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Jan. 6 rioter dubbed ‘bullhorn lady’ sentenced to more than 4 years in prison

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

(The Hill) – The Pennsylvania woman who used a bullhorn to direct rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison.U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth convicted Rachel Marie Powell on all nine counts in July. She was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of government property, entering a restricted area with a weapon and engaging in violence on Capitol grounds.Powell waived her right to a jury trial. She was nicknamed “bullhorn lady” for her use of a bullhorn directing others around the Capitol on Jan. 6.The Justice Department released a memo last week that said it would be seeking eight years in prison for Powell because of “her conduct on January 6, 2021, including her violent altercations with law enforcement at the West Plaza, her smashing of a window at the Lower West Terrace with an ice axe and a cardboard pole, her encouragement and instructions to other rioters on how to ‘take’ the U.S. Capitol, and for h...

Terrell Owens, NFL Hall of Famer, hit by car in California

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – NFL legend Terrell Owens was hit by a car in Southern California on Monday night in what law enforcement is investigating as a deliberate act, authorities confirmed to KTLA.Owens was playing pickup basketball in Calabasas, which lies roughly 30 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, when he apparently got into an argument with another man on the court, TMZ first reported.After the game, the other man got into his car and drove into the former wide receiver's knee, according to TMZ. Owens wasn’t seriously hurt and didn’t require a trip to the hospital.Deputies took a report of an assault with a deadly weapon, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told KTLA. The driver had not been arrested as of Tuesday morning. Is crime going up in America? Some types are, new FBI data shows Owen, 49, played 15 seasons in the NFL, racking up nearly 16,000 receiving yards and 153 touchdowns. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.In Aug...

IRS to invite some taxpayers to try free e-file tax return system

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS plans to invite select taxpayers across 13 states to try out the agency's pilot electronic free file tax return system beginning in January.The agency estimates that hundreds of thousands of taxpayers will participate in the limited rollout of the program for the 2024 filing season.The IRS faces intense blowback from private tax preparation companies that have made billions from charging people to use their software. The introduction of a government-run option could upend the industry and fundamentally change the way taxpayers interact with IRS.All eyes are on the agency to get it right — and avoid a roll-out reminiscent of the disastrous healthcare.gov website rollout a decade ago, when many users encountered challenges accessing and using the website.“The plan is to roll it out in increments that get larger and larger, consistent with how products like this are rolled out in the private sector,” IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said on a...

Council to vote on city manager search next step

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin City Council is expected to vote Thursday on whether to move forward with a search firm that will help the City recruit and hire its next city manager. City of Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said Tuesday that the City received 12 applications from search firms but ultimately decided to move forward with Mosaic Public Partners. Council will have final say on whether the City can move forward with that selection. Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk is out, some city council members say Mosaic Public Partners has previously helped the City with executive searches, including the hiring of former Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon, the mayor said. The firm estimated it will take roughly 3-4 months for it to submit an offer to its top candidate after it gets started. A city manager could be named as soon as a month after that, the mayor said. Still, the mayor said they've built flexibility into the timeline to account for holidays, not disrupting the budget process and o...

Mexican, English, German are largest ethnic groups in Texas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Mexican, English and German are the three largest racial or ethnic groups in Texas, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.The agency reported state- and county-level data based on results from the 2020 Census, which found Texas was home to more than 29.1 million people.The state's population has since passed 30 million, with July 2022 estimates, released in January, showing 30,029,572 people live in the state.For the first time, respondents to the census in 2020 who reported "White" as their race could write in additional detail, such as "English," "Italian" or "Irish." Population estimates show which areas of Texas grew the most in 2022 Nationwide, more than 46.6 million people said they had English ethnicity alone or in combination with another group, while 45 million said German and 38.6 million said Irish.Those three groups also had the highest totals in Texas, when Hispanics or Latinos are excluded. More than 3.5 million people living in Texas said the...

Local teen wins international Fortnite contest, splits $1 million with gaming partner 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) – A Round Rock teenager and his gaming partner won an international Fortnite competition in Denmark on Sunday, snagging $1 million in prize money. Cooper Smith, 16, competed with his 19-year-old partner from Michigan, Matthew "Mero" Faitel, in the Fortnite Champion Series 2023 in Copenhagen, Denmark, from Oct. 13 through Oct. 15, beating out dozens of the best Fortnite players from all over the world. “I put in a lot of preparation. I mean, I was playing like six to eight hours a day [and] watching others,” Smith said. “We did not expect to win at all. Like, we went in this tournament, maybe expecting 15th place, to be honest. And I think we just, you know, came out on top.”Cooper Smith, 16, competed with his 19-year-old partner from Michigan, Matthew "Mero" Faitel, in the Fortnite Champion Series 2023 in Copenhagen, Denmark, from Oct. 13 through Oct. 15, beating out dozens of the best Fortnite players from all over the world (Photo Courtesy Lance...

Volunteers, UnitedHealthcare remake Dunning Park Playground in St. Paul

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

A partnership with KABOOM!, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that helps establish playgrounds in neighborhoods that need them, is bringing as many as 18 play spaces to the city of St. Paul. The first was unveiled Friday outside the Dunning Recreation Center, where a weathered playground was razed and fully replaced over three days by upwards of 150 city residents, city staff and employees of UnitedHealthcare and Sierra apparel.Located at 1221 Marshall Ave. near Central High School, the new Dunning Park Playground is expected to host some 1,300 kids each year.In August, children in the historically-Black Rondo neighborhood were invited to share drawings of their dream play spaces with project organizers. The ideas were later integrated into the playground design.The playground came together with the financial, technical and advocacy support of St. Paul Parks and Recreation, the St. Paul Parks Conservancy, UnitedHealthcare, Sierra and KABOOM! Through partnerships, St. Paul and KABOO...

DEC: 10 hiking essentials every traveler should know

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. (NEWS10) - As days get shorter, a higher number of Forest Ranger incidents involve hikers staying out on trails later than is safe, stuck in diminishing daylight without proper light sources. On Thursday, rangers rescued a group of hikers on Crane Mountain, near Johnstown in the Adirondacks, under those circumstances. Last weekend, a group of 12 was rescued after getting lost on Owl's Head Mountain with minimal clothing and food, at a scene that did not clear until midnight. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! With incidents like those in mind, this week the Department of Environmental Conservation sent out a reminder: If you need a checklist, they've got one. The DEC's "10 Hiking Essentials" list is a roster of items that can make a difference on any hike. Even if one is planned as a short excursion, a wrong turn or burst of unexpected weather can change everything.The DEC's list actually offers a lot more than 1...

Want to buy a house? Here's how much you need to earn in St. Louis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA/NEXSTAR) — Buying a house in the U.S. isn't cheap, and according to a report from Redfin, it is now harder than ever to afford one.Sky-high mortgage rates and rising home prices have made it more difficult than ever, especially for first-time home buyers, Redfin said in the report, which was released Tuesday.The average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan rose to 7.57% from 7.49% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said earlier this month. It's the highest level in more than two decades.To afford a median-priced U.S. home now, Redfin said buyers must earn $114,627, up 15% ($15,285) from a year ago and up more than 50% since the start of the pandemic. The real estate website said a typical household earns about $40,000 less than that.St. Louis stats:Annual income required to afford median-priced home: $70,912Median home-sale price: $260,000 This is the wealthiest person in your state, new Forbes report shows "Hourly wages have risen in 2023, but not nearly a...

Eric DeValkenaere loses conviction appeal for extrajudicial killing, judge orders him arrested

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:39 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A white former detective in Missouri who shot and killed a Black man in 2019 has lost an appeal of his conviction despite unusual support from the state’s Republican attorney general, with judges on Tuesday ordering the ex-officer placed under arrest.Eric J. DeValkenaere was found guilty in 2021 of second-degree manslaughter and armed criminal action in the death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb. Lamb was parking a pickup truck in his Kansas City backyard when the officer shot him after reports Lamb was in a car chase with his girlfriend. The judge who found DeValkenaere guilty in a bench trial said police were the initial aggressors and had a duty to retreat, but DeValkenaere illegally used deadly force instead.Prosecutors and Lamb’s family have alleged a handgun was planted after the shooting, but that issue was not addressed by Jackson County Circuit Court Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs when he convicted the detective.On Tuesday, a three-judge panel ruled unani...