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Explosion at Pennsylvania chocolate plant kills 2, leaves 9 missing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

WEST READING, Pa. (AP) — An explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania Friday killed two people and left nine people missing, authorities said.Several other people were injured by the explosion at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant, said West Reading Borough Police Department Chief of Police Wayne Holben, who did not confirm the exact number of injured. 2 Illinois teens die in Colorado sledding accident The explosion, just before 5 p.m., sent a plume of black smoke into the air, destroying one building and damaging a neighboring building that included apartments.“It’s pretty leveled,” West Reading Borough Mayor Samantha Kaag said of the explosion site. “The building in the front, with the church and the apartments, the explosion was so big that it moved that building four feet forward."The cause of the blast in the community about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia was under investigation, Holden told reporters.Eight people were taken to Reading Hospital Friday evenin...

Mississippi tornadoes kill 23, injures dozens overnight

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Emergency officials in Mississippi said 23 people have been killed by tornadoes that tore through the state on Friday night, destroying buildings and knocking out power as severe weather that produced hail the size of golf balls moved through several southern states.The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed there had been 23 deaths as of 6:20 a.m. Saturday with dozens of injuries and four people missing throughout the state. The agency said in a Twitter post that search and rescue teams from numerous local and state agencies were deployed along with personnel to assist those impacted by the tornadoes.The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado caused damage about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Jackson, Mississippi. The rural towns of Silver City and Rolling Fork reported destruction as the tornado swept northeast at 70 mph (113 kph) without weakening, racing towards Alabama through towns including Winona and Amory into the night.The...

Trump to rally in Waco Saturday with possible indictment, arrest looming

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

WACO (Nexstar) — Months after announcing his third bid for the White House, former President Donald Trump will hold his first major rally of the presidential cycle in Waco on Saturday. The timing of the rally comes on the heels of a tumultuous news cycle for the former president, as he faces a series of investigations, including one in New York that appears to be nearing its conclusion. On Truth Social, Trump claimed he would be arrested this past Tuesday, which has not happened. Trump's indictment and Stormy Daniels paymentA Manhattan grand jury has been privately hearing evidence for weeks over hush-money payments that Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign cycle. The $130,000 payment was to silence her from going public about her claim of having an affair with then-candidate Trump before the election. That evidence will be used in the jury's consideration about whether the Trump Organization violated c...

A balmy weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Central Texas enjoyed a quiet overnight under a clear sky. Low humidity and gentle winds contributed to the pleasant weather.Today will be sunny. A few high clouds will arrive later this afternoon. Most highs will peak in the upper 70s to low 80s. Today's normal high is 76°The cold front that left dry air for Friday afternoon and night will return tomorrow. It brings back enough moisture to our eastern counties for a low rain chance Sunday afternoon.Sunday afternoon showers east of I-35Low rain chances are in the forecast each day next week. There will be another chance for showers and thunderstorms Thursday and Friday. Forecast rain totals Monday to FridayA cold front slides across the area Monday morning leading to cooler temperatures Tuesday and Wednesday. The week ends with warmer air as most highs return to the lower 80s. Wednesday will be the coolest morning when lows fall to the upper 40s to low 50s.Highs the next 7 days BLOG: April showers: Here's the outl...

Farhad Manjoo: This column is dedicated to Silicon Valley venture capitalists

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

Bust out your tiniest violin, because I’m about to stand up for Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The industry is not nearly as insufferable and out of touch as some of its blustering online influencers might lead you to believe. And despite its recent troubles, the world continues to need places like Silicon Valley and its financiers of risky ideas.When Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., some of the startup world’s best-known voices — or, at least, its most aggressively online voices, several of them venture capitalists — swarmed Twitter with shrill demands for a full federal bailout of SVB customers.Whatever the economic merit to making the bank’s depositors whole, the VCs’ sky-is-falling rhetoric did seem a bit rich. Some of those most clamorous for government intervention in SVB, like David Sacks of Craft Ventures, have often aligned themselves with Peter Thiel’s brand of fair-weather libertarianism. When it was THEIR industry’s money at...

Disabled Wisconsin voters say election clerks not following federal law, nullifying their votes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

MADISON, Wis. — Disabled voters say local election administrators across Wisconsin are not following federal law during early voting in the high-stakes race for state Supreme Court, incorrectly telling them they can’t have another person return their absentee ballot for them.Absentee ballots, and who can return them, has been a political flashpoint in battleground Wisconsin, known for razor-thin margins in statewide races. The April 4 election will determine majority control of the state Supreme Court, with abortion access and the fate of Republican-drawn legislative maps on the line.Challenges to laws and practices in at least eight states that make it difficult or impossible for people with certain disabilities to vote have also arisen in the past two years. At the same time, there has been a push in many states to restrict rules affecting who can return absentee ballots.Wisconsin Republicans successfully sued last year to ban absentee ballot drop boxes, and the conservative...

Opinion: As water becomes even more scarce, Denver, Commerce City and Aurora adapt

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

Lately, the steady drip of news stories on the subject has become a subterranean stream in my subconscious.Now it’s affecting my entertainment choices.I found myself watching, for the umpteenth time, a splendidly animated pastiche of the 1974 noir Chinatown. In the movie Rango, water is the issue.This week, multiple news stories broke: The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, a case regarding the Navajo Nation’s access to Colorado River water. On the tribe’s reservation, one in three households lack running water. The 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo, the Navajos assert, obligates the U.S. government to ensure the tribe has enough water. That is an understandable position, but if the Court rules in their favor, it will disrupt the way the already strained river is managed for Colorado and other states.Also in the news: Colorado state engineer Kevin Rein responded to Nebraska’s plan to build a $567 million canal to divert water from the South Platte Rive...

John Elway’s ex-wife sells Belcaro mansion for $4M

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

When John Elway’s ex-wife listed her Belcaro home for $4.5 million in 2019, it sat on the market for 228 days. She reduced the price to $3.5 million before pulling it.Janet McKinnon had better luck listing 900 S. Steele St. this time. It went under contract in 12 days and closed at $4.1 million earlier this month.“We knew we had to tell a different story for a house that had previously been on the market for 200-plus days,” said realtor Delroy Gill, who listed it for McKinnon.Gill and his co-listor Stuart Crowell named the mansion “Magnifica Casa” and displayed its lush landscaping using posterboard photos illustrating the half-acre property in full bloom for potential buyers.“The home has a wonderful courtyard and flowers, but we were showing it snow-covered during some of the worst Denver weather,” Gill said.They also convinced McKinnon to replace light fixtures, refinish the floors with a lighter stain and repaint the walls a softer white.“Subtle changes can make huge impacts,” G...

Denver voters appear sluggish — or overwhelmed — as key ballot deadline nears for city election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

With early ballot returns so far trailing the pace of the last two municipal elections in Denver, city officials are reminding voters that the clock is winding down on the 2023 contest and urging them to cast their votes.As of midday Friday, Denver elections officials had collected 22,036 of the 452,660 ballots sent out for the election, a return rate of 4.87%. That’s a lower turnout to that point than the city saw in 2019 or 2015, the only other two municipal elections conducted via mail ballots said Lucille Wenegieme, a strategic advisor to the city elections division.With 11 days to go before the 2019 municipal election in May of that year, 24,136 of the 405,638 ballots the city mailed out had been returned, according to elections division data, good for a return rate of 5.95%. “It seems that voters may be overwhelmed by their choices or waiting to see if other candidates drop out,” Wenegieme said. “While we don’t advise waiting, it’s understandable.”...

At this school, computer science class now includes critiquing chatbots

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:11 GMT

NEW YORK — Marisa Shuman’s computer science class at the Young Women’s Leadership School of the Bronx in New York City began as usual on a recent January morning.Just after 11:30, energetic 11th and 12th graders bounded into the classroom, settled down at communal study tables and pulled out their laptops. Then they turned to the front of the room, eyeing a whiteboard where Shuman had posted a question on wearable technology, the topic of that day’s class.For the first time in her decadelong teaching career, Shuman had not written any of the lesson plan. She had generated the class material using ChatGPT, a new chatbot that relies on artificial intelligence to deliver written responses to questions in clear prose. Shuman was using the algorithm-generated lesson to examine the chatbot’s potential usefulness and pitfalls with her students.“I don’t care if you learn anything about wearable technology today,” Shuman said to her students. “We are evaluating ChatGPT. Your goal is to...