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Colorado universal preschool trial begins in federal court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado's free universal preschool program was back in court on Tuesday for the start of a federal discrimination trial that has the Archdiocese of Denver and two Catholic schools taking on the state.The archdiocese claims the state is discriminating by not allowing Catholic schools to participate in the universal preschool program. The state says that's because the schools don't follow the state's guidelines and discriminate against families who are LGTBQ. Unarmed guard held at gunpoint in Colorado Supreme Court building breach The archdiocese and St. Mary St. Bernadette Catholic parishes claim the state is violating the First Amendment by not allowing the schools to be involved in the preschool program — therefore, it's not universal.The archdiocese also claims the state is practicing religious discrimination against families who want to take advantage of the program and send their kids to Catholic school.On the other side of the argument, the state says the Cat...

Colorado lawmakers talk 4 priorities for next legislative session

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado lawmakers will be back at the state Capitol next week for the start of the next legislative session.What issues are they planning to tackle and how will they work together to get it done? FOX31 spoke with leaders about their goals.Despite ending the special session on a rocky note, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle share many common goals for legislation, picking up where they left off last year.Solutions for Colorado property taxesPrepare for more discussion around high property taxes in Colorado."One of the issues that never did get fixed, quite honestly, were property taxes, so that is: creating an affordable Colorado that we don't feel is the end-all-be-all solution," House Minority Leader Mike Lynch said. How much will the next TABOR check be? Leaders on both sides of the aisle in both chambers said they are excited about a bipartisan property tax committee put in place following the special session. The group will propose a long-term solution for ...

Second person dies after house fire near Fort Collins

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- A second person has died following a second-alarm house fire in Larimer County on Saturday, according to Poudre Fire Authority.The fire was in the 4000 block of South Taft Hill Road near Fort Collins. Unarmed guard held at gunpoint in Colorado Supreme Court building breach Fire crews arrived at the scene of the fire at 6:54 p.m. Two victims were rescued from the burning house. A dog was also found dead.Both victims were taken to a local hospital. One of the victims died Sunday morning, according to Poudre Fire. It was confirmed Tuesday that the second victim had also died.A Poudre Fire investigator determined that the cause of the fire was smoking materials with the use of oxygen. It was also determined that the fire was started in the garage.

Firefighters save dog trapped between walls of warehouse in Hialeah

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

Firefighters on Tuesday rescued a dog that went missing for a few days.Crews discovered Yanko the dog trapped between two walls of a warehouses near West Fifth Avenue and 18th Street in Hialeah.It took firefighters a few hours to carefully dig their way through to get the pup out of there.Yanko was then returned to its owners who could not be happier.

To help rare whales, Maine and Massachusetts will spend $27 million on data and gear improvements

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Scientists and officials in New England hope to collect better data about a vanishing whale species, improve fishing gear to avoid harming the animals, and make other changes as Maine and Massachusetts receive more than $27 million in public funding.The money is intended to aid the North Atlantic right whale, which is jeopardized by entanglement in commercial fishing gear and collisions with large ships. The population of the giant whales fell by about 25% from 2010 to 2020, and now numbers less than 360.The largest chunk of the money is $17.2 million the Maine Department of Marine Resources has received from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to improve data collection about the whales, officials said Tuesday. The money will allow Maine to expand its right whale research and improve the assessment of risk to the whales posed by lobster fishing, which is a key industry in the state, Maine officials said.“The goal of this research is ...

Senior Hamas leader killed in Beirut blast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

(CNN) — Hamas said Tuesday that one of its senior leaders has been killed in an attack in the south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, raising fears of a potential escalation in fighting in the region.Hamas media outlet Al Aqsa TV said Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, was “martyred in a treacherous Zionist airstrike in Beirut.”Arouri was considered one of the founding members of the group’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and was based in Beirut. Two other leaders from Hamas’ military wing, Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, were also among those killed in the strike, according to Hamas officials.At least four people were killed in the attack that targeted an office belonging to Hamas in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, Lebanese news agency NNA reported. The area is also a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment when asked about the announcement ...

PedWest to resume operations after temporary closure

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Pedestrian West at the San Ysidro Port of Entry will reopen this week after temporarily suspending operations in early December, border officials said.Both northbound and southbound directions will reopen for seven days per week starting Thursday with limited hours of operation, the U.S. Customs Border and Protection said in a news release Tuesday. The northbound crossing will reopen from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., while the southbound lane will be open from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. “CBP will continue to prioritize our border security mission as necessary in response to thisevolving situation. We continue to assess security situations, adjust our operational plans, anddeploy resources to maximize enforcement efforts against those noncitizens who do not uselawful pathways or processes – such as scheduling an appointment via CBP One™ – and thosewithout a legal basis to remain in the United States," CBP said. Large waves damage Ocean Beach Pier On Dec. 9, PedWest stopped operations “in ...

El Cajon Police release documentary on homeless crisis in San Diego County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

EL CAJON, Calif. -- The El Cajon Police Department has created a 35 minute film documenting the often frustrating issue of dealing with the homeless crisis and to answer the public’s question of why the cops aren’t doing more about it.“Proposition 47 passed in 2014, and it reduced many of the felony crimes involving theft and drug use and drug possession, those types of things. It reduced those to misdemeanors, making them non-bookable offenses in the county of San Diego,” Chief of Police Mike Mouton told FOX 5. “So if somebody's using methamphetamine right behind you right now, that's not something we can take somebody to jail for. We have to write them a ticket and then hope they appear in court.”  Interview: Newsom ‘frustrated’ by local governments’ inaction on homelessness, behavioral health crises Right away in the documentary it becomes abundantly clear just how many people living on the streets are drug addicted and/or selling, and doing so by choice.When offered help they ...

A congressman and a senator’s son have jumped into the Senate race to succeed Mitt Romney in Utah

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

A congressman and a senator’s son jumped into the race Tuesday for the Utah U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney.Republican U.S. Rep. John Curtis announced his campaign to a TV station after saying last fall he had decided not to run.After people asked him to reconsider, he decided he could carry over his work representing Utah but with a bigger platform, Curtis told KSL-TV.Curtis has served eastern Utah’s Third District since 2017. He was previously mayor of Provo, Utah, for seven years and for a time was a county-level Democratic Party official.Brent Orrin Hatch also announced his candidacy Tuesday. Hatch is one of six children of the late Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who retired after 42 years in office in 2019 and died in 2022.Brent Hatch is a trial lawyer who is treasurer and past director of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization that advocates interpreting the U.S. Constitution according to the context in which it was written.He was an ...

Justice Dept. accuses 2 political operatives of hiding foreign lobbying during Trump administration

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:33:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two well-connected political consultants provided false information about lobbying work on behalf of a wealthy Persian Gulf country during the Trump administration, according to Justice Department court records unsealed Tuesday.Charging documents filed in federal court in Washington allege that Barry P. Bennett, an adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, spearheaded a covert and lucrative lobbying campaign aimed at advancing the interests of a foreign country, including by denigrating a rival nation.The country for whom the work was done is not named in the documents but it matches the description of Qatar, which in 2017 paid Bennett’s company $2.1 million for lobbying work, and was identified in a 2020 Justice Department subpoena that was earlier obtained by The Associated Press and that sought records related to Bennett’s foreign lobbying.Federal prosecutors filed two criminal counts against Bennett in a charging document known as ...