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John Mannillo: What makes an ‘improvement district’ work? Trust and independence

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

How can St. Paul attract new private investment to its downtown? How can we attract more vitality, more people and spending? After the pandemic, cities throughout the country are struggling with the same problem.I was disappointed but not surprised at the decision not to extend the Downtown Improvement District (DID) further west to include the West Seventh Street area. This occurred after some of the restaurant property owners changed their minds on the idea of joining an expanded district that would be under the direction of the Downtown Alliance.The DID, operating as a separate entity, under the control of the Alliance, has been established to improve the central core of St. Paul’s downtown. It is funded through self-assessments by commercial property owners, within a defined area. Some of the benefits the DID provides these owners are a group of hired ambassadors who welcome visitors, help the public with different problems, remove graffiti and pick up trash. There is also an en...

Excessive heat warning from today through Thursday

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- The Excessive Heat Warning will be in place from this afternoon through Thursday. Temperatures are expected to climb into the 100s, with dangerous heat index values anticipated to range between 110 and 115. This hazardous heat period will persist until Friday, although heat index values for Friday appear to be slightly decreasing. Throughout the week, temperature records ranged from 101 to 104, potentially breaking records on several days.To exacerbate the situation, overnight lows will only reach the upper 70s to near 80 each night, significantly increasing the risk for vulnerable populations. Relief seems to be on the horizon for next weekend, as a cold front is expected to bring temperatures back down to levels closer to the late August norm.

Hurricane Hilary moves “very near” to Mexico’s Baja coast packing deadly rainfall

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

By IGNACIO MARTINEZ and STEFANIE DAZIO (Associated Press)CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Hilary neared landfall on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula as a still-dangerous Category 1 hurricane carrying so much rain that forecasters said “catastrophic and life-threatening” flooding is likely across a broad region of the southwestern U.S.The National Weather Center in Miami said that as of 5 a.m. the storm was “very near” the Baja coast south of Ensenada, and 285 miles (460 kilometers) from San Diego, California. The maximum sustained wind speed dropped to 80 mph (130 kph) while spreading “heavy rains” northward over the peninsula.Meteorologists warned that despite weakening, the storm remained treacherous.One person drowned Saturday in the Mexican town of Santa Rosalia, on the peninsula’s eastern coast, when a vehicle was swept away in an overflowing stream. Rescue workers managed to save four other people, said Edith Aguil...

Improving Investor Behavior: The problem with pessimism

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

With markets improving and the overall economy strengthening, why is everyone so negative about our country’s current financial state? By many measures, I believe our economy is far better than people’s sentiment toward it.The past two years brought the strongest labor market in a generation, for example. Yet many are convinced of an impending recession. The University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, a measure of how positively or negatively people “feel” about the market, indicates a lower low than during the 2008 financial crisis. The 2023 level is even lower than in the 1980s when inflation was 15%, and the 1970s during a challenging economic period.Steve BoorenInflation certainly is a factor in people’s negativity. But that hasn’t stopped consumers from spending, which is generally a sign that things are going well at a household level.It’s also bizarre to see sentiment so low with unemployment near the lowest levels since 1969. With something like 10 million job openin...

Among Colorado judges, former prosecutors outnumber public defenders 2-to-1

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

There are twice as many former prosecutors serving as district court judges in Colorado as there are former public defenders on the bench, a Denver Post review found.The state judiciary is skewed toward former prosecutors, raising questions about the overall fairness of the judicial system, the importance of professional diversity among judges and how much judges’ prior work impacts their decision-making on the bench, experts told The Post.“I think there is a measurable effect to having so many more prosecutors who never represented individual clients and therefore never got so closely exposed to all the root causes of crime that bring individuals into the criminal legal system in the first place,” said Tristan Gorman, policy director for the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.But others say judges can’t be broadly categorized by their backgrounds, and that judges’ personalities, demeanors and capabilities matter more than their past jobs.“In my opinio...

Colorado’s recently struck child sex abuse law to receive second chance through proposed constitutional amendment

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

When the Colorado Supreme Court ruled the Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act unconstitutional in June, lawmakers decided it was time to change the constitution.“It’s not a broad scope, it’s not changing the entirety of the constitution, it’s not even changing the entirety of that retrospective piece of the constitution,” she said. “It’s just making a very narrow exception so the state of Colorado no longer has this barrier for survivors of child sexual abuse.”In the court’s June unanimous opinion, the justices ruled the act violated the Colorado Constitution’s prohibition on retrospective legislation.“Since the Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional … we decided that we needed to address that constitutional problem,” said state Sen. Jessie Danielson, one of the act’s original sponsors. “And so we’ve crafted a very narrow fix to allow these survivors to pursue their claims.”If the in-progress amendment passes both the state House and Senate with a two-thirds majority, ...

Keeler: CU Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders isn’t Cody Hawkins. Just ask Cody Hawkins. “CU fans are the best fans in the world and the worst fans in the world.”

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

BOULDER — Shedeur Sanders is no Cody Hawkins.Just ask Cody Hawkins.“First of all, I know everyone was (hacked) off when (Deion Sanders) said, ‘Hey guys, this is your quarterback,’” Hawkins, the former CU QB, son of ex-Buffs coach Dan Hawkins and first-year football coach at Idaho State, told me by phone earlier this week.“(Coach Prime) wouldn’t play Shedeur if he didn’t think he was the best guy.“I was (sometimes) a bad QB, but I was the best guy we had …Shedeur is a good QB. People want to pooh-pooh the (Football Championship Subdivision) level. But I know they’re going to get it right.”He’s 35 now. A grizzled 35. Hawkins still loves CU, loves his Buffs, in spite of it all, even if Boulder aged him quickly. Some CU faithful still haven’t forgiven his dad, and vice versa. (The elder Hawkins, now heading into his seventh season at UC-Davis, politely declined a request to be interviewed for this column.)But if anybody knows what’s coming for Sanders, as both CU’s QB1 and son of the ne...

What previous California storms could show about Hurricane Hilary

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

As Hurricane Hilary continues its northward trek, Southern California residents are bracing for an storm event unlike anything the region has seen in decades, KTLA sister station KSWB reports.The dangerous storm system is currently graded by the National Weather Service as a Category 1 hurricane. By the time it reaches SoCal, meteorologists say the storm is likely to have weakened into a tropical storm, nonetheless brining "catastrophic" flooding and strong winds to the region. Bracing for Hilary: Live updates This type of weather event is incredibly rare for the Golden State, with only a handful of storms managing to bring tropical storm-force winds in the last century.Weather experts are revisiting two of these storm events in particular -- a September 1939 tropical storm in Los Angeles and Hurricane Kathleen -- to see how Hurricane Hilary might shake out.Both of these events had monumental impacts on communities in the region, according to historians. Now, decades later, these ...

Fighting future ‘red tides’ in San Francisco Bay

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

The largest sources of nutrient pollution and algae blooms in the San Francisco Bay — 37 different sewage treatment plants — are cleaning up their act.Faced with two blooms called “red tides,” deadly to marine life, officials will soon recommend the first-ever restrictions on the release of the nutrients, such as nitrogen, into the Bay, a vast body of water that has long seemed resilient to trouble.Nitrogen is not a toxin; it is necessary for a healthy ecosystem. But too much of it, discharged in wastewater from human urine, sets off a complex series of events that causes too much algae to grow, which depletes oxygen and kills marine life. Last year, a harmful bloom caused piles of stinking fish corpses to wash ashore. This summer, a smaller bloom appeared and then vanished.Thousands of dead fish, killed by an algae bloom, float around Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022.  (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) “The science is telling us tha...

Me & My Car: ’56 Studebaker in Pleasanton a ‘face-lift’ of an earlier model

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:28:12 GMT

It will be 60 years on Dec. 31 since the once-great Studebaker Corp. closed down its plant in South Bend, Indiana and laid off thousands, including a young man who would later become a classic car columnist for the East Bay Times.Related ArticlesLocal News | Me & My Car: ’61 Lincoln in East Bay said one of under 200 on road today Local News | Me & My Car: Replica ’34 Ford roadster a joy ride for its Bay Area owner Local News | Me & My Car: ’65 Alfa Romeo in East Bay getting better all the time It was a sad day knowing the end of this iconic company was nearly over. They did keep a small assembly plant in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, until March 1966 that produced only the Lark models. Studebaker’s trucks and its Hawk and Avanti car models were no longer manufactured.California played an important part in Studebaker’s history. There were five Studebaker brothers. One of the brothers, John, and his othe...