Home

Mayor-elect Mike Johnston announces transition team

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- The newly elected mayor of Denver, Mike Johnston, announced the transition leadership that he's calling "Vibrant Denver."Johnston said the goal of "Vibrant Denver" is to listen to community leaders across the city to find out what's working, what's not working and how to make Denver better. Rapidly growing Denver picks Mike Johnston as new mayor amid mounting big-city problems Johnston announced that there will be 28 different committees to work on specific issues the city is facing. The committees will include all of the existing departments and agencies, but there will be three major additions. Those committees are homelessness, migrants and a partnership with Denver Public Schools, Johnston said. A few others he mentioned are mental health, employee voice, labor relations and community well-being and safety which will be separate from the Department of Public Safety. Johnston is using a guideline acronym called TICET which stands for transparency, innovation, c...

SoFlo stand-up comic Brittany Brave to headline Dania Improv with no-holds-barred show ‘Muchacha’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

Doing stand-up comedy can be terrifying, but one local Brave soul isn’t scared. Brittany Brave is doing a full hour at the Improv at Dania Pointe, and her talent to juggle different balls – we mean roles – may surprise you.Brittany Brave (on stage): “I do a lot of work for women. I protest, I raise money. I love seeing women win. I saw a grown man fall off a skateboard the other day. It was amazing!”SoFlo comic Brittany Brave is on a roll.Brittany Brave: “I haven’t slept in two months. I am headlining the Dania Improv.”Brittany Brave (on stage): “You could be their mother? That’s a hot category on Pornhub.”Her debut hour, called “Muchacha,” is a no-holds-barred type of show.Brittany Brave: “As long as I’ve gone through it, and it’s coming from a good place, and I’m trying to shed light on something through humor, then I feel comfortable talking about literally anything on stage.R...

Healthy Newton North eliminates second-seeded Lowell on road

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

LOWELL — Despite injuries plaguing a second straight regular season to knock it down in seeding, the Newton North boys volleyball team isn’t letting that get in the way of reaching its potential.A year removed from a second-round tournament exit, the No. 7 Tigers (17-6) showed just what they’re capable of at full strength by upsetting No. 2 Lowell, 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-18) in a Div. 1 state quarterfinal on Friday.Smiles spread like wildfire on a team that again suffered new health issues just about every other week, overcoming it to down a legitimate force in the Red Raiders (21-2).And yet, Newton North isn’t looking at the Final Four trophy as highly as what it aspires for. It gets No. 11 Brookline next after the Warriors upset No. 3 Natick.“They came out and really showed why we are one of the top teams in the state, and they played their best,” said Newton North head coach Nile Fox. “We’re just ready to keep competing. This feels good, but we’re not OK with it. We want to keep g...

Hiker who fell to death at Three Sisters Falls identified

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

DESCANSO, Calif. -- A 48-year-old woman who died while hiking Three Sisters Falls in the Cleveland National Forest has been identified, local medical officials said.Sarah Louise Crocker, of Ladera Ranch, California, was announced as the deceased, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office said on its website.The fall occurred Thursday just before 10 a.m., according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. This Anza-Borrego cave system among largest in North America A group of four teenagers and a woman were hiking along the ledge of the falls when one of the teens slipped, authorities said. Crocker reached out to help the teen, but lost her footing.Both Crocker and the teen went over the edge of the waterfall and landed in the bottom pool of water, per law enforcement. Crocker died at the scene while the teenage girl suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.The medical examiner's office determined Crocker's cause of death due to "multiple blunt force injuries, e...

Natalee Holloway disappearance suspect pleads not guilty to extorting victim’s mother

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Joran van der Sloot, the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance, pleaded not guilty Friday in Alabama to charges he tried to extort money from the missing teen’s mother in exchange for revealing where to find her daughter’s remains.Although he’s not on trial for harming Holloway, the extortion and wire fraud charges are the only alleged crimes that link the Dutch citizen to Holloway’s unsolved disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba. The 18-year-old went missing during a high school graduation trip with classmates and was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, a student at an international school on the island where he grew up.Van der Sloot, now 35, walked shackled into the Alabama courtroom Friday as Holloway’s parents looked on. He’d been extradited Thursday from Peru, where he’s serving a 28-year sentence after confessing to killing a Peruvian woman in 2010 — five years to the day after Holloway went missing.Na...

A timeline of events leading to Donald Trump’s indictment in the classified documents case

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

The 49-page federal indictment of former President Donald Trump lays out a stunning timeline of events, detailing allegations that he not only mishandled sensitive material, but also took steps to hide records and impede investigators.Here are some key of the key events leading to the 37 criminal charges against Trump, according to the indictment:Jan. 20, 2021: As Trump leaves the White House, he directs the movement of dozens of storage boxes to Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors say. The boxes, packed by Trump and his White House staff, contain newspaper clippings, letters, photos and other mementos from his time in office, but also hundreds of classified documents that, as a former president, he wasn’t authorized to have.Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are considered federal, not private property and must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified and sensitive documents, includin...

4 children lost in the jungle for 40 days after a plane crash are found alive in Colombia

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday that authorities found alive four children who survived a small plane crash 40 days ago and had been the subject of an intense search in the Amazon jungle that held Colombians on edge.The children were alone when searchers found them and are now receiving medical attention, Petro told reporters upon his return to Bogota from Cuba, where he signed a cease-fire agreement with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group.The president said the youngsters are an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will remain in history.”The crash happened in the early hours of May 1, when the Cessna single-engine propeller plane with six passengers and a pilot declared an emergency due to an engine failure. The small aircraft fell off radar a short time later and a frantic search for survivors began. The three adults were killed, and their bodies were found in the area.Associated Press, The Associated Press

American Airlines, JetBlue seek to keep some ties despite losing antitrust case

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

American Airlines and JetBlue said Friday they should be allowed to keep selling tickets on each other’s flights in the Northeast and link their frequent-flyer programs despite losing an antitrust trial over their partnership.The Justice Department said if the airlines get their wish, travelers would miss out on the benefits of restoring competition between the carriers. In separate filings, the airlines and the government told a federal judge in Boston how he should carry out his ruling last month to break up the partnership. American’s CEO has said his airline will appeal the verdict.The Justice Department proposed a final judgment that would order American and JetBlue to end most parts of the deal immediately. The government said the airlines should honor existing tickets to avoid hurting travelers, but then quickly wind down their sharing of airport gates and takeoff and landing slots at key airports.The airlines want to keep selling tickets on each other’s fli...

Homeland Security names Border Patrol veteran Jason Owens to lead the agency

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday named U.S. Border Patrol veteran Jason Owens to lead the agency, replacing retiring chief Raul Ortiz.In a statement announcing Owens’ promotion, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “Chief Owens is a talented, selfless, and inspiring leader who is dedicated to the Border Patrol’s law enforcement mission, the men and women who fulfill it, and the country that we all serve.”“I am inspired by his commitment to the mission, and am grateful to him for his continued service in this new leadership role,” Mayorkas added.The New York Times reported that Owens has been with the Border Patrol for more than 20 years, most recently as the head of the Del Rio division in Texas.Ortiz said last month in a note to staff that was obtained by The Associated Press that he will leave June 30.Ortiz managed the Border Patrol and its roughly 20,000 agents through the COVID-19 pandemic and Title 42 emergency health restrictions...

Sergeant, 5 officers broke department policy in fatal 2022 shooting, LAPD chief says

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:55:57 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police sergeant and five officers broke department policy when they opened fire last year on an armed man who refused to follow officers’ commands, killing him, a police commission found. The Board of Police Commissioners voted on May 23 to approve a Los Angeles Police Department internal investigation into the fatal shooting of Rodolfo Torres on July 2, 2022, that found the officers’ use of force was not reasonable or necessary.Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said in his internal investigation report to the commission that four other officers who opened fire on Torres were within policy. Two other officers who responded to the scene did not fire their weapons. On the day of the fatal shooting, two officers were patrolling South Los Angeles when they came upon Torres, 30, who seemed to be under the influence of drugs and had a bulge in his clothing resembling a gun, Moore wrote. One of the officers believed he recognized Torres as someone invol...