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Which Denver mayoral candidate got the most from the Fair Elections Fund?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Denver has distributed just over $7 million in tax dollars to candidates for elected office, with over a quarter going to three mayoral candidates.Voters approved Denver’s Fair Elections Fund by more than 70% of the vote in 2018. The fund is a pool of $8 million designed to encourage small campaign contributions. The city pays candidates who get donations in lower amounts from individuals and small donor committees. Nearly half of Denver crime in 2023 is vehicle-related The city has disbursed the last of the Fair Elections Fund money. Only one managed to reach the city's cap on the fund of $750,000. Kelly Brough, former Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce president, has received the most from the Fair Elections Fund. She is the only candidate to have received the full three-quarters of a million dollars. Mike Johnston, a former Democratic Colorado lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate, has raised the second most from the Fair Elections Fund with $613,539. Denver City ...

Court inclined toward government view in Colorado River water rights case

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seems inclined to side with the federal government and a group of states in a dispute with the Navajo Nation over water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.The high court was hearing arguments Monday in a case that states argue could upend how water is shared in the Western U.S. if the court sides with the tribe. Feds spend $2.4 million on cloud seeding for Colorado River Water is a critical resource for the Navajo Nation. The mainstream of the Colorado River flows along the northwestern border of the tribe's reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. And two of the river's tributaries, the San Juan River and the Little Colorado River, also pass alongside and through the reservation. Still, a third of some 175,000 people who live on the reservation, the country's largest, don’t have running water in their homes.The facts of the case go back to two treaties the tribe and the federal government signed in 1849 and 1868. The ...

Nearly half of Denver crime in 2023 is vehicle-related

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Denver's motor vehicle theft problem is the biggest single chunk of the city's crime so far this year, according to city data. Both Denver and Colorado have been battling a wave of auto theft for the last five years. Auto theft grew during the pandemic across the country, but the Centennial State saw the most dramatic increase. Colorado’s auto theft rate climbed by the fastest rate in the nation from 2011 to 2020 – 144%. The number of car thefts doubled from 2019 to 2022. Just how far does a 6-figure salary go in Denver? This is a localized issue, with most of the state's car thefts happening in Denver and Aurora. Denver alone accounted for a third of the state's auto thefts in 2022.So far in 2023, 43% of all crime committed in Denver has been auto-related: theft of a vehicle itself, a part of it, something inside it or criminal mischief around a vehicle.Theft of a motor vehicle is the single most common crime in Denver in 2023 by far. There are 139 individual cr...

No curfew in Miami Beach this weekend, city officials decide

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — For the third year in a row, Miami Beach finds itself struggling with spring break violence, including two fatal shootings and unruly crowds, despite a massive police presence and activities designed to give people alternatives to drinking alcohol and roaming the streets.The party-all-the-time vibe in the South Beach section of the popular barrier island city has already led officials to ban alcohol sales at larger clubs after 2 a.m. Police are stationed everywhere, including in mobile towers that give officers a birds-eye view of the streets. Art, music, yoga and volleyball tournaments were added this year to give people something to do, at least during the day.Yet the violence and street chaos continues at night. All night.The city imposed an overnight curfew that ended Monday morning but decided at a City Commission meeting not to enact a second curfew next weekend, when the Ultra Music Festival will draw thousands of people to South Beach. It&#...

BSO presents its first cadaver dog

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

A therapy dog at the Broward Sheriff’s Office is now the department’s first cadaver dog.Meet K-9 Maggie.“She is a therapy dog for us,” said BSO detective Christopher Favitta. “She now has a new endeavor as a cadaver dog.”On Monday, the 2-year-old labrador showed off her skills during a training exercise at BSO’s aviation hangar, tracking down samples of human remains, a critical resource for homicide detectives.“She’s going to be a great tool coming forward, helping us with homicide investigations, our new cold case initiative and even recovering missing persons,” said Favitta.Maggie has been on the job for about a year as a therapy dog with the special victims unit.“She’s good in that role,” said Favitta. “She’ll put her head in your lap, she sits with the victims on the floor. She can sit on a chair with them, whatever pretty much they need to make them feel comfortable, and even from there she’s able to switch from that role and come here and look for a vi...

North Miami Beach unveils Martin Luther King statue

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

A grand reveal was held Monday morning in North Miami Beach.The city unveiled a new statue of Martin Luther King Jr. to commemorate the Civil Rights leader.The statue is a symbol of remembrance of the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965. Residents also took part in a symbolic walk.

EU to send Turkey €1B for quake reconstruction

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

The European Commission will provide Turkey with €1 billion to help with “post-earthquake reconstruction” following the deadly quakes that killed tens of thousands in February, Ursula von der Leyen said Monday.“No one can fill the void left by those who lost their lives, yet together we can reconstruct and rebuild,” the Commission president said ahead of a donors’ conference in Brussels.She called for “homes, schools and hospitals” destroyed in the earthquakes to be rebuilt “with the highest standards of seismic safety.”More than 50,000 people died in Turkey and Syria after a series of powerful earthquakes hit southeastern Turkey in February. The earthquakes destroyed tens of thousands of buildings, raising questions over the construction standards in the seismic region.The aid package also includes €108 million for humanitarian assistance to Syria, von der Leyen said.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday the cost of...

The first North Atlantic right whale mother/calf pair of the year spotted in Cape Cod Bay

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

The first North Atlantic right whale mother and calf pair of the year has arrived in Cape Cod Bay, according to researchers who spotted the pair over the weekend.As the critically endangered species returns to the region, scientists are urging all boaters to follow state and federal speed restrictions to avoid striking right whales.On Saturday, the Center for Coastal Studies’ Right Whale Ecology Program team saw Porcia and her 2023 calf. Porcia, a 21-year-old right whale, was first seen with her new calf in late December off the coast of Georgia.The North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered with an estimated 340 animals remaining, and the species is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.“That designation legally prohibits boats and aircraft from approaching within 500 yards of them,” the Center for Coastal Studies said in a statement. “It also restricts vessel speeds in designated areas, including Ca...

Spider wars: Black widows are being killed off by non-native brown widows

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

Bill Kearney | South Florida Sun-SentinelBlack widow spiders can stir primordial fear — they lurk in dark corners and their venom can cause excruciating pain, and in extremely rare occasions, death. But they seem to be no match for their aggressive non-native cousin, the brown widow.Scientists at the University of South Florida have recently discovered that brown widows ruthlessly target and attack black widows, and usually win those battles. But researchers can’t quite figure out why.As a result of this spider vendetta, the non-native brown widow has displaced the Southern black widow in many areas across the southern U.S., as far north as Kansas and as far west as California.The Southern black widow spider, seen here, has been driven out of urban and suburban areas by its aggressive non-native cousin, the brown widow. (courtesy Louis Coticchio)Not only do brown widows hone in on black widows, but they go relatively light on other spiders that share the same shadowy haunts.The stud...

TikTok-like risks are on all social media, group says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:05 GMT

The national-security and mental-health risks posed by TikTok are shared by other social media platforms, according to an advocacy group that’s urging Congress to also hold U.S. companies accountable ahead of high-profile testimony from TikTok’s chief executive officer.The Tech Oversight Project, a nonprofit, says Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. employ the same harmful business practices as TikTok and are increasingly copying some of the video-sharing app’s design features.All of these platforms have “force fed children dangerous and harmful content with predatory algorithms, aided U.S. adversaries and worked against U.S. national interests at home and abroad, and failed to protect users’ personal data,” the group says in a memo shared with Bloomberg News.While the memo is sharply critical of TikTok, it echoes some of that company’s arguments that lawmakers should focus on general data practices, rather than the Chinese ownership of TikTok...