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More Metro East crime-fighting tools after recent shootings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - Bringing more crime-fighting tools to the Metro East will be the focus of an event later Wednesday morning in East St. Louis. This comes as the Major Case Squad is currently investigating two murder cases in the metro east.The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center is where multiple high-ranking officials including the director of the Illinois State Police, Brendan Kelly, are set to appear in a matter of hours to announce that more resources are coming to this area to try and reduce crime. The announcement is certainly timely after the violence just Tuesday in the metro east. There are also new developments Wednesday morning in one of those Major Case Squad investigations.The Major Case Squad released an image of someone they are calling a person of interest in connection with the murder that happened early Tuesday morning at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee MetroLink Station. Rare bee found in Belleville, Illinois Our Bommmarito Automotive Group SkyFOX helicopter was flying o...

Heat Advisory issued Wednesday through Friday evening

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

St. Louis weather from Meteorologist Angela Hutti:ST. LOUIS - Heat remains our main focus. We start the mornings warm, in the 70s to around 80 in metro St. Louis, and we heat up quickly. Afternoon top temperatures will push well into the 90s and close to 100 the rest of the week. Factor in the humidity and afternoon heat indices go to 105 plus. A Heat Advisory has been issued Wednesday through Friday evening. Drink plenty of water. Stay in an air-conditioned space and out of the sun during peak heating hours, Noon to 5:00 p.m. Take extra precautions if you work outside.   St. Louis radar: See a map of current weather here This Wednesday, we are waking up to scattered showers and storms. The chance for scattered rain activity will hang around through the day. The clouds associated with that activity may help to keep highs Wednesday “only” in the mid 90s, still very hot. pot showers could hang around into early Thursday as well. So may see a good downpour, while others see not...

Better cameras are solving, preventing St. Louis area crimes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

ST. LOUIS – New camera technology on public transportation has improved so much that prosecutors recently claimed they could see suspects planning their crime.Metro’s Real Time Camera Center is equipped with nearly 1,0000 high definition video screens. “Security force multiplying technology,” Kevin Scott, Bi-State’s General Manager for Security, said. “We have worked over the last four years to put together a layered security dynamic here that ultimately makes our system safer.”Tuesday morning's shooting at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Station in St. Clair County, Illinois, will likely come with plenty of evidence.“The video and audio is phenomenal,” St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department Chief of Investigations Sgt. Adam Quirin said of recent footage. He said this latest investigation involves, “…one of the trains that has enhanced video; so we should have very, very good video.” Stay of execution granted for Johnny Johnson Quirin responded to Tuesday’s shooting scene, which was just ...

Teen lifeguards receive award after saving firefighter from drowning

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

SHREWSBURY, Mo. - Two teenagers received a lifesaving award in Shrewsbury on Tuesday for saving a firefighter at a local public pool. The rescue happened during a first responders' night back in June."I'm really proud of myself because it's not something I ever thought I would do, and I just think it's really cool to get something like this," said Lizzie Hancock.Hancock, James Trueman, and Jon Baeten received recognition for their heroic efforts."I saw somebody at the bottom. I swam down, pushed him up, gave him some rescue breaths," Trueman said.He said instinct took over as he yelled for Lizzy's help."It's really scary. Well, it's scary, but it's weird because we just are trained on it, so you just do it. You just act," Trueman said. Rare bee found in Belleville, Illinois "I jumped off my stand and ran over there, jumped in the water, put him in the tube, and swam him to the edge of the pool," Hancock said.Trueman said the other firefighters immediately took over and began givin...

As witchcraft becomes a multibillion-dollar business, practitioners’ connection to the natural world is changing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

Helen A. Berger, Brandeis University via Associated PressWitches, Wiccans and other contemporary Pagans see divinity in trees, streams, plants and animals. Most Pagans view the Earth as the Goddess, with a body that humans must care for, and from which they gain emotional, spiritual and physical sustenance.Paganism is an umbrella term that includes religions that view their practices as returning to those of pre-Christian societies, in which they believe the Goddess was worshipped along with the gods and the land was seen as sacred. Wicca focuses specifically on the practice of the British Isles.Witchcraft has also become a multibillion-dollar business. As a sociologist who has been researching this religion for more than 30 years, I have witnessed this growing commercialization: Witch kits are sold by large companies and in stores – something unheard of when I began my research in 1986.This surge in popularity has changed these communities in some subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Gro...

Kidnapped woman found alive in Wheat Ridge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

A 43-year-old woman was found alive in Wheat Ridge Wednesday morning after a forcible kidnapping Tuesday evening, authorities said.The Aurora resident has been transported to a hospital, Arapahoe County Sheriff officials said in a posting on Twitter. Her condition was not released.Jefferson County Sheriff SWAT officers have arrested Lance Foster as a suspect in connection to the kidnapping. He is suspected of stalking the woman and kidnapping her around 5:47 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. A Colorado Bureau of Investigation bulletin said Foster, 43, is suspected of forcing Meise into a black 2008 Lincoln vehicle.#UPDATE Jessica Meise has been found alive in Wheat Ridge. She has been transported to a local hospital. Her condition is unknown at this time. The suspect, Lance Foster, was arrested by @jeffcosheriffco SWAT. He is in police custody. Follow for more updates. https://t.co/qrmNsTOTRc— Arapahoe Sheriff (@ArapahoeSO) July 26, 2023

Denver author’s latest novel is the simple but powerful tale of a Yellowstone park ranger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

Ren Hopper is a Yellowstone National Park enforcement ranger whose view of humans is just a little bit jaded. When a mother and father encourage their daughter to feed an apple to a gangly moose calf, Ren risks his life to save the child from the animal’s wrathful mother, then all but wishes the moose would turn on the parents. “What the hell has gotten into you?” Ren asks himself during a similar reverie. “Do you think you’re the last ranger that puts the animals first?”“That was the anger that frightened him. In his world lately, the life of a wolf, or a hawk, might be worth more than the life of a man,” writes Heller.Whatever his opinion of humans, Ren is overwhelmed with his love for the outdoors — the wilderness with its abundance of wildlife, the solitude. The author of “The Last Ranger” is Denver’s Peter Heller, so you know the book is filled with lyrical descriptions of Yellowstone. And fishing. Always fishing. Heller’s faith in fishing is almost Biblical. “He caught f...

Denver weather: Hot with temps to reach 95 degrees, possible afternoon thunderstorms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

Metro Denver residents face blue skies and sunshine Wednesday as summer heat bakes Colorado, with possible afternoon thunderstorms bringing rain, according to the National Weather Service.The high temperature in Denver will be 95 degrees, decreasing to 64 degrees at night, weather service forecasters said. On Thursday, the high is expected to be 94 degrees.Scattered thunderstorms likely will form over Colorado’s western mountains and the Front Range high plains Wednesday afternoon and evening. These may kick out winds at speeds up to 55 miles per hour and hail. Any rain will be brief, forecasters said, and storms will diminish gradually in the evening.Meteorologists estimated the likelihood of rain on Wednesday at 40%. They’re anticipating a shift into a summer rain pattern next week that could lead to heavier precipitation and elevated risks of flash flooding, especially where fires in mountain forests left burn scars.In southern Colorado, forecasters warned of potentia...

Car flies off 10 Freeway into homeless encampment, injuring 5

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

Five people were injured when a car went over a freeway embankment and crashed into a homeless encampment in the Palms neighborhood Wednesday morning. The crash was reported around 2:20 a.m. on the westbound side of the 10 Freeway near Palms Boulevard.There was no immediate word on what may have caused the vehicle, a Tesla, to go over the embankment. Los Angeles Fire Department officials confirmed that there were a total of five patients. First responders were called after a car crashed into a homeless encampment on July 26, 2023. (KeyNews.TV)Three people were extricated from the vehicle and transported in "at least" serious condition. Two other patients were taken to the hospital in fair condition. The crash remains under investigation.

Michael Jackson sexual abuse lawsuits may be revived

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:11 GMT

A California appeals court on Wednesday will consider reviving the dismissed lawsuits of two men who allege Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children for years, a move the court appears likely to make after a tentative decision that would order the cases back to a lower court for trial.The suits were filed after Jackson's 2009 death by Wade Robson in 2013 and James Safechuck the following year. The two men became more widely known for telling their stories in the 2019 HBO documentary, “ Leaving Neverland.”In this Feb. 28, 1984, file photo, Michael Jackson, left, holds eight awards as he poses with Quincy Jones at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac, File)Both sued MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc., two corporations for which Jackson was the sole owner and lone shareholder.In 2021, Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young ruled that the two corporations and their employees had no legal duty to protect Robson and Safechuck from Jackson and threw out the su...