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ERCOT issues weather watch, potential for peak demand

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

Editor’s Note: The video above shows KXAN News Today’s top headlines for June 13, 2023AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued a weather watch from June 15-June 21 due to forecasted higher temperatures and higher electrical demand, according to a news release from ERCOT on Tuesday. Is ERCOT ready for the coming summer? “ERCOT has issued its first Weather Watch to let Texans know that we are forecasting increased demand due to the higher temperatures expected this week and into next week,” said Pablo Vegas, ERCOT President and CEO. “Grid conditions are normal when we issue a Weather Watch. ERCOT continues to monitor conditions closely and will deploy all available tools to manage the grid and will continue our reliability-first approach to operations, always prioritizing grid reliability.”A weather watch notification is distributed three to five days out of forecasted weather that could impact the grid and create high demand. People are urged to kee...

Houston George Bush airport A/C outage continues during heatwave

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

HOUSTON (KIAH) — Since Sunday, the air conditioning system at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston has experienced unexpected issues, causing uncomfortable situations for travelers moving through the airport.Bush Intercontinental Airport A/C systems. Courtesy of Houston Airports​Bush airport said it's "beyond our control," and that the demand has reduced the capacity of the air conditioning system. As a result, the temperature inside the airport is impacted.Folks in charge at the big airport said they have installed temporary chillers that supplement the air conditioning system to effort some relief while airport crews figure out what's wrong and make the necessary repairs.Houston airport officials said they are making progress in getting the A/C system fully restored as they continue to add capacity to the air conditioning system to cool all five terminals of the airport.We are sorry for what has happened. While the cause of the issue was beyond our control, please know,...

Afton: Belwin’s new nature trails open Thursday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

Belwin Conservancy’s newest trail system, Oxbow Trails, opens on Thursday for public hiking, from dawn to dusk seven days a week.Located just north of Afton’s Old Village at 2398 St. Croix Trail S., Oxbow Trails features 1.25 miles of chipped hiking trails along wooded ridges, shaded areas and the Valley Creek trout stream.Belwin staff will be on site from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday to answer questions about the site and its restoration.Belwin officials created Oxbow Trails in partnership with the city of Afton, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Washington County and others. The project is centered on a 30-acre parcel Belwin purchased from a willing seller using funding from Washington County’s Land and Water Legacy Program; the nature preserve also includes 10 acres of land owned by Afton.“It’s probably the most wooded area in Belwin,” said David Freeman, Belwin’s communications specialist. “There is a beautiful shaded ridge which in the springtime is filled with frogs ...

2 parked vehicles damaged in apparent explosion in St. Paul

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

Two parked vehicles were damaged in an apparent explosion Tuesday afternoon in St. Paul.No injuries were reported.Officers responded to a report of an explosion in the 1600 block of York Avenue on the Greater East Side about 1:15 p.m., said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman.“Witnesses directed officers to the area where they believe it occurred,” Ernster said Tuesday afternoon. “Our investigators are on scene and attempting to determine what occurred and who is responsible.”No one was in the vehicles that were damaged, Ernster said. Related ArticlesCrime & Public Safety | ‘A lot of sleepless nights’: 6 moms, first class of all women, graduate from St. Paul’s EMS Academy Crime & Public Safety | State officials warn of increase in 911 misdials Crime & Public Safety | St. Paul-area police making fewer traffic stops for equipment violations. What’s been the result? Crime &...

State boys lacrosse quarterfinal: Lakeville North 7, Cretin-Derham Hall 5

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

The Cretin-Derham Hall boys lacrosse team’s Cinderella story appeared as though it might last at least two more days. The team that entered section playoffs with a 7-6 record and No. 4 seed was 12 minutes away from a stunning upset. The unseeded Raiders led No. 2-seeded Lakeville North 5-2 heading into the final frame of Tuesday’s state tournament quarterfinal showdown.But the clock struck midnight in the fourth, as the Panthers cracked the riddle that is Cretin-Derham Hall’s well-synced defense to score five goals en route to a 7-5 victory at Stillwater Area High School.“It’s a great team. They’re very skilled,” Raiders coach Matt Hourigan said of Lakeville North. “You can hold back a good team for only so long.”Lakeville North sophomore midfielder Lane Johnson potted a couple of goals in the Panthers’ rally. He credited the Raiders’ defense for stumping the Panthers’ lethal attack for three quarters, adding Lakeville North realized it had to “stay patient” offensively to fin...

St. Paul Youth Business Fair to be held Saturday at Rosedale Center

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

The St. Paul Youth Business Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Rosedale Center.Young entrepreneurs will be selling products from start-up’s they created. There will be up to 20 booths.The fair is a part of a larger group of fairs called Acton Children’s Business Fair which has locations across the world. Past fairs have included baked goods, photography and jewelry.Related ArticlesNews | St. Paul-area police making fewer traffic stops for equipment violations. What’s been the result? News | St. Paul man gets 12-year prison term in woman’s 2019 overdose death at Roseville motel News | Road construction near Rosedale mall slated to begin soon

Schor, Fan: Can a four-day workweek really work? Many companies have already learned the answer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

In 1940, Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act to limit the standard workweek to 40 hours, with any additional hours eligible for overtime. Despite a more than threefold increase in productivity since, the 40-hour week has remained unchanged for 83 years.But it may be changing at last. 2023 could just be the year of the four-day, 32-hour week.Over the first few months of the year, Google searches for information about the four-day week rose by a factor of five. The media have produced hundreds of stories on companies that are offering 32-hour schedules. California and other states have considered legislation to enact or study a four-day week, and Riverside Rep. Mark Takano has introduced a bill on the subject in Congress.In Europe, national and regional governments have pilot four-day week programs in progress, and the United Arab Emirates has shifted public-sector employees to a 4½-day schedule. In February, we released findings from the world’s largest trial of a fou...

Other voices: Hello there, Big Brother! Please, come right in

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from “unreasonable searches and seizures” by the government, acknowledging the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects.” It is a bedrock principle of the Bill of Rights.But a survey released this month reveals that an astonishing number of Americans, particularly younger Americans, would be comfortable throwing this fundamental protection on the ash heap of history.The Cato Institute recently conducted a poll of 2,000 adults and included the question: “Would you favor or oppose the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse and other illegal activity?” Seventy-five percent of respondents were against such an outrageous intrusion. But 14 percent approved and 10 percent “didn’t know.”Holy, George Orwell. But it gets worse.Breaking down the responses, Cato discovered that a whopping 29 percent of those...

Jay Ambrose: Biden’s plan to tax people for money that isn’t money

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

President Joe Biden, eager to get more tax money to pay for the faults of others along with his own disastrously irresponsible, inflationary overspending, has said that American billionaires have a tax rate of just 8%. Here, then, is a great excuse to hit this relatively small group of 700 or maybe 1,000 people with a fiscal fist as big as the Treasury Department without worrying about losing millions of votes.A difficulty for Biden, however, is that the tax rate is more than three times bigger than he said, 25.6%, either demonstrating that he made a major mistake or qualifies to be called a political trickster. I endorse the second possibility, seeing as how the tiny-tax assertion could confuse the public enough for him to seem a hero catching cheapskate billionaires even though the top 1% of taxpayers deliver something like 43% of all federal taxes.The way Biden arrives at his deception is by saying the billionaires and still other super-rich tax targets pay nothing for the unreal...

Class 4A baseball state quarterfinal: Minnetonka 4, Mounds View 3

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:00:45 GMT

A well-played back-and-forth Class 4A state tournament quarterfinal game between Minnetonka and Mounds View on Tuesday nearly ended in the kind of comedy that can only happen in baseball.Racing around third base to score the winning run in the bottom of the seventh, the Skippers’ Colten Benedict suddenly stopped in his tracks, momentarily throwing the outcome in doubt.With Benedict about to score easily on a double to the left-field gap by Max Pederson, Minnetonka head coach Paul O. Twenge raised his hands to celebrate his team’s impending come-from-behind, 4-3 victory at CHS Field.“I thought he meant, ‘Stop!’ ” Benedict said.By then, the ball was on its way in on a relay from center field, but Twenge — and his teammates — quickly got Benedict to finish his dash to the plate and he scored the winning run ahead of the throw.Benedict went 3 for 4 and scored two runs as third seed Minnetonka (18-7) advanced to face second seed East Ridge (18-8) in a noon semifinal on Wednesday at...