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Battenfeld: Maura Healey pick to chair MCCA faced own accusations about lack of diversity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey’s new chair of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, who just engineered the ouster of executive director David Gibbons, faced accusations of being a “stumbling block” to diversity while she was a top official in Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s administration.Emme Handy, former Chief Financial Officer under Walsh, came under fire after a long-awaited 703-page city report found that few city contracts went to businesses owned by people of color.The findings were so bad that the head of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts called on Handy and another top Walsh official to be fired and called them “stumbling blocks” to diversity.“Bold leadership is required to immediately correct this systemic problem,” the council said in a statement reported by the Bay State Banner.Despite that, Handy, who has since left city government, was picked by Healey to chair the MCCA in a board shakeup that eventually led to Gibbons – who made $316,000 in 2022 – agreeing to a “m...

Patriots QB Will Grier shares mentality if he gets called on to play

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

FOXBORO — Quarterback Will Grier received additional opportunities when the Patriots ran practice differently during the bye week.Offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien said Grier, along with Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe, all got work with the first-team offense last Wednesday. Head coach Bill Belichick said the Patriots gave players who haven’t received many snaps this season more work in that practice since the team was running their own plays, not scout-team work.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Mac Jones gets good news at first Patriots practice after bye week New England Patriots | Bill Belichick helping to fill void in Patriots assistant coach’s absence New England Patriots | Bill Belichick explains why Patriots QB Will Grier took first-team reps in practice New England Patriots | Bill Belichick suggests Patriots won’t name starting quarterback until Sunday New England Patriots | ...

Over 100K sign tipped wage ballot petition

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

Campaigners for a “One Fair Wage” ballot initiative seeking to allow tipped workers a standard minimum wage announced the petition has far exceeded the 75,000 signature threshold required to secure a spot on the November 2024 ballot on Monday.“We’re here today to celebrate that we have officially gathered over 100,000 signatures,” said One Fair Wage Organizing Director Estefania Galvis at a press event Monday evening. “And we are very, very confident it will be on the ballot next year.”The One Fair Wage ballot question, if it goes to the ballot and is passed by voters, would incrementally phase out the state’s minimum $6.75 “service rate” wage by 2029, allowing tipped workers in restaurant and hospitality industries to earn at least the standard minimum wage in addition to tips.The ballot initiative was proposed in the fall and must pass additional measures in order to be put on the 2024 ballot.Proponents at the press confe...

5 things you should know about the Fall Economic Statement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

The Trudeau government released its fall economic statement, which focuses on housing, affordability, and the green economy and includes a potential path back to balanced budgets.Here are five things you need to know.HousingThe Federal government is announcing $15 billion in new loan funding to build more than 30,000 new rental units in Canada. An additional $1 billion over three years will go to the affordable housing fund. The catch is neither of these actions will kick in until 2025, the expected year of the next federal election.On housing, the federal government is earmarking $15 billion for low-cost loans to developers as well as $1 billion for affordable housing. Photo: Marcus Lenk.Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, the government intends to deny income tax deductions for expenses on short-term rental units, like Airbnb’s, in provinces and municipalities that have prohibited short-term rentals. It is also proposing $50 million over three years, starting in 2024, to support municip...

1 injured in fire at 650 Parliament, site of massive 2018 blaze that displaced residents for years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

A two-alarm fire at an apartment complex at 650 Parliament Street north of Wellesley Street sent a man to hospital and his two dogs to a veterinarian for treatment on Tuesday.Toronto Fire said crews responded to reports of heavy smoke and fire coming from an 18th floor unit.The lone occupant was able to escape the apartment on his own and his two dogs were rescued by firefighters.Officials say the blaze has now been doused and crews are ventilating the building.TFS on-scene at a 2-alarm residential highrise fire on Parliament north of Wellesley. Crews investigated reports of heavy smoke and fire in an 18th floor unit. One building occupant is being assessed by EMS at this time. Fireground operations continue. ^bp #Toronto pic.twitter.com/qaidMhj5Cw— Toronto Fire Services (@Toronto_Fire) November 21, 2023The fire was contained to one unit. It’s not yet clear how it started.In 2018, the same building was the scene of a massive six-alarm electrical fire that displaced resi...

No one was injured when a US Navy plane landed in a Hawaii bay, but some fear environmental damage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — A large U.S. Navy plane remained in a Hawaii bay Tuesday, the morning after it overshot a runway and landed in the water, raising concern about environmental damage and questions over how the military would remove the aircraft.All nine people aboard the P-8A were uninjured when the plane, flying in rainy weather, overshot the runway Monday at a Marine Corps base in Kaneohe Bay outside Honolulu. Crews set up a temporary floating barrier to protect the environment, and an investigation is underway, Navy spokesperson Lt. Mohammad N. Issa said in an email Tuesday.The P-8A is often used to hunt for submarines and for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. It is manufactured by Boeing and shares many parts with the 737 commercial jet.Residents near the bay were eager to hear plans for the massive plane’s removal and were worried about possible damage to the coral reef in the area, along with harms from fuel and other chemicals. The plane landed about 1.5 miles (2...

Canadian returns home after being stuck in Gaza for almost 2 months

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

It took multiple attempts for 73-year-old Akram to cross the Rafah border from Gaza into Egypt, but he finally made it home to Canada after being stuck there for almost two months.At Toronto Pearson Airport, greeted by his children and grandchildren, he told CityNews he was glad to return home for good.Akram left Canada in late September to visit family in Northern Gaza and was there on Oct. 7. Since the war broke out, his children, including daughter Samah, had been urging the federal government to do more for Canadians stuck in Gaza.It was an emotional reunion as Akram recounted his harrowing journey from northern Gaza to the border. He made the trek alone, first by walking. Eventually, kind people gave him a ride, but along the way, he witnessed destruction and dead bodies as he escaped danger. Akram was supposed to make the journey with his brother, but his family wasn’t able to accompany him so he remains behind in Gaza.He had made it to the border prior to his eventual c...

4 out of 5 Mexicans who got a flu shot this year turned down Cuban and Russian COVID-19 vaccines

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four out of five people in Mexico who got influenza shots so far this year turned down the government’s recommendation that they get Russian or Cuban COVID-19 boosters at the same time, officials said Tuesday.Assistant Health Secretary Ruy López Ridaura attributed the high refusal rate to people being reluctant to get two vaccines at the same time.“People have a certain reluctance to get simultaneous vaccinations,” López Ridaura said.But the population eligible for flu and COVID-19 shots — people over 60 and people with underlying health problems — are considered high-risk, and Mexicans in those groups had extremely high take-up rates for Covid vaccines in 2021 and 2022, according to the Health Department.Some people appear to simply distrust the Russian Sputnik and Cuban Abdala vaccines, both designed in 2020 for variants prevalent at the time.“It is an old antigen, it’s as if they were going to give me an influenza vaccine from 2020,” said Andreu Comas, a ...

Five new affordability measures in the Liberal government’s fall fiscal update

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled a fall economic statement on Tuesday that aims to support middle-class Canadians amid soaring consumer prices and looming mortgage renewals. She announced $168 million in new spending over six years for programs focused on at saving Canadians money. Here’s what the government proposes to do. Competition and trade The Liberals have proposed several amendments to the Competition Act in an attempt to improve consumer choice and lower prices.The economic statement proposes a “crackdown” on predatory pricing and “killer acquisitions.”Proposed legislative changes would also broaden the reach of the law so more private parties can bring cases before the Competition Tribunal and receive payment if they win.The government also wants to make sure that when Canada opens market access to trade partners, Canadian companies are given similar access abroad. “Going forward, Canada will consider reciprocity as a k...

Kansas officials blame 5-week disruption of court system on ‘sophisticated foreign cyberattack’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:51:06 GMT

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Cybercriminals hacked into the Kansas court system, stole sensitive data and threatened to post it on the dark web in a ransomware attack that has hobbled access to records for more than five weeks, officials said Tuesday. The announcement of a “sophisticated foreign cyberattack” was confirmation of what computer security experts suspected after the state’s Judicial Branch said Oct. 12 that it was pausing electronic filings. Until now, state officials had released few details, describing it simply as a “security incident.” Upon learning about the attack, the state disconnected its court information system from external access and notified authorities, the Judicial Branch said in a statement. That disrupted daily operations of the state’s appellate courts and all but one county. Johnson County, the state’s most populous, operates its own computer systems and had not yet switched over to the state’s new online system.In recent weeks many attorneys have been ...