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Satellite images show 5,000-mile seaweed belt creeping closer to US

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – Over the next few months, a massive belt of seaweed is projected to make its way closer to Florida and the Caribbean, and pile up in mounds as it washes ashore. It's not just an eyesore — the seaweed, called sargassum, smells terrible as it rots, and can cause breathing issues for some.The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt stretches from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. It's not a new occurrence, but satellite images captured in February showed an earlier start than usual for such a large accumulation in the open ocean. Massive seaweed belt still on track to hit US: When will it arrive? More images taken in March (below) show the bulk of the mass is still out in the Atlantic Ocean, but traces can be seen coming up into the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Satellite images show the sargassum belt in March 2023. (Courtesy USF/NOAA)Satellite images show the sargassum belt in March 2023. (Courtesy USF/NOAA)Some sargassum has already started washing up in Florida, t...

Teen overdose deaths have doubled in three years. Blame fentanyl.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

(The Hill) – Teen overdose deaths have doubled in three years, an alarming trend amid a historic decline in drug and alcohol use among high school students.  The main reason is fentanyl. Teens consume the powerful opioid unwittingly, packaged in counterfeit pills tailored to resemble less potent prescription medications. Drug traffickers lace pills with fentanyl to boost the black-market high. Dangerously addictive, fentanyl can be lethal, especially to children experimenting with drugs.  “Fentanyl, it’s just a different beast,” said Dr. Hoover Adger Jr., professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “And it’s so deadly. You have a milligram of fentanyl being equivalent to 50 milligrams of heroin, being equivalent to 100 milligrams of morphine. And right now, fentanyl is creeping into everything.” Deaths from drug and alcohol rose from 788 in 2018 to 1755 in 2021 among children ages 15 to 19, according to data from the Centers for Disease...

Who keeps the engagement ring after a breakup? Why you might want a pre-nup for your diamond

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

(The Conversation) - When Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck got engaged the first time, in 2002, he gave her a very pricey ring. That engagement ring was reportedly worth as much as $2.5 million, made by luxury jeweler Harry Winston and adorned with a 6.1-carat pink diamond.After the movie stars broke up in 2004 without getting married, J. Lo said she intended to return the ring “quietly” to Affleck. Whether or she ever did that or not, was Lopez entitled to keep the that rock or any of the others she got from her numerous ex-husbands and former fiancés?The answer can matter to anyone who is engaged, married – or even thinking about tying the knot. No one knows for sure how many engagements end in a breakup, although there are estimates that roughly 1 in 5 do so.As law professors who teach property and family law, we frequently talk to students – and our own relatives – about gifts and marriage. Students often ask us who owns the engage...

APD provides details surrounding Tuesday night fatal crash

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Thursday, the Austin Police Department released information surrounding a Tuesday night fatal crash in east Austin.APD said officers responded to a single-vehicle crash at the intersection of Clayton Lane and North Interstate 35 at approximately 10:45 p.m.According to police, a preliminary investigation showed the driver of the vehicle, who traveled alone, crashed into a retaining wall and died on the scene. An APD report listed the individual as an unidentified person.This incident was being investigated as Austin's 24th fatal crash of 2023, resulting in 24 fatalities for the year. On the date of this crash in 2022, 21 fatal crashes resulted in 22 deaths.Anyone with any information surrounding this crash should contact APD's Vehicular Homicide unit at 512-974-8111. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program by visiting austincrimestoppers.org or calling 512-472-8477.

Other voices: A national no-fly list for unruly passengers?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

There are places where violence can be particularly destructive. Inside a fuselage jammed with people flying at 600 mph at 30,000 feet is certainly one of them.The Federal Aviation Administration has made a dent in the nation’s unruly passenger problem. Its new zero tolerance policy resulted in a big decline in the number of reported incidents last year.But too many people are still attacking crew members or fellow passengers on planes. As our skies filled up with spring breakers this month, it’s a good time to ask: Should Congress create a national “no fly list” of disruptive and dangerous passengers?In 2021, the FAA received nearly 6,000 reports of unruly behavior aboard U.S. airlines. The majority of those cases involved travelers riled up over mask mandates.The number of incidents plummeted to just over 2,400 in 2022 after the FAA dispensed with issuing warnings to out-of-control passengers and stepped up enforcement instead. Mask mandates were also remov...

Real World Economics: Are we held hostage to reckless bankers?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

Edward LottermanThe kidnappers’ demands were familiar. “All right Janet baby, just stay calm and nobody gets hurt. Forget your ‘We’re not going to do that again’ tripe. Make all of our depositors whole, give us a Learjet to our Caribbean resort, and everything will be just fine.”That ostensibly was March 12. Within a few days, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had reversed course. Not only were all the uninsured depositors in Silicon Valley Bank to be “made whole,” but so were all the high-level depositors in other banks in similar straits.Whether the execs flew off on a Learjet remains to be seen.Look around! It clearly is not March 1930, nor November 2007. No stock market collapse, no bank doors locked, no bread lines, no mass foreclosures or layoffs. Whew, just a close call.Ostensibly.Being held hostage to circumstances needn’t be unpleasant if you can stay in your own home, keep your job, your captors don’t rub your face in your vulnerability and history shows tha...

Aaron Gordon: Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic is “levels ahead of anything I’ve ever seen”

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

When Aaron Gordon heard the question, his eyes nearly rolled out of their sockets.Asked whether he appreciated watching Nikola Jokic go to work against Brook Lopez, the potential Defensive Player of the Year, in Saturday’s 129-106 romp over the Bucks, Gordon stared knowingly up from his locker room stall.His long side-eye forecast the answer that followed.“Can’t nobody stop Joker, man,” Gordon said. “I don’t care, Defensive Player of the Year. It doesn’t matter. And he was getting fouled. If you’re not fouling him, you’re not stopping him. And he was fouling him, and he was still getting buckets. They weren’t calling and-1s. He’s ridiculous.”Jokic battered and bludgeoned and spun his way to 31 points on 10-of-20 shooting, with 11 assists and six rebounds. He went to the free-throw line 11 times, abusing Milwaukee’s decision to play him one-on-one. If he wasn’t muscling through the No. 1 defense, then he was pirouetting around it.“His footwork, his touch around the rim, the way that ...

Family, authorities plead for help finding missing straight-A student, 13

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

Family members and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department continue to search for a 13-year-old girl from Pico Rivera who went missing last Wednesday. Authorities say Annahi Tejeda left her home in the 8900 block of Gallatin Road near Rosemead Boulevard late in the evening and was later seen on surveillance video at a 7-Eleven on Beverly Boulevard.On Saturday, a news conference was held at the Pico Rivera Sheriff's Station where law enforcement and the young girl's family pleaded for her to come home and asked the public for assistance."When she left her residence, she was walking on foot," said Captain Jodi Hutak with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "She is 13 years old, she didn't have her cell phone or any other form of communication.""We just want her to come back home safe, and let her know that her whole family is looking for her and we love her so much and we're all very worried about her," said Annahi's mother Cynthia Tejeda.The family has ties to Monte...

Man hospitalized in reported stabbing attack in Westlake 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

A man was rushed to the hospital after a reported stabbing attack in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday night. Authorities responded to calls of a stabbing at the intersection of Union and 8th Streets around 11:30 p.m. It is unclear what led to the incident or if anyone else was hurt. The LAPD is investigating. 

Stockton man fatally shot in East Oakland

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:13 GMT

OAKLAND — A 23-year-old Stockton man was fatally shot in East Oakland on Sunday morning, authorities said.His name has not yet been released.Police responding to a ShotSpotter alert just before 3 a.m. Sunday found the man shot outside on 13th Avenue near East 34th Street, a residential area just south of Interstate 580. He was pronounced dead there.Police believe he was shot after getting into some kind of dispute with another person, who fled before officers got to the scene.Police are trying to determine why the man was in Oakland and what the dispute that led to the shooting was about.The killing is the 24th homicide investigated by Oakland police this year. The California Highway Patrol has also investigated one homicide this year on city freeways. Last year at this time, police had investigated 30 homicides in the city.Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering up to $10,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the killer. Anyone with information may ...