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FBI initiative aims to prevent school tragedies

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

ST. LOUIS – Shaun Swearengen is a St. Louis parent who has safety on his mind. He is the father of a 6-year-old and a 17-year-old student.“I think about safety in the elementary school as well as the high school,” Swearengen said.He’s excited about an FBI initiative that aims to prevent school tragedies before it’s too late. The School Safety Initiative is a proactive effort to create threat assessment teams comprised of school counselors, staff, and school resource officers.The FBI shares research with schools to help identify any potential threat, with the idea of providing resources that could help.“The real goal here is that each school can create a team that fits their student body, their staff, their capabilities, and they can create the safest possible environment for their students,” said Jay Greenberg, special agent in charge of the St. Louis FBI office.Greenberg believes schools have a wealth of multidisciplinary experts, including SROs, faculty, staff, and counselors, cap...

Pattonville School District to add safety protocols following Friday night scare

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

ST. ANN, Mo. – Hundreds of students and families were sent running Friday night when they thought they heard gunshots.The Maryland Heights Police Department dispelled any of those rumors following an investigation, and it was determined folks started running because they saw everyone else running.“When you see a group of kids running, dispersing from an area, and you are in the stands, you think, ‘Okay, what’s wrong? What are those kids running from?’” Pattonville School District Superintendent Barry Nelson said.On Tuesday, Pattonville School District announced it would upgrade its Friday night safety protocols by first taking a closer look at how its security is positioned inside the football stadium. The school district is also adding floodlighting in the parking lot and moving the stadium's security checkpoint in front of the ticketing area. Search for gunman after Ferguson police chief’s niece killed “What happened on Friday scared a lot of kids and we need to make adjustments...

Rockies fall to 0-6 against Braves in 2023 in 3-1 defeat as Colorado musters just three hits

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

The Rockies’ deficiencies in 2023 have been drawing plenty of parallels to the club’s expansion team in 1993, and on Tuesday night, the Braves highlighted another bit of similarly ugly molding.That 1993 club that lost 95 games and was still very much looking for an identity like the ’23 team is now was 0-13 against the Braves, getting outscored 106-50.Fast forward three decades, and it’s a good thing the Braves were only in the NL West for that ’93 season. First-place Atlanta, a favorite to win its second World Series title in three years, improved to 6-0 against the Rockies this year with a 3-1 win at Coors Field.“They’ve got a really good lineup, and we’ve got to just keep competiting, try to stay in these ballgames with them (like we did tonight),” said rookie outfielder Brenton Doyle, who has never beaten the Braves. “Maybe we’ll come out on top one of these times.”Colorado only has one chance left to do tha...

Smash-and-grab burglars steal over $500,000 worth of jewelry from Pasadena shop

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

Police are investigating after a group of smash-and-grab burglars ransacked a Pasadena store and escaped with over half a million dollars worth of jewelry on Tuesday.Pasadena police received calls of the break-in around 1:47 p.m. at the Jewels on Lake store on the 400 block of Lake Avenue.According to the shop’s owner, Sam Babikian, three masked men wearing gloves entered the shop and pepper sprayed him during the destructive burglary.Images from the scene show shattered display cases throughout the shop as empty jewelry trays and holders lay scattered on the ground.A group of smash-and-grab burglars ransacked a Pasadena store and escaped with over half a million dollars worth of jewelry on August 29, 2023. (KTLA)A group of smash-and-grab burglars ransacked a Pasadena store and escaped with over half a million dollars worth of jewelry on August 29, 2023. (Citizen)A group of smash-and-grab burglars ransacked a Pasadena store and escaped with over half a million dollars worth of jewel...

Woman loses $14,000 in tech repair service scam

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Staggering numbers from the Federal Trade Commission reveal scam victims lost more than $8 billion in 2022, a 30% increase over the year before. Meanwhile, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has recovered more than $4.2 million in money stolen through scams and is currently working with banks to stop scam organizers from doing more damage. What is curbstoning? Car-flipping scam growing in Denver Jo Anna DeMarrais told the Problem Solvers she received an email that looked like it was from a popular tech repair service asking her to call them to stop a $495 auto-renewal. “It was so authentic,” she said.The scammer said he accidentally made the charge anyway, even providing realistic-looking documents, but all DeMarrais had to do was allow them to refund the money to her credit card. “He had identified himself as a refund officer with the company, so I believed it. The scammer told me over and over again that he’d be losing his job because of this mistake he made, a...

Editorial: Biden dumps border crisis in states’ laps

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

President Biden has a message for city and state leaders around the country who are struggling to provide housing and care for the unending influx of migrants in their communities.Not my problem.New York got the message loud and clear from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who responded to criticism that the government wasn’t doing enough to help with the massive humanitarian undertaking by saying, essentially, that New York was dropping the ball, not the feds.Two letters obtained by Politico were sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams Monday from  Mayorkas, who mentioned structural and operational issues found during a week-long assessment of the city’s operations starting on Aug. 7.“The structural issues include governance and organization of the migrant operations, including issues of authority, structure, personnel, and information flow,” Mayorkas wrote. “The operational issues include the subjects of data collection, planning, case management, commun...

Sausage Breakfast Biscuits with Fruit Jam delicious start to the day

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

My husband and I often lock horns when it comes to choosing seasonal fruit for me to make jam with; he’s a 100% peach or cherry person while I will always go for the raspberry. But you don’t stay married for 40 years without learning to compromise.This super-easy breakfast biscuit recipe brings together the two summer fruits in the best possible way in an easy refrigerator (no cook) jam. All it takes to create the harmonious blend of sweet and sunny flavors is some chopped or crushed fruit, granulated sugar, a splash of lemon juice and a saucepan. Simply cook the ingredients over a low flame until it’s thick and jammy.The homemade sausage patty that gets tucked into a simple drop biscuit along with a slice of cheddar is nearly as simple. If you’ve got a mixing bowl and a hot frying pan, it’s a cinch to pull together in about 15 minutes, and it tastes so much fresher than the mass-produced one in your grocer’s freezer.You can either divide the bisc...

‘This is what we sign up for’: Chicago Cubs lefty Justin Steele outduels Milwaukee Brewers ace Corbin Burnes in 1-0 win

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

Chicago Cubs left-hander Justin Steele is methodical.Even when he might not be working with his best stuff or getting drilled by a 100.2 mph liner just above his left knee, as was the case Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Brewers, Steele stuck to his game plan. A heavy dose of his four-seam fastball that he can cut or rise as needed and a slider he can manipulate as a put-away pitch or a harder variation with less sweeping action.The Brewers had no answer against Steele on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field as the Cubs eked out a 1-0 victory. Steele tossed six shutout innings on a career-high 111 pitches. He scattered six hits, walked one and struck out eight.The Cubs scored their lone run off Brewers ace Corbin Burnes in the first inning on Cody Bellinger’s one-out ground out.“Two good horses, two good No. 1s, in my opinion, this year and you’ve got them going out and playing for the division — shoot, this is what we sign up for,” manager David Ross sai...

Cowen: Harvard can learn a lot from Olive Garden

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

The evidence continues to accumulate that America’s nonprofit sector is failing the country in some basic ways. Specifically, it is not doing enough to break down unjust inequalities and barriers to opportunity.Consider nonprofit hospitals. According to the data, nonprofit hospitals barely behave differently than for-profit hospitals. They do not charge systematically lower prices or somehow do more to help people. Some studies show slight differences, but it’s hard to argue that non-profit hospitals are more charitable or have more altruistic priorities.Another example: prestigious universities. At Harvard, for example, more than two-thirds of the undergraduates come from the top 20% of the income distribution, while only 4.5% come from the bottom 20%. Given that Harvard has an endowment of roughly $50 billion and enjoys tax-free status, it might be expected to distribute its benefits more evenly — if only to avoid the bad publicity. (Disclosure: I work at a nonprofit university an...

Lowry: Yes, President Harris is a legitimate issue

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:41:20 GMT

Kamala Harris is one of the most prominent people in the United States, with the potential that at any moment she could inherit some of the most fearsome powers on Earth, but no one is supposed to notice.Republicans are deemed unhealthily fixated on Harris for saying that a vote for the increasingly rickety President Joe Biden is a vote to make Kamala Harris president.“Why are Republicans so obsessed with Harris?” asked a Boston Globe columnist.Jemele Hill, the former ESPN journalist currently with The Atlantic, rapped Nikki Haley in lurid terms for warning of a President Harris: “So part of the reason racism is such a terrible sickness in this country is because politicians like this know they can rally a certain base with the fear of OH MY GOD A BLACK WOMAN MIGHT BE PRESIDENT IF YOU DON’T VOTE FOR ME.”Hill then connected Haley’s sentiment with racist violence. Q.E.D.It is simply a fact that, should Joe Biden win a second term, Kamala Harris has ...