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Denver still plans to house 1,000 people before year’s end — with help from just one micro-community

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

The push by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to move 1,000 homeless people off the streets by year’s end gained new urgency Tuesday as city officials detailed a schedule of coming encampment closures.And they confirmed that it will be converted hotels — not the micro-community sites in neighborhoods that have attracted the heaviest pushback — that they will rely upon most heavily to accomplish that goal. Just one micro-community is projected to open by the end of the month, on Dec. 31.“By the end of the month, we expect to have resolved as many as 12 total encampments and have more than 1,000 people indoors through these efforts,” Cole Chandler, Johnston’s top homelessness adviser, told members of the City Council during an untelevised meeting at city hall.As of Tuesday afternoon, the Johnston administration’s existing dashboard counted 584 people sheltered through the effort, which Johnston launched with an emergency declaration to combat homeles...

Al Michaels won’t call an NFL playoff game for NBC this season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

By JOE REEDY (AP Sports Writer)Al Michaels won’t be calling an NFL playoff game for NBC for the first time since the network returned to televising the league in 2006.NBC confirmed to The Associated Press that Michaels won’t be working the playoffs. It was first reported by the New York Post.The 79-year-old Michaels was the voice of “Sunday Night Football” from 2006 through 2021 before leaving for Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday night package when his contract expired. He has called 11 Super Bowls, including five for NBC.Michaels retained an announcer emeritus role at NBC and called an AFC wild card game last year with analyst Tony Dungy when the Jacksonville Jaguars rallied from a 27-point, first-half deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers 31-30.NBC has three games during the wild card round Jan. 14-16, including one being streamed on Peacock. The Sunday night crew of Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will call two games. Noah Eagle and Todd Blackled...

Suspects held family at gunpoint in Rancho Cucamonga home invasion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

A Rancho Cucamonga family is shaken after being held at gunpoint by two home-invasion robbers who remain on the loose Tuesday morning. Deputies responded to a robbery on the 5800 block of Rolling Pasture Place at around 12:30 a.m.Two armed male suspects entered the home and took items while holding the family at gunpoint, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.Residents are stunned and concerned as the typically quiet Inland Empire neighborhood is now the scene of an investigation.“All I’ve heard is that they were hurt, held at gunpoint, that they were tied up and that the brother or the son was hit in the head,” said Kristin Berzins, a neighbor.Residents in the neighborhood woke up to find deputies going door to door searching for surveillance video and other evidence that could lead them to the suspects' whereabouts.A Rancho Cucamonga family is shaken after being held at gunpoint by two home-invasion robbers who remain on the loose on Dec. 12, 2023. (KTLA...

Man charged with vandalism, hate crimes for antisemitic graffiti

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

A 32-year-old man has been charged with vandalism and hate crimes in connection with antisemitic drawings and graffiti on public and private property, including a Jewish synagogue, in Burbank and Glendale, authorities announced Tuesday. Klinton Allister Dion, a transient known to frequent Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, El Segundo and Los Angeles, faces two counts of vandalism of religious property.  Prosecutors also charged the 32-year-old with 10 counts of hate crime since they believe the antisemitic vandalism was done to intimidate and deter people from “freely exercising their religious beliefs,” a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office stated. Klinton Dion is seen in undated mugshots provided by the Burbank Police Department. According to authorities, Dion left behind drawings of an Iron Cross and a swastika, both Nazi symbols, at an IHOP in Glendale on Nov. 24.  “Approximately two hours later, he allegedly vandalized Temple Emanu El in...

Pod of hunting orcas, calves spotted off Los Angeles coast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

Whale watchers off the Palos Verdes Peninsula were treated to a rare sight on Monday when they spotted a pod of orcas.Harbor Breeze Cruises posted photos on Facebook and said this was their first sighting of orcas in two years.This pod of a dozen or so orcas, which the Orange County Register reported "typically spend time off Mexico traveled up to Southern California," also included a pair of calves when spotted on a trip that departed at noon, according to Harbor Breeze.A pod of about a dozen orcas was spotted off the Southern California coast on Dec. 11, 2023. (Harbor Breeze Cruises)A pod of about a dozen orcas was spotted off the Southern California coast on Dec. 11, 2023. (Harbor Breeze Cruises)A pod of about a dozen orcas was spotted off the Southern California coast on Dec. 11, 2023. (Harbor Breeze Cruises)A pod of about a dozen orcas was spotted off the Southern California coast on Dec. 11, 2023. (Harbor Breeze Cruises)A pod of about a dozen orcas was spotted off the Southern...

Far-right Polish lawmaker blows out Hanukkah candles in parliament

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

By Vanessa Gera | Associated PressWARSAW, Poland — A far-right lawmaker in the Polish parliament on Tuesday extinguished candles on a menorah that were lit for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, creating disruption and scandal as a new pro-EU government was beginning its work.All major political forces quickly denounced the unprecedented incident by Grzegorz Braun, one of the most controversial lawmakers in parliament, and said there would be no tolerance for antisemitic and xenophobic behavior in the parliament.Braun, a pro-Russian member of the Confederation party, has in the past falsely claimed that there is a plot to turn Poland into a “Jewish state” and has called for homosexuality to be criminalized.The speaker of the parliament, Szymon Holownia, called the act “absolutely scandalous” and excluded Braun from the day’s parliamentary session, expressing hopes that “he will not return soon.” He said he was reporting him to prosecutors.The p...

Russian man flies from Denmark to LAX with no ticket or passport

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

Associated PressLOS ANGELES — A Russian man who flew on a plane from Denmark to Los Angeles in November without a passport or ticket told U.S. authorities he didn’t remember how he got through security in Europe, according to a federal complaint filed by the FBI.Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 4 via Scandinavian Airlines flight 931 from Copenhagen. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer could not find Ochigava on the flight manifest or any other incoming international flights, according to the complaint filed Nov. 6 in Los Angeles federal court.He was charged with being a stowaway on an aircraft and pleaded not guilty in a Dec. 5 arraignment. A trial was scheduled for Dec. 26. A federal public defender representing Ochigava, who remained in custody Tuesday, didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.The flight crew told investigators that during the flight’s departure,...

Photos: Parishioners celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

Hundreds of Catholics parishioners attend the noon mass led by Father Ismael Gutierrez as they celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Saint Elizabeth Catholic church in Oakland on Tuesday.Mariachi Tradicion Mexicana, who’s been performing since last night and this morning to sing “Las Mañanitas,” a traditional Mexican birthday song, continue singing during the mass.Babies to women were dressed for the occasion in traditional Mexican dresses, and toddlers, boys and some male adults were dressed as Juan Diego, the indigenous man who witnessed the apparition of the Virgin on December 12, 1531, at the Hill of Tepeyac in Mexico City.Angle Franco, 1, of Oakland, dressed as Juan Diego, walks with his mother before mass is celebrated during the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Saint Elizabeth Catholic Church in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. Catholics from all over the world celebrated the apparition of the Virgin witnessed by Juan Diego, an...

U.S. Navy officer sentenced for fatal DUI crash on Highway 1 in Monterey

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

(KRON) -- A U.S. Navy Serviceman was sentenced to prison on Monday for causing a fatal head-on DUI crash on Highway 1 in Monterey, prosecutors said.A judge sentenced 25-year-old Christopher Witherspoon to serve six years behind prison bars. Witherspoon is a U.S. Navy Petty Officer and student at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, prosecutors said. On May 6 at 3:45 a.m., Witherspoon was driving drunk and the wrong-way on Highway 1 when his Toyota Camry sedan collided head-on into the victim's Mitsubishi Mirage, according to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office. Witherspoon drove northbound on Highway 1's southbound lanes near an interchange with Highway 68. "Due to his level of intoxication, Witherspoon failed to realize he was driving on the wrong side of the divided highway and crashed head-on into victim Luis Hernandez’s Mitsubishi Mirage," the District Attorney's Office wrote.The victim, 69-year-old Luis Hernandez of Seaside, was driving home from work at the t...

'Speedballs' and 'goofballs' prove deadly in San Francisco

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:14 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Fentanyl continues to be the number one cause of drug related deaths in San Francisco. But in the majority of those deaths, the drug is mixed with a stimulant like cocaine--to make "speedballs"-- or meth--to make "goofballs."Those terms aren't new to those familiar with drug addiction, but the addition of fentanyl is. The deadly drug caused a huge spike in deaths during the start of the pandemic and there’s been very little improvement.Drug addiction in San Francisco isn’t easy to solve, but it is easy to see. Tom Wolf is currently in recovery from drug addiction and says "speedballs" aren’t uncommon on the streets.“The idea behind that is people use the stimulant in the hopes that they won’t overdose or die from using the fentanyl, or they do it because they like the experience of feeling both wired and down and out at the same time," Wolf told KRON4.According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, "speedball" deaths are still happening. Officials...