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Video shown in murder trial shows Arvada Police trying to save officer's life

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

GOLDEN, Colo. (KDVR) — There were emotional and dramatic moments in the trial of the man accused of gunning down and killing an Arvada Police officer. Officer Dillon Vakoff died in the line of duty answering a call for help during a family disturbance in the fall of last year. New details unfolded Thursday about the shooting. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox Officers described what happened when they arrived at the scene in Arvada on Sept. 11, 2022. Body-worn camera video was shown to the jury, and live-streamed audio conveyed dramatic moments the night of the shooting.Flowers and notes are left in remembrance of Officer Dillon Vakoff. (KDVR)'Shots fired! Shots fired!'“Show me your hands! Get on the ground right now! Get back! Get back!” Arvada Police Officer Daniel Garibay could be heard saying in the recording.Garibay, who testified Thursday, answered the call with Vakoff. They had gone to handle a family disturbance call involving cus...

Coats for Colorado campaign wraps up Thursday

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) - It is the last day, but there is still time to make a positive difference in someone’s life. And all you need is a coat.The FOX31/Channel 2 News and Dependable Cleaner’s Coats for Colorado campaign is coming to a close today. Store manager Kasina Swartz has been working non-stop to process as many coats as possible. “We’re at 7,500 (coats) we’ve given away so far. Today we are expecting to give out 2,000,” said Swartz.The Coats for Colorado campaign is simple. Go into your closet and look for that winter coat you do not wear any longer. Then drop it off at any Dependable Cleaners. Download the FOX31 App: Breaking news alerts & Pinpoint Weather “An ideal one is with a functioning zipper, no holes, no tears and a hood to boot. That’s even better,“ said Swartz.Once your coat is collected, it is cleaned, sorted, and bagged. Then it is distributed to Denver metro area local nonprofits and charities, just in time to make a difference.Time may be running out, but the...

Encore Boston Harbor adds billions to the economy, almost 10k jobs

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

A new report on the economic impact of Encore Boston Harbor shows the resort casino brought billions in economic activity to the region and created thousands of new jobs but also shifted hundreds of millions of dollars away from local businesses.Prepared by the UMass Donahue Institute’s Economic & Public Policy Research Group, the report, titled “Encore Boston Harbor, First Three and a Half Years of Operation: Economic Impacts Report,” was presented to the state’s Gaming Commission on Thursday.“Over my 40 years of experience in the gambling research field, this is really the most detailed look that we’ve got of what the economic impacts of a new casino are,” UMass Professor Rachel Volberg told commissioners.Focusing mostly on 2022, the first full year Encore was in operation without COVID-19 restrictions in place, the report uses government and company data to demonstrate that the casino had a net positive impact on the state’s economy, but shifted hundreds of millio...

Sinaloa drug cartel’s Massachusetts fentanyl distributor sentenced to 25 years in prison

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

In yet another strike against the Sinaloa drug cartel’s infrastructure propping up this country’s opioid crisis, the feds are sending the coordinator of the Massachusetts fentanyl supply to prison.Fermin Castillo, 43, may have lived in Mexico, but a multi-year investigation originated by the State Police and continued through a state-federal task force found that he was the man in charge of the Sinaloa cartel’s Massachusetts operation — and even came up here at times to oversee that things were working smoothly.Castillo’s job officially came to an end on Tuesday, when U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young handed down a 25-year sentence to the cartel middle manager in federal court in Boston.“The flow of deadly fentanyl from Mexico to Massachusetts is directly tied to the devastation this drug has had on our communities,” acting Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. “(The Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico) pumped cheap, deadly fentanyl onto the streets of do...

Live updates | Live updates | Eight Israeli hostages are released during extended truce

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

Eight Israeli hostages were released from Hamas captivity in the Gaza strip on Thursday as part of a temporary cease-fire deal that has lasted for seven days, the Israeli military said.Israel has said it is freeing 30 Palestinian prisoners in the early hours of Friday under the truce deal, which has paused the deadliest fighting in decades between Israel and Palestinians.International pressure has mounted for the truce to be upheld as long as possible after weeks of Israeli bombardment and ground campaign following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel, and more than three-quarters of the population of 2.3 million have been uprooted, leading to a humanitarian crisis.Israel has vowed to resume the fighting — with the goal of dismantling Hamas — once the cease-fire ends.Currently:— Wartime Israel shows little tolerance for Palestinian dissent.— U.S. secretary of state urges Israel to comply with intern...

Congressmen ask DOJ to investigate water utility hack, warning it could happen anywhere

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Three members of Congress have asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate how foreign hackers breached a water authority near Pittsburgh, prompting the nation’s top cyberdefense agency to warn other water and sewage-treatment utilities that they may be vulnerable.In a letter released Thursday, U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey and U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio said Americans must know their drinking water and other basic infrastructure is safe from “nation-state adversaries and terrorist organizations.”“Any attack on our nation’s critical infrastructure is unacceptable,” Fetterman, Casey and Deluzio wrote in their letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “If a hack like this can happen here in western Pennsylvania, it can happen anywhere else in the United States.”The compromised industrial control system was made in Israel, and a photo from the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, suggests the “hackivists” deliberately targeted...

Former Wisconsin GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel is running for the state Supreme Court

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Former Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel announced Thursday that he is running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court against incumbent Justice Ann Walsh Bradley in a 2025, casting the race as a chance for conservatives to win back a majority and serve as a check on liberals.Bradley is part of a 4-3 liberal majority that took control of the court in August. She has said she will run for a fourth 10-year term. Schimel, a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge, is the first candidate to announce plans to challenge Bradley in the April 2025 election, but other conservatives are considering getting in the race.In his comments announcing his candidacy as prepared for delivery, Schimel said: “There is no check on this new liberal Supreme Court majority.”“The only check on them is to take back the majority by winning in 2025,” he said.Schimel has been outspoken on abortion and some other political issues that are almost certain to get more attention during the race. Abort...

Montana miner backs off expansion plans, lays off 100 due to lower palladium prices

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

The owner of two precious metals mines in south-central Montana is stopping work on an expansion project and laying off about 100 workers because the price of palladium fell sharply in the past year, mine representatives said Thursday.Sibanye-Stillwater announced the layoffs Wednesday at the only platinum and palladium mines in the United States, near Nye, Montana, and other Sibanye-owned facilities in Montana, including a recycling operation. Another 20 jobs have gone unfilled since October, officials said. Another 187 contract workers — about 67% of the mining contract workers at the mine — will also be affected. Some contract work has been phased out over the past couple of months, said Heather McDowell, a vice president at Sibanye-Stillwater. The restructuring is not expected to significantly impact current mine production or recycling production, but will reduce costs, the company said.Palladium prices have since fallen from a peak of about $3,000 an ounce in March 2022 to abou...

Federal judge blocks Montana’s first-in-the-nation ban on TikTok, says it’s unconstitutional

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s first-in-the-nation law banning the video-sharing app TikTok in the state has been blocked while a legal challenge to the law moves through the courts, a federal judge ruled Thursday.U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said the ban “oversteps state power and infringes on the Constitutional right of users and businesses.”The ban had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.Montana’s Republican-controlled Legislature made the state the first in the U.S. to pass a complete ban on the app, based on the argument that the Chinese government could gain access to user information from TikTok, whose parent company, ByteDance, is based in Beijing.Western governments have expressed worries that the popular social media platform could put sensitive data in the hands of the Chinese government or be used as a tool to spread misinformation. Chinese law allows the government to order companies to help it gather intelligence.Attorneys for TikTok and the content creator...

Watchdog flags ‘risk of discrimination’ in border agency’s air traveller targeting

Published Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:00:34 GMT

OTTAWA — The national spy watchdog says Canada’s border agency needs to do a better job of documenting how and why it singles out certain air passengers for possible additional scrutiny.The Canada Border Services Agency’s targeting program uses pre-arrival risk assessments to identify inbound air travellers more likely to be ineligible to enter Canada.As a first step, the border agency looks at information about passengers routinely provided by commercial air carriers, including age, sex and national or ethnic origin.The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency found the border agency relies on information and intelligence from a variety of sources to determine which data elements to treat as indicators of risk.A report from the intelligence watchdog released late Thursday says the border agency has the legal authority to conduct such air passenger targeting.However, it details shortcomings in the border agency’s documentation of its program activities that...