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Love it, or hate it? Feelings run high over candy corn come Halloween

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

Cruel joke for trick-or-treaters or coveted seasonal delight? The great Halloween debate over candy corn is on.In the pantheon of high-emotion candy, the classic shiny tricolour kernels in autumn’s white, orange and yellow are way up there. Fans and foes alike point to the same attributes: the plastic or candle-like texture (depending on who you ask) and the mega-sugar hit it packs.“I am vehemently pro candy corn. It’s sugar! What is not to love? It’s amazing. It’s like this waxy texture. You get to eat it once a year. It’s tricolour. That’s always fun,” comedian Shannon Fiedler gushed on TikTok. “Also, I know it’s disgusting. Candy corn is objectively kind of gross, but that’s what makes it good.”Or, as Paul Zarcone of Huntington, New York, put it: “I love candy corn even though it looks like it should taste like a candle. I also like that many people hate it. It makes me like it even more!”Love it ...

Music Review: Celebrate the spooky season with a Duran Duran album, ‘Danse Macabre’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

There aren’t that many Halloween albums out there and so tip your masks to Duran Duran for giving us a treat this spooky season.“Danse Macabre” is a 13-track — even the number is unsettling — mix of playfully dark original tunes and some seasonably appropriate covers, like Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and Billie Eilish’s “Bury a Friend.” It all works better than you expected, a seminal ’80s band luxuriating in the thick synth dance hooks of an over-the-top holiday.The title track is full blast of classic Duran Duran — a gothic slice of disco with an arch Simon Le Bon singing the band’s signature word soup: “Zombie in the back room, nuns in the bed/Kids in KISS makeup toasting the bread.”The band’s original lineup — Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor, John Taylor and Andy Taylor — gather for a fine “Rio”-era sounding “Nightboat” and the unmistakably funky Nile Rodgers enlivens “Black Moonlight,” the album’s high point.But there a...

The damage to a Baltic undersea cable was ‘purposeful,’ Swedish leader says but gives no details

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The damage to a telecommunications cable running under the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Estonia was “purposeful,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Tuesday but declined to be drawn on the details. “We will not be more precise than that as of today,” Kristersson said at a press conference, after Swedish divers had investigated the seabed.A spokesman for the Swedish Navy, Jimmie Adamsson, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that “we see seabed tracks nearby, but we don’t know if it’s deliberate or an accident.”On Oct. 17, Sweden reported damage to an undersea telecommunications cable that authorities believe occurred at the same time as damage to an undersea gas pipeline and telecom cable between Finland and Estonia. Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said at the time that the cause of the damage was unclear, adding that it was “not a total cable break” but “a partial damage.”NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the p...

Police in Massachusetts are searching for an armed man in connection with his wife’s shooting death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

GARDNER, Mass. (AP) — Police in Massachusetts are searching for a man in connection with the shooting death of his wife, who was found in their home on Sunday. Police said they consider Aaron Pennington, 33, to be armed and dangerous. They found his car Monday night in the woods in the city of Gardner in the northern part of the state, about 15 miles from the New Hampshire line. Police had temporarily issued a shelter-in-place order for a street near the woods.Gardner city officials posted online that out of an abundance of caution, police remain stationed in the area through Tuesday. The car was unoccupied. Police using search dogs and helicopters did not find Pennington in the woods, local and state police and the Worcester County District Attorney’s office said in a joint news release Tuesday morning. Pennington’s 30-year-old wife, Breanne Pennington, was found dead in their Gardner home on Sunday. City property records show Aaron Pennington has owned the home since J...

House Republicans gather to pick third Speaker nominee: Live coverage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

House Republicans on Tuesday will try for a third time to pick a nominee for Speaker who can get 217 votes on the House floor.The conference's first nominee for Speaker — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) — withdrew his name before even receiving a floor vote when it became clear he couldn't reach that threshold. Its second nominee — House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — lost three votes on the House floor before the House GOP voted to remove him as its nominee.Now, eight Republicans are vying for the nomination: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), House Republican Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson (R-La.), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), and Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.).Republicans came out of a candidate forum Monday night sounding upbeat, even as ...

Harry Porterfield, beloved Chicago news anchor, dies at 95

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

CHICAGO — A beloved Chicago TV news anchor has died.Harry Porterfield was a reporter and news anchor on WBBM and WLS-TV for a combined 50 years. According to his son, he died of natural causes Monday at an assisted living facility in Munster, Indiana.With a degree in chemistry, Porterfield made the transition to television in 1971. He began anchoring the news a year later.Porterfield held a variety of roles over the years, but may be best remembered for his ongoing stories featuring "Someone You Should Know."He was 95.

Electric shock kills 1, injures 4 in fountain at Florida shopping center

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — One person died and four others were hurt after they were electrocuted in a fountain at a Florida shopping center Sunday, officials said.Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and the Jupiter Police Department were called to the Harbourside Place shopping center around 3:30 p.m. after a child was in distress in the fountains.Officials said five people, including three children, were hurt and needed to be taken to hospitals. Jupiter police said the children were taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center and are continuing to recover. One of the adult victims died at the hospital. The other was released. The names of the victims have not been released. Officials: At least 7 dead in massive vehicle crashes due to Louisiana ‘superfog’ A spokesperson for the shopping center told NBC's WPTV that the electrocution incident happened in the fountains where there are signs warning against climbing and swimming."When we arrived on the scene, the Jupiter Police Department and civilians w...

Las Vegas woman left U2 concert to take $50K from 'sugar daddy's' hotel safe, police say 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A Las Vegas woman faces charges of grand larceny and burglary after she allegedly left her "sugar daddy" at a concert, broke into his hotel room, and stole more than $50,000 from him, according to police documents. On Sunday, Oct. 15, police were called to Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino after a man in his 50s told police he was the victim of grand larceny, the report stated. The man told police he met a woman in her 20s, identified as Hailey McNally, on the dating website "Seeking Arrangement" about five weeks prior. In conversations on the site, the victim referred to himself as a "sugar daddy" and arranged for McNally to spend the weekend with him in Las Vegas, according to the report. The victim told police that he told McNally he was going to pay her $2,500 for the weekend, the report stated. He claimed that sex was discussed, but never happened. Rapper Blueface ordered to pay $13M in damages after Vegas strip club shooting The two met at Caesars Palace on...

Second day of APD officer murder trial begins Tuesday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

Editor's note: The above video shows KXAN News Today's top morning headlines for Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Opening statements wrapped up Monday in the trial of Austin Police Officer Christopher Taylor, who was charged with murder in the death of Mike Ramos. Prosecutors will continue to present witnesses Tuesday in the second day of the APD officer's trial. Taylor shot and killed Ramos, 42, during a confrontation with police back in April 2020 at a south Austin apartment complex parking lot. Taylor is on administrative leave with APD.You can follow KXAN's Grace Reader, who is reporting from the courtroom on day 2, here. Day 2: We're back in the courtroom this morning for the Christopher Taylor trial. The APD officer is charged with murder in the death of Mike Ramos in 2020. I'll have another thread today🔽https://t.co/SrEZpYi9WD— Grace Reader (@GraceReaderTV) October 24, 2023 Photos of crime scene presented Tuesday morningThe first expert witness called to...

Travis County Commissioners to consider permit for Seismic Dance Event 6.0

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:12 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Travis County Commissioners meet Tuesday to hear public comment before voting on a permit for a techno music festival happening in mid-November in southeast Travis County near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The sixth edition of the Seismic Dance Event takes place from Friday, Nov. 10 to Sunday, Nov. 12 at the The Concourse Project, located on 8509 Burleson Road.