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State, city leaders to address concerns regarding upcoming Sumner Tunnel closure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

State and city leaders are set to address concerns about a nearly two-month closure of the Sumner Tunnel that is slated to begin next month. The main artery connecting East Boston to the rest of Boston is slated to shut down from July 5 to Aug. 31 to make way for needed repairs. Weekend closures already in place on most weekends for the past year have given drivers a preview of what to expect. State officials have announced mitigation measures ahead of the upcoming Sumner Tunnel closure, including plans to stage extra ambulances in East Boston. Other measures include fare-free Blue Line service, reduced fare on the Commuter Rail and either free or reduced-fare harbor ferry rides.Together, MassDOT hopes the measures will alleviate some of the disruption as crews repair the nearly 90-year-old Sumner Tunnel. See more information on planned mitigation efforts during the upcoming tunnel closure here.Another two-month closure is scheduled for next s...

9 killed, including 3 children, as Russian missile slams into pizza restaurant in east Ukraine city

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile attack that hit a crowded pizza restaurant in an eastern Ukrainian city killed at least nine people, including three children, authorities said Wednesday, as rescue workers continued searching in the destroyed building’s rubble.The Tuesday evening attack on Kramatorsk wounded another 56 people, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said, in the latest bombardment, a tactic Russia has used heavily in the 16-month-old war.Two sisters, both age 14, died as result of the attack, the educational department of the Kramatorsk city council said. “Russian missiles stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels,” it said in a Telegram post.The other dead child was 17, according to Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin. The attack, using what officials said were S-300 missiles, also damaged 18 multi-story buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping center, an administrative building and a recreational building, the regional go...

Exonerated member of ‘Central Park Five’ takes lead in New York City Council primary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Yusef Salaam, who as a child was part of a group of teenagers wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for the rape of a woman jogging in Central Park, took a commanding lead Tuesday in a Democratic primary for a City Council seat in New York.Salaam faces two veteran politicians, New York Assembly members Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, in the race for a seat representing part of Harlem. The incumbent, democratic socialist Kristin Richard Jordan, dropped out of the race in May but remained on the ballot.The contest was taking place more than two decades after Salaam and four other men — known as the “Central Park Five” — were exonerated by DNA evidence in one of the city’s most notorious and racially fraught crimes.The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the race and the election’s outcome might not be certain for days because of New York’s ranked choice voting rules. That system kicks in if no candidate claims more than 50% of the total vote. It was ...

Pedestrian struck and killed in crash on Hwy. 400 in Barrie

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

A pedestrian is dead after being struck by a vehicle on Highway 400 in Barrie.Provincial police responded to a crash in the southbound lanes of the highway near Dunlop Street around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.One person was pronounced dead at the scene.It’s unclear how the pedestrian ended up on the highway or what led to the crash.All southbound lanes were shut down for several hours between Dunlop and Essa Road for the investigation. The roads reopened just before 6 a.m.OPP are asking anyone who may have dash cam footage of the crash to contact them.

Cyprus battles disease-carrying mosquitoes by breeding them with irradiated, sterilized ones

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus is battling an influx of disease-carrying mosquitoes by bringing in hundreds of thousands of the insects after being sterilized through radiation.The battle is primarily focused on eradicating the Aedes aegypti variety of mosquito that has been found in large numbers in the island nation’s coastal town of Larnaca.Cyprus’ Environmental Health Services head Herodotos Herodotou told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the Aedes aegypti has been specifically targeted to prevent its potential migration to continental Europe.The effort is also targeting the Aedes albopictus mosquito on the island, which is more common in Europe.Both varieties can transmit to humans dangerous diseases such as dengue, Zika and yellow fever, as well as West Nile virus.Herodotou said that his service collects and dispatches both varieties of mosquitos — both eggs and grown insects — to laboratories in Italy and Austria where they’re bred and separated into male and female.The ...

The hazy future for caregiver payments expanded during the pandemic worries families

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

Nathan Hill started receiving $12.75 an hour from a state Medicaid program to help care for his severely disabled son during the pandemic, money he said allowed his family to stop using food stamps.The program was designed to provide a continuation of care and ease a home health worker shortage that grew worse after COVID-19 hit.But now, with the COVID-19 public health emergency over, he worries that the extra income will disappear. Some states have already stopped payments while others have yet to make them permanent. “The success of this during the pandemic was tremendous … for the first time we were able to pay our own way,” said the Meridian, Idaho, resident. “We’re not relying on charities to help us pay our rent and utilities.”A total of 39 states, with the help of the federal government, either started paying family caregivers or expanded the population eligible for payment during the pandemic, according to a survey last summer by KFF, a non-profit that studies health care is...

Future of caregiver payments expanded during the pandemic worries families

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

Nathan Hill started receiving $12.75 an hour from a state Medicaid program to help care for his severely disabled son during the pandemic, money he said allowed his family to stop using food stamps.The program was designed to provide a continuation of care and ease a home health worker shortage that grew worse after COVID-19 hit.Nathan Hill cleans the gastrostomy tube on his son Brady, 14, at their home in Meridian, Idaho, June 19, 2023. Brady survived a rare brain cancer as a baby, but requires round the clock care. Each morning Nate and his wife spend about 3 hours with Brady performing his medical cares and getting him ready for the day. Families of severely disabled children across the country are worried about the future of crucial Medicaid payments they started receiving to provide care during the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Kyle Green)But now, with the COVID-19 public health emergency over, he worries that the extra income will disappear. Some states hav...

Tri-City wins slugfest over Schaumburg

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

TROY, NY (NEWS10) -- The Tri-City ValleyCats (23-17) took the series opener 16-9 over the Schaumburg Boomers (24-15) thanks to a plethora of free passes, and four homers at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium on Tuesday. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Schaumburg opened the scoring in the first. Chase Dawson and Brett Milazzo had back-to-back hits off Dwayne Marshall. The two baserunners advanced on a groundout from Blake Berry. Dawson scored on a straight steal of home to give the Boomers a 1-0 lead.Tri-City responded in the bottom of the first. Cito Culver walked, and Jakob Goldfarb cranked a two-run tater off Jackson Hickert. Carson McCusker and Aaron Altherr were each issued a free pass. Both baserunners moved up ninety feet on a walk. Parks went to first on a walk before Cale Jones came through with a two-run single to pull the ValleyCats ahead, 4-1.Schaumburg picked up a run in the second. Quintin Selma singled, and Kyle Fit...

Russian defence minister visits troops after Wagner mutiny

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu visited Russian troops involved in the military operation in Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported on Monday (26 June), his first public appearance since the weekend mutiny by the Wagner paramilitary group.RIA's report, which cited Russia's defence ministry, made it clear Shoigu remained in charge, but provided no details on when and where he met the troops and commanders of the Western military district.Mutineers led by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin advanced on Moscow to remove what they called Russia's corrupt and incompetent military leadership, before suddenly heading back to a Russia-held area of eastern Ukraine after a deal with the Kremlin brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.The deal included immunity for the mutineers in exchange for their return to camps, but it remains unclear whether Putin also agreed to reshuffle the top military leadership or make any other concessions.

TDRC Archbishop Muteba accuses European NGOs of trying to pit Congolese civil societies against the DRC Government

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:30:13 GMT

A co-founder of the civil society coalition Congo Is Not For Sale (Le Congo N’est Pas à Vendre, or CNPAV), Archbishop Florimond Muteba, has announced his departure from the coalition, DRC publication ZoomEco reported. In a resignation letter, he has blamed the Belgian NGO 11.11.11, who describe themselves as seeking to achieve "fair world without exploitation" and provides financing to the coalition, for applying pressure on the national DRC NGOs to campaign against the Israeli businessman Dan Gertler, in what he described as “unacceptable blackmail”."One of the main reasons why I left the CNPAV was not only because of the differences in approach to implementing civil oversight, but also because of a kind of visceral relentlessness against one person, Mr Dan Gertler, as if that were the only essential reason for the platform's existence. I found it abnormal that they only released large sums of money if organisations agree to campaign against him, while giving no funds for other, eq...