Tag: jsnd

16 SWAT officers hospitalized after blast at training facility in Southern California

[ad_1]

An explosion during an indoor training exercise Wednesday sent 16 members of Southern California’s Orange County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team to the hospital, with one person requiring surgery for a leg injury, the department said.Two others had superficial wounds while the remaining 13 had dizziness and ringing in their ears.The blast occurred shortly before 1 p.m. at the facility in a remote area of Irvine, said sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, but it happened during a training with the sheriff’s bomb squad, he said.The most severe injury was a non-life-threatening leg wound that will require surgery, Gonzalez said. The two other wounded deputies won’t require surgery, he said.Helicopter news footage showed a small one-story building encircled by yellow police tape surrounded by grassy fields.No FBI personnel were injured, said bureau spokesperson Laura Eimiller.The FBI Special Agent Jerry Crowe Regional Tactical Training Facility south of Los Angeles hosts firearms training and qualifications tests for the bureau and local law enforcement agencies, Eimiller said.The FBI will lead the investigation, Gonzalez said.

IRVINE, Calif. —

An explosion during an indoor training exercise Wednesday sent 16 members of Southern California’s Orange County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team to the hospital, with one person requiring surgery for a leg injury, the department said.

Two others had superficial wounds while the remaining 13 had dizziness and ringing in their ears.

The blast occurred shortly before 1 p.m. at the facility in a remote area of Irvine, said sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, but it happened during a training with the sheriff’s bomb squad, he said.

The most severe injury was a non-life-threatening leg wound that will require surgery, Gonzalez said. The two other wounded deputies won’t require surgery, he said.

Helicopter news footage showed a small one-story building encircled by yellow police tape surrounded by grassy fields.

No FBI personnel were injured, said bureau spokesperson Laura Eimiller.

The FBI Special Agent Jerry Crowe Regional Tactical Training Facility south of Los Angeles hosts firearms training and qualifications tests for the bureau and local law enforcement agencies, Eimiller said.

The FBI will lead the investigation, Gonzalez said.

[ad_2]

Source link

March 14, 2024
Plane veered off flight path after both pilots fell asleep, Indonesian authorities say

[ad_1]

Indonesia’s transport ministry will launch an investigation after two Batik Air pilots fell asleep during a recent flight, according to state news agency Antara, citing the ministry’s civil aviation director-general M Kristi Endah Murni.According to a preliminary report released Saturday by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), both the pilot and co-pilot fell asleep simultaneously for 28 minutes during a flight from Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi province to the capital Jakarta on Jan. 25, causing navigational errors as “the aircraft was not in the correct flight path.”None on board — including 153 passengers and four flight attendants — were injured during the flight, and there was no damage to the aircraft, the KNKT preliminary report said.In the video player above: A look at air travel safety concerns in some other countries The flight, BTK6723, lasted two hours and 35 minutes, and successfully landed in Jakarta, according to Antara and the preliminary report.CNN has reached out to Batik Air.According to the report, the second-in-command pilot had notified his co-pilot earlier in the day that he had not had “proper rest.”In the flight before the incident, the second-in-command was able to sleep “for about 30 minutes.” After the aircraft departed Kendari and reached cruising altitude, the pilot-in-command asked for permission to also rest and the second-in-command took over the aircraft. Around 90 minutes into the flight, the second-in-command then “inadvertently fell asleep,” according to the report.Twelve minutes after the last recorded transmission by the co-pilot, the Jakarta area control center (ACC) tried to reach the aircraft, but there was no reply from the pilots, it said. Around 28 minutes after the last recorded transmission, the pilot-in-command woke up and realized the plane was not in the correct flight path. At that point, he woke up the second-in-command and responded to the ACC, it said.The preliminary report detailed that the pilot-in-command told the ACC that the flight had experienced a “radio communication problem” that had been resolved.The report did not reveal the names of the pilots, but identified the pilot-in-command as a 32-year-old Indonesian male and the second-in-command as a 28-year-old Indonesian male. The second-in-command had one-month-old twins and “had to wake up several times to help his wife take care of the babies,” the report said.”We will conduct an investigation and review of the night flight operation in Indonesia regarding the Fatigue Risk Management for Batik Air and other flight operators,” Murni said in a statement, according to Antara.Flight crews of BTK6723 have also been grounded according to standard operating procedure pending further investigation, she added, according to the news agency.She also said the agency will dispatch a flight inspector authorized on Resolution of Safety Issue (RSI) to investigate the cause of the incident and recommend mitigation measures to flight operators and supervisors, Antara reported.

Indonesia’s transport ministry will launch an investigation after two Batik Air pilots fell asleep during a recent flight, according to state news agency Antara, citing the ministry’s civil aviation director-general M Kristi Endah Murni.

According to a preliminary report released Saturday by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), both the pilot and co-pilot fell asleep simultaneously for 28 minutes during a flight from Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi province to the capital Jakarta on Jan. 25, causing navigational errors as “the aircraft was not in the correct flight path.”

None on board — including 153 passengers and four flight attendants — were injured during the flight, and there was no damage to the aircraft, the KNKT preliminary report said.

In the video player above: A look at air travel safety concerns in some other countries

The flight, BTK6723, lasted two hours and 35 minutes, and successfully landed in Jakarta, according to Antara and the preliminary report.

CNN has reached out to Batik Air.

According to the report, the second-in-command pilot had notified his co-pilot earlier in the day that he had not had “proper rest.”

In the flight before the incident, the second-in-command was able to sleep “for about 30 minutes.” After the aircraft departed Kendari and reached cruising altitude, the pilot-in-command asked for permission to also rest and the second-in-command took over the aircraft. Around 90 minutes into the flight, the second-in-command then “inadvertently fell asleep,” according to the report.

Twelve minutes after the last recorded transmission by the co-pilot, the Jakarta area control center (ACC) tried to reach the aircraft, but there was no reply from the pilots, it said. Around 28 minutes after the last recorded transmission, the pilot-in-command woke up and realized the plane was not in the correct flight path. At that point, he woke up the second-in-command and responded to the ACC, it said.

The preliminary report detailed that the pilot-in-command told the ACC that the flight had experienced a “radio communication problem” that had been resolved.

The report did not reveal the names of the pilots, but identified the pilot-in-command as a 32-year-old Indonesian male and the second-in-command as a 28-year-old Indonesian male. The second-in-command had one-month-old twins and “had to wake up several times to help his wife take care of the babies,” the report said.

“We will conduct an investigation and review of the night flight operation in Indonesia regarding the Fatigue Risk Management for Batik Air and other flight operators,” Murni said in a statement, according to Antara.

Flight crews of BTK6723 have also been grounded according to standard operating procedure pending further investigation, she added, according to the news agency.

She also said the agency will dispatch a flight inspector authorized on Resolution of Safety Issue (RSI) to investigate the cause of the incident and recommend mitigation measures to flight operators and supervisors, Antara reported.

[ad_2]

Source link

March 11, 2024
Texas approves land-swapping deal with SpaceX as company hopes to expand rocket-launch operations

[ad_1]

SpaceX would acquire public land in Texas to expand its rocket-launch facilities under a tentative deal that is moving forward after months of opposition from nearby residents and officials near the U.S.-Mexico border.A tentative land-swapping deal moved forward this week when the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously voted in favor of the deal to swap 43 noncontiguous acres from Boca Chica State Park with SpaceX, which would then give the state 477 acres about 10 miles south of the park near Brownsville, Texas.Related video above: SpaceX, founded in Delaware, has filed to relocate its business incorporation to Texas, according to reportsSome of the 43 contested acres are landlocked with no public access but with protected plant and animal species. Although SpaceX is proposing swapping the public land for 477 acres, it has not yet purchased that property. None of the land in the deal has beach access, but the 43 acres sit near protected federal land and lagoons that stretch along the coast.”Through this transaction we are guaranteeing the conservation of 477 acres, which would otherwise potentially be developed into condominiums or strip centers,” Jeffery D. Hildebrand, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission chairman appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, said at the meeting’s close.The deal started in 2019 as a conversation between the state and SpaceX. But it was finally worked out in 2023, said David Yoskowitz, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s executive director. People sent over 2,300 letters to the department to voice their opinion. Although the majority, 60%, were opposed, the department recommended the state vote in favor of the deal, which had the support from the Democratic state senator for the area, the comptroller and the Texas General Land Office commissioner.Dozens of people traveled up to the Monday’s meeting in the state capital of Austin to voice their support or discontent with the plan. Cyrus Reed, the legislative and conservation director with the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, was among those opposing the deal.”We think, as an alternative, if we think the 477 acres are valuable, go and buy it. We the voters of Texas have given you money to purchase valuable land,” Reed said, referring to the state’s Centennial Parks Conservation Fund. In November, voters approved the establishment of the fund, creating the largest endowment for park development in Texas history. “And remember the precedent you’re setting,” Reed said. “If you approve this deal, that means every industrialist, everyone who has an interest in expanding is going to look at this and say, ‘Where can I go find some land that I can exchange to continue to pollute and hurt other land?’ So, that’s not a net benefit for Texas.”SpaceX Starbase general manager Kathryn Lueders attended the meeting and said she has seen wildlife coexist with spacecraft in Florida when she worked as a program manager for NASA.”At the same time, it further expands on a critical refuge and allows Texans to receive a coveted property which has been sought by multiple state and federal agencies for conservation efforts for over a decade,” she said. An environmental assessment, public comment period and other consultations could mean the disposition of the property could take up to 18 months to complete, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s general counsel.

MCALLEN, TX —

SpaceX would acquire public land in Texas to expand its rocket-launch facilities under a tentative deal that is moving forward after months of opposition from nearby residents and officials near the U.S.-Mexico border.

A tentative land-swapping deal moved forward this week when the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously voted in favor of the deal to swap 43 noncontiguous acres from Boca Chica State Park with SpaceX, which would then give the state 477 acres about 10 miles south of the park near Brownsville, Texas.

Related video above: SpaceX, founded in Delaware, has filed to relocate its business incorporation to Texas, according to reports

Some of the 43 contested acres are landlocked with no public access but with protected plant and animal species. Although SpaceX is proposing swapping the public land for 477 acres, it has not yet purchased that property. None of the land in the deal has beach access, but the 43 acres sit near protected federal land and lagoons that stretch along the coast.

“Through this transaction we are guaranteeing the conservation of 477 acres, which would otherwise potentially be developed into condominiums or strip centers,” Jeffery D. Hildebrand, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission chairman appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, said at the meeting’s close.

The deal started in 2019 as a conversation between the state and SpaceX. But it was finally worked out in 2023, said David Yoskowitz, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s executive director.

People sent over 2,300 letters to the department to voice their opinion. Although the majority, 60%, were opposed, the department recommended the state vote in favor of the deal, which had the support from the Democratic state senator for the area, the comptroller and the Texas General Land Office commissioner.

Dozens of people traveled up to the Monday’s meeting in the state capital of Austin to voice their support or discontent with the plan.

Cyrus Reed, the legislative and conservation director with the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, was among those opposing the deal.

“We think, as an alternative, if we think the 477 acres are valuable, go and buy it. We the voters of Texas have given you money to purchase valuable land,” Reed said, referring to the state’s Centennial Parks Conservation Fund.

In November, voters approved the establishment of the fund, creating the largest endowment for park development in Texas history.

“And remember the precedent you’re setting,” Reed said. “If you approve this deal, that means every industrialist, everyone who has an interest in expanding is going to look at this and say, ‘Where can I go find some land that I can exchange to continue to pollute and hurt other land?’ So, that’s not a net benefit for Texas.”

SpaceX Starbase general manager Kathryn Lueders attended the meeting and said she has seen wildlife coexist with spacecraft in Florida when she worked as a program manager for NASA.

“At the same time, it further expands on a critical refuge and allows Texans to receive a coveted property which has been sought by multiple state and federal agencies for conservation efforts for over a decade,” she said.

An environmental assessment, public comment period and other consultations could mean the disposition of the property could take up to 18 months to complete, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s general counsel.

[ad_2]

Source link

March 6, 2024
Iceland’s Blue Lagoon evacuated ahead of ‘imminent’ volcanic eruption

[ad_1]

Iceland has evacuated its world-famous Blue Lagoon due to nearby seismic activity that suggests an “imminent” volcanic eruption, the country’s public broadcaster RÚV reported Saturday.Magma has begun flowing after “intense seismic activity” in the area around the lagoon, a popular geothermal spa known for its milky-blue, comforting warm waters, according to RÚV.The depth of the magma, around 2.5 miles, means an eruption could take place within hours, volcanologist Thorvaldur Thordarson told RÚV.Related video above: Canadian photographer Paul Zizka shares the ‘surreal’ images he took of the volcanic eruption in Grindavik, Iceland, on Feb. 8.The nearby town of Grindavík is also being evacuated, according to RÚV. Police said the evacuation was “going well” and there had been only a few people in the town in recent days, the public broadcaster added.In a statement on its website Saturday, Blue Lagoon said it had initiated an evacuation of its premises due to “increased seismic activity in a known area, a few kilometers away.”Operations would be closed at least until the end of Sunday, when the situation would be reassessed, it said.”We will continue to closely follow the guidelines and recommendations of the authorities, working collaboratively with them to monitor the progression of events,” the statement added.Located just under an hour’s drive from Iceland’s capital and largest city Reykjavik, the Blue Lagoon is one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.The site is part of southwest Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula – a thick finger of land pointing west into the North Atlantic Ocean from Reykjavik. As well as the Blue Lagoon, the peninsula is home to Iceland’s main airport, Keflavik International.Iceland is one of the most active volcanic areas on the planet. Rather than having a central volcano, the Reykjanes Peninsula is dominated by a rift valley, with lava fields and cones.In November, the Blue Lagoon was closed for a week after 1,400 earthquakes were measured in 24 hours.

Iceland has evacuated its world-famous Blue Lagoon due to nearby seismic activity that suggests an “imminent” volcanic eruption, the country’s public broadcaster RÚV reported Saturday.

Magma has begun flowing after “intense seismic activity” in the area around the lagoon, a popular geothermal spa known for its milky-blue, comforting warm waters, according to RÚV.

The depth of the magma, around 2.5 miles, means an eruption could take place within hours, volcanologist Thorvaldur Thordarson told RÚV.

Related video above: Canadian photographer Paul Zizka shares the ‘surreal’ images he took of the volcanic eruption in Grindavik, Iceland, on Feb. 8.

The nearby town of Grindavík is also being evacuated, according to RÚV. Police said the evacuation was “going well” and there had been only a few people in the town in recent days, the public broadcaster added.

In a statement on its website Saturday, Blue Lagoon said it had initiated an evacuation of its premises due to “increased seismic activity in a known area, a few kilometers away.”

Operations would be closed at least until the end of Sunday, when the situation would be reassessed, it said.

“We will continue to closely follow the guidelines and recommendations of the authorities, working collaboratively with them to monitor the progression of events,” the statement added.

Located just under an hour’s drive from Iceland’s capital and largest city Reykjavik, the Blue Lagoon is one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.

The site is part of southwest Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula – a thick finger of land pointing west into the North Atlantic Ocean from Reykjavik. As well as the Blue Lagoon, the peninsula is home to Iceland’s main airport, Keflavik International.

Marco Di Marco
People look at the volcano erupting, north of Grindavík, Iceland, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. Iceland’s Meteorological Office says a volcano is erupting in the southwestern part of the country, north of a nearby settlement. The eruption of the Sylingarfell volcano began at 6 a.m. local time on Thursday, soon after an intense burst of seismic activity. (AP Photo/Marco Di Marco)

Iceland is one of the most active volcanic areas on the planet. Rather than having a central volcano, the Reykjanes Peninsula is dominated by a rift valley, with lava fields and cones.

In November, the Blue Lagoon was closed for a week after 1,400 earthquakes were measured in 24 hours.

[ad_2]

Source link

March 2, 2024
A New Jersey city that limited street parking hasn’t had a traffic death in 7 years

[ad_1]

Street parking was already scarce in Hoboken, New Jersey, when the death of an elderly pedestrian spurred city leaders to remove even more spaces in a bid to end traffic fatalities.For seven years now, the city of nearly 60,000 people has reported resounding success: Not a single automobile occupant, bicyclist or pedestrian has died in a traffic crash since January 2017, elevating Hoboken as a national model for roadway safety.Mayor Ravi Bhalla was a City Council member in 2015 when a van struck 89-year-old Agnes Accera as she crossed Washington Street in the bustling downtown business district. Bhalla didn’t know Accera but attended her wake and said her death inspired him to push for better safety.“I felt it wasn’t acceptable,” Bhalla said. “Our seniors, who we owe the greatest duty of safety to, should be able to pass that street as safely as possible. For her to actually be killed was a trigger that we needed to take action.”In the video player above: New report shows traffic fatalities down 16% in NYC, but only in wealthier neighborhoodsBhalla became mayor in 2018 and the city fully committed to Vision Zero: a set of guidelines adopted by numerous cities, states and nations seeking to eliminate traffic deaths. Proponents believe no accident is truly unavoidable and even want to do away with the word “accident” altogether when describing roadway fatalities.Sweden originated the concept more than a quarter-century ago, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg touted Hoboken in 2022 when announcing his department would follow Vision Zero guidelines. Major U.S. cities including New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Baltimore and Portland, Oregon, have integrated aspects of the program into their safety plans, including at least some form of daylighting, the term for the removal of parking spaces near intersections to improve visibility.Hoboken’s success has chipped away at the notion that reaching zero traffic deaths is more aspirational than achievable.“That goal is obviously bold,” said Leah Shahum, founder and director of the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit advocating for street safety. “It’s also meant to help us kind of shake off the complacency that we’ve had for too long that traffic deaths are inevitable, that what we’re experiencing today is just an unfortunate and unavailable byproduct of modern society. That’s not the case.”While Hoboken’s plan has numerous components, including lower speed limits and staggered traffic lights, daylighting is often credited as one of the biggest reasons its fatalities have dropped to zero.Ryan Sharp, the city’s transportation director, said when roads need to be repaved, Hoboken takes the additional step of cordoning off the street corners to widen curbs and shorten crosswalks. It’s already illegal to park at an intersection in Hoboken, but drivers often do anyway if there aren’t physical barriers.Some of the new concrete structures are equipped with bike racks, benches and even rain garden planters that help absorb stormwater runoff. If there isn’t enough money for an infrastructure solution right away, the city puts up temporary bollards.“There really isn’t a silver bullet or any magic, innovative thing where we’ve cracked a code,” Sharp said. “Our approach has been more about focusing on the fundamentals. We’ve created a program where we’re layering these things in year after year.”But removing parking from a place where it’s in short supply has critics. Joe Picolli, who opened Hoboken Barber Shop on Washington Street in 2018, said the curb extensions — or bumpouts — have made it difficult for downtown merchants to win back business lost during the pandemic.“Before the bumpouts, there were a lot more buses, a lot more cars, a lot more parking,” said Picolli, who lives in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and sometimes has to trail street sweepers to find parking. “It’s good as far as people walking on the street, but it’s bad because you’re not getting the flow from other towns.”Although a bit larger than its Mile Square City nickname would imply, Hoboken ranks fourth nationwide in population density, trailing three other New Jersey cities and two spots ahead of New York, according to 2022 census data.While the compact footprint means everyone is within range of public transit, cars still crowd the major streets and curbsides.“We’re not New York City, but we’re not a suburb, either,” said Tammy Peng, who has lived in Hoboken for more than 15 years. “We’re kind of a weird in between. A lot of families keep a car because they want to run errands on the weekend, but Monday to Friday they’re commuting into the city.”While daylighting slightly lengthens her trips to soccer practice or the grocery store, Peng said it’s much easier to spot pedestrians crossing the street.Overall fatality numbers have remained largely unchanged since New York joined the Vision Zero movement in 2014 with a plan that included widening some curbs. Mayor Eric Adams boosted the city’s commitment in November by promising to daylight 1,000 intersections each year.Some cities have even used the practice to beautify their downtowns. Baltimore hired artists to liven up curb extensions with geometric shapes and vibrant colors.States are embracing daylighting as well. More than 40 had enacted some sort of daylighting law when California’s Legislature approved a new statewide rule in 2023 that prohibits parking within 20 feet (6 meters) of an intersection. Cities can set shorter distances with proof their plans are safe. Violators started receiving warnings in January and face fines beginning early next year.Assemblymember Alex Lee, who authored California’s legislation, said he was troubled by the fact that his state’s traffic fatalities were even higher than the national average, with around 1,100 pedestrians killed in both 2021 and 2022. Deaths were recorded at a similar pace through the first six months of 2023.Although cities in the nation’s most populous state range from behemoth metropolises to sparsely populated rural communities, Lee figured a statewide standard would eliminate any confusion. The only thing better, he contends, would be a national standard.“Just as I assume in every state you can’t park in front of a fire hydrant or can’t park close to the train track, it should be the same whether you’re in California or Nebraska,” Lee said. Stefanie Seskin, director of policy and practice at the National Association of City Transportation Officials, said signs are fine, but not nearly as effective as infrastructure changes.“It certainly takes a next level of chutzpah for a driver to park on a curb extension than it does to park where a sign says ‘please don’t,’” Seskin said.Jeff Speck, author of the book “Walkable City,” which makes the case for pedestrian-friendly downtowns, commends cities like Hoboken for improving visibility at intersections. However, he said some communities go too far by taking away too many parking spaces without adding physical barriers, creating broad “sight triangles” leading to increased speeding.“What a number of cities have done is overreacted to the laudable goal of daylighting and placed oversized no-parking zones around every driveway and curb cut,” Speck said. “That’s counterproductive.”In 2012, Seattle was one of the first major U.S. cities to pursue zero traffic deaths. Mike McGinn, the mayor at the time, said he wanted to recalibrate the public’s expectation of road safety to make it more akin to their thoughts on airplane safety, where no fatality is considered acceptable.Why, he asks, should downtown areas where people work, shop, or attend entertainment events have to settle for a lower standard?“This is literally the easiest real estate that should be given over to safety,” said McGinn, now executive director of the pedestrian advocacy group America Walks. “It’s low-hanging fruit.”

Street parking was already scarce in Hoboken, New Jersey, when the death of an elderly pedestrian spurred city leaders to remove even more spaces in a bid to end traffic fatalities.

For seven years now, the city of nearly 60,000 people has reported resounding success: Not a single automobile occupant, bicyclist or pedestrian has died in a traffic crash since January 2017, elevating Hoboken as a national model for roadway safety.

Mayor Ravi Bhalla was a City Council member in 2015 when a van struck 89-year-old Agnes Accera as she crossed Washington Street in the bustling downtown business district. Bhalla didn’t know Accera but attended her wake and said her death inspired him to push for better safety.

“I felt it wasn’t acceptable,” Bhalla said. “Our seniors, who we owe the greatest duty of safety to, should be able to pass that street as safely as possible. For her to actually be killed was a trigger that we needed to take action.”

In the video player above: New report shows traffic fatalities down 16% in NYC, but only in wealthier neighborhoods

Bhalla became mayor in 2018 and the city fully committed to Vision Zero: a set of guidelines adopted by numerous cities, states and nations seeking to eliminate traffic deaths. Proponents believe no accident is truly unavoidable and even want to do away with the word “accident” altogether when describing roadway fatalities.

Sweden originated the concept more than a quarter-century ago, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg touted Hoboken in 2022 when announcing his department would follow Vision Zero guidelines. Major U.S. cities including New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Baltimore and Portland, Oregon, have integrated aspects of the program into their safety plans, including at least some form of daylighting, the term for the removal of parking spaces near intersections to improve visibility.

Hoboken’s success has chipped away at the notion that reaching zero traffic deaths is more aspirational than achievable.

“That goal is obviously bold,” said Leah Shahum, founder and director of the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit advocating for street safety. “It’s also meant to help us kind of shake off the complacency that we’ve had for too long that traffic deaths are inevitable, that what we’re experiencing today is just an unfortunate and unavailable byproduct of modern society. That’s not the case.”

While Hoboken’s plan has numerous components, including lower speed limits and staggered traffic lights, daylighting is often credited as one of the biggest reasons its fatalities have dropped to zero.

Ryan Sharp, the city’s transportation director, said when roads need to be repaved, Hoboken takes the additional step of cordoning off the street corners to widen curbs and shorten crosswalks. It’s already illegal to park at an intersection in Hoboken, but drivers often do anyway if there aren’t physical barriers.

Seth Wenig
A car takes a corner at the intersection of Adams and 12th in Hoboken, N.J., Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. This intersection has a number of pedestrian safety features, including planters as curb extenders, high visibility markings and textured surfaces, all in an effort to increase pedestrian safety. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Some of the new concrete structures are equipped with bike racks, benches and even rain garden planters that help absorb stormwater runoff. If there isn’t enough money for an infrastructure solution right away, the city puts up temporary bollards.

“There really isn’t a silver bullet or any magic, innovative thing where we’ve cracked a code,” Sharp said. “Our approach has been more about focusing on the fundamentals. We’ve created a program where we’re layering these things in year after year.”

But removing parking from a place where it’s in short supply has critics.

Joe Picolli, who opened Hoboken Barber Shop on Washington Street in 2018, said the curb extensions — or bumpouts — have made it difficult for downtown merchants to win back business lost during the pandemic.

“Before the bumpouts, there were a lot more buses, a lot more cars, a lot more parking,” said Picolli, who lives in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and sometimes has to trail street sweepers to find parking. “It’s good as far as people walking on the street, but it’s bad because you’re not getting the flow from other towns.”

Although a bit larger than its Mile Square City nickname would imply, Hoboken ranks fourth nationwide in population density, trailing three other New Jersey cities and two spots ahead of New York, according to 2022 census data.

While the compact footprint means everyone is within range of public transit, cars still crowd the major streets and curbsides.

“We’re not New York City, but we’re not a suburb, either,” said Tammy Peng, who has lived in Hoboken for more than 15 years. “We’re kind of a weird in between. A lot of families keep a car because they want to run errands on the weekend, but Monday to Friday they’re commuting into the city.”

While daylighting slightly lengthens her trips to soccer practice or the grocery store, Peng said it’s much easier to spot pedestrians crossing the street.

Overall fatality numbers have remained largely unchanged since New York joined the Vision Zero movement in 2014 with a plan that included widening some curbs. Mayor Eric Adams boosted the city’s commitment in November by promising to daylight 1,000 intersections each year.

Some cities have even used the practice to beautify their downtowns. Baltimore hired artists to liven up curb extensions with geometric shapes and vibrant colors.

States are embracing daylighting as well. More than 40 had enacted some sort of daylighting law when California’s Legislature approved a new statewide rule in 2023 that prohibits parking within 20 feet (6 meters) of an intersection. Cities can set shorter distances with proof their plans are safe. Violators started receiving warnings in January and face fines beginning early next year.

Assemblymember Alex Lee, who authored California’s legislation, said he was troubled by the fact that his state’s traffic fatalities were even higher than the national average, with around 1,100 pedestrians killed in both 2021 and 2022. Deaths were recorded at a similar pace through the first six months of 2023.

Although cities in the nation’s most populous state range from behemoth metropolises to sparsely populated rural communities, Lee figured a statewide standard would eliminate any confusion. The only thing better, he contends, would be a national standard.

“Just as I assume in every state you can’t park in front of a fire hydrant or can’t park close to the train track, it should be the same whether you’re in California or Nebraska,” Lee said.

Stefanie Seskin, director of policy and practice at the National Association of City Transportation Officials, said signs are fine, but not nearly as effective as infrastructure changes.

“It certainly takes a next level of chutzpah for a driver to park on a curb extension than it does to park where a sign says ‘please don’t,’” Seskin said.

Jeff Speck, author of the book “Walkable City,” which makes the case for pedestrian-friendly downtowns, commends cities like Hoboken for improving visibility at intersections. However, he said some communities go too far by taking away too many parking spaces without adding physical barriers, creating broad “sight triangles” leading to increased speeding.

“What a number of cities have done is overreacted to the laudable goal of daylighting and placed oversized no-parking zones around every driveway and curb cut,” Speck said. “That’s counterproductive.”

In 2012, Seattle was one of the first major U.S. cities to pursue zero traffic deaths. Mike McGinn, the mayor at the time, said he wanted to recalibrate the public’s expectation of road safety to make it more akin to their thoughts on airplane safety, where no fatality is considered acceptable.

Why, he asks, should downtown areas where people work, shop, or attend entertainment events have to settle for a lower standard?

“This is literally the easiest real estate that should be given over to safety,” said McGinn, now executive director of the pedestrian advocacy group America Walks. “It’s low-hanging fruit.”

[ad_2]

Source link

March 2, 2024
Idaho halts execution by lethal injection after 8 failed attempts to insert IV line

[ad_1]

Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech on Wednesday after medical team members repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection.Creech, 73, has been in prison half a century, convicted of five murders in three states and suspected of several more. He was already serving a life term when he beat a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, to death in 1981 — the crime for which he was to be executed.Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., was wheeled into the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution on a gurney at 10 a.m.Three medical team members tried eight times to establish an IV, Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt told a news conference afterward. In some cases, they couldn’t access the vein, and in others they could but had concerns about vein quality. They attempted sites in his arms, legs, hands and feet. At one point, a medical team member left to gather more supplies.The warden announced he was halting the execution at 10:58 a.m.The corrections department said its death warrant for Creech would expire, and that it was considering next steps. While other medical procedures might allow for the execution, the state is mindful of the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, Tewalt said.Creech’s attorneys immediately filed a new motion for a stay in U.S. District Court, saying “the badly botched execution attempt” proves the department’s “inability to carry out a humane and constitutional execution.” The court granted the stay after Idaho confirmed it would not try again to execute him before the death warrant expired; the state will have to obtain another warrant if it wants to carry out the execution.“This is what happens when unknown individuals with unknown training are assigned to carry out an execution,” the Federal Defender Services of Idaho said in a written statement. “This is precisely the kind of mishap we warned the State and the Courts could happen when attempting to execute one of the country’s oldest death-row inmates.”Six Idaho officials, including Attorney General Raul Labrador, and four news media representatives, including an Associated Press reporter, were on hand to witness the attempt — which was to be Idaho’s first execution in 12 years.The execution team was made up entirely of volunteers, the corrections department said. Those tasked with inserting the IVs and administering the lethal drug had medical training, but their identities were kept secret. They wore white balaclava-style face coverings and navy scrub caps to conceal their faces.With each attempt to insert an IV, the medical team cleaned the skin with alcohol, injected a numbing solution, cleaned the skin again and then attempted to place the IV catheter. Each attempt took several minutes, with medical team members palpating the skin and trying to position the needles.Creech frequently looked toward his family members and representatives, who were sitting in a separate witness room. His arms were strapped to the table, but he often extended his fingers toward them.He appeared to mouth “I love you” to someone in the room on occasion.After the execution was halted, the warden approached Creech and whispered to him for several minutes, giving his arm a squeeze.A few hours afterward, Labrador released a statement saying that “justice had been delayed again.”“Our duty is to seek justice for the many victims and their families who experienced the brutality and senselessness of his actions,” the attorney general wrote.Creech’s attorneys filed a flurry of late appeals hoping to forestall his execution. They included claims that his clemency hearing was unfair, that it was unconstitutional to kill him because he was sentenced by a judge rather than a jury — and that the state had not provided enough information about how it obtained the lethal drug, pentobarbital, or how it was to be administered.But the courts found no grounds for leniency. Creech’s last chance — a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court — was denied a few hours before the scheduled execution Wednesday.On Tuesday night, Creech spent time with his wife and ate a last meal including fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and ice cream.A group of about 15 protesters gathered outside the prison Wednesday, at one point singing “Amazing Grace.”An Ohio native, Creech has spent most of his life behind bars in Idaho. He was acquitted of a killing in Tucson, Arizona, in 1973 — authorities nevertheless believe he did it, as he used the victim’s credit card to travel to Oregon. He was later convicted of a 1974 killing in Oregon and one in California, where he traveled after earning a weekend pass from a psychiatric hospital.Later that year, Creech was arrested in Idaho after killing John Wayne Bradford and Edward Thomas Arnold, two house painters who had picked him and his girlfriend up while they were hitchhiking.He was serving a life sentence for those murders in 1981 when he beat Jensen to death. Jensen was disabled and serving time for car theft.Jensen’s family members described him during Creech’s clemency hearing last month as a gentle soul who loved hunting and being outdoors. Jensen’s daughter was 4 years old when he died, and she spoke about how painful it was to grow up without a father.Creech’s supporters say he is a deeply changed man. Several years ago he married the mother of a correctional officer, and former prison staffers said he was known for writing poetry and expressing gratitude for their work.During his clemency hearing, Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jill Longhorst did not dispute that Creech can be charming. But she said he is nevertheless a psychopath — lacking remorse and empathy.Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed a law authorizing execution by firing squad when lethal injection is not available. Prison officials have not yet written a standard operating policy for the use of firing squad, nor have they constructed a facility where a firing squad execution could occur. Both would have to happen before the state could attempt to use the new law, which would likely trigger several legal challenges.Other states have also had trouble carrying out lethal injections.Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months to conduct an internal review after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in November 2022 — the third time since 2018 Alabama had been unable to conduct executions due to problems with IV lines.Smith in January became the first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas. He shook and convulsed for several minutes on the death chamber gurney during the execution. Idaho does not allow execution by nitrogen hypoxia.In 2014, Oklahoma officials tried to halt a lethal injection when the prisoner, Clayton Lockett, began writhing after being declared unconscious. He died after 43 minutes; a review found his IV line came loose.

(Video: KBOI, IDOC – IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, CNN via CNN Newsource) —

Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech on Wednesday after medical team members repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection.

Creech, 73, has been in prison half a century, convicted of five murders in three states and suspected of several more. He was already serving a life term when he beat a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, to death in 1981 — the crime for which he was to be executed.

Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., was wheeled into the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution on a gurney at 10 a.m.

Three medical team members tried eight times to establish an IV, Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt told a news conference afterward. In some cases, they couldn’t access the vein, and in others they could but had concerns about vein quality. They attempted sites in his arms, legs, hands and feet. At one point, a medical team member left to gather more supplies.

The warden announced he was halting the execution at 10:58 a.m.

The corrections department said its death warrant for Creech would expire, and that it was considering next steps. While other medical procedures might allow for the execution, the state is mindful of the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, Tewalt said.

Idaho Department of Correction via AP
FILE – This image provided by the Idaho Department of Correction shows Thomas Eugene Creech on Jan. 9, 2009. Idaho on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., after a medical team repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection. (Idaho Department of Correction via AP, File)

Creech’s attorneys immediately filed a new motion for a stay in U.S. District Court, saying “the badly botched execution attempt” proves the department’s “inability to carry out a humane and constitutional execution.” The court granted the stay after Idaho confirmed it would not try again to execute him before the death warrant expired; the state will have to obtain another warrant if it wants to carry out the execution.

“This is what happens when unknown individuals with unknown training are assigned to carry out an execution,” the Federal Defender Services of Idaho said in a written statement. “This is precisely the kind of mishap we warned the State and the Courts could happen when attempting to execute one of the country’s oldest death-row inmates.”

Six Idaho officials, including Attorney General Raul Labrador, and four news media representatives, including an Associated Press reporter, were on hand to witness the attempt — which was to be Idaho’s first execution in 12 years.

The execution team was made up entirely of volunteers, the corrections department said. Those tasked with inserting the IVs and administering the lethal drug had medical training, but their identities were kept secret. They wore white balaclava-style face coverings and navy scrub caps to conceal their faces.

With each attempt to insert an IV, the medical team cleaned the skin with alcohol, injected a numbing solution, cleaned the skin again and then attempted to place the IV catheter. Each attempt took several minutes, with medical team members palpating the skin and trying to position the needles.

Creech frequently looked toward his family members and representatives, who were sitting in a separate witness room. His arms were strapped to the table, but he often extended his fingers toward them.

He appeared to mouth “I love you” to someone in the room on occasion.

After the execution was halted, the warden approached Creech and whispered to him for several minutes, giving his arm a squeeze.

A few hours afterward, Labrador released a statement saying that “justice had been delayed again.”

“Our duty is to seek justice for the many victims and their families who experienced the brutality and senselessness of his actions,” the attorney general wrote.

Creech’s attorneys filed a flurry of late appeals hoping to forestall his execution. They included claims that his clemency hearing was unfair, that it was unconstitutional to kill him because he was sentenced by a judge rather than a jury — and that the state had not provided enough information about how it obtained the lethal drug, pentobarbital, or how it was to be administered.

But the courts found no grounds for leniency. Creech’s last chance — a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court — was denied a few hours before the scheduled execution Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, Creech spent time with his wife and ate a last meal including fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and ice cream.

A group of about 15 protesters gathered outside the prison Wednesday, at one point singing “Amazing Grace.”

An Ohio native, Creech has spent most of his life behind bars in Idaho. He was acquitted of a killing in Tucson, Arizona, in 1973 — authorities nevertheless believe he did it, as he used the victim’s credit card to travel to Oregon. He was later convicted of a 1974 killing in Oregon and one in California, where he traveled after earning a weekend pass from a psychiatric hospital.

Later that year, Creech was arrested in Idaho after killing John Wayne Bradford and Edward Thomas Arnold, two house painters who had picked him and his girlfriend up while they were hitchhiking.

He was serving a life sentence for those murders in 1981 when he beat Jensen to death. Jensen was disabled and serving time for car theft.

Jensen’s family members described him during Creech’s clemency hearing last month as a gentle soul who loved hunting and being outdoors. Jensen’s daughter was 4 years old when he died, and she spoke about how painful it was to grow up without a father.

Creech’s supporters say he is a deeply changed man. Several years ago he married the mother of a correctional officer, and former prison staffers said he was known for writing poetry and expressing gratitude for their work.

During his clemency hearing, Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jill Longhorst did not dispute that Creech can be charming. But she said he is nevertheless a psychopath — lacking remorse and empathy.

Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed a law authorizing execution by firing squad when lethal injection is not available. Prison officials have not yet written a standard operating policy for the use of firing squad, nor have they constructed a facility where a firing squad execution could occur. Both would have to happen before the state could attempt to use the new law, which would likely trigger several legal challenges.

Other states have also had trouble carrying out lethal injections.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months to conduct an internal review after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in November 2022 — the third time since 2018 Alabama had been unable to conduct executions due to problems with IV lines.

Smith in January became the first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas. He shook and convulsed for several minutes on the death chamber gurney during the execution. Idaho does not allow execution by nitrogen hypoxia.

In 2014, Oklahoma officials tried to halt a lethal injection when the prisoner, Clayton Lockett, began writhing after being declared unconscious. He died after 43 minutes; a review found his IV line came loose.

[ad_2]

Source link

February 28, 2024
Puppy spotted along interstate on-ramp in Boston quickly finds new home

[ad_1]

A young puppy that was recently found along an on-ramp heading toward Interstate 93 in Boston, Massachusetts, did not take long to find a new place to call home.Mike DeFina, media relations manager for the Animal Rescue League of Boston, said Sunday that the 10-week-old Chihuahua named Sparkle was first spotted about a week and a half ago.DeFina said a person who lives at the Pine Street Inn saw Sparkle wandering the Neponset Circle area for a couple of days before they spotted the dog wandering up an on-ramp for the part of I-93. The road is known as the Southeast Expressway.Given that Sparkle weighs just 3 pounds and is an all-black dog, it would have been very hard for drivers to spot her on the highway. The good Samaritan was able to scoop her up and brought her back to the Pine Street Inn, where the staff then took her to the ARL’s Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center.”With Sparkle, I think it’s always a wonderful thing to see people stopping what they’re doing and have the consideration and the compassion when they see an animal in need to take action and do something about it,” DeFina said. “That’s why Sparkle is here today. I think if she would have found her way onto the Expressway, the outcome for her probably would not have been good. So we really, really want to thank both the resident of Pine Street Inn and their staff for taking her off the street and bringing her to us.”DeFina said the ARL does not know exactly how Sparkle ended up near the highway or how long she had been living on the streets, but they believe she was likely abandoned.Sparkle was a bit frightened when she was brought to the ARL facility, had a bit of an abnormal gait, and was on a seven-day stray weight, but she was determined to be in good overall health for her age, according to DeFina.DeFina said the ARL then contacted Boston Animal Control and other outlets that deal with lost animals, but no one stepped up to claim Sparkle as their dog. After doing the due diligence, the ARL put Sparkle up for adoption on Sunday — and that’s where Joe and Tesla Chafins come in.Joe Chafins works for the Pine Street Inn, which is a nonprofit organization that provides services for people experiencing homelessness. One of Joe’s co-workers and friends had told him and his wife about how Sparkle was found by one of the center’s residents and that the dog would need a new home.”My birthday was Friday and we were just kind of celebrating my birthday and she started telling my wife and I the story, showing us some photos she had of her,” Chafins said. “We just heard the story and we’re like: ‘We’ve got to go meet her.’ So we’ve been trying to call since and they said she was here today, so we’re here to meet her and take her home.”The couple already has three cats, including one that they adopted from the ARL of Boston seven years ago, as well as a few lizards.”Our friends kind of make fun of us because we are huge animal lovers,” Tesla Chafins said.”We have a little bit of everything. We’ve got a zoo at home,” Joe Chafins said. “This will be our first dog, though, but we’re excited to take her and to give her the best life that we can possibly give her.”So thanks to the Pine Street Inn, ARL of Boston and Chafins family, Sparkle now has a new forever home. Meet Sparkle and her family in the video player above.

BOSTON —

A young puppy that was recently found along an on-ramp heading toward Interstate 93 in Boston, Massachusetts, did not take long to find a new place to call home.

Mike DeFina, media relations manager for the Animal Rescue League of Boston, said Sunday that the 10-week-old Chihuahua named Sparkle was first spotted about a week and a half ago.

DeFina said a person who lives at the Pine Street Inn saw Sparkle wandering the Neponset Circle area for a couple of days before they spotted the dog wandering up an on-ramp for the part of I-93. The road is known as the Southeast Expressway.

Given that Sparkle weighs just 3 pounds and is an all-black dog, it would have been very hard for drivers to spot her on the highway. The good Samaritan was able to scoop her up and brought her back to the Pine Street Inn, where the staff then took her to the ARL’s Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center.

“With Sparkle, I think it’s always a wonderful thing to see people stopping what they’re doing and have the consideration and the compassion when they see an animal in need to take action and do something about it,” DeFina said. “That’s why Sparkle is here today. I think if she would have found her way onto the Expressway, the outcome for her probably would not have been good. So we really, really want to thank both the resident of Pine Street Inn and their staff for taking her off the street and bringing her to us.”

DeFina said the ARL does not know exactly how Sparkle ended up near the highway or how long she had been living on the streets, but they believe she was likely abandoned.

Sparkle was a bit frightened when she was brought to the ARL facility, had a bit of an abnormal gait, and was on a seven-day stray weight, but she was determined to be in good overall health for her age, according to DeFina.

DeFina said the ARL then contacted Boston Animal Control and other outlets that deal with lost animals, but no one stepped up to claim Sparkle as their dog. After doing the due diligence, the ARL put Sparkle up for adoption on Sunday — and that’s where Joe and Tesla Chafins come in.

Joe Chafins works for the Pine Street Inn, which is a nonprofit organization that provides services for people experiencing homelessness. One of Joe’s co-workers and friends had told him and his wife about how Sparkle was found by one of the center’s residents and that the dog would need a new home.

“My birthday was Friday and we were just kind of celebrating my birthday and she started telling my wife and I the story, showing us some photos she had of her,” Chafins said. “We just heard the story and we’re like: ‘We’ve got to go meet her.’ So we’ve been trying to call since and they said she was here today, so we’re here to meet her and take her home.”

Hearst Owned
Tesla and Joe Chafins, of Brighton, Massachusetts, adopted Sparkle, a 10-week-old Chihuahua, on Feb. 25, 2024, the same day the Animal Rescue League of Boston had put her up for adoption.

The couple already has three cats, including one that they adopted from the ARL of Boston seven years ago, as well as a few lizards.

“Our friends kind of make fun of us because we are huge animal lovers,” Tesla Chafins said.

“We have a little bit of everything. We’ve got a zoo at home,” Joe Chafins said. “This will be our first dog, though, but we’re excited to take her and to give her the best life that we can possibly give her.”

So thanks to the Pine Street Inn, ARL of Boston and Chafins family, Sparkle now has a new forever home.

Meet Sparkle and her family in the video player above.

[ad_2]

Source link

February 26, 2024
What would happen without a Leap Day? More than you might think

[ad_1]

Leap year. It’s a delight for the calendar and math nerds among us. So how did it all begin and why?Have a look at some of the numbers, history and lore behind the (not quite) every four year phenom that adds a 29th day to February.BY THE NUMBERSThe math is mind-boggling in a layperson sort of way and down to fractions of days and minutes. There’s even a leap second occasionally, but there’s no hullabaloo when that happens.The thing to know is that leap year exists, in large part, to keep the months in sync with annual events, including equinoxes and solstices, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.It’s a correction to counter the fact that Earth’s orbit isn’t precisely 365 days a year. The trip takes about six hours longer than that, NASA says.Contrary to what some might believe, however, not every four years is a leaper. Adding a leap day every four years would make the calendar longer by more than 44 minutes, according to the National Air & Space Museum. Later, on a calendar yet to come (we’ll get to it), it was decreed that years divisible by 100 not follow the four-year leap day rule unless they are also divisible by 400, the JPL notes. In the past 500 years, there was no leap day in 1700, 1800 and 1900, but 2000 had one. In the next 500 years, if the practice is followed, there will be no leap day in 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500.Still with us?The next leap years are 2028, 2032 and 2036. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WITHOUT A LEAP DAY?Eventually, nothing good in terms of when major events fall, when farmers plant and how seasons align with the sun and the moon.”Without the leap years, after a few hundred years we will have summer in November,” said Younas Khan, a physics instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Christmas will be in summer. There will be no snow. There will be no feeling of Christmas.”WHO CAME UP WITH LEAP YEAR?The short answer: It evolved.Ancient civilizations used the cosmos to plan their lives, and there are calendars dating back to the Bronze Age. They were based on either the phases of the moon or the sun, as various calendars are today. Usually they were “lunisolar,” using both.Now hop on over to the Roman Empire and Julius Caesar. He was dealing with major seasonal drift on calendars used in his neck of the woods. They dealt badly with drift by adding months. He was also navigating a vast array of calendars starting in a vast array of ways in the vast Roman Empire.He introduced his Julian calendar in 46 BCE. It was purely solar and counted a year at 365.25 days, so once every four years an extra day was added. Before that, the Romans counted a year at 355 days, at least for a time. But still, under Julius, there was drift. There were too many leap years! The solar year isn’t precisely 365.25 days! It’s 365.242 days, said Nick Eakes, an astronomy educator at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Thomas Palaima, a classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said adding periods of time to a year to reflect variations in the lunar and solar cycles was done by the ancients. The Athenian calendar, he said, was used in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries with 12 lunar months. That didn’t work for seasonal religious rites. The drift problem led to “intercalating” an extra month periodically to realign with lunar and solar cycles, Palaima said.The Julian calendar was 0.0078 days (11 minutes and 14 seconds) longer than the tropical year, so errors in timekeeping still gradually accumulated, according to NASA. But stability increased, Palaima said. The Julian calendar was the model used by the Western world for hundreds of years. Enter Pope Gregory XIII, who calibrated further. His Gregorian calendar took effect in the late 16th century. It remains in use today and, clearly, isn’t perfect or there would be no need for leap year. But it was a big improvement, reducing drift to mere seconds.Why did he step in? Well, Easter. It was coming later in the year over time, and he fretted that events related to Easter like the Pentecost might bump up against pagan festivals. The pope wanted Easter to remain in the spring.He eliminated some extra days accumulated on the Julian calendar and tweaked the rules on leap day. It’s Pope Gregory and his advisers who came up with the really gnarly math on when there should or shouldn’t be a leap year.”If the solar year was a perfect 365.25 then we wouldn’t have to worry about the tricky math involved,” Eakes said. WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH LEAP YEAR AND MARRIAGE?Bizarrely, leap day comes with lore about women popping the marriage question to men. It was mostly benign fun, but it came with a bite that reinforced gender roles.There’s distant European folklore. One story places the idea of women proposing in fifth century Ireland, with St. Bridget appealing to St. Patrick to offer women the chance to ask men to marry them, according to historian Katherine Parkin in a 2012 paper in the Journal of Family History. Nobody really knows where it all began.In 1904, syndicated columnist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, aka Dorothy Dix, summed up the tradition this way: “Of course people will say … that a woman’s leap year prerogative, like most of her liberties, is merely a glittering mockery.”The pre-Sadie Hawkins tradition, however serious or tongue-in-cheek, could have empowered women but merely perpetuated stereotypes. The proposals were to happen via postcard, but many such cards turned the tables and poked fun at women instead.Advertising perpetuated the leap year marriage game. A 1916 ad by the American Industrial Bank and Trust Co. read thusly: “This being Leap Year day, we suggest to every girl that she propose to her father to open a savings account in her name in our own bank.”There was no breath of independence for women due to leap day.SHOULD WE PITY THE LEAPLINGS?Being born in a leap year on a leap day certainly is a talking point. But it can be kind of a pain from a paperwork perspective. Some governments and others requiring forms to be filled out and birthdays to be stated stepped in to declare what date was used by leaplings for such things as drivers licenses, whether Feb. 28 or March 1.Technology has made it far easier for leap babies to jot down their Feb. 29 milestones, though there can be glitches in terms of health systems, insurance policies and with other businesses and organization that don’t have that date built in.There are about 5 million people worldwide who share the leap birthday out of about 8 billion people on the planet. Shelley Dean, 23, in Seattle, Washington, chooses a rosy attitude about being a leapling. Growing up, she had normal birthday parties each year, but an extra special one when leap years rolled around. Since, as an adult, she marks that non-leap period between Feb. 28 and March 1 with a low-key “whew.” This year is different. “It will be the first birthday that I’m going to celebrate with my family in eight years, which is super exciting, because the last leap day I was on the other side of the country in New York for college,” she said. “It’s a very big year.”

NEW YORK —

Leap year. It’s a delight for the calendar and math nerds among us. So how did it all begin and why?

Have a look at some of the numbers, history and lore behind the (not quite) every four year phenom that adds a 29th day to February.

BY THE NUMBERS

The math is mind-boggling in a layperson sort of way and down to fractions of days and minutes. There’s even a leap second occasionally, but there’s no hullabaloo when that happens.

The thing to know is that leap year exists, in large part, to keep the months in sync with annual events, including equinoxes and solstices, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

It’s a correction to counter the fact that Earth’s orbit isn’t precisely 365 days a year. The trip takes about six hours longer than that, NASA says.

Contrary to what some might believe, however, not every four years is a leaper. Adding a leap day every four years would make the calendar longer by more than 44 minutes, according to the National Air & Space Museum.

Later, on a calendar yet to come (we’ll get to it), it was decreed that years divisible by 100 not follow the four-year leap day rule unless they are also divisible by 400, the JPL notes. In the past 500 years, there was no leap day in 1700, 1800 and 1900, but 2000 had one. In the next 500 years, if the practice is followed, there will be no leap day in 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500.

Still with us?

The next leap years are 2028, 2032 and 2036.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WITHOUT A LEAP DAY?

Eventually, nothing good in terms of when major events fall, when farmers plant and how seasons align with the sun and the moon.

“Without the leap years, after a few hundred years we will have summer in November,” said Younas Khan, a physics instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Christmas will be in summer. There will be no snow. There will be no feeling of Christmas.”

WHO CAME UP WITH LEAP YEAR?

The short answer: It evolved.

Ancient civilizations used the cosmos to plan their lives, and there are calendars dating back to the Bronze Age. They were based on either the phases of the moon or the sun, as various calendars are today. Usually they were “lunisolar,” using both.

Now hop on over to the Roman Empire and Julius Caesar. He was dealing with major seasonal drift on calendars used in his neck of the woods. They dealt badly with drift by adding months. He was also navigating a vast array of calendars starting in a vast array of ways in the vast Roman Empire.

He introduced his Julian calendar in 46 BCE. It was purely solar and counted a year at 365.25 days, so once every four years an extra day was added. Before that, the Romans counted a year at 355 days, at least for a time.

But still, under Julius, there was drift. There were too many leap years! The solar year isn’t precisely 365.25 days! It’s 365.242 days, said Nick Eakes, an astronomy educator at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Thomas Palaima, a classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said adding periods of time to a year to reflect variations in the lunar and solar cycles was done by the ancients. The Athenian calendar, he said, was used in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries with 12 lunar months.

That didn’t work for seasonal religious rites. The drift problem led to “intercalating” an extra month periodically to realign with lunar and solar cycles, Palaima said.

The Julian calendar was 0.0078 days (11 minutes and 14 seconds) longer than the tropical year, so errors in timekeeping still gradually accumulated, according to NASA. But stability increased, Palaima said.

The Julian calendar was the model used by the Western world for hundreds of years. Enter Pope Gregory XIII, who calibrated further. His Gregorian calendar took effect in the late 16th century. It remains in use today and, clearly, isn’t perfect or there would be no need for leap year. But it was a big improvement, reducing drift to mere seconds.

Why did he step in? Well, Easter. It was coming later in the year over time, and he fretted that events related to Easter like the Pentecost might bump up against pagan festivals. The pope wanted Easter to remain in the spring.

He eliminated some extra days accumulated on the Julian calendar and tweaked the rules on leap day. It’s Pope Gregory and his advisers who came up with the really gnarly math on when there should or shouldn’t be a leap year.

“If the solar year was a perfect 365.25 then we wouldn’t have to worry about the tricky math involved,” Eakes said.

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH LEAP YEAR AND MARRIAGE?

Bizarrely, leap day comes with lore about women popping the marriage question to men. It was mostly benign fun, but it came with a bite that reinforced gender roles.

There’s distant European folklore. One story places the idea of women proposing in fifth century Ireland, with St. Bridget appealing to St. Patrick to offer women the chance to ask men to marry them, according to historian Katherine Parkin in a 2012 paper in the Journal of Family History.

Nobody really knows where it all began.

In 1904, syndicated columnist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, aka Dorothy Dix, summed up the tradition this way: “Of course people will say … that a woman’s leap year prerogative, like most of her liberties, is merely a glittering mockery.”

The pre-Sadie Hawkins tradition, however serious or tongue-in-cheek, could have empowered women but merely perpetuated stereotypes. The proposals were to happen via postcard, but many such cards turned the tables and poked fun at women instead.

Advertising perpetuated the leap year marriage game. A 1916 ad by the American Industrial Bank and Trust Co. read thusly: “This being Leap Year day, we suggest to every girl that she propose to her father to open a savings account in her name in our own bank.”

There was no breath of independence for women due to leap day.

SHOULD WE PITY THE LEAPLINGS?

Being born in a leap year on a leap day certainly is a talking point. But it can be kind of a pain from a paperwork perspective. Some governments and others requiring forms to be filled out and birthdays to be stated stepped in to declare what date was used by leaplings for such things as drivers licenses, whether Feb. 28 or March 1.

Technology has made it far easier for leap babies to jot down their Feb. 29 milestones, though there can be glitches in terms of health systems, insurance policies and with other businesses and organization that don’t have that date built in.

There are about 5 million people worldwide who share the leap birthday out of about 8 billion people on the planet. Shelley Dean, 23, in Seattle, Washington, chooses a rosy attitude about being a leapling. Growing up, she had normal birthday parties each year, but an extra special one when leap years rolled around. Since, as an adult, she marks that non-leap period between Feb. 28 and March 1 with a low-key “whew.”

This year is different.

“It will be the first birthday that I’m going to celebrate with my family in eight years, which is super exciting, because the last leap day I was on the other side of the country in New York for college,” she said. “It’s a very big year.”

[ad_2]

Source link

February 25, 2024
At 79, Rod Stewart shows no signs of slowing down, with a new swing album with Jools Holland

[ad_1]

Sir Rod Stewart will not be slowed.At 79, he continues full-throttle with a busy year. Highlights in 2024 include his 200th show at his Las Vegas residency, an ongoing world tour and a new swing album.”Swing Fever” is a collaboration with Jools Holland and the talk show host-musician’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra and tackles some timeless tunes from the Big Band era, like “Pennies From Heaven,” “Lullaby of Broadway” and “Sentimental Journey.”No stranger to the American songbook, Stewart had one request for Holland: “I’m not going to do any slow songs,” Stewart said. “I want all upbeat happy song, which we need in these grim times that we live in.”Related video above: Sir Rod Stewart sells music rights for almost $100 millionStewart expressed gratitude singing songs crafted at a time when a songwriter was a specific job, before bands wrote their own.Holland, who began his career with the 1980s band, Squeeze, joked on how the paradigm shifted.”I think the Beatles were to blame. I think everybody thought they could write songs after that. So bands always kept doing it,” Holland said.Stewart, who has written his share of hits, was happy to concentrate on crooning.Stewart was recently in New York, and before heading off to a downtown pub to watch his beloved Celtic soccer team take on rivals Hibernian, he took some time to chat with The Associated Press about making music, maintaining his health and whether there’s retirement in his future.Q: What was the appeal of going back to these tunes?STEWART: They make you tap your feet. They make you smile. Both of us (Holland) were brought up on this music. I did “The Great American Songbook,” so for me this was a natural progression. And one thing I said to Jools was, I’m not going to do any slow songs, I want all upbeat, happy (claps his hands) which we need in these grim times that we live in.Q: What was it like doing this record?STEWART: I love the whole process of doing live shows. I love recording. I loved when we put this album together. It was such a joy. We didn’t have any arguments or fights or anything like that. It was pure pleasure and I think that comes across when you listen to it. The whole thing was recorded live in Jools’ studio, which is not a big studio. We had 18 people crammed in there, so all the solos were played live.Q: Was it freeing to perform songs from an era where songwriters were a separate entity?STEWART: I’ve always found songwriting a bit of an agony, really. It’s like going back to school. In fact, when I was in the Faces, they used to lock me in a hotel room with a bottle of wine and say, “You’re not coming out ’till it’s finished.” Because I was notorious. I wanted to go out and enjoy myself alone. I didn’t want to sit in a room and write lyrics and it’s always been a bit of like pulling teeth for me. The joy of this album, obviously, is I didn’t write any of the songs, I had a burning ambition to sing them and I picked the right guy.Q: Over the years, you’ve garnered a large female audience, when did you realize that was happening?STEWART: Probably right after “Maggie May,” I think. No, with the Faces, without a doubt because it was a good-looking-band, the Faces. I didn’t think any of us were good looking, quite honestly. I still don’t. But we did have some magical appeal to women. It was great fun. You should have been there. (Laughs)Q: Did your health scare a few years back change anything?STEWART: It’s all part of getting older. My thoughts at the moment are with our king who’s got some sort of cancer. But I’ve made a promise to myself since I was really young. I’ve always played soccer, and I still do. I play with my kids as well. I keep myself really fit. I work out a bit. I’m mad about nutrition, watching my weight and everything. So I do work at it, and I think that helps a lot. And do your due diligence. You know, men are notorious for not wanting to go to the doctors. You should.Q: That sounds pragmatic. Do you have any worries about staying healthy?STEWART: I’m not obsessed by it. I mean, none of us want to pass on. You do think about that as you get older, but not in a morbid way. I’m not frightened of dying, but I’m just enjoying myself so much. I feel absolutely privileged to be doing what I’m doing.Q: There was talk a few years ago about a country record. Any truth to that?STEWART: I plan on doing it. We actually started it. We started making a country album. And I went off and made another solo album, but yeah, it’s in the pipeline. The record company would like me to do it. They don’t push me to do it. You know, there will come a time.Q: What is it about that music?STEWART: Once again. it’s what I grew up with. You know, not so much country music, but folk music. You know, the likes of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan. Of course, I loved all that stuff. That’s all. That’s why I learned how to play guitar, because I wanted to sing the songs.Q: Is there an end in sight, do you see a point where you would retire?STEWART: Not really. I suppose, I mean it wouldn’t be for me to judge, but I imagine if people stop buying tickets for concerts and don’t buy records anymore maybe that’s a sign. I don’t know. The word retirement is not in my vocabulary at the moment because I’m enjoying myself.

NEW YORK —

Sir Rod Stewart will not be slowed.

At 79, he continues full-throttle with a busy year. Highlights in 2024 include his 200th show at his Las Vegas residency, an ongoing world tour and a new swing album.

“Swing Fever” is a collaboration with Jools Holland and the talk show host-musician’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra and tackles some timeless tunes from the Big Band era, like “Pennies From Heaven,” “Lullaby of Broadway” and “Sentimental Journey.”

No stranger to the American songbook, Stewart had one request for Holland: “I’m not going to do any slow songs,” Stewart said. “I want all upbeat happy song, which we need in these grim times that we live in.”

Related video above: Sir Rod Stewart sells music rights for almost $100 million

Stewart expressed gratitude singing songs crafted at a time when a songwriter was a specific job, before bands wrote their own.

Holland, who began his career with the 1980s band, Squeeze, joked on how the paradigm shifted.

“I think the Beatles were to blame. I think everybody thought they could write songs after that. So bands always kept doing it,” Holland said.

Stewart, who has written his share of hits, was happy to concentrate on crooning.

Stewart was recently in New York, and before heading off to a downtown pub to watch his beloved Celtic soccer team take on rivals Hibernian, he took some time to chat with The Associated Press about making music, maintaining his health and whether there’s retirement in his future.

Q: What was the appeal of going back to these tunes?

STEWART: They make you tap your feet. They make you smile. Both of us (Holland) were brought up on this music. I did “The Great American Songbook,” so for me this was a natural progression. And one thing I said to Jools was, I’m not going to do any slow songs, I want all upbeat, happy (claps his hands) which we need in these grim times that we live in.

Q: What was it like doing this record?

STEWART: I love the whole process of doing live shows. I love recording. I loved when we put this album together. It was such a joy. We didn’t have any arguments or fights or anything like that. It was pure pleasure and I think that comes across when you listen to it. The whole thing was recorded live in Jools’ studio, which is not a big studio. We had 18 people crammed in there, so all the solos were played live.

Q: Was it freeing to perform songs from an era where songwriters were a separate entity?

STEWART: I’ve always found songwriting a bit of an agony, really. It’s like going back to school. In fact, when I was in the Faces, they used to lock me in a hotel room with a bottle of wine and say, “You’re not coming out ’till it’s finished.” Because I was notorious. I wanted to go out and enjoy myself alone. I didn’t want to sit in a room and write lyrics and it’s always been a bit of like pulling teeth for me. The joy of this album, obviously, is I didn’t write any of the songs, I had a burning ambition to sing them and I picked the right guy.

Q: Over the years, you’ve garnered a large female audience, when did you realize that was happening?

STEWART: Probably right after “Maggie May,” I think. No, with the Faces, without a doubt because it was a good-looking-band, the Faces. I didn’t think any of us were good looking, quite honestly. I still don’t. But we did have some magical appeal to women. It was great fun. You should have been there. (Laughs)

Q: Did your health scare a few years back change anything?

STEWART: It’s all part of getting older. My thoughts at the moment are with our king who’s got some sort of cancer. But I’ve made a promise to myself since I was really young. I’ve always played soccer, and I still do. I play with my kids as well. I keep myself really fit. I work out a bit. I’m mad about nutrition, watching my weight and everything. So I do work at it, and I think that helps a lot. And do your due diligence. You know, men are notorious for not wanting to go to the doctors. You should.

Q: That sounds pragmatic. Do you have any worries about staying healthy?

STEWART: I’m not obsessed by it. I mean, none of us want to pass on. You do think about that as you get older, but not in a morbid way. I’m not frightened of dying, but I’m just enjoying myself so much. I feel absolutely privileged to be doing what I’m doing.

Q: There was talk a few years ago about a country record. Any truth to that?

STEWART: I plan on doing it. We actually started it. We started making a country album. And I went off and made another solo album, but yeah, it’s in the pipeline. The record company would like me to do it. They don’t push me to do it. You know, there will come a time.

Q: What is it about that music?

STEWART: Once again. it’s what I grew up with. You know, not so much country music, but folk music. You know, the likes of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan. Of course, I loved all that stuff. That’s all. That’s why I learned how to play guitar, because I wanted to sing the songs.

Q: Is there an end in sight, do you see a point where you would retire?

STEWART: Not really. I suppose, I mean it wouldn’t be for me to judge, but I imagine if people stop buying tickets for concerts and don’t buy records anymore maybe that’s a sign. I don’t know. The word retirement is not in my vocabulary at the moment because I’m enjoying myself.

[ad_2]

Source link

February 24, 2024
‘Our sweetest little Valentine’: Calf with heart-shaped spot born at Oklahoma farm, named Cupid

[ad_1]

‘Our sweetest little Valentine’: Calf with heart-shaped spot born at Oklahoma farm, named Cupid

Updated: 1:20 AM EST Feb 14, 2024

If you head out to Oklahoma’s Pottawatomie County, you’ll be able to find an adorable calf whose heart-shaped spot formed just in time for Valentine’s Day. Shortly after Christmas, a cow gave birth to a calf at Merchen Farms in Wanette, which is around 57 miles outside of Oklahoma City.The calf was born with a dot marking on its head. Last week, the farm’s owners noticed that the dot started taking the shape of a heart. “God is so fun. Can you see it?? He’s our sweetest little Valentine,” Merchen Farms said in a social media post.Merchen Farms told sister station KOCO that one of its Facebook followers had the privilege of naming the adorable calf Cupid just in time for Valentine’s Day. See Cupid in the video player above.

WANETTE, Okla. —

If you head out to Oklahoma’s Pottawatomie County, you’ll be able to find an adorable calf whose heart-shaped spot formed just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Shortly after Christmas, a cow gave birth to a calf at Merchen Farms in Wanette, which is around 57 miles outside of Oklahoma City.

The calf was born with a dot marking on its head.

Last week, the farm’s owners noticed that the dot started taking the shape of a heart.

“God is so fun. Can you see it?? He’s our sweetest little Valentine,” Merchen Farms said in a social media post.

Merchen Farms told sister station KOCO that one of its Facebook followers had the privilege of naming the adorable calf Cupid just in time for Valentine’s Day.

See Cupid in the video player above.

[ad_2]

Source link

February 13, 2024
Live updates and big moments from the Super Bowl | McKinnon, Moore active for Chiefs, but Toney sits

[ad_1]

Live updates from the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ET. The eyes of the nation are on Las Vegas as the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the San Francisco 49ers.Take a look at some big moments, excitement and headlines being made as the teams gear up to play.McKinnon, Moore active for Chiefs, but Toney sitsRunning back Jerick McKinnon and wide receiver Skyy Moore were active for the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time in nearly two months for their Super Bowl showdown with the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.McKinnon and Moore, who both played a crucial role in the Chiefs’ win over the Eagles in the Super Bowl last year, have not played since Dec. 17 in New England. McKinnon had surgery for a core injury in early January and was considered questionable to play against the 49ers, while Moore spent a stint on injured reserve with a lingering knee injury.Wide receiver Kadarius Toney, who also had a TD against the Eagles, was not active on Sunday.Taylor Swift greeted at Super Bowl by Roger Goodell, Jason KelceTaylor Swift’s arrival at Allegiant Stadium even drew the interest of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who visited her in a luxury suite before the game.Goodell spoke glowingly Monday about the pop star’s effect on the NFL.“Taylor is obviously a dynamo,” he said. “Everything she touches, there are people following. We count ourselves fortunate, and we welcome it.”Kelce’s brother, Jason, hugged Swift in the suite, and Swift introduced him to Ice Spice. Jason Kelce plays for the Philadelphia Eagles but has fully supported his brother during the playoffs. The two faced each other in last year’s Super Bowl.Kristin Juszczyk arrives in self-made styleKristin Juszczyk arrived at the Super Bowl in a snazzy jacket that includes her husband Kyle’s 49ers jersey and his Harvard shield. Kyle is a fullback out of Harvard who plays for San Francisco.Kristin has become a star after designing a coat worn by Taylor Swift that looked like a jersey of her boyfriend, Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce.Taylor Swift has arrivedTaylor Swift finished her epic trek from the Tokyo Dome to Allegiant Stadium for the Super Bowl on Sunday. She arrived with Blake Lively and a few others wearing a black top with black pants and a red jacket slung over her shoulder.Swift is on hand to watch Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, whom she has been dating since the first couple of weeks of the season. She performed in Japan on Saturday night before a flight across nine time zones and the international date line to reach the U.S.No mixed loyalty this year for Donna KelceThe mother of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce arrived for the game wearing a jacket with “SUPER BOWL LVIII” and “MAMA KELCE” on the back. In last season’s Super Bowl, Travis Kelce’s Chiefs defeated his brother Jason Kelce’s team, the Philadelphia Eagles.Instead of a matchup between two brothers, the Kelce family is in the spotlight this year because of Travis’ relationship with pop star Taylor Swift. Donna Kelce has appeared in a suite alongside Swift this season.49ers enter the Super Bowl as 2 ½-point favoritesThe San Francisco 49ers are 2 ½-point favorites against the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of their Super Bowl matchup, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.The 49ers are -134 favorites to win the game, while the over/under sat at 46.5 points.Despite being the underdog, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the favorite to win Super Bowl MVP at +150, followed by 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy at +210.Jason Kelce ready to root on brother Travis, ChiefsTravis Kelce played against Jason Kelce last year, when the Chiefs beat his big brothers’ Eagles in the Super Bowl in Arizona. But Jason was fully behind the Chiefs on Sunday, wearing red and yellow plaid overalls over a T-shirt that read, “Big Yeti,” his nickname for Travis.The brothers host “New Heights,” one of the hottest podcasts in the country. And once the Eagles were knocked from the playoffs, Jason began following the Chiefs. He famously took off his shirt during a celebration in Buffalo, and he watched the Chiefs win the AFC title in Baltimore.Reba arrives, set to perform national anthemReba McEntire walked into Allegiant Stadium for the Super Bowl about 3 1/2 hours before kickoff Sunday wearing a puffy, gray faux fur coat and holding hands with her partner, Rex Linn.McEntire is due to perform the national anthem before the Kansas City Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers in a rematch of the Super Bowl four years ago in Miami. She will have a lot to live up to after Chris Stapleton’s performance last year in Arizona received high praise.Video below: Usher calls halftime show performance a ‘celebratory moment’Some NFL fans pass on expensive tickets and just have ‘a good time’ in VegasSuper Bowl ticket prices remain out of reach for many fans who made travel reservations months ago to come to Las Vegas this week, so they’ll likely be watching on TV like millions of others.To buy tickets days before the game can be costly. This year they’re going for roughly $7,700 — though that is about $2,000 less than they were two weeks ago.Carl Bray, a Cincinnati fan, booked his trip to the Super Bowl two months ago and came even though the Bengals didn’t make it.“I don’t have tickets yet, but I got the hotel, flight, and I thought ‘Welp, if I lock into something, I’ll go,’” Bray said. “If not, I’ll just go to MGM or someplace and watch it.”Patrick Mahomes looks ready for business in Super Bowl arrivalChiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes paid homage to the team that calls Allegiant Stadium home when he showed up for the Super Bowl on Sunday wearing a jet-black suit and silver tie that made him look like a fan of the AFC West-rival Las Vegas Raiders.Mahomes appeared to be all business behind his black shades as he wheeled along his matching black Louis Vuitton luggage through the corridors of the stadium. He is trying to move into a tie for fourth behind Tom Brady, Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw by picking up his third Super Bowl ring.Super Bowl gates open, fans arriving in Las VegasGates to Allegiant Stadium opened just after 11 a.m. local time, unleashing a flood of fans in red. Five San Francisco 49ers fans were the first let through the gates.“Woo!” They yelled. “First ones in! We’re the first ones!”Tony and Susan Chiosso traveled to Las Vegas from the Bay Area to watch their first-ever Super Bowl and, they hope, witness their team defeat the Kansas City Chiefs.They think their luck so far this morning is a good indicator of which team will come out on top.“I’m only seeing good signs today,” Tony Chiosso said. Will Taylor Swift make it to the big game in time? Intrepid flight trackers online seem to think so.On social media, fans of Taylor Swift and aviation journalists believe they’ve identified Swift’s private jet, labeled “The Football Era.” It arrived from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to Los Angeles’ LAX airport just after 3:30 p.m. local time Saturday.Video below: Get the Facts: Misinformation on Taylor Swift, Travis KelceHer transportation plans onward to Las Vegas, where her boyfriend, NFL star tight end Travis Kelce, will play in Sunday’s Super Bowl, have yet to be revealed.Why will the Chiefs win the SuperBowl? Their vast experienceIf the Chiefs beat the 49ers for their third Super Bowl title in four trips over the past five years, it will be for one simple reason: experience.The Chiefs can lean on what they learned and endured over a dominant six-year run with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. In fact, when the Chiefs beat the 49ers in Miami for their first title during this run, San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and many others were still in college.Video below: Chiefs embracing underdog role in playoffs, against 49ers in the Super BowlThrow in the fact that Chiefs coach Andy Reid will be in his fifth Super Bowl, the third most in NFL history, and has a chance to win a third ring, and the knowledge on the Kansas City sideline will be an advantage too big for the 49ers to overcome. The 49ers had Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on the ropes four years ago in the Super Bowl before everything fell apart, leading to a 31-20 loss that still stings today.The difference when the teams meet in the rematch on Sunday? This time, the 49ers will have a quarterback in Brock Purdy who is capable of making a big play down the stretch.Video below: Super Bowl fan prediction from a 14-year-old with a history of perfect picksPurdy has gone from “Mr. Irrelevant” as the final pick in the 2022 draft to the franchise quarterback who has elevated coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense in less than two years. He led the NFL in passer rating (113) and yards per attempt (9.6), with his ability to throw deep and scramble adding new wrinkles to the offense.Purdy also has a far better group of playmakers than the one that surrounded Jimmy Garoppolo four years ago. Video below: Brock Purdy’s high school coach: ‘Teachers, security guards, custodians … all loved him’ As long as they still have each other, they’re still going to go to every Super Bowl.That’s the sentiment shared by three friends who say they are the final fans who can claim membership in the exclusive “never missed a Super Bowl” club. And they’re back again for number 58 — Super Bowl 58 — this year.The three fans, all in their 80s, are Don Crisman of Maine, Gregory Eaton of Michigan and Tom Henschel, who splits time between Florida and Pennsylvania. The three are gathering this weekend in Las Vegas for the big game, and they’re hoping they can all make it to the sixtieth edition of the game two years from now. Taylor Swift’s connections to sports go back to her early days performing the national anthemBefore Taylor Swift grew into a global superstar and the talk of this Super Bowl, she got her singing career started by performing the national anthem at sporting events as a young child and teenager.She sang the anthem before 45,900 fans at Game 3 of the 2008 World Series. The U.S. Open. NASCAR. The World Series. Yes, even the Double-A Reading Phillies.Swift was an unsigned artist who looked for any kind of break by belting out the song about the land of the free and the home of the brave in front of as many packed crowds as she could find. For Native American activists, the Kansas City Chiefs have it all wrongDozens of Indigenous activists have traveled to Las Vegas to gather outside the Super Bowl and demand the Kansas City Chiefs change their name and ditch their logo and gametime rituals.Rhonda LeValdo founded and leads a group called Not In Our Honor that is calling for the changes. The Acoma Pueblo journalist and faculty member at Haskell Indian Nations University has been in the Kansas City area for more than two decades. Everyone hopes the Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl won’t come down to an officiating callOne of the biggest fears when it comes to football’s biggest games is that a high-profile officiating mistake will play a role in the result.So the seven on-field officials will get plenty of screen time when the Kansas City Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s Super Bowl.The referee in charge of the crew in black-and-white unforms will be Bill Vinovich. He was also the referee when the Chiefs beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl four years ago — and when the Rams beat the Saints in the 2019 NFC championship game after an infamous missed call.Here’s what you can expect from Super Bowl commercials this SundayAdvertisers will be pulling out all the stops on Super Bowl Sunday — enlisting the biggest actors, investing in the most dazzling special effects and, they hope, going for laughs as they seek to win over viewers.Most companies appear to be doubling down on flights of fantasy or light humor, often with a dose of nostalgia and a lot of mini-reunions of TV characters.Big names like Jennifer Anniston, Christopher Walken, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Ice Spice, Jenna Ortega, Lionel Messi, Tom Brady, “Judge Judy” Judy Sheindlin, Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner Usher and more will appear during game breaks. And as always, there will still be some gameday surprises. The game. The ads. The music. The puppies. Here’s why millions are excited for Super Bowl SundayMillions of Americans will find something to be excited about when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday. That’s before even factoring in the influence of Taylor Swift.Four in 10 U.S. adults are extremely or very excited for at least one part of the Super Bowl day’s festivities. That could be the game, commercials, halftime show or the Puppy Bowl, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. 49ers All-Pro offensive tackle Trent Williams savors his first Super Bowl trip in his 14th seasonTrent Williams’ accomplishments are already worthy of a Hall of Fame career with 11 Pro Bowl bids, three first-team All-Pro selections and near universal recognition as the best left tackle of his generation.All that was missing for the San Francisco 49ers star was something he never envisioned would be possible as he spent the first decade of his career mired in the dysfunction and ineptitude in Washington.Williams has gotten that missing piece with his first chance to play in the Super Bowl this week against Kansas City. High school football gave hope after deadly Maui wildfire. Team captains will be at the Super BowlCaptains of a Hawaii high school football team whose town was destroyed by a deadly wildfire are at the Super Bowl as guests of the NFL.The four students and three of their coaches are serving as honorary coin toss captains before the game.A little more than two months after the Aug. 8 fire, tickets for the Lahainaluna High School homecoming game sold out in minutes. That was an indication of how badly Lahaina residents needed a glimmer of hope amid a tragedy that claimed at least 100 lives.

LAS VEGAS —

Live updates from the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ET.

The eyes of the nation are on Las Vegas as the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the San Francisco 49ers.

Take a look at some big moments, excitement and headlines being made as the teams gear up to play.

McKinnon, Moore active for Chiefs, but Toney sits

Running back Jerick McKinnon and wide receiver Skyy Moore were active for the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time in nearly two months for their Super Bowl showdown with the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

McKinnon and Moore, who both played a crucial role in the Chiefs’ win over the Eagles in the Super Bowl last year, have not played since Dec. 17 in New England. McKinnon had surgery for a core injury in early January and was considered questionable to play against the 49ers, while Moore spent a stint on injured reserve with a lingering knee injury.

Wide receiver Kadarius Toney, who also had a TD against the Eagles, was not active on Sunday.

Taylor Swift greeted at Super Bowl by Roger Goodell, Jason Kelce

Taylor Swift’s arrival at Allegiant Stadium even drew the interest of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who visited her in a luxury suite before the game.

Goodell spoke glowingly Monday about the pop star’s effect on the NFL.

“Taylor is obviously a dynamo,” he said. “Everything she touches, there are people following. We count ourselves fortunate, and we welcome it.”

Kelce’s brother, Jason, hugged Swift in the suite, and Swift introduced him to Ice Spice. Jason Kelce plays for the Philadelphia Eagles but has fully supported his brother during the playoffs. The two faced each other in last year’s Super Bowl.

Kristin Juszczyk arrives in self-made style

Kristin Juszczyk arrived at the Super Bowl in a snazzy jacket that includes her husband Kyle’s 49ers jersey and his Harvard shield. Kyle is a fullback out of Harvard who plays for San Francisco.

Kristin has become a star after designing a coat worn by Taylor Swift that looked like a jersey of her boyfriend, Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce.

Taylor Swift has arrived

Taylor Swift finished her epic trek from the Tokyo Dome to Allegiant Stadium for the Super Bowl on Sunday. She arrived with Blake Lively and a few others wearing a black top with black pants and a red jacket slung over her shoulder.

Swift is on hand to watch Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, whom she has been dating since the first couple of weeks of the season. She performed in Japan on Saturday night before a flight across nine time zones and the international date line to reach the U.S.

No mixed loyalty this year for Donna Kelce

The mother of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce arrived for the game wearing a jacket with “SUPER BOWL LVIII” and “MAMA KELCE” on the back. In last season’s Super Bowl, Travis Kelce’s Chiefs defeated his brother Jason Kelce’s team, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Instead of a matchup between two brothers, the Kelce family is in the spotlight this year because of Travis’ relationship with pop star Taylor Swift. Donna Kelce has appeared in a suite alongside Swift this season.

49ers enter the Super Bowl as 2 ½-point favorites

The San Francisco 49ers are 2 ½-point favorites against the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of their Super Bowl matchup, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

The 49ers are -134 favorites to win the game, while the over/under sat at 46.5 points.

Despite being the underdog, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the favorite to win Super Bowl MVP at +150, followed by 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy at +210.

Jason Kelce ready to root on brother Travis, Chiefs

Travis Kelce played against Jason Kelce last year, when the Chiefs beat his big brothers’ Eagles in the Super Bowl in Arizona. But Jason was fully behind the Chiefs on Sunday, wearing red and yellow plaid overalls over a T-shirt that read, “Big Yeti,” his nickname for Travis.

Frank Franklin II
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce arrives before the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

The brothers host “New Heights,” one of the hottest podcasts in the country. And once the Eagles were knocked from the playoffs, Jason began following the Chiefs. He famously took off his shirt during a celebration in Buffalo, and he watched the Chiefs win the AFC title in Baltimore.

Reba arrives, set to perform national anthem

Reba McEntire walked into Allegiant Stadium for the Super Bowl about 3 1/2 hours before kickoff Sunday wearing a puffy, gray faux fur coat and holding hands with her partner, Rex Linn.

Frank Franklin II
Reba McEntire and Rex Linn, left, arrives before the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

McEntire is due to perform the national anthem before the Kansas City Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers in a rematch of the Super Bowl four years ago in Miami. She will have a lot to live up to after Chris Stapleton’s performance last year in Arizona received high praise.

Video below: Usher calls halftime show performance a ‘celebratory moment’

Some NFL fans pass on expensive tickets and just have ‘a good time’ in Vegas

Super Bowl ticket prices remain out of reach for many fans who made travel reservations months ago to come to Las Vegas this week, so they’ll likely be watching on TV like millions of others.

To buy tickets days before the game can be costly. This year they’re going for roughly $7,700 — though that is about $2,000 less than they were two weeks ago.

Carl Bray, a Cincinnati fan, booked his trip to the Super Bowl two months ago and came even though the Bengals didn’t make it.

“I don’t have tickets yet, but I got the hotel, flight, and I thought ‘Welp, if I lock into something, I’ll go,’” Bray said. “If not, I’ll just go to MGM or someplace and watch it.”

Patrick Mahomes looks ready for business in Super Bowl arrival

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes paid homage to the team that calls Allegiant Stadium home when he showed up for the Super Bowl on Sunday wearing a jet-black suit and silver tie that made him look like a fan of the AFC West-rival Las Vegas Raiders.

Mahomes appeared to be all business behind his black shades as he wheeled along his matching black Louis Vuitton luggage through the corridors of the stadium. He is trying to move into a tie for fourth behind Tom Brady, Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw by picking up his third Super Bowl ring.

APFrank Franklin II
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes arrives before the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Super Bowl gates open, fans arriving in Las Vegas

Gates to Allegiant Stadium opened just after 11 a.m. local time, unleashing a flood of fans in red. Five San Francisco 49ers fans were the first let through the gates.

“Woo!” They yelled. “First ones in! We’re the first ones!”

Tony and Susan Chiosso traveled to Las Vegas from the Bay Area to watch their first-ever Super Bowl and, they hope, witness their team defeat the Kansas City Chiefs.

They think their luck so far this morning is a good indicator of which team will come out on top.

“I’m only seeing good signs today,” Tony Chiosso said.

Will Taylor Swift make it to the big game in time? Intrepid flight trackers online seem to think so.

On social media, fans of Taylor Swift and aviation journalists believe they’ve identified Swift’s private jet, labeled “The Football Era.”

It arrived from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to Los Angeles’ LAX airport just after 3:30 p.m. local time Saturday.

Video below: Get the Facts: Misinformation on Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce

Her transportation plans onward to Las Vegas, where her boyfriend, NFL star tight end Travis Kelce, will play in Sunday’s Super Bowl, have yet to be revealed.

Why will the Chiefs win the SuperBowl? Their vast experience

If the Chiefs beat the 49ers for their third Super Bowl title in four trips over the past five years, it will be for one simple reason: experience.

The Chiefs can lean on what they learned and endured over a dominant six-year run with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. In fact, when the Chiefs beat the 49ers in Miami for their first title during this run, San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and many others were still in college.

Video below: Chiefs embracing underdog role in playoffs, against 49ers in the Super Bowl

Throw in the fact that Chiefs coach Andy Reid will be in his fifth Super Bowl, the third most in NFL history, and has a chance to win a third ring, and the knowledge on the Kansas City sideline will be an advantage too big for the 49ers to overcome.

The 49ers had Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on the ropes four years ago in the Super Bowl before everything fell apart, leading to a 31-20 loss that still stings today.

The difference when the teams meet in the rematch on Sunday? This time, the 49ers will have a quarterback in Brock Purdy who is capable of making a big play down the stretch.

Video below: Super Bowl fan prediction from a 14-year-old with a history of perfect picks

Purdy has gone from “Mr. Irrelevant” as the final pick in the 2022 draft to the franchise quarterback who has elevated coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense in less than two years. He led the NFL in passer rating (113) and yards per attempt (9.6), with his ability to throw deep and scramble adding new wrinkles to the offense.

Purdy also has a far better group of playmakers than the one that surrounded Jimmy Garoppolo four years ago.

Video below: Brock Purdy’s high school coach: ‘Teachers, security guards, custodians … all loved him’

As long as they still have each other, they’re still going to go to every Super Bowl.

That’s the sentiment shared by three friends who say they are the final fans who can claim membership in the exclusive “never missed a Super Bowl” club. And they’re back again for number 58 — Super Bowl 58 — this year.

The three fans, all in their 80s, are Don Crisman of Maine, Gregory Eaton of Michigan and Tom Henschel, who splits time between Florida and Pennsylvania. The three are gathering this weekend in Las Vegas for the big game, and they’re hoping they can all make it to the sixtieth edition of the game two years from now.

Taylor Swift’s connections to sports go back to her early days performing the national anthem

Before Taylor Swift grew into a global superstar and the talk of this Super Bowl, she got her singing career started by performing the national anthem at sporting events as a young child and teenager.

She sang the anthem before 45,900 fans at Game 3 of the 2008 World Series. The U.S. Open. NASCAR. The World Series. Yes, even the Double-A Reading Phillies.

Swift was an unsigned artist who looked for any kind of break by belting out the song about the land of the free and the home of the brave in front of as many packed crowds as she could find.

For Native American activists, the Kansas City Chiefs have it all wrong

Dozens of Indigenous activists have traveled to Las Vegas to gather outside the Super Bowl and demand the Kansas City Chiefs change their name and ditch their logo and gametime rituals.

Rhonda LeValdo founded and leads a group called Not In Our Honor that is calling for the changes. The Acoma Pueblo journalist and faculty member at Haskell Indian Nations University has been in the Kansas City area for more than two decades.

Everyone hopes the Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl won’t come down to an officiating call

One of the biggest fears when it comes to football’s biggest games is that a high-profile officiating mistake will play a role in the result.

So the seven on-field officials will get plenty of screen time when the Kansas City Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

The referee in charge of the crew in black-and-white unforms will be Bill Vinovich. He was also the referee when the Chiefs beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl four years ago — and when the Rams beat the Saints in the 2019 NFC championship game after an infamous missed call.

Here’s what you can expect from Super Bowl commercials this Sunday

Advertisers will be pulling out all the stops on Super Bowl Sunday — enlisting the biggest actors, investing in the most dazzling special effects and, they hope, going for laughs as they seek to win over viewers.

Most companies appear to be doubling down on flights of fantasy or light humor, often with a dose of nostalgia and a lot of mini-reunions of TV characters.

Big names like Jennifer Anniston, Christopher Walken, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Ice Spice, Jenna Ortega, Lionel Messi, Tom Brady, “Judge Judy” Judy Sheindlin, Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner Usher and more will appear during game breaks. And as always, there will still be some gameday surprises.

The game. The ads. The music. The puppies. Here’s why millions are excited for Super Bowl Sunday

Millions of Americans will find something to be excited about when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday. That’s before even factoring in the influence of Taylor Swift.

Four in 10 U.S. adults are extremely or very excited for at least one part of the Super Bowl day’s festivities. That could be the game, commercials, halftime show or the Puppy Bowl, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

49ers All-Pro offensive tackle Trent Williams savors his first Super Bowl trip in his 14th season

Trent Williams’ accomplishments are already worthy of a Hall of Fame career with 11 Pro Bowl bids, three first-team All-Pro selections and near universal recognition as the best left tackle of his generation.

All that was missing for the San Francisco 49ers star was something he never envisioned would be possible as he spent the first decade of his career mired in the dysfunction and ineptitude in Washington.

Williams has gotten that missing piece with his first chance to play in the Super Bowl this week against Kansas City.

High school football gave hope after deadly Maui wildfire. Team captains will be at the Super Bowl

Captains of a Hawaii high school football team whose town was destroyed by a deadly wildfire are at the Super Bowl as guests of the NFL.

The four students and three of their coaches are serving as honorary coin toss captains before the game.

A little more than two months after the Aug. 8 fire, tickets for the Lahainaluna High School homecoming game sold out in minutes. That was an indication of how badly Lahaina residents needed a glimmer of hope amid a tragedy that claimed at least 100 lives.

[ad_2]

Source link

February 11, 2024
‘Utter disbelief’: Missing dog named Patches found nearly four years after wandering away

[ad_1]

NEARLY 600 MILES AND FOUR YEARS LATER, A MISSING DOG IS RESCUED JUST MINUTES AWAY FROM THE MEXICO BORDER. GOOD EVENING. I’M QUANECIA FRASER PATCHES IS NOW. ALMOST TEN YEARS OLD. HER OWNER SAYS SHE WANDERED AWAY FROM A FAMILY FRIEND’S HOUSE IN COLORADO IN 2020. BUT LAST WEEK SHE WAS FOUND BY A SHELTER IN NEW MEXICO. KETV NEWSWATCH SEVEN’S MADDIE AUGUSTINE SAT DOWN WITH PATCH’S OWNER IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, QUANECIA BENJAMIN BAXTER TELLS ME HE NEVER THOUGHT HE WOULD SEE PATCHES AGAIN, BUT LAST WEEK HIS WIFE CALLED WHILE HE WAS ON HIS LUNCH BREAK WITH THE NEWS. PATCHES MAY BE ALIVE THE BEST WAY TO DESCRIBE THAT DAY WAS JUST UTTER DISBELIEF. DISBELIEF THAT AFTER NEARLY FOUR YEARS, BENJAMIN BAXTER’S CHILDHOOD DOG PATCHES IS STILL ALIVE AND SAFE. THEY HAD PUT A LOST OR A FOUND A ADD UP FOR HER. AND I’M LOOKING AT THIS PICTURE. I’M JUST LIKE, THERE’S NO WAY BENJAMIN SAYS HE FIRST BROUGHT PATCHES HOME TEN YEARS AGO WHEN SHE WAS ONLY SIX WEEKS OLD, AND THEY WERE INSTANT BEST FRIENDS. I WOULD BE HUNTING OR, UH, ROCK CLIMBING OR WHATEVER, AND SHE’D BE RIGHT THERE. AND SHE WAS THE ONLY DOG I’VE EVER BEEN AROUND TO THAT ACTUALLY LOVED ROCK CLIMBING. BUT SHE’D ALWAYS HAD THIS BIG OLD GOOFY GRIN ON HER FACE THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE OUT. BUT IN 2020, BENJAMIN HAD TO LEAVE PATCHES WITH A FAMILY FRIEND IN CALHAN, COLORADO. AFTER MOVING TO NEBRASKA BECAUSE HIS APARTMENT DIDN’T ALLOW PETS, SHE DECIDED THAT SHE WOULD TAKE PATCHES FROM ME UNTIL I COULD FIND ANOTHER PLACE WHERE I COULD HAVE A DOG WITH ME. BUT JUST A COUPLE OF MONTHS LATER, IN APRIL 2020, PATCHES ESCAPED HER KENNEL AND WAS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. BY DAY SEVEN, I STARTED REALIZING THAT WE WEREN’T GOING TO FIND THIS DOG AND I WAS DEVASTATED UNTIL THIS YEAR. ON JANUARY 31ST, BENJAMIN’S WIFE, ELIZABETH BAXTER, GOT A CALL FROM BENJAMIN’S MOM. SHE’D BEEN GETTING MISSED CALLS FROM AN AREA CODE IN NEW MEXICO, UM, SAYING THAT THEY HAD PATCHES, AND SHE WAS LIKE, IS THIS A SCAM? IS THIS NOT I DON’T KNOW, PATCHES HAD BEEN FOUND AS A STRAY IN LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO. ALL IN ALL, LIKE CONSIDERING THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF HER BEING FOUND ON THE STREET AS A STRAY. YEAH, LIKE SHE LOOKS VERY, VERY GOOD. BENJAMIN SAYS MULTIPLE SHELTERS WORK TO BRING PATCHES BACK TO COLORADO TO HIS FAMILY FRIEND. OVER THE LAST WEEK. NOW HE’S JUST HOURS AWAY FROM BEING REUNITED. WE’VE GOT LOTS OF TIME TO MAKE UP FOR, AND I JUST WANT TO GIVE HER A PLACE WHERE SHE CAN BE AT PEACE AND BE AT REST. AND THESE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS THAT WE’RE GOING TO GET TOGETHER. BUT BENJAMIN SAYS HE EXPECTS TO DRIVE TO COLORADO AND REUNITE WITH PATCHES BY NEXT WEEK. THEY’VE ALSO SET UP A DONATION FUND TO HELP THANK THE SHELTERS THAT BROUGHT PATCHES HOME SAFE. THAT LINK CAN BE FOUND IN THIS STORY

‘Utter disbelief’: Missing dog named Patches found nearly four years after wandering away

Updated: 5:04 PM PST Feb 10, 2024

Nearly 600 miles and four years later, a missing dog is rescued just minutes away from the Mexico border. Benjamin Baxter told sister station KETV that he never thought he would see Patches again after she wandered away from a family friend’s house in Colorado in 2020, but last week, she was found by a shelter in New Mexico. “The best way to describe that day was just utter disbelief,” Baxter said. Disbelief that after nearly four years, his childhood dog, Patches, is still alive and safe. “They had put a lost or a found ad up for her, and I’m looking at this picture, and I’m just like, there’s no way, right?” Baxter said. “I haven’t seen this dog in four years, and there’s just no way my brain literally could not comprehend that I was seeing a picture of my dog as she is now.”Baxter said he first brought Patches home 10 years ago when he was just 13 years old and Patches, was just 6 weeks old. He says they were instant best friends. “I traveled all over the country, state to state and bounced around here, there and pretty much everywhere, and she was there by my side through everything,” Baxter said. “I would be hunting, rock climbing or whatever, and she’d be right there. She was the only dog I’ve ever been around that actually loved rock climbing, but she’d always have this big, goofy grin on her face the whole time.”But in 2020, Baxter made a difficult decision after his new living situation didn’t allow dogs. He had to leave Patches with a family friend in Calhan, Colorado, while he moved to Nebraska for a new job. “She decided that she would take Patches from me until I could find another place where I could have a dog with me,” Baxter said. But just a couple of months later, in April 2020, Patches escaped her kennel and was nowhere to be found.”I thought, OK, you know, like this isn’t a big deal,” Baxter said. “And like I said, she’s a Houdini, so she loves wandering and we’ll get her back fast. But, the days go by, weeks go by. Nothing, I mean, absolutely nothing. Nobody ever responded to any of our lost posters or ads or whatever. By day seven, I started realizing that we weren’t going to find this dog, and I was devastated.”Patches was missing. Until this year.On Jan. 31, Elizabeth Baxter, Benjamin’s wife, got a call from Benjamin’s mom. “She’d been getting missed calls from an area code in New Mexico saying that they had Patches, and she’s like is this a scam?” Elizabeth said. “Is this not? I don’t know.”After several phone calls and emails containing Patches’ past medical records, photos and documentation, it was clear this was, in fact, not a scam.”They’re like, If you want her back, she’s yours,” Elizabeth said. “And I was like, for sure, we want this dog back because I knew how much it would mean to him to have her back.”A day Benjamin never thought would happen. He said at this point, he thought Patches had either found a new home, was eaten by predators, or had simply passed from old age.But, Patches had been found as a stray in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Hundreds of miles away from her home. “All in all, like, considering the circumstance of her being found on the street as a stray, like, she looks very, very good,” Elizabeth said. And with the help of multiple shelters and volunteers, Patches is on her way home. Over the last week, Patches has traveled from New Mexico back to Benjamin’s family friend’s house in Colorado. “I’m just excited to get my dog back,” Benjamin said. “We’ve got lots of time to make up for, and I just want to give her a place where she can be at peace and be at rest in these last couple of years that we’re going to get together.”Reuniting with his long-lost best friend, Benjamin said he plans to drive to Colorado by next week to bring Patches home for good. “If only an animal could tell you stories, because I would love to find out how the heck she can just disappear and where she was, who she was with, how she ended up so close to Mexico,” Benjamin said. Both Elizabeth and Benjamin are grateful to the shelters and family that have helped bring Patches home safely.”We’re just really grateful,” Elizabeth said. “We feel like, we’re really strong believers, and we feel as though God has really just guided and directed this.”The Baxters have set up a donation fund to help thank those shelters and volunteers, if you would like to donate, click here.

Nearly 600 miles and four years later, a missing dog is rescued just minutes away from the Mexico border.

Benjamin Baxter told sister station KETV that he never thought he would see Patches again after she wandered away from a family friend’s house in Colorado in 2020, but last week, she was found by a shelter in New Mexico.

“The best way to describe that day was just utter disbelief,” Baxter said.

Disbelief that after nearly four years, his childhood dog, Patches, is still alive and safe.

“They had put a lost or a found ad up for her, and I’m looking at this picture, and I’m just like, there’s no way, right?” Baxter said. “I haven’t seen this dog in four years, and there’s just no way my brain literally could not comprehend that I was seeing a picture of my dog as she is now.”

Baxter said he first brought Patches home 10 years ago when he was just 13 years old and Patches, was just 6 weeks old. He says they were instant best friends.

“I traveled all over the country, state to state and bounced around here, there and pretty much everywhere, and she was there by my side through everything,” Baxter said. “I would be hunting, rock climbing or whatever, and she’d be right there. She was the only dog I’ve ever been around that actually loved rock climbing, but she’d always have this big, goofy grin on her face the whole time.”

But in 2020, Baxter made a difficult decision after his new living situation didn’t allow dogs. He had to leave Patches with a family friend in Calhan, Colorado, while he moved to Nebraska for a new job.

“She [family friend] decided that she would take Patches from me until I could find another place where I could have a dog with me,” Baxter said.

But just a couple of months later, in April 2020, Patches escaped her kennel and was nowhere to be found.

“I thought, OK, you know, like this isn’t a big deal,” Baxter said. “And like I said, she’s a Houdini, so she loves wandering and we’ll get her back fast. But, the days go by, weeks go by. Nothing, I mean, absolutely nothing. Nobody ever responded to any of our lost posters or ads or whatever. By day seven, I started realizing that we weren’t going to find this dog, and I was devastated.”

Patches was missing.

Until this year.

On Jan. 31, Elizabeth Baxter, Benjamin’s wife, got a call from Benjamin’s mom.

“She’d been getting missed calls from an area code in New Mexico saying that they had Patches, and she’s like is this a scam?” Elizabeth said. “Is this not? I don’t know.”

After several phone calls and emails containing Patches’ past medical records, photos and documentation, it was clear this was, in fact, not a scam.

“They’re [shelter who found Patches] like, If you want her back, she’s yours,” Elizabeth said. “And I was like, for sure, we want this dog back because I knew how much it would mean to him [Benjamin] to have her back.”

A day Benjamin never thought would happen. He said at this point, he thought Patches had either found a new home, was eaten by predators, or had simply passed from old age.

But, Patches had been found as a stray in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Hundreds of miles away from her home.

“All in all, like, considering the circumstance of her being found on the street as a stray, like, she looks very, very good,” Elizabeth said.

And with the help of multiple shelters and volunteers, Patches is on her way home. Over the last week, Patches has traveled from New Mexico back to Benjamin’s family friend’s house in Colorado.

“I’m just excited to get my dog back,” Benjamin said. “We’ve got lots of time to make up for, and I just want to give her a place where she can be at peace and be at rest in these last couple of years that we’re going to get together.”

Reuniting with his long-lost best friend, Benjamin said he plans to drive to Colorado by next week to bring Patches home for good.

“If only an animal could tell you stories, because I would love to find out how the heck she can just disappear and where she was, who she was with, how she ended up so close to Mexico,” Benjamin said.

Both Elizabeth and Benjamin are grateful to the shelters and family that have helped bring Patches home safely.

“We’re just really grateful,” Elizabeth said. “We feel like, we’re really strong believers, and we feel as though God has really just guided and directed this.”

The Baxters have set up a donation fund to help thank those shelters and volunteers, if you would like to donate, click here.

[ad_2]

Source link

February 10, 2024