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Missouri teen sentenced for murder of SIUE student

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – A Woodson Terrace, Missouri, teenager appeared in Madison County Circuit Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for the 2021 murder of a Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville student.The murder happened Jan. 14, 2021, just after 9:30 p.m. on Interstate 270 and Route 157.Moneer Damra was riding in the passenger seat of a vehicle when people in another car opened fire. Damra was wounded in the shooting and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He died on Jan. 28. Damra, who was a member of the SIUE ROTC program and had the goal of being an Army nurse, was 27.Investigators arrested two teenagers in connection with the fatal shooting: Jacob Godoy, then 16, and Jimmy Ortiz, then 19. The Madison County State's Attorney's Office charged both with first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.Police said there was no clear motive for the killing and described the shooting as a random act of violence. There was no connection between the people in eith...

FOX 2 Cardinals podcast: Three new pitchers... More to come?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

ST. LOUIS - "Pitching. Pitching. Pitching." St. Louis Cardinals lead executive John Mozeliak went into the offseason with the goal of adding three new starting pitchers. He's accomplished just that, even before the Winter Meetings. Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, three former All-Stars in their mid-30s, have joined the St. Louis Cardinals. Gray gets a three-year, $75 million contract after finishing as the AL Cy Young runner-up last season. Lynn, rejoining St. Louis for his second stint, and Gibson, a former Mizzou star, earned similar one-year deals with club options for a potential second year. Could these moves be the start of more to come? The Cardinals have lots of follow-up decisions to make this offseason. There is the possibility they could explore the trade market for more rotation or bullpen arms, and perhaps a move could help reduce logjams in the middle infield and outfield. The expectation to win, even after a rare losing season in 2023, remains as large as ever...

Proposed ban on religious instruction in Colorado’s state-funded preschools may spark legal fight

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

When teacher Corrie Haynes asked the preschoolers gathered on the green rug in front of her what sin is, a little boy answered confidently: “All the bad things we do.”“Very good,” she said.Next, the 13 children, most wearing maroon or blue polo shirts and dark skirts or pants, learned that everybody sins — even teachers, moms and dads, and the church pastor — and that although God hates sin, he doesn’t hate people who sin.“He still loves us very much even when we sin,” Haynes said.A minute later, Haynes led the 4-year-olds in a song about manners: “Always say thank you, always say please. When we’re ungrateful, God is not pleased.”Such religious content has long been woven through the lessons at Landmark Preschool, which is nestled inside Landmark Baptist Church in the western Colorado city of Grand Junction. What’s different this year is that state taxpayers are covering the bill — more than $100,000 — for 20 preschoolers to attend classes there.Colorado explicitly invi...

Anaheim 'has enough room to build another Disneyland,' theme park chairman says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

There is still space to build another Disneyland in Anaheim, Disney theme park chairman Josh D’Amaro announced on Tuesday during an employee town hall in New York City.“We’ve got so much space to play with. Disneyland, for example, Walt’s original theme park, we still have enough room to build another Disneyland there if we choose to do that,” D’Amaro said during the event, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Walt Disney Co. previously announced plans to invest $60 billion into its theme park business over the next decade. Disneyland brings back Southern California resident ticket offer for 2024 The vast money investment would be used to “expand and enhance domestic and international parks and cruise line capacity, prioritizing projects anticipated to generate strong returns, consistent with the company’s continuing approach to allocate capital in a disciplined and balanced manner.”Plans to expand the “Happiest Place on Earth” could become a reality should the city of Anaheim...

California among the states with quickest civil lawsuit settlements, study finds 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

Civil lawsuits concerning all types of legal matters are filed daily in all 50 states, but some states handle them faster than others, according to new research. Analysts with personal injury and maritime lawyers at Louisiana-based Scott Vicknair law firm looked at the latest statistics from U.S. courts to calculate the median time it takes in every state to file a civil case and reach a disposition or the court’s final ruling. “[The study] includes consolidated cases filed in previous years that later became individual cases, and excludes deportation reviews, enforcement of judgements, land condemnations, prisoner petitions and recovery of overpayments,” researchers added. Based on their findings, legal experts determined that California is the busiest state for civil disputes in the entire nation but ranks as fourth-fastest in processing them. For the 27,788 civil suits that were resolved in a yearlong period ending on March 31, 2022, California lawyers took an average of jus...

The Gastronome Gift Guide For December

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

Kicking off the December gift guide, celebrity Chef Curtis Stone, in partnership with Gathar, is launching a new culinary experience called Restaurant at Home. The Thursday, Dec.  9 and Friday, Dec. 16 events will tease the upcoming series that begins in February 2024.Stone and his team of five-star chefs will create curated menus in Los Angeles for groups of six or more. The in-home culinary experience includes a fully catered three-course dinner, along with a dedicated chef/waitperson who will serve and clean up for around $98 per person, plus tax and tip. RAH is offering a complimentary bottle of wine to the first 20 people who book the December dates through a partnership with The Hidden Sea, an eco-conscious wine company that removes plastic from the ocean. Guests within 25 miles of Stone’s restaurant Gwen in Hollywood must select a date at least two days in advance of the December events to reserve.The December menu begins with a charcuterie platter selected from the butchery ...

See the 13 California restaurants that made Esquire’s ‘Best New Restaurants in America’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

Esquire’s list of “The Best New Restaurants in America, 2023” just came out and – surprise, surprise – California comes out exceptionally strong, with many featured spots hailing from the Bay Area and SoCal.The magazine’s critics gave their top award of “Restaurant of the Year” to Ilis in Brooklyn,  where they were impressed by a “fish as it would have been done centuries ago, wrapped in bark and cooked over flames.” Hmmm… OK. But out of the 50 places they highlight, an impressive 13 hail from right here in California. Here are those restaurants; for the full list head over to Esquire.Auro, CalistogaThis 1 Michelin-starred Napa restaurant excels at the super-luxury tasting-menu experience, thanks to the talents of chef Rogelio Garcia, who’s worked at Cyrus and the French Laundry.Lady Edison ham plate with melon served at Burdell, a new soul food restaurant in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. ...

Texas man sentenced for threatening Georgia election officials

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

By Fabiana Chaparro and Hannah Rabinowitz | CNNA Texas man convicted of threatening Georgia election officials online after the 2020 election was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday.Chad Christopher Stark, who pleaded guilty to one count of a sending a threat using a telecommunications device in August, also was sentenced to one year of probation. The officials he targeted were not named in court documents.“As I see it, our country was on fire, and what Mr. Stark did was add fuel to the fire,” district Judge J.P. Boulee said in an Atlanta courtroom on Wednesday.Boulee described what he called “depraved” conduct in which Stark incited others to “kill public officials” before the judge ultimately handed down the 24 month sentence – the maximum prison sentence allowed under the law for the single charge.Officials have repeatedly warned of the increase in threats to election officials as the 2024 presidential election season heats up. The Department of Homeland Security warned in...

Eagles lament Hargrave’s defection to San Francisco with 49ers’ star-studded line on the rise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

SANTA CLARA – Eagles coach Nick Sirianni praised the 49ers’ roster Wednesday for having “some of the best players in the world over there,” and one such player did not escape notice: defensive tackle Javon Hargrave.“Shoot, one of our better players from last year is on their team,” Sirianni told reporters in Philadelphia.Hargrave defected from the NFC champion Eagles to the NFC runner-up 49ers via a free agency payday, and he’s been as strong as any of their defensive linemen in their current three-game surge.The 49ers (8-3) need Hargrave and their all-world defensive front to stay hot Sunday, when they visit the Eagles (10-1) and elusive quarterback Jalen Hurts.However, A twist has arisen: Arik Armstead, Hargrave’s partner on the interior, did not practice Monday or Wednesday because of a foot injury. Armstead, who battled plantar fasciitis in a foot last season, is not wearing an orthopedic support boot and was seen walking OK in the locker room.“They’ve played really well off eac...

US boosts protections for endangered wolverines

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:21 GMT

By Matthew Brown | Associated PressBILLINGS, Mont. — The North American wolverine will receive long-delayed threatened species protections under a Biden administration proposal released Wednesday in response to scientists warning that climate change will likely melt away the rare species’ snowy mountain refuges and push them toward extinction.Across most of the U.S., wolverines were wiped out by the early 1900s from unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns. About 300 surviving animals in the contiguous U.S. live in fragmented, isolated groups at high elevations in the northern Rocky Mountains.Wolverines join a growing number of animals, plants and insects — from polar bears in Alaska to crocodiles in southern Florida — that officials say are at growing risk as increasing temperatures bake the planet, altering snowfall patterns and raising sea levels.In the coming decades, warming temperatures are expected to shrink the mountain snowpack wolverines rely on to dig dens where...