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Will tornado-hit areas qualify for a disaster declaration?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (KDVR) — Teams of are going door to door to assess damage from last week’s tornado.They are trying to put a dollar value on how much damage was caused by storms last week. The effort includes Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies and workers with the Office of Emergency Management.“We roll up all the data and give it to the state. The state then gives it to FEMA, which then uses it to determine our eligibility for a presidential declaration of disaster," said Debrah Schnackenberg, director of the Douglas County OEM.Crews were going through the hardest-hit areas and looking for homes with signs of damage. They are specifically looking for structures with things like damaged roofs and broken windows. Tornado caught on home camera video in Highlands Ranch (Credit: Karl Flick)Homes damaged, 16,000 trees lost from tornadoThe goal is to see if there is enough damage in the Highlands Ranch area to qualify for a National Disaster Declaration by the Federal Emergency Manag...

District attorney requests investigation into Edgewater Police

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King has called on Attorney General Phil Weiser to conduct a review of the Edgewater Police Department.King submitted a formal request to open a pattern and practice investigation into Edgewater PD earlier this week, following new charges filed against a former officer, according to a release her office sent Thursday.The DA's office led the initial investigation in September of 2021 into Nathan Geerdes, who was later indicted on charges related to sexual contact without consent and retaliation against a victim or witness in December of 2022. Former Edgewater cop accused of lying to other departments during job search Geerdes is now accused of lying to five different police departments on his job applications to get rehired in law enforcement after he resigned in lieu of termination from Edgewater PD in March 2021. He was indicted last week on five counts of forgery and five counts of attempt to influence a public servant re...

Navy vet, 70, beaten and robbed at Lincoln Road bus stop; man arrested and charged

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

A war veteran became the victim of an alarming attack at a bus stop in Miami Beach while on his way to volunteer at a hospital. Now his wife is praying he recovers and calling for change.The victim’s wife, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons, spoke with 7News on Thursday, while her 70-year-old husband remains in the hospital.“It is very difficult. Yes, indeed,” she said. “He’s in very bad shape.”The attack, which took place along the 300 block of Lincoln Road on, has left the veteran’s wife shaken up.“I don’t feel safe,” she said.According to a police report, the victim, a U.S. Navy veteran husband, was waiting for the bus when he was “punched in the face unprovoked.”Investigators said the assailant also went through the victim’s pockets.The police report further states the crook then “returned to continue to batter and kick the victim, who was still on the ground. The defendant intenti...

FDOT: ‘Isolated’ construction issue caused nearly 791,000 toll transaction mistakes. $433K refunded to customers billed for driving in I-95 express lanes when they weren’t 

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

South Floridians pay extra for the convenience of driving along the Interstate 95 express lanes, but 7Investigates has found some drivers were paying for something they didn’t get. 7’s Karen Hensel has the story.Thousands of people use I-95, including Greg Vella, who makes the drive to work every day from Broward County to Miami Beach.Greg Vella: “I’d rather live closer to family and take a longer commute than live closer to work and have to commute to see family.”But when Greg started to notice new charges on his SunPass account, he started asking questions.Turns out, he was being billed for driving in the express lane when he was actually driving in the lane next to it.He alerted SunPass.Greg Vella: “‘You have a transponder somewhere that’s activating and billing me, even though I’m not in the lane, just letting you know.'”The toll cameras also took pictures of his car, and those clearly show he was driving to the right o...

Groundbreaking ceremony held for new Fort Lauderdale Police headquarters

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department broke ground on their future home.Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis joined city officials and other dignitaries on Thursday for the ceremonial start of construction of the headquarters.The building will go up next to the existing police department at Southwest First Street and Broward Boulevard.The state-of-the-art three-story facility will feature a community center, an expanded training area and space for art.Officers said it will not only be beneficial for them but also for the community they serve.“With the expansion itself, that gives us an opportunity as a city to expand our recruiting efforts to get more qualified candidates in here so we can ultimately provide a better service to the city,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Capt. Adam Solomon, “because it will help us with calls for service and just doing the things we need to do to perform better as an agency.”Fort Lauderdale residents voted to approve a $100 millio...

Why Ukraine should get an invitation to NATO

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

Alyona Getmanchuk is the founder and director of the New Europe Center. Olena Halushka is the co-founder of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory and a board member at the Anti-corruption Action Center.For decades, NATO’s policy toward Ukraine was driven by the desire to avoid “provoking” Russian President Vladimir Putin at any cost. And, unfortunately, it appears the invasion of Georgia in 2008 and of Ukraine in 2014 didn’t teach NATO member countries the lesson that it is concessions — and not strength — that provoke Russia.The upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius has a historic mission to fix the strategic mistakes of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and NATO’s 2008 Bucharest Summit. It is a chance to introduce effective security guarantees for Ukraine — which voluntarily gave up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal — and effectively end the era of so-called strategic ambiguity that has allowed Russia de facto veto power over the accession of various countries to NATO,...

Peak anger: Mountain plan makes Italians cross

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column.Do right-wing politicians employ people whose sole job is to hunt down anything that could be deemed potentially offensive and then immediately alert their boss so they can post an outraged tweet?Let’s go with the answer “yes.” That would explain the furious response from Italian politicians this week when it was suggested that no more crosses should be placed atop mountain peaks. It was reported that the Italian Alpine Club wanted to stop putting crosses on high peaks because they “are anachronistic, they don’t represent all climbers” and “peaks must be neutral territory.” If they had simply said “have you any idea how difficult it is to carry a massive cross up a mountain? They are really heavy,” then the response may have been more measured. But they didn’t, and it wasn’t.Ten points if you guessed that Matteo Salvini was furious. “You will have to pass over my body to remove...

How Spain went woke — and why that may not last

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

The country has been a world leaderon women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. Will next month’s election change all that?By AITOR HERNÁNDEZ-MORALESin MadridIllustration by Marco Lawrence for POLITICOCARLA ANTONELLI REMEMBERS when being gay in Spain could get you sent to a work camp.Under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, the LGBTQ+ community was harshly persecuted by authorities and forced to live in the shadows, recalled Antonelli, a 63-year old actress, activist, politician and transgender woman. Even after the dictator’s death in 1975, she would “routinely be arrested and beaten by police.”“They’d smash my face against the wall until I lay in a puddle of my own blood, and then they’d laugh and say, ‘Just try and report me, f*ggot,'” said Antonelli.Then something changed. Since the beginning of the century, Spain has galloped ahead when it comes to progressive policies. The once-conservative Catholic country, known around the world as the birthpla...

Europe swings right — and reshapes the EU

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

First, it was Italy. Then came Finland and Greece. Spain could be next. Across Europe, governments are shifting right. In some places, far-right leaders are taking power. In others, more traditional center-right parties are allying with the right-wing fringes once considered untouchable. Elsewhere, hard-right parties are securing more parliament seats and regional offices. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, already under surveillance for suspected far-right extremism, now outpolls Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and just scored a watershed district election win — an alarming moment for a country conscious of its Nazi past. The trend, of course, didn’t exactly begin with Italy and far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. But the last year has featured a series of eye-catching results for conservatives. And more could be on the way, as places like Spain and Slovakia seem poised to turn right in upcoming elections. It’s a development that w...

Keir Starmer revealed his ‘real politics’ by ditching left-wing pledges, ally says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:50:18 GMT

London — Who is the real Keir Starmer? The man who won the Labour leadership in 2020 on a platform of left-wing pledges, and who thanked his “friend” Jeremy Corbyn during the contest? Or the one Westminster sees today, who abandoned many of those pledges and kicked Corbyn out of the party? In a candid interview with POLITICO’s Westminster Insider podcast, one of Starmer’s closest allies reveals the answer.“I think what you’re seeing now is his real politics,” said Jenny Chapman, the former Darlington MP who served as Starmer’s political secretary before joining the House of Lords in 2021. “There was an understanding [in 2020] of the best issues to talk about if you want to become leader of the Labour Party. There is permission there to say, ‘this is the kind of country it would be lovely if it could be,’ because you’re not actually pitching to the entire country to be the prime minister.” Starmer’s infamous 10 pledges during the leadership campaign...