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"Our children deserve more" Austin ISD board approves TEA plan for state-appointed monitor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) --  After weeks of delaying a vote, Austin Independent School District board trustees voted on Tuesday 8-1 to approve a plan for the Texas Education Agency to bring in a state-appointed official to monitor and report back to the agency the way the district handles special education services. Trustee Kevin Foster was the only trustee who voted to reject the proposal. The decision means the district remains in control of its special education operations for now. But it also means the district must meet several deadlines and requirements, including changing its school board policy, to stave off a conservator who would have the power to make decisions on special education operations. In order to get a less severe form of intervention than originally recommended, the district also waived its right to appeal increased sanctions in the event it is found out of compliance. "I've spent a lot of time thinking about this and making a decision that will be...

Justin Thomas cares more about winning the Ryder Cup than whether he should be on the US team

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — Justin Thomas is too occupied with helping the Americans end three decades of losing the Ryder Cup on European soil to worry about any criticism of him being part of that effort.U.S. captain Zach Johnson had no second thoughts about using one of his six wild-card selections on Thomas, in a slump so severe that he failed to reach the PGA Tour’s postseason for the first time in his career.Neither did the six automatic qualifiers or vice captains who had a voice in the selections. Thomas has been an emotional spark in his two Ryder Cup appearances, along with a 6-2-1 record in France and Wisconsin.As for anyone else, Thomas says he has a short memory when it comes to criticism.“I definitely haven’t kept the receipts,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t feel like there is any good that can come from that. When it comes to stuff online, everybody has got an opinion, and theirs is right and everybody else’s is wrong. ... The only thing that mattered to m...

Washington County approves contract for new Woodbury service center

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

The Washington County Board on Tuesday approved a contract for $3 million for structural wood for a new county service center in Woodbury set to open in 2025.The $3,000,821 bid by Structure Craft Builders USA was the lowest of the four bids for wood received by the county. It will be used to build the new $30 million central service center near the corner of Woodlane Drive and Guider Drive, just east of Interstate 494.The new service center will replace the county’s building on Radio Drive in Woodbury. It will house the license and passport center, CareerForce center and elections polling center now located on Radio Drive. It also will offer services provided by Public Health, Community Services and Community Corrections.Minneapolis-based Alliiance will lead the design of the new facility; Kraus-Anderson Construction will provide construction management services.An architect’s rendering of the plaza of the future Washington County service center in Woodbury. Construction of th...

Schenectady receives funding to revitalize Central Park Casino building

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Plans to revitalize the vacant Casino building in Schenectady's Central Park have taken a step forward. The city received $500,000 in state funding to turn the 80-year-old building into an environmental education center.It will give local children and other community members a chance to learn about climate change and environmental justice. Local leaders said it will help address quality of life concerns in the area. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! "And once the building's occupied, the more people you can get in using the park and around here, the more that's self re-enforcing," Tom Carey of the Upper Union Street Neighborhood Association said. "That will reduce the vandalism and some of the less desirable behavior we sometimes see and let the park be a more enjoyable place for everyone." Two local nonprofits will run the city, and they're partnering with the city school district to develop the edu...

A fire at a wedding hall in northern Iraq kills at least 114 people and injures 150, authorities say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

By FARID ABDULWAHED (Associated Press)MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — A fire that raced through a hall hosting a Christian wedding in northern Iraq killed at least 100 people and injured 150 others, authorities said Wednesday, warning the death toll could rise higher.The fire happened in Iraq’s Nineveh province in its Hamdaniya area, authorities said. That’s a predominantly Christian area just outside of the city of Mosul, some 335 kilometers (205 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad. Television footage showed flames rushing over the wedding hall as the fire took hold. In the blaze’s aftermath, only charred metal and debris could be seen as people walked through the scene of the fire, the only light coming from television cameras and the lights of onlookers’ mobile phones. Survivors arrived at local hospitals, receiving oxygen and bandaged, as their families milled through hallways and outside as workers organized more oxygen cylinders. The health department in ...

L.A. County search and rescue team saves deer stranded in debris basin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

Members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department search and rescue team assisted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in rescuing a deer stranded in a debris basin in Tujunga on Tuesday, officials announced.  The deer had apparently been stuck in the basin, located in the Haines Canyon area, for some time and was unable to get out, according to a LASD social media post.  At the scene, an LASD coordinator saw that there would be no easy way to extract the animal and called in the Montrose Search and Rescue Team.  Members of LASD's Montrose Search and Rescue Unit assist officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in lifting a stranded deer out of a debris basin in the Haines Canyon area on Sept. 26, 2023. (LASD)Members of LASD's Montrose Search and Rescue Unit assist officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in lifting a stranded deer out of a debris basin in the Haines Canyon area on Sept. 26, 2023. (LASD)Members of LASD...

Berkeley Hills stabbing spree suspect charged with murder, attempted murder

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

Alameda County prosecutors filed murder and a slew of other felony charges Tuesday against a man accused of killing one person and wounding two others in a weekend stabbing spree in the Berkeley Hills.Along with the murder charge, Jonah Jeremiah Roper, 36, faces two counts of attempted murder in attacks that left a wooded neighborhood just a few blocks from Tilden Park reeling Saturday.Roper also faces charges of first-degree residential burglary and evading a police officer, along with numerous sentencing enhancements. He was being held without bail Tuesday evening at the Santa Rita Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday morning in a downtown Oakland courthouse.Authorities say the violence began midday Saturday when a man — later identified as Roper — got into a struggle with two residents of a home on Overlook Road. One woman was stabbed to death at the home, police said.A person who called police at 12:33 p.m. described the incident as a family disturbance. Berkeley poli...

Santa Clara man killed in crash with tractor on Highway 152

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

GILROY – A 78-year-old Santa Clara man was killed in a crash Tuesday morning on State Route 152 in Gilroy, according to authorities.The man was driving a 2021 Toyota RAV4 eastbound on the highway, east of Canada Road, at 7:30 a.m. when he collided with a 2023 tomato harvester tractor crossing from the south shoulder to the north shoulder, the California Highway Patrol said.A Good Samaritan pulled over to provide aid and called 911, according to the CHP.The man died of his injuries at the scene while his passenger, a 76-year-old Santa Clara woman, was taken to Natividad Medical Center in Salinas with major injuries, the CHP said.The tractor driver, a 22-year-old Coalinga man, remained at the scene, according to the CHP.Alcohol and drugs did not appear to play a role in the deadly collision, the CHP said.Anyone with information related to the case can contact the CHP Hollister-Gilroy area office at 408-427-0700.Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | San Jose: Man dies week...

SF Giants: Kyle Harrison scratched from start against Padres with illness

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Giants rookie Kyle Harrison was scratched from his start against the San Diego Padres due to an illness, the team announced.Harrison was scheduled to make his seventh big league start on Tuesday night, but the team announced 25 minutes before the 6:45 p.m. first pitch that John Brebbia would be starting in his place.After his complete game win on Monday night, Logan Webb told the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast that he’d pitched through a nasty cold and sounded nasal over the mic. The 22-year-old has made six starts since his call-up and debut on Aug. 22 against the Philadelphia Phillies.Harrison has been shaky since and was optioned on Sept. 15 after some struggles in three starts against the Padres, Colorado Rockies and Cleveland Guardians. He was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento shortly after to replace Alex Cobb in the rotation, who’d been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a left hip impingement. Harrison has a 4.85 ERA with 31 strik...

San Francisco public school students are falling behind in math, coalition says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:06 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The San Francisco Unified School District is in the midst of developing a plan to make comprehensive and strategic adjustments to the district’s math curriculum.Meredith Dodson, executive director of the San Francisco Parent Coalition, said, "Right now kids are falling behind. That’s why we’re calling on the district to act with urgency and offer a concrete plan to improve math learning outcomes."The coalition, a collective of over 6,000 public school parents and teachers, is urging the district to bring back 8th grade algebra.Starting in 2014, the San Francisco Unified School District made a controversial, equity-focused mathematics reform to delay offering Algebra 1 until ninth grade, for all students.The district made the reform in response to racial gaps among students passing algebra and progressing to higher level courses, such as AP calculus and AP statistics. EdWeek wrote that the district's strategy aimed to "avoid the early sorting of students into ...