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African-born vintner ready to bring her vino to the drinking masses in Maryland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

Maryland wine aficionados will get a taste of a new vintage next month from an African-born vintner. Ifeoma Clyopatra Onyia is opening Clyopatra Winery and Vineyard in Laurel, Maryland, next month, and according to the winery’s website, she will be the first African winery owner in the U.S.Onyia told WTOP that her dream is coming true as she sat in front of her very own vineyard on Brooklyn Bridge Road.“Being the first person doing a lot of things, you get a lot of pushback. You get a lot of, ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing? Do you think you can succeed?'” Onyia said. “I had somebody asked me a question saying, ‘So who are you going to sell your wine to?’ I looked at him and I said the same people you sell your wine to.”She grew up in Udi, Nigeria, with seven siblings and eventually went to school in England before settling in Maryland, where she began a nursing home care company. But wine was always on her mind.“I...

Leaders see hope in tackling deadly climate change and public health problems together

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Trying to lessen climate change’s sweeping impact, experts are hoping that attempts to improve the sputtering global public health system and sometimes-stalled efforts to curb global warming through collaboration can combine — and create a better system for handling the problem along the way.Leaders of both the World Health Organization and the upcoming climate negotiations said Monday that for the first time, they are going to devote a day during December climate talks to public health issues. By concentrating on how climate change is causing death and disease, they hope, nations may act more on the root cause: carbon pollution.“Climate change is killing us, and climate change is a health crisis,” said Vanessa Kerry, the World Health Organization’s special envoy for health and climate change, CEO of Seed Global Health and the daughter of U.S. climate envoy John Kerry. “We shouldn’t be measuring our failures in degrees Celsius but in lives lost.”As Climat...

Lamar Jackson and the Ravens made a big improvement offensively from Week 1 to Week 2

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throws during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)(AP/Darron Cummings) Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throws during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)(AP/Darron Cummings) OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Lamar Jackson certainly shook off the rust quickly.If last weekend’s game is any indication of his comfort level in Baltimore’s new offense, the Ravens could be on their way to quite a season.Jackson went 24 of 33 for 237 yards and two touchdowns and also ran ...

2 families grieving loved ones after violent crash in Commerce City

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (KDVR) -- Two people were killed and two are still in the hospital after a violent crash in Commerce City.The crash happened Friday night around 11:30 at the intersection of Highway 2 and 72nd Avenue.Commerce City police say a 17-year-old boy was driving south on Highway 2, likely at a high rate of speed, and crashed into a vehicle turning left onto 72nd Avenue.Anthony Apodaca says his sister, Shantel Apodaca, was driving that vehicle. He says the mother of four was driving to the store with her 8-year-old son, Joseph, and her friend Monica Rios when their vehicle was hit.  CSU coach: D-back who hit CU receiver has gotten death threats Shantel died at the scene and Joseph is still in critical condition."It's hard. Going to the store for food to eat and not coming home, leaving four babies behind, one that's struggling," Anthony said.Family members say Monica Rios died later at the hospital."Our lives are never going to be the same," said her bro...

Songwriter Ivory Scott grabs the microphone with new single ‘Just Like Me’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

Some people are born to write, like Ivory Scott.The 27-year-old has written for some of the biggest names in pop. Now, he’s ready for his moment in the spotlight.“Thique” by Beyonce.“Peru” from Ed Sheeran and Fireboy DML. “Baddest” featuring 2 Chainz. That trio of hits has one thing in common: They were all written by Ivory Scott.Deco caught up with the music man at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach to find out about his big career move.Ivory Scott: “I’ve been writing songs since I was a small child. Started writing songs when I was about nine years old and ever since I’ve just been locked into it. I knew it was what I always wanted to do.”Working with some of the mega-stars in music taught him an unexpected lesson.Ivory Scott: “I find that the biggest stars are the most like friendliest people. Like it’s the people that are like in the middle or about to become a big star that their head gets bigger.”...

Musicians gather for Academy of Country Music Honors awards show

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

Get your country boots on and gear up for Academy of Country Music Honors.We got a preview of the happenings, from honorees to performances. Let’s take a look.Carly Pearce is all smiles as host of the 16th Annual Academy of Country Music Honors.Carly Pearce: “I get to exercise, for lack of a better word, another part of my passion, which is hosting. I think third times the charm. We’ll see.”“The War and Treaty” singing duo knows how to make a guy feel special.Their performance honors Chris Stapleton as the triple crown award winner.Lady a, Dennis Quaid, Trisha Vearwood are also hopping on stage.Breland is lifting his voice with Keith Urban. The youngin’ is getting the Lift Every Voice award.Breland: “This is one of the most special moments in my career for a lot of reasons, and to be able to share the stage with Keith, is the guy that honestly brought me out to Nashville that made me feel like, I can move here, I’ve got allies, I...

“Rainfall” ahead of fall

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

Rain and storm chances remain high this week ahead of the fall season (which begins Saturday). The wet weather is due to a front that’s set to stall across Florida. Heavy rain and storms will arrive in rounds. Hopefully, there will be sufficient dry time between downpours, so areas won’t be as vulnerable for street flooding. Of course, going back to last week, many areas have been extra-wet. That would include locations around Miami International Airport, where we had a record rain over the weekend! There’s an abundance of lingering moisture that’s fueling this activity. As a slow-moving front settles into the region (and becomes stationary) we’ll have the ingredients for wet and unsettled weather. This pattern should last through Thursday, at least. After that, we may get some “help” from the Atlantic. A late-week low pressure disturbance is forecast to form (east of Florida and well north of the Bahamas). That low would lift nor...

Trump to skip second Republican debate for Detroit prime-time speech

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump will skip the second Republican presidential primary debate in California next week and instead will travel to Detroit to deliver a speech to an audience that will include current and former union members, according to a source familiar with his plans.His prime-time remarks will serve as counterprogramming to the September 27 debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.The revelation comes as the United Auto Workers’ strike has entered its fourth day.“The auto workers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump,” the former president told NBC News in an interview last week.Details of Trump’s Detroit trip were first reported by The New York Times.Trump, who has maintained a large lead in national and early-state primary polls, also skipped the first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee last month. The third debate is scheduled to...

Military officials find debris field belonging to F-35 fighter jet that went missing in South Carolina after ‘mishap’ forced pilot to eject

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

(CNN) — A debris field has been found and identified as the remains of an F-35 fighter jet that went missing Sunday near Charleston, South Carolina, after its pilot ejected, according to the Marine Corps and a defense official with knowledge of the search.The debris field is approximately two hours northeast of Joint Base Charleston. JB Charleston, which led the search, “is transferring incident command to the USMC this evening, as they begin the recovery process,” the Marine Corps said in a news release.Members of the community have been cautioned to avoid the area so the recovery team can secure the debris field and begin the recovery process.On Sunday, the pilot ejected safely after a “mishap” involving the jet and was taken to a local medical facility in stable condition, Joint Base Charleston had said in a Facebook post.“The mishap is currently under investigation, and we are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative proc...

Robbins: GOP bows to Trump in Biden impeachment query

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:48 GMT

A political gaffe, journalist Michael Kinsley once said, is what happens when a politician accidentally tells the truth. Republican Congressman Ken Buck is no doubt drawing fire from his Republican colleagues in the House for his Washington Post op ed last week deriding his party’s newly-launched “impeachment inquiry” into President Joe Biden for “relying on an imagined history.”  But what else is new?In the case of Congressional Republicans, it isn’t: imagined history, imagined facts, imagined rigged elections, imagined declassification of documents – this sort of thing has been the Republicans’ staple since Trump took his famous escalator ride down Trump Tower in 2015.The inquiry was ordered up by former President Trump, who is keen to divert attention from the 91 separate criminal charges pending against him in four separate jurisdictions, for everything from falsifying records to hide his hush money payments to a porn star, to trying to block the counting of electoral votes in o...