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Boston City Council rejects $2.55M set aside for police department intel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

The Boston City Council, in a post-election flurry, voted to reject $2.55 million in state grants earmarked for the investigative arm of the city’s police department.City Councilor Michael Flaherty had pushed to suspend the rules and pass three grants for $850,000 apiece for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, for the purposes of improving “technology and protocols related to anti-terrorism, anti-crime, anti-gang and emergency response.”“These funds are vital,” Flaherty said. “They’re needed to thwart anyone looking to do harm in our city.”Mayor Michelle Wu had filed communications for the grants for the day’s City Council meeting, for fiscal years 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Council voted to reject the grants in FY21 and FY22, and did so again Wednesday, via a 7-5 vote.The vote was taken after City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who lost his District 5 seat in Tuesday night’s election, questioned if the police department funding was the same grant that “now-Attorney General Andrea Cam...

Boston City Council preliminary election results

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

Boston voters narrowed four City Council races to two candidates for the November election in Tuesday’s dramatic preliminary, ousting two embattled incumbents from the running.Councilors Ricardo Arroyo and Kendra Lara lost their coveted Districts 5 and 6 seats respectively after drifting into third in their races.In District 5, Enrique Pepen will be facing off against Jose Ruiz, and in District 6, it will be Benjamin Weber and William King in the final. The general election is Nov. 7.Here is the rundown of unofficial results from the four contested races Tuesday, per the city’s Elections Department.CITY COUNCILOR DISTRICT 3BALLOTS CAST 6,483CANDIDATESJohn M Fitzgerald Votes: 43%  — 2,777Joel G Richards 19% — Votes: 1,237 |Ann M Walsh 18% — Votes: 1,151Matthew D Patton 8.53% —  Votes: 550Jennifer Anne Johnson 4% — Votes: 271Barry Oliver Lawton 4% — Votes: 237Rosalind Wornum 3% — Votes: 213CITY COUNCILOR DISTRICT 5BALLOTS CAST: 7,583CANDIDATES...

Flaherty to Mayor Wu: Don’t wait on Boston City Council to clear out Mass and Cass

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty says the mayor shouldn’t wait for his colleagues to act before removing tents in the troubled Mass and Cass zone.Flaherty said the City Council’s committee on government operations should have held a hearing on Mayor Michelle Wu’s anti-encampment ordinance “at the first possible moment,” rather than wait until Sept. 28, as scheduled by committee chair Ricardo Arroyo.“Frankly, if I was the mayor, I’d clear it up myself now,” Flaherty told the Herald Wednesday. “The Boston City Council can’t organize a one-car funeral these days. If I’m the mayor of Boston, I don’t wait for the Boston City Council. I do it myself.”The late September hearing date pushed a Council vote on the matter into October, Flaherty said, more than a month after the mayor proposed the ordinance as part of her three-pronged plan to tackle crime at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.Given that the ordinance was introduced to the Council on Wednes...

Facing $1.5B deficit, California State University to hike tuition 6% annually for next 5 years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Trustees at California State University, the nation’s largest public university system, voted Wednesday to raise student tuition by 6% each year for five consecutive years to try to narrow a $1.5 billion deficit, a decision that some students called disheartening. The university’s governing board voted 9-0 to approve the increases that will start across the 23-campus system in the fall of 2024. Annual tuition for full-time California undergraduate students will increase by $342 next year to $6,084. By the 2028-2029 school year, those students will be paying $7,682.The tuition hikes are needed to provide support to students, both through financial aid and programs to help them succeed academically, university officials say. The extra revenue is also needed to give more resources to faculty and staff and maintain school facilities, according to a report about the system’s finances released in May. The report found the system with 460,000 students, many of them min...

Teen driver accused of intentionally hitting three cyclists, killing one, in Southern California

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A teenage driver was in custody Wednesday on suspicion of intentionally striking three bicyclists, killing one, in a Southern California beach city last weekend, police said. In the first hit-and-run collision, a bicyclist said a black Toyota sideswiped him around 10:30 p.m Sunday night in Huntington Beach, leaving him with minor injuries, said Jessica Cuchilla, a police spokesperson. Another cyclist said he was aggressively sideswiped by a black Toyota about 15 minutes later just up the road from the first collision, police said. And 15 minutes after that, a black Toyota sedan struck 70-year-old Steven Gonzales, who was alive when paramedics showed up but died at the scene.On Tuesday, officers discovered the suspect’s vehicle in Huntington Beach, leading them to identify the teen as a suspect, Cuchilla said. The teen, who was not identified, was arrested around 9 p.m. His age was not given. Investigators believe the crashes were all intentional, but ...

Police say another Sikh student attacked on bus in Kelowna, B.C.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

KELOWNA, B.C. — Police say a Sikh high school student in Kelowna, B.C., was pepper sprayed after an “altercation” on a bus on Monday, in the second instance of violence against a Sikh youth riding public transit in the city this year. The World Sikh Organization of Canada says it’s deeply concerned by the latest incident that it says began when two people tried to bar the Grade 11 student from boarding, then got on with him and began threatening him with a lighter, filming the interaction on their phones. A statement issued by the organization on Wednesday says the assailants began kicking and punching the student, a newcomer to Canada, before the bus driver kicked them all off the bus, and the attackers pepper sprayed the teenager before bystanders got involved.  Kelowna RCMP say they were called to an intersection in Rutland Monday afternoon and found that a 17-year-old Sikh student had been pepper sprayed or bear sprayed by another teenage male. Kelowna Mounties...

Heavy surf is pounding Bermuda as Hurricane Lee aims for New England and Atlantic Canada

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The outer bands of Hurricane Lee began to lash Bermuda late Thursday as big surf pounded the island, with the Category 2 storm expected to make landfall on the coast of New England or Atlantic Canada over the weekend.The storm was located about 370 miles (595 kilometers) south-southwest of Bermuda. It had winds of up to 105 miles per hour (165 kilometers per hour) and was moving north-northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).Lee was expected to pass just west of Bermuda, prompting forecasters to issue a tropical storm warning for the island.”I cannot stress enough that we must all take this storm seriously,” David Burch, acting national security minister, said in a press conference.Bermuda’s government announced it would shutter its airport at midday Thursday and reopen it Friday. Banks, city parks and ferry service also were scheduled to shut down Thursday. Public schools would shutter Thursday and Friday.“We don’t want 4,000 little people wandering around the...

Man walked naked out of shower, found Mountie in his bedroom: lawsuit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia man who is suing the RCMP claims he walked naked out of his shower to find a female uniformed Mountie standing in his bedroom.Kirk Forbes said the encounter in his Coquitlam home in June 2022 left him “shocked, confused and embarrassed.”“I felt violated in my own home,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “That’s my safe place. It should always be that way.”Mounties said in a news release issued Tuesday that the officers entered the home when they found that it appeared “insecure.”In a notice of civil claim filed in July, Forbes said it was only after he asked the woman why she was in his home that she identified herself as an RCMP officer, then asked him his name and said she was there to serve him a traffic ticket.Forbes was told the violation — not stopping for a school bus — happened in Pemberton, but he said in the claim he was unaware of any traffic violation. “I was confused and at that ...

Judge blocks suspension of right to carry firearms in public, siding against New Mexico governor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked part of a public health order that suspended the right to carry guns in public across New Mexico’s largest metro area, with criticism mounting and political divides widening over the Democratic governor’s action.The ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge David Urias marks a setback for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.The second-term governor imposed an emergency public health order Friday that suspended the right to openly carry or conceal guns in public places based on a statistical threshold for violent crime that applied only to Albuquerque and the surrounding area. She cited recent shootings around the state that left children dead, saying something needed to be done. Urias, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden, agreed Wednesday with plaintiffs who have accused Lujan Grisham of trampling on constitutional rights. Urias granted a temporary restraining order to block the governor’s suspension of gun r...

Live: Mike Pence town hall with NewsNation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:06 GMT

(NewsNation) — Former Vice President and presidential candidate Mike Pence will answer questions in front of a live studio audience Wednesday during a town hall hosted by NewsNation. "On Balance" anchor Leland Vittert will moderate the event, which will include a remote audience in Des Moines, Iowa, of undecided, independent and Republican voters, at 9 p.m. ET.To find out how you can watch Wednesday night's Town Hall, viewers can see where to watch NewsNation by entering their ZIP code in the NewsNation Channel Finder app. The town hall will also be livestreamed in the player above.Pence has been on the campaign trail in the early primary states Iowa and New Hampshire as he looks to gain support in the 2024 Republican presidential primary race.He also went on the offensive at last month's first GOP debate, touting his experience in the Trump administration and engaging in several back-and-forths with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. He also defended — as he has consistently done — his d...