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EU pays the final tranche of Ukraine budget support for 2023. Future support is up in the air

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Thursday paid the final tranche of a multibillion-euro support package to Ukraine to help keep its war-ravaged economy afloat this year, leaving the country without a financial lifeline from Europe as of next month.The EU has sent 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) each month in 2023 to ensure macroeconomic stability and rebuild critical infrastructure destroyed in the war. It’s also helping to pay wages and pensions, keep hospitals and schools running, and provide shelter for people forced from their homes.To ensure that Ukraine has predictable, longer-term income, the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, proposed to provide the country with 50 billion euros ($55 billion.) At a summit last week, 26 of the 27 nation bloc’s leaders endorsed the plan, but Hungary imposed a veto.The decision came as a major blow to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky, days after he had failed to persuade U.S. lawmakers to approve an additional $61 bill...

Bally's moving to 24/7 operation next week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

CHICAGO — Full-time gambling will begin at Chicago's casino in River North next week.Bally's temporary casino has been operating on a 20-hour schedule since it opened in September.Now, the Illinois Gaming Board has approved gambling there around the clock, like most casinos.Bally's Chicago will move to a 24/7 operation on Wednesday. The casino says the move will help boost profits. Eighty-six thousand people visited the casino last month. Art mystery solved: Owner of Wrigley Field painting meets artist behind it thanks to WGN The permanent Bally's complex, on the site of the old Tribune Freedom Center, is expected to open in 2026.

Cruise passengers return to South Carolina, find cars totaled from flooding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Some cruise ship passengers in Charleston, South Carolina, returned home from their vacation to cars that had been totaled because of flooding.Stephanie Royal and her husband travelled to Charleston from North Carolina for a weekend cruise in the Bahamas on the Carnival Sunshine. The guests returned to Charleston Monday and were met with an unexpected discovery.“When we got to the parking lot, we basically were told that nobody’s cars would start. That they had been flooded,” said Royal. Carnival cruise ship rescues 6 people after small cargo boat capsizes Like many other locations in downtown Charleston, the parking lot belonging to the South Carolina Ports Authority flooded during a Nor’easter that caused heavy rain, significant flooding and record tide levels on Sunday.Royal said passengers were stuck in the lot for hours, trying to figure out what to do next since their cars had been flooded as well.“There was a couple of people in the parking lot tha...

China's earthquake survivors endure frigid temperatures and mourn the dead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

YANGWA, China (AP) — Surrounded by destruction, survivors of an earthquake mourned the dead and endured a frigid cold in temporary shelters Wednesday, unsure how to rebuild their lives in the remote mountains of northwest China.“Look at this,” said Han Zhongmin, retrieving some belongings with his wife from the ruins of their house, built six years ago in Yangwa village. "My house turned into this overnight.”Houses caved in and crumbled in a Monday night earthquake that killed at least 135 people and injured more than 900 others. Most of the casualties were in Gansu province and the rest in the neighboring province of Qinghai.In the predawn darkness, Ma Lianqiang stood next to the body of his deceased wife wrapped in blankets in a tent-like temporary shelter lit by a single overhead light. His wife was hit and buried by debris in her mother’s house, where she had gone to stay because she was ill.Ma and other members of his extended family survived despite extensive damage ...

Other voices: Revenge? Republicans need to chart a path forward

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

Kevin McCarthy, recently deposed as House speaker, has urged Donald Trump to move away from a message of “revenge.” McCarthy was referencing a speech Trump gave last month in which the former president told supporters he would be their “retribution” if he again wins the Oval Office.“If you want to become president,” McCarthy told The Wall Street Journal this week, “it has to be about rebuilding, restoring and renewing America. If it’s revenge, you won’t get the opportunity.”The California Republican makes a compelling case. Let’s hope that House Republicans — in addition to Trump — heed his advice.The House last week approved a formal impeachment inquiry regarding President Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s various business dealings. This is payback for the unprecedented attempts by congressional Democrats to remove Trump from office.Republicans should continue to probe Hunter Biden’s ...

Girl who survived Thornton Walmart shooting to release new song about gun violence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

Denver child hip-hop artist London Monroe witnessed a tragedy when she was younger. Now, she’s using the experience to spread awareness about the nationwide epidemic of gun violence.The 9-year-old’s new track “Dance and Live” draws upon her experience during the 2017 mass shooting in a Thornton Walmart Supercenter. London and her father, Marcus Smith, were inside the store that night when the gunman opened fire and killed three, but neither was injured.“That incident we went through, it’s always been in the back of both of our minds,” Smith said on a phone call Dec. 14. “That had a huge impact on both of our lives, given the situation and the circumstances we were put in.”Smith, a hip-hop artist who performs under the name M6, noted that he writes, records, engineers and masters all of London’s music by himself. Additionally, Smith added, he also does the graphics, web design, photography and video editing for his daughter&...

Five Colorado synagogues subject to “hoax” bomb threats

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

Five Colorado synagogues were among the hundreds of Jewish institutions across the United States that received “hoax” bomb threats over the weekend, according to the Anti-Defamation League and Secure Community Network.Synagogues in Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and Morrison received threats, ADL Mountain States Regional Director Scott Levin said Wednesday.The organization has seen reports of antisemitism triple since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel, Levin said.“The bomb threats take away from the work of law enforcement and come at a time when the Jewish community is already feeling beleaguered and anxious,” Levin said in a statement. “These hateful antisemitic swatting attacks and bomb threats against our religious and cultural institutions, which are the mainstays of Jewish life in America, are particularly painful.”The Anti-Defamation League reported about 400 false threats in the United States, according to CNN, while Jewish security group Secure Community Network annou...

6 new Colorado laws that go into effect on Jan. 1

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

Two dozen new Colorado laws — concerning issues including how tractors are repaired, how evictions are handled and how elections are run — go into effect on New Year’s Day, shortly before state legislators return to the Capitol and begin the lawmaking process all over again.The bills that are set to kick in next year touch on some of the most pressing issues legislators debated last year. One measure allows tenants facing eviction to participate in the court process remotely. Another addresses a loophole in state law that had been exploited by predatory lenders.Others address health care costs, treatment for eating disorders and how doctors treat patients while those they are unconscious.Here’s a look at six of the new laws taking effect Jan. 1.Right to RepairIn April, Colorado became the first state to pass a law giving farmers and agricultural workers the legal ability to repair their own tractors and equipment. Sponsored by Democrats Rep. Brianna Titone an...

With Alma Fonda Fina, Denver chef elevates Guadalajara specialties he grew up eating

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

Johnny Curiel grew up in his parents’ “fonda” – “a mom-and-pop place, where blue-collar workers go for lunch” – in downtown Guadalajara, Mexico.“I was inspired by what they did, but not necessarily the lifestyle,” Curiel added. “But the more I started growing up, the more I fell in love with hospitality.”Curiel’s parents still own their fonda in Guadalajara. And after years of working for notable restaurateurs in Denver, including Troy Guard, Richard Sandoval and Dave Query, Curiel and his wife, Kasie, have opened their own mom-and-pop spot here.Alma Fonda Fina debuted earlier this month at 2556 15th St., in the former Truffle Table space, which closed in October after 10 years. The contemporary Mexican restaurant elevates what Curiel called the typical “scoop-and-serve” fonda you would find in Mexico.“It’s the food I grew up eating presented differently, but it’s not pretentious,” Curiel said. “I wanted people to understand the way that I eat and what I enjo...

Aurora’s new effort to stop gun violence targets the small number of individuals who drive that violence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:40:55 GMT

Officials in Aurora launched a new violence reduction program this fall that aims to decrease shootings by focusing attention on the tiny slice of the city’s residents who are the most involved in gun violence: gang members.People associated with gangs make up fewer than 1% of Aurora residents but were involved in at least 36% of the city’s homicides between January 2022 and April and 28% of its non-fatal shootings between December 2022 and April, according to a July report the city commissioned from the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College, a research center that scores of cities across the U.S. have hired to help set up similar efforts to reduce gun violence.Aurora’s program, dubbed Standing Against Violence Every Day, or SAVE, started in earnest in September and is a joint effort — led by the Aurora Police Department — between a slew of city and regional agencies.The program aims to identify the young people in Aurora — mos...