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Opinion: Land swaps favorable to rich owners undermine Colorado’s public lands

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

In 2017, the public lost 1,470 acres of wilderness-quality land at the base of Mount Sopris near Aspen.For decades, people had hiked and hunted on the Sopris land, yet the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) handed it over to Leslie Wexner, former CEO of Victoria’s Secret and other corporations, at his request. The so-called “equivalent terrain” he offered in return was no match for access to trails at the base of the 13,000-foot mountain.This ill-considered trade reveals how land management agencies pander to wealthy interests, do not properly value public land, and restrict opportunities for public involvement. It’s an ongoing scandal in Colorado that receives little attention.Since 2000, the BLM and the Forest Service have proposed over 150 land exchanges in Colorado. Last year alone, the agencies proposed to trade more than 4,500 acres of public lands, worth over $9 million, in three major Colorado land exchanges.Land to be traded away includes precious riverfront, lands recommended...

Five weeknight dishes: These dinners make being green quite easy (and fast)

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

By Emily Weinstein, The New York TimesThis is the exact moment every year when spring takes hold on New York Times Cooking, and everyone lunges for green recipes that mirror the season. Green pizzas, pastas and salads abound; green sauces are unstoppable. I stock asparagus in my fridge and eat it with whatever I’m cooking (although really it’s best with runny eggs). So I’ve got five fast, ultra-green recipes for you this week.1. Baked Salmon and Dill RiceFragrant dill rice is a natural accompaniment to salmon, and a complete meal of the two is made easy here by baking them together in one dish. Add fresh or dried dill to basmati rice, which is eventually topped with salmon covered in a tangy, sweet and spicy paste of mayo, lemon zest, honey and dried chile flakes. To ensure the rice is perfectly fluffy without overcooking the fish, the grains are baked until most of the water is absorbed before the salmon is added over the top.By Naz DeravianYield: 4 servingsTotal time: 40 minutesIn...

Truck hits pedestrians, apartment building in Mid-Wilshire, killing woman and hospitalizing 2

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

A pickup truck hit two pedestrians, then slammed into a Mid-Wilshire apartment Tuesday morning, leaving two people injured and a woman dead.A white pickup struck the building in the 6200 block of West Colgate Avenue a few minutes before 8 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Police and Fire departments.That address is near Park La Brea Apartments and is across the street from Hancock Park Elementary School. According to the LAFD, the pickup hit two pedestrians, a 6-year-old girl and a 35-year-old woman, then hit a two-story apartment building.The woman was declared dead at the scene, while the girl was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.The driver of the truck, a man believed to be about 30 years old, was taken to a local hospital in moderate condition.The extent of the damage to the structure is not yet known, the LAFD said. Nidia Becerra contributed to this report.

Couple who killed 10-year-old Anthony Avalos to be sentenced

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

A woman and her boyfriend who were convicted last month of torturing and killing the woman's 10-year-old son are expected to be sentenced on Tuesday.The couple, 33-year-old Heather Maxine Barron and 37-year-old Kareem Ernesto Leiva, could receive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.The office of former District Attorney Jackie Lacey initially sought the death penalty for the couple, but current District Attorney George Gascón's office decided against it.The pair was convicted last month of first-degree murder and torture in the killing Anthony Avalos, who died June 21, 2018. The conviction was handed down by a judge, as the pair waived their right to a jury trial. Lancaster couple found guilty of first-degree murder in death of Anthony Avalos, 10 Prosecutors say Avalos was tortured for at least five days before he was found unresponsive in his family's apartment in Lancaster on June 20, 2018.That torture included pouring hot sauce on Avalos' face and mou...

Studio City man treated thousands, including cancer patients, without a medical license: DA

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

A Studio City man faces multiple felony charges after he allegedly impersonated a doctor and practiced "medicine on thousands of individuals," according to a release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.Stephan Gevorkian, 44, has been charged with five counts of practicing medicine without a license at his practice, Pathways in Toluca Lake. “Practicing medicine without a license is not only a criminal activity in California, it can cause irreparable harm to the health of unsuspecting people, some with serious illnesses, who believe they are under the care of a licensed physician,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement.Some of those "serious illnesses" include cancer and viral infections, the release added. An undercover investigator visiting Gevorkian's practice in November and received a consultation where "Gevorkian allegedly failed to accurately address abnormal levels of a hormone that could indicate a serious medical condition."A Pathways employe...

Restaurateur Jeremy Adler Takes Over The Beethoven Market In Mar Vista

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

Co-partner of Cobi’s in Santa Monica,  Jeremy Adler, has bought the iconic Beethoven Market in Mar Vista for a reported $3 million and will commence construction on a new concept in the next few weeks. The market will officially shut down on Sunday, April 30, with plans in the works to build a cafe and market that will include an outdoor seating area that will take over the current parking lot, and in a move that should comfort many Mar Vista residents, keep the same name and an offer for the current employees to return.“The reason I’m doing this project is because of where it’s physically located and because it’s such an opportunity to be a nexus for the community,” Adler, who lives in Mar Vista less than a mile away from the market with his wife and two kids, tells L.A. Weekly. “There aren’t enough places in our neighborhood where people can congregate and hang out and get to know each other. I have a lot of faith in our community.”Adler personally reached out to neigh...

Inaccurate Death Reporting Likely Responsible for Significant Opioid Crisis Undercount

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

Opioids have been around for a long time. Unfortunately, so has the opioid crisis. This class of drug may be helping people mitigate their pains, however — when abused — opioids can also kill people. Recently, it’s been found that the opioid crisis is far worse than initially perceived. The number of deaths from the opioid crisis seems to have been miscalculated — by a huge margin.The Opioid Crisis Is Killing Far Too Many AmericansThe University of Rochester Medical Center researchers conducted a study to learn the more accurate number of deaths caused by the ongoing opioid crisis in the country. They found out that deaths from opioid-related deaths are 28% higher than what was initially reported.Researchers also learned that in some states, opioid-caused fatalities are possibly two times higher than what was originally broadcasted — the states Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania possibly have way more residents who died from an opioid overdose. The researcher...

East Bay man accused of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee faces arraignment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

Nima Momeni, the man accused of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco shortly after an encounter, will be arraigned Tuesday on a murder charge.Lee, who cofounded the mobile payment service provider Cash App, was stabbed to death in the Rincon Hill neighborhood early on April 4.Authorities have said Momeni, 38, of Emeryville, California, and Lee knew each other and they were in a vehicle shortly before the stabbing.California Secretary of State records indicate that Momeni has been the owner of an IT business. He has been held without bail since his arrest nearly two weeks ago.The district attorney’s office has indicated that the alleged homicide may have been premeditated.“This is a person who was in his vehicle with a kitchen knife,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said earlier this month. “That’s not something most of us carry around at all times with us.”Momeni’s attorney Paula Canny told station KNTV nearly two weeks ago that there is a “much greater b...

Infamous San Jose statue of Thomas Fallon is taken down

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

In the wee hours of the night on Monday and with roughly a dozen onlookers, construction crews donned their hard hats and reflective vests to remove the controversial Thomas Fallon statue in downtown San Jose.After years of efforts to remove the Fallon artwork — seen as a symbol of American imperialism by the South Bay’s Mexican and Indigenous communities — a crane plucked the 16-foot-tall, 12,000-pound bronze statue off its concrete base and placed it into a storage crate. The city will hold on to the statue for now. There are currently no plans to fill the now-empty spot at the traffic median on St. James Street, though some in the Indigenous community have called for there to be a statue that is more inclusive for the city.According to city officials, the artwork is worth approximately $6,000 and cost the city nearly half a million dollars to remove.The statue, which depicts the former San Jose mayor and captain in the Mexican-American War on horseback raising a...

Cesar Chavez’s legacy lives on in Joe Biden’s new campaign chair

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:16:07 GMT

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE | Associated PressWASHINGTON — When President Barack Obama flew to California to dedicate a national monument to Latino labor leader Cesar Chavez, a group of the activist’s relatives were invited to pose for photos with the president.Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Chavez’s granddaughter, hung back. As a member of Obama’s staff, she had traveled with the official party to the event, but she did not want to call attention to herself.Only when Obama’s senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, insisted did Rodriguez reluctantly step forward, barely making it into the frame.“I said, ‘Julie, you have to be up there with your family,’” said Jarrett, who was Rodriguez’s boss in the White House Office of Public Engagement. “And she said, ‘No, I’m staff today.’”White House staffers are often of a type, hard-charging strivers who crave their own sliver of the limelight or even trade on a famous name. Rodriguez has been a clear exception. In her second tour serving a Democratic president,...