Latest news with #Copenhaver
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
K-9 Crook joins the Bluefield Police Department
bluefield – K-9 Crook still has a lot of puppy energy and enthusiasm in him, but that's helping launch his career as a bomb-sniffing and evidence-finding dog for the Bluefield Police Department. The department's new recruit was circling his handler, Lt. Brian Copenhaver, when they arrived at the police station Monday. Crook, a Springer Spaniel, is about 2-years-old. 'We ordered Crook from Guardian Farms in Ona, Copenhaver said while the new recruit enjoyed all the attention. 'His specialty is bombs, so he's a bomb dog and article search. We actually named him Crook after Lt. Crook, who had died in the line of duty eight years ago, and we wanted to remember Crook and this way every time we go out and do a demonstration in the community, for the schools, any of that, it allows us to talk about Crook, what he had done here, his legacy here, and we wanted to do that through our dog here.' The late Lt. Aaron L. Crook died in the line of duty on May 30, 2017 after pulling over a suspected drunk driver at Lee Street and two law enforcement cruisers that were headed to the scene collided. He had been with the department since 2008. In May 2019, a section of Princeton Avenue was named the Bluefield Police Lt. Aaron L. Crook Memorial Road in his honor. K-9 Thor, who has been with the department for years, is still doing things like going to local schools, but the department decided to acquire a bomb dog. 'Kids love to pet Thor and Thor loves going out, but we know it's only a matter of time before Thor does retire and what we wanted to do was go ahead and start a younger dog out and get him going to be able to do the same things that Thor did,' Copenhaver said. Tail wagging, Crook tried climbing onto Copenhaver's desk and jumped out of his chair at one point. 'As you can tell, still very much puppy,' he said. 'Wants to work all the time. Very hyper.' Crook was chosen because Springer Spaniels have a lot of energy, which makes them very good search dogs, Copenhaver said. There are a lot of bird dogs in the law enforcement community now because they have good health and long lifespans. 'And they have high drives, which means they search really, really well,' Copenhaver said. 'And he wants to go right now.' The police department acquired Crook last April. Copenhaver contacted Guardian Farms and described the sort of dog that the department wanted. The owners, Kyle Patton and Levi Livingston, are both retired law enforcement officers in West Virginia and part of the West Virginia Police K-9 Association. 'I called them and explained to them what I wanted,' he said. 'They jumped on it and they were able to find him and train him up and got him ready for us. We actually went to a seminar the first part of April. We're certified through the West Virginia Police K-9 Association and he's ready to go. He's ready to work.' Crook can detect multiple odors that are in bombs. He also does what is called article search. If somebody leaves behind evidence of a crime, Crook can help locate it, Copenhaver said. Copenhaver had Crook demonstrate his sniffing capabilities before taking him outside. Yvonne Harris, a retired teacher living in Bluefield, watched the excited spaniel. 'I think he's cute as he can be,' she said. 'What kind of dog is he? He's bomb sniffing?' She asked about Crook's breed. 'A Springer Spaniel? My aunt had one of those,' Harris said. 'Look at him go. They are very active little dogs.' Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Town of Alderson Mayor addresses community concerns regarding building demolitions
ALDERSON, WV (WVNS) – Town of Alderson Mayor Travis Copenhaver recently made a post on Facebook regarding three house demolitions that were taking place. Alderson residents seek answers regarding flood damage assistance These houses were damaged by fires. Some commenters addressed their concerns about how the town is going about these demolitions, as well as how they are affecting property owners and their families. Mayor Copenhaver clarified to 59News that these demolitions fall under Chapter 39-b code enforcement and are being worked on by their private property owners. He said their code enforcement officer issued notices to the property owners, after the officer notice these properties were not up to code. Chapter 39-B requires owners to not leave the house standing after being demolished by a fire. 'The town is not demolishing anything. The issue is that threats to public safety exists when houses are more than 50% demolished by fire. In fact, the one that is on Riverview Avenue right now is at least 90% demolished by fire,' said Mayor Copenhaver. Mayor Copenhaver explained each property owner has all taken different steps to adhere to this ordinance. The owners of one house plan to build back but will have to comply with the floodplain ordinance to raise the house. Another house was owned by a person who is deceased. Alderson's zoning manager has been working with the family to remedy that house's situation according to Copenhaver. In each instance, the zoning manager has worked with the property owners to find a resolution. 'We do not go off on witch hunts trying to force anybody to do anything. There are many attempts to get people to do the right thing before it ever goes to enforcement and these three properties are proof that our process works,' added Mayor Copenhaver. Judge rules that NIOSH programs must return 59News reached out to some of the others involved in this situation but have not heard back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
04-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
How Trump's love for crypto threatens US residents' peace: ‘I just want quiet'
First came the dogs' balding – leathery pink patches on otherwise glossy fur coats. The veterinarian told Shenice Copenhaver it was genetic. But it wasn't long before one of the hairless puppies began stealing blankets to burrow beneath furniture and hide for long stretches. Around the same time, in the summer of 2022, she first heard the noise: a deep, mechanical howl that becomes shrill closer to the facility. Copenhaver didn't know it then, but bitcoin miners had come to town. Less than a mile away from her home in east Texas, a cryptocurrency mining facility was rumbling to life. The hum has since become the soundtrack to life for hundreds of residents in the small city of Granbury, with a population of 12,600. It echoes across agricultural land and forests, chasing away deer. It seeps into walls, vibrating bedrooms and dinner tables. Copenhaver's neighbor Cheryl Shadden imagines it is what standing on the edge of Niagara Falls might sound like. Copenhaver says it's like a jet engine is forever stationed nearby. A video of the site from Shadden's home, recorded on 23 April, shows green pastures against a backdrop of billowing smoke and the roar. 'It wakes you up,' says Copenhaver. 'I'll be asleep, and everything will be fine, and then I'll wake up because I can feel it in my chest.' Large-scale cryptocurrency mining operations began popping up across the United States a decade ago. But it was China's crackdown on miners in 2021, leading many to relocate to the US, that cemented the country's role as the global hotspot for minting bitcoin. With at least 137 commercial-level facilities across the country, clustered mostly in Texas, the sector uses up to 2.3% of the nation's grid, according to estimates by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), a government agency that gathers and disseminates statistics on energy use. Whereas Joe Biden had promised to crack down on the industry, Donald Trump wants bitcoin to be 'mined, minted and made in the USA', setting the scene for bitcoin mines to roar louder throughout the rural US in the coming years. 'President Trump and his administration have done a lot to deliver on the promises that they made during the campaign, and we see this industry growing rapidly' Fred Thiel, the CEO of Mara, the world's largest miner and owner of the 300-megawatt (MW) site in Granbury, told Fox Business in March. 'We want to see the US be the dominant bitcoin mining country in the world.' Shortly before that interview, the firm acquired a 354-MW Texan wind farm to power a new mine, and has begun tapping natural gas from oilfields to fuel new facilities. Expansion plans published by mining companies show an expanding array of more data centers and more machines across the country. Miners have tapped investors for $3.7bn in bonds since November to fund future growth. Miners nationwide have likewise unveiled plans to add at least another 2.42 GW in capacity, according to announcements compiled since November. That's equivalent to almost 2m US households, according to EIA estimates. Bitcoin's 'hash rate' – the collective amount of computing power securing the network, of which the US maintains one-third – has increased by one-quarter since Trump's election victory. The respective hash rates of miners Mara and TeraWulf shot up over 40% between October and December last year, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Eric Trump even launched his own mining firm last month, America Bitcoin, a subsidiary of the publicly traded miner Hut 8 Corp. 'Simply buying bitcoin is only half the story. Mining it on favorable economics opens an even bigger opportunity,' the president said about his son's endeavor. Trump has launched his own cryptocurrency as well. Polaris Technology Inc is one of many firms expanding. The company is moving to double its footprint in Muskogee, Oklahoma, raising its capacity to use the same amount of energy as approximately 400,000 homes, despite noise complaints from locals. Likewise, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, CleanSpark opened a new site earlier this year. 'They promised to be good neighbors, but so far their noise is constant,' says Dave Simpson, who lives a quarter of a mile from the Wyoming site. The facility is yet to reach full capacity. Simpson worries about how a constant drone will affect his property's valuation. 'I miss the quiet times,' he says. In Granbury, Copenhaver says that the noise has gotten worse since November. Her decibel reader – a must-have for many residents – has been notching higher, she says, now reaching between 80 to 100 decibels on any given day. Digging for digital gold makes noise for several reasons. Row after row of industrial-grade fans are typically used to prevent mining computers, known as application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, from overheating, which can create an enormous din. Crypto mining often also consists of rows of smaller mobile containers in the open air, in contrast to the US's other major construction boom of tech infrastructure: artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, which are housed in closed structures. Mary Willis, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University, has spotted a pattern when it comes to the location of mines. Underwritten by bigger budgets, AI data centers are built on large plots of remote land. Miners, on the other hand, flock to the cheapest power and easy grid access, which often means old factory towns. Miners are increasingly building next to aging power stations – they call such projects co-locations – and striking deals with energy companies to bring underused plants back to life. Mara's Granbury mine is co-located with two gas power stations, both owned by Constellation Energy, which has fought locals over the past year to build a third plant. Cryptocurrency miners in Texas pay less for electricity than residents on average, according to an Earthjustice report. In 2023, residential ratepayers paid 22.25 cents per kilowatt-hour for their electricity, while specific crypto mining operations paid just 2.5 per kWh, the group estimates. Bitcoin mining raises the cost of electricity for non-miners in Texas by $1.8bn per year, roughly 4.7%, per consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. Trump has also given miners impetus to grow through his commitment to solidifying bitcoin's place in traditional finance, and thus its long-term appreciation. Its price currently sits at roughly $97,000. In December 2024, it topped $100,000 for the first time. Crypto mining computers race against one another to solve cryptographic puzzles. The correct answer verifies a new batch, or 'block', of bitcoin transactions. The block is added to the blockchain, which functions as a public ledger of all transactions within the network. The computer that cracks the code first is rewarded 3.125 bitcoins. So, when bitcoin rallies, miners often look to dial up power. But because price surges bring more miners online, the hash rate also grows. This increases mining difficulty, a measurement for how time – consuming it is to solve the cryptographic puzzles needed to validate a block. Unlocking the mining reward requires more guesses, which means more computing power. Miners thus must increase their facilities' computing power each time hashrate goes up in order to stay profitable, or they must raise the efficiency of their existing equipment. For instance, for every $1,000 increase in bitcoin price, US mining energy consumption increases by approximately 0.058 terawatt-hours per month, according to a recent study by the Berkeley Lab. Bitcoin may have lost some of its initial gains following the election, when it rose 50% in just three months, but much of the crypto world anticipates that its long-term rally will resume once new policies take shape. Major financial institutions are increasingly trusting of bitcoin, and Trump plans to create a reserve of cryptocurrency owned by the US government. Trump issued an executive order on 23 January, 'Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology', which promotes the right to mine, and he has hosted crypto mining executives at both Mar-a-Lago and the first White House Crypto Summit. Meanwhile, his promise to unleash domestic oil and gas is welcome news for an industry whose profitability is dictated by access to cheap energy. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion Echoing the federal mood, Republican senator Ted Cruz introduced the Facilitate Lower Atmospheric Released Emissions (Flare) Act on 31 March, which proposes using Texas's 'stranded' natural gas, a designation indicating the gas would cost more to recover than it would sell for, to help power bitcoin mining. Trump's promises offer a stark contrast to Biden's proposed 30% tax on miners' electricity and a first-of-its-kind survey of their energy usage. The EIA has no plans to resume this survey. Anti-mining protests play out in town halls across red states, where activists challenge local officials on why they have showered the industry with tax breaks and subsidized power. Riot Platforms has received almost $136m in power credits from Texas's grid operator since 2022, profiting more in credits than bitcoin mined in certain months, according to company filings. Despite this, Hood county, where Granbury is located, voted 82% for Trump in 2024, including many of the activists fighting against Mara. Copenhaver admits crypto did not factor into her vote. On the 600-member Bitcoin Noise Hood County Facebook group, videos are posted each week showcasing the hum while simultaneously praising Trump. One post, shared the morning after the election, shows sunlight streaming through a canopy of trees, as a symphony of birds competes with a deep thunder. 'November 6, thank you lord for getting Trump elected,' the video begins, before the narrator details how the sound has destroyed her peace. Jackie Sawicky, a resident of Corsicana, Texas, had led the 800-member Texas Coalition Against Cryptomining over the past few years. Sawicky got involved in the movement after Riot Platforms began constructing a site in her city. Although the site has so far not raised noise complaints, when finished it will have the 1 gigawatt of capacity – about the same consumption as 600,000 Texan households. One member told Sawicky they voted for Trump because of abortion. 'The unborn babies can't go deaf, but you and yours can,' she replied. 'And there are children in your community who are already losing their hearing because of this.' Disillusioned, she has taken a step back from the movement since the election and plans to leave the state. 'If there are policies that support increased mining, there's going to be more pollution and more community impacts,' says Mandy DeRoche, the deputy managing attorney at Earthjustice. DeRoche represents plaintiffs suing miners in three cases across the US, including five Granbury residents who filed a lawsuit against Mara in October, alleging noise-related damage to their health, wildlife and air. The sound has unleashed a number of health issues, plaintiffs say, including tinnitus, vertigo, hearing loss and heart arrhythmia, on top of insomnia and anxiety. Chronic exposure to low-frequency noise is known to affect health, but doesn't receive the attention that water contamination or air pollution attracts, says Willis. 'Disrupted sleep causes a cascade of other issues in someone's life. Lack of sleep is linked to depression, higher stress levels and chronic diseases like hypertension,' she says. Cyndie Roberson witnessed rampant sleeplessness change her community in Cherokee county, Georgia, when the noise from a mine began to echo through around 800 nearby homes. Neighbors became increasingly anxious, confrontational and angry. One suffered a heart attack. Another left due to acute emotional distress. 'There was so much lack of sleep. They weren't the same as they were before,' Roberson says. She sold her 'dream retirement cabin' in 2022 and left the county. In Granbury, Shadden says the sleepless nights have left her anxious and irritable. She endures chronic migraines and struggles at work. A nonstop buzzing in her ears also affects her sleep. After consulting an audiologist last year she was diagnosed with permanent conduction hearing loss. 'It's never going to come back,' she says. Mara disputes the accusations. 'There is no established link, medical or otherwise, between Mara's operations and the ailments that are being alleged,' the company said in a statement. The industry contends that noise can be mitigated with immersion-cooled machines, where ASICs are stored in dielectric oil, and by building sound walls. But critics dispute the efficacy of this promise. 'I wish it were true,' says DeRoche, on the question of immersion cooling. 'We can tell from both the research and from the experience on the ground that immersion cooling will decrease the sound in some way, but only by a percentage. It doesn't eliminate the sound,' she says. Immersion cooling often requires external dry coolers, which can be equally as noisy when deployed at scale. In response to the complaints from Granbury residents, Mara says that by November 2024, a sound wall had been constructed, two-thirds of machines had been replaced with immersion cooling, and an independent sound survey found levels to be below the legal limit of 85 decibels. The city's residents won an unexpected victory on 31 March. Constellation Energy withdrew its permit application for a third gas plant, citing community concerns and lower-than-expected returns. 'This is truly the best news I've had in a year and a half,' said Shadden. Meanwhile, the noise drones on. 'I just want quiet,' says Copenhaver. 'We're all feeling very defeated.' Three years on, she's still waiting for all of her dogs' fur to return. It may never. They're no longer puppies, and they've never known a home undisturbed by the hum of the mine.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
Motorcyclist dead after crash in Darke County
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A motorcyclist is dead after a crash Monday night. According to the Darke County Sheriff's Office, the driver of a Kawasaki Ninja and the driver of a GMC Terrain crashed at the intersection of State Route 49 and Hollansburg-Sampson Road in Arcanum. The crash occurred minutes after 7:30 p.m. after the driver of the Terrain failed to yield the right of way to the motorcyclist. The Terrain was at a stop sign on Hollansburg-Sampson Road and attempted to cross onto State Route 49 as the motorcycle was navigating. The motorcyclist — identified as Steven Copenhaver, 52, of Brookville — was ejected from the vehicle and later succumbed to injuries on scene. Copenhaver was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. An investigation is ongoing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Yahoo
Boy with autism rescued near lake shore after 2-hour search in Volusia County
The Brief A 9-year-old boy with autism was safely rescued after going missing for over two hours near a lake in DeLand, Florida. Deputies used air, boat, and ground searches to locate him on the banks of Lake Talmadge. Experts praised the community's swift action and highlighted the ongoing risks water poses for children with autism. DELAND, Fla. - A 9-year-old boy with autism was safely rescued after going missing for over two hours near a lake in DeLand, Florida. What we know A 9-year-old boy with autism was found safe after going missing near Lake Ruby Road in DeLand, Florida. He had been missing for more than two hours before deputies located him on the banks of Lake Talmadge. According to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, the child was trying to wave to a rescue helicopter. A full-scale search was launched involving air, boat, and ground units. What we don't know Authorities have not released the child's name or how exactly he managed to reach the lake without being noticed. It is also unclear who first spotted him on the shoreline or whether there were any supervision lapses prior to his disappearance. The backstory Children with autism are statistically at higher risk for drowning, as they are often drawn to water. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office has an autism awareness program in place, offering special water safety training to families. These preventative measures are designed to help avoid the very situation that unfolded near Lake Ruby Road. Timeline The boy was reported missing just before 5 p.m. Deputies launched a swift and comprehensive search operation. After more than two tense hours, the boy was found safely on the lake's edge. His voice was captured on body cam footage shortly after the rescue, calmly responding, "Yeah," when asked if he was all right. What they're saying Deputies could be heard comforting the boy in body-worn camera video. "Okay, buddy, we're going to get you, okay? Okay?" a deputy is heard saying in the video. "Yea," the boy responds. "Hey, sweet! Safety first!" another says as they approach the boy. Security expert and former detective James Copenhaver praised the rapid response. "The community immediately jumped into hero today found this young child alive and well." "These cases don't always end up as happy as this one did," Copenhaver added. "We just have to do better as a community to look out for these kids." Big picture view The incident highlights ongoing concerns about water safety for children with autism. Despite this case ending safely, experts emphasize the need for continued community awareness, specialized training, and proactive engagement to prevent future tragedies. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office's autism program aims to reduce such risks through education and outreach. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 35 ORLANDO: Download the FOX Local app for breaking news alerts, the latest news headlines Download the FOX 35 Storm Team Weather app for weather alerts & radar Sign up for FOX 35's daily newsletter for the latest morning headlines FOX Local:Stream FOX 35 newscasts, FOX 35 News+, Central Florida Eats on your smart TV The Source This story was written based on information shared by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
