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Massachusetts COVID cases and hospitalizations on the rise again, new variant BA.2.86 has ‘lots of mutations’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

COVID cases and hospitalizations are on the rise yet again, just as the school year kicks off, as a new variant with “lots of mutations” may lead to more infections in people who previously had COVID or who received vaccines and boosters.The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Thursday reported a weekly count of 2,171 virus cases, up 6% from last week’s count of 2,048 COVID cases.The daily average of virus cases is now up to 310, more than four times the daily rate of 75 cases from the beginning of July.There are now 342 patients hospitalized with COVID, up 42 patients from last week’s count of 300 patients. Hospitalizations had dipped to 100 patients in July.In addition to the recent rise in local cases and hospitalizations, the Boston-area COVID wastewater has been ticking up — the first sign of more virus cases at the community level. The south-of-Boston wastewater average has gone up 36% in the last week, while the north-of-Boston average h...

Newton man charged with beating wife to death with baseball bat held without bail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

A Newton man charged with beating his wife to death with a baseball bat two days after she obtained a restraining order against him pleaded not guilty to her murder. He was ordered held without bail.Richard Hanson, 64, appeared Thursday morning behind glass in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn wearing a clean white t-shirt as his eyes darted between his appointed attorney, the clerk magistrate and the members of the media watching from the gallery. A grand jury on Aug. 17 indicted him for the murder of his wife, Nancy Hanson, on Aug. 15.Almost exactly a month before, on the evening of July 15, prosecutor Megan McGovern said at the hearing, Newton Police arrived at 66 Brookline St. and found Hanson standing in his driveway and spattered with blood. McGovern alleged that Hanson told the officers he was “sorry” and that he had “caught her cheating.”Nancy Hanson had obtained a restraining order against her husband two days before, which the Newton Police had been attempting to serve, a...

More than 22,000 purple flags on Boston Common, as Massachusetts officials recognize International Overdose Awareness Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

More than 22,000 purple flags have been planted on Boston Common to memorialize the Massachusetts residents who died from overdoses over the last decade, as officials on Thursday recognized International Overdose Awareness Day and brought attention to the opioid epidemic.The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported 2,357 opioid-related overdose deaths across the Bay State last year, the highest-ever rate and 3% higher than 2021 overdose deaths. The larger purple flags planted on Boston Common represent the 2,357 people who died last year.“22,000 flags. Each one represents a child, a parent, sibling or spouse taken by the overdose epidemic,” Gov. Maura Healey tweeted. “On Overdose Awareness Day, we recommit to reversing this heartbreaking trend and paving a path to recovery for everyone in need.”Healey issued a proclamation declaring Aug. 31 as Overdose Awareness Day in Massachusetts. The commemorative flags, along with resource tables offering harm ...

Toddler dies after incident at auto repair shop in Cohasset: police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

The Cohasset police chief is calling on residents to rally together to support the family of a 2-year-old boy who died from injuries he suffered in an incident at an auto repair shop on South Main Street.The boy’s grandfather, owner of Hajj Auto Service, rushed his grandson to the Cohasset Police Department, closeby the shop, at about 12:40 p.m. Thursday, just moments after the incident occurred, Chief William Quigley told reporters around 4:15.Quigley called it a “horrible tragedy,” saying the circumstances around it are under investigation by detectives from his department, Massachusetts State Police and the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.The family resides in Hull but has had a presence in Cohasset over the years, Quigley said.“This is a family that has had this garage in town for many years,” he said. “At this point, I would ask the residents of the town to get behind these folks. It’s clearly a difficult time for them, and they should be in everybody’s prayers.”The f...

US regulators might change how they classify marijuana. Here’s what that would mean

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The news lit up the world of weed: U.S. health regulators are suggesting that the federal government loosen restrictions on marijuana. Specifically, the federal Health and Human Services Department has recommended taking marijuana out of a category of drugs deemed to have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The agency advised moving pot from that “Schedule I” group to the less tightly regulated “Schedule III.” So what does that mean, and what are the implications? Read on.FIRST OF ALL, WHAT HAS ACTUALLY CHANGED? WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?Technically, nothing yet. Any decision on reclassifying — or “rescheduling,” in government lingo — is up to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which says it will take up the issue. The review process is lengthy and involves taking public comment.Still, the HHS recommendation is “paradigm-shifting, and it’s very exciting,” said Vince Sliwoski, a Portland, Oregon-based cannabis and psychedelics attorney who ru...

Utah mom who gave YouTube parenting advice arrested on suspicion of child abuse, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

A Utah woman who gave online parenting advice via a once popular YouTube channel has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated child abuse after her malnourished son escaped out a window and ran to a nearby house for help, authorities said.Ruby Franke, whose now defunct channel “8 Passengers” followed her family, was arrested Wednesday night in the southern Utah city of Ivins. She was taken into custody at the home of Jodi Hildebrandt, who owns a counseling business that she says teaches people to improve their lives by being honest, responsible and humble. Franke has recently appeared in YouTube videos with Hildebrandt that were posted online by Hildebrandt’s counseling business, ConneXions Classroom.Franke’s 12-year-old son climbed out of a window in Hildebrandt’s residence in Ivins and ran to a neighbor’s house Wednesday morning and asked for food and water, according to an affidavit filed by an officer with the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department.Th...

Kansas officials are no longer required to change trans people’s birth certificates, judge says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that Kansas officials are no longer required to keep changing transgender people’s birth certificates so the documents reflect their gender identities.U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree approved Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach’s request to block the changes because of a new state law rolling back trans rights. Kansas joins Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee in barring such birth certificate changes.Kansas is for now also among a few states that don’t let trans people change their driver’s licenses to reflect their gender identities. That’s because of a separate state-court lawsuit Kobach filed last month. Both efforts are responses to the new state law, which took effect July 1.The law defines male and female as the sex assigned at birth, based on a person’s “biological reproductive system,” applying those definitions to any other state law or regulation. The Republican-controlled Legislature enacted it over Democratic G...

B.C. extends fire state of emergency, says drought could continue into next year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

VANCOUVER — British Columbia is extending its provincial state of emergency over devastating wildfires that are burning across the province while warning that drought conditions could last into 2024.Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said the extension of the state of emergency until Sept. 14 is needed in case additional extraordinary orders are required to respond to the more than 400 fires.“I’d like to stress one more time that we are still in peak wildfire season. The rain that we experienced over the last couple of days has brought some relief to the south but the wildfire season continues,” Ma said Thursday.“People across the province, particularly in the north, must stay vigilant and be prepared to evacuate if needed.”About 4,200 people in B.C. remained on evacuation order, with 65,000 on evacuation alert to be ready to leave their homes on short notice, Ma said. During the peak of the crisis, 30,000 people across the province were ordered out of t...

Judge blocks Arkansas law requiring parental OK for minors to create social media accounts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing a new law that would have required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts, preventing the state from becoming the first to impose such a restriction.U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks granted a preliminary injunction that NetChoice — a tech industry trade group whose members include TikTok, Facebook parent Meta, and X, formerly known as Twitter — had requested against the law. The measure, which Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law in April, was set to take effect Friday.Arkansas’ law is similar to a first-in-the-nation restriction signed into law earlier this year in Utah. That law is not set to take effect until March 2024. NetChoice last year filed a lawsuit challenging a California law requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children p...

Rule allowing rail shipments of LNG will be put on hold to allow more study of safety concerns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:36 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Trump-era rule allowing railroads to haul highly flammable liquefied natural gas will now be formally put on hold to allow more time to study the safety concerns related to transporting that fuel and other substances like hydrogen that must be kept at extremely low temperatures when they are shipped, regulators announced Thursday.Right after it was announced in the summer of 2020, the rule was challenged in court by a number of environmental groups and 14 states. The uncertainty about the rule on transporting the fuel known as LNG kept railroads from shipping it. The Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration says no one has ever even ordered one of the specially fortified rail cars that would have been required to ship LNG, and several hundred of those cars that would each take at least 18 months to build would likely be needed to make the idea viable.“We need to do more safety investigative work,” said Tristan Brown, the deputy administrator who i...