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Loveland voters to decide on ending grocery sales tax

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

LOVELAND, Colo. (KDVR) — Loveland voters will soon decide whether or not they want to get rid of taxes on grocery sales.Proposition 300 is on the November ballot. If passed, it would remove food for home consumption from the sales tax base for the city of Loveland. What is Prop HH? Voters to decide on property taxes and TABOR dollars The 3% sales tax might sound good for residents' household budgets, but the city is looking at the cost that would have for Loveland’s general fund.“That would be a $10.5 million reduction in 2024, and that would persist every year after that,” Loveland Chief Financial Officer Brian Waldes said.As a whole, Waldes told FOX31 the general funds budget is about $130 million, including capital.“If you take $10.5 million out of that equation, we would have to seek to reduce expenses or change our programs or service levels in some way to make that up,” Waldes said. “The general fund is used for everything from public safety to plowing the streets, the recre...

Colorado Republicans offer counterproposal to Prop HH

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — One of the most controversial issues on the Colorado ballot is Proposition HH. It's the one that supporters say would cut property taxes, while opponents say it would cut TABOR refunds.Some of the people opposed to Prop HH have an alternate​ plan to help save homeowners money, but that may not work either. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox Colorado Republicans on Wednesday detailed a proposal to counter the governor-backed property tax measure on the ballot. To make it work, they will need help from the governor himself or their Democratic colleagues."Call a special session so that we can actually get voices of Coloradans involved in an issue of property tax that affects each and every one of them," House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, of Larimer County, said at a news conference unveiling plans to counter Prop HH and lower property taxes.Republicans push 3 bills to counter Prop HHHouse and Senate Republicans at the state Capitol never...

‘The Friends Experience: The One in Miami’ at Aventura Mall lets fans step inside hit sitcom

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

“Friends.” Hopefully we all have at least one, but when the sitcom ran from 1994 to 2004, we could count on six.A new experience in Aventura is bringing back the “Friends”-verse, and they don’t know that we know that they know we know. Could you be any more excited?!The Rembrandts (singing): “So no one told you life was gonna be this way.”They sure didn’t, unless you watched the sitcom “Friends,” and inside “The Friends Experience: The One in Miami,” at Aventura Mall…Stacy Moscatelli: “For a lot of people, it’s stepping inside the world of ‘Friends’ in a way that they’ve never been able to before.”Gum isn’t just perfection — attention to detail is.Twelve rooms — no, not seven — of set recreations.Stacy Moscatelli: “We didn’t want it to feel like a museum. You can stand on the stairs and yell at your friends.”David Schwimmer (as Ross Ge...

Gulfstream Academy K-9 principal, Hallandale Beach native, killed in car crash

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

A Hallandale Beach school community is in mourning over the sudden death of their principal.Officials said Carlton Campbell, the chief administrator at Gulfstream Academy K-8. was killed in a car crash on Wednesday.A Hallandale Beach native, Campbell graduated from Hallandale High School and served there as principal as well.

At least 16 dead in Maine shooting as police hunt for ‘person of interest’ and residents shelter

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — A man opened fire at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people, wounding dozens of others and throwing the state’s second-largest city into chaos as hundreds of police searched for a person of interest and residents were ordered to shelter in place.A police intelligence bulletin identified Robert Card, who was trained as a firearms instructor at a U.S. Army Reserve training facility in Maine, as the person of interest. The document, reviewed by The Associated Press and circulated to law enforcement officials, says Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. It did not provide specific details about his treatment or condition.The document also said Card had reported hearing voices and had threatened to carry out a shooting at the military training base in Saco, Maine. A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service.Lewiston Police said in an e...

Axel Springer CEO calls for tariff-free democratic trade club against China and Russia

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

To avoid being undermined by autocracies such as Russia and China, democracies should trade freely amongst themselves, while imposing stiff tariffs against countries that don’t have the same environmental or human rights standards, the head of German media company Axel Springer proposed.Speaking to POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy in her new Power Play podcast, Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer — POLITICO’s parent company — called for the creation of a two-speed world trade system that would be shaped by countries’ political regimes.Only transatlantic democracies that abide by a set of minimal standards — which include respecting the rule of law and human rights or setting targets for carbon dioxide emissions — should be allowed in the free world’s duty-free trade club, Döpfner said.These democracies would still be able to trade with “autocratic or dictatorial systems, but then these countries have to pay tariffs,” the media executive continued, ...

Caught in a trap: Mathias Döpfner’s call for free trade

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Google Play EN_Google_Podcasts_Badge Created with Sketch. Acast As the Middle East crisis deepens, how should the West react to a growing sense of unease about the world order?On this week’s edition of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy speaks to Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Europe’s leading digital publisher, Axel Springer (POLITICO’s parent company).His new book, “Trade Tr...

At least 22 people dead, gunman at large after shootings in Lewiston, Maine, officials say

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

At least 22 people are dead in connection with a series of shootings in Lewiston, Maine, according to a Lewiston city councilor. Police were still searching for a gunman as of around 11:30 p.m. WednesdayMaine State Police in a post on X shortly after 8 p.m. said residents should stay inside with their doors locked, adding “Law enforcement is currently investigating at multiple locations.”Officials in a later update said shootings happened shortly before 7 p.m., resulting in “multiple casualties.”Commissioner Mike Sauschuck of the Maine Department of Public Safety confirmed authorities had identified a man named Robert Card as a person of interest. Lewiston police previously shared photos of Card, who officials have described as “armed and dangerous.” Sauschuck said members of the public should not approach Card or make contact with him.A shelter-in-place status remained in effect for Lewiston as of Wednesday night, according to Sauschuck. There was also a shelter-in-place for nearby...

McKone: Congress must pass credit card act to ease fees

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

In the world of sponsorships, VIP seats, and lavish executive privileges, credit card giants like Visa and Mastercard, along with every major bank, have perfected the art of selling their products. From top sponsorships at everything from the Olympics to the World Cup, you can’t turn on the TV without getting inundated with credit card marketing. Yet, behind them lies a startling truth: these ads are being bankrolled by excessive credit card swipe fees charged to your local businesses and, inevitably, you.American businesses pay the highest swipe fees in the industrialized world. While these fees remain hidden from consumers, their impact is far-reaching. Last year alone, U.S. merchants paid over $126 billion in credit card processing fees, a staggering increase of more than 20% from just a year earlier. Such an exponential rise has severe implications for businesses, especially small enterprises, struggling to recover from the economic aftermath of the pandemic.Yet Visa and Masterc...

‘The Persian Version’ a multi-layered cinematic feast

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:12:03 GMT

To the tune of Wet Leg’s hit “On the Chaise Longue,” the surprisingly angry coming-of-age film “The Persian Version” begins with its lesbian heroine narrating the action, attending a drag party dressed in a “burka-tini” and having a one-night stand with a straight but cross-dressing British actor playing the lead in a Broadway production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”Life is so complicated. Our heroine Leila Jamshidpour (Layla Mohammadi) gets pregnant, and in spite of her independent spirit, she decides to have the baby with the halting approval of “Hedwig.” “The Persian Version” then proceeds to examine the terrible relationship Leila, who has five or six grown-up brothers, has had with her tall, beautiful mother Shireen (Niousha Noor). Complicating Leila’s relationship with her mother is her father’s daunting medical state.Her father, whose name is Ali Reza (Bijan Daneshmand) is a longtime physician so in need of a heart transplant that he is about to be given a...