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The return of 'Riot Fest' highlights 'Dean's Weekender'

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

CHICAGO — The last of Chicago's music festivals for 2023 is about to get underway, continuing its yearly stop on the west side."Riot Fest" is back on Friday through Sunday with a strong lineup to entertain the fans who'll make their way to Douglass Park, including the Foo Fighters, The Cure, and Death Cab for Cutie. That's one of the many things going on over the next few days and was featured in "Dean's Weekender" on Friday's WGN Morning News.Dean Richards also took a look at 50 Cent, Fantasia, the return of "Hamilton," "Ring of Fire," "This is Important: Live," "Picasso: 50 Years Later," and more events happening in the Chicago area.At the same time, Dean also had a movie review of "A Haunting in Venice."You can watch the entire "Weekender" from the September 15 show in the video above.Get Dean's reviews and A-List interviews delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for Dean's Downloads weekly newsletter. You'll also get his Dean Cooks recipes too!

LIST: Here are the Texas semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — More than 1,500 high school students in Texas have been named semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program.The scholarship program announced Wednesday more than 16,000 semifinalists nationwide. Of those, 1,543 are in Texas, roughly 10% of the nationwide total.Scholarships worth nearly $28 million combined will be awarded to 7,140 students in the spring.To be considered, students must take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) in their junior year. The highest-scoring students in each state are named semifinalists, and the number from each state is proportional to the state's percentage of all graduating students nationwide.The semifinalists are now competing to advance to the finalist stage. They must submit a detailed application, including information about their academic record and participation in school and community activities. They also report any employment, honors and awards and demonstrated leadership ab...

Arkansas-based coffee chain drops into Johnstown

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

JOHNSTOWN, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- 7 Brew Coffee, an Arkansas-based drive-thru coffee chain, has officially announced it's coming to Johnstown. On Thursday, 7 Brew dropped its building at 206 North Comrie Avenue and donated $2,000 to Bernard & Millie Duker Children’s Hospital at Albany Med. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! “We are so excited to expand to the greater Albany area and to introduce 7 Brew to the Johnstown community,” said Chris Gray, director of operations for 7 Brew in Johnstown.The coffee stand was placed on the former Johnstown Pizza Hut site. That Pizza Hut, along with several others in the area, closed in July. The 7 Brew stand is set to open in late December. Pizza Hut in Ballston Spa closes, joins 4 others On July 5, 7 Brew proposed a location at that site to the City of Johnstown Planning Board. The plans included dual drive-thru lanes.7 Brew Coffee only serves beverages, no food. The menu includes coffee, te...

Coffee club for grandparents raising grandkids in North Adams

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (NEWS10) -- The UNO Community Center in North Adams will be hosting a coffee time for grandparents raising their grandchildren. The coffee time will be held on the third Friday of every month, from 10 a.m. to noon, and is meant for grandparents raising their grandkids to meet other grandparents raising their grandkids. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! The UNO Community Center is located at 157 River Street in North Adams. Those interested in learning more can call (413) 663-7588, or email Donna at [email protected]. According to an AARP report from March, U.S. census data shows that 7.1 million American grandparents live with their grandchildren under 18, and 2.3 million of those grandparents are responsible for them. The report says about a third of grandchildren living with grandparents who are responsible for them are younger than 6 years old.

Pittsfield man arrested on murder warrant

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

PITTSFIELD, Mass. (NEWS10) -- A Pittsfield man was arrested Thursday on a murder warrant. Pittsfield Police say Josiah Helmer, 27, fatally stabbed a victim on Tuesday, September 12, on Melville Street. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! Hemler was booked at the Pittsfield Police Department and is expected to be arraigned later on Friday. Police say an investigation led to Helmer's arrest within 48 hours of the crime. The Pittsfield Police Department's Detective Bureau, Drug Unit, Anti-Crime Unit, Patrol Division, Berkshire County Special Response Team, Berkshire County Sheriff's Office, and the Massachusetts State Police all took part in the investigation. AG’s office releases report on 2021 death of Dolgeville man Police are still seeking information. Anyone who can is asked to contact Detective Goodrich at (413) 448-9706, or by texting PITTIP and your message to TIP411 (847411).

Crews responding to fatal crash on Page and Woodson, lanes closed

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

ST. LOUIS - Emergency crews are responding to a fatal crash Friday morning.Our Bommarito Automotive Group SkyFOX helicopter is flying over the area, located on Page and Woodson, where the Page lanes in both directions are closed as a car crashed into a semi. Lemur on the loose! Video shows police chasing critter that escaped in Missouri So far, the cause of the crash has not been reported. FOX 2 will update this story with more information as it becomes available.

Colorado’s first all-state youth mariachi group finds culture, connection in music of past generations

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

Genisis Tarango’s braces glinted behind her bright red lipstick as she belted out a grito, the passionate yell synonymous with mariachi singing, on Saturday evening outside Casa Bonita.Ten of her fellow ensemble musicians, all decked out in traditional Mexican attire, played trumpet, vihuela, guitar, guitarrón and violin behind her, exuberant.The performers’ families and friends encircled them, emanating pride as robust as their cheers, outside the newly reopened restaurant in Lakewood. The youth ensemble Mariachi Estelares de Colorado — the first all-state mariachi ensemble in Colorado and one of only a few nationwide — was preparing for its more formal debut on Saturday, a free performance at the 2023 Viva Southwest Mariachi Festival at Denver’s Levitt Pavilion.This practice set — the cohort’s first public concert — found the group serenading Casa Bonita patrons as they awaited entrance into the iconic pink eatery. But there was some...

Food hall planned as Westminster agrees to sell Shoenberg Farms buildings

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

A pair of developers who are purchasing historic farm buildings in Westminster from the city want to turn a dairy barn into a food hall.MJ Developers, a group formed by John Crays and Matthew Lawrence specifically for this project, is set to pay just $10 for 0.81 acres at 7231 Sheridan Blvd. and 5202 W. 73rd Ave. in the suburb north of Denver. The Westminster City Council approved the deal Monday night.“There’s a need for an area where people can congregate, get together and dine – it’s a crucial part of human interaction – and we’re playing into that need,” Lawrence said. The site is home to a dairy barn, farmhouse, pump, milk and carriage house and two silos. The structures were once the heart of Shoenberg Farms, which operated for the bulk of the last century.Westminster bought the buildings in 2008 for $664,182 with the goal of restoring the structures to some degree and selling them to a private buyer. The city solicited multiple bids over the years. Fifteen years later, with ...

Characters and a sense of the past make “The River We Remember” more than just a story

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

“The River We Remember.” By William Kent Kruger. Atria.In an epilogue to his novel, author William Kent Kruger writes, “Our lives and the lives of those we love merge to create a river whose current carries us forward from our beginning to our end. Because we are only one part of the whole, the river each of us remembers is different, and there are many versions of the stories we tell about the past. In all of them, there is truth, and in all of them a good deal of innocent misremembering.”And so Kruger’s brilliant novel, “The River We Remember,” is a pastiche of stories, not just of remembering the past but of coping with the present. They flow together with their snags and hidden debris like the waters of the Alabaster River of Kruger’s story.Jimmy Quinn is the wealthiest member of Black Earth County, and the most hated. So there is little sorrow when his body, ravished by hungry catfish, washes up on the shore of the Alabaster River, which runs past the town of Jewell...

Denver Urban Gardens employees see “reawakening” in union drive

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:00:24 GMT

Denver Urban Gardens staff members this week won voluntary recognition for their months-long unionization project, but workers say that enshrining pay, benefits and other protections at the gardening nonprofit is just the beginning.“A huge reason why we unionized was not because we were frustrated by where we work or how we’re treated,” said 26-year-old Shay Moon, one of 11 eligible employees who joined the nascent union discussions in April.“It’s a wonderful organization and we don’t have huge concerns about benefits or pay,” he said. “We’re doing it because, in principle, unions should just be a normal part of the working landscape, and we’re frustrated at the level of union busting and backlash that happens in the American economy.”Denver Urban Gardens leaders declined interviews and emailed a statement attributed to board president Brooke Gabbert. “Denver Urban Gardens’ leadership and board have voluntarily ...