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Theives make off with $900k in cash, jewelry from NW Miami-Dade business

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

A heist captured on camera has left the owner of C4G Jewelers counting the cost after two, possibly three, individuals backed a flatbed tow truck into the business, making away with a safe containing approximately $900,000 in cash and jewelry.Surveillance footage revealed the thieves inside the establishment, skillfully using a tow truck to hook a line around the safe before pulling it through the front door. The meticulously planned robbery unfolded on the 7500 block of Miami Gardens Drive.The perpetrators reportedly initiated their scheme by breaking into a neighboring nail salon around 2 a.m. on Monday. Over the next four hours, they diligently worked to breach the wall connecting the two businesses, gaining access to C4G Jewelers, a cash-for-gold establishment.The store’s owner, Oscar Zegarra, only learned of the incident at 9 a.m. when contacted by the police, as the alarm system reportedly failed to alert him. Zegarra expressed his dismay, particularly during the holiday...

Monkey business with the B-52s at the Miami art shows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

(CNN) — Spread over a dozen islands off the east coast of central Florida, there’s a huge, but little-known animal sanctuary. Open to the public two days a year, it is the roaming home to 266 chimpanzees rescued from medical research, pet cages and Hollywood productions. It’s also home to dozens of paintings. Not of the animals, but by them, in collaboration with, even more unexpectedly, members of art pop group the B-52s.“Save the Chimps!” explains Kate Pierson, longtime singer with the 80’s-era band, is her passion project, and her devotion to animal welfare goes way back. “In 1988, I got up on the stage at the Animal Rights Music Festival at the Washington Monument holding the hand of a big chimp. It was surreal. I felt a connection.”Pierson, emblematic for her bright red, rocket-ship hairdo, rose to fame with a quartet of performers best known for the song “LoveShack” and a cult-like fan following. The B-52s broke out of the Athens, Georgia, music scene in the late 1970s an...

Jeep crashes into Fort Lauderdale home after driver loses control; 1 injured

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

Chaos ensued on Monday morning when a driver lost control of her car, resulting in a collision with a house located at 2340 SW 36th Ave. in Fort Lauderdale.The incident unfolded as the woman, behind the wheel of a yellow Jeep, veered off course, crashing into a fence before slamming into the residence. Witnesses described the moment as a blur of bright lime green, accompanied by a thunderous crash that resonated like an explosion. “It sounded like a bomb went off,” said one witness. The Jeep reportedly lodged itself into a backyard apartment. “When we arrived on-scene, the Jeep was fully into the back portion of the home,” said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Chief Garett Pingol. “The woman was trapped inside of her vehicle. Crews were able to get in quickly.” Despite being momentarily trapped, the driver was successfully extracted from the car and transported to Broward Hospital. The extent of her injuries remains unknown at this time.Witnesses reco...

House Dems Show Up at State House, Quietly Advance $3.1 Bil Budget

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

In a few minutes, House Democrats on Monday accomplished what they could not during three previous sessions.House Democrats showed up in sufficient numbers to establish a quorum and to prevent Republicans from ending sessions, as the GOP did on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, largely to protest the state’s evolving approach to sheltering migrant families.  With a quorum present, the House, in a rare hand-counted 105-14 vote, sent to the Senate a $3.1 billion fiscal 2023 closeout budget.After the vote, House Speaker Ron Mariano, who has served in the House for more than three decades, could not recall another instance when there was a quorum during an informal House session. The bill includes critical funds to fulfill state employee raises and try to keep pace with elevated emergency shelter demand.“Now it’s over to the Senate. We’ll see when the Senate takes it up, and what their gameplan is, and then we’ll judge when it comes back,”...

In pitch to Shohei Ohtani, how would Blue Jays likely make their case?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

The first part is obvious. The Toronto Blue Jays are interested in Shohei Ohtani because he’s a historically talented player in his prime.The other side of that equation – why does Shohei Ohtani have interest in the Blue Jays? – is a more interesting question, and finding out what exactly appeals to him about Canada’s lone MLB team and emphasizing those points would be important in any final push for the two-time MVP.As of Monday morning, the specifics of the Blue Jays’ pursuit weren’t clear. At some point last month, they expressed serious interest to CAA, the agency that represents Ohtani. Since then, there’s been enough reciprocal interest for talks to continue alongside pursuits from the Dodgers, Cubs, Angels and possibly others. A small group of finalists met with the two-way star in Los Angeles this weekend, and it stands to reason the Blue Jays were among that group, but their executives have declined to comment.Landing such a meeting with Ohtani would be a necess...

Ontario introduces legislation to crack down on puppy mills, unethical dog breeding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

Ontario’s government announced new legislation on Monday in an attempt to crack down on puppy mills and unethical dog breeding across the province.A spokesperson for Ontario’s solicitor general said the Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act (PUPS), if passed, will amend the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act (PAWS) to prevent harmful dog breeding practices, impose penalties, and ensure that dogs across Ontario receive the care they deserve.The proposed changes would prohibit various unethical dog breeding practices, including breeding a female dog more than three times in a two-year period and/or breeding more than two litters from a female dog’s consecutive heat cycles, breeding a female dog that is less than a year old and separating a puppy from its mother before the age of eight weeks, among others.In 2011, Toronto became the second city in Canada, following Richmond, B.C., to ban the sale of puppies from puppy mills in pet stores. Under the p...

Vancouver home sales rise in November as newly listed properties add to supply

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

VANCOUVER — The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouversays home sales ticked up last month as the continued increase of newly listed properties has given prospective homebuyers in the region among the largest selection to choose from since 2021.The board says November home sales totalled 1,702, a 4.7 per cent increase from the same month last year, though it marked a slowdown from the prior month of October. The total was 33 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average of 2,538 for November.There were 3,369 new listings of detached, attached and apartment properties last month, a 9.8 per cent increase from a year earlier, as new listings were 2.8 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average.The composite benchmark home price in November for Metro Vancouver was $1,185,100, a 4.9 per cent increase from November 2022 and a one per cent decrease from October 2023.Andrew Lis, the board’s director of economics and data analytics, says the region has seen balanced market conditions sin...

Judge drops felony charges against ex-elections official in Virginia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge has dismissed felony charges against a former county elections official accused of misconduct in the 2020 election, a decision made after state prosecutors said a key witness changed his story.At the prosecutors’ request, the judge on Friday dismissed a felony charge of corrupt conduct and one for making a false statement, both of which had been levied against former Prince William County Registrar Michele White. She still faces trial next month on a misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty.Very little has been publicly revealed about exactly what prosecutors believe White did wrong. Court records merely indicate that the case revolves around 2020 election returns, including the presidential race.Prince William election officials have previously said that White’s successor reported “discrepancies” in results to state officials, but that those discrepancies would not have affected the outcome of any race.The case was brought by R...

US Navy plane removed from Hawaii bay after it overshot runway. Coral damage remains to be seen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii (AP) — A U.S. Navy jet has been moved from a coral reef in an environmentally sensitive Hawaii bay where it got stuck after overshooting a runway nearly two weeks ago, officials said Monday.A team worked through the weekend to use inflatable cylinders to lift and roll the plane off the reef where it crashed on Nov. 20 and move it to the nearby runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay. Rear Adm. Kevin Lenox, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 3 who is leading the $1.5 million salvage effort, said absorbent material around the plane showed no indication of any fluid other than sea water, giving officials confidence that the plane hadn’t released any hazardous materials such as fuel. None of the nine people on board the P-8A — the military’s version of a Boeing 737 — were injured. The Navy is investigating the cause of the crash. The Navy released underwater video last week showing the aircraft’s wheels resting on parts of crushed coral and m...

Heavy snowfall drops tree branches onto power lines, causing outages in New England

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:10 GMT

A storm dropped a mix of rain and snow on parts of New England with some locations recording more than a half-foot (15 centimeters) of snowfall on Monday, knocking out power for tens of thousands of people and causing slick roads that contributed to a fiery propane truck crash in Vermont.Evacuations were ordered in two communities, including at a pair of schools, in Vermont after the propane tanker went off the Vermont Route 14 bridge over the Black River in Irasburg and caught fire, state police said. Emergency workers created a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) perimeter around the crash site in the event of an explosion.At the peak, more than 25,000 homes and businesses in Maine and more than 11,000 in Vermont were without electricity as trees and branches laden with heavy, wet snow fell on power lines, officials said. The temperatures were hovering close to freezing across much of northern New England on Monday.The National Weather Service declared the first winter storm warning of the sea...