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Proposed new gun laws advance in Colorado Senate

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — At the state Capitol, Colorado senators were getting an earful Wednesday night about three major gun bills. Two of them are already on their way to the full Senate, and one more was still being debated Wednesday night.The bills would broaden red flag laws, allow victims of gun violence to file lawsuits against firearm dealers and manufacturers and raise the age for firearm purchases to 21. These are bills that, if made law in the state, could face battles in court in the future.That did not stop a Senate committee from moving them along for consideration by the full chamber. ‘Assault weapons’ ban introduced in the Colorado legislature The committee passed a bill expanding red flag laws to allow more people to request a court order preventing someone from purchasing a firearm.Another bill that advanced would allow gun violence victims to sue dealers and manufacturers. Those opposed to the bill said they worried it would create a burden for business owners and manuf...

Why isn't Colorado on permanent daylight saving time?

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill to make daylight time permanent in Colorado in June 2022. Yet, the clocks still fell back in November. In 2023 we are once again about to spring forward.You would think Coloradans would be done with it forever, but that isn't the case.If you're sick of changing the clocks twice a year and are looking for some hope, you may be disappointed.What is daylight saving time, and what is standard time?Standard time is essentially the base in a given time zone, which, in Colorado, is the Mountain time zone.So, for the four months of the year daylight saving time is not in effect, Colorado is on Mountain Standard Time. When you spring forward your clocks in March, you join Mountain Daylight Time, which is just standard time plus one hour.The law signed by Polis last year would change the year-round standard time in Colorado to Mountain Daylight Time instead. Why isn't Colorado on permanent daylight time yet?Legally, Colorado cannot adopt dayligh...

Garbage truck wake-up call at 5 a.m.

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

At 5 a.m., you are sound asleep. At 5:01, a garbage truck is emptying a dumpster, jarring you awake, not once or twice, but for years. And across South Florida, when people couldn’t get the trucks to arrive later, they did the best thing: called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser. One thing everyone has in common is the need for a nice quiet night’s rest.Instead, Brian and Andrea get this. Brian Zamorski: “You can hear it hit the trash can, the boom. While that’s happening, you’re hearing the metal slamming and slamming.”And it happens way before Brian wants to wake up.Brian Zamorski: “They all come at 4 in the morning. They’ve been here at 3:47 a.m., to be exact, in the morning.”It’s a commercial garbage truck picking up the trash from Walgreens, which sits behind their house.Brian Zamorski: “So our bedroom backs up to our wall, and you can hear the vibration on the window when they drop the trash can.Andrea estimate...

US Navy sub spotted off Fort Lauderdale

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

A U.S. Navy submarine was spotted just off shore.7 Skyforce captured the sight off Fort Lauderdale, late Wednesday morning.It’s not known where it came from or where it was headed, but we can tell you there is a navy undersea training range just off the coast, on the south side of Port Everglades inlet.That site has housed an active navy operation for more than 50 years, specializing in shallow and deep water electromagnetic research.

Fight between 2 girls inside bathroom at Miami Jackson Sr. High caught on camera

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

A brutal beatdown in a high school bathroom captured on camera shows a girl getting punched repeatedly and thrown around.According to City of Miami Police, the pair agreed to meet up for the scuffle at Miami Jackson Senior High School. Wednesday night, they were both learning a lesson in the law.District officials have a message: they will not tolerate this kind of behavior, as both of those students will face consequences.While the video looks like one student is attacking another, Miami-Dade County Public Schools officials both the girls involved are in trouble.They released a statement that read: “The incident was captured on video and depicts unsafe behavior that is specifically prohibited by the Code of Student Conduct. The matter was immediately addressed by the school’s administration and by Miami Dade Schools Police.”Officials called the fight, a “pre-arranged physical altercation.” The two students, officials said, have been arrested and will b...

Florida lawmakers clash on 6-week abortion ban, bill nixing concealed gun permits

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

Florida lawmakers battled over several controversial bills and measures on the second day of the legislative session at the State Capitol.The Republican supermajorities and their Democratic opponents got to work on Wednesday.“We are doing the people’s work. We’re doing it in a bipartisan manner,” said Florida State Rep. Danny Perez.Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hit the road a day after his State of the State speech.“Why aren’t we talking about things that really matter?” he said during a stop.Back at the Capitol, there is plenty of contention.At issue is a six-week abortion ban with an exception for rape and incest. The patient would have to produce it with a police report or court order.Perez, a Miami-Dade County Republican, said this is reasonable.“In order to have those exceptions, it’s something that they’re going to have to abide by in order to go through that very tough decision,” he said. “You have...

The US to Europe: It’s about you, but it’s also about China

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

The U.S. is trying to charm and cajole Europe into linking arms to confront China. But Europe has other priorities in mind.Ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen in Washington on Friday, U.S. officials have been offering Europe both urgent warnings about Beijing and pledges to smooth over trade disputes.On the warning side, the U.S. government has been sharing intelligence with Europe suggesting China is considering arming Russia in its war on Ukraine — overtures that Europe has met with a mix of caution and toughness. Some European leaders — like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — have issued stern warnings to China against doing so, while others — including von der Leyen — have been more careful about broadcasting the U.S. claims.On the pledges side, U.S. officials are assuring Europeans their companies will get access to some tax credits and subsidies from a landmark U.S. climate bill passed last year.But Europe’s re...

Turkey’s ‘Gandhi’ sets his sights on strongman Erdoğan

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

Gönül Tol is the founding director of the Middle East Institute’s Turkey program. She is the author of “Erdoğan’s War: A Strongman’s Struggle at Home and in Syria.”Turkey’s main opposition party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is everything President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan isn’t.Nicknamed “Gandhi Kemal,” the soft-spoken and calm demeanor of the leader of the People’s Republican Party (CHP) stands in sharp contrast to Erdoğan’s bombast and brashness — a style that earned the sitting president the title of reis, or chief, among his admirers.Beyond their contrasting personalities, the two men also have radically different visions for the country.Over his years in office, Erdoğan has centralized power in his own hands and built a personalist autocracy and encouraging a cult of personality. Kılıçdaroğlu wants to diffuse power and resuscitate Turkish democracy — a task the country’s opposition coalition officially gave him this week, naming him their presidential candidate...

5 times Tory prime ministers talked up quitting the ECHR — and then didn’t

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

5 times Tory prime ministers talked up quitting the ECHR — and then didn’tUK Conservatives just love talking about leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.Conservative leaders have been talking up quitting the ECHR for years, without ever doing anything about it | WPA pool photo by Toby Melville/Getty ImagesLONDON — Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and U.K. Tory leaders flirting with leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.U.K. membership of the ECHR is back in the headlines this week after Rishi Sunak’s government unveiled a new asylum bill it acknowledged may clash with a convention which Britain itself helped to draft in 1951.Tory MPs and commentators from a certain wing of the party are already agitating for Britain to pull out if the asylum plan comes a cropper in the Strasbourg courts. Sunak’s position is somewhat nuanced. “We don’t believe it is necessary to leave the ECHR,” he insisted at a press conference Tuesday eveni...

Putin-style ‘foreign agent’ bill in Georgia threatens civil society

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:02:09 GMT

Manana Kochladze is chairwoman of Green Alternative, an environmental organization in Georgia, and a strategic area leader in democratization and human rights at the Bankwatch Network. Mariam Patsatsia is a community support coordinator at Green Alternative and Bankwatch.Endorsed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, a bill similar to Russia’s law on “foreign agents” is currently being rushed through Georgia’s parliament.If the bill becomes law, it will compel nonprofits and media outlets that receive at least 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence.” And refusing registration, or not complying with the burdensome reporting requirements, will lead to considerable fines.To make matters worse, in an even more dystopian twist, members of the ruling parliamentary majority — the sponsors of the bill — have now introduced a second version of this draft law as well, and it makes the original seem soft by comparison. The revised legislation expands ...