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Texas House blocks school voucher funding in blow to Gov. Abbott

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- The Texas House of Representatives on Thursday voted to prohibit state money from funding private school vouchers or education savings accounts.The move all but ends one of Gov. Greg Abbott's top priorities to provide "school choice" with state-funded private school tuition subsidies.The House approved State Rep. Abel Herrero's amendment to the state budget on a bipartisan 86-52 vote. The amendment prohibits the budget from funding "a school voucher, including an education savings account, tax credit scholarship program, or a grant or other similar program through which a child may use state money for non-public primary or secondary education.""These are public funds for public schools as is outlined and stated specifically in the Texas Constitution," Rep. Herrero said. "And for that, members, please stick with our public school teachers, our neighborhood schools, and our public charter schools and vote for this amendment."Cheers erupted in the Texas House as the...

Dramatic before-and-after imagery shows how storms filled California reservoirs

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

FOLSOM, Calif. — Water levels fell so low in key reservoirs during the depth of California’s drought that boat docks sat on dry, cracked land and cars drove into the center of what should have been Folsom Lake.Those scenes are no more after a series of powerful storms dumped record amounts of rain and snow across California, replenishing reservoirs and bringing an end — mostly — to the state’s three-year drought.Now, 12 of California’s 17 major reservoirs are filled above their historical averages for the start of spring. That includes Folsom Lake, which controls water flows along the American River, as well as Lake Oroville, the state’s second largest reservoir and home to the nation’s tallest dam.It’s a stunning turnaround of water availability in the nation’s most populous state. Late last year nearly all of California was in drought, including at extreme and exceptional levels. Wells ran dry, farmers fallowed fields and cities restricted water...

The Pink Ladies get their origin story in Paramount+ series

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

Four years before Frenchy, Rizzo and Sandy ever donned their own pink jackets, a group of friends at Rydell High leaned into their image of “bad girls,” called themselves the Pink Ladies and created a girl gang. Their formation is chronicled in the new 10-episode musical series “ Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies ” streaming now on Paramount+.Set in 1954, new student Jane Facciano (Marisa Davila) gets labeled as “easy” by the Rydell High quarterback and she’s suddenly an outcast. Jane ends up bonding with a few other teen girls, (played by Cheyenne Isabel Wells, Ari Notartomaso, and Tricia Fukuhara) who are struggling in their own way to fit in.That theme of finding your people looms large throughout “Grease” as a whole, says creator Annabel Oakes.“When you say Pink Ladies and T-Birds, you’re like, ‘Oh, those are the cool kids in school.’ But when you watch the movie, Rizzo is cool, Kenickie is cool. John Travolta’s Danny Zuko is cool. Jan’s not cool. Frenchie’s not cool. Sonny (and) ...

New Medicaid pharmacy benefit program, NYRx has started

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)--- Under NYRx, pharmacies are now being paid directly for prescriptions of 8 million New Yorkers enrolled in Medicaid."It cuts out the middleman, it takes out the inefficiencies," said Amir Bassiri, New York's Medicaid Director. "There used to be us paying a health plan, paying a PBM to pay the pharmacy, now the Medicaid program is paying the pharmacy directly."Bassiri said this provides a lower cost for the Medicaid program as a whole."Members will not see any change with respect to what drugs they can receive or what costs they have to pay."NYRx has been in effect for about a week. Zarina Jalal, a pharmacist in Albany said this has been a welcomed change and so far it has been a smooth transition. She shared some advice for New Yorkers enrolled in Medicaid."Pharmacies may ask for their insurance card again," explained Jalal. "In order for us to process your prescriptions at the pharmacy we need to have a call your client ID number which is the number that’s o...

Cap-and-invest 'on the table' for NYS budget

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) -- The budget is now five days late and lawmakers are still in negotiations. The Department of Environmental Conservation says the Cap and Invest program continues to be a  discussion. The program would make polluters pay for the amount of greenhouse gas emissions they’re putting in the atmosphere. Conor Bambrick, Policy Director at Environmental Advocates New York, said the Climate Action Council came up with this plan. "So they would cap the amount of pollution at a certain level, so we’re talking about the power producing sector, we're talking about transportation, we’re talking about industry and buildings, cap that and force the polluters to pay for every ton of greenhouse gas emissions that they are producing below that cap, below and up to that cap," said Bambrick. Governor Hochul plans for NYS to invest more in Green Energy But if a company goes over that cap, they pay more. The goal is to incentivize industries to reduce pollution and produ...

78-year-old Missouri woman accused of bank robbery – again

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

PLEASANT HILL, Mo. - Knitting, playing Scrabble, baking cookies. These are some of the stereotypical activities you might think of when you think of a woman enjoying her 70s.Well, what about robbing a bank?That's what a 78-year-old woman is accused of doing Wednesday in Pleasant Hill - hitting the Goppert Financial Bank on North Highway 7. ‘ChiefsAholic’ removes ankle monitor, skips court; warrant issued Surprisingly, this is not the first time she has been accused of this sort of behavior.Three years ago, at age of 75, police arrested the same woman, Bonnie Gooch, in Lee's Summit for a different bank robbery.Gooch was charged with stealing and was later convicted. Her sentence was suspended and she was ordered to have supervised probation, which expired in November 2021.Now her name's once again the focus of authorities.The arrest happened only a few hundred yards from the bank. Justin Lewis is the manager at Guido's Pizza Place. The scene was just outside the restaurant."And I s...

Bollinger County tornado survivors say cell phones saved their lives

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

BOLLINGER COUNTY, Mo. - Wednesday morning’s severe weather produced a deadly tornado in southeast Missouri. The survivors credit their mobile alert system for giving them warning, allowing them to take cover in time. “I jumped out and I was freaking out. I was, like, ‘There’s a tornado! There’s a tornado!’ Yeah, within, like, five minutes we were in the bathtub,” Sheoby Davidson said. Sheoby's mother said everyone in their family was scrambling for cover after getting the alert on their phones.The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system is activated when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning. Destructive thunderstorm warnings and higher-end flash flood warnings also trigger these alerts. “The technology has gotten good now where it can use our polygon where we draw the polygon for the tornado warning, and it knows that you’re in that polygon, so your cellphone will go off if you’re in the polygon, which has been a huge addition to the warning system, because now s...

Supreme Court justice reportedly took undisclosed luxury trips from political donor

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has for more than two decades accepted luxury trips nearly every year from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow without reporting them on financial disclosure forms, ProPublica reports.In a lengthy story published Thursday, the nonprofit investigative journalism organization catalogs various trips Thomas has taken aboard Crow's yacht and private jet, as well as to Crow's private resort in the Adirondacks. A 2019 trip to Indonesia the story detailed could have cost more than $500,000 had Thomas chartered the plane and yacht himself, ProPublica reported.FILE - Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. Thomas has for more than two decades accepted luxury trips nearly every year from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow without reporting them on financial disclosure forms, ProPublica reports. (AP Photo/J. Scot...

Where you can see the total eclipse from Missouri next year

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

ST. LOUIS – We are approximately a year away from experiencing another total solar eclipse. Missouri and Illinois are two of 15 states in the contiguous United States that will be in the path of totality.In a regular eclipse, the moon crosses between the Earth and the Sun, obscuring part of the planet's view of its nearest star. In a total solar eclipse, the moon covers the Sun's disk entirely, leaving only the corona or solar prominences visible.The 2017 total eclipse moved from Oregon to South Carolina and out to the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, it was the first such eclipse to go coast-to-coast in nearly 100 years."A total solar eclipse is the most beautiful sight you will ever see in the sky," said Michael Zeiler, cartographer for GreatAmericanEclipse.com. "This celestial wonder is guaranteed to be a peak life experience. You will never regret traveling to the path of totality."This time, however, that path will be wider and the duration of totality will be longer, so the 31 mil...

Kyle Freeland superb in Rockies’ home-opening win over Nationals

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:17:17 GMT

The Colorado Kid rose to the occasion.Left-hander Kyle Freeland, a Denver native, pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings Thursday afternoon at Coors Field in the Rockies’ 1-0 home-opening victory over Washington.A sellout crowd of 48,230 saw the Thomas Jefferson High graduate keep the Nationals guessing.Colorado’s offense was quiet but it scored the only run it needed in the fifth. Rookie shortstop Ezequiel Tovar reached on a double to right field when Lane Thomas lost the ball in the sun. Tovar scored on Kris Bryant’s single to left. Bryant has a hit in all seven games to open the season.Freeland, the first pitcher in Rockies history to start three home openers, was superb. He scattered four hits, struck out five and walked two. He didn’t allow a Nationals runner to get past first base.Freeland is unscored upon over his first two games and has allowed just seven hits over 12 2/3 innings.Related ArticlesColorado Rockies | PHOTOS: Opening day at Coors Fiel...