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School voucher bill to reach Texas House floor Friday for potentially pivotal vote

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

AUSTIN (Texas Tribune) – After years of work from advocates and months of arm-twisting in the state Capitol, the Texas House appears poised to vote on the creation of a school voucher program Friday.House Bill 1, authored by Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, is the lower chamber's $7 billion wide-ranging education proposal that would create education savings accounts, a voucher-like program that would allow parents access to taxpayer money to pay for private schools. The House is set to convene at 10 a.m. Friday and will take up the bill at some point. Time running short to approve TX school voucher plan The bill passed a House committee on Nov. 10 and its initial approval marked the furthest a school voucher program has reached in the Texas House in recent history. In fact, it’s possible a school voucher bill has never made it to a floor vote in the House, according to legislative records — though an exact determination is difficult given that the Legislature has considered differen...

Austin ISD posts superintendent position; signals possible inside choice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – In a sign that it is ready to move forward with choosing a new leader for the district, the Board of Trustees for the Austin Independent School District unanimously voted Thursday night to post the job of superintendent. It also unanimously voted to add the following to the superintendent job profile: prioritization of special education, with specific references to inclusive practicesa focus placed on multilingual educationmore emphasis on staff morale an equality statement on gender identity and sexual orientationThe board voted to post the position from Friday, Nov. 17 until 5 p.m., Dec. 7.AISD Board President Arati Singh said the board faced two options: a months-long national search or an immediate posting if they felt that a search was not necessary. According to the district, school boards generally choose the latter option when they have a strong candidate in mind. The Board of Trustees paused the current superintendent search Mar. 30 and extended the contract...

Albany man menaces victim with gun, violates parole

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- An Albany man was arrested Thursday after menacing a victim with a gun while on parole. Kareem Abdulbaqi, 44, faces several new charges. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! On Wednesday, around 4:30 a.m., officers responded to a home around Third Avenue and S. Hawk Street after a weapon call. After they arrived, police met a woman who told them the suspect, later identified as Abdulbaqi, banged on her door demanding to be let in, then showed a handgun to intimidate her to let her in. Police say Abdulbaqi was not at the scene when they arrived. He was taken into custody later that day due to violating his parole. No one was injured in this incident. No injuries in Glens Falls house fire Charges:Second-degree criminal possession of a weaponThird-degree criminal possession of a weaponSecond-degree menacingAggravated criminal contemptAbdulbaqi was arraigned in Albany City Criminal Court. He was remanded to th...

Ask Amy: Ankle injury trumps cancer diagnosis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

Dear Amy: My wife was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer that has metastasized.Our friends (a couple) volunteered to stay at our house and watch our elderly dog so that I could take my wife out of town for a nice weekend before she started a 12-week course of chemotherapy. We thought this was incredibly kind and beautiful.Only the wife showed up (the husband did not come).On the last morning the wife texted me at 7 a.m. to call her.I feared our dog had died. I called her and she said she had fallen in our house and wanted our help.I asked if she needed EMS and she said no, but she reiterated that she wanted us to come home right away.We were five hours away but immediately packed up and started driving.Her husband, who was nearby, did not go to the house to help his wife.When we got back, the wife made a big production of showing us her ankle, which was slightly swollen and bruised.She had me drive her to an urgent care facility nearby. Her husband still had not come, but called us and ...

EU economy greenhouse gas emissions: -5.3% in Q2 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

In the second quarter of 2023, EU economy greenhouse gas emissions totalled 821 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents (CO2-eq), a -5.3% decrease compared with the same quarter of 2022 (867 million tonnes of CO2-eq). In the same period, the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) remained stable registering just a very small variation (+0.05% in the second quarter of 2023, compared with the same quarter of 2022). This information comes from data on quarterly estimates for greenhouse gas emissions by economic activity published by Eurostat today. Quarterly estimates of greenhouse gas emissions complement quarterly socio-economic data, such as GDP or employment. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on quarterly greenhouse gas emissions.Source dataset: env_ac_aigg_q and namq_10_gdpIn the second quarter of 2023, the economic sectors responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions were ‘manufacturing’ (23.5%), ‘households’ (17.9%), ‘electrici...

Single family residence sells for $1.5 million in East Palo Alto

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

908 Oakes Street – Google Street ViewA spacious house located in the 900 block of Oakes Street in East Palo Alto has a new owner. The 2,020-square-foot property, built in 2000, was sold on Oct. 16, 2023, for $1,500,000, or $743 per square foot. This two-story home offers a spacious layout with four bedrooms and three baths. The property is equipped with central heating. In addition, the home includes a two-car garage.These nearby houses have also recently changed hands:A 1,890-square-foot home on the 1900 block of McNair Street in East Palo Alto sold in August 2023, for $1,700,000, a price per square foot of $899. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On McNair Street, East Palo Alto, in May 2023, a 1,890-square-foot home was sold for $1,465,000, a price per square foot of $775. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In June 2023, a 1,760-square-foot home on Wilks Street in East Palo Alto sold for $1,150,000, a price per square foot of $653. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathroom...

Snoop Dogg dice que decidió dejar de fumar marihuana

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

(CNN) — El rapero estadounidense Snoop Dogg anunció que decidió dejar la marihuana… o al menos dejar de fumarla.“Después de mucha consideración y conversación con mi familia, he decidido dejar de fumar (marihuana)”, dijo el rapero, cuyo nombre real es Calvin Broadus, a sus 82,5 millones de seguidores en Instagram.“Por favor, respeten mi privacidad en este momento”.La noticia puede resultar chocante para algunos: el rapero lleva mucho tiempo manifestando abiertamente su afición a la hierba, e incluso afirmó haber fumado en la Casa Blanca. Ha puesto en marcha varios proyectos empresariales relacionados con la marihuana, incluida una empresa de medios de comunicación centrada en la hierba llamada “Merry Jane”, y una línea de productos de cannabis.También ha invertido en Casa Verde Capital, una empresa de capital riesgo que invierte en nuevas empresas relacionadas con la marihuana.Su amor por la hierba ha sido noticia: el artista reveló en...

Man City striker Haaland appears to aggravate ankle injury playing for Norway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Manchester City striker Erling Haaland might have aggravated a left ankle injury while playing for Norway in a friendly match.Haaland came on as a halftime substitute in a 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands on Thursday and sustained a “little twist in his ankle,” according to Norway team doctor Ola Sand, late in the game.Haaland played on until the final whistle.Sand said Haaland’s ankle was a “little bit vulnerable.”“It really hurts right away, and then it goes away pretty quickly. So we’ll see tomorrow how he is,” Sand told Norwegian TV.Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said it was an injury Haaland “has had before.”Haaland came off with an ankle injury in the 6-1 win over Bournemouth in the Premier League on Nov. 4. He started in City’s next game three days later.City, the leader, plays second-place Liverpool when the Premier League returns on Nov. 25.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerSource

Live updates | Israeli troops exchange fire with militants in Jenin as aid grinds to a halt in Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

Israeli troops and Palestinian militants exchanged fire in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank during an army raid overnight into Friday, which ended at a hospital where the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces detained and searched paramedic crews.Meanwhile in Gaza, aid agencies said they had to call off deliveries of basic necessities on Friday, warning of the looming possibility of widespread starvation a day after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel. They said most people in the Gaza Strip already do not have adequate food or clean water.At least 11,470 Palestinians — two-thirds of them women and minors — have been killed since the war began, according to Palestinian health authorities, who do not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 people are reported missing.Israel vowed to wipe out Hamas after the militant group launched its Oct. 7 incursion. Some 1,200 people have been killed ...

Aid agencies say they can’t send food and other supplies to Gaza because of communications blackout

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:52 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Aid agencies said they had to stop deliveries of food and other basic necessities to Gaza on Friday, warning of the possibility of starvation a day after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel.The communications blackout largely cuts off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world — and paralyzes the coordination of aid, which humanitarian groups were already struggling to deliver because of the fuel shortage.Israeli forces, meanwhile, have signaled they could expand their offensive toward Gaza’s south even while pressing operations in the north. Troops have been searching the territory’s biggest hospital for traces of a Hamas command center the military alleges was located under the building.They have shown what they said were a tunnel entrance and weapons found inside the compound but not yet any evidence of the command center, which Hamas and staff at Gaza City’s S...