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Boston families should get vaccinated ahead of school year amid COVID uptick, health officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

With the school year quickly approaching, Boston families are being urged to get up-to-date on vaccinations amid a nationwide uptick in COVID-19 cases.After COVID cases had plummeted, the local virus wastewater data is showing a bit of a jump. The average level of COVID particles in Boston’s wastewater has climbed over the past few weeks — 557 RNA copies per milliliter, a 60% jump in the past two weeks.The Boston Public Health Commission noted that the recent increases in COVID cases and wastewater are not alarming. However, it’s important for families to get protected with back-to-school season, cooler temperatures, and cold and flu season all approaching, BPHC added.“Preparation is key when planning for a new school year and the changing of the seasons,” said Bisola Ojikutu, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission. “Cold and flu season always poses a risk, but there are several steps we can all take to protect ourselves and oth...

With 10 of Boston’s 18 city-run public pools closed, Michelle Wu addresses high rate of closures

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

Mayor Michelle Wu emphasized city efforts to make swimming safe and accessible Tuesday, speaking to the high rate of pool closures frustrating residents and announcing funding to expand the Swim Safe initiative into the school year.“This has been a big area of focus for the city,” Wu said on WGBH Tuesday afternoon. “We want every young person growing up in Boston to know how to swim, to have access to swim lessons and that means we need our pools to be open.”Due to renovations and deferred maintenance, 10 of Boston’s 18 city-run public pools have been closed this summer, including all six pools in Mattapan and Dorchester.The closures come as the city has redoubled water safety and accessibility efforts around the city. These include the Swim Safe initiative announced in July — which includes investments in free swimming lessons, free life jackets at open water locations and lifeguarding staffing efforts — and $34.3 million budgeted over the ...

Maui police chief pleads for patience, recalls pain of victim IDs after deadly Vegas mass shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Maui Police Chief John Pelletier repeatedly urges “patience, prayers and perseverance” as teams painstakingly search the ashes in the seaside community of Lahaina for the remains of scores of victims from the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years. It’s the kind of message he has used before, in the aftermath of another American tragedy: the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that left 58 dead and hundreds injured.Pelletier was a Las Vegas police captain when a gunman with military-style rifles opened fire from the windows of a Las Vegas Strip high-rise hotel into a crowd of 22,000 attending an outdoor country music festival. The violence shook the city to its core, like the wildfire has done in Maui. Identifying victims and notifying relatives was emotionally draining in Las Vegas, just as it will be as names are put to remains in the aftermath of a wind-whipped fire that destroyed nearly all of the historic town of Lahaina. At daily media briefings, Pellet...

Georgia case against Trump presents problems from the start: from jury selection to a big courtroom

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Putting 19 people on trial at the same time is a difficult assignment for any prosecutor — whether or not one of those defendants is a former president of the United States running to reclaim his old office.The sprawling racketeering indictment returned this week by a grand jury in Atlanta presents a wide range of challenges. A big one is political: Finding jurors who don’t have unshakeable opinions about Donald Trump and others in his orbit.Beyond that, with so many defendants, prosecutors and defense lawyers will labor to keep the names and conflicting stories straight for those jurors over weeks or months. There will be countless legal details and basic logistics to argue or work out — even down to finding a courtroom big enough to fit everyone.In an early example of the lengthy litigation ahead, lawyers for former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows filed a quick motion Tuesday to transfer the case from state to federal court. They said all the actions he took were ...

PRESTO machine read credit card from my bag leading to double charge, woman claims

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

A Toronto woman is feeling tapped out after claiming the TTC’s updated payment system double charged her during a recent streetcar ride, dinging her credit card after she had already paid with her PRESTO card.The upgraded system that allows riders to pay by tapping their credit or debit cards, including those on a smartphone or smartwatch, was celebrated as “a transformative step” by TTC CEO Rick Leary.But a weary Heather Milne is urging the public to be wary when using the PRESTO card readers after claiming the machine was able to read and charge her credit card even though it was inside her waist bag and was never pulled out for use.Milne told CityNews she hopped on the Queen streetcar at Kingston Road on Saturday morning to run some errands in The Beaches, tapping her PRESTO card to pay for the ride.Later that day after returning home via public transit, she received a notification from her credit card.“As I’m walking up the street, I get an alert fr...

Georgia tribunal rejects recommendation to fire teacher over controversial book

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — A trio of retired educators has rejected a suburban Atlanta school district’s recommendation to fire a teacher who was removed from the classroom after she was accused of improperly reading a book on gender fluidity to her fifth-grade class.Monday’s move paves the way for Due West Elementary teacher Katie Rinderle to keep her job. But the Cobb County School Board has the final decision, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.The panel reached a decision after a two-day hearing last week about whether Rinderle should be fired for reading the picture book “My Shadow is Purple” by Scott Stuart. The case has drawn wide attention as a test of what public school teachers can teach in class, how much a school system can control teachers and whether parents can veto instruction they dislike. It comes amid a nationwide conservative backlash to books and teaching about LGBTQ+ subjects in school.Officials in Cobb County, Georgia’s second-largest school distr...

Death toll rises to 11 in powerful explosion near the Dominican Republic’s capital; 11 still missing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

SAN CRISTOBAL, Dominican Republic (AP) — The death toll from a powerful explosion near the Dominican Republic’s capital rose to 11 on Tuesday, with dozens injured. Firefighters were searching through smoldering rubble as people gathered outside hospitals, looking for missing loved ones.President Luis Abinader visited San Cristobal, located just west of Sango Domingo, to meet with those affected, saying an additional 11 people were missing and that authorities were still trying to extinguish the fire amid collapsed buildings and charred vehicles.“We’re doing everything humanly possible … to investigate the situation of the 11 missing,” he said. “The search for survivors has been very difficult.”Monday’s explosion also left more than 50 people injured as the blast tore through a bustling commercial center in San Cristobal, authorities said. At least 36 of the injured remained hospitalized, said Joel Santos, minister of the presidency. Health Minister Daniel Rivera sa...

Museum to honor Navajo Code Talkers is about $40 million shy of reality

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A museum in New Mexico to honor the Navajo Code Talkers is about $40 million shy of becoming a reality, according to organizers.The state put $6.4 million in capital outlay funds toward the project this year, but the museum’s organizers face a significant financial climb before doors can open, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Tuesday.“Our capacity is severely limited,” said Regan Hawthorne, CEO of the Navajo Code Talkers Museum. “We’re still fledgling. We’re still gaining momentum in finding our identity.”Hawthorne’s late father, Roy Hawthorne, was a Marine who served as a Code Talker on South Pacific islands from 1942 to 1945.The complex, unbreakable code was developed by an original group of 29 Navajo Marines in 1942. They used it in combat communications in Pacific campaigns during World War II and helped U.S. forces gain ground and victories.Only three of the original Navajo Code Talkers are still alive. There is a group of 29 that are referred to as the o...

Former Montreal school teacher sentenced to eight years for abusing young girls

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

MONTREAL — A former Montreal primary school teacher who used his position as an educator and basketball coach to lure and sexually abuse five young girls has been sentenced to eight years in prison. Quebec court Judge Mélanie Hébert told a Montreal courtroom Tuesday that Dominic Blanchette’s crimes were aggravated by the fact that he was in a position of authority and trust with his victims, three of whom were 10 when the abuse began. “The fact that his offences occurred repeatedly, over a total period of a little less than five years and involved five different victims, demonstrates that Mr. Blanchette’s actions were not isolated or the result of a simple lack of judgment in a particular situation,” Hébert said as she read her sentence.Hébert said that Blanchette, who turned 29 Tuesday, could not have been ignorant of the consequences of the abuse he committed between September 2017 and May 2022. “By repeating the same acts, on multiple occasions, with five ...

Guatemala’s veterans about face to support Sandra Torres for president

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:32 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s largest military veteran organization endorsed presidential candidate Sandra Torres Tuesday after battling her during her first two bids for the presidency, showing just how far her progressive opponent’s surprise place in the runoff has shaken the country’s politics.Torres and her hosts at the Guatemalan Military Veterans Association painted her opponent Bernardo Arévalo as a threat to the country’s democracy and families.As she did during their first debate the previous night, Torres criticized Arévalo for not really knowing his country because he was born in Uruguay when his father, former President Juan José Arévalo, was in exile after the CIA-backed overthrow of his successor Jacobo Arbenz.“Today more than ever Guatemala is in danger,” Torres said, warning that Arévalo would dissolve the army, legalize same-sex marriage and expropriate private property. “We don’t want communism in Guatemala.”Arévalo, a lawmaker, academic and former diplomat, ha...