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USPS to host passport fair to help ease international travel demands

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

The United States Postal Service will be hosting a passport fair on Sunday to help more Americans get passports just in time for the upcoming summer travel season.  The fair will take place at Barrington Post Office located at 200 S. Barrington Avenue in Los Angeles from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Appointments are not required. The top-ranked tourist attractions in California, according to TripAdvisor People will be assisted on a first-come, first-served basis and until the building’s 150 people capacity has been reached.Officials are recommending that people arrive early to avoid a potential line cut-off should the wait times exceed the hours of operation.To apply for a passport, customers must bring documents that prove one’s identity and U.S. citizenship.  To help streamline the passport application process, guests can also fill out forms and learn about passport costs online.Passport information can also be obtained by calling the National Passport Information Center toll-free...

Panel says California should pause organic waste recycling mandate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

California’s ambitious and expensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills may itself be headed for the trash heap.A state oversight panel is recommending that California pause implementation of Senate Bill 1383, which requires cities and counties to offer organic waste recycling, because it is “falling short” of its goals, according to a draft report obtained by KTLA.The law set benchmarks for reducing the amount of organic waste sent to landfills by 50% by 2020 and 75% by 2025, using 2014 as a baseline.Instead, only about half of local governments are participating in the program and the amount of organic waste in landfills has actually increased in recent years, the Little Hoover Commission, which is comprised of current and former politicians and policy experts, said in the draft.A truck unloads organic waste to be used for composting at the Anaerobic Composter Facility in Woodland, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)“Despite the importan...

Harry’s ‘cruelty’ to dying queen described by friend: ‘It takes the breath away’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

A friend of Queen Elizabeth II has questioned Prince Harry’s “special relationship” with the late queen and denounced his fervent claims that he and his wife Meghan Markle were a great source of delight and comfort to her in the last two years of her life.The opposite is true, the unnamed friend has explained in a new interview with the Daily Beast. The renegade Duke of Sussex caused his 96-year-old grandmother anguish when she was dying and in physical pain, mostly because of the way that he and his American wife decided to go public with their various grievances against certain members of the royal family and the institution she had represented for 70 years.If Harry truly was close to his grandmother or cared for her well-being, he should have been sensitive to the fact that she was in “a lot of pain” in the last years of her life, particularly after the April 2021 death of her husband, Prince Philip, the friend suggested to he Daily Beast.LONDON, ENG...

Takeover bank robbery led feds into Northern California woods for modern day treasure hunt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — On Sept. 16, 2020, two masked men burst into a Tri Counties Bank branch in Eureka, pointed a replica semi-automatic pistol at the clerk and left with $32,916 in cash.The robbers split up the loot relatively evenly and went their separate ways. Police eventually tracked down the pair and the money, but doing so required officers to trudge through the Northern California woods on a modern-day treasure hunt led by one of the suspects.The man who led police to more than $15,000 in cash he’d buried in the Humboldt County woods has been identified in court records as 37-year-old Wyatt Waylon Whitlow. On April 27, in a federal courthouse in San Francisco, Senior U.S. District Judge William Orrick sentenced Whitlow to five years in prison, the same sentence Whitlow’s co-defendant, Nolan Colegrove, received in 2021, court records show.Police solved the robbery in a matter of hours, after tracking down an abandoned Ford F-250 truck registered to Whitlow that ...

This East Bay city has seen a drop in violent crime. Here's why.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

RICHMOND, Calif. (KRON) -- In the midst of reports about surging crime in the Bay Area, one East Bay city has seen a reduction in gun violence leading to a dramatic drop in violent crimes, despite low police staffing levels. In the City of Richmond, proactive policing and community outreach have played pivotal roles in diminishing crime.By the end of 2023, the Richmond Police Department expects to be at its full allotted staffing level. The agency is gaining more interest from recruits and once fully trained, the additional boots on the ground will alleviate the excessive overtime officers are working now. Mugshot released of San Jose crime spree suspect; 3 dead "There's light at the end of the tunnel, which is great for the department," said Richmond PD Sergeant Donald Patchin.In the meantime, the current police force is managing through lowering levels of crime. Since the start of the year, from month-to-month, almost all violent crimes are trending down, including sexual assaul...

Silver says Morant not being charged with a crime won’t prevent NBA penalties

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Memphis guard Ja Morant not being charged with a crime for twice displaying a gun on social media will not prevent the NBA from handing down more discipline, Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday.Silver is preparing to announce whatever penalty is coming Morant’s way for the second gun incident shortly after the end of the NBA Finals. He suspended Morant for eight games in March after the Grizzlies star held a gun in a suburban Denver nightclub while streaming himself live on Instagram. Another live stream in May, this time while sharing the front seat of a car with one of his friends, saw Morant displaying a weapon again.“Waving them around, displaying them in a certain context, is not consistent with gun safety and is not the proper message that an NBA player, particularly one at Ja’s level, should be sending to the tens of millions of followers he has — and particularly when it’s an incident once again, where it’s been streamed live on social media,” Silver said. “So...

Churchill Downs moves meet to Ellis Park to examine protocols following 12 horse deaths

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

Churchill Downs will suspend racing on Wednesday and move the remainder of its spring meet to Ellis Park in order to conduct a “top-to-bottom” review of safety and surface protocols in the wake of 12 horse fatalities the past month at the home of the Kentucky Derby.No single factor has been identified as a potential cause for the fatalities or pattern detected, according to a release, but the decision was made to relocate the meet “in an abundance of caution.”“What has happened at our track is deeply upsetting and absolutely unacceptable,” Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen said in Friday’s release. “We need to take more time to conduct a top-to-bottom review of all of the details and circumstances so that we can further strengthen our surface, safety and integrity protocols.”Racing will continue at Churchill Downs through Sunday before shifting to the CDI-owned racing and gaming facility in Henderson, Kentucky. Ellis Park’s meet was scheduled to start ...

Mile-High NBA advantage: Denver altitude helps Nuggets go unbeaten at home in playoffs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Joking around before the start of the NBA Finals, Charles Barkley and Grant Hill took hits from oxygen masks they brought onto the set for a pregame TV show.But the thin air in Denver is no joke. There’s a reason it’s known as the Mile High City.The city sits 5,280 feet above sea level and there’s plenty of science that shows just how altitude impacts any athlete — including basketball players. The Denver Nuggets have been using the lung-searing elevation to their advantage for years — especially during these playoffs.With their 104-93 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday, the Nuggets improved to 9-0 at home during their postseason run. Yes, Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and friends have a lot to do with it. But altitude deserves an assist. The Nuggets try to push the pace to make the Heat feel the burn coming in from sea level.“So there’s just as much as oxygen in Denver as there is in Miami,” explained Randy Wilber, a senior sports physiologist for the U.S. O...

Biden to give Oval Office address on debt ceiling deal Friday evening after US avoids default

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden planned to praise the contentious, just-passed budget deal in a speech to the nation Friday evening, ready to sign the agreement averting the country’s first-ever government default, which would have sent shock waves through the U.S. and global economies.The measure was approved late Thursday night after passing the House in yet another late session the night before. Biden is expected to sign it at the White House on Saturday. After days of default threats, the debt limit-budget agreement was worked out by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, giving Republicans some of their spending-cut demands but holding the line on major Democratic priorities.“No one got everything they wanted but the American people got what they needed,” Biden was to say, according to excerpts released in advance by the White House. “We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse.”“We’re cutting spending and bringing deficits down,” Biden was to say. “And,...

UN calls for immediate cease-fire in Sudan and path to renewed democratic transition talks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:41 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council called Friday for an immediate cease-fire in Sudan to be followed by a permanent halt to hostilities and fresh efforts to reach a lasting democratic political settlement in the conflict-wracked country.The U.N.’s most powerful body strongly condemned all attacks on civilians since fighting between rival generals vying for power broke out in mid-April and called for “rapid, safe and unhindered access throughout Sudan” to help millions in need.The fighting has killed at least 866 civilians and wounded thousands more, according to the Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate which tracks civilian casualties. And more than 1.3 million people have fled their homes to try to escape the violence, with over a million still in the country and 320,000 in neighboring Egypt, South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.The press statement from the council was issued before the c...