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WATCH: SKY7-HD shows aerial view of Leominster after flooding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

SKY7-HD provided an aerial view of Leominster Tuesday after severe flash flooding swept through parts of the city on Monday. Floodwaters rose through several areas within Leominster and its surrounding communities beginning late Monday afternoon. By Tuesday morning, some streets and homes were left in ruins. On Pleasant Street, the surge of water left one home literally on edge with a moat-like hole eroded around it. Pleasant Street itself was ripped up with underground pipes exposed. An indoor flea market off Spruce Street was torn apart. Overhead, the view from the sky showed how part of the building collapsed. Another section was left severely cracked. At the Meadowbrook Acres mobile home community elsewhere in Leominster, a major cleanup was underway just hours after rescue crews had to evacuate people from their flooded homes. Though some of the floodwater had receded, there was still lots of water in parts of Leominster on Tuesday, with enough in one s...

Reports: Revolution decline to practice due to a lack of transparency over Arena

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

Richie Williams will continue to have the word “interim” attached to his job title.Williams became the de facto head coach on the New England Revolution on Saturday night when his mentor, Bruce Arena, resigned as the club’s head coach and sporting director.The news Arena’s resignation broke following the Revolution’s 1-1 draw with Minnesota United FC at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minn.Williams has severed as the Revolution’s field manager in four straight MLS matches since replacing Arena on Aug. 1. Arena was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by MLS for making “insensitive and inappropriate remarks.”The fact that Arena resigned suggests there was substance to the allegations levied against him, but Williams referred all inquiries in that regard to MLS during a news briefing on Tuesday afternoon.“In terms of the staff and me being interim head coach, they have asked me to take over as coach until the end of the season and hopefully into the playoffs and win a ch...

Howie Carr: Adult-type bills onerous, to Democrats

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

Another day, another “existential crisis” facing the planet.Have you noticed these existential crises are coming at us faster and faster these days, at least in state-run media?If it’s not a heat wave, it’s a cold wave threatening to wipe out humankind. If not a drought, a flash flood will suffice as the latest portent of doom. If it’s not the polar bears going extinct, it’s the penguins.As always, the emergency – and the panic — seems largely confined to Democrats and the non-working classes, but I repeat myself.This week, it’s just not Hurricane Lee threatening all life on earth. Another existential crisis looms for the Tattoo-American community.I refer of course to the end of the three-years-plus “moratorium” on paying back student-loan debt. The deadbeats haven’t had to make repayments for more than three years, and haven’t been accruing interest on their debt, but now the end is near.Literally. The… end… is… near.Just ask them.According to the Wall Street Journal, there i...

Red Sox notebook: Rafaela’s defensive versatility, improved plate discipline signs of progress

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

Since getting called up to the majors on Aug. 28, Ceddanne Rafaela has seen varied, inconsistent playing time. Alex Cora has stressed the importance of pitching matchups and the value of simply being at the big-league level, soaking up the learning experience like a sponge.Thus, it was surprising when the Red Sox manager announced how the organization’s No. 3 prospect would be used for Tuesday’s doubleheader.“Rafaela will play twice,” Cora said.For his first time facing the rival New York Yankees, Rafaela would get a double dose of experience, starting at shortstop in Game 1 of their doubleheader and playing center field in Game 2.“Good instincts, he can move,” Cora said, assessing Rafaela’s ability at shortstop. “Good throwing mechanics, love it. The carry on the ball, he always makes sure his shoulders are square. He’s good… He has a very good feel about what he can do there.”Rafaela is already considered an elite d...

Hillary Clinton steps over the White House threshold in yet another role

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — During her husband’s 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton observed that “our lives are a mixture of different roles” and said most people are trying to find the right balance.“For me, that balance is family, work and service,” she said.Clinton juggled those roles — and more — during eight years as first lady in the White House. She returned Tuesday for her first public appearance in the building since the Obama years to indulge her love for the arts.In her White House years, she was a wife, a mother and the nation’s hostess, but also a wronged spouse, the head of a national health care task force and on the cover of Vogue. In later years, she stepped over the White House threshold as a visiting senator and Cabinet member, but never in the long-sought role of Madam President.Early on as first lady, she held a rare news conference where she was grilled about the Clint...

Americans can now get an updated COVID-19 vaccine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

By MIKE STOBBE and LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP Medical Writers)Most Americans should get an updated COVID-19 vaccine, health officials said Tuesday.Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed the new shots for everyone 6 months and older and the agency’s director quickly signed off Tuesday on the panel’s recommendation. That means doses should be available this week, some as early as Wednesday.The severity of the COVID-19 pandemic has faded, but there are still hundreds of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths in the U.S. each week. Hospitalizations have been increasing since late summer, though the latest data indicate infections may be starting to level off, particularly in the South.Still, experts worry that immunity from previous vaccinations and infections is fading in many people, and a new shot would save many lives.According to a survey last month that CDC cited, about 42% said they would definitely or probably get the new vaccine. Yet only abo...

A list of some of those found not criminally responsible by a court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

VANCOUVER — Blair Donnelly, 64, faces three counts of aggravated assault over allegations he stabbed and injured three people at a Vancouver Chinatown festival on Sunday. Donnelly was free on day release from the forensic psychiatric hospital in Metro Vancouver. He was originally in care after being found not criminally responsible for the 2006 murder of his 16-year-old daughter. Here’s a look at some other cases in which the finding was made or sought.Matthew de Grood: Stabbed five young people to death in a Calgary house party in 2014. A judge found him not criminally responsible for the murders because he was suffering from schizophrenia. Gregory Despres: Fatally stabbed two elderly neighbours in Minto, N.B., in 2005, decapitating one of them. Despres, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had crossed the border despite guards finding him with a small arsenal including a chainsaw, a sword and brass knuckles. He told them he was an assassin on a military mission. Three psychiatrists diagnos...

Video shows white sheriff’s deputy in upstate New York fatally shooting 2 Black teens in fleeing car

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s attorney general released video Tuesday of a county sheriff’s deputy fatally shooting two Black teenagers in a fleeing car, raising questions about whether the officer needed to use deadly force to avoid being run over.Attorney General Letitia James released the video as part of her office’s investigation into the fatal shooting last Wednesday of Dhal Apet, 17, and Lueth Mo, 15, by an Onondaga County Sheriff’s deputy. Deputy John Rosello was investigating a smoke shop burglary in the Syracuse area that morning and had responded to a call about people seen transferring items between two vehicles.Rosello did not activate his body camera before the confrontation. But video shot by a surveillance camera across the street shows the deputy’s SUV speed into a small parking lot and use its front bumper to pin one of the cars against a row of tall bushes. The deputy gets out of his SUV and stands for just a moment in front of the car in ...

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor rejects GOP’s surprise redistricting plan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers shot down as “bogus” a surprise plan Republicans floated Tuesday that would have the Legislature approve new maps drawn by nonpartisan staff, preempting the state Supreme Court from tossing the current GOP-drawn boundaries.The Republican move comes as Wisconsin justices are considering two Democratic-backed lawsuits seeking to toss the current maps, first enacted in 2011, that are among the most gerrymandered in the country and have helped Republicans increase their majority.Republicans have long opposed plans put forward by Democrats to enact a nonpartisan redistricting process. But now, faced with the likelihood that the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court was going to throw out their maps ahead of the 2024 election, Republicans proposed enacting a new system modeled after neighboring Iowa.“If you’re sick of the arguing, if you’re sick of the vitriol, if you want people to work together, this is a better way for us to do...

Filmmakers, celebs ask TIFF to cut ties with sponsor RBC over environmental concerns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:33 GMT

TORONTO — A group of Canadian filmmakers have joined forces with Hollywood A-listers in asking the Toronto International Film Festival to end sponsorship ties with the Royal Bank of Canada because of the financial institution’s funding of the oil and gas industry.Organizers of the campaign, called RBC Off Screen, say the bank’s track record of investing in fossil fuels runs contrary to the socially progressive values the film festival purports to stand for.Signatories to the group’s open letter to TIFF outlining its concerns include screen stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Joaquin Phoenix, alongside filmmakers and producers including Avi Lewis, Elza Kephart and Jose Luis Gutierrez.Kephart and Gutierrez started the campaign, which they say is supported by more than 200 entertainment industry workers. The group’s statement says RBC is one of the largest financiers of oil and gas projects in the world and supports projects that have negatively impacted Indi...