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APD's Mounted Patrol unit trains for managing big crowds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

SAN MARCOS, Texas (KXAN) --- On Wednesday, dozens of police officers from across the state were in San Marcos training with their horses. During the annual Mounted Patrol Training, officers ran through drills and formations in an effort to help them better prepare for managing large crowds. APD said it currently has 14 police officers, two supervisors and 16 horses in its Mounted Patrol Unit. (Photo: KXAN) "Some of the formations that you saw were column formations, line formations and wedge formations. They're formations that are very effective in crowd management," APD Mounted Patrol Unit Sergeant Al Garibay said. Garibay said this helps them break up crowds on Sixth Street during the weekend or if there are protests. "Basically [it] allows us to safely move the pedestrians that are on the street, and encourage them to move to the sidewalks," Garibay said. "In cases of like a riot or protest, we can effectively move them without people getting hurt."APD Corporal James Pittman said...

How Mexico's agriculture burn affects Austin local weather

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The haze happens every spring and it can make you feel bad.The sky loses that beautiful azure, blue hue. Though its occurrence doesn't originate in the Austin area, if the wind is blowing just right, Central Texas and a good deal of the state will still see the haze's effects. Why is the sky so hazy in Austin? The Texas Commission On Environmental Quality attributes this recent haze to "a good amount of atmospheric moisture" helping to partially contribute to the hazy sky. The other factor that led to the haze partnering with the clouds is smoke that wafted into our sky from the agriculture burning ongoing in northern Mexico. These fires occur in the northern part of the country as well as the Yucatan. A south-to-southeast wind flow will cause the smoke from the Yucatan to travel across the western Gulf to our coastline and further into the coastal plain on the Interstate 35 corridor.South and southeast winds bring in agriculture burning smoke from MexicoThe south...

Ravens sign rookie WR Zay Flowers, completing six-player draft class

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

The Ravens’ first draft pick was their last to sign, but all six members of their 2023 class are now officially under contract.Rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers, the No. 22 overall pick in April’s draft, signed his rookie contract Wednesday, the team announced. It’s a four-year, $14 million fully guaranteed deal with a $7.2 million signing bonus, his agent confirmed to The Baltimore Sun.Flowers, a South Florida native and former Boston College star, headlines a group that includes Clemson linebacker Trenton Simpson (third round, No. 86), Ole Miss defensive end Tavius Robinson (fourth round, No. 124), Stanford cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly (fifth round, No. 157), Oregon offensive lineman Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu (sixth round, No. 199) and Southern California offensive lineman Andrew Vorhees (seventh round, No. 229).It’s the Ravens’ smallest class since 2009 when they also selected six players.The 5-foot-9, 182-pound Flowers joins a revamped wide receiver group ...

Bret Stephens: Lock him up

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

For many years, but especially the past three, conservatives have warned of the dangers of a criminal justice system that is overly reluctant to put and keep dangerous people in prison. The law is the law. Violations of it should be prosecuted. We are, and must remain, the land of equal justice, not social justice dictated by the ideological fixations of angry Americans.These same conservatives should try being consistent when it comes to the federal indictment of Donald Trump.It is stunning to read the grand jury’s 37-count indictment, with its depictions of a former president treating the law with the contemptuous disdain of a mafia don — but with none of a don’s concern for covering his tracks. It is even more stunning to hear what some of those in the legal community who have been defenders of Trump have to say about it.Alan Dershowitz: “It is the kind of evidence every defense lawyer dreads and every prosecutor dreams about,” the retired Harvard law professor wrote of Trump’s r...

Other voices: Fraud and graft thrived during the pandemic, and beyond

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

In these days of rampant virtue signaling, politicians, corporations and socially wired individuals all try to convince you that they care the most about doing the right thing. Alas, while we’ve all been recovering from the COVID-19 crisis, plenty of old-fashioned grifters have seized the day.On Sunday The Associated Press released a stunning investigation into pandemic fraud finding that large numbers of Americans — of all stripes, it appears — fraudulently helped themselves to colossal chunks of federal COVID-19 relief money.Any huge program created in an emergency is bound to encounter some corrupt actors, but the scale of the fraud in this instance indicates that the federal government did a thoroughly lousy job of erecting the necessary protections as it cut check after check to the unworthy. The news agency called it “the greatest grift in U.S. history,” and that’s saying something.The AP estimated that fraudsters potentially stole more than...

Stephen L. Carter: How Trump’s indictment compares to other espionage act cases

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

Is former President Donald Trump being treated unfairly by the special counsel? That’s the claim being made by many of his supporters following his indictment last week on felony charges related to hundreds of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate.The critics are right that the case is unusual, but the former president’s own behavior helps distinguish it from most of the precedents. Allow me to explain.I should say at the start that I don’t root for a particular side in criminal cases. But I do believe that like cases should be prosecuted alike.We should be clear, moreover, that the question of whether Trump is being treated differently is an argument only about the 31 counts of the indictment that charge the former president with willfully retaining sensitive documents in violation of Title 18, section 793(e), of the United States Code — a part of the Espionage Act. The six other counts involve obstruction of justice and false statements to inv...

Letters: Nothing for the actual victims of opioid abuse?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

Does any money go to the actual victims?In the late ’90s Minnesota sued the tobacco companies and received $6.5 billion. The money was divided between the state of Minnesota and Blue Cross-Blue Shield. It’s tough to find out how Minnesota spent the money. Some say Medicaid was paid back any expenditures and Blue Cross was paid for the losses it occurred.Insurance companies collect premiums and and over a course of time they make the losses back by raising premiums. My point here is the government and the insurance companies were rewarded but not one victim of addicted tobacco users or their families who suffered the effects by either death or health problems and financial loss got a plug nickle.Now again we have another suit about opioid addiction and deaths where the $416 million will be rewarded to state of Minnesota, 25 percent, and the rest going to cities and counties in Minnesota to be spent as they see fit.Again not one cent to victims or the families who suffered...

Carlos Correa’s hot streak lifts Twins

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

Rocco Baldelli is firm in this: He’s never going to lay all the responsibility, all the discussion about the offense or all the discussion on the pitching on one person.But Carlos Correa?The Twins shortstop has no problem putting that responsibility on himself.“I always put pressure on myself after tough losses,” Correa said last week. “I felt like if I played better, we always have a chance to win. I feel like all the games I’ve contributed in, I’ve played really good in, we’ve won all those games. After every loss, I kind of blame myself.”Lately, the Twins have the shortstop to credit.He now has two huge home runs in the past week, one an eighth-inning grand slam in Toronto and the other a walk-off home run on Tuesday, to propel the Twins to victory, along with a solo shot against the Tampa Bay Rays. In Wednesday’s 4-2 win over the Brewers, the shortstop smacked a triple off the right-field wall and with a fortuitous carom, a pair of runs scored on the play.“I’ve been feeling real...

Memorial all-abilities playground groundbreaking in Colonie

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

Tragedy brought them together but hope keeps them going. They call themselves Angel’s army. Their mission: to build a playground that children of all physical abilities can enjoy. Children like Charlie Fernandez. The first grader went blind before dying of neuroblastoma in 2021. Now the special playground will be built by the Where Angels Play Foundation, outside her alma mater, Saddlewood Elementary School. MORE NEWS from NEWS10“Any time a child is diagnosed or anything, things like this really show you that it can be a nice place and there's a lot of good people in the world” said Charlie's mom Danielle Fernandez. The playground will feature modified amenities such as braille counting panels for the visually impaired, and communication boards for the verbally challenged. Crews dug out what will be a path to a ramp for wheelchair accessibility. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! The volunteers were here out of compassion, so...

Rensselaer County leaders express worry over Burdett Birth Center closing plan

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:58 GMT

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Mary Fran Wachunas handles all things health in Rensselaer County as the Public Health director, but she says she was surprised as anyone to suddenly learn St. Peter’s Health Partners intends to shut down the Burdett Birth Center at Samaritan Hospital. "[I was] surprised at the fact that St. Peter’s didn’t reach out to public health to tell us what their plans were," she says to NEWS10's Mikhaela Singleton. A statement from St. Peter’s Health Partners says the system can no longer maintain its maternity services in Troy, citing COVID effects on finances and staffing, as well as the Burdett Center operating at a “substantial loss”. The full statement reads:The COVID pandemic has had a significant impact on health care, including financial and staffing effects that continue to be felt today. However, even before COVID, maternity services at Samaritan Hospital were operating at a substantial loss. And while St. Peter's Health Partners has made many efforts over t...