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DC area’s poor air quality persists Friday, PM storms could help clear the haze

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

A smoky haze blanketed the D.C. area June 8, 2023. The smoke prompted air quality alerts. (WTOP/Alejandro Alvarez) A smoky haze blanketed the D.C. area June 8, 2023. The smoke prompted air quality alerts. (WTOP/Alejandro Alvarez) Listen to WTOP for weather updates on the 8s.A “Code Red” air quality alert persists in the D.C. area early Friday, meaning smoke from the Canadian wildfires is continuing to make the air unhealthy for everyone in the national capital region.Under the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow rating system, sensitive groups including children, older adults and anyone with heart or lung disease should avoid long or intense outdoor activities during a “Code Red”...

Fairfax Co. committee updates recommended changes for coed sex education lessons

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

Fairfax County Public Schools is expected to resume discussing possible changes to its sex education curriculum in the fall, after the Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee revised its recommendations for coed instruction in the Virginia school system.In its latest report, the committee, made up of school board appointees, teachers, students and members from the health department, recommends gender combined instruction in fifth grade. In its recommendations from the 2021-22 school year, the committee recommended combined instruction in the Human Growth and Development unit in fourth through eighth grades.This year, the group is recommending classes separated by gender for the fourth grade lesson on puberty, which it says is the only lesson in fourth grade. In fifth grade, the committee recommends separate classes for lessons on puberty, the reproductive system and human reproduction, and gender-combined instruction for lessons on abstinence and sexually transmitted inf...

Incautan un semisumergible con más de 3,5 toneladas de “presunta cocaína” en el océano Pacífico en México

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

(CNN en Español) — La Marina de México aseguró un semisumergible que llevaba más de tres toneladas de “presunta cocaína” a bordo, informó este jueves la institución, que agregó que están detenidas cinco personas de distintas nacionalidades.Se trata de una embarcación de 26 metros de longitud, con dos motores internos, una velocidad promedio de ocho nudos y una autonomía de 20 días, según la Marina. La embarcación fue asegurada el 27 de junio.Narco-toallitas para bebés: incautan cargamento de cocaína por US$ 11,8 millones en la frontera entre Estados Unidos y MéxicoUn semisumergible fue incautado en el Pacífico de México con 3,5 toneladas de “presunta cocaína”, indicó la SEMAR. (Crédito: SEMAR)Según el comunicado, tanto los detenidos —cuyas nacionalidades ni  fueronDestacaron que es la primera embarcación de este tipo que se asegura en lo que va de 2023 y la de mayor dimensión y capacidad de carga que se ha asegurado en México en el gobierno actual.Según...

Move over ‘Hamilton,’ it’s time for a fresh take on ‘1776’ at DC’s Kennedy Center

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley previews '1776' at the Kennedy Center $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ga('send', 'event', 'Audio', 'play', audio_filename); }); }); Are you hoping to make this a four-day weekend to celebrate the Fourth of July?Check out the musical revival of “1776” at the Kennedy Center now through July 16.“Getting to perform ‘1776,’ a musical about the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the forming of a nation, to perf...

In pictures: France burns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

OPTICSIN PICTURES: France burnsViolent unrest following the death of a teen killed by police has spread to Paris suburbs and elsewhere. A car burns as a slogan is seen on a wall which reads in French “Justice for Nahel” | Geoffrey Van Der Hasselt/AFP via Getty ImagesMore than 600 people were arrested in France on Thursday night as riots spread across the country. The violence erupted after a 17-year-old boy, named as Nahel M., was shot dead by police earlier this week during a traffic stop in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. Despite the deployment of some 40,000 police officers, authorities struggled to control the clashes in major cities and smaller urban areas alike. Public buildings and transportation systems were the main targets, but some districts saw shops looted, too. A man walks by burning tyres blocking a street in Bordeaux | Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty ImagesPeople walk by burning tyres blocking a street in Bordeaux | Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty ImagesMen throw ...

Police investigating crash in Mattapan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

Boston police are investigating a crash late Thursday night in Mattapan that left a windshield shattered.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Carr: Supreme Court decision ends racism of affirmative action

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

Outlawing colleges’ overtly racist admissions policies was long overdue, and I’m glad the Supreme Court ruled the way it did yesterday.But is it going to have any impact in real life?Ask yourself why colleges like Harvard have already gone “test-optional,” meaning SAT’s and ACT’s and the rest of the standardized tests that can’t be gamed by academic Marxists are out the window.Harvard and UNC and all the rest of them are now going to rely a lot more on say, essays, in which otherwise unqualified high school students can make it very clear whether they’re members of protected classes, or not.In the 6-3 majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts warned against that obvious grift, saying that “universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”Oh yeah? Just watch them do it, Mr. Chief Justice. They may get sued, but that’s where that $50 billion Harvard endowment will come in handy.The pampered pukes pushing this newest ...

How Orioles reliever Danny Coulombe used his ‘sneaky’ arsenal and a keen sense of self to become a top reliever

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

The Orioles’ two best relievers are so because they have two dominant pitches. Their third best is so because he doesn’t have one.Danny Coulombe, unlike Félix Bautista, Yennier Cano and most of baseball’s top relievers, doesn’t have one or two pitches that define who he is. He doesn’t have Bautista’s gravity-defying fastball or devastating splitter, nor does he have Cano’s ground-and-pound sinker or his screwball-esque changeup.Instead, Coulombe is having the best season of his nine-year MLB career and is one of the sport’s top left-handed relievers thanks to an unconventional six-pitch arsenal — one he’s crafted by developing a keen sense of self.“I think that half the battle is figuring out who you are and what makes you good and doing that as much as you can,” Coulombe said.Before this season, Coulombe’s career had been marred by arm-slot changes, mechanical tweaks, pitch-mix tinkering and an injur...

Putin ally’s son who flew drone over the Arctic violated law, Norway Supreme Court says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s top court on Friday ruled that the son of a Russian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin violated a law that bars Russians from flying drones when he flew drones over the Arctic last year.The Supreme Court’s decision overturned a lower court’s ruling, saying said that “the flight ban for Russian citizens includes drone flights,” making it illegal for Russian companies or citizens “to land on, take off from or fly over Norwegian territory” as the Scandinavian country’s law states.Norway, like the European Union, decided on the ban in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.Last year, a Norwegian district court had ruled that flying a hobby drone was not covered by the sanction regulations.Andrey Yakunin, who holds both a Russian and a British passport and who lives in Italy, was arrested in Hammerfest, in Arctic Norway, on Oct. 17, after he had sailed around the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard and along the coast of Norway.Yaku...

EU leaders resume migration talks as Poland and Hungary demand that the rules be changed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:51 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders opened a second day of migration talks Friday as Poland and Hungary continued to block progress after they were outvoted earlier this month on a plan to share refugees arriving in Europe among the 27 member countries.Some leaders said that Poland and Hungary seemed to be fighting a battle started years ago, when well over 1 million migrants entered Europe, most of them refugees fleeing Syria, in 2015 and sparked one of the bloc’s biggest crises. Others said the two simply must not be permitted to break EU rules.“My feeling was there’s a lot of bitterness about the debates on migration from 2015,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told reporters at EU headquarters in Brussels. “If you just say no to everything and everybody else tries to compromise that doesn’t really work out.”Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said that “Hungary was totally adamant” about having the issue removed altogether from the leader’s final summit commu...