California Wildfires Attract Looters, Thieves To Evacuated Areas Where Homes Are Easy Targets

By RAF CASERT (Associated Press) ANDEREN, Netherlands — Inside the barn on the flat fields of the northern Netherlands, Jos Ubels cradles a newborn Blonde d’Aquitaine calf, the latest addition to his herd of over 300 dairy cattle. Little could be more idyllic. Little, says Ubels, could be more under threat. As Europe seeks to address the threat of climate change, it’s imposing more rules on farmers like Ubels.

By JON GAMBRELL (Associated Press) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates struggled Thursday to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation, as its main airport worked to restore normal operations even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads. Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, allowed global carriers on Thursday morning to again fly into Terminal 1 at the airfield. “Flights continue to be delayed and disrupted, so we urge you to only come to Terminal 1 if you have a confirmed booking,” the airport said on the social platform X. The long-haul carrier Emirates, whose operations had been struggling since the storm Tuesday, had stopped travelers flying out of the UAE from checking into their flights as they tried to move out connecting passengers.

A former gymnastics coach who owned and operated a fitness school in Centennial has been found guilty on multiple charges of child sexual assault, Arapahoe officials announced Wednesday. Erik Oldham, 37, was arrested in May 2022 on suspicion of multiple counts of sexual assault of a child, sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust, unlawful sexual contact, enticement of a child and criminal attempt, according to a news release from the Arapahoe County Sheriffs’ Office. Oldham pleaded not guilty to all nine charges, according to Arapahoe County court records. On April 5, a jury found Oldham guilty and he returned to Arapahoe County Jail on a no-bond hold while awaiting a sentencing hearing scheduled for July 8. Information on which charges the jury specifically found Oldham guilty on was not available. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | Car runs red light, crashes with light rail train in downtown Denver Crime and Public Safety | Colorado can expect a “normal” wildfire season this year.

Derek van Westrum grew up in Golden and has climbed more than half of Colorado’s fourteeners. He has an emotional attachment to those peaks, so he’s glad — and a little relieved — that his most recent assignment with the National Geodetic Survey didn’t turn up information that would have been a bummer for his fellow fourteener aficionados. The GDS measured the height of Colorado’s 58 peaks of 14,000 feet or higher with high-tech GPS technology, down to fractions of feet, and it released its findings on Thursday.

Colorado residents can expect a normal year for wildfires through July, but state officials on Wednesday warned that doesn’t mean there won’t be large, potentially catastrophic fires — especially later this summer and early fall as the weather becomes hotter and drier. The fire forecast through July calls for normal wildfire conditions, thanks to an average snowpack in the mountains combined with temperatures a shade above average and moisture slightly below average, said Michael Morgan, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control. Those conditions “tell us we would probably have what will be a normal or average fire season, which is about 5,500 fires burning about 220,000 acres,” Morgan said during a news conference in Broomfield about the state’s 2024 wildfire outlook. Southeastern Colorado and the San Luis Valley could see a higher number of wildfires earlier this year because of drier conditions, he said. However, the weather forecast for late summer and early fall is concerning, Morgan said.

Chef Sam McCandless plates food at Corrida in Boulder, Colorado on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post) Editor’s note: In September 2023, Michelin awarded stars, five in total, to restaurants in Colorado for the first time, putting the state on the must-visit list for foodies. Which restaurants were left out?