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SANDAG to begin public outreach on train tunnel plan in Del Mar

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

DEL MAR, Calif. -- A tunnel beneath Del Mar is being worked on as the alternative to the tracks current location along the bluffs. The project is several years away from construction, but the process of public outreach is set to begin next month. “These are homes where a lot of people have lived there for their entire lives and to have it shaken up by the train because it’s now going to go underneath our house, it’s going to be pretty disruptive,” Karen Lare said.Many Del Mar residents are uneasy about SANDAG’s plan to move the train tracks off the bluffs and under the city, by way of a tunnel.  “SANDAG has been doing everything in our power to help restore those bluffs. At the end of the day, that is not going to be enough. The rails need to come off the bluff,” said Coleen Clementson, Deputy CEO at SANDAG.SANDAG is considering two options as part of the LOSSAN Rail Realignment Project, which were presented before city council this week.  SANDAG CEO Hasan...

SANDAG CEO Hasan Ikhrata to leave government agency

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego Association Of Governments' (SANDAG) upper management will look a bit different come next year.Chief Executive Officer Hasan Ikhrata on Friday evening submitted his notice to the Board of Directors, announcing his departure from the agency on Dec. 29, SANDAG said in a news release.“I came to SANDAG almost five years ago to reinvigorate this organization and reimagine a brighter future for the San Diego region,” Ikhrata said. “Together, with the amazing SANDAG team, we have done just that, tackling long-standing issues such as transit to the airport, the falling Del Mar Bluffs, building a third crossing at the U.S.-Mexico border, and the need for free transit, more bikeways and housing." More than $1 billion in funds were awarded for projects throughout the San Diego region under Ikhrata's leadership, according to SANDAG. This is the most affordable housing market among San Diego metro’s largest cities: report "As the agency starts its next chapter, this is t...

A drought alert for receding Lake Titicaca has Indigenous communities worried for their future

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

HUARINA, Bolivia (AP) — A 70-year-old man’s feet sink into the soil as he passes abandoned boats where there used to be the water of Lake Titicaca. The highest navigable lake in the world has receded to what Bolivian authorities say are critically low levels due to a persistent drought.“It’s completely dry,” Jaime Mamani said in exasperation while walking along the new shoreline in Huarina, a farming town 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of La Paz where he is a community leader.The National Service of Naval Hydrography declared an alert this week for the iconic lake after its surface fell 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) below the drought warning stage, or 3,807.8 meters (12492.7 feet) above sea level. But the agency says this is just the beginning of a situation that is worrying Indigenous Aymara communities that rely on the lake for their livelihoods and fear the dry spell could permanently impact the region’s flora and fauna.The hydrology unit of Bolivia’s navy warned that water lev...

Black Belt Eagle Scout’s latest record inspired by return home to Swinomish tribe’s ancestral lands

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The beginning of the pandemic was devasting for the leader of the indie rock band Black Belt Eagle Scout, Katherine Paul. All her tours, including one headlining across North America, were canceled and she feared her ascending music career might be over. She got a day job at a nonprofit and returned to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s homelands in Western Washington. But as Paul, or KP to her friends, spent time in the cedar forests and walked along the Skagit River, she turned to her guitar to deal with the isolation and stress. Those snippets, recorded on her phone, provided the foundation for what would become songs on her powerful, grunge-soaked new record “The Land, The Water, The Sky.”“I feel like if the pandemic hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have made this record,” said KP, who writes the songs, sings and plays guitar in the band that was the only Native American artist at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this month.“I spe...

The extreme heat wave that blasted the Southwest is abating with late arriving monsoon rains

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — A historic heat wave that turned the U.S. Southwest into a blast furnace throughout July is beginning to abate with the late arrival of monsoon rains.Forecasters expect that by Monday at the latest, people in metro Phoenix will begin seeing high temperatures under 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) for the first time in a month. As of Friday, the high temperature in the desert city had been at or above that mark for 29 consecutive days. Already this week, the overnight low at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport fell under 90 (32.2 C) for the first time in 16 days, finally allowing people some respite from the stifling heat once the sun goes down.Temperatures are also expected to ease in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Death Valley, California.The downward trend started Wednesday night, when Phoenix saw its first major monsoon storm since the traditional start of the season on June 15. While more than half of the greater Phoenix area saw no rainfall from tha...

After an attack on Salman Rushdie, the Chautauqua Institution says its mission won’t change

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (AP) — For a single, unthinkable moment last summer, the Chautauqua Institution was a hostile place for the freedom of expression that has been its hallmark for 150 years: As Salman Rushdie was about to speak, an audience member leapt onto the stage and stabbed the celebrated author more than a dozen times.By the next day, Chautauqua Institution President Michael Hill recently recounted, the decision had been made not only to resume programming, but to “double down on what Mr. Rushdie stands for, what our speakers and preachers and artists stand for — which is the free exchange of ideas and the belief that society is stronger when we do that.”A year later, Rushdie, blinded in one eye by the assault, is recovering from the attack. The Chautauqua Institution is recovering, too.Programming and revenue for the arts and intellectual retreat in the rural southwest corner of New York was disrupted for two seasons by COVID-19. Then the attack further shattered the return to...

Ex-New Mexico police informant headed to prison after admitting 5 bank robberies to feed addiction

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico man who confessed to five bank robberies in Albuquerque last year — including one bank he robbed twice as part of what he said were desperate attempts to feed his fentanyl addiction — has been sentenced to more than two years in prison.Jason Smeltzer, 41, made off with less than $4,000 total from the the five robberies, which took place within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of each other over five weeks in early 2022, court records show.Each time, the unarmed Albuquerque man who once served as a confidential informant for the city’s police handed notes to tellers claiming he was a vigilante helping law enforcement and asking that they “please” place bills in an envelope, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.Assistant federal public defender Dennis Candelaria had argued Smeltzer be sentenced to only 18 months in prison partly because he had no adult criminal record, a lengthy work history and was actively involved in ...

Severe weather moves through area

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

Severe weather moved through the Chicago area Friday night, prompting watches and warnings including a Tornado Warning for a portion of the night just before midnight.Latest warnings and watches from the National Weather Service.It was a hot, steamy Friday with high temps which made it into the low and mid 90s—with dew points as high as 80-deg at a number of locations. Powerhouse t-storms erupt Friday night The Chicago area was at a Level 3 risk of severe weather on the storm prediction center's 5-tier risk scale and also the risk of excessive rainfall. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here There is potential for t-storms to train---i.e. fire repeatedly over some areas---thus producing potential flooding. It appears the period from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. brackets the period in which we'll be paying particular attention. Initially, scattered gusty t-storms will grow numerous during the evening with greater than 90% prospects for thunderstorms arriving in clusters ca...

Vigil held for victims of Rancho Palos Verdes shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

Family and friends gathered for a vigil Friday evening to remember a man and a woman who were murdered on July 24 in Rancho Palos Verdes. Taylor Raven Whittaker, 26, of Carson and Jorge Ramos, 36, of Willowbrook, were found shot to death in Ramos’ bullet-riddled car on the morning of July 24 in what authorities with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are investigating as a targeted attack.  The pair were in the parking lot of Pelican Cove Park, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, in Rancho Palos Verdes.  Taylor was remembered as kind, compassionate, and full of life. "Such a free spirit, very helpful, very loving, very funny. She was such a comedian,” said Jerrica Williams, Whittaker's friend and colleague. “She was a beautiful person. She didn’t deserve this. Neither did Jorge.”Family and friends held a vigil to remember a man and a woman who were murdered on July 24 in Rancho Palos Verdes. (KTLA)“They didn’t deserve that, neither one of them," said Georgia H...

Long Beach man dead after he was ejected from car during crash 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:10 GMT

A man is dead after he was ejected from his car during a crash in Long Beach on Friday. Long Beach police responded to reports of someone who was injured in a traffic collision near 6th Street and Santiago Avenue. When officers arrived on the scene, they found a man who had been ejected from his vehicle, according to the Long Beach Police Department. Authorities say the driver of a 2021 Nissan Rogue, a 63-year-old Long Beach resident, was traveling southbound on Santiago Avenue on the wrong side of the road, when he hit a parked car head-on. He was ejected from the Nissan and the vehicle rolled into the front yard of a nearby residence. He was transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Detectives believe speed may have been a factor in the crash. The driver’s identification is being withheld until his family is notified.