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Large emergency training exercise in Monroe County, Saturday

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

COLUMBIA, Ill. -- Monroe County Emergency Management, and all first responding agencies there will conduct what they call a full-scale training exercise. It is going on from eight until noon.The training will take place in the northwest section of Columbia. They will be at the city park on Evergreen Lane, Columbia Middle School, Sand Bank Road, D-D Road, and Bluff Road.You might hear some loud noises, including pyrotechnics. Police are saying not to worry about the increased number of emergency personnel in these areas.

Colorado pitches park in Golden as global hub of energy innovation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

Government officials, leaders in business and finance and representatives from research institutions mingled at the governor’s mansion Thursday as part of the state’s promotion of a business and research park devoted to accelerating the transition to a renewable-energy future.Global Energy Park, or Glo Park, is planned for about 10 acres next to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. Gov. Jared Polis unveiled plans in 2021 for the park, which will be built on a site put together through a series of land swaps with various parties, including Jefferson County.The state, NREL and the Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory sponsored a three-day conference this week with about 150 people to discuss Glo Park. They discussed ways that government, businesses, investors and academia can expedite the move to renewable energy and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to tackle climate change.Denver-based NexCore Group will develop the two buildings that will house startups, ...

Grading the Week: It’s been 2,167 days since Kris Bryant last hit a home run at Coors Field

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

It’s two weeks into his second season in purple pinstripes, and we’re still waiting for the USS Kris Bryant to dock at Coors Field.Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt signed Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million contract in the winter of 2022 with the idea the one-time NL MVP would serve as an “aircraft carrier” for Colorado’s lineup.Right now, however, he’s looking more like a pedal boat.Kris Bryant — D+Through 12 games and 54 plate appearances entering Friday night’s game in Seattle, the Rockies outfielder’s home run total this season was the same as the Grading the Week staff’s (0).Sure, it’s still early. Just mid-April in a long, 162-game slog. But go all the way back to the start of last season, and Bryant still has only five home runs in 54 games with Colorado. And none of those have come at Coors Field.For a little perspective: Nolan Arenado has hit three home runs at Coors as a member of the St. Louis Cardinal...

Can Nuggets star Nikola Jokic “give me 40 or 50 points against a great team?” NBA analysts say they’re still not convinced.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

LeBron James has scored at least 45 points in a playoff game 11 times in his career. Kevin Durant’s done it five times. Russell Westbrook, four times. Kawhi Leonard, twice. James Harden, once. Giannis Antetokounmpo, once.Nikola Jokic? None so far. (Playoff high: 43 points.)Which is why former NBA guard and current Turner Sports analyst Greg Anthony threw this gauntlet down for the two-time MVP  when asked about the Nuggets’ postseason forecast.“As great as the Joker is. And (as great as) Jamal Murray is, your mindset going into the game, you’re not thinking that, ‘Man tonight, he could go for 50 (points) if we don’t … if we’re not careful, he can go for 50 on you.’” Anthony said during a recent media conference call.“And most of the truly great players, you feel that way about them. Like if you’re going against Phoenix, you think (with Devin) Booker or Durant, ‘Can they get me 50?’ You know what I mean?“Your mindset is such that that’s the approach you come with, t...

Manjoo: Twitter is permanently broken thanks to Elon Musk

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

About six months ago, Elon Musk bought your favorite neighborhood bar. Then he fired veteran bouncers and bartenders, tried to stiff the landlord and at least one vendor, and demanded that regulars pay a cover charge. He’s frequently struggled to serve his customers, yet he’s penalized them for mentioning the competition. He’s tamped down the revelry in general, really — a lot of conversation at his watering hole has been drowned out by Musk’s own never-ending stage act, which consists mainly of him yelling dad jokes at customers through a bullhorn.Pour one out for Twitter, then. I’d been open to Musk’s purchase of the social network, but half a year in, it’s been an unmitigated disaster. Musk moved fast and broke nearly everything — the speed and totality with which he’s ruined the site has been almost impressive. By Musk’s own reckoning, the company is now worth less than half of what he paid for it. It has lost many large advertisers, most of its employees and, with them, much of...

It’s reckless for homebuyers and sellers to not have contingencies

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

Question: Regarding “What if presale seller inspections are not required in other regions?” on The Mercury News and East Bay Times websites on April 7, 2023: We gave our daughter and son-in-law money for a down payment. We signed a gift letter confirming the funds aren’t a loan. Fair enough. As retired schoolteachers, it’s a sizable amount of money to give.Yesterday we learned their offers are devoid of contingencies. We found this alarming. Many homes had only two presale inspections. In your April 7 article, you listed six presale seller inspections.Today, in discussions with our daughter and son-in-law, we shared our noncontingent offer concerns. In your past articles, you reference Realtor forms for various topics. There must be Realtor buyer-beware forms. If so, this buyer’s agent is not using them. Are there buyer-beware forms our daughter and son-in-law should have read by now?A: Since the dot-com era, forms have been lauding the use of contingencies vs. the risks of nonconti...

Miles de hectáreas están bajo el agua en California, y la inundación podría triplicarse en tamaño este verano

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

(CNN) — Torrentes de lluvia inundaron miles de hectáreas de tierras de cultivo en el Valle Central de California este invierno y resucitaron un lago que desapareció hace décadas. Hasta donde alcanza la vista, el agua se extiende hasta el horizonte: a través de carreteras, campos de cultivo, casas y edificios.Ahora, la enorme capa de nieve que se acumuló en Sierra Nevada este invierno es una bomba de tiempo. A medida que se derrita, la inundación podría triplicarse en tamaño para el verano, amenazando a las comunidades circundantes y costando miles de millones en pérdidas.“Todos los cultivos están completamente inundados y arruinados”, dijo la residente Martina Sealy mientras sostenía a su hijita y contemplaba el agua cubierta de blanco, donde habían crecido vastos campos de algodón y alfalfa durante toda su vida. “Se necesitan muchos trabajos para las personas. Esa es una gran cantidad de alimentos que proporcionamos en todo California y en todo el país. Da bastante miedo̶...

Maryland plans to stockpile abortion drug as Supreme Court weighs ruling on restrictions

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller announced Friday that the state will be purchasing a substantial amount of mifepristone, an abortion drug used for the majority of abortions in the United States, as abortion access is being threatened across the country.Mifepristone has been approved for medical use by the Food and Drug Administration since 2000, but that approval was recently challenged in a ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned the Texas ruling, allowing the drug to still have federal approval but with some older regulations that would limit access to it. This included requiring the drug to be taken in the presence of a physician, so it could no longer be mailed out to patients.On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it was temporarily keeping federal approval of mifepristone in place for five days, while the high court considers whether the restrictions in the newest ruling sho...

Arrestan a un hombre tras explosión que provocó la evacuación del líder japonés Fumio Kishida durante un discurso

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

(CNN) — El primer ministro de Japón, Fumio Kishida, fue evacuado ileso este sábado después de una explosión en un lugar donde estaba dando un discurso al aire libre.Las imágenes de video publicadas por la cadena pública japonesa NHK mostraban a miembros del público huyendo y a un hombre arrestado luego de la explosión. Se veía a varios hombres, que se cree que eran policías, sujetando al sospechoso en el suelo. Otras imágenes mostraban un cilindro plateado que parecía haber sido arrojado en dirección a Kishida.Un hombre es arrestado luego de que arrojaran un objeto cerca del primer ministro japonés, Fumio Kishida, mientras pronunciaba un discurso en Wakayama, Japón, el 15 de abril. (Kyodo/Reuters)La agencia de noticias local Kyodo News informó que un hombre había sido arrestado después de lanzar “lo que parecía ser una bomba de humo”.Las escenas dramáticas tuvieron lugar en la ciudad de Wakayama, poco después de una visita de Kishida al puerto pesquero local de Saikazaki.Las c...

Alien motherships: Pentagon official floats a theory for unexplained sightings

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:19 GMT

The official in charge of a secretive Pentagon effort to investigate unexplained aerial incursions has co-authored an academic paper that presents an out-of-this-world theory: Recent objects could actually be alien probes from a mothership sent to study Earth.In a draft paper dated March 7, Sean Kirkpatrick, head of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, and Harvard professor Avi Loeb teamed up to write that the objects, which appear to defy all physics, could be “probes” from an extraterrestrial “parent craft.”It’s unusual for government officials, especially those involved in the nascent effort to collect intelligence on recent sightings, to discuss the possibility of extraterrestrial life, although top agency officials don’t rule it out when asked.After Loeb posted it online, the paper gained notoriety from a post on Military Times and has also circulated among science-focused news outlets.More than half of the five-page paper is devoted to discussing the ...