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US intelligence assessment: Wagner chief’s plane crash after intentionally caused explosion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

By Emma Burrows and Aamer Madhani  | Associated PressWASHINGTON — A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment has found that the plane crash presumed to have killed Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was intentionally caused by an explosion, according to U.S. and Western officials.One of the officials, who were not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the explosion falls in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”The officials did not offer any details on what caused the explosion that was believed to have killed Prigozhin and several of his lieutenants to avenge a mutiny that challenged the Russian leader’s authority.Details of the U.S. assessment surfaced as Putin on Thursday expressed his condolences to the families of those who were reported to be aboard the jet and referred to “serious mistakes” by Prigozhin. The White House declined to comment.The founder of the Wagner military company and six...

California food bank first in world to earn ‘zero waste’ certification

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

Second Harvest Food Bank in Irvine used to budget $100,000 a year to buy cardboard boxes.Those boxes helped transport food between donation centers, their facilities and the more than 300 sites throughout Orange County — from houses of worship to after-school programs to shelters for the unhoused — that rely on the nonprofit to help keep local residents fed.But two years ago, the organization started replacing those boxes with plastic bins that can be used, disinfected and reused countless times. The bins cost $75,000, which means the investment paid itself off in less than a year. And now the food bank is no longer sending some 48,000 pounds of cardboard into the waste stream each month.That’s one example of a change Second Harvest Food Bank made that helped it become the world’s first food bank to earn a “zero waste” certification from a division of the Green Business Council, the prestigious group behind LEED designations for buildings and other certifications for sustainable fac...

Lakers to unveil Kobe Bryant statue in February

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

Late franchise icon Kobe Bryant’s Lakers legacy will physically be immortalized on Feb. 8, 2024 – a date chosen to further honor the Bryant family.The Lakers and Vanessa Bryant on Thursday morning announced that they will unveil Kobe’s bronze statue at Star Plaza outside of Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 8, 2024, before the Lakers’ home game against the defending champion Denver Nuggets that evening.The franchise said in a news release that the Feb. 8 ceremony will be outside the arena and details will be “released in the coming months.”“As you know, Kobe played his entire 20-year NBA career as a Los Angeles Laker,” Vanessa said in a video the Lakers posted on social media at 8:24 a.m. Thursday. “Since arriving in this city and joining the Lakers organization, he felt at home here, playing in the City of Angels.“On behalf of the Lakers, my daughters and me, I am so honored that, right in the center of Los Angeles, in front of the place known as the house that Kobe built, we are going to u...

Hydra: The Greek island of calm where cars are banned and time stands still

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

By Rochelle Beighton | CNNHydra is at first glance no different from its neighbors. Like other islands in the Aegean Sea, it has white-washed streets, fragrant jasmine-filled air and breathtaking vistas of the shimmering blue waters around it.What sets Hydra apart is its favored mode of transportation. Locals have resisted the clamor of honking horns, instead embracing the rhythmic sound of horse hooves.Here, cars are not just absent; they’re intentionally kept away. A ban on motorized vehicles (except fire and refuse trucks and ambulances) is enshrined in local legislation.The Greek island’s population of about 2,500 locals get around using mules, donkeys and small horses.Stepping off the ferry and onto Hydra Port, the heart of the island, visitors are met by small horses gracefully weaving their way through the cobblestone streets and giving them a taste of the island’s unhurried pace.As you wander through Hydra’s quaint pathways, it’s common to witness locals going about their da...

Police activity reported in SF's Mission District

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

(KRON) -- There is police activity at 14th and Valencia streets, San Francisco’s emergency management department said at 10:30 a.m. Man who violently attacked 2 women in SOMA convicted on multiple charges Emergency crews are currently at the scene. Drivers are advised to avoid the area and expect traffic delays.This is developing news. Stick with KRON4 for more updates.

Over $85K in stolen goods recovered from Bay Area flea markets, 2 arrested

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

(KRON) -- Over $85,000 in stolen merchandise was recovered from flea markets in the Bay Area and Sacramento area, the California Highway Patrol said Thursday. Two people were arrested.The investigation was launched in July by the CHP's Golden Gate Division Organized Retail Crime Task Force. The initial focus was on several individuals police suspected of selling stolen Victoria's Secret merchandise at the Coliseum Flea Market in Oakland. Retail tags were still attached to the merchandise, according to the CHP. 2 women shot near Fruitvale BART station in Oakland On Aug. 22, investigators found the same suspects selling "significant quantities of retail goods" at another flea market in Galt, near Sacramento. Victoria's Secret investigators did a product scan which revealed there had been no point-of-sale transactions at any Victoria's Secret retail outlet.Officers recovered merchandise valued at more than $20,000.Photo: CHPPhoto: CHPCHP detectives surveilled the suspects away from t...

Teen missing, last seen at San Lorenzo school

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

(KRON) -- A 15-year-old boy is missing after he was last seen attending Kipp School in San Lorenzo on Tuesday, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. Man who violently attacked 2 women in SOMA convicted on multiple charges Alex Umana is 5-foot-9 and weighs 210 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes. Alex was last seen wearing a black shirt with gold print, blue jeans, brown boots and a black backpack, police said. Anyone who may have seen Alex or knows of his whereabouts is asked to contact the Alameda County Sheriff's Office at 510-667-7721.

Study reveals how much carbon damage would cost corporations if they paid for their emissions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

The world’s corporations produce so much climate change pollution, it could eat up about 44% of their profits if they had to pay damages for it, according to a study by economists of nearly 15,000 public companies.The “corporate carbon damages” from those publicly owned companies analyzed — a fraction of all the corporations — probably runs in the trillions of dollars globally and in the hundreds of billions for American firms, one of the study authors estimated in figures that were not part of the published research. That’s based on the cost of carbon dioxide pollution that the United States government has proposed.Nearly 90% of that calculated damage comes from four industries: energy, utilities, transportation and manufacturing of materials such as steel. The study in Thursday’s journal Science by a team of economists and finance professors looks at what new government efforts to get companies to report their emissions of heat-trapping gases would mean, both to the firm’s b...

Former Indiana postal manager gets 40 months for stealing hundreds of checks worth at least $1.7M

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A former customer service manager at a U.S. Postal Service office in Indianapolis has been sentenced to 40 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing hundreds of checks worth about $1.7 million that businesses had mailed.James Lancaster, 42, fought back tears Wednesday after U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt sentenced him, saying the Indianapolis man’s actions warranted a significant sentence, including prison time, WTHR-TV reported.“The defendant really has no excuse for his actions,” she told the court after announcing Lancaster’s sentence. Pratt added that Lancaster was in a position of trust at a busy post office but had shown “nothing other than greed and disregard of the victims.”She also ordered Lancaster to pay more than $88,000 in restitution to his victims, saying that his actions had “seriously impacted” local businesses and also eroded trust in the U.S. Postal Service.Prosecutors said Lancaster was the cust...

Russian geneticist gets probation for DNA smuggling. Discovery of vials prompted alarm at airport

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:38 GMT

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Customs agents were alarmed at their discovery last August at Dulles International Airport: an undeclared cooler packed in a suitcase and filled with 10 test tubes of an unknown yellowish substance, brought to the U.S. by a woman claiming to be a Russian scientist.Authorities scrambled to uncover the truth: The woman was indeed a respected Russian scientist. The test tubes were not dangerous, but contained DNA samples of endangered species, including Siberian crane, that were related to her work as a geneticist with the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Novosibirsk.On Thursday the scientist, Polina Perelman, was sentenced to probation and a $1,000 fine at federal court in Alexandria in a case that authorities hope will serve as a reminder to scientists to follow the proper protocols when transporting scientific samples.“You didn’t think it was a big deal. It is a big deal,” said U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, who imposed the se...