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Proposed Mass. rent control, MCAS test ballot questions clear major hurdle 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

Proposed Massachusetts ballot questions over rent control and the MCAS test cleared a major hurdle Wednesday as part of a larger batch of 34 possible ballot questions certified to move forward in the state’s ballot question process, the Attorney General’s Office announced. Petitioners previously submitted a total of 42 initiative petitions to be considered for inclusion on next year’s November ballot. In its announcement on Wednesday, the office of state Attorney General Andrea Campbell said it determined the 34 proposals met the requirements for ballot questions outlined in Massachusetts’ constitution. Among the certified questions are two potential questions aimed at scrapping the MCAS test as a graduation requirement. One other potential question certified this week would enable cities and towns to enact rent control provisions, among other “tenant protection” options.Massachusetts voters in 1994 voted to ban rent control through a ballot question. Rent control has...

The writer who won a sex abuse and defamation lawsuit against Trump scores another victory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

By JENNIFER PELTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Four months after a civil trial jury found that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that still more of the ex-president’s comments about her were libelous. The decision means that an upcoming second trial will concern only how much more he has to pay her.The ruling stands to streamline significantly the second trial, set for January. It concerns remarks that Trump made in 2019, after Carroll first publicly claimed that he sexually attacked her in a dressing room after a chance meeting at a luxury department store in 1996. He denies that anything happened between them.The first trial, this spring, concerned the sexual assault allegation and whether some 2022 Trump comments were defamatory. Jurors awarded Carroll $5 million, finding that she was sexually abused but rejecting her allegation that she was raped.“The jury considered and decided is...

Massachusetts has seen a jump in out-of-state abortion travelers after Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

The Bay State has seen a significant rise in out-of-state abortion travelers, including from Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Georgia, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling last year.Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers on Wednesday reported an estimated 37% increase in the number of out-of-state residents seeking abortion care in Massachusetts. The study’s researchers also found a jump in nonprofit funding covering costs for out-of-state residents.The federal right to provide abortion care was overturned by the Supreme Court last June, sparking rapid changes to state laws, including 15 complete abortion bans. Since the court overturned Roe v. Wade, there has been a documented increase in interstate travel to access abortion care.“Before Dobbs, there was conjecture that certain states would get all the interstate traveling patients based on geographic proximity to states with complete abortion bans,” said study corresponding author Elizabeth ...

Lawsuit contends Constitution’s ‘insurrection’ clause bars Trump from running again for president

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI (Associated Press)DENVER (AP) — A liberal group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to bar former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot in Colorado, arguing he is ineligible to run for the White House again under a rarely used clause in the U.S. Constitution aimed at candidates who have supported an “insurrection.”The lawsuit, citing the 14th Amendment, is likely the initial step in a legal challenge that seems destined for the U.S. Supreme Court. It was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters by the group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.It will jolt an already unsettled 2024 primary campaign that features the leading Republican candidate facing four separate criminal cases.Liberal groups have demanded that states’ top election officials bar Trump under the clause that prohibits those who “engaged in an insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding higher off...

How to avoid the top text message scam putting your cash at risk

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

By Ruth Sarreal | NerdWalletThe Federal Trade Commission recently revealed the most reported text message scam: bank impersonations.Reports of bank impersonations by text in 2022 jumped to 20 times the number reported in 2019. According to the FTC, consumers reported a loss of more than $330 million to text message scams in 2022. And cash that’s lost because of bank fraud or scams isn’t covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. or National Credit Union Administration.Banks are a safe place to keep your money, but there are still a few basic but important precautions you can take to ensure you don’t fall for a bank-impersonation text scam. Here’s how to protect your money from text message scams impersonating your financial institution.» LEARN: How to stay safe from financial scamsDon’t make money moves under pressureText message scammers will try to make you feel like action is required immediately — at the risk of losing your money. It may come as an urgent message warni...

Devin McCourty believes Patriots are happy Matt Patricia ‘experiment is over’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

If the Patriots are going to be a better team in 2023 than they were last season, it will likely come down to offensive coaching.Head coach Bill Belichick made a much more traditional choice to run the team’s offense by hiring Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach and Adrian Klemm as offensive line coach. They replace Matt Patricia, who was offensive line coach/play caller and Joe Judge, who served as the team’s quarterbacks coach.Patricia is now a senior defensive assistant with the Eagles — whom the Patriots play on Sunday — while Judge is working with the Pats’ special teams as an assistant head coach.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Bill Belichick Patriots to have Jack Jones vs. Eagles, won’t confirm status beyond Week 1 New England Patriots | Callahan: Matt Patricia knows the Patriots better than any ex-coach ever — and they don’t care New England Patriots | Patriots outlook: NFL s...

The Great Salt Lake is shrinking rapidly and Utah has failed to stop it, a new lawsuit says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

By JESSE BEDAYN (Associated Press/Report for America)Utah state government officials have pushed the Great Salt Lake to the brink of an ecological collapse by decades of allowing upstream water to be diverted away from the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River and primarily to farmers growing alfalfa, hay and other crops, says a new lawsuit filed Wednesday by a coalition of environmental groups. The lake first hit a record low in the summer of 2021, fueling renewed attention from Utah’s Republican-led Legislature. But lawmakers’ actions have not been enough to assuage the concerns of a coalition that includes Earthjustice, the Utah Rivers Council and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, among others. They want a court to step in and force the state to let more water reach the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, which is an oasis for millions of migratory birds, an engine for Utah’s billion-dollar mineral industry and a tourist attra...

British soldier awaiting trial on terror-related charges escapes from London prison

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

LONDON (AP) — An urgent manhunt has been launched for a British soldier awaiting trial on terror-related charges, who escaped from a prison in southwest London, the country’s counterterror police said Wednesday. Police said Daniel Abed Khalife, who has been accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act, went missing from Wandsworth Prison early Wednesday. “We have a team of officers who are making extensive and urgent enquiries in order to locate and detain Khalife as quickly as possible,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism command.Murphy told Sky News that Khalife was dressed in a kitchen uniform of white T-shirt and red checkered trousers at the time of his escape, adding that there is no evidence he is still wearing that outfit. No official explanation of how Khalife escaped was provided.Murphy said there is no information to suggest that Khalife poses a thre...

The death toll from fierce storms and flooding in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria has risen to 14

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — The death toll from severe rainstorms that lashed parts of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria increased to 14 on Wednesday after rescue teams in the three neighboring countries recovered seven more bodies.A flash flood at a campsite in northwestern Turkey near the border with Bulgaria killed at least five people — with three found dead on Wednesday — and carried away bungalow homes. Rescuers were still searching for one person reported missing at the campsite.Another two people died in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, where Tuesday’s storms inundated hundreds of homes and workplaces in several neighborhoods.The victims in Istanbul included a 32-year-old Guinean citizen who was trapped inside his basement apartment in the low-income Kucukcekmece district, Turkish broadcaster HaberTurk TV reported. The other was a 57-year-old woman who died after being swept away by the floods in another neighborhood, the private DHA news agency reported.The surging flood waters a...

More wild Atlantic salmon found in U.S. rivers than any time in the past decade, officials say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:44 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The last wild Atlantic salmon that return to U.S. rivers have had their most productive year in more than a decade, raising hopes they may be weathering myriad ecological threats.Officials counted more than 1,500 of the salmon in the Penobscot River, which is home to the country’s largest run of Atlantic salmon, Maine state data show. That is the most since 2011 when researchers counted about 2,900 of them.The salmon were once abundant in American rivers, but factors such as overfishing, loss of habitat and pollution reduced their populations to only a handful of rivers in Maine. The fish are protected by the Endangered Species Act, and sometimes only a few hundred of them return from the ocean to the rivers in a year.The greater survival of the salmon could be evidence that conservation measures to protect them are paying off, said Sean Ledwin, director of the Maine Department of Marine Resources sea-run fish programs. The count of river herring is also...