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Massachusetts emergency shelter spending for FY24 up to $247M, report says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey’s administration reported an additional $42 million in spending on the emergency assistance shelter system in the span of two weeks in December, according to a report filed Tuesday with the Legislature’s budget writing committees.The financial details are spelled out in a document that also sheds light on a state-run list for families with children and pregnant people waiting for shelter placement, indicating that nearly 1,400 families have applied for shelter since the system reached Healey’s self-imposed capacity limit of 7,500 families.Spending on the emergency assistance shelter system — which temporarily houses local and migrant families pursuant to a decades-old right-to-shelter law — covers shelter services, National Guard activations, assessment sites, intake centers, and temporary shelters, according to the report.In its first report released two weeks ago, state officials said Massachusetts had spent a total of $205 million on the emergency assistance hou...

Prosecutors say Sen. Menendez cashed in by linking Qatari royal family member with NJ businessman

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

By LARRY NEUMEISTER (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez publicly supported the government of Qatar and enabled a member of the Qatari royal family, a principal in a company with ties to the government of Qatar, to invest tens of millions of dollars in a New Jersey businessman’s real estate project, a rewritten indictment alleged Tuesday.The superseding indictment in Manhattan federal court did not identify the member of the Qatari royal family but said the individual was the principal of the Qatari Investment Co., an investment fund. Menendez, D-N.J., already was charged with wielding his political influence to secretly advance Egypt’s interests.The indictment said the Qatari investor eventually negotiated a multimillion-dollar investment finalized in 2023 in the real estate project planned by Fred Daibes, one of three businessmen charged in the indictment along with the 70-year-old senator and his wife. All have pleaded not guilty.Adam Fee, a ...

Grab a free SeaWorld Preschool Fun Card for little ones for 2024

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Parents of toddlers in San Diego and Orange counties can now grab a free Preschool Fun Card for their children to get unlimited admission to SeaWorld San Diego for 2024.Limited amounts of the Preschool Fun Cards are now on sale on SeaWorld San Diego's website. The passes are listed as free, then $24 once the free passes are all sold out. Watch: Celebrate the holiday season with animals at SeaWorld San Diego, San Diego Zoo All kids ages 3 to 5 that live in San Diego or Orange counties are eligible to get the Preschool Fun Card, which allows toddlers unlimited year-round admission to the park through Dec. 31, 2024. SeaWorld says the passes go fast, so grab yours today. As a parent with a toddler, this author snagged hers Tuesday morning, but be warned the load times are pretty slow while everyone is on at the same time trying to get theirs. Once you get the Preschool Fun Card, you must register online and visit the park by May 31, 2024 in order to activate the card. Ke...

Elections head in Nevada’s lone swing county resigns, underscoring election turnover in key state

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The rapid turnover among election officials in Nevada continued on Tuesday, when the top election official in Nevada’s lone swing county abruptly announced her resignation less than a month before early voting commences for the Feb. 6 presidential preference primary.Washoe County Registrar of Voters Jamie Rodriguez said in her resignation letter that she wanted to pursue opportunities away from elections and spend more time with family ahead of a crucial 2024 election cycle.Her last day will be March 15, though she will use her accrued time before then.Eleven of Nevada’s 17 counties have had turnover in top county election positions since the 2020 election, most of which occurred between 2020 and the 2022 midterms, according to an Associated Press tally. That already included Washoe County, whose past registrar of voters, Deanna Spikula, resigned in June 2022 due to death threats and harassment.The county had no additional comment on Rodriguez’s departure, other th...

‘We had to do something different’: Leafs’ GM details plan for Samsonov

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

Something, anything had to change.The goaltender Brad Treliving took to arbitration over the summer because the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t believe in him enough to commit long-term no longer believes in himself.So, with the trade prices too steep for the GM’s liking in a goalie market flooded with buyers and short on sellers, Treliving had a choice: (a) keep trotting out Ilya Samsonov in back-to-back situations and hold his breath, or (b) give the goalie a break from NHL spotlights and red lights and reluctantly call up the kid.The plan for his $3.55-million goaltender? Practice.Yep, we’re talking about practice.“We know Ilya has gone through a difficult time,” Treliving told reporters Tuesday, following the Leafs’ morning skate at Crypto.com Arena. “I just felt strongly we had to do something different to help Ilya.”While Samsonov was waived to the AHL and prospect Dennis Hildeby recalled prior to the club’s California road trip...

Court injunction against law banning public drug use disappointing, say police chiefs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

VANCOUVER — A top British Columbia law enforcement official says a recent court decision placing a temporary injunction on a law to restrict public drug use takes away police enforcement tools.Vancouver Police Department Deputy Chief Const. Fiona Wilson, who’s also president of the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, says officers are disappointed with the B.C. Supreme Court decision last week that blocks the provincial law.Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled in favour of an application by the Harm Reduction Nurses Association and imposed the temporary injunction until March 31, pending a constitutional challenge of the law, saying “irreparable harm will be caused” if it comes into force.The Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act was passed by the legislature in November, allowing fines and imprisonment for refusal to comply with police orders not to consume drugs in places including parks, beaches, sports fields and near business entrances and bus stop...

Gypsy Rose Blanchard is free, reflects on prison term for conspiring to kill her abusive mother

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

Gypsy Rose Blanchard said she has found a way to forgive her mother — and herself. But it has been a long journey from years of abuse and the darkest parts of her life splashed across tabloids to living in prison.Blanchard, now 32, was paroled last week from a Missouri women’s prison. Her release came 8 1/2 years after she persuaded her boyfriend at the time to kill her abusive mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard — in a desperate bid to be free of her. For years, her mother forced her to pretend that she was suffering from leukemia, muscular dystrophy and other serious illnesses.“At first I was really angry with her, very confused. And I’m still confused,” Blanchard told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday. “But I understand that she had a lot of mental issues. And so I think that’s brought me to a place of forgiveness by just trying to understand where she was coming from. I don’t believe that she was evil.“I know, that she was very sick,” she cont...

Transat flight attendants reject tentative contract deal

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

MONTREAL — Flight attendants at Air Transat have voted to reject a tentative deal with the Canadian leisure carrier.The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents the 2,100 flight attendants at the airline, says more than 98 per cent of workers voted against the tentative contract reached Dec. 14. The union says it will be back at the bargaining table with Transat later this week.In November, Air Transat flight attendants voted to approve a strike mandate if a new contract cannot be reached.But CUPE says there is currently no timetable for a strike.The collective agreement for Air Transat’s flight attendants based at airports in Montreal and Toronto expired on Oct. 31, 2022.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 2, 2024.Companies in this story: (TSX:TRZ)The Canadian Press

Body of missing Florida woman found in retention pond after nearly 12 years, volunteer divers say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — A group of volunteer divers believe they have found the remains of a woman in a vehicle submerged in a retention pond near Walt Disney World, apparently solving a 12-year-old mystery about what happened to her.Divers from Sunshine State Sonar said they believe they found the remains of Sandra Lemire on Saturday while diving in a small retention pond at the Disney World exit on Interstate 4 in Kissimmee, Florida. Lemire disappeared in May 2012. She was last seen leaving a restaurant in Kissimmee, driving the minivan that was found.The group of divers had been searching for Lemire in 63 bodies of water over the last year and a half. Last week, a tip from an Orlando Police Department detective about the location of a cellphone tower that last received a call from Lemire’s phone helped them narrow the search to the retention pond, the group said in a statement on social media.“We located what appeared to be a minivan submerged in 14 feet of water,” the state...

Coach-to-player comms, sideline tablets tested in bowl games, but some schools decided to hold off

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:11:42 GMT

Billy Edwards Jr. became a test pilot of sorts for the type of helmet communication technology that might soon become commonplace in college football.And the Maryland quarterback was a fan.“I think overall it was good,” Edwards said after the Terrapins beat Auburn in the Music City Bowl. “On one of my runs down there at the goal line on I think the first or second drive, (offensive coordinator Josh) Gattis is up there, and most times I think I’m thinking the same thing he’s saying, but he was saying they were in like a stick coverage, kind of like a zero look, and he was like, ‘Pull, pull, pull it.’ He just confirmed what I was thinking.”In the aftermath of the Michigan sign-stealing scandal, the possibility of college teams using NFL-style communication technology has been viewed with a little more urgency. And with non-playoff bowls sometimes looking more like 2024 exhibition games than 2023 postseason games, teams have taken advantage of the opportunity to try out various d...