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From Coke floats to Cronuts, going viral can have a lasting effect on a small business

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Lexington Candy Shop in New York City has served burgers, fries and shakes to hungry patrons for decades. Last remodeled in 1948, the diner is the definition of old-fashioned.But that hasn’t stopped it from getting a wave of new fans.In August 2022, this old school business met the new world when Nicolas Heller, a TikToker and Instagrammer with 1.2 million followers known as New York Nico, popped in for a traditional Coke float – Coke syrup, soda water and ice cream. Naturally, he took a video. It went viral, garnering 4.8 million likes.“The next day (after the video was posted), the lines started forming at 8 in the morning,” John Philis, the diner’s third-generation co-owner, recalls with amazement. “And it was like, huh!”When a smaller restaurant unexpectedly goes viral on TikTok or other social media, the sudden demand can be overwhelming. Owners have to adapt on the fly, revamping operations to quickly serve a crush of people. But savvy business owners...

Ideal weather for the Chicago Marathon

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

Mostly cloudy skies are expected with a 20% chance for some light showers and sprinkles, but for the most part, will be dry and cool. Temperatures around the start of the race are expected to be in the mid to upper 40s. WGN’s 2023 Chicago Marathon GuideThe mosquito niche refers to the specific ecological and environmental conditions in which mosquitoes thrive, and play a role in ecosystems. Climate change significantly impacts the conditions for mosquito survivability and roaming. Higher temps speed up their life cycles, increasing reproduction rates while extended warm seasons allow mosquitoes to expand their geographical range, bringing diseases to new areas.Mosquitoes are known vectors of diseases like malaria, dengue, and Zika, and understanding their niche is crucial for disease management and ecological balance. As climate change induces more extreme weather events, such as heavy rainfall or droughts, mosquito populations can fluctuate, affecting the transmission of disease...

PHOTOS: Day 2 of 2023 Austin City Limits Music Festival

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Weekend One of Austin City Limits Music Festival continued Saturday at Zilker Park. Shania Twain, Foo Fighters, Tove Lo, Noah Kahan, Alanis Morissette, Thirty Seconds to Mars and many more performers took the stage Saturday. MORE PHOTOS: Day 1 of Weekend 1 at ACL Here's some pics from Day Two of Weekend One:Shania TwainShania Twain performs during the first weekend of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Laura Roberts/Invision/AP)Shania Twain performs during the first weekend of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Laura Roberts/Invision/AP)Shania Twain performs during the first weekend of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Laura Roberts/Invision/AP)Shania Twain performs during the first weekend of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Saturday, Oct....

Autumn air much of the week

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Overnight temperatures fell to the 50s for most of the area. There were some mid and upper 40s reported in parts of the Hill Country. Today will be mostly sunny with most highs ranging from the middle 70s to around 80°. Humidity will fall to the 20s during the afternoon.Expect another chilly night with morning lows Monday falling to the 50s.Rain chances return on Tuesday. Moisture in the mid and upper levels from Tropical Storm Lidia (soon to be Hurricane Lidia) will stream into Texas. Showers and thunderstorms will increase during the afternoon, lasting into the evening and overnight hours.A few showers will be possible early Wednesday morning, Thursday and Friday morning. The next cold front arrives Friday morning. Limited moisture results in a low rain chance east of I-35. The front leaves a strong north wind Friday afternoon and night.The area will go from highs in the upper 80s to low 90s Thursday to the low to mid 80s Friday to the mid to upper 70s Saturday. ...

Baby horned lizards released to the wild from north, east Texas zoos

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A new batch of baby horned lizards raised in north and east Texas zoos were released to the wild Friday as part of ongoing efforts to restore the Texas species.The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department alongside the Fort Worth, Dallas and Caldwell zoos released the babies "in an ongoing effort to restore this iconic Texas species to its native range," the TPWD and Fort Worth Zoo said in a joint Facebook post.TPWD officials said in the post the species has been in a population decline for the past 50 to 60 years.TPWD and Fort Worth Zoo officials added in an Instagram post the two entities are tracking the species' progress in their release zones, noting they've discovered offspring from one of the horned lizards released two years ago.The Texas horned lizard is currently designated as a "threatened species in Texas," according to TPWD information on the species. The horned lizard is marked by its characteristic head with multiple horns, brownish color and "two rows of ...

“You’re not free to leave”: A San Jose police officer beat a jaywalking suspect who failed to follow his orders. Should he have walked away instead?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

Journalists from the Bay Area News Group and the California Reporting Project reviewed a series of cases involving violent confrontations between San Jose police and mentally impaired individuals. Many of those cases raise questions about the conduct of the department’s officers, who have been trained to avoid the use of force in such situations. Our full report can be read here.Case Study #2: William WallaceTHE SCENE: A nearly empty Sunol Street near the intersection with West San Carlos Street, on May 26, 2021. San Jose Police Officer Barron Kim’s encounter with Wallace on this night over a minor infraction — jaywalking — careened into violence. Should the officer have walked away rather than confronting him?William Wallace sits bloodied and handcuffed in a southbound traffic lane on Sunol Street following a 2021 stop by San Jose Police for alleged jaywalking. (San Jose Police) Kim immediately suspected that Wallace’s “bizarre behavior” stemmed from mental illness or in...

“Watch this guys”: San Jose police encouraged residents of a homeless camp to observe as they beat a mentally ill man

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

Journalists from the Bay Area News Group and the California Reporting Project reviewed a series of cases involving violent confrontations between San Jose police and mentally impaired individuals. Many of those cases raise questions about the conduct of the department’s officers, who have been trained to avoid the use of force in such situations. Our full report can be read here.Case Study #1: Arthur Lee TurnerTHE SCENE: A homeless encampment near the Guadalupe River, on September 16, 2019. A decision by two San Jose officers to corral residents for “trespassing” led to the beating, pepper spraying and Tasing of an unhoused man who failed to follow the officers’ commands but did not appear to threaten them. A policing expert who reviewed the records called the officers’ actions “the wrong approach.”Arthur Lee Turner falls to the ground after Officers Alex Cristancho and Steven Aponte tase him. (San Jose Police) Officers Steven Aponte and Alex Cristancho had li...

“Shoot me!”: Thompson Nguyen asked police to kill him. Could they have done something different?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

Journalists from the Bay Area News Group and the California Reporting Project reviewed a series of cases involving violent confrontations between San Jose police and mentally impaired individuals. Many of those cases raise questions about the conduct of the department’s officers, who have been trained to avoid the use of force in such situations. Our full report can be read here.Case Study #3: Thompson NguyenThompson Nguyen, 27, marched toward San Jose Police officers while demanding they “shoot him” and holding an ax and metal pipe at Metcalf Energy Center in San Jose on January 9, 2018. Officers shot and killed Nguyen moments after this body camera screenshot was captured. (San Jose Police) THE SCENE: A South San Jose power plant, on January 9, 2018. San Jose police responded to a report of an armed man breaking in, and encountered Thompson Nguyen carrying a metal pipe and an ax.Nguyen had a history of mental illness. While San Jose officers immediately realized he was in dis...

Body camera footage casts doubt on San Jose police version of incident where man was subdued

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

The way San Jose police described their encounter with Sylvester Taylor Gaulden, they had no choice but to use force to subdue him. Gaulden had terrorized a South San Jose neighborhood, throwing rocks and damaging cars. When officers ordered him to surrender, they wrote in their reports, he charged them.But a review of police body camera videos from the February 2020 confrontation shows significant discrepancies with those official reports, raising questions about both the officers’ use of force and their truthfulness.Retired Boston police lieutenant Tom Nolan, who examined the footage, called it one of “repeated instances (he has seen) where police officers seem to be unaware there is video that is in direct contradiction with the ways they are narrating the incident in their reports.”As Nolan suggests, a Bay Area News Group/California Reporting Project review of 46 San Jose Police Department case files containing body camera video found multiple examples of divergence ...

How we investigated San Jose police use of force against the mentally impaired

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:08 GMT

To analyze San Jose police officers’ use of force against the mentally impaired, journalists for the Bay Area News Group and the California Reporting Project, working with students from Stanford University and UC Berkeley, reviewed thousands of pages of police records released under California’s 2018 police transparency law, SB 1421, and the terms of a 2020 settlement of the news group’s lawsuit against the city of San Jose.The analysis includes 106 cases involving 108 individuals who were seriously injured or beaten by police between 2014 and 2021. It combined cases involving police confrontations with mentally ill individuals, with those suffering from drug or alcohol intoxication, and with people acting erratically. Officers are typically trained to handle such situations similarly.The case records do not always contain direct evidence that a subject of force had been diagnosed as mentally ill – or demonstrated to be intoxicated through blood or other tests.   Instead, the journa...