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APD: More than 4,000 traffic stops made since DPS partnership began

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- During the Austin City Council work session Tuesday, council members received an update on the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) collaboration with the Austin Police Department (APD), which included statistics on the number of traffic stops DPS made and how response times have decreased.According to DPS, the AVCTF is a data-driven violent crime suppression task force composed of troopers, special agents and intelligence-level policing. DPS: Nearly 200 arrests made since patrols started in Austin Some council members, like Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) and Ryan Alter (District 5), told KXAN they received questions and concerns from community members about the partnership. The initiative launched as a way to provide law enforcement reinforcement in the city as APD continues to face staffing shortages.APD Chief Joseph Chacon told council Tuesday the department currently has more than 300 vacant officer positions, as well as 102 separations in the year to da...

Austin on track with 2019 lifeguard hiring goal, eyeing 850 total workers

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Austin Parks and Recreation Department aims to hire 850 lifeguards to work at city-run pools this summer, with nearly 300 already ready for work.PARD Director Kimberly McNeely provided the update during an Austin City Council work session Tuesday. She said this year marks the first time since 2019 the department is on track to hits its hiring goal. City staff: Lifeguard hiring going well, all pools expected to open this summer It comes as the city upped its minimum wage to $20 an hour, applicable to city lifeguards. McNeely added lifeguards also have the opportunity to earn up to $750 in a bonus. In order to attract more candidates, McNeely said Austin PARD has reduced its entry barriers and offers free training for all accepted candidates. Even if trainees don't pass, they will be offered another job within the parks system, she said.Alongside free training, she said the department will offer a $400 stipend to compensate candidates for their time spent traini...

Former San Marcos CISD educator accused of improper relationship with student

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

SAN MARCOS, Texas (KXAN) -- A former staff member of San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District was arrested Monday after he was accused of having an improper relationship with a student, according to a news release from the City of San Marcos.Carl Anthony Thompson, 26, was identified as the former educator, according to the city.Image of Carl Anthony Thompson provided by the City of San MarcosOn Feb. 28, the school district received information regarding a "code of conduct violation with an 18-year-old student," the release said. Thompson was immediately told to leave the campus, and the San Marcos Police Department were notified to begin an investigation, the city said.During the initial course of the investigation, SMPD obtained evidence that Thompson and the victim began exchanging text messages in November 2022, according to the city. Furthermore, the city said inappropriate messages were shared via text and Snapchat.Moreover, investigators also learned Thompson and th...

After 47 years as Vikings’ equipment manager, St. Paul’s Dennis Ryan has seen it all

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

Dennis Ryan was 16 years old, still a student at Highland Park High School, when he had his first memorable encounter with the late Bud Grant.Recruited while working for the City of St. Paul on the grounds crew for the old Midway Stadium on Snelling, Ryan helped move the Vikings to and from training camp in Mankato during the summer of 1975.“On the move down, we saw nobody. It was mid-July and they were setting up for camp,” Ryan recalled. “But when we went down to pick up, everybody was around.”Including Grant, the no-nonsense coach who led the Vikings to four Super Bowl appearances and already had become a Minnesota icon. Grant was waiting in his dorm room for someone to come pick up a boxful of playbooks to load up for the trip back to the Twin Cities.Enter Ryan, who picked up the box only to have the bottom fall out and dump playbooks all over the floor.“He stood over me, and I stared up at him,” Ryan said.And the look the coach gave him?“It was that look you saw on TV.”Minnesot...

Chef shares tips on how to feed a family of 5 for less in ‘Break Bread on a Budget’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

Rekaya Gibson | The Virginian-PilotNORFOLK, Va. — Lexy Rogers hopes to teach people how to make easy, soulful meals with her debut cookbook, “Break Bread on a Budget: Ordinary Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals,” which was released April 4.She should know since she’s a private chef, Air Force wife and mother of three living in Hampton, Virginia.Rogers grew up in Illinois about an hour from Chicago. She fell in love with cooking at the age of 11 while watching her grandmother and aunt. She didn’t see them use recipes or measure anything. She noticed how happy family and friends were eating their food, though.Rogers enjoys the same creative freedom with her home cooking, which she says is influenced by the South.“One of the things my grandmother taught me was to cook with confidence,” said Rogers, who became a private chef in 2020.In 2021, she went on Fox’s “MasterChef” Season 11, a cooking show hosted by the legendary chef Gordon Ramsay. Rogers spoke about how she fed her family of fiv...

‘Clean up after your own kids!’ Anthony Bass and family shamed by internet after he complained about American Airlines

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

Sydney Rae Bass, the influencer wife of Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass and sister of country superstar Jessie James Decker, isn’t getting the outpouring of sympathy she thinks she deserves for a recent situation she says she endured while flying on United Airlines with her young children.In fact, the MLB star and and his equally famous sister-in-law sparked a fierce Twitter debate about parenting, personal accountability and celebrity entitlement when they took to social media to complain that Sydney Rae Bass, 22 weeks pregnant, was “humiliated” when a flight attendant asked her to clean up the popcorn that her daughters, 2 and 5, had spilled in the plane’s aisle.Sydney Bass and Jessie James Decker attend Jessie James Decker x JustFab Launch Event at Urban Cowboy Public House on October 03, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Danielle Del Valle/Getty Images for JustFab.com)In a since-expired Instagram story, Decker told a dramatic tale of her sister, dealing with a high-...

Bass anglers wanted to help gather fish data

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) - Anglers assemble, and fish fans come forth. The Department of Environmental Conservation is looking for interested parties to help keep track of striped bass. The DEC's Striped Bass Cooperative Anglers Program works to track and understand the bass population across New York. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Anglers who volunteer with the program will be issued logbooks and instructions on how to use them by the DEC. Volunteers will be asked to record information such as where their catches have been made, what gear was used, and how many fish they have caught. Anglers also have the option to use an online logbook and catalog their catches by computer or phone. Participation is welcome from both those who fish on land and those who do it by boat.Volunteers may also be asked to collect bass scales using tweezers. Although possibly intimidating, the process does not harm bass, and scales will regrow nat...

Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo coming to St. Louis this summer

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo will play the Stifel Theatre this summer. The show is on Wednesday, August, 23, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.Tickets go on sale Friday, April 21, 2023 through Ticketmaster. They range in price from $26 to $126.Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are a legendary music duo. Together, they have created some of the most iconic rock hits of the 80s and continue to tour and perform to this day.Benatar is a four-time Grammy Award-winning singer known for rock anthems like "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" and "Love Is a Battlefield." Giraldo is known for his exceptional guitar skills. He has been a part of Benatar's sound since the early days of her career.

MLB uses Atlantic League to test more rule changes

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

By DAVID BRANDT (AP Sports Writer)PHOENIX (AP) — Major League Baseball isn’t done tinkering with potential rule changes for the sport.The league announced a series of experimental rules Tuesday that will be used in the Atlantic League this season, including a designated pinch runner, “double-hook” designated hitter rule and further limitations on a pitcher’s ability to make pickoff moves.The designated pinch runner rule allows a player who is not in the starting lineup to be used at any point of the game as a substitute baserunner. The player who was subbed out, as well as the pinch runner, would still be able to return to the game.The “double-hook” designated hitter rule allows teams to use the DH throughout the game as long as the starting pitcher throws at least five innings. If that doesn’t occur, the team loses its DH and the pitcher’s spot would bat for the remainder of the game. The rule was also used in the Atlantic Leagu...

Video released in Wilmington hit-and-run crash that left pedestrian severely injured

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:25:50 GMT

Police on Tuesday released video of a Wilmington hit-and-run crash that left a pedestrian severely injured last year.The crash occurred around 4 p.m. Oct. 9 near the intersection of L and Figueroa streets, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.The pedestrian was crossing on Figueroa when he was struck by a white four-door Chevrolet sedan — possibly a Malibu or Impala — making a left turn.The vehicle struck the pedestrian and “the force of the impact caused the pedestrian to go airborne and collide with the roadway,” police said in a news release.The driver continued north on Figueroa without stopping to help the injured man.The victim was taken to a hospital with severe injuries, police said.The short video clip released Tuesday shows the victim putting his arms out in front of him as if trying to stop the driver. The video stops right before impact.A taco truck can be seen heading in the opposite direction when the crash occurred. A reward of up to $25,000 is being offered...