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School Committee approves ‘transitional’ $1.4 million budget

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

Following long debates over priorities, fiscal cliffs and ESSER funds, Superintendent Mary Skipper’s $1.4 million dollar budget has received school committee approval — narrowly avoiding a passed deadline.“The FY ’24 budget helps us as a transitional budget to really prepare for FY ’25’s fiscal cliff and set our initiatives up with foundational work,” explained Skipper before the vote Wednesday night.The proposed budget — repeatedly called a “transitional” or “building block” budget moving out of the pandemic and federal funding — represents a $71.7 million increase over the current budget, with big increases to salary and facility costs and investments in multilingual, inclusive and other programs.The measure was approved with four in favor and members Brandon Cardet Hernandez and Stephen Alkins opposed — member Lorena Lopera was not present to vote. The plan will now come before city officials for ...

Ousted MassGOP chair sues party for triple back pay, gets sued by UPS

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

The former chairman of the MassGOP suddenly finds himself in the middle of two lawsuits, alleging in one the party he used to lead failed to pay him thousands in owed salary, and accused in another of stiffing the United Parcel Services company for even more.“The defendants have refused to honor the Contract through their failure to pay UPS for the total amount of the shipping services provided,” attorneys for the delivery company wrote in a February court filing alleging a business owned by former MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons and his wife owes them over $70,000.According to the court filing, Dandi-Lyons Franchise Corporation, a flower store and dairy stand in Tewksbury, arranged to pay UPS for shipping “numerous items between the dates of November 1, 2020 through July 3, 2021.”Lawyers for the shipping giant allege an audit of items shipped by them for Lyons’ company “were inaccurately described by the defendant with respect to the items’ weight as well as their dimensiona...

Fenway rooming house Our Lady’s Guild House to be sold to 2 local non-profits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

A Fenway rooming house for women will change hands a day after the state attorney general’s office announced it had reached a deal with the ownership to stop evictions and settle discrimination claims against it.Two Boston-based non-profit affordable housing developers, the Planning Office for Urban Affairs and Fenway Community Development Corporation, announced Thursday evening that they had signed an option agreement with the Our Lady’s Guild House, a rooming house for women at 20 Charlesgate West with 140 units.In a statement, the groups say they “plan to redevelop the property as 100% permanent affordable housing.”On Wednesday, state Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced her office had secured a deal to stop evictions, settle allegations of age and disability discrimination against long-term tenants and secured a $115,000 penalty payment.Rooms in the house — which a resident told the Herald in an email are to be called “single-room occupancy … not apartments” as they share ...

20 cases of Candida auris reported in San Diego area this year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A deadly fungal infection that is being warned about by the Centers for Disease Control for its "dramatic" increase in cases has already been in the San Diego area for several years, local health officials said.Since 2020, 92 cases of Candida auris, a type of yeast that can cause severe illness in hospitalized patients, have been reported in San Diego County, Tim McClain, a spokesman with the county's Health and Human Services Agency, told FOX 5 Thursday. Suspect in triple murder arrested following transfer from Mexico Three cases of C. auris were reported in 2020, nine in 2021, 60 in 2022 and 20 thus far in 2023, McClain confirmed. At the current rate, the fungal infection will exceed the total cases in 2022.C. auris primarily affects older people and those with weakened immune systems, rejects treatments from traditional antifungal medications and has a mortality rate of up to 60%, per the CDC.San Diego hospitals are on high alert with cases already confirmed locall...

Police seek help in sexual battery investigation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Police detectives investigating a series of sexual battery cases in San Diego released photos of a man in their plea for the public's help in identifying him.The incidents took place in Pacific Beach and Balboa Park, police said. In each case, police say the man was riding a black Apollo scooter. ‘Very disturbing’: What to know about the potentially deadly fungus spreading in the US The man is described as white or Hispanic, in his 20s, between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-10 with a thin build, medium complexion and dark brown, shoulder-length hair.Anyone who may have been a victim is asked to come forward.

Alberta Energy Regulator cites company for causing seismic events in Peace River area

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

EDMONTON — The Alberta Energy Regulator has cited an energy company for causing a series of earthquakes, including the largest recorded tremblor in the province’s history.The environmental protection order issued against Obsidian Energy Ltd. Thursday came the same day a scientific paper was published showing those earthquakes were caused by industry activity — not natural causes, as the regulator initially suggested.In November, parts of Alberta near the northwestern town of Peace River were rocked by a series of quakes culminating in one that reached a 5.6 magnitude. Residents reported being knocked to their knees. The earth was pushed upward by more than three centimetres — enough to register on satellites.“This event was caused by wastewater disposal,” said Ryan Schultz, a Canadian seismologist who helped conduct the research while at Stanford University in California. His paper on the event, written with colleagues at the University of Alberta and Natural...

SC Senate OKs bill barring ‘foreign adversary’ land holdings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill Thursday that would bar citizens of “foreign adversary” nations from buying property in the state, an anti-espionage measure that critics fear will chill overseas investments over outsize concerns.The measure approved Thursday by a 31-5 vote would apply to citizens of so-called adversarial countries on a U.S. Department of Commerce list that currently includes China, Russia, Cuba, Iran and North Korea.The bill is one of numerous like-minded measures that have arisen across the country after a suspected Chinese spy balloon recently floated over U.S. territory and was brought down off the South Carolina coast. The overflight fueled lawmakers’ worries that nefarious actors may advance surveillance efforts under the guise of land ownership. At least 11 state legislatures are considering similar proposals.The leading sponsor of the South Carolina bill, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, said h...

Honolulu police officers plead not guilty in crash, cover-up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Four Honolulu police officers pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges related to their roles in a cover-up of a high-speed chase that resulted in a crash and a traumatic brain injury to the driver of another car.The officers entered their pleas before Circuit Court Judge Christine E. Kuriyama, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.One officer, Joshua J.S. Nahulu, 37, pleaded not guilty to a charge for a collision that resulted in serious bodily injury. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Officers Erik X.K. Smith, 25, Jake R.T. Bartolome, 35, and Robert G. Lewis III, whose age was not listed in charging documents, each pleaded not guilty to one felony count for hindering prosecution and another felony count for conspiracy. The first charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, the second by up to one year.The four officers were dispatched to respond to a noise complaint at a Waianae beach park at 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2021, according to court doc...

Ling Ma, Beverly Gage among authors honored by book critics

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Ling Ma’s sharp and surreal “Bliss Montage” and Beverly Gage’s sweeping biography of the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, “G-Man,” were among the winners Thursday night of the National Book Critics Circle awards. Ma’s story collection won the prize for fiction, with the judges praising her “sometimes startling” portraits of racism and xenophobia, and her gift for pulling readers “into a world where everything has been called into question.” Last week, “Bliss Montage” received the Story Prize for outstanding short fiction. Gage, whose book earlier in the day was honored by the New-York Historical Society, won Thursday night for best biography. “G-Man” has been widely praised as a thorough and nuanced take on one of the country’s most polarizing figures, and was cited by the critics circle for weaving together Hoover’s life and the “paradoxical national story involving American anxieties over security, masculinity, and race.”Other works ...

Messi mania grips Argentina in 1st match as World Cup champs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Messi mania has gripped Buenos Aires as the Argentina national team led by Lionel Messi faces Panama on Thursday in a friendly match that essentially is a celebration of their World Cup victory last December.News channels carried live images of the players traveling to the stadium with a police escort as excited fans waited to see the team’s first game since it beat France in a thrilling final in Qatar.Outside the Monumental Stadium there was a party-like atmosphere from early in the afternoon as somebody impersonating Pope Francis blessed a World Cup replica, children almost universally donned Messi’s No. 10 jersey and street sellers hawked Messi dolls. Amid the celebrations there were also recriminations as many fans lamented they’d bought tickets for several times their face value from resellers that ended up being fake.“This World Cup was a miracle,” Marcelo Saracho, 49, said while dressed up like the pope, an Argentine, but with his ch...