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Boston City Council peppers BHA about public housing safety after shooting, OD death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

A highly-publicized overdose death that occurred in a public housing unit with four children present didn’t really cause much of a stir at the Boston Housing Authority, where management says unresponsive person reports are “pretty common.”The incident, which occurred in the Mary Ellen McCormack facility, led to an initial response from the city’s police, fire and EMS, but not from the BHA’s own police force or security personnel.The BHA administrator wasn’t notified, beyond being told that it was a “lower priority call,” for what turned out to be a squalid scene that resulted in the death of a transgender person and four children being taken into custody by the state Department of Children and Families.According to City Council President Ed Flynn, it was he and fellow Councilor Michael Flaherty who alerted the administrator to what was happening on scene, in an apartment managed by the Boston Housing Authority.“I would want to know about that situation though if I were in that leade...

Really high school: proposal would allow students to use medical pot at school

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

Bay State high schools may soon have stoned students (lawfully) roaming the halls.Under a proposal heard by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy on Tuesday, Massachusetts students with medical marijuana prescriptions would be allowed to use pot on school grounds.“This issue is incredibly important,” state Sen. Susan Moran told her colleagues before speaking in support of S.59, or An Act to allow students access to prescription cannabis.“Since medical marijuana use was legalized in 2012, thousands of patients across the commonwealth have been able to effectively utilize treatment under proper medical supervision. This includes school-age children, many of whom medical marijuana treatment has enabled to live more easily in their conditions,” she said.Under current state law, marijuana use and possession is generally prohibited on school property. That means a student who uses marijuana to treat a condition could go through the full school day without their prescribed m...

Patriots fan who witnessed fatal fight calls on NFL to tackle brawling

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

An eyewitness to Sunday night’s fight at Gillette Stadium that ended in a fan’s death is calling on the league to control the brawling that’s being glorified on social media.“It’s sad and senseless,” said Joe Kilmartin of Nashua, N.H., who watched as a fellow Granite State man died near him in the upper tier at the Foxboro stadium after grappling with a Dolphins fan.That death is under investigation by the Norfolk DA’s office, as the Herald has reported. Authorities have not said if any charges will be filed in the death of Dale Mooney, 53, of Newmarket, N.H.Kilmartin, 29, said he did not know Mooney but recorded the clash on his cellphone. He added that he had shared that clip with police.He also texted a copy of that video to the Herald, and it shows a man, believed to be Mooney, high up in Section 310 fighting with a fan in a Miami Dolphins team shirt. Mooney, it appears, was wearing a Number 10 Patriots jersey, the same number worn by qu...

AG makes push for powers to crack down on wage theft

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

With up to $1 billion in wages taken from Bay State employees every year, lawmakers are attempting — again — to change the law to help their constituents get the money they’ve worked so hard to earn from unscrupulous employers.A pair of bills filed by Rep. Daniel Donahue and Sen. Sal DiDomenico heard by the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development on Tuesday would empower the Attorney General to take action on behalf of employees seeking lost wages and allow her office to investigate complaints of wage theft and take civil action against employers who steal from their staff.According to AG Andrea Campbell, it’s a problem her office hears about frequently.“Our Fair Labor team continues to receive a high volume of reports of violations. In Fiscal Year 2023, we received 13,000 calls and fielded over 6,600 complaints,” she told the committee.Under consideration are H1868 and S1158, or An Act to prevent wage theft, promote employer accountability, and enhance public enforcement...

Texas prisoner accused of killing 22 older women is slain by cellmate while serving life sentence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

By JAMIE STENGLE (Associated Press)DALLAS (AP) — A Texas prisoner accused of killing 22 older women over two years, preying on them so he could steal jewelry and other valuables, was slain Tuesday by his cellmate while serving a life sentence, prison officials said.Billy Chemirmir, 50, who was convicted last year in the slayings of two women, was found dead in his cell at a prison in rural East Texas, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Hannah Haney said. He was killed by his cellmate who was also serving a prison sentence for murder, according to Haney.Chemirmir’s death comes about two weeks after Texas’ 100 prisons were placed on a rare statewide lockdown because of a rise in the number of killings inside the facilities, which prisons officials have said were related to drugs.Haney did not release the name of the cellmate, how Chemirmir was killed or what may have led to the slaying.Family members of those he was accused of killing expressed shock a...

California truck drivers ask Gov. Newsom to sign job-saving bill as self-driving big rigs are tested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers, union leaders and truck drivers are trying to steer Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom toward signing into law a proposal that could save jobs as self-driving trucks are tested for their safety on the roads.The legislation would ban self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) — which would include vehicles from UPS delivery trucks to massive semi-trucks — from operating on public roads unless a human driver is on board. Proponents of the bill say it would help address concerns about safety and losing truck driving jobs to automation in the future. Under the bill, the rules would be in effect until at least 2029.Republican Assemblymember Tom Lackey, one of the bill’s co-authors, said lawmakers aren’t “against technology,” but they see the bill as a safer way for companies to test self-driving trucks.“We want balance because we believe in people, and we believe in public safety,” Lackey said. “When surpri...

Ohtani has elbow surgery. His doctor expects hitting return by opening day ’24 and pitching by ’25

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani had elbow surgery Tuesday, and his doctor said he expects the two-way star will be available as a hitter on opening day next season and will return to the mound as a pitcher in 2025.Ohtani tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow on Aug. 23, ending his pitching season. He continued as a batter through Sept. 3 until an oblique strain.Los Angeles Dodgers head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache operated Tuesday at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles. He said in a statement that the sides decided to “reinforce the healthy ligament in place,” suggesting the UCL wasn’t reconstructed via Tommy John surgery. ElAttrache also performed Tommy John surgery on Ohtani on Oct. 1, 2018.“I had a procedure done on my elbow earlier this morning and everything went very well,” Ohtani said in a post on Instagram. “Thank you very much for everyone’s prayers and kind words. It was very unfort...

Climate, development, India top of mind as Trudeau arrives at UN General Assembly

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

NEW YORK — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived Tuesday at the UN General Assembly with the planet at a climate crossroads — and Canada facing an ever more fraught relationship with the world’s fastest-growing economy. The day before, Trudeau rocked the House of Commons with “credible allegations” linking agents of India’s government to the deadly shooting this past June of a Sikh leader in Surrey, B.C. At the UN, however — a place where political realities have a way of sabotaging multilateral visions of peace, prosperity and equity — Trudeau was determined to focus on the latter.“The time has come for all of us to step up and understand: the future is expecting us all to meet this moment,” he told a summit taking stock of progress to date on the UN’s sustainable development goals. Those goals, established in 2015 as the UN’s road map for a safe, equitable and peaceful world, include lofty ambitions like eliminating poverty and hunge...

California regulators order Arrowhead bottled water to stop drawing from some mountain springs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California regulators on Tuesday ordered the company that owns Arrowhead bottled water to stop using some of the natural springs it has relied on for more than a century, a victory for community groups who have said for years that the practice has drained an important creek that is a habitat for wildlife and helps protect the area from wildfires.Arrowhead bottled water traces its roots to a hotel at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains that first opened in 1885 and began selling bottled spring water from its basement in 1906. But environmental and community groups say the company has never had permission to take water from the springs, which flow through the San Bernardino National Forest on public lands.On Tuesday, after eight years of wrangling that included dozens of hearings, the State Water Resources Control Board agreed that BlueTriton — the company that owns the Arrowhead brand — does not have permission to use the water and ordered them to stop....

Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians get 3% annual raises in 3-year labor contract

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:57 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and members of the Chicago Federation of Musicians voted Tuesday to ratify a three-year labor contract that incudes 3% annual salary raises.The deal was announced Sunday and replaces a five-year contract expiring this month. The orchestra said health care, insurance and retirement benefits will be retained. The CSO said the deal includes cost reductions, managerial efficiencies, increased revenue opportunities and improved working conditions.CSO musicians struck for two days in September 2012 and for seven weeks in March and April 2019 before agreeing to a contract calling for a 13.25% wage increase over five years.Music director emeritus for life Riccardo Muti will lead the CSO season-opening concert Sept. 21 at Orchestra Hall and take the orchestra to New York to open Carnegie Hall’s season Oct. 4.The Associated Press