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MBTA Conference Rooms Converted To Overnight Shelter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

Families in need of emergency shelter will begin temporarily setting up in conference rooms in a state office building in Boston, an unusual development that the top House Democrat said points to the need for overflow shelter sites. More than a week after the Healey administration began placing shelter-seeking families on a waitlist, officials announced Monday that they will use part of the MBTA’s headquarters to temporarily house eligible families for whom no space is available.“In order to ensure that families eligible for Emergency Assistance shelter have a safe and warm place to sleep at night when there is not a shelter unit immediately available, the administration is utilizing space at 10 Park Plaza as a temporary, overnight facility,” retired Lt. Gen. Scott Rice, the administration’s emergency assistance director, said in a one-sentence statement.Second-floor conference rooms in the State Transportation Building, the downtown Boston home of MBTA ...

Brazilian child rapist arrested on Martha’s Vineyard by ICE

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

ICE agents tracked down a Brazilian fugitive convicted of multiple counts of child rape on Martha’s Vineyard while a Jamaican national facing rape charges in Mashpee was also seized.Saulo Cardoso Ferreira, 37, was arrested last week in West Tisbury and now faces deportation back to Bazil, Boston-based immigration officials announced.He was wanted by authorities in his home country for failure to serve a prison sentence for raping a 5-year-old child, immigration officials said. It was not clear how he escaped imprisonment or how he made it to Massachusetts.In the Mashpee rape case, 52-year-old Joshua Wright was out on bail when immigration agents with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Boston arrested him Nov. 7. A law enforcement source said Wright overstayed his visitor’s visa by two years.“ERO Boston will not allow such predators to threaten our residents. We will continue to apprehend and remove anyone who attempts to use our New England community as a refuge...

Ticker: American Airlines Flight attendants seek strike OK; Musical chairs among AI execs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

American Airlines flight attendants are asking federal officials for the right to go on strike, possibly before the end of the Christmas and New Year’s travel rush, but American said there was “no possibility” of a walkout over the holidays.Leaders of the flight attendants’ union say they are frustrated with the lack of progress in negotiations over a new contract for workers who have not seen raises since 2019, and on Monday they asked the National Mediation Board on Monday for permission to strike after a 30-day “cooling-off period.”Meanwhile, pilots at Southwest opened a “strike center” in Dallas this week. Officials with the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association say they too will ask for the right to strike if they don’t have a contract deal with the airline in the next few days.Musical chairs among AI execsThe company that created ChatGPT is in turmoil after Microsoft hired its ousted CEO and many more employees threatened to follow him in a conflict that centered in part...

Boston donates 2000 turkeys to needy families for Thanksgiving

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

The City of Boston is distributing twice as many turkeys to needy families ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday this year compared to last, the mayor’s office said.City workers spent Monday and last Friday delivering 2,000 turkeys and 5,000 pounds of food to community members and organizations, as part of an annual drive led by the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.“As we celebrate the special traditions and connection of the holidays, we want to ease the burden for Boston families in need to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving meal,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement, adding that she was “grateful” to continue the holiday tradition.Wu appeared at CommonWealth Kitchen, a nonprofit food-business incubator in Dorchester, Monday morning to help pack and prepare the turkey donations.The turkeys are hand-delivered to more than 40 partners, including community organizations, churches and Boston Housing Authority sites, which then distribute the food to residents experiencing food insecu...

Federal appeals court deals blow to Voting Rights Act, ruling that private plaintiffs can’t sue

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided federal appeals court on Monday ruled that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act, a decision voting rights advocates say could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law.The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices such as racially gerrymandered districts.The majority said other federal laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, make it clear when private groups can sue said but similar wording is not found in the voting law.“When those details are missing, it is not our place to fill in the gaps, except when ‘text and structure’ require it,” U.S. Circuit Judge David R. Stras wrote for the majority in an opinion joined by Judge Raymond W. Gruender. Stras was nominated by former ...

New Mexico Supreme Court weighs GOP challenge to congressional map, swing district boundaries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Republican Party urged New Mexico’s state Supreme Court on Monday to strike down a congressional map that has divvied up a politically conservative oil-producing region into multiple districts as it reshaped a swing district along the U.S. border with Mexico.The high court heard oral arguments without ruling Monday on the congressional map from Democratic state lawmakers. The Democrats say a congressional swing district in southern New Mexico remains competitive, even with the ouster of a Republican incumbent in last year’s election.The high court’s ruling could influence which party represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez is seeking a second term. The district is one of about a dozen in the national spotlight as Republicans campaign to keep their slim U.S. House majority in 2024. Courts ruled recently in Alabama and Florida that Republican-led legislatures had unfairly diluted the voting ...

Two Quebec men charged with violating publication ban on identity of sex-crime victim

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec provincial police say two men have been charged for allegedly revealing the identity of a woman who was sexually assaulted by a former member of the legislature.Sylvain Fortin, 61, and Stéphane Vigeant, 44, are alleged to have violated a court order by publishing the victim’s name on social media during her attacker’s trial.The victim, Catherine Fournier, who is now the mayor of a Montreal suburb, had the publication ban lifted after her attacker was convicted in January, so she could speak publicly about her experience.Fournier said in a written statement that a major factor in her decision to report the assault to police was her belief that her identity would be protected.She says the fact two men have been charged sends the right message, but she laments how it took almost one year to bring the charges, adding that she wishes prosecutors would take publication bans more seriously.Harold LeBel, a member of the legislature from 2014 to 2022 with the Pa...

Taylor Swift’s Rio de Janeiro tour scarred by deaths, muggings, heat-related illnesses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The deaths of two people, heat-related illnesses and other misfortunes have left legions of Taylor Swift fans angry and disappointed in the three-day Rio de Janeiro leg of the pop superstar’s Eras Tour, which concludes Monday night.Gabriel Mongenot Santana Milhomem Santos, 25, a fan who had traveled from the country’s center-west region to see Swift, was stabbed to death on a Copacabana beach about 3 a.m. Monday, Rio’s police said in a statement.It was the second death of a Swift fan in four days. On Friday, 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides Machado fell ill during the singer’s first show in the city, and died later that evening at a hospital. Fans also reported fainting from extreme heat, being mugged or getting caught up in a police raid.Rio’s Municipal Health Department said Benevides, who, according to a friend, passed out during Swift’s second song, “Cruel Summer,” experienced cardiorespiratory arrest, but the exact cause of her death...

Years after Parkland massacre, tour freshens violence for group of House lawmakers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick spent years as an FBI agent and federal prosecutor, but he was shaken Monday by a tour of the building at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 teens and staff members were gunned down nearly six years ago.The Pennsylvania Republican and five other House members saw the blood-stained floors, the bullet-pocked walls, the shattered glass and the wilted flowers and balloons that remain from the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre. They also spoke with loved ones who were left behind and are now advocates for stronger national gun laws and school safety programs. “There are no words to describe the feelings that go through you walking those halls. I cannot even begin to imagine how the families feel when they’re walking through,” said Fitzpatrick, the only GOP member who took Monday’s tour. Monday marked the second time House members have toured the three-story building, following a group of six Democrats and t...

Transport committee launches probe into accessibility at Canadian airlines

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:56:24 GMT

OTTAWA — A parliamentary committee is launching an investigation into accessibility at Canadian airlines, with a focus on the country’s two largest carriers.Following a motion put forward on Monday by NDP lawmaker Taylor Bachrach, the federal transport committee voted to undertake a study on the state of accessible transportation for Canadians living with disabilities as well as the regulatory regime surrounding it.The committee cited recent news reports of air travellers “facing discrimination and unacceptable treatment” on board, and invited the CEOs of Air Canada and WestJet to testify along with Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez, Auditor General Karen Hogan and other experts and industry players.The motion further calls on the government to table a response to a committee report slated to be presented to the House of Commons.Earlier this month, Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau apologized for the airline’s accessibility shortfalls and announced new measure...