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New speaker scrambles as gov’t shutdown approaches

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

By Stephen Groves and Kevin Freking | Associated PressWASHINGTON — With just a week left to avert a government shutdown, new House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing his first big test as he tries to win House Republican support for a short-term funding plan — a task that looks increasingly difficult amid stubborn divisions in the party over federal spending.Federal agencies are making plans for a shutdown that would shutter government services and halt paychecks for millions of federal workers and military troops.It’s a disruption that Johnson — just two weeks into his job running the House — has said he wants to avoid. Yet House lawmakers left Washington for the weekend without a plan in hand after several setbacks. Johnson is still sounding out support among Republicans about what to do and is expected to unveil funding legislation over the weekend, according to Republicans granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.The shrinking calendar gives Johnson, a Louisiana Rep...

Starting Sunday, COVID protection may cost Californians

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

Starting this weekend, Californians may face additional costs for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing outside their health plan network — a potential unwelcome surprise for those who’ve put off that shot but plan to get it before Thanksgiving.Under the federal public health emergency, medical plans were required to provide the shots, treatments and tests to people without added costs. That federal health emergency ended May 11, but California law required plans to continue covering COVID vaccines, treatments and testing even outside their networks for six months after the health emergency expired.Now that moment has come, and starting Sunday, those who seek COVID care outside of their health plan networks — which might happen if your provider doesn’t have the vaccine in stock, or appointments are backed up — may end up having to pay for it.“After November 11, which is six months after the end of the public health emergency, enrollees can be ...

SF Ferris wheel moves from Golden Gate Park to Fisherman's Wharf

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The Ferris wheel formerly in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park has a new home. The SkyStar Ferris Wheel is now located at Pier 43 in Fisherman's Wharf with its first official day of operation on Friday, Nov. 10.The 150-foot Ferris wheel had been operating at Golden Gate Park's Music Concourse since 2020, the company said on its website. The opening date for the Ferris wheel at 2860 Taylor St. comes just in time for the APEC Summit -- which is expected to bring in thousands of visitors to San Francisco -- that begins Saturday. APEC traffic, wet storms, protests: San Franciscans brace for rough week Tickets start at $12 for seniors (65 and over) and children under 12 years old, according to SkyStar Wheel's website. General admission is $18, and children under two years old are free.SkyStar Wheel also offers a VIP experience for $50 per person but only for a minimum of two riders. Reservations are required. Each VIP gondola can carry up to five guests.Tickets c...

A longtime community staple, this Montgomery County McDonald’s will close in December

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

A McDonald’s restaurant that some customers described as the cornerstone of a Potomac, Maryland, community is expected to close its doors at the end of next month. An online petition to keep the restaurant open said that Edens, which owns the shopping center, is refusing to renew the McDonald’s lease for a “reasonable duration to accommodate the owner’s renovation demands.”The petition was taped to the walls near the entrance of the McDonald’s on Friday afternoon and has been signed over 1,000 times since it was posted Thursday.A petition to save the Potomac, Maryland, McDonald’s. (WTOP/Scott Gelman)WTOP has contacted the restaurant’s owner for comment on lease negotiations. Local site Store Reporter was the first to report news of the imminent closure. “This has become a staple for the community, the seniors, the little kids, the nannies, the high schoolers,” said Monika Walters, who works upstairs at Bethesda Pediatrics.In a statement, an Edens spokeswoman said that wh...

Jets’ defense remains a steady, playmaking force while the offense struggles to find its way

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Robert Saleh raised some eyebrows a few weeks ago when he declared the New York Jets have “embarrassed” some of the NFL’s top quarterbacks this season.That bold statement by the Jets’ head coach wasn’t far-fetched then. And it still holds true.While the Jets’ offense has struggled to do much of anything, the defense has more than held up its end as one of the top units in football — and is a major reason why New York enters its game Sunday night at Las Vegas at 4-4 and in the playoff hunt.“They’re obviously playing lights out,” quarterback Zach Wilson said of the defense, “and we have to be better for them.”The Jets held the Chargers’ Justin Herbert to a career-low 136 yards passing last Monday night in New York’s 27-6 loss to Los Angeles. He was just the latest quarterback to have a tough time against the Jets, who have also made the likes of Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts look rather ordinary.They will take...

Wisconsin snubs bourbon by elevating brandy old fashioned to state cocktail status

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — In Wisconsin, the old fashioned cocktail comes with brandy, not bourbon.Now, state lawmakers are making it somewhat official.A bipartisan resolution declaring the brandy old fashioned as the official Wisconsin state cocktail won approval Thursday in the state Assembly. It’s a resolution, not a bill, so even if passed by the Senate the brandy old fashioned won’t make it onto the list of other official state symbols that include milk as the official beverage, kringle as the official pastry, and corn as the official grain. Getting that level of recognition, enshrined in the state’s “Blue Book,” requires introduction of a bill, a public hearing and then the signature of the governor.Only two states have gone that far: both Alabama and Virginia have whiskey as their official state spirit.Some efforts to declare official state symbols in Wisconsin, like Colby as the official cheese, have run into opposition. The Colby proposal, around since 2019, has...

Column: College football keep its head in the sand and winds up with a silly scandal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

Those absurd signs they hold up on the sidelines — displaying everything from emojis to superheroes to Bluto from “Animal House” — show just how far college football is behind the times.Which makes the signal-stealing scandal at Michigan seem downright quaint.And so unnecessary.College football, which rakes in billions and billions of dollars like an insatiable Pac-Man (also coming to a sideline sign near you, we presume), should simply follow the NFL’s longstanding method of sending in plays.If the quarterback and a defensive player on each team had an electronic device in their helmets, we wouldn’t be dealing with this nonsense.The coaches would simply send in their calls through good ol’ technology, which actually dates to the mid-1950s when a pair of Ohio inventors came to innovative Cleveland NFL coach Paul Brown with a radio receiver they had developed. Instead, college football wound up with a thoroughly avoidable mess on its money-grubbing hands as Michigan, the ...

Live updates | Fighting in north Gaza nears hospitals, as Palestinians flee to crowded shelters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing northern Gaza as Israel’s military pushed deeper into dense urban neighborhoods in its battle with Hamas militants. Officials in the besieged enclave said the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 11,000 people.The search for safety in Gaza is growing more desperate as combat intensifies. Residents who escaped to the south and Palestinian health officials reported strikes in and around Gaza City’s main hospital overnight. Israel said at least one was the result of a misfired Palestinian rocket. The World Health Organization said Friday that 20 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, including a pediatric hospital that stopped operations after a reported Israeli strike in the area. “If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza,” the U.N. humanitarian agency spokesperson, Jens Laerke, told reporters in Geneva. More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began. In the s...

Denver weather: Sunny and mild weekend ahead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver's weather will stay sunny with a slight warming trend through the weekend and into the next workweek.Weather tonight: Seasonal chillFriday night, a few passing clouds will build in. Low temperatures will be cool but seasonal and fall to the mid- to upper-20s. Weather tomorrow: Sunny, with a slight warm-upSaturday, sunshine will keep high temperatures climbing to the upper 50s. This is a slight boost compared to Friday and about 5 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year. Looking ahead: Warming trend continues Sunday, more sunshine will keep a slight warming trend going. Highs will climb to the lower to mid-60s, which is almost 10 degrees warmer than normal. The warming trend will continue for the first half of the workweek with highs climbing to the upper 60s alongside plenty of sunshine. Temperatures for the end of the week will fall slightly to the mid-60s.

Loveland Ski Area opens for the 2023-2024 season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:24 GMT

CLEAR CREEK COUNTY (KDVR) -- Hundreds of skiers and snowboarders bundled up, got in line and waited patiently for 9 a.m. That’s when the ski season officially began for the area. Denver weather: Sunny and mild weekend ahead “Last year we opened Nov. 3," said Dustin Schaefer, Loveland Ski Area's marketing manager. "It’s a little later this year but our snowmakers have been working hard. They got the mountain open and we’re ready to go.” As the sun came up on the mountain so did the early-bird skiers. They bought ski passes and daily lift tickets, but of all the skiers that ski, there is a certain breed who wish to obtain the gold standard. Skiers broke the banner at Loveland Ski Area. (Loveland Ski Area, by Casey DaySkiers broke the banner at Loveland Ski Area. (Loveland Ski Area, by Casey DaySkiers broke the banner at Loveland Ski Area. (Loveland Ski Area, by Casey Day(Loveland Ski Area, by Casey Day(Loveland Ski Area, by Casey Day(Loveland Ski Area, by Casey Day(Loveland Ski Ar...