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School bus drivers in Marlboro go on strike amid contract negotiations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

Fifty-five bus drivers in Marlboro are going on strike Monday after the union and the school bus company failed to reach a new contract. The bus company, NRT Bus, operates in three different districts – Marlboro, Westboro, and Framingham. According to Teamsters Local 170, bus drivers in Framingham struck a deal Sunday night to avoid a strike and drivers in Westboro do not plan to strike despite having no deal yet. Despite the strike, school is still on in Marlboro Monday morning. According to a contingency plan up on the district’s website, students who live within a mile and a half of their schools will be expected to walk or get a ride. Several parents expressed their frustration Monday morning as they brought their children to school. “Today is the longest I took to drop them off, there’s so much traffic everywhere,” said Rodney Canales. “This is not safe either.”“We did try, it was hard,” said Tamalla Abbasova. “There ...

Biden administration will propose rule requiring airlines to compensate passengers for canceled or delayed flights

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

(CNN) — President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday will announce a proposal for a new rule that would examine mandating airlines to compensate and cover expenses for customers facing “controllable airline cancellations” or delays, according to a White House official.“When an airline causes a flight cancellation or delay, passengers should not foot the bill,” Buttigieg said in a statement. “This rule would, for the first time in US history, propose to require airlines to compensate passengers and cover expenses such as meals, hotels, and rebooking in cases where the airline has caused a cancellation or significant delay.”Biden and Buttigieg will also announce that the department is launching an expanded Airline Customer Service Dashboard at FlightRights.gov, which shows which airlines “offer cash compensation, provide travel credits or vouchers, or award frequent flyer miles and cover the costs for other a...

More than 400 dead in flooding in Democratic Republic of Congo

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

(CNN) — At least 400 people have died after floods and landslides hit the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province last week, officials told CNN.Heavy rainfall through last week caused rivers to overflow and created mudslides that devastated the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi in South Kivu’s Kalehe territory, provincial governor Theo Kasi told CNN Monday.“We have 401 deaths in Bushushu and Nyamukubi villages in Kalehe territory,” Kasi said.Videos from the area show buildings swept away in the water and mud, with debris strewn across the villages.Valet Chebujongo, an activist in Kalehe, told CNN that rescuers have been unable to clear the muddy roads, leaving residents with the dangerous option of wading through lakes.“The Congolese government and its partners should find a safe place where the victims will be relocated and ask the population not to use the flowing waters and the lake during this period,” Chebujongo said, adding...

Authorities search for suspect after shooting on a DART train in Dallas leaves 1 dead and 2 others injured

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

(CNN) — One person was killed and two others were injured in a shooting when an altercation broke out aboard a DART train in Dallas on Sunday, and a suspect remains at large, authorities said.The incident unfolded around 4:30 p.m. local time and began as some sort of disagreement between two people aboard a northbound Green Line train near the Hatcher station, DART spokesperson Gordon Shattles said in a statement to CNN.Two people were shot, including a bystander. They were taken to a hospital, where one of the victims died, Shattles said.A third victim is believed to have been struck by shrapnel, police said. That person was treated at the scene.DART Police are leading the search for the suspect, Shattles said. It remains unclear what the exact nature of the disagreement was.The incident disrupted operations of the Green Line train for hours as investigators responded and probed the scene, according to tweets from DART.The shooting bookended a weekend riddled by gun...

Northeastern University celebrates first graduation ceremony with no COVID-19 restrictions since start of pandemic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

The Northeastern University Class of 2023 celebrated their commencement at Fenway Park on Sunday. This was the school’s first graduation ceremony with no COVID-19 restrictions since the start of the pandemic in 2020.More than 9,000 students crossed the stage and thousands more packed the stage to wish them well.

Two killed in Sunday night shootings in Boston

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

Two men were killed in separate shootings Sunday night while another remains hospitalized with life threatening injuries after an eruption of gunfire in the city.Police initially responded to a call for a shooting on Wildwood Street in Mattapan just after 8:30 p.m. where they found two victims suffering gunshot wounds. Both were transported to area hospitals where one died and another remains fighting for his life.While the police were investigating the scene at Wildwood Street, two other shooting victims showed up at area hospitals. One of those victims succumbed to his injuries, while the fourth is expected to recover, according to police.Police said that according to their preliminary investigation, the third victim does not appear to be connected to the shooting at Wildwood Street.The fourth victim was shot at an unrelated incident on Kingston Street, according to police.Each of the incidents remains under investigation.“We need the public’s help,” said Boston Police Commissione...

King Charles III makes virtual appearance on ‘American Idol’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III made a cameo appearance on “American Idol” after the royal coronation concert in his honor.Charles and Queen Camilla walked into a room at Windsor Castle on Sunday where “Idol” judges Lionel Richie and Katy Perry — who performed at the concert of eclectic acts — were appearing virtually on the talent show. The king, wearing a dark blue suit and tie, named-checked one of Richie’s signature songs, which he performed at the show, asking if he was planning to do this “All Night Long.” “I just wanted to check how long you’ll be using this room,” Charles joked.The audience laughed.The concert the day after the gilded coronation spectacle had the newly crowned monarch and his wife on their feet at one point swaying to the music. Other members of the royal family, including 8-year-old Princess Charlotte and Prince George, 9, waved Union flags along with a crowd of some 20,000 gathered on the castle’s east terrace.Charlotte and her mother, Kate, the Princess of...

Stock market today: Wall Street steadies, bank stocks rise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is holding relatively steady coming off its worst week in nearly two months as stocks of several beaten-down banks rally. The S&P 500 and the Dow were little changed and the Nasdaq composite was barely lower early Monday. Besides a strong reading on U.S. jobs, which calmed worries about a recession but also raised concerns about inflation, last week was dominated by fears about smaller and mid-sized banks. PacWest Bancorp jumped 22% to recover some of its steep drop last week. PacWest said late Friday that it’s cutting its dividend to help build its financial strength. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street pointed higher early Monday as markets gear up for another busy week of earnings and two inflation reports from the U.S. government, all while monitoring the regional banking crisis.Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and futures for the S&P 500 each rose about 0.2% before the bell.Companies this e...

US backs study of safe injection sites, overdose prevention

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

For the first time, the U.S. government will pay for a large study measuring whether overdoses can be prevented by so-called safe injection sites, places where people can use heroin and other illegal drugs and be revived if they take too much. The grant provides more than $5 million over four years to New York University and Brown University to study two sites in New York City and one opening next year in Providence, Rhode Island. Researchers hope to enroll 1,000 adult drug users to study the sites’ effects on overdoses, to estimate their costs and to gauge potential savings for the health care and criminal justice systems.The universities announced the grant Monday. The money will not be used to operate the sites, the universities said.With U.S. drug overdose deaths reaching nearly 107,000 in 2021, supporters contend safe injection sites, also called overdose preventions centers, can save lives and connect people with addiction treatment, mental health services and medical ca...

EU cancels Tel Aviv event in protest over radical minister

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:24 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The European Union said Monday that it canceled a diplomatic reception to prevent a radical ultranationalist Israeli minister from attending. The act of protest by the EU’s delegation to Israel against a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the most religious and ultranationalist in the country’s history, could cause a diplomatic spat between Israel and the EU. Relations already have been strained over Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank.Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power faction, serves as the national security minister and was assigned to represent the Israeli government at the EU’s Europe Day event on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Sunday in a Kan radio interview that Ben-Gvir had been assigned by the government secretary to attend “not as a representative of the Jewish Power party … but to represent the government of Israel.” The EU said that it decided “to cancel the diplomat...