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Mississippi River waters keep rising in Iowa and Illinois

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — People living along the Mississippi River watched warily Sunday as water levels rose in southeast Iowa and northwest Illinois, awaiting spring crests as floodwaters began to slowly recede and reveal damage in areas further north.The National Weather Service said many of the crests across the region this season will rank in the top 10 of all time, but will remain several feet below the records set in past floods. Officials in many cities along the river are optimistic they’ll be able to either keep the floodwaters at bay through a combination of floodwalls and sandbags or contain it to low-lying park areas. But some homes close to the river have been damaged.“Luckily we’ve had relatively dry weather over the last week or so and not expecting much in the way of rainfall as well,” National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Philip said. “So it’s coming through as forecast for the most part.”The river peaked in the Dubuque area Saturday at 23.03 feet (7 meter...

Fashion designer for Russian first ladies dies

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s most famous fashion designer, Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who dressed the country’s first ladies, has died at the age of 85, Russian news outlets reported Sunday.An obituary published by the TASS news agency said he died after a long illness but didn’t state when. According to other Russian media reports, he was taken to a hospital in the Moscow region with stomach bleeding and died in intensive care.Zaitsev was born March 2, 1938 in Ivanovo — a center for the textile industry, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) north-east of Moscow — in a Soviet Union where much of the standard attire was gray, outdated and unimaginative. He rocketed to fame in his homeland — and to some extent the world — when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife Raisa wore his creations in the 1980s and early 1990s. Thanks to the visibility of the Soviet couple, the reform program known as “perestroika”, and an economic and political program that elicited hope, Zaitsev went ...

1 killed when plane slams into hillside in LA neighborhood

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One person was killed when a single-engine plane slammed into a grassy hillside above homes in a Los Angeles neighborhood amid dense fog, authorities said. The Cessna C172 crashed around 8:45 p.m. Saturday in a neighborhood on the city’s west side, about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Van Nuys Airport, the Los Angeles Fire Department and Federal Aviation Administration said. Joubin Solemani was at home with his family in the Beverly Crest neighborhood when they all heard a loud crash. “We thought it might be a car crash, but we looked outside and didn’t see anything. We didn’t know what the heck it was,” Solemani said Sunday. “Then search-and-rescue showed up and were all over the hillside.” After searching for several hours in darkness and “thick ground level fog,” crews found the crash site and one person dead in the wreckage, the fire department said in a statement. The pilot was the plane’s lone occupant, the FAA said. When the sun ...

Man arrested after $3M worth of drugs shipped to restaurant

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

AUBURN, Maine (AP) — Employees of a Maine restaurant got a surprise when they opened a large wooden crate that they thought was a shipment of mugs they had recently ordered.Instead, they found a plastic tote that contained what law enforcement suspect is 14 kilograms (31 pounds) of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl with an estimated street value of $3 million, Auburn police Deputy Chief Timothy Cougle said in a statement Saturday.The tote had a shipping label with the restaurant’s address but the name of someone who did not work there. Employees who opened it saw what they thought looked like drugs, so they contacted police, Cougle said.The crate from Arizona that arrived in the Maine town about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Portland was taken to the police department, where a chemical field examination confirmed it contained fentanyl.About an hour later, the man whose name was on the shipment showed up looking for the crate and was arrested, police said.Jeremy Mercie...

Some US states could see northern lights again Sunday: Here's where

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

(NEXSTAR) - A handful of states may again have the chance to see the northern lights, just a week after strong solar activity brought the auroras as far south as Alabama.Last week, a coronal mass ejection and a minor solar flare sparked a geomagnetic storm watch and northern lights “visible as far south as Alabama and northern California,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are explosions of plasma and magnetic material from the Sun that can reach Earth in as little as 15 to 18 hours, NOAA explains. Slower CMEs, like the one behind last week's activity, can take days to impact us.While both solar flares and CMEs (which can occur at the same time) can impact navigation, communication and radio signals on Earth, CMEs are also able to create a stunning show in the night sky. According to NASA, CMEs can create currents in Earth’s magnetic fields that send particles to the North and South Poles. When those particles interact wit...

Virginia doctor accused of massive illegal oxycodone scheme

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

ARLINGTON, Va. (WRIC) -- A Virginia doctor was indicted on 21 counts of illegally distributing oxycodone as part of a conspiracy with her office manager that lasted a decade.In an extensive indictment, prosecutors laid out allegations that Dr. Kirsten Van Steenberg Ball, 68, was the source of opioids that flooded Northern Virginia, allegedly conspiring with her office manager, Candie Calix, to distribute them to addicts.Calix, 40, was herself sentenced to seven years in prison in September 2022 for her role in the scheme. From 2012 to 2022, Calix alone, as a patient of Ball, was prescribed 40,000 30-mg oxycodone pills."Calix did not, however, function as a typical office manager," prosecutors wrote. "Instead, Calix recruited individuals -- including Calix's mother, Kendall Sovereign, and several other members of Calix's family -- to become 'patients' of Ball."According to the indictment, Calix even paid for Dr. Ball's malpractice insurance. 6 gallons of ‘coma in a bottle’ stopped ...

Reward offered in search for Texas mass shooting suspect

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — Law enforcement officers said Sunday they've been unable to find a gunman who fled after killing five people in a rural Texas town, offering $80,000 in total reward money in hopes of motivating someone to come forward with information about the suspect's whereabouts.“We do not know where he is,” said James Smith, the FBI's special agent in charge. Police were going door to door looking for the suspect.The suspect, Francisco Oropesa, 38, was considered armed and dangerous after fleeing the area Friday, likely on foot, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said late Saturday. He said authorities had widened the search to 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the scene of the shooting, which occurred after the suspect's neighbors asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yardInvestigators found clothes and a phone while combing a rural area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent, Capers said. Authorities were able to identify Oropesa by...

May starts sunny before humidity and storms return

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin's Camp Mabry reached 90º on Sunday for the 7th time this year. We're even with the number of 90s through April last year. Thankfully it was a dry heat as dew points in the 40s meant the humidity wasn't a factor.Tonight will be another cool and comfortable night with a mostly clear sky and lows in the upper 50s.Monday will be our last mostly sunny day for a little while. Humidity slowly increases through the day, but it won't be too noticeable. High temperatures should reach the upper 80s with very few high clouds at times.Monday's forecastHumidity rushes back in Monday night and the rest of the week will feature way more clouds, especially in the mornings.Humidity this weekTuesday and Wednesday, therefore, start cloudy with some areas of fog and drizzle. Partly sunny skies break through in the afternoon with highs in the low to mid 80s.Daily storm chances returnBeginning Thursday and continuing through next weekend a series of disturbances will bring rain and...

Experienced skydiver dies in Central Texas after possible parachute malfunction

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Federal Aviation Administration said it was made aware of a skydiving accident that occurred around 1 p.m. Friday in Fentress, Texas, which is about 20 minutes outside of San Marcos.The FAA said it would investigate the packing of the main and reserve parachutes, and the rules of flight for the pilot and aircraft.Skydive Spaceland San Marcos, a skydiving center in Caldwell County, released a statement surrounding the incident.The skydiving center said a 31-year-old licensed, experienced skydiver died while skydiving over Fentress, Texas. According to the center, the skydiver, who had been licensed to skydive solo for at least four years and had done several successful skydives at this location previously, was wearing their own parachute system for a self-supervised skydive when the incident occurred.“The investigation is ongoing, but early indications are that the primary parachute malfunctioned and the backup parachute was used. However, the skydiver did not sur...

Anthropos Arts celebrates 25 years offering free music lessons to low-income students

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:27:28 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Tucked away in a small studio space off I-35 is Anthropos Arts, a nonprofit that has provided musical training and mentorship to thousands of local students from lower-income backgrounds. Now, the organization is celebrating the latest milestone in its tenure, with a 25th anniversary showcase planned for May 7.Dylan Jones, executive director of Anthropos Arts, told KXAN the inspiration for the nonprofit came through the very same musical mentorship he received as a teenager. He credited his bass teacher, Dwayne Heggar, with planting the seed that has since led to Anthropos Arts' musical ecosystem. AUSTIN ART NEWS: Here's the deeper meaning behind Austin's new 'La Mujer" mural "I was at a very critical point in my life and was going off a really bad path, and I credit him with not just changing my life, but saving it, ultimately," he said. "Every kid needs that in their life: That adult, professional non-authority figure to be able to guide and encourage and inspire...