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Emergency services chief on Maui resigns. He faced criticism for not activating sirens during fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Outdoor alert sirens on Maui stayed silent as a ferocious fire devastated the seaside community of Lahaina last week. The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency said he had no regrets about not deploying the system as a warning to people on the island.A day after making that statement, Administrator Herman Andaya resigned Thursday. Andaya had said he feared blaring the sirens during the blaze could have caused people to go “mauka,” using a navigational term that can mean toward the mountains or inland in Hawaiian. “If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire,” Andaya explained.But the decision not use the sirens, coupled with water shortages that hampered firefighters and an escape route that became clogged with vehicles that were overrun by flames, has brought intense criticism from many residents following the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century. At least 111 people were killed.Mayor Richard Bissen accepted Andaya’s ...

Kentucky school district to restart school year after busing fiasco cancels classes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s largest school district is scheduled to return elementary students to school Friday, more than a week after classes were canceled because of chaotic busing problems on the first day. Jefferson County Schools, a public district with more than 90,000 students, drew up new bus routes and staggered school start times under a new plan that officials hoped would alleviate issues caused by driver shortages.Instead, it led to a shutdown of schools for more than a week. Officials decided to return elementary and middle school students on Friday and high school students Monday.District officials apologized to outraged parents after the bus disruptions and pledged to add resources to help with delays. Despite the quick fixes, school officials told parents in a note Thursday that they “expect some buses may drop children off at stops later than expected.” They also encouraged parents who can make alternate transportation arrangements to do so. The distric...

Russia's blitzkrieg on Ukrainian civilians

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

Russia is deliberately launching missile strikes on Ukrainian residential buildings, to cause civilian casualties, Dispatches, IFBG.On the morning of 15 August, the Russian Air Force carried out a massive attack on Ukrainian cities far from the front line - in particular, Lviv, Lutsk, Dnipro and Smila were hit. As a result of a missile landing on a facility in Lutsk, three civilians were killed. The devastation in Lviv was tangible: at least 100 houses were damaged and 70 flats were burnt out as a result of missile debris. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but 15 people were injured with varying severity. The Russians used 28 cruise missiles of the X-101/X-555, X-22 and Kalibr types, of which 16 were shot down by air defence systems. The nature of the damage caused shows that Russia deliberately targets civilian objects: in particular, one of the missiles, which could not be shot down in the air, destroyed a playground near a kindergarten in Lviv. The R...

Downtown burglaries alarm Walnut Creek business owners

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KRON) – Several small businesses in Walnut Creek have recently fallen victim to burglars. One of the latest happened at a coffee shop downtown.The owner of Tellus Coffee on North Main Street says after they were burglarized, they’re now strongly considering the difficult decision of going cashless, which may hurt customers.Walnut Creek police have already investigated multiple downtown burglaries over the last month, and it’s making business owners feel uneasy.  Starbucks no longer offering disposable cups at these North Bay locations At Tellus Coffee, two people, including one who appears to be a pregnant woman, are caught on camera breaking in and then stealing cash. “It feels pretty violating. Tellus is kind of like my second home and to be broken into, it’s just not a good feeling. It kind of puts me and my staff on edge,” said shop owner Janay McCullough. McCullough says the burglar stole $450 in cash on the night of August 7. Tellus is one of more ...

Wildfire nears capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as fleeing residents fill roads and flights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories (AP) — Residents in the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories were rushing to beat a noon Friday deadline to evacuate their homes as one of hundreds of wildfires raging in the territories moved closer to the city of 20,000. Thousands fled on Thursday, driving hundreds of miles to safety or waiting in long lines for emergency flights, as the worst fire season on record in Canada showed no signs of easing.The fire was within 16 kilometers (10 miles) of Yellowknife’s northern edge Thursday and officials worried that strong northern winds could push the flames toward the only highway leading away from the fire, which was choked with long caravans of cars.Ten planes left Yellowknife on Thursday with 1,500 passengers, said Jennifer Young, director of corporate affairs for the Northwest Territories’ Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, adding that they hope to have 22 flights leave on Friday with 1,800 more passengers.“I want to ...

Gallen beats the Padres again, Pham and Moreno homer in the Diamondbacks’ 3-1 victory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Top NL Cy Young Award contender Zac Gallen beat the San Diego Padres for the second straight start and Tommy Pham and Gabriel Moreno homered to give the Arizona Diamondbacks a 3-1 victory Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series between teams trying to keep their wild-card hopes from slipping away.Each team had just three hits. The Diamondbacks won their third straight and the Padres lost for the eighth time in 11 games.Gallen (13-5) held the Padres to one run and three hits in 6 1/3 innings while striking out three and walking one. The right-hander beat the Padres 3-0 in his previous start Saturday in Phoenix, throwing six innings of four-hit ball with eight strikeouts.Rookie reliever Justin Martinez, pitching in just his fifth game, earned a four-out save, his first. He walked two in the ninth before punching out Jake Cronenworth to end it.“A beautiful experience just to have the opportunity, right, and that it actually happened is a blessing,” Martinez ...

Puedes alojarte gratis por una noche en la casa de la playa de Ashton Kutcher y Mila Kunis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

(CNN) — Si necesitas desesperadamente un momento de descanso y relajación, Ashton Kutcher y Mila Kunis tienen la solución.La pareja de famosos puso en Airbnb su casa de la playa ubicada en el condado de Santa Barbara, en California, con vistas al océano y a las montañas de Santa Ynez.La oferta es solo por una noche, para un máximo de cuatro huéspedes que podrán vivir una “estancia de verano inolvidable” de forma gratuita.Kutcher le contó a Kunis su “idea realmente tonta” en un video de Instagram grabado fuera de la casa, en el que se ve cómo intenta convencer a su mujer de que deberían recibir a “completos extraños” para que se queden con ellos en su casa.Después de que Kunis se muestra de acuerdo con que la gente disfrutaría de la experiencia, Kutcher interviene diciendo: “OK, vamos a hacerlo”.Una sorprendida Kunis responde “¿qué?”, antes de que su marido diga “genial”, y el video llegue a su fin.Las rese...

Cal Fire, residents ready for potential impacts of Hilary

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO – Preparation is underway as Hurricane Hilary heads toward Southern California.“You hear first from the locals. Everyone’s talking about batting down the hatches,” said Anthony Andrews, a Julian resident.Though Hilary is not forecasted to pass over San Diego as a hurricane, widespread impacts from the storm are expected. Excessive rain and flooding area expected with a potential for tropical storm-like winds.“There’s some risk of flooding so we are going to staff up our swift water rescue teams for the duration of the storm,” Cal Fire Captain Michael Cornette said. Hilary upgraded to hurricane: What does this mean for San Diego? Swift water rescue teams are most common in the winter, but Cal Fire is fully staffed as usual this time of year.“Expecting some low-lying flooding and potential lightning strikes could cause fires in the drier areas,” Cornette said.“We happen to live on a dirt road, so it is a bit of a problem for us,” said Leroy Clubb, a Ramona resident.Residen...

After Israeli raids, Palestinian police struggle in militant hotbed, reflecting region on the brink

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Last month, after the biggest Israeli military raid on a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank in years, Palestinians turned their wrath on their own security forces. They unleashed gunfire, firebombs and pipe bombs at Palestinian security buildings in an outpouring of rage against the Palestinian Authority’s failure to protect them from the devastating July 3 raid and a long-running, deeply unpopular security alliance with Israel.“The horrible events of that night reminded us of the lead-up to the Hamas coup in Gaza,” the head of police in Jenin, Brig. Gen. Azzam Jebara, said at a ceremony this week for officers who defended a police station from rampaging protesters. “It was a warning.”Scarred by the Hamas militant group’s violent takeover of Gaza from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ forces in 2007, the Palestinian Authority has cooperated with Israel to suppress the Islamist movement and keep the secular nationalist Fatah party in power i...

Stock market today: Asian shares mostly decline after Wall Street drops on higher bond yields

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:12 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly slipped Friday as rising yields in the bond market on Wall Street set off expectations that high interest rates would continue in the U.S.Japan’s inflation data showed consumer prices rose 3.1% from a year earlier in July, down from 3.3% in June. But that was still higher than the 2.5% forecast by some analysts and above the Bank of Japan’s target at 2%.The core consumer price index, which eliminates energy and fresh food prices from the measure, rose 4.3% on year, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.6% to finish at 31,450.76. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was virtually unchanged, inching up less than 0.1% to 7,148.10. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.7% to 2,502.52. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.7% to 18,017.77, while the Shanghai Composite edged down nearly 0.7% to 3,142.10.Also on investors’ minds is what appears to be China’s shaky recovery from the neg...