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Rural Texas awaits mental health windfall after expanded state investment

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. Crisis counselors are available 24/7.AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Across 25,000 square miles of the Texas Panhandle, Nancy Tanner can offer scant help to rural Texans in a worsening crisis."People are unhappy. People are unstable right now," Tanner said. "There has been an upswing of mental health cases, and it's not going to get any better." About 98% of Texas counties have a mental health professional shortage As the Potter County Judge in the Panhandle hub of Amarillo, she processes mental health cases from 26 counties. The closest care, however, is 225 miles away in Wichita Falls. Texans in the small towns dotting the panhandle may not even have access to a doctor, let alone a psychiatrist.Their access to mental health care will improve in the coming years after a major investment from the state. Amarillo will soon build a $159 million mental health hospital, a...

Rain remains in Tuesday's forecast

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- This afternoon's highs are forecast to reach up to 103° to 107°. This will be Austin's 44th consecutive day with a high in triple digits. Austin has reached a high of 100° and higher 59 times.Today's normal high is 98°Winds coming from the east this afternoon will gust up to 20 mph.The area of disturbed weather is in the eastern Gulf of Mexico where it is expected to become an area of low pressure. It is moving to the west at 15 to 20 mph. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center suggest this could become a tropical depression by Tuesday.A Tropical Depression could develop on TuesdayIt's impact on Central Texas will be a few showers and thunderstorms beginning as early as Tuesday morning but with more coverage during the afternoon and evening. Tuesday will be the wettest dayThe area of low pressure will quickly track across the southern part of the state being driven by the large area of high pressure to our north.Thus, the rain will only last until late Tuesday...

Texas neighborhood has 'Friends'-themed street names

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

TAYLOR, Texas (KXAN) – A neighborhood just outside of Austin features some familiar names in a neighborhood where your friends will always be there for you.In Taylor, you can pivot your way into a "Friends"-themed neighborhood, where you’ll find other memorable, familiar names connected to the series.According to the City of Taylor, the creation of the street names lies with the developer. Furthermore, the developer is WBW Development, which is based in Killeen.Pivot Drive and Yemen Road‘Pivot, pivot, pivot!’If you’re a "Friends" fan, then you remember the pivot scene, when Ross asks for help moving a sofa upstairs. When Ross, Rachel and Chandler start attempting to turn up the stairs, Ross starts yelling pivot multiple times before they all give up and put the sofa down.As for Yemen Rd., do you remember the episode where Chandler actually went to Yemen just to fully break up with Janice? That's some serious commitment to breaking up. Not to mention that plane ticket was $2,100. Oh ...

John Mannillo: What makes an ‘improvement district’ work? Trust and independence

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

How can St. Paul attract new private investment to its downtown? How can we attract more vitality, more people and spending? After the pandemic, cities throughout the country are struggling with the same problem.I was disappointed but not surprised at the decision not to extend the Downtown Improvement District (DID) further west to include the West Seventh Street area. This occurred after some of the restaurant property owners changed their minds on the idea of joining an expanded district that would be under the direction of the Downtown Alliance.The DID, operating as a separate entity, under the control of the Alliance, has been established to improve the central core of St. Paul’s downtown. It is funded through self-assessments by commercial property owners, within a defined area. Some of the benefits the DID provides these owners are a group of hired ambassadors who welcome visitors, help the public with different problems, remove graffiti and pick up trash. There is also an en...

Excessive heat warning from today through Thursday

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- The Excessive Heat Warning will be in place from this afternoon through Thursday. Temperatures are expected to climb into the 100s, with dangerous heat index values anticipated to range between 110 and 115. This hazardous heat period will persist until Friday, although heat index values for Friday appear to be slightly decreasing. Throughout the week, temperature records ranged from 101 to 104, potentially breaking records on several days.To exacerbate the situation, overnight lows will only reach the upper 70s to near 80 each night, significantly increasing the risk for vulnerable populations. Relief seems to be on the horizon for next weekend, as a cold front is expected to bring temperatures back down to levels closer to the late August norm.

Hurricane Hilary moves “very near” to Mexico’s Baja coast packing deadly rainfall

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

By IGNACIO MARTINEZ and STEFANIE DAZIO (Associated Press)CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Hilary neared landfall on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula as a still-dangerous Category 1 hurricane carrying so much rain that forecasters said “catastrophic and life-threatening” flooding is likely across a broad region of the southwestern U.S.The National Weather Center in Miami said that as of 5 a.m. the storm was “very near” the Baja coast south of Ensenada, and 285 miles (460 kilometers) from San Diego, California. The maximum sustained wind speed dropped to 80 mph (130 kph) while spreading “heavy rains” northward over the peninsula.Meteorologists warned that despite weakening, the storm remained treacherous.One person drowned Saturday in the Mexican town of Santa Rosalia, on the peninsula’s eastern coast, when a vehicle was swept away in an overflowing stream. Rescue workers managed to save four other people, said Edith Aguil...

Improving Investor Behavior: The problem with pessimism

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

With markets improving and the overall economy strengthening, why is everyone so negative about our country’s current financial state? By many measures, I believe our economy is far better than people’s sentiment toward it.The past two years brought the strongest labor market in a generation, for example. Yet many are convinced of an impending recession. The University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, a measure of how positively or negatively people “feel” about the market, indicates a lower low than during the 2008 financial crisis. The 2023 level is even lower than in the 1980s when inflation was 15%, and the 1970s during a challenging economic period.Steve BoorenInflation certainly is a factor in people’s negativity. But that hasn’t stopped consumers from spending, which is generally a sign that things are going well at a household level.It’s also bizarre to see sentiment so low with unemployment near the lowest levels since 1969. With something like 10 million job openin...

Among Colorado judges, former prosecutors outnumber public defenders 2-to-1

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

There are twice as many former prosecutors serving as district court judges in Colorado as there are former public defenders on the bench, a Denver Post review found.The state judiciary is skewed toward former prosecutors, raising questions about the overall fairness of the judicial system, the importance of professional diversity among judges and how much judges’ prior work impacts their decision-making on the bench, experts told The Post.“I think there is a measurable effect to having so many more prosecutors who never represented individual clients and therefore never got so closely exposed to all the root causes of crime that bring individuals into the criminal legal system in the first place,” said Tristan Gorman, policy director for the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.But others say judges can’t be broadly categorized by their backgrounds, and that judges’ personalities, demeanors and capabilities matter more than their past jobs.“In my opinio...

Colorado’s recently struck child sex abuse law to receive second chance through proposed constitutional amendment

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

When the Colorado Supreme Court ruled the Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act unconstitutional in June, lawmakers decided it was time to change the constitution.“It’s not a broad scope, it’s not changing the entirety of the constitution, it’s not even changing the entirety of that retrospective piece of the constitution,” she said. “It’s just making a very narrow exception so the state of Colorado no longer has this barrier for survivors of child sexual abuse.”In the court’s June unanimous opinion, the justices ruled the act violated the Colorado Constitution’s prohibition on retrospective legislation.“Since the Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional … we decided that we needed to address that constitutional problem,” said state Sen. Jessie Danielson, one of the act’s original sponsors. “And so we’ve crafted a very narrow fix to allow these survivors to pursue their claims.”If the in-progress amendment passes both the state House and Senate with a two-thirds majority, ...

Keeler: CU Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders isn’t Cody Hawkins. Just ask Cody Hawkins. “CU fans are the best fans in the world and the worst fans in the world.”

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:18 GMT

BOULDER — Shedeur Sanders is no Cody Hawkins.Just ask Cody Hawkins.“First of all, I know everyone was (hacked) off when (Deion Sanders) said, ‘Hey guys, this is your quarterback,’” Hawkins, the former CU QB, son of ex-Buffs coach Dan Hawkins and first-year football coach at Idaho State, told me by phone earlier this week.“(Coach Prime) wouldn’t play Shedeur if he didn’t think he was the best guy.“I was (sometimes) a bad QB, but I was the best guy we had …Shedeur is a good QB. People want to pooh-pooh the (Football Championship Subdivision) level. But I know they’re going to get it right.”He’s 35 now. A grizzled 35. Hawkins still loves CU, loves his Buffs, in spite of it all, even if Boulder aged him quickly. Some CU faithful still haven’t forgiven his dad, and vice versa. (The elder Hawkins, now heading into his seventh season at UC-Davis, politely declined a request to be interviewed for this column.)But if anybody knows what’s coming for Sanders, as both CU’s QB1 and son of the ne...