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Death toll in Maui rises to 93 with 2,200 structures destroyed or damaged

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

Follow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters. GOVERNOR SAYS DEATH TOLL INCREASES, POLICY REVIEW PLANNEDIn a press conference Saturday, Gov. Josh Green said the number of confirmed deaths from the Maui wildfires had risen to 89, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years.Maui County later raised the confirmed death toll to 93.There were 2,200 structures destroyed or damaged just in West Maui, and 86% of those were residential buildings, Green said“The losses approach $6 billion in estimate," Green said, adding that it would take “an incredible amount of time" to recover.Green said officials will review policies and procedures to improve safety.“People hav...

Low rain chances

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- There have been 51 days with a high temperature reaching triple digits. More than half of those days, 30 to be exact, have had a high of 105° and higher.Heat ... and then someToday will be a carbon copy of Saturday with most highs reaching 102° and 106°. This morning's clouds will gradually thin by 10 a.m. leaving a mainly sunny sky for the afternoon.Today's normal high is 99°Perhaps the only change will be in the heat index readings. Yesterday, the highest ranged from 109° to 113° (Cameron). Today's forecast drops those numbers down to104° to 108°.The Excessive Heat Warning for 13 counties and the Heat Advisory for Blanco and Gillespie Counties continue today from Noon to 9:00 p.m. Heat alerts remain in effect all day and eveningThe Red Flag Warning continues for every county today from Noon to 11 p.m.. As fire danger remains critically high, make sure you don't accidentally spark a dangerous situation this weekend.A cold front is forecast to reach Lampasas and San...

Veterans battle backlog to get care for toxic exposure

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- Tracey Souza spends the later days of her ailing husband's life caring for him — and ensuring the country he served cares for him, too. Collecting medical records, scavenging for Vietnam War-era service papers, navigating the maze of Veterans Affairs bureaucracy: a labor of love for a husband who dedicated decades to service before illness sidelined him."He made the military his entire life," Souza said. "Since the stroke, and then the Parkinson's, he's not as active as he used to be. There's a lot of things he can't do now. He can't ride bikes, he can't drive cars... it turned him upside down."Souza said her husband is one of thousands of veterans whose battle did not end when they returned home. The victims not of combatants, but of cancer — wounded not by bullets, but by burn pits."When you're in the military at that time... the chemicals that they used over there in the perimeter of the flight line, I believe a lot of that has to do with it. I'm sure that the...

Fatal plane crash claims one life near Virden Illinois

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

VIRDEN, Ill-- One person has died in a plane crash near Verdin, Illinois, which is located about an hour north of St. Louis. According to the Macoupin County Sheriff's Office, the pilot was the sole victim and occupant of the aircraft. The pilot's name has not been released yet. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are conducting an investigation into the cause of this fatal plane crash. This incident occurred shortly before nine o'clock on Saturday morning.

Colorado’s housing market is so strained it’s endangering domestic violence victims, advocates says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

When Jonita Davis finally secured a rental apartment in mid-July, her two children asked to hold the keys. The kids, 7 and 10, twirled the keys around in their fingers — tactile evidence that their six-month stay crammed into a Centennial hotel room was coming to an end.Everybody has their own room in the family’s new three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in south metro Denver. Davis’ son has a race car bed. Her daughter plays with toys on the balcony while Davis reads. Now that she and her children are somewhere safe, Davis is only beginning to process what it means to have escaped a toxic relationship.The whole family is taking a collective, grounding breath, she said.Even so, fear lingers.“It’s a mix of relief and fear,” Davis said. “Is this real? Is this permanent? Is this going to be taken away? The kids saw me stressing every week about paying for the hotel room, and it took me a minute to get them to understand that we don’t hav...

Deaths in Colorado declined in 2022, but were still higher than pre-pandemic levels. Is this the new normal?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

Fewer Coloradans died in 2022 than during the first two years of the pandemic, but it’s too soon to tell whether the state’s still-elevated death toll last year was a point of transition or the start of a new normal.Nearly all of the improvement in Colorado’s death rates from 2021 to 2022 was because less than half as many people died of COVID-19. That was partially offset by an increase in deaths from other diseases, however, as overdose deaths stabilized well above their pre-pandemic levels.The state’s mortality data is delayed three to four months, so it’s not yet known whether those same trends have continued into 2023, said Kirk Bol, manager of the vital statistics program at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.COVID-19 deaths will most likely be lower this year, because 2022 included the second half of the massive omicron-driven wave and nothing comparable has happened since, he said. But the trends aren’t as obvious for...

Used car buyers looking to spend under $20,000 have slim pickings in Denver

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

One fallout from the pandemic and the inflation that followed has been a dramatic decrease in the number of late-model vehicles available for under $20,000, according to a new study from iSeeCars, an online vehicle marketplace.Back in 2019, nearly half of all late-model used vehicles, defined as those under five years old, could be purchased for under $20,000. But this year, only 12.4% fell under that price point, according to the study.And for those with only $15,000 to spend, the availability of late-model vehicles went from 23% of the market nationally to only 1.6%.The decline was more extreme in metro Denver, where the share of sub-$20,000 vehicles fell from 41.6% to 9%, the sixth largest decline of the 50 metro areas examined.“During the pandemic lockdowns, one of the few things people could still do was take a drive, and clearly many of them did,” said Karl Brauer, an executive analyst with iSeeCars. “This drove up the mileage across the used car market, but the supply of new ...

Colorado will consider capping the price of these 5 widely prescribed drugs

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

Colorado’s new Prescription Drug Affordability Board has identified five costly medications used to treat autoimmune diseases, HIV and cystic fibrosis that could receive state-mandated price ceilings — but it’s not clear how that will affect patients.The board was created by a 2021 law that allowed it to set a maximum price for up to 12 drugs each year, if a medication’s cost increased by more than 10% in one year, or if a brand-name drug cost more than $30,000 per year. It can also examine generic drugs that cost more than $100 per month, or medications that members of the public asked it to consider.The Colorado Health Institute estimated about 13% of Colorado adults who took prescription drugs in 2021 reported difficulty affording their medication. Unsurprisingly, people who were uninsured or had low incomes were more likely to report trouble paying for prescriptions.The state’s prescription drug board had a list of hundreds of medications to conside...

Top destination for Bay Area transplants isn’t in Texas or Florida. It’s … Seattle?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

In recent years, red states have relished the chance to take a deep dig at dark blue California: The Golden State is hemorrhaging residents, and many are moving to the low-tax Republican havens of Texas, Arizona and Florida.So it seems like a no-brainer that liberal-minded Austin or Phoenix, where you can buy a nice house with a pool for $500,000, would be the top stops on the California exodus pipeline.But it turns out the biggest draw for Bay Area transplants is in an entirely different direction.Try our rainy neighbor to the north: Seattle.King County, Washington, topped the IRS migration list of out-of-state relocation destinations for people leaving four of the five core Bay Area counties in 2021: Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara.More than 7,600 Bay Area residents moved to Seattle in the thick of the COVID pandemic, which set off a remote-work revolution that freed employees from being bound to abodes near the office.But wait … Seattle?It’s a revelation that su...

Could a rejuvenated Heliot Ramos be the spark the SF Giants’ lineup needs?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:24:20 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — It meant nothing to the outcome of the game but everything to Heliot Ramos.A year and a half after getting his first call to the big leagues, Ramos slugged his first career home run Saturday night in the ninth inning of a 9-3 loss to the Rangers. A cruise missile — 110.1 mph off the bat — that landed midway up the bleachers in left-center field, the milestone wasn’t as much an introduction as the revival of a onetime top prospect.And served as some brotherly bragging rights.“Now I can tell my brother that I hit my first one — harder than him,” Ramos said of his older brother, Henry, 31, who was called up by the Reds on Saturday for his third look in the major leagues. “It feels great.”The first career home run of @HeliotRamos' career was a LASER pic.twitter.com/e4qHsbdjGP— SFGiants (@SFGiants) August 13, 2023While it was a long time coming for the 2017 first-round pick, it was also a reminder of his immense potential and, desp...