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How wildfires have worsened in recent years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

Thirteen states issued air-quality alerts as of Wednesday morning as dangerous fumes from more than 160 wildfires in Quebec spread over large swaths of the American Northeast. As a whole, Canada is actively fighting 413 wildfires. There have been 2,214 wildfires in the country so far in 2023 that burned more than 8 million acres.Stacker cited data from the National Interagency Fire Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to visualize how the spread of wildfires has worsened in recent years.Wildfires are innate to forest ecosystems, clearing out dead debris and paving the way for new growth, but climate change has elongated dry seasons, increased temperatures, and widened the potential for large-scale wildfires. Beyond weather-related factors, the prevalence of insects like bark beetles damage trees and make them more prone to burning. Invasive vegetation such as cheatgrass also easily burns and contr...

Castro Theatre seats not a landmark, SF Board of Supervisors say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) -- In a close vote, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday against designating the orchestra-level seats in the iconic Castro Theatre as a historical landmark. Supervisors voted 6-4 to landmark parts of the interior of the Castro Theatre -- the city's oldest and longest operating single-screen movie house - but not include the theater seats that its management wants to remove. The decision comes as event organizer and theatre manager Another Planet Entertainment has been vying to make space more into a live entertainment venue and less of a movie theatre -- which includes replacing seats with temporary seats and flat platforms for standing-room only events. More trouble for downtown SF as owner of Hilton, Parc 55 cease payments on hotel properties Organizations like the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the Castro Theatre Conservancy banded together in protest against the APE's plans by creating the Friends of the Castro Theatre Coalitio...

Budget block brings stalemate with special session ahead for Nevada Legislature

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- The budget ended up as the sticking point as lawmakers adjourned Tuesday morning -- past their legal deadline -- without a complete spending plan delivered to Gov. Joe Lombardo.Assembly Bill 521 (AB521), a capital improvements bill, was up for a vote, but Republican Minority Leader Heidi Seevers Gansert announced that changes to the bill were not good enough. She said Republicans would vote the bill down.Gov. Joe Lombardo has 10 days to set the date for a special session to complete the work on the budget -- and whatever else he might include on the to-do list. LIVE BLOG: Nevada Legislature nears end with big decisions waiting for votes in Carson City As observers waited to see if the A's baseball stadium or a package of tax breaks to lure movie studios to the Las Vegas valley would come up for a vote, it was money that spelled the end. Those two highly anticipated bills never came out of committee as sine die arrived -- the constitutionally mandated end of the...

GOP Lobbyist Claimed to Be “Empowering Women” — but Worked for Saudi Theocracy’s LIV Golf

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

Scrutiny of a Saudi-owned golf league in the wake of its announced merger with the PGA Tour is creating apparent tensions between Republican Party organs and a prominent operative who did work lobbying for the Saudi golf firm.Gail Gitcho, a prominent Republican strategist who did public relations work for the Saudi government-owned LIV Golf, was listed as serving on the board of the GOP-affiliated Women’s Democracy Network through 2023, according to a press release from 2021 announcing her appointment to the advisory board.When LIV erupted into the news, though, Austin Akers, a spokesperson for the Women’s Democracy Network, told The Intercept that the group had no relationship with Gitcho. Join Our Newsletter Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. I'm in “Gail Gitcho is not an active member of IRI’s Women’s Democracy Network Board and hasn...

Belmont Stakes Lineup and Odds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

The field for Saturday’s 155th Belmont Stakes, with post position, horse, jockey and odds:1. Tapit ShoesJoseOrtiz20-12. Tapit TriceLuisSaez3-13. ArcangeloJavierCastellano8-14. National TreasureJohnVelazquez5-15. Il MiracoloMarcosMenses30-16. ForteIradOrtizJr.5-27. Hit ShowMannyFranco10-18. Angel of EmpireFlavienPrat7-29. Red Route OneJoelRosario15-1Trainers (by post position): 1. Brad Cox; 2. Todd Pletcher; 3. Jena Antonucci; 4. Bob Baffert; 5. Antonio Sano; 6. Todd Pletcher; 7. Brad Cox; 8. Brad Cox; 9. Steve Asmussen.Owners (by post position): 1. Spendthrift Farm, LLC, Steve Landers Racing, LLC, Schwartz, Martin S., Dubb, Michael, Ten Strike Racing, Bakke Jim, Titletown Racing, LLC, Kueber Racing, LLC, Big Easy Racing, LLC, Winners Win and Caruso, Michael; 2. Whisper Hill Farm, LLC and Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck); 3. Blue Rose Farm; 4. SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Masterson, Robert E., Stonestreet Stables LLC, Schoenfarber, Jay A., Waves Edge Capi...

Pope Francis has emerged from three hours of abdominal surgery without complications, the Vatican says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has emerged from three hours of abdominal surgery without complications, the Vatican says.Source

Greek island temple complex reveals ‘countless’ offerings left by ancient worshippers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Archaeologists excavating a hilltop sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos have discovered “countless” pottery offerings left by ancient worshippers over the centuries, Greece’s Culture Ministry said Wednesday.A ministry statement said the finds from work this year included more than 2,000 intact or almost complete clay figurines, mostly of women and children but also some of male actors, as well as of tortoises, lions, pigs and birds.Several ceremonial pottery vessels that were unearthed are linked with the worship of Demeter, the ancient Greek goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone, to whom the excavated sanctuary complex was dedicated.The seaside site of Vryokastro on Kythnos was the ancient capital of the island, inhabited without break between the 12th century B.C. and the 7th A.D., when it was abandoned for a stronger position during a period of pirate raids.The artifacts came from the scant ruins of the two small temples, a long...

IOC recommends terminating boxing body’s Olympic status

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The IOC finally ran out of patience with the International Boxing Federation on Wednesday and set a date to terminate its Olympic status this month.While boxing will still be on the program at the 2024 Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee said its executive board has asked the full membership to withdraw its recognition of the IBA at a special meeting on June 22.The IOC had already suspended the IBA’s recognition in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity and governance issues. The Olympic body oversaw the boxing competitions itself at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and will do so again for Paris.An IOC statement said the boxing body “has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC … for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition.”The IOC-IBA standoff has also put boxing’s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games at risk, though that should now be resolved.The IOC previously stressed it has no problem with the spor...

Pence opens presidential bid with broad critiques of Trump over Jan. 6 insurrection and abortion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Mike Pence opened his presidential bid with an unusually forceful critique of former President Donald Trump over Jan. 6, his temperament and abortion on Wednesday as he became the first vice president in modern history to challenge his former running mate.Pence, according to excepts released by his campaign, will tell an audience in the Des Moines suburbs that Trump betrayed his voters’ trust after the 2020 election when he tried to convince his supporters that Pence had the power to keep them in office.“The American people deserve to know on that fateful day, President Trump also demanded I choose between him and our Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice,” Pence will say. “Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president again.”Pence will criticize leaders who can’t “distinguish between sta...

Canadian wildfire smoke spreads ‘hazardous’ air in both countries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, sending school recesses indoors and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.While Canadian officials expanded evacuation orders and asked other countries for help fighting more than 420 fires nationwide, air quality with what the U.S. rates as “hazardous” levels of pollution extended into central New York, with massive tongues of “unhealthy” air extending as far as Virginia and Indiana.In Baltimore, where officials warned residents to stay indoors when possible and limit outdoor exertion, Debbie Funk sported a blue surgical mask as she and husband Jack Hughes took their daily walk around Fort McHenry, a national monument overlooking the Patapsco River. The air hung thick over the water, obscuring the horizon as distant ships pushed slowly through the haze.“I walked outside this morning and it was like a waft ...