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'Turkey lady' confronted while helping neighborhood birds cross the street

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

THORNTON, Colo. (KDVR) — A Thornton woman and neighborhood bird herder known as the "turkey lady" received a disorderly conduct citation Wednesday following an altercation with another woman.Mary Ann Strauch said she was helping the turkeys cross the road near home at York Street and 124th Avenue when a driver sped around her and nearly hit her. Ghost town discovered on Colorado’s Western Slope Strauch said she tapped the back of the car with a stick she uses to herd turkeys across the road when the woman got out and confronted her."She got really irate and jumped out and started yelling at me,” Strauch said. “And she insisted on calling 911 and having the police come out, and then we were all detained out here about 2 and a half hours.”Thornton Police confirmed both women were cited for disorderly conduct. "It was very upsetting, and I think it was really unnecessary and uncalled for,” Strauch said.Mary Ann Strauch, known in Thornton as the "turkey lady," helps the neig...

Is the new COVID vaccine readily available in Colorado?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Hospitalizations from COVID-19 are rising in Colorado. The new vaccine formulations released by Pfizer and Moderna are designed to fight the newest strain of the virus.“It is recommended for everyone 6 months and older," said Dr. Bob Belknap, executive director of the Public Health Institute of Denver Health. Colorado funeral home under investigation after improperly stored bodies found The new COVID vaccines entered the market in mid-September, and now the rush to book appointments is causing health care websites to get busier.Katrina Bellis, who started a chapter of Colorado Vaccine Hunters, said she can find them around 7-8 a.m.The FOX31 Problem Solvers didn’t find any available appointments this month in some areas of cities like Chicago and San Francisco, where some pharmacy customers have reported charges as high as $200 for a vaccine. Colorado is not seeing the same problems at this point.“Access and availability for that vaccine is pretty good right now," B...

Biden team weighs using State Department grants to fund weapons for Ukraine

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

The Biden administration is considering using a State Department grant program to send additional military aid to Ukraine as Congress continues to battle over weapons funding, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the discussions.The White House is weighing a range of options as it scrambles to find additional money to support Ukraine after lawmakers stripped funding in a last-minute deal to avert a government shutdown, said the officials, who like others interviewed for this story were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.President Joe Biden hinted at this strategy on Wednesday, saying “there is another means by which we may be able to find funding for that.” He declined to comment further.One of the officials said the president’s comments referred to “existing funding authorities” Congress previously gave the administration “that allow us to provide additional support to Ukraine for a bit longer if Congress doesn’t act.”One option under consideration is ...

‘The Storms of Jeremy Thomas’ a must for cinephiles

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

Urgent message to Boston-area cineastes: See “The Storms of Jeremy Thomas.” One of the most important and prolific producers of independent films, Thomas, who won a best picture Academy Award for “The Last Emperor” (1988), was born into the cinema. His father Ralph Thomas directed the “Doctor” film series with Dirk Bogarde; His uncle Gerald Thomas helmed the raucous and still popular “Carry On” films.“Prince” Jeremy paid his dues as an editor on such films as “The Harder They Come” (1972) and “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” (1973). Thomas’ first effort as a producer was the Dennis Hopper vehicle “Mad Morgan” (1974), followed by the Jerzy Skolimowski Cannes award-winner “The Shout” (1978), the first of several collaborations with English actor John Hurt, including the great 1984 Stephen Frears’ gangster movie “The Hit.” Thomas was off like a rocket. He formed an artistic partnership with auteur Nicolas Roeg (Don’s Look Now”), beginning with the belatedly acclaimed “Ba...

‘Strange Way of Life’ Almodovar’s turn at gay Western

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

With “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) and more recently the overrated “The Power of the Dog” (2021), the gay Western has been born. One can rightly argue that many classic Westerns (and classic Western parodies) have always had powerful, in the case of the parodies, openly homoerotic currents.Now, the great Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar (“Talk to Her”), who turned down “Brokeback Mountain” all those years ago (it was directed by Ang Lee), tries his hand at the form with the 30-minute English-language short “Strange Way of Life.” The film, which takes its odd-sounding name from a famous fado song, is both moving and a bit baffling.Shot in Spain’s Andalusia region, “Strange Way of Life,” which was lensed by Almodovar regular Jose Luis Alcaine (“Volver”), certainly looks like a Western. But the film was sponsored by Saint Laurent, and at times you may ask yourself if that explains the presence of such beautifully laundered and folded undergarments and a stunningly green jacket wor...

Thursday’s high school roundup/scores: Erin Cottam tallies 100th point for Oliver Ames in victory

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

Erin Cottam dialed up a hat trick for Oliver Ames, surpassing the 100-point threshold in a 7-1 field hockey win over Taunton.Addi Weiss and Emily Carney each scored twice as Franklin (8-0-1) shut out Hockomock League opponent Mansfield 8-0. … In a Catholic Central contest, Jordi Higgins recorded a pair of goals and an assist to boost Bishop Feehan (8-1-1) to a 5-0 victory over Bishop Stang.In Patriot League action, Caitlin Patten recorded a hat trick and Stella Brazis added a pair of goals as Hingham (7-1-1) defeated Plymouth North, 6-0.Scoring her first career goal wasn’t enough for Talia Harrington, who registered a hat trick for Gloucester in a 4-0 Northeastern Conference win over Saugus. … Another three-goal, two-assist performance from Mackenzie Clarke powered Belmont (8-2) to a 7-1 Middlesex League win over Burlington.Kayla Murphy’s tally was the only goal of the game, helping Pentucket edge Methuen 1-0 in nonleague play.A hat trick from Kat Quill and Mary Firlings’ firs...

Greenway: U.S. spends big to house migrants, not military

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

President Joe Biden would never come out and say, “We value illegal migrants more than we do members of our military.” But considering how much more his administration is spending to house migrants who came here illegally than those who defend us — and the conditions both are living in — he might as well.The Biden administration is paying $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house illegal migrants. ICE provides them not only food and a bed, but medical and dental care, recreation and other services to meet higher standards than county detention systems, for example.However, the administration is not filling the beds in these facilities. It’s choosing to bypass ICE and simply release the migrants onto the streets in many cases, where they need to be housed in other facilities, like hotels in American cities. So basically, the administration is paying for nice facilities, which have a large amount of space available, and also paying to put the migr...

Collins: Expanding private jet capacity at Hanscom reckless idea

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

In New England, we’ve experienced deluges of rain, flooding, and Canadian wildfire smoke this summer. Other regions have faced record heat waves, droughts, and wildfires.But apparently, the perspective looks different from a private jet. Private jets, enjoyed almost exclusively by the extraordinarily wealthy, pollute at 10 to 20 times the rate per passenger compared to commercial jets.As our society awakens to the new abnormal of climate disruption, developers are hatching a plan to expand this form of carbon-intensive travel in New England. They’re pressing Massport and state officials to approve a plan to triple the private jet capacity at Hanscom Field, New England’s busiest private jet port.The disconnect between the Commonwealth’s climate goals and the Hanscom expansion couldn’t be weirder. As cities and towns plan to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030, Hanscom’s expansion would release a carbon bomb — all so a handful of billionaires and multi-millionaires can fly to Nantucket or...

‘He was Chicago’s son’: Dick Butkus, the Hall of Fame Bears linebacker known for his toughness, dies at 80

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

Perhaps no player in the Chicago Bears’ 104-year history better epitomized the team’s tough and determined identity than Dick Butkus.A product of Chicago’s working-class South Side and the University of Illinois, Butkus became a fierce Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker before embarking on a modest but enduring entertainment career in Hollywood.“After football, it was difficult for me to find what I liked second-best,” Butkus once told the Tribune. “Football was always my first love. That certainly didn’t mean I couldn’t find something else. And the proof of the pudding is where I have ended up today.“I guess I could have been one of those guys who didn’t prepare to quit. But things happened and through hard work I found out that, hey, there are other things besides football.”Butkus, 80, died “peacefully in his sleep overnight” at his home in Malibu, California, the Butkus family said Thursd...

‘The Royal Hotel’ well worth checking into

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:10:50 GMT

Another gift from South Australia, after the recent hit “Talk to Me,” “The Royal Hotel” is a cautionary trip to a dark and arid corner of mindless, toxic masculinity. Hanna (Julia Garner, “The Assistant”) ) and Liv (Jessica Henwick, “Glass Onion”) are two young women from Canada (or so they say), who have run out of friends and money aboard a cruise ship and decide to take jobs at a pub in a remote corner of Australia, where the clientele are sex-starved local miners. Cue the Hitchcock shot of the two women being dropped off in the middle of dusty nowhere by a bus.When Liv and Hanna first arrive at the pub, they meet at-first-frosty cook and caretaker Carol (Ursula Yovich, “Australia”) and pub owner Billy (Hugo Weaving), who just happens to be a drunk and keeps pickled snakes in glass jars on shelves behind the bar. Hanna and Liv also run into their predecessors in rooms upstairs, Jules (Alex Malone) and Cassie (Kate Cheel), Englishwomen whose going-away party runs out of control.Af...