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No curfew in Miami Beach this weekend, city officials decide

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — For the third year in a row, Miami Beach finds itself struggling with spring break violence, including two fatal shootings and unruly crowds, despite a massive police presence and activities designed to give people alternatives to drinking alcohol and roaming the streets.The party-all-the-time vibe in the South Beach section of the popular barrier island city has already led officials to ban alcohol sales at larger clubs after 2 a.m. Police are stationed everywhere, including in mobile towers that give officers a birds-eye view of the streets. Art, music, yoga and volleyball tournaments were added this year to give people something to do, at least during the day.Yet the violence and street chaos continues at night. All night.The city imposed an overnight curfew that ended Monday morning but decided at a City Commission meeting not to enact a second curfew next weekend, when the Ultra Music Festival will draw thousands of people to South Beach. It&#...

BSO presents its first cadaver dog

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

A therapy dog at the Broward Sheriff’s Office is now the department’s first cadaver dog.Meet K-9 Maggie.“She is a therapy dog for us,” said BSO detective Christopher Favitta. “She now has a new endeavor as a cadaver dog.”On Monday, the 2-year-old labrador showed off her skills during a training exercise at BSO’s aviation hangar, tracking down samples of human remains, a critical resource for homicide detectives.“She’s going to be a great tool coming forward, helping us with homicide investigations, our new cold case initiative and even recovering missing persons,” said Favitta.Maggie has been on the job for about a year as a therapy dog with the special victims unit.“She’s good in that role,” said Favitta. “She’ll put her head in your lap, she sits with the victims on the floor. She can sit on a chair with them, whatever pretty much they need to make them feel comfortable, and even from there she’s able to switch from that role and come here and look for a vi...

North Miami Beach unveils Martin Luther King statue

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

A grand reveal was held Monday morning in North Miami Beach.The city unveiled a new statue of Martin Luther King Jr. to commemorate the Civil Rights leader.The statue is a symbol of remembrance of the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965. Residents also took part in a symbolic walk.

EU to send Turkey €1B for quake reconstruction

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

The European Commission will provide Turkey with €1 billion to help with “post-earthquake reconstruction” following the deadly quakes that killed tens of thousands in February, Ursula von der Leyen said Monday.“No one can fill the void left by those who lost their lives, yet together we can reconstruct and rebuild,” the Commission president said ahead of a donors’ conference in Brussels.She called for “homes, schools and hospitals” destroyed in the earthquakes to be rebuilt “with the highest standards of seismic safety.”More than 50,000 people died in Turkey and Syria after a series of powerful earthquakes hit southeastern Turkey in February. The earthquakes destroyed tens of thousands of buildings, raising questions over the construction standards in the seismic region.The aid package also includes €108 million for humanitarian assistance to Syria, von der Leyen said.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday the cost of...

The first North Atlantic right whale mother/calf pair of the year spotted in Cape Cod Bay

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

The first North Atlantic right whale mother and calf pair of the year has arrived in Cape Cod Bay, according to researchers who spotted the pair over the weekend.As the critically endangered species returns to the region, scientists are urging all boaters to follow state and federal speed restrictions to avoid striking right whales.On Saturday, the Center for Coastal Studies’ Right Whale Ecology Program team saw Porcia and her 2023 calf. Porcia, a 21-year-old right whale, was first seen with her new calf in late December off the coast of Georgia.The North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered with an estimated 340 animals remaining, and the species is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.“That designation legally prohibits boats and aircraft from approaching within 500 yards of them,” the Center for Coastal Studies said in a statement. “It also restricts vessel speeds in designated areas, including Ca...

Spider wars: Black widows are being killed off by non-native brown widows

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

Bill Kearney | South Florida Sun-SentinelBlack widow spiders can stir primordial fear — they lurk in dark corners and their venom can cause excruciating pain, and in extremely rare occasions, death. But they seem to be no match for their aggressive non-native cousin, the brown widow.Scientists at the University of South Florida have recently discovered that brown widows ruthlessly target and attack black widows, and usually win those battles. But researchers can’t quite figure out why.As a result of this spider vendetta, the non-native brown widow has displaced the Southern black widow in many areas across the southern U.S., as far north as Kansas and as far west as California.The Southern black widow spider, seen here, has been driven out of urban and suburban areas by its aggressive non-native cousin, the brown widow. (courtesy Louis Coticchio)Not only do brown widows hone in on black widows, but they go relatively light on other spiders that share the same shadowy haunts.The stud...

TikTok-like risks are on all social media, group says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

The national-security and mental-health risks posed by TikTok are shared by other social media platforms, according to an advocacy group that’s urging Congress to also hold U.S. companies accountable ahead of high-profile testimony from TikTok’s chief executive officer.The Tech Oversight Project, a nonprofit, says Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. employ the same harmful business practices as TikTok and are increasingly copying some of the video-sharing app’s design features.All of these platforms have “force fed children dangerous and harmful content with predatory algorithms, aided U.S. adversaries and worked against U.S. national interests at home and abroad, and failed to protect users’ personal data,” the group says in a memo shared with Bloomberg News.While the memo is sharply critical of TikTok, it echoes some of that company’s arguments that lawmakers should focus on general data practices, rather than the Chinese ownership of TikTok...

Play pickleball? Here are 10 tips to avoid injuries. (Don’t run backward!)

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

Lois K. Solomon | South Florida Sun-SentinelSouth Floridians trying to get in shape are calling their doctors with a new complaint: They got injured playing pickleball.Besides ankle, hamstring and lower back strains, many are suffering from arthritis flares, torn rotator cuffs and Achilles tendon ruptures. Another frequent affliction is the broken wrist — that’s what Shelly Turetzky of Delray Beach endured about three months ago.Turetzky, who plays at least three times a week, took a few steps back to reach for an overhead ball, then lost her balance and landed on her side.“I went to my orthopedist and he said pickleball is giving him his biggest boom ever,” said Turetzky, 66, a self-described “couch potato” before she started the game during the pandemic. “I’m now fully healed and back out there again because I get so much joy from the game.”Many middle-aged players who say tennis is too hard on their bodies have migrated to pickleball; others have never played tennis but heard pic...

Atmospheric river to bring heavy rainfall, strong winds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Spring has sprung and the rain has begun (again).Southern California is expected to get the heaviest rain from this next atmospheric river event expecting to bring widespread heavy showers, potentially damaging winds and cold temperatures.Monday has mostly featured cloudy skies with periods of drizzle and light rain, but the widespread showers and gusty winds will pick up Tuesday morning through Wednesday evening from this atmospheric river event and subsequent cold front.A High Wind Warning has been issued for beaches as well as mountains and deserts as wind gusts could reach up to 60 mph Tuesday. A Wind Advisory covers our inland valleys where gusts of up to 50 miles per hour are forecasted.Flooding and excessive runoff are concerns over the next few days because of high rainfall rates and already saturated ground. Rain then becomes more showery Wednesday afternoon into evening.  NWS warns of potential for damaging wind gusts, heavy rain in San Diego this week ...

3 Kurds reportedly shot dead celebrating new year in Syria

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:29 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey-backed opposition fighters in Syria fatally shot at least three ethnic Kurds who were celebrating a holiday late Monday by lighting fires, Syrian opposition activists and pro-government media said. The shooting near the northwestern town of Jinderis, which suffered substantial damage during last month’s earthquake, underlined the high tensions between Turkey-backed opposition fighters and the Kurdish community in Syria.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the shooting was carried out by members of the Ahrar Sharqiya group, an armed opposition group backed by Turkey.The observatory said members of the group got into an argument with some Kurds after mocking them for lighting a fire in honor of the Kurdish new year celebration. Members of the Ahrar Sharqiya group shot and killed three Kurds and wounded four others, the observatory said. It said all those killed were from the same family.The pro-government Sham FM radio station s...