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Colorado peaches still ripe for picking, but joys of eating local may vanish

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

PALISADE – Producing the bright gold peaches long celebrated as Colorado’s most succulent crop increasingly requires imported workers, such as Jose Diaz of Mexico.Eyes gazing intently above a red-white-and-blue bandana for protection against dust, Diaz brings precision for pruning, savvy for selecting fruits at just the right softness, delicacy in twisting each stem ever so slightly as if the peaches were eggs, and the drive to endure 105-degree temperatures.“You have to get used to the heat,” Diaz, 20, said recently during a steamy 11-hour shift, the youngest on a crew of 65 workers from Mexico who launched this year’s harvest.They work largely out of sight in a hazy yellow glow, traipsing through rows upon rows of thickly leafed peach trees, only their scuffed boots visible from outside the orchard. Their easy banter in Spanish, the language of agriculture in the United States, reverberates. They sip from crinkly back-pocket bottles of water. Smartphones switched on li...

Colorado jails are changing how they treat opioid addiction. Will it last?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

All jails in Colorado are now required to offer the gold-standard opioid treatment to inmates who need it, expanding a proven intervention to one of the front lines of the state’s deadly overdose crisis.At least half of Colorado’s jails were not offering full medication-assisted treatment — the use of medications like methadone plus counseling — before a statutory requirement kicked in on July 1. Amid broader debate about how to handle record-breaking overdoses here, experts have hailed the requirement as among the most consequential policies to come from last year’s controversial fentanyl bill. While several expressed concern about how the state would monitor jails’ compliance in the years to come, the change means a required expansion of treatment for hundreds of the state’s most vulnerable drug users.“You want to save lives? You need MAT in jails,” Rob Valuck, the executive director of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription ...

Bullying? Coercing? Hung juries are rare — so what happened last week in a San Jose courtroom?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

SAN JOSE – Six hours before the federal judge declared a mistrial in the sexual assault trial of San Jose State’s former head athletic trainer, she summoned the exasperated, deadlocked jurors back into the courtroom and urged them to continue deliberating in good faith.Still, she said in that Thursday morning session, if your opinion is sincerely held, don’t change your mind “based solely on pressure from other jurors.”There was pressure, alright.The dragged-out drama behind closed doors inside the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in downtown San Jose this past week was “extremely unusual,” a national jury expert says. Less than 3% of all federal criminal trials result in hung juries and when they deadlock, jurors are usually closely split.In this San Jose case, however, the eight-woman, four-man jury was 11-1 in favor of guilt on one charge and 10-2 in favor on the remaining five.That the two holdouts in the sexual assault case were both women, and all four men on the jury were c...

5 charts and 1 map that explain how COVID-19 dramatically reshaped the Bay Area commute

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

Here’s how the pandemic radically changed commuting for all of us.Nearly a million Bay Area workers switched to working from home. Commute times dropped by 10 minutes or more in many portions of the Bay Area. Our commuter trains are less than half as crowded as they used to be. But beware: There are signs the congestion on our freeways is creeping back, just at different times and certain days of the week when many of us do choose to head into the office.Here are six big takeaways to help explain what’s happened to the Bay Area commute.Staying home to work is here to stayThe impact from our shift to remote work has been staggering. From 2019 to 2021, the number of Bay Area residents who said they worked from home shot up more than five times, topping 1.1 million.And while updated data from the U.S. Census Bureau isn’t available yet, there’s no sign the remote work revolution ended with the pandemic.The Bay Area Council Economic Institute, an economic policy think t...

U.S. women KO’d in World Cup, lose to Sweden on PKs

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

MELBOURNE, Australia — Sweden knocked the United States out of the World Cup 5-4 on penalties after a scoreless draw at the Women’s World Cup.The longest game in tournament history ended in the seventh round when Lina Hurtig converted her penalty. U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher fruitlessly argued she had saved Hurtig’s attempt, but it was ruled over the line. The stadium played Abba’s “Dancing Queen in the stadium as the Swedes celebrated.The United States, which has a record four World Cup titles overall and was trying to win an unprecedented third consecutive tile, was eliminated in the Round of 16 for the first time in team history.The Americans’ worst finish had been third place, three times.It was the first match at this World Cup to go to extra time.(check back for more) 

Loyd scores 32, Whitcomb hits key shot and Storm defeat Mercury 97-91 despite 28 by Taurasi

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Jewell Loyd scored 17 of her 32 points in the fourth quarter and Sami Whitcomb hit a 3-pointer with 27 seconds left to lift the Seattle Storm to a 97-91 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday night.Brittney Griner had 22 points for the Mercury after sitting out the previous three games for a mental health break. Diana Taurasi had 28 points after she scored 42 on Thursday night and surpassed 10,000 in her legendary career, but it wasn’t enough against the last-place Storm. Phoenix guard Shey Peddy was hit in the head by an elbow before halftime, removed from the court on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. The Mercury said she had movement in her limbs. Seattle is now 7-20 this season with three wins coming over the Mercury. Unlike the first two matchups, won by an average of 18.5 points, this game had seven ties and 12 lead changes. Loyd had six points in an 8-0 run that put Seattle up 87-81 with 3:18 to play.A Griner three-point play made it 89-87 with 2:31 ...

Estados Unidos queda eliminado del Mundial Femenino de Fútbol tras perder en los penales ante Suecia

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

(CNN) –– Estados Unidos le dice adiós al Mundial Femenino de Fútbol con una derrota ante Suecia que se definió en penales: 5-4.Después de 120 minutos de juego tenso y sin goles, Suecia se impuso en los cobros desde el punto penal y avanza a los cuartos de final, evitando que el dos veces campeón y defensor del título volviera a alzar la Copa del Mundo.Lina Hurtig convirtió el penal de la victoria después de que la guardameta estadounidense Alyssa Naeher apareciera para realizar la atajada inicial. Sin embargo, el sistema de detección automática de goles determinó que el balón cruzó la línea.Suecia ahora enfrentará a Japón en los cuartos de final este viernes en Eden Park en Auckland, Nueva Zelandia.El resultado de este domingo representa la eliminación más temprana en un Mundial para EE.UU. La selección llegó por lo menos a las semifinales en los ocho torneos anteriores, ganando cuatro títulos.La tanda de penalesLa sueca Nathalie Bjorn fue la primera jugadora en fallar desde el punt...

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Hindu faith is front and center in his GOP presidential campaign

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

Vivek Ramaswamy is as comfortable talking about Bible stories as he is sharing the message of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most sacred Hindu texts.The 37-year-old biotech entrepreneur turned Republican presidential candidate has been steadily garnering support in a party dominated by conservative Christians. In many polls, he’s in third place behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and he is one of six candidates who have qualified for the first GOP presidential debate on Aug. 23.He is also only the nation’s second Hindu presidential candidate. Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman, ran as a Democrat in 2020.Ramaswamy shared 10 core beliefs as part of his campaign, with “God is real” topping the list followed by “There are two genders.” He cascaded into the limelight with his 2021 book “Woke Inc: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” a scathing critique of corporations that he says use social justice caus...

Crews investigating house fire in Dedham

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

A fire in Dedham caused significant damage to a home earlier Sunday morning, officials said.Crews responded to a two-alarm fire 111 Schiller Road around 1:40 a.m. Sunday, and no injuries were reported. Dedham Fire said that crews were still on the scene as of 9 a.m. checking for hot spots.The cause of the fire is under investigation.

NFL notes: Is Bill Belichick embracing sports science at Patriots training camp?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:24:10 GMT

Sprints to start certain practices.Star players coasting through others.Live goal-line periods cracking with colliding helmets and shoulder pads for the first time in two summers.Through 10 practices, Patriots training camp has been an exercise in the familiar — welcome back, Bill O’Brien — and in firsts. Most changes, particularly O’Brien’s return, have been welcome and productive, as the team’s offense springs to life again. But certain scenes have stupefied, even rankled, some ex-players; namely, how Bill Belichick could be content with his best players sitting out a combined dozen practices before the team’s first preseason game.“It’s so weird that Bill would let that happen,” said ex-Pats linebacker Rob Ninkovich of Matthew Judon’s contract “hold-in.”Under Belichick, the rule used to be if you can practice, you practice. No excuses.Now, it depends.New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick walks out onto the field ...