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6 months to arrest repeat suspect, APD sex crimes unit explains delay

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — "You're asking me to say I've put it off for this long, but the reality is I have not had time," Austin Police Detective Andrea Mittel said during her testimony at a bond hearing for a man accused of multiple sex assaults.Detective Andrea Mittel started working on the APD sex crimes unit in January. (KXAN photo/Brianna Hollis)"So you didn't have time in six months to take what you believe to be a violent individual off the streets, you're telling me you were that overworked?" the suspect's attorney said. Mittel responded, "Yeah, we're low."Dublas Vasquez is the suspect referenced in Mittel's testimony. He is accused of assaulting a woman at his West Campus home near the University of Texas in March 2023, while out on bond for another sex assault charge from last year, police said.He wasn't arrested in connection with the March West Campus incident until September. Hundreds of Austin Police Department detectives have to work patrol shifts in addition to working on the...

Gophers football vs. Michigan State: Keys to game, how to watch and who has edge

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

MICHIGAN STATE vs. MINNESOTAWhen: 2:30 p.m. SaturdayWhere: Huntington Bank StadiumTV: Big Ten NetworkRadio: KFAN, 100.3 FMWeather: 33 degrees, flurries, 6 mph south windBetting spread: Minnesota, -7Records: Minnesota (4-3, 2-2 Big Ten) got back into the Big Ten West race with a 12-10 win over Iowa last Saturday. Michigan State (2-5, 0-4) dropped its fifth straight game last weekend, a 49-0 beat down by No. 2 Michigan.History: Before a 34-7 win in East Lansing in 2022, the Gophers had lost five straight games to the Spartans dating to 2010. Minnesota is 18-30 all-time against Michigan State.Key matchup: Athan Kaliakmanis vs. Spartans secondary. The Gophers QB and his pass catchers have yet to fully click this season and this Michigan State’s secondary can be beat. With health concerns in the U backfield, Minnesota might need to rely more on an efficient passing game.Who has the edge?Gophers offense vs. Michigan State defense: The Spartans have lost all five games since head coach Mel...

Fields Foods Lafayette Square store up for sale

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

ST. LOUIS - The Fields Foods' flagship store in Lafayette Square is officially up for sale.According to FOX 2's partners at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the store is listed for more than $4 million. Fields Foods began closing its St. Louis area stores earlier this summer after receiving a number of lawsuits over unpaid rent and owed taxes. Multiple people reported dead, injured in Maine shootings The grocery chain shut down its remaining stores last month. The Lafayette Square building has been on the market for a few weeks now, but there have been no offers.A hearing on Fields Foods late city taxes is scheduled for December 6.

Gateway Arch celebrating 58 years with 'An Iconic Evening' Fundraiser tonight

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

ST. LOUIS - On Thursday night, the Gateway Arch is celebrating its 58th anniversary.The final piece of the iconic structure was put in place on October 28, 1965. It took two years of construction work. To honor the event, the 'Gateway Arch Park Foundation' is hosting its 'Iconic Evening' fundraiser. ‘Basketball Wives’ star Brittish Cierrah Williams sentenced to prison Guests will enjoy dinner, live entertainment, tram rides to the top of the arch, and private museum access. It starts at 6:30 p.m.

3 can’t-miss Dia de los Muertos celebrations in Denver

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican and Mexican-American holiday that typically takes place at the very beginning of November. The goal of the holiday, which is typically quite festive, is to honor loved ones who have died. But it has also come to symbolize the difficulty of preserving traditions in Hispanic culture. Participants often build altars, or ofrendas, to pay their respect to the dead. Other traditions involve sugar skulls, painted faces, Catrinas and more.In Denver — and Colorado as a whole — Dia de los Muertos has been part of the fabric of life for decades, and there are multiple community celebrations. Here are three of the biggest.Día de los Muertos Parade and FestivalSaturday, Oct. 28. Santa Fe Drive gets festive starting at 11 a.m. as the Dia de los Muertos Parade rolls by with marching bands, floats, ballet folkloricos, fire trucks, Catrinas, characters from the movie “Coco,” lowriders and lots of colorful costumes.After tha...

What’s 12 feet tall, dead and taking Colorado and the country by storm? A coveted skeleton, of corpse.

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

Despite his name, Fred the Dead doesn’t have the guts to scare neighborhood kids. He doesn’t have the heart, either. He doesn’t have any internal organs at all.Fred is a 12-foot-tall Home Depot skeleton — and he’s a hot commodity. The metal-framed monsters can be spotted this time of year towering over Colorado neighborhoods, from cityscapes to rural farmland.Halloween fiends lucky enough to get their hands on the coveted décor can consider themselves members of an exclusive club; Home Depot won’t say how many of the skeletons it has sold, but Tyler Pelfrey, brand communications manager for the home-improvement giant, confirmed the behemoth box of bones has sold out every year since its 2020 debut.Calls to Home Depot stores in Glendale, Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Fort Collins this week confirmed — occasionally with a harumph of incredulous laughter from a sales associate for even deigning to hope — that the 12-foot-tall skeleton was ...

A chilling Colorado tale of buffalo slaughter jumps from page to screen in Nicholas Cage’s latest movie

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

When John Williams penned the gritty, Colorado-set novel “Butcher’s Crossing” in 1960, he faced a herd of Western writers stampeding in the other direction.Seminal novelists of the genre such as Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour had already idealized the American Frontier in hundreds of best-selling books and stories. But Williams, a University of Denver professor for 30 years, took a darker view of U.S. expansion, one that dissected the heroic myths of archetypal cowboys, ranch hands and outlaws.(New York Review of Books Classics)Director Gabe Polsky, who fought for more than a decade to turn “Butcher’s Crossing” into a movie, said he “never really connected with the genre.”“Never. I tried to watch (Westerns) a little bit and just kind of disconnected because it was about searching for the Indians and bank robberies and revenge and all of that.”In 2022, Polsky’s cinematic version, which stars Nicholas Cage, debuted o...

Colorado Republicans unveil Proposition HH alternatives — some of which overlap with ballot measure

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

Colorado’s Republicans lawmakers said Wednesday that they were “pushing their way into the conversation” on property taxes — just as voters are weighing in on Proposition HH — by demanding a special session to pass several relief measures.Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen of Monument made the declaration at a news conference as Republicans, whose political power is at a historic ebb in state government, argued against the multi-faceted ballot measure spearheaded by state Democrats. If voters reject Prop. HH in the Nov. 7 election, as the Republican lawmakers hope, Democratic leaders, including Gov. Jared Polis, have no clear backup plan.That would leave little time before homeowners are hit in the spring by major property tax increases caused by rising property valuations, averaging 40% at the median.“We have to have relief this year — this calendar year — so they can get the property tax relief next year,” said Sen. Barbara Ki...

Disaster averted on Colorado River — for now — thanks to wet winter and states’ plan to conserve water, feds say

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

Enough water likely will fill the Colorado River’s two major reservoirs for the next three years to stave off a hydroelectric power failure and other worst-case scenarios, federal officials said Wednesday.The declaration is based on unexpectedly heavy snowfall in the Rocky Mountains last winter and states’ commitments to reduce water use. Analysts with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation relied on promised cuts by water users and data collected in June to redo forecasts for Lake Mead and Lake Powell, finding slim chances that water levels in the two reservoirs would fall beneath critical elevations before the end of 2026.Water levels at such low levels would threaten the dams’ abilities to generate power and move water downstream.The chances that water levels will fall below critical elevations before 2027 are now 8% at Lake Powell and 4% at Lake Mead, according to the new analysis. Previous estimates, based on September 2022 data and an assumption that nothing would ch...

Things to do this weekend: Lil Yachty at the Fillmore, sea monsters at the Denver Zoo

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:36:04 GMT

The Ice Age has cometh!Through Jan 21, 2024. Step into a world where “hundreds of artifacts and fossils, immersive models and state-of-the-art interactive experiences” come to life, according to Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The City Park institution is now hosting the frosty “Mysteries of The Ice Ages” temporary exhibit, which features actual tools and artifacts from Neanderthals, early humans and Arctic civilizations. “Many of these items, which give a firsthand look at life during the ice ages, have never been showcased before,” officials wrote.The wide-ranging and colorful exhibit, which opened Oct. 20 and runs through Jan. 21, 2024, is included with general admission. 9-5 p.m. daily at 2001 Colorado Blvd. Tickets: $25 for adults, $20 for kids 3-18 and free for 2 and under. Call 303-370-6000 or visit dmns.org.Rapper and songwriter Lil Yachty’s new psych-rock album “Let’s Start Here.” is a detour from his usual ...