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Jake Pratt is no stranger to hard work.

The 22-year-old from Vestavia Hills, Alabama, who has Down syndrome, worked hard in school, played football, graduated college and applied to work at a temporary job at the Birmingham UPS facility.

His partner, UPS driver Richard Wilson, said Pratt’s attitude sets him above the rest.

“Working with Jake is awesome. He brings the right amount of energy and determination to get the job done,” said Wilson. “He’s very motivated and he’s also made a difference in my life.”

A Harlingen UPS driver was recognized for a significant milestone on Tuesday. Pablo Sanchez has driven nearly 2 million miles without a single blemish on his driving record.

Sanchez has been delivered packages across the Rio Grande Valley for the last 49 years and was even one of the original eight employees hired when UPS first came to the Valley.

“We were responsible for everything,” he recalls. “Washing the trucks, filling them up, unloading the trailers, loading the trucks, [and] delivering all day. Now we’ve got different people for different jobs.”

While he said, a lot has changed, from how the job works to the places he delivers to around Willacy County, every day of the near half-century is enjoyable.

A Jacksonville father is being mourned after his family said he gave his own life for his two children.

Larry Dupree, 31, was swimming in the water with two of his four kids when the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said a rip current pulled the three individuals further out from shore around 1:45 pm on Sunday.

Beachgoers formed a human chain in an effort to save the two children, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

He was a UPS driver for several years..

Independent Health and UPS are looking to hire.

Independent Health and an affiliate company, Nova Healthcare Administrators, are filling a combined 57 full-time customer service positions by late May or June.

And UPS plans to hire for more than 100 permanent, part-time package handling positions in Buffalo at its James E. Casey Drive facility in Lovejoy.

Both companies are trying to hire at a time when the region’s unemployment rate is 7.3%, but many employers say they are struggling to find people to fill positions. The region still has about 33,000 fewer jobs than it had in February 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic caused widespread job losses last spring.