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Watch: Rare sighting of mountain lion swimming across Eagle River

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Mountain lion sightings are rare, but a Jeep tour company based in Vail recently got that experience.People rarely catch more than a brief glimpse of a mountain lion in the wild as they tend to live in remote areas, like mountain subdivisions where deer and elk are abundant, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Why bears in Colorado like trash Not only did Vail 4x4 Tours watch as the mountain lion swam across the Eagle River, but they caught it on video and shared the sighting with FOX31 so viewers could see it too.Ben Hilley, the owner of Vail 4x4 Tours, told FOX31 they see all kinds of wildlife on tours as they often go through the most remote trails in the Vail Valley. He said they see elk, mule deer, black bears, bighorn sheep and more in the wild, but rarely do they see a mountain lion."Over the past 15 years and thousands of hours on trail, I've seen two. I even tell our guests, they are there but we won't see them. This sighting was truly a once-in-a-l...

Pembroke Pines town hall meeting held to discuss garbage incineration as landfills become major issue in city

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

Dozens of Pembroke Pines residents weighed in during a town hall meeting on Monday, worried about perceived plans for a new garbage incinerator in Broward County, despite there being no plans in place yet to build one.City officials and county officials said there is a big issue of garbage in the county, in which millions of pounds of trash are sent to landfills. A questions and answer session occasionally turned heated as Pembroke Pines residents wanted to know if a garbage incinerator is coming to their city, specifically near U.S. 27 and Sheridan Street. “When I got the notice for this my reaction was, ‘What incinerator project?'” said Assistant County Administrator Kevin Kelleher. That’s because officials said there is no plan, at least not yet. But they do need to figure out a way to deal with the county’s annual four million tons of garbage added to landfills.“Twelve million gallons of garbage juice every year that comes out of the landfill,...

Trump says he will turn himself in to prosecutors in Atlanta on Thursday

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

Former President Donald Trump will turn himself in to prosecutors in Atlanta on Thursday, he said on Monday, after he was indicted by a Georgia grand jury last week on racketeering charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in that state.“I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday night, calling the case a “WITCH HUNT” and attacking Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who led the investigation into Trump and his allies.Willis indicated last week that all 19 defendants charged in the indictment had until Friday to surrender to prosecutors for booking. Former Trump lawyer John Eastman is slated to be booked on Wednesday, according to court filings in his California disbarment proceedings.The Fulton County district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the timing of Trump’s booking.Earlier on Monday, Trump’s attorneys signed an order setting his bond a...

Facing threat of Trump’s return, Ukrainians ramp up homegrown arms industry

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

KYIV — Ukraine’s long-range Beaver drones seem to be making successful kamikaze strikes in the heart of Moscow, but Serhiy Prytula is coy about how much he knows.“We are not sure whether we are involved in this,” he says with a charming but inscrutable smile, when asked about these mysterious new weapons.   Prytula rose to fame — just like President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — as an actor, TV star and comedian, but is now best known for his contribution to the war, running a foundation that acquires components, helps support domestic arms production and supplies front-line forces. Tracking down parts for drones has proved to be one of his fortes. Whether or not Prytula played any role in finding parts for the Beaver, it has now joined the ranks of other homegrown creations such as the Shark, Leleka and Valkyrie.From the outside, his foundation looks like any other nondescript five-story apartment block in the quiet side streets of Kyiv. Inside, it is a chaoti...

Editorial: Boston polls high for safety – now to keep it that way

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

Boston is a world-class city, with a rich history, thriving food scene, top-tier museums, great attractions, shopping and entertainment in an eminently accessible 48 square miles.It’s no wonder we play host to some 22.7 million visitors a year (that’s how many visited in 2019, according to the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau).We’ve got something else going for us: a new Gallup poll finds Americans consider Boston a safe place to live in or visit (a whopping 72%).We need to keep it that way, or else we could wind up like Chicago, which a mere 27% consider safe.The Boston that visitors see, in general, are the parts that make the postcards: the North End, Back Bay, Public Garden, the well-kept streets from Beacon Hill and the bustle of the Seaport.Neighborhoods plagued by gun violence and drug addiction aren’t on the walking tours.If they polled residents that live in fear of street shootings, or businesses along Mass and Cass, we’re sure th...

Arcuri: The IRS shouldn’t prepare our taxes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

As a former member of Congress who always made protecting Main Street’s interests a priority, I couldn’t be more concerned with the Internal Revenue Service’s recent launch of Direct File. This pilot program will have the agency preparing the taxes of select Americans making under $125,000.Over the years, the legislative branch has subjected the IRS to significant budget cuts. Despite modest increases in the last few years, the agency’s congressional credit line has remained nearly 20% below where it was in 2010 when adjusted for inflation.The IRS  promised Congress it would begin going after wealthy tax evaders if it upped this funding allotment. Congress obliged, providing the agency with $80 billion in funding in the Inflation Reduction Act.But now, with the launch of Direct File, the IRS again finds itself focusing on low- and middle-income Americans. This is disappointing but not surprising. For decades, the IRS has favored targeting Main Street.A Syracuse University study of 2...

Rickey Hill’s MLB dream hits the big screen

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

Rickey Hill traveled a rocky road before he could see his childhood dream become a big-screen reality.As his story is told in Friday’s “The Hill,” being dirt poor in Texas was the least of the obstacles this athletic prodigy had to overcome before he could play Major League Baseball.“The Hill” stars Dennis Quaid as Rickey’s devout preacher dad, Scott Glenn as the influential baseball scout who decides Rickey’s fate and Colin Ford is teenage Rickey.Hill’s first hurdle was being born with a degenerative spinal disease; he could only walk with heavy leg braces. Then his dad, spectacularly unsupportive of his son’s most cherished dream, never attending any of his baseball games, decreed that Rickey would become a minister just like him.Rickey’s uncanny gift as a hitter derailed that plan. “At nine years old I’d never owned a ball,” Hill, 67, said in a phone interview. His brother would pitch a rock and Rickey hit it with a stick.“I just took my braces off.  I was done with those t...

Dear Abby: Mom tired of hosting the neighborhood bully

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

Dear Abby: My daughter is the youngest kid in the neighborhood, and a girl up the street treats her horribly. She calls her a baby, tells her she’s not a person and sends her home when everybody plays at her house.The other kids are friendly with my daughter, and when they come to play at our house, the mean girl comes too. She’s never mean to my daughter when I’m around, but I don’t think it’s right to let her enjoy our pool and games when she won’t let my daughter play at her house.How do I ask her to leave without seeming like a bully while allowing the other kids to stay and play? The other mother is of no help. — Wants the Bully to LeaveDear Wants the Bully to Leave: I assume the other mother is aware that her daughter refuses to allow your daughter to play at her house with the other kids. Because she hasn’t intervened, the ball is in your court. Teach your daughter a lesson in assertiveness. The next time the bully shows up, you...

Maui confronts challenge of finding those unaccounted for after deadly fire

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century swept through the Maui community of Lahaina, authorities say more than 800 people remain unaccounted for — a staggering number that presents huge challenges for officials who are trying to determine how many of those perished and how many may have made it to safety but haven’t checked in.Something similar happened after a wildfire in 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California. Authorities in Butte County, home to Paradise, ultimately published a list of the missing in the local newspaper, a decision that helped identify scores of people who had made it out alive but were listed as missing. Within a month, the list dropped from 1,300 names to only a dozen.“I probably had, at any given time, 10 to 15 detectives who were assigned to nothing but trying to account for people who were unaccounted for,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said in a phone interview. “At...

A jailed Hong Kong student loses bid to reduce sentence over inciting secession in landmark ruling

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:57:40 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — A jailed university student in Hong Kong lost his bid to reduce his five-year sentence for inciting secession in a landmark ruling by the city’s top court Tuesday that will have a far-reaching impact on other cases brought under a Beijing-imposed national security law. Lui Sai-yu pleaded guilty to breaching the sweeping security law in April 2022 and admitted that content on a Telegram channel he administered incited others to separate Hong Kong from China or alter the legal status of the city unlawfully. But his timely guilty plea did not get him a one-third reduction in the length of his imprisonment — like in many other cases under the city’s common law system — because the security law imposed minimum jail terms for serious offences. Lui is one of the some 260 people who were arrested under the security law as Beijing tried to crush dissidents following the massive protests in 2019. The ruling on his appeal is expected to set the bar for sentencings ...