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DA drops charges against Denver Police tech accused of indecent exposure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Prosecutors are dropping charges against a Denver Police Department technician who was accused of indecent exposure while on the job. The police department says its Internal Affairs investigation is continuing.Gabriel Jordan was accused of indecent exposure while working at the Denver Police Academy. The tech received a misdemeanor citation in the Sept. 12 incident.Prosecutors have now moved to dismiss the charges, the Denver District Attorney's Office announced Monday. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox District Attorney Beth McCann said in a statement that "after further review of the facts and evidence," prosecutors do not think they can prove the technician's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.The technician had been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation, Denver Police previously told FOX31.Denver Police said Monday the tech will return to non-patrol work in the department's Administrative Division, "where he ...

265,000 people moved to Colorado last year. Where did they come from?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — While nearly 240,000 people packed up their things and left Colorado last year, even more decided to move into the state, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau Census released earlier this month. An estimated 264,500 people moved to Colorado in 2022, the Census reports. The biggest group of new residents – nearly 33,500 – came from another country. The data set did not specify which countries people immigrated from.Another 33,200 came from California, possibly seeking more affordable living conditions (though according to a recent study, Denver may not be much cheaper than some California cities). AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile? Maps show which cell provider gives Colorado the best coverage Some of the most-populated states in the country sent residents to Colorado. The third-most new residents, about 25,500, came from Texas, and another 11,100 came from Florida. Colorado, in turn, lost the most residents to Texas and Florida in 2022, according to the Census da...

What rare minerals can you find in Colorado?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — Looking at the mountains, it's hard not to wonder what sort of rare minerals you might find in Colorado. If you haven't spent any time searching for gemstones, you may not know Colorado is home to several. That includes aquamarine, a blue variety of the mineral beryl, according to the Colorado Geological Survey. Despite it being the state gemstone since 1971, you may not be able to find much on your own, since many of the areas where aquamarine is found are on land held by private entities. The 5 highest – and lowest – paying college degrees in Denver You might also have a hard time finding amazonite, a microcline feldspar that is usually blue or green. While commonly found between Woodland Park and Lake George, the area is mostly private land or held by private entities. Exclusive museum-quality exhibits from renowned mineral crystal collector Jack Halpern will be displayed during the 57th annual San Francisco Gem and Mineral Society Show and Sale on Saturday, August...

Outrageous expenses, devastating scoops: One climate reporter mourns the death of another

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

My favorite John Vidal story, like all of John’s stories, was best told by John himself.Back in 2015, he was in the middle of a mighty reporting trip that took him down the 2,500-mile length of the Mekong River, documenting its strangulation by hydroelectric dams for the Guardian. After staying in a village for a few days in Laos, he thanked the locals for their hospitality by paying for a new water well.When he returned to the Guardian’s shining canal-side offices in London, pockets emptied onto a desk already covered in dog-eared expense receipts, he wrote to the accounting department and claimed the price of the well under the heading of “meals and entertainment.” As an explanation, he added: “Drinks for 500 people.”“Do you think some fucking Guardian beancounter is going to tell me I can’t buy these people a well?” he would conclude in the retelling.It’s a story that combines John’s two great passions in journalism: justice for the planet’s most benighte...

EU’s foreign policy weakness is here to stay

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

Mujtaba Rahman is the head of Eurasia Group’s Europe practice. He tweets at @Mij_Europe.The feverish pitch of international diplomacy since the terrorist attacks on Israel have just highlighted Europe’s big conundrum: Why, as a global economic, trade and regulatory superpower, does the European Union find it so hard to be relevant and punch firmly on the global stage?This problem has been cruelly highlighted by the bloc’s response to the Gaza crisis, seriously undermining its credibility as a foreign policy actor — and even undoing some of the gains it made following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. The EU’s initial response to the crisis was marked by European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi announcing a unilateral suspension of all EU development aid to Palestine, totaling some €691million, only to have the Commission then clarify the aid would be “reviewed” — not suspended.Later, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s trip to Israel...

Happy Rishiversary! Highs and lows of Rishi Sunak’s first year in power

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

LONDON — Happy anniversary to one of the UK’s most talked-about couples: No. 10 Downing Street and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.It’s been a tumultuous love affair, with a will-they-won’t-they start — and enough bumps in the road to keep a local pothole repair team busy.As Sunak tries to restore the reputation of his governing Tories — still languishing in the polls ahead of an expected election next year — POLITICO takes a trip down memory lane with a month-by-month rundown of some of the key highlights. Buckle up!October 2022It finally happened. After one failed leadership run — in which he lost to Liz Truss and, in a way, to a lettuce — Sunak was elected the new leader of the Conservatives on October 24, 2022. A day later he became prime minister, and vowed his government would be marked by “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.” That was in no way a massive sub-tweet of Boris Johnson.Sunak’s first port of call was to pick his cabinet. He took a slow and stea...

German hard-left icon set to start a new populist party

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

A popular icon of hard-left politics in Germany announced her intention to start a new political party, potentially creating a potent new anti-establishment force that could further upend the country’s already fragmented politics.Sahra Wagenknecht, the longtime face of The Left, which has roots in East Germany’s Communist Party, says her new faction will represent the large swath of the German electorate that is deeply frustrated with mainstream politics.“We live in a time of global political crises,” she said in Berlin. “And in this of all times, Germany probably has the worst government in its history … Many no longer know who to vote for, or they vote out of anger and despair.”Wagenknecht, a frequent guest on German television talk shows, consistently ranks among the country’s most popular politicians. Polls suggest her party, once established, could become a significant political force: One survey published on Monday put a Wagenknecht party at 12 percent nationally, ...

Trump praises Hungary’s ‘Viktor Orbán’ as great ‘leader of Turkey’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to confuse the leaders of Turkey and Hungary in a campaign speech in New Hampshire on Monday.“There’s a man, Viktor Orbán, anybody ever hear of him?” Trump said, referring to the Hungarian prime minister.“He’s probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. He’s the leader of Turkey,” the former president said. Turkey’s president is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.Trump added that Orbán has a “front” with Russia. Neither Turkey nor Hungary has a border with Russia.Trump has previously praised Orbán, who opposes migration and LGBTQ rights, and refers to his governing style as an “illiberal democracy.” Trump hosted him at the White House in 2019.In turn, Orbán was the first European leader to endorse Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and urged him to “keep fighting” after the former president was hit with a criminal indictment.“Come back, Mr President. Make America great again and bring us peace,” Orbán told a meeting ...

Ukraine says Israel-Hamas war shows West must ramp up arms production

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

BERLIN — Facing war on two fronts — in Ukraine and in the Middle East — Kyiv is calling on Western democracies to ramp up investment in weapons, saying that arms factory output worldwide is falling miles short of what is needed. In an interview, Ukraine’s Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin told POLITICO Western countries needed to accelerate production of missiles, shells and military drones as close to frontlines as possible. “The free world should be producing enough to protect itself,” Kamyshin said, on a mission to the German capital to persuade arms producers to invest in war-ravaged Ukraine. “That’s why we have to produce more and better weapons to stay safe.” Current factory capacity was woeful, he argued. “If you get together all the worldwide capacities for weapons production, for ammunition production, that will be not enough for this war,” said Kamyshin of the state of play along Ukraine’s more than 1,000 kilometers of ...

Reuse or recycle? Inside Europe’s takeaway tug-of-war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:36 GMT

One of the nerdiest — and most intense — green lobbying fights comes to a head this week. And it’s all about packaging.From takeaway coffee to fast food, Brussels is hoping to oust a lot of single-use packaging from the EU’s consumption habits — in a threat to several packaging industries. Freaked out by the potential changes to their commercially successful business model, parts of the packaging sector have been hassling EU policymakers for months with their complaints on the draft rules.European Parliament officials, assistants and MEPs say the amount of industry lobby requests is unprecedented. The debate, often backed by contradictory data on both sides, has left lawmakers at a loss and created deep splits within groups.“Sometimes I find it almost unethical because you have some companies lobbying based on reports where the data are not available, are confidential,” Pascal Canfin, who chairs the Parliament’s environment committee, told journalists last week.In an op-e...