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Hail pelts cars in St. Clair County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Ill. -- People didn't get hit as hard by the storms in St. Clair County, but they did see some heavy hail. Nickle to quarter-sized hail pelted Belleville Friday afternoon. So far, there are no reports of any widespread damage in the county. Call 911 to report any downed power lines.

Analysis: How these seven top Denver mayoral candidates could make the runoff

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

Just days before Denver’s mayoral election, not much is clearer than it was a month ago.Millions of dollars have been spent by the campaigns and their outside supporters. Dozens of forums and debates have given the 16 active contenders a chance to differentiate themselves. They’ve touted loads of endorsements.Yet as the first-round election approaches on Tuesday, no clear frontrunners have emerged to leave the rest of the field in their dust. Undecided voters still seem to make up the largest bloc, as evidenced by the glacial pace of ballot returns. Less than 14% of mail ballots had been returned as of Friday, according to the Denver Elections Division.“People are looking for a standout candidate, and they’re looking for a reason to vote,” said James Mejía, a Denver civic leader, former city official and mayoral candidate in 2011. “This one has thrown people for a loop. It’s unprecedented in Denver history in so many ways.”The large field, a function of both ...

Colorado to advance $1.4 million to cash-strapped Western Slope hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

A Delta County hospital that said Medicare loans drained its cash will get more than $1.4 million in advance payments from the state, but it’s not clear if that will be enough to stabilize it.Board members of Delta Health, which owns Delta County Memorial Hospital and clinics on the Western Slope, on Monday said they had recently discovered almost all of their cash on hand was committed to paying off debts — meaning they had money in the bank, but couldn’t use it.Board chair Jean Ceriani said Delta Health would be able to make payroll the next time checks were due, but would be seeking help to get through the cash crunch.The hospital had been losing money for years, but Ceriani blamed the immediate crisis on the need to repay $11 million in advances from Medicare late last year.The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had essentially loaned hospitals some of their expected future payments to get them through the worst points of the pandemic, but when ...

Where did all your Zoom friends go?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

One day last year, Julie Gauthier went on Twitter with a confession to make. “Unpopular opinion: I don’t have zoom fatigue and I miss zoom happy hours and game nights,” she wrote. “I feel more isolated now than I did when friends all took time to chat online at the beginning of the pandemic.”Gauthier, 30, had been scrolling through old photos and found a screenshot of one of the virtual happy hours she’d had with friends in the early days of COVID restrictions. At the time, living alone and working remotely as a software engineer in rural Coventry, Connecticut, the self-described extrovert seized every opportunity for human contact she could get.Virtual trivia nights? She was in. Mask-making over Zoom with members of a local maker space? Why not? She made a new best friend out of a stranger she met at an online meetup for tech workers, and when another friend’s band began broadcasting porch concerts over Facebook Live, Gauthier streamed the show on her TV and got all dressed up as i...

Who will take care of Italy’s older people? Robots, maybe.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

CARPI, Italy — The older woman asked to hear a story.“An excellent choice,” answered the small robot, reclined like a nonchalant professor atop the classroom’s desk, instructing her to listen closely.She leaned in, her wizened forehead almost touching the smooth plastic head.“Once upon a time,” the robot began a brief tale, and when it finished asked her what job the protagonist had.“Shepherd,” Bona Poli, 85, responded meekly.The robot didn’t hear so well. She rose out of her chair and raised her voice.“Shep-herd!” she shouted.“Fantastic,” the robot said, gesticulating awkwardly. “You have a memory like a steel cage.”The scene may have the dystopian “what could go wrong?” undertones of science fiction at a moment when both the promise and perils of artificial intelligence are coming into sharper focus. But for the exhausted caregivers at a recent meeting in Carpi, a handsome town in Italy’s most innovative region for elder care, it pointed to a welcome, not-too-distant future ...

Lakewood may dust off the wrecking ball as plan forms to target blight

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

LAKEWOOD — A pair of filthy mattresses strewn near a stack of tires. A car, stripped of its mechanics, up on blocks. A grimy yet heartfelt Father’s Day card jammed into the chain link of a security fence, surrounded by shards of glass.This and more can be experienced in the pothole-gouged parking lot of Holiday Shops on the eastern fringe of Lakewood. A shopping center that once bustled with a grocer, a pharmacy and even a square dance supply store is now a former shell of itself, slathered in graffiti and bearing a sign for menudo sabroso in the window of a restaurant that will never serve another meal.It’s actually been this way, more or less, for a decade or more.“It makes me very sad — I’m very distraught that it has sat there like that for so long,” 81-year-old Two Creeks neighbor Maddie Nichols said of the empty strip mall at the corner of W. 10th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard that dates back to 1966. “We want it down.”Lake...

Colorado becomes testing ground for gun reform in the West

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

Colorado lawmakers’ latest suite of gun reform bills bolster the state’s position at the vanguard of the national firearm debate, advocates and critics say, while marking it as a proving ground for how step-by-step reforms can coexist within the West’s distinct regional identity.As Colorado has turned deeper shades of blue over the past five years, it’s simultaneously become a regional and national leader in reforming its gun laws, lawmakers and activists said. The grip that Democrats have on state government has signaled to national gun reform groups, like Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, that they can pass legislation here.In a libertarian, otherwise conservative region, Colorado’s changing political culture and success in advancing gun reform is either proof of concept for like-minded legislators or a warning to wary neighbors.Amid growing Capitol protests by students affected directly by gun violence, the Col...

At Apple, rare dissent over a new product: Interactive goggles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — When Apple held a corporate retreat in California’s Carmel Valley about five years ago to discuss its next major product, Jony Ive, its longtime design chief, captivated a room of the company’s 100 top executives with a concept video as polished as an Apple commercial.The video showed a man in a London taxi donning an augmented reality headset and calling his wife in San Francisco. “Would you like to come to London?” he asked, two people who saw the video said. Soon, the couple were sharing the sights of London through the husband’s eyes.The video excited executives about the possibilities of Apple’s next business-altering device: a headset that would blend the digital world with the real one.But now, as the company prepares to introduce the headset in June, enthusiasm at Apple has given way to skepticism, said eight current and former employees, who requested anonymity because of Apple’s policies against speaking about future products. There are concerns about...

Coca-Cola distributor looking to build new bottling plant on DIA property

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

A Colorado Coca-Cola distributor is looking to strike a $271 million deal with Denver International Airport to build a new bottling plant on its property. If the project is approved, it’s a big win for the airport’s commercial development plans.A subsidiary of Swire Coca-Cola USA, which produces, sells and distributes the beverage throughout most of Colorado, is seeking to secure a 75-year ground lease to build the manufacturing plant, according to a March 23 proposal. The new facility would replace both its production center at 3825 York St. and its sales center at 2145 E. 40th Ave.If finalized, Swire would lease 97 acres east of Tower Road and north of Peña Boulevard, with more than 1 million square feet of new construction. Denver City Council is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, April 5, to consider the lease agreement, according to a meeting agenda.“As part of our long-term planning and growth goals, we are seeking to lease property near Denver International Ai...

Newts v. commutes: Park rangers push to extend road closures near Berkeley during migration

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:48 GMT

BERKELEY — Every winter, newts emerge from their seasonal slumber to lumber through Tilden Regional Park’s wooded hills searching for mating pools of water at the nearby Wildcat Creek, Regional Parks Botanic Garden and even Tilden Golf Course.While a potent toxin secreted from the skin of these 6-inch, brown-bodied, golden-bellied salamanders protects the amphibians from many predators during their annual migration, there’s still one major threat that the newts can’t fend off: car tires speeding down South Park Drive as they commute through the park.That’s why the East Bay Regional Parks District closes off the 1.5-mile roadway to vehicles from November to April to give the small, slow-moving animals a fighting chance against being smushed.But when wet, rainy weather extends beyond that five-month period, so does migration season. And as an increased number of newts are still making the crawl in April and even May, conflict is brewing among park rangers who want to...