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Report: Fire departments lack funding, personnel

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — The Colorado Fire Service released its annual 2022 Colorado Fire Service Needs Assessment report detailing its lack of funding for personnel and equipment.More than 70% of all fire departments statewide participated.The report included several takeaways including the fact that it needs to hire thousands of firefighters to its teams within the next two years. Specifically, the fire service needs 1,085 career and 1,327 volunteer firefighters. Hail storm hits the Front Range Next, it needs to replace 590 apparatus and buy 286 new ones. Apparatus are expensive vehicles like engines, ambulances, and hazmat trucks among others.Then, the department needs to meet equipment needs like Personal Protective Equipment. This requires spending $40,794,000. Most departments said they don’t have the funding to keep up with this demand for necessary improvements to their stations.A majority of fire departments are funded through property taxes. They reported an expected decrease in ...

These are the best school districts in Colorado for teachers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — If you're a teacher in Colorado, you're best off in the Cherry Creek School District.May 8-12 is National Teacher Appreciation Week as well as National Nurses Week. Though it is one of the most expensive places in the U.S. to call home, Colorado also has a relatively poor pay scale for teachers. The average pay for Colorado teachers is in line with the rest of the country but starting pay for teachers is some of the nation's lowest as of 2021 data.FOX31's Data Desk analyzed the Colorado Department of Education's data to find which school districts offer the best working environment for teachers. This analysis consists of the average rankings for two items - average teacher salary and teacher turnover among nearly 200 districts. The analysis did not include Boards of Cooperative Educational Services districts. Teacher appreciation? More governors say try better pay Cherry Creek schools ranked first on the list with the state's second-highest average salary and the 2...

South Florida detective accused of falsifying sex crimes cases

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A detective who has been with a South Florida sheriff’s agency for nearly 21 years is accused of falsifying information in multiple cases and of threatening one victim with deportation.Detective Demetrious Campbell, 48, was arrested Tuesday on nine counts of official misconduct and one count of extortion, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. He was suspended without pay and remained in the Broward County Jail on Wednesday morning.“Sex offenses are such heinous crimes to recover from because of the emotional and sometimes physical scars endured by victims that last for many years,” Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a statement. “Failure to fully investigate such serious crimes is reprehensible and downright disgraceful.”The investigation began when a victim called the agency’s sex crimes unit to ask about her case, the new release said, and Campbell told his supervisor the victim was uncooperative.The sergeant reopened that ca...

New Hampshire woman recovering after being bit by elephant at Mason Elephant Park and Lodge

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

BETHLEHEM, N.H. (WSVN) — A dream trip turned into a nightmare for Beth Bogar, a globetrotter from New Hampshire after an elephant bit her in the arm during an up-close photo op at the Mason Elephant Park and Lodge in Thailand. “I couldn’t get my arm out. I could just hear cracking from and I just started to panic,” said Bogar. “It was like a suction — and pushed into his mouth.”The photos were taken by the elephant’s trainer who, she said, was instructing her on how to pose with the massive animal.“I just feel as though he was guiding me and he let my arm get too close to his mouth and I didn’t know how close too close was,” said Bogar.Bogar was rushed to a hospital over an hour away where she had emergency surgery, costing her thousands in medical bills. “The doctor was able to go in,” she said. “There are plates, there are screws and everything is put back together. But it’s going to be a lon...

Execution set for South Florida man convicted of rapes and murders

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing and sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman in separate South Florida attacks in 1984 is set to be executed next month under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.Duane Owen’s execution is set for June 15 at 6 p.m. It’s the fourth execution scheduled in Florida this year after a break dating back to 2019. Donald Dillbeck was executed in February, and Louis Bernard Gaskin was executed in April. Darryl B. Barwick was executed earlier this month.The execution would be only the sixth under DeSantis, a far slower pace than recent Florida governors — and ahead of his widely expected presidential campaign.According to court records, Owen broke into a Delray Beach home in March 1984 and attacked 14-year-old Karen Slattery, who was babysitting two young children. Owen repeatedly stabbed the girl and then sexually assaulted her, investigators said. The young children weren’t injured.Abo...

Record number of Turks vote in Germany in ‘fateful election’ for Erdoğan

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

BERLIN — Turkish citizens turned out in record numbers in Germany, home of the Anatolian country’s largest diaspora, in a make-or-break election for long-time President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.Overseas ballots were flown to Turkey on Wednesday to be counted after voting closed Tuesday for Turks living abroad ahead of the domestic ballot on May 14, in which the leader of 20 years faces a neck-and-neck race against a strong opposition alliance helmed by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP).With nearly 1.5 million eligible voters, Germany was a major focal point for campaigning by Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and CHP as overseas voting began on April 27. Parties papered cities with posters and sent buses to rally support.“We certainly have a voter turnout of over 50 percent,” Ambassador Başar Şen told broadcaster BR24 on Tuesday — an increase over the prior record of 46 percent in the last election of 2018.Local Berlin c...

NHS ‘may have wrongly charged’ EU nationals, watchdog says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

LONDON — EU nationals living in the U.K. may have been wrongly charged for National Health Service treatment, according to the U.K.’s watchdog on EU citizens’ rights post-Brexit.The Independent Monitoring Authority said Wednesday it has identified several cases of NHS bodies that may have unfairly charged EU citizens to use the service while their application to the EU Settlement Scheme was still being reviewed by the U.K.’s Home Office. The EU Settlement Scheme aims to guarantee EU nationals’ residence rights in the U.K. after Brexit, which put an end to the free movement of people between the U.K. and the bloc. Most NHS care is free at the point of use for people deemed “ordinarily resident” in the U.K., with charges applying to overseas visitors. The issue raised by the IMA appears to have affected EU nationals whose applications were rejected later on, the watchdog said.The IMA, set up to guard EU nationals’ rights in Britain and British nationals’ rights in the EU, s...

Some customers order Starbucks’ Refreshers without water. The company says this will now cost extra

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

(CNN) — Fans of Starbucks’ Refresher drinks will have to pay more if they don’t add water.Effective as of Tuesday, a Refresher beverage customized without water will be charged an additional $1 because the company said it “requires extra ingredients.”“This change allows us to provide a more consistent approach to customization, similar to other beverage customizations such as an adding an espresso shot or syrup, which incur an additional charge,” a Starbucks spokesperson told CNN.Refreshers are the chain’s popular line of non-coffee beverages, which are served cold with flavored juices, dried fruit chunks and can be mixed with various liquids including milk, lemonade and water.Some people on social media complained that the new policy is being extended to Refreshers ordered with light or no ice, but Starbucks said those drinks can still be customized that way “free of charge.”Large chains, including Starbucks, are...

Ford reveals the new Ranger for the US, where competition is huge among smaller trucks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

(CNN) — In America, “Ford truck” usually means the F-series, the best-selling truck here for decades. But in many parts of the world, it probably means the Ford Ranger.The Ranger is sold in 180 markets around the globe and, in 17 of them, it’s actually the best-seller in its class. In the United States, where the model was re-introduced in 2018 after going on hiatus in 2011, the Ranger is something of a middle-child. In terms of size and capabilities, it fits between the big F-150 and the small, car-like Ford Maverick. Originally developed in Australia, it was designed as a serious work truck for places where roads are narrow and often sketchy.Jim Baumbick, Ford’s vice president of product development for non-electric vehicles, described the Ranger as “the F-150 for the rest of the world.” Here in the US, added: “It has this really important sweet spot when we think about our customers.”On Wednesday, Ford unveiled a redesign...

Bruins sign top defense prospect Mason Lohrei

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:31 GMT

The Bruins inked their top defense prospect Mason Lohrei to a two-year entry level deal worth an NHL cap hit of $925,000.After his promising two-year career at Ohio State, the 22-year-old Lohrei had signed an amateur tryout contract with the Providence Bruins in the spring and played in five games, recording an assist and a minus-2 rating.As a Buckeye, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Lohrei had 4-25-29 totals in his freshman season and last season he had 4-28-32 in 40 games.While he’s got just a teaspoonful of pro experience, Lohrei could be fast-tracked for the NHL depending on whose salary the B’s decide to move out in what will be necessary cap clearance in the comings weeks.The B’s selected Lohrei with their second round pick (58th overall) in 2020.