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Fire burns three homes in Washington Park, Illinois

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

WASHINGTON PARK, Ill. - A massive fire in Washington Park, Illinois, burned three houses early Wednesday morning.The Washington Park Police Department got the call of the three-alarm fire around 4:15 a.m. located on Portland Place, just north of I-64. Seven different fire crews are now on the scene, getting control of the flames.Washington Park Assistant Fire Chief Ronnie Harris shared that the fire initially engulfed two vacant houses, then spread to an occupied home. Three occupants were sleep when the fire spread to their home, but escaped without injuries. Circuit Attorney refuses charges to woman arrested in Cherokee St. shooting One firefighter from Fairmont City was treated for heat exhaustion. He is expected to recover. The cause of the fire has not yet been reported. The Illinois State Fire Marshal is expected to take over the investigation.Our Bommarito Automotive Group SkyFOX helicopter was flying over the area. FOX 2 will update this story with more information as it ...

Crews responding to vacant building fires in south St. Louis city

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

ST. LOUIS - Emergency crews are at the scene of two vacant house fires in south St. Louis City.Our Bommarito Automotive Group SkyFOX helicopter is flying over the area located on the 3100 block of Ohio Avenue, where firefighters can be seen dumping water onto the flames damaging two vacant brick buildings. Circuit Attorney refuses charges to woman arrested in Cherokee St. shooting The cause of the fire has not yet been revealed. So far, no injuries have been reported. FOX 2 will update this story with more information as it becomes available.

Verizon innovative learning lab opening today at St. Louis City middle school

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

ST. LOUIS - A Verizon innovative learning lab opens Thursday at Long International Middle School on Morganford Road.It gives students and teachers access to technology they need in today's digital world. St. Louis man says American Airlines lost prosthetic leg, won’t reimburse him The lab includes free internet access, plus virtual reality, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence.

Editorial: Colorado TABOR refunds will be fairer if voters pass HH in November

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

Colorado has long suffered under the yoke of the unworkable, regressive monstrosity of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.Starting in tax year 2022, Colorado Democrats figured out the ultimate trump card to Douglas Bruce’s scheme to restrict spending on public education, roads, bridges, police, and fire departments all while requiring the wealthiest Coloradans to pay the exact same tax rate as the poorest.Related ArticlesEditorials | Democrats tie in renters to property tax, TABOR refund proposal Editorials | In deal for property tax relief, Democrats look again to make TABOR refunds equal Editorials | Letters: Demand lawmakers address these ballistic property taxes Editorials | Opinion: Ouch! Property tax increase will hurt, despite Democrat’s Rube Goldberg plan Editorials | Here’s how Colorado Democrats ranked their spending priorities Gov. Jared Polis and state lawmakers decided tha...

Death toll from wildfires in Russia's Urals hits 21, authorities suspect

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

The death toll rose to 21 in a series of fires raging in Russia’s Urals region on Tuesday (9 May), some resulting from suspected arson, and medical officials warned the tally was likely to increase, state news agency TASS said.The emergencies ministry in Kurgan region near the border with Kazakhstan said 46 suspects had been identified and seven criminal cases had been initiated against alleged arsonists.Some of the suspects were minors, it said. The motives of the suspected arsonists were not clear.Wildfires have long plagued Russia’s forests and steppes during hotter months, but have grown in intensity in recent years. The 2021 fire season was Russia's largest ever, with 18.8 million hectares of forest destroyed, according to Greenpeace Russia. Last year, wildfire smoke blew hundreds of miles to Moscow, choking city residents.Fires began in late April in the Kurgan and neighbouring Tyumen regions. Russian Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov flew to Kurgan on Monday as the blaz...

Niantic’s ‘Peridot’ brings believable augmented reality to gaming

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

“Peridot” is Niantic’s most experimental game, and also, it’s most intriguing. The original title from the “Pokemon Go” developer is touted as a modern-day spin on Tamagotchi, those virtual pets that became popular in the 1990s.As a member of the Peridot Keeper Society, players hatch the titular creature, which has unique characteristics, and they raise the virtual pet. They feed them. They teach them tricks. They play with them. They can take them on walks to explore the world, said Ziah Fogel, “Peridot” director of production. With each interaction, they gain experience and grow. That sounds like normal fare for a Niantic game. It hits the touchstones of exploration and simple gameplay, but what sets “Peridot” apart is that the game is completely in augmented reality. The creature melds with the world seen through the smartphone, so that the screen is almost like a lens.FROM PROTOTYPE TO GAME“Peridot” was orig...

Barabak: California kingmaker Michael Berman preferred anonymity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

A visit with Michael Berman, the political savant and California kingmaker who died last week, was a throwback to another time.He worked from a shabby office, blinds drawn to thwart any ray of sunlight. A blue pall of smoke hung from the ceiling, like a nicotine curtain.Lunch might have involved a distilled drink, or two.But it’s not Berman’s defiantly unhealthy lifestyle that stood out among the tanned and beautiful who surrounded him in the glossy climes of Beverly Hills and the Westside.Rather, it was his extraordinary political acumen, coupled with a passion for anonymity.It was a striking trait decades ago, when Berman was at the height of his powers as the operational brains behind Los Angeles’ powerful Berman-Waxman political machine.It is all the more notable in today’s era of relentless self-promotion, when even the most middling political strategist turns up at postelection seminars, in podcasts and on the gaseous cable talk-show circuit.Berman spoke sparingly to reporters...

Goldberg: The fury of #MeToo finally comes for the man who inspired it

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

With the $5 million verdict against Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll trial, the #MeToo movement comes full circle.Trump’s election in 2016, after he’d been heard boasting of sexual assault on the “Access Hollywood” tape and accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women, set off a tsunami of female fury. That fury powered the Women’s March. It inspired countless women — some of them previously apolitical suburbanites — to put their lives on hold and throw themselves into activism or to run for office themselves. And that fury, that intolerable sense of incredulous disgust and civic violation, was the spark that set off the #MeToo movement, as women, unable to do anything about the abuser running the country, turned their energy toward those in their own institutions, including the entertainment industry. I’ve long been convinced that Trump was the reason revelations about Harvey Weinstein led to a nationwide paroxysm.The #MeToo movement is wh...

Possible miracle at Connecticut church being investigated by the Vatican

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

The results of an investigation into the reports of a possible miracle at Thomaston’s St. Thomas Church have been sent to the Vatican.On March 5, the Rev. Joseph Crowley, pastor of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish, which includes St. Thomas, reported that during Holy Communion a lay person distributing hosts had found that the wafers had multiplied in the ciborium. “God duplicated himself in the ciborium,” Crowley said after Communion. “God provides and it’s strange how God does that. And that happened.”The Archdiocese of Hartford began an investigation into the report to determine whether a possible miracle had taken place.Now, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has been notified and is conducting its own investigation.David Elliott, spokesman for the archdiocese, issued a statement that “reports such as the alleged miracle in Thomaston require referral to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. The Archdiocese has proceeded accordingly, and will await a response i...

Disneyland closing 3 classic Fantasyland rides this summer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:20 GMT

Disneyland is shuttering one of its most popular Fantasyland attractions along with two of the oldest rides at the Anaheim theme park just after the unofficial start of summer for several weeks of seasonal refurbishment.Disneyland will temporarily close Peter Pan’s Flight, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Alice in Wonderland on June 5 for standard refurbishments, according to Disneyland officials.Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Alice in Wonderland will reopen about two weeks later on June 16. A reopening date has not yet been set for Peter Pan’s Flight, but the popular Fantasyland dark ride aboard an enchanted pirate ship soaring over London will be closed at least through June 21, according to the Disneyland website.The refurbishments of the three Fantasyland rides that share a common building next to Sleeping Beauty Castle are part of Disneyland’s standard operations for general maintenance and upkeep. Walt Disney Imagineering is not expected to make any notable show changes to the attractions.D...