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Millennium Park one of the best US tourist destinations, study says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

CHICAGO - One of the favorite stops for those who are visiting the Windy City is a park downtown, and one survey found that those people tended to enjoy themselves.Family Destinations Guide recently conducted a study on the best tourist destinations in the United States, and Millennium Park in Chicago cracked the Top Ten.The popular Loop destination finished in a tie for eighth on their list with the Epcot Center at Walt Disney World. To find the best US tourist destinations, Family Destinations Guide took the top 50 most visited places in the country and compared how many people had given the top score on Tripadvisor. When it comes to Millennium Park, 71 percent of the visitors gave it an "excellent" rating when they made their way around the park, which allowed it to rank high on the list. Per the study, the park gets an average of 25 million visitors per year.Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee along with the Grand Canyon in Arizona were at the top...

Biden to seek more than $2.8B from Congress for cancer fight

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is asking Congress for more than $2.8 billion in the federal budget he’s sending to Capitol Hill on Thursday to help advance his cancer-fighting goals.More than half of the money, $1.7 billion, would go to the Department of Health and Human Services to support the Democratic president’s cancer initiatives across an array of departments and agencies, according to White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details with The Associated Press before Biden formally unveils his spending blueprint later Thursday in Philadelphia.The funding request would support a “cancer moonshot’ initiative Biden announced last year with the goal of cutting cancer death rates in half over the next 25 years. Biden aims to help close gaps in cancer screenings, better understand and address environmental and toxic exposures associated with certain cancers, and reduce the effects of preventable cancers, such as those linked to tobacco and poor ...

APD, ATCEMS provide safety tips for spring festival season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Austin Police Department and Austin-Travis County EMS held a live news conference Thursday to discuss safety tips for the upcoming spring festival season.Both APD and ATCEMS said they have taken proactive measures and will have staff in an around the festival to assist the public.APD said there will be a large amount of pedestrians and vehicle traffic, so attendees should plan their routes accordingly and expect longer travel and wait times.Attendees are advised to be aware of their surroundings and know where they are in case they need help, according to APD.ATCEMS recommends attendees download the “What3words” app which will help first responders locate them in an emergency and to look for landmarks and business names around them if they do not have the app.To avoid drinking and driving, APD said if attendees plan on consuming alcohol, they should have a plan to get home and make sure they are getting in the correct rideshare by checking the driver photo or li...

It's illegal for shelter vets to operate on pets with owners. A Texas lawmaker hopes to change that

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Two Texas lawmakers have filed bills in hopes to expand access to life-saving veterinarian services to pet owners who can’t afford them. Texas is currently the only state in the U.S. that does not allow animal shelters to provide voluntary services to low-income pet owners during health emergencies. Because of current laws, many Texans are forced to surrender their animals when some veterinarians may otherwise choose to help out.  MORE: Animal shelter starts ‘preventing euthanasia’ list amid crowding “It's illegal for animal shelters to provide care after they have left the shelter or have been spayed or neutered. And we know about 40% of the people releasing and surrendering their animals are doing so because they can't afford veterinarian care,” House Rep. Ann Johnson (D-Houston), who filed HB 3439, told KXAN. “If the shelter wants to participate in keeping that family with that vet pet, rather than surrendering the pet, trying to find a new home or euthaniz...

Central Texas singer earns 4-chair turn on 'The Voice'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

CENTRAL TEXAS (KXAN) — After a six-year hiatus from performing, a Hutto singer made his career return with a blind audition on "The Voice" — and earned a four-chair turn along the way.Native Texan Savion Wright — whose stage name is NOIVAS — performed Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" in the final audition of the Season 23 premiere. It's a song that Wright said deeply resonated with him, specifically with the loss of his brother, Alfred. ICYMI: City of Austin overtime pay soars over $112M in 2022 "For my family, that song is a rallying cry," he said. "In order to get justice for all the people, unfortunately, in this country who have lost their lives at young ages."He attributed music as his outlet and a means of channeling his pain and grief into his artistry. It was those same emotions he poured into his "The Voice" audition that he said helped him resonate with the judges, especially Blake Shelton. Wright said he and Shelton talked about how they've both lost brothers, along...

Senators unveil energy insurance program among plans to revamp power grid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick gathered a bipartisan group of state senators on Thursday to announce a sweeping package of bills he argued will bolster the reliability of the power grid and lower energy costs.Senator Charles Schwertner, chairman of the Business and Commerce committee, first introduced a new "Texas Energy Insurance Program" that Senate Bill 6 would create. He said this will add 10,000 megawatts of power to Texas' energy supply."Texas needs its own backup generation when weather is bad," he said. "This proposal puts new steel in the ground, ensures more electrons are flowing in our power lines."Senate Bill 6 also establishes a "state-backed, low-cost loan program" which Sen. Schwertner compared to SWIFT, or the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas. That program provides financial assistance to local water projects. "This is not building a capacity market. It is an insurance product," Schwertner said. "The energy only market has been very succ...

Class 2A boys hockey state quarterfinal: Cretin-Derham Hall flips script to upset Maple Grove

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

Cretin-Derham Hall boys hockey coach Matt Funk wasn’t exactly thrilled when he saw the draw for the Class 2A boys hockey state tournament.“I’m not going to lie,” Funk said. “My heart skipped a beat when I found out we were playing Maple Grove.”In that moment, Funk also couldn’t help but smile to himself, realizing the unseeded Raiders were playing the No. 2 seeded Crimson in the 11 o’clock game. The irony wasn’t lost on him. Not after last year, when No. 2 seeded Cretin-Derham Hall played in the early game and were promptly upset by unseeded Prior Lake.“We knew the empty feeling that we had last year,” Funk said. “We did a lot of things different this year.”There was, as Funk put it, a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding the Raiders last year. It marked the first time in more than a decade the program had made it to the state tournament, and naturally, the community wanted to celebrate the accomplishm...

Here’s how facial recognition is changing travel through U.S. airports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

For speedier entry into the U.S., your most important travel tool is now your face.All three of the Bay Area’s airports are deploying new facial recognition technology, called Simplified Arrival, to screen incoming international passengers and testing it in San Jose to track some departing passengers too. It’s catching imposters and processing travelers more efficiently — but also raising privacy concerns.“You get instant verification,” said James Hutton of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on a recent morning as hordes of bleary-eyed travelers streamed through San Francisco International Airport’s immigration control booths and paused for a snapshot.“The camera does immediate identification,” he said, “telling the customs officer that, ‘This is the person that’s in front of me.’ “A US customs officer at San Francisco International Airport processes arriving passengers with the use of a camera connected to a facial comparison technology called “Simplified Arrival,” Wednesday, Dec. ...

Former BOCES teacher admits to raping 13-year-old

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

FONDA, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- On Wednesday, a former BOCES teacher pleaded guilty to one count of criminal sexual act in the second degree. Kristin M. Bellinger, 39, of Johnstown, admitted to having oral sex with a former student back in 2019. Get all of the latest news, weather, sports, and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! Bellinger was arrested on June 27, 2022, following a lengthy investigation into a complaint that she had sex with a 13-year-old in 2019. Bellinger tutored the student at home outside of her job as a special education teacher. The Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES office in Johnstown told NEWS10 they were not made aware of the alleged tutoring arrangement and that it is not a typical practice. Bellinger is required to register as a sex offender. She will be sentenced in the Montgomery County Court on April 28.

Bill could give tax exemptions when buying fire safety products

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) -- Experts say there are around 164 fire related deaths every year in the state of New York. That’s why some are fighting for legislation that could make it easier for us to purchase fire safety products. Whether it’s fire extinguishers or smoke detectors, these safety products come with a price tag. Sponsor of the bill, Assembly member Monica Wallace feels it’s in the best interest of all New Yorkers to implement tax exemptions for safety products. At least for the month of October, "Ideally I’d like to see it all year round," said Wallace. First-ever volunteer fire fighter recruitment event held in Clifton Park But she says with October being fire prevention awareness month, it’s a good start, "To both raise awareness of the need for those products and raise awareness of fire safety, to remind people to go out and replace any alarms that may need to be replaced, replace your batteries, and your smoke alarms, your carbon monoxide detectors and just sort of re...