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Rocky Mountain National Park visits slid again in 2022

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado's most popular national park has still not recovered the number of visitors it had at the end of the last decade. Park attendance fell across all U.S. National Parks Service areas in April 2020, when the service canceled all park attendance. COVID pandemic restrictions thinned out the crowds throughout 2020, and they have still not bounced back to their record highs from 2019. 8 iconic restaurants only found in Colorado In fact, Rocky Mountain National Park visitations have been sliding annually, according to federal records.There were 4.3 million recreational visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park last year. This is not only the lowest park turnout since 2016, but lower even than in 2021 after the parks service lifted restrictions.The park's attendance had reached record levels before the onset of the COVID pandemic along with Colorado's population boom. Prior to the mid-2010s, attendance had rarely exceeded 3 million recreational visitors a year. From...

Local coffee shop serving up more than lattes for Earth month

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — A local coffee shop is serving up much more than lattes and pastries this month. Blue Sparrow Coffee has an in-depth sustainability report all the way down to its water bills.Their coffee started in 2017, and then over the last two years, the sustainability really got going.Food and beverage is a really interesting space to work on sustainability because it's so customer driven. That’s where Blue Sparrow Coffee started, with the customer’s trash. Now this year, they have a full gown of it on display to show off their sustainability report."The star of the sustainability report is this gown made by local designer Alejandro Gaeta. It's made completely from products within the store. The bottom is made from pastry bags. The detail in the flower are to–go handles dipped in coffee. The dress is dyed with coffee and matcha powder. The dress is all single-use cups that were disposed of and cut up and then sewn into this beautiful gown." said Sara Van Hatten, sustainability ...

The viral new ‘Drake’ and ‘Weeknd’ song is not what it seems

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

(CNN) — One of the buzziest songs recently circulating on TikTok and climbing the Spotify charts featured the familiar voices of best-selling artists Drake and the Weeknd. But there’s a twist: Drake and The Weeknd appear to have had nothing to do with it.The viral track, “Heart on My Sleeve,” comes from an anonymous TikTok user named Ghostwriter977, who claims to have used artificial intelligence to generate the voices of Drake and The Weeknd for the track.“I was a ghostwriter for years and got paid close to nothing just for major labels to profit,” Ghostwriter977 wrote in the video comments. “The future is here.”“Heart on my Sleeve” racked up more than 11 million views across several videos in just a few days and was streamed on Spotify hundreds of thousands of times. The original TikTok video has seemingly been taken down, and the song has since been removed from streaming services including YouTube, Apple Music and Spoti...

Suspect arrested after 2 cheerleaders shot in Texas supermarket parking lot after one opened door to wrong vehicle

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

(CNN) — Authorities have arrested the man they say shot two teenage cheerleaders after one said she mistook the suspect’s vehicle as her own in a supermarket parking lot near Texas’ capital — at least the third incident this week in which young people who’d made an apparent mistake were met with gunfire.Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, was taken into custody early Tuesday, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release later that morning.Officers responding just after midnight Tuesday to an H-E-B supermarket parking lot found two people in a vehicle who’d been struck by bullets, police said, citing preliminary reports. One with serious injuries was rushed by helicopter to a hospital and in critical condition, while the other was treated at the scene, the release said.The latter girl had gotten out of a friend’s car and opened the door to a vehicle she thought was hers, only to find a man sitting in the passenger seat, she said during a liv...

Driver with revoked license charged in death of Milwaukee 15-year-old

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

MILWAUKEE (WDJT) — A Milwaukee man has been charged in a fatal crash that killed 15-year-old Donkeise Caldwell.Shayqwen Thompson, 25, is charged with knowingly operating a motor vehicle with a revoked license, causing the death of another.According to a criminal complaint, Thompson struck Caldwell while he was crossing the street near 91st and Good Hope Road April 14. The complaint says Caldwell and his friends had left Vincent High School to get candy from Walgreens, and while heading back, Caldwell jogged across the northbound lane of N. 91st Street. It says he crossed over the median and was running in the southbound lane, getting to the middle of the road before appearing to turn to try to make it back. At this point, the victim was hit by an oncoming car driven by a man later identified as Thompson.Investigators spoke with another witness who said he saw two young males crossing N. 91st Street when one of the boys stepped into the southbound lane of traffic. He said the s...

Macron’s pension reform drives ‘French Spiderman’ up the wall — literally

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

Free climber Alain Robert, also known as “French Spiderman,” scaled a 38-story skyscraper in Paris on Wednesday in protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pensions reform.“I’m here to tell Emmanuel Macron to come back down to earth … by climbing with no safety net,” the 60-year-old told reporters before starting to ascend the 150-meter skyscraper in Paris’ La Defense business district using only his bare hands and a pair of climbing shoes. Robert, who has climbed more than 150 towering structures, including the Eiffel Tower and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, said he wanted to “show support for those who oppose the pension reform,” with his stunt, adding that the controversial legislation means he has to continue to work and climb for longer.On Saturday, Macron signed the deeply unpopular pensions reform bill, after France’s Constitutional Council ruled in favor of the most contentious part, which raises ...

EU taps Lithuanian diplomat as US ambassador

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

BRUSSELS — Jovita Neliupšienė will be the next EU ambassador to the U.S., according to an internal note on appointments dated April 14 and obtained by POLITICO. Neliupšienė, a deputy foreign minister of Lithuania and former ambassador to the EU, was selected over prominent contenders for the job such as former European Commission Secretary-General Martin Selmayr. The decision comes as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen aims for closer ties with the U.S. administration, including generally on security and specifically on Ukraine policy. Neliupšienė, who is responsible for EU affairs in her current role, has been instrumental in making Kyiv’s case in Brussels — and in capitals across Europe. The prestigious appointment, communicated via the note by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to EU ambassadors in Brussels, is part of a larger cycling through for diplomatic postings in countries from Angola to Zambia. It’s also seen as an opportunity for Borrell’s ...

‘A dream’: Patriot systems arrive in Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

Patriot missile defense systems from Western allies arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials announced.Throughout the invasion, Russia has bombarded Ukraine with airstrikes, repeatedly targeting its energy grid and infrastructure. As a result, Patriots, a sophisticated system designed to shoot down airplanes and missiles, have been at the top of Kyiv’s wish list.“Do you know how to visualize a dream? We must tell about it to the world and give it life!” Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, wrote in a tweet Wednesday morning. “Today, our beautiful Ukrainian sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine.”One of the systems was donated by the United States, while another was jointly gifted by Germany and the Netherlands.Ukrainian troops have been training on the systems in recent months in what U.S. military officials called an “absolutely a quick study.” Soldiers began training at Fort Sill, Okla., in January and were expected...

US huddles with leaders in Sweden as momentum builds for NATO bid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

MUSKÖ NAVAL BASE, Sweden — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his Swedish counterpart inside a naval base an hour outside Stockholm on Wednesday, a rare visit meant to signal Washington’s support for Sweden’s bid to join NATO.The trip marks the first visit of a Pentagon chief in more than 20 years, after Defense Secretary Bill Cohen visited in 2000. It comes as momentum appears to be building for Sweden’s bid for NATO membership, after Turkey recently dropped its objections to Sweden’s neighbor, Finland, joining the military alliance.For now, Turkey and Hungary are still holding up Sweden’s accession. But sitting across from Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson in a tiny, wood-paneled room deep inside a maze of tunnels at the Muskö naval base, built into the side of a mountain, Austin said he hopes to see Stockholm join NATO before the July leaders’ summit.“We encourage our allies, Türkiye and Hungary, to ratify Sweden’s accession as soon as possible,” Austin later said at a joi...

Luxembourg PM chastises MEP over harassment case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

STRASBOURG — Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel condemned one of his country’s MEPs who was sanctioned a second time by the European Parliament this week for bullying her staff.Renew Europe MEP Monica Semedo will lose her daily allowance of €338 for a period of 10 days, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola announced Tuesday. “I have to condemn the behavior,” Bettel said Wednesday at a press conference with Metsola in Strasbourg. “This is the decision of the European Parliament and I respect it,” he said.“Every act of harassment has to be punished — if it’s someone I know or not,” Bettel said. Semedo, a former TV-host-turned-MEP since 2019, had been an ally of Bettel. But Semedo stepped down from Bettel’s liberal Democratic Party last year after falling foul of the rules on parliamentarian conduct for the first time.In 2021, she received a tougher sanction by also being barred from parliamentary activity for 15 days, on top of having her da...