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St. Louis City, County lift COVID-19 emergency declarations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

ST. LOUIS - More than three years after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, St. Louis City and St. Louis County are lifting COVID-19 state of emergency declarations. Emergency declarations have been lifted as of 9 a.m. Friday. According to a joint news release, the dropped declarations come after guidance from the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, the St. Louis Department of Health and the region’s hospital systems. Top Story: Fenton clerk recounts terrifying gunpoint robbery and assault In St. Louis City and County, the daily number of COVID-19 cases has dropped dramatically. Officials say hospitals are no longer feeling the stress of COVID cases and are better equipped to treat the virus than previously in the pandemic. Health officials say a COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots still remain the best form of protection against the virus.

St. Louis praised among 'most beautiful and affordable' US cities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

ST. LOUIS - Some may admire the Gateway to the West for its scenery. Others may admire it for its cost-of-living. Then there's a select few who might claim it has the best of both worlds. Travel + Leisure magazine recently released a list of the "10 Most Beautiful and Affordable Places to Live in the U.S.," praising St. Louis as the sixth-best destination. To rank cities, Travel + Leisure used information from the U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 to 2023 rankings for cities deemed the "most affordable place to live in the U.S." and "best places to live in the U.S." Trending: Cardinals selling $9 tickets in one-day flash sale Friday The goal of the report was to find cities that have an inexpensive cost-of-living standard, but also a strong quality of life based on its opportunities. Travel + Leisure offers this review of St. Louis:"This mid-sized Midwestern city stretches along the banks of the Mississippi River and is famous for its landmark Gateway Arch National Pa...

Denver seeking artists to decorate jail — including artists who’ve been incarcerated themselves

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

Denver is looking for artists to decorate a jail visitation room for its latest public-art commission, but the unique project demands more than the usual gallery painter or sculptor.The city’s selection panel wants artists who are “comfortable working with Denver County Jail staff and incarcerated residents,” according to the request for qualification, “especially artists who have worked or taught inside jails or prisons in the past or were formerly incarcerated themselves.”But the artwork is just part of a bigger effort by city officials to create a more pleasant, humane environment at the Northwest Denver facility. The jail is the only one in Colorado, and one of only a few in the U.S., moving back to face-to-face visits after 18 years of on-site video conferencing.“When you have only a digital connection through video visitation, it’s not the same as being able to hold your child or hug your loved one,” said Denver Sheriff Elias Dig...

On career-night, Nuggets’ Bruce Brown gets two Phoenix keepsakes to savor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

PHOENIX – Kevin Durant’s black Suns jersey was folded up neatly inside the visiting locker room, bound inside a translucent plastic wrap.On the numbers was Durant’s signature, a piece of memorabilia to be cherished by a former teammate. After hanging a career-high 31 points and nearly springing an upset win over Phoenix, the Nuggets’ Bruce Brown couldn’t hide his excitement at his new keepsake.“We beat Texas,” Brown beamed.“We” was Miami, which knocked off Durant’s Longhorns in the Elite Eight two weekends ago. On Thursday, Durant had a bet to settle with his former Nets teammate.But Brown had another memento to take with him onto Utah ahead of Denver’s final road game of the season on Saturday. He managed to get Chris Paul’s jersey, too.“So when I was younger, CP, (Rajon) Rondo and (Russell) Westbrook was like my guys growing up, so I made an emphasis to definitely get CP at some point,” he told The Denver Post.Brown played well enough to warrant the future Hall of Famer̵...

3 new 'Star Wars' movies coming, including Rey's return

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

For “Star Wars” lovers, new entertainment is a little less far, far away — Lucasfilm announced three new live-action films in the franchise Friday.The news, which includes the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey in one of the films, was revealed at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 in London by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and also on the Star Wars website. Directing the movies will be James Mangold, Dave Filoni and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Kennedy brought the directors onstage for the announcement.Mangold’s film will return to the dawn of the Jedi. Filoni’s will be about the New Republic, and “will close out the interconnected stories told in ‘The Mandalorian,' ‘The Book of Boba Fett,’ ‘Ahsoka,’ and other Disney+ series,” the announcement said. Obaid-Chinoy’s movie will focus on the events after “The Rise of Skywalker,” and feature Ridley back as Rey “as she builds a new Jedi Order.”Mangold directed “Logan” and the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Filoni helmed “Th...

Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams Muse the Art of Showing Up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

Kelly Reichardt has carved out a heroic corner for herself, as a quiet warrior-queen of true American indie cinema, in film after film, from Old Joy (2006) to First Cow (2019), making the stone-cold case for hold-your-horses present-ness, vexed interiority, and stories the size of a real week of your life. With her new film Showing Up, she’s finally made a movie about herself, as a working artist– except it’s not about filmmaking, it’s not an ego trip, and it’s not at all heroic. It is as much a miniature as any one of the three stories in her film Certain Women (2016), but it expands in your head afterwards, like an encounter you had with private people you’re still trying to fully understand.Michelle Williams, whose temperamental gravity and troubled glare Reichardt has capitalized on in three previous films, stars as Lizzy, a tightly-wound thirtysomething loner who defines herself as a sculptor, but whose life seems to be in a frustrated holding pattern, largely out of her contro...

Time should be up on Harry and Meghan’s coronation decision

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

The big, will-they-or-won’t-they question that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been dangling over — their decision on whether to attend King Charles III’s coronation — should be reaching its expiration date.That’s if the Duke of Sussex’s lawyers were telling the truth in a court filing for one of his multiple, ongoing lawsuits. Harry’s lawyers complained about a request from the British Home Office that he give 28 days notice for any visit to the U.K., so that his security needs can be properly assessed, The Telegraph reported last month.TBritain’s King Charles III and Britain’s Camilla, Queen Consort look at members of the Bearer Party transferring the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard, form the State Gun Carriage of the Royal Navy into the State Hearse at Wellington Arch in London on September 19, 2022, after the State Funeral Service of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. (Photo by ISABEL INFANTES/...

Defendant in 2020 Hayward gun store burglary avoids federal prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — A Bay Area man avoided federal prison after pleading guilty to playing a role in the May 2020 burglary of a Hayward gun store where more than two dozen firearms were stolen, court records show.Tyronza Hampton Jr., 27, was sentenced to time served — which comes out to roughly a week spent in jail between his July 2020 arrest and release on bond at his first court appearance — in the May 31, 2020 burglary of Richardson Tactical. Hampton was sentenced Feb. 27 by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar.Hampton was indicted in 2020, along with fellow Oakland residents Dashawn Taylor, Anthony Craft Jr., and a fourth person whose charges were swiftly dismissed. Taylor, like Hampton, was sentenced to no additional jail or prison time. Craft, by contrast, received 30 months behind bars.According to prosecutors, there were nine burglars in total, but police only made four arrests. Twenty-seven guns were stolen from the store. The burglary happened on a night of mass de...

California city looks to sell naming rights to local buildings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

The Inland Empire 66ers play ball at San Manuel Stadium. An indoor arena in Anaheim is named the Honda Center. And Los Angeles’ Staples Center recently became the Crypto.com Arena.Naming-rights deals allow companies to pay to put their name on a building, event or piece of property.Now, Riverside is exploring the idea of selling naming and advertising rights to city “assets” to bring in revenue. “Assets” include various kinds of city property, from buildings to benches.It isn’t clear yet which — if any — buildings could be renamed or where advertising could appear. A preliminary list from 2020 included a number of buildings, including the Riverside Convention Center, the Food Lab, the Fox Performing Arts Center and the downtown Main Library, as well as many smaller assets.The Main Library in downtown Riverside is on a 2020 preliminary list of possible buildings for which the naming rights could be sold or advertising placed. (File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/S...

Venture Capitalist Lisa Lambert of National Grid on ‘toughing it out,’ disrupting energy grid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:32 GMT

Lisa Lambert has come a long way from her childhood in Toledo, Ohio, raised by a single mother in subsidized housing.At age 55 – after a two-decade career at Intel and a stint in cleantech investing with the Westly Group –  she is a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist with the lofty ambition of transforming global energy. As founder and president of National Grid Partners, the venture capital arm of the London-based National Grid utility that also provides energy to customers in New York and Massachusetts, she has already directed investments of $350 million into 40 startups that are designed to address climate change and increasing demand, including from a surge in electric vehicles.She has also dedicated herself to supporting other women and minorities in business. Not only did she lead Intel’s Diversity Fund, but she founded a nonprofit network of women executives called Upward, which now boasts 30,000 members in 20 chapters.Next on her list of goals? Run a multi-bi...