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Blue Collar Cats keep these DC region businesses mouse-free

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

For International Cat Day we’re celebrating all felines, not just house pets, but working cats that provide pest control to businesses across the D.C. region!Cats that grew up on the street and were never socialized have been “put to work” by the Humane Rescue Alliance’s Blue Collar Cats program. The program has placed more than 400 cats with different businesses, acting as a rodent deterrent that is “a cleaner alternative to toxic pesticides, they’re less expensive, and more effective,” according to the HRA’s website.Two employers of these working cats, Danielle LaPalme at R. Bratti Associates stone fabricators and Tracy Stanndard at Broad Branch Market, told WTOP about what wonderful mouse deterrents their Blue Collar Cats are.Rocky, a friendly gray cat that is constantly featured on the business’s Instagram, patrols R. Bratti Associates’ office and warehouse in Alexandria, Virginia. LaPalme said workers used to hear “mic...

Kia offering free security upgrades amid thefts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado has one of the highest rates of auto theft in the nation. Now the maker of a top choice for thieves, Kia is making moves to fight back.In May, Kia announced free security software upgrades were offered to more than 3 million owners and drivers who lease the cars. The software stops the ignition in locked cars in the event of an attempted theft without a key. Kia, Hyundai settle class-action lawsuit after a rash of thefts due to security flaw New models do not need the upgrade. But some who drive older models, which require updated security, are having trouble obtaining insurance coverage. Caelynne Blackwell told FOX31 her 2018 Kia was stolen twice. “After getting it stolen one time, they didn’t want to cover us on theft anymore,” Blackwell said.Kia thefts affect insurance coverageThe Rocky Mountain Insurance Association told FOX31 that after videos of the cars being stolen went viral online, many carriers reduced their coverage. “Your insurance company is ...

Denver airport ground stops rise for summer travel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Data from the Federal Aviation Administration shows a spike in issued ground stops at Denver International Airport this summer.A ground stop is when flights destined for the affected airport are held at their departure point, according to the FAA. This can happen for a number of reasons, including issues with air traffic control or severe weather. ‘Extremely dangerous’ tornado touches down in Colorado In April, there were four issued ground stops, according to the FAA. That number jumped to 21 issued ground stops in May, 18 in June and 25 in July. Here is the number of Denver airport ground stops issued each month so far in 2023: January: 7February: 2 March: 4 April: 4 May: 21 June: 18 July: 25 August: 6 Weather top of mind for travelersFOX31 spoke to passengers who said the numbers were shocking. “Summer, I wouldn’t expect it,” traveler Kyler Leen said. How long would it take to save up for a house in Denver? Ot...

Investigating underway after teenager hospitalized in Cutler Bay

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

Several law enforcement agencies descended to a Cutler Bay home after a teenager was hurt and hospitalized. Miami-Dade Police, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and arson investigators arrived at the scene in the area of 9240 SW 186th Terrace, Tuesday afternoon. 7News spoke to neighbors who said that at around 5 p.m., they heard a loud popping sound in the area. Shortly after that, police were called to the home. A 16-year-old boy is now at Jackson South Medical Center with injuries to his neck, arm and upper torso. 7News cameras captured police as they continued to investigate late Tuesday night. They told 7News that the teen’s injuries might have been caused by some sort of explosion in the backyard. At the time, police said the incident does not appear to be of a criminal nature but rather an accident. When officials arrived at the scene, 7News cameras captured a MDFR investigator putting on gloves as he worked with metal cans. It is unclear if those cans were involved in any way. Ars...

Why Britain wants to shout about its offshore asylum ship

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

LONDON — Walking up a narrow gangplank, a small group of asylum seekers boarded the floating barge moored off England’s south coast. It would be their home for the foreseeable future. Their arrival Monday was being closely monitored — and amplified — at the highest levels of the U.K. government. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on holiday in California, posted a video claiming he was “ending the farce of illegal migrants being put in hotels by the taxpayer.” His Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick enthusiastically shared the rolling news images being played out on social media.That only 15 migrants actually spent the night onboard the Bibby Stockholm on Monday didn’t seem to matter.Undocumented migration has become a red-hot topic for parts of the U.K. electorate, with rocketing numbers of migrants and asylum seekers attempting the dangerous crossing over the English Channel from France each year.Britain’s shambolic processing systems have been unable to cope, and ...

Last stand in Waterloo: Puigdemont sets high price to break Spanish vote impasse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

LAST STAND IN WATERLOO Puigdemont sets high price to break Spanish vote impasseCatalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont holds the key to Pedro Sánchez staying in office — but he’s driving a hard bargain.By AITOR HERNÁNDEZ-MORALESand EDDY WAX in BrusselsPhoto-illustration by Anthony Gerace for POLITICOSpain’s political future will be decided by one secluded man in a damp corner of Belgium.Six years after organizing an illegal referendum that sought to make Catalonia an independent republic, the region’s former President Carles Puigdemont is once again positioned to shake Spain to its core. With left and right-wing forces technically tied in the Spanish parliament, the country’s next government now depends on the support of seven lawmakers of the separatist Junts party — which Puigdemont founded and controls remotely.From his suburban home in the quaint Walloon town of Waterloo, located just a stone’s throw from the battlefields where Napoleon’s defeat...

Africa flexes its diplomatic muscles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

Ivor Ichikowitz is an industrialist and philanthropist. He is the chair of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, which paid for the installation of the Mandela mural in Kyiv.In the wake of this year’s Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, there are some who will point to both the drop in attendance by heads of state and the Black Sea Grain Initiative’s collapse as evidence that the inaugural African Peace Initiative was doomed before it even began.They would be wrong.When the initiative was first conceived, it seemed a mission impossible. It would be futile, cynics agreed, to get Franco and Anglophone Africa — to say nothing of the north and south — to achieve consensus on anything.Yet, seven heads of state actually did. And in June, a group representing these ostensible polar African opposites set out for Kyiv and St. Petersburg, looking to speak to the leaders of the two countries locked in an implacable war. Neither Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy nor Russian President Vlad...

Moscow doesn’t care who it starves

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.Sauntering around the port of Sevastopol in August 1989, American sailors were being mobbed by well-wishers.Their warships, the USS Gates and USS Kauffman, had just received a rapturous welcome from thousands of Soviet citizens, showering “the ships with coins, souvenir lapel pins, cigarettes, candy, and flowers.” And the mariners reciprocated, throwing their baseball caps and standard-issue white Dixie cup hats into the cheering crowd.Those were heady days, marking the end of history — or so some thought. Revolutionary change was sweeping Central Europe; Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika were in full swing; and within three months of the United Sates navy’s goodwill visit, the Berlin Wall was torn down.But as so often happened in the past, the Black Sea is now at the center of conflict once more.Dubbed the “Inhospitable Sea” by the ancient Greeks — not only for the challenge in navigating its squalls and te...

One person stabbed at hotel near Mass and Cass in Boston

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

Police responded to a report of a stabbing Tuesday night at the former Roundhouse Hotel in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.Just before 9 p.m., the victim was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, officials said.Until last month, the building at 91 Massachusetts Avenue had been a city-funded transitional housing and recovery center.Multiple police officers were on scene gathering evidence. This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.

Royals hit 3 home runs, beat Red Sox 9-3 to spoil season debut of Boston’s Trevor Story

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:13:47 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Drew Waters, MJ Melendez and Michael Massey each hit two-run home runs and the Kansas City Royals snapped a three-game losing streak with a 9-3 win over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.Brady Singer (8-8) allowed three runs off five hits over 6 2/3 innings, and the Royals finished with six extra-base hits.Adam Duvall had his 10th home run of the season, and Connor Wong and Jarren Duran added RBIs for Boston, which has lost five of its last six.Kutter Crawford (5-6) allowed three runs on seven hits over 3 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking two.The loss spoiled the season debut of Boston’s Trevor Story, who was in the lineup for the first time since last September after being activated off the 60-day injured list following offseason shoulder surgery. He went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.With Kansas City leading 1-0 with a runner on in the fourth, Waters connected on Crawford’s cutter and lofted it into Boston’s bullpen in right field for his seventh homer of t...