street from Pineapple Avenue to Orange Avenue. The improvements include widening sidewalks by replacing angled parking with parallel parking and improving the landscaping and lighting. The state money would go toward the project design and engineering.
- $700,000 for the design and construction of the St. Armands Circle streetscape improvement project. The city is planning to improve sidewalks, hardscape and landscaping at the circle, which will “will improve the visitor experience and support the economic growth of this renowned commercial and business employment center,” Mayor Erik Arroyo said in a letter to DeSantis.
“St. Armands is our second-most visited attraction, aside from our beaches,” Arroyo told the Herald-Tribune. “And downtown attracts everyone from all walks of life.”
Funds for Sarasota County
- $4 million for a project widening Fruitville Road between Debrecen Road and Lorraine Road. The county is planning to add two through travel lanes to Fruitville and construct sidewalks and buffered bike lanes on both sides of the road, among other improvements.
- $2 million for the Regional Fire/EMS Training Academy that the county plans to build in mid-county. The new facility will provide training both to people wanting to become firefighters or EMTs and to individuals already in those fields. The state funding would be used to construct a training building at the academy.
- $1 million to assist with utility and broadband improvements. Sarasota County is planning to build three new buildings in mid-county, one of which is the fire academy. To provide utilities to these buildings, the county plans to construct water and sewer mains and a wastewater lift station. It also will install a fiber broadband connection.
Funds for Venice
- $850,000 for upgrades to the city of Venice’s water treatment plant. The plant currently uses single-stage reverse osmosis treatment. Because of Venice's population growth, the city’s current water production may not meet future needs, according to the request form for the state money. The city wants to increase plant capacity.
Money for Longboat Key
- $800,000 for improvements to the town of Longboat Key’s wastewater line, which takes sewage across Sarasota Bay and then underground to one of Manatee County’s wastewater treatment plants. State funding will help the town reline the aging pipe in mainland Manatee County.
Anne Snabes covers city and county government for the Herald-Tribune. You can contact her at asnabes@gannett.com or (941) 228-3321 and follow her on Twitter at @a_snabes.
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2022/05/05/sarasota-florida-fruitville-road-widening-project-poised-receive-state-money/7049758001/
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ATLANTA – Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John F. King announced that a Crisp County vehicle fire has been ruled an act of arson.
Officials with the Cordele Fire and Police Departments were dispatched just before 1 a.m. recently in response to reports of a 2010 Cadillac Escalade on fire on Second Street North in Cordele. An examination by the State Fire Investigations Unit found severe damage to the front and engine compartment area of the vehicle.
“My investigators determined this incident to be incendiary in nature,” King said in a Thursday news release. “Anyone with information on this fire should call my State Fire Investigations Unit at 1-800-282-504.”
In coordination with the State Fire Investigations Unit, a reward of up to $10,000 is offered by Georgia Arson Control for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for arson. King’s office is assisting the Cordele Police Department with this investigation.
More than 150,000 spectators will pack into Churchill Downs on May 7 to watch the 148th Kentucky Derby: the race that’s been dubbed the greatest two minutes in sports. Whether you’re picking a dark horse or sticking with the favorite, we at Stacker have ranked all the thoroughbreds running t… Click for more.
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/crisp-county-vehicle-fire-ruled-arson/article_626c9b3c-cc76-11ec-b32f-937b5e79722e.html
| 2022-05-05T15:32:05
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/crisp-county-vehicle-fire-ruled-arson/article_626c9b3c-cc76-11ec-b32f-937b5e79722e.html
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AMERICUS — Georgia Southwestern State University will hold its spring 2022 commencement ceremony May 13 at 3 p.m. in the Convocation Hall of the Student Success Center, also known as the Storm Dome.
The ceremony will recognize approximately 300 spring graduates for their work and academic achievements. The commencement speaker will be Bárbara Rivera Holmes, who serves on the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
Holmes is the president and CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce and previously served as the vice president of the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission. She helped organize the Albany-Dougherty Industry Roundtable, a CEO-level forum of the area’s largest employers.
Holmes is a former journalist whose work has earned four awards for excellence in journalism from the Associated Press. She is a graduate of the 2014 class of Leadership Georgia; the 2009-10 class of Leadership Albany; and in 2008 she was recognized as one of southwest Georgia’s “40 Under 40.” She is also a graduate of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development.
Holmes, who is bilingual, is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico. She graduated from Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Fla., with degrees in journalism and in Spanish. She continued her studies at Estudio Sampere Internacional, in Madrid and Alicante, Spain.
Doors to the inside of the Convocation Hall will close five minutes before the ceremony at 2:55 p.m. Guests should arrive early and plan accordingly for parking and finding seats. Accessible parking and seating will be available.
There are no guest restrictions for the Spring 2022 ceremony. Graduates are asked to please be courteous with the amount of family and friends they invite.
Visit www.gsw.edu/graduation for more information on GSW’s commencement ceremonies, including directions on where to park.
More than 150,000 spectators will pack into Churchill Downs on May 7 to watch the 148th Kentucky Derby: the race that’s been dubbed the greatest two minutes in sports. Whether you’re picking a dark horse or sticking with the favorite, we at Stacker have ranked all the thoroughbreds running t… Click for more.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/georgia-southwestern-spring-commencement-set-for-may-13/article_4ebf049a-cc7a-11ec-8853-cbf276612b47.html
| 2022-05-05T15:32:11
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/georgia-southwestern-spring-commencement-set-for-may-13/article_4ebf049a-cc7a-11ec-8853-cbf276612b47.html
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The a 36-year-old Lincoln man who was found dead with "unexplained injuries" in a grocery store parking lot last November died of an accidental narcotics overdose, according to authorities.
A passerby found Joshua Rainey dead in a pickup truck Nov. 22 outside the Super Saver at Edgewood Shopping Center near 56th Street and Nebraska 2.
Police in November said he had a contusion on his head and labeled Rainey's death "suspicious," but an initial autopsy revealed no obvious sign of death.
Now, Lincoln Police Capt. Todd Kocian said, Rainey's death has been ruled accidental in nature. The investigation into the incident is closed, Kocian said.
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Tom Casady's list of the 10 most infamous crimes in Lincoln history
Crimes of the times
This is simply one man’s perspective from the early 21st century (first written in 2010). I had to make a decision about crimes that occurred at locations that are inside the city today, but were outside our corporate limits at the time they occurred. I chose the latter.
Before beginning, though, I have to deal with three crimes that stand apart: the murders of three police officers in Lincoln. I’m not quite sure how to place them in a list. They all had huge impacts on the community, and on the police department in particular. Because these are my colleagues, I deal with them separately and in chronological order.
Patrolman Marion Francis Marshall
Shot in the shadow of the new Nebraska State Capital, Gov. Charles Bryan came to his aid and summoned additional help.
Lt. Frank Soukup
Marion Marshall was technically not a Lincoln police officer, so Lt. Soukup was actually the first Lincoln police officer killed on duty. One of his colleagues who was present at the motel and involved in the gunbattle, Paul Jacobsen, went on to enjoy a long career and command rank at LPD, influencing many young charges (like me) and leaving his mark on the culture of the agency.
Lt. Paul Whitehead
In the space of a few months, three LPD officers died in the line of duty. Frank Soukup had been murdered, and George Welter had died in a motorcycle crash. Paul Whitehead's partner, Paul Merritt, went on to command rank, and like Paul Jacobsen left an indelible mark at LPD and the community.
No. 1: Starkweather
The subject of several thinly disguised movie plots and a Springsteen album, the Starkweather murders are clearly the most infamous crime in Lincoln’s history — so far. One of the first mass murderers of the mass media age, six of Charles Starkweather’s 11 victims were killed inside the city of Lincoln, and the first was just on the outskirts of town. I didn’t live in Lincoln at the time, but my wife was a first-grader at Riley Elementary School and has vivid memories of the city gripped by fear in the days between the discovery of the Bartlett murders and Starkweather’s capture in Wyoming.
The case caused quite an uproar. There was intense criticism of the police department and sheriff’s office for not capturing Starkweather earlier in the week after the discovery of the Bartletts' bodies. Ultimately, Mayor Bennett Martin and the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners retained a retired FBI agent, Harold G. Robinson, to investigate the performance of local law enforcement. His report essentially exonerated the local law officers and made a few vanilla recommendations for improving inter-agency communication and training.
Now I know that many readers are mumbling to themselves “how obvious.” Hold your horses, though. It’s not quite as obvious as you might think. I had two experiences that drove this fact home to me. The first was a visit by a small group of journalism students. Only one member of the class had any idea, and her idea was pretty vague. You need to remember that the Starkweather murders were in 1957 and 1958 — before the parents of many college students were even born.
The second experience was a visit by a Cub Scout den. I was giving the kids a tour of the police station one evening. We were in the front lobby waiting for everyone to arrive. As I entertained the boys, I told the moms and dads that they might enjoy looking in the corner of the Sheriff’s Office display case to see the contents of Starkweather’s wallet — discovered a couple of years ago locked up in the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office safe. After a few minutes, one of the confused fathers asked me who Starkweather was, and why it was significant.
No. 2: Lincoln National Bank
On the morning of Sept. 17, 1930, a dark blue Buick carrying six men pulled up in front of the Lincoln National Bank at the northwest corner of 12th and O streets. Five of the men entered the bank, while a sixth stood outside by the Buick, cradling a machine gun. Observing the unusual events, a passerby called the police. The officer who responded, Forrest Shappaugh, was casually instructed by the machine-gun-toting lookout to just keep going, which he wisely did. Returning with reinforcements, he found that the robbers had already made good on their getaway, netting $2.7 million in cash and negotiable securities.
Ultimately, three of the six suspects were arrested. Tommy O’Connor and Howard Lee were convicted and sentenced. Jack Britt was tried twice but not convicted by a hung jury. Gus Winkeler, a member of Al Capone’s gang, winged a deal with County Attorney Max Towle to avoid prosecution in exchange for orchestrating the recovery of $600,000 in bearer bonds. The following year, Winkeler was murdered in Chicago, the victim of a gangland slaying. The final two robbers were never identified.
The Lincoln National Bank robbery stood as the largest cash bank robbery in the United States for many decades. It precipitated major changes at the Lincoln Police Department. Chief Peter Johnstone was rapidly “retired” after the robbery, the department’s fleet was upgraded to add the first official patrol cars, the full force was armed and a shotgun squad was organized. Forty-four years later when I was hired at LPD, the echo of the Lincoln National Bank robbery was still evident in daily bank opening details, and in the Thomspon submachine guns and Reising rifles that detectives grabbed whenever the robbery alarm sounded at headquarters.
No. 3: The Last Posse
My first inkling about this crime came when I was the chief deputy sheriff. One of my interns, a young man named Ron Boden (who became a veteran deputy sheriff), had been doing some research on Lancaster County’s only known lynching, in 1884. I came across a reference in the biography of the sheriff at the time, Sam Melick, to the murder of the Nebraska Penitentiary warden and subsequent prison break. Melick had been appointed interim warden after the murder and instituted several reforms.
Several years later, a colleague, Sgt. Geoff Marti, loaned me a great book, Gale Christianson’s "Last Posse," that told the story of the 1912 prison break in gory, haunting and glorious detail.
To make a long story short, convict Shorty Gray and his co-conspirators shot and killed Warden James Delahunty, a deputy warden and a guard on Wednesday, March 13, 1912. They then made their break — right into the teeth of a brutal Nebraska spring blizzard. Over the course to the next few days, a posse pursued. During the pursuit, the escapees carjacked a young farmer with his team and wagon. As the posse closed in, a gunfight broke out and the hostage was shot and killed in the exchange, along with two of the three escapees.
There was plenty of anger among the locals in the Gretna-Springfield vicinity about the death of their native son, and a controversy raged over the law enforcement tactics that brought about his demise. Lancaster County Sheriff Gus Hyers was not unsullied by the inquiry, although it appears from my prospect a century later that the fog of war led to the tragedy.
Christianson, a professor of history at Indiana State University who died earlier this year, notes the following on the flyleaf:
“For anyone living west of the Mississippi in 1912, the biggest news that fateful year was a violent escape from the Nebraska state penitentiary planned and carried out by a trio of notorious robbers and safe blowers.”
Bigger news on half the continent than the sinking of the Titanic during the same year would certainly qualify this murder-escape as one of the most infamous Lincoln crimes in history.
No. 4: Rock Island wreck
The Aug. 10, 1894, wreck of a Rock Island train on the southwest outskirts of Lincoln was almost lost in the mist of time until it was resurrected in the public consciousness by author Joel Williams, who came across the story while conducting research for his historical novel, "Barrelhouse Boys."
The wreck was determined to be the result of sabotage to the tracks, perhaps an attempt to derail the train as a prelude to robbery. Eleven people died in the crash and ensuing fire, making this a mass murder, to be sure. G.W. Davis was arrested and convicted of the crime but later received a full pardon. The story was told in greater detail earlier this year by the Lincoln Journal Star.
A historical marker is along the Rock Island Trail in Wilderness Park, accessible only by foot or bike from the nearest trail access points about a half-mile away at Old Cheney Road on the north, or 14th Street on the south.
Here’s the big question that remains unanswered: Was there really significant evidence to prove that George Washington Davis committed the crime, or was he just a convenient scapegoat? The fact that he received a gubernatorial pardon 10 years later leads me to believe that the evidence must have been unusually weak. If he was railroaded, then my second question is this: who really pried loose the tracks with the 40-pound crowbar found at the scene?
No. 5: Commonwealth
On Nov. 1, 1983, the doors to Nebraska’s largest industrial savings and loan company were closed and Commonwealth was declared insolvent. The 6,700 depositors with $65 million at stake would never be fully compensated for their loss, ultimately receiving about 59 cents on the dollar for their deposits, which they all mistakenly believed were insured up to $30,000 through the Nebraska Depository Insurance Guaranty Corporation, which was essentially an insurance pool with assets of only $3 million.
The case dominated Nebraska news for months. The investigation ultimately led to the conviction of three members of the prominent Lincoln family that owned the institution, the resignation of the director of the State Department of Banking and the impeachment of the Nebraska attorney general and the suspension of his license to practice law. State and federal litigation arising from the failure of Commonwealth drug on for years.
At the Lincoln Police Department, the Commonwealth failure led to the formation of a specialized white-collar crime detail, now known as the Technical Investigations Unit. At the time, municipal police departments in the United States had virtually no capacity for investigating financial crime and fraud of this magnitude, and we quickly became well known for our expertise in this area. The early experience served LPD very well in the ensuring years.
No. 6: Candice Harms
Candi Harms never came home from visiting her boyfriend on Sept. 22, 1992. Her parents reported her as a missing person the following morning, and her car was found abandoned in a cornfield north of Lincoln later in the day. Weeks went by before her remains were found southeast of Lincoln.
Scott Barney and Roger Bjorklund were convicted in her abduction and murder. Barney is in prison serving a life term. Bjorklund died in prison in 2001. Intense media attention surrounded the lengthy trial of Roger Bjorklund, for which a jury was brought in from Cheyenne County as an alternative to a change of venue. I have no doubt that the trial was a life-changing event for a group of good citizens from Sidney, who did their civic duty.
I was the Lancaster County sheriff at the time, involved both in the investigation and in the trial security. It was at about this time that the cellular telephone was becoming a consumer product, and I have often thought that this brutal crime probably spurred a lot of purchases. During my career, this is probably the second-most-prominent Lincoln crime in terms of the sheer volume of media coverage.
No. 7: Jon Simpson and Jacob Surber
A parent’s worst nightmare unfolded in September 1975 when these two boys, ages 12 and 13, failed to return from the Nebraska State Fair. The boys were the victims of abduction and murder. The case was similar to a string of other murders of young boys in the Midwest, and many thought that these cases were related -- the work of a serial killer. Although an arrest was made in the case here in Lincoln, the charges were eventually dismissed. William Guatney was released and has since died.
No. 8: John Sheedy
Saloon and gambling house owner John Sheedy was gunned down outside his home at 1211 P St. in January 1891. The case of Sheedy, prominent in Lincoln’s demiworld, became the talk of the town when his wife, Mary, and her alleged lover and accomplice, Monday McFarland, were arrested. Both were acquitted at trial. The Sheedy murder is chronicled in a great interactive multimedia website, Gilded Age Plains City, an online version that builds upon an article published in 2001 by Timothy Mahoney of the University of Nebraska.
No. 9: Patricia McGarry and Catherine Brooks
The bodies of these two friends were found in a Northeast Lincoln duplex in August 1977. Their murderer, Robert E. Williams, was the subject of a massive Midwest manhunt during the following week. Before his capture, he committed a third murder in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and raped, shot and left for dead a victim who survived in Minnesota. He is the last man to be executed in Nebraska, sent to the electric chair in 1997.
No. 10: Judge William M. Morning
District Court Judge William Morning was murdered in February 1924. He was shot on the bench by an unhappy litigant in a divorce case. His court reporter, Minor Bacon, was also shot, but a notebook in his breast pocket deflected the bullet and saved his life.
Many other crimes
Choosing Lincoln's 10 most infamous crimes was a challenge. Although the top two were easy, the picture quickly became clouded. We tend, of course, to forget our history rather quickly. Many of the crimes I felt were among the most significant are barely remembered today, if not completely forgotten.
Some readers will take issue with my list. In choosing 10, here are the others I considered, in no particular order. They are all murders:
-- Mary O'Shea
-- Nancy Parker
-- Charles Mulholland
-- Victoria Lamm and Janet Mesner
-- Martina McMenamin
-- Regina Bos (presumably murdered)
-- Patty Webb
-- Marianne Mitzner
I also thought about the five murder-suicides in which a mother or father killed multiple family members before taking their own life. Though tragic, these crimes did not command the same kind of attention as the others, perhaps because there was no lengthy investigation, no tantalizing whodunit, no stranger-killer, nor any of the details that come out in the coverage of a major trial.
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lincoln-man-found-dead-in-super-saver-parking-lot-died-of-overdose-police-say/article_e2b1fa2f-7cfc-5bf7-b7bf-91c88a8433f1.html
| 2022-05-05T15:55:03
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lincoln-man-found-dead-in-super-saver-parking-lot-died-of-overdose-police-say/article_e2b1fa2f-7cfc-5bf7-b7bf-91c88a8433f1.html
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A New Jersey Transit bus was involved in a crash with at least one other vehicle on Route 22 Thursday, Chopper 4 video shows.
Few details on the crash, which happened on the highway near Mountain Avenue in Watchung around 10:40 a.m. Thursday, were immediately available.
Chopper 4 showed a sprawling emergency response at the scene. The SUV appeared to be heavily damaged. Traffic was being diverted.
There was no immediate word on injuries. A message was left with NJ Transit.
The investigation is ongoing.
Copyright NBC New York
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nj-transit-bus-suv-collide-in-debris-spewing-route-22-accident/3675132/
| 2022-05-05T15:57:15
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nj-transit-bus-suv-collide-in-debris-spewing-route-22-accident/3675132/
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The New York City Rent Guidelines Board will take a preliminary vote later Thursday on a range of proposed rent increases that could affect nearly a million who live in rent-stabilized apartments. A final vote is due in June following a series of public hearings.
And the result could stun many who have seen their annual rent increases capped for years.
The Rent Guidelines Board unveiled its initial proposal on hikes late last month. It would affect the 966,000 apartments across the five boroughs that are currently rent-stabilized, meaning landlords can't increase rent beyond a certain percentage annually.
The board has suggested raising prices this year by just under 3% up to 4.5% on one-year leases. For two-year leases, it could increase anywhere from 4% to 9%.
The Rent Stabilization Association, which represents building owners and agents, has asked for 4.5% to 6.5% increases, according to the groups Vice President of Communication, Vito Signorile.
"They’re still dealing with the fact that rents weren’t paid during the pandemic and all their operating expenses went up. There was no moratorium on property taxes, water bills, heating bills," Signorile said when the recommendations came out in April.
The RSA said that while while and other costs have gone up, rent guidelines have not.
"Over an eight-year period, the average one-year guideline was less than one percent, and that’s just insufficient to maintain the buildings," Signorile said.
For eight years now, Rockwell Reid has lived in a rent-stabilized two-bedroom apartment in the Financial District of Manhattan with his wife and daughter.
His rent has slowly gone up about 1 or 2% a year — but that could change dramatically when his lease expires in July.
"I think tenants have to expect an increase sort of across the board, but I think 4-to-6% is pretty steep," Reid said. "Are residents who are working getting that same percentage increase in their salary?"
Shaylah Reyes is worried about living with her 3-year-old son, Zaire, in her rent-stabilized apartment in the Bronx.
"I just don’t think it’s right because it’s already hard enough as is, so making it harder — making it ten times harder — for people who already live from check to check, it’s just gonna have more homeless people on the street," Reyes said.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-rent-guidelines-board-increases-2022/3675033/
| 2022-05-05T15:57:21
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GADSDEN, Ala. (WIAT) – Relief is on the way for residents in Etowah County as the Alabama Department of Transportation formally announced Wednesday it will fully fund an interstate extension project.
Now called the Gadsden Eastern Connector – the project will extend I-759 to U.S. 431 in East Gadsden.
It’s a project city and state leaders said has been decades in the works. They said this approximately two-mile extension will help to open Northeastern Alabama for more development.
Brett Johnson uses U.S. 431 every day for work and to visit family in Hokes Bluff.
“We’re always on this road,” Johnson said. “You gotta go to Attalla to get to the interstate.”
Gadsden Public Affairs Coordinator Michael Rodgers said Mayor Sherman Guyton and his administration have been working on since he was elected as mayor.
“This is a way to sort of get some of that traffic for people commuting, for people passing through,” Rodgers said. “It’s a way to relieve some of that congestion on our already busy highways which has been a problem for a long time.”
State Senator Andrew Jones said this will all help with economic development. He has been involved with this project since before he took office.
“This is a key regional thoroughfare that we’re working on,” Jones said. “It’s going to have impacts on all the surrounding counties, it’s going to help get product to market, help avoid congestion, it’s going to help to develop our economy and our industries as they work to get their supplies in a timely manner.”
It’s a $65 million– fully funded through the Rebuild Alabama gas tax.
“It’s not worth it when I swipe my card at the gas pump but then in the long term when I cut down on my commute time to and from my family, to and from work, it might save me some gas,” Johnson said.
Jones said this will help to open Northeast Alabama to more business.
“The whole goal ultimately is to do what’s best for the whole county, the whole region, the City of Gadsden and get this project completed.”
There is a lot of work to be done over the span of about five years according to officials. Land acquisition to extend the road should begin this fall with construction by the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024. Reporting live in Gadsden
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/aldot-to-fund-65-million-expansion-project-for-i-759/
| 2022-05-05T16:14:16
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Be Great Ball is Thursday night, and it’s your chance to support the Boys and Girls Club of Portland.
Plus, an online auction is underway with proceeds supporting a very important cause.
CEO Terry Johnson joined AM Extra to share more details on the event.
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https://www.koin.com/local/be-great-ball-supports-boys-and-girls-club-of-portland/
| 2022-05-05T16:17:46
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The city of Coos Bay made minor changes to a proposed vehicle-for-hire business that could make it possible for Coos Bay to adopt the ordinance that allows companies like Uber and Lyft to operate in the city.
Police Chief Chris Chapanar explained the changes to the city council during a work session last week, addressing the concerns voiced by owners of local taxi companies.
Chapanar told the council he took into account the concerns the taxi companies voices and compared the Coos Bay ordinance to one in Ashland.
“I think we’re really, really close to being somewhat of a uniform ordinance across the state,” Chapanar said. “I did make a few language changes in the ordinance draft you have.”
During a previous meeting, the owners of local taxi companies voiced concern over vehicle inspections and drug and alcohol testing for vehicle-for-hire businesses.
“There was some concerns abut pre-employment drug screenings and also having a vehicle inspected to make sure it could be safe,” Chapanar said. “We put that in the front under the business license. “
Chapanar said to get a business license, business owners would have to show a pre-employment drug screen and show vehicle inspection by a certified mechanic as part of getting a business license. In addition, the business owner would have to provide a background check or request to have the city police department do it with a charge. Would have to present documents before getting a business license.
Any business, whether a company or a driver, would have to maintain records from the business, and the city can do audits up to two times a year and review the records.
“The one thing we added to each of those sections, was if they had a person, a driver, who violated their drug policy and was suspended, that they make notification to the city of Coos Bay,” Chapanar said.
After presenting the changes, Chapanar told the council an ordinance could be brought to them at the May 17 council meeting.
During questioning by council, Chapanar said any mechanic shop in the city can do the inspection, and it would be up to a business or individual to get a drug test prior to applying for a business license.
The council agreed to the changes without much comment, and the ordinance will return for a public hearing and possible adoption May 17.
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https://theworldlink.com/news/local/vehicle-for-hire-ordinance-moves-forward/article_df6a616a-ca40-11ec-a643-cf35b07caf8d.html
| 2022-05-05T16:24:33
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https://theworldlink.com/news/local/vehicle-for-hire-ordinance-moves-forward/article_df6a616a-ca40-11ec-a643-cf35b07caf8d.html
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IONA, Fla. – A 58-year-old Fort Myers man was killed in a crash on Iona Road near Omai Court Wednesday evening.
The man was driving a motorcycle west on Iona Rd. around 5:40 p.m. when another driver backed out of a driveway and directly into the man’s path, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The motorcyclist crashed into the sedan driven by a 37-year-old Fort Myers man and was thrown from his bike, troopers said.
He was pronounced dead on the scene.
FHP is continuing to investigate the crash.
No further details were immediately available.
Count on NBC2 to bring you the latest information as it is released.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/fort-myers-motorcyclist-killed-in-crash/
| 2022-05-05T16:26:05
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/fort-myers-motorcyclist-killed-in-crash/
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OCEANSIDE, Calif. —
This Mother's Day, a California couple is hoping to change the way you buy flowers. In this Zevely Zone, I went to Oceanside where Matilda's Bloombox is supporting local growers.
"Thank you for having us, yeah thank you for having us," said Emily and Matt Boschetto before giving their first television interview ever. I asked the married couple from San Francisco how they were feeling. "A little nervous but good," said Matt. Emily then said, "I feel like an English person that I have just made it in America!"
If you want to root, for a mom-and-pop operation, this is your chance. Matt is a California kid who fell in love with Emily who is from Yorkshire. In love, but hating their jobs, Matt and Emily started a business in their garage five years ago and named it after their first daughter, Matilda.
"I am one of those people who after a few glasses of wine says yeah, we should do that, it's a great idea, but then Matt is the guy who in the morning says we said we are going to do it, so we are going to do it," said Emily.
After a night like that; Matilda's Bloombox was born.
They decided to go after their dream and launch a flower business. They figured the best way to do this was to offer one box, filled to the brim with blooms each week. The price was set at $39, including delivery, and has stayed at that price even with rising inflation.
Customers are given a do-it-yourself instruction sheet then cut and assemble the flowers in their own vase. A bloombox can be delivered whenever you want. "Some people have two boxes a week, some people only use us on occasions, on their birthday, on Mothers Day on Thanksgiving on Easter," said Matt.
The goal of Matilda's Bloombox has been consistent since the beginning; to support local growers. 'Local' includes farmers across the US, but many of those growers are in Northern and Southern California.
I met the couple in Oceanside at local flower grower named Mellano & Company. "They've got nearly 400 acres, and everything here is American certified and American grown," said Emily.
At a time when climate change and drought challenge growers, the couple urges customers to shop local. "Mellano is a great example of that, you are in the this massive beautiful farm in Oceanside," said Matt. Emily added, "It keeps the investment there. For us, we just want to be a good example to our kids."
"The flower industry has always been a part of my life. I am 4th generation in the flower business. When Emily and I were talking about different business concepts, things that we could do, and things that could make us happy – flowers were the first thing that came to mind," said Matt.
"There’s no reason you should pay more than $100 for a bouquet of flowers. We are able to keep costs down because we are not paying people to arrange the flowers and because we’ve looked for ways to keep costs low as a business," said Emily. The couple says when flowers are overpriced the industry suffers. "It just becomes an unaffordable luxury, you know less people buy them, less people enjoy them," said Matt.
Which is why with a Matilda's Bloombox some assembly is required. "It looks amazing," said Emily who helped me put together an arrangement. Their company is growing, and so is their family. "Yeah, we've got Matilda, Humphrey and Daphne," said Emily proving the family of five really is a mom-and-pop operation.
To learn more about Matilda's Bloombox, click here.
Watch more Zevely Zone content below:
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california-couple-hopes-you-reconsider-how-you-buy-flowers/509-6c322d0d-c7e9-4417-b391-037955c7d544
| 2022-05-05T16:27:21
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california-couple-hopes-you-reconsider-how-you-buy-flowers/509-6c322d0d-c7e9-4417-b391-037955c7d544
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California family caregivers are feeling the financial stress of taking care of their loved ones.
According to a recent study, 42 million Americans serve in this role. On average, 26% of their incomes go toward care. And in California, it can cost nearly $40,000 to hire help outside of the home, which is among the highest rates in the nation.
Tricia Rosenbaum considers herself a care partner for her husband who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.
"My husband is not at the point where he's not able to do anything," Rosenbaum said. "I think now, I do more of the cooking than I used to, so I think that's one of the tiny household things that we're already seeing because with dexterity and things like that, it's hard to actually do the things."
She said he will need more help in the future.
"So, whether that's me directly, or if I bring in a paid caregiver, or we may even at some point look at moving into like an assisted living facility," Rosenbaum said.
Many people around the world have to have similar conversations and for some, it can be daunting to discuss.
"It's actually a very expensive process for a lot of families, and we see a lot of people who retire early because they're providing care for a loved one," Michelle Nevins, Deloro Caregiver Resource Center Executive Director, said. "They exit the workforce because they've got a full-time caregiving situation with an aging parent or spouse, and so not only are they exiting at a time usually where their income might be higher, they're losing the aspects of retirement and that ability to kind of really compound their income over time."
The Deloro Caregiver Resource Center is a non-profit that provides support to caregivers. It offers respite care, counseling and even legal services. It also covers a variety of illnesses and situations, such as Alzheimer's, brain injuries, dementia, and even people who are caring for someone more than 60-years-old. Nevins said among the many stressors that have always surrounded caregiving, the pandemic made things even more difficult.
"They may have wanted to place their loved ones in an assisted living facility, but there were obstacles to that during the pandemic and some facilities very early on were not taking new clients because of the risk of exposure, or they had to quarantine for two weeks and the family couldn't see them," Nevins said. "So, isolation became a really big problem for a lot of families that they just decided not to do that, and so as a result we got pretty inundated during the pandemic, more so than ever before."
Rosenbaum reached out for support early on in her husband's diagnosis. It's something she encourages others to look into.
"Even though you feel like you're all alone in this, you're not. There are tens of thousands of people out there doing something similar," Rosenbaum said.
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Inclusive park heading to Yuba City honoring 4-year-old who died of cancer
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/california-caregiver-costs-highest-in-the-nation/103-3c6e9755-e4c7-47e9-84fc-fecb55282b19
| 2022-05-05T16:27:28
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/california-caregiver-costs-highest-in-the-nation/103-3c6e9755-e4c7-47e9-84fc-fecb55282b19
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MODESTO, Calif. — A traffic accident in Modesto Thursday morning is expected to close the road for several hours, according to the Modesto Police Department.
The accident happened on Eastbound East Briggsmore Avenue between Oakdale Road and Lakewood Avenue. Police advise drivers to use alternate routes.
This is a developing story. ABC10 will provide updates as they become available.
Open the ABC10 traffic map for the latest roadway information.
Watch more on ABC10
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/modesto/traffic-accident-modesto-briggsmore-oakdale-lakewood/103-a42afc7b-e94e-4f51-b912-82832c6840d1
| 2022-05-05T16:27:34
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/modesto/traffic-accident-modesto-briggsmore-oakdale-lakewood/103-a42afc7b-e94e-4f51-b912-82832c6840d1
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PHOENIX — Walking into Sugar and Lace Bakery in Phoenix, a sweet smell mixture of vanilla cake and rich buttercream fills your nose.
In the back of the shop, you’ll find Vanessa Steigmann with a couple of helpers, working away.
“Really, I’m just playing with icing,” Stiegmann said, piling buttercream (made with real butter) into an icing bag.
This week, it’s non-stop: filling tins of cupcake molds with batter, baking, icing and topping 109,000 cupcakes with sprinkles.
“As fast as you can make them,” Stiegmann said. “You think that you’re ahead for a second, and then you’re not.”
The bells on the door jingle as more people come in, ready to pick up their orders.
“How many?” Stiegmann asks.
This particular teacher is getting 10 dozen cupcakes for those at her school.
“I do what I do because I love teachers,” Stiegmann said.
The teachers who ordered for the other educators at their school don’t have to pay. Stiegmann is baking them for free.
“Your part is the hard part because they have to teach,” Stiegmann said.
Stiegmann started giving away cupcakes for Teacher Appreciation Week back in 2018 when the Red For Ed movement came to Arizona.
Each year, she bakes and gives away thousands, recognizing Arizona is consistently ranked among the last in the nation for teacher salaries.
“They’re worth so much more than cupcakes, but that is literally all that I can give them because it’s all I have,” Stiegmann said.
She gives what she has, because of what her teachers gave her.
“When I ran away from home, two teachers brought me in,” Stiegmann said. “They took me in off the streets.”
Melissa Sparrazza, picked up cupcakes to surprise the educators at her school.
“They pour so much into our kids, and she’s doing this out of the kindness of her heart,” Sparrazza said. “It’s awesome.”
While this is the busiest week, throughout the month, Stiegmann said she'll bake up a total of 160,000 free cupcakes for teachers. But, she’s not worried about the cost.
“It won’t matter tomorrow. It won’t. Financially, it won’t,” Stiegmann said. “But it’ll put an impact on those teachers.”
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/valley-baker-vanessa-steigmann-makes-109k-cupcakes-for-teachers/75-9652597b-9cb9-4564-b6b5-241e358eeb8a
| 2022-05-05T16:27:40
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/valley-baker-vanessa-steigmann-makes-109k-cupcakes-for-teachers/75-9652597b-9cb9-4564-b6b5-241e358eeb8a
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ATLANTA – District 3 Dougherty County Commissioner Clinton Johnson was recently sworn in to serve as third vice president on the 2022-2023 Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) Board of Managers.
“I am truly honored to be nominated as the third vice president of this esteemed association that has dedicated over 100 years to advancing Georgia counties,” Johnson said in a news release. “At ACCG, we are dedicated to serving all Georgians with the highest level of leadership, fidelity and quality.”
ACCG officials said members of the board are "dynamic leaders" in the state.
“Elected by their peers each spring, the ACCG Board of Managers is a group of dynamic leaders that serves as decisionmakers on behalf of our organization,” Executive Director Dave Wills said. “I would like to congratulate our newly installed board and look forward to working alongside them to continue the work of advancing Georgia’s counties.”
As ACCG third vice president, Johnson will work in concert with other board members to lead the association and guide policies over the next year. The ACCG Board of Managers will continue to work on initiatives that focus on increasing county efficiencies, enhancing continuing education offerings and fostering strong relationships between counties, the state and federal government.
Prior to his appointment as third vice president, Johnson served as an at-large representative on the Board of Managers, a position he held since 2017.
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/dougherty-county-commissioner-clinton-johnson-named-to-association-county-commissioners-of-georgia-board-of-managers/article_a71c949c-cc7d-11ec-9a6c-8b9fd07c2fe3.html
| 2022-05-05T17:04:31
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TimkenSteel sees profits on increased sales for first quarter, outlook positive for year
CANTON – High demand for steel and favorable pricing helped TimkenSteel start the year with higher sales and a profit.
The company reported first-quarter earnings Thursday, saying it has orders through the end of September, indicating strong customer demand. Steel melt shop capacity is expected to surpass 85% during the second quarter.
More:TimkenSteel reports 2021 revenue tops $1 billion, net income of $171 million
For the quarter ended March 31, the company reported net income of $37.1 million, or 70 cents per share, compared with a profit of $9.8 million, or 20 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2021. Revenue reached $352 million, up 28.6% from $273.6 million last year.
Compared with the fourth quarter, first quarter sales surpassed the $338.3 million reported for the three month ended Dec. 31, but net income came in lower than the $57.1 million, or $1.07 per share, reported for the period.
More:Timken reports record 1st quarter, credits product demand and higher pricing
In a phone call with stock market analysts, President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Williams said TimkenSteel is "relentlessly working to improve our commercial and manufacturing effectiveness to ensure sustainable success throughout the year and beyond."
The company shipped 196,400 tons of steel product during the first quarter, a 1% drop from the fourth quarter and 2% decline from last year's first quarter. Shipments to industrial and energy market customers increased, but were offset by decreases in the mobile market.
The company expects shipments will increase in the second quarter, but said periodic customer disruptions could affect potential increases.
Williams told analysts that the automotive market remains unpredictable because it's still faces supply chain issues. The company has seen increased demand for steel used in construction and other heavy equipment.
TimkenSteel, meanwhile, has been able to make adjustments to contend with supply chain problems and inflation, Williams said.
The company noted changes in local operations that include construction of a scrap yard closer to the melt shops, along with a program to remedy complexities in the IT operations and begin work with a third-party service.
The company also is moving forward with a $50 million stock buyback program. Kris Westbrook, chief financial officer and executive vice president, said the company has $43.6 million available, and used $3.4 million to purchase 170,000 shares during the first quarter.
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https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/timkensteel-reports-first-quarter-profit-strong-sales-outlook-good/9650510002/
| 2022-05-05T17:08:14
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Bloomington City Council OKs countywide income tax hike. Here's how much it will cost you.
The Bloomington City Council unanimously approved a countywide income tax hike — though one that is slightly smaller than what Mayor John Hamilton had proposed.
Council members’ vote on Wednesday increased the local income tax by 0.69 percentage points, about a fifth less than the mayor’s proposed hike of 0.855 percentage points.
Higher property tax bills coming: Monroe County assessments up by a record $1.9B
The 0.69 point hike will mean an extra $345 or so per year in income taxes for individuals or couples who, after varying deductions, have a state adjusted gross income of $50,000. That's about $69 for every $10,000 you earn in taxable income. The tax is a flat tax, which means you pay $69 per $10,000 in taxable income regardless of whether you earn $50,000 or $50 million.
The mayor had proposed spending an additional $18 million annually on public safety, climate change mitigation, equity and essential city services. The council’s action on Tuesday reduced that amount to $14.5 million.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday Hamilton sat near the back of the council chambers, clapped his hands gently and nodded at council members to thank them for their votes. He then got up and shook each council members’ hand.
Despite the reduction of his original proposal, Hamilton said after the meeting he was pleased with the outcome.
“I think this is a major step for our community,” he said.
“Nine council members have nine different views, and I think we worked really hard over the last weeks to find a place to land that accommodates those views and the needs of the community,” Hamilton said.
Council members disagreed somewhat on spending priorities and even on the extent of the hike, with some, including member Stephen Volan favoring the mayor’s original proposal, while others, including Ron Smith and Dave Rollo, preferred a smaller increase. Rollo proposed delaying the vote by two more weeks to find additional areas to cut from the mayor’s spending plan, but a majority of council members rejected that proposal.
How exactly the money will be spent will be determined during budget negotiations. The mayor and city council members have said they plan to earmark some of the dollars for police officer raises and an east-west express transit line.
Council President Susan Sandberg said after the meeting she was relieved the council reached a decision after weeks of tough negotiations.
"I've lost sleep over it," she said. "Glad that it's in the rearview mirror."
She said she plans to make sure the money is spent on council priorities, including raises for police officers. The council is expected to ratify a new contract with the police union this month.
'Open revolt':Bloomington City Council threatens to reject mayor's budget plan
The council increased the income tax over the objections of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, whose president and CEO, Eric Spoonmore, said the extent of the hike represented an “excessive burden” for local income earners. The chamber preferred a smaller increase, of about $7 million annually.
Spoonmore said during the meeting Wednesday the hike proposed by the mayor and the one adopted by the council arrived at an inopportune time because local residents already are feeling lots of financial pressures, from higher property taxes and gas prices to rising food and housing costs.
Some city council members said they shared some of those concerns, but they also said the income tax hike would allow the city to help some of the community members most affected by rising inflation.
Any income tax hike technically is supposed to be approved by the local income tax council, which includes the members of the councils of the city, county, Ellettsville and Stinesville. However, the council members’ votes do not count the same, because they are apportioned by population size. Bloomington is the largest of the four jurisdictions. Therefore, the vote of each city council member counts more than the votes of the members of the other councils.
The eight city council members were able, by themselves, approve a tax hike.
Some county council members told The Herald-Times recently they, too, worried about the timing of the tax increase, and expressed frustration with the Indiana Legislature because state law still allows the Bloomington City Council to unilaterally raise taxes for every income earner who lives in the county, including those who live outside of city limits.
More:Some county officials question scope of Bloomington mayor's income tax idea
Some city council members said they, too, dislike the system, but they blamed the Republican supermajority in the statehouse. All of the city council members are Democrats.
The current county income tax rate is 1.345%. Starting Oct. 1, the rate will increase by 51.3%, to 2.035%. Social Security benefits are exempt from local income taxes.
The tax also will generate additional revenue for the county, Ellettsville and Stinesville. Some county council members said at least part of the county's share likely would be spent on a new criminal justice center and programming. The amount of the county's share under the new tax hike was not immediately available. The share under the originally proposed hike would have been $11.4 million.
Boris Ladwig is the city government reporter for The Herald-Times. Contact him at bladwig@heraldt.com.
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https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/bloomington-city-council-oks-countywide-income-tax-hike/9654938002/
| 2022-05-05T17:27:34
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County grants $1.2 million in federal funds to project combatting housing insecurity
United Way of Monroe County has received $1.2 million in federal money to tackle local housing insecurity in this latest development for the regional Heading Home project. The project includes three main goals — to make one's experience of homelessness rare, brief and nonrepeating. According to project leaders, the area's unhoused population can be minimized through expanding care resources, ensuring employment opportunities and reworking the local housing market.
"Monroe County's housing market exhibits significant affordability issues," the Heading Home's regional plan states.
Over half of Monroe County households who use rental housing spend more than 30% of their income on rent, according to the Regional Opportunity Initiatives' 2019 housing study.
"Low rental supply creates a highly competitive market, resulting in higher rental prices. The most significant shortage of affordable units is for households earning less than $25,000," Heading Home's regional plan reports.
More:Bloomington-area leaders commit millions to battle housing insecurity in region
The lack of nearby affordable housing leads to widespread housing insecurity.
Heading Home is led by United Way of Monroe County, the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, and the South Central Housing Network. Its proposed initiatives have received backing from the city of Bloomington and Monroe County.
The city of Bloomington has committed at least $2.7 million to fighting housing insecurity so far through Heading Home.
Monroe County committed $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to Heading Home at Wednesday's county commissioners meeting. The county also dedicated another $1.2 million to seed an endowment designed to ensure the initiative's long-term success.
More:Report: Helping homeless in Bloomington, Monroe County requires more low-income housing
As part of this plan, project leaders will hire a consultant to build a public-facing dashboard and improve data reporting practices. The dashboard will present "aggregate, de-identified, client-level data extrapolated from our community's local shelters and service providers."
The plan identifies numerous strategies to minimize housing insecurity. Some target Monroe County's housing market, such as incentivizing landlords to prioritize low-income housing and increasing housing stock for low-income households and people who are in extreme poverty. Other strategies include expanding health care for all, with a specific focus on securing more resources for those who have a substance abuse disorder.
At Wednesday's meeting, United Way's Director of Housing Security Coalition Mary Morgan thanked the county for the allocation.
"We're doing some exciting things and I'm happy to give a formal report at a later date," Morgan said. "We're very appreciative of your support and ongoing support, both financial and your advice."
Contact Rachel Smith at rksmith@heraldt.com or @RachelSmithNews on Twitter.
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https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/homelessness-monroe-county-federal-funds-housing-united-way/9643642002/
| 2022-05-05T17:27:40
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Police are looking for a sexual predator who forced a 13-year-old boy to an unknown location at knifepoint and attacked him earlier this week, authorities say.
The boy was walking near Rockaway Parkway and Winthrop Street shortly before 4 p.m. Monday when cops say the stranger engaged him in conversation.
The suspect then told the boy he had a knife and, armed with that weapon, directed the boy to an unknown location, where he sexually attacked him, police say.
The boy was taken to a hospital for evaluation but wasn't physically injured.
Police released surveillance footage of the suspect (above). Anyone with information about him is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
Copyright NBC New York
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/13-year-old-boy-lured-to-sex-attack-by-knife-wielding-man-in-brooklyn-cops/3675215/
| 2022-05-05T17:28:57
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An 81-year-old man walking along a Manhattan street last Friday morning was socked in the face by a stranger he just happened to pass on the sidewalk, according to police and surveillance video of the incident.
The victim was walking near Columbia and Grand streets around 8 a.m. that day when the other man walked up and punched him in the face.
No words were exchanged before the punch, which police say was entirely unprovoked.
Surveillance video shows the 81-year-old stumbling backward, his arms flailing as he desperately tries to get his balance back, after the hit. He suffered pain and swelling but did not require medical attention at the scene, police said.
The suspect ran off afterward. Police released video of him (above). Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/81-year-old-randomly-sucker-punched-on-manhattan-sidewalk-video-shows/3675264/
| 2022-05-05T17:29:11
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A police officer was stabbed and a suspect shot in the leg in Brooklyn Thursday, according to two senior police department sources with knowledge of the case.
Few details were immediately available regarding what happened on West 8th Street in Coney Island, between Neptune and Surf avenues, just before 1 p.m.
The police officer is expected to survive, as is the suspect, who was taken to a hospital in custody, the sources said.
Video posted to the Citizen app showed a heavy law enforcement response. The NYPD tweeted that people should avoid the area because of an investigation but didn't immediately provide additional information on the case.
Copyright NBC New York
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/cop-stabbed-suspect-shot-in-brooklyn-sources/3675324/
| 2022-05-05T17:29:17
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A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nursing home residents who received a COVID booster, or an additional primary dose, were greater protected against Omicron variant infection.
This applies to those residents who got more than two shots of an mRNA vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, or one injection of Johnson & Johnson.
Nursing home residents were prioritized for early coronavirus vaccination and encountered disproportionally high levels of COVID-19–associated morbidity and mortality.
Patients who obtained a booster had just under 50% lower rate of infection compared to those with only the primary series, according to the data that examined about 15,000 nursing homes over a month.
In March, over 60% of nursing home residents had received an additional shot, and the CDC continues to recommend those eligible get vaccinated.
To note, data is limited on vaccine effectiveness regarding boosters against the highly transmissible B.1.1.529 and BA.2 strains.
The study was made public a day after the U.S. hit a grim milestone on Wednesday by surpassing 1 million COVID-19 deaths, based on an NBC News tally, 27 months after the country's first case.
News
In New York state, hospitalizations soared nearly three-fold, topping 2,000 since last February as highly contagious omicron subvariants circulate. New York City raised the COVID alert level to "medium" on Monday as cases exceeded a rate of 200 per 100,000 people.
This is the first time Mayor Eric Adams' administration has upped the level since the measuring system launched. Manhattan leads out of the five boroughs with the highest transmission rate, followed by Staten Island.
City hospitalizations and deaths are on the decline, which is an important measure to consider to prevent an overwhelmed health care system. It also shows the efficacy of the vaccines, experts say.
At this time, new NYC COVID protocols have not been implemented, but if the risk level goes "high," the city will consider requiring face masks in all public indoor settings.
NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan urges New Yorkers to exercise more caution than in previous weeks and to avoid crowded indoor situations.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/covid-booster-gives-greater-protection-in-nursing-homes-amid-omicron-new-cdc-study-says/3675100/
| 2022-05-05T17:29:23
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Police are looking for a woman and four men who allegedly conspired to steal a portfolio of art worth about $45,000 from a Manhattan gallery last month.
The heist at Fergus McCafferty Gallery on West 26th Street dates back to April 14, but the NYPD shared its first details on the case Wednesday.
According to investigators, the woman and two of the men went into the gallery around 8 p.m. that night and took the portfolio, which contained 27 photographs of art. The other two men allegedly were working as their accomplices, police said.
Once in possession of the portfolio, the five took off southbound on Ninth Avenue. No injuries were reported. Police released surveillance footage of the suspects (above) that shows them apparently laughing as they walk down the sidewalk.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/woman-4-men-wanted-in-45000-manhattan-art-gallery-heist/3675192/
| 2022-05-05T17:29:42
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/woman-4-men-wanted-in-45000-manhattan-art-gallery-heist/3675192/
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This summer at the movies, Tom Cruise is back in the cockpit behind those iconic aviators. Doctors Grant, Sattler and Ian Malcolm are returning for another round with the dinosaurs. Natalie Portman is picking up Thor’s hammer. And Jordan Peele is poised to terrify us with the unknown. Again.
Hollywood is bringing out some of its biggest and most reliable players for the 2022 summer movie season, which unofficially kicks off this weekend with the help of Marvel and Disney’s “ Doctor Strange and the Multitverse of Madness ” and runs through the end of August. It’s an uncertain time for the movie business as studios and exhibitors are still making up for losses incurred during the pandemic and adjusting to new ways of doing business, including shortened release windows, competition from streaming and the need to feed their own services. And everyone is wondering if moviegoing will ever return to pre-pandemic levels.
But though the pandemic lingers on, there is optimism in the air.
“We’re still waiting for older audiences to come back. But it really feels like we’ve turned a corner,” said Jim Orr, the head of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures. “You get the impression that audiences want to be out, they want to be in theaters. I think it’s going to be an extraordinary summer.”
Last week, studio executives and movie stars schmoozed with theater owners and exhibitors at a convention in Las Vegas, proudly hyping films that they promise will get audiences back to the movie theaters week after week.
Expectations are particularly high for “Top Gun: Maverick,” which Paramount Pictures will release on May 27 after two years of pandemic postponements. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer says he never waivered for a moment in wanting to release “Top Gun: Maverick” – a full-throttle action film made with extensive aerial photography, practical effects and up to six cameras inside fighter-jet cockpits — exclusively in theaters.
“It’s the kind of movie that embraces the experience of going to the theater. It takes you away. It transports you. We always say: We’re in the transportation business. We transport you from one place to another, and that’s what ‘Top Gun’ does,” Bruckheimer said. “There’s a lot of built-up demand for some movies and hopefully we’re one of them.”
The movie industry has already had several notable hits in the past six months too, including “ Spider-Man: No Way Home,” now the third highest grossing film of all time, “ The Batman,” “ The Lost City ” and, though smaller,“Everything Everywhere All At Once.” The hope is that the momentum will only pick up in the coming months.
Before the pandemic, the summer movie season could reliably produce over $4 billion in ticket sales, or about 40% of the year’s grosses according to Comscore. But in 2020, with theaters closed for the majority of the season and most releases pushed, that total plummeted to $176 million. Last summer presented a marked improvement with $1.7 billion, but things were hardly back to normal — many chose to either delay releases further or employ hybrid strategies.
Now everyone is refocusing on theatrical, though slates are slimmer. The ticketing service Fandango surveyed more than 6,000 ticket-buyers recently and 83% said they planned to see three or more movies on the big screen this summer. And, not insignificantly, Netflix last month also reported its first subscriber loss in 10 years and expects to lose two million more this quarter.
“Finally, it is movie time, with blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster,” said Adam Aron, chairman and CEO of AMC Theatres, the nation’s largest theater chain. He touted franchises like “Doctor Strange 2,”“Top Gun 2,” “Jurassic World: Dominion,” (June 10) and “Thor: Love and Thunder” (July 8), “new film concepts” like Jordan Peele’s “Nope” (July 22) and “Elvis” (June 24) and family friendly offerings from “Lightyear” (June 17) to “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (July 1).
“It’s a bold statement, but this summer could potentially be on par with 2019, which would be monumental for the movie industry,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.
Analysts are predicting “Doctor Strange 2” could open to $170 million this weekend, double that of the first film. Marvel and Disney then follow that with the new Thor, which picks up with Hemsworth’s character traveling around with the Guardians of the Galaxy after “Endgame” and wondering “what now?”
“Thor is just trying to figure out his purpose, trying to figure out exactly who he is and why he’s a hero or whether he should be a hero,” said director Taika Waititi. “I guess you could call it a midlife crisis.”
The film brings back Portman’s Jane Foster, who becomes The Mighty Thor, Waititi’s Korg and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, and adds Russell Crowe as Zeus and Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher. Waititi has said that it’s the craziest film he’s ever made.
“It’s a great, really fun, weird little group of heroes, a new team for Thor with Korg, Valkyrie and The Mighty Thor,” Waititi said. “And, in my humble opinion, we have probably the best villain that Marvel’s ever had in Christian Bale.”
But superhero movies alone don’t make for a healthy or particularly compelling cinematic landscape. There have to be options for theaters to survive.
“Our business can’t devolve into just tentpoles and branded IP. We really need to continue to serve up as broad a slate as we possibly can,” Orr said. “We have something for every audience segment. Audiences are craving that and exhibitors are craving that.”
Universal is proud of their diverse summer slate that includes a certain dinosaur tentpole, family animation, thrillers and horrors, comedies like “Easter Sunday” (Aug. 5) and period charmers from Focus Features like “Downton Abbey: A New Era” (May 20) and “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” (July 15).
Jason Blum, the powerhouse producer and head of Blumhouse, hopes that Scott Derrickson’s supernatural horror “The Black Phone,” featuring Ethan Hawke in a rare villain role, is going to be the special “not superhero movie of the summer” when it hits theaters on June 24.
There’s more coming to theaters than just franchises. There are literary adaptations, like “Where the Crawdads Sing,” with Daisy Edgar-Jones, non-stop action rides like “Bullet Train” (July 29), with Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock, Baz Luhrmann’s drama about the life and music of Elvis Presley, a mockumentary about a tiny seashell (“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” June 24), Regency-era fun in “Mr. Malcolm’s List” (July 1) and creepy hair-raisers like “Watcher” (June 3), “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” and “Resurrection” (both Aug. 5).
“Annihilation” writer-director Alex Garland also has a new thriller, “Men,” coming to theaters May 20. Jessie Buckley plays a woman who retreats to the English countryside for some peace following a personal tragedy only to be confronted by more horrors from the men in this quaint town, all of whom are played by Rory Kinnear.
As someone who makes challenging, original films for the big screen, Garland is a little worried about the movie industry and the seismic shifts that are happening under the surface that are “partly cultural and partly economic.”
“Every time an interesting film comes out and underperforms, I get a kind of gnawing anxiety about it,” Garland said. “If the only films that make money are for younger audiences, something cultural changes. Something changes about the sorts of films that get financed, why they get financed.”
“It almost feels old fashioned or actually rather boring, but I do think there’s a value in cinema,” he added. “A film like ‘Men’ functions differently in a cinema. Not being able to stop it until it’s ended means that it has a qualitatively different effect.”
Streaming companies, meanwhile, are still going strong. Netflix has a massive 35+ film summer slate, including the spy thriller “The Gray Man” (July 22), directed by the Russo brothers and starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans and “Spiderhead” (June 17), with Chris Hemsworth. There’s a documentary about Jennifer Lopez (“Halftime,” June 14), an Adam Sandler basketball joint (“Hustle,” June 8) and a Kevin Hart/Mark Wahlberg buddy pic (“Me Time,” Aug. 26).
Some of the most interesting titles from this year’s Sundance Film Festival are being released by streamers too, including “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande” (Hulu), “Cha Cha Real Smooth” (Apple TV+), “Emergency” (Amazon,) and “AM I OK?” (HBO Max).
“Streaming has a place in the world, but it’s not the only thing in the world,” said Blum, who is convinced that there is still an appetite for going to theaters. “There were people out there saying the movies were over. I never thought that, but I was concerned about how much demand was left. But it appears that that part of our world is not going to disappear anytime soon.”
For Bruckheimer, the equation is perhaps even more simple.
“It all depends on the movies. It’s always about the movies. If there’s stuff people want to see, they’re going to show up,” Bruckheimer said. “I always use the analogy: You have a kitchen in your apartment or home, but you like to go out to eat. You want a different meal.”
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AP Film Writer Jake Coyle contributed from New York.
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Find more of AP’s film coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/movies
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/movies-love-a-comeback-story-this-summer-its-their-turn/
| 2022-05-05T17:32:37
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NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Kidd Creole, who was a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison for stabbing a homeless man to death on a New York City street.
The 62-year-old rapper, born Nathaniel Glover, was found guilty of manslaughter last month for the death of John Jolly, who was stabbed twice in the chest with a steak knife in midtown Manhattan in August 2017.
Prosecutors accused Glover of stabbing Jolly after becoming enraged because he thought Jolly was gay and was hitting on him. After stabbing Jolly, who was 55, Glover headed to his workplace nearby, changed his clothes and washed the knife, prosecutors said. Glover was arrested the following day.
“Mr. Jolly’s death was devastating to his family and those who knew him,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a news release after the sentencing. “Every life we lose to violent crime ripples throughout our entire city, and we will continue to ensure everyone in our borough can live their lives with the sense of safety and security they deserve.”
The New York Times reportsthat Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Michele Rodney appeared to take issue with arguments made by Glover’s lawyer, Scottie Celestin, who said during the trial that Glover had felt threatened in part because Jolly was homeless.
“A life is a life is a life,” Rodney said, adding as she sentenced Glover that the killing was not “somehow justified because the person is homeless.”
Celestin said he would appeal the conviction.
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five formed in the late 1970s in the Bronx. The group’s best-known song is “The Message” from 1982. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, the first rap group to be included.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/rapper-kidd-creole-sentenced-to-16-years-for-fatal-stabbing/
| 2022-05-05T17:32:45
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Liam McHugh is familiar with the rigors of hosting studio shows during the Stanley Cup playoffs, especially those nights when games go to the multiple overtimes on the West Coast.
McHugh is in for some relief this season. With Turner Sports and ESPN picking up the playoffs after 16 years, he will not be on almost every night like he was for on NBC and NBCSN. TNT and TBS get their first games on Thursday after ESPN and ESPN2 carried the first three nights of the postseason.
“It will be odd not to be on all the time. I will say I think there’s something great about recharging your batteries, having a day or two days to step away from it, watch it as an observer and then come back fresh based on what you watched,” McHugh said. “Because it does become Groundhog Day. Sometimes you don’t know what day the week is, and it feels like you’re talking about the same story over and over. So to come up for air is probably going to be a good thing for everyone.”
Turner hopes to continue the momentum from a successful regular season in the playoffs. Its games, mainly on Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons, averaged 361,000 viewers. That’s an increase of 29% over last year on NBCSN (280,000) and 24% compared with 2019-20 (292,000).
Overall, regular-season games on TNT, ABC, and ESPN averaged 460,000, an 18% jump over last year (391,000) and up 15% vs. 2019-20 (398,000).
“More people are consuming the game. We’re at a point where people want what they want when they want it, how they want it, and that’s what we’re delivering,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in an interview with The Associated Press. “What was the underpinning of our new media deals in the U.S. were because we believed — without chopping and dicing it too much — we wanted there to be access to our games in more places but easy to find.”
The four playoff games on ESPN and ESPN2 on Monday’s opening day posted strong numbers: They averaged 576,000 viewers, a 17% increase from 2019, which was the last time the playoffs were in a traditional format. The Boston-Carolina game on ESPN (857,000) was the most-watched Game 1 of a first-round series on cable in 20 years.
TNT and TBS will televise up to 49 playoff games. Turner Sports and ESPN will split the first and second rounds while each will have a conference final. The Stanley Cup Final will be on ABC this year and TNT next season.
While ESPN still had a core group with hockey experience when it regained NHL rights last year, Turner started from scratch. Most came over from NBC — like McHugh and the top announcing team of Kenny Albert, Ed Olczyk and Keith Jones — but there have been some new faces.
The biggest change between Turner and NBCSN has been the studio show. McHugh and Anson Carter worked together at NBC, while Wayne Gretzky, Paul Bissonnetteand Rick Tocchet were new to TV. Gretzky will be a more frequent presence in the studio during the playoffs.
Even though some wondered if the studio show would be “Inside the NBA” on ice, it has managed to establish its own identity, mixing in pregame player interviews with news, analysis, and the occasional hijinks.
“At NBC, we always had this creative side, this fun side, but I think Turner truly takes it to another level,” producer David Gibson said.
McHugh’s biggest question was how Gretzky would adjust to doing television for the first time. He “The Great One” has embraced it.
“You still want to hear every little thing he has to say about hockey, but he’s also the guy who can chirp the other guys on the desk and can take a chirp from them,” McHugh said. “Because of that, it feels more like four or five guys sitting around watching hockey, really enjoying it, but also giving you some pretty good analysis along the way. It has definitely exceeded my expectations.”
Albert said he noticed the immediate chemistry from everyone in the studio when they go to them during intermissions.
“There’s a lot of interaction, and everybody has fun with it,” he said. “That’s probably been one of the biggest differences is just the entertainment in the studio this year and the back and forth that we’ve been able to have both before during, and after the games.”
McHugh will have two challenges during the playoffs — explaining to viewers that some West Coast games will start on TruTV and HLN when the first game isn’t finished, and getting Gretzky, Bissonnette and Tocchet ready for studio segments during marathon games.
“We’re going to get late nights, and they’re going to experience the joy of it’s the late game out West, and we are headed to quadruple overtime. And it is now two in the morning. So get another cup of coffee because you need to have the same energy you had seven hours ago when we came on the air because the viewers don’t expect you to look tired,” McHugh said. “I think I’m looking forward to those moments. Because in the end, those are the ones you remember.”
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AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this story.
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/turner-sports-prepared-for-their-first-stanley-cup-playoffs/
| 2022-05-05T17:32:53
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Governor Asa Hutchinson announced he will be appointing Dr. Jennifer Dillaha as the director of the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH).
Dr. Dillaha has been with the ADH since 2001 and was named the chief medical officer in August 2021.
“Dr. Dillaha has played a significant role in guiding the state through the last two years of the pandemic.” Governor Hutchinson said. “She has shown her dedication to Arkansas, and I have full confidence that she will continue to lead the state in improved health outcomes with the same dedication.”
Hutchinson also appointed Renee Mallory as the interim Secretary of Health, taking the place of Dr. Jose Romero.
Mallory served as the Chief of Staff for the ADH overseeing financial management, IT, governmental affairs, human resources, and more.
"Ms. Mallory began working for the Arkansas Department of Health 33 years ago and has been integral as a leader in several programs that have benefitted the state." Governor Hutchinson said, "She has invaluable experience serving the state and will be a great fit as interim Secretary of Health."
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https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/hutchinson-appoints-director-interim-secretary-adh/91-026a1d05-ab40-4f72-9e3d-3151ace5b47f
| 2022-05-05T17:34:15
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Little Rock Police Department is asking for the public's help finding a missing 16-year-old girl.
According to police, Jaybrianna Turner was reported missing on April 13 of this year and hasn't been seen by family since.
Turner is around 5'7" tall and weighs around 110 pounds.
Police say she may still be in the Little Rock area.
If you see her, please contact the Little Rock Police Department at 501-371-4829 or call 1-800-THE-LOST.
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https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/missing-persons-reports/little-rock-police-looking-for-missing-16-year-old/91-261123df-60c1-4ad6-83f2-7cb98e58b0a7
| 2022-05-05T17:34:27
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https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/missing-persons-reports/little-rock-police-looking-for-missing-16-year-old/91-261123df-60c1-4ad6-83f2-7cb98e58b0a7
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It's May and the the 42nd president is back in Arkansas. Former president Bill Clinton will be speaking to the graduating class of the Clinton School of Public Service on Saturday night. He'll be speaking to not only those that graduated this year, but in 2020 and 2021.
Before President Clinton prepares to give the big commencement to the graduates, he agreed to sit down with THV11's Craig O'Neill in the Clinton Center to chat about Arkansas politics, along with other topics.
The start of the conversation began with President Clinton sharing his thoughts on reestablishing a competitive democratic party in this state.
What was his solution exactly? Well, a return to grass roots politics.
"I just went everywhere, and I met somebody, and talked to them and my so called 'political organization' were just people I met, that I kept in touch with, and we kept working together and it made a big difference," Clinton said.
It was noted that politics in today's age is based on 'divisive identity,'-- highlighting that politics are based on 'divisive tribalism' rather than 'inclusive tribalism.'
With this in mind, we questioned if the former president would feel confident running in a political climate in today's world.
"Oh no, well yeah, I don't think there's a way in the world I could be elected, you know, in some places today that I always thought I could be," Clinton said.
It's known that Arkansas politics have changed since Clinton was in office.
Along with politics, the world has changed and many events have taken place on a national stage-- most recently the Ukrainian and Russian conflict.
While wearing a Ukrainian lapel pin, President Clinton was questioned about his previous meetings with Vladimir Putin.
"I met Putin twice when he was prime minister to Yelstin and I think we were together three other times while I was still president," Clinton said.
But, it wasn't until after Clinton had left office that Putin began to worry him.
"When people decide to stay for life anywhere then their number one goal becomes weakening the opposition and keeping popular support by whatever is available at the time. They also break rules and Putin kills people who are in other countries. That's a very bad thing in a world where the rule of law needs to count for something," he said.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is something that worries the former president, who shared his support for Ukraine.
"I think he thinks of himself as a Russian patriot but the truth is he has been reduced to, you know, illegal and inhumane tactics and I hope the Ukrainians win," he said.
Aside from the political climate and national conflicts, Clinton also wanted to make a point as Arkansans start to make vacation plans--include his center.
He also touched on his time as president, and what his role as leader hoped to inspire.
"I wanted people to come in here [Clinton Center] and go through it and say 'okay whether I like Clinton or not, whether I voted for him or not, I do understand that what presidents do have a real impact on our lives and what happens in politics, makes a difference,"' Clinton said.
And of course the interview couldn't end without a hopeful word that he'll share with the Clinton school graduates on Saturday night.
"I would say we're still the best positioned country in the world in the 21st century. We just can't major in the minors, we can't make our differences more important than our common humanity and I think down deep inside we know better, and we just need to get our heads screwed on straight and get back to work," he said.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/bill-clinton-talks-politics-ukraine-presidency/91-98101a26-631d-4e7e-aab7-362f40b811ca
| 2022-05-05T17:34:52
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/bill-clinton-talks-politics-ukraine-presidency/91-98101a26-631d-4e7e-aab7-362f40b811ca
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DALLAS — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was involved in a car crash Wednesday night, multiple sources told WFAA.
Dallas police and Dallas Fire-Rescue sources told WFAA just before 8:10 p.m., emergency crews were called to the accident in the area of Wolf and Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas.
Jones reportedly suffered minor injuries and was transported to Parkland hospital.
This is a developing story. We’ll update as more information becomes available.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/dallas-cowboy-owner-jerry-jones-involved-in-car-crash/287-37a48651-782c-49eb-bd7d-2310f59e8f7a
| 2022-05-05T17:34:58
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/dallas-cowboy-owner-jerry-jones-involved-in-car-crash/287-37a48651-782c-49eb-bd7d-2310f59e8f7a
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JOHNSON, Arkansas — Everyone saw heavy rainfall from Fayetteville to Bentonville on Thursday, May 5, in Northwest Arkansas. More rain is expected throughout the day as well.
Dozens of roads have been closed in Benton County, and emergency crews carried out over 60 water rescues at apartments in south Washington County during the early morning hours.
Flooding pushed debris over train tracks and derailed somb boxcars in Johnson near the Northwest Arkansas Mall off I-49.
Flooding damages train tracks in Johnson
Heavy winds knocked down the familiar flannel siding of the Graduate Hotel building in downtown Fayetteville. Orange cones and caution tape have been placed nearby out of caution.
A bridge on Steele Road in Tontitown was closed after the asphalt was damaged and water overtook the roadway.
Spillways were opened at the Beaver Dam to release water after buildup from the morning downpour.
When you see weather damage near you, share your photos with 5NEWS through text at (479) 785-5000. You can also submit photos through the free 5NEWS app.
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| 2022-05-05T17:35:04
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The 36-year-old Lincoln man who was found dead with "unexplained injuries" in a grocery store parking lot last November died of an accidental narcotics overdose, according to authorities.
A passerby found Joshua Rainey dead in a pickup truck Nov. 22 outside the Super Saver at Edgewood Shopping Center near 56th Street and Nebraska 2.
Police in November said he had a contusion on his head and labeled Rainey's death "suspicious," but an initial autopsy revealed no obvious sign of death.
Now, Lincoln Police Capt. Todd Kocian said, Rainey's death has been ruled accidental in nature. The investigation into the incident is closed, Kocian said.
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Tom Casady's list of the 10 most infamous crimes in Lincoln history
Crimes of the times
This is simply one man’s perspective from the early 21st century (first written in 2010). I had to make a decision about crimes that occurred at locations that are inside the city today, but were outside our corporate limits at the time they occurred. I chose the latter.
Before beginning, though, I have to deal with three crimes that stand apart: the murders of three police officers in Lincoln. I’m not quite sure how to place them in a list. They all had huge impacts on the community, and on the police department in particular. Because these are my colleagues, I deal with them separately and in chronological order.
Patrolman Marion Francis Marshall
Shot in the shadow of the new Nebraska State Capital, Gov. Charles Bryan came to his aid and summoned additional help.
Lt. Frank Soukup
Marion Marshall was technically not a Lincoln police officer, so Lt. Soukup was actually the first Lincoln police officer killed on duty. One of his colleagues who was present at the motel and involved in the gunbattle, Paul Jacobsen, went on to enjoy a long career and command rank at LPD, influencing many young charges (like me) and leaving his mark on the culture of the agency.
Lt. Paul Whitehead
In the space of a few months, three LPD officers died in the line of duty. Frank Soukup had been murdered, and George Welter had died in a motorcycle crash. Paul Whitehead's partner, Paul Merritt, went on to command rank, and like Paul Jacobsen left an indelible mark at LPD and the community.
No. 1: Starkweather
The subject of several thinly disguised movie plots and a Springsteen album, the Starkweather murders are clearly the most infamous crime in Lincoln’s history — so far. One of the first mass murderers of the mass media age, six of Charles Starkweather’s 11 victims were killed inside the city of Lincoln, and the first was just on the outskirts of town. I didn’t live in Lincoln at the time, but my wife was a first-grader at Riley Elementary School and has vivid memories of the city gripped by fear in the days between the discovery of the Bartlett murders and Starkweather’s capture in Wyoming.
The case caused quite an uproar. There was intense criticism of the police department and sheriff’s office for not capturing Starkweather earlier in the week after the discovery of the Bartletts' bodies. Ultimately, Mayor Bennett Martin and the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners retained a retired FBI agent, Harold G. Robinson, to investigate the performance of local law enforcement. His report essentially exonerated the local law officers and made a few vanilla recommendations for improving inter-agency communication and training.
Now I know that many readers are mumbling to themselves “how obvious.” Hold your horses, though. It’s not quite as obvious as you might think. I had two experiences that drove this fact home to me. The first was a visit by a small group of journalism students. Only one member of the class had any idea, and her idea was pretty vague. You need to remember that the Starkweather murders were in 1957 and 1958 — before the parents of many college students were even born.
The second experience was a visit by a Cub Scout den. I was giving the kids a tour of the police station one evening. We were in the front lobby waiting for everyone to arrive. As I entertained the boys, I told the moms and dads that they might enjoy looking in the corner of the Sheriff’s Office display case to see the contents of Starkweather’s wallet — discovered a couple of years ago locked up in the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office safe. After a few minutes, one of the confused fathers asked me who Starkweather was, and why it was significant.
No. 2: Lincoln National Bank
On the morning of Sept. 17, 1930, a dark blue Buick carrying six men pulled up in front of the Lincoln National Bank at the northwest corner of 12th and O streets. Five of the men entered the bank, while a sixth stood outside by the Buick, cradling a machine gun. Observing the unusual events, a passerby called the police. The officer who responded, Forrest Shappaugh, was casually instructed by the machine-gun-toting lookout to just keep going, which he wisely did. Returning with reinforcements, he found that the robbers had already made good on their getaway, netting $2.7 million in cash and negotiable securities.
Ultimately, three of the six suspects were arrested. Tommy O’Connor and Howard Lee were convicted and sentenced. Jack Britt was tried twice but not convicted by a hung jury. Gus Winkeler, a member of Al Capone’s gang, winged a deal with County Attorney Max Towle to avoid prosecution in exchange for orchestrating the recovery of $600,000 in bearer bonds. The following year, Winkeler was murdered in Chicago, the victim of a gangland slaying. The final two robbers were never identified.
The Lincoln National Bank robbery stood as the largest cash bank robbery in the United States for many decades. It precipitated major changes at the Lincoln Police Department. Chief Peter Johnstone was rapidly “retired” after the robbery, the department’s fleet was upgraded to add the first official patrol cars, the full force was armed and a shotgun squad was organized. Forty-four years later when I was hired at LPD, the echo of the Lincoln National Bank robbery was still evident in daily bank opening details, and in the Thomspon submachine guns and Reising rifles that detectives grabbed whenever the robbery alarm sounded at headquarters.
No. 3: The Last Posse
My first inkling about this crime came when I was the chief deputy sheriff. One of my interns, a young man named Ron Boden (who became a veteran deputy sheriff), had been doing some research on Lancaster County’s only known lynching, in 1884. I came across a reference in the biography of the sheriff at the time, Sam Melick, to the murder of the Nebraska Penitentiary warden and subsequent prison break. Melick had been appointed interim warden after the murder and instituted several reforms.
Several years later, a colleague, Sgt. Geoff Marti, loaned me a great book, Gale Christianson’s "Last Posse," that told the story of the 1912 prison break in gory, haunting and glorious detail.
To make a long story short, convict Shorty Gray and his co-conspirators shot and killed Warden James Delahunty, a deputy warden and a guard on Wednesday, March 13, 1912. They then made their break — right into the teeth of a brutal Nebraska spring blizzard. Over the course to the next few days, a posse pursued. During the pursuit, the escapees carjacked a young farmer with his team and wagon. As the posse closed in, a gunfight broke out and the hostage was shot and killed in the exchange, along with two of the three escapees.
There was plenty of anger among the locals in the Gretna-Springfield vicinity about the death of their native son, and a controversy raged over the law enforcement tactics that brought about his demise. Lancaster County Sheriff Gus Hyers was not unsullied by the inquiry, although it appears from my prospect a century later that the fog of war led to the tragedy.
Christianson, a professor of history at Indiana State University who died earlier this year, notes the following on the flyleaf:
“For anyone living west of the Mississippi in 1912, the biggest news that fateful year was a violent escape from the Nebraska state penitentiary planned and carried out by a trio of notorious robbers and safe blowers.”
Bigger news on half the continent than the sinking of the Titanic during the same year would certainly qualify this murder-escape as one of the most infamous Lincoln crimes in history.
No. 4: Rock Island wreck
The Aug. 10, 1894, wreck of a Rock Island train on the southwest outskirts of Lincoln was almost lost in the mist of time until it was resurrected in the public consciousness by author Joel Williams, who came across the story while conducting research for his historical novel, "Barrelhouse Boys."
The wreck was determined to be the result of sabotage to the tracks, perhaps an attempt to derail the train as a prelude to robbery. Eleven people died in the crash and ensuing fire, making this a mass murder, to be sure. G.W. Davis was arrested and convicted of the crime but later received a full pardon. The story was told in greater detail earlier this year by the Lincoln Journal Star.
A historical marker is along the Rock Island Trail in Wilderness Park, accessible only by foot or bike from the nearest trail access points about a half-mile away at Old Cheney Road on the north, or 14th Street on the south.
Here’s the big question that remains unanswered: Was there really significant evidence to prove that George Washington Davis committed the crime, or was he just a convenient scapegoat? The fact that he received a gubernatorial pardon 10 years later leads me to believe that the evidence must have been unusually weak. If he was railroaded, then my second question is this: who really pried loose the tracks with the 40-pound crowbar found at the scene?
No. 5: Commonwealth
On Nov. 1, 1983, the doors to Nebraska’s largest industrial savings and loan company were closed and Commonwealth was declared insolvent. The 6,700 depositors with $65 million at stake would never be fully compensated for their loss, ultimately receiving about 59 cents on the dollar for their deposits, which they all mistakenly believed were insured up to $30,000 through the Nebraska Depository Insurance Guaranty Corporation, which was essentially an insurance pool with assets of only $3 million.
The case dominated Nebraska news for months. The investigation ultimately led to the conviction of three members of the prominent Lincoln family that owned the institution, the resignation of the director of the State Department of Banking and the impeachment of the Nebraska attorney general and the suspension of his license to practice law. State and federal litigation arising from the failure of Commonwealth drug on for years.
At the Lincoln Police Department, the Commonwealth failure led to the formation of a specialized white-collar crime detail, now known as the Technical Investigations Unit. At the time, municipal police departments in the United States had virtually no capacity for investigating financial crime and fraud of this magnitude, and we quickly became well known for our expertise in this area. The early experience served LPD very well in the ensuring years.
No. 6: Candice Harms
Candi Harms never came home from visiting her boyfriend on Sept. 22, 1992. Her parents reported her as a missing person the following morning, and her car was found abandoned in a cornfield north of Lincoln later in the day. Weeks went by before her remains were found southeast of Lincoln.
Scott Barney and Roger Bjorklund were convicted in her abduction and murder. Barney is in prison serving a life term. Bjorklund died in prison in 2001. Intense media attention surrounded the lengthy trial of Roger Bjorklund, for which a jury was brought in from Cheyenne County as an alternative to a change of venue. I have no doubt that the trial was a life-changing event for a group of good citizens from Sidney, who did their civic duty.
I was the Lancaster County sheriff at the time, involved both in the investigation and in the trial security. It was at about this time that the cellular telephone was becoming a consumer product, and I have often thought that this brutal crime probably spurred a lot of purchases. During my career, this is probably the second-most-prominent Lincoln crime in terms of the sheer volume of media coverage.
No. 7: Jon Simpson and Jacob Surber
A parent’s worst nightmare unfolded in September 1975 when these two boys, ages 12 and 13, failed to return from the Nebraska State Fair. The boys were the victims of abduction and murder. The case was similar to a string of other murders of young boys in the Midwest, and many thought that these cases were related -- the work of a serial killer. Although an arrest was made in the case here in Lincoln, the charges were eventually dismissed. William Guatney was released and has since died.
No. 8: John Sheedy
Saloon and gambling house owner John Sheedy was gunned down outside his home at 1211 P St. in January 1891. The case of Sheedy, prominent in Lincoln’s demiworld, became the talk of the town when his wife, Mary, and her alleged lover and accomplice, Monday McFarland, were arrested. Both were acquitted at trial. The Sheedy murder is chronicled in a great interactive multimedia website, Gilded Age Plains City, an online version that builds upon an article published in 2001 by Timothy Mahoney of the University of Nebraska.
No. 9: Patricia McGarry and Catherine Brooks
The bodies of these two friends were found in a Northeast Lincoln duplex in August 1977. Their murderer, Robert E. Williams, was the subject of a massive Midwest manhunt during the following week. Before his capture, he committed a third murder in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and raped, shot and left for dead a victim who survived in Minnesota. He is the last man to be executed in Nebraska, sent to the electric chair in 1997.
No. 10: Judge William M. Morning
District Court Judge William Morning was murdered in February 1924. He was shot on the bench by an unhappy litigant in a divorce case. His court reporter, Minor Bacon, was also shot, but a notebook in his breast pocket deflected the bullet and saved his life.
Many other crimes
Choosing Lincoln's 10 most infamous crimes was a challenge. Although the top two were easy, the picture quickly became clouded. We tend, of course, to forget our history rather quickly. Many of the crimes I felt were among the most significant are barely remembered today, if not completely forgotten.
Some readers will take issue with my list. In choosing 10, here are the others I considered, in no particular order. They are all murders:
-- Mary O'Shea
-- Nancy Parker
-- Charles Mulholland
-- Victoria Lamm and Janet Mesner
-- Martina McMenamin
-- Regina Bos (presumably murdered)
-- Patty Webb
-- Marianne Mitzner
I also thought about the five murder-suicides in which a mother or father killed multiple family members before taking their own life. Though tragic, these crimes did not command the same kind of attention as the others, perhaps because there was no lengthy investigation, no tantalizing whodunit, no stranger-killer, nor any of the details that come out in the coverage of a major trial.
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lincoln-man-found-dead-in-grocery-store-parking-lot-died-of-overdose-police-say/article_e2b1fa2f-7cfc-5bf7-b7bf-91c88a8433f1.html
| 2022-05-05T17:48:00
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Pat Leach, who has led Lincoln City Libraries since 2008, has announced plans to retire.
Leach, who has worked for the city's library system since 1979, will step down at the end of August.
“I am so proud of the people who make up our library staff, and of their ability and commitment to serve the people of Lincoln,” Leach said in a news release. “I want to thank the many people who have been our partners throughout the years, especially those who served on the Library Board and through the Foundation for Lincoln City Libraries. It's been an honor to be the Library Director in this city that so clearly values lifelong education.”
Leach got her start as a part-time assistant while still in college. She also served as South Branch supervisor and as the Youth Services librarian before being selected as the library director by then-Mayor Chris Beutler in 2008.
Current Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird praised Leach for her leadership, especially during the pandemic, as the libraries added curbside pickup and reserved appointment times.
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"We wish Pat all the best as she turns the page on this chapter of her career – amounting to more than four decades of service to the City of Lincoln and our public libraries," Gaylor Baird said in the release. "Her true love of literature and passion for lifelong learning touched thousands, and we are grateful to her for leaving a legacy that will continue to benefit our community far into the future."
The mayor said she plans to conduct a national search for a new library director.
The new director will inherit the effort to replace the aging Bennett Martin branch downtown with a new, state-of-the-art facility.
Leach earlier this week told the Journal Star that a potential bond issue to pay for a new downtown library has been pushed back at least three years, largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lincoln City Libraries top books for 2021
“Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family” by Robert Kolker
“Caste: The Origins of our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
“A Promised Land” by Barack Obama
“Greenlights” by Matthew McConaughey
“Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, 1990-
“The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah
“Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
“The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig
“Sooley: A Novel” by John Grisham
“Transcendent Kingdom” by Yaa Gyasi
Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/lincoln-library-director-plans-to-retire-in-august/article_af1d6f14-ad2a-5c0c-84df-99f0701ecc6d.html
| 2022-05-05T17:48:06
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/lincoln-library-director-plans-to-retire-in-august/article_af1d6f14-ad2a-5c0c-84df-99f0701ecc6d.html
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Wreck causes travel headaches on Kell Freeway
Christopher Walker
Wichita Falls Times Record News
Wichita Falls Police went to the scene of an accident on Kell Freeway that shut down eastbound traffic on the busy route late Thursday morning.
WFPD Sgt. Paul Newton said the two-vehicle collision occurred near Lawrence Road when an westbound vehicle crossed a median, struck a tree and hit an SUV.
Two people were taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
Police had to divert traffic from the eastbound lanes at the Fairway Boulevard ramp, causing a major headache for motorists. Eleven police units and five fire department units converged on the scene.
More:One injured in early Saturday morning accident
Crews were working to reopen the freeway as soon as possible and the cause of the wreck was under investigation.
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https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/wreck-causes-travel-headaches-kell-freeway/9660321002/
| 2022-05-05T18:00:06
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https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/wreck-causes-travel-headaches-kell-freeway/9660321002/
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Dozens of Brevard clergy, elected officials, residents pray for unity in nation, county
As pro-life and pro-choice activists clash nationwide over the Supreme Court’s draft abortion opinion leak, several dozen members of Brevard’s clergy along with elected officials joined together to reflect and pray for the country’s unity.
“We really need (prayer). We’re really living in sad times or bizarre times, really,” U.S. Rep. Bill Posey told the audience, alluding to a list of social issues that have recently grabbed headlines, from Critical Race Theory to student loan forgiveness and discussions of gender identity.
“I’m reminded frequently that this is not a political battle, this is a spiritual battle for the soul of our nation," Posey said, speaking briefly before the group of about 300 people at the Grand Manor in Melbourne.
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The 90-minute Space Coast Prayer Breakfast also came the same week as a coalition of vocal members of Brevard's clergy, the Brevard Justice Ministry, are pressuring the Brevard County Commission to do more to address issues such as housing insecurity.
The 10th annual event, which included a cross-section of ministries that dealt with everything from affordable housing, veterans issues, and pregnancy assistance was Thursday during the National Day of Prayer.
For many, the prayer event came at a time of growing concern as issues such as the Supreme Court's draft decision on the issue of abortion spurs national protests.
Maureen Fields, the director of Essential Pregnancy Center, a Palm Bay-based ministry funded by Brevard County congregations, said the pending court decision is already having an impact. The clinic, which also provides ultrasound and pregnancy testing, has been in operation for nearly a year.
"The phones rang off the hook with many wanting abortions at the last minute because (of the opinion)... Our mission is to talk with them about adoption or parenting. We tell them the truth that they are really carrying babies," Fields said, adding that the prayer event provided an opportunity to network and pray.
In addition to the breakfast, Brevard residents across the county were expected to gather at flag poles and in front of government buildings during the day to offer up prayers.
President Biden, who signed a proclamation of national prayer, pointed out that in times of crisis, Americans have turned to prayer as a guide.
“Today is also a moment of reflection when we are called to address some of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced — saving our planet from the existential threat of climate change; responding to attacks on democracy at home and abroad; and living up to our Nation’s promise of liberty, justice, and equality for all,” he wrote.
The National Day of Prayer began formally with President Harry S. Truman in 1952. Over the years, the day has allowed various religious groups to come together in prayer and to set a tone of thanksgiving for communities nationwide.
The keynote speaker for the Brevard event was Dr. Kerry Fink, the executive director of the not-for-profit Helping Seniors of Brevard. Kerry also works in media marketing and is a member of Brevard County’s Commission on Aging.
There was also praise music and a litany of prayers for Brevard's elected officials.
"This is great," said Dwight Bell, founder of Wings of Grace Ministries,Inc, a Melbourne-based outreach program that teaches youth to fly aircraft while receiving life coaching.
"This brings the community together and glorifies God," said Bell, one of the sponsors of the prayer breakfast.
Posey said that he continues to pray for the nation, especially as attention continues to turn to the Supreme Court.
"We have to have faith that the system will work," Posey said.
"And prayer is necessary."
J.D. Gallop is a Criminal Justice/Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/faith-leaders-gather-brevard-prayer-reflection-national-day-prayer/9628840002/
| 2022-05-05T18:08:46
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/faith-leaders-gather-brevard-prayer-reflection-national-day-prayer/9628840002/
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West Melbourne police investigating attempted robbery of ATM machine on Palm Bay Road
Robbers attempted to steal an ATM machine from the Chase Bank property on Palm Bay Road early Thursday morning, by chaining it to a stolen pickup truck, West Melbourne police said.
But the bank's alarm went off at about 4:10 a.m. Thursday, alerting police to the attempted robbery, said Sgt. Graig Erenstoft of West Melbourne Police Department.
When police arrived, they discovered a Ford F-250 and the ATM machine in a grassy area slightly north of the bank.
They also discovered chains, which they believe were used in the attempt to steal the machine.
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The truck had been reported stolen out of Ocoee recently, police said.
Two people seen in bank's security footage were unable to be located.
Chase Bank representatives couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.
Police are asking anyone with information about the incident or people involved to contact the West Melbourne Police Department at 321-723-9673, or call Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS. Crimeline callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward.
Finch Walker is a Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/police-investigate-attempted-robbery-atm-chase-bank-w-melbourne/9659453002/
| 2022-05-05T18:08:52
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/police-investigate-attempted-robbery-atm-chase-bank-w-melbourne/9659453002/
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The Portland Tribune is a KOIN 6 media partner
PORTLAND, Ore. (Portland Tribune) — Developers who want to build over 1 million square feet of buildings on a former Oregon City landfill received unanimous approval from commissioners — with one abstention — to receive city-staff help in perusing grant funding.
Developers say they’ll require $40 million in public funds, or their project won’t be built. Their proposed North End development would cover 62 acres and cost about $350 million to construct at the intersection of Interstate 205 and Highway 213.
Summit Development Group has approached Clackamas County officials to discuss potential alternative funding of its proposed 524 apartment units, along with boutique and large-format retail space, through the county roads fund, lottery fund or American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Summit also has asked about an application through the county for EPA brownfields grants.
City Commissioner Frank O’Donnell, now serving as chair of the Urban Renewal Commission, said the approval of staff time shouldn’t be construed as the commission’s support of the project itself.
Former Mayor Doug Neeley, who is now a member of Oregon City’s Urban Renewal Commission, on May 4 made a successful motion to allow city staff to help the developer to pursue grants, in his second attempt to do so. During the April 20 meeting, there wasn’t a second member of the commission willing to take Neeley’s motion to a vote.
City Commissioner Rocky Smith has repeatedly expressed concerns about the project and abstained from the vote; he remains concerned about how the project, if it moves forward, would fit in with urban-renewal plans that remain in flux. Smith was previously an elected official during the failed Rivers shopping-mall proposal on Rossman Landfill about a decade ago.
“I do not want to see us repeating history again and again and again,” Smith said. “We’re going to be in an end game where it’s a divisive community argument, and it will fall apart.”
Commission President Denyse McGriff, who is serving as interim mayor, agreed with Smith that more planning is needed for envisioning the future of the city’s urban-renewal area.
“We don’t want the community to get ahead of us, the decision-makers,” McGriff said.
Rossman Landfill collected about 60% of municipal waste in the Metro region from the 1960s until Oregon DEQ detected contamination of groundwater in 1976 and terminated waste collection in 1983.
Summit has reported spent $2.6 million on planning, engineering, due diligence and other efforts necessary to receive unanimous approval for the land-use proposal from Oregon City’s Planning Commission on July 26, 2021.
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https://www.koin.com/local/clackamas-county/oregon-city-staffers-to-help-north-end-developers-obtain-funding/
| 2022-05-05T18:15:33
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https://www.koin.com/local/clackamas-county/oregon-city-staffers-to-help-north-end-developers-obtain-funding/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Northeast Portland boutique owner is making sure that future generations are well versed in mannequin styling.
Ragan Vanise, owner of Ragan’s Boutique, has kids come to the store every few months on weekends to style her mannequins.
“I say you have free reign, you can pick anything in the store and put together an outfit you like. You can use jewelry, shoes, purses, hats, anything,” Vanise said.
Vanise says it’s an art form that is still relevant, with storefront mannequins being one way to draw in customers in the ever-increasing online shopping world.
“I think it’s a good way for them to express themselves because I know that’s what it’s always been for me,” Vanise said.
There are cards attached to the mannequins that show the name of their young stylist. It’s a job that Izzy Young doesn’t take lightly.
“I might want to work. I might want to take over her store,” Young said.
Ragan’s Boutique is located on NE 42nd Ave. in Portland’s Hollywood District.
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https://www.koin.com/local/portland-boutique-store-lets-kids-style-their-mannequins/
| 2022-05-05T18:15:39
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https://www.koin.com/local/portland-boutique-store-lets-kids-style-their-mannequins/
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EL DORADO HILLS, Calif —
The El Dorado Hills Art, Beer & Wine Festival is set to return over Mother’s Day weekend.
The 17th annual El Dorado Hills Art, Beer & Wine Festival is set to run from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, May 7 and 8, at the at the El Dorado Hills Town Center. The festival features 115 booths with some of the region’s best artists, wineries, breweries and local businesses. At the festival, people can enjoy live music, entertainment, food trucks, interactive games and a cornhole tournament.
“One of our core competencies is to promote our community,” Angela Nicolson the Communications and Events Director for the El Dorado Hills Chamber of Commerce said. “This festival has been a tradition since 2003 and we are so excited to bring it back this year.”
The El Dorado Hills Chamber of Commerce says most of Town Center Blvd. will be closed to traffic. However, the businesses within the Town Center will remain open during the festival.
The festival is free for all to attend, but those over the age of 21 must purchase unlimited tasting tickets to enjoy the beer and wine. Unlimited tasting tickets can be purchased for $35 through May 6 or at the gate on the day of the event for $45. More information about the El Dorado Hills Art, Beer & Wine Festival can be found HERE.
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Watch more from ABC10: Oak Ridge High School teen battles cancer with his teammates by his side
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/eldorado-hills/el-dorado-hills-art-beer-wine-festival/103-a8481413-9c05-41fd-a5d4-1a095b6c8174
| 2022-05-05T18:20:24
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/eldorado-hills/el-dorado-hills-art-beer-wine-festival/103-a8481413-9c05-41fd-a5d4-1a095b6c8174
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YUBA CITY, Calif. — A park that provided some of the happiest moments for a young boy who battled cancer is hoping to soon bring smiles to children of all abilities.
Colin Boyd passed away January 30, 2022. He was 4 years old and lived with autism and battled cancer for nearly a year after being diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma.
Colin loved the playground at Maple Park, even through tough moments, it was a place he could smile.
"We'd never be able to leave the park," Caitlyn Boyd, Colin's mother, said. "He would literally want to be here every day."
Now, his family wants his legacy to live on at Maple Park with the addition of Colin's Corner, a new area of the park that will be inclusive for children with sensory sensitivity and handicap disabilities.
Caitlyn's emotions are still evident as she visits Maple Park with her other son Emmett.
"A lot of people and children are going to know his [Colin's] story because he really was a special kid," Caitlyn said. "When I see the Collin's Corner sign for the first time, I'm probably going to ugly cry, and that's OK. But it's just going to mean a lot to everybody in my family, and our community just to be able to honor him so much," she added.
What was once Collin's favorite park could become a favorite for other kids to enjoy. Caitlyn said it's the perfect way to honor her son.
"That's all I want is, you know, if I can help one kid or one mom have 10 minutes of just having fun, then that's enough for me," Caitlyn said.
Now the goal is to raise enough money to get Colin's Corner off the ground. Yuba City councilmember Marc Boomgarden said the city is partnering with the Yuba City Parks and Recreation Foundation and asking for donations.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/inclusive-park-yuba-city/103-211d9874-a4f9-43a5-99f8-c2fd66926fc4
| 2022-05-05T18:20:30
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/inclusive-park-yuba-city/103-211d9874-a4f9-43a5-99f8-c2fd66926fc4
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On April 28, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) issued a permit that will allow the Pinyon Plain uranium mine to continue operating near Grand Canyon National Park.
The mine is owned by Energy Fuels Resources, a Canadian company with offices based in Colorado, and is located on the Kaibab National Forest about 10 miles south of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. The new permit has been met with heavy opposition from environmental and tribal advocates, especially the Havasupai, who contend that the mine risks contamination of their only source for drinking water.
The Pinyon Plain Mine, formerly the Canyon Mine, was originally permitted in 1984. Operation halted in 1992 when the price of uranium was at a low.
Uranium prices are currently ticking upward as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the new permit from the ADEQ would allow Energy Fuels to restart operations at Pinyon Plain in the near future. Despite being located within the boundaries of a 20-year moratorium placed on mining by the Obama administration, Pinyon Plain is considered active because it was permitted before the ban.
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The new permit is what’s known as an Aquifer Protection Permit (APP), and is required by the state for any facility that discharges pollutants into groundwater. To obtain the permit, Energy Fuels Resources had to demonstrate that the site meets aquifer water quality standards at a point of compliance and has implemented the “best available demonstrated control technology.”
ADEQ wrote in a public statement that despite the mine having preexisting permitting, it “decided to require that Energy Fuels Resources apply for an Individual Aquifer Protection Permit,” as a direct result of “tribal consultation, public comments” and “an extraordinary abundance of caution.”
The new APP consolidates some past permits and includes some stricter regulations, making Pinyon Plain “the most tightly regulated uranium mine in Arizona,” according to ADEQ.
New regulations include limits on mining depths, implementation of groundwater monitoring at point-of-compliance wells and an extended post-closure monitoring period of 30 years. Energy Fuels has also come under fire for spraying mine shaft water contaminated by arsenic and uranium in order to suppress dust around the site. The new permit mandates that if the business is to continue this activity, that water must first be treated to bring contamination levels of uranium and arsenic down to levels considered safe for drinking by the Environmental Protection Agency.
To many concerned parties, however, these regulations remain insufficient.
Any regulation that allows for future mining in the region is inappropriate, said Amber Reimondo, energy director for the Grand Canyon Trust. Groundwater systems in the area are simply too complex, she said. “Uranium contamination in a system like this is forever, and while the mining company can walk away, the Havasupai Tribe can’t. This is, and always has been, their home.”
The Havasupai repeatedly urged ADEQ not to issue a new permit for the Pinyon Plain Mine on the grounds that mine activity poses a substantial risk to their groundwater supply.
“Unfortunately, our voices have been ignored,” said Edmond Tilousi, vice chairman of the Havasupai Tribe.
In 2016, drilling punctured a section of the aquifer -- which is a crucial supply of water for Coconino County and sits atop the aquifer that provides the Havasupai drinking water. The mine is also just 3 miles away from Red Butte, one of the largest declared traditional cultural sites on the Kaibab National Forest.
In a statement to the Arizona Daily Sun, ADEQ wrote that the U.S. District Court and Ninth Circuit “have rejected all claims in two lawsuits that the mine will adversely impact groundwater and seeps and springs in the Grand Canyon.”
Energy Fuels Resources maintained the rulings are valid. Curtis Moore, vice president of marketing, wrote in a statement that “ADEQ followed the clear science and facts in issuing this permit, despite considerable opposition from pressure groups.”
Tilousi indicated that the Havasupai Tribe will continue to oppose the Pinyon Plain Mine.
“We have fought for many years and we will continue to fight to protect our waters, springs and our sacred mountain,” Tilousi said. “The aquifers are too important to continue to be contaminated and sacrificed by Energy Fuels and ADEQ.”
Energy Fuels Resources has not provided ADEQ with an anticipated start date for mining activity. ADEQ will accept appeals for 30 days following the April 28 announcement.
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/arizona-department-of-environmental-quality-issues-new-permit-to-uranium-mine-near-grand-canyon/article_869cdf70-ca65-11ec-87a3-ebe06617cd1e.html
| 2022-05-05T18:28:41
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/arizona-department-of-environmental-quality-issues-new-permit-to-uranium-mine-near-grand-canyon/article_869cdf70-ca65-11ec-87a3-ebe06617cd1e.html
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Natalie Rodriguez finds it hard to believe that she will be graduating from Coconino Community College on Friday. She hopes to one day use her studies in psychology and anthropology to help children in the community where she grew up.
“I’m like, 'Whoa,'” she said of being so close to graduation "...Nobody went to college in my family. Nobody even graduated high school.”
Her parents immigrated to Los Angeles from Honduras, where her mom completed a third-grade education and her dad finished his first year of high school.
“I truly do thank them for everything,” she said. “They came here with nothing but what was on their backs. They still may not have a lot, but they managed to give me everything that I need to be where I’m at now.”
High school was “a given for me as I’ve always been very involved,” she said.
She attended the Health Academy at California High School, graduating as a certified nursing assistant at age 17.
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Her upcoming graduation is harder for her to believe.
“I think college is the one that I’m like, 'Whoa, that’s crazy. I’m doing it.' And then now I’m setting an example for my little brother, who is 16. Hopefully he follows in my footsteps and he creates a career path of his own," she said.
Rodriguez came to CCC in August, moving from what she described as a “bad environment” near Los Angeles.
“I feel like here at CCC, I’ve grown so much,” she said.
She was accepted into a few universities as a senior in high school, including Northern Arizona University. Her family misunderstood the scholarship amount in the acceptance letter, however, so she took a different path to higher education.
“When we saw the number, we thought it was the number that we needed to pay, not what I was going to be receiving for free,” she said. “....They were like, 'We can't afford it.' So I was like, 'OK, I'm going to a community college.'”
She started at Rio Hondo College, playing water polo, before moving to online school at Cypress College at the start of the pandemic.
Rodriguez moved to Flagstaff this year, finding CCC after her girlfriend was accepted to study special education and psychology at NAU.
“I have found a lot of peace here in Flagstaff,” she said.
After graduating from CCC, Rodriguez plans to join her girlfriend at NAU next semester, using the the CCC2NAU program. She’ll continue her studies in anthropology and psychology.
With grants and scholarships, she said, she’ll be able to attend for free the first year.
She hopes to one day return to Los Angeles and work as a counselor.
“I definitely want to go back and work with children that fall into the system of Los Angeles that they set up for their low-income families, children who may struggle with a learning disability," she said. "I want to be able to go back as a counselor to that community that I come from, to try to help those children understand that there is someone who truly does care for them. I want to be able to create resources for these children to learn in an effective environment, because the environment that they’re learning in, it doesn’t allow them to focus on what they truly want to focus on."
Rodriguez credits her parents with encouraging her and her four siblings (three older, one younger) to pursue education.
“They’ve always told us you need to become someone in this world, because we’re working the low-income jobs so you don’t have to,” she said. “...They don’t really have an education, so for them to encourage education for me, it set me up for success.”
Her parents will be coming to her graduation ceremony Saturday, though she hasn’t yet told them she’s been asked to give a commencement speech.
“I’m excited, but I’m nervous,” she said.
She also said she hoped her story would encourage others, advising future CCC students to use the resources available to them.
“Being part of the LGBTQ community and being first generation, I’m doing it and there’s no way that nobody else can do it,” she said. “Everybody can do it. You can make a difference.”
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/education/ccc-grad-spotlight-natalie-rodriguez-ready-to-give-back-to-family-hometown/article_71df5190-cb36-11ec-8fb2-ebc4b1cdc995.html
| 2022-05-05T18:28:47
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/education/ccc-grad-spotlight-natalie-rodriguez-ready-to-give-back-to-family-hometown/article_71df5190-cb36-11ec-8fb2-ebc4b1cdc995.html
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Ahead of the first round of the 2A Conference softball state tournament, the Northland Prep Academy Spartans, especially the seniors, have taken some time to look back on what has been a successful season.
After reaching the state semifinals for the first year in team history in 2021, the Spartans graduated much of their roster and came into the spring of 2022 with a young squad. There are underclassmen starting all over, and just three seniors on the roster.
Seeded eighth in the 2A bracket, having won nine straight games to claim the Central Region title and boasting a record of 16-4 (8-0 Central), the Spartans are in solid form ahead of Friday’s opening round.
“What’s special about our team is that we’re really young,” senior Maggie Auza said. "And I think it’s fun that our seniors can still bond with the sophomores and freshmen. We lost a lot of our team from last year, but it’s cool that we can still go hopefully as far or even farther than we went before."
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In Northland Prep's last nine games -- all wins -- seven have come via the 10-run mercy rule. The Spartans dominated the region, especially at the end of the regular season. Production has come from players of all ages.
Freshman Kianna Butler has impressed as a starting pitcher -- she and her sister, junior Reannan Butler, have been the two workhorses in the circle all season -- and has already thrown two no-hitters in her first season of varsity softball.
More than just production on the field, senior Ashlee Hamilton said, there is a high level of maturity and excitement from everyone on the team, whether they’re new players or veterans. She said she remembers a game early in the season that the Spartans were down in an away game, and it was the energy of the freshmen and sophomores that brought the ballclub back to life for a comeback win.
“I sort of realized there was a lot of drive from everyone, especially the younger girls,” she said.
The Spartans have benefited from a schedule that has seen them play 12 of their final 13 regular-season games in Flagstaff. But to get there, they opened 2022 with seven consecutive road games and an exhibition tournament in Cottonwood. Manager Betty Dean said the inexperienced roster grew up during the trials of a rugged road schedule.
“We stacked our season up pretty tight at the very beginning. I wanted them to get that exposure, and then later in the year we’ve gotten consistently better,” she said. “There’s been huge improvement across the board, especially some of our younger or newer players who really picked up some stuff pretty quickly. I think they’re understanding the game better, and that’s important when you get to this stage.”
Senior Tirza Rodriguez added that the early slate of away games forged strong team chemistry.
“Away games are a huge bonding moment. We are in the vans a lot, and I have so many memories from those. It makes us better because you’re stuck together in a van, and then we play tough teams,” she said.
Winning their games via mercy rule at home has showcased Northland Prep’s skill. But, even as the higher seed in their first-round contest against Trivium Prep on Friday, the Spartans will not have a chance to play at home. Each of the first three rounds will be played at Rose Mofford Sports Complex in Phoenix.
The level of competition will also, obviously, be higher than they faced late in the regular season. The Spartans have proven their ability to stack up runs offensively, but need to play solid in all aspects to have a chance to repeat last year’s playoff run.
“Our defense needs to be consistent. If we stay up and communicate I think we can go far,” Hamilton said.
No. 8-seeded Northland Prep and ninth-seeded Trivium Prep will face off Friday in Phoenix at 6 p.m. The winner will face the victor between No. 16 Bisbee and No. 1 Benson on Saturday.
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/northland-prep-softball-heating-up-heading-into-playoffs/article_0c13d782-cc03-11ec-bb26-9be53fce5a24.html
| 2022-05-05T18:28:53
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/northland-prep-softball-heating-up-heading-into-playoffs/article_0c13d782-cc03-11ec-bb26-9be53fce5a24.html
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PORTLAND, Ore. — The Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) program team unveiled the last of their recommendations for the configuration of the proposed new bridge on Thursday. The most notable choice was the recommendation of just one set of auxiliary lanes, for an overall width of eight traffic lanes.
That's a reduction from the ten-lane design that had been chosen for the program's predecessor, the failed Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project; the three existing travel lanes plus two auxiliary lanes on each side.
Community opinion polls conducted by the IBR program found that 85% of respondents supported one set of auxiliary lanes and 74% supported two sets. Clark County residents were more likely to prefer two sets rather than one, while Oregon residents were more evenly split.
"We took in a lot of feedback, looked at the overall impacts, and focused with centering on climate and equity, and landing on the one auxiliary lane," program manager John Willis said at a Thursday morning meeting of the project's Executive Steering Group.
The eight-lane design is paired with a scaled-back interchange at Hayden Island. The CRC plan would have maintained the island's current full interchange, which allows traffic to enter and exit the freeway in both directions.
The IBR recommendation calls for maintaining only a southbound exit ramp and a northbound entrance ramp. Drivers traveling between Portland and the island would instead use the Marine Drive interchange on the Oregon mainland and cross on a separate arterial bridge.
That recommendation was based on a desire to minimize the impact of the freeway on Hayden Island residents, Willis said, coupled with community polls indicating that Washington residents drive to Hayden Island more often than Oregon residents.
Most of the other high-level configuration recommendations were already known. The project team revealed last month that it would recommend including light rail on the bridge, rather than bus rapid transit, although Willis's presentation did raise the possibility of Bus on Shoulder on the new bridge, which C-Tran already uses on Interstate 5 south approaching the bridge.
In another reduction in scale from the CRC plan, the team recommended that the light rail line remain adjacent to I-5 in Vancouver and terminate near Evergreen Boulevard, rather than branching off through the city's downtown streets and terminating at Clark College.
Light rail was one of the most controversial parts of the CRC, particularly in Washington, but Willis said IBR's community opinion polls found strong support for light rail among residents on both sides of the river: 90% in Portland, 69% in Vancouver and 57% in Clark County excluding Vancouver.
There is one place where the IBR project is going bigger: The team is recommending a full replacement of the North Portland Harbor Bridge, which carries I-5 from the Oregon mainland to Hayden Island. The CRC plan called for the existing bridge to be retrofitted and maintained.
The IBR team also recommended that the project include variable-rate tolling, which the CRC also would have featured, although it's too soon to know what the toll amounts would be.
One detail that still hasn't been resolved is the configuration of the bridge itself. The team previously outlined two options: twin bridges that would each carry one direction of the freeway, or a single bridge that would stack the freeway on two decks. The team is still evaluating those two options, program administrator Greg Johnson said, but there's still time to make a decision later.
Taken together, the various design recommendations form the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA), which is the single conceptual design that the project team will put through the federal environmental review process.
The LPA is not a full engineering design — in fact it's only a 2% design, Willis said. Assuming the LPA receives federal approval, the detailed design work is scheduled to take place over the next few years, with construction targeted to begin in 2025.
In the shorter term, the project team will be seeking local approval of the LPA choices. Thursday's presentation was at a meeting of the project's Executive Steering Group, which includes representatives from local governments like the City of Portland and transit agencies like TriMet.
Those representatives will now be tasked with taking the LPA back to their respective boards and councils for review. The IBR team is also meeting Friday morning to present the LPA to the bi-state legislative committee that oversees the program.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/interstate-bridge-program-recommends-8-lane-crossing/283-3ae222bf-ec2d-4d3a-8b9b-33ff7ccec138
| 2022-05-05T18:54:31
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/interstate-bridge-program-recommends-8-lane-crossing/283-3ae222bf-ec2d-4d3a-8b9b-33ff7ccec138
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Numerous tenants who faced eviction after the end of New York’s eviction moratorium in January had their overdue rent paid by an anonymous person who donated $60,000 to a public housing complex in Hudson.
The donation was made through a Black-led housing justice group called the Hudson-Catskill Housing Coalition for tenants at the Hudson Housing Authority, The Times Union reported Wednesday.
Nick Zachos, the authority’s temporary executive director, said 50 lease-holders would benefit from the donation. It was to cover rent amounts that range from a few hundred to a thousand dollars.
Zachos said the coalition requested all of the outstanding rent be paid off instead of holding a selection process.
Coalition Senior Policy Advisor Quintin Cross said he would not reveal the name of the donor.
“If folks are evicted from (HHA), we know they’re homeless after that — they have no place else to go,” Cross said.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/anonymous-donor-pays-60k-in-overdue-rent-for-ny-public-housing-tenants/3675359/
| 2022-05-05T18:59:32
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/anonymous-donor-pays-60k-in-overdue-rent-for-ny-public-housing-tenants/3675359/
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New York City will pay $10.5 million dollars to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a man who spent 24 years in prison on a murder conviction that was overturned after a witness who had placed him at the crime scene recanted, city officials said Thursday.
The conviction of Shawn Williams, who was freed in 2018, was the 14th overturned conviction linked to retired Detective Louis Scarcella, a former Brooklyn homicide detective who has been accused of coercing witnesses and framing suspects during the high-crime era of the late 1980s and 1990s.
Williams, who is now 47, was convicted in 1994 in the fatal shooting of his neighbor Marvin Mason the year before.
Absent any forensic evidence tying Williams to the crime, prosecutors relied on the testimony of a woman who said she had seen him at the scene with a gun. The woman recanted her testimony in 2013, saying she had been coerced into naming Williams as the gunman by Scarcella.
The $10.5 million settlement with Williams to settle his lawsuit against Scarcella and two other officers was first reported in The New York Times.
“No amount of money can give me back the years they took from me,” Williams said in a statement to the Times. “But I am going to keep rebuilding my life and looking ahead to a brighter future.”
A spokesperson for New York City’s law department said the settlement was in the best interest of all parties.
The city has paid millions of dollars in settlements over other cases linked to Scarcella, who has denied any wrongdoing.
Richard Signorelli, an attorney for Scarcella, said the retired detective “categorically denies all the allegations of misconduct” in Williams’ case. Signorelli said the settlement agreement “does not constitute any admission of liability or wrongdoing on Det. Scarcella’s part.”
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nyc-to-pay-10-5m-settlement-after-man-spends-24-years-in-prison-for-wrongful-murder-conviction/3675380/
| 2022-05-05T18:59:46
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/nyc-to-pay-10-5m-settlement-after-man-spends-24-years-in-prison-for-wrongful-murder-conviction/3675380/
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A Native group said it's disappointed in Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird's decision to approve a large housing development near Wilderness Park.
The mayor announced Wednesday that she will sign off on the zoning changes and land annexation that will allow the Wilderness Crossing Development, which includes 162 single-family homes, 134 town homes and 205 apartments, to be built on about 75 acres south of Pioneers Boulevard between South First Street and U.S. 77.
The land, which is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, is across the road from a Native sweat lodge on private property that's within the park's borders.
A group of Native community members who oppose the development set up a prayer camp early Monday.
That group, the Niskíthe Prayer Camp, said in a statement Thursday that they are "disappointed that the mayor decided to support this project rather than protect the spiritual and environmental integrity of this land."
The group met with Gaylor Baird on Tuesday to discuss their concerns, and she said Wednesday that she looks forward to working with them in the future to build a more inclusive community.
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But she said she will approve the development, which passed the City Council on a 5-2 vote, noting that both the owner of the property slated for development and the owner of the land that includes the sweat lodge, "have the right to use their land as they wish within guidelines."
Gaylor Baird also said that previous modifications made by the developer and city planners had already addressed some concerns about the development.
The Niskíthe Prayer Camp group disagreed, however, saying their input was not included until design of the development was essentially finished.
"(W)e disagree that the existing modifications to the design of Wilderness Crossing represent a responsiveness of the developer to Native people’s concerns," the statement said. "Responsiveness to our concerns would have meant we were actually brought to the table and engaged with over the 5-year lifespan of this development, which we were not. Responsiveness would have required asking the Native American community direct questions about accommodations to protect the sweat lodge, and that did not happen."
The group said that had they been asked, they would have suggested a minimum 300-foot setback from South First Street, removal of the easternmost proposed homes or a park directly across the street from the sweat lodge.
"The developers may yet decide to be responsive to our requests, and for that we pray and remain hopeful," the statement said. "However, in our eyes, their interactions with us thus far cannot be called responsive, nor considerate, nor respectful."
Kevin Abourezk, a leader of the peaceful prayer camp, said the camp with seven shelters will remain for now as the group evaluates its next steps.
Abourezk said the group has talked directly with the diocese and had a good dialogue, even though the diocese rejected its suggestion that it end its agreement to sell the land to developer Sam Manzitto Jr. and consider an alternative sale proposal.
He said the group has not yet approached Manzitto Jr., but that could be a next step.
Abourezk said the group continues to be in contact with the mayor's office and, "we're hopeful we will achieve some kind of solution," to protect the sweat lodge in Wilderness Park.
The statement from the Niskíthe Prayer Camp also said the group is heartened and hopeful by the relationships it has established with the mayor and her staff, particularly new mayoral aide T.J. McDowell, who leads the city’s One Lincoln initiative to foster equity, diversity and inclusion.
"We have secured (the mayor's) commitment to ongoing dialogue and she has ensured us that she will work with us to put in place legal protections for sweat lodges and other sacred sites," the statement said.
"In our ongoing dialogues, we will advocate that Kathleen Danker’s land, also known as the Fish Farm, be given protections and that the current land uses there, specifically the sweat lodge, be allowed to continue unimpeded. We will also advocate for a Native American city cabinet. We envision a cohort of tribal peoples who will work together on issues impacting Native peoples in the city, and place Native Americans at tables where vital planning conversations occur."
Photos: Nebraska celebrates first Indigenous Peoples' Day
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Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/native-group-says-its-disappointed-in-mayors-approval-of-lincoln-development/article_bf455e26-a2de-5950-9aaf-e08cc60b55e0.html
| 2022-05-05T19:35:58
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/native-group-says-its-disappointed-in-mayors-approval-of-lincoln-development/article_bf455e26-a2de-5950-9aaf-e08cc60b55e0.html
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Governor Asa Hutchinson announced he will be appointing Dr. Jennifer Dillaha as the director of the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH).
Dr. Dillaha has been with the ADH since 2001 and was named the chief medical officer in August 2021.
“Dr. Dillaha has played a significant role in guiding the state through the last two years of the pandemic.” Governor Hutchinson said. “She has shown her dedication to Arkansas, and I have full confidence that she will continue to lead the state in improved health outcomes with the same dedication.”
Hutchinson also appointed Renee Mallory as the interim Secretary of Health, taking the place of Dr. Jose Romero.
Mallory served as the Chief of Staff for the ADH overseeing financial management, IT, governmental affairs, human resources, and more.
"Ms. Mallory began working for the Arkansas Department of Health 33 years ago and has been integral as a leader in several programs that have benefitted the state." Governor Hutchinson said, "She has invaluable experience serving the state and will be a great fit as interim Secretary of Health."
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/hutchinson-appoints-director-interim-secretary-adh/91-026a1d05-ab40-4f72-9e3d-3151ace5b47f
| 2022-05-05T19:54:01
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/hutchinson-appoints-director-interim-secretary-adh/91-026a1d05-ab40-4f72-9e3d-3151ace5b47f
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TIFTON – Southwell held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce on this week to commemorate the redeployment of the health system’s mobile clinic. This six-wheeled unit, about the size of a bus, is used by Southwell to better reach medically underserved areas within the community.
“The Southwell Mobile Health Clinic was a bit sidelined over the past two years due to COVID-19 and the fact that we had to reallocate resources to other areas during the pandemic,” Randy Chambers, practice manager for Southwell Medical Community Health Center, said in a news release. “Whenever possible, we used the unit to provide free COVID-19 vaccination shots. Now, we are able to relaunch the mobile clinic and maximize its full capacity once again.”
Chambers said the services of the mobile health clinic include sick and well visits, screenings, education, and referrals to specialty care.
“Due to socioeconomic and transportation issues, many folks in our service area don’t have adequate access to health care,” Chambers said. “With the mobile health clinic, we are able to bring the medical services to them. It helps Southwell and Tift Regional Medical Center fulfill its mission to enhance the health and wellness of our community.”
The mobile clinic has been made possible thanks to a contribution by the Tift Regional Medical Center Foundation. The unit is wheelchair-accessible and includes three exam rooms, a lab area, and a restroom. The mobile clinic is staffed by providers with Southwell Medical Community Health Center and offers adult care only.
The unit rotates to various locations in Tift County throughout the month, including the Omega Church of God, Tift Towers, South 41 Farmer’s Market, Tifton Quality Peanuts and the Tift Industrial Park. Visit the Southwell Mobile Health Clinic Facebook page or www.mysouthwell.com/mobileclinic/ for days and times.
“Our experienced staff provides physicals, screenings and medical services to keep area residents and their loved ones healthy and happy,” Chambers said. “Call (229) 402-3479 to make an appointment or for more information. Walk-in patients also are accepted. Medicare, Medicaid, and most forms of health insurance are accepted.”
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/southwell-relaunches-mobile-health-clinic/article_8da5dc90-cc9f-11ec-9469-f3b362983dc9.html
| 2022-05-05T20:07:08
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/southwell-relaunches-mobile-health-clinic/article_8da5dc90-cc9f-11ec-9469-f3b362983dc9.html
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BOISE, Idaho — The Boise Fire Department on Thursday began its annual Boise River mitigation process to clean up potential hazards in the river ahead of floating season.
Boise Fire said its motorcycles will be on the Boise River Greenbelt over the next few days as crews look to identify hazards to be removed in following weeks.
Over the last 20 years, the typical start date for the official Boise River float season has been around June 21, but start dates have ranged from as early as June 12 to as late as July 29.
The 2021 float season began June 15 and ran through Sept. 6 after 76 days of summer operations.
Each year, more than 125,000 people float the river in the City of Trees, according to Ada County Parks and Waterways.
Scott Koberg, the director of Ada County Parks and Waterways, declares the start of the official float season every year depending on the speed of the river's flow and the amount of debris Boise Fire must clear.
Boise floaters put in at Barber Park and take out at Ann Morrison Park. The roughly 6-mile float typically takes between two and three hours.
Raft and tube rentals are typically available at the park, along with a shuttle bus service.
Information on floating safety tips, a guide to follow for first-time floaters and more is available on the Ada County Parks and Waterways website.
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist:
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/boise-fire-boise-river-cleanup-process/277-0e1ea60f-9e12-49e2-9c03-b0193f47aaf1
| 2022-05-05T20:09:18
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/boise-fire-boise-river-cleanup-process/277-0e1ea60f-9e12-49e2-9c03-b0193f47aaf1
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ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Roseville residents can now water their lawns three days a week instead of two for the summer months.
This change means residents can water their lawns Monday, Wednesday and Friday and businesses can water their landscapes Monday, Thursday and Saturday. People with drip irrigation systems don't have watering day restrictions.
"The watering days are up to three days per week, so we encourage customers to check their landscapes to see if water is needed," Maurice Chaney, Roseville's public information officer for environmental utilities, wrote in an email to ABC10.
Three days of watering isn't permanent and on Sept. 1, 2022, residents and businesses will return to watering two days a week. Roseville is in Stage 2 of drought restriction, which is why the city has watering restrictions and a 20% water conservation requirement.
"We are confident in our Stage 2 requirements and closely monitor supply conditions at Folsom, but should things change and we must ratchet upward, water use requirements would change for our customers," Chaney wrote.
In August 2021, Roseville announced all residents would need to reduce water use by 20%. Even though according to the city there is enough water supply to meet demands, continued drought conditions stress reservoirs.
For tips on watering and reducing water, visit the city's website on water efficiency. Roseville also has a watering schedule with recommended minutes and increments to water based on the month, which can be viewed HERE.
Read more:
- Roseville nurse practitioner accused of sexual battery of patient during exam
- Roseville hotel to be converted to permanent housing for unhoused community
- Lincoln City Councilmember Lauritsen responds to calls to resign after debate incident | Update
- Roseville sex offender busted on multiple charges, including possessing child porn, police say
ABC10: Watch, Download, Read
Watch more on ABC10
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/roseville/roseville-watering-days-summer/103-67351aad-a93c-4868-880f-421270ce4849
| 2022-05-05T20:09:19
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/roseville/roseville-watering-days-summer/103-67351aad-a93c-4868-880f-421270ce4849
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On Wednesday, May 4, 80 senior students from Cristo Rey High School celebrated their last days as high schoolers.
Cristo Rey is a Catholic high school where faculty and staff provide a college preparatory education while integrating the importance of community and faith in the students' everyday lives.
"College Decision Day is a day to celebrate the tremendous accomplishments of our amazing students here at Cristo Rey," David Perry, president of Cristo Rey High School, said.
During the ceremony, Father Chris Calderon, priest and Dean of Students, and Principal Kate Coulouras spoke to the students, trying their hardest to hold back tears. They uplifted the graduating students, applauding the work they've put forth in the past four years.
"Almost all of our students will be first-generation college students, and so the day has even more significance for the student and for their families," Perry said.
Out of the 80 graduating students, 21 different colleges and institutions were selected as their next spot to continue learning. Some colleges range from UC Berkeley to the University of San Diego to a Culinary Arts College in Ohio. Many students are more excited than nervous about college.
“It’s good to work hard but it’s also good to take care of your mental health, so that’s what I would prioritize throughout my high school career” Lilliana Morales, graduating senior at Cristo Rey High School, said.
Morales is attending Vanderbilt University in the fall and thanked Cristo Rey High School for working with her to get there.
"Cristo Rey has given me so much valuable professional workplace experience," Morales said. "It's really helped me prepare for the professional aspect and the emotional aspect of college."
Students like Mimi Young, who will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall, are going to miss it at Cristo Rey High School.
"I’m going to miss the teachers, they’ve been my emotional support, they’ve been through everything with me. I’m going to miss everything about this school," Young said.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10: New high school track team aims to rise to the top as it starts from the bottom
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/cristo-rey-high-school-college-signing-day/103-eef3f327-c0a9-47b8-ad97-c150d032958b
| 2022-05-05T20:09:25
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/cristo-rey-high-school-college-signing-day/103-eef3f327-c0a9-47b8-ad97-c150d032958b
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STOCKTON, Calif. — Construction on Pershing Avenue in Stockton will close the busy thoroughfare in both directions through a residential neighborhood for nearly five months.
The construction work is on both the northbound and southbound sides of Pershing Avenue between Meadow Avenue and Thornton Road. San Joaquin County officials estimate 12,000 commuters use the stretch of Pershing Avenue each day.
The closure of Pershing Avenue from Meadow to Thornton began May 2 and the roadway is not scheduled to reopen until the project is completed, which county officials hope will be by Sept. 30. While the construction area falls within the general outline of the city of Stockton, the neighborhood is considered a county pocket, meaning that San Joaquin County is responsible for roadwork and utilities in the area.
Officials with San Joaquin County say roadwork on the stretch of Pershing Avenue will include adding a sidewalk to the area, widening the road to include a two-way left turn lane, adding buffered bicycle lanes and install new storm drainage and water supply pipelines on Pershing Avenue north of Hammer Lane.
The county fixes roads partly using funding from Measure K, a half-cent sales tax passed by county voters in 1990. The measure will fund the Pershing Avenue construction.
During construction, detour signs and cones have blocked off the avenue directing drivers to use Hammer Lane, Pacific Avenue or Benjamin Holt Drive as alternatives. For residents within the construction zone, access to Pershing Avenue is available the entire duration of the construction project and the county says trash pickup and delivery of goods and services will still be allowed in the area.
County officials also say access to the nearly 50 driveways will still be maintained with limited interruptions.
Crews are scheduled to be on Pershing Avenue working on the project Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. with occasional work on weekends, construction project officials say. While night work is not planned, and representatives with San Joaquin County say they will alert residents in advance of any construction work scheduled to take place at night.
Commuters or area residents with questions about the project are asked to call the project's hotline at 1-888-209-7697.
► Headed on the road? | View ABC10's interactive traffic map HERE.
Watch More from ABC10: Stagg High stabbing: 15-year-old student Alycia Reynaga laid to rest in Stockton
ABC10: Watch, Download, Read
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/stockton/pershing-avenue-closed-until-september/103-89799389-5a9b-432f-8815-7ce21c482f19
| 2022-05-05T20:09:31
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/stockton/pershing-avenue-closed-until-september/103-89799389-5a9b-432f-8815-7ce21c482f19
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra is making a stop in Portland Thursday as part of a visit to the Pacific Northwest to address what Biden administration officials called solutions to “the nation’s mental health crisis.”
The secretary is set to tour a non-profit crisis call center in South Portland and Portland Community College’s lab for medical diagnostic imaging before heading north to Washington. Becerra’s trip to the region is, in part, to promote the billions in federal funding included in the American Rescue Plan for mental health and addiction resources.
The crisis call center, Lines for Life, hosts a 24-7 hotline for people struggling with addiction, suicidal thoughts and other mental health issues.
Officials said it will play a key role in transitioning the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to its new three-digit form, which was designed to reduce the strain on hospitals’ emergency departments, increase free access to counselors and make calling for help during a mental health crisis more like calling 911. On July 16, the national line’s 800-273-8255 number will be replaced with a shorter dialing code, 988.
Lines for Life’s youth service also recently received federal funding, and Becerra will meet with its volunteers who work on the “teen-to-teen” calls. Oregon’s U.S. congressmen, Reps. Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) and Kurt Schrader (OR-5), are scheduled to join Becerra, too.
Later in the afternoon, students at PCC are slated to show Becerra the imaging lab where they study how to diagnose medical conditions with procedures like PET scans.
Officials said he will discuss the administration’s “commitment to strengthening the health care workforce pipeline and the importance of diversifying the health care workforce to better serve all communities.”
If you or someone you know is going through a mental health crisis,
Lines for Life is available around-the-clock at 800.273.8255.
The Lines for Life Youth Line is 877.968.8491.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/hhs-secretary-visits-portland-to-talk-nations-mental-health-crisis/
| 2022-05-05T20:12:40
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/hhs-secretary-visits-portland-to-talk-nations-mental-health-crisis/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — In a $3.3 billion plan laid out in the latest Executive Budget released Thursday, Multnomah County aims to address rising crime and housing instability.
The county will invest in several pilot projects, along with expanding current programs, targeted to help those experiencing behavioral health issues, homelessness and other economic challenges.
“More than any budget we have worked on before, the 2023 Executive Budget moves us closer to being a community that is stronger, more resilient and more equitable for everyone,” Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said.
$183.2 million in funding will be allocated toward expanding housing programs along with creating new ones. The Metro Supportive Housing Services Measure will be investing $107.1 million, while another $76.1 million will come from local, state and federal funding.
That money will reportedly fund 2,000 year-round beds across various shelters, along with rental assistance and long-term housing placements.
“We know that two years of job losses and business closures have pushed thousands of people to the brink,’’ Chair Kafoury said. “So we’re directing $22.8 million of American Rescue Plan funds to help people with their rent, and give them access to eviction prevention legal services.”
The county said it will be opening the Behavioral Health Resource Center in downtown Portland this fall. It will be a drop-in day center that offers behavioral health shelter beds, bridge housing and multiple peer-led services.
In response to the rising crime rates across Portland, Multnomah County moves to make funding for limiting community violence ongoing rather than a one-time investment.
The county will also be investing in a new pilot program that will use stipends to help create economic stability to those involved in gun violence.
The final budget will be adopted on June 16.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/multco-3-3b-budget-aims-to-curb-rising-crime-homeless-crisis/
| 2022-05-05T20:12:46
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/multco-3-3b-budget-aims-to-curb-rising-crime-homeless-crisis/
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Lifetime will make TV movie about death of North Port’s Gabby Petito
Less than a year since the disappearance and murder of 22-year-old Gabby Petito of North Port, Lifetime has announced it is making a TV movie about the case that triggered a national search and widespread interest last fall.
Lifetime said Emmy-nominated actress Thora Birch, who has been seen in “The Walking Dead,” “American Beauty” and “Ghost World,” will make her directorial debut with the film, tentatively titled “The Gabby Petito Story,” and will play the Nicole Schmidt, the mother of the social media influencer.
Authorities said Petito was killed by her boyfriend, 23-year-old Brian Laundrie, whose parents also live in North Port, during a cross-country trip that began last July in New York State and ended with her death from strangulation near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Court cases:Lawsuit alleges Brian Laundrie's parents withheld information on Gabrielle Petito's death
More on Gabby Petito case:Trial date set for lawsuit filed against parents of Brian Laundrie
The 23-year-old Laundrie returned to his parents’ home alone on Sept. 1 before he disappeared. Authorities conducted numerous searches over five weeks in the 168-acre Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in North Port before his body was found. They said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The couple documented their van trip on social media, and the widespread news coverage of the case led many followers to search for her after she failed to return home.
In a statement, Lifetime said the film “will explore Gabby and her fiancé Brian Laundrie’s complicated relationship and what may have gone wrong during their cross-country trip that resulted in Gabby’s tragic murder. The movie will be shot this summer in Utah and is expected to have its premiere later this year.
Notebook confession:FBI says Brian Laundrie admitted to killing Gabby Petito in recovered notebook
“The movie will bring to life Gabby and Brian’s doomed love story, including the warning signs that Gabby’s life was in danger, the ensuing search for her, the eventual discovery of her murder and ultimately, Brian’s suicide,” the network statement said.
The film will be written by Gregory Small and Richard Blaney, who previously wrote the Lifetime film “Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret” and worked on the series “The Lizzie Borden Chronicles.”
Other casting will be announced later.
The network, well known for its movies about women in danger, said it is developing several projects about violence against women whose cases did not receive the same media attention.
Last December, Peacock aired the documentary “The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies and Social Media.”
Follow Jay Handelman on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact him at jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com. And please support local journalism by subscribing to the Herald-Tribune.
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2022/05/05/florida-gabby-petito-alleged-death-at-hands-of-brian-laundrie-to-be-lifetime-movie/9663178002/
| 2022-05-05T20:17:41
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2022/05/05/florida-gabby-petito-alleged-death-at-hands-of-brian-laundrie-to-be-lifetime-movie/9663178002/
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HOUSTON — An art collector in Austin hit the jackpot while hunting for hidden treasures at a local Goodwill.
Laura Young found a centuries-old bust on the floor under a table at the thrift shop back in 2018 and scooped it up for $34.99 At the time, she thought the old and worn sculpture was a good find, but had no idea it was an ancient piece of art with a mysterious background.
Young spent years trying to determine the sculpture's authenticity and origin. She met with art experts at the University of Texas at Austin, and contacted auction houses around the country.
One of them confirmed it was an ancient Roman artwork, but it was Sotheby's consultant Jörg Deterling who determined it dates from the late 1st century BC to the early 1st century AD.
After more detective work, they learned that the 2,000-year-old piece once belonged in the collection of King Ludwig 1 of Bavaria, which was later confirmed by art experts in Germany.
“There were a few months of intense excitement after that, but it was bittersweet since I knew I couldn’t keep or sell the (bust). Either way, I’m glad I got to be a small part of (its) long and complicated history, and he looked great in the house while I had him," Young said
Experts say the artwork was once housed in the Pompejanum, a full-scale replica of a villa from Pompeii built by King Ludwig in Aschaffenburg, Germany in the 1840s. They believe the bust may portray a son of Pompey the Great (106–48 BC), who was defeated in civil war by Julius Caesar.
During World War II, Allied bombers targeted Aschaffenburg in 1944 and seriously damaged the Pompejanum.
How the Roman bust arrived in Texas remains a mystery. When the war ended, the US Army opened military installations in Aschaffenburg and it's possible a soldier brought the sculpture home to Texas when he returned.
“It’s a great story whose plot includes the World War II-era, international diplomacy, art of the ancient Mediterranean, thrift shop sleuthing, historic Bavarian royalty, and the thoughtful stewardship of those who care for and preserve the arts," said Emily Ballew Neff with the San Antonio Museum of Art.
As part of the agreement to return the sculpture to its rightful home in Germany, the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces agreed it could be displayed by SAMA until 2023.
“We are very pleased that a piece of Bavarian history that we thought was lost has reappeared and will soon be able to return to its rightful location, said Bernd Schreiber, president of the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens, and Lakes.
You can see the ancient bust at SAMA through next May.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-roman-bust-goodwill/285-c3cb566f-9258-47c5-a8c1-f2a3d9295f41
| 2022-05-05T20:27:53
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-roman-bust-goodwill/285-c3cb566f-9258-47c5-a8c1-f2a3d9295f41
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Gone Fishin': Hall of Fame Village Media, Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson partner on TV special
#toedit
CANTON — Hall of Fame Village Media is going fishing, and Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson is bringing the boat.
On Thursday, the Hall of Fame Village Media announced it is starting a new special called Gone Fishin'. Johnson will star in this one-hour special as he invites guests aboard his boat for a little fishing competition and to provide life lessons while exploring the coast of the Florida Keys, where Johnson lives.
“There’s nothing like being out on the water, and I am beyond excited to share this new adventure with some of the most well-known athletes and personalities in the world,” Johnson said in a statement released by Hall of Fame Village Media. “There is so much one can learn from others’ company while being on a boat, and I look forward to getting to know my fellow fishermen and fisherwomen on a deeper level. I appreciate Hall of Fame Village Media for bringing this idea to life and for providing a platform that will allow me and my guests to share more about who we are as people — not just celebrities.”
The HOFVM plans on premiering Gone Fishin' as a lead-up to next year’s Super Bowl. It is in discussion with multiple TV networks to premiere the special.
Johnson won a college football national championship with the University of Miami and is a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys. A member of the 2020 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he is an analyst on Fox NFL Sunday.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Hall of Fame Coach Jimmy Johnson on Gone Fishin’ and enable his legions of fans to see his personality shine through in a different environment than they are accustomed — on the water, a place he absolutely loves to be,” Olivia Steier, Executive Vice President of Media for the Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company said in a statement. “... Jimmy was born to coach football, fish and entertain, so we look forward to sharing with him many laughs while learning more about those moments that have impacted both his and his guests’ lives and careers.”
Filming of the special will begin this summer aboard Johnson's 39-foot SeaVee, Three Rings, named for the three championship rings he won as a head coach.
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https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/hall-of-fame-village/2022/05/05/jimmy-johnson-gone-fishin-hall-fame-village-media-tv-special-super-bowl-2023-dallas-cowboys-coach/9658033002/
| 2022-05-05T20:37:16
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https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/hall-of-fame-village/2022/05/05/jimmy-johnson-gone-fishin-hall-fame-village-media-tv-special-super-bowl-2023-dallas-cowboys-coach/9658033002/
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After more than three decades, Husker football columnist Steven M. Sipple – better known as Sip – has decided to move on from the Journal Star and HuskerExtra.
His byline may disappear, but his column catchphrase – one used literally hundreds of times – will live on, at least for today. It’s a fitting way to say farewell and to frame the future.
So here are some “things I know, and things I think I know.”
Over thousands of columns and stories and hundreds of podcasts, Sipple kept Husker fans informed. Love him or hate him (way more of the former, of course) he was prolific, always with something to say.
While he always had great inside information, he never quite mastered that “inside voice,” especially talking on the phone (that’s why he always had a private office) or tossing a football around the newsroom with his fellow staffers. By the way, the new Journal Star offices are great, but they aren’t so good for deep routes.
People are also reading…
Sip would say he had a face for radio, and he did plenty of that, but he held his own on video, too, first with the 2-Minute Drill and later The Sip ‘n Sam Showdown video podcast on HuskerExtra. He had great camera presence, though when it came to his on-camera wardrobe, he’d probably agree he had a strong Oscar Madison vibe.
Paperwork wasn’t among his talents. I think he’s still got expense receipts out from the 2003 Alamo Bowl, but I can confirm, after a decade of approving the expenses he did eventually turn in, he is a man of simple tastes that run toward concession stands and convenience stores over surf and turf.
I know, though, that while he’ll be missed by many (maybe not the finance department), he’s just one in a long line of Journal Star journalists who have kept Husker fans enthusiastic, engaged and, occasionally, enraged for more than a century.
One of the earliest Nebraska football stories I could find in our archives – and they were the Bugeaters back then – is from Nov. 25, 1892.
The story, in its entirety, says: “The State university team held its own with Iowa at Omaha yesterday. The game resulted in a tie. Like everything else connected with the university of Nebraska, the football team is looking up, and great things may be expected of it in the future. And it may be remarked in passing, that football has done as much to arose (sic) outside interest in the university than anything connected with the institution.”
That was it. Far from the giant multimedia and multipage-print effort Journal Star and HuskerExtra readers have come to expect. Not even a preview story about what a great week of practices they’d had or hand-wringing about their 2-2-1 record and finishing second (behind Kansas!?) in the Western Interstate University Football Association standings (Big Ten definitely fits better into a headline). But even 130 years ago, Husker fans were optimists.
So are we, and we’re eager to bring you more.
Husker football coverage is as much a team effort as Husker football. And we’ve got a veteran lineup, depth at every position and the chance now to fill some holes with new talent.
HuskerExtra subscribers know The Sip ‘n Sam Showdown brought together top folks from the Journal Star and Omaha World-Herald to talk sports. The Journal Star’s Chris Basnett will be Sam’s next Showdown buddy, but look for other guests in the future as World-Herald sports editor Sam McKewon searches for a worthy and argumentative adversary.
And the Journal Star’s 2-Minute Drill and Life in the Red podcasts will continue to keep folks informed with familiar voices.
We’ll mine our rich historical archive to share memorable moments and stats and storylines from years past. And we’ll use our ever-growing box of tools to focus on recruiting and where the program is headed.
The Huskers make history in August, traveling to Ireland to play Northwestern – in their second most “away” away game ever (first would be 1992 vs. Kansas State in Tokyo).
The team is embarking on what may be a pivotal season for coach Scott Frost, and the Journal Star and HuskerExtra will have more predictably strong coverage and, predictably, some surprises, too.
So whether you count on the Journal Star for the best local Husker coverage, or you appreciate the added breadth and depth available through our HuskerExtra premium subscription, you can keep counting on us for information, innovation and breaking news.
It might not be quite as exciting as those first few strains of The Alan Parsons Project’s "Sirius" before the Tunnel Walk, but it feels like we’re on the cusp of more big things.
Dave Bundy is editor of the Lincoln Journal Star. Reach him at dbundy@journalstar.com or 402-473-7334.
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/letter-from-the-editor-a-bright-future-a-fond-farewell/article_85481980-1ec1-5885-8e52-faacdb094a5e.html
| 2022-05-05T21:21:33
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/letter-from-the-editor-a-bright-future-a-fond-farewell/article_85481980-1ec1-5885-8e52-faacdb094a5e.html
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ELK GROVE, Calif. — The Old Town Elk Grove Farmers Market has made its post-pandemic return after a two-year hiatus.
This seasonal market had its grand re-opening May 1 and is hosted every Sunday, rain or shine, from 9 a.m. to 1p.m. at 9615 Railroad Street in Elk Grove.
The market that closed in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, is back bringing local residents fresh produce, hot food, live music and family fun activities.
It also features a number of special events such as health and wellness workshops, arts and crafts fairs, chef demos, a “tomato taste off” and more.
The market was created by the Living Smart Foundation and is now accepting applications for vendors and volunteers who want to get involved.
The organization also hosts other farmer’s markets in the Sacramento region including Citrus Heights, Roseville, Folsom and Creekside.
Learn about items being sold at the market, becoming a vendor, the veterans program and more general information about the framers’ market from Living Smart Foundation.
RELATED:
Watch more from ABC10:
Farmers adapt growing as 2022 driest start to year in California history
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/elk-grove/old-town-elk-grove-farmers-market-returns/103-dc53241a-49ee-4574-982b-22fcc321fa89
| 2022-05-05T21:53:33
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/elk-grove/old-town-elk-grove-farmers-market-returns/103-dc53241a-49ee-4574-982b-22fcc321fa89
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ROSEVILLE, Calif. — The Roseville Police Department is currently investigating a suspicious package on S. Cirby Way and asking commuters to avoid the area.
Roseville police are asking people to stay out of the area of S. Cirby Way, Champion Oaks Drive and Rocky Ridge Drive.
Police say the following roadways are currently closed:
- Both directions of S. Cirby Way
- Both directions of Rocky Ridge Drive all the way to Old Auburn Road
According to Roseville police, Crestmont Elementary School and Oakmont High School are not threatened. Police are directing students and parents away from the area and asking them to find alternate routes.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/roseville/roseville-suspicious-package-s-cirby-way/103-14d743e4-ba85-474a-8b45-3d6a68fa0c43
| 2022-05-05T21:53:40
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/roseville/roseville-suspicious-package-s-cirby-way/103-14d743e4-ba85-474a-8b45-3d6a68fa0c43
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A-1 Comics has purchased a comic book collection containing over 60 years of comics collected right off the newsstand by one individual.
The company purchases collections of all sizes and values daily, but its owner Lanvin Peets, son of the founders of A-1 Comics, Brian and Rosemary Peets, said the store's most recent purchase stands out from the rest as it contains a complete Marvel Comics run from 1961-1990.
According to A-1 Comics, the "Winters Collection", which was purchased for $600,000, includes over 35,000 comics and memorabilia ranging from toys, magazines, framed posters and original art from the 1930s to the early 2000s.
Peets says the collection has complete runs of all the comic titles starring icons such as Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Doctor Strange and more.
“This is the largest collection we have ever purchased and the most we have ever spent on an individual collection," Peets said. "This kind of purchase typically happens once in a lifetime and it was a real treat to be able to go through it all in its entirety with my dad right there beside me."
On June 1, 2022, the "Winters Collection" will be made available at A-1 Comics in Sacramento. Peets says on the day the collection is made available at their Sacramento store, they will also be hosting an Instagram live at 5 p.m. to give customers across the nation the opportunity to purchase comics from the collection. After June 1, the company will be attending various comic book shows and conventions where they will be selling and showing different items from the collection.
With over 33 years in business, A-1 Comics has become Sacramento's largest comic book retail company with locations in Sacramento, Folsom, and Roseville. Before they open their doors to customers for this special collection, they also plan to celebrate comic books in general. On Saturday, May 7, A-1 Comics is participating in Free Comic Book Day at all three of their locations and at their "A-1 Warehouse" in Sacramento. The event features comic book cosplayers, a signing and sketching with Ron Lim, and other various deals.
"Free Comic Book Day is one of the biggest sale days of the year for us and our stores," Wes Smith with A-1 Comics said. "This is a great, budget-friendly event for people of all ages."
Watch more from ABC10: Meet the people behind one of Sacramento's longest family-owned restaurant, El Novillero
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/a-1-comics-sacramento-purchases-600000-dollar-comic-book-collection/103-69eb0b4f-4980-4f83-9ecb-ada75903bddc
| 2022-05-05T21:53:46
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STOCKTON, Calif. — After a year of negotiations, Dignity Health has entered into a management agreement with San Joaquin County to partly manage San Joaquin General Hospital.
The agreement, unanimously approved by county supervisors during a May 3 meeting, allows Dignity Health to help oversee day-to-day operations at the county-operated San Joaquin General Hospital. Under the agreement, which will cost the county as much as $4.5 million, Dignity Health will provide advice and assistance to the hospital and appoint a CEO to be approved by the county's board of supervisors.
San Joaquin General Hospital, established in 1857, is home to the only trauma center in San Joaquin County, a status that county officials say will not change. The 196-bed hospital serves an estimated 1.3 million outpatient clinic patients each year.
The agreement comes after a 2020 decision by the county to explore agreement options for the hospital in order to improve its future viability due to "the extraordinary situation with the pandemic and other external industry indicators," according to a county press release.
San Joaquin County will still operate and maintain control and authority of the hospital after the agreement goes into effect. All employees currently working for the hospital will not see changes to compensation or benefit structures, according to the agreement.
In February of 2020, an ad-hoc committee was formed by the county to engage in discussions with health care providers regarding a management agreement for San Joaquin General.
The approved agreement between Dignity Health and the county will go into effect July 1 and will run through Dec. 31 of 2023. An option in the contract will allow the two parties to mutually agree to extend the agreement for up to 10 years.
According to a presentation by county officials, the initial focus of the 18-month agreement will be on revenue cycle operations, information technology connectivity, quality management and improvement, the hospital's group purchasing organization affiliation and clinical integration.
The move to approve the contract expands Dignity Health's large footprint in the city of Stockton which already includes a growing St. Joseph's Medical Center and facilities on March Lane and Harding Way.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/stockton/dignity-health-san-joaquin-general-hospital/103-65ed8968-1d73-4029-9637-40bf5dd26855
| 2022-05-05T21:53:52
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/stockton/dignity-health-san-joaquin-general-hospital/103-65ed8968-1d73-4029-9637-40bf5dd26855
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HOUSTON — An art collector in Austin hit the jackpot while hunting for hidden treasures at a local Goodwill.
Laura Young found a centuries-old bust on the floor under a table at the thrift shop back in 2018 and scooped it up for $34.99 At the time, she thought the old and worn sculpture was a good find, but had no idea it was an ancient piece of art with a mysterious background.
Young spent years trying to determine the sculpture's authenticity and origin. She met with art experts at the University of Texas at Austin, and contacted auction houses around the country.
One of them confirmed it was an ancient Roman artwork, but it was Sotheby's consultant Jörg Deterling who determined it dates from the late 1st century BC to the early 1st century AD.
After more detective work, they learned that the 2,000-year-old piece once belonged in the collection of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. That was later confirmed by art experts in Germany.
“There were a few months of intense excitement after that, but it was bittersweet since I knew I couldn’t keep or sell the (bust). Either way, I’m glad I got to be a small part of (its) long and complicated history, and he looked great in the house while I had him," Young said
Experts say the artwork was once housed in the Pompejanum, a full-scale replica of a villa from Pompeii built by King Ludwig in Aschaffenburg, Germany in the 1840s. They believe the bust may portray a son of Pompey the Great (106–48 BC), who was defeated in civil war by Julius Caesar.
During World War II, Allied bombers targeted Aschaffenburg in 1944 and seriously damaged the Pompejanum.
How the Roman bust arrived in Texas remains a mystery. When the war ended, the US Army opened military installations in Aschaffenburg and it's possible a soldier brought the sculpture home to Texas when he returned.
“It’s a great story whose plot includes the World War II-era, international diplomacy, art of the ancient Mediterranean, thrift shop sleuthing, historic Bavarian royalty, and the thoughtful stewardship of those who care for and preserve the arts," said Emily Ballew Neff with the San Antonio Museum of Art.
As part of the agreement to return the sculpture to its rightful home in Germany, the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces agreed it could be displayed by SAMA until 2023.
“We are very pleased that a piece of Bavarian history that we thought was lost has reappeared and will soon be able to return to its rightful location, said Bernd Schreiber, president of the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens, and Lakes.
You can see the ancient bust at SAMA through next May.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/texas-roman-bust-goodwill/285-c3cb566f-9258-47c5-a8c1-f2a3d9295f41
| 2022-05-05T21:53:58
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/texas-roman-bust-goodwill/285-c3cb566f-9258-47c5-a8c1-f2a3d9295f41
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Pacific Northwest residents don’t need to travel far to find some of the best beaches in the U.S., according to a new article published by Travel + Leisure.
The list, which was released in mid-April, highlights famous places like Coronado Beach in San Diego and Coney Island Beach in New York City. But it also highlights some places that might appear less on people’s radar when they’re searching for sand and surf.
Travel + Leisure said its list of beaches are notable for their attractions, location, or unique amenities.
In Oregon, Harris Beach made this list. Located just north of Brookings, Harris Beach is in Harris Beach State Park. It features unique rock formations, tide pools with marine life, and beautiful sand beaches. Visitors can enjoy swimming, hiking, biking, and bird watching.
The park offers year-round camping and even has 6 yurts people can reserve to stay in.
Farther north, two Washington beaches also made the list: Glass Beach in Port Townsend and Alki Beach in Seattle.
Glass Beach gets its name from the abundance of sea glass that can be found on its shore. It’s located near a former town dump where people would toss trash off a bluff onto the beach below, resulting in all the glass that’s been smoothed by the sand and waves over time.
Glass Beach is a three-mile hike from nearby North Beach.
Alki Beach is located in Alki Beach Park and is an easy destination for Seattleites. It’s accessible by car or water taxi. Positioned perfectly on Puget Sound in West Seattle, the beach allows for great views of the Olympic Mountains and downtown Seattle. It features volleyball courts, grills and bonfire pits.
For those looking to escape the Pacific Northwest, one of the other beaches on the list might suit your fancy.
Here’s the complete list of Travel + Leisure’s 25 Best Beaches in the USA:
- Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii
- Ocean City, Maryland
- Coronado Beach, San Diego, Californi
- Pope Beach, Lake Tahoe, Nevada
- Clearwater Beach, Clearwater, Florida
- Harris Beach, Oregon
- Glass Beach, Port Townsend, Washington
- Oak Street Beach, Chicago, Illinois
- Carlsmith Beach, Hilo, Hawaii
- Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
- Grand Haven State Park, Michigan
- Santa Monica Beach, California
- Medano Creek, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
- North Beach, Tybee Island, Georgia
- Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, Massachusetts
- Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York
- Crystal Lake State Park, Barton, Vermont
- Gulf Shores Public Beach, Alabama
- Park Point Beach, Duluth, Minnesota
- Asbury Park Beach, New Jersey
- Carmel Beach, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
- Coligny Beach Park, Hilton Head, South Carolina
- Alki Beach, Seattle, Washington
- Ocean Beach Park, New London, Connecticut
- Coney Island Beach, Brooklyn, New York
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https://www.koin.com/local/these-pnw-beaches-are-among-the-best-in-the-u-s/
| 2022-05-05T22:01:24
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Worldwide, the narrative of the unwanted “pandemic pet” has clogged up news outlets, suggesting that the millions of dogs adopted in the U.S. during the COVID-19 crisis are now flagrantly being surrendered to shelters as lockdown restrictions ease.
While shelters across California are indeed filling up at alarming rates, the Bay Area has mostly avoided this influx of animals — until now. This past week, numerous reports stated that the Oakland Animal Services (OAS) has an “unprecedented” number of large dogs. And according to Ann Dunn, OAS director, it’s not for the reasons you might think.
She says that the popular story line of the unwanted or burdensome “pandemic pet” doesn’t capture the whole picture, and “heartbroken” owners simply can’t afford to take care of them.
“There was a narrative of people adopting on a whim during the pandemic and returning [animals], and we've never seen that and so it does not seem to be related to that,” Dunn told SFGATE over the phone. “... I think that the biggest driver is the economy. And you know, I'm sure a lot of people struggle through the pandemic.”
According to Dunn, the reasons for returning a beloved pet are much more complex. She says that having to return to the office is partially to blame, but lack of affordable housing that specifically allows large dogs is also forcing owners to surrender their pets. Above all, economic hardship seems to be the main culprit. Given rising inflation rates and the Bay Area’s notoriously expensive housing market, unfortunately, it’s not a surprise. “It's not people going back to work and not [being] able to keep their pets. It's really people who just financially can't afford them,” Dunn says.
According to a May 2021 report from the ASPCA, 85% of people who adopted cats and 90% of people who adopted dogs during the pandemic are not planning on returning them. Changes in lockdown measures are also not inspiring pet owners to simply ditch them at a shelter.
“As COVID-19 restrictions continue to be lifted across the country, the majority of surveyed pet owners are incorporating pets into their lifestyles with little reported concern about having enough time to spend with their pet or wanting to travel more but feeling limited by an animal,” the report said.
Still, Dunn said that the influx of large dogs in shelters is a “growing phenomenon” across the U.S. “It's not just Oakland, it's, it's something that's happening everywhere.”
To ease the adoption process, Oakland Animal Services is extending adoption hours from May 5 to 8, and will be open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 12 to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 12 to 3 p.m. Adoption fees will be just $20 for all animals.
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https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Why-Bay-Area-shelters-are-full-of-large-dogs-17151362.php
| 2022-05-05T22:02:55
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https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Why-Bay-Area-shelters-are-full-of-large-dogs-17151362.php
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LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District responded to a 1-acre brush fire that erupted near 14th St and Pine Ave in Lehigh Acres.
According to the fire department, no homes are threatened at this time.
🔥: Brush fire • 14th St /Pine Ave
— Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District (@LehighAcresFD) May 5, 2022
Approx 1 acre. Currently no homes are threatened. pic.twitter.com/1ZebCtZ5e4
According to the Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District, the fire has been contained and is fully extinguished.
Fire is now out. pic.twitter.com/tAsnRyLLu0
— Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District (@LehighAcresFD) May 5, 2022
Firefighters believe a power line may have sparked the fire. Investigators will arrive to examine the potential cause of the fire, according to the Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District.
It appears a power line may have sparked the fire. Power company is on the way; an investigator will also respond to look at the scene.
— Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District (@LehighAcresFD) May 5, 2022
📹: Crash Truck 104 covering the smoldering area in foam. pic.twitter.com/GZmJV4udSG
No further information is available at this time.
Count on NBC2 News to update you on the scene throughout the day.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/brush-fire-sparks-in-lehigh-acres-power-line-may-be-responsible/
| 2022-05-05T22:03:52
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/brush-fire-sparks-in-lehigh-acres-power-line-may-be-responsible/
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HUNTSVILLE, Arkansas — A precautionary boil order has been issued for part of Madison County Thursday, May 5. It's advised impacted utility customers boil any water used for cooking before use.
The area under the boil order includes homes and businesses along Hickory Flat Road, Hickory Springs Road, Copeland Lane and Natural Walk Road.
The notice is issued as a precautionary measure due to the loss of normal pressure on the system after a water line was washed out by heavy rains.
Under the boil order, all those affected are advised that water may be unsafe for human consumption. Those impacted should boil water used for drinking or food preparation briskly for at least one minute before use. It would be best to discard all ice cubes, and you should use only boiled water for making ice.
The boil order will remain in effect until the water system meets an adequate disinfectant level and a bacteria survey shows that the water is safe to drink.
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To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/precautionary-boil-order-issued-for-parts-of-madison-co/527-1baae475-f20b-420d-8325-53400722463d
| 2022-05-05T22:04:50
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KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — As a portion of a North Texas border will be disputed in a nearby district court, the homeowners who live in the area still don't know what county they live in.
There are more than 180 properties in an approximately six-mile-long path between Kaufman County and Henderson County that are currently in limbo, thanks to a land agreement made more than 100 years ago.
The stretch of land is along County Road 4044 in Kemp, southeast of Dallas.
The 1,200-foot-wide area will be taken to the Van Zandt County District Court as the nearby county judge attends to the case filed by Kaufman County's District Attorney's Office. The argument in the lawsuit revolves around which county the stretch of land belongs to.
Both counties refer to the area being taken to court as "the notch," because there is a stretch of land along the border between Kaufman County and Henderson County that pokes out from the rest of the border.
But residents who live in the notch remain uncertain about which county they call home.
Mike Webb's family has lived in Texas since the 1800s, and they've lived in the notch since the 1960s.
"This is my home," Webb said. "This is my territory."
Webb said he and his family have always paid taxes in Kaufman County and considered the notch to be Kaufman County. He said it wasn't until a couple of years ago he started to hear local leaders say that the border was a straight line.
Webb said County Road 4044 hasn't been properly cared for in decades and that it has been ignored the past few years because Kaufman County leaders are telling the property owners it's illegal for them to fix a road that is not in their county.
"The cars are just getting destroyed," Webb said. "Absolutely, it's a safety issue."
Webb said the potholes in this road are causing damage to cars driving on it and that he frequently has to move left-behind car parts off the road.
"The residents are being abandoned here, and it's becoming a dangerous situation," Webb said. "I don't think anybody's going to get thrown in jail for repairing a road that they've been maintaining."
However, Webb said he expects the long-term repairs on this road will be costly for whichever county it is decided it's a part of.
"They're going to be strapped with a huge bill to try to bring the road up to any sort of acceptable standard," Webb said. "It has to be fixed. It's dangerous."
Richards called County Road 4044 "disintegrated."
"The road was and is such a mess," Richards said. "It's not patchable at this point."
Since WFAA went out to this area, Ken Cates, who is the Kaufman County Commissioner for Precinct 4, posted on Facebook that "interim repairs" on this road had started to provide support during the "pending lawsuit." Photos were included that show some potholes being covered.
In his post, Cates also said this area is in Henderson County and that the temporary work is being done to improve the situation until "Henderson County accepts its responsibility for this area within its geographic boundaries through the lawsuit filed by the Kaufman County DA’s Office last fall."
The reason the line is drawn that way goes back to a deed filed with Kaufman County on May 13, 1891, according to Henderson County attorney Clint Davis.
There was a portion of land called the "Baker tract" that was a large portion of land with a sliver of it that was in Henderson County, owned by one property owner.
This landowner deeded Kaufman County the land that inevitably made County Road 4044, which Davis said is the road that acts as the legitimate county line between the two counties.
"In 1891, they created the notch that has been followed for the last 131 years," Davis said. "The census has followed this notch. Kaufman County is using it today in redistricting. It has been the boundary line between these counties for all purposes for the last 131 years."
RELATED: 2 North Texas counties fighting over six-mile-long border that includes nearly 200 properties
Kaufman County Judge Hal Richards has a different perspective, saying the border should be a straight line between the two counties with no notch.
Borders between Texas counties need to be determined by official state surveyors, according to Richards.
"Nobody intended for this to happen," Richards said. "It was just some unsophisticated people in the late 1800s that said we'll just make this deal and move the county line. Not being educated or sophisticated to realize that the only way that line can be changed is for the state legislature to change it."
Davis said Henderson County has maintained the same stance in wanting to stick to Texas Local Government Code Chapter 72, which is when a county court or a commissioner of the state's General Land Office appoints a registered land surveyor to make and establish boundary lines of a county border that is "not sufficiently definite."
"So Henderson County is saying to Kaufman County: We need to go in, hire the surveyors, have it surveyed and then we will agree to whatever line the survey is," Davis said.
So that process is now in the works as Van Zandt County Judge Chris Martin from the 294th District Court will act as a third party in this situation and help establish where the border is. However, there is no clear timeline as to how long this will take.
"We're in a blind box as far as knowing when it could actually come before the district court there," Richards said.
While this process is happening, though, Webb and all the rest of the homeowners from these 180 properties are left with some lingering issues beyond the road.
Webb said on multiple occasions that when he has had to call 911, he's been transferred back and forth between Kaufman County and Henderson County, both telling him he's a part of the other county and delaying a response from anyone coming out to the area.
"Calling 911 does not need to be a question," Webb said.
Webb also said issues connected to vehicle registration, insurance and other day-to-day aspects of his life have become confusing.
"There are lots of issues revolving around this that the Kaufman County Commissioner's Court did not take into account," Webb said. "They just assumed they would just stop all services and just say, 'Here Henderson County, you take this.' And it didn't work."
Richards said he also wants this issue resolved, pointing to voting as a key concern.
"They are still registered to vote in Kaufman County, but that's a big question and that's really one of the very biggest concerns that we have," Richards said. "Taxes and voting are probably the two biggest things. Those people that live there, they should be clear about where they live. It should be clear to who they're supposed to be paying their taxes to."
Webb said he has been paying his taxes in Kaufman County up to this point.
So what county would Webb prefer to live in?
"I honestly don't care," he said. "There are just a lot of issues that need to be resolved, and Kaufman County has just had a very callous attitude towards the residents in this area."
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/county-border-dispute-kaufman-henderson/287-4fdde9dc-270a-4f37-a7e1-09cfd4ccf9e5
| 2022-05-05T22:11:34
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/county-border-dispute-kaufman-henderson/287-4fdde9dc-270a-4f37-a7e1-09cfd4ccf9e5
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DALLAS — A former Dallas police officer filed suit Thursday against a Dallas homicide detective, alleging that the detective wrongfully orchestrated his arrest on capital murder charges last year.
The charges against Bryan Riser were dropped last April after a judge found there was no evidence on him to hold him. Riser is appealing his firing.
Detective Esteban Montenegro is currently on administrative leave. WFAA has previously reported that he is under criminal investigation over allegations that he perjured himself and tampered with records.
The lawsuit filed against Montenegro alleges the “arrest was based entirely on the uncorroborated statements of a person directly linked to five murders.”
“Montenegro knew the witness was entirely unreliable for a number of reasons, including that his statements were flatly contradicted by those of another co-conspirator,” the suit said, “and because a fellow police officer had directly informed Montenegro that the witness was unreliable and had a habit of deceiving law enforcement.”
Warrants for Riser’s arrest showed police based much of their case on the word of Emmanuel Kilpatrick, a convicted killer.
WFAA has previously reported that in late 2019, the district attorney's office had told Montenegro that there was no probable cause to arrest Riser.
“More than a year later, not a single piece of additional evidence had been found,” the suit said. “Nonetheless, Montenegro went ahead with the arrest that he had already been told was unsupported by probable cause.”
The lawsuit highlights a number of problems with the case that WFAA has previously reported on, namely that the original arrest warrant affidavit falsely stated that cell tower analysis placed Riser and his squad car in the area of the murder at the time they were committed.
During an extraordinary three-hour hearing last April, the detective attributed the error in the original warrant to a “cut and paste error.”
“I made a mistake,” Montenegro testified during the hearing.
The hearing was also extraordinary because the Dallas County DA’s office took the position that there was no probable cause and that Riser should not have been arrested.
At the conclusion of last year's hearing, the judge dismissed the charges. By then, Riser had spent more than a month in jail.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s office has recused itself from the investigation into Montenegro’s actions. The Kaufman County District Attorney’s office has been appointed to oversee the case.
Messina Madson, an attorney representing Montenegro, has previously said her client has complete faith that the justice system will clear him.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia announced Riser’s arrest on March 4, 2021. At the time, the chief said investigators developed evidence that the 12-year veteran paid to have two people killed in 2017. He fired Riser a few days later.
Garcia later ordered a criminal investigation into Montenegro’s actions after the case against Riser fell apart.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/former-dallas-police-officer-bryan-riser-files-lawsuit-against-dallas-detective/287-dccb24f5-51df-4408-b0b5-de89b025332e
| 2022-05-05T22:11:40
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/former-dallas-police-officer-bryan-riser-files-lawsuit-against-dallas-detective/287-dccb24f5-51df-4408-b0b5-de89b025332e
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GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — Every year, when Grand Prairie’s Main St. shuts down, vibrant parade floats line up and uplift the community as a part of an annual Cinco de Mayo celebration.
Last Saturday, the community’s Cinco de Mayo parade drew hundreds to the city’s downtown area. It’s a 34-year tradition organized by the Hispanic Association for Culture and Education.
At this year’s parade, ballet folkloric (Mexican Folk Dance) group Las Estrellas de Tejas brought downtown to life with its traditional Mexican dances.
Jose Álvarez, the creator of the dance group, started the group for both high school students and those who have graduated. Álvarez described the annual parade as a highlight in his community.
“This parade is very huge,” Álvarez said.
Clara Chairez, a dancer in the group, decided to continue dancing after she graduated high school.
“They’re family,” Chairez said.
For the tight-knit group, showcasing the bright costumes and dances is more than just a hobby.
“I see a lot of Mexican pride," Chairez said. "I see it in myself too, now, and I feel happy."
Another dancer, Grelda Garcia, described it as her passion.
“I do it a lot here to honor my traditions back home,” Chairez said.
It’s a tradition that’s helping Grand Prairie High School Senior Michael Cortina overcome some of life’s more difficult obstacles. Everything from depression to the recent loss of his grandpa who lived in Mexico and never got to see him dance.
“I’m fighting tears, because I miss him,” Cortina said. “Dancing helped me a lot, so it’s not as bad as it used to be.”
Every movement brings him closer to healing.
“I feel like his spirit is just right here next to me right now,” Cortina said.
Álvarez wanted to start the group to provide young adults with the opportunity to continue dancing beyond high school.
“I want it to be a lifestyle," Álvarez said. "I really wanted them to live it."
Most of his dancers are first-generation students. Some of them were born in Mexico, while others hope to honor their parent’s home country.
Las Estrellas, which was formed less than five years ago, has quickly found success. For many of the dancers, it’s a side gig. They perform on weekends at events, restaurants, and festivals. A couple of months ago, the group represented the Professional Bull Rider’s Team Mexico on center stage at AT&T Stadium.
Together, they perform some of the dances that tell the story of Mexico's 31 unique states.
“Everybody’s just looking at the pretty costumes, the dancers, because that’s their culture,” Álvarez said. “That’s what they know. When they see that, it lights up their world.”
The dance group, which identifies with both American and Mexican cultures is keeping a tradition alive with each dance.
“To us, doing Cinco de Mayo, it’s not just a parade. It’s coming back home,” Álvarez said.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/grand-prairie-ballet-group-mexican-roots-dance/287-8b51cba5-1c8b-4ef8-976b-05a342bc36d3
| 2022-05-05T22:11:46
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/grand-prairie-ballet-group-mexican-roots-dance/287-8b51cba5-1c8b-4ef8-976b-05a342bc36d3
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Palm Coast, Green Lion continue working on deal; city wants to break even within 2 years
The Palm Coast City Council set a goal of breaking even within two years on a new lease with the Green Lion at the city’s Palm Harbor Golf Course.
The Green Lion’s owner agreed to the break-even goal. And with that, the City Council directed staff to continue negotiations with the restaurant, which is owned by the same family that runs the popular Golden Lion in Flagler Beach.
The City Council voted 4-1 to direct staff to negotiate a contract that puts the city at “net zero” within 24 months of its execution. Mayor David Alfin said “net zero” means no additional expense to city residents.
As it stands now, the city is losing money on a 2017 concession agreement with the Green Lion, which runs a restaurant in a portion of a city-owned triple-wide trailer that also serves as a clubhouse at the city’s golf course.
That’s because the Green Lion pays $600 a month in rent for its space while the city pays the entire water bill of about $2,000 a month, the electric bill of about $1,500 a month and the propane bill of $550 a month.
While both the city and the Green Lion use the electricity and water, the propane is used entirely by the Green Lion.
The property has one water meter and one electric meter. The city said it would be too expensive to install a water meter for the Green Lion, but one could be installed for the electricity.
Councilman Nick Klufas pointed out that the golf course was losing nearly a quarter million dollars a year before the city took over operations from Kemper Sports in 2016 and the city has turned it around to being “net positive.”
Agreement criticized:Palm Coast blasts 'sweetheart deal' lease for Green Lion golf course restaurant; operators say criticism unfair
Palm Coast reconsiders:Palm Coast backs away from terminating agreement with Green Lion at city golf course
Chef's Table:Golden Lion serves up popular family recipe
Jason DeLorenzo, the city's chief development officer, said he was not sure but “I think we were pretty close” to net positive.
Klufas said he did not want to say the trailer was dilapidated.
"It's got a great personality is always what I say," Klufas said, drawing laughs.
Klufas said the Green Lion runs a good restaurant at the golf course and adds value by having a place for people to eat once they are done playing golf.
“We look at that now and say 'Wow, those were favorable terms,' but it was in a facility that was $200,000 ago in improvements and the course was not in the shape that it’s in today and I can attest to that,” Klufas said.
Councilman John Fanelli III was concerned that the city was losing money on the deal.
“So we are actually paying the Green Lion to be there right now. It is not something that’s fiscally responsible for the citizens of Palm Coast,” Fanelli said.
Vice Mayor Eddie Branquinho, who was the lone vote against the proposed terms, said that the city spent at most $600 a month on its portion of the water bill. He said by footing the water bill and the other utility costs, the city was paying the Green Lion to operate at the golf course.
“How am I going to tell people that we agreed on a deal that we are going to be paying them $22,000 a year,” Branquinho said.
'We will be losing money for the next two years.'
Branquinho in an impassioned objection said he disagreed with his colleagues' decision.
“We will be losing money for the next two years. You agree to lose money for the next two years,” Branquinho said. “I don't understand how we are doing this to the citizens of Palm Coast."
Branquinho also said “I don’t think I belong here like this. I really don’t think I belong here.”
Councilman Ed Danko responded that the restaurant enhanced the golf course.
“I think we would begin losing money if we didn’t have a restaurant there,” Danko said. “And I would just bring that to the attention of Councilman Branquinho. There are folks that play golf and eat there and it's the package that does attract some of that business.”
Negotiating the numbers
DeLorenzo provided a presentation to the city outlining both sides of the negotiations.
The city proposed that the Green Lion pay rent of $10 per square foot or $1,665. The Green Lion offered $9 per square foot or $1,498.50 per month.
The city proposed a 3% increase per year. The Green Lion offered 0% to 3% increase per year based on the June consumer price index.
The city proposed that the Green Lion pay its portion of the electric bill, propane, telecom and internet. The Green Lion offered to pay propane, telecom and internet.
There was also discussion about opening times; the city wants the Green Lion to continue opening at 7 a.m., but the restaurant wants to open at 9 a.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday through Sunday.
A decision on this item wasn't reached at the meeting.
But Danko said the Green Lion should be able to decide its own operating hours based on its own business judgment.
“It’s their candy store at this point they are paying us rent," he said. "They should be able to run it like they want to run it."
The City Council was mostly in agreement that the lease should have a clause saying it could only be terminated for cause.
Branquinho pushed for keeping it as it currently is: That it can be terminated for convenience, meaning either side can opt not to renew for any reason.
Branquinho said that would protect the Green Lion if the economy tanks.
The Green Lion’s attorney, John Ferguson, said that the restaurant has already agreed to pay fair market value for the rent and they’ve agreed to pay for the propane.
He said that if the city is going to have a separate meter for electricity, then the Green Lion should pay a little less than the $9 or $10 a square foot for rent.
Ferguson also said that on Friday city staff had asked the Green Lion for its financial records citing an old request for proposals. But Ferguson said the Green Lion has not provided any financial records to the city in the past and there was no reason to expose that information to public records laws.
He said there was no reason for the city to request the financial records since the lease is not based on a percentage of the Green Lion’s revenue.
He also the Green Lion would also like the lease to include the right to cure or correct any issue that led to the city seeking a termination for cause.
Cornelia Manfre began the presentation with a market analysis which compared the Green Lion to three restaurants renting space from Flagler County: Bull Creek pays $12,000 a year or $5.62 a square foot; Captain’s Barbecue pays $10,800 a year or $5.19 a square foot; and Hi-Jackers rent will go from $15,487 a year and $3.07 per square foot to $36,000 a year and $7.14 a square foot starting in June. She said the Green Lion paid $7,200 a year or $3.60 a square foot.
Manfre, who has worked 42 years in commercial real estate, also said that the Green Lion did not have exclusive use of its property and there were no traffic counts because of its location. So while the traffic count was 20,100 for Hi-Jackers, which is off State Road 100 at the Flagler Executive Airport, Manfre said she received an estimated count of 140 to 200 people a day in the area of the Green Lion.
Manfre said she believed $9 to $10 a square foot would be fair with the city paying utilities.
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/flagler/2022/05/05/green-lion-still-negotiations-palm-coast-golf-course-restaurant/9643892002/
| 2022-05-05T22:13:40
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/flagler/2022/05/05/green-lion-still-negotiations-palm-coast-golf-course-restaurant/9643892002/
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BUFORD, Ga. — When Buford teen Bryn Hammock was stuck in quarantine, she decided to put her sewing skills to the test.
"I could sew by hand, but I had never sewn with a machine before," Hammock told 11Alive.
But thanks to Facetime, her grandmother walked her through the process, kicking off a special project to bring comfort to the tiniest of patients and their families.
"Tiny Hugs make babies feel like they're being held," Hammock explained. "It helps position them and hold tubes. It helps with skeletal development."
With her grandmother, who is a former pediatric nurse and Hammock's current Girl Scout troop leader, the teen began sewing the special comfort items; weighted gloves, meant to mimic a mother's touch.
"It basically is like a weighted blanket for the babies in the NICU," Hammock said. "It feels like they have a hand on them when their parents can't be there with them."
The item is of particular comfort for families, some of whom could only spend limited time in the hospital during the height of COVID-19 restrictions.
Hammock initially set out to craft 30 Tiny Hugs but ended up creating a video, remotely instructing a team of helpers to help her make 140. The Tiny Hugs were delivered to seven hospitals across Georgia, including the hospital where Hammock herself was born and spent brief time in the NICU.
Ultimately, Hammock earned the Girl Scout Gold Award for her efforts, joining both her mother and grandmother as the third generation in her family to earn the highest honor awarded by the Girl Scouts Program.
Families, too, reached out to share their appreciation for the Tiny Hugs.
"I just wanted to make sure they're loved and helped when they're in that hard situation," Hammock said.
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https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/outreach/hero-central/teen-creates-tiny-hugs-nicu-babies/85-fa6045cd-39dd-48bd-bc7e-b7a9794df0b8
| 2022-05-05T22:21:20
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https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/outreach/hero-central/teen-creates-tiny-hugs-nicu-babies/85-fa6045cd-39dd-48bd-bc7e-b7a9794df0b8
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Manatee County commissioner DUI investigation moves to State Attorney. Video shows MCSO skipped field sobriety test
- Minutes after George Kruse crashed his white F150 pickup truck into a tree on Greyhawk Boulevard on April 20, the Republican county commissioner showed signs of impairment, according to new body camera footage.
- At one point during the DUI stop, the deputy on the scene said Kruse was "obviously impaired" but that he could not make an arrest because no witness saw Kruse behind the wheel — even though the county commissioner himself said he was driving.
- The 12th Circuit State Attorney's Office will now determine if Kruse will be charged with driving under the influence.
BRADENTON – Minutes after George Kruse crashed his white F150 pickup truck into a tree on Greyhawk Boulevard on April 20, the Republican county commissioner showed signs of impairment, according to new body camera footage.
His shirt was wet, his eyes glossed with droopy eyelids, his speech slurred, and he appeared confused, according to public records obtained by the Herald-Tribune.
At one point during the DUI stop, the deputy on the scene said Kruse was "obviously impaired" but that he could not make an arrest because no witness saw Kruse behind the wheel — even though the county commissioner himself said he was driving.
Sheriff authorities instead let Kruse go home without a Breathalyzer or field sobriety test.
Previously:Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse under investigation for alleged DUI on 4/20
Kruse explained to authorities on the scene that he swerved to miss another car speeding by him. Kruse then changed his story, telling insurance that it was a small animal in the roadway that caused him to crash into the tree, public records show.
The 12th Circuit State Attorney's Office will now determine if Kruse will be charged with driving under the influence.
Area defense attorney Derek Byrd said circumstances surrounding the stop were unusual and that law enforcement only needs probable cause to conduct field sobriety tests at the scene of an accident. Byrd is not connected to this case, but he spoke from his experience defending clients from DUI charges.
"I have had many cases over the years that my client was involved with a single-car crash and was not behind the wheel when the police showed up, but the police still conduct field sobriety and most times still arrest my client," Byrd said. "Probable cause is a low standard to arrest someone. So my clients haven't been lucky enough to have an officer say, 'Oh, well no one saw you behind the wheel, so I guess you can go home.' That's not how it normally goes."
Kruse told the Herald-Tribune on Thursday that he respects Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells and 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Ed Brodsky, and he is awaiting a final decision from their offices on the investigation.
He did not address his state of mind during the accident.
"When they make that decision then we will determine what course of action we want to take," Kruse said. "At the end of the day, I don't see the need for this investigation. But it's a decision that they've made and I respect their decision because I'm respectful of them, I know both of them. They are going to do what's right."
'He’s obviously impaired. It's obvious.'
The Manatee County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene in the Grayhawk subdivision at 7:42 p.m. on April 20, where they found Kruse seated at the back of his wife's vehicle.
According to records, Kruse has provided differing accounts of the incident.
He told Sheriff's deputies on the scene that a vehicle sped around him and that he lost control of his white 2013 Ford F150 pickup truck when he slammed on the breaks on the loose gravel road to avoid a collision. His truck veered and crashed into a tree head-on, according to records.
He later told insurance agents it was a small animal that walked into the road that instead caused the accident, records show.
Manatee Sheriff Lt. Nicholas Pruitt was the first to respond to the scene, and his body cam video shows he reported over the radio that Kruse was impaired "of something" and asked to verify that no field sobriety test would be done because Kruse was already in the back of his wife's vehicle by the time authorities arrived.
"The driver is impaired of something, however, he was not in the vehicle when I got on scene, he was in his wife's vehicle... We have no independent witness, I just wanted to run it by you guys and be sure that we weren't going to do anything with it," Pruitt said over the radio.
Kruse was allowed to go home soon afterward without a field sobriety test. Pruitt later wrote in a report that it was his "assumption that Mrs. Kruse could not be used as a witness due to a conflict of interest," despite him and his wife admitting he was driving his truck at the time of the accident, records show.
During the stop, Pruitt's body cam shows him speaking with another sheriff's deputy who drove past the scene on his way to work. Pruitt told the other deputy "he's drunk, I just can't do a DUI because nobody can put him behind the wheel."
He later told another officer who responded to the scene that "he was obviously drinking."
Just before Pruitt left the scene, he approached Kruse’s wife and told her “you understand your husband can go to jail for intoxicated driving, so you need to just talk to him about that. He’s obviously impaired. It's obvious.”
He noted damage to the truck and tree indicated that Kruse was speeding on the 25-mile-per-hour road at the time of the accident, and he acknowledged that he knew Kruse was a county commissioner.
“Just be mindful of that," Pruitt said to her. "I know who your husband is, OK, and this could have turned out very badly, and he just needs to be more cognizant of that."
“There is no reason why he should have been driving, especially if you were right behind him, you guys are both very aware of how this law works," he told her. "You guys have to be mindful of that because then our hands are tied, then we have to make phone calls and other people have to be involved."
In the documents, Pruitt wrote that he later learned that Kruse was indeed behind the wheel from the 911 call, which was automatically dialed from an OnStar/Ford Telematics program on Kruse's vehicle.
In the call, his wife can be overheard telling him to "get in my car," and "I need you to get in my car. I need you to get in my car right now," according to records.
Case sent to prosecutors
The Sheriff's Office has submitted a capias request to the State Attorney's Office to determine if formal charges will be filed, despite no field sobriety test being administered.
“Review of this traffic crash revealed additional evidence that was not available on the evening of April 20th,” Sheriff Rick Wells said in a statement provided to the Herald-Tribune on Thursday. “It was important for us to examine this additional evidence and determine who was in physical control of the vehicle when the crash occurred, and to what extent the driver was impaired.”
Byrd, the local defense attorney, said the handling of the stop was unusual.
"All it takes is probable cause to arrest someone, and you can prove who the driver is oftentimes through circumstantial evidence, which makes sense right?" Byrd said. "You don't just get to get off and walk away with it because you happen to get out of your car to check on your tire or see the damage to your car when they pull up."
Kruse responds to criticism
Kruse told the Herald-Tribune that he does not want the investigation to become a distraction from his role as a county commissioner. He criticized public perception of the investigation based on early media reports about the investigation.
"I don't want to run this as a media narrative, and that's what it's becoming," Kruse said. "It's things coming out and articles being released, then people opining on it on social media on Twitter and Facebook and things like that. Everyone's got their opinions without any basis of fact whatsoever, and that's not good for anybody, and it's certainly not good for me because people have their preconceived notions even ahead of all of this."
"I am just sitting and waiting patiently and moving forward as a county commissioner," Kruse said. "I was elected to represent Manatee County, and I intend to continue representing Manatee County. An investigation on a personal level is not going to affect my ability to continue to do that because that's a disservice to the citizens of Manatee County."
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/manatee/2022/05/05/george-kruse-alleged-dui-video-mcso-skip-field-sobriety-test/9616188002/
| 2022-05-05T22:28:44
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/manatee/2022/05/05/george-kruse-alleged-dui-video-mcso-skip-field-sobriety-test/9616188002/
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Preparations for the World Games 2022 continue as the city marks 63 days until the major event and CBS 42 is counting down the days!
Each day CBS 42 will feature a community member or someone tied to the event helping us countdown the days until the World Games begin.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/world-games-countdown-63-days/
| 2022-05-05T22:33:11
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/world-games-countdown-63-days/
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TUPELO • Miss Mississippi Volunteer Rachel Shumaker took home the first-ever Fitness and Wellness swimsuit preliminary award at the inaugural Miss Volunteer America pageant in Jackson, Tennessee, Wednesday night.
Shumaker was awarded the title of Miss Mississippi Volunteer in July of 2021 at the Tupelo Performing Arts Center where the state pageant was held. She played the piano for her talent, winning an additional award for her musicality at the state level.
A native of Pontotoc, Shumaker is a 2021 graduate of Mississippi State University where she earned her degrees in political science and communications and public relations.
The 23-year-old future law student won a $10,000 scholarship with her state title as well as other in-kind awards and sponsorships to prepare her for the national pageant.
Shumaker said that winning the swimsuit award wasn't her goal going into Wednesday night's event because she was already proud of how far she had come throughout her journey to better health.
"I was really excited going into last night because swimsuit is my favorite part of competition, and I knew I had reached a level of fitness and wellness that I had aspired to achieve for a long time," Shumaker said. "I am really happy with my mental and physical health because of the work I put in, and it was so special to be recognized for that."
Throughout the last year, the pianist has worked closely with the Mississippi Highway Patrol to promote their D.R.I.V.E. (Driving Requires Initiative Values and Education) campaign to high school students.
Miss Volunteer America's preliminary competition will continue tonight as Shumaker competes in the evening gown category.
Friday night, she will showcase her classical piano training as she plays "Malaguena" by Ernesto Lecuona for the talent portion of preliminary events.
The competition will wrap up Saturday evening when the top-scoring contestants from the previous categories of competition will be announced.
"My goal going into Saturday is to showcase my hard work and preparation," said Shumaker. "Everything that I've put on a stage in some way points to the success I've had to help build the Mississippi program and to hopefully help build the national program."
If Shumaker is selected as a semi-finalist, she will once again compete in talent, swimsuit and evening gown before the inaugural Miss Volunteer America is chosen.
Miss Volunteer America aims to promote scholarship, education, responsibility, volunteerism and empowerment, spelling the acronym S.E.R.V.E. The winner of Saturday night's pageant will receive a $50,000 scholarship.
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https://www.djournal.com/news/local/miss-mississippi-volunteer-wins-preliminary-award-at-national-pageant/article_5209a6e1-1aa7-5df2-bcf3-3c3376f882d8.html
| 2022-05-05T22:43:34
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https://www.djournal.com/news/local/miss-mississippi-volunteer-wins-preliminary-award-at-national-pageant/article_5209a6e1-1aa7-5df2-bcf3-3c3376f882d8.html
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Bessie Dragoun was 17 in the spring of 1910, when she left her job at an Omaha glue factory and ran away.
She wanted to see the world, she said after getting arrested in Sioux City.
The jailer asked: Then why come here?
“Oh,” the girl answered, “to see Halley’s Comet.”
Eleven decades later, at her home near Minneapolis, Kathy Latuff read the short account at the bottom of an inside page in the Sioux City Journal -- and the grandmother she’d never known came into even clearer focus.
For most of her 69 years, Latuff knew only what her mother -- who spent her first decade in an orphanage -- had known about Bessie Dragoun. Almost nothing.
“She attempted suicide,” Latuff said. “And she got put away. End of story.”
The story started getting longer, and more interesting, a few years ago. Latuff logged onto Ancestry.com to try to learn more about her grandmother, who she thought was named Elizabeth Gamble. She found nothing.
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Last year, she visited Omaha’s Graceland Park Cemetery, where she knew other family was buried. And she found her grandmother’s grave, but under the name Bessie Weatherby.
“All of a sudden, I let out a yelp. There she was, in the ground.”
Now Latuff and her niece, Valerie Young of Wisconsin, could start scouring the internet and working their phones and making Bessie Weatherby more three-dimensional.
“We’re able to get newspaper articles and follow her life and say, ‘Wow, you’re an amazing woman, strong and brave.”
And adventurous. After trying to see some of the world in Sioux City, she went even farther, working as an elevator operator in Seattle, living with a naval officer in San Francisco, traveling by train around the West.
“What a fascinating life she led. I think her problem was she was born 100 years too early. She wasn’t going to be content living in Omaha.”
She led a troubled life, too. A year after her arrest, she gave birth to her first daughter, Lucille, who was raised by family. In 1919, she had Latuff’s mother, Evelyn, who ended up in an orphanage as an 11-month-old. All she would have of her mother was a photograph, and two pieces of jewelry.
The next year, the 27-year-old tried taking her life and was sent to the Nebraska Hospital for the Insane, now the Lincoln Regional Center.
She lived there for 15 years, not knowing her father was gunned down in a Chicago robbery, or her firstborn died at 22 from diphtheria, or heart failure had taken one of her sisters.
Bessie Weatherby, 41, died at the hospital in 1936.
Latuff and her niece were thorough in their research. Earlier this year, they contacted the Lincoln Regional Center to request Weatherby’s records, and were so impressed with how they were treated they wanted to make a donation, said Rachel Johnson, the center’s religious coordinator.
Johnson had an idea. How about using the donation to plant a tree of hope and recovery in the center’s arboretum, dedicated to the center’s past, present and future patients?
“Recovery is grounded in hope. Sometimes hope is the only thing we have. I think that for what we do, hope is the foundation. Hope that people can get better, hope that people can leave, hope that there’s a better life.”
They also made arrangements for Latuff and Young to visit the 150-year-old, tree-filled campus on the southwest edge of Lincoln, to see where Weatherby had lived for more than a third of her life.
“It was a sad time for Bessie and her life here,” Young told a small crowd Thursday gathered in the arboretum. “And it was painful to read that file, frankly. But what we decided was this can't define Bessie, this record alone, and we need to find out more about her life.”
It made sense to visit during May, Mental Health Awareness Month, Latuff said. By telling their family’s story, she wanted to let her grandmother know they feel no shame or embarrassment that she lived here, and she hoped other families would be encouraged to tell their stories, too.
Latuff and Young placed a small paving stone -- dedicated to the memory of Bessie (Dragoun) Weatherby -- at the base of the newly planted burr oak.
“We’re so happy that they’re allowing us to come here to honor her, celebrate her,” Latuff told the crowd. “And that she’s not defined by the last chapter of her life.”
Reach the writer at 402-473-7254 or psalter@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSPeterSalter
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/watch-now-at-lincoln-regional-center-a-celebration-of-a-complicated-life/article_9d33efea-8697-5115-bf29-43e7337553ae.html
| 2022-05-05T23:00:28
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/watch-now-at-lincoln-regional-center-a-celebration-of-a-complicated-life/article_9d33efea-8697-5115-bf29-43e7337553ae.html
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Set to face their fourth Pac-12 opponent of the spring season, accounting for more than a third of the conference, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks will soon make what has become an annual trip to a new foe.
Facing the No. 11-seeded Cal Golden Bears (16-7, 9-1 Pac-12) for a Friday match at 1 p.m. at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley, California, the Lumberjacks (12-7, 7-1 Big Sky) will meet a new opponent for the third consecutive time in the first round of the NCAA Tournament
It's the third straight trip west to California for the NCAA Tournament, with Northern Arizona heading to Malibu to face the Pepperdine Waves a year ago and to Los Angeles in 2019 for a matchup with the UCLA Bruins. Coupled with Northern Arizona's national tourney debut in 1999 at Arizona State, the Lumberjacks are still seeking their first-ever trip to the next round.
Two of Northern Arizona's singles players enter the bracket with lengthy win streaks, as Gina Dittmann has won 15 consecutive singles matches dating back to Feb. 18 and Sofia Markova has won 11 straight since March 3.
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Holding a 16-2 overall record, all at No. 1 this season, Dittmann ranks tied for third all-time at Northern Arizona with 30 career victories at No. 1 and holds the best singles win percentage of 91.% (31-3) in school history. Markova's 13-4 record in her first season, with a 9-2 mark at No. 3, ranks among the best debuts for a Lumberjack in school history.
Ava Neyestani, Elinor Beazley and Laura Duhl are all coming off wins at the Big Sky tournament this past weekend, and Beazley is on a three-match win streak thanks a pair of wins at No. 4 to close out the conference's regular season and a straight-set victory in the conference championship match on Saturday on court four.
Dittmann also holds one of the top doubles records in school history, going 12-0 with Neyestani. No other doubles pairing in program history has finished with a perfect record when reaching the minimum of 10 victories together. The duo's mark placed them atop Northern Arizona's all-time doubles win percentage list. Even a loss in the first round, and a 12-1 record, would keep them in front.
Ranked No. 11 in Wednesday's latest ITA Team Rankings, the Golden Bears ranked as high as fourth in the nation during the spring following a 4-3 upset of then No. 2 Pepperdine in Malibu. Finishing as the Pac-12 regular-season champs, Cal fell in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tourney to Arizona State on April 22.
The winner of Friday's match will play in Berkeley again on Saturday against the winner of the meeting between Texas Tech and Loyola Marymount, who play at 10 a.m. before the Lumberjacks and Golden Bears begin.
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/nau-roundup-womens-tennis-heads-to-ncaa-tournament/article_6058f8f6-cc8d-11ec-88b4-6bf29e59929d.html
| 2022-05-05T23:02:24
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/nau-roundup-womens-tennis-heads-to-ncaa-tournament/article_6058f8f6-cc8d-11ec-88b4-6bf29e59929d.html
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November 2010. I would call it the chest cold from hell, only that would be an understatement. My entire body took quite the beating for the better part of three weeks. The good news is that my health eventually returned. The same, however, can’t be said for my voice.
And to this day, I still don’t have my voice back. At least, not the one I had before November of 2010.
Today, if I talk for more than a few minutes, something causes my vocal cords to stop interacting with my brain. When that happens, further communication becomes difficult. I’d be better off using flashcards, sign language, semaphore, or smoke signals rather than speaking. Obviously, none of those options is very practical. Lip-reading probably isn’t, either, because I don’t think anyone I know knows how.
I was still gainfully employed when I first noticed my voice beginning to fade. At the time, I was managing a warehouse with 50-plus employees. If I wanted to get an employee’s attention out on the floor, I asked another employee to do it for me. Sad but oh so true.
When I retired several years ago, my voice only got worse. It became barely audible, so much so that if I raised my voice — or what was left of it — in a library, the librarian wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.
Today, going out to dinner is a challenge. The acoustics inside the restaurant have to be absolutely perfect for my voice to carry even just a short distance, such as from one side of the table to the other. We stopped going to University of Florida football games because; as far as crowd noise was concerned, my seat may as well have been vacant. And if you hadn’t noticed lately, the Gators need all of the vocal support they can get — and I certainly wasn’t contributing my fair share. Not by a long shot.
A few years ago, I coached my grandson’s basketball team. I couldn’t do it without an assistant coach, not because I needed his expertise and assistance, but rather to keep the players in line and relay my instructions — since the acoustics on a basketball court are a lot worse than the acoustics in a restaurant. Inside a cavernous gym, there wasn’t the slightest possibility that a bunch of rambunctious 7-year-old boys could hear me.
For the past few years, I have been the host/moderator/emcee (select the one you find most impressive, because at this point I need an ego boost) of a local author’s group. That means every other month, I have the opportunity to speak in front of an audience for 15 minutes or so. That wouldn’t be a challenge for most people.
However, I’m not most people. After just a few minutes, my voice becomes hoarse and starts to crack. I’ve tried everything I can think of to prevent that from happening: throat lozenges, chewing gum, water, cough drops, licorice — even a shot or two of amaretto. The latter works the best, not because it helps my voice, but because it makes me not care so much that the audience isn’t able to hear me.
At this point, I’m convinced my voice will never be what it once was. I’m learning to adjust. I talk a lot less than I used to. I guess it helps that I’m retired now and no longer need to speak to people every single day. It also probably helps that most of my communication can be accomplished on paper in black and white, like it is right now.
Beyond that, I look for any silver linings I can find — now that my voice has essentially deserted me.
For example, no librarian will ever put her index finger to her lips to make me shush. It’s also highly unlikely I’ll ever be asked to give an impromptu toast at a wedding.
And — thank you, Jesus — I’ll never have to worry about karaoke.
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/scott-ludwig-finding-my-voice/article_e76cf66a-cc71-11ec-bcbb-638729edc77c.html
| 2022-05-05T23:08:47
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/scott-ludwig-finding-my-voice/article_e76cf66a-cc71-11ec-bcbb-638729edc77c.html
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SACRAMENTO, Calif — A California measure that would allow children age 12 and up to be vaccinated without their parents’ consent, including against the coronavirus, cleared its first legislative hurdle Thursday.
If the proposal becomes law, California would allow the youngest age group of any state to be vaccinated without parental permission.
Minors age 12 to 17 in California currently cannot be vaccinated without permission from their parents or guardians, unless the vaccine is specifically to prevent a sexually transmitted disease. California state law already allows people 12 and older to consent to the Hepatitis B and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.
The bill that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee would lift the parental requirement for that age group for any vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener said his bill “will empower teenagers to protect their own health by getting vaccinated,” but it was opposed by dozens of people who called into the committee hearing for well over an hour.
Wiener's proposal is perhaps the most contentious measure remaining from Democratic lawmakers' once-ambitious agenda, after several other proposals lost momentum as the winter pandemic wave eased — although cases are climbing again.
State Sen. Richard Pan last month said he would delay consideration of his bill that would have blocked students from using the personal belief exemption to avoid the coronavirus vaccine. The same day, Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration said it would postpone its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for schoolchildren until at least the summer of 2023.
Pan also has stalled consideration of his bill that would block pandemic response funds from law enforcement agencies that refuse to enforce public health orders.
And in March, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks withdrew her bill that would have forced all California businesses to require coronavirus vaccines for their employees.
Wiener said his vaccine bill “is not a revolutionary idea. It builds on long-standing existing California law about the age of consent for receiving health care.”
Those 12 and older currently can make decisions under certain circumstances, including for sexually transmitted diseases, abortions and birth control, along with substance abuse and mental health disorders, Wiener said.
Parental consent laws for vaccinations vary by state and region. Alabama allows such decisions for children starting at age 14, Oregon at 15 and Rhode Island and South Carolina at 16, Wiener said.
Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., allow children age 11 and up to consent to their own COVID-19 vaccines, and in San Francisco the age is 12 and older.
“We know vaccines save lives,” testified Ani Chaglasian, an advocate with Teens for Vaccines. “Because I did not have the authority to vaccinate myself, I lost my job, summer internship, and was unable to see my grandma when she was intubated.”
Arin Parsa said he founded Teens for Vaccines in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, during a measles outbreak. He urged lawmakers to pass the bill “so we can live without the fear of deadly diseases taking away our futures.”
But Nicole Pearson, an attorney with a practice advocating for civil and human rights, said the youthful advocates “don’t know those times that we stayed up with you, wondering if you were going to live because of some adverse reaction you had to a vaccine.”
“There are many solutions to this problem, and it is not removing the only people who have this knowledge to help their children ... to make informed consent,” Pearson told the committee.
Matthew McReynolds, an attorney representing the Pacific Justice institute, a conservative legal defense organization, said providing students with true choice would be giving them “a choice to attend school with or without a vaccine. That’s informed consent and that’s true choice.”
Children that young “simply do not have fully developed decision-making skills needed to weigh the risks and benefits and make a truly informed decision,” said Sabrina Sandoval, a school psychologist who opposed the measure.
“Kids are going to be targeted and marketed to to get the vaccines,” warned opponent Dawn Richardson, director of advocacy for the National Vaccine Information Center.
Senators of both political parties questioned whether California’s legislation might be affected by a recent Washington, D.C., court ruling that the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act preempts state law on minors' consent.
California legislative analysts disputed the ruling. Wiener and McReynolds agreed that the decision doesn’t constrain California, but McReynolds said it offers a roadmap to opponents for a similar legal challenge to Wiener’s bill.
Democrats on the committee generally said the benefits of a fully tested vaccine outweigh the risks, while Republican Sen. Brian Jones said he fears vaccine providers may not have children's full medical history absent parents’ involvement.
The bill was approved by the 11-member committee on a 7-0 vote, with two members of each political party not voting, and now goes to the full Senate.
Other measures that are moving forward include one requiring school districts to develop COVID-19 testing plans and another addressing immunization information.
ABC10: Watch, Download, Read
WATCH MORE: Why are people still wearing masks? | Why Guy
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/bill-allowing-preteen-vaccines-without-parents-advances/103-3fd6b234-b5a7-456e-b9b2-8fe8b9f68f64
| 2022-05-05T23:37:53
| 1
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/bill-allowing-preteen-vaccines-without-parents-advances/103-3fd6b234-b5a7-456e-b9b2-8fe8b9f68f64
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DCYF says maltreatment led to death of 9-month-old in 2020
PROVIDENCE — Based on a criminal investigation dating back to December 2020, the Department of Children, Youth & Families on Thursday disclosed that maltreatment had contributed to the death of a 9-month-old from West Greenwich.
The incident occurred on Dec. 2, 2020 and the agency said it had no previous involvement with the family.
“The Department held off on making a final determination relative to child maltreatment until the conclusion of the criminal investigation,” said spokeswoman Kerri White.
Due to confidentiality laws, the department said it was prohibited from sharing additional information.
But police reports at the time said officers were first called to a Cranston home on Lincoln Avenue for a report of an infant boy who was not breathing. The child was later pronounced dead at Hasbro Children's Hospital.
As part of the investigation state police searched a West Greenwich home on Mishnock Road.
A recent case:DCYF says maltreatment contributed to death of 5-year-old in West Warwick
Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/west-greenwich-baby-died-maltreatment-2020-dcyf-says/9664907002/
| 2022-05-05T23:40:40
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/west-greenwich-baby-died-maltreatment-2020-dcyf-says/9664907002/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Witnesses who saw an alleged homicide Wednesday at a workplace in unincorporated Clackamas County told KOIN 6 News the scene was chaotic.
Doug Bufkin, an off-duty nurse with OHSU who tried to save the victim’s life, said he was at a gymnastics studio with his son when he noticed a commotion next door.
“I saw a bunch of people running around,” he said.
Bufkin said he saw a man who appeared to be stabbed laying between the parking lot and a nearby shop, and his training kicked in. He said he thought, “this is the only thing I can do. I have to help because I’m trained to do this.”
Bufkin gave the man CPR until deputies got to the scene around 11 a.m. near the 1500 block of SE For Mor Court, and they took over. He did not survive.
“I didn’t have any other way to resuscitate him and I wanted to make sure to help in any way I could,” Bufkin said.
Although CCSO didn’t state where the alleged homicide happened, a woman who works in the area told KOIN 6 News it took place at a business down the road from her.
“I just heard a lot of sirens. When I came to the front desk, I noticed they were going down For Mor,” said Kelly, who did not provide her last name. “It’s alarming when it’s so close and you got someone running around and you don’t know what going on. So, I just chose to lock down the office.”
“It was very sad. I felt bad, especially for his coworkers,” Bufkin said. “I don’t think you ever go to work expecting that to happen.”
Authorities said they found the suspect a short distance away from the scene of the crime, but they were also seriously injured and had to be airlifted to the a hospital in a Life Flight.
CCSO has not specified how the victim died or how the suspect was injured, and neither of them have been publicly identified.
“I just hope things stop being so violent out there soon,” Bufkin said.
CCSO is conducting the investigation and is seeking additional information in this case. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 503-723-4949 or by using the online email form. Please reference CCSO Case # 22-010099.
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https://www.koin.com/local/clackamas-county/i-have-to-help-off-duty-nurse-tried-to-save-victims-life-in-alleged-workplace-homicide/
| 2022-05-05T23:45:53
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https://www.koin.com/local/clackamas-county/i-have-to-help-off-duty-nurse-tried-to-save-victims-life-in-alleged-workplace-homicide/
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DALLAS — After reports of moldy food being served to students on some school campuses, the Dallas Independent School District announced it’s removing some food items and beginning an investigation.
“The main concern we see is around breakfast,” said parent Randall Bryant. He claims moldy food items were recently served to students at Geneva Heights Elementary, where his daughter attends school.
Parents and students are sharing photos on social media showing moldy muffins, spoiled fruit and other quality-compromised foods that they claim have been served on some Dallas ISD campuses.
“Last month it was dealing with pancakes. Yesterday it was a molded muffin,” Bryant explained.
Parents also said they’re concerned about the quality of some pre-packaged cereals being distributed to students.
“It’s a shame that I have to instruct my child to go through their breakfast and their lunch as if it’s Halloween candy to look for molded items,” Bryant added.
Issues with mold and food quality have been popping up on campuses across Dallas ISD for several weeks. In late March 2022, students at Dallas ISD’s Kimball High School staged a walkout to protest food conditions, after being served bologna sandwiches with discolored meat.
That same week, administrators at Geneva Heights Elementary across town sent notices to parents explaining one of the breakfast items staff served had mold.
“We have mold in our food across Dallas ISD,” said Dallas ISD Trustee Pastor Maxie Johnson. He represents District 5.
Johnson said parents, students and some teachers have been contacting him about food quality, health and safety concerns.
“It’s very disturbing. I spoke with Dr. Hinojosa, and other trustees spoke with him about this. As you can see it’s still going on. So, there is a problem and it needs to be addressed,” Johnson said.
Dallas ISD issued the following statement:
Our students look to us to provide high-quality food options when they are in our care, and unfortunately, we have had some challenges in that area. This week, two separate incidents at Geneva Heights Elementary School are under review after concerns were reported about unacceptable food items being served. Both products were immediately pulled from cafeterias districtwide, and an investigation has begun to determine more about these claims.
Dallas ISD continues to navigate the nationwide supply-chain shortage. Since the start of the pandemic, we, along with many other large districts, have relied heavily on prepackaged meals to provide uninterrupted meal service. We are working to fully transition back to offering a more robust hot food menu as we begin to stockpile inventory.
Understandably, this is not an ideal situation to have to work through, and we appreciate the community’s patience in our efforts to improve.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-isd-investigation-moldy-food-served-some-campuses/287-ea2ee65a-d19a-4ca0-bf29-f1879073cab0
| 2022-05-05T23:50:58
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-isd-investigation-moldy-food-served-some-campuses/287-ea2ee65a-d19a-4ca0-bf29-f1879073cab0
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DALLAS — If it was up to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, the Dallas area would have two teams in the National Football League.
But, does Dallas-Fort Worth need another NFL team? Aren't the Cowboys enough to keep the football hunger sated?
In response to an NFL on CBS tweet asking about which city deserves a pro football expansion team, Mayor Johnson made his pitch that Dallas would be the best (and obvious) choice.
"We are about to pass the Chicago metro and become the #3 metro in the US, which would make us the largest US metro WITHOUT 2 teams," Johnson said in a tweet. "Football is king here. Dallas needs an expansion team and we would be able to sustain 2 @NFL teams better than LA or NY."
The Cowboys are, of course, known as "America's Team" and are the undisputed kings of D-FW sports. They also have a legendary history that no one can deny. So, is there even enough room in Dallas, let alone interest for another NFL team?
The mayor thinks so.
Does he have a point?
While it may be hard (or even impossible) for some fans to just switch up fandoms, having options isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Then there's the fact that plenty of football fans in the D-FW area just straight up do not like the Cowboys, or have completely lost all faith in the organization. Whether it's just fans hating on the popular team or not agreeing with decisions being made or just being tired of losing, there are various reasons why NFL fans around here could maybe want something new and shiny.
Are there enough fans to sustain a Cowboys competitor in the same market, though? That remains to be seen.
Also to be determined: Where the second team would play. In the two-team cities Johnson cited, both the Chargers and Rams play at the new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and New York teams the Jets and Giants share MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
While sharing AT&T Stadium could be an option, Mayor Johnson has another idea: "We need an AFC team that plays in Southern Dallas," Johnson also tweeted.
And luckily, there's already a possible home base -- the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park. The historic stadium has hosted it all, including serving as the Dallas Cowboys' home stadium from 1960 to 1971.
It's pretty fun to imagine what the scene would be like with an NFL team playing home games in October while the annual State Fair of Texas is buzzing right next door.
While a second NFL team in D-FW is merely a dream at this point, the Dallas mayor is definitely interested in starting the conversation.
Are you?
Or, better yet, is the NFL?
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/does-dallas-fort-worth-need-another-nfl-team-dallas-cowboys/287-71c55587-5ab8-4284-96c8-d27b581c266d
| 2022-05-05T23:51:04
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/does-dallas-fort-worth-need-another-nfl-team-dallas-cowboys/287-71c55587-5ab8-4284-96c8-d27b581c266d
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GARLAND, Texas — A local mother in Garland just lost her daughter to someone who police say, was a drunk driver.
Rosario Saenz said her 25-year-old daughter, Leslie Mandujano, had so many dreams. She said she is now motivated to send out a warning to people as North Texans head into the summer months—please don’t drink and drive.
“She was always singing in her room,” Saenz said.
Mandujano was killed 2 weeks ago, after having a movie night with her cousin.
“She went to drop off her cousin on her way back is when the accident happened,” Saenz said.
Police said Jerald Komahcheet was driving drunk and high when he slammed into Mandujano's car and killed her on Highway 66 in Garland.
“She had so many dreams,” Saenz said.
At 25 years old, Mandujano was a junior at Texas A&M. She was also a painter, a fanatic for Korean food and wanted to be an educator one day.
“First she wanted to be a history high school teacher, then she said she would do little kids,” Saenz said. “He destroyed our family. We will never be the same."
Saenz said she wants lawmakers to enforce harsher penalties for those accused of drinking and driving.
“Keep him in longer than 20 years," Saenz said. "He needs to suffer the way we are suffering. If parents can talk to their kids and let them know it’s not OK for them to drink and drive. There is Uber, Lift or a taxi."
With that same message in mind, Garland police said the DWI task force is out in full force.
“Their sole job is to go out there and look for people that are driving under the influence,” said Lt. Pedro Barineau with the Garland Police Department.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/garland-mom-raises-awareness-daughter-killed-by-drunk-driver/287-8f09a967-3a3c-45fe-96b6-c24579f9473b
| 2022-05-05T23:51:10
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/garland-mom-raises-awareness-daughter-killed-by-drunk-driver/287-8f09a967-3a3c-45fe-96b6-c24579f9473b
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A Midland woman died Monday night after a collision on Interstate 20, according to the Department of Public Safety.
The report stated that Mary Lou Mosley, 63, died at Midland Memorial Hospital after another vehicle struck her car. Preliminary information, according to DPS, stated that Mosely’s 2012 Toyota Camry was “parked or stopped” in the westbound lanes of I-20 and a 2022 Volvo truck tractor with trailer struck the rear of the Camry.
The accident happened around 11:26 p.m. Monday, 2 miles west of Midland. It was not known if Mosley was wearing a seat belt.
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https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/DPS-Midland-woman-dies-after-I-20-collision-17151209.php
| 2022-05-05T23:54:02
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https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/DPS-Midland-woman-dies-after-I-20-collision-17151209.php
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The up-and-down nature of gas prices across the state continued this week.
Prices spiked by 10 cents or more in 18 of the 27 largest metropolitan areas, according to AAA Texas. At another five areas, the price increased 9 cents. Prices jumped just about everywhere … except Midland-Odessa and El Paso.
The three communities where prices have been the highest in the state recently showed the smallest increases this week. In the case of El Paso, there was no change in the price. The outcome was the rest of the state caught up or passed these areas of West Texas.
In Midland, the average price increased 6 cents this week to $3.95. That is now the second-highest average of larger metropolitan areas, behind Texarkana, where the average rose 17 cents to $3.99.
Tied for the third highest average are El Paso, Odessa and Longview at $3.94. The price in Odessa rose 4 cents. The price in Longview jumped 19 cents. The highest weekly increase was 21 cents in Victoria.
The state average rose 11 cents to $3.90. Midland’s average is just 5 cents higher.
“This week drivers noticed prices on the rise due to the crude oil market still reacting to the war in Ukraine,” said AAA Texas spokesperson Joshua Zuber in the organization’s weekly report.
What remains to be seen is whether Midland’s average is destined to increase next week.
Two weeks ago, there were price increases elsewhere across the state that put Midland’s average within 2 cents of the state average. Last week, the average price of gasoline in Midland increased by 10 cents -- five times the average increase across Texas. If the same trend holds up, the average in Midland-Odessa could be set to sharply increase next week. AAA Texas reports a 14-cent increase in Midland would tie the highest average in the city’s history, set in March.
However, this week the average is 5 cents more than the state average. That is remarkable since the difference in the average in Midland and across the state one year ago was 27 cents.
High gas prices
This week
Texarkana $3.99
Midland $3.95
El Paso $3.94
Odessa $3.94
Longview $3.94
Texas $3.90
National $4.25
Last week
El Paso $3.94
Odessa $3.90
Midland $3.89
Dallas $3.88
Fort Worth-Arlington $3.87
Texas $3.79
National $4.14
Source: AAA Texas
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https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/Is-Midland-set-for-a-gas-price-spike-17151161.php
| 2022-05-05T23:54:09
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https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/Is-Midland-set-for-a-gas-price-spike-17151161.php
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Taking a look at how the body’s cells work on a molecular level is something you don’t get to see every day, unless you work at the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory. There’s technicians and doctors with lab coats analyzing how the body functions at levels that are difficult to understand, but the Lab’s Executive Director, Dr. Maria Kontaridis, talked about some of the developments made here that are critical in today’s medical industry.
"The Masonic Medical Research Institute has been instrumental in the development of several devices, including the pacemaker and atrial defibrillator that’s been important in therapeutics against cardiac arrhythmias. Some of the therapeutics that have been discovered here work together with pharmaceutical companies have been utilized even today, are still being utilized today in terms of treating people with cardiac disease."
Some of the research being developed today wouldn’t be possible without funding raised through events like America’s Greatest Heart Run & Walk.
"The American Heart Association Grants in which we apply for are nationally competitive, so the fact that the MMRI is able to bring these resources here to our local community is pretty instrumental in telling of the important research that we do here, right here in Central New York."
Heart Disease and stroke are the two leading causes of death world-wide. Dr. Kontaridis believes that number will continue to rise.
"I think children are just not getting enough exercise. They’re not going outside, they’re not talking to one another, there’s a lot going on with regards to the way that our modern technology has changed the face of children’s day to day activities."
Smartphones and electronic devices have become sources of complacency, and it’s just a matter of time before the lack of exercise creates a problem.
"We think the next round of cardiovascular disease will come from children who are not getting enough exercise these days, and who are already starting to show signs of obesity and diabetes, so this always leads to a significant increase in cardiovascular disease in the future."
So unless there’s a significant change in our children’s lifestyles, this lab will have no shortage of research ahead.
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https://www.wktv.com/news/local/heart-disease-progress-at-masonic-medical-research-laboratory/article_bc899d0e-ccbc-11ec-a3ed-b3a8cde3c9b6.html
| 2022-05-06T00:21:27
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https://www.wktv.com/news/local/heart-disease-progress-at-masonic-medical-research-laboratory/article_bc899d0e-ccbc-11ec-a3ed-b3a8cde3c9b6.html
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CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. — “There’s nothing like Sunseeker. There’s nothing like Sunseeker in the country. This is a unique product especially to SWFL,” Charlotte County’s Economic Development Director Dave Gammon said.
It’s a unique product and it’s right here in our neck of the woods. We’re officially less than a year away from the grand opening of the Sunseeker resort in Charlotte Harbor.
The construction zone is finally starting to look less like just concrete and beams, and more like an actual resort. You can see balconies, windows and even the outline of the 60,000 sq. ft. event space.
The luxury resort will have 785 total rooms and 19 unique restaurants.
“They’re very focused on the quality and making sure it’s going to be a resort people want to come to,” Gammon said.
The plan is to open up to guests in May of 2023. In fact, most of that month is already booked online. Rooms start at nearly $400 a night.
With the large event space and hundreds of rooms, the Sunseeker is also drawing interest from the conference industry.
“The response from the meeting industry has been incredible due to the fact that we will be the first completely new-build resort with 300+ rooms to open in Southwest Florida in over 3 years,” Renee McKenny said, CMP Executive Director of Sales, Services and Experience. “Groups are excited and can’t wait to experience the vibrancy of a new destination.”
“They are unique also in what they can do. I mean remember who owns them,” Gammon said. “They’re owned by Allegiant Airlines so they can grab employees and people coming to conferences from all over the country and fly them down here, no other resort hotel can do that.”
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/charlotte-countys-sunseeker-resort-plans-to-bring-something-special-to-swfl-in-2023/
| 2022-05-06T00:27:46
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/charlotte-countys-sunseeker-resort-plans-to-bring-something-special-to-swfl-in-2023/
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LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — A Lehigh Acres man is finally reunited with his puppy, Babygirl, after she was stolen from his yard nearly two weeks ago.
His neighbor caught the thieves on camera hopping out of their dodge caravan and snatching the dog. Jordan Knight, the puppy’s owner, said he studied that video looking for any clues.
“The whole time I’m thinking we live so close to Miami, I was like oh my gosh, my baby could be in Miami for all we know,” said Knight.
Knight was driving on Alabama Road, about two miles away from his home when he noticed the same Dodge caravan as seen on the surveillance video.
“It was just too perfect, it was everything I had been watching on the video,” said Knight.
Knight told NBC2 he wasn’t going to stop, but he had a gut feeling she was inside.
“As I approached his vehicle, he approached me very aggressively,” Knight said. “That right there was a dead giveaway that he had something to hide.”
The man told Knight he had plans to return her.
“He kept the dog for nine days instead of turning her in,” said Knight. “I decided to press charges because you know, I gave the man an opportunity to get out of it himself and he didn’t.”
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/lehigh-acres-man-reunites-with-stolen-dog-after-confronting-thieves/
| 2022-05-06T00:27:52
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/lehigh-acres-man-reunites-with-stolen-dog-after-confronting-thieves/
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CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Vandals are defacing new artwork in downtown Cape Coral three weeks after being installed.
The city’s community redevelopment agency recently installed decorative wraps for its utility box beautification project along SE 47th Terrace.
Three boxes were graffitied this week with the word “OPAL” on them.
Police said most of the tagging was able to be cleaned off, but some were unable to be removed.
On Thursday, the CRV is meeting to discuss adding nine more wraps. The additions will cost $9,742.15 if approved.
People living in the city have mixed opinions on adding more. Some believe they will become targets for more graffiti, while others believe it will cover the graffiti old utility boxes already have.
Count on NBC2 for updates on what the city decides.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/vandals-target-new-cape-coral-artistic-utility-boxes/
| 2022-05-06T00:27:58
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/05/05/vandals-target-new-cape-coral-artistic-utility-boxes/
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SEATTLE — The repercussions of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade could have an impact on the future of other landmark cases, according to law professors and congressional leaders.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in Pierce County Wednesday to discuss infrastructure jobs but also commented on the draft opinion when asked by the press.
"This is an assault on privacy. Who knows what's next? Marriage equality?" Pelosi said.
She is not alone in wondering what the possible overturning of Roe could mean for other Supreme Court cases that were decided on similar right to privacy clauses of the 14th amendment.
"The arguments made in the draft that was leaked put the entire queer community on notice, whether it was intentional or not," said Carmen Rivera, who serves as vice president of the board for the nonprofit Seattle Pride.
Rivera said she doesn't think that considering what an overturning of the Roe decision would mean for other cases, is overreaching.
"People thought we were getting ahead of ourselves when we were afraid of Roe v Wade getting overturned five years ago. In 2016, this was a legitimate concern during the presidential election," Rivera said.
"The question is, well how does this impact other cases, right?" said Sital Kalantry.
Kalantry is a professor of human rights, comparative law and contract law at Seattle University and has done extensive research on reproductive rights.
"This draft opinion essentially gutted the constitutional grounds in which Roe was based, which is the idea of privacy," Kalantry said. "Now that you've unearthed entire roots and the foundations of 30, 40 years of constitutional law, everything is up for grabs."
She said that includes the case that allowed for the legalization of same-sex marriage, another landmark case that was, in part, decided on the same right to privacy.
In the draft opinion, first posted by Politico late Monday, Justice Samuel Alito, who drafted the conservative opinion of the court, stated, "We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right… Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion."
It is an assertion that Rivera said she found difficult to believe.
"This isn't just a women's rights issue. This is a human rights issue," Rivera said.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/roe-v-wade-same-sex-marriage-rights-united-states/281-38d7431a-b267-4b90-957e-5e6a4512da4c
| 2022-05-06T00:34:25
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/roe-v-wade-same-sex-marriage-rights-united-states/281-38d7431a-b267-4b90-957e-5e6a4512da4c
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PORTLAND, Ore. — In the wake of the leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade, effectively ending nationwide abortion rights protection, national and local polling is shedding light on how Oregon and Washington voters feel about the issue.
In January of this year, 67% of Oregon voters polled told local pollsters DHM Research that abortion would be a "very" or "somewhat important factor" in determining who they would vote for as governor, but abortion ranked last when voters were asked which of 13 issues would be most important in determining their vote.
With the leaked draft, it's likely those feelings have changed for some people. That could be beneficial for Democrats in November, added KGW political analyst Len Bergstein.
"The good news is its confrontative and it jolts everybody," said Bergstein. "The bad news is it will get absorbed into the body politic and it may not be quite as dramatic in November as it is right here in May."
At both the state and national level, Democrats are using the news to energize voters. Bergstein expects that to continue until November.
"My guts tell me this is a big issue. This helps define for Democrats what the stakes are, in a way that they have not been able to define why the voters should care enough to vote for them."
A compilation of polls by the New York Times found that in Oregon, roughly 62% of people said abortion should be legal or mostly legal, while 35% said it should be mostly illegal. In Washington, those numbers are 61% and 34%, respectively.
Nationwide, more abortions are performed with medication than surgery. The use of abortion pills has risen steadily, with 54% of abortions in 2020 performed with medication, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a policy think tank focused on reproductive rights.
In 2021, the FDA lifted a restriction that required patients to get the pills in-person and now allows them to be sent via mail. A group called Abortion on Demand provides legal telehealth abortion appointments in 21 states, including Oregon and Washington. The service does not operate outside these states. Its website notes that it gets abortion pills to people who need them as quickly and safely as possible.
The Oregon Legislature recently approved $15 million to expand abortion care in Oregon, though none has been distributed yet. It is aimed at helping women who are low-income, or live in rural areas far from clinics, particularly in Eastern Oregon. The closest clinic for many in Eastern Oregon is in Boise, but Idaho's trigger law will outlaw abortion in the state as soon as Roe is overturned. The Guttmacher Institute reports 1,290 abortions happened in Idaho in 2017.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/polls-oregon-voters-abortion-rights/283-987aa83e-1384-44eb-9001-bdb27720bb27
| 2022-05-06T00:34:31
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/polls-oregon-voters-abortion-rights/283-987aa83e-1384-44eb-9001-bdb27720bb27
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There's not a lot the attorneys disagree with at a murder trial that started Thursday over a fatal shooting in a Lincoln apartment last September.
The prosecution and defense both agree Lendell Harris, 24, shot Alonzo Jones, 28, twice in the chest, one of the bullets going through his heart and killing him in less than a minute.
The issue? One side says it's second-degree murder and the other says it's self-defense.
"Control, opportunity and reason. That's what this case is about," Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Amy Goodro told the jury in opening statements Thursday afternoon.
She said on the morning of Sept. 5, Jones left for work at Spreetail, but was promptly sent home.
When he returned to the Tanglewood Apartments near 44th and R streets, where he lived with the mother of his child, he was surprised to find her in the bathroom getting ready to smoke marijuana with Harris, who also was seeing her.
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Jones forced the bathroom door open and shoved Harris into the living room.
"When suddenly Mr. Harris fires two shots into Mr. Jones' chest," Goodro said.
She said Harris had lost control and seized an opportunity to control the situation, to control Jones, and to rid his life of him.
Goodro called his reaction to the situation "wholly unreasonable."
Defense attorney Michael Fitzpatrick agreed Harris was the one that pulled the trigger on the Glock 27 .40 caliber handgun he brought pretty much everywhere.
"What trial should prove, what we anticipate it will prove, is very much the same thing that the state is alleging. But for the fact my client had no intent to kill anybody," Fitzpatrick said.
He said Harris feels terrible that Jones lost his life.
Fitzpatrick said Harris was trying to walk out the door, but Jones, who had 50 pounds on him, was enraged, spun him around and went for his gun.
"This was a split-second thing and he (Jones) obviously was not thinking clearly because he was so upset and rightfully so. Who could possibly blame him?" he said.
He said Harris shot for one reason.
"Mr. Jones was going for his weapon and my client was reasonably afraid that if Mr. Jones got that weapon he was going to turn around and use it against him," Fitzpatrick said.
Trial is set to last about a week.
Tom Casady's list of the 10 most infamous crimes in Lincoln history
Crimes of the times
This is simply one man’s perspective from the early 21st century (first written in 2010). I had to make a decision about crimes that occurred at locations that are inside the city today, but were outside our corporate limits at the time they occurred. I chose the latter.
Before beginning, though, I have to deal with three crimes that stand apart: the murders of three police officers in Lincoln. I’m not quite sure how to place them in a list. They all had huge impacts on the community, and on the police department in particular. Because these are my colleagues, I deal with them separately and in chronological order.
Patrolman Marion Francis Marshall
Shot in the shadow of the new Nebraska State Capital, Gov. Charles Bryan came to his aid and summoned additional help.
Lt. Frank Soukup
Marion Marshall was technically not a Lincoln police officer, so Lt. Soukup was actually the first Lincoln police officer killed on duty. One of his colleagues who was present at the motel and involved in the gunbattle, Paul Jacobsen, went on to enjoy a long career and command rank at LPD, influencing many young charges (like me) and leaving his mark on the culture of the agency.
Lt. Paul Whitehead
In the space of a few months, three LPD officers died in the line of duty. Frank Soukup had been murdered, and George Welter had died in a motorcycle crash. Paul Whitehead's partner, Paul Merritt, went on to command rank, and like Paul Jacobsen left an indelible mark at LPD and the community.
No. 1: Starkweather
The subject of several thinly disguised movie plots and a Springsteen album, the Starkweather murders are clearly the most infamous crime in Lincoln’s history — so far. One of the first mass murderers of the mass media age, six of Charles Starkweather’s 11 victims were killed inside the city of Lincoln, and the first was just on the outskirts of town. I didn’t live in Lincoln at the time, but my wife was a first-grader at Riley Elementary School and has vivid memories of the city gripped by fear in the days between the discovery of the Bartlett murders and Starkweather’s capture in Wyoming.
The case caused quite an uproar. There was intense criticism of the police department and sheriff’s office for not capturing Starkweather earlier in the week after the discovery of the Bartletts' bodies. Ultimately, Mayor Bennett Martin and the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners retained a retired FBI agent, Harold G. Robinson, to investigate the performance of local law enforcement. His report essentially exonerated the local law officers and made a few vanilla recommendations for improving inter-agency communication and training.
Now I know that many readers are mumbling to themselves “how obvious.” Hold your horses, though. It’s not quite as obvious as you might think. I had two experiences that drove this fact home to me. The first was a visit by a small group of journalism students. Only one member of the class had any idea, and her idea was pretty vague. You need to remember that the Starkweather murders were in 1957 and 1958 — before the parents of many college students were even born.
The second experience was a visit by a Cub Scout den. I was giving the kids a tour of the police station one evening. We were in the front lobby waiting for everyone to arrive. As I entertained the boys, I told the moms and dads that they might enjoy looking in the corner of the Sheriff’s Office display case to see the contents of Starkweather’s wallet — discovered a couple of years ago locked up in the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office safe. After a few minutes, one of the confused fathers asked me who Starkweather was, and why it was significant.
No. 2: Lincoln National Bank
On the morning of Sept. 17, 1930, a dark blue Buick carrying six men pulled up in front of the Lincoln National Bank at the northwest corner of 12th and O streets. Five of the men entered the bank, while a sixth stood outside by the Buick, cradling a machine gun. Observing the unusual events, a passerby called the police. The officer who responded, Forrest Shappaugh, was casually instructed by the machine-gun-toting lookout to just keep going, which he wisely did. Returning with reinforcements, he found that the robbers had already made good on their getaway, netting $2.7 million in cash and negotiable securities.
Ultimately, three of the six suspects were arrested. Tommy O’Connor and Howard Lee were convicted and sentenced. Jack Britt was tried twice but not convicted by a hung jury. Gus Winkeler, a member of Al Capone’s gang, winged a deal with County Attorney Max Towle to avoid prosecution in exchange for orchestrating the recovery of $600,000 in bearer bonds. The following year, Winkeler was murdered in Chicago, the victim of a gangland slaying. The final two robbers were never identified.
The Lincoln National Bank robbery stood as the largest cash bank robbery in the United States for many decades. It precipitated major changes at the Lincoln Police Department. Chief Peter Johnstone was rapidly “retired” after the robbery, the department’s fleet was upgraded to add the first official patrol cars, the full force was armed and a shotgun squad was organized. Forty-four years later when I was hired at LPD, the echo of the Lincoln National Bank robbery was still evident in daily bank opening details, and in the Thomspon submachine guns and Reising rifles that detectives grabbed whenever the robbery alarm sounded at headquarters.
No. 3: The Last Posse
My first inkling about this crime came when I was the chief deputy sheriff. One of my interns, a young man named Ron Boden (who became a veteran deputy sheriff), had been doing some research on Lancaster County’s only known lynching, in 1884. I came across a reference in the biography of the sheriff at the time, Sam Melick, to the murder of the Nebraska Penitentiary warden and subsequent prison break. Melick had been appointed interim warden after the murder and instituted several reforms.
Several years later, a colleague, Sgt. Geoff Marti, loaned me a great book, Gale Christianson’s "Last Posse," that told the story of the 1912 prison break in gory, haunting and glorious detail.
To make a long story short, convict Shorty Gray and his co-conspirators shot and killed Warden James Delahunty, a deputy warden and a guard on Wednesday, March 13, 1912. They then made their break — right into the teeth of a brutal Nebraska spring blizzard. Over the course to the next few days, a posse pursued. During the pursuit, the escapees carjacked a young farmer with his team and wagon. As the posse closed in, a gunfight broke out and the hostage was shot and killed in the exchange, along with two of the three escapees.
There was plenty of anger among the locals in the Gretna-Springfield vicinity about the death of their native son, and a controversy raged over the law enforcement tactics that brought about his demise. Lancaster County Sheriff Gus Hyers was not unsullied by the inquiry, although it appears from my prospect a century later that the fog of war led to the tragedy.
Christianson, a professor of history at Indiana State University who died earlier this year, notes the following on the flyleaf:
“For anyone living west of the Mississippi in 1912, the biggest news that fateful year was a violent escape from the Nebraska state penitentiary planned and carried out by a trio of notorious robbers and safe blowers.”
Bigger news on half the continent than the sinking of the Titanic during the same year would certainly qualify this murder-escape as one of the most infamous Lincoln crimes in history.
No. 4: Rock Island wreck
The Aug. 10, 1894, wreck of a Rock Island train on the southwest outskirts of Lincoln was almost lost in the mist of time until it was resurrected in the public consciousness by author Joel Williams, who came across the story while conducting research for his historical novel, "Barrelhouse Boys."
The wreck was determined to be the result of sabotage to the tracks, perhaps an attempt to derail the train as a prelude to robbery. Eleven people died in the crash and ensuing fire, making this a mass murder, to be sure. G.W. Davis was arrested and convicted of the crime but later received a full pardon. The story was told in greater detail earlier this year by the Lincoln Journal Star.
A historical marker is along the Rock Island Trail in Wilderness Park, accessible only by foot or bike from the nearest trail access points about a half-mile away at Old Cheney Road on the north, or 14th Street on the south.
Here’s the big question that remains unanswered: Was there really significant evidence to prove that George Washington Davis committed the crime, or was he just a convenient scapegoat? The fact that he received a gubernatorial pardon 10 years later leads me to believe that the evidence must have been unusually weak. If he was railroaded, then my second question is this: who really pried loose the tracks with the 40-pound crowbar found at the scene?
No. 5: Commonwealth
On Nov. 1, 1983, the doors to Nebraska’s largest industrial savings and loan company were closed and Commonwealth was declared insolvent. The 6,700 depositors with $65 million at stake would never be fully compensated for their loss, ultimately receiving about 59 cents on the dollar for their deposits, which they all mistakenly believed were insured up to $30,000 through the Nebraska Depository Insurance Guaranty Corporation, which was essentially an insurance pool with assets of only $3 million.
The case dominated Nebraska news for months. The investigation ultimately led to the conviction of three members of the prominent Lincoln family that owned the institution, the resignation of the director of the State Department of Banking and the impeachment of the Nebraska attorney general and the suspension of his license to practice law. State and federal litigation arising from the failure of Commonwealth drug on for years.
At the Lincoln Police Department, the Commonwealth failure led to the formation of a specialized white-collar crime detail, now known as the Technical Investigations Unit. At the time, municipal police departments in the United States had virtually no capacity for investigating financial crime and fraud of this magnitude, and we quickly became well known for our expertise in this area. The early experience served LPD very well in the ensuring years.
No. 6: Candice Harms
Candi Harms never came home from visiting her boyfriend on Sept. 22, 1992. Her parents reported her as a missing person the following morning, and her car was found abandoned in a cornfield north of Lincoln later in the day. Weeks went by before her remains were found southeast of Lincoln.
Scott Barney and Roger Bjorklund were convicted in her abduction and murder. Barney is in prison serving a life term. Bjorklund died in prison in 2001. Intense media attention surrounded the lengthy trial of Roger Bjorklund, for which a jury was brought in from Cheyenne County as an alternative to a change of venue. I have no doubt that the trial was a life-changing event for a group of good citizens from Sidney, who did their civic duty.
I was the Lancaster County sheriff at the time, involved both in the investigation and in the trial security. It was at about this time that the cellular telephone was becoming a consumer product, and I have often thought that this brutal crime probably spurred a lot of purchases. During my career, this is probably the second-most-prominent Lincoln crime in terms of the sheer volume of media coverage.
No. 7: Jon Simpson and Jacob Surber
A parent’s worst nightmare unfolded in September 1975 when these two boys, ages 12 and 13, failed to return from the Nebraska State Fair. The boys were the victims of abduction and murder. The case was similar to a string of other murders of young boys in the Midwest, and many thought that these cases were related -- the work of a serial killer. Although an arrest was made in the case here in Lincoln, the charges were eventually dismissed. William Guatney was released and has since died.
No. 8: John Sheedy
Saloon and gambling house owner John Sheedy was gunned down outside his home at 1211 P St. in January 1891. The case of Sheedy, prominent in Lincoln’s demiworld, became the talk of the town when his wife, Mary, and her alleged lover and accomplice, Monday McFarland, were arrested. Both were acquitted at trial. The Sheedy murder is chronicled in a great interactive multimedia website, Gilded Age Plains City, an online version that builds upon an article published in 2001 by Timothy Mahoney of the University of Nebraska.
No. 9: Patricia McGarry and Catherine Brooks
The bodies of these two friends were found in a Northeast Lincoln duplex in August 1977. Their murderer, Robert E. Williams, was the subject of a massive Midwest manhunt during the following week. Before his capture, he committed a third murder in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and raped, shot and left for dead a victim who survived in Minnesota. He is the last man to be executed in Nebraska, sent to the electric chair in 1997.
No. 10: Judge William M. Morning
District Court Judge William Morning was murdered in February 1924. He was shot on the bench by an unhappy litigant in a divorce case. His court reporter, Minor Bacon, was also shot, but a notebook in his breast pocket deflected the bullet and saved his life.
Many other crimes
Choosing Lincoln's 10 most infamous crimes was a challenge. Although the top two were easy, the picture quickly became clouded. We tend, of course, to forget our history rather quickly. Many of the crimes I felt were among the most significant are barely remembered today, if not completely forgotten.
Some readers will take issue with my list. In choosing 10, here are the others I considered, in no particular order. They are all murders:
-- Mary O'Shea
-- Nancy Parker
-- Charles Mulholland
-- Victoria Lamm and Janet Mesner
-- Martina McMenamin
-- Regina Bos (presumably murdered)
-- Patty Webb
-- Marianne Mitzner
I also thought about the five murder-suicides in which a mother or father killed multiple family members before taking their own life. Though tragic, these crimes did not command the same kind of attention as the others, perhaps because there was no lengthy investigation, no tantalizing whodunit, no stranger-killer, nor any of the details that come out in the coverage of a major trial.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSpilger
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/murder-trial-begins-for-lincoln-man-accused-of-fatal-shooting-in-september/article_a01d1cdf-37e5-5556-a19c-401f0a9abe0c.html
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Six businesses, including 2 major chain restaurant spots, fail alcohol compliance checks
Six area businesses failed routine alcohol compliance checks conducted May 4 by the Wicomico County Alcohol Task Force.
The Wicomico County Board of License Commissioners said in a release the task force conducted compliance checks of 25 establishments licensed to sell alcohol in the county, and 19 passed the check.
The task force is comprised of the Wicomico County Liquor License Department, the Maryland State Police, Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office, and Salisbury Police Department.
These businesses failed the compliance check, according to the Board of License Commissioners and may be ordered to appear before the board for a hearing on an alleged sale of an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21 years of age.
- Shore Stop, 1215 Mount Hermon Road, Salisbury
- BoxCar 40, 7456 Gumboro Road, Pittsville
- Olive Garden Italian Restaurant, 2316 North Salisbury Blvd. Salisbury
- Red Lobster, 2314 North Salisbury Blvd., Salisbury
- Tiger Mart, 501 West Salisbury Parkway, Salisbury
- Hoopers Package Store, 1400 South Salisbury Blvd., Salisbury
The clerk who allegedly sold the alcohol will be charged by officers of the task force.
More:Illegal dirt bike, ATV driving on streets: How Salisbury looks to take on 'slippery' issue
More:Salisbury Zoo bidding farewell to its alligators and a swan
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2022/05/05/6-wicomico-county-md-businesses-fail-alcohol-compliance-checks/9657682002/
| 2022-05-06T00:56:02
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2022/05/05/6-wicomico-county-md-businesses-fail-alcohol-compliance-checks/9657682002/
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BOISE, Idaho — On May 1st, the tenants running The Hyde House in the North End decided to permanently shut their doors.
“They put a sign out that they were short on staff, going to be closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, when I opened the door I said 'hi what's going on?' and she said 'hi, we are done, we are closing we have closed,'” said Jill Monteith, owner of the building.
Monteith originally opened the Hyde House with her family in 2015, she found new tenants to continue operations in 2021.
“We negotiated a deal with them to purchase the business and then to be my tenant in a home on a three-year lease,” Monteith said.
Monteith wasn’t aware of any struggles to pay rent from the previous tenants. She did however say they were late on rent payments from time to time but didn't think much of it.
Sky Mcgehee is one of many young employees who worked at Hyde House. She quit in October of 2021 after multiple checks bounced.
“I had a great time working there, I loved my coworkers, and my manager was awesome,” Mcgehee said. “When our accounts were negative, hundreds and hundreds of dollars, they showed absolutely no accountability.”
According to Mcgehee, she took her last check to her boss, Cynthia Sauer’s bank to cash it, and the bank said there was no money in the account.
“I couldn't pay rent, I couldn't make my car payments, I couldn't pay my cell phone, my insurance, my account right now is overdrawn because of the faulty check,” said Dian Lawrence, who is also a former employee.
Lawrence was a chef at the restaurant. He said occasionally Sauer would pay him in cash, but when it was a check it was often not for the full amount.
“It was supposed to be $1,850 she only wrote it for $610,” Lawrence said.
The Idaho Department of Labor told KTVB that there are currently six wage claims filed against the Hyde House. All of the claims are in the fact-finding stage.
According to Lawrence, Sauer has been unreachable and went on vacation. While her whereabouts are still unknown Monteith is confident that the community will be happy with the next tenants.
“We are going to be really careful of who we rent to next that is going to be a viable, amazing part of the community,” Monteith said.
To donate to former employees click here.
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/hyde-house-north-end-abruptly-closes-employees-claim-bounced-checks/277-28dd8ab4-b3c6-4d88-8cea-f152fd543f8d
| 2022-05-06T01:14:02
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/hyde-house-north-end-abruptly-closes-employees-claim-bounced-checks/277-28dd8ab4-b3c6-4d88-8cea-f152fd543f8d
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BOISE, Idaho —
The National Day of Prayer was established in 1952, with a joint resolution in Congress, signed by President Harry S. Truman. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation declaring May 5 of that year as a National Day of Prayer. Three months later, Reagan signed an amended version of the 1952 resolution to permanently set aside the first Thursday of May as the National Day of Prayer.
However, there were broad calls for prayer across the country, even before it was a country.
The Continental Congress in 1775 asked the colonists to pray for wisdom in forming a nation. A year later, Congress set aside May 17, 1776, as a day of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer." It was reiterated by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
According to the National Day of Prayer website, this day enables us to recall and to teach the way in which our founding fathers sought the wisdom of God when faced with critical decisions.
“I normally host a Bible study at my home at 10,” said Sheran Montgomery, a Christian attending the day of prayer. “We decided that it would be a good idea to come down and pray around the capitol in the rotunda.”
But what about people who do not believe in God, or if their religion doesn’t exactly involve God?
“We don't believe in a literal Satan; it's just a metaphor. Think of Paradise Lost where Satan is the hero against a tyrannical God,” said Rowan Astra, a member of The Satanic Temple of Idaho. “Just as they have their interpretation of the Bible, we have our interpretation of a major character.”
The Capitol’s second-floor rotunda turned into a round-robin of religion, with everyone participating in their own way.
“I'm here to protect our Capitol from evil. There's a lot of demons around,” said one woman attending the event. “They have a right to be here, so I do respect that, but I'm not going to allow demons to be around.”
But after speaking with members of the Satanic Temple, we learned there are a lot of misconceptions about them.
“We are a non-theistic, non-supernatural religion,” said Astra. “These are our deeply held religious beliefs: compassion, wisdom, and justice; that's why we're here, to stand up for what we believe.”
When asked what a national day of prayer means to them, some attendees seemed to be able to find a middle ground.
“Satanists don't pray to a higher power,” said Astra. “However, our interpretation of prayer is that we're symbolically and verbally expressing our hopes and desires to the people of Idaho.”
“We just stop as a nation and pray for what's going on in the nation, pray for our leaders, pray for our decisions that are being made,” said Montgomery. “We don't have to agree, and that's the beauty of this nation.”
Join 'The 208' conversation:
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/idaho-capitol-conflicting-religion-national-day-of-prayer/277-561962f7-f213-41b1-a210-49078ff90231
| 2022-05-06T01:14:08
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/idaho-capitol-conflicting-religion-national-day-of-prayer/277-561962f7-f213-41b1-a210-49078ff90231
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JEROME, Idaho — 80 years ago, the first of nearly 13,000 Japanese-Americans were sent to the Minidoka Internment Camp in south-central Idaho. It was one of 10 across the United States opened to "relocate" people of Japanese ancestry after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II.
On Wednesday, the Minidoka National Historic Site was named one of the 11 most-endangered historic places in America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
It did not appear on the list because of its age or due to growth, but because of a proposed project to build one of the largest wind farms on public lands in the country. The proposed wind farm is within two miles of the visitor center and includes 400 wind turbines.
"We are extremely disturbed by the proposed wind project and its disregard for the sacredness of Minidoka National Historic Site where 13,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were unjustly incarcerated during World War II," Executive Director for Friends of Minidoka, Robyn Achilles said. "Minidoka is a memorial to all those who suffered at the site. Survivors and their descendants make emotional pilgrimages to Minidoka where they remember, heal, and share stories to ensure these violations of civil liberties do not happen again. Minidoka is our past and our future."
Achilles added the Friends of Minidoka -- which preserves the history of the World War II incarceration experience -- supports renewable energy, as long as projects respect historic sites. The organization urges the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to protect the Minidoka National Historic Site.
“Minidoka National Historic Site serves as a critical and painful reminder of the fragility of democracy,” Chief Preservation Officer of National Trust for Historic Preservation, Katherine Malone-France said. “Eighty years after the first Japanese Americans were wrongfully incarcerated at Minidoka, Asian Americans continue to experience anti-Asian violence, harmful stereotypes, and hatred. Minidoka reminds us of the mistakes of the past so that we can do better in the future, and it must be preserved and protected as a sacred site of conscience in the ongoing fight against hate and racism in our country.”
The Lava Ridge Wind Project is proposed by LS Power, a New York private equity company. The proposed area is on "the historic footprint of Minidoka," Friends of Minidoka said. The project is on 73,000 acres of BLM property adjacent to Minidoka and 25 miles northeast of Twin Falls.
Mary (Tanaka) Abo, who was sent to the Minidoka Internment Camp at 2 years old from Alaska with her mother and around 100 other wives and family members, said the wind farm should be a great distance away from the site.
"It just seems that it was plopped down there thinking that wind trumped memories and a sacred site," Abo said. "To us, who lived there, it's a sacred site and wind turbines need to be far, far away. Otherwise, you don't get the feeling that you are a prisoner of the U.S. Government unless you see that it was a prison."
The senior director for LS Power, Luke Papez, said the site is in an area with good wind resources near existing connections to the power transmission grid. Papez said the company has been coordinating with stakeholders and discussing concerns about the site and the proposed wind project "for some time now."
"We do feel that there is a pathway forward for both of them to coexist. I think honestly, there's a tendency here, there's an assumption that just because this is proposed in the vicinity, that it's automatically going to have an impact," Papez said. "It would be good to know and to understand that the BLM is conducting a very through analysis, and that analysis includes multiple alternatives that will have varying setback distances from the national historic site and will be very telling and informative whether the wind facility will actually have an impact on Minidoka."
Papez added that LS Power is looking forward to the BLM's draft environmental impact statement, and the analysis results, "to inform what the actual impact could be to Minidoka."
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has published 'America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places' each year since 1988 in an effort to raise awareness of sites in the United States in danger of being lost.
David Sakura, who was sent to the Minidoka Internment Camp from Washington at 6 years old, said he still remembers the room he stayed in and the images "tattooed in my memory," 80 years later.
Sakura said he is "appalled that someone would desecrate my home, my one room in a barracks in Minidoka with a wind tower."
"My mother, with my father gone, tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy, so she would take us on a picnic. We would walk through the sagebrush infested with rattlesnakes to the perimeter of Minidoka, to the barbed wire fence in the shade of the watch tower we would have our picnic," Sakura said. "Those watchtowers, the barbed wire, is now the site of the wind farm and one of the closest approaching wind towers is right within yards of 15-8-E."
To learn more about the proposed project and the Minidoka National Historic Site, visit the Friends of Minidoka website.
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/minidoka-national-historic-site-endangered-places/277-6c01d2c6-20c7-4c60-b6ef-17755b55b40c
| 2022-05-06T01:14:14
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/minidoka-national-historic-site-endangered-places/277-6c01d2c6-20c7-4c60-b6ef-17755b55b40c
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