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Gulf’s ‘dead zone’ forecast to be smaller than average, but still twice reduction goal

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The oxygen-depleted “dead zone” that forms each year in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana and Texas is forecast to cover about 4,155 square miles (10,761 square kilometers) this year.That’s about 1,200 square miles (3,107 square kilometers) smaller than the average during the 36-year history of dead zone measurements in the Gulf, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday, but still more than twice as large as the long-term hypoxia-reduction goal set by a federal-state task force.This year’s forecast would be about 1,000 square miles (2,589 square kilometers) larger than what was actually measured last year. Scientists from Louisiana State University, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, NOAA and other universities will travel along the coasts of Louisiana and Texas during the last week of July and first week of August to see if the estimate holds up.But LSU marine biologist Nancy Rabalais, who has overseen the dead zone map...

WSSC Water offers incentives for customers to ‘Get Current’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

Not everyone pays their bills on time — and one local utility has a lot of customers who haven’t paid their bills on time.WSSC Water is hoping those who can afford to pay off their balances, but just choose not to, can be goaded into it.Throughout the entire month of June, WSSC Water is offering amnesty through its Get Current program. The last day to apply is June 30.“Eligible customers can receive a 10% bill credit if they pay in full, and 100% of late payment charges and turn-on fees waived,” said WSSC Water spokeswoman Lyn Riggins.“Customers who want to pay 50% of their delinquent account will receive a 5% bill credit, and when they finish a six-month payment plan, 100% of the late payment charges will be waived as well as turn-on fees waived.”Currently, about 83,000 accounts are past due, and collectively they owe about $53 million.“We have 1.9 million customers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and every day we need to provide water and wastewater services to those c...

Jack Nicklaus is going back to work on the 16th hole at Muirfield Village

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — The course Jack Nicklaus built is still under construction.Muirfield Village performed about as expected under a rare and overdue week of dry, hot weather. The winning score of 281 was the highest for the Memorial over 72 holes since Hale Irwin won at 281 in 1985.What stood out was the 16th, the toughest of the par 3 that left players grumbling. Jason Day was overheard saying after a tee shot into the bunker, “Stupid hole.” Nicklaus was in the television booth, laughed, and when someone suggested they turn down the volume, Nicklaus, “No, I think he might be right.”Nicklaus said he would go back to work on the 220-yard hole with bunkers to the right and a pond to the left.“We’ll adjust 16 next year,” he said. “I’ll do some things that will make it a more forgiving hole. When you’ve got only 25% of the guys hitting the green, which is what it was on Saturday, that’s not enough.”Part of the problem was a wind direction blowing from left to right, sending most shots ...

Colorado workers less than one-fifth blue-collar

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Less than one-fifth of Colorado's workers could be considered "blue-collar," according to recently released government data. The U.S. Census Bureau released new county-level data for employment in 2021. The data includes the number of businesses of each subcategory in each county and the number of people employed in each. Denver accused of ignoring complaints about homeless machete attacker Blue-collar work is decidedly a minority of Colorado's employment. Nearly half the people in Colorado (47%) are employed in just five industries: health care and social assistance (14%); retail; administrative and support and waste management (12%); accommodation and food services (11%); and professional, scientific and technical services (10%). By contrast, only 17% of the state's workers are employed in what could be called blue-collar industries - construction (7%), manufacturing (5%), transportation and warehousing (4%), and mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction (1%...

BSO search for 2 suspects caught on surveillance video stealing car’s tires at parking lot in Davie

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

A car was left sitting on blocks after thieves stole the car’s tires and rims.After an unknown vehicle pulled up at a parking lot in Davie late Monday night, two thieves quickly stole all four tires from a black Honda. “Its a clear video, it looks like it might even possibly be a stolen car,” the victim said. Surveillance video captured the unknown car immediately going towards the 2019 Honda Accord. “It appeared that two people, they did it under probably five minutes,” the woman said. “One of them almost looked like a woman, but it was two people. They backed up very slick about it.”The thieves were so slick and quite brazen, that a resident was seen walking by while the crooks parked, placed a jack under the Honda and stole the car’s tires within minutes.The tire’s bolts were left behind. “It was at 1:46 in the morning, they were gone by 1:52,” said the woman. The resident did not want to be identified, but said t...

Wu announces restructuring plan for 2 Boston schools

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced new plans for two of Boston’s schools on Tuesday, planning to move and expand one school currently in Roxbury into a new home in West Roxbury while expanding another school. Under the plans, the city will relocate the O’Bryant School for Math and Science, which shares a campus with Madison Park Vocational High School, in Roxbury.“We’re talking about generational change at a scale that we haven’t seen for quite some time in our district,” Wu said. The move will allow the neighboring Madison Park to expand into the space O’Bryant is leaving. In their announcement, city officials also rolled out a partnership with JetBlue to train students to aviation jobs at airlines and Massport.“Our kids deserve what the other cities have,” said Coach Collins of the Friends of Madison Park. “Our kids deserve what the other communities have.”Wu acknowledged there will be challenges getting inner city students who traditionally call O’Bryant home out to a new We...

Blue Jays’ Alek Manoah’s awful season gets worse with demotion to Florida Complex League

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

One of the most promising young starters in baseball has suddenly become a punching bag.Toronto Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah (1-7) has had a dreadful 2023 season with arguably the worst of it coming Monday night against the Houston Astros at Rogers Centre in Toronto.The right-hander surrendered six runs on seven hits while getting just one out before he was pulled in the top of the fist. Manoah’s season ERA has ballooned to 6.36. The struggles have been so bad that he has been demoted to the Florida Complex League — which is a rookie-level league — something that manager John Schneider hinted at after Monday’s loss.“As of now, we’re not sitting here making plans for anything” Schneider said after the 11-4 loss to the Astros. “But [we’re] doing everything we can do for him means using every resource that we have, using the staff and using his teammates to help him through it. When I say that everything is on the table, yeah, everythi...

Major dam collapses in southern Ukraine, flooding villages as Moscow and Kyiv trade blame

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

By VASILISA STEPANENKO and SUSIE BLANN (Associated Press)KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — A major dam in southern Ukraine collapsed Tuesday, flooding villages, endangering crops and threatening drinking water supplies as both sides in the war scrambled to evacuate residents and blamed each other for the destruction.Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station, which sits on the Dnieper River in an area Moscow has controlled for more than a year. Russian officials blamed Ukrainian bombardment in the contested area, where the river separates the two sides.It was not possible to reconcile the conflicting claims. Russian and Ukrainian officials used terms like “ecological disaster” and “terrorist act” to describe the torrent of water gushing through the broken dam and beginning to empty an upstream reservoir that is one of the world’s largest. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “the largest ...

Merck sues to head off Medicare ‘extortion’ 

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

Merck is suing the federal government over a plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices, calling the program a sham equivalent to extortion.The drugmaker is seeking to halt the program, which was laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act and is expected to save taxpayers billions of dollars in the coming years.Merck said in a complaint filed Tuesday that the program does not involve genuine negotiation.Instead, it said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services selects drugs to be included and then dictates the price, threatening drugmakers with “a ruinous daily excise tax” if they decline to agree.“It is tantamount to extortion,” the drugmaker said in the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.The Rahway, New Jersey-based drugmaker added that it expects its diabetes treatment Januvia to be part of “the IRA’s scheme” starting later this year.Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said i...

Sheriff probes self-defense claim of white woman who fatally shot Black neighbor in front of kids

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:32:10 GMT

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — Authorities came under intense pressure Tuesday to arrest and charge a white woman who killed a Black neighbor on her front doorstep in a case that has put Florida’s divisive stand your ground law back into the spotlight. About three dozen mostly Black protesters gathered outside the Marion County Judicial Center to demand that the shooter be arrested in the country’s latest flashpoint over race and gun violence.A 35-year-old mother of four, Ajike Owens, was killed in the Friday night shooting that Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said was the culmination of a 2 1/2-year feud between neighbors. The women lived in a neighborhood in north Florida, in the rolling hills south of Ocala, known as the state’s horse country. On Tuesday, a stuffed teddy bear and bouquets of flowers marked the area near where Owens was shot. Nearby, children were riding bikes and scooters, and playing basketball. Protesters chanted “No justice, no peace” and “A.J. A.J. A.J” using Owe...