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‘For the thrill’: Huntress aiming to educate Florida residents on pythons’ impact to ecosystem

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

BREVARD COUNTY, Florida (WESH) — Amy Siewe is probably not who you would expect to be the self-proclaimed python huntress.She recollected the trip that sparked it all.“Wow, I’ve got to go down and see what is happening with these pythons. So I went on vacation, caught a python, and I was hooked,” Siewe said.Obsessed with snakes as a child, Siewe was a real estate broker in Indiana, but packed it all in four years ago.“I said, listen, I got to go to Florida. I have to figure out what it’s going to take to become a python hunter,” Siewe said.And she did and now runs her own business taking people out on hunts.“Once I got here, I learned about the devastation of the pythons and everything that’s happening with the ecosystem. But not only with the pythons but all of the invasive species,” Siewe said.Pythons are not indigenous to Florida, so their introduction and rapid growth as an apex predator disrupts the natural food chain.Siewe’s interest shifted.“It was for...

Princess Diana’s ruff-collared blouse, worn in engagement portrait, is going on sale

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

(CNN) — A ruff-collared, pale pink blouse Princess Diana wore in a 1981 engagement portrait is expected to fetch up to $100,000 when it goes up for auction next month.Diana wore the blouse while posing for a portrait taken by Lord Snowdon that several magazines and newspapers, including Vogue, used when her engagement to the then Prince Charles (later King Charles III) was announced.The blouse, which is complete with a satin ribbon tied in a bow underneath the collar, was designed by Elizabeth and David Emanuel, who famously went on to design Diana’s wedding dress.The fabric of the blouse was salvaged from a dress that had been damaged when a client left a mascara stain on the skirt while trying it on, Elizabeth Emanuel wrote in her book “A Dress for Diana,” according to Julien’s Auctions, the Beverly Hills auction house conducting the sale.“When (Diana) saw our blouse on the rack she fell in love with it, asked who had made it and was directed to us,” ...

Taylor Swift will celebrate her birthday by sending her ‘Eras Tour’ to streaming

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

(CNN) — Are you ready for it?Taylor Swift has announced that her “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film” will be available to rent or buy on streaming services starting on her birthday, Dec. 13.“I was thinking a fun way to celebrate the year we’ve had together would be to make The Eras Tour Concert Film available for you to watch at home!” Swift wrote on social media. “Very happy to be able to tell you that the extended version of the film including ‘Wildest Dreams,’ ‘The Archer’ and ‘Long Live’ will be available to rent on demand in the US, Canada & additional countries to be announced soon starting on … you guessed it, December 13.”The streaming version will include three of the songs cut from the original theatrical release that premiered in October.Swift played in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday and will break until Feb. 7, when she’ll resume her tour in Tokyo, Japan.

Here’s a toolkit for talking climate change over the holidays

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

Southern Californians have much to be thankful for this holiday season as residents of a place that often feels the effects of climate change firsthand. The drought is over, for now, a relatively mild wildfire season is wrapping up and temperatures have been more moderate than in recent years.But globally, people witnessed the consequences of a warming planet in 2023 like never before.Scientists say massive wildfires in Canada, deadly flooding in North Africa and record heat waves in Phoenix, to name a few of the year’s extreme weather events, were all supercharged by climate change. This year will almost certainly go down as the hottest on record. One climate group reported that the global average temperature on Friday, Nov. 17 briefly reached more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrialization levels for the first time — well above the 1.5-degree goal set by the Paris Climate Agreement to help us avoid more catastrophic effects. And a United Nations report out this week says t...

Koji, an ancient Japanese superfood, is having a moment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

One day, Ayumi Takeuchi strolled into South Coast Plaza and inspiration struck. She saw a menu posted on the marquee at Populaire Modern Bistro. Listed underneath the duck dish description was the word: koji.Takeuchi stopped in her tracks. Koji is one of the key ingredients in making miso. She works in marketing and business development at Marukome U.S.A., which was founded in Nagano, Japan in 1854. It’s also Japan’s number one miso company. In 2007, Marukome opened its stateside headquarters in Irvine. In addition to miso, Marukome produces different lines of koji for chefs and homecooks. It’s been available to American consumers for nearly a decade but most people are still unfamiliar with it.After seeing koji listed on Populaire’s menu, Takeuchi asked to meet the chef. She wanted to learn more about how he was using koji in his cooking. It was especially interesting since Weber’s food isn’t Japanese. The menu skews French-inspired new American.“I was using it to add umami and ten...

Babies are losing their lives to a preventable illness. Her job is stopping it

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

Emily Alpert Reyes | (TNS) Los Angeles TimesLOS ANGELES — Under the afternoon sun, Maggie Tran stopped one person after another on a hectic stretch of Skid Row, asking if they knew a particular woman.No one seemed to recognize the name she repeated at tent after tent as she made her way along the block. “She could have a whole different name out here,” one person replied. “Do you have a picture?”Tran shook her head before heading back to her SUV, disappointed but undeterred. It’s rare for Tran to find the people she’s looking for right away.As a public health investigator, she searches for clues: An emergency contact number listed by a patient during a clinic visit. An old address saved in a database. The location of a homeless encampment where outreach workers found a particular person in the past.Then she heads to the streets. Her job at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is to track down a crucial set of patients who slipped awa...

In 1st trial of its kind in the U.S., Irish startup spreads concrete dust on Illinois farm field to remove CO2 from the air

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

Adriana Pérez | Chicago Tribune (TNS)Over the course of millions of years, the earth regularly removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through a natural process called weathering, when exposure to the elements wears down surface rocks and silicate minerals.But at the rate humans have been producing and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, this process that happens on a geological time scale just isn’t fast enough to keep up.A corn and soybean farm in the village of Buckingham, 60 miles south of Chicago, is providing the testing grounds for an Irish startup attempting to “enhance” weathering, thus shortening the process from millenniums to decades.The Illinois trial, the first of its kind in the United States, is one of many efforts to leverage the potential of different materials to combat global warming.“The whole carbon removal concept exists because we have to backtrack — we’ve gone too far,” said Maurice Bryson, founder and CEO of Iris...

Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings: Everything you need to know about the Week 12 game before tonight’s kickoff

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

The 3-8 Chicago Bears will play the 6-5 Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium in a Week 12 matchup. Here’s what you need to know before kickoff (7:15 p.m., ESPN).Vikings’ Justin Jefferson and Bears’ Tyrique Stevenson outThe Bears won’t have to face Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson for a second time this season when the teams meet Monday night at U.S. Bank Stadium.NFL Network reported Monday morning that Jefferson would miss the game as he continues his recovery from a strained right hamstring. Jefferson, the 2022 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year, has been on injured reserve since the week leading up to the Bears’ first game against the Vikings this season, a 19-13 Minnesota victory Oct. 15.That means the Vikings will be without their two most important offensive players, as quarterback Kirk Cousins is out for the season following Achilles surgery.The Vikings top wide receiver without Jefferson is Jordan Addison, who has 48 catches for 647 yard...

Weeks of Green Line closures begin as MBTA tackles track issues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

Four weeks of disruption to Green Line riders kicked off Monday, with construction aimed at fixing narrow tracks and eliminating speed restrictions on the beleaguered line.Trains will largely be replaced by shuttle buses, with regular bus and Commuter Rail service available as other travel alternatives over that time period, as the MBTA begins to implement its new “track improvement plan.”Highly-publicized work on both Green Line Extension branches was set to begin Monday night and last through Dec. 10. Train service will be cut off from 8:45 p.m. to end of service between North Station and Union Square, as well as the Medford/Tufts station.Crews will perform “critical track work” during that two-week period, to alleviate tight-gauge conditions on the two GLX branches and lift two speed restrictions on the Lechmere viaduct.MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng, who disclosed the narrow-track conditions on the Green Line Extension in October, said at a Nov. 16 board meeting that the plann...

US airports saw record passenger volumes, but fewer headaches, over Thanksgiving weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:36 GMT

By DEE-ANN DURBIN (AP Business Writer)A record number of passengers traveled through U.S. airports over Thanksgiving weekend, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday.The TSA said it screened just over 2.9 million passengers on Sunday, surpassing the previous record of 2.88 million set on June 30. That was 10% more than the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year.Travel was relatively smooth despite the crowds. On Sunday, just 55 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were cancelled, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. Nearly 8,000 flights were delayed, including several hundred that were impacted by snow in Denver and Chicago.Airlines were eager to avoid the meltdowns that marred travel last December, when severe winter storms knocked out thousands of flights and left millions of passengers stranded. Southwest, which canceled nearly 17,000 flights last year, said it purchased additional deicing trucks and updated its crew-scheduling technology. The airline was ...