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AP PHOTOS: World’s water in focus as clean supplies squeezed

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

It’s one of the world’s most vital resources. In Paraguay, a man displaced by a rising river hauls heavy buckets of it to his temporary home. In the Philippines, a girl uses a manual pump to get just enough to wash. In Venezuela’s neighborhoods, it’s collected in wells to flow into hundreds of homes.Water is the lifeblood of every community around the world. But a sustainable, clean supply for drinking, hygiene and farming is not guaranteed for hundreds of millions of people, according to United Nations figures.From droughts stifling once-reliant sources to destructive downpours and floods, what the world does about its water woes is the central question at the U.N.’s three-day water conference that begins Wednesday. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of World Water Day, it’s the first dedicated U.N. conference on water in nearly 50 years. Climate change, pollution and waste have compounded water concerns by squeezing the Earth’s resources...

Centennial could temporarily ban some new pickleball court construction

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (KDVR) — It's quite the pickle for Centennial City Council as community members packed chambers Tuesday to defend their sides on a proposed moratorium surrounding pickleball courts.The City of Centennial is considering a moratorium that would put a six-month pause on constructing new outdoor courts within 500 feet of residential neighborhoods. Officials tell FOX31 says this comes after receiving several new proposals to create new outdoor courts, some near residential areas. “It's not a war on pickleball, this is this is simply that we don't have the regulations in place based on the research that we've done to effectively mitigate the noise and other potential impacts,” Centennial's Director of Community and Economic Development, Neil Marcinaik, said. “So this is a -- it's a brief pause to study the issues and develop some regulations, if necessary.” Family waiting for a heart transplant for 20-month-old has car stolen with baby’s belongings inside Marcinai...

IRS: How to avoid impersonation scams as tax deadline nears

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- A warning from the Internal Revenue Service has come as many are rushing to beat the tax deadline: Be aware of impersonation scams and other schemes.IRS Special Agent in charge of the Criminal Investigation Unit Andy Tsui told FOX31 that scammers take advantage of those who are preparing returns or expecting refunds.“People do expect some contact maybe with the IRS so there’s always an uptick and that’s typically someone pretending to be the IRS and maybe threatening to arrest someone if they don’t make a payment,” said Tsui.The IRS advises taxpayers to guard their personal information and to never provide social security and banking information to anyone reaching out through unsolicited phone calls, emails or social media.The real IRS will also never ask for payment via a debit card or credit card in an unsolicited call.Additionally, if you experience a delay in receiving your refund, head to the irs.gov website and track it right away. Pueblo mom shot twice, sur...

Garrett Crochet is ‘gradually sharpening tools’ as the Chicago White Sox reliever’s return from surgery remains on target

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol recently had a question for reliever Garrett Crochet.“‘You sure you’re not ready?’” Grifol recalled saying last week. “He put a smile on his face. I was like, ‘Are you sure you’re not ready?’”The left-hander continues to take steps in his return from Tommy John surgery.“I’m progressing as expected,” Crochet told the Tribune last week. “On track as far as I’m aware for the target date. I’ve been feeling good so far.”At the start of camp, general manager Rick Hahn said Crochet would not appear in any Cactus League games.“However, we suspect he’ll be on a rehab assignment sometime in April,” Hahn added, “with the possibility of rejoining the club, if everything goes smoothly, sometime in approximately mid-May. As is usually the case, we’ll have a firmer grasp on his timeline once he’s out on a rehab assignment.&...

Willis Reed, two-time Knicks champion and Hall of Famer, dead at 80

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

Willis Reed, one of the greatest players in Knicks history whose gutsy return from injury for Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals solidified him as a symbol of toughness and perseverance, has died at age 80, the team announced Tuesday.Reed, a Hall of Fame center who played each of his 10 NBA seasons with the Knicks, was the MVP of both of the franchise’s championships.“As we mourn, we will always strive to uphold the standards he left behind — the unmatched leadership, sacrifice and work ethic that personified him as a champion among champions,” the Knicks said in a statement. “His is a legacy that will live forever.”Born in Lincoln Parish, La., Reed was the eighth overall pick by the Knicks out of Grambling State in 1964. The 6-foot-10 Reed averaged 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds in 650 career games from 1964-74 and made seven NBA All-Star teams.He was the MVP of the NBA’s regular season and All-Star Game during the 1969-70 campaign and led the Kn...

Hong Chau in for a thrill(er) ride in ‘The Night Agent’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

A virtually nonstop paranoid conspiracy thriller in 10 episodes, Netflix’s “The Night Agent” launches Thursday with an incredibly realistic terrorist attack on the subway.The bomb is spotted by low-level FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) who clears the car of passengers as it explodes. We learn he’s the Night Agent, manning a phone on the night shift to answer any agent’s emergency call.Peter was put there by Diane Farr (Hong Chau), the White House Chief of Staff. They’re a combustible combination as the series continually offers new revelations that change our views of who these two are.“I’m always attracted to multilayer characters, hard to pin down,” Chau , 43, said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not about being good or bad. I think all politicians, everyone, if they’re successful, is some shade of grey. It’s not about good or bad, black or white — and that is absolutely true for Diane.”Chau, Oscar-nominated opposite Brendan ...

Celtics finish road trip strong, produce best performance since All-Star break with dominant win over Kings

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

Before the Celtics took off for their longest road trip of the season, they stressed a sense of urgency. They knew they weren’t playing up to their standards, and they recognized the importance of correcting their inconsistencies with the playoffs coming soon.“For us, being able to know that we don’t have any games left in the regular season, that we need to come together, and we need to start acting like this is it for us and every game matters and get into that rhythm,” Marcus Smart said before the trip.The six-game journey wasn’t perfect. They dropped a game to the Rockets, the worst team in the Western Conference. Bad habits haunted them in a brutal loss to the Jazz. But on Tuesday, they finished the stretch with a much-needed statement. Against one of the hottest teams in the league, the Celtics picked a good time for their best all-around performance since the All-Star break with a dominant 132-109 victory over the Kings.It was one game – and the Celtics still need to sh...

Murray: What it really means to put women & children first

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

“Women and children first!”  It’s what ushers would holler when the theater caught fire; and it’s what the bos’n bellowed between piercing cries of his whistle when the ocean liner hit an iceberg and they were moving passengers to the lifeboats.  For many the protection of society’s most vulnerable and their chief caregivers isn’t relegated to moments of high drama on Turner Classic Movies.  For the women who are the main cogs (and it is largely women) in our social services industrial complex that do the caring for the castaway flotsam and jetsam of society, “women and children first” is a mantra.  The one catchphrase that helps them make sense and order of the three-alarm fire that is every workday if you’re helping the addicted, the hungry, the divorced, the unemployed, the abandoned, the unhoused, and the unwanted.And so it was for Ramona. She was a teen mother.  Pregnant and married at 17, her shining Sir Galahad was soon shown to be little more than the father to her chi...

Ski Wednesday: Late-season trips extend the fun

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

Q: Who plans a ski vacation for this season now?A: 1) Crazy people2) Ski and ride enthusiasts who just don’t want to let go quite yet3) Crazy people who are also smart4) All of the aboveThat’s right, there are folks out there booking flights and/or rooms, making sure their skis and boards are tuned and drafting their away message, because while April and May are not exactly the same as mid-winter when it comes to conditions, if you pick the right place to visit, “not exactly the same” can translate to pretty, pretty great.A few winters back – during a season like this when the spring snow just seemed to keep coming and coming — my husband and I booked a last minute trip to Breckenridge. We headed there expecting smushy snow, sunshine and leisurely apres, which would have been fine. We found instead fresh, deep (and light) powder, zero lines and yes, discounts on just about everything. What a gift.Another winter of late snow, we booked a few days and nights up at Vermont’s Sugarbush....

Lowry: Manhattan D.A. has Trump in crosshairs

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:48 GMT

How much does a mug shot mean to you?To Alvin Bragg, it apparently means quite a lot.All signs point to Bragg, the progressive prosecutor in Manhattan, indicting Donald Trump for his 2016 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.The old Karl Marx line is that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. This historic first-ever indictment of a former president of the United States would skip straight to farce.First, there’s the tawdry and relatively trivial subject matter. Trump stands accused by his critics on the left of fomenting an insurrection to overthrow the Constitution and the criminal offense they are going to get him on stems from a dalliance with a porn star in 2006.Then, more importantly, there’s the question of the merits. Unless Bragg has something unexpected on Trump, this appears to be a prosecution in search of a legal theory.Everything indicates that Bragg is more interested in subjecting Trump to the humiliations attendant to getting charged (t...