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The Trump era has changed the politics of local elections in Georgia, a pivotal 2024 battleground

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) — As she accepted an endorsement from a group called Veterans for Trump, Stacy Skinner spoke about how she got into politics because Democrats “were starting to infiltrate on the local level.”Former President Donald Trump and other national Republicans often warn of takeovers by China or people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Skinner is running for reelection to the City Council of Johns Creek, an Atlanta suburb of about 85,000.Yet the 44-year-old does not openly promote her Trump association, telling inquisitive voters in this Republican-leaning enclave only that she is “conservative.” Skinner’s opponent, Devon Dabney, meanwhile, faces questions about being a Democrat. Going into the 2024 presidential election, the dynamics in Johns Creek and other nearby Atlanta suburbs reflect how partisan and cultural divisions that intensified since Trump’s 2016 run have trickled down to local campaigns. Some activists and voters now view these nominally nonpa...

Shooting kills 2 and injures 18 victims in Florida street with hundreds of people nearby

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A fight between two groups turned deadly in Florida when a shooting in a Tampa street during Halloween festivities resulted in two deaths and 18 people hospitalized early Sunday morning, police said.Officers responded to the shooting in Tampa just before 3 a.m. on the 1600 block of East 7th Avenue in the Ybor City area, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said during a press conference at the scene.The fight occurred in an area with several bars and clubs, and there were large numbers of late night revelers in the area at the time, Bercaw said. Police were not immediately sure if the people involved in the fight were inside any of the bars before the shooting.Video posted online shows people in Halloween costumes drinking and talking on the street when shots ring out, creating a stampede. Some people topple over metal tables and take cover behind them. Video from the aftermath shows police officers treating several people lying wounded on the ground. A volley of about a...

Rescuers search for missing migrants off Sicilian beach after a shipwreck kills at least 5

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

ROME (AP) — Sea searches resumed on Sunday in the sea and along the coasts of southwestern Sicily, where a fishing boat carrying dozens of migrants became grounded, killing five people and leaving about 20 missing, rescuers said.The bodies of five men were recovered on Saturday morning on the beach of Marinella di Selinunte, near Trapani, while 35 other men survived the shipwreck and were identified after reaching small towns nearby, the Coast Guard said.“According to survivors’ accounts the boat departed from Tunisia on Thursday night with about 60 people onboard,” said Captain Daniele Governale, of the Palermo Coast Guard team that is coordinating search and rescue activities.“That would leave about 20 people missing. But considering that wide searches at sea, also conducted by divers, for now gave no results, we have good hopes that some of them have survived and landed,” Governale added.The flux of people arriving on Italy’s shores on small unseaworthy boats departing from North...

Montreal restaurants adapt to rising costs, but worry customers might be priced out

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

MONTREAL — As Montreal restaurants adapt to rising costs and impending deadlines to repay loans issued during the pandemic, one well-known chef says she worries about the future of the city’s famed dining scene.Dyan Solomon, who owns three restaurants in the city, said that in the past, Montreal’s famously low rents meant chefs could open their own places, and restaurants were able to thrive in part because customers had the disposable income to eat out.But as rents rise, along with the price of food and labour, she worries the independent restaurants that have become the hallmark of Montreal’s dining scene won’t survive, leaving mostly chains and fast-food eateries, with only the most elite fine dining establishments on the higher end.“That’s really sad and depressing, but it looks a little bit like … that is what will happen,” she said. “I don’t see how it can’t. You’re not going to pay $40 for a sandwich.”Sol...

Thousands break into aid warehouses in Gaza as deaths top 8,000 and Israel widens ground offensive

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Thousands of people broke into aid warehouses in Gaza to take flour and basic hygiene products, a U.N. agency said Sunday, in a mark of growing desperation and the breakdown of public order three weeks into the war between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.Tanks and infantry pushed into Gaza over the weekend as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a “second stage” in the war, three weeks after Hamas launched a brutal incursion into Israel. The widening ground offensive came as Israel also pounded the territory from air, land and sea.Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll among Palestinians has passed 8,000 — mostly women and minors. It’s a toll without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and one that is expected to climb even more rapidly as Israel presses its ground offensive.The bombardment over the weekend — described by Gaza residents as the most intense of the war — knocked out most co...

2 airlifted to hospital, woman charged with DUI after multi-vehicle crash on I-80 in NW Indiana

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

HAMMAOND, Ind. -- Two people were airlifted and a woman faces driving while intoxicated charges after a multi-vehicle crash on I-80 in Northwest Indiana early Sunday morning, Indiana State Police said. 33-year-old Rivianna Gilmore from Calumet Park faces multiple felonies of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury, endangering and multiple other misdemeanors. According to Indiana State Police, around 4:14 a.m., a black Nissan struck an arrow board sign on the right shoulder that warned traffic of an approaching lane shift. Th arrow board landed in the travel portion of the roadway which caused two other crashes when drivers were attempting to avoid debris from the initial crash. Troopers said the driver of one of the vehicles was pinned to their van and had to be extracted and airlifted to Chicago for life threatehing injuries. A second driver, that was operating a black GMC pickup, was also later air-lifted to Oak Lawn for tratment of seriosu injuries. The third driver r...

Austin Water leader responds to KXAN Investigation over customers’ smart meter complaints

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Following a KXAN investigation in September showing customers’ concerns of suspected overbilling with Austin Water’s new smart meters, the director of Austin Water is defending the digital meters’ accuracy and how the agency collects and responds to complaints. Customers complain of suspected inaccuracies with Austin Water’s new smart meters “It’s a big city and a big job but we have a lot of professionals here who are committed to excellent customer service,” Austin Water Director Shay Ralls Roalson told KXAN Investigator Mike RushEven so, more customers reached out to KXAN after our initial investigation with similar concerns.Kimi, who did not want to disclose her last name, is one of them. The Northwest Hills resident said, ever since her analog water meter was replaced with a digital meter, “This water usage is just way out of whack.”Kimi in Northwest Hills believes her new digital meter is giving false readings, doubling the amount of water she said she normal...

Oil, gas regulators boost KP Kauffman’s proposed $10M well cleanup bond to $133M

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

In a move regulators said shows they are serious about making the oil and gas industry clean up after itself, the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission rejected a company’s plan for financing its cleanup costs.The ECMC unanimously voted against the plan by K.P. Kauffman Co. Thursday after several hours of testimony stretching over three days. The company originally proposed putting up $10.3 million to ensure it will take care of all its wells. ECMC members voted to require the company to provide roughly $133 million over 10 years.A so-called financial assurance plan is required of all oil and gas companies under new rules approved in 2022 and are intended to ensure that operators have enough money to cover the cost of closing wells and reclaiming well sites.Previous required bonds were seen as too low, making it easier for some companies to walk away rather than pay to plug a well, clean up the site and restore surrounding land.“In order for us to make a state...

How should we manage the drying Colorado River? Here’s what’s at stake in negotiations for its long-term future

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

An immediate crisis on the Colorado River has been averted, but negotiators now must turn their attention to the next problem at hand: How will they manage the drying river after the current guidelines expire at the end of 2026?Federal officials announced this week that last winter’s heavy snowpack and cuts in use likely will be enough to keep the river basin’s two major reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, from draining to water levels too low to generate power or move water downstream for at least three years.Federal officials, the seven Colorado River basin states and 30 tribes in the basin are negotiating the future of water management on the Colorado River and creating the next set of guidelines that will govern use of the critical water source in decades to come. The negotiations will be a “rollercoaster ride,” but history shows that the states are capable of coming to a consensus, said Jennifer Gimbel, a senior water policy scholar with Colorado Stat...

Nuggets’ Justin Holiday has two halves of a ring ceremony, but they don’t make a whole

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:58:21 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Justin Holiday experienced the Nuggets’ championship ring ceremony on opening night the same way he received his own ring seven years ago: off to the side.Denver’s only NBA-specific free agent addition of the 2023 offseason stood by the bench Tuesday night, watching as his new teammates collected their hardware. He soaked in the atmosphere, thinking it was a cool event to witness and experience, even though he wasn’t part of the 2022-23 championship team.“It’s funny,” he reflected, “because I’ve won a championship before, and I wasn’t actually there for that ring ceremony. So that was my first one.”No better way to summarize Holiday’s career.He’s never in one place too long. The Nuggets are his 10th NBA team. He hasn’t played 200 games with any of the previous nine. He’s had multiple stints with two franchises. Played professionally in two European countries. Been waived four t...