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3 New Hampshire men charged with harassing, intimidating New Hampshire Public Radio journalists

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

Three New Hampshire men were charged Friday with harassing and intimidating two New Hampshire Public Radio journalists after the outlet published an article last year detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by the founder of the state’s largest addiction treatment network.Police arrested Tucker Cockerline, 32, and Michael Waselchuck, 35, on Friday after the pair, along with Keenan Saniatan, 36, vandalized the journalists’ homes as well as the residences of one of the journalists’ immediate family members with bricks, large rocks, and red spray paint.Federal prosecutors said Saniatan “remains at large” as of Friday. Federal Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson signed a warrant for Saniatan’s arrest on Thursday. A hearing where a judge could decide if Cockerline and Waselchuck should remain in jail as their case plays out is scheduled for Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Boston.People have a right to express their opinion but taking it “over the line” and vandalizing homes “will not be tolerated,” s...

Search underway for missing hiker at Three Sisters Falls

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

JULIAN, Calif. -- Authorities are searching for a missing hiker at Three Sisters Falls in Julian.According to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, deputies with the Julian Sheriff's Substation received a call for help just before 5 p.m. Friday.Authorities say two people were swimming at the middle level of the falls when one went underwater and did not resurface. How ‘burn scars’ could create disaster during monsoon season in Southern California Deputies, CAL FIRE San Diego crews and volunteers with Sheriff's Search and Rescue (SAR) responded to the area to look for the missing 27-year-old man. A San Diego Sheriff Special Enforcement Detail (ASTREA) helicopter also helped with the search, SDSO confirmed.A search operation was conducted around the waterfalls until sunset. According to authorities, the darkness and amount of water flowing into the waterfalls made it too dangerous to continue with the search.The dam that feeds water to Three Sisters Falls, which is controlled b...

5 die when a speeding driver runs a red light and slams into them in Minneapolis, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Five people were killed when a driver ran a red light and slammed into their vehicle in Minneapolis after a state trooper spotted him speeding, authorities say. The driver was on Interstate 35 when the trooper first encountered him around 10 p.m. Friday, Minneapolis police said in a statement. The driver exited the highway before the trooper could initiate a traffic stop and crashed into another vehicle with four women and a girl inside, police said. All five were pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the motorist then ran from the crash scene. Officers searched the area before taking a suspect into custody. He was taken to a hospital to be evaluated. Police haven’t released his name or the names of the victims. A homicide team is investigating. The Associated Press

Ecuadorean woman who revived during her wake is dead after a week in intensive care at a hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A 76-year-old woman who had been declared dead and surprised her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake earlier this month has died after seven days in intensive care, her family said Saturday.Gilberto Barbera Montoya, the woman’s son, told The Associated Press that doctors at the state hospital where she was rushed after the incident said that she died on Friday evening.Ecuador’s health ministry confirmed in a statement that Bella Montoya died from an ischemic stroke after spending a week in intensive care. It added that Montoya had remained under “permanent surveillance,” but didn’t provide further information on the medical investigation surrounding the case.Barbera Montoya said that he hadn’t yet received any report from the authorities on the medical explanation of what happened and warned that things “are not going to stay like this.” He added that a sister of the deceased woman had formally complained about the incide...

Heat wave has US South sweltering, from tornado-ravaged West Texas town to Florida beaches

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

Communities from Houston to New Orleans opened cooling centers to bring relief as steamy hot temperatures settled across a broad swath of the U.S. South on Saturday, and beachgoers fled a water spout that swept ashore on a Florida beach.Gov. Greg Abbott meanwhile visited Perryton in the Texas Panhandle, where officials said more than 1,000 customers remained without electricity after a tornado killed three people late Thursday. The Perryton Ochiltree Chamber of Commerce said it would open a cooling center in the town of 8,000 people, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Amarillo, to counteract the effects of the high temperatures that followed the storm.The National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings through Saturday night along the Gulf Coast from Brownsville, Texas, to Houston. It said heat indexes ranging from near 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius) in Houston to near 120 F (49 C) at Brownsville and Corpus Christi in Texas. Cooling shelters were set up in ci...

Biden finds receptive union crowd at first big event of his 2024 reelection campaign

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Joe Biden on Saturday cloaked himself in the most pro-labor president ever label, reveling in cheers from exuberant union members at the first major political event of his reelection campaign as he said his economic agenda is boosting the middle class. He spotlighted the sweeping climate, tax and health care package signed into law last year that has cut the cost of prescription drugs and lowered insurance premiums, pocketbook issues that are part of his administration’s focus on his achievements during his first two years in office — and he centerpiece argument for a second term.“I’m looking forward to this campaign,” the Democrat said. “We’ve got a record to run on.” His choice of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania – and a friendly union audience — reflected their crucial role in his reelection effort. The city was the site of his campaign headquarters in 2020 and the state was one of a handful that had voted for Republican Do...

U.S. deploys high-tech Pentagon program to help Canada detect, suppress new wildfires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Defense has deployed a new high-tech fire detection system to help Canada battle one of its worst wildfire seasons on record.The White House says the FireGuard system uses real-time data from drones and satellites to help detect new flareups in remote areas before they burn out of control. It’s just the latest helping hand from the U.S. since smoke from wildfires in Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec began drifting south of the border earlier this month. Since early May, more than 800 U.S. firefighters, supervisors and technicians have been deployed throughout Canada, along with various aviation assets. Canada has since requested additional airtankers and smokejumpers — wildfire specialists who parachute into remote areas — through both federal and state-level channels. Other resources being sent north include hand crews, incident management teams and fireline leadership positions, according to the Idaho-based National Interagency Fire Center. ...

Michigan man charged with threatening synagogue massacre

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — A 19-year-old Michigan man has been charged with threatening a mass killing at a synagogue on the fifth anniversary of the massacre at two New Zealand mosques by a white supremacist gunman, federal officials say.Seann Patrick Pietila of Pickford, a township in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was arrested Friday and charged with transmitting a communication containing a threat to injure another, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors say he planned to target the Shaarey Zedek congregation in East Lansing.He allegedly made threats on social media, including Instagram, that included comments about neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism and glorifying mass shootings, most notably the 2019 shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, The Detroit News reported.Pietila was arrested the same day a truck driver was convicted of storming a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and fatally shooting 11 congregants in an act of antisemitic terror. The attack at the Tree of Life synagogue was t...

One-third of home buyers are paying in cash – who are they?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – It's been nearly a decade since the percentage of all-cash home purchases was this high, but you may not want to start stocking away savings in hopes of doing the same.Real estate brokerage Redfin found that 33.4% of buyers opted for an all-cash deal in April, the highest that mark has been since 2014."All-cash purchases are making up a bigger portion of the homebuying pie for one major reason: Elevated mortgage rates are deterring homebuyers who take out mortgages more than they’re deterring all-cash buyers," the study found. "Overall home sales were down 41% from a year earlier in April in the metros included in this analysis, compared with a 35% decline for all-cash sales."The analysis was based on county records going back to 2011 in the 40 most-populous U.S. metropolitan areas. El Niño could mean the hottest year on record, meteorologists warn The average 30-year fixed rate for a mortgage as of June 8 is 6.71%, according to Freddie Mac, so it's not surprising that...

What is a heat burst?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:37 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — It is widely accepted information that, on the whole, the temperature goes down during the evening and nighttime hours. If they aren't dropping every hour it could be that they are holding steady. If they go up, it's not by much.But a rare event happened late Friday night in Burnet and Georgetown. And, it might have awakened you from a sound sleep. The midnight temperature at Georgetown Municipal Airport was 83° with a humidity of 59%. The wind was out of the southwest at 12 mph. The sky condition was reported as mostly clear. Based on this observation it stood to reason that the 1 a.m. temperature should have dropped another degree or two. But that did not happen.Instead, that 1 a.m. observation showed a temperature of 97°, a 14° increase. The relative humidity dropped to 20°. The wind was from the west wind at 17 mph and a gust of 37 mph. A thunderstorm started to weaken.Georgetown heat burstBy 2 a.m. the temperature had dropped back to 84° with the dew point up to...