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Landslide in Ecuador kills at least 16, with dozens missing

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

ALAUSI, Ecuador (AP) — A massive landslide swept over an Andean community in central Ecuador, burying dozens of homes, killing at least 16 people and sending rescuers on a frantic search for survivors, authorities said Monday.Ecuador’s Risk Management Secretariat said more than 30 people were rescued and nearly 50 others remained missing following Sunday’s landslide in Alausí, about 137 miles (220 kilometers) south of the capital, Quito. The agency also reported 23 people were injured when the mountainside collapsed around 10 p.m.“My mother is buried” under the mud, said Luis Ángel González, 58, who also lost other family members Sunday. “I am so sad, devastated. There is nothing here, no houses, no anything. We are homeless (and) without family.” The South American country’s risk management agency estimated that 500 people and 163 homes were affected by the disaster, which also destroyed a portion of the Pan-American Highway.The governor of Chimborazo, Ivan ...

Canada Post investigating after Toronto man alleges mail carrier forged late mother’s signature

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

A Toronto man alleges a Canada Post employee forged his late mother’s signature to deliver a registered letter.Last week, Jeff Green received a letter in his mailbox addressed to his mother. It was a piece of registered mail meaning the sender paid an extra $9.75 to require a signature and confirmation receipt upon delivery, but Green did not sign for it.When he inquired with Canada Post, he was sent a receipt that appeared to show his mother’s name and signature. The name, however, was misspelled and the signature looked obviously fraudulent to Green.But the most disturbing part for him was that his mother actually passed away last July.“I don’t even know what words to describe,” said Green. “It’s offensive. It’s disappointing, you know. It’s criminal.”It is also not the first time this has happened to him.Nine years ago, Green spoke to CityNews after receiving his passport in the mail without signing for it. The Canada Post record showed an unfamiliar name and signature.At the tim...

Doctor decries gun violence after school shooting near miss

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

A pediatric surgeon who left The Covenant School in Nashville moments before a shooter opened fire, killing six people, says she is horrified by the gun violence that has plagued the U.S.Britney Grayson had just finished regaling children at the small religious grade school about Kenya, where she works on missions, when she drove out of the parking lot looking for a Starbucks. Moments later, the shooter entered the school and opened fire, killing three children and three adults.After she received a text alerting her to the attack, Grayson took to Facebook to post about what she experienced, writing, “WHY ARE OUR CHILDREN BEING MASSACRED IN THEIR SCHOOLS?!”If a mass shooting is defined as resulting in the death of four or more people, not including the perpetrator, 175 people have died in 15 such events connected to U.S. schools and colleges since 1999.The horror of what happened had Grayson rattled hours later.“It’s a weird feeling, knowing that just if it had happened just moments ...

U.S. renewable electricity surpassed coal in 2022

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

Electricity generated from renewables surpassed coal in the United States for the first time in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Monday.Renewables also surpassed nuclear generation in 2022 after first doing so last year.Growth in wind and solar significantly drove the increase in renewable energy and contributed 14% of the electricity produced domestically in 2022.“I’m happy to see we’ve crossed that threshold, but that is only a step in what has to be a very rapid and much cheaper journey,” said Stephen Porder, a professor of ecology and assistant provost for sustainability at Brown University.California produced 26% of the national utility-scale solar electricity followed by Texas with 16% and North Carolina with 8%.The most wind generation occurred in Texas, which accounted for 26% of the U.S. total followed by Iowa (10%) and Oklahoma (9%).“This booming growth is driven largely by economics,” said Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American...

El Salvador marks its first year under anti-gang crackdown

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The Central American nation of El Salvador marked a full year Monday under anti-gang emergency measures that were originally supposed to last only a month. It was the the first anniversary of President Nayib Bukele’s request for special powers to pursue gangs last March 27, following a surge in gang violence in which 62 people were killed in a single day. The country’s legislature has voted every month since then to renew the measures, which suspend some rights. In the year since, a total of 66,417 people have been arrested, and 4,304 have been released. Rights groups say there have been 111 deaths in custody and 5,802 suspected cases of rights violations.The emergency decree has reduced violence and proved popular in a country where streets gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18 have long killed and extorted money from residents. Jorge Ezequiel Bran, a 25-year-old hotdog vendor in the nation’s capital, said he approved of the crackdown, though he ackn...

Report: Cubs agree to 3-yr, $35 million extension with 2B Nico Hoerner

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs have come to an agreement to sign second baseman Nico Hoerner to a 3-year extension.According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, the total value of the deal is $35 million over three years, with the deal buying out one year of free agency, but Hoerner will still have the ability to test the market when he is 29. Hoerner will make $7.5 million each of the next two seasons before earning $20 million during his free agency year. Cubs make a trade ahead of Opening Day Hoerner hit .281 with 10 HR's, 55 RBI's and 20 SB's last season with the Cubs and was one of MLB's best when it came to his glove. According to Baseball Savant, Hoerner ranked in the 92nd percentile in sprint speed and 98th percentile in outs above average, a range-based metric that illustrates how many outs a player has saved over the span of an MLB season.The Cubs take the field for Opening Day Thursday at 1:20 p.m. against the Milwaukee Brewers, with Marcus Stroman expected to be on the mound to start.

Sunday's hail and thunderstorms

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

"How about all the hail with the thunderstorms which swept across the southern half of the metro area Sunday. And the rainbows put on quite a show too. THANK YOU to each of you who have taken time to share photos!!"I've put together a sequence of satellite and radar images of the storms involved. Never a dull moment when it comes to this spring's weather—and the pattern is to continue an active one!"TomCheck out the hail reports filed with the NWS Storm Prediction Center Sunday.This is the GOES EAST true color image just past 4pm CDT Sunday

Rand Paul staffer stabbed in D.C., man arrested

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

(The Hill) - Authorities said that a suspect is in custody after a member of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) congressional staff was the target of an attack in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. In a news release, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said that an arrest has been made in relation to an incident that happen in the 1300 block of H Street, Northeast on Saturday. Officers responded to a call of a stabbing at the listed location, arriving at the scene to locate a victim suffering stab wounds. The victim was then transported to a local medical facility to be treated for life-threatening injuries. How could a TikTok ban be enforced? Authorities arrested Southeast D.C. native Glynn Neal, 42, on Monday and charged him with assault with the intent to kill (knife), according to the release. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) walks towards the Senate Chamber to vote on the CHIPS Act, a bill designed to boost the semiconductor industry in the United States, on Tuesday, July 26th, 2022.In ...

On day of Nashville shooting, Texas House considers school safety bills

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — A surviving teacher from the 2018 Santa Fe shooting was driving up to the Texas Capitol to testify about school safety legislation when she and her husband heard the news that would come as a "gut-punch," but not a surprise — another school shooting was happening in America.On Monday morning, a 28-year-old female shooter targeted a private Nashville school, in which she was a former student. The woman wielded two AR-15-style weapons and a pistol, using the weapons to kill at least three children and three adults. ‘It’s very tragic’: Woman recounts what she heard during Nashville school shooting This latest violence on a school campus comes as Texans are still reeling from the worst school shooting in the state's history in Uvalde last year, where a gunman used a similar rifle to murder 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.Flo Rice was working as a substitute teacher at Santa Fe High School when a gunman shot her six times and killed 10 other pe...

Lower water temperature in Mississippi River near Monticello nuclear plant kills 230 fish, Xcel says

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:53:15 GMT

Xcel Energy on Monday reported that lower water temperatures in the Mississippi River have killed more than 200 fish near its Monticello nuclear power plant since the company shut the facility down last week to repair a leak.While the plant is running, it draws in water from the Mississippi for cooling purposes before returning it to the river, Xcel spokesman Theo Keith said in an email. This raises the river’s water temperature near the facility.“When a plant is taken offline, the river cools down,” Keith said. “Fish are affected by the change in water temperature. While we powered down the plant slowly to mitigate the impacts to fish in the river, 230 fish have died.”Minneapolis-based Xcel began powering down the plant on Friday to replace a 50-year-old pipe that had leaked water contaminated with radioactive tritium into groundwater.Keith said the tritium contamination was not a factor in the deaths of the fish.“We are working closely with the ...