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Former Illini tennis stars turned pickleball pros travel to APP Chicago Open in style

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — Pro pickleball returns to the northern suburbs this week for the APP Chicago Open in Highland Park.More than 850 of the sport’s top pros as well as amateurs will compete for gold medals and prize money –including the husband-and-wife duo of Ryler DeHeart and Megan Fudge. The pair started playing pickleball professionally about a year and a half ago, and when they roll up to tournaments, their whole life comes too. Bears bring back a QB, put a starter on IR “This is our home right here. We come back to our RV life,” Fudge said.Yes, the RV life. The two travel from tournament to tournament in their mobile home along with their two kids Lily and JR and two dogs."It was kind of Megan's idea to begin with, and I was against it for a while, but we had friends that had one, and we both realized we could live that life if we needed to,” DeHeart said. "For us to keep coming home, pack up and leave again every week it felt like it was Groundhog Day,” Fudge said. “...

Budget cuts force Midnight Circus to return to original venue in Welles Park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

CHICAGO — Since 2007, the Midnight Circus has been entertaining Chicagoans. But the beloved show is back at its original venue in Welles Park due to a fight over funding.In a converted garage on the Northside, which now serves as the practice place for the dedicated professionals of what could be called the greatest show in the city, the Midnight Circus is about to take flight once again.Bella Diaz, a native of the Austin Galewood neighborhood, told WGN News she began gymnastics at the age of three and considers being a circus performer a chance to show other kids to dream big.FEATURED ON WGN: Coffee for a cause at new café in Arlington Heights"I feel so proud as someone from Chicago to go back to these communities and then see how I was as a little kid. To be like, 'Hey, you know you could grow up and do this.' It's not so completely outside the box and anything is completely possible," Diaz said. Diaz is one of about 20 performers whose opening night is a little over a week away. ...

'She was struggling': Austin ISD still working to finish delayed special education evaluations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – While Austin Independent School District officials work to overhaul its special education system, middle school student Aaliah Delfierro is starting the 8th grade. Delfierro, 13, is one of the hundreds of students within the district who were not evaluated for special education services on time. In the 4th grade, at the urging of a teacher who suspected Aaliah might need special education services, her mother requested a special education evaluation from Austin ISD. According to state law, the district was supposed to complete the evaluation no more than 45 school days later. Instead, Aaliah’s student records show, that the district did not evaluate the student until more than a year later.The evaluation identified she was diagnosed with ADHD. In her individualized education plan, it stated "the student was without services due to a late initial evaluation and could use additional support to accelerate her progress."“She was struggling during all that time and not ge...

Class of 2027 moves in to Siena College

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- 1,000 freshman students moved in to Siena College ahead of the upcoming academic year. “It’s the best day of the year at Siena," John Bond, Associate Director of Admissions, said. "There’s a lot of nerves but also a lot of anxious energy too, so it’s an exciting time to welcome our newest members of the Saint family.”  Get the latest news, weather, sports and more delivered right to your inbox! Bond said enrollment at the school is on the rise and, with the upcoming inauguration of their new President, Dr. Charles Seifert, its a big year for the school. Parents and students echoed that excitement as they enter this new chapter. “I’m familiar with the campus because I did Saints camp so I wasn’t super nervous," Donavan Dubois, from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. "Honestly, now that I’m here it’s hitting me all at once, but other than that I feel very welcome.”  “I’m sure tonight I’ll really be missing him but I’m so excited," Pat Winkle said...

Eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 shut down by vehicle fire near Golden

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

The eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 are shut down near Golden, and traffic is being diverted on to U.S. Hwy. 6.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Heavy rain, flash flood shuts down I-70 through Glenwood Canyon Crime and Public Safety | Jack-knifed semitruck leads to extended road closure in Commerce City Crime and Public Safety | Interstate 70 along Floyd Hill reopens after rock blasting operation forced safety closure Crime and Public Safety | I-70 reopen after rockslide with massive boulders closed stretch on Western Slope Crime and Public Safety | Eastbound I-70 west of the tunnel reopens following fatal motorcycle crash Drivers should expect delays in the area. The area is near Colorado 470, according to the Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Department of Transportation.The vehicle that caught fire is a semi truck hauling cardboard, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The driver has esca...

California panel votes to increase storage capacity at Aliso Canyon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

California regulators on Thursday approved a controversial proposal to greatly increase storage capacity at the site of the nation's largest known methane leak, which sickened thousands of families and forced them from their Los Angeles homes in 2015.Despite opposition from lawmakers and nearby residents, the California Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to to permit underground storage of up to 68.6 billion cubic feet of gas at the vast Aliso Canyon field on the northern edge of Los Angeles County as a way to guard against fuel price spikes.That's more than a 50% increase over the current cap at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Facility, which is slated to be closed in 2027. It's also near the maximum capacity of 86 billion cubic feet but within safety standards set by another state agency.“This vote is a slap in the face to the community members who have been living with the ongoing consequences of the worst gas blowout in American history,” Andrea Vega of the group Food ...

Saudi Arabia issues death sentence over critical tweets

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

By Hande Atay Alam and Celine Alkhaldi | CNNA Saudi court has sentenced a retired teacher to death over his comments online, say his brother and advocacy group Human Rights Watch.Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a 54-year-old retired Saudi teacher, was sentenced “following 5 tweets criticizing corruption and human rights violations,” his brother Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi tweeted last week.According to Human Rights Watch, Muhammad al-Ghamdi was arrested last year and given little access to a lawyer before his conviction in July “under article 30 of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism law for ‘describing the King or the Crown Prince in a way that undermines religion or justice,’ article 34 for ‘supporting a terrorist ideology,’ article 43 for ‘communication with a terrorist entity,’ and article 44 for publishing false news ‘with the intention of executing a terrorist crime.’”“Repression in Saudi Arabia has reached a terrifying new stage when a court can hand down the death penalty for nothing more th...

Hong Kong hunkers down as Typhoon Saola approaches

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

By Tara Subramanian, Taylor Ward and Shirin Zia Faqiri | CNNSchools closed and flights were canceled as Hong Kong hoisted its third highest storm warning early Friday morning in anticipation of Typhoon Saola, which is expected to brush the city later in the day and could be its worst storm in five years.Saola lost super typhoon status as winds dropped from 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour) to 220 kph (140 mph), though still remains the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane. The storm previously impacted parts of northeastern Philippines.The Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects that the storm will get closest to Hong Kong and China’s southern Guangdong Province Friday night but the center of the storm will remain offshore. The storm is expected to weaken as it approaches to become the equivalent of Category 2 hurricane.The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) issued a T8 storm warning signal at 2:40am local time Friday morning, escalating from the lower category T3 on Thursday afte...

US regulators might change how they classify marijuana

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

By Jennifer Peltz | Associated PressNEW YORK — The news lit up the world of weed: U.S. health regulators are suggesting that the federal government loosen restrictions on marijuana.Specifically, the federal Health and Human Services Department has recommended taking marijuana out of a category of drugs deemed to have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The agency advised moving pot from that “Schedule I” group to the less tightly regulated “Schedule III.”So what does that mean, and what are the implications? Read on.FIRST OF ALL, WHAT HAS ACTUALLY CHANGED? WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?Technically, nothing yet. Any decision on reclassifying — or “rescheduling,” in government lingo — is up to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which says it will take up the issue. The review process is lengthy and involves taking public comment.Still, the HHS recommendation is “paradigm-shifting, and it’s very exciting,...

Oakland police have a year to speed up 911 response times — and a lot to lose if they don’t

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:56 GMT

OAKLAND — The Oakland Police Department has one year to speed up its notoriously slow emergency response times, California officials have warned, or the city risks losing important state funding — and even the authority to answer 911 calls at all.The department’s slow 911 response has been the subject of public scrutiny for the past several years, including in two recent civil grand jury reports and a 2017 city audit.“The situation is at a crisis point given the volume of calls and the level of crime that’s reported,” Barry Donelan, the head of the city’s police union, said in an interview. “It just seems to be us pedaling like mad on a stationary bicycle.”Now the critiques have caught the attention of the California Office of Emergency Services, which provides funding to the city’s police and formally recognizes the department as a “public safety answering point” that dispatches 911 calls.Every agency receiving state...