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Massive chemical plant fire near Houston forces school to evacuate and residents to shelter in place

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

(CNN) — Thick plumes of opaque black smoke billowed into the Texas sky Wednesday after a Houston-area chemical plant caught fire – forcing nearby students to evacuate and residents to shelter in place.The inferno was burning Wednesday morning at the Sound Resource Solutions plant in Shepherd, about 60 miles northeast of Houston, a dispatcher from the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said.The facility focuses on recycling and distributing chemicals, including acids and solvents, the company’s website says.It was not immediately clear what started the fire or whether anyone was injured. A private school on the same road as the plant was safely evacuated, the San Jacinto County Office of Emergency Management said.By late Wednesday morning, the area under a shelter-in-lace order had been reduced to a 1-mile radius from a 5-mile radius, the emergency management office said.Thick black smoke shot up from the plant as the flames kept burning ...

Man convicted in Pelham, NH wedding shooting plays his rap music as part of insanity defense

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A man convicted of shooting and wounding a New Hampshire bishop and assaulting the bride and groom in 2019 played his own rap music for the jury Wednesday as part of his insanity defense, saying he wanted to show how he was dealing with demons and hearing voices.The jury in Nashua had found Dale Holloway guilty on Tuesday on one of two attempted murder charges, and several assault charges. Holloway, 41, who is acting as his own attorney, had pleaded innocent. The panel, in considering a sentence, is now listening to him present evidence that he had suffered from a mental disease or defect when the crimes were committed.Holloway told jurors Wednesday that one of the voices he heard was Satan’s.“Maybe I did some things that I didn’t want to do that I feel as if Satan made me do,” he said in describing one of his songs.The October 2019 shootings happened at New England Pentecostal Ministries in Pelham nearly two weeks after Holloway’s stepfath...

A tuberculosis case was diagnosed at UMass Boston, dozens identified as possible close contacts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

A person on UMass Boston’s campus has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and dozens were identified as possible close contacts, according to the university.The Boston Public Health Commission recently alerted UMass Boston’s University Health Services of an active TB case on campus.The diagnosed person is now receiving treatment, and the individual might have been infected with TB many years before developing the active TB infection.About 39 people on campus have been identified as possibly having close contact with the person who has active TB.The Boston Public Health Commission has been working with the university and Massachusetts Department of Public Health to conduct contact tracing and inform close contacts about their possible exposure.“Although TB is a serious disease caused by a germ that is spread through the air, it is important to note that the general UMass Boston community is not at increased risk for getting a TB infection as a result of this case,R...

Bruins notebook: Danton Heinen making himself useful

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

Danton Heinen will never be a bruiser. At 6-foot-1 and 188 pounds, he’s average height for an NHLer, and a tad on the slim side.But if a player is smart and attentive, he can not only learn how to win little battles in the NHL, he will come to understand the significance of them.It looks like Heinen is smart and attentive.With four games under his belt in his second tour of duty with the Bruins, it’s becoming clear that he’s added a layer of of responsibility and tenacity on the puck that can make him a valuable utility man for coach Jim Montgomery, especially now after it was learned that Morgan Geekie will be out week-to-week with an upper body injury.“I think as you get more years in the league, you realize that those things are really important because there’s a lot of good players out there and there’s not a whole lot of difference,” said Heinen after Wednesday’s practice. “And the small stuff is not something everyone sees. But as you get ol...

Children who survive shootings endure huge health obstacles and costs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

Liz Szabo | (TNS) KFF Health NewsOronde McClain was struck by a stray bullet on a Philadelphia street corner when he was 10.The bullet shattered the back of his skull, splintering it into 36 pieces. McClain’s heart stopped, and he was technically dead for two minutes and 17 seconds.Although a hospital team shocked him back to life, McClain never fully recovered. Doctors removed half his skull, replacing it with a gel plate, but shrapnel remains.The shooting left him in a coma for seven weeks and in a wheelchair for nearly two years. School bullies magnified his pain, laughing at his speech and the helmet he wore to protect his brain. McClain said he repeatedly attempted suicide as a teenager. He remains partly paralyzed on his right side and endures seizures and post-traumatic stress disorder.“People who die, they get funerals and balloon releases,” said McClain, now 33. “Survivors don’t get anything.”Yet the ongoing medical needs of gun violence survivors and their families are vas...

House Republicans subpoena Hunter and James Biden as their impeachment inquiry ramps back up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

By FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans issued subpoenas Wednesday to members of President Joe Biden’s family, taking their most aggressive step yet in an impeachment inquiry bitterly opposed by Democrats that is testing the reach of congressional oversight powers.The long-awaited move by Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, to subpoena the president’s son Hunter and his brother James comes as Republicans look to gain ground in their nearly yearlong investigation. So far, they have failed to uncover evidence directly implicating the president in any wrongdoing. But Republicans say the evidence trail they have uncovered paints a troubling picture of “influence peddling” by Biden’s family in their business dealings, particularly with clients overseas.“Now, the House Oversight Committee is going to bring in members of the Biden family and their associates to question them on this recor...

Top 50 places to eat in San Diego: Yelp

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- From tacos and pizza pies to authentic Filipino and Ethiopian cuisine, San Diego's dining scene has a lot to offer. To help foodies narrow down the most favored restaurants in the region, Yelp has created a 2023 collection of the top 50 places to eat in San Diego. To determine which spots earned a ranking on the list, Yelp says researchers identified businesses in the restaurants category, then ranked those establishment using a number of factors like the total volume and ratings of reviews between summer 2022 and summer 2023. Don’t swim at these San Diego beaches, says county health officials Restaurants on this list, which looked at businesses in and around the San Diego area, were all marked open on Yelp as of Oct. 23, 2023. Yelp also noted that all businesses on this list had a passing health score as of this same date. Enough with the methodology -- let's bite into this data. Will it be delicate pasta, juicy kabobs, or top notch pub faire for dinner?No. 50: Daru...

Azerbaijan’s president addresses a military parade in Karabakh and says ‘we showed the whole world’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

Hundreds of Azerbaijani soldiers paraded Wednesday through Khankendi, the capital city of the Karabakh region that came under full control of Azerbaijan in September after a lightning rout of ethnic Armenian forces.“We showed the whole world the strength, determination and indomitable spirit of the Azerbaijani people,” Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said in an address at the parade, which also included tanks and military equipment that was seized from Armenian forces.Khankendi, which Armenians called Stepanakert, was the headquarters of the self-declared separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh. The region and sizable surrounding territory came under control of ethnic Armenians at the 1994 end of a separatist war.But Azerbaijan regained parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and most of the surrounding territory in 2020 after a six-week war. That fighting ended with a Russia-brokered truce between Azerbaijan and Armenia that called for Russian peacekeeping forces to be deployed in the Khanke...

‘Greed and corruption’: Federal jury convicts veteran DEA agents in bribery conspiracy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal jury convicted two longtime U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration supervisors Wednesday of leaking confidential information to defense attorneys as part of a bribery conspiracy that prosecutors say imperiled high-profile cases and the lives of overseas drug informants. The Manhattan jury found John Costanzo Jr. and Manny Recio guilty of bribery and wire fraud after a two-week trial that cast a harsh light on DEA’s handling of government secrets, including testimony about one breach so sensitive the judge closed the courtroom to avoid what he called “serious diplomatic repercussions.” “It’s about greed and corruption,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Deininger said in her closing argument. “What they were doing was wrong, and they knew it.”Recio and Costanzo join a growing list of more than a dozen DEA agents convicted of federal charges in recent years, including one who laundered money money for Colombian cartels. Another is scheduled...

Police release image of St. Catharines stabbing suspect

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:54 GMT

Investigators with Niagara Regional Police Service have released an image of a suspect after a man was stabbed in St. Catharines during a robbery attempt.Police say it happened on September 4 at around 10:35 p.m. in the Riordon Street and Gale Crescent area when the victim, a 46-year-old man, was walking with a friend.Investigators said two suspects approached the duo and demanded property from the victim’s friend.That led to an altercation that resulted in the victim being stabbed.He was taken to a trauma centre with non-life-threatening injuries and is now recovering at home, police added.A photo of one of the suspects has been released. He’s described as a Black male in his late 20s with a medium build. He was wearing black pants, a black hooded sweatshirt with a T-shirt visible underneath and black running shoes with white sole at heel.The second suspect is a Black male, 15-16 years old with a thin build. He was wearing grey pants and a white T-shirt with black runni...