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Virginia school board elections face a pivotal moment as a cozy corner of democracy turns toxic

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — The “crossroads of the Civil War,” as Virginia’s Spotsylvania County calls itself, is once again a cauldron of hostilities, this time minus the muskets.Within range of four devastating battles that laid waste to tens of thousands of lives, 21st century culture wars rage. The stakes hardly compare to such tragic losses, but feelings run fever high.Dirty tricks spill out; political struggles are taken to the extreme.The principal flashpoint: school board meetings. And not just here. A long tradition of doing prosaic but vital work has sunk into chaos and poisonous confrontation across the United States. The lower rungs of democracy are cracking.In Tuesday’s elections in Virginia, the far right is fighting to gain control of more local offices — often school boards — while the left claws back with cries of “fascism.”“Just bananas,” a Spotsylvania School Board candidate with Democratic support says of the local fight over education. “So far out of hand,” agree...

MTO employee struck, critically injured in Hwy. 400 crash

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

A Ministry of Transportation (MTO) employee is in critical condition after being struck by a vehicle on Highway 400 in the Holland Marsh area.Provincial police say they responded to a crash in the southbound lanes of the highway near Line 5 just before 3 a.m. Sunday.The MTO employee was assisting police in setting up lane closures in the area when they were struck from behind by another vehicle around 7 a.m.The worker was taken to a trauma centre in Toronto with life-threatening injuries.Police say the vehicle that struck the worker remained on scene.

Ship traffic ramps up through the Northwest Passage as Arctic ice retreats

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

MONTREAL — Michael Wenger still remembers the patches of blood red and vivid violet that daub the landscape of the Northwest Passage.“People usually think it’s ice and glaciers and rocks. And then you get there and you see these meadows, with all the different plants,” he said, speaking by phone from Reykjavik, Iceland, where he was attending an Arctic Circle Assembly conference.“It’s very colourful,” said Wenger, CEO of Polar Journal AG, who worked as an expedition guide on a northern cruise vessel in 2016.A growing number of people are now getting to witness those vibrant tundras first-hand. The same climate shifts that affect Arctic flora have also forced a massive retreat in Arctic sea ice — even in the passage, where geography and wind currents freeze the waters for a longer period of the year than in other parts of the Far North.“It’s happening at a crazy rate,” said Bernard Funston, former chairman of the Canadian Polar Commission.In step with the melt, more and more sh...

16-year-old boy, 2 others injured after shooting in Gage Park

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

CHICAGO -- A 16-year-old boy and two other individuals were injured after a shooting on the city's Southwest Side Saturday night.According to police, the victims were standing in the street near the 5100 block of South Christina Avenue around 11:17 p.m. when a male offender approached and fired shots at them.A 20-year-old woman was transported to Holy Cross Hospital with a graze wound to the left thigh. She is listed in good condition. ‘We are all pretty upset about it’: Neighbor shocked after 10-year-old shot while inside home on South Side A 24-year-old man was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital with a graze wound to the abdomen. A 16-year-old boy was also transported to University of Chicago Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the left leg. He is in fair condition.There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating the incident.

1 dead, child injured following serious collision near COTA, ATCEMS confirms

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — One person died Sunday morning following a serious collision in southeastern Travis County.The Travis County Sheriff's Office said it was responding to the crash, which happened on Farm-to-Market Road 812 near Circuit of the Americas Boulevard.According to Austin-Travis County EMS, one person died at the scene, a child was taken to the hospital with potentially serious injuries, and another person refused transport.In a 6:46 a.m. social media post, TCSO officials said road and lane closures were expected to last several hours.

Unseasonably warm ahead of next rain chance

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Dense fog is reducing visibility in parts of Central Texas this morning -- be sure to factor in extra time to allow for slower speeds if out on the roads early.Dense Fog Advisory in effect until 10AM for visibility 1/4 mile or lessMainly cloudy skies will stretch overhead today as afternoon highs warm well above average. Temperatures in the 80s will return each day through through Wednesday, coming within 2° of record highs midweek.The warm, breezy and humid weather will come to an end Thursday with the arrival of our next cold front. Scattered to widespread rain, gusty north winds and cooler temperatures will blow in Thursday and likely hold through Friday. Early rainfall projections show 0.25"-0.75" of rain for areas along and east of I-35, and lighter amounts in the Hill Country.Next weather maker comes in the form of a cold front on Thursday BLOG: El Niño into 2024: What that means for winter and spring BLOG: NOAA releases winter forecast Austin Interact...

Investigation underway after 24-Year-Old woman shot near Washington Ave

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- In the early hours of this morning, St. Louis police started an investigation into a shooting incident that left a 24-year-old woman injured. The shooting occurred at approximately 2:30 a.m. near the intersection of Washington Avenue and 15th Street. The victim, a 24-year-old female, was promptly transported to a local hospital after sustaining a gunshot wound to her knee and a graze wound to her face. It remains uncertain whether any arrests have been made in connection with the incident. The public is encouraged to come forward with any information they may have, either by reaching out to Crime Stoppers or contacting the local authorities. 

Palestinian Coloradans mourn family losses as they watch Israeli war devastate Gaza

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

Nadia Zuaiter can track the devastation that’s unfolding in the Gaza Strip through increasingly desperate messages from family members who are trapped there.At first, she said, she wrote to make sure everyone was OK, and they asked if she knew what would happen next: Was it safe to move south? Was there any news about an invasion?But as the bombing by the Israeli military has escalated, fewer messages have arrived, and at times they’ve stopped altogether, as Israel took out local communications services. At least 47 members of Zuaiter’s extended family have been killed, she said. Food and water are running short. One aunt is rationing insulin. Her newly married cousin, pregnant and volunteering in a south Gaza hospital, wrote that she expects to die. She just hopes it will be quick.“Numbness. It leads to them having hopelessness,” said Zuaiter, who works as a bookkeeper in Lone Tree. “There’s no point to be hopeful, for them.”As the latest surge of violence in Gaza enter...

A year out from Lauren Boebert’s next election, plenty of voters have had enough. Can she win them back?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

SILVERTON — In a town of fewer than 700 people perched at 9,300 feet in Colorado’s San Juan mountains, Scott Fetchenhier isn’t shy about expressing his repugnance for U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.Scott Fetchenhier, San Juan county commissioner, stands in the Silverton Mining Museum, a building he had a hand in creating, in Silverton on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. (Photo by Nina Riggio/Special to The Denver Post)“She’s in it to make these outrageous comments,” suggested Fetchenhier, a Democrat who owns Fetch’s Mining & Mercantile on Greene Street in Silverton and also serves on the San Juan County commission. “Even Republicans are getting tired of the shenanigans.”Meet Thomas Moore Jr., who voted for Boebert in 2020 and last year.“She’s vitriolic, she’s sensationalistic, she draws attention to herself,” said Moore, a Pueblo native and loyal Republican who’d just left that county’s courthouse on a w...

Colorado’s Sierra Space turning dream into reality with winged spacecraft set to launch in ’24

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:00:30 GMT

The dream of reviving winged space flight is close to reality as employees at Sierra Space put the finishing touches on its Dream Chaser craft in the company’s Louisville facility and get it ready to send to NASA for final tests before a launch planned for 2024.The 15-foot cargo module that will attach to the end of the 30-foot Dream Chaser is already undergoing tests at the Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The spacecraft will follow soon, said Sierra Space officials, who are keeping a close wrap on the timing and logistics because of security concerns.The Dream Chaser’s first mission for NASA will be to ferry supplies to the International Space Station and bring back items. The craft, which won’t have a crew, will be the second to ride atop United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, following the rocket’s scheduled debut on Christmas Eve.Angie Wise, Sierra Space’s chief safety officer and senior vice president for mission ...