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Skilling: Possible showers as smoky haze continues Wednesday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

An "AIR QUALITY ALERT" has been extended through midnight Wednesday night by the Illinois EPA.The thick cloud of smoke off Canadian wildfires which have burned a record 29,000 square miles of Canadian forests---a record there for any fire season since satellites measured such things beginning more than two decades ago in 1999---has hung over the Chicago area producing "VERY UNHEALTHY" AIR QUALITY LEVELS and slashing visibilities.At mid afternoon, the visibility at both Chicago major airports---O'Hare and Midway---was just 1.5 miles and Illinois EPA and you can smell the smoke at ground level. The smoke as mixed down to the ground.The air quality had dropped to "243"--which puts the city in a rare "VERY UNHEALTHY" AIR QUALITY situation as rated by the Illinois EPA Chicago has worst air quality in the world due to wildfire smoke The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre indicates the acreage which has burned thus far this year is without precedent----equaling ALL the ACREAGE BURNE...

Poll: 58% of Texas voters support creating school vouchers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Another special legislative session is now underway in Texas focused on lowering property taxes, but the governor already signaled he plans to give lawmakers more work in the future. He would like them to come back at some point and create education savings accounts, which are often called school vouchers and failed to pass earlier this year during the regular session. The proposal to use taxpayer dollars to help Texas families pay for private schools drew much opposition this year from mostly rural Republicans as well as Democrats. However, a newly-released poll showed a majority of Texas voters support the idea of establishing what Gov. Greg Abbott described as a broader "school choice" program. Nearly half of Texans not confident lawmakers did enough to fix power grid, poll says Pollsters from the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Politics Project surveyed 1,547 voters between June 2-12. They found that 58% supported starting a voucher, educational sav...

Record heat possible as heatwave peaks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The record high for June 27th is 106°. That is the forecast high this afternoon. This record may be tied or eclipsed later today with a cloudless sky and slightly lower humidity.Hottest day during this heatwaveThe upper-high to our northwest has allowed for a drop in the humidity. This afternoon's numbers will be the lowest we've seen in quite some time with a potential of humidity in the teens for some in the Hill Country.The air much drier todayToday's Excessive Heat Warning is for Lampasas, Llano, Mason, Milam, and San Saba Counties where the heat index will be greater than 105° and as high as 117°. The Heat Advisory covers the rest of the area (EXCEPT Blanco and Gillespie Counties) where the heat index should reach 112°.Heat alerts continue through 9 p.m. Tuesday for most areas (exception: Lampasas & Milam County until 9 p.m. Wedneseday)The upper-level high has moved to the northwest of Austin this afternoon. That is part of why this day will be the hottest ...

Lunds and Byerlys July 4 weekend strike averted; tentative agreement reached over wages, health care

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

Lunds and Byerlys grocery store workers have called off a planned holiday weekend strike after reaching a tentative agreement with corporate leaders to raise wages and preserve worker oversight on health care.The agreement to avert the strike was reached late Monday, June 26, after nearly six months of contract negotiations between the company and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663, the union representing the store’s workers. Union members are scheduled to vote on Saturday, July 1, on whether to ratify the new proposed contract.“The bargaining committee believes that this tentative agreement respects, protects, and pays our members fairly,” UFCW Local 663 President Rena Wong said in a statement.Under the new agreement, Lunds and Byerlys will no longer require employees to immediately transition to a corporate-controlled health care plan, as the company had previously intended. Union members’ existing insurance plans will stay in effect for now.The proposed contract lasts f...

New York hits all-time low of new HIV infections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) - June is men’s health month and today it is National HIV Testing Day. With New York experiencing historic lows in new infection rates, NEWS10 spoke with an area provider on how they are getting the word out and getting folks tested. Apartment complex in Troy evacuated, nearly 100 displaced The question is, how often do you get tested?“I get tested at least every 3 to 6 months,” Jonny Puglia, Communications and Development Specialist with Alliance for Positive Health.Puglia took the time to show the testing process and he tells NEWS10 why it is important to get tested.“It's not just gay men. We also have to realize that there are other groups that lack and have disparities and care like people of color and many people who don't have insurance. We see those groups of the highest risk because they've never been tested before,” said Puglia.New York may be experiencing an all-time low as new infection rates have plummeted 46% since 2011.The New York Dep...

Tickets on sale now for 2023 Missouri State Fair concerts, events

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

SEDALIA, Mo. -- Tickets to every concert and show at the 2023 Missouri State Fair are now on sale. Some of the biggest acts include country stars Tyler Hubbard and Lainey Wilson, rock band 3 Doors Down, and rapper and Missouri native Nelly. Here's the full grandstand schedule for this year's Missouri State Fair: THURSDAY, AUG. 10 – Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line with Parmalee, 7:30 p.m., $45 grandstand/$50 trackFRIDAY, AUG. 11 – Lainey Wilson with Jackson Dean, 7:30 p.m., $50 grandstand/$60 trackSATURDAY, AUG. 12 – 3 Doors Down with Candlebox, 7:30 p.m., $35 grandstand/$45 trackSUNDAY, AUG. 13 – Missouri State Fair Shoot Out Truck and Tractor Pull, All Day Ticket – 12 p.m. & 6 p.m., $35 adults/$15 youth (ages 6-12)/free kids 5 and under (must sit on an adult’s lap)MONDAY, AUG. 14 – Pro Pulling League, 6 p.m., $35 adults/$15 youth (ages 6-12)/free kids 5 and under (must sit on an adult’s lap)TUESDAY, AUG. 15 – Outlaw Nationals Monster Truck Show, 7 p.m., $35 adults/$15 you...

Teen dies in rural Missouri highway crash Tuesday morning

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

MADISON COUNTY, Mo. - A teenager died, and another person was hurt in a rural Missouri highway crash Tuesday morning, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. MSHP reports that Arie Van Zee, 19, of Farmington, Missouri, died in the crash. Next of kin has been notified. A 23-year-old man driving in another car suffered moderate injuries. Expired tags ‘nightmare’: Woman gets car back as neighbor’s truck gets towed away The crash happened around 6 a.m. Tuesday on Missouri Route 72, just east of Fredericktown. Investigators say Van Zee was heading eastbound when he crossed the center line and struck another car in the opposite lane. MSHP Troop C, which covers many counties around the St. Louis region, is investigating the crash. Troop C reports 31 fatalities from crashes in 2023.

Judge extends Denver Public Schools’ deadline to release recording of board’s closed-door meeting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

A judge on Tuesday denied Denver Public Schools’ request to put on hold his order requiring the district to publicly release its recording of a closed-door Board of Education meeting in March, but did give DPS two more weeks to turn it over. A judge on Tuesday refused Denver Public Schools’ request to put his recent ruling on hold but gave the district two more weeks to publicly release a recording of the Board of Education’s five-hour, closed-door meeting the day after the March shooting inside East High School. Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen ruled last week that the school board violated state law when it met in an executive season on March 23, the day after the shooting inside East High School. He ordered the school district to release a recording of the meeting by noon Monday, but DPS appealed that ruling. The judge’s order came after a coalition of media organizations, including The Denver Post, sued DPS, alleging the board violated Colorado law by making ...

Max Morath, Colorado native and renown ragtime pianist, dies at 96

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

Max Morath, a Colorado Springs native who as a pianist and musical director championed ragtime music, and who around 1960 wrote, performed and co-produced 28 programs for public television in Denver entitled “The Ragtime Era,” died June 19 in Duluth, Minn. He was 96.Morath’s career in music and entertainment spanned eight decades, including his watershed program — The Ragtime Era — created at the Denver Educational Television Station KRMA as part of the 60-station National Educational Television network, the predecessor of PBS, according to the New York Times.With the program, now considered a genre classic, “Max pioneered a new concept for American educational TV illustrating that information can also entertain,” according to The Syncopated Times. “That was the essence of his work, that and informing the public about an important era of America’s popular culture.”Morath was widely know as “Mr. Ragtime.”Born October 1...

Seafood restaurateur pivots to Italian for new DTC restaurant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:53:16 GMT

Cherry Creek seafood restaurateur Sean Huggard is boiling up something new.The owner of Blue Island Oyster Bar & Seafood is opening a new concept, Oliver’s Italian, at 4950 S. Yosemite St. in the Belleview Square shopping center.“American Italian food was some of the first stuff I ever learned how to cook as a line cook in high school,” Huggard said. “I’ve always been super fond of it.”Customers can expect a simple “approachable” Italian menu, with a mix of items such as Americanized chicken parmesan, pinsa (a Roman-style pizza) and a raw bar.“We’re not sticking ourselves to one type of thing. It’s the idea of Italy as a whole, and also bringing that Americanized Italian food,” Huggard said.Huggard opened the first Blue Island in Cherry Creek in 2015 and expanded the brand to Lone Tree early last year. Like Blue Island, which sources from its own oyster farm on Long Island, Huggard said Oliver’s will be working with small farmers and importing ingredients from Italy.He said the ...