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Ebert Metropolitan District board member subject to recall election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- The Denver Office of the Clerk and Recorder received a recall election petition for Murray Hawthorne, a member of the office of director for the Ebert Metropolitan District in Green Valley Ranch.According to the office, the petition was reviewed and has enough valid signatures to initiate a recall election. The official date for that election is still pending. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox Hawthorne is treasurer of the Ebert Metropolitan District. His term expires in May 2025. He was appointed to the position prior to his election in 2022, serving from 2020-2022.Recall elections are to try and remove an elected official from their position. The petition must have valid signatures for 25% of the total votes cast in the last preceding general election.According to the recall petition, signatories believe Hawthorne "does not represent or respect Ebert residents."The petition continues by citing a pattern of verbal abuse and physic...

BSO search for missing 28-year-old man in Tamarac

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

The Broward Sheriff’s Office Missing Persons Unit is seeking the public’s help in finding a missing 28-year-old man.Isaac Samuel Mathis was last seen on Nov. 8, at approximately 9:38 a.m., near the 7000 block of North University Drive in Tamarac. He was last seen wearing a green long sleeve shirt, black pants and Nike sneakers.Mathis stands at about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs around 150 pounds, has black hair and brown eyes. According to his family, Mathis suffers from bipolar disorder.Anyone with information on Mathis’ whereabouts is urged contact BSO Detective Leonard Charla at 954-321-4274 or the BSO non-emergency number at 954-764-HELP (4357

BSO search for missing 21-year-old man in Oakland Park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

The Broward Sheriff’s Office Missing Persons Unit is seeking the public’s help in finding a missing 21-year-old man.Omarie Jamoie King was last seen on Oct. 21, at around 11 p.m., in the 200 block of Lake Pointe Drive in Oakland Park. He was last seen wearing a yellow hoodie, black pants, a black beanie and black and white sneakers.King stands at about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, weighs about 150 pounds, has black hair and brown eyes.Anyone with information on King’s whereabouts should contact BSO Detective Leonard Charla at 954-321-4274 or the BSO non-emergency number at 954-764-HELP (4357).

Israel won’t pick Hamas’ successors in Gaza, top official says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

TEL AVIV — Israel doesn’t want to end up deciding who rules Gaza after Hamas but is liaising closely with its allies on the future of the coastal enclave, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told POLITICO on Thursday. For now, it seems easier to answer the question of who won’t govern the coastal enclave after the war, rather than who will. Israel insists it won’t stay on as an occupier, and Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, also dismissively shook his head when asked about a role for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority or the U.N. “I think the worst thing that could happen is for Israel to say who governs, but we can say who’s not going to govern, and it is not going to be Hamas,” he noted emphatically.Given Israel won’t pick the successor to Hamas, Falk argued a diplomatic approach would be needed to help settle what comes next. “We are talking with our partners and allies, and obviously have been from day o...

Sticker Shock: $24.5 Bil Needed To Address MBTA Problems

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

MBTA officials have long been sounding the alarm about the poor state of the system’s infrastructure and lamenting years of disinvestment, and on Thursday they put an eye-watering new price tag on the myriad issues that have piled up: $24.5 billion.The T published a new analysis of the quality of its trains, tracks, signals, construction equipment and other assets, confirming the dire state of the system that is widely understood but has not been quantified in four years.Nearly two-thirds of all MBTA assets are not in a state of good repair, and it would cost $24.5 billion to fix all of those issues, the agency concluded in its latest assessment. That figure includes the costs only of addressing current problems, not regular maintenance for infrastructure in a state of good repair nor expansions, electrifications and other large-scale projects.The new estimate is nearly two and a half times more expensive than the last capital needs assessment produced in 2019 under the B...

New York judge lifts gag order that barred Donald Trump from maligning court staff in fraud trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court judge on Thursday paused a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting on court staffers in his civil fraud trial. The trial judge had imposed the gag order last month and later fined Trump $15,000 for violations after the former president made a disparaging social media post about a court clerk.In his decision, Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court cited constitutional concerns about restricting Trump’s free speech. He issued a stay of the gag order, allowing Trump to comment freely about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out.Trump’s lawyers filed a lawsuit against the trial judge, Arthur Engoron, late Wednesday challenging the gag order as an abuse of power. Friedman scheduled an emergency hearing Thursday afternoon around a conference table in a state appellate courthouse a couple of miles from where the trial is unfolding.Trump’s lawyers had asked the appeals judge to scr...

The most powerful rocket ever built is about to attempt a second launch. Here’s what’s at stake

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

(CNN) — After months of rebuilding and clearing red tape following the April explosion of the Starship system’s first test flight, SpaceX is set for its next attempt.The megarocket — the most powerful launch vehicle ever built — was expected to lift off on Friday, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post Thursday that the company would hold off until Saturday to allow for time to replace a small rocket part.It was not immediately clear what time SpaceX is planning to launch Saturday. The company had been targeting a two-hour window that opened at 7 a.m. CT (8 a.m. ET) if Starship had lifted off on Friday. But public notices sent to airplanes and ships indicate SpaceX can launch anytime between 5:25 a.m. CT and 11:10 a.m. CT on Saturday.Musk shared that the reason for the delay was the need to replace an actuator — or a mechanical component that allows movement — on one of the rocket’s grid fins. Grid fins are metal, mesh squares that line the top of S...

Xi Jinping hints China could send new pandas to US as ‘envoys of friendship’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

(CNN) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping suggested Wednesday China could send new pandas to the United States, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples,” in the latest gesture aimed at easing fraught ties between the two powers.“I…learned that the San Diego Zoo and the Californians very much look forward to welcoming pandas back,” Xi told American business leaders during a speech in San Francisco on Wednesday.“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples.”Xi delivered the remarks hours after he held extensive talks with US President Joe Biden, where the two leaders made positive steps in stabilizing rocky relations between the world’s top two economies.China loans pandas to more than 20 countries around the world as envoys of friendship from Beijing – a program that’s often referred to as “panda di...

Red Sox sign former top pitching prospect to minor league deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

The Red Sox made a pair of additions on Thursday, signing left-hander Helcris Olivarez to a minor league deal and right-hander Luis Cabrera as an international free agent, according to the club’s transaction log.Olivarez has an intriguing history and some potential upside. The 23-year-old was once regarded as a top pitching prospect in the Colorado Rockies organization whose fastball previously touched 100 mph. He has spent most of the past two seasons injured but reportedly sat in the mid-90s when he recently took the mound during an instructional league game, according to Red Sox Stats on Twitter.Originally signed by the Rockies in 2016 as an international free agent, Olivarez pitched two seasons in the Dominican Summer League before arriving in the U.S. in 2019. That season he made 11 starts in rookie ball, posting a 4.82 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 46.2 innings, and in 2020 he made a strong impression at the organization’s alternate training site amid the COVID-19 pand...

How lawmakers in Texas and Florida undermine COVID vaccination efforts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:31 GMT

Amy Maxmen | KFF Health News (TNS)Katherine Wells wants to urge her Lubbock, Texas, community to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “That could really save people from severe illness,” said Wells, the city’s public health director.But she can’t.A rule added to Texas’ budget that went into effect Sept. 1 forbids health departments and other organizations funded by the state government to advertise, recommend, or even list COVID vaccines alone. “Clinics may inform patients that COVID-19 vaccinations are available,” the rule allows, “if it is not being singled out from other vaccines.”Texas isn’t the only state curtailing the public conversation about COVID vaccines. Tennessee’s health department homepage, for example, features the flu, vaping, and cancer screening but leaves out COVID and COVID vaccines. Florida is an extreme case, where the health department has issued guidance against COVID vaccines that runs counter to scientific studies and advice from the Centers for Disease Contro...