The 24-year-old was sadly found deceased following several search operations after her disappearance

Friends and the local community are rallying around the family of a young mum-of-two who was found dead last month, a week after she went missing.

Caitlin Green from Gilford was sadly found deceased on February 7, following several search operations in Co Armagh after her disappearance in late January.

The 24-year-old was last seen in the Derry Road/Lord Lurgan Park area after leaving a friend’s home nearby at around 12.30pm on Saturday, January 31. Following Caitlin’s disappearance, extensive police searches took place with detectives also reviewing all available CCTV.

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She left behind a heartbroken family including her two young children, two-year-old Cadáin and 13-month-old Clíodhna; parents Stephanie and Barry; siblings Jason, Lela, Patrick and Lily-Rose and granny Siobhan.

Caitlin was laid to rest following Requiem Mass in St Patrick & St Colman’s Church, Laurencetown, where mourners heard that the young mum had once been commended for her bravery in saving the life of another.

Now a local fundraising page has been set up by family friend Nicola Cully to support Caitlin’s loved ones following her tragic passing.

Nicola told Belfast Live: “Our community has been left devastated by the tragic loss of Caitlin, known lovingly as Caity, a much-loved daughter and mother. She has left behind two beautiful young children who will now grow up without their mummy, and a heartbroken mother, who is not only grieving the unimaginable loss of her daughter but now also carrying the responsibility of supporting her grandchildren.

“As they try to come to terms with their devastating loss, they are also facing the financial pressures that come with laying a loved one to rest and supporting her children in the weeks and months ahead. There are still so many unanswered questions surrounding Caitlin’s passing, and the pain of that uncertainty makes this loss even harder for her family and friends.”

Nicola added: “We are raising funds to help ease some of the financial burden during this incredibly difficult time — to support funeral costs and ensure Caitlin is given the peaceful resting place she deserves, without her family having the added worry of financial strain.

“The GoFundMe page has been created by friends and members of the community who simply want to help ease some of that burden. This is about coming together to support a grieving family and ensuring Caitlin’s children are surrounded by care and security.

“The local community has already shown great compassion, and we hope anyone who is in a position to help will consider supporting the fundraiser or sharing it. Every donation, no matter how small, will go directly towards funeral costs and providing stability for Caitlin’s children during this incredibly difficult time.

“Let’s come together as a community to show love and support to a family facing the unimaginable.”

You can donate to the fundraiser here.

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The owners of the building have pleaded guility in court for failing to make repairs to the historic building

Court action has been taken out against the owner of a building that is falling apart. The former Franks Butchers in Market Place, Wisbech has been left to fall into disrepair.

The Whitfield Group, the building’s owners, has been prosecuted by Fenland District Council for failing to make improvements to the building within two months. At Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on February 17, the Whitfield Group pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the order, which was issued in March last year.

The owners had done some work on the site. Councillor Dee Laws, portfolio holder for planning, said: “We hope this action sends a message to all owners of heritage buildings in Fenland that we won’t stand by and watch them degrade.

“And that now the owners of this building will do the right thing and take the action we’ve ordered to preserve this important building’s future.” The owners now must comply with the order.

The council will work with the owners to agree a reasonable, as soon as possible, deadline for the works to be achieved. While in court, the owners were ordered to pay £810 for not complying with the order. If they fail to meet the next deadline, they could face further prosecution and a daily fine of up to £500.

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LONDON (AP) — Keir Starmer has never had a bad word to say in public about Donald Trump.

That is not being reciprocated now as the American president lambasts the British prime minister over his reluctance to join the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House, blasting Britain’s reluctance to let U.S. warplanes use its bases.

The dispute is roiling a relationship that Starmer worked hard to forge, and further straining trans-Atlantic ties frayed by Trump’s “America first” foreign policy and transactional approach to international relations.

Even after the British base at Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by an Iran-made drone over the weekend, Starmer said that the United Kingdom “will not join offensive action.” He said Tuesday that a Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Dragon, and Wildcat helicopters with counter-drone capabilities were being sent to the region as part of “defensive operations.” British forces have also shot down drones in Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, the government said.

Starmer has offered a rare, though implicit, rebuke of the U.S. president, saying Monday that the U.K. government doesn’t believe in “regime change from the skies.”

“Any U.K. actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan,” Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons on Monday.

“President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest,” Starmer added.

The Financial Times called it Starmer’s “Love Actually moment” — a reference to the 2003 movie scene in which a British prime minister played by Hugh Grant stands up to a bullying U.S. president played by Billy Bob Thornton.

Friction between the two leaders has been building for months. Trump’s threat to take over Greenland was denounced by Starmer and other European leaders earlier this year. Recently, Trump has condemned Britain’s agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands, home to the Diego Garcia base, to Mauritius, despite his administration earlier backing the deal.

Peter Ricketts, a former head of the U.K. Foreign Office, told The Observer newspaper that under Trump, “the Americans have effectively given up on any effort to be consistent with international law.”

That is a red line for the law-abiding Starmer, a barrister and former chief prosecutor for England and Wales.

The spat is a setback for Starmer’s efforts to woo Trump since the president’s return to office in 2025. The British government rolled out the red carpet to the president for a state visit as the guest of King Charles III, and Starmer consistently has praised Trump’s efforts — so far unsuccessful — to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Iran war has also divided European leaders, who fall along a spectrum from condemnation to support.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that he unreservedly approves of Trump’s decision to attack Iran and kill its supreme leader, and called the war crucial for Europe’s security.

The U.K., France and Germany jointly said that they weren’t involved in the strikes, but were prepared to enable “necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the strikes as “unjustifiable” and “dangerous.”

Polling suggests many Britons are skeptical of the U.S. justification for war. But politicians to the right of Starmer’s Labour Party slammed the prime minister for not joining the offensive. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that her party “stands behind America taking this necessary action against state-sponsored terror.”

Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty denied the U.S.-U.K. “special relationship” was on the ropes.

“Our relationship with the United States is strong,” he said Tuesday in the House of Commons. “It has endured, it continues to endure, and it will endure into the future on both the economic and the security fronts.”

Yvonne Ford was scratched by a dog while on holiday

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It was too late to save a grandmother’s life as she was diagnosed with rabies months after being grazed by a dog in Morocco, an inquest has heard.

Sheffield Coroner’s Court heard today (March 3) how Yvonne Ford, from Yorkshire, suffered several seemingly unexplainable symptoms for months.

The 59-year-old grandmother had gone to hospitals in Barnsley and Wakefield several times, reporting an insect bite above her ankle.

Her family say the Barnsley woman had been bitten by a stray dog in Morocco when she got up from a sunbed and startled it. They thought little of the scratch it left behind, simply wiping it with a wet wipe.

It wasn’t until she was referred to a mental health team at Barnsley Hospital last June that she was diagnosed with rabies, reports Yorkshire Live.

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Yvonne, who leaves behind two children and four grandchildren, died at Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, assistant coroner Marilyn Whittle explained to the jury of nine women and three men.

A rabies expert said doctors at Barnsley Hospital “were on the right track” as they struggled to find a diagnosis for Yvonne’s rare symptoms.

The inquest heard how Yvonne was admitted to Barnsley Hospital on June 2 after several medical appointments in March and April. She was suffering from “severe headaches” and a range of other symptoms, including poor mobility, struggling to drink, hallucinations, anxiety, disorientation and severe agitation.

Doctors at Barnsley Hospital were unable to provide a diagnosis, the jury was told. Junior doctor Dr Awan said: “In view of her current symptoms, we were still trying to find the organic cause. At the moment when we asked about travel history, it was made known that there were some insect bites above the ankle. We were investigating some kind of tick bite encephalitis.

“We were still trying to find if it was neurological or if there was any other cause. There was unexplained anxiety. For the nausea, we weren’t too sure. For the dehydration, there was no working diagnosis. Essentially, there was no working diagnosis at this point.”

On June 6, she was referred to the mental health liaison unit at Barnsley Hospital. Psychiatrist Dr Alex Burns reviewed Yvonne and admitted he had concerns about an infectious disease causing her hallucinations, agitation and anxiety.

Dr Burns said: “I had asked about travel, and I had asked about insect bites. It was very unclear what the diagnosis was. I wanted to think a bit more outside the box and think about rare conditions, including travel-related ones.” Yvonne’s husband informed Dr Burns they had travelled to Morocco in February. He told Dr Burns Yvonne was bitten by a dog on a beach after she startled it by getting up from a sunbed.

Dr Burns added: “I didn’t know all of the symptoms of rabies at that point, but after I spoke to Yvonne’s husband, I did speak to the medical team in the office, and that was to discuss what I had found out so far. At that point, because my knowledge of rabies was limited, I did look into it more regarding the symptoms, and it became clear that all of Yvonne’s symptoms could be explained by that diagnosis at that point.”

Yvonne’s daughter, Robyn Thomson, told Dr Burns: “We see you as a turning point into mum’s care, and we thank you for that.”

Rabies expert Dr Katharine Cartwright, consultant physician at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, defended the medical treatment Yvonne received. “This was a rare presentation of something rare. This was incredibly rare,” she said.

“A rabies diagnosis is so unusual, so out of everyone’s experience, I think it’s not unreasonable for it not to have been considered within a few days. Half of the American rabies diagnoses were made post-mortem. The fact we got a diagnosis of rabies before Yvonne died is good.”

Dr Cartwright explained that there had only been 26 recorded rabies cases in the UK since 1946. Once bitten or scratched, rabies has a near-100 per cent fatality rate, she said, adding: “Once the symptoms start, death within a couple of weeks is the norm. That means the virus has started to replicate in the brain, and it’s not salvageable from that point.”

Dr Cartwright said there was “no way to say when the virus reached her spinal cord”, after which there was no medical treatment. She said the cause of death was 1a rabies encephalitis.

Reviewed by Simon Lewis

Side sleepers often complain that pillows are too thin to support their necks. The answer would seem to be a thicker, firmer pillow – and that’s what we have here, in spades.

Panda’s hybrid pillow is five or six inches thick, which is just right for me but may be too much for smaller people or those with narrow shoulders, since there’s not much give in it. Being firm, it doesn’t lend itself well to sitting up in bed and reading, when you want to be able to fold your pillow.

The reason it won’t easily fold is a cell of charcoal-infused bamboo foam at its core, which wicks away moisture and heat and neutralises odours. It’s full of holes to improve breathability and to keep those holes open it needs to be fairly stiff.

I actually like the uncompromising firmness. I also like the sheer width: it covers a lot of space, which means you can change positions a lot and always find a cool spot to lay on. If you’ve never tried bamboo, it is beautifully soft: a bit like cashmere but less fluffy and with a soothing effect. You don’t need a pillowcase (not many will be big enough anyway): you just remove the cover and machine-wash it.

I sleep brilliantly on the Panda Hybrid, but it might be a good idea to try one out in-store to check it’s not too thick for you.

In the same range:

Panda’s standard memory foam pillow, which is a little thinner with more give, may be a better bet.

Key specifications

• Fill type: Charcoal-infused bamboo memory foam and bamboo and recycled polyester microfibre
• Firmness level: Firm
• Sizes available: Standard

In the annual State of the Union address in late February, the US president, Donald Trump, declared: “This is the golden age of America.” In a lengthy and wide-ranging address, the president told his fellow Americans that the nation was “bigger, better, richer and stronger” than ever before.

The US economy, and specifically the cost of living, was the key issue with voters in the 2024 presidential election. Exit polls from key states showed that, among voters who said the economy was the most important issue for them, 90% voted for Trump.

However, results from a more recent poll suggest voters are not happy with his economic agenda. Among the more than 2,500 adults surveyed, 57% said they disapprove of the way the president is managing the economy, 65% disapprove of the way he is handling inflation and 64% disapprove of how he is handing tariffs.

With mid-term elections coming in November, the economy is likely to continue to be a key factor with US voters. So are the president’s bold claims supported by the data?

On the president’s claim that inflation is “plummeting”, he can indeed claim success. At the start of his second term in January 2025, inflation was 3%. By January 2026, this had dropped to 2.4% and is now closing in on the 2% target set by the Federal Reserve, the US’s central bank. The rate of increase in prices is slowing and this should ease cost-of-living pressures for US consumers.

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What about the claim that the US economy is “roaring like never before”? In 2025, the economy grew at 2.2%, lower than the 2.8% growth during President Joe Biden’s last year in office but above the average growth of around 2% achieved over the last few decades.

So while “roaring” might be an exaggeration, given there was a 43-day government shutdown in the last quarter of 2025 the US economy is achieving impressive growth. The International Monetary Fund expects the US to grow at the fastest rate among the world’s most advanced economies again in 2026.

Trump is often keen to cite the US stock market as an indicator of how well the country’s economy is performing. In his address he said the stock market had set “53 all-time record highs” since his election.

This is true, and in early February the Dow Jones index crossed the historic milestone of 50,000 points. Overall, the US stock market gained 19% in the period from January 2025 until February 2026. However, analysis shows that when compared to stock market returns from other advanced economies, the US ranks 21st out of 23 countries with only New Zealand and Denmark indices doing worse.

Campaigning in 2024, Trump had pledged to slash energy prices by 50%. In his address, he claimed that reductions in energy prices that were like “another big tax cut” for US consumers.

However, in the 12 months to January 2026, electricity prices rose by 6.3%, more than double the rate of inflation. Natural gas prices rose by 9.8% during the same period. Energy-hungry data centres to feed the AI boom are a key driver of US energy prices and this trend looks set to continue in the short term at least.

Job creation has historically been a key metric with US voters. On this issue the president told his audience there were more Americans working “than ever before”. With around 164 million Americans in work, this statement is true. The US is experiencing population growth, and so it is not surprising that the number of people in employment is rising.

However, the US unemployment rate was 4.3% in January 2026, a slight increase on the 4% rate in January 2025. The US added an average of 49,000 jobs per month in 2025, down from an estimated gain of 168,000 a month the year before.

Economic challenges remain

Tariffs have been the cornerstone of Trump’s second-term economic policy agenda. He even claimed they helped drive US stock market prices to historic highs, although there is little evidence to support this.

There was only a brief mention in his State of the Union speech regarding the US Supreme Court decision ruling against his liberation day tariffs, describing it as “unfortunate”.

The US government is now facing more than 2,000 lawsuits from companies looking to reclaim US$175 billion (£131 billion) in tariffs they have paid since last April. Experts agree that the situation is a mess and the uncertainty around how or whether tariffs will be applied going forward will only deepen this.

It is not surprising that tariffs are unpopular with US consumers. Research from the New York Federal Reserve found that nearly 90% of the economic burden of tariffs fell on US firms and consumers. The Tax Foundation, aou non-partisan thinktank, estimates that tariffs amounted to an average tax increase of US$1,000 per US household in 2025. The US bombing of Iran could drive up oil prices and this may fuel inflation in the coming months.

There are also rising concerns among the president’s Maga base about the potential effect of AI on jobs and energy prices. Polling for the Financial Times found about 60% of Trump voters were concerned about AI’s rapid development and almost 80% believed the technology needed more regulation.

US taxpayers are due to start receiving some of the US$4.8 trillion in tax cuts promised by the president’s One Big Beautiful Act passed in 2025. But with the midterms looming, it remains to be seen how much credit the president will get for this.

This recipe comes from Dee Retalli, co-founder of at Fortitude Bakehouse in London, where fermentation plays a key role in the intense flavour of the cakes. It’s optional here, but do try it if you have time. You might think apple and tarragon are an odd pairing, but it really works. The cake keeps well in an airtight container for a week.

Requires cooling and chilling time, and optional fermentation time

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday and warned residents of more than 80 villages to evacuate as the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group said it was ready for an “open war” with Israel in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

The development came after Hezbollah fired rockets and launched drones early Monday toward northern Israel. Israel retaliated with a wave of airstrikes that killed 40 people in Lebanon, including a Palestinian militant and a Hezbollah intelligence official in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

That death toll is a revised figure from an earlier one reported by the Health Ministry, which said Monday that 52 people died in the strikes. Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told reporters on Tuesday that 40 died.

Lebanon also said 246 people were wounded and tens of thousands displaced.

Hezbollah said on Tuesday morning it fired two salvos of rockets toward northern Israel while Israeli airstrikes overnight damaged a building housing Hezbollah’s TV and radio stations. Beirut’s southern suburbs saw a series of strikes early on Tuesday afternoon that came without warning, and the Israeli military later said it targeted Hezbollah officials.

The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, warned residents of more than 80 villages and towns in southern Lebanon to leave, adding that people should not return to these areas until further notice.

A senior Hezbollah official said that after more than a year of abiding by a ceasefire as Israel’s strikes continued on Lebanon, the group’s patience has ended, leaving it with no option but to fight Israel. “The Zionist enemy wanted an open war, which it has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement,” Mohamoud Komati said.

“So let it be an open war,” added the Hezbollah official.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, France and Egypt on Tuesday that Hezbollah has been firing rockets from areas north of the Litani River.

The Lebanese government said in January that Hezbollah weapons and military facilities have been removed from the area south of the river and along the border with Israel, and that Lebanese troops are in full control of the area between the river and the border.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it has sent additional troops into southern Lebanon and took new positions on several strategic points close to the border. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the Lebanese army was evacuating some of its positions along the border.

Adraee, the Israeli spokesman, posted on X that the troops’ movements inside Lebanon is part of efforts to bolster Israel’s forward defense system and create an addition layer of security.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the Lebanese army was evacuating some of its border positions.

A Lebanese military official confirmed to The Associated Press that Israeli troops had moved into several areas in southern Lebanon on Tuesday and that the Lebanese army was “repositioning” in the area. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, later Tuesday said its peacekeepers saw Israeli troops making forays across the border and then returning to Israel. It wasn’t immediately clear how many soldiers remained inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah began firing into Israel a day after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza. After months of low-level fighting, that conflict escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024 and Israel later launched a ground invasion of Lebanon.

Israeli forces withdrew from most of southern Lebanon after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted the fighting in November 2024 but continued to occupy five points on the Lebanese side of the border. Israel also continued with near-daily strikes, primarily in southern Lebanon, saying that Hezbollah has been trying to rebuild its forces in the area.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry also said Tuesday that 397 people had been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect and before Hezbollah launched its latest attacks.

Tennis legend Boris Becker has opened up about his affair during his first marriage, admitting to cheating but setting the record straight on the timing

Boris Becker has offered his version of events following allegations he was unfaithful to his ex-wife whilst she was in labour. The former Wimbledon champion has previously attracted attention for his remarkably complex romantic life alongside his sporting achievements.

The German had earlier acknowledged being unfaithful to his first wife, Barbara Feltus, which ultimately resulted in their separation before he wed Sharlely Kerssenberg and subsequently his current wife, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro.

However, clarifying what actually occurred, Becker dismissed the claim that he betrayed Feltus during childbirth, though he did verify that Feltus was hospitalised.

“There were no contractions,” Becker told The Louis Theroux Podcast. “She was in hospital, but there was no contractions. No.

“Fast forward, we settled in a divorce. I cheated on her, no doubt about that. We managed to have a relationship that’s built on respect.

“She’s a wonderful mother to my two oldest boys. She actually moved to Milan this year as well.

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“So we moved on from that. There were a couple of scenes after our divorce.

“Again, it’s so long ago. I have to really think hard about what happened that weren’t so nice from her.

“Without getting into too much detail, she had the power because I was the bad guy. She got a nice cheque out of it.

“She got a nice monthly support out of it. And she realised that nobody’s perfect.

“I like to call myself a good father. I really looked after my two oldest, even though they weren’t living in Europe at the time, and they moved to Miami.

“So 25 years later, we really consider each other a close knit family, regardless of what happened.”

Residents of Syracuse, New York — America’s snowiest city — once barraged a service hotline with street neglect complaints during blizzards, even if plows had passed two hours earlier but the work was hidden by fresh snow.

Now public trust seems to be rising as Syracuse and other cities across the U.S. integrate upgrades such as video monitoring, GPS mapping and artificial intelligence into snow operations that once relied almost entirely on manual planning.

Syracuse was one of the first to revamp the way it deploys its snowplows, and complaint calls have dropped by 30% under the new system, said Conor Muldoon, the city’s chief innovation officer.

“People will look out their window and say, ‘Hey, you guys are doing a terrible job,’” Muldoon said. “And we can point to a public map and say, ‘Here’s all the breadcrumbs for when that plow was there.’”

Snowier than usual in the US snow capital

Each winter, Syracuse averages 126 inches (3.2 meters) of snow, more than any other U.S. city of at least 100,000 people. Even before the blizzard that pounded the Northeast last week, the city had already surpassed its typical average due to a record 2-foot (60-centimeter) accumulation on one day in late December.

With a goal of clearing every street within 24 hours after a storm, Syracuse partnered in 2021 with San Francisco-based Samsara to put live GPS tracking and dashcams on city fleet vehicles including snowplows. Integrated with GIS mapping software, the system allows officials to monitor live video and plow locations in real time.

While residents can’t access live feeds, they can view a public map that updates every 5 minutes to show which roads have been cleared.

Samsara started incorporating AI into its products in 2019. This winter, for the first time, it has provided customers with footage from other cameras within its large network, helping officials better understand conditions on a street even when no worker is there.

Kiren Sekar, the company’s chief product officer, cited an example of needing to dispatch the closest plow for a snow emergency in Plainwell, Michigan.

“Rather than having to sift through a list of vehicles, it can actually figure this out: ‘We’ve got Trevor in vehicle 203, 15 minutes away,’” Sekar said.

New York City’s approach

Samsara partners with communities of various sizes to upgrade their snowplow systems, but the nation’s largest city — New York City — developed its own.

Its tracking program known as BladeRunner monitors snow removal equipment (including garbage trucks with plows attached) while a human in a command center — not AI — analyzes the GPS data. The city is exploring AI in the future to process the thousands of 311 calls and online service requests it can get in a single day.

The other way the big city’s approach differs from its upstate neighbor of Syracuse is that every block gets the same treatment, with each plow assigned a specific route during a storm. Typically 99% of the city’s roads will be plowed within the first four hours after a moderate snowfall under ideal conditions, but it didn’t quite meet that mark during last week’s historic storm, said Joshua Goodman, deputy commissioner at the city’s Department of Sanitation.

Goodman said all streets in New York City get the same treatment, regardless of whether they are main or side streets.

“So what it does is allow equity,” he said.

Cutting costs and insurance claims

With U.S. cities and states spending upward of $4 billion each year on snow operations, the new technology also helps assure roads aren’t overplowed or oversalted, which can cause environmental damage.

Fayetteville, Arkansas, launched a public-facing snow removal map for the first time this winter. It reported improvements in plowing time, labor costs and fuel savings, despite enduring about double the snow from a year ago.

“This is the first year some roads have ever been treated or plowed, and that goes right back to being able to see where we need to go and if we’ve been there,” said Ross Jackson Jr., the city’s fleet operations manager.

The township of Edison, New Jersey, reduced its spending on salt and brine by 35% and its insurance payouts by 60%, thanks to video that helped prove plow drivers usually weren’t at fault when the vehicles collided with another motorist’s car.

Video installed on snowplows in Iowa helped demonstrate that all but one of 12 snowplow accidents in a single day were the other driver’s fault, said Craig Bargfrede, the state’s winter operations administrator.

“How can you not see this big orange truck with flashing lights ahead of you?” he said. “Boom, they just drive right into us.”

Kalamazoo County was the first county in Michigan to employ turn-by-turn navigation to dispatch snowplows during a storm. Rusty McClain, assistant general superintendent of its Road Commission, called it a huge improvement in efficiency.

“The old-school way of doing it, that bird’s eye view of where everyone needs to go to plow, was just in a large book with paper maps,” McClain said. “You’d have to pull over, find the page you’re looking for, call somebody on the phone and ask if they have plowed that area.”