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Thailand’s LGBTQ+ community draws tourists from China looking to be themselves

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Xinyu Wen traveled to Thailand in June, planning a two-week vacation around Bangkok’s Pride parade. Instead, the 28-year-old stayed a month and a half, as her experience at the parade gave rise to discussions and discoveries in the Thai capital’s thriving LBGTQ+ community.LGBTQ+ people from China, frequently scorned and ostracized at home, are coming to Thailand in droves, drawn by the freedom to be themselves. When Wen walked along the parade on the streets in Bangkok, “I felt like I was in a big party or a huge amusement park. We could forget all upsetting things and feel fun-filled,” she said.Bangkok is only a 5-hour flight from Beijing, and Thailand’s tourism authorities actively promote its status as among the most open to LGBTQ+ people in the region.Wen got interested in Thailand when her friend sent her a photo of rainbow-colored, Pride-themed ice cream being sold on the streets. “I wanted to go to Thailand to take a look,” she said. Wen describes h...

2 in custody after striking police cruisers in stolen vehicle in Oshawa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

Durham police have two males in custody after two police cruisers were struck by a stolen vehicle in the area of Ritson Road and Dean Avenue in Oshawa. The vehicle was stolen from the Whitby area and has been involved in multiple collisions. Due to the incident two officers suffered minor injuries and police advise to avoid the area.Police tell CityNews they believed this incident to be connected to a series of break and enters in the area.

DePaul University stepping up security after 3 robberies near campus

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

CHICAGO — DePaul University is stepping up security after three students were robbed Saturday morning, university officials say.According to police, in each case, three to four people approached the victims and demanded their property. Police say in one instance, a student was hit in the face.  Chicago police investigate robberies near DePaul University In a message to the student body, DePaul president Robert Manuel said the university will be taking measures to protect students. "As immediate action steps, DePaul will increase its public safety presence on both campuses with additional security officers. We also have filed our concerns with the mayor, police commander and elected officials," Manuel said. The message goes on to say that there are several safety services available and in place for students:A service to escort students on the Lincoln Park campus from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day of the week.An inter-campus shuttle that runs through both campuses Monday...

Local health agency discusses rising COVID cases in St. Louis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

ST. LOUIS – The head of a healthcare nonprofit says we’re seeing a surge in COVID cases in our area and warns that SARS-CoV-2 will most likely never go away.Kendra Holmes, president and CEO of Affinia Healthcare, says experts were expecting a big jump in the summer and they got it.“Currently, we’re about 30% positive in some areas of St. Louis City, that is in comparison to about 1-3% previously,” she said. “That really is not a true record of where we are, because a lot of people are utilizing home tests, so that 30% is possibly much higher.”Holmes says there are a lot of factors to blame for the big jump in cases.“Well, we’re at a point (when) children are going back to school, individuals are at home more, so just like any respiratory illness, it’s spreading,” she said. “People are out and about... But really, when kids go back to school, we see that spread.” Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now ...

Music at the Intersection festival draws estimated 12K attendees over the weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

ST. LOUIS – Thousands attended Sunday’s Music at the Intersection festival. Organizers estimate as many as 12,000 people attended the event over the weekend.Some people came out for a specific artist.“Super excited to see Thundercat. For me, it’s the musicality of it all, and that’s what I’m looking forward to is just hearing a live band, live music, and getting to see him doing his best," Kayla Gamble said.Others were there to see the variety of music at the festival.“You’ve got every different kind of music here all teaming up and everybody is enjoying all of it, it’s a wonderful thing," Pete Salsich said.Around 50 artists from across the world were out at the event, performing on the different stages.“The intersectionality of our music heritage. It’s the intersection of arts and life here at the Grand Center Arts District. It’s the intersection of all this music, and the genres and the people. It’s just the thing that brings us all together," Chris Hansen, executive director of t...

After opener that looked like more of the same, can Sean Payton and Broncos write different story in 2023?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

Broncos fans are no strangers to watching the Rocky Mountain Horror Picture Show in recent years, but even the sturdiest might have wondered if they had stumbled into a Time Warp Dance on Sunday afternoon at Empower Field.What year is it, again?The parallels between Denver’s 2022 and 2023 season openers are downright scary.New coach making an anticipated debut. An actually pretty efficient Russell Wilson-led offense. Red zone failures. Double-digit penalties. A defense that wilted one too many times. A pesky opposing quarterback new to his West-division team picked to finish at the bottom of the barrel.Even the final score — 17-16 for the other guys, 363 days ago in sunny Seattle, and again on a cool, rainy Denver afternoon — fits snugly in this Broncos bizarro world.Make it seven straight for those Raiders against these Broncos.Make it three straight wins for Raiders Josh McDaniels over the team he once coached.Make it another game that easily could have served as a jumping-o...

Broncos kicker Wil Lutz faced the music after tough Denver debut. But it was ex-Broncos special-teamers in Raiders locker room who got last laugh in Week 1

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

Jacob Bobenmoyer felt for Wil Lutz. A little.Then in the joyous Raiders locker room, Bobenmoyer and special teams coach Tom McMahon, both Broncos employees at this time two years earlier, shared a smile of satisfied glee.“I mean, the grin’s a little bit bigger at the end of the day, for sure,” said Bobenmoyer, the Broncos’ long snapper from 2019 to ’22, of the celebration he shared with McMahon, the Broncos’ special teams coach from ’18 to ’21, following the Raiders’ shocking 17-16 win in coach Sean Payton’s regular-season debut.“Yeah, it’s definitely bigger at the end of the game just because … it is what it is on the business side of things.”Even the business side of the NFL has a flair for irony every now and again. McMahon, now the Raiders’ special teams coach, was a frequent target of criticism during his Dove Valley days.Yet with McMahon and Bobenmoyer, a former UNC linebacker, wearing si...

Kiszla: Blame Broncos’ embarrassing loss to Raiders on hare-brained onside kick of coach Sean Payton

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

Well, ain’t that a kick in the head?Fresh out of new ideas, Sean Payton lost his coaching debut with the Broncos to the hated Raiders with such a tired strategy that even a knucklehead like Nathaniel Hackett wouldn’t have thought of it.With an onside kick to begin an eventual 17-16 loss to Las Vegas, Payton plagiarized himself, stealing a page from the brightest chapter of his NFL career, when New Orleans beat Peyton Manning and Indianapolis 13 years ago in the Super Bowl with bold trickeration.This time, it didn’t work.“We came to win a game,” Payton said.And you lost it, coach. This “L” is squarely on you, Mr. Payton.Champions find a way to win. Chumps invent ways to lose. One game into the Payton regime, the Broncos look like the same sorry, boring losers that have missed the playoffs seven years in a row.“We’ve got to break this cycle,” Denver outside linebacker Jonathan Cooper said. “When it comes down to the nitty gritty, somehow we don’t finish.”While others will unders...

Man arrested in Boulder, accused of burglary spree amid game day celebrations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

Police in Boulder arrested a man who allegedly went on a burglary spree in the University Hill neighborhood amid game day celebrations.A Kansas man, 50-year-old Patrick Sean Gillespie, was arrested Saturday on several charges, including five counts of burglary and theft.Gillespie was taken into custody following a report that the suspect attempted to break into an occupied home on 10th Street around 9 a.m.Read the full story at Denver7.com.

77th annual Mexican Independence Parade held in East Los Angeles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:34:25 GMT

Thousands celebrated at the 77th annual Mexican Independence Day Parade and Festival Sunday in East Los Angeles, the longest running and largest Mexican heritage parade in the country.  The mile and a half parade started at 10 a.m. at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Mednik avenues, traveled north on Cesar Chavez before turning east on Gage Avenue. Parade participants then turned south on 1st Street, returning to the Grand Festival on 1st and Mednik.  Live music and dancing, along with many other displays, were held throughout the parade’s route.  Parade participants at the 77th annual Mexican Independence Day Parade and Festival in East L.A. on Sept. 10, 2023. (KTLA)Parade participants at the 77th annual Mexican Independence Day Parade and Festival in East L.A. on Sept. 10, 2023. (KTLA)Parade participants at the 77th annual Mexican Independence Day Parade and Festival in East L.A. on Sept. 10, 2023. (KTLA)Parade participants at the 77th annual Mexican Independence Day Parad...