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3M fined $6.5M for trying to hide payments to Chinese officials

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

Maplewood-based 3M Co. will pay more than $6.5 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it tried to hide payments to send Chinese government officials on overseas vacations and shopping sprees.The SEC claimed that 3M’s China subsidiary spent $1 million to send officials from state-owned health care facilities and their spouses to U.S. and Australian cities. The company paid for about 24 trips — which were ostensibly to attend educational events — between 2014 and 2017, according to the order.Employees of the Chinese unit sent “alternate itineraries” using private WeChat accounts or hand-delivered them to the officials, the SEC said Friday. They also asked the travelers “to keep the agenda hidden, and falsified internal compliance documents that affirmatively denied and/or omitted mention of the Tourism Activities that were planned as part of the overseas trip,” according to the complaint.3M-China employees tracked whether the travel junkets benefited the...

Panic at high school football game prompts evacuation amid rumors of shots fired

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- In a recent turn of events, fear spread through the crowd at a football game between Pattonville and Ritenour High Schools. Rumors of shots being fired led to the incident, which caused the stadium to be cleared out, leaving people scared and worried about their safety. Students ran from the stands when they thought there was a threat, and the scene was caught on video. It looks like cops told some students to leave, which set off a chain reaction of fear that spread through the crowded stadium and made others run for safety.  Deputy shot in Lincoln County; suspect found dead The school district's superintendent, Barry Nelson, talked about what happened. He said that after working with the cops carefully, it had been decided that no real gunshots had been fired at the event. This was a relief, since the first accounts of shots being fired had made a lot of people worried. Nelson said that it shows how important it is to review and improve safety procedures. The g...

Storms bring relief, cooler Sunday ahead

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- An Excessive Heat Warning is in effect until 7 p.m. today south of St. Louis, where dewpoints remain elevated. Heat indices are likely to reach 100–105 for the seventh consecutive day. However, there's a chance that shower and storm activity could limit the warming, potentially leading to an early cancellation of the warning.We currently have storms moving southeastward in the area. There's also a cluster of storms in north-central MO that is expected to weaken as it progresses into our northern counties. Additionally, the potential exists for storm development this afternoon, particularly across central and southeast Missouri. Today's highs will be cooler, especially in the northern half of the region. The far northern counties can anticipate temperatures in the mid-80s, while STL will be around 90. To the south, temperatures in the low 90s combined with higher humidity will result in dewpoints reaching triple digits for one last day. Isolated to scattered storm chance...

St. Louis Man found shot near South Broadway

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- A man has been found dead in an alley, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Authorities report that the victim's body was located on Osage Street, just off South Broadway, shortly after 9:45 p.m. Homicide detectives from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police are now leading the investigation. 

Users beware: Trail apps have been leading to problems in public lands

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

Veteran mountaineer Dale Atkins was climbing the challenging Kelso Ridge last week on Torreys Peak, a popular Front Range fourteener, when he encountered a woman in her 20s who had discovered the complexity of the climb required route-finding skills beyond her experience level.“She said she’d gotten to one of the harder spots and just couldn’t figure out where to go, so she turned around,” said Atkins, a member of the Alpine Rescue Team, a volunteer search-and-rescue group that conducts missions in Clear Creek, Jefferson and Gilpin counties. “I asked her if she was using an app, and she said, ‘Yes, I was using AllTrails,’” he continued. “She said all the reviews were really positive about the climb, so she figured with three fourteeners under her belt that she could do it. Her ambitions just exceeded her experience.”Atkins wasn’t surprised. The popular hiking app, with its digital trail maps and user-generated reviews, is the go-to source fo...

Grading the Week: Ex-Nuggets hero Bruce Brown for Denver mayor! Why Brucie B’s long good-bye broke so many Front Range hearts.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

You’re not crying, Bruce Brown. We’re crying.For the record, the kids up in the Grading the Week offices absolutely, unequivocally hate goodbyes. They love puppies. They love sunsets. They love fry bread, wild huckleberries, hibiscus doughnuts and long walks along the Barker Meadow Reservoir. But man, do they hate goodbyes.So when Brucie B, Nuggets Legend For Life, went to Instagram a few days ago to pen his official farewell to Denver, well — we won’t lie. The kids have been kind of a hot mess ever since.Bruce Brown’s long goodbye — B+.The better the fit, the deeper the hurt. Brucie B had us at “hello,” but when he photoshopped an image of himself as a child with a tiny arm around an equally photoshopped Nikola Jokic, we lost it.“To the fans,” Brown wrote, “(t)hank you for the love and support throughout this year never felt anything like that before!”On the court, Brown, beloved sixth man for Denver’s first-ever NBA champions, proved to be the missing piece of this ever-evolving, ...

Letters: Finally, Denver Broncos star of the ’70s and ’80s headed to Hall

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

Finally, Broncos star of the ’70s and ’80s headed to HallRe: “After 35-year wait, ex-Bronco Gradishar on doorstep of Canton,” Aug. 24 sports storyIt’s a darn shame that so many of Randy Gradishar’s admirers who were old enough to have actually watched him play in the last century couldn’t live long enough to see the final crowning moment in his career, a belated, seemingly begrudged election to Football’s Hall of Fame. Now we can sit down and explain to our adult-with-families-of-their-own grandkids just what a marvelous player Randy was.Harry Puncec, LakewoodRoad rage? No. These were good SamaritansDespite our automatic local news stories filled with hate and violence, I would like to share a recent experience I had driving Denver streets.Happily heading south on Colorado last Monday, I suddenly was harassed by a guy, the passenger in the car next to me, window down, screaming, “Get off the street! Pull over! Get out!” while shaking his fist. Of course, inst...

Opinion: A good death on hospice for my mom after brain cancer horror

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

My brother’s text the morning of Aug. 2 was urgent: “Her breathing has just now shifted. … I think we’re closer, not there but closer.”Our mother was dying, but not in the gradual way she had been since her brain cancer diagnosis in May. This was “active dying,” the end-of-life phase where breathing and circulation rapidly slow until they cease.My brother was with nurses at our mom’s bedside, sending updates as I raced in from my home in Alhambra. He knew the end was near because our mom had been on hospice care at her home in Glendale for a week, and the nurses who performed daily checkups had explained to us what we might see as death approached.The hospice experience was starkly different from the previous three months that our mother, a highly regarded nurse working in a prenatal clinic at Los Angeles General Medical Center, spent in the hospital undergoing treatment for the cancer. She had endured surgeries, infections, tube feeding and chemotherapy, in hopes of a cure or, fail...

Valley Christian, with ‘something to prove’ after one-win season, edges Wilcox

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

SAN JOSE — Just like last season, Valley Christian hosted Wilcox in the season opener for both teams. But this time the outcome was quite a bit different.Aaron VanderVeen produced the only points of the second half with a 20-yard field goal in the third quarter to give Valley Christian a one-point lead that stood up Friday in a 16-15 victoryLast year Wilcox dominated VC 35-13.“Coming off a 1-9 season we have something to prove,” said Valley Christian middle linebacker Remy Hernandez, a standout all night long. “We were very young and inexperienced. Now that we’re older and more grown I think we’ll have a great year. I can’t wait to see.”In a throwback sort of game, middle linebackers were the star players for both teams. Wilcox middle backer Brayden Rosa was singled out after the game by Valley Christian coach Mike Machado.“That kid is a playmaker,” Machado said. “He gave us a lot of problems tonight.”Valley Chr...

Two Bay Area high school football games stopped because of spectator violence

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:28 GMT

Two season-opening football games in the Bay Area were stopped Friday night because of fights among spectators.Host Piedmont Hills was leading Willow Glen 10-0 at halftime in San Jose when the game was called because a first-quarter fight in the bleachers had spilled outside the stadium at halftime. No decision has been made on whether the game will be continued. Both San Jose schools have bye weeks during the first weekend of October.In the other game interrupted by spectator fights Friday, visiting College Park was leading Fremont-Oakland 14-0 in the second quarter when the game was stopped. Fremont coach Lloyd Johnson said that score would stand.“It was a safety situation,” Johnson said.Longtime Piedmont Hills coach Matt Kiesle said his team was still in the locker room at halftime when the game was called. Willow Glen had already returned to the field for the second half.“In the first quarter, there was a scuffle in the stands,” Kiesle said. “The scuffle turned into something ou...