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Alexandria planning to expand license plate reader program aimed at identifying stolen cars

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

City leaders in Alexandria, Virginia, are planning to expand a program that uses license plate readers to detect stolen cars, among other things.At an Alexandria City Council meeting this week, Police Chief Don Hayes said the pilot program has been so successful in six months that the city is going to increase the number of plate readers on local roads.The six devices in place as part of the pilot program, Hayes said, averaged 220 plate hits per month, and helped police close 14 cases, make 33 arrests/warrants and recover over $240,000 in property.Now, the city is planning to deploy 12 more readers, particularly on corridors used to enter Alexandria, Hayes said. He didn’t offer a timeline for when the additional plate readers would be in place.“We recovered some of those stolen autos, and in some of those stolen autos, there were stolen guns,” Hayes told the Council. “Or, they were just guns that people were probably going to use in a crime. So, we are findin...

Brian White scores his 13th goal of the season to help Whitecaps tie the Rapids 2-2

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (AP) — Brian White scored his 13th goal of the season in the 78th minute and the Vancouver Whitecaps tied the Colorado Rapids 2-2 on Wednesday night.Vancouver (11-10-9) played its seventh straight away match, going 3-2-2. The Whitecaps, who haven’t played a home match since Aug. 20, host D.C. United on Saturday.White headed in Sebastian Berhalter’s corner kick to cap the scoring and set a career-high in goals. He is just the second player in Whitecaps MLS history to record multiple 12-goal seasons, joining Camilo Sanvezzo.Vancouver defender Mathías Laborda opened the scoring in the 11th minute with his first MLS goal. The Whitecaps nearly made it 2-0 three minutes later, but Colorado goalkeeper Marko Ilic denied White’s point-blank header.Colorado forward Diego Rubio tied it at 1-all in the 47th. Rubio mishit a cross from Calvin Harris, but he stuck with it and poked it home. Rubio, who recorded a goal and an assist against Portland on Saturday, moved into third...

Acuña becomes first 40-70 player, Albies lifts Braves over Cubs 6-5 in 10 innings

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Ronald Acuña Jr. slid into second base ahead of the throw, adding another slice of history to an already unprecedented season. He grabbed the bag and hoisted it above his head, soaking up the cheers from the home crowd after becoming the charter member of the 40-70 club.A short time later, Acuña rounded third and barreled for for home, diving headfirst across the plate with the run that gave the Atlanta Braves another comeback victory — and provided baseball’s most thrilling player with his MVP statement. “It’s really an incredible moment,” Acuña said through an interpreter, his two young sons squirming in his arms after a celebratory soaking from his teammates.Ozzie Albies drove in Acuña with a 10th-inning single that clinched home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs for the Braves, who dealt the faltering Chicago Cubs another devastating setback by rallying time and time again for a 6-5 victory Wednesday night.Acuña delivered a run-scoring single ...

Tee Thursday: Nemacolin courses to Dye for

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

For me (thankfully, since it’s a long, long process to get to the point where playing well is a safe expectation), the golf experience is about more than the score.It’s the scenery, challenge, people, fresh air, the uniqueness of a course and just plain being outdoors and soaking in the world while I work at hitting a little ball into a little hole.If you’re like me and want your golf outing to be a tapestry of all that, welcome to the Nemacolin Resort (https://www.nemacolin.com) and its 36 holes of pure Pete Dye vision (and diabolical instinct, at times). The two resort courses, Mystic Rock and Shepherd’s Rock, are challenging and unique; breathtaking and just plain beautiful.Both courses serve as a centerpiece to the sprawling Western Pennsylvania resort, where you’ll find a spa, pools, posh lodging, lots of food choices and more. But today we’ll talk about the golf.Let’s start with Mystic Rock. I’d say it’s my favorite of the two since, while super challenging, it’s a bit more fo...

Analysis: By North Korean standards, Pvt. Travis King’s release from detention was quick

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Maybe it never sense for North Korea to hold on to Pvt. Travis King.Just over two months after he sprinted into North Korea across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, King was put on a plane back to America after the North released him into U.S. custody.Several recent American detainees had been held for over a year — 17 months in the case of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was arrested during a group tour. He was in a coma when he was deported, and later died.King’s case was unique, not least because he was one of the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from the nuclear-armed North.There had been speculation that North Korea would try to maximize the propaganda value of an active duty U.S. soldier who voluntarily crossed into its territory, reportedly because he was disillusioned with racism in the military and American society. The North has often been accused of using American detainees as b...

Food prices are rising as countries limit exports. Blame climate change, El Nino and Russia’s war

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

How do you cook a meal when a staple ingredient is unaffordable?This question is playing out in households around the world as they face shortages of essential foods like rice, cooking oil and onions. That is because countries have imposed restrictions on the food they export to protect their own supplies from the combined effect of the war in Ukraine, El Nino’s threat to food production and increasing damage from climate change. For Caroline Kyalo, a 28-year-old who works in a salon in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, it was a question of trying to figure out how to cook for her two children without onions. Restrictions on the export of the vegetable by neighboring Tanzania has led prices to triple. Kyalo initially tried to use spring onions instead, but those also got too expensive. As did the prices of other necessities, like cooking oil and corn flour.“I just decided to be cooking once a day,” she said.Despite the East African country’s fertile lands and large workforce, ...

Wildfires can make your California red taste like an ashtray. These scientists want to stop that

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

ALPINE, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. West Coast produces over 90% of America’s wine, but the region is also prone to wildfires — a combustible combination that spelled disaster for the wine industry in 2020 and one that scientists are scrambling to neutralize.Sample a good wine and you might get notes of oak or red fruit. But sip on wine made from grapes that were penetrated by smoke, and it could taste like someone dumped the contents of an ashtray into your glass.Wine experts from three West Coast universities are working together to meet the threat, including developing spray coatings to protect grapes, pinpointing the elusive compounds that create that nasty ashy taste, and deploying smoke sensors to vineyards to better understand smoke behavior. The U.S. government is funding their research with millions of dollars. Wineries are also taking steps to protect their product and brand.The risk to America’s premier wine-making regions — where wildfires caused billions of dollars...

First congressional hearing on Maui wildfire to focus on island’s sole electric provider and grid

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

Hawaii’s top public utility officials and the president of Hawaiian Electric are expected to testify Thursday in a congressional hearing about the role the electrical grid played in last month’s deadly Maui wildfire. Members of a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee are expected to question the utility officials about how the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century began — and whether the electrical grid in Lahaina was safe and properly maintained. The fire killed at least 97 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, mostly homes. It first erupted at 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 8, when strong winds appeared to cause a Hawaiian Electric powerline to fall, igniting dry brush and grass near a large subdivision.Among those expected to testify are Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura, Hawaii Public Utilities Commission Chair Leodoloff Asuncion Jr. and Hawaii Chief Energy Officer Mark Glick.Energy and Commerce Committee chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers; Oversight and...

NextGenerationEU: Commission receives Slovakia's third payment request for an amount of €662 million in grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

The third payment, which is net of pre-financing, concerns 21 milestones and 6 targets. These cover a set of transformative reformsaimed at improving the legal framework for the promotion of renewables, boosting the green renovation of buildings, setting up an industry decarbonisation scheme and ensuring a more effective application of existing nature protection rules. The reforms also include the preparation of a strategy to guide the economy's digital transition, the launch of new calls to enhance the cooperation between academic researchers and private companies, and the improvement of the accessibility and quality of the education system, including pre-primary schools. The payment request covers important investments to create new Digital Innovation Hubs and to ensure the greening of the national police force vehicle fleet, by providing them with electric and hybrid vehicles.Slovakia's overall plan will be financed by €6.4 billion in grants. Payments under the RRF are performanc...

Bicyclist hospitalized in Riverside County hit-and-run; suspect at large 

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:26 GMT

Authorities are searching for a hit-and-run driver who struck a bicyclist and left him hospitalized in Riverside County.With a long road to recovery ahead, Alvaro Cortez, 53, considers himself incredibly lucky to have survived the crash.“Nobody stopped,” Alvaro recalled. “They just did the damage and kept on going.” At around 6 a.m. Wednesday morning, Alvaro was riding his bike to the Corona train station on his way to work.As he arrived near River Road just before Bluff Street in Norco, a driver crashed into him from behind. They never pulled over and kept on driving away.Alvaro was knocked unconscious and left on the side of the road. His bike was shattered into pieces.“There was an officer that was off duty on the way to work and he’s the one that stopped and found me and called it in,” Alvaro said of his rescuer.Alvaro Cortez, 53, was hospitalized after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in Riverside County. (KTLA)Alvaro Cortez’s bike after he was struck by a hit-and-run drive...