Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe dies from shooting injuries
Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Colombian senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe died Monday after he was shot in June.
Uribe's wife, María Claudia Tarazona, made the announcement Monday morning on social media, and Fundación Santa Fe Bogotá, the hospital where Uribe was receiving care, also released a statement confirming his death.
The hospital announced Saturday that Uribe's condition became critical due to a hemorrhage in his central nervous system and required "urgent neurosurgical procedures" to stabilize him.
Uribe was shot in the head from behind during a campaign event in June. A 14-year-old was arrested as the suspected gunman, and three adults were also arrested in connection to the incident.
All four were charged with attempted murder and illegal firearm possession, with the adults additionally charged for allegedly using a minor to commit a crime. A fifth person was arrested for purportedly ordering the attack.
The attack on Uribe has stirred up memories in Columbia of the 1980s and 1990s when several political candidates and prominent figures were assassinated, and heightened concerns that violence fueled by criminal groups is on the rise.
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Indianapolis Star
44 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana loses $130 million as EPA cancels low-income solar program
For nearly two years, groups throughout Indiana have been building partnerships and planning how to effectively allocate around $130 million in federal grants to help low-income Hoosiers cut their utility bills with rooftop and community solar projects. The work paid off. Organizations received signed contracts under the Solar for All program to assist as many as 7,000 homes in Indiana with renewable energy projects that would cut their electricity bills by 20%. That money also would help train Hoosiers for jobs in the solar industry. Just as the groups were preparing to find contractors for the work, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the federal agency is taking back all that money and shuttering the program — a move staff members of the Indiana organizations working on the projects likened to having the rug pulled out from under them. 'This is a huge gut punch,' said Zach Schalk, Indiana program director for Solar United Neighbors. In announcing his intent to cancel the solar program in a video posted to his social media accounts, Zeldin said the agency is adhering to the recently passed federal reconciliation bill and acting as a 'great steward' of taxpayer dollars. But he made no mention of environmental stewardship — a central tenant of the agency. 'Since being signed into law on Independence Day, EPA has been diligently working to implement President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in accordance with congressional intent,' Zeldin said. The reconciliation bill Indiana Senators Jim Banks and Todd Young, as well as Indiana's entire Republican delegation to the U.S. House, voted to approve repealed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that oversaw the Solar for All program. 'EPA is taking action," Zeldin said, "to end this program for good.' Zeldin has spent his tenure as EPA's administrator rolling out an onslaught of deregulatory actions. 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The statewide Solar Opportunities Indiana program was part of the Indiana Community Action Association, a not-for-profit group assisting low-income Hoosiers, and was overseen by Alison Becker, program director at Solar for All. The group had been in the planning stages since December and was putting together proposals to hire contractors and gearing up for a marketing campaign when the EPA pulled the plug. 'We were so close to the tipping point of things happening,' Becker said. 'There was so much time, effort and energy to make it work throughout the state.' The loss of this money impacts between 6,000 and 7,000 homes, Becker said. There also was money budgeted for work force development to create and train workers for high-paying jobs to install the solar projects. 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The city was also using Solar for All funds to implement individual projects on single- and multi-family homes. Indy residents benefitting from the program would have seen around a 20% reduction of their energy burden, McReynolds said. Joe Bowling, executive director with the Englewood Community Development Corporation, had sent a letter of support for Indiana winning these awards to Schalk at Solar United Neighbors. Bowling and the CDC have an affordable housing program on Indy's near east side that manages about 400 homes. "I believe we need to do all we can to create a lot more energy," Bowling said, "and if we can do that on rooftops at the point of consumption with renewables that do not pollute the air or warm the environment, that seems like a good thing." The large upswing of data centers coming to Indiana is creating an increasingly large demand for energy in Indiana, and Bowling said closing off opportunities to create more energy is a bad idea. 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She and other Indiana groups are wondering where they might find other types of funding, but nothing will match the federal dollars that were pulled away. 'My biggest heartbreak is that so many of us worked so long to come to a place where we cleared all kinds of hurdles and promised to use this money in a way that we feel is not just most accountable to the EPA and to taxpayers, but to our own consciousness,' Anderson said. Solar for All would have provided benefits to historically underserved neighborhoods, Anderson said, and those communities are already dealing with the some of the state's worst air quality. 'It would be wonderful to see new programs come into Indiana in the wake of this,' Anderson said. "People who often experience legacy pollution are really served beyond just financial saving with the environmental benefits of solar energy.' 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UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
Failed GOP candidate gets 80 yrs for shooting at political adversaries
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UPI
4 hours ago
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Illinois judge rejects Texas' request to enforce arrest warrants in map row
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