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The bats are back, adding to Austin's charm

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- We love seeing them when they're here. They add a certain "je ne sais quoi" ambiance to Austin, attracting both locals and visitors. It's also possible that some plan their vacation around seeing them.Local band musicians? No. We're talking about the bats. The mammals lend so much to a tourists' visits.The bats have returned. Not just any bats. Our city's residents are Mexican free-tailed bats. They make their pilgrimage each spring when they leave central Mexico to various places over the southwestern United States. Many of them congregate at the Congress Ave. bridge where they take flight every night. They started appearing a little earlier than the start of spring because of the warm temperatures that we had during late-winter. Our friends from the Austin Bat Refuge reported they started arriving during the third week of February. They also report that it just wasn't the Mexican free-tailed bats that showed up but also bats from other colonies using Congress as a...

Get some new gear from the 2023 Birds Collection at Kiener Plaza

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

ST. LOUIS - It's Opening Day, and you don't want to start the new season with last year's gear.FOX 2's Tim Ezell and Chelsea Haynes have more than a few new options for you. They shared some of Arch Apparel's new gear from the 2023 Birds Collection at Kiener Plaza. Trending: What to know for the 2023 St. Louis Cardinals home opener From crews necks to cropped hoodies, there's a style for every Cardinal's fan.

Opinion: If the Denver school board won’t ensure school safety, vote them out

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

Our schools must be a safe place to learn, but too often they are not.In early September, two people, including an East High School student was shot near the school. Two weeks later, East High School had its first lockdown.On Feb. 13, Luis Garcia, a 16-year-old East student, who excelled on the soccer field and classroom, was shot and fatally wounded near the school while sitting in his car.A mere six weeks later, two school staff members, Jerald Mason and Eric Sinclair were shot and wounded after conducting a routine safety check on Austin Lyle, a 17-year-old student, while students were nearby attending an assembly.  Lyle, who had been expelled from the Cherry Creek School District,  was subject to a safety plan that required him to be searched.Parents anxiously waiting to hug their children outside of schools is an all too familiar scene in America today. If I were one of those parents at East last week, I would be shopping for a new school.No parent or child should have to endur...

Few Black women become Colorado firefighters. Lt. Kathleen Hancock is blazing a trail.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

She beamed as she made her way across the sandwich shop to where Aurora Fire Rescue Lt. Kathleen Hancock was standing.“Sorry to interrupt,” the Black woman said, but she wanted to introduce herself to Hancock, Aurora’s first Black female firefighter who was just promoted to lieutenant.“I kind of got emotional,” Terri House said. “She is a beacon. I feel really excited to just see a female Black firefighter. I feel pride. I feel a piece of me is represented.”Terri House of Aurora, left, shakes hands with Lt. Kathleen Hancock, the first black female firefighter in Aurora Fire and Rescue, as Hancock picks up lunch on Thursday, March 16, 2023. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)House is a program manager for the Latino Coalition and invited Hancock to speak to an empowerment group for young girls. The firefighter, who traded her track and field jackets and medals in high school and college for her fire uniform, is used to people stopping her in public. (Hanco...

Injured woman sues Vail Resorts after the rescue toboggan she was riding in crashed

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

A Connecticut woman is suing Vail Resorts because of injuries she allegedly suffered in the crash of a rescue toboggan as ski patrollers evacuated her after she was hurt in a fall while skiing.Kathryn Stoupas fell at the bottom of the Geronimo trail at Keystone Resort, which is owned by Vail, in February 2021, injuring her left shoulder, and called for ski patrol assistance.But the two patrollers who were navigating the toboggan in which she was riding were traveling at a “high rate of speed” and lost control, according to a lawsuit filed in Broomfield County Court last week. As a result, the Stoupas claims that the toboggan overturned, “dragging (her) on her left side and face along the snow until it came to rest.”The lawsuit claims she suffered further damage to her already injured left shoulder, along with a fractured humerus bone in her upper arm, nerve damage, abrasions and contusions to her face.“What we’re alleging is that this was certainly negl...

Denver’s population rebounds slightly, but it’s among metro counties facing growth headwinds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

Denver and other metro area counties are losing residents to other parts of Colorado and out of state, new census estimates show, as pandemic disruptions, rising housing costs and an aging population continue to scramble Colorado’s formerly robust growth patterns.Like Denver, Jefferson and Arapahoe counties are seeing more people move out than move in, while Douglas County and sprawling Weld County have been big gainers in terms of net migration.Thanks to natural growth from births outpacing deaths, the city and county of Denver still managed to grow in population from mid-2021 to mid-2022, partially rebounding from a decline the prior year. It reached 713,252 residents as of July 1, according to annual population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. That reflects an uptick of 1,929 residents compared to mid-2021, or 0.3% growth.But since the 2020 census, which pegged population counts to April 1 of that year — right as the coronavirus pandemic was taki...

Nearly a decade after recreational cannabis sales began in Colorado, Golden takes its first rip

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

GOLDEN — Seventeen months after voters in this city said yes to recreational cannabis sales — and nearly a decade after the first retail joint and edible were sold in Colorado — this tourist-friendly city on the western fringe of the metro area is finally joining the pot party.Verts Neighborhood Dispensary, formerly Golden Alternative Medicine and the city’s only medical marijuana shop, made its first recreational cannabis sale during a soft opening of the re-branded store this week.Verts formally opens its doors at 511 Orchard St. on April 5 with a ribbon-cutting at — wait for it — 4:20 p.m.For co-owner Ashley Close, the transition to recreational sales was nothing less than a matter of survival, as the medical side of the business in Colorado has slowed in recent years.“Medical in general is going consistently down,” said Close, as an employee polished the windows of display cases inside the store Wednesday. “If we couldn’...

DeSantis' board says Disney stripped them of power

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

Board members picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World said Wednesday that their Disney-controlled predecessors pulled a fast one on them by passing restrictive covenants that strip the new board of many of its powers.The current supervisors of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said at a meeting that their predecessors last month signed a development agreement with the company that gave Disney maximum developmental power over the theme park resort's 27,000 acres in central Florida.The five supervisors were appointed by the Republican governor to the board after the Florida Legislature overhauled Disney's government in retaliation for the entertainment giant publicly opposing so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as well as lessons deemed not age-appropriate.In taking on Disney, DeSantis furthered his reputation as a culture warri...

Oakland: I-580 shooting leaves one dead late Wednesday night

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

OAKLAND — A person was shot and killed while driving a vehicle on Interstate 580 late Wednesday in Oakland, according to the California Highway Patrol.The CHP responded to a reported crash on the highway around 10:30 p.m. when they found the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle with gun shot wounds. The person was declared deceased at the scene.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Eight additional East Bay police officers on leave for racist and homophobic texts Crime and Public Safety | Missing man’s body found in East Bay harbor Crime and Public Safety | Four suspects arrested in East Bay robbery spree Crime and Public Safety | Suspect in Oakland fatal crash, who was later injured in police shooting, takes 12-year prison term Crime and Public Safety | Pittsburg murder defendant who accidentally told on himself sentenced to 32 years to life The CHP later confirmed that the driver die...

Opinion: The teen mental health crisis is no place to cut corners

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:11 GMT

It’s no secret that kids in the U.S. are struggling with mental health issues in increasing numbers. Now, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association emphasizes the severity of the situation: Pediatric mental health hospitalizations are rising, and many more kids are being hospitalized for attempting suicide.The data couldn’t be clearer: We’re not identifying and supporting struggling kids before they hit a crisis.JoAnna Leyenaar, lead author of the study, is a pediatric hospitalist and vice chair of research for the department of pediatrics at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. She noticed a growing proportion of the patients at her hospital were coming in because of mental health conditions. She decided to mine the country’s largest public database of pediatric inpatient care to try to understand if it was a nationwide trend.And clearly, it is. Between 2009 and 2019, pediatric mental health hospitalizations at acute care facilities rose by near...