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China health officials lash out at WHO, defend virus search

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese health officials defended their search for the source of the COVID-19 virus and lashed out Saturday at the World Health Organization after its leader said Beijing should have shared genetic information earlier.The WHO comments were “offensive and disrespectful,” said the director of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shen Hongbing. He accused the WHO of “attempting to smear China” and said it should avoid helping others “politicize COVID-19.”The global health body’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said March 17 that newly disclosed genetic material gathered in Wuhan in central China, where the first cases were detected in late 2019, “should have been shared three years ago.”“As a responsible country and as scientists, we have always actively shared research results with scientists from around the world,” Shen said at a news conference.The origins of COVID-19 are still debated and the focus of bitter political d...

Easter Sunday will be dry

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- There is a very low chance of rain this morning. A brief period of dry weather takes over the forecast from this afternoon to tomorrow evening.The highest rain total since Wednesday is 5.96" at the Sam Gideon Power Plant at Lake Bastrop followed by 5.67" at Buckners Creek near Muldoon. Amounts of 3 to 5 inches were common in our eastern counties. The Hill Country did not have as much with many locations under one inch. Austin's Camp Mabry picked up 2.53" Thursday and Friday. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport's recorded 2.49' Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.Central Texas rainfall totalsIt is Easter weekend. Temperatures will be much warmer this afternoon and even warmer tomorrow. Today's normal high is 79°Sunrise Easter Sunday will be 7:11. The sky will be overcast with patchy fog.Tomorrow's sunrise will be under an overcast sky with areas of fog but no rainThe rest of Easter Sunday will be mostly cloudy with highs reaching the low to mid 70s. There will be no ...

Charges upgraded against Ely college student who mowed down 3 deer on roadway

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

ELY, Minn. — Charges have been upgraded in the case of the Ely college student who intentionally rammed his pickup truck into three deer on an Ely road last month, all of which were paralyzed and had to be euthanized.The Duluth News Tribune first reported the case March 27 when Casey Meadows, 20, faced a single misdemeanor charge of chasing or injuring wildlife by use of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor with a $300 penalty, and was also issued state restitution orders of $500 for each deer, for a total penalty of $1,800.The single misdemeanor citation would have allowed Meadows to plead guilty and pay his fines without appearing in court.But due to public outcry that the charges and penalties weren’t strong enough to fit the crime, Minnesota Conservation Officer Anthony Bermel has now rescinded the original charge filed in St. Louis County District Court and recharged Meadows with three separate counts of the same crime.They are still misdemeanors, but by stacking the crimes, Meadows ...

Opinion: Rediscovering Denver’s hidden gems in retirement

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

Since retiring a year ago from Colorado Public Radio and the daily grind of reporting the news, I’ve been asked many times if I miss it.Often the person doing the asking is another journalist who, like I did, proudly identifies with the only profession that has First Amendment protections.Early on in my career, I couldn’t imagine not being a member of the Fourth Estate.I relished finding, deciphering, and passing on relevant information to listeners, especially stories that had a direct impact on their lives.An example is The Marshall Fire in Boulder County on December 30, 2021 in which two people died and more than 1,000 homes were destroyed.It was our duty to keep abreast of the fast-moving flames that forced hundred of Coloradans to run for their lives.I will never forget the wave of sadness that washed over me when the first damage assessments came in and I tried not to fall apart on the air, thinking about the misery.My board operator heard the sorrow in my voice and noticed th...

CDOT finds a low-cost answer to its cellular dead zones, making canyon calling possible

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

Flooding and massive rockslides in Glenwood Canyon in 2021 cut fiber optic lines and created a communications nightmare for the Colorado Department of Transportation, making it hard to stay in touch and share data with crews as they worked on the emergency response and later on repairs.And every day, along long stretches of Colorado highways, cellular service can be spotty or nonexistent, causing employees and vehicles to disappear off the radar screen. For a snowplow driver navigating an isolated road in a blizzard, it can be the equivalent of a pilot losing all contact with the control tower in a thunderstorm. No one would hear a distress call.Since last fall, the department has been testing a South Korean communications technology, supplied through a Denver startup called Eucast Global, along a problematic four-mile stretch of highway from the Bakerville to Silver Plume exits, east of the Eisenhower Tunnel, where the terrain makes it difficult for cellular signals.“The test...

Anatomy of a cheeseburger and fries: How inflation has pushed up the cost of this very American meal

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

Long gone are the days when a burger cost less than $10.When James Samara and Brendan McManus opened The Mighty Colorado Burger inside Denver Beer Co.’s Arvada location in 2017, a basic cheeseburger with fries cost $9. Now, the combo is $12, which Samara said is to make up for higher employee wages, food and distribution costs.The entire restaurant industry has been struggling to keep up under a pile of economic issues since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, including supply chain issues, labor shortages, the rising cost of minimum wage and an increase in the price of ingredients.“It’s the perfect storm,” Samara said. “We’re paying our staff much more, and their cost of living is higher, and we’re spending much more on our ingredients, so unfortunately it just has to get passed on to the customer at some point.”The Mighty Colorado Burger, which operates out of an Airstream trailer inside the brewery, isn’t the only restaurant charging double-digit sums for a burg...

After the storms: UC Botanical Garden’s rescue operation to save a paradise lost

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

Decades of tender care built the UC Botanical Garden’s Asian collection, a premier compilation of some of the world’s most precious plants.Then, in just an instant, a toppled giant redwood tree turned the delicate botanical gem into a disaster zone.Experts are now converging on the storm-damaged site, perched high in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus to pull bruised and battered plants from the wreckage in a race to save what remains.Eric Schulz, a horticulturist at UC Botanical Gardens, takes a break before continuing to clear fallen branches at UC Botanical Gardens in Berkeley. Winds toppled part of a large coast redwood on March 21, widespread damage was inflicted on the Garden’s Asian collection. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) “I dig through the debris to find where the plant is located and what is salvageable from it,” said propagator Susan Malisch. Some plants get remedial pruning. Others are rushed back to the garden’s nursery, where cuttings c...

Editorial: Google, Facebook must share profits for local journalism to survive

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

Imagine you are a pie-maker. You buy the cherries, sugar, flour and other ingredients. You rent space for your industrial kitchen and purchase ovens. You hire bakers. And after your pies are ready, the only grocery store in the area sells them. And keeps the money.That is a simplified analogy of the story of local journalism today. We’re the pie-makers, and Big Tech companies such as Google and Facebook are the grocery stores. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but, essentially, they’re taking our news product, putting it on their sites and selling advertising with it. And reaping the profits.Which helps explain why local news operations across California and the nation are struggling to survive. And why California has lost over 100 newspapers in the last decade. It’s time for state lawmakers to change this paradigm — to make Big Tech pay for the journalism it’s using to drive its advertising.Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, is trying to ensure that happe...

Opinion: An AI moratorium is not the answer to the technology’s threats

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

Hundreds of technology leaders and researchers, including Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk, recently released a letter calling for a moratorium on artificial intelligence development, citing the risk to human society.There are legitimate concerns about AI impact on humanity, but a moratorium is unrealistic, especially while there is a reasonable alternative.Jerry McNerney served in Congress representing part of the East Bay from 2007-23. For six years, he was chairperson of the House AI Caucus. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, file)First, let’s look at those concerns. There’s worry that AI will dehumanize society by making us too soft or overly dependent on technology. AI could benefit a very few while eliminating jobs or replacing them with menial low-paying ones. AI applications could be biased, harming specific ethnic groups.AI could be used in fraud and other crimes. AI could manipulate the political discourse causing social instability. AI could be used in autonomous weapons on and off...

Masters Live Updates | At 63, Couples likely to make cut

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:39:09 GMT

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Live updates from Saturday’s second and third rounds of the Masters (all times local):8:30 a.m.It appears that Fred Couples will be playing the rest of the weekend at the Masters.The 1992 champion finished his second round with a bogey, leaving him at 1 over for the championship and inside the projected cut line. That would make the 63-year-old Couples the oldest player to make the cut at Augusta National, beating the mark that Bernhard Langer set during the 2020 tournament by about 3 1/2 months.It also would be the 31st career cut for Couples, trailing only Jack Nicklaus’ record of 37. At one point, Couples made 23 straight cuts to tie Gary Player for the longest such streak at the Masters. Five-time champion Tiger Woods can join them by making the cut Saturday. He had six holes left in the cold, rainy weather and was right on the projected cut line of 2 over. Woods has never missed the cut as a professional.Players are trying to finish the second ro...