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ORLANDO, Fla. – The U.S. Senate’s Inflation Reduction Act passed over the weekend contains several climate provisions that could help some Central Florida coastal communities.
The $750 billion package was passed on Sunday in Washington, and those who voted in favor of it touted its promise to create new jobs.
[TRENDING: Florida gas prices continue to fall, reaching lowest price since March | In this Florida city, when drivers go the wrong way, most don’t crash. Here’s why | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
Part of the plan addressed what some call the biggest commitment to battling climate change.
Building resilience
According to the bill voted on Sunday, $2.6 billion would be earmarked to help coastal communities better prepare for what weather forecasters call more extreme storms.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would be allocated that money to track the changing climate conditions and how they are impacting natural resources.
The legislation calls for $150 million to replace piers, marine operational facilities, fisheries and laboratories.
The same amount of money would also be used to forecast the effects of climate change on marine life and determine ways to mitigate harm.
The bill also calls for $100 million to be used to acquire additional hurricane forecasting aircraft.
Cleaner air
The legislation would also provide $245 million in grants to businesses blending sustainable jet fuel.
News 6 followed one Florida company in June as they collected used cooking oil from several restaurants near the attractions area.
Crews then turned that oil into a fuel that is used by passenger planes at large airports, like Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport.
More than $2 billion would be set aside to help reduce air pollution at the nation’s ports, while $37.5 million would be used to monitor air quality near schools in some of the nation’s low-income neighborhoods.
Your home
The proposed legislation sets aside $4.3 billion in rebates for homeowners.
If approved, the money could be used to help homeowners pay for big upgrades to their homes, such as installing solar panels.
The money could also be used for smaller purchases, such as buying energy efficient appliances, insulation, ventilation and sealing.
The proposal also calls for $200 million to train contractors to do the work.
Three billion dollars would be set aside to help create manufacturing facilities for zero-emission vehicles, such as electric vehicles.
The U.S. House of Representatives still needs to vote on the bill.
That vote is currently set for Friday.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/inflation-reduction-act-could-help-central-florida-coastal-communities-prepare-for-storms/ | 2022-08-08T17:37:26 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/inflation-reduction-act-could-help-central-florida-coastal-communities-prepare-for-storms/ |
ORLANDO, Fla. – Voters in Orange County will decide this month whether the school district can keep a special property tax to prop up school programs.
Orange County Public Schools is asking voters to keep a 1 mill ad valorem property tax, first approved in 2010, to fund everything from support staff to art teachers to class field trips.
[RELATED: Everything you need to know about elections in Florida | Everything you need to know to vote by mail in Florida]
“It is an absolutely critical component,” said school board member Pam Gould. “It’s really the component that’s allowed our arts to not only continue, but blossom. We have arts in every single school, athletic programs, programs in STEAM and STEAM that are really essential to keeping kids engaged in their education.”
The tax is $1 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The county says that for a home appraised at $265,000, it works out to a $20 a month tax.
OCPS says that tax is essential. The district says that while the Florida Legislature has increased funding for new teachers, it has not provided enough funding for teacher retention and support staff. It also says that, when accounting for inflation, the state is actually lagging in per-student funding behind 2007-2008 levels.
In 2021, the district says the tax raised more than $161 million for the school district.
If the tax is discontinued, it would lead to a budget cut of $177 million, starting with next school year in 2023.
“That is essential for being able to staff these buildings and our school buses and our cafeterias and our cleaning crew,” Gould said. “Without that supplement that we get from that one mil, we would definitely lose all of our staff to other industries and the Great Resignation and reshuffle, because we just are not able to compete with the market in the same way and that one mil allows that to happen.”
In 2021, the school district says it spent:
- Nearly $86 million of that money in 2021 on career and college readiness programs, teachers, counselors and social workers
- $54.9 million on arts programs
- $7.7 million on athletics
- $195,698 on field trips and after-school tutorials
- $12.6 million on charter schools
The Orange County school district is the ninth largest in the country and the fourth largest in Florida.
[RELATED: VOTER GUIDE: What you need to know for the 2022 Florida Primary]
Here is the ballot language for the ballot question:
BALLOT QUESTION: Shall the School Board of Orange County, Florida, continue the current one (1) mill ad valorem millage for essential operating expenses, including compensating teachers and support staff, preserving academic programs, arts, athletics, and student activities, beginning July 1, 2023, and ending four (4) fiscal years later on June 30, 2027, shared proportionately with charter schools as legally required, with annual reporting to ensure proper fiscal stewardship of these funds to the citizens of Orange County?
A “yes” vote means the voter supports the tax, a “no vote” means you do not support it.
Early voting runs now through Aug. 21 in Orange County. To find a list of early voting locations, head to the News 6 Primary Election voter guide.
The primary election is on Aug. 23. | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/orange-county-voters-to-decide-on-keeping-special-tax-for-schools/ | 2022-08-08T17:37:33 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/orange-county-voters-to-decide-on-keeping-special-tax-for-schools/ |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Governor Asa Hutchinson called for a special session this August after a record surplus last year.
"This reinforces our need to lower tax cuts that's planned to lower our rates," he said.
In this special session, Gov. Hutchinson plans to provide tax relief. Those plans include:
- Lower the top individual tax rate to 4.9%, retroactive to January 1, 2022, saving taxpayers $295 million in 2022
- Lower the corporate income tax rate to 5.3%, beginning January 1, 2023
- Create a $150 nonrefundable low- and middle-income tax credit, saving taxpayers $156.3 million in 2022
The governor also plans to discuss aligning Arkansas law with the federal depreciation schedule.
He's hoping lawmakers agree to transfer $50 million from the state surplus for the purpose of a school safety grant program, consistent with the recommendations of the Arkansas School Safety Commission.
"That $50 million would be a good start," Gov. Hutchinson said. "A good support mechanism for our school districts as they try to carry out the responsibility that school children must be safe."
Spending for the recommendations will focus on threat assessment teams, mental health services and more.
"Which makes the need clear for a $50 million school safety grant program," he said.
The governor says the tax cuts will provide relief for all Arkansans.
"As inflation rises and the cost of living increases, Arkansans need more money in their pockets," he said.
The special session will begin this Tuesday, Aug. 9 and Gov. Hutchinson says he expects the session to last a week.
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To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com. | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansas-special-session-tax-relief-school-safety/527-5dad7241-5675-4fc6-973e-be6cab991169 | 2022-08-08T17:46:07 | 0 | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansas-special-session-tax-relief-school-safety/527-5dad7241-5675-4fc6-973e-be6cab991169 |
JEFFERSON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — The body of 48-year-old Jeremiah T. Bueker, an Arkansas County Northern District Court judge was recovered from a lake on Sunday morning.
According to reports, Bueker and family and friends spent their weekend in Jefferson County.
At one point Bueker ventured off for a while and later the family began to worry. He had been last seen near Mud Lake and since the family could not locate him, and it began to get dark, they contacted the police.
Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputies arrived and began an extensive search on the ground and in the water alongside the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Marine Patrol and wildlife officers with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.
Shortly after 9:00 a.m., they detected a body at the bottom of the lake. Once they were able to recover the body, the family assisted the deputies and investigators in the positive identification of Bueker's body.
Bueker was pronounced dead by the Jefferson County Coroner's Office, and his death is being investigated as an accidental drowning. The body will be sent to the state medical examiner for an autopsy.
The investigation into this incident remains ongoing and we will update with information as soon as it becomes available. | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/body-arkansas-judge-recovered-lake/91-be748721-4fd9-4dcd-ad9b-e2c7ba14513a | 2022-08-08T17:46:08 | 0 | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/body-arkansas-judge-recovered-lake/91-be748721-4fd9-4dcd-ad9b-e2c7ba14513a |
FORT SMITH, Ark. — The Fort Smith Police Department responded to a vehicle vs. pedestrian crash on Saturday, Aug. 6.
It took place at around 9:20 p.m. on Albert Pike and Rogers Avenue.
Police say all eastbound lanes of traffic were impacted for about 40 minutes before reopening.
The accident reconstruction team was on the scene, but no further information has been released at this time.
Stay with 5NEWS for updates on this developing story.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com. | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/pedestrian-hit-by-vehicle-fort-smith/527-49cd720b-deb5-4ad5-98fb-7f20a0792625 | 2022-08-08T17:46:14 | 0 | https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/pedestrian-hit-by-vehicle-fort-smith/527-49cd720b-deb5-4ad5-98fb-7f20a0792625 |
Fort Wayne Community Schools teachers boarded buses bound for Parkview Field shortly after dawn today, their destination not a TinCaps game but an all-staff gathering marking the beginning of a new academic year.
The two-hour event returned to an in-person format with gusto and enthusiasm for the ballpark setting. Kendall Gaston, a recent Wayne High School graduate, sang the national anthem; board members and top administrators stepped onto the field from the dugout; and T-shirts that cleared the netting flew from T-shirt launchers into the stands.
Classes begin Wednesday for the district, which has almost 30,000 students and about 4,000 employees.
The work ahead is about making a difference, Superintendent Mark Daniel said, noting that happens one student at a time and one staff member at a time.
"We're gonna make needles move," he said, "and it all starts with the classroom teacher." | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/fort-wayne-community-schools-employees-kick-off-new-year-at-parkview-field/article_923494c8-172b-11ed-a9b8-df1884c03e48.html | 2022-08-08T17:58:37 | 0 | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/fort-wayne-community-schools-employees-kick-off-new-year-at-parkview-field/article_923494c8-172b-11ed-a9b8-df1884c03e48.html |
A Fort Wayne cyclist was injured Saturday afternoon in a car-bicycle crash in Steuben County, Clear Lake police said today.
Police said they were called shortly after 3 p.m. to the crash at the intersection of County Road 700 East and West Clear Lake Drive.
They said their preliminary investigation determined a car being driven north on County Road 700 East by Joshua C. Presley, 36, of Angola, was approaching West Clear Lake Drive when a bicycle turning onto the county road, ridden by Luke D. Gleave, 16, of Fort Wayne, failed to stop at a stop sign and went into the car's path.
Police said Gleave was treated at the scene by members of Steuben County EMS and Fremont Fire Rescue before being flown to Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne by Samaritan helicopter with head, back and arm injuries. As of Monday morning, they said, he was in stable condition. | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/fort-wayne-cyclist-hurt-in-steuben-crash/article_130d8416-1735-11ed-9408-0b95ca91d269.html | 2022-08-08T17:58:37 | 0 | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/fort-wayne-cyclist-hurt-in-steuben-crash/article_130d8416-1735-11ed-9408-0b95ca91d269.html |
U.S. 6 will be restricted between the north junction of Indiana 3 and Interstate 69 from Wednesday through mid-November during asphalt resurfacing, the Indiana Department of Transportation said today.
Drivers should expect alternating lane closures in both directions of travel, the transportation department said in a statement.
Drivers are urged to slow down, use extra caution and drive distraction-free while traveling in and around all work zones, the statement said. | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/u-s-6-section-restricted-for-3-months/article_d1f47550-172c-11ed-adb8-7f6c36f71420.html | 2022-08-08T17:58:38 | 0 | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/u-s-6-section-restricted-for-3-months/article_d1f47550-172c-11ed-adb8-7f6c36f71420.html |
CEDAR FALLS -- The community is invited to connect with the Public Safety Department during "Coffee With a Cop" Tuesday from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. at the First Street McDonald's in Cedar Falls.
All are welcome to come and chat with the Public Safety team and enjoy a free coffee, soft drink, or frozen carbonated beverage provided by Soifer Family McDonald's.
Investigators have released information on one of the weapons a Nebraska man used to kill three members of a Cedar Falls family in July at Maquoketa Caves State Park.
A couple of hundred people attended an hour-long celebration of life ceremony for Tyler and Sarah Schmidt and their six-year-old daughter, Lula. The Cedar Falls family members were found shot to death July 22 in their tent at Maquoketa Caves State Park. | https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/cedar-falls-hosts-coffee-with-a-cop-tuesday-morning/article_6c43153b-e8df-5a48-9340-ed0a73aa363a.html | 2022-08-08T18:17:37 | 0 | https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/cedar-falls-hosts-coffee-with-a-cop-tuesday-morning/article_6c43153b-e8df-5a48-9340-ed0a73aa363a.html |
Do you recognize him?
Philadelphia police hope surveillance images of a man wearing a NASA hoodie helps them track down the suspect in at least two recent sex assaults of women exiting or about to enter SEPTA trolley cars in Center City.
The latest incident occurred Sunday shortly before noon near 19th and Market streets, police said in a news release Monday. The woman told police she had exited an eastbound SEPTA trolley and was walking up the stairs to exit the station when "an unknown male sexually assaulted her."
The man then walked off eastbound on Market Street, police said.
Police described the man as being in his 40s and standing about 5-foot, 11-inches tall with a beard and black and gray hair. He wore a tan “NASA” hooded sweatshirt and black pants during Sunday's attack.
SEPTA police had investigated a similar assault on Wednesday, Aug. 3, where a 17-year-old girl said a man wearing the same-type of NASA hoodie followed her to a trolley stop under JFK Plaza, near Philadelphia City Hall.
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Philly police asked anyone who spots the man to call 911 immediately. Anyone who recognizes him or has information on the attacks was asked to call or text 215-686-8477, or submit a tip online. All tips can be kept confidential.
These attacks came less than a month after a man in another type of NASA sweatshirt was charged in SEPTA subway platform sex assault.
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/man-in-nasa-hoodie-sexually-assaults-women-at-septa-trolley-stops-police-say/3329121/ | 2022-08-08T18:18:15 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/man-in-nasa-hoodie-sexually-assaults-women-at-septa-trolley-stops-police-say/3329121/ |
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) on Monday announced it appointed the next president of Northeast State Community College.
Dr. Jeff McCord will fill the position starting Sept. 30. The current Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development commissioner previously served as the college’s vice president for seven years before his appointment as commissioner, a news release revealed.
Mccord’s leadership saw the expansion of the college’s Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing and provided administrative leadership for the Kingsport Academic Village.
“I’m excited to come alongside the hundreds of individuals who work at the College, who love the College, and who want the very best for the students and communities in which they live,” McCord said after the board’s vote. “Northeast Tennessee is a special place with enormous opportunity. And Northeast State is central to helping our region realize its potential.”
He succeeds Dr. Bethany Bullock, who stepped down from the position in March, as well as Dr. Connie Marshall, the vice president for academic affairs who is serving as the college’s interim president.
McCord earned a doctoral degree in education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, a Master of Business Administration at Kennesaw State University in George and a bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Gov. Bill Lee in 2019 appointed McCord as commissioner of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development after he worked as Northeast’s vice president for economic and workforce development for seven years. Prior to his tenure at the community college, McCord worked in several leadership and management positions at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport from 1996 to 2012.
A 17-member search advisory committee previously recommended McCord as one of four finalists for the position in late June. The original pool had 58 applicants and candidates. | https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/board-appoints-next-president-for-northeast-state-community-college/ | 2022-08-08T18:18:57 | 0 | https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/board-appoints-next-president-for-northeast-state-community-college/ |
KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — City officials on Monday announced that Kingsport residents can use a recycling drop-off center that reopened following a hiatus.
The drop-off site is at the Kingsport Civic Auditorium, located at 1550 Fort Henry Drive, and can be accessed from Legion Drive via East Center Street or Auditorium Drive. Acceptable drop-offs include cardboard, mixed paper, tin and aluminum.
Sullivan County will manage the site, as it does all other drop-offs across the county, including the sites in Colonial Heights, Sullivan Gardens, Industry Drive and Brookside Drive.
“We’re pleased to be able to bring back a popular drop-off site for the residents of Kingsport,” said Deputy City Manager Ryan McReynolds. “When we paused our curbside recycling two years ago, it took away the convenience factor of recycling for our citizens. Now, we’re hoping to bring back some of that convenience.”
Kingsport officials plan to move the existing site on Industry Drive farther down the road and expand it to a full-service facility that will accept yard waste, household waste and construction debris in addition to recyclable items. It would be available only for Kingsport residents, and contractor waste would not be accepted. City leaders anticipate this site to open within the next year. | https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/recycling-drop-off-site-re-established-in-kingsport/ | 2022-08-08T18:19:03 | 1 | https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/recycling-drop-off-site-re-established-in-kingsport/ |
After making it through the difficult years of the pandemic, Maymont has been awarded an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to promote and expand regional tourism and outdoor recreation in Virginia.
The grant is the largest in Maymont's history, according to Maymont staff.
The funds will be used to help expand and enhance access to the native rescued wildlife habitats and restore the roof and upgrade the airflow and safety systems of the Maymont Mansion. Maymont supports and sustains over 400 animals from 85 species at its farm, sanctuaries and the Robins Nature Center.
"Details on the wildlife habitat components are still being worked out," Melissa Abernathy, a Maymont spokesperson, said via email. "Most of our wildlife are rehabbed animals that can’t be released to the wild and we are looking to make the habitats more accessible to more people and to expand the number of habitats by two new species."
The updates to the mansion will provide a much-needed update to the building and preserve its collections.
"Both sets of projects are aimed at expanding both visitor appeal and our capacity to accommodate more visitors," Abernathy said.
Last year, Maymont drew over 850,000 visitors, up from 781,000 the year before.
"More people than ever are appreciating what Maymont has to offer,” Parke Richeson, executive director of the Maymont Foundation said earlier this year.
This project is funded under EDA’s $240 million American Rescue Plan Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation program, designed to accelerate the recovery of communities that rely on the travel, tourism and outdoor recreation sectors.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to build on the work we’ve done recently to expand access and enrich the guest experience in new ways, preserving cultural artifacts and architecture, and engaging guests with rescued native wildlife," Richeson said in a statement. "As we approach Maymont’s hundredth anniversary as a public space in 2025, this investment will ensure Maymont continues to delight, educate and inspire people for another hundred years.”
Maymont is a 100-acre estate that offers gardens, walking paths, rescued wildlife habitats, a farm and an educational Nature Center.
In 2020, Maymont also received a $1 million grant from the commonwealth of Virginia to build out audio tours at the Maymont mansion and for other parts of the estate.
In September, Maymont will open its new Welcome Center and classroom in the renovated 1908 Stone Barn, as well as reopen the updated exhibition, “In Domestic Service: Work and Life in the Gilded Age,” along with new additional self-guided audio tours and a hands-on history space in the third floor of the mansion.
Entrance to Maymont's grounds are free and open to the public. Tours cost a fee. More information at maymont.org. | https://richmond.com/news/local/maymont-receives-8-million-grant-from-american-rescue-plan/article_2cfb3928-82fb-55a5-a6cf-c590c5d781ad.html | 2022-08-08T18:19:55 | 1 | https://richmond.com/news/local/maymont-receives-8-million-grant-from-american-rescue-plan/article_2cfb3928-82fb-55a5-a6cf-c590c5d781ad.html |
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Website Trip Advisor has presented the Kansas Cosmosphere with its 2022 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Award.
It’s the second time that the Smithsonian-affiliated science education center and space museum has been recognized by the travel review website.
“This 2022 recognition comes as Cosmosphere celebrates 60 years of space and science education,” said Jim Remar, president and Chief Executive Officer at the Cosmosphere in a news release. “Our visitors have been wonderfully engaged over those years, and we appreciate every single one of them. We look forward to lighting that spark of interest in science education and the history of space exploration for years to come.”
The Cosmosphere’s collection of US space artifacts is considered to be second only to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and the largest collection of Russian space artifacts outside of Moscow.
You can see the reviews for yourself, here. | https://www.ksn.com/news/local/cosmosphere-in-the-top-10-of-attractions-worldwide/ | 2022-08-08T18:26:17 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/local/cosmosphere-in-the-top-10-of-attractions-worldwide/ |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Do you have a college degree, a few years of professional experience, but are considering a career change? The FBI is hiring and you may be what they are looking for.
The agency needs people with a variety of skills and from all ethnic backgrounds.
Special Agent Daniel Rodriguez says it’s important their workforce reflects the community it serves.
“It allows us to bring in those unique perspectives, different ways of thinking, processing information, different ways of analyzing, so that when we encounter difficult challenges that we need to overcome, we can turn to our colleagues,” said Rodriguez.
The application process takes about a year to complete.
To learn more about the FBI’s open positions, sign up for the FBI’s diversity agent recruitment event here.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10: New June 2022 inflation numbers show 9.1% increase nationwide | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/the-fbi-is-hiring-you-might-be-who-theyre-looking-for/103-1a263080-ec62-46a1-b323-62e1b4ba5625 | 2022-08-08T18:30:30 | 1 | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/the-fbi-is-hiring-you-might-be-who-theyre-looking-for/103-1a263080-ec62-46a1-b323-62e1b4ba5625 |
YREKA, Calif. — Klamath National Forest Lookout Kathy Shoopman has been identified as one of the people who died in the McKinney Fire.
Shoopman was a "beloved long-time' employee, the U.S. Forest Service for the Klamath National Forest wrote in a Facebook post. She died in her home in Klamath River, the community where she lived for nearly 50 years.
Her career started as a lookout at Baldy Mountain Lookout, west of Happy Camp, in 1974.
"We share this sorrow with each and every one of you and we know that individually, and as the supportive community that we are, we will find many ways to honor Kathy’s life and service and keep her spirit in all of our lives," the U.S. Forest Service wrote.
The McKinney Fire destroyed much of the Klamath River area near the Oregon border and killed at least four people.
The Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post on Monday they are working to find out if there are additional deaths in the fire as well as identify the people who died.
The McKinney Fire has burned 60,379 acres and is 40% contained as of Monday morning.
Watch more on ABC10: California Wildfires: Oak Fire near Yosemite, McKinney Fire in Siskiyou County - Update | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/wildfire/kathy-shoopman-mckinney-fire-identified/103-7d1b70de-0ea9-4fbd-ad9e-36eae125abe7 | 2022-08-08T18:30:36 | 0 | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/wildfire/kathy-shoopman-mckinney-fire-identified/103-7d1b70de-0ea9-4fbd-ad9e-36eae125abe7 |
Police on Friday arrested six people at a house in central Lincoln after a search warrant turned up an array of drugs and a 9 mm handgun, the authorities said.
Investigators with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force served the warrant around 7 p.m. Friday night at a house near 28th and Washington streets, where they found 193.2 grams of suspected methamphetamine, Lincoln Police Capt. Todd Kocian said.
Police also found 59 grams of marijuana, 23.6 grams of psilocybin mushrooms and 194 various prescription pills and the handgun, Kocian said.
They arrested three men — Jon Hillman Jr, 48; Richard Parent, 53; Kenneth Bordeaux, 44 — on suspicion of possession of a meth with intent to deliver and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person due to prior felony convictions.
Hillman and Parent were also cited for possessing a firearm while violating a drug law.
Police arrested three others — including a 41-year-old woman, a 42-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man — on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance.
All six individuals were taken to the Lancaster County jail.
A Kansas City, Missouri, native, Andrew Wegley joined the Journal Star as breaking news reporter after graduating from Northwest Missouri State University in May 2021. | https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/6-arrested-in-lincoln-after-warrant-turns-up-drugs-gun-police-say/article_6e00d68a-01b7-5e85-9394-666bbe5f8e15.html | 2022-08-08T18:35:00 | 1 | https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/6-arrested-in-lincoln-after-warrant-turns-up-drugs-gun-police-say/article_6e00d68a-01b7-5e85-9394-666bbe5f8e15.html |
READFIELD, Maine — A Farmington man died Saturday night after being found in a ditch in Readfield with his crashed motorcycle nearby.
The Kennebec County Sheriff's Office identified the man who died as Richard L. Goucher, 63, of Farmington. A preliminary investigation showed his motorcycle failed to make a corner and went off the road, according to the sheriff's office.
In a news release, officials said they got a call around 9:05 p.m. from someone who discovered the crashed motorcycle in the area of 234 Old Kents Hill Road in Readfield. The caller reported that Goucher was unconscious and not breathing.
Lt. J. Chris Read of the Kennebec County Sheriff's Office said Goucher was not wearing a helmet.
For the latest breaking news, weather, and traffic alerts, download the NEWS CENTER Maine mobile app.
Other stories NEWS CENTER Maine is following: | https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/farmington-man-ditch-following-fatal-motorcycle-readfield/97-51b3d81b-856c-419f-98dd-9105463bdde2 | 2022-08-08T18:35:03 | 1 | https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/farmington-man-ditch-following-fatal-motorcycle-readfield/97-51b3d81b-856c-419f-98dd-9105463bdde2 |
Petition circulators Bridget Christensen (left) and Luann Larsen (first right) gather signatures for the Let Lincoln Vote initiative, downtown in the Haymarket during the weekly Farmers Market on Saturday. Organizers turned in their petitions on Monday.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
Kay Siebler (right) hands in petitions for the Let Lincoln Vote group which gathered signatures to let Lincoln voters decide whether the city should enact a fairness ordinance to expand discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Margaret Reist, Journal Star
Kay Siebler (right) hands in petitions for the Let Lincoln Vote group which gathered signatures to let Lincoln voters decide whether the city should enact a fairness ordinance to expand discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Margaret Reist, Journal Star
Kay Siebler (right) hands in petitions for the Let Lincoln Vote group which gathered signatures to let Lincoln voters decide whether the city should enact a fairness ordinance to expand discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
A group determined to get the so-called fairness ordinance on the November ballot – the broad update to city code including protections for sexual orientation and gender identity – turned in more than 11,000 signatures Monday morning.
That’s nearly 20% more than the 8,846 they need, though they must be verified by the Lancaster County Election Commissioner.
Kay Siebler, among those leading the effort, said they had more than 100 volunteers who stood outside the Department of Motor Vehicles, went to farmers markets and music venues and battled 100-degree temperatures to collect the signatures.
“It is an amazing group of volunteers who are not going to go away,” Siebler said. “It’s been a phenomenal process to see the heart and soul of the community through the volunteers.”
The grassroots effort – Called Let Lincoln Vote – started its petition drive in June, the latest effort to get additional protections in city code. The decision by organizers – many of whom have been fighting for protections for sexual orientation and gender identity for decades – to launch a ballot initiative was a surprise to many.
They made the decision after the City Council in February passed an ordinance with essentially the same expanded protections and then, following a successful referendum by opponents, rescinded it.
The ballot initiative petition signatures will go to the Lancaster County Election Commissioner. If he verifies there are a sufficient number, the petitions go back to the City Clerk and the council again faces a choice: Put the ordinance in place or pass a resolution putting it on the ballot.
The timeline to get the issue on the November ballot is short: Election Commissioner Dave Shively said he needs a resolution from the council in hand by Sept. 1. And he’s already verifying signatures on three statewide ballot issues, including medical marijuana, minimum wage and voter ID.
Siebler said they believe about 10% of the signatures will either be duplicates or people who live outside Lincoln, but are reassured by the 20% margin they have turned in. She said they will no longer circulate petitions but if there are people who want to sign, she asked they contact organizers through the group’s website, LetLincolnVote.com.
The city ordinance in question is Title 11, the part of city code that covers equal protections in housing, employment and public accommodation overseen by the Lincoln Commission on Human Rights.
While the flashpoint has been expanding protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity – and the focus of opponents led by the Nebraska Family Alliance – the ordinance passed by the council, and the one put forward as part of the ballot initiative are significantly broader.
Both would update language and reorganize the section to clarify the process of the city Commission on Human Rights, add active military veterans as protected classes and update and strengthen disability protections.
Early on a division within the ranks of supporters became evident.
Before the council passed the ordinance – some transgender advocates warned that they would be targeted by opponents and that supporters weren’t adequately prepared to launch a campaign to counteract their well-organized efforts. Those arguments took on more momentum after a transgender advocate died by suicide.
And they ultimately succeeded in convincing the council, by a narrow vote, to rescind the ordinance it had just passed.
Siebler and others believe Lincoln will pass the fairness ordinance, which they explained to those they approached with petitions would include disability and military protections as well as those for sexual orientation and gender identity.
Vicki Depenbusch, who was at City Hall Monday morning, said she circulated petitions because she’s been fighting for protections for her 23-year-old son Jacob, who has autism, since he was a toddler.
She said she learned she had to fight for him when he was in school, and now that he’s an adult, employment and housing are an issue. The updated ordinance would help, she said.
“What this does is it puts it on a local level. If something comes up we don't need to go to federal court,” she said. “As a parent you do all you can do for your kids’ future but this isn’t something we can do. This is something our community needs to do.”
Marie Barrett, who spent 20 years in the Navy, is African American, has a disability and a son with a disability, said she circulated petitions because she falls under several of the areas protected.
“I’ve always believed everyone, no matter what affiliation you have, should have the same rights afforded them,” she said. She said she has a disability that people can’t see, and she’s had to fight for her rights. And having protections for active military and veterans at the local level is important.
Amos Sobotka, a transgender man who helped circulate petitions, said he was ecstatic to see the petition signatures keep rolling in.
Siebler said circulators had to do a lot of educating and they quickly pivoted away from calling it the fairness ordinance to the anti-discrimination initiative.
Barbara DiBernard, a retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor who has fought for such protections for decades both at the city level and at UNL, said those who worked to get a fairness ordinance passed 10 years ago, and then again this year, feel they did everything right, meeting with city leaders and attending meetings, and it’s time.
Concerns of the transgender community do matter, she said, and no one wants people to get hurt, just as no one wanted anyone to get hurt during the Civil Rights movement. But even now, she said, conservative leaders are chipping away at the Supreme Court decision that said the definition of sex includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Young trans people are not protected,” she said. “I also think we need to keep our message focused. We need to say, where is the hate, where is the danger coming from? It’s not from municipal code.”
Margaret Reist is a recovering education reporter now writing about local and county government and the people who live in the city where she was born and raised.
The study is called "scenario planning" to assess the impact of development both inside the city and beyond, and what Lincoln can do to mitigate that impact.
A home visitation program for new moms, continuing free bus rides and investments in climate change were among the issues raised at a public hearing on the mayor's proposed budget.
Nebraska's governor and attorney general have gone on the attack against a federal policy aimed at preventing discrimination in school lunch programs based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The StarTran advisory board rejected a proposal in the mayor's budget to reinstate lower bus fares in favor of continuing free rides but agreed to reducing hours to deal with a driver shortage.
Petition circulators Bridget Christensen (left) and Luann Larsen (first right) gather signatures for the Let Lincoln Vote initiative, downtown in the Haymarket during the weekly Farmers Market on Saturday. Organizers turned in their petitions on Monday.
Kay Siebler (right) hands in petitions for the Let Lincoln Vote group which gathered signatures to let Lincoln voters decide whether the city should enact a fairness ordinance to expand discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Kay Siebler (right) hands in petitions for the Let Lincoln Vote group which gathered signatures to let Lincoln voters decide whether the city should enact a fairness ordinance to expand discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Kay Siebler (right) hands in petitions for the Let Lincoln Vote group which gathered signatures to let Lincoln voters decide whether the city should enact a fairness ordinance to expand discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity. | https://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/group-turns-in-petitions-to-allow-lincoln-to-vote-on-fairness-ordinance/article_1766a480-f93a-55a1-8e14-86317aaf9b58.html | 2022-08-08T18:35:07 | 0 | https://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/group-turns-in-petitions-to-allow-lincoln-to-vote-on-fairness-ordinance/article_1766a480-f93a-55a1-8e14-86317aaf9b58.html |
MAINE, USA — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above aired May 3, 2022.
Back in May, NEWS CENTER Maine's Hannah Yechivi introduced us to monkfish stew. Now, a few months later, that stew is being sold on Hannaford shelves, with proceeds going toward fresh fish for people experiencing food insecurity in Maine.
Maine Coast Monkfish Stew, produced by the nonprofit Maine Coast Fisherman's Association, is a combination of monkfish and locally-sourced vegetables in a light, creamy base. It includes Maine potatoes, carrots, cream, and lobster stock.
To make the stew, the association buys the monkfish from Maine fishermen at a fair price, then it's all cut at Free Range Fish & Lobster in Portland. From there, it's made into the stew by a food manufacturer out of Greene called Hurricane's Premium Soup & Chowder.
"It's pretty easy to sell because it tastes great and customers keep coming back for it," Cullen Burke of Free Range Fish & Lobster said. "It comes in a bag that you can cook it right in, so a guy like me, I get home late from work, I just throw it in a pot of boiling water and 15 minutes later I've got dinner."
The stew is now available in Hannaford stores throughout southern Maine, including Falmouth, Kennebunk, North Windham, Yarmouth, and York, with plans underway to expand availability to other Hannaford locations in the future, according to a release from Hannaford on Monday.
Hannaford said proceeds from sales of the stew are earmarked for the purchase of fresh fish from local fishermen. That fish will then be donated to area food pantries to help combat food insecurity in Maine communities as part of the Fishermen Feeding Mainers Program, which the MCFA launched during the height of the COVID pandemic as a way to combat food insecurity in local communities.
"We encourage customers who have not yet discovered monkfish to try this new stew while knowing their purchase supports both our local fishermen and community members in need," Hannaford Supermarkets Seafood Category Manager Nathan Jewell said in Monday's release.
Mary Hudson, director of fisheries programs for the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association, said they chose to highlight monkfish to re-introduce this seafood option to Mainers in a tasty way.
"There is a very undersized market for it, locally. Most of the monkfish that the guys are catching are shipping over to South Korea and other places overseas," Hudson told NEWS CENTER Maine in May. "So we really want to promote that seafood and try to get more of a local market and make people aware of monkfish. It's a very sustainable fishery. There is a lot of them out there. It's cleanly caught, and it's a very healthy protein." | https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/hannafords-monkfish-stew-proceeds-go-toward-fresh-fish-for-food-insecure-maine-falmouth-kennebunk-yarmouth-york-north-windham-maine-coast-fishermen/97-5e522e92-2834-41ad-a0d1-deed35f5eea5 | 2022-08-08T18:35:09 | 1 | https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/hannafords-monkfish-stew-proceeds-go-toward-fresh-fish-for-food-insecure-maine-falmouth-kennebunk-yarmouth-york-north-windham-maine-coast-fishermen/97-5e522e92-2834-41ad-a0d1-deed35f5eea5 |
SPRING HILL, Fla. — Are you missing a small male pony?
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office Agriculture Unit found the tiny black steed around 10:30 a.m. on Monday. He was spotted trotting alone near Platinum Drive and Monteverde Drive in Spring Hill.
Anyone who can provide proof of ownership for the pony should call the Pasco County Non-Emergency Line at 727-847-8102 and select option 7. Callers can refer to case number 22-027274. | https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/pascocounty/pasco-missing-pony/67-11ad2716-172d-43f5-99df-8ab40f3c718b | 2022-08-08T18:35:09 | 0 | https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/pascocounty/pasco-missing-pony/67-11ad2716-172d-43f5-99df-8ab40f3c718b |
House owned by holdout owners near Little Caesars Arena burns down
A fire Monday morning leveled a rundown house in the shadow of the Little Caesars Arena, owned by one of the last holdouts in the area around the venue who have not sold to the Ilitch organization.
The Detroit Fire Department received a call around 4 a.m. about a fire at 2712 Cass, Crain’s Detroit Business first reported Monday.
The 3,344-square-foot house, built in 1880, was destroyed and ashes continued to smolder at the site late Monday morning. The fire's cause was not immediately known.
The owners of the house had asked for as much as $5 million for the property in the past, with its most recent asking price reduced to $2.5 million in June.
The lot was being marketed as vacant, said listing agent Shane Parker, broker owner of S&P Realty in Grosse Pointe Park. He said there has been interest in the site and he expects that interest will continue.
“From my understanding, the structure had to come down anyway,” he said. “Shocking it came down this way. I was a little shocked this morning when I woke up. But nevertheless continuing onward.”
The rear of the eight-bedroom house had been partially charred black from a previous fire. No one was in the house at the time of the fire, Parker said.
According to city records, the property is owned by the Scherazade Love Lr Trust.
The lot is zoned B4, which Parker said opens the site to multiple uses. The owners are also open to a land contract, he said.
The lot sits around the corner from the Little Caesars Arena Garage on Sproat Street.
In preparation for what would become Little Caesars Arena in 2017 and District Detroit, the Ilitch organization spent nearly $50 million and years quietly buying more than 50 properties from dozens of private owners. In 2014, the firm told the Detroit City Council it had all the land needed for the arena, but still had bids on other properties.
A Detroit Fire Department spokesman did not return messages seeking comment.
cwilliams@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @CWilliams_DN | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/08/08/house-holdout-near-little-caesars-arena-burns-down/10264584002/ | 2022-08-08T18:35:44 | 1 | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/08/08/house-holdout-near-little-caesars-arena-burns-down/10264584002/ |
Some Detroit residents can expect late trash pickup this week, city says
Some Detroit residents can expect late trash and recycling pickup this week because of staffing shortages at the waste companies, city officials said Monday.
Waste contractors GFL and Waste Management will be picking up some household trash and recycling containers one to two days late due to internal staff issues, Detroit Public Works Director Ron Brundidge said.
"Unfortunately, employers and individuals everywhere are still being impacted by staffing issues and equipment challenges and our trash collection vendors are no exceptions. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our residents as these companies work to resolve this issue," Brundidge said in a statement.
The Department of Public Works said residents can continue to put their containers out at the curb on their regularly scheduled pick-up day.
Brundidge said residents who keep their items on the curb for longer than a day won't be issued tickets during the staff shortage.
Residents can visit www.detroitmi.gov for scheduled waste collection dates.
slewis@detroitnews.com | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/08/08/staff-shortage-trash-pick-up-detroit/10266197002/ | 2022-08-08T18:35:50 | 1 | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/08/08/staff-shortage-trash-pick-up-detroit/10266197002/ |
Severe erosion prompts emergency action near I-94 by Macomb County officials
Severe erosion near Interstate 94 has Macomb County officials worried the freeway eventually could collapse and is prompting emergency action, county Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said Monday.
The banks of the Rohrbeck Extension Drain near 13 Mile are eroding, creating the worst erosion situation the county has ever seen, Miller said in a statement, prompting an emergency because of the high volume of traffic the freeway handles. This portion of I-94 handles about 44,000 vehicles a day.
“Even though we’ve had drought conditions, we’ve seen these banks erode approximately 6 feet in some spots just in the past few months," Miller said. "We’re concerned that very heavy rains could accelerate that erosion.”
Westbound traffic would be affected if the bank failed, according to the county Public Works Commissioner's Office. The two portions of banks near I-94 being threatened are each less than 30 yards from the bank.
“A collapse of the freeway would cost millions of dollars to repair, let alone the huge disruption it would cause for commuters and the flow of commerce," Miller said.
County officials have contacted an emergency contractor to stabilize the banks by reinforcing them with dirt excavated from an area away the erosion site and hundreds of boulders. The work could start this week, according to Miller's office.
anichols@detroitnews.com | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2022/08/08/severe-erosion-prompts-emergency-action-near-94-macomb-county-officials/10265131002/ | 2022-08-08T18:35:56 | 0 | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2022/08/08/severe-erosion-prompts-emergency-action-near-94-macomb-county-officials/10265131002/ |
About an hour bus ride from central London in a nondescript neighborhood in a nondescript building is a storage building belonging to the British Museum. It’s one of the museum’s smaller storage spaces. Nevertheless, the crates stretch far in the cavernous space like the warehouse scene from “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Arc.”
University of Wyoming law student and member of the Northern Arapaho tribe Alyson White Eagle-SoundingSides took that long bus ride one day this summer along with her friend Darby Clark, UW law professor Darrell Jackson and UW Art Museum Director Nicole Crawford. White Eagle-SoundingSides sat quietly, looking out the window at the passing landscape.
The British Museum curator met them at the storage building and showed them to a room. In the room sat a tribal headdress on a stand.
The headdress belonged to White Eagle-SoundingSides’ great-great grandfather, Northern Arapaho Chief Yellow Calf. He lived from 1861 to 1938 and was one of the Northern Arapaho Tribe’s most important and respected leaders, according to UW. The golden eagle feathers, tips decorated with horsehair. The red, white and green beading well-preserved. White Eagle-SoundingSides leaned in close to look. She started to cry.
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“I started thinking about him as a person,” White Eagle-SoundingSides said. “We have stories of him and the things that he did for our people. I started thinking about the headdress and what it meant to him. I kept thinking about the stories that I was told about how it ended up over there.”
White Eagle-SoundingSides is the first Arapaho tribal member to see the headdress in 100 years. She introduced herself to the headdress in Arapaho, told the headdress that she had come a long way to see it.
“I’m sorry you can’t go home today, but you’re going to someday,” she said.
Tribal elders told her that the headdress was taken from Yellow Calf during the filming of “The Covered Wagon,” a 1923 silent film that he was part of. She’s never seen the film.
“I don’t want to watch it,” she said. “I don’t want to because it was made in a time when our people were objectified, and I refuse to see our people in that context.”
The people she spoke with had different stories about how the headdress was taken. In one version, Yellow Calf was sitting on set with the headdress behind him, and when he reached for it, the headdress was gone. In another version, he and other actors in the film were staying in teepees on set. While they were filming, other people went around and stole their possessions. White Eagle-SoundingSides found in her research that the headdress was donated to the British Museum in 1939. Since then, it’s popped up intermittently in different exhibits. It’s been in storage since 2001.
White Eagle-SoundingSides didn’t know until recently that Yellow Calf’s headdress was at the British Museum. She was roaming the hallways of the law school building one day when she saw a flier advertising a study abroad course called “Stealing Culture: The Intersection of Criminal Law and Museums.” The course is led by Jackson and Crawford, whom White Eagle-SoundingSides hadn’t met at that point. The course would bring students to museums and historical sites in Scotland, England and Greece, with students giving presentations at each place.
Jackson and Crawford have worked on the Stealing Culture project for several years now. They work with museums and universities across the world to repatriate cultural items, often taken without communities’ knowledge or permission. This past summer was the first study-abroad version of the class.
White Eagle-SoundingSides was interested in taking the class. But she didn’t think she could go. She’s a mother of two kids. Her husband, who works for the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office, has to travel a lot for his job. The trip costs money. She’d never been outside of the country before.
“I was like, ‘What are the odds I’m going to be able to go to this class?’”
Right around the same time, the Northern Arapaho Tribal Council happened to be in Laramie, and White Eagle-SoundingSides talked with Northern Arapaho Chairman Jordan Dresser about the trip. He encouraged her to go and told her that she could try and see Yellow Calf’s headdress at the British Museum.
“I didn’t know up until that point that it was there, and I was like, ‘What is it doing way over there in London?,’” she said. “I was shocked.”
A couple of weeks later, White Eagle-SoundingSides was in class, “struggling with imposter syndrome,” when Jackson and Crawford walked in to talk about the trip.
“In walk professor Jackson and Nicole, and they’re like a powerful force, they’re all professional in the black suit and dress and I’m like, dang,” she said.
“This is going to sound really, really corny, but in that moment, I felt like somebody was with me and telling me, ‘you need to go and you need to make this happen, you’re going to get to see that headdress.’”
White Eagle-SoundingSides told Jackson and Crawford about Yellow Calf’s headdress during her interview to get into the class. They said they would try and help her see it and accepted her into the class. Crawford and the UW Art Museum funded White Eagle-SoundingSides’ flight and started working with the British Museum’s curator to get permission to see the headdress.
But even once she was on the trip, White Eagle-SoundingSides wasn’t sure whether that would happen. The class had been in Scotland visiting museums and historical sites for a few days, and they were getting ready to leave for London the next morning. At that point, White Eagle-SoundingSides still hadn’t gotten a confirmation. She called her mom.
“Do you have an answer yet?” her mom asked.
“I don’t know,” she responded. She was mentally preparing herself to be told no.
But Crawford texted her right after she got off the phone, telling her that the curator said yes, White Eagle-SoundingSides could see the headdress.
“I got in the room and the first thing I remember seating was, ‘Wow,’” she said. “The feathers were very well taken care of the beadwork was all intact, the fabric for the cap in the back was clean, it was just — it was amazing.”
White Eagle-SoundingSides’ eyes filled with tears remembering the experience.
“Every time I talk about it, I cry,” she said, laughing. “I hope I get to a point where I don’t.”
White Eagle-SoundingSides talked with her mom after learning that Yellow Calf’s headdress was at the British Museum. She had a lot of questions: Why is it over there? What is it doing over there? How come I didn’t know? Her mom told her that at that time in history — the early reservation era — their people’s lives changed. They couldn’t freely hunt anymore. They went through traumatizing experiences.
“At that point in time, our people were just trying to survive,” White Eagle-SoundingSides said. “Some things were lost in that.”
Lately, White Eagle-SoundingSides said she’s been asking herself what she should do now that she’s back home. She wants to continue her research about Yellow Calf and his headdress. She wants to keep talking with her community, especially with the tribal elders. She wants to start piecing the puzzle together.
“I think one of the most beautiful things in those stories that they have of Yellow Calf aren’t the bad things that happened to him,” she said.
“They’re the decisions that he made for our people that allow us to be here today. The stories about his role in our ceremonial ways, his role in our language, his role in all of these things that benefitted us. I just want to find out more of who he was.”
Leaving the British Museum storage building, White Eagle-SoundingSides looked at the window of the room where she had seen the headdress.
“It felt like I was leaving somebody behind,” she said. “It’s painful for me, it was difficult for me to leave. But it also kind of gave me that push, that little determination to keep going, because law school is very difficult. It’s really hard.”
For White Eagle-SoundingSides, one of the most important parts of repatriation is healing. She doesn’t know how long it will take, or how it will happen, but she said she’s set on bringing the headdress back to the place where it came from.
“I’ve made up my mind: It’s coming home.” | https://trib.com/news/local/education/arapaho-law-student-reunites-with-great-great-grandfathers-tribal-headdress/article_f12becfe-14da-11ed-afc8-33bd26293866.html | 2022-08-08T18:37:31 | 0 | https://trib.com/news/local/education/arapaho-law-student-reunites-with-great-great-grandfathers-tribal-headdress/article_f12becfe-14da-11ed-afc8-33bd26293866.html |
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming endorsed Megan Degenfelder's Republican candidacy for superintendent of public instruction on Sunday.
“It seems all too fitting for the person in charge of Wyoming’s school system to be a product of it," Lummis said in a statement.
"Megan has a deep-rooted understanding of our state, schools, businesses and families."
Degenfelder is a sixth-generation Wyomingite who grew up in Casper. She graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2012 with degrees in business economics and political science and earned her master's degree in economics from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China.
Since then, she's worked in the private energy sector and also served as the Wyoming Department of Education's chief policy officer under former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow. She's now the government and regulatory affairs manager at Morningstar Partners Oil & Gas.
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A former top official at the Wyoming Department of Education announced Thursday she will run for superintendent of public instruction.
While she was a student at UW, Degenfelder served as a central Wyoming coordinator and deputy state field director for Lummis' campaign.
Degenfelder said in the statement that she was "honored" to have Lummis' support, whom she considers a "lifelong mentor."
"What matters most to me is the support of Wyoming leaders who have built this state into what it is today," she said.
Degenfelder wants to focus on prioritizing parental involvement in public schools and "getting government out of the way so teachers an do what they do best." She also wants to increase direct classroom spending.
In addition to Lummis, Degenfelder has also been endorsed by former state superintendent Judy Catchpole and other current and former conservative Wyoming leaders, according to a statement from Degenfelder's campaign. She's also supported by the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Wyoming Contractors Association, Wyoming Realtors Association and the Wyoming Mining Association.
Community members got to hear from GOP candidates for the Wyoming superintendent of public instruction position during an election forum in Casper. Here are the candidates' take on some issues.
Over 350 individual donors have contributed to Degenfelder's campaign, according to the statement. More than 90% of those donations are from within all 23 of Wyoming's counties.
“I am incredibly humbled by the local grassroots support of my campaign," Degenfelder said in the statement. "My supporters are Wyoming parents, Wyoming business leaders and Wyoming educators who have built this state into what it is today and value our mission of empowering parents as the number 1 decision makers in their children’s education, partnering with industry, and getting government out of the way so teachers can do what they do best.”
Degenfelder is facing off against three Republican state superintendent candidates in the primaries.
Incumbent Brian Schroeder was appointed to the post in January after former state superintendent Jillian Balow left to take a similar position in Virginia. He formerly headed Veritas Academy, a private Christian school in Cody, and has experience as a family and youth coordinator and as a teacher and administrator in private schools in California, Wisconsin and Michigan.
He advocates for more parental control in public schools. He's pushed back against federal action meant to increase protections against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientations in public schools and has called for Wyoming to enact a law similar to Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act, which, among other things, bars discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.
Former president Donald Trump announced on Friday his endorsement for Schroeder's candidacy for the position. Schroeder has also been endorsed by Gun Owners of America and Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed State Superintendent of Public Instruction Brian Schroeder in his bid for election to the post.
Candidate Jennifer Zerba is a Casper-based substitute teacher and cosmetologist who wants to find ways to better use the educational opportunities and resources Wyoming already has to offer. Robert White is an underground trona miner and wants to focus on school safety.
The Wyoming primary election takes place Aug. 16. After that, the winning Republican candidate will face off against the lone Democrat candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Sergio Maldonado, who has been endorsed by the Wyoming Education Association. | https://trib.com/news/local/education/sen-lummis-endorses-degenfelder-for-state-schools-superintendent/article_9666851e-1727-11ed-9860-93eb64d2bbcd.html | 2022-08-08T18:37:33 | 1 | https://trib.com/news/local/education/sen-lummis-endorses-degenfelder-for-state-schools-superintendent/article_9666851e-1727-11ed-9860-93eb64d2bbcd.html |
CINCINNATI — Keepers at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden revealed Monday that the new hippopotamus calf born last week is a boy.
The new boy calf is the sibling of Fiona, a famous hippo who was born prematurely in 2017.
“We’re just happy that the calf is healthy. The sex didn’t matter much to the hippo team, but it will be interesting to observe and compare the behavioral differences between a hand-raised girl and a mom-raised boy,” said Cincinnati Zoo’s director of animal care, Christina Gorsuch. “Will this calf be as comfortable with humans as Fiona is? Will he be less independent? Will he love cameras?”
The hippo’s mother, 23-year-old Bibi, has been close to her newborn since its birth last week, so determining the sex was not immediate. The two will continue to bond for another week or two in privacy, but visitors to the zoo are still able to see two other hippos, Fiona and Tucker, the Cincinnati Zoo said.
“Bibi and the baby, yet to be named, will spend the next two weeks bonding behind the scenes,” said Gorsuch. “A female would take her newborn away from the bloat for about that amount of time in the wild, and we try to give Bibi the choice to do what feels natural to her.”
The zoo is looking for name suggestions for the baby hippo.
Submit your name idea here. | https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/cincinnati-zoos-hippo-fiona-gets-a-new-baby-brother/530-347d2592-9b07-46c6-92c3-e560e3454dcd | 2022-08-08T18:44:19 | 0 | https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/cincinnati-zoos-hippo-fiona-gets-a-new-baby-brother/530-347d2592-9b07-46c6-92c3-e560e3454dcd |
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Police are searching for a missing 13-year-old girl who was last seen on July 27, officials said.
Marissa Ann Marie Hurni was last seen in the 9700 block of South Presa Street on July 27. She was last seen wearing a black shirt and black sweatpants with a nightmare before Christmas logo.
Hurni is described as being five feet tall, weighs 100 pounds with brown eyes and mid length naturally brown hair that's been dyed red.
If you have seen her or know of her whereabouts, you are asked to contact SAPD's missing person unit at (210) 207-7660. | https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/sapd-looking-for-missing-13-year-old-safety/273-97846409-802c-4042-aa0c-01889ab17e08 | 2022-08-08T18:44:25 | 0 | https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/sapd-looking-for-missing-13-year-old-safety/273-97846409-802c-4042-aa0c-01889ab17e08 |
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Police Department is searching for a missing man who was last seen August 3 in the 9400 block of Powhatan Drive.
Police say Nicholas Patrick Browne is a 35-year-old man who is 5'11", 200 pounds and has brown eyes and a shaven head. He was last seen wearing a grey t-shirt, black shorts and black tennis shoes.
He also has tattoos on both of his forearms with the right forearm having 'USMC'. Police say he has a diagnosed medical condition that requires a doctor's care.
If you have seen him or know where he could be, you are asked to call to the missing person's unit at SAPD at (210) 207-7660. | https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/sapd-searching-for-missing-man/273-8102c88b-c85e-4e75-9ade-4610b677bcd1 | 2022-08-08T18:44:31 | 1 | https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/sapd-searching-for-missing-man/273-8102c88b-c85e-4e75-9ade-4610b677bcd1 |
KANAWHA COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – A 17-year-old has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for fatally shooting a man in March.
Court officials say Eli Nelson will be held in a juvenile detention facility until he turns 18 in January. At that time, he will be resentenced in order to be moved to an adult correctional facility. The length of Nelson’s sentence will not be changed during resentencing.
On June 15, Nelson pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Jimmy Keith, 26, of Pond Gap, West Virginia. His case was then transferred to adult status.
Court documents say the shooting happened in the area of 3rd. St. West in St. Albans around 12:45 a.m. March 10, 2022. Court records show Nelson admitted to breaking into cars in the St. Albans area where he met up with Keith. The pair then got into an alleged argument that lead to shots being fired. Keith was taken to a hospital after the shooting where he later died.
At the time of the shooting, Nelson’s name was not released because he is a juvenile. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/17-year-old-sentenced-in-fatal-st-albans-shooting/ | 2022-08-08T18:54:54 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/17-year-old-sentenced-in-fatal-st-albans-shooting/ |
PUTNAM COUNTY, WV (WOWK) — The annual Fruth Pharmacy Scholarship Golf Tournament kicked off Monday morning.
The purpose of the tournament is to raise money for the Bridge of Hope Scholarship Foundation in addition to scholarships for Fruth’s employees.
The Bridge of Hope Scholarship is designed for a person in addiction recovery who is interested in pursuing a training or education program.
The golf tournament has raised more than $1 million throughout the years and organizers say it’s all about giving back to the community.
“We wanted to do something to give them hope for the future. Its what can we do? So we started a scholarship fund to say, they can go to trade school or major universities. We also have people who’ve coming out now that have been doing this for 5 years and are now in highly specialized programs,” said Andy Becker, Vice President of Fruth Pharmacy.
Becker goes on to say, “Service is important to your community. I mean this is what it means, giving these people the opportunity.”
13 News is a proud sponsor of the Scholarship Golf Tournament. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/fruth-pharmacy-scholarship-golf-tournament-underway/ | 2022-08-08T18:55:00 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/fruth-pharmacy-scholarship-golf-tournament-underway/ |
(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden is joining Gov. Andy Beshear to meet with families and survey damage from storms that have created the worst flooding in Kentucky’s history.
At least 37 people have died since last month’s deluge, which dropped 8 to 10 1/2 inches of rain in only 48 hours. The National Weather Service said Sunday that flooding remains a threat, warning of more thunderstorms happening through Thursday.
The intense downpours happened across rural Appalachia, with steep hills and terrain of narrow river channels funneling water into Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. Water tumbled down hillsides and into valleys and hollows where it swelled creeks and storms coursing through small towns. The torrent engulfed homes and businesses and trashed vehicles. Some people were marooned on steep slopes by mudslides.
Scientists warn climate change is to blame for making these kinds of weather disasters more common.
“It’s a battle of extremes going on right now in the United States,” said University of Oklahoma meteorologist Jason Furtado. “These are things we expect to happen because of climate change. … A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor and that means you can produce increased heavy rainfall.”
It is Biden’s second trip to the state. He previously visited in December after tornadoes killed more than 70 people.
Biden has expanded federal disaster assistance to Kentucky, ensuring the federal government will cover the full cost of debris removal and other emergency measures.
It’s Biden’s first presidential trip since leaving isolation for COVID-19 following two days in a row of negative tests.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/live-biden-visits-flood-ravaged-kentucky/ | 2022-08-08T18:55:06 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/live-biden-visits-flood-ravaged-kentucky/ |
FLOYD COUNTY, KY (WOWK) — The man accused of killing three law enforcement officers and a K-9 in an ambush in Floyd County in June 2022 has pleaded not guilty.
This comes from his arraignment on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022.
His arraignment date was originally for Aug. 1, but flooding in eastern Kentucky pushed it to the following week.
Storz is accused of the tragic June 30 shooting in Allen, Kentucky that killed Floyd County Deputy William Petry, Prestonsburg Police Captain Ralph Frasure, Prestonsburg Police Officer Jacob Chaffins and Floyd County K-9 Drago. The shooting also injured Constable Gary Wolfe, Floyd County Deputy Darrin Lawson and Floyd County Emergency Management Director Joe Reynolds. One other person was injured, but they were not identified.
On Monday, July 11, a grand jury indicted Storz on the following 20 counts:
- Count 1: Capital Offense
- Count 2: Capital Offense
- Count 3: Capital Offense
- Count 4: Class B Felony
- Count 5: Class B Felony
- Count 6: Attempted Murder Class B Felony
- Count 7: Attempted Murder Class B Felony
- Count 8: Attempted Murder Class B Felony
- Count 9: Attempted Murder Class B Felony
- Count 10: Attempted Murder Class B Felony
- Count 11: Attempted Murder Class B Felony
- Count 12: Class D Felony
- Count 13: Class D Felony
- Count 14: Class D Felony
- Count 15: Class D Felony
- Count 16: Class D Felony
- Count 17: Class D Felony
- Count 18: Class D Felony
- Count 19: Class D Felony
- Count 20: Class A Misdemeanor
Capital offenses in Kentucky are punishable anywhere from 20 years in prison without parole up to the death penalty. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/man-accused-of-killing-3-kentucky-officers-and-k-9-pleads-not-guilty/ | 2022-08-08T18:55:12 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/man-accused-of-killing-3-kentucky-officers-and-k-9-pleads-not-guilty/ |
OLIVE HILL, KY (WOWK) – A man has been taken to the hospital with severe injuries after an alleged early morning fight this weekend in Olive Hill, Kentucky.
According to Olive Hill Police Department Chief Bruce Palmer, officers responded to a call early Sunday morning regarding a fight that began downtown. Palmers says both parties involved then left the scene to a home where another fight allegedly began.
Palmer says one of the men, identified as Binion was allegedly struck with a board and then a baseball bat. The other man involved was stabbed multiple times, according to police.
The chief says Binion was arrested and taken to the Carter County Detention Center. The other man was taken to the hospital “due to the severity of his injuries” for treatment.
Palmer says further charges in the incident are pending. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/man-arrested-after-olive-hill-fight-leads-to-stabbing/ | 2022-08-08T18:55:18 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/man-arrested-after-olive-hill-fight-leads-to-stabbing/ |
CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — A South Charleston man charged with murder asked a Kanawha County Judge to reschedule his trial date on Monday.
Fahim Adbul-Majeed is accused of shooting and killing Lee Davis of Charleston in February 2021.
Majeed’s defense and the prosecution had a plea agreement worked out, but instead, the defense asked to reschedule his trial.
Judge Kenneth Ballard granted the motion and the new trial date is set for October 3.
In the meantime, Majeed still has the option to take the plea deal. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/south-charleston-man-asks-for-more-time-for-murder-trial/ | 2022-08-08T18:55:24 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/south-charleston-man-asks-for-more-time-for-murder-trial/ |
SANFORD, Fla. – Three new sheep are roaming around the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens, and they’re already meeting guests as of Monday, according to the zoo.
The mini flock of Harlequin sheep consists of a male and a set of male and female twins, the zoo said. Their names are The Flash, Zan and Jayna, and each is less than a year old.
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According to the zoo, Harlequin sheep are known for their exceptional wool, miniature height and fun personalities. When the sheep grow, they will only be about 25 inches at the shoulder.
The trio came from Memphis Zoo in Tennessee and they will share a habitat with goats and chicken at the zoo.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/ready-to-meet-ewe-3-sheep-welcomed-at-central-florida-zoo-botanical-gardens/ | 2022-08-08T19:08:33 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/ready-to-meet-ewe-3-sheep-welcomed-at-central-florida-zoo-botanical-gardens/ |
Police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found on a Brooklyn sidewalk Monday, officials say.
The man was discovered on the sidewalk by 19th Avenue and 86th Street around 7:30 a.m., officials said.
It wasn't clear who found him or how he may have ended up there, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The medical examiner's office will conduct an autopsy to determine who he was and how he died.
Copyright NBC New York | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/dead-man-found-on-brooklyn-sidewalk/3815140/ | 2022-08-08T19:14:06 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/dead-man-found-on-brooklyn-sidewalk/3815140/ |
CAPE MAY — As it turns out, two votes on City Council were enough to approve a complicated liquor license transfer that will allow alcohol sales at the Southern Mansion.
With one member absent and Mayor Zack Mullock abstaining, the Cape May City Council on Aug. 2 voted on the license transfer, with two votes in favor and one opposed. At the meeting, city attorney Christopher Gillin-Schwartz said the resolution needed three votes, a majority on the five-member council, to pass.
He’s been convinced otherwise. Marcus Karavan, an attorney representing the applicant, sent a letter to the city and to Gillin-Schwartz after the vote, citing precedent that the rules for votes on the transfer of alcohol licenses are different than other City Council decisions.
Karavan argued that in this instance, the City Council was operating as the local issuing authority for the state’s division of Alcohol Beverage Control, citing a court case from 1951 in support of his position. In a response sent Friday, Gillin-Schwartz said he checked with the officials with the ABC and the deputy attorney general, who confirmed that if there is a quorum at a meeting, and a majority of that quorum votes in favor, that is enough for an approval regardless of the requirements under state statute for a majority of all members.
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“This is an esoteric and very narrow exception,” was how Gillin-Schwartz described the issue Monday morning. Since the opinion is from the ABC, which would hear any appeal of the decision, Gillin-Schwartz suggested it would be a waste of time and city resources to now fight the license transfer.
His letter to Karavan confirmed that the license transfer vote would be recorded as an approval, but added that the conditions imposed on the license by City Council still apply.
Karavan said Monday that it is his understanding that the license transfer is now approved, retroactive to last week’s vote.
At the Aug. 2 meeting, Karavan said his clients agreed to several conditions aimed at reducing the potential impact on neighbors.
As approved, the license will allow a new limited liability company to sell alcohol within a leased area inside the Southern Mansion on Washington Street. Under the stipulations agreed upon, the LLC will only serve alcohol to guests staying at the inn or to people attending events there, most often weddings.
The license had been held by The Merion Inn on Decatur Street, and became available when the building was purchased by the owners of the Mad Batter on Jackson, according to Mullock, who said in an interview last week that both businesses, adjoining in the rear, now operate under a single license.
But state laws prevent the Southern Mansion from acquiring the license, because owner Barbara Wilde also owns Willow Creek Winery in West Cape May, Mullock said. State law prevents someone from simultaneously holding two types of licenses to sell alcohol, in this case a farm winery license and a plenary license.
Her daughter, Hamilton Wilde, founded New Jersey Farmers Cooperative Group LLC, taking the name from a non-profit organization of which Barbara Wilde is the director.
Documentation provided to City Council states that the Southern Mansion is owned by the Bray Family Partnership, in which Hamilton Wilde holds no interest, while Barbara Wilde holds no ownership or interest in New Jersey Farmers Cooperative Group LLC.
A new vote will not take place, according to Gillin-Schwartz.
There is a chance a second vote would not go the same way as the first. City Council member Stacy Sheehan had expressed concerns about the planned transfer, but could not attend the last meeting. Other members suggested that with Sheehan at the meeting, the vote would have likely been two-two, with one abstention.
Mullock had said at the meeting, and afterward, that the Southern Mansion did a good job of listening to neighbors and communicating the plan. He said he abstained because he is a neighbor of the property.
Several neighbors spoke at the Aug. 2 meeting, with some opposing the license transfer. Council member Michael Yeager said the proposal could be an improvement, with trained bartenders at weddings and a convenience for the guests when there is not an event underway.
According to the inn’s website, the Southern Mansion at 720 Washington St. was built in 1863 as a private home, later seeing use as a boarding house before falling into disrepair. The current owners began extensive renovations in 1994, with the project completed in 1997. | https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/attorneys-cape-may-alcohol-license-transfer-approved/article_a82a7d0a-1736-11ed-9e5e-a3afa06f067a.html | 2022-08-08T19:15:20 | 0 | https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/attorneys-cape-may-alcohol-license-transfer-approved/article_a82a7d0a-1736-11ed-9e5e-a3afa06f067a.html |
BRIDGETON — Two city men were arrested after police say one of them was driving under the influence when his car struck a parked vehicle and a residence's front porch.
Police were called to an area near East Avenue and E. Commerce Street on Saturday around 6:30 p.m. for a reported motor vehicle crash. Officers found a vehicle unoccupied, having struck the car and porch, police said.
Officers tracked down Ruben Ruiz, 24, of Church Street, after he was in a confrontation with another man, Ramon Ruiz, 37, of Elmer Street.
Ruben Ruiz was charged with DWI, simple assault, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. Ramon Ruiz was charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice, police said.
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Both men were released, police said. | https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/drunk-driving-crash-leads-to-2-arrests-bridgeton-police-say/article_51a49398-1746-11ed-a790-c7d9cc55f939.html | 2022-08-08T19:15:26 | 0 | https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/drunk-driving-crash-leads-to-2-arrests-bridgeton-police-say/article_51a49398-1746-11ed-a790-c7d9cc55f939.html |
Geoffrey the Giraffe is making a comeback.
Toys R Us is returning to in-person retail this year after the company filed for bankruptcy back in 2017.
Macy's will be opening Toys R Us stores inside its U.S. locations -- including six in New Jersey and one in Pennsylvania -- just in time for the 2022 holiday season, according to a news release from the company.
The move comes as part of an expansion of Macy's partnership with WHP Global, the firm that acquired Toys R Us back in March 2021.
The toy retailer’s debut in Macy’s stores began at the end of July and will continue through Oct.15.
As of Aug. 8, open locations include Newport Centre Macy's in Jersey City and Macy's at Brunswick Square in East Brunswick.
Four New Jersey stores (Cherry Hill, Bridgewater, Paramus and Wayne) and one in Pennsylvania (Willow Grove) are "coming soon," according to Macy’s website.
All Macy’s Toys R Us locations will be open before the holidays, according to the initial announcement. There are several more New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware locations not currently part of the Toys R Us locations revealed by the company.
View a complete list of Toys R Us at Macy's stores here.
The in-store toy shops with 1,000 to 10,000 square feet of Toys R Us dedicated retail spaces will feature hands-on toy demonstration tables and a life-size Geoffrey the Giraffe statue for photo-ops.
Macy's will also be hosting in-store Toys R Us events at all U.S. locations from Oct. 15 through Oct. 23, set to include family-friendly activities and various giveaways from brands like Barbie, LEGO and Play-Doh.
“Macy’s cannot wait to bring the Toys“R”Us experience to life in our stores,” Macy’s chief merchandising officer Nata Dvir said. "We hope Toys”R”Us kids of all ages discover the joy of exploration and play within our shops and families create special memories together. The customer response to our partnership with Toys"R"Us has been incredible and our toy business has seen tremendous growth."
Macy's partnership with Toys R Us began online in August 2021, when Macy’s began offering exclusive Toys R Us products on its website. Following the website addition, the department store chain’s reported earnings for the first quarter of 2022 saw toy sales jump 15 times higher than the comparable period prior to the Toys R Us partnership, the company said. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/toys-r-us-starts-opening-outposts-in-macys-stores-find-out-where-in-nj/3328911/ | 2022-08-08T19:19:12 | 1 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/toys-r-us-starts-opening-outposts-in-macys-stores-find-out-where-in-nj/3328911/ |
AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Community Fund awarded Austin Habitat for Humanity a $4 million loan to be paid back over the next two years, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
The low-interest loan will go toward the construction of 30 homes in Austin ISD and 120 homes in southeast Austin.
Austin ISD announced its partnership with Austin Habitat for Humanity in May. The two will build affordable homes for AISD families and employees in two locations: one off Highway 183 and Loyola Lane and the other off Highway 183 and East 51st Street.
According to the Statesman, money for the loan comes from grants from the St. David’s Foundation, Tito’s Handmade Vodka and the Bill Wood Foundation as well as investments from the Aragona family, the Shield-Ayres Foundation and "a charitable giving account administered by Austin Community Foundation" known as a donor-advised fund.
The loan has a 2% interest rate.
To read the full Statesman report, click here.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-habitat-for-humanity-million-dollar-loan/269-4a45aece-79ae-4ef0-9cd5-59d499165233 | 2022-08-08T19:20:29 | 1 | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-habitat-for-humanity-million-dollar-loan/269-4a45aece-79ae-4ef0-9cd5-59d499165233 |
AUSTIN, Texas — Monday marks the 30th anniversary of the election that approved Save Our Springs (SOS), a citizen-led ordinance to protect Barton Springs' water quality and quantity.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that SOS resulted from environmentalists' three-year fight against a potential development they believed would hurt Barton Creek's water quality.
The ordinance is "one of the strongest water quality laws passed by citizen’s initiative in the U.S.," the Statesman said, and paved the way for the Save Our Springs Alliance nonprofit.
SOS is even credited, according to the Statesman, as part of the reason why Austin is such an environmentally conscious city working to put the natural world first.
A free swim day and 6 p.m. ceremony at Barton Springs are set to celebrate the vote.
Read the Statesman's full report here.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/barton-springs-30th-anniversary-save-our-springs/269-d42ad3a0-1054-415b-a5c9-57885e50b8c3 | 2022-08-08T19:20:35 | 1 | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/barton-springs-30th-anniversary-save-our-springs/269-d42ad3a0-1054-415b-a5c9-57885e50b8c3 |
AUSTIN, Texas — Employees at Austin pizzeria Via 313 have filed to unionize, according to records posted with the National Labor Relations Board.
Eater Austin reported that the union efforts were filed on behalf of 75% of the chain's employees. Via 313 currently has multiple locations in the Austin area, as well as locations in San Antonio and Salt Lake City.
Staff members have been organizing for over a year. In January 2022, employees protested over paid sick time and more transparency amid the omicron COVID-19 surge.
At the time, Via 313 told KVUE it was taking employee concerns seriously and had senior staff members on site to help address pandemic-related concerns. Via 313 also said it was working to review safety protocols and its paid sick leave policy.
Eater Austin reported that in January, employees hand-delivered a petition to Savory, a restaurant-focused investment company partnered with Via 313. They later received a cease-and-desist letter from company.
Via 313 also confirmed it suspended a number of employees for "creating a hostile" work environment. According to the report, Savory offered to reinstate three of the four suspended workers with back pay while the fourth had already quit.
Now that union organizers have filed with Restaurant Workers United, Eater Austin reports that employees of the three physical locations will need to cast votes. If supporters win the election, Savory and Via 313 must then choose to recognize the union. The two groups would then negotiate on a contract.
Via 313 employees are not the first food workers in the area to launch union efforts. Starbucks, Alamo Drafthouse and Tiff's Treats workers have also joined in on the trend.
Read Eater Austin's full report here.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/via-313-staffers-file-unionize/269-cc9f6117-5c7c-4305-a69b-1f4e1fa9875a | 2022-08-08T19:20:41 | 1 | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/via-313-staffers-file-unionize/269-cc9f6117-5c7c-4305-a69b-1f4e1fa9875a |
PONTIAC — Opening statements are expected to begin Tuesday in the murder trial for a Cullom man accused of killing his wife, son and neighbor on Christmas morning in 2019.
Eight women and four men were selected Monday to sit on the Livingston County jury for 55-year-old Clifford Brewer.
He is charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his wife, Shirley, 48; his son, Christian, 27; and a neighbor, Norman Walker, 51, who were all found in Brewer’s home with a single gunshot wound to the head on Dec. 25, 2019.
During the jury selection process, the attorneys — Livingston County State’s Attorney Randy Yedinak and Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Regnier for the prosecution and Stephen and Joshua Richards of Chicago for the defense — asked potential jurors about any prejudice they might have involving law enforcement, firearms, mental illness, suicide, drug addiction, alcohol and divorce.
In listing the potential witnesses who could testify during the trial, Judge Jennifer Bauknecht said about 15 law enforcement officials are named as witnesses. Other witnesses include health professionals and independent forensic experts.
The jury will hear the state’s first evidence following opening statements Tuesday.
Two alternate jurors are expected to be selected Monday afternoon but had not been chosen by press time.
The story will be updated.
Photos: Police investigate three deaths in Cullom
Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.
Clifford Brewer of Cullom is returned to his cell after pleading not guilty to six counts of murder after making an appearance in Livingston County Court on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020.
Police investigators discuss evidence found at the scene after three people were found dead in a house at 416 E. Jackson St. in Cullom early Christmas Day, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2019. The house, at center, was surrounded with police tape after three bodies were removed around 2 p.m. | https://pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/opening-statements-to-begin-tuesday-in-cullom-triple-homicide/article_1dbd44fc-1747-11ed-8444-a706db8cbb39.html | 2022-08-08T19:23:57 | 1 | https://pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/opening-statements-to-begin-tuesday-in-cullom-triple-homicide/article_1dbd44fc-1747-11ed-8444-a706db8cbb39.html |
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BOISE – The state of Idaho and the U.S. Department of Justice will face off in court Aug. 22 over the DOJ’s legal challenge to Idaho’s far-reaching anti-abortion “trigger” law.
The Department of Justice filed suit against Idaho on Aug. 2, charging that the 2020 “trigger” law, which makes all abortions in Idaho felonies except for narrow exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to prevent the death of the mother, violates federal laws guaranteeing emergency medical treatment. It was the first major federal challenge to a state trigger law after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion nationwide.
Idaho’s trigger law is currently set to take effect Aug. 25, 30 days after the formal judgment was entered to enact the high court’s June decision. In a separate state lawsuit, the Idaho Supreme Court is currently weighing whether or not to block the law from taking effect while it’s challenged in state court.
In the federal lawsuit, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill held an informal status conference with the parties and established a briefing and hearing schedule. The United States will file its motion for injunctive relief by the end of Monday. The state will file its response by Aug. 16.
Following that, the U.S. will file a reply brief by noon on Aug. 19, and then the parties will meet in court for a hearing on the motion on Aug. 22.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland held a press conference on Aug. 2 to announce the lawsuit filing, and said, “We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that pregnant women get the emergency medical treatment to which they are entitled under federal law. And we will closely scrutinize state abortion laws to ensure that they comply with federal law.”
Both Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden last week decried the filing of the federal lawsuit, with Little calling it “federal meddling” and Wasden calling it “unnecessary” and “politically motivated.”
Wasden maintained that rather than filing suit, the federal government could have worked with Idaho to “reconcile” the Idaho trigger law with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires emergency care to be provided by hospitals that receive Medicare funding.
The trigger law would create an affirmative defense for doctors accused of performing abortions in cases of rape or incest in which a police report was provided to the doctor, or to prevent the death of the mother other than by suicide. All other abortions in Idaho, at any stage of pregnancy, would be felonies.
It is one of three far-reaching anti-abortion laws in Idaho currently being challenged at the Idaho Supreme Court in lawsuits filed by Planned Parenthood.
Betsy Z. Russell is the Boise bureau chief and state capitol reporter for the Idaho Press and Adams Publishing Group. Follow her on Twitter at @BetsyZRussell. | https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/hearing-set-for-aug-22-in-fed-lawsuit-against-idaho-over-abortion-law/article_63757383-67ec-5dde-8eb2-605ed4b60e9d.html | 2022-08-08T19:24:08 | 0 | https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/hearing-set-for-aug-22-in-fed-lawsuit-against-idaho-over-abortion-law/article_63757383-67ec-5dde-8eb2-605ed4b60e9d.html |
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People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe | https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/video-two-hospitalized-after-bridge-jumper-lands-on-raft-in-boise-river/article_0aa9d1e9-2c76-5929-864c-b49c2340506d.html | 2022-08-08T19:24:22 | 0 | https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/video-two-hospitalized-after-bridge-jumper-lands-on-raft-in-boise-river/article_0aa9d1e9-2c76-5929-864c-b49c2340506d.html |
BP is selling its 50% stake in the BP-Husky Toledo Refinery in Northwest Ohio.
The London-based multinational energy giant, whose BP Whiting Refinery is its largest globally, is selling its interest in the Toledo Refinery for $300 million to Cenovus Energy Inc.
BP also recently sold Cenovus its Sunrise oil sands project in Alberta, Canada while acquiring Cenovus’s stake in the Bay du Nord oil exploration project offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.
Cenovus was its joint venture partner in the refinery, which BP ran. Cenovus will buy out BP's stake in the refinery, acquire the inventory and take over operations.
The BP-Husky Refinery can process up to 160,000 barrels of crude oil a day, turning it into gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, asphalt, propane, and other petroleum products. It's operated in Toledo for more than 100 years.
It employs 580 workers, who will become Cenovus employees when the deal closes at the end of the year.
“We are proud of the business we have built in Toledo, which has provided thousands of good-paying jobs and made significant contributions to Ohio’s economy and America’s energy security for decades. As our partner in Ohio, Cenovus is ideally placed to take this important business into the future," said Dave Lawler, chairman and president of BP America.
BP initially sold a 50% stake in the refinery to Cenovus in 2008. It entered into a multi-year supply agreement with Cenovus as part of the sale.
BP will be left with just two refineries in the United States: the BP Whiting Refinery and the Cherry Point refinery in Washington.
"I am incredibly proud of the people who safely operate this refinery every day. Their unwavering dedication and expertise have helped provide a strong foundation for the future of this facility, which will continue to provide jobs in this community and energy for this region for years to come," said Des Gillen, vice president, BP-Husky Toledo Refinery.
NWI Business Ins and Outs: Lucy's BBQ, Nekter Juice Bar and The Original Steaks & Hoagies opening
Joseph S. Pete is a Lisagor Award-winning business reporter who covers steel, industry, unions, the ports, retail, banking and more. The Indiana University grad has been with The Times since 2013 and blogs about craft beer, culture and the military.
Steelworkers will take home bonus checks of upwards of $14,000 for the three-month period that ended on June 30, U.S. Steel Media Relations Manager Amanda Malkowski said.
The Michigan-based movie theater chain completed the first phase of its two-phase renovation plans to add amenities like faux-leather recliners and brick oven pizza.
Historic Maplewood Cemetery Sexton Tom Hawes has been digging up the old Crown Point Mausoleum more than a half century after its demise at the cemetery at 347 Maple Lane.
The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 filed unfair labor practice charges against California-based SOLV Energy and recruiter Aerotek charging they are recruiting workers from outside Indiana for the Mammoth Solar Farm Project and paying them "substantially lower than Indiana standards." | https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/bp-to-sell-stake-in-toledo-refinery-leaving-it-with-just-two-refineries-in-the/article_c4d8cfa6-adc5-554b-81c6-c59778c8dcde.html | 2022-08-08T19:41:38 | 1 | https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/bp-to-sell-stake-in-toledo-refinery-leaving-it-with-just-two-refineries-in-the/article_c4d8cfa6-adc5-554b-81c6-c59778c8dcde.html |
ALBANY – The registration form for the next city of Albany Government 101 class went live at 10 a.m. Monday.
The Government 101 program launched earlier this year as a way to give people a chance to meet city of Albany leaders and learn about how the city government and departments operate. To give participants a more one-on-one experience with the Government 101 presenters, the class is limited to 20 participants per course.
During the individual classes, participants will get to hear from city leaders on how their department operates and get to ask them questions. Participants also will get to share a meal with the presenters and any other city staff that attends each class and get to know them on a more personal level.
This time, the course has been extended from six weeks to eight weeks. Students are allowed to miss only two classes before they are removed from the course. Interested participants are encouraged to verify they will be available for at least six, if not all eight, courses before registering.
The planner for the next eight-week course is included below. Those who would like to participate can sign up by filling out the registration form at https://forms.albanyga.gov/Forms/gov101. Space is limited, and participants are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Government 101 Planner
• Sept. 12: Government Structure and Finances, Time: 6-8 p.m.
-- Departmental Presentations:
▪ City Manager
▪ City Commission
▪ Finance
• Sept. 19: Public Safety, Time: 6-8 p.m.
-- Department Presentations:
▪ Police
▪ Fire
▪ 911
▪ EMA
• Sept. 26: Planning & Development and Code Enforcement, Time: 6-8 p.m.
-- Department Presentations:
▪ Planning & Development
▪ Code Enforcement
• Oct. 3: DCED and Central Services, Time: 6-8 p.m.
-- Department Presentations:
▪ Department of Community and Economic Development
▪ Central Services
• Oct. 10: Municipal Court and Transit, Time: 6-8 p.m.
-- Department Presentations:
▪ Municipal Court
▪ Albany Works!
▪ Transportation
▪ Southwest Georgia Regional Airport
• Oct. 17: Recreation & Parks and Downtown, Time: 6-8 p.m.
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The National Association of Farm Service Agency County Office Employees presented Congressman Sanford Bishop Jr. its Legislator of the Year award during its national convention
SAVANNAH – The National Association of Farm Service Agency County Office Employees presented Congressman Sanford Bishop Jr., D-Ga., its Legislator of the Year award during its national convention here. Farm Service Agency county office employees are the bridge between U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and farmers as well as ranchers.
NASCOE’s mission is to assist in an way possible to assure successful operation of FSA and the attainment of FSA’s objectives, to cooperate with other groups and organizations, to conserve and improve America’s soil resources, to secure equitable salaries, working conditions, and retirement provisions for all county office employees, and to promote the professionalism of FSA county office employees.
“Farm Service Agency county office employees are on the frontline of our agriculture industry, helping our farmers, ranchers, and producers learn about and navigate the federal programs meant to assist them,” Bishop said. “These programs help farmers get through another planting season, recover from a natural disaster, and meet the many challenges faced by those in the agriculture industry. That is why I will continue to work hard in Congress to support these vital federal programs as well as the FSA offices and staff who make these programs work for our communities.”
“(Bishop) continuously demonstrates a bipartisan, fiscally conservative stance that helps bring members together from both sides of the aisle to recognize and support the role of the American farmer and rancher,” NASCOE President Marcinda Kester said while presenting the group's award to the 2nd District congressman.
“Congressman Bishop supported increases in funding for FY 2022 FSA salaries and expenses and helped NASCOE secure a specific amount of those funds to be used for hiring county office staff. Recently, he assisted NASCOE with securing a $68 million increase in FY 2023 FSA salaries and expenses. Congressman Bishop is an advocate for employees of the Farm Service Agency and has worked with NASCOE to secure needed funding for staff.”
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VALPARAISO — Police have released surveillance photos in hope the public can help identify a suspect in a recent theft at the 7-Eleven store at 708 E. Lincolnway.
The female in question entered the store on July 30 and took an item without paying, Valparaiso police said.
She is also accused of defacing the business.
"It is believed that the pictured female came from an event held at Kirchoff Park prior to arriving at 7-Eleven," police said.
Anyone with information about the woman is encouraged to contact Detective Josh Biggs at 219-462-2135.
Information can also be sent by text message to TIP411 (847-411) by entering "Valpo" in the message field. The word "7-Eleven" should be included in the first line of the tip to identify the case.
Gallery: Recent arrests booked into the Porter County Jail
Joseph Marshall
Arrest date: Aug. 1, 2022
Age: 53
Residence: Hebron, IN
Booking Number: 2203084
Charges: Possession of a controlled substance, felony
Marcus Kirk
Arrest date: Aug. 5, 2022
Age: 24
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203146
Charges: Criminal recklessness, felony
Luis Sanchez
Arrest date: Aug. 6, 2022
Age: 21
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203164
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Larry Gutierrez
Arrest date: July 31, 2022
Age: 41
Residence: Hobart, IN
Booking Number: 2203080
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Brooke Wiseman
Arrest date: Aug. 7, 2022
Age: 26
Residence: Michigan City, IN
Booking Number: 2203175
Charges: Domestic battery, misdemeanor
James Tovey
Arrest date: Aug. 2, 2022
Age: 32
Residence: Dowagiac, MI
Booking Number: 2203106
Charges: Criminal recklessness, felony
Kelsey McLeod
Arrest date: Aug. 3, 2022
Age: 47
Residence: Chesterton, IN
Booking Number: 2203125
Charges: Domestic battery, misdemeanor
Jacob Johnson
Arrest date: Aug. 7, 2022
Age: 40
Residence: Hobart, IN
Booking Number: 2203176
Charges: Habitual traffic offender, felony
David Powell
Arrest date: Aug. 5, 2022
Age: 29
Residence: Waterloo, IN
Booking Number: 2203144
Charges: Battery, felony
Seth Howard-Jones
Arrest date: July 30, 2022
Age: 24
Residence: Hobart, IN
Booking Number: 2203072
Charges: OWI, felony
Joshua Bell
Arrest date: Aug. 1, 2022
Age: 18
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203096
Charges: Battery, misdemeanor
Reginald Porter
Arrest date: Aug. 3, 2022
Age: 45
Residence: Gary, IN
Booking Number: 2203122
Charges: OWI, felony
Montelle Lang
Arrest date: Aug. 5, 2022
Age: 26
Residence: Portage, IN
Booking Number: 2203157
Charges: Intimidation, felony
Megan Tomerlin
Arrest date: Aug. 1, 2022
Age: 27
Residence: Portage, IN
Booking Number: 2203083
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Melody Kingery
Arrest date: July 31, 2022
Age: 61
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203078
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Hannah Dowell
Arrest date: July 30, 2022
Age: 23
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203066
Charges: Battery w/bodily fluid, felony
Michael McCullough Jr.
Arrest date: Aug. 7, 2022
Age: 23
Residence: Michigan City, IN
Booking Number: 2203170
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Marquis Paramore
Arrest date: Aug. 2, 2022
Age: 24
Residence: Osceola, IN
Booking Number: 2203101
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Derek Welch
Arrest date: Aug. 5, 2022
Age: 34
Residence: Hobart, IN
Booking Number: 2203152
Charges: Identity deception, felony
Dominique Bentley-Hannah
Arrest date: Aug. 1, 2022
Age: 27
Residence: Gary, IN
Booking Number: 2203094
Charges: Unlawful possession of firearm by serious violent felon, felony
Scott Smith
Arrest date: Aug. 4, 2022
Age: 51
Residence: Crown Point, IN
Booking Number: 2203132
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Joshua Moyers
Arrest date: Aug. 5, 2022
Age: 22
Residence: Portage, IN
Booking Number: 2203151
Charges: Domestic battery, felony
James Settle
Arrest date: Aug. 2, 2022
Age: 47
Residence: Hammond, IN
Booking Number: 2203102
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Benjamin Miller
Arrest date: Aug. 7, 2022
Age: 41
Residence: Sistersville, WV
Booking Number: 2203173
Charges: Domestic battery, misdemeanor
David Zinn
Arrest date: July 30, 2022
Age: 38
Residence: Hebron, IN
Booking Number: 2203067
Charges: OWI, felony
Cedric Shepherd
Arrest date: July 31, 2022
Age: 62
Residence: Gary, IN
Booking Number: 2203079
Charges: Habitual traffic offender, felony
Jason Cohen
Arrest date: Aug. 4, 2022
Age: 40
Residence: Lake Village, IN
Booking Number: 2203141
Charges: Battery, felony
Melissa Sotelo
Arrest date: Aug. 6, 2022
Age: 26
Residence: Chesterton, IN
Booking Number: 2203162
Charges: OWI, felony
Michael Zaragoza
Arrest date: Aug. 2, 2022
Age: 54
Residence: Portage, IN
Booking Number: 2203114
Charges: Aggravated battery, felony
James Stevens Jr.
Arrest date: Aug. 2, 2022
Age: 25
Residence: Elkhart, IN
Booking Number: 2203100
Charges: Dealing in marijuana, hash oil, hashish or salvia, felony
Kylee Baugh
Arrest date: Aug. 7, 2022
Age: 27
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203169
Charges: Theft, felony
Herbert Stepherson
Arrest date: Aug. 6, 2022
Age: 37
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203166
Charges: Domestic battery, misdemeanor
Stefano Childress
Arrest date: Aug. 5, 2022
Age: 33
Residence: Hammond, IN
Booking Number: 2203153
Charges: Battery, felony
Jesse McGarr
Arrest date: Aug. 4, 2022
Age: 34
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203129
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Leanna Castaneda
Arrest date: Aug. 3, 2022
Age: 38
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203119
Charges: Domestic battery, felony
Myles Mendoza
Arrest date: Aug. 6, 2022
Age: 30
Residence: Gary, IN
Booking Number: 2203167
Charges: Battery, misdemeanor
Jason Kosiara
Arrest date: Aug. 1, 2022
Age: 41
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203099
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Kyle Perry
Arrest date: Aug. 5, 2022
Age: 28
Residence: Michigan City, IN
Booking Number: 2203149
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Jordan Ciezobka
Arrest date: July 31, 2022
Age: 41
Residence: Addison, IL
Booking Number: 2203077
Charges: Domestic battery, felony
Jose Romo III
Arrest date: Aug. 7, 2022
Age: 30
Residence: Portage, IN
Booking Number: 2203179
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Alexandria Raudry
Arrest date: Aug. 6, 2022
Age: 24
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203163
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
Edward Zurawski
Arrest date: Aug. 2, 2022
Age: 35
Residence: Portage, IN
Booking Number: 2203103
Charges: Domestic Battery, felony
Timothy Fancher
Arrest date: Aug. 7, 2022
Age: 41
Residence: Valparaiso, IN
Booking Number: 2203172
Charges: Domestic battery, felony
John Mourani
Arrest date: Aug. 4, 2022
Age: 30
Residence: Portage, IN
Booking Number: 2203142
Charges: Domestic battery, misdemeanor
Justin Lewis
Arrest date: Aug. 3, 2022
Age: 34
Residence: Merrillville, IN
Booking Number: 2203123
Charges: OWI, misdemeanor
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Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/suspect-sought-in-valpo-theft/article_7b005cc7-b4e3-54e2-92cf-856df506202e.html | 2022-08-08T19:41:51 | 0 | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/suspect-sought-in-valpo-theft/article_7b005cc7-b4e3-54e2-92cf-856df506202e.html |
Police have released surveillance photos in hopes the public can help identify two women sought in the wake of a theft at the Red Carpet Smoke Shop at 360 W. Lincolnway.
Provided
Police have released surveillance photos in hopes the public can help identify two women sought in the wake of a theft at the Red Carpet Smoke Shop at 360 W. Lincolnway.
Provided
Police have released surveillance photos in hopes the public can help identify two women sought in the wake of a theft at the Red Carpet Smoke Shop at 360 W. Lincolnway.
VALPARAISO — Police have released surveillance photos in hopes the public can help identify two women sought in the wake of a theft at the Red Carpet Smoke Shop at 360 W. Lincolnway.
The women entered the store July 24 and concealed items in their bags, Valparaiso police said.
"When asked about the concealed items by a store employee, the females fled the store, making no attempts to pay for the concealed merchandise," according to police.
Anyone with information about the women or vehicle in the photos is encouraged to contact Detective Sgt. Mark LaMotte at 219-462-2135.
Information can also be sent by text message to TIP411 (847-411) by entering "Valpo" in the message field. The word "smoke" should be in the first line of the tip to identify the case.
Gallery: Recent arrests booked into the Porter County Jail
Porter/LaPorte County Courts and Social Justice Reporter
Bob is a 23-year veteran of The Times. He covers county government and courts in Porter County, federal courts, police news and regional issues. He also created the Vegan in the Region blog, is an Indiana University grad and lifelong region resident.
While officers were en route, the woman told dispatchers the man had broken out a window and she discharged her firearm but was unsure if she shot him, police said.
A 20-year-old man who is accused of having sexual contact with a minor in Lake County was sentenced to jail time and mental-health counseling for the same type of offense in Porter County.
Teddia “Teddy” Caldwell, 46, the estranged husband of Gary Councilwoman Linda Barnes-Caldwell, is giving up his right to a jury trial to avoid a lifetime in prison.
Police have released surveillance photos in hopes the public can help identify two women sought in the wake of a theft at the Red Carpet Smoke Shop at 360 W. Lincolnway.
Police have released surveillance photos in hopes the public can help identify two women sought in the wake of a theft at the Red Carpet Smoke Shop at 360 W. Lincolnway.
Police have released surveillance photos in hopes the public can help identify two women sought in the wake of a theft at the Red Carpet Smoke Shop at 360 W. Lincolnway. | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/valpo-police-release-photos-of-women-sought-in-wake-of-theft/article_5bb52f38-24d5-59e9-ad15-55f6fd1f22b3.html | 2022-08-08T19:41:57 | 1 | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/valpo-police-release-photos-of-women-sought-in-wake-of-theft/article_5bb52f38-24d5-59e9-ad15-55f6fd1f22b3.html |
CROWN POINT — Announced just 20 months ago by the Crown Point Community Foundation, a $2.5 million grant challenge has been met.
The Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation took to it to the top.
The $1 for $1 matching challenge provided donors with the opportunity to grow endowed funds of their choice and to increase operating endowment funds to cover the operating costs of the Crown Point Community Foundation.
For every dollar that was donated to an endowment fund held at the CPCF, the match contributed another dollar. As these endowments grow, their annual distributions increase, providing more grant dollars out into the community and advancing a multitude of opportunities.
“Crown Point is where Dean and Barbara White raised their family,” said CPCF Board Member and Ex Officio John Barney.
“They loved our city. Over the years both Dean, Barbara and the White Family Foundation have supported many important projects. Crown Point Community Foundation was fortunate to be the recipient of a $2.5 million dollar matching gift from them. Thank you Whites for showing your love for Crown Point in this way.”
Foundation Chairman of the Board Chrisanne Christ said the organization "was thrilled and humbled to see the community rally around the special gift the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation offered us."
“Being able to double the impact in supporting our mission of enriching the quality of life in South Lake County is so fulfilling. Our huge thank you to the Dean and Barbara White Foundation and all the donors that made this possible. Your generosity is strengthening our community for generations to come."
In total, the matching challenge captured $1,444,205 in contributions to the CPCF’s operating funds and $1,055,795 to other endowed funds.
“This generous matching opportunity has strengthened the ability of the Crown Point Community Foundation to better serve the nonprofits of South Lake County,” said CPCF Board Member and Grant Committee Chair Darryl Miller. “We owe the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation our gratitude for this gift.”
Gallery: The Times Photos of the Week
Chesterton European Market
Chesterton European Market
Society All Breed Classic Horse and Pony Show
Food and fun at the Lake County Fair.
Food and fun at the Lake County Fair.
Food and fun at the Lake County Fair.
Volunteers work at St. Jude House for United Way Day of Caring
Volunteers work at St. Jude House for United Way Day of Caring
Day of Caring 2022
Mike Pence and Jennifer-Ruth Green
National Night Out in Portage
Lake County Fair promises 'something for everyone'
Lake County Fair promises 'something for everyone'
The Times Media Company is dedicated to improving the quality of life in Northwest Indiana, through local news, information, service initiatives and community partnerships.
Community grants are made possible by donors who create unrestricted funds to support South Lake County causes and entrust the CPCF to allocate those funds to community projects and needs.
According to Feeding America, an estimated 38% of Lake County residents struggling with food insecurity make above the threshold to qualify for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/crown-point/matching-grant-challenge-completed/article_55351089-723b-5da2-a9fb-ef195d29d9ea.html | 2022-08-08T19:42:03 | 1 | https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/crown-point/matching-grant-challenge-completed/article_55351089-723b-5da2-a9fb-ef195d29d9ea.html |
Central Indianapolis Library branch closed Monday after downtown power outage
This story was updated with information from an AES spokesperson.
Power has been restored to more than 1100 AES Indiana customers who were without electricity Monday afternoon in downtown Indianapolis around the Upper Canal area due to an outage, according to the outage map.
The Central Indianapolis Public Library branch is closed for the rest of the day, it announced on Twitter, due to the outage.
More:22,000 Hoosiers to get settlement funds after AG investigates dental company
Power was restored to customers in the area at 12:30 p.m., said Kelly Young, director of public relations with AES. The outage started about 11 a.m. Monday.
You can report an outage to AES Indiana online here: bit.ly/3SfCFtA. Report a downed power line by calling 317-261-8111.
An issue with a substation caused the outage, Young said via email. The cause is currently being investigated.
Contact Phyllis Cha at pcha@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @phyllischa. | https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/2022/08/08/more-than-a-thousand-without-power-in-downtown-indianapolis-outage/65395614007/ | 2022-08-08T19:43:05 | 0 | https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/2022/08/08/more-than-a-thousand-without-power-in-downtown-indianapolis-outage/65395614007/ |
GALVESTON, Texas — Four people are dead, including two children, following a three-vehicle crash that involved a golf cart, according to Galveston police. Two other people remain in critical condition.
The crash happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday on 33rd Street, a few blocks away from Seawall Boulevard.
Sgt. Derek Gaspard, with Galveston police, said two adults and two children were killed in the crash. All four of them were in the golf cart.
The adult driver of the golf cart was pronounced dead at the scene. An adult female passenger and two children in the golf cart were taken to the hospital, where all three later died.
Two other people, an adult and another child, were riding in the golf cart at the time of the crash. Police said those two remain in critical condition at the hospital.
Police said a black Hyundai SUV failed to stop at the intersection of Avenue R and 33rd Street, hitting the golf cart and a black Dodge truck.
Police said the driver of the black Hyundai suffered minor injuries.
The driver was identified as 45-year-old Miguel Espinoza from Rosenberg. Police say they plan on charging him with four counts of intoxication manslaughter.
Neighbors are still traumatized by the devastating scene.
"The image of them kids won't get out of my mind at all," Donna Bekkema said.
Bekkema's neighbor tried to save one of the victims.
"My friend is holding the boy's hand and the other little boy is over there and the other little boy is under the truck like a ball," she said.
Family and friends said the people in the golf cart were on vacation.
“It hasn’t really hit. We know about it. We felt it, but it will take time” Minnie Villaloboz said.
They said the victims were also from Rosenberg.
“It’s just a really bad tragic accident that a drunk driver that’s from Rosenberg hit someone from Rosenberg,” Sylvia Martinez said.
Kimberly lives near the crash site. She said the tragedy hits especially close to home.
“It was hard. I mean, I have four children of my own and having to see what we witnessed last night ... it was terrible,” she said.
Another neighbor said her mother is still traumatized from what she saw in the aftermath of the crash.
“There’s always a lot of traffic around here. Maybe if they had a four-way stop, maybe the golf cart would have seen the guy run the stop sign,” Nayeli Perez said.
Galveston City Council recently passed a new ordinance targeting golf cart safety on the island.
"I think the key for our city is enforcement of our current ordinances and to look at we can do maybe expand the ordinances to provide a safer environment for these golf carts," Mayor Craig Brown said.
Under the ordinance, golf carts can be operated on public roadways that have speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less.
The golf carts must also have a license plate and be inspected regularly unless they're used in a master-planned community.
Here's an update provided by Galveston officials on Sunday: | https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/local/texas/golf-cart-crash-galveston/285-6aa2a307-c7f4-4e5b-af2b-6b2dd958d817 | 2022-08-08T19:50:06 | 0 | https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/local/texas/golf-cart-crash-galveston/285-6aa2a307-c7f4-4e5b-af2b-6b2dd958d817 |
Motorcyclist dies following crash on Greenfield Road near Main Street in Mesa
A motorcyclist died Sunday afternoon after he crashed into a car on Greenfield Road near Main Street in Mesa, according to the Mesa Police Department.
The victim was identified by authorities as Jonathan Welch, 23.
According to police, just before 12:30 p.m., Welch was driving south on Greenfield Road when a car turning north drove across his path, causing Welch to strike the driver's side of the car.
Welch received medical treatment at the scene but was ultimately pronounced dead, police said.
The driver of the car was taken to the hospital "for precautionary treatment," police said.
According to police, impairment or speed were not factors in the crash.
Reach breaking news reporter Laura Daniella Sepulveda at lsepulveda@lavozarizona.com or on Twitter @lauradNews.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa-traffic/2022/08/08/jonathan-welch-dies-after-his-motorcycle-crashes-into-car-mesa/10267799002/ | 2022-08-08T19:51:47 | 1 | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa-traffic/2022/08/08/jonathan-welch-dies-after-his-motorcycle-crashes-into-car-mesa/10267799002/ |
BURLINGTON — Police have arrested a driver they say was impaired when he hit a 10-year-old child Sunday night and left the scene.
Officers responded at approximately 9 p.m. to the 200 block of Joy Drive, where the accident happened. The child was flown by helicopter to an area hospital for treatment, according to a news release from the Burlington Police Department.
Police arrested Cody Lee Struck, 23, of Burlington, on charges of felony hit and run and driving while impaired. Struck was jailed under a $25,000 secured bond, police said in the news release.
An update about the child's condition this morning was not immediately available.
Authorities ask anyone with additional information to call the Burlington Police Department at 336-229-3500. For anonymous methods, call Alamance County-Wide Crimestoppers at 336-229-7100 or by using the mobile App P3 Tips. Tips provided through Crimestoppers may be eligible for cash rewards. | https://greensboro.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/child-10-injured-in-hit-and-run-sunday-night-in-burlington-driver-charged-with-dwi/article_d43c1c9c-1712-11ed-b4e8-13f222460088.html | 2022-08-08T20:00:28 | 0 | https://greensboro.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/child-10-injured-in-hit-and-run-sunday-night-in-burlington-driver-charged-with-dwi/article_d43c1c9c-1712-11ed-b4e8-13f222460088.html |
GREENSBORO — Police say a teenager died after a shooting Sunday and two other people were hospitalized.
Officers responded at 6:11 p.m. to the 800 block of Dillard Street, where the shooting was reported. The two surviving victims — Demiko Morgan, 22, and Chauntora McMillan, 27 — were taken to Moses Cone Hospital with injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, according to a news release from the Greensboro Police Department.
An update issued by police this morning said the deceased was 17 years old and that his death is being investigated as a homicide. His name was not released.
Additional details were not available.
Authorities ask anyone with information to contact Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000. Residents can also download the mobile P3tips app for Apple or Android phones to submit a mobile tip, or go to P3tips.com to submit a web tip. All tips to Crime Stoppers are completely anonymous. | https://greensboro.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/update-teen-dies-2-people-hospitalized-after-shooting-sunday-in-greensboro-police-say/article_f95974c8-170f-11ed-af10-9f9848086102.html | 2022-08-08T20:00:34 | 0 | https://greensboro.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/update-teen-dies-2-people-hospitalized-after-shooting-sunday-in-greensboro-police-say/article_f95974c8-170f-11ed-af10-9f9848086102.html |
GREENSBORO — Dogs are now allowed back on interior trails at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.
On Saturday, the temporary, three-month restriction of dogs on the interior park trails was lifted, park officials announced Monday in a news release.
Park officials say too many dogs are running off leash and too many dog owners aren't cleaning up after their pets.
Over the past three months, new trash cans have been installed along the inner trails to help visitors properly dispose of pet waste and new signage was installed to inform visitors about pet laws and rules within the park.
During the restriction park staff monitored conditions on the trails. While some tickets were issued, there was a dramatic decrease litter in the way of pet waste bags, as well as dogs being off leash.
“During the restriction, park staff were able to educate visitors on the importance of the site, how to responsibly recreate and how recreation can be compatible with the reason for the existence of the park," Aaron LaRocca, park superintendent, said in the news release.
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“Park managers always try to strike the balance between recreational uses and stewardship of the natural and cultural resources that are preserved in national parks," LaRocca added.
Even though the temporary restriction has been lifted, it is important to remember that all the pets must be always on a six-foot leash, and all pet waste must be properly disposed of in the provided trash cans, the news release said. Failing to follow these rules can result in fines.
The park will continue to use an adaptive management approach if pet waste and off leash dogs continue to negatively impact the visitor experience and resource management.
Park rangers want to remind visitors that Guilford Courthouse NMP has a B.A.R.K. Ranger program where you can receive a bandana for your pet.
Visitors are encouraged to stop by the visitor center and ask the park ranger for an information card, then take your furry friend on a walk around the park following the rules of B.A.R.K. | https://greensboro.com/news/local/guilford-courthouse-national-military-park-reopens-interior-trails-to-dogs/article_ba6f5fe2-171f-11ed-b6c1-77538ecdda85.html | 2022-08-08T20:00:40 | 0 | https://greensboro.com/news/local/guilford-courthouse-national-military-park-reopens-interior-trails-to-dogs/article_ba6f5fe2-171f-11ed-b6c1-77538ecdda85.html |
Democratic congressional leaders’ apparent pledge to push for completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline gives new life to a proposed 75-mile extension that would move 375 million cubic feet of natural gas through the Triad daily.
That’s enough to serve more than 2.2 million average U.S. homes for a day — and to fan smoldering opposition from environmental organizations.
The proposed $500 million MVP Southgate extension would pick up where the Mountain Valley Pipeline stops in southern Virginia, run through the heart of Rockingham County and end in Alamance County. But that can only happen if work resumes on the main 303-mile MVP Pipeline project, which paused this past winter when courts nullified a handful of environmental permits.
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality said as much when it rejected water-quality permits for the Southgate project in August 2020.
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“In essence, it would be a pipeline from nowhere to nowhere incapable of carrying any natural gas, and certainly not able to fulfill its basic project purpose, while having no practical alternative,” state officials said in explaining its permit denial. “Prior to incurring any impacts to North Carolina natural resources ... a level of certainty regarding the completion of the MVP Mainline pipeline is required.”
That’s why the recent Washington machinations of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Democratic congressional leaders and President Joe Biden could directly impact the Triad.
Finishing work on the main Mountain Valley Pipeline is the final item in an agreement that cleared the way for Manchin’s support of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The nearly $740 billion package includes $369 billion in climate-related initiatives, which Democrat Manchin has been slow to support as he looks to protect his state’s fossil fuel industry.
Completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline — which would carry natural gas from West Virginia’s Marcellus shale fields to Pittsylvania County in Virginia, just across the border from Rockingham County — was one of a page-full of conditions Manchin offered in return for his support of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The spending plan passed the evenly divided Senate 51-50 Sunday, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote.
Manchin’s demands for supporting the package include streamlining and speeding regulatory reviews of energy-related projects, and limiting courts’ ability to block permits. Those proposed changes, aimed at removing hurdles for projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline pipelines, have angered environmental advocates who otherwise praise the climate items laid out in the agreement.
“If even half of the measures outlined in Manchin’s proposal are passed, it would constitute a major overhaul of fossil fuel infrastructure permitting,” said Ridge Graham of the environmental group Appalachian Voices. “By itself, any legislation that requires the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline is unacceptable. When combined with multiple, sweeping changes that fast-track any number of unnecessary projects, gut critical environmental protections and hamstring the authority of multiple federal agencies, such a permitting reform bill would be a disaster for clean air, clean water and frontline communities.”
As has been the case with the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the proposed Southgate project — which would supply natural gas to PSNC Energy customers and others — has exposed a rift between backers who tout the potential economic benefits and opponents concerned about possible environmental threats.
Both projects also have divided political leaders largely along party lines, with Republicans overwhelmingly in support of the pipelines and Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, generally opposed.
“Completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline will help bring a second interstate natural gas pipeline to North Carolina,” Senate leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County said in an email to the Journal. “Hopefully Gov. Cooper will reconsider his previous opposition to increased energy security and support this opportunity to lower energy costs and provide manufacturers and residents in North Carolina with reliable access to natural gas.”
As proposed, MVP Southgate would enter North Carolina in a southwest direction just west of Eden before taking a nearly 90-degree turn and passing near Wentworth and Eden as it heads southeast. After crossing into Alamance County, the pipeline would curl around the north and east sides of Burlington, ending in Graham.
Republicans in the General Assembly have argued that relying solely on the existing Transco Pipeline — which also slices through the heart of the Triad — as a primary natural gas supply puts the state’s energy production at risk.
Democrats and critics of the projects, meanwhile, insist that new fossil fuel transmission lines will simply become costly “stranded assets” — paid for by utility customers — as North Carolina moves to meet reductions in greenhouse gas emissions laid out in legislation approved and signed by Cooper in October 2021.
Agreeing to dilute the permitting process for such projects in exchange for Manchin’s support of climate-related measures is counterproductive, environmental activists added.
“Ensuring our communities and our clean air and water are protected is not a trade chip,” said Mahyar Sorour, deputy legislative director at the Sierra Club. “Requiring a robust review of how a project will impact a community or the environment is not an impediment, but rather a lifeline to ensure people are put above polluter profits.“ | https://greensboro.com/news/local/pipeline-project-cutting-through-triad-has-new-life-assuaging-some-angering-others/article_3e3c3cf8-1713-11ed-8a69-03a3b7e6018c.html | 2022-08-08T20:00:46 | 1 | https://greensboro.com/news/local/pipeline-project-cutting-through-triad-has-new-life-assuaging-some-angering-others/article_3e3c3cf8-1713-11ed-8a69-03a3b7e6018c.html |
The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed a 2.0 magnitude earthquake occurred at 12:24 a.m. today just east of Archdale.
Most people may not have even noticed it, but if you did, the USGS is asking the public to share their experience at earthquake.usgs.gov. The depth of it was measured at 6.2 kilometers — or a little more than 3.8 miles deep.
In March 2019, the USGS reported that a 2.6 magnitude earthquake struck about 5 miles east of Archdale.
"Since at least 1776, people living inland in North and South Carolina, and in adjacent parts of Georgia and Tennessee, have felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from infrequent larger ones," the USGS explained on their website. "The largest earthquake in the area (magnitude 5.1) occurred in 1916. Moderately damaging earthquakes strike the inland Carolinas every few decades, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once each year or two." | https://greensboro.com/news/local/usgs-reports-small-earthquake-overnight-just-east-of-archdale/article_31bcaff2-172d-11ed-b35b-470b5535bc90.html | 2022-08-08T20:00:52 | 1 | https://greensboro.com/news/local/usgs-reports-small-earthquake-overnight-just-east-of-archdale/article_31bcaff2-172d-11ed-b35b-470b5535bc90.html |
Fond du Lac dumpster fire damages two Ellis Street homes, displaces residents
FOND DU LAC - A dumpster fire with an unknown cause damaged two homes on Ellis Street Sunday night, Fond du Lac Fire/Rescue said.
A passersby on Ellis Street alerted 911 and residents when they saw the fire, the fire department said. Three residents in one home were evacuated before the fire crews arrived at around 6:37 p.m. Sunday.
When first responders arrived, the dumpster fire was spreading to one house's siding and attic. The house was 4 feet away from the dumpster, while a second house was only 8 feet away, the fire department said.
The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes. However, by the time crews finished putting it out, one home was severely damaged while the other had some minor burns on the exterior soffit, the fire department said.
No injuries were reported to fire crews, the fire department said, though the Red Cross is helping some of the residents who were displaced from their home. No monetary estimate of the damage was available.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Contact Rebecca Loroff at 920-907-7801 or rloroff@gannett.com. | https://www.fdlreporter.com/story/news/local/2022/08/08/fond-du-lac-dumpster-fire-damages-two-homes-displaces-residents/10263784002/ | 2022-08-08T20:02:03 | 1 | https://www.fdlreporter.com/story/news/local/2022/08/08/fond-du-lac-dumpster-fire-damages-two-homes-displaces-residents/10263784002/ |
Retired Kenosha Fire Captain Carl Carlson set out On May 15 to cross the country by bicycle.
Seventy-three days, 13 states, one Canadian province and 4,020 miles later, he concluded his journey at the Pacific.
“It has really been a lifelong goal,” Carlson said. “I've been a cyclist pretty much all my life, and it was just something that I had seen done before and read articles on and stuff like that.
“When I was about 17, my family took a trip out west to South Dakota and I saw a cyclist doing a long distance tour. I didn't really talk to him at all, but it always stood out in my mind that, ‘wow, that seems really cool.’”
After retiring in April after spending 30 years with the fire department, this summer turned out to be the perfect time for Carlson to embark on his cycling journey.
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“It's something that I had been thinking of (doing) in retirement, and everything just kind of came together where I then had the time and not many family obligations and stuff right now, so it was the perfect opportunity,” Carlson said.
Carlson's itinerary
His first stop was in Portland, Maine. He and his wife drove east to visit friends, and on May 15 she dropped him off on the coast.
From there, he biked to Vermont and New York before going into Canada over Lake Erie, and into Michigan. Carlson took a ferry over Lake Michigan into Wisconsin, and then biked through the remainder of the states on his route: Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
The trip took about a year to plan, including the route and figuring out how far he wanted to travel each day. Carlson’s nights were about a 50-50 split between camping and staying in hotels.
“Initially, I had planned to do quite a bit of camping, so I had my tent and sleeping kit and everything with me. And then I ended up staying in hotels more often than what I had thought I would, just because of weather, or sometimes it would be at the end of a long day and it would be be raining … so I wanted to hotel the warm up,” Carlson said. “Then other days, it was so hot that I wanted some air conditioning and chance to get a nice cool shower and stuff.”
Challenges along the way
Carlson experienced varying weather conditions as he traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On harsh-weather days, Carlson shortened his planned routes or took days off to wait out the conditions. Weather was actually less of a problem than he anticipated, he said, but his trip was not without difficulties, especially as record heat waves hit the West coast.
“(There were) hotter temperatures as I got out West, especially into Washington and Oregon. They were having record high temperatures close to the hundreds, so that definitely played a factor,” Carlson said. “By far, the worst weather conditions were in the early part of South Dakota with just horrible headwinds, sustained at 25 miles an hour-plus. (It) just was really, really difficult riding.”
Carlson’s biking terrain on his trip varied widely, as he traveled through multiple regions of the country.
“It was a little bit of everything, from designated bike trails that were completely separated from the road, to ... out West, where they allow you to ride on the interstate,” Carlson said. “There was a little bit of everything.”
Making his way with 86 pounds of weight from his bike and gear, Carlson luckily only dealt with two flat tires. The biggest issue he struggled with at times was finding places to stay or eat at night due to shortened hours and low staff.
“A lot of places across the United States are still looking for a lot of help, and their hours are limited,” Carlson said. “So that made it a little bit more difficult.”
Despite some challenges, Carlson finished his trip right on schedule, on July 26.
“It could have gone either way. I could have finished a little bit earlier,” Carlson said. “I was really happy with how everything worked out so closely to the plan.”
Trip highlights
Some of Carlson’s favorite spots on his trip were Niagara Falls, the Black Hills and Badlands, and Yellowstone National Park.
“But probably the best of all was the Columbia River Gorge area in Oregon,” Carlson said. “There are waterfalls all over the place and you've got Mount Hood on one side and Mount Adams on the other. Really, it’s just gorgeous.”
Carlson’s biggest takeaway from the trip, he said, was how fun it was meeting new people across the country and learning how friendly and helpful people can be, even toward strangers.
“You see things on TV, read the news, and there's so many horror stories, and it's always so negative. But you get out in the real world, and you find out that people are good,” Carlson said. “And the world isn't as scary as what the news paints it to be or the TV paints it to be. So I would encourage people to get out in the real world and live that reality instead of being scared by what they see on TV.”
So what’s next for the cross-country cycler?
Carlson isn’t sure about doing another 73-day trip, but he will “definitely do another tour.”
“I don't know if it'll be as long as this one. The hardest part was being away from family for so long,” Carlson said. “But I could certainly see myself doing a monthlong trip or something like that.”
While Carlson is happy he was able to finish his journey on time with his itinerary, he emphasized that the trip was not about the speed: “Most importantly, the trip was more about smiles per hour than miles per hour!” | https://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/counting-smiles-per-hour-retired-kenosha-firefighter-completes-cross-country-bicycle-journey/article_ee5bff78-1426-11ed-927f-578a5c72c3f5.html | 2022-08-08T20:06:29 | 0 | https://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/counting-smiles-per-hour-retired-kenosha-firefighter-completes-cross-country-bicycle-journey/article_ee5bff78-1426-11ed-927f-578a5c72c3f5.html |
TWIN LAKES -- The demolition of the former Twin Lakes Municipal Building, 108 E Main St., Twin Lakes, started Monday morning, with a excavator beginning the roughly month-long work of turning the site into a village parking lot.
At about 9 a.m., an excavator began demolishing the rear of the building. Laura Roesslein, Twin Lakes’ village administrator, said it would take roughly a week to remove the building and several more weeks to convert the space into a parking lot.
The new village hall sits across the street, built after a survey of the previous building found it would cost $1 million to renovate. Operations moved over in late March.
“Rather than put that money to repair the old one, we decided to just get a new building,” Roesslein said.
The new parking lot will give additional spaces for the village hall, as well as for anyone visiting the downtown area. | https://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/watch-now-demolition-of-old-twin-lakes-municipal-building-underway/article_60f4a9c8-174b-11ed-96c6-afaaec3ec1ba.html | 2022-08-08T20:06:35 | 1 | https://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/watch-now-demolition-of-old-twin-lakes-municipal-building-underway/article_60f4a9c8-174b-11ed-96c6-afaaec3ec1ba.html |
DALLAS (KDAF) — Arlington Municipal Court wants to help people with outstanding traffic tickets or any other Class C violations that don’t have the financial means to get them resolved.
On Wednesday, Aug. 31, city officials are hosting a one-day, walk-in event where people can get the help they need to overcome any barriers preventing them from resolving their citations.
“We hope people take advantage of this one-day opportunity to resolve their outstanding warrants, without fear of arrest, and to connect with some outstanding resources available throughout our city and county that can make a real difference in their lives,” Associate Municipal Judge Danielle Dulaney said on City of Arlington’s website.
The event will be held from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the East Library and Recreation Center, 1817 New York Ave. Here are some of the government and non-profit companies that will be on-site to provide assistance:
- Mission Arlington
- Goodwill North Central Texas
- Destiny Empowerment Enterprises
- Via Rideshare
- The Arlington Public Library
- The Arlington Housing Authority
For more information, click here. | https://cw33.com/news/local/arlington-municipal-court-offering-walk-in-event-to-help-people-resolve-class-c-violations/ | 2022-08-08T20:09:39 | 1 | https://cw33.com/news/local/arlington-municipal-court-offering-walk-in-event-to-help-people-resolve-class-c-violations/ |
DALLAS (KDAF) — Well, it sure is a lovely sight to see that some rain is in the forecast for the North Texas work week during the second week of August. The National Weather Service center in Fort Worth has shared its forecast for Monday through the end of the work week.
Up first, Monday of course, “The heat will continue today, but we will see an increase in coverage of showers and storms in the afternoon. Rain chances will be primarily across North Texas north of I-20.”
NWS Fort Worth shared this about Monday and Tuesday’s rain chances:
“Monday: Most of the storms should remain over Oklahoma, but isolated storms are possible across most of North Texas and our southeastern counties this afternoon. Tuesday: A cluster of storms to our northeast Tuesday morning should move across the area over the course of the day. Rain chances are highest across the northeast and lower to the southwest. Storms should still be very hit-or-miss, so not everyone will receive rain.”
NWS Fort Worth/Dallas
As the work week moves forward rain chances increase in the region. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected to make their way into North Texas by midweek. “While everyone will not receive rainfall, chances will be higher than they’ve been in a while. Rain chances will shift south into Central Texas by Thursday into Friday.”
Rain is very much needed in the region, thankfully it seems to be on the way this week, however here’s what NWS Fort Worth says about DFW’s precipitation-free streak, “DFW Airport hasn’t recorded measurable rainfall since June 3. The current dry spell is the 2nd longest on record.” | https://cw33.com/news/local/chances-for-rain-prominent-this-week-in-north-texas-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ | 2022-08-08T20:09:45 | 0 | https://cw33.com/news/local/chances-for-rain-prominent-this-week-in-north-texas-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ |
DALLAS (KDAF) — The Dallas Cowboys won the NFC East Division last year behind a heck-of-a regular season before losing to the talented San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card round. Now, the offseason is in full swing as training camp is alive and well for teams across the league.
America’s Team wants its fans to mark their calendars in order to know when it’s time to join the team for its offseason festivities as it’s set to host them during practices at The Star in Frisco.
The team tweeted, “Mark your calendars for Training Camp presented by @AmericanAir at @thestarinfrisco! Join us for back-to-back nights of #CowboysCamp, Opening Ceremony, DCC performances & more!”
From August 23-24 for free at the Ford Center, you’ll be able to attend open practices on back-to-back nights in the heart of Frisco. Here’s what you need to know:
August 23
- Festivities begin at 4:00 p.m. on Tostitos Championship Plaza with a performance by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, live DJ and Host, Rowdy, interactive games, giveaways and more on Tostitos Championship Plaza.
- Doors to Ford Center will be open to the public starting at 4:45 p.m.
- The opening ceremony will take place at 5:15 p.m. which will include a performance by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and remarks from Cowboys Owner, President and General Manager Jerry Jones before the 6:00 p.m. open practice session.
- Cowboys Night will be broadcast live from 6:00-8:00 p.m. on TXA 21
August 24
- Open practice begins at 6 p.m. | https://cw33.com/news/local/dallas-cowboys-to-host-fans-at-the-star-for-training-camp-practices-in-late-august/ | 2022-08-08T20:09:51 | 1 | https://cw33.com/news/local/dallas-cowboys-to-host-fans-at-the-star-for-training-camp-practices-in-late-august/ |
DALLAS (KDAF) — A Dallas-based filmmaker is receiving attention from one of the most prestigious institutions in Hollywood.
Manos De Oro, a short film from Dallas-based Merced Elizondo, was chosen from a pool of 5,000 entries for official selection at The 18th Annual Academy Awards Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival.
“HollyShorts (HSFF) brings together top creators, industry leaders, and companies and has launched many filmmakers into the next stages of their careers,” as stated on their website.
According to a report from AwardsDaily.com, winners of the festival’s top three prizes will be eligible for nomination at the upcoming Oscars ceremony.
Festival officials say last year’s HollyShorts festival has six selections nominated for Academy Awards with two of them receiving wins. For more information, visit HollyShorts.com. | https://cw33.com/news/local/dallas-filmmakers-short-film-to-be-screened-at-academy-awards-qualifying-film-festival/ | 2022-08-08T20:09:57 | 1 | https://cw33.com/news/local/dallas-filmmakers-short-film-to-be-screened-at-academy-awards-qualifying-film-festival/ |
DALLAS (KDAF) — CBD is becoming very popular these days as it is being used more and more to help relieve pain and anxiety. Monday, August 8 is National CBD Day!
NationalToday says, “National CBD Day is celebrated on August 8 every year. This is a day to celebrate and spread awareness about the usages and capacities of cannabidiol, a hemp-based compound that is touted for its ability to relieve pain and anxiety. It is also believed to be effective for movement and cognition-based disorders.”
What is CBD? “C.B.D. is a phytocannabinoid that can be internally consumed by people and dogs without any adverse effects. In fact, C.B.D. has gained popularity over recent years because of the way it has seemed to help a lot of people with myofascial pain and with mental illnesses like anxiety.”
Yelp has a list of the best CBD stores in and around Dallas:
- The Weed Spot – Oak Cliff
- CBD Kratom – Uptown
- Artisan Vapor & CBD Dallas
- Total Nutrition CBD – Lower Greenville
- Haylo CBD Wellness
- CBD Plus USA – Plano
- DFW CBD & Wellness
- CBD Farmhouse – North Dallas
- Endo Dispensary & Wellness | https://cw33.com/news/local/its-national-cbd-day-here-are-the-best-cbd-stores-in-dallas-according-to-yelp/ | 2022-08-08T20:10:04 | 1 | https://cw33.com/news/local/its-national-cbd-day-here-are-the-best-cbd-stores-in-dallas-according-to-yelp/ |
DALLAS (KDAF) — A week of August has come and gone and that means August 8 is here and it just so happens to be International Cat Day!
Cats are one of the craziest yet normal pets people can own, their mannerisms are other-worldly yet so common it just makes sense. NationalToday says, “Cats are one of the coolest beings on the planet: they are independent, inquisitive, adventurous, have an amazing physiognomy, and the power to heal by themselves — at least most of the time.”
If you’re wanting a new companion or wanting to lend a helping hand to sweet animals, we checked out Yelp’s list of the best cat rescues and pet adoption spots in Dallas:
- Animal Rescue of Texas – Uptown
- Dallas Cat Lady – Arts District
- East Lake Cat Care Center – Lake Highlands
- Humane Society of Dallas County
- SPCA of Texas
- Second Chance SPCA
- Take Me Home Pet Rescue
- DFW Humane Society
- In-Sync Exotics
- Operation Kindness
- Dallas County Animal Services & Adoption Center
- Carrollton Animal Services & Adoption Center
- MatchAPet
- Richardson Animal Shelter
- The Colony Animal Services
- Lost Paws Rescue of Texas
- Tri-City Animal Shelter and Adoption Center | https://cw33.com/news/local/these-are-the-best-cat-rescues-pet-adoption-spots-in-dallas-according-to-yelp/ | 2022-08-08T20:10:10 | 0 | https://cw33.com/news/local/these-are-the-best-cat-rescues-pet-adoption-spots-in-dallas-according-to-yelp/ |
DALLAS (KDAF) — Do you love margaritas? This tour might be the one for you. No matter how you like them, frozen or not, there is something for everyone at Visit Dallas’ Margarita Mile.
After a pause and a facelift, the Margarita Mile has officially made a comeback. The Margarita Mile is a self-guided tour of the best and brightest margaritas in Dallas, the official home of the frozen margarita.
“The Margarita Mile is a uniquely Dallas experience, and we’re thrilled to bring it back even bigger and better this year with new restaurants and swag to earn,” Jennifer Walker, Visit Dallas Chief Marketing Officer, said in a news release.
The tour is free. Users will get a curated pass directly to their smartphones through text or email and can begin touring immediately There are more than 20 participating restaurants offering great margaritas and cool swag.
“As the official home of the frozen margarita, what better way to experience the diverse flavors and neighborhoods Dallas has to offer than with the ultimate margarita bucket list?” Walker said in a news release.
Participants who reach “Rita Rockstar” status will get a chance to win the Dallas Prize Package, which includes a two-night stay in Dallas, attraction passes and more.
Participants must be 21 years old or older to take the tour. This season is now open from now until Nov. 5, 2023. For more information, visit margaritamiledallas.com.
Photos courtesy Visit Dallas | https://cw33.com/news/local/this-tour-shows-you-the-best-places-to-get-a-margarita-in-dallas/ | 2022-08-08T20:10:16 | 0 | https://cw33.com/news/local/this-tour-shows-you-the-best-places-to-get-a-margarita-in-dallas/ |
DALLAS (KDAF) — Children in North Texas are beginning to go back to school and that can be an adjustment not only for families but also for drivers.
After two months of not having to worry about children occupying school zones, drivers will not have to be on the lookout to make sure they are driving safely.
To help drivers, the Texas Department of Transportation has released some tips for driving in school zones on Twitter. Here are some of their lessons:
- Stay alert and put your phone away
- Obey school zone signs
- Watch for children darting into the street or between vehicles
- Stop for school buses with flashing red lights or a stop-arm sign
They also included tips for children:
- Use crosswalks and obey crossing guards
- Make eye contact with drivers before crossing the street
- Watch for traffic when stepping off a bus
- Always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle | https://cw33.com/news/local/txdot-dallas-releases-driving-tips-for-school-zones-amidst-back-to-school-season/ | 2022-08-08T20:10:22 | 1 | https://cw33.com/news/local/txdot-dallas-releases-driving-tips-for-school-zones-amidst-back-to-school-season/ |
ARKANSAS, USA — Arkansas is ranked 43rd in the U.S. in child-well being, according to a study that measures youth mental health, economic challenges and other factors that go into analyzing children and families in the country.
The 2022 KIDS COUNT Data Book is a 50-state report with calculations and research developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to get insight on what challenges American children are facing and how they are more likely to affect minorities.
According to the data, Arkansas is ranked 39th in economic well-being for children, 34th in education, 46th in health, 46th in family and community, which averages the state as the 43rd worst overall for child well-being.
"This year’s Data Book shows Arkansas is a harder place to be a child than almost anywhere else in the country," a statement from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF)— a nonprofit in the state— said about the study.
In 11 out of 16 indicators, the study says Arkansas is worse than the national average when it comes to a child's well-being.
"And while Arkansas’s outcomes have generally improved over time, we are losing ground in preschool enrollment; our low birth weight babies rate has worsened far faster than the national rate; and we’re seeing a concerning increase in child and teen deaths and teen obesity rates," AACF said.
The data also called the current conditions of youth mental health, sourcing the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, a "youth mental health pandemic.”
“There are state-level policy solutions to every troubling piece of data,” said Rich Huddleston, executive director of AACF, which is Arkansas’s member of the KIDS COUNT network.
“Lack of political will and lack of targeted investments in our children keeps Arkansas near the bottom of the states. While Arkansas’s lawmakers this week begin debating giving generous tax cuts to the wealthiest Arkansans, we’ve got more children living in poverty, more students lacking proficiency in reading and math, and more teens giving birth than in most other states.”
The report notes a jump in the percent of children between the ages of three and 17 who experience depression and anxiety from 9.4% in 2016, to 26% in 2020. This increase represents 1.5 million more children who say they are struggling with mental health.
"Arkansas’s data are especially bleak," AACF said, "with 14.4% of children with anxiety or depression, a 67.4% increase." This puts Arkansas as the third-highest state in the country.
These numbers also show a racial disparity among wellness conditions and mental health of children of color. While racial minorities make up of 9% of all high schoolers, 12% of Black students, 13% of students who are two or more races and 26% of American Indian or Native Alaskan high schoolers attempted suicide in last year's federal survey.
"Many LGBTQ young people are encountering challenges as they seek mental health support. Among heterosexual high school students of all races and ethnicities, 6% attempted suicide; the share was 23% for gay, lesbian or bisexual students," AACF said.
The indicators that are measured in the study come from four categories:
- Economic well-being
- Education
- Health
- Family and community factors
The data in this year’s report are a mix of pre-pandemic and more recent figures and are the latest available.
“American policymakers must prioritize solutions that don’t leave anyone behind,” said Lisa Hamilton, president and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Children deserve to thrive regardless of their background or in which state they live.”
AACF made the following policy recommendations to Arkansas lawmakers:
- Extend postpartum coverage for new mothers in Medicaid. Right now, women insured under pregnancy Medicaid lose their coverage 60 days after delivery. We should expand that to 12 months, as 34 states and the District of Columbia have done or are in the process of implementing.
- Provide presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women, allowing them to be approved for Medicaid coverage quickly based on their income level.
- Allow children and babies in the lowest-income families to keep their ARKids First health insurance for a full year of continuous coverage, rather than kicking them off their insurance when their family incomes fluctuate month-to-month.
- Change the state-level policies that unnecessarily make it more difficult for Arkansas families to obtain SNAP benefits and to get enrolled in the WIC program – the nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children.
- Require scientifically based sex education in schools, and make it easier for Arkansans, including teens, to obtain long-acting contraception.
To read more about what the AACF asks from Arkansas lawmakers, you can read the full blog post here.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device | https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/arkansas-worst-states-raise-children-study/527-28a79ee3-ef38-472c-95f1-a60f1cd49f27 | 2022-08-08T20:18:33 | 0 | https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/arkansas-worst-states-raise-children-study/527-28a79ee3-ef38-472c-95f1-a60f1cd49f27 |
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Parents do a lot much for their kids, particularly handling their problems. Parents are intervening on their child's behalf, whether with the teacher, principal, coach, or other parents. And rightly so, depending on their kid's age. It's a habit that many parents continue to solve their kids' problems. The issue is that your kids get dependent on you to fix the situations that they're in.
The problem is that as some kids get older, they've gotten so used to their parents handling their issues that they're not sure how to solve them themselves. And they keep asking mom and dad for help.
It's a habit that many parents continue to solve their kids' problems. It's just like if you cook them dinner every night. You don't think about them cooking for themselves. Or, you might not like the way they handle issues and prefer to fix them yourself. The issue is that your kids get dependent on you to fix the situations that they're in. If you continue to handle the problems, they won't learn to do it themselves.
Kids gain a lot of confidence by solving their problems. They learn they have what it takes to figure things out for themselves. With practice, they'll improve at coming up with solutions, executing them, and evaluating their effectiveness. And this is a life skill they need at school, college, work, and everywhere.
When your kids ask you to handle situations for them, guide their thinking. Ask what's the problem and come up with different solutions. You can come up with ideas as well. You want to get them to think. Ask them to implement a solution. And teach them how to evaluate the results. Sometimes, the solution they pick won't work, and that's part of the learning process. Help them think through what didn't work and why.
Share your thoughts on my Facebook page: Blanca Cobb – Body Language Expert. Write a message on my timeline, and I'll get back to you. While you're on my page, I'd appreciate it if you give my page a "like." | https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/important-let-kids-solve-their-own-problems-blanca-cobb/83-3f4b3334-d233-476c-bb3f-c8b25282ca64 | 2022-08-08T20:18:39 | 0 | https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/important-let-kids-solve-their-own-problems-blanca-cobb/83-3f4b3334-d233-476c-bb3f-c8b25282ca64 |
PEORIA, Ariz. — Authorities are investigating a possible carjacking incident outside a Target in the West Valley.
The violent incident took place Monday morning in a parking lot near Northern and 91st avenues.
Peoria police said the victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries and gunshots may have been fired during the incident. Investigators are in the process of searching for the suspected carjacker.
This is a developing story and updates will be published as they become available.
RELATED: WATCH: Body camera footage captures Valley police chase, crash and gunfire with accused carjacker
Up to Speed
Catch up on the latest news and stories on our 12 News YouTube playlist here.
Silent Witness:
Arizona's Silent Witness program allows people to send in tips and share information about crimes happening within their local communities.
The program shares unsolved felony case information in multiple ways, including TV, radio and social media.
Anyone who has information on a crime or recognizes a suspect described by the program is asked to call 480-948-6377, go to the program's website online or download the Silent Witness app to provide a tip. The identity of anyone who submits a tip is kept anonymous.
Calls to Silent Witness are answered 24/7 by a live person and submitted tips are accepted at all times. Submitted tips are then sent to the detective(s) in charge of the specific case.
Individuals who submit tips that lead to an arrest or indictment in the case can get a reward of up to $1,000. | https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/carjacking-reported-outside-target-west-valley-august-2022/75-a05ea200-6f1c-4856-ad26-0b6cd48d776a | 2022-08-08T20:20:37 | 0 | https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/carjacking-reported-outside-target-west-valley-august-2022/75-a05ea200-6f1c-4856-ad26-0b6cd48d776a |
A 23-year-old Odessa woman died Sunday afternoon as a result of a collision west of Odessa, according to the Department of Public Safety.
DPS officials reported Monday that Elyza Villezcas-Navarrette died when the GMC Sierra she was traveling in was hit by a 2017 Nissan Rogue.
DPS reported that the Rogue was traveling on Timberline Avenue and “disregarded the stop sign at Timberline and West University (Farm-to-Market Road 2020) and entered the intersection.” The Rogue then collided with the Sierra, which “overturned” and then struck a 2008 Ford F-150.
The accident took place around 3:51 p.m. Villezcas-Navarrette was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced deceased at the scene. No other injuries or fatalities were reported. | https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/DPS-Odessan-dies-in-three-vehicle-collision-17359081.php | 2022-08-08T20:21:28 | 0 | https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/DPS-Odessan-dies-in-three-vehicle-collision-17359081.php |
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Eight people are in stable condition Monday after a two-vehicle collision that included a Greyhound Bus south of Midland International Airport, according to Department of Public Safety officials.
DPS reported that a Nissan Frontier was traveling eastbound on West County Road 127 around 7:56 a.m. Monday when it failed to yield the right of way to a 2020 X34 Greyhound Bus that was turning westbound onto WCR 127. The Frontier struck the front end of the bus.
DPS reported that the bus was carrying a total of 28 passengers. Six passengers were transported by Midland Fire and EMS to Midland Memorial Hospital. All passengers are reported in stable condition. The drivers of both vehicle’s 1 and 2 were also transported to Midland Memorial Hospital and are reported in stable condition, according to DPS.
Midland Health had previously reported that it activated its Disaster Preparedness Operations in response to a bus accident in Midland County.
There were no fatalities reported. | https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/MMH-activates-Disaster-Preparedness-Operations-17358984.php | 2022-08-08T20:21:34 | 1 | https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/MMH-activates-Disaster-Preparedness-Operations-17358984.php |
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Want to adopt? There are plenty of dogs and cats waiting for their furever home.
Every week, volunteer photographer, Tasha Sport, photographs some of the animals available for adoption. The adoption fee is $62 and includes microchip, rabies vac, license, tag and alter.
On a monthly basis, the shelter takes care of approximately 350 – 400 pets.
Volunteers are always needed at Midland Animal Services. The next orientation for volunteers is scheduled for Saturday, August 13th from 10-11:00 a.m. Contact the animal shelter to sign up prior to orientation.
Here's more information on how you can adopt:
To adopt one of these pets, please call the Shelter to set an appointment at (432) 685-7420.
Hours of operation: Monday - Closed, Tuesday -Thursday- 9:30-5:30 & Friday- 9:30-4:30
1200 N. Fairgrounds Road | https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/Want-to-adopt-Check-out-these-adoptable-animals-17359014.php | 2022-08-08T20:21:40 | 1 | https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/Want-to-adopt-Check-out-these-adoptable-animals-17359014.php |
The Coquille Indian Tribe expressed gratitude this week to Oregon’s U.S. senators for supporting the tribe’s conservation efforts on its namesake river.
The Senate’s appropriation bills for 2023 include $750,000 for Coquille River salmon conservation, according to Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley.
“This is going to help us address watershed management in a holistic manner,” said Tribal Chairman Brenda Meade.
After learning last year that the Coquille River’s fall Chinook salmon run was in peril, the tribe launched a cooperative initiative to rescue and restore the prized fish. Initial efforts, aided by a coalition of community partners, grew into a historic agreement for the tribe and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to co-manage the Coquille watershed.
Salmon restoration remains a priority, but Meade said cooperative efforts for habitat restoration will benefit a wide range of struggling species, including coho salmon and lamprey.
“We’ll continue looking for more resources and working with our community partners,” she said. “The work has just begun.”
The Senate appropriation bills are not final. They need to be merged with the House’s version of 2023 appropriations. | https://theworldlink.com/news/local/senate-bill-includes-750k-for-coquille-river/article_d441bf2a-1371-11ed-acac-038293661065.html | 2022-08-08T20:22:15 | 0 | https://theworldlink.com/news/local/senate-bill-includes-750k-for-coquille-river/article_d441bf2a-1371-11ed-acac-038293661065.html |
WATERLOO — A man who tried to use CashApp to collect robbery proceeds in April has been sentenced to prison.
Isaiah Malik Pratt, 20, of Waterloo, had been charged with robbery and burglary after demanding money from people in Cedar Falls parking lot. But he pleaded to a reduced charge of first-degree theft and on Thursday was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
As part of the plea, deferred judgments in earlier assault and drug cases were revoked and he was sentenced to 30 days to run concurrent with the theft case.
Authorities allege Pratt had approached people in a vehicle parked at Planet Fitness on University Avenue around 10 p.m. on April 20. He asked for money, and when they declined he climbed in the vehicle’s back seat and threatened to “stick” them, police said.
He demanded they send him money through the CashApp mobile payment system. One of the occupants sent him $47 through the app.
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Police found Pratt a short time later. Police seized and searched his phone as part of the investigation. | https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-sentenced-in-cashapp-robbery/article_b8df27dd-5f8e-5039-b213-65d0175d4b01.html | 2022-08-08T20:23:03 | 1 | https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-sentenced-in-cashapp-robbery/article_b8df27dd-5f8e-5039-b213-65d0175d4b01.html |
CALIFORNIA, USA — This story was originally published by CalMatters.
A little over a year after California launched a program to provide hearing aids for an estimated 2,300 children annually who lack health insurance, it has provided devices to only 39 children.
There have been multiple problems with the Hearing Aid Coverage for Children Program. The application process is cumbersome and families with partial insurance coverage are not eligible. For physicians, reimbursement time is long, reimbursement rates are low, and some don’t know about the program or choose not to participate, according to parents and advocates who lobbied the state to fund children’s hearing aids.
The California Department of Health Care Services, which oversees the program, refused to say why the program had served so few children in its first year and refused to let CalMatters interview anyone who works with the program. Instead, department spokesperson Anthony Cava emailed that the agency “has already implemented several key improvements to HACCP to increase access, including implementing an online directory to locate a provider for HACCP-eligible children. DHCS is committed to continuing the ramp-up of this important program, through program operations and outreach activities, to expand the program’s reach.”
The typical cost of children’s hearing aids ranges from $3,000 to $10,000. There are about 7,000 hearing impaired children in California and kids typically need new hearing aids every three years.
Hearing aids for 4-year-old Scarlett Kovacevic cost $3,200 this year. She finally qualified for the program after a frustrating six-month long application process, said her mother Mia Kovacevic. But then, her daughter’s provider, the Sutter Audiology Clinic, would not accept the program because of billing issues with the state.
Sutter does participate in state-run programs, company spokesperson Angie Sheets said in an email.
“As we do for new programs, we are reviewing the program’s requirements and processes to determine participation.”
For Kovacevic, the next-closest provider on the state’s program list is in San Francisco, two hours away from where the family lives in Placer County. So the family opted to stay with Scarlett’s providers and set up a payment plan.
“There was nothing I could do at this point,” Kovacevic said.
Scarlett was diagnosed as a newborn with sensor neural bilateral hearing loss when the family lived in Florida. She had her hearing aids by the time she was 5 months old, courtesy of a Florida program for kids without insurance.
“It felt like this (CA) program was literally making me jump through hoops. Like they just wanted to make it as hard as possible and to slow it down. There was no urgency on it,” Kovacevic said. “In Florida, they wanted to get her fitted with hearing aids as soon as possible.”
In its first year, the Department of Health Care Services received $6.7 million to administer the program and $10 million for services like hearing screenings, earmolds and hearing aids. The program is being operated within Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for low-income families, to utilize its providers and billing reimbursement rates.
This year, the Legislature asked for $5.35 million in additional funds to improve the program and expand benefits to around 1,400 children with partial insurance coverage or high deductible plans who meet the income requirements. Gov. Gavin Newsom did not include that request to expand the program in the final budget.
Advocates hope the extra money for expanded coverage will be included in a budget amendment, expected this month.
“Families are struggling to afford the cost of medically necessary hearing aids for their children,” said Michelle Marciniak, a parent of a hearing-impaired child and co-founder of Let California Kids Hear, a coalition working to ensure deaf and hard-of-hearing children have access to hearing aids and expert care. Marciniak said parents rack up debt, host fundraisers, or rely on extended family and friends for financial help, while some children go without hearing aids for months at a time.
“They are making difficult decisions and devastating tradeoffs for their families to obtain hearing aids so that their child can hear, learn and connect with the world,” she said.
California’s program focuses solely on the hearing impaired children without health insurance. The families it serves make too much money to qualify for Medi-Cal, or California Children’s Services, which assists families with children with certain disabilities. Families who qualify for the hearing aid program earn between 138% and 600% of the federal poverty level, or about $38,295 to $166,000 a year for a family of four.
Advocates had hoped the program would ease the burden for families with some insurance coverage, but it does not include them because it focuses only on those without any coverage for hearing services or hearing aids. Commercial health insurers offer a range of coverage, from zero benefits to some coverage, such as $500 to 1,000 toward hearing aids. Medi-Cal and California Children’s Services cover the full cost of hearing aids for enrolled children.
Early access to hearing aids is critical for infants and children who are hearing impaired. Children who cannot access sound as soon as possible lose speech, language, and social-emotional development, according to a 2020 study in the journal Pediatrics. Children have the best outcomes when they receive hearing aids or cochlear implants before 6 months of age, the study found.
Once that development time is lost it cannot be regained, said Dr. Dylan Chan, director of the Children’s Communications Center at UCSF and a pediatric ear, nose and throat doctor at UC San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital.
“There is a cascade of effects and all of those things can be mitigated by a kid having easy access to hearing aids,” Chan said. “It is really frustrating because this is something we know works.”
One in 500 U.S. babies is born deaf or hard of hearing, Chan said.
As of July 6, 2022, the program has received about 200 applications. Of those, 83 have been enrolled and 92 applicants have been denied. Families were denied because their incomes were high enough to exceed the program’s limits or low enough to qualify their children for Medi-Cal. Others were denied because they had some insurance coverage, or they submitted an incomplete application, according to the Department of Health Care Services.
One of the chief complaints from providers and families, said Marciniak, of Let California Kids Hear, has been providers not being reimbursed quickly or at all because the billing system was not fully set up for the program. Kovacevic said this is why her daughter’s doctors in Sacramento weren’t participating in the program.
During a hearing in February, Department of Health Care Services chief deputy director Jacey Cooper told senators that the agency released billing codes for the program over several months and that more would go live between February and May. But in June, the agency was still tweaking the program and releasing codes.
The email the department spokesperson sent CalMatters said the department has improved its billing code system after consulting with experts.
Doctors can opt onto the list, but very few have because they do not treat children or have chosen not to participate. In Los Angeles County, there are three providers. In Sacramento County, there are none.
Marciniak, of Let California Children Hear, said many of the state’s largest providers are not taking the program based on a survey by the organization.
Katharine Weir-Ebster, spokesperson for the Department of Health Care Services, wrote in an email that while the number of doctors on the program list is limited, any of the thousands of Medi-Cal providers can see the children in the program “within their scope of practice.” Medi-Cal providers include 84 enrolled audiologists and an additional 1,010 early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment providers. The department does not know how many of these are pediatric providers who specialize in working with children.
Advocates say most Medi-Cal providers do not have the qualifications or equipment to serve children. In order to get hearing aids in California, a child under 16 must get a recommendation from “both a board-certified, or a board-eligible physician specializing in otolaryngology, or the head and neck, and by a state licensed audiologist,” according to state law.
Pediatric audiologist Dr. Mary Frintner said she understands why many providers are not taking the program. They may only treat adults, and adding children means buying more equipment and adding expertise. In addition, they may not have the right systems to process the paperwork required to get paid.
Frintner, who was the only practitioner in Los Angeles last year and is now one of three, said treating children is more than just having different equipment or smaller ear molds on hand. It’s understanding how hearing loss impacts the whole child.
“Their brains are developing, their speech and language is developing. You have to have different skill levels, different test equipment and a different knowledge base,” Frintner said. “For me, it’s the patients I’ve already been seeing.”
But she is considering opting out, she said. It’s a lot of paperwork, data entry and approvals even before the child visits for the first time. Reimbursement is slower than it is with other state programs, she said, and her office staff often are submitting and resubmitting information to the state.
Frintner said she has not been paid for any of the services or hearing aids she provided through the program since she joined in July 2021.
Every child she treats on state programs is considered a financial loss, she said. Which is why she sometimes finds that after paying her staff and other bills there isn’t money left to pay herself.
“Thankfully I have a small staff and we work our buns off,” she said. “I love all my patients, the joy I see when I put a hearing aid on a child for the time or new ones or when I test a child and we are able to tell parents that their child is OK. That’s what I get, which makes me rich.”
In 2019, legislation that would have required private insurers to fully cover children’s hearing aids was headed to Newsom’s desk, said Mike Odeh, of Children Now, which supported the effort.
The bill was opposed by the California Association of Health Plans, the Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies, and America’s Health Insurance Plans.
Before it could get to Newsom, Santa Monica Democratic Assemblyman Richard Bloom pulled the bill. Bloom’s office said it was pulled because the hearing aid program was going to be included in the budget.
In Sacramento, Kimberly Nguyen, a deaf single mom of two girls who are hard of hearing, thought her daughters would qualify for the program, even though her insurance pays $1,000 toward hearing aids. Her daughter’s devices run about $6,000 for each girl every three years.
“I was thrilled when it passed. I was shocked to find out that I didn’t qualify,” said Nguyen, who had advocated for the bill and testified before the Legislature with her daughters. “I felt it was a waste of time. I waited three years.”
Every month Nguyen saves money for the next round of hearing aids for her girls, 10 and 7, and herself. She has foregone vacations, days off work and extra activities for her kids to put money away for the hearing aids. Only recently did she pay for a soccer program, which the girls love.
“My kids love to sing, love to dance, love to watch movies. It’s a quality of life issue,” she said.
Chloe, the 7-year-old, has been wearing her old hearing aids while her mom waits for the program to include kids with partial insurance. Chloe said she wants purple devices but said her mom told her to be sure because she will have them a long time.
Nguyen, who works for the California Department of Rehabilitation, is already thinking about how she will have to buy Chloe’s new pair of hearing aids soon because the state may not change the program soon enough, or ever.
“I feel it’s not fair. She is losing access to the world,” she said. “I’m going to have to buy them.”
CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Watch more from ABC10: Monkeypox outbreak: Another California county declares a local emergency | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/california-hearing-aid-coverage-for-children-program/103-948903b9-54e8-4afc-9434-600fc44ff0ae | 2022-08-08T20:23:26 | 1 | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/california-hearing-aid-coverage-for-children-program/103-948903b9-54e8-4afc-9434-600fc44ff0ae |
CALIFORNIA, USA — This story was originally published by CalMatters.
Section 8 vouchers have been one of the federal government’s landmark responses to unaffordable housing for half a century. But too often in California, families sit on a waitlist for years only to see their once-golden ticket expire before they can find a home.
A fresh batch of emergency vouchers became available last year to address growing housing insecurity during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic — and local and federal officials watching their rollout believe the new vouchers’ features already offer some promising solutions to a broken system.
Housing choice vouchers, added in 1974 to Section 8 of the federal Housing Act of 1937, allow low-income tenants to pay only 30% of their income toward rent and utilities while Uncle Sam shoulders the rest. These vouchers have helped pay rent for more than 300,000 households in California this year, totaling $1.9 billion in assistance.
But only one in four needy households get help, and the vouchers end up passing through multiple families’ hands before turning into a rent check because many landlords reject them.
The new set of vouchers released in May 2021 came with looser rules and more generous incentives to help persuade landlords to take them. Instead of any low-income household, these vouchers target people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or fleeing domestic violence — typically considered the most challenging groups to house.
Sweetening the deal for landlords is critical to the strategy, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Federal and local officials told CalMatters that signing bonuses and heftier security deposits are ways to overcome property owners’ wariness toward the program.
Yet in some of the state’s tightest rental markets, such as Los Angeles, landlord reluctance still remains a crucial hurdle, despite recent state laws intended to make finding an apartment easier for voucher recipients.
“The reality is that landlords have so many choices right now on the open market,” said Chris Contreras, chief program officer for Brilliant Corners, a San Francisco-based nonprofit housing services provider that helps voucher holders find apartments. “It really is the market forces in many ways diluting what we’re able to do.”
In just more than a year, California has used about a third of the 17,000 new vouchers it received from the feds, worth more than $400 million. Smaller cities, including Redding and San Luis Obispo, turned nearly all of their vouchers into leases — while other cities, including Los Angeles, still have more than 3,000 families waiting to find a home.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says under the emergency voucher program, it’s taking an average of 75 days to sign a lease in California and 70 days nationwide. Although HUD officials were unable to provide a comparable timeline for the traditional Section 8 program, making it difficult to evaluate the emergency voucher program more broadly, they like what they see.
“I would say that the emergency housing vouchers, in some ways, came with some of the features that we would like to see reflected in all of our voucher programs,” said Richard Cho, a senior adviser with HUD.
Success in San Luis Obispo
What sets the new vouchers apart is the additional $3,500 per voucher received by public housing authorities, which they can pool together and spend on landlord bonuses, tenant preparedness, housing search help and other services.
Of the $11.6 million spent by California housing agencies on services so far, $2.7 million went to landlord bonuses, $2.5 million to housing search assistance and $3.3 million to security deposits, application fees and other costs.
In data reported to HUD so far, California is spending a greater share of its extra dollars cajoling landlords than the nationwide average. The state received nearly a quarter of the country’s allotment of emergency vouchers, and so far accounts for 45% of the money spent on landlord incentives.
It’s unclear yet whether any one form of assistance worked better than another, especially in tight rental markets. However, the additional resources were key to getting people into apartments in 12 housing authorities across the country, including San Francisco and Santa Barbara, surveyed by the Urban Institute for a forthcoming study. But discrimination and lack of available units remain key barriers, the study found.
“Landlord incentives are really what’s enabling access to the private market with these vouchers,” said Samantha Batko, an Urban Institute researcher who led the study.
That was key in San Luis Obispo, a more affluent Central Coast city of about 50,000 people with a rental vacancy rate of less than 2%, according to RentCafe, an apartment listing service. The local housing authority used all 156 vouchers it got from the feds and received 40 more vouchers this spring. The bulk of the vouchers went toward people experiencing homelessness.
The housing authority offered landlords who had never before accepted a voucher a sign-on bonus of $4,000, while also offering $1,000 for a landlord already in their system, plus as much as $3,000 for new property managers. The incentive drew 41 new owners. The authority also offered as much as $7,500 for property damage, which has only been used twice so far.
“We’ve learned landlords really want that back-end insurance, but very few people actually use it,” said Elaine Archer, the authority’s director of housing management.
Emergency vouchers can be used for units with slightly higher rents — with limits set by the federal government based on local rent averages. That opened up a swath of the housing market previously unavailable to voucher holders. In San Luis Obispo, a voucher could pay $1,720 a month for a one-bedroom, up from $1,575.
Case management was also a federal requirement — and key to getting especially needy tenants paired with the necessary documents and willing landlords. While Uncle Sam guarantees that voucher recipients will pay the rent, landlords are often hesitant about their lack of rental history and solid references. A recent study of the Section 8 program in Los Angeles found that traditional voucher holders who were homeless were slightly more successful in finding a unit than those who were already housed, in part because they came with case managers.
“We’re going to stick with this person,” said Devon McQuade, associate director of 5Cities Homeless Coalition in San Luis Obispo. “It’s not just, ‘Go find housing and, you know, good luck from there.’”
Despite state law, discrimination persists
One secret ingredient to San Luis Obispo’s quick lease-up? Giving out way more vouchers than it had. The housing authority offered the promise of housing to around 600 households, but officials knew that most vouchers would not actually be used. Only 40% of families who get off the Section 8 waitlist usually find a unit to rent, and these vouchers had a short expiration date, Archer said.
Mitchell Friedeck, 35, got a voucher last summer while shuttling between relatives’ homes, tent campsites and a homeless shelter in San Luis Obispo with his three kids, who are 3, 4 and 8. After a separation from his wife and the pandemic’s heavy toll on his local publishing and ad sales business, he transitioned to being a stay-at-home dad and became homeless for more than a year.
“There was a lot of dust and dirt,” he recalls. “Cleaning every day the tent, the feet, cold showers… It was just a nightmare.”
Friedeck tried to apply to more than 100 properties over four months with his voucher, to no avail. He said no one called him back, and most landlords asked him to show a 650 credit score, which he didn’t have, and earn three times the rent. (Under state law, a landlord can only require a voucher holder to make three times their portion of the rent, not the entire rent.)
“They flat out would tell me, ‘You’re not going to qualify,’” he said. “I felt hopeless and helpless.”
Giving out more vouchers than the feds can fund — knowing that many won’t be used — isn’t an uncommon practice, according to experts. But it’s especially disheartening to advocates who helped pass a state law in 2019 barring landlords from rejecting vouchers. Refusing tenants based on their “source of income” is now a form of housing discrimination similar to denying someone a rental based on their race or disability.
“We should be doing things to change that reality, and now we have the tools,” said Sasha Harnden, a public policy advocate at Inner City Law Center in Los Angeles who helped draft the law.
“It may be appropriate to talk about incentives at some point,” he added. “But what we’ve not seen is really robust enforcement of the law that prohibits refusing the vouchers in the first place, and that seems like a natural starting point.”
The state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing is in charge of enforcing the anti-discrimination law, but doesn’t dedicate full-time staff to the effort. The agency depends largely on complaints from tenants; it received just 82 statewide in 2020, the first year the law went into effect.
The state sent 20 letters to landlords in 2021 and 37 so far this year, warning them to take down apartment listings that say “No Section 8.” The department also mediated at least one settlement — between Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California and the owners of a Marin County apartment complex that had said it would not rent to voucher recipients.
But proving discrimination is tough, especially when landlords are still allowed to deny a voucher recipient based on other factors, such as credit history or a criminal background, or ask for rents higher than what the voucher program pays.
“We don’t want to be so aggressive that we alienate every landlord, so we have to do this horrible dance,” said Jack Lahey, homeless services director at Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo, which connected Friedeck with a voucher.
This year, state lawmakers considered two bills that would prohibit landlords from conducting credit checks as part of the tenant screening process if an applicant is a voucher recipient — a measure many housing authorities said could help clients avoid the onerous application costs that come with an unsuccessful housing search.
Both bills faced stiff landlord opposition and were tabled this spring.
‘Up against a wall’
Despite the promise of signing bonuses and other incentives, many landlords remain unswayed. And some of California’s largest housing authorities are taking longer than the rest of the state to house their emergency voucher recipients.
Nowhere is the challenge more acute than in Los Angeles, whose city housing authority received more than 3,300 emergency vouchers, the biggest grant in the state and second only to New York City in the nation.
As of this month, only 207 of those vouchers were in use — 6% of the vouchers given to the agency, according to HUD data. Thousands of other recipients are still searching for a unit. In a late July statement, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles said updated numbers show the city has leased 325 units.
Local housing authorities and advocates blame intense competition for a slim supply of low-rent units — among tenants not receiving aid, thousands of traditional Section 8 voucher holders and now the thousands of new emergency voucher recipients receiving aid from the city housing agency, the county housing authority and smaller housing authorities across Los Angelese County.
“We’re coming up against a wall of available units at our price point,” said Carlos VanNatter, director of Section 8 for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles’ rental vacancy rate was just more than 4% in June, according to RentCafe. For emergency voucher holders and other local homeless placement programs, VanNatter’s agency offers landlords $2,500 for each recipient that moves into a unit, plus funding to repair a unit in advance of a HUD inspection, VanNatter said. In addition, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority can provide a security deposit of as much as twice the monthly rent.
Daniel Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, said many property owners “don’t want to touch” any voucher programs, particularly those run by the larger housing authorities.
Landlords continue to hold suspicions about tenants who hold vouchers, driven by anecdotes from fellow property owners, he said. With plenty of potential tenants, they don’t want to wade through the paperwork of the voucher program. And they’re unwilling to wait, Yukelson said, for a housing authority to conduct an inspection — sometimes losing a month or two of rent — before a tenant moves in.
“There’s just not enough money put on the table for people to jump for it,” Yukelson said. “If I had a vacant unit and had 20 people show up — there’s a bunch of people begging to rent my apartment — why deal with all the administrative burdens?”
VanNatter said it’s difficult to tell just how effective the incentives will be, but he’s wary of overusing them.
“Landlords are smart, they’re trying to optimize dollars,” he said. “Would it help if we provide more money in these incentives? But it almost seems like we’re just throwing this money out there.”
The San Diego Housing Commission, operating in a city with an even slimmer 3% rental vacancy rate, has used nearly 80% of its 480 emergency vouchers. It boasts similar landlord incentives and housing search services as Los Angeles, as well as an initiative using local funds to pay landlords who have vacant units as they identify tenants. That allows the housing authority to reserve units for voucher holders.
There were also staffing and administrative reasons the emergency voucher program started slowly in Los Angeles, VanNatter said.
Asked to explain the differing emergency voucher leasing rates across the state, HUD officials attributed the challenges to local rental markets. They also pointed out that in jurisdictions such as Los Angeles, emergency vouchers have been prioritized for those who are currently homeless, who can face greater barriers and take longer finding a unit than those deemed “at risk.”
But federal officials said they remain optimistic the vouchers will ultimately be used up in time. Housing authorities must finish distributing them by fall 2023.
Friedeck, in San Luis Obispo, eventually found a landlord willing to rent to his family, with the help of the housing authority. He is now paying $205 a month while the feds cover the rest of the $1,800 rent for his two-bedroom apartment in Nipomo.
“It’s still a transition for me and I’m working my way up, but now I can reclaim my business and I can reclaim myself and my foundation for my kids,” he said.
Helen Miller, who manages the 18-unit apartment complex where Friedeck lives, said she and her mother used to have mostly Section 8 tenants until the housing authority stopped covering the cost of tenant damages years ago.
According to Archer, from the housing authority, multiple elderly and disabled tenants fell behind on rent during the pandemic and the emergency vouchers offered a solution. Miller said five tenants now pay with the vouchers, and she and her mother receive about $400 more a month than they normally would get for the unit, which was priced below market rent.
“We gave them a chance and it’s been working out so far,” she said. “All these people need is a leg up. And it was a good feeling knowing Mitchell’s kids have a bed to sleep in.”
CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Watch more from ABC10: Squatters move into empty homes amid Sacramento's booming housing market | California Housing Crisis | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/california-housing-crisis-emergency-vouchers/103-bcdf72d9-7ec0-435e-8aae-efcf53dd5f8b | 2022-08-08T20:23:26 | 1 | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/california-housing-crisis-emergency-vouchers/103-bcdf72d9-7ec0-435e-8aae-efcf53dd5f8b |
CALIFORNIA, USA — This story was originally published by CalMatters.
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Wildland firefighters don’t admit to fearing much, but lightning is one terror that even the most experienced veterans say they hope to never encounter.
The worry is not being struck by a bolt, although it can be deadly. Instead, their primary concern is that lightning, slashing down in remote areas, can trigger unseen fires that smolder for days before they flare up, bursting into a dangerous and difficult-to-fight wildfire.
In August 2020, a remarkable barrage of lightning in Central and Northern California spawned more than 15,000 strikes over a few days, igniting more than 600 fires and burning more than 2 million acres. Five simultaneous lightning-sparked fires destroyed thousands of homes and buildings and claimed the lives of at least seven people.
Last September, lightning ignited a nasty, fire in groves of ancient sequoia trees in Sequoia-Kings National Park.
And now, a cluster of 12 lightning-sparked fires is burning in the Six Rivers National Forest east of Eureka, forcing evacuations in parts of Trinity and Humboldt counties.
It’s starting to look like a preview of the future: As climate change continues to alter the landscape, particularly in the West, scientists warn that lightning strikes capable of igniting wildfires are expected to multiply.
One study predicts that lightning strikes nationwide will increase 12% for every degree Celsius of global warming and about 50% over the 21st century if people keep emitting planet-warming greenhouse gases at the current pace. Other studies over the past three decades have predicted similar effects of climate change.
“The evidence from looking at climate models is that we can expect that lightning will increase,” said David Romps, who directs the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center and co-authored the study. “My best guess is that by the end of the century — if we continue to burn coal and fossil fuels — we anticipate an increase of the number of lightning strikes by 50%.”
Lightning plays an outsized role in wildfires: More than 40% of wildfires in the West, largely in places other than California, were caused by lightning, and those fires accounted for more than 70% of the acreage burned between 1992 and 2015, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
“Lightning is so dangerous, usually it stays pretty much on the east side of the state, but last year it was all over the place, including the Coast Range,” said David Carle, whose book, Introduction to Fire in California, is a primer on the subject. “I think we have learned that dry lightning storms are a real problem.”
The strangeness of the 2020 lightning-sparked fires — striking in coastal ranges unaccustomed to electrical storms — was underscored by the absence of rain, meaning that powerful natural energy hit the ground precisely where overgrown, dry vegetation waited, with no rain to quench the sparks.
“Dry lightning — it’s what everybody fears,” said Paul Steblein, a fire science coordinator with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Lightning strikes difficult to model
There’s little debate that climate change is driving larger and more frequent fires. But so far, scientists have not yet seen an increase in lightning events.
“I’ve looked at lightning trends over the last 25 years, and there hasn’t been a noticeable increase in global lightning or U.S. lightning,”said Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist who monitors lightning for Vaisala, a Finnish company that operates a vast U.S. network of lightning sensors, providing research and real-time data to governmental agencies and private companies.
Because lightning is caused by hyper-local, highly transitory factors, such as winds, it’s difficult for scientists to tease out patterns or project the future. “Lightning itself is such a small process that it can’t be modeled explicitly at climate scales,” Vagasky said.
Lightning is created by static electricity in clouds, as ice droplets bump into each other and cause friction, heating the air in the cloud to as high as 54,000 degrees. About 80% of the time, lightning explodes from cloud to cloud, crackling and snapping in the upper atmosphere in thunderclouds that can rise 10 miles.
In 2020 some 170 million lightning strikes occurred across the country, about 22% below average; California was 51% below average with 283,000 strikes, despite the deadly August 2020 surge. In 2021 nationwide strikes were about 15-20% below average, Vagasky said.
California does not rank among the top ten states for lightning strikes: Texas, Florida and Oklahoma, where warm, moist air spends the summer, are the leaders. While lightning can set grass fires in those states, the repercussions are nothing like California’s expansive, destructive and deadly wildfires.
Still, the Golden State has a history of catastrophic fires sparked by lightning storms. In the Siege of ’87, lightning assaulted the California-Oregon border for two weeks, setting off as many as 4,000 fires. Lightning-sparked fires in 1999 also merged in Big Sur into a massive conflagration, and more than 5,000 strikes over a day and a half set off about 1,000 fires in 2008.
Fighting unpredictable lightning fires
While less lightning in California over recent years is good news for fire commanders, the scientists’ projections of an increase in coming decades are sobering: The stubborn drought and record heat mean that lightning strikes are particularly dangerous.
“There are some lightning strikes in these conditions where you have immediate fire activity,” said Anthony Scardina, deputy regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service. “In other instances, the strike may not show a flame for 72 hours. It could hit a single tree, and in the right environment, it could flame up later and grow. The fire is out there, hiding.”
Such blazes are known as “holdover fires,” said Robyn Heffernan, a federal meteorologist working at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, the nerve center for U.S. wildland firefighting. “When there are thunderstorms and lightning events, we know that these small fires can be out there and we look for them.”
Another complicating issue with lightning-caused fires is the unpredictability of their location. Lightning can strike as far as 20 miles away from the thunderstorm that generated them. Human-caused fires, which account for about 95% of wildfires in California, tend to start near people or equipment, generally within reasonable reach of fire crews. But lightning’s caprice means fires can pop up virtually anywhere, in the backcountry or far from firefighters.
Brian Rhodes, the U.S. Forest Service’s deputy director for fire and aviation management, said it’s almost impossible to forecast lightning-sparked fires, calling them a “ wild card.”
“I’ve been working in California my entire career and our weather models really struggle to keep up with predicting these events,” he said.
Understanding weather patterns and lightning risk is a critical piece of fire strategy, so much so that large blazes are assigned fire weather officers who receive special training and certification from the National Weather Service.
The 2021 lightning storms in the Bay Area and Southern California lasted less than 12 hours, compared to two days of strikes that triggered the August 2020 fire siege. That siege caught authorities off guard for an array of reasons: the number of strikes, the speed at which the fires spread and converged, and how broadly dispersed the lightning storms were.
The five major lightning-sparked fires all ignited within three days, beginning on Aug. 16, reaching from Monterey Bay north to the Oregon border. In the end, lightning storms had spawned California’s first “gigafire,” a single blaze that grew to more than a million acres.
One of the biggest fires — the CZU August Complex fire north of Santa Cruz — was sparked by lightning around 3 a.m on a Sunday, on Aug. 16. By noon, 22 fires were detected, 15 of them unstaffed with firefighters.
That same day, lightning sparked the LNU fires, racing through Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solana and Yolo Counties. Thunderstorms west of Big Sur sparked the SCU Lightning Complex fire that spread over five counties. Then, over the next two days, Butte, Tehama and Glenn Counties were struck with multiple lightning fires that killed one firefighter, and the Sequoia National Forest blew up with a fire that burned nearly 170,000 acres.
Once these multiple fires caught, they moved at a furious rate. Fire authorities had to rush crews from one blaze to another, a deadly and frustrating game of whack-a-mole.
“Resources quickly became scarce,” the 2020 Cal Fire report says. “Requests outnumbered available resources as initial attack activity outpaced available resources. The lightning storm continued across the State into the Pacific Northwest and Great Basin. Demand for available resources across the nation was impacted by multiple major fires in the western United States.”
One of the biggest threats, Rhodes said, was where the lightning siege struck: “A lot of the areas were very remote,” he said, “and it was dry lightning, the worst we can get on fires.”
CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Watch more from ABC10: Folsom native identified as 3rd person killed by lightning strike in DC | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/lightning-sparks-california-fires/103-a208f64f-2e47-4689-9dae-9560935251f9 | 2022-08-08T20:23:26 | 1 | https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/lightning-sparks-california-fires/103-a208f64f-2e47-4689-9dae-9560935251f9 |
A widow of a Bethlehem Township man who died during his stay at Gracedale nursing home is suing Northampton County.
Diana M. Raph is suing the county for more than $75,000, according to a complaint filed in federal court. She claims the Gracedale staff neglected her husband, causing his health to deteriorate, leading to his death.
Robert F. Raph, 72, was admitted Nov. 18, 2019, to Gracedale with an anticipated rehabilitation stint of about two weeks, according to the lawsuit. However, Raph remained there until Aug. 3, 2020, when he died, except for a one-week period in late December 2019 when he was transferred to St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill with kidney failure. He was returned to Gracedale on Dec. 30, 2019.
Raph’s death occurred as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities, causing difficulty for some in maintaining enough employees and providing care. Gracedale, one of the largest nursing homes in the state, was no exception, with reduced staff and cuts in its occupancy from the normal 688-bed facility.
County officials have acknowledged difficulty in staffing Gracedale, particularly when COVID-19 posed challenges. County Executive Lamont McClure has said he wants the county to invest heavily in bolstering the struggling institution. The county in May offered $10 million in bonuses and on-site child care for employees.
McClure issued a statement saying Robert Raph had been in hospice care for seven months.
“While it’s unfortunate,” he said, “Gracedale will vigorously defend itself and prove that Robert was not neglected and staffing was at or in excess of the state requirement at the time of his passing and that it played no role in his demise.”
The lawsuit was filed by Philadelphia attorney Andrew Watto. Neither Watto nor Diana Raph returned telephone messages seeking additional comment.
Gracedale is the largest long-term care facility in the state under one roof. As one of 17 county-owned care homes in Pennsylvania, Gracedale, like Cedarbrook in Lehigh County, houses people who can’t afford private nursing homes.
Contact Morning Call journalist Anthony Salamone at asalamone@mcall.com. | https://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-nws-gracedale-lawsuit-20220808-y7eljmp35vg3te6pn3awmwdb54-story.html | 2022-08-08T20:27:50 | 0 | https://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-nws-gracedale-lawsuit-20220808-y7eljmp35vg3te6pn3awmwdb54-story.html |
Outside Lands 2022 has come and gone, leaving festivalgoers young and old with memories they'll never forget, as well as a few they'd rather not remember.
Throughout the three-day event, SFGATE had five writers on the grounds of Golden Gate Park soaking up all the action. Everyone agreed that the real MVP of the festival was the weather, which may have been the best in at least a decade. But beyond the sunny skies, here are our takeaways of favorite moments, as well as some things that could use improvement in 2023.
SZA gets personal
It can be hard to create a personal connection when you're playing to tens of thousands of people, but SZA's charming and understated banter between sets gave me a new appreciate for her music. Bonus points for pulling it off while being fresh off a tough case of COVID-19. — Dan Gentile
Phoebe Bridgers goes surfing
When you hear an artist play “Down with the Sickness” swiftly followed by “Motion Sickness” as flames erupt on the screen behind them, you think to yourself, “Surely nothing could be better than this.” Yet, Phoebe Bridgers’ Friday night performance was full of surprising contradictions.
Despite the otherwise balmy day, a drizzle washed over the Twin Peaks stage as she crooned the chorus of “Moon Song,” setting the tone for the emotional set that lasted just over an hour. And while her heart-wrenching lyricism and dreary harmonies certainly made for a moody evening, the joy among festivalgoers was palpable. Bridgers passed the mic to a couple of lucky fans to sing “Scott Street,” and the memorable show came to a close as she bounded off the stage to crowd surf. — Amanda Bartlett
Larry June represents
Bay rappers have a penchant for somehow turning their slowest songs into head-bopping dance tracks. Expectedly, Larry June hit that stride with ease. What was unexpected for those who hadn’t seen June live were the real oranges being thrown out into the crowd like T-shirts, and the constant words of affirmation. Larry June showed that although he has a sound tailored for true hip-hop heads, he can command the crowd like he’s been selling out arenas for decades. Good job, Larry. — Rod Benson
Improvements to the DJ tent
I was familiar with most of the artists on the bill for the SOMA Tent, but aside from DJ Seinfeld and Avalon Emerson, there wasn't much to my taste. That said, I love dropping in on a superstar like Dixon, just to see what they're playing and how the crowd reacts.
But every time I walked by the SOMA tent, there was a 30-minute wait to get in. That's an eternity in festival time, especially if you only want to sample a few minutes of a set. Expanding the 2,000-person capacity of the tent seems tough, but it wouldn't be hard to create an outdoor dancing area with a projection screen so more people could sample more of the DJ talent. — Dan Gentile
Mitski brings out the tears
“Don’t cry,” one fan said to another as the opening chords of Mitski’s 2016 hit “Your Best American Girl” rang out from the Sutro Stage. “I’m not going to cry,” her friend agreed.
By the time the song was over, I glanced over my shoulder. Tears were streaming down both of their faces, and they were locked in an embrace.
Severe and spellbinding all at once, the indie powerhouse had everyone in the crowd hanging on her every word during the final evening of Outside Lands. Awash in red-tinted stage lights, Mitski resembled the heroine of a 1970s horror movie (Jessica Harper in “Suspiria” came to mind) as she stalked the stage before breaking out into Butoh-influenced choreography during the synth-laden standout “The Only Heartbeaker” from her newest album, “Laurel Hell.”
She conveyed emotional ferocity as she slowly licked the microphone, punched the air, and mimed walking around on marionette strings. It could have been a callback to her music video for “Love Me More,” in which she encounters a creepy, puppet version of herself. Or it could have been a reference to her apprehensive relationship with the music industry and her fans, both of which she has said she felt commodified by in the past.
“Thank you for connecting,” she said to the audience at the end of the night. “Thank you for giving your hearts and your time.” — Amanda Bartlett
Festival shuttle safety
Speedy, cheaper than an Uber or Lyft and faster than taking Muni. They are well worth the cost. That said, it would be ideal if the shuttles required (or even highly recommended) masks on the half-hour shuttle. It is not a big ask. — Joshua Bote
Cooking with PawPaw Rod
There isn’t a version of PawPaw Rod that can be bad, so there’s no need to go there. What felt weird was watching him perform his hits while Ravi Kapur made papaya-marinated pork belly. The audience could hardly see what the cooking process was, they damn sure didn’t get to taste the food, and going from watching a charismatic and inspired set to an awkward interview about food no one is actually going to make at home felt forced at best. — Rod Benson
Pussy Riot's music
As much as I support Pussy Riot, I've seen them at festivals before and been underwhelmed by the music, which felt like half-baked deconstructed club music. But this show was a dramatic departure, a tight set of grungy pop music. It verged into nu metal territory at times, but frontwoman Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has earned the right to rage. It was refreshing that the quality of the music finally matches the resonance of her message. — Dan Gentile
Binging with Babish x 100 gecs
Popular YouTuber Babish (Andrew Rea), known for his cooking show “Binging with Babish,” in which he reimagines fictional foods from TV shows like “Bob’s Burgers,” joined forces with digital hyperpop duo 100 gecs to prepare a meal honoring their 2022 single “Doritos & Fritos.”
Fittingly, it was Dorito pie, a concoction of chilies, tomato paste, garlic, cornmeal, ground beef and queso, all served in a single-serving bag of the namesake snack. Prior to making the dish, Laura Les confided that she was a “terrible cook,” with the exception of making a mean box of mac and cheese.
It's safe to say the audience had no idea what to expect, but they definitely weren’t disappointed. There’s nothing like being in a crowd of hundreds of people screaming with joy at the sight of an online celebrity chopping an onion. At one point, everyone started chanting for beef, and then stone fruit after a kind fan offered the musicians an apple he had purchased from the farmers market earlier that morning. It was goofy and glorious — and the few people who got to taste the finished meal gave it a thumbs up of approval. — Amanda Bartlett
The urinals near Twin Peaks
Proof that you should broaden your musical horizons beyond the main stage; you're rewarded with relatively clean stalls with brief lines — a miracle for a festival of Outside Lands' stature. — Joshua Bote
The urinals near Lands End
Perhaps it was my brief experience with the Golden Gate Club's pristine toilets, but something needs to be done about the Lands End bathroom situation. I understand that by the end of the night they're going to be a literal s—t show, my issue is the 20-minute wait to use them. Other areas like Twin Peaks admittedly have smaller lines, but the trek from the main stage takes equally as long. — Dan Gentile
Green Day forever
Near the end of Green Day’s explosive performance at San Francisco’s Outside Lands on Saturday night, front man Billie Joe Armstrong told a story reminding the crowd that one of the top bands in the world had started out in the Bay Area’s underground punk scene.
Armstrong recalled a time in 1991 when they played at SF's Dolores Park with a bunch of other punk bands.
“The cops came and shut it down. … They didn’t shut this one down,” Armstrong shouted. Read SFGATE's full review. — Amy Graff
We need better maps
My problem with navigating Outside Lands was twofold. The print map lacked a list of artists, set times and stages, while the map in the mobile app often failed to provide a point of reference that showed where I was on the festival grounds, despite using my location. The designated passageways for VIP passholders seemed excessive and made it even more difficult for regular festivalgoers to walk from stage to stage when they often had just a few minutes to spare between shows. Our feet ached enough as it was, so avoiding the guesswork of aimlessly wandering around would have been nice. — Amanda Bartlett
Cell service
I've been to Warriors games with worse reception than Outside Lands. Hats off to whoever was responsible — I was able to text my friends even during the mass exodus of festivalgoers at the end of the night. — Joshua Bote
Weezer goes to Africa
There was a magical moment during Weezer's Sunday afternoon set when they were playing a cover of Toto's "Africa." I looked up, and there was not a cloud in the sky, just a beautiful sun coming out from over the eucalyptus trees. — Amy Graff
Convenience
It may not seem like it, but Outside Lands is convenient as hell. There are long lines for bathrooms and food, and the SOMA Tent is akin to waiting in a line for Space Mountain, and yet Outside Lands is one of the easiest music festivals out there. The bathrooms are rarely more than a couple hundred yards away, food is everywhere and there are diverse offerings even in the same food category. Plus the longest walk between stages is a lot shorter than at Coachella. Even the general admission entrance is just minutes from the street, and entry is a breeze because security is only checking for weapons and not weed (again, like they do at Coachella). Long lines be damned, the entire festival has a VIP feel even if the festivalgoers don’t know it. — Rod Benson
The Linda Lindas meet Gina Schock
Hot on the heels of an electrifying performance at Mosswood Meltdown in Oakland, the Linda Lindas are an endearing force to be reckoned with. The Los Angeles punk band — guitarist Bela Salazar, 17, drummer Mila de la Garza, 11, her sister and guitarist Lucia de la Garza, 14, and their cousin and bassist Eloise Wong, 13 — was a treat for fans who arrived at the festival bright and early (read: at noon) on Saturday.
Known for their viral hit “Racist, Sexist Boy,” the riot grrrl revival group raced through a frenzied set of songs about loneliness, self-doubt and cats with all the vigor of their mentors — like Go-Go’s drummer Gina Schock, who joined them on stage for a cover of “Tonite” from the band’s legendary 1981 record “Beauty and the Beat.” I can’t wait to see what this band does next. — Amanda Bartlett
Rina Sawayama was a surprise hit
Easily one of the most captivating shows of the weekend, the British pop ingenue very well should have been a headliner — or at least deserved the promotion of a set at Lands End. Read more about her Saturday show in our review. — Joshua Bote
Move over, scalpers
It’s a small thing, but the convenience and proximity of the show meant that scalpers were essentially as much a part of the experience as anyone. There was no walking in and out without having to say “no” over and over again to the seemingly endless hordes of dudes screaming, “I need tickets!” — Rod Benson | https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/outside-lands-best-and-worst-17359044.php | 2022-08-08T20:27:58 | 1 | https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/outside-lands-best-and-worst-17359044.php |
When I stepped inside the blue-and-yellow facade of the Irving Street Irish pub Durty Nelly’s early Sunday afternoon with aching feet and a hankering for a Bloody Mary, I braced myself.
After two nights of dodging swarms of stumbling 20-somethings on my mileslong trek home from Outside Lands in San Francisco, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The lines outside of Trad’r Sam and the Blarney Stone on Geary Boulevard were giving me war flashbacks, and I'd heard that this watering hole would be just as busy. But as I grabbed a seat at the well-worn mahogany bar and took in my surroundings, I couldn’t help but let out a quiet sigh of relief.
The room was fairly full, but it was an even split of locals chowing down on bowls of shepherd's pie and festivalgoers stopping in for shots of gin and rum. Curtains hanging over the window booths provided hungover customers some respite from the sunshine, but some of the braver patrons hung out in the parklet swigging pints of Guinness. New Order and the Charlatans were playing from the jukebox, and the brick fireplace and shelves of vintage tchotchkes lining the walls added to the cozy feel.
Bartender Joanne Kane, who has been working at the watering hole for the past eight years, informed me that I came at just the right time.
“It’s our busiest weekend of the year,” alongside Hardly Strictly and St. Patrick’s Day, she said after serving me my drink, garnished with a pickle spear, carrot, Brussels sprout, green bean and lime. “By 9:30, we start getting nervous, almost, because we know everyone is about to arrive. And you can actually hear them coming from down the street.”
While Kane was surprised that Friday night was a little quieter than usual — tickets for the first day of Outside Lands did not sell out like in years past — the afternoon lunch rush and post-festival crowd the following day certainly made up for it.
“The place was packed. We had a line of people out the door waiting to get in pretty much the whole night,” Kane said. “The boys running security had cones set up and everything, and they were staggering people and only letting a few in at a time,” so as not to go over capacity.
And though Bloody Marys like the one I was sipping had been one of the most popular drinks of choice among festivalgoers in the past, Kane noticed a new trend this year.
“We’ve served hundreds of vodka Red Bulls. A couple hundred, at least,” she said with a laugh. “I guess it gives people the stamina they need.”
It was certainly enough to spur an impromptu dance party that lasted for hours. At one point, Kane said people were getting down to Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” before seamlessly transitioning to Green Day, whose performance they could hear from the backyard of the bar. The most memorable moment, she said, was when that crowd arrived and insisted on playing “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” by ABBA.
“One of the regulars commented, ‘Everyone just finished watching a punk band, and here they are getting down to ABBA,’” she said with a laugh.
And as chaotic as post-festival crowds can seem, she noted that it was a great time — everyone was polite and in good spirits. Maybe next year I’ll join them in the evening revelry. But for now, the savory, refreshing beverage on a relatively quiet afternoon was just what I needed. | https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/outside-lands-packed-durty-nellys-17359673.php | 2022-08-08T20:28:04 | 1 | https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/outside-lands-packed-durty-nellys-17359673.php |
BURLEY — A jury trial set to begin next week for a former Mini-Cassia jailer accused of sexually touching an inmate through a jail cell door slot was moved to December.
During a Monday hearing in Cassia County District Court, the jury trial for Paul Raymond Afeaki was set at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 7. A pretrial conference was scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 28.
Afeaki was charged in July 2021 for having sexual contact with an adult female inmate who was incarcerated from March 9 to May 20, 2021, according to court records.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Afeaki was a Minidoka County deputy and part-time deputy at the jail. He now lives in Utah.
Officials began an investigation after three yellow sticky notes were found in the woman’s cell. One of the notes contained explicit sexual wording. Recorded calls between the two were also found, which showed they were having a relationship.
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The woman told investigators that she was arrested in Ada County and Afeaki transported her to Cassia County. She said he gave her brownies and took her to McDonalds and gave her his phone number, which is against jail policy, records said.
She said Afeaki brought her toilet paper and left the jail door’s slot, called a “bean slot,” open so they could pass notes.
“I feel so stupid because this whole time I thought I was something special,” the woman said.
In one note, Afeaki asked her to perform a sexual act and she agreed to remove most of her clothing and allow him to touch her through the door.
“I didn’t want him to touch me but I didn’t want to lose his attention either,” she told police.
After she was transferred to another jail, Afeaki and the woman continued their relationship over the phone.
The woman said she broke off the relationship after someone sent her a picture of him with his wife, whom Afeaki told her was his ex-wife.
The woman told police she trusted him because “he was law enforcement.”
Police asked the woman to call Afeaki again so they could record the conversation and the call became sexually graphic.
Afeaki knew the conversation was being recorded but said he did not care. | https://magicvalley.com/news/local/trial-for-former-mc-jailer-accused-of-touching-inmate-moved-to-december/article_fd2e6b5e-1745-11ed-84a4-07c80a0b1b67.html | 2022-08-08T20:31:24 | 0 | https://magicvalley.com/news/local/trial-for-former-mc-jailer-accused-of-touching-inmate-moved-to-december/article_fd2e6b5e-1745-11ed-84a4-07c80a0b1b67.html |
ORLANDO, Fla. – As Central Florida students and teachers gear up to go back to school, everyone is wondering how each district plans to handle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
With some districts modifying their COVID-19 protocols, it’s important to know what to expect at the start of the 2022-23 school year.
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This comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to relax recommendations for COVID-19 in schools, according to CBS News.
News 6 reached out to all nine Central Florida school districts to ask about their back-to-school COVID-19 protocols. Find the responses we received below:
Flagler County
Jason Wheeler, a spokesman with Flagler County Public Schools, said the district will be using guidance from the Florida Department of Health and Department of Education, which is the same used as last year.
There is no COVID monitoring officer for the district, Wheeler said.
“We never tracked COVID cases district-wide. That was done by our local Health Department. We simply provided the numbers on our website. However, early last year our local DOH office discontinued tracking the numbers and we no longer provided the page on our website,” Wheeler said in an email.
Lake County
Sherri Owens, a spokeswoman with Lake County Public Schools, said the district will continue to follow the most current CDC guidelines.
“We do not have a COVID monitoring officer for the 2022-23 school year,” Owens said in a statement. “The Florida Department of Health in Lake County will conduct all contact tracing. I do not know whether the DOH plans to publicly post that data on a website.”
Orange County
The district is approaching COVID-19 as it does all infectious diseases by encouraging people to get vaccinated against it and proper hygiene, students and staff to stay home when sick.
Renée Burke, a spokeswoman for Orange County Public Schools, also said students or staff in the district running a fever can return to school after being fever-free for 24 hours without the assistance of medication.
Burke said personal protective equipment, or PPE, is also offered for those interested, but wearing masks on-campus is optional.
Osceola County
Dana Schafer, public information officer for Osceola County Public Schools, said the district will be handling COVID-19 similar to a flu strain.
“Students who know that they have been exposed should monitor for symptoms. If students test positive, they will need to stay home for five days from the onset of symptoms,” Schafer said.
Deputy Superintendent Thomas Phelps will no longer be reporting COVID-19 cases throughout the school year and schools will not be providing the district with weekly numbers for tracking, but “principals have been asked to notify (Phelps) if they see the number of students out with COVID increasing.”
Seminole County
Throughout the district, students who test positive for COVID-19 or exhibit symptoms consistent with COVID-19 are required to isolate until:
- The student receives a negative COVID-19 test and is asymptomatic OR
- Five days have passed since the onset of symptoms or the positive test result, the student has no fever for 24 hours and symptoms are improving OR
- The student receives written permission to return to school from a medical doctor or nurse practitioner
Students exposed to COVID-19, which the district defines as being within 6 feet of a COVID positive person for 15 minutes or more within a day, must quarantine unless the student remains asymptomatic and has not received a positive COVID-19 test.
According to Michael Lawrence, a spokesperson for Seminole County Public Schools, the district will continue to practice routine cleaning of classrooms and high-traffic areas, encourage frequent hand-washing and urge students to stay home when sick.
Throughout the district, “COVID designees” report any relevant COVID-19 information to the Student Support Services Department and the Florida Health Department as needed.
News 6 is still waiting to hear back from Brevard, Marion, Sumter and Volusia counties.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/heres-how-central-florida-districts-plan-to-handle-covid-19-this-school-year/ | 2022-08-08T20:39:46 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/heres-how-central-florida-districts-plan-to-handle-covid-19-this-school-year/ |
BELLEVIEW, Fla. – A man accused of robbing a Wells Fargo bank Monday morning was arrested during a foot chase, according to the Belleview Police Department.
According to investigators, they responded to the Wells Fargo on 5407 SE 111th St. after receiving calls that a man was threatening to trigger an explosive device unless he was given $10,000.
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John Henderson-Winfield, 21, was arrested after running behind a residence and attempting to crawl under the house, officers said.
Henderson-Winfield was first located walking about a block away from the bank when the chase ensued, according to police.
Officers said all the money was recovered at the scene and they determined that there were no explosive devices.
Henderson-Winfield was taken to the Marion County Jail and faces charges of bank robbery, grand theft, false report of an explosive device and resisting arrest.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/man-arrested-after-threatening-to-blow-up-belleview-bank-stealing-10k-police-say/ | 2022-08-08T20:39:52 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/man-arrested-after-threatening-to-blow-up-belleview-bank-stealing-10k-police-say/ |
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A jury found a man guilty of murdering a 16-year-old girl from Lake County in April 2018 on Monday.
Jurors found Robert Kern, 40, guilty of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the killing of Justis Garrett, whose body was found in a wooded area in DeLand by a group of joggers in 2018.
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“This was a complicated circumstantial case. The defendant raped and murdered a 16-year-old child and left her body in a remote wooded area. The prosecutors prevailed and today we got Justice for Justis,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in a release.
Garrett was reported missing from her Lake County home five days before the joggers found her off Gasline Road.
Kern was arrested in May 2019 after investigators reviewed phone records, social media posts and other information between August 2018 and February 2019.
According to investigators, Kern was in a relationship previously with Garrett’s mother and told her he dropped the 16-year-old off at Mount Dora High School on April 13, 2018, but she was not reported at school that day.
Kern was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/man-gets-life-in-prison-for-2018-murder-of-16-year-old-girl-from-lake-county/ | 2022-08-08T20:39:58 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/man-gets-life-in-prison-for-2018-murder-of-16-year-old-girl-from-lake-county/ |
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The Orange County Sheriff’s Office identified two men who were fatally shot at a hotel near Florida Mall on Saturday, one of whom was shot by a deputy.
The sheriff’s office said the two men who died are Dylan Michael Jimenez, 21, and Bryan Matthew Richardson, 28, were brothers.
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Deputies responded to 7900 South Orange Blossom Trail around 12:36 p.m. after reports of a shooting. According to deputies, the two men had an altercation with another man outside of the Heritage Hotel.
The sheriff’s office said Jimenez and the other man were wounded when the two shot at each other. Richardson was with Jimenez in the parking lot when deputies arrived, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies told Richardson to drop a gun he had and when he did not comply, a deputy shot at him, the sheriff’s office said.
Richardson and Jimenez were taken to the hospital, where they were both pronounced dead.
The third man is in the hospital and is expected to survive.
The sheriff’s office did not release any information on the deputy who shot Richardson due to Marsy’s Law but said the deputy has been with the sheriff’s office since 2018.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/orange-county-deputies-id-2-shot-killed-at-hotel-near-florida-mall/ | 2022-08-08T20:40:05 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/orange-county-deputies-id-2-shot-killed-at-hotel-near-florida-mall/ |
OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – With the start of the new school year, Osceola County’s public school district superintendent sat down with News 6 to talk about some of the new faces students can expect to see thanks to an international program that’s getting results for them and bringing diversity into the classroom.
“We want all of our students to feel safe and welcomed in our classrooms, and when they see role models that reflect their own background, their own culture and experience, it can really make a difference,” Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace said.
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That difference comes in the form of a special program for the almost 70,000 students who are getting ready for their first day back to school.
“We’ve been using a contract out of Asia with a firm called EPI, and we’re up to over 30 teachers. There’re about 18 new ones this year,” Pace said.
Now, the school district is eyeing South America.
“Well, our South American contract, we’ve been able to hire about 30 teachers who are fully certified like our teachers. They need the same type of requirements, but they get to come here for a few years on a transfer program or exchange program,” the superintendent said.
The program was developed through an agency called Educational Partners International, an exchange visitor program that sponsors teachers for K-12 placements in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Florida.
Dr. Pace, a native of Osceola County, said it’s about addressing the need for more teachers and better representation in the classrooms.
“We’re really just trying to be creative because there is still such a need for teachers to fill our classrooms, and with the growth that we have here in our school district, we really see the need so strong,” she said.
As of the 2020 census, Osceola County’s population was more than 388,000. 56% are Hispanic or Latino — making it the county with the largest population of that minority group in Central Florida.
Dr. Pace told News 6 the exchange program is just one way to address the teacher shortage.
“Our exchange program for teachers not only brings in certified teachers when they’re sometimes hard to find because we’re competing with everybody else in Central Florida for a very small number coming out of our education programs or desiring to go into the field of education, but it does help us diversify our staff and better represent the population that we serve,” she said. “We’re strengthening our alternative certification programs, but certainly, doing the international program allows us to accomplish several objectives.”
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/osceola-county-school-district-using-international-program-to-hire-teachers/ | 2022-08-08T20:40:11 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/osceola-county-school-district-using-international-program-to-hire-teachers/ |
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Othal Wallace, the man facing first-degree murder charges for the death of a Daytona Beach police officer, will stand trial in April 2023 for the crime.
The judge in the case ruled Monday that jury selection would start in the case on April 3, 2023.
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Wallace is accused of shooting Officer Jason Raynor in the head in June 2021. Raynor was investigating a suspicious vehicle at the time.
Raynor died 55 days later from the gunshot wound.
Wallace was arrested after a multi-state manhunt.
Wallace faces the death penalty if convicted. | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/trial-date-set-for-othal-wallace-man-accused-of-killing-daytona-beach-officer/ | 2022-08-08T20:40:17 | 0 | https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/08/08/trial-date-set-for-othal-wallace-man-accused-of-killing-daytona-beach-officer/ |
A.S.P.I.R.E. event in Canton offers free school supplies, haircuts for children
The Repository
CANTON − A.S.P.I.R.E. Today will host its annual “Welcome Back Community Extravaganza” from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday in the 300 block of Third Street NW.
The event will include school supplies for children from kindergarten through eighth grade as well as free haircuts, a talent showcase, bounce houses, 3-on-3 basketball and flag football tournaments, safety education, games, food and a special performance by EN-RICH-MENT, according to a news release. | https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/2022/08/08/event-offers-school-supplies-haircuts-for-children/65395762007/ | 2022-08-08T20:44:06 | 0 | https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/2022/08/08/event-offers-school-supplies-haircuts-for-children/65395762007/ |
Longtime political analyst and professor Andrew Downs has stepped down as director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics, Downs told the Journal Gazette on Monday.
Downs worked at Purdue University Fort Wayne for the past 20 years, with his last day coming July 31. He led the center named after his father, Mike Downs, a political science professor who worked at what was then IPFW for more than three decades before his death in 2001.
After working as campaign manager and later as chief of staff for former Mayor Graham Richard, Andrew Downs started work at IPFW in 2002. For the last two decades, he has offered political insight and analysis on issues in Fort Wayne and across the state.
PFW has not announced a new director for the Mike Downs Center, and Downs said in an email Monday he expects his duties will be shared by members of the university’s political science department.
Downs also said he was granted emeritus status and that he hopes to continue working with the Mike Downs Center going forward.
As for future plans, Downs said he’s unsure where he’ll work next.
“For now, I hope to do some research, writing, strategizing and problem solving for organizations in the area,” Downs said. | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/andrew-downs-steps-down-from-pfw-post/article_fde93b90-1750-11ed-9de2-cb36029ea6cb.html | 2022-08-08T20:48:28 | 0 | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/andrew-downs-steps-down-from-pfw-post/article_fde93b90-1750-11ed-9de2-cb36029ea6cb.html |
More Brewing Company, which has three locations in the Chicago area, is planning to invest about $6 million to build a two-story, 16,000 square foot restaurant and brewery, located just north of the riverfront public space and near the intersection of Fourth and Calhoun streets, city officials announced today.
This would be the first project to be constructed at North River property.
Later today, the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission will be asked to approve an economic development agreement as the first step in the process for the proposal to move forward. The approval of this agreement highlights the plans for continued development and investment along the riverfront.
“Being able to advance a significant development at the North River site is a tremendous win for our community,” Deputy Mayor Karl Bandemer said in a statement. “Successful public-private partnerships have positioned Fort Wayne as a leader in bringing new and unique amenities for residents, visitors, and businesses to enjoy.”
The North River property is comprised of 29 acres generally bounded by Clinton, Fourth and Harrison streets and serves as an important gateway into downtown. The site was previously used as a rail yard and other industrial type uses, dating back to 1902. The land has not been actively used since 2006. The Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission acquired the property in 2017. | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/chicago-area-brewery-to-build-restaurant-just-north-of-downtown-fort-wayne/article_b395dc6c-1744-11ed-ac76-1f4ee486d692.html | 2022-08-08T20:48:34 | 1 | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/chicago-area-brewery-to-build-restaurant-just-north-of-downtown-fort-wayne/article_b395dc6c-1744-11ed-ac76-1f4ee486d692.html |
A man was shot to death today at an apartment complex on Fort Wayne's south side, police said.
City police were called at 12:51 p.m. to the 1400 block of Greene Street in the Villages of Hanna.
Dispatchers received a call from someone saying "that a friend was shot" and numerous other calls that people heard gunshots, said Sgt. Jeremy Webb, Fort Wayne police public information officer.
Officers found a man who had been shot inside an apartment. He died at the scene after he was treated by medics, Webb said.
Homicide detectives were gathering information and exhausting every lead, he said.
The Allen County coroner will identify the victim. If the man's death is ruled a homicide, it would be Allen County's 16th homicide this year.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Fort Wayne Police Department at 427-1201 or Crime Stoppers at 436-7867 or use the P3 Tips App.
The shooting remains under investigation by city police, the coroner's office and the Allen County prosecutor's office. | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/fort-wayne-police-investigate-fatal-shooting-on-south-side/article_c68d0fd0-174d-11ed-9361-bfcf6ab45cd8.html | 2022-08-08T20:48:40 | 1 | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/fort-wayne-police-investigate-fatal-shooting-on-south-side/article_c68d0fd0-174d-11ed-9361-bfcf6ab45cd8.html |
Harrison Street will be closed to through traffic through Dec. 30 between Superior and Second streets during urban trail and streetscape construction, the city of Fort Wayne said today.
For questions or to report problems, contact the city's community development department at 311. | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/trail-streetscape-work-to-close-harrison-street-portion-for-rest-of-year/article_c2a1c0f2-170a-11ed-bd93-c3ea5c3ac94c.html | 2022-08-08T20:48:46 | 0 | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/trail-streetscape-work-to-close-harrison-street-portion-for-rest-of-year/article_c2a1c0f2-170a-11ed-bd93-c3ea5c3ac94c.html |
The Straphangers Campaign, an NYC-based public transit group who advocates on behalf of riders, has released their annual list of the slowest and most unreliable bus routes.
This year's winner of the dreaded "Pokey" award — given to the slowest ride in the city — was the M102 bus.
Following the M102, the next slowest lines were the Bx19, B35, Q32, and the S38.
All but one of the buses — the Q32 — had improved their speed since the awards were last handed out in 2019.
The most unreliable bus service, and the recipient of the "Schleppie" award, is the B12 line.
Following the unpredictable B12 service, the Bx3, Q58, M100, and S78 were also on the capricious list.
The Straphangers Campaign said that service has improved as a result of the MTA and the NYC Department of Transportation's reforms. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/2022-pokey-and-schleppie-awards-name-m102-bus-slowest-in-nyc/3815096/ | 2022-08-08T20:54:03 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/2022-pokey-and-schleppie-awards-name-m102-bus-slowest-in-nyc/3815096/ |
Rapper Fetty Wap was arrested on Monday for allegedly violating the conditions of his pretrial release, prosecutors said, by issuing a threat to kill someone while waving around a gun.
The rapper, whose real name is William Junior Maxwell II, was arrested in New Jersey after delivering the threat over a FaceTime call, prosecutors announced. They planned to ask a judge to revoke the $500,000 bond Maxwell was released on back in the fall.
A video-recording of the FaceTime call was reviewed by investigators, where Maxwell is accused of threatening to kill the victim in a call made back on Dec. 11, 2021. Possessing a firearm and violating any law are in direct violation of his pretrial release.
Maxwell was arrested at Citi Field on Oct. 28 after an indictment alleged that the New Jersey-born artist was part of a nationwide drug trafficking ring. Prosecutors said he was a "kilogram-level redistributor" for a drug ring that moved more than 100 kilos of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and crack.
As part of his release, Maxwell was subjected to GPS monitoring and random drug testing, and had to surrender his passport.
A total of six people were charged, including a New Jersey correction officer. The other five were separately arrested and were all ordered detained pending trial. All six face one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess controlled substances, and all of the defendants except for Maxwell also face firearms charges.
"As alleged, the defendants transported, distributed and sold more than 100 kilograms of deadly and addictive drugs, including heroin and fentanyl, on Long Island, deliberately contributing to the opioid epidemic that has devastated our communities and taken too many lives," Brookyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
News
The 30-year-old Paterson native, who lost an eye to glaucoma as a child, has had a troubled life. His brother was killed in their hometown a year ago, and his 4-year-old daughter died earlier this summer.
Maxwell was previously arrested on assault charges in Las Vegas in 2019 and DUI charges in New York in 2017.
Best known for singles like "Trap Queen" and "My Way," the two-time Grammy nominee released his newest project, "The Butterfly Effect", just last week. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/rapper-fetty-wap-arrested-for-facetime-gun-threat-violating-pretrial-release/3815133/ | 2022-08-08T20:54:06 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/rapper-fetty-wap-arrested-for-facetime-gun-threat-violating-pretrial-release/3815133/ |
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