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Former Montgomery Co. school administrator sentenced for ‘one of the worst financial crimes to ever victimize’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

The former director of the Montgomery County Public Schools Department of Transportation has been sentenced to three years of supervised probation and 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to misconduct in office, connected to the misuse of MCPS-issued “purchasing cards” within his department.Todd Watkins, 56, entered a guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge in June.Watkins, who oversaw the MCPS Department of Transportation’s purchase of electric school buses, had worked with the contractor American Truck & Bus to create an “off-the-books” account, according to court records.Watkins failed to “properly manage the contract for the purchases of school buses and the use of purchasing cards” in his department, according to prosecutors. Watkins was placed on leave in 2021 and later resigned.Some of the MCPS employees in the transportation department had access to the cards, referred to as “P-Cards” in an inspector general’s report, that allowed them to buy items, exclud...

OEA llama al diálogo entre República Dominicana y Haití por el caso de los recursos hídricos fronterizos

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

(CNN Español) –– La Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA) hizo un llamado al diálogo entre República Dominicana y Haití para resolver el desacuerdo que mantienen ambos países por el uso de los recursos hídricos del río Dajabón o Masacre, que en parte divide la frontera.A través de un comunicado, con fecha de este martes, la organización señala que la situación no beneficia a ninguna de las partes, ya que dada las necesidades de los habitantes, “especialmente en el actual contexto de sequía”, los recursos naturales resultan vitales para ambas naciones y su uso debe ser asegurado “conforme al Derecho Internacional y los tratados vigentes”.Gobierno de Haití afirma que debe construirse el canal en el río fronterizo con República DominicanaEn busca de aportar a un desenlace, la OEA ofreció su colaboración para concertar una reunión, a la mayor brevedad posible, entre las autoridades de los dos países.Según le dijo a CNN el portavoz de la presidencia de Repú...

Palmer, Johnston ready to step up for Chargers after Williams’ season-ending injury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) — Joshua Palmer stepped up in the four games veteran wide receiver Mike Williams missed for the Los Angeles Chargers last year.With Williams out for the season with a torn left ACL, Palmer will be counted on again.“It’s another chance to go out and show them again that they can trust and believe in me,” Palmer said Wednesday as the Chargers prepared for Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders.Not all the pressure will be on Palmer. First-round pick Quentin Johnson and fellow rookie Derius Davis, a fourth-round selection, will also see their playing time increase.The Chargers (1-2) are second in the league in total offense (416.7 yards per game) and third in passing yards (308.7 per game).“I think you just have to rely on the guys behind him to step up and do their job. Thankfully, we’ve got a ton of reps with them so far,” quarterback Justin Herbert said. “I’m looking forward to seeing those guys compete.”Palmer was second on the Charger...

Day 2 of former Loudoun Co. schools superintendent’s jury trial: Prosecution rests, defense calls first witness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

Did former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler retaliate against a public schoolteacher for speaking to a special grand jury, and did he unlawfully discharge her from her position?That’s the question a jury in Loudoun County, Virginia, had to consider as day two of his trial continued Wednesday.Ziegler was indicted on two misdemeanor counts for allegedly retaliating against Erin Brooks, a LCPS teacher who testified to an attorney general’s special grand jury investigating the school system’s handling of sexual assault allegations. Ziegler is accused of firing Brooks unlawfully.Prosecution argues school did not do enough to help BrooksZiegler’s attorney has said Brooks was a probationary employee, and could have her contract not renewed without cause.The special grand jury was empaneled by Virginia Attorney Jason Miyares under an executive order from Gov. Glenn Youngkin to investigate how the school system handled two sexual assaults by ...

United Auto Workers strike includes 2 Colorado locations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — The United Auto Workers union strike against major automakers has expanded to a total of 41 distribution centers across the country, including two in Colorado."As promised, we are expanding the Stand Up Strike in response to the lack of progress in bargaining with General Motors and Stellantis," Shawn Fain, UAW president, announced on Friday. "We will shut down parts distribution until those two companies come to their senses and come to the table with a serious offer." Biden urges striking auto workers to ‘stick with it’ in picket line visit unparalleled in history The UAW first walked out on Sept. 15 in a strike against big three automakers General Motors, Chrysler parent Stellantis and Ford. On Friday, the union expanded its strikes against GM and Stellantis.Some 18,600 workers are now on strike across 21 states, according to the union.UAW strike underway in ColoradoIn Colorado, UAW union members are striking at two Colorado locations in the Denver metro area:GM...

Mother speaks out after 3-year-old accidentally shoots hand with gun left unattended; relative charged with child neglect bonds out

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

A South Florida mother is making a plea to other parents after her little girl shot herself with a gun that was left unattended on a couch. Now, a relative is in trouble for what happened.Surveillance video on Sunday showed the moment Serenity ran to the couch and grabbed the gun inside of her family’s apartment in Southwest Miami-Dade.Warneicia Williams, Serenity’s mother, spoke with 7News on Wednesday about the chilling footage“I just kept rewatching it, I just kept replaying it, replaying, it, because I’m like, ‘How can this happen?'” she said. “I’m just grateful my daughter is alive, because if you watch the video, the gun was pointed at her chest.”As Serenity began playing with the gun, she accidentally fired the gun and shot her hand.“The bullet went straight through her finger,” Williams said. “Her hand stopped the bullet. Her hand saved her life.”Serenity on Tuesday was released from the hospital a...

Brother and sister want money from deposit back after apartment’s living room floor caves in

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

A young brother and sister wanted to move into their own apartment. They did, and you won’t believe what happened in their new place. It’s why they called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser. Many people want to move from home and be on their own. Maliyah and her brother Joseph knew what it would take to do that.Maliyah Collins: Work, work. We worked a lot. Over four years, me and my brother were saving. Kept saving, kept saving.”This summer they found an apartment where the property manager wanted them to pay $8,800 to move in.Maliyah Collins: “She told us, since we didn’t have any credit or anything, we had to pay six months’ rent.”They paid it, left their mother’s house and moved in.Maliyah Collins: “We were excited that we really did this big step.”For a month and a half, everything was great.Until things collapsed.Maliyah Collins: “I just heard a big boom, and he called me to come in. He just fell inside the groun...

2 years after being reunited, owner of Yorkie who went missing for 10 years says microchip brought them back together

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

Two years after they were reunited, a Southwest Miami-Dade woman described the ordeal to bring her beloved dog home after the pet disappeared for a decade.Killer the Yorkie is living his best life once again. Just last week, he and his owner, Carolina Ramirez, celebrated the second year of their reunion after he was missing for 10 years.Speaking with 7News on Wednesday, Ramirez said someone stole Killer from her mother’s home in Kendall back in 2011.“They picked him up and snatched him from the front of her house, so we looked endlessly for him,” she said.But no luck … until September 2021, when someone dropped Killer off at the Humane Society in West Palm Beach.“They scanned his microchip, and our phone numbers were registered,” said Ramirez.Hours later, they were reunited. Ramirez described the moment.“It was a lot of emotions. It was huge shock at first, but then after, definitely excitement and a lot of nervousness,” she said.And since t...

Why Slovakia’s election doesn’t really matter for Europe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

He’s back — and he’s out for revenge.What may sound like the voice-over for a B-movie trailer is in fact a real-life political drama playing out in Slovakia’s election campaign, where former Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was forced to resign in 2018 amid a popular revolt, has returned to center stage with a vengeance.Fico, the leader of a left-wing populist party known as Smer (or, more officially, Direction–Social Democracy) is narrowly leading the polls with about 20 percent ahead of Sunday’s election, slightly ahead of the liberal Progressive Slovakia. The snap election comes after the collapse of a center-right alliance that took over from Smer in 2020.A former communist who rebranded himself a Social Democrat after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Fico, 59, has set alarm bells ringing in Western capitals in recent months by vowing to halt military support for Ukraine and block the country’s path into NATO. He’s even parroted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talking points, bla...

Can Europe survive Trump 2.0?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:02 GMT

The Continent could face a US president who toyed with quitting NATO and pledged to strike a ‘peace deal’ with Russia.By NICHOLAS VINOCURand CHRISTOPHER PILTZIllustration by Jonathan Bartlett for POLITICOHERE’S SOMETHING THE EUROPEAN MIND can’t fully comprehend: Come November 2024, Donald Trump may be headed back into the White House.It’s a nightmare scenario for Europeans who bore the brunt of the former U.S. president’s antagonism during his four years in office and hoped to never have to think about him again.The fact that his successor, Joe Biden, turned out to be one of the most Europe-friendly U.S. presidents in living memory helped to wash away the bad feelings of the Trump years, making it all feel like a bad dream. Did Trump really toy with the idea of pulling out of NATO? Maybe. Did he really call the European Union a “foe” and Brussels, the seat of the bloc’s institutions, a “hellhole”? Probably. What matters is that he’s gone.But as Biden enters t...