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Celebrating women achievements through 'This Black Girl' Campaign

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

Ladies of Virtue, a leadership and mentoring program for Black women in Chicago communities, is now launching the 'This Black Girl' campaign to celebrate the accomplishments of thousands of women who have gone through their program and show girls throughout the city what they can achieve.Ladies of Virtuem director of Programming Kenya Mercer joins us in the studio to share more.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

Python hunters find missing Florida woman hundreds of miles from home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A 75-year-old woman who disappeared from her home in Marion County, Florida, was found by python hunters hundreds of miles away near Miami.The Marion County Sheriff's Office first issued a Silver Alert for Darlene Peck after she went missing on Tuesday.Deputies said Peck, who suffers from dementia, had left her Umatilla home to go to Ocala, about an hour away, sometime in the early afternoon. Her husband arrived home later that evening and contacted the authorities upon learning she had not yet returned. Largo lawyer disappears under suspicious circumstances, police say The Marion County Sheriff's Office said her car, a 2013 Nissan Rogue, was then spotted on Wednesday morning in Coral Gables, about 270 miles away from Umatilla."If you have any information on her whereabouts, please call 911," deputies wrote in the Silver Alert.Later that afternoon, the Marion County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Peck had been found "by python hunters" in South Florida. A rep...

These are the hardest to find state quarters: Where does yours fall?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

(NEXSTAR) - Over a 10-year period, the U.S. Mint produced some of the most commonly collected coins - the 50 State Quarters. While each state was honored with a quarter-dollar piece, some may be easier to find these days than others.Just as the name implies, a separate quarter was minted for every state during the program, which ran from 1999 to 2008, according to the U.S. Mint. Every year, five new quarters were issued, following the order in which the states ratified the Constitution or were admitted into the Union. On the reverse of each is a unique design of state features or iconic moments in history. The Kansas quarter, for example, features a buffalo and sunflowers - the state animal and state flower, respectively. New York's quarter features the state, the Statue of Liberty, and the slogan "Gateway to Freedom," a nod to Ellis Island. Are your old coins and bills valuable? What to look for In many states, governors called on residents to submit design concepts and an advis...

These are the most livable US cities in 2023, study finds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – As people continue to shift back to pre-pandemic social and recreational activities — even if they are still working remotely — a new study has broken down the best U.S. cities in which to work, learn, hang out and generally enjoy oneself in 2023.Niche, a data analysis company, used Census data, surveys and other info sources to break down the best cities in the U.S., taking into account the cost of living, safety, school quality, nightlife, walkability, outdoor activities and more.See the top five for 2023 below:Weeks Bridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (File: Getty)Topping the list is Cambridge, Massachusetts, home to roughly 117,000. The city, which is also home to Harvard, "offers residents an urban feel" with numerous bars, restaurants, coffee shops and parks. The public schools are also excellent, according to Niche.Rosslyn, Arlington, Virginia, USA city skyline on the Potomac River. (File: Getty)In second place is Arlington, Virginia, which jumped up from fourth i...

1 of 6 remaining, identified suspects in Operation Burnout arrested

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- One of the remaining six unarrested suspects charged during “Operation Burnout" was taken into custody Tuesday, according to Travis County court documents. Records showed 23-year-old Jose Leonidas Carcamos faces a charge of obstructing a highway and criminal mischief. Bonds for both charges totaled $60,000. RELATED: Operation Burnout: 17 more charged in February ‘street takeover’ investigation "Operation Burnout" is the law enforcement investigation into the February street takeovers in Austin.On March 16, police said 11 of the 17 additional people charged during the “street takeover” event had been taken into custody and that officials continued to search for the remaining six, which included Carcamos.According to court documents, Carcamos threw an object through the rear window of a Travis County Sheriff’s Deputy’s patrol vehicle, breaking it in the process. The breach in the window allowed unknown people to begin taking items from the patrol vehicle, as well as...

Soucheray: Does the DFL’s budget plan really reflect our values?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

It’s all but official that the DFL plans to spend the $17.9 billion surplus, as feared, resulting in a new and fattened state budget of not $52 billion, but roughly $70 billion. That means that at least almost $18 billion on top of what we were to have generated has to be generated every year from now until we all melt from catastrophic climate change.Whatever they dream up to swallow the new windfall will never go away.They are tearing through money up on that hill like they won a lottery. They did, with your money. Just like that they bloated the government with unimaginable consequences, well, except inevitable tax increases to cover the bloat. The governor said that the budget increase is the result of compromise and that it reflects Minnesota’s values.Who did you compromise with, governor? Your party owns the House and the Senate and your office. And let’s talk about values. Touting values makes the presumption that your wild and irresponsible spending improves our lives, that ...

Working Strategies: A quick primer on informational interviews

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

Amy LindgrenIf you’re thinking about changing careers, or if you’re trying to make decisions about your first career out of school, now is a good time to think about informational interviews. As a working definition, these are one-on-one conversations between a not-yet job candidate and a more experienced person in the candidate’s field of interest.In this process, the candidate is “not yet” because he or she hasn’t yet confirmed the decision to search for these types of jobs. That’s the point of the conversation — to provide information that would inform the decision or guide the next steps.Before starting, it’s good to clear up some common misunderstandings. For example, although informational interviewing is often described as a type of networking, or as a job search step, it’s really neither.It’s not job search because, well, it’s just not. When you ask to learn more about someone’s work, it’s not cool to use the meeting to ask for a job. That said, if you decide later tha...

Movie review: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ delivers with sublime action, locales

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

The nearly three-hour fairy tale of firearms that is “John Wick: Chapter 4” is a sprawling, Shakespearean orgy of violence, a salute to stunt choreographers, and a return to the original film’s roots — at the heart of the matter, it is the fundamentally the story of a duel, and a dog.For four bloody installments, Keanu Reeves has played the sorrowful, taciturn assassin John Wick, directed by his former stunt double Chad Stahelski, who has proven to be quite the cinematic stylist. Together, these two have offered up a completely unique blockbuster action franchise, one that dares to be somber, centering the doleful Reeves as the grieving John Wick. It also dares to embrace bold aesthetics — color, style, production design and location shooting — which feels downright revolutionary in the age of endless greenscreen and computer-generated landscapes.These films are long on style, but narrative complexity is not on the menu here — the “John Wick” films are merely conduits for long dream...

This is the time-to-crime rate for firearms in St. Louis.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

The average time between the purchase of a gun and its recovery from a crime scene has gotten shorter in recent years, 2023 data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives shows.This span of time, known as 'time-to-crime,' is used to gauge levels of criminal intent in the purchase of firearms, as well as to deduce where hubs of gun trafficking are located. A shorter time-to-crime indicates that weapons were likely purchased with criminal intent and might be objects of firearms trafficking.The ATF traces firearms in order to aid law enforcement in generating suspect leads when guns are used in crimes, as well as to ascertain how and where guns are moved. To do this, members of law enforcement must voluntarily submit trace requests to the ATF, which can evaluate a gun's place of manufacture and where it was first purchased.Because not all guns recovered during crimes are reported to the ATF—some police departments report more consistently than others—the accuracy of ...

Grading the Week: Northern Colorado’s Andrew Alirez proves there’s no place like home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:28:55 GMT

Find someone who loves you like Andrew Alirez loves Greeley.A world-class wrestler who had the eye of several college wrestling powerhouses after winning his fourth state title for Greeley Central in 2019, Alirez instead opted to stay home and help build something at Northern Colorado.Four years later, after claiming the 141-pound national title last Saturday night in Tulsa — the program’s first since the 1960s — Alirez has taken the UNC Bears to a level they haven’t seen in decades.The Grading the Week staff can’t help but stand up and applaud.Andrew Alirez — A+The way Alirez did it, with a six-point move in the second period that came just as he appeared to be on the brink of disaster, would’ve been good enough for us. But to then throw “G-Town” a shout-out within 40 seconds of his post-match interview on ESPN melted our hearts.Half of the enjoyment that comes from the NCAA Division I wrestling championships is luxuriating in the int...