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Charlotte FC names Dean Smith as its new head coach for the MLS team

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Charlotte FC owner David Tepper has hired new coach with a very familiar name as his Major League Soccer team’s new coach in Dean Smith.This Smith is an Englishman who brings more than a decade of managerial experience in the English soccer system. He is no relation to the late, national championship winning men’s basketball coach at North Carolina, according the team.Smith may be best known for leading Aston Villa back to the Premier League in 2019. Smith takes over for Christian Lattanzio on Nov. 8 after one season and the team’s first MLS playoff appearance.Smith said he was honored to take the job and is planning for the 2024 season.“Throughout the interview process, it was clear that this is an ambitious club with the right ingredients for success,” Smith said in a statement.Tepper said he was confident that Smith’s “leadership and experience will help elevate our club beyond its first playoff appearance into a championship team.”___AP M...

Sharp disagreements over future of planet-warming fossil fuels at UN climate talks in Dubai

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A standoff between countries that want a dramatic phase-out of planet-warming fossil fuels and those that don’t pushed a critical climate summit officially into overtime on Tuesday. But organizers were about to float another try at compromise.The United Nations-led summit known as COP28 was supposed to end Tuesday afternoon after nearly two weeks of speeches, demonstrations and negotiations. But the climate talks almost always run long, and Monday’s release of a draft agreement angered countries that insist on a commitment for rapid phase-out of coal, oil and gas. Another compromise version of the cornerstone document, called the global stocktake, was being prepped Tuesday evening, along with side potential agreements about adaptation and financial aid to poor nations. Delegates, analysts and activists hadn’t yet had a chance to see just what’s in the latest proposal from the presidency run by host nation United Arab Emirates, but...

Suspect in fatal grocery store shooting leaves behind debit card, leading to his arrest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

GARY, Ind. (AP) — A debit card left behind at the scene of a fatal shooting helped police in Gary track down and arrest a man suspected of killing a fellow customer at a grocery store.The violence Monday evening was caught on the store’s surveillance camera, in which the two men in their 40s get into a fight near the check-out counter. One man is seen pulling out a gun and shooting the other, a 48-year-old Gary resident. The shooter then picks up his items, walks around the victim’s body and exits the store.Witnesses told police the suspect forgot his debit card at the cash register. Officers were able to identify him as a 44-year-old from Gary, and he was arrested while walking not far from the grocery store, police said.Gary, a rust-belt city on the shore of Lake Michigan southeast of Chicago, has struggled with crime and unemployment as its fortunes fell with the declining steel industry. Source

US safety agency closes investigation into Jeep Compass engines shutting down

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

U.S. auto safety regulators have closed an investigation into complaints that engines on some small Jeeps can shut down while being driven.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday it will not seek a recall of about 229,000 Jeep Compass SUVs from the 2019 and 2020 model years.The agency opened the probe in December of last year after getting 15 complaints that drivers have gotten dashboard messages saying their coolant temperature is too high, followed by an immediate engine shutdown.But an investigation found that the failure rate was low and that the SUVs can normally be restarted immediately after the engine shuts down. The agency found only one allegation of a crash and no injuries. The agency says its investigation agreed with Jeep maker Stellantis’ conclusion that once the engine shuts down, the SUVs can be put in park and restarted with no issues. Source

1 arrested after alleged carjacking, assault in Commerce City

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Several police officers responded to a scene near the Reunion neighborhood in Commerce City where one person was allegedly arrested.FOX31's Jim Hooley was the first reporter at the scene and spoke to witnesses who were working near 96th Avenue and Tower Road when the incident happened around 10 a.m. on Tuesday.According to the witnesses, a Lexus came speeding by before coming to an abrupt stop. The workers told Hooley that a woman jumped out of the driver's side and a man jumped out of the passenger's side. That is when the man allegedly ran over to the driver's side, grabbed the woman and threw her to the ground. Over a dozen car windows smashed in Arvada neighborhood Witnesses claim the man took out what appeared to be a lighter and tried to light the woman on fire. The witnesses said it appeared to be a carjacking. Hooley said the woman was taken by Commerce City police, but her condition is unknown at this time. The man was taken into custody. FOX31 has reached...

Colorado ranks dead last for housing competitiveness: Report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- A report released by the Common Sense Institute claimed that Colorado ranks dead last in terms of housing competitiveness nationwide.The Centennial State ranked at No. 51 on a list that includes all 50 states and Washington, D.C. when it came to housing competitiveness. This ranking includes factors like the housing shortage to population ratio and the number of hours required to pay mortgage and rent.This is not new, according to the report, as Colorado has ranked last in all but one of the last seven years. These new Colorado laws go into effect in 2024 In 2021, Colorado ranked No. 50 and Utah was last.According to the report, it now takes 96 hours of work at the median wage to afford the mortgage of a median-priced home, up from the 44 hours of work it took in 2011.It also takes 86 hours of work to pay the median rent in the state.The report pointed out that fewer condos are being built, especially relative to the number of apartments being built. It said that,...

EU Commission wants registry for foreign lobbyists

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

The European Commission wants to bring lobbyists and advocates for foreign governments out of the shadows under a proposal out Tuesday.Interest representatives working on behalf of governments outside the European Economic Area (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) would have to register in national transparency databases under a new directive, the most concrete pillar of the so-called Defence of Democracy package.Yet while the Commission says the move would stymie Russian President Vladimir Putin’s machinations against EU democracies, watchdog NGOs say it would embolden politicians in the mold of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.The measure has become a point of bitter contention between the Commission’s transparency experts and the democracy activists who are usually their allies when it comes to rooting out corruption and malign influence. Transparency International EU, for example, is pushing for a universal lobby register. The Commission’s plan to hold orga...

Polish right-wing MP douses Jewish menorah with fire extinguisher

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

Grzegorz Braun, an antisemitic lawmaker from the right-wing Confederation party, on Tuesday doused the candles in a Hanukkah menorah in the Polish parliament with a fire extinguisher — denouncing the Jewish ritual as “Satanic.”“Racist motives have been attributed to me here, meanwhile, I am just restoring a state of normalcy and balance here, putting an end to acts of Satanic, Talmudist triumphalism, because that is the message of these holidays,” Braun, peppered with white powder from the extinguisher, said in the parliament building.He was kicked out of the parliamentary session by Speaker Szymon Hołownia after appearing at the podium of the parliament and inviting MPs to a “historical-theological debate.” Speaking to journalists, Hołownia called the episode “absolutely scandalous” and said the Polish parliament’s security service would “carefully review” footage from the incident to decide on a punishment. He added...

Meloni’s star Christmas guests: Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has invited the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to an upcoming right-wing bash, which billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk will also be attending.Sunak, an ally of Italy’s right-wing leader, is expected at the event which takes place from Thursday to Sunday, the Financial Times reported.On Monday, the annual Atreju festival — an event for Italy’s right-wing youth founded by Meloni in 1998 — gave a hint of another one of Meloni’s special guests, posting a picture featuring a silhouette of a male figure.The mysterious attendee is none other than SpaceX and Tesla boss Musk, according to a social media post on Tuesday evening by the event organizers. Musk will be interviewed Saturday morning by journalist Nicola Porro, Italian outlet Il Fatto Quotidiano reported. Porro had already landed an interview with the tech tycoon in June, when Meloni and Musk met in Italy to discuss AI, European markets and birth rates. Meloni has also invited I...

These programs put unused prescription drugs in the hands of patients in need

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:33:52 GMT

Kate Ruder | KFF Health News (TNS)COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — On a recent November evening, Angie Phoenix waited at a pharmacy here in Colorado’s second-largest city to pick up prescription drugs to treat her high blood pressure and arm seizures.But this transaction was different from typical exchanges that occur every day at thousands of pharmacies across the United States. The cost to Phoenix, 50, who lives in the nearby community of Falcon and has no health insurance, was nothing.Open Bible Medical Clinic and Pharmacy runs Colorado’s only current drug donation program. Most of the medications it dispenses come from nursing homes across the state.“We take any and all of it,” said founding pharmacist Frieda Martin, who used those donations to fill 1,900 prescriptions for 200 low-income and uninsured adults last year. Participants pay a $15 annual registration fee for free medications and care at the adjoining clinic.Drug donation programs like this one in Colorado and one in Californ...