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Watchdog report questions Boston’s ability to sustain ARPA-funded projects

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

A municipal watchdog report found the city is on track to spend the entirety of its $558.7 million use-or-lose ARPA funds by the 2026 deadline, but raised concerns about Boston’s ability to sustain certain projects after the federal cash is gone.The city appropriated the majority, or $362.2 million of its federal allocation for “equitable and transformative investments,” and should begin evaluating “successful projects that can and should be funded” after this grant expires, Boston Municipal Research Bureau concludes in a Tuesday report.Related ArticlesPolitics | Flynn to other Boston city councilors: Hearings should not be virtual Politics | Boston councilors clash over nonprofits not paying their ‘fair share’ of city taxes Politics | Longtime Boston City Councilor Frank Baker will not seek re-election Politics | Boston should hire a rat ‘czar,’ council president says Politics | Bosto...

Level 3 offender accused of sexually assaulting MIT student at sorority

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

A Level 3 predator accused of sexually assaulting an MIT student in the Back Bay was busted along the city’s drug-plagued Methadone Mile.Nahom Getaneh, 33, was tracked down Tuesday by police in the area of Atkinson and Southampton streets — the epicenter of the opioid-crazed zone — after a fuzzy photo was posted of a suspected night stalker.Getaneh faces arraignment in Boston Municipal Court on charges of assault with intent to rape and indecent assault and battery, police said. He is accused of attacking an MIT student Saturday night in the area of Beacon Street just before midnight.The alleged victim was entering her Delta Phi Epsilon sorority on Beacon Street. Further details, police said, will come out at the arraignment, but the charges and other reports indicate the attack could have been much worse.Getaneh also has two outstanding warrants against him for failure to register as a sex offender and possession of class B drugs.He is listed as being 6 feet tall ...

School bus crashes into trees in South Bay

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- A school bus was involved in a crash Tuesday in the Chula Vista area.Around 5 p.m., SkyFOX captured video over East Palomar St and Heritage Road where the bus could be seen on the side of the road after colliding into what appears to be two trees. DUI suspected in I-15 crash that killed 2, including 4-year-old At least one child and a driver were on board, but it is unknown of their status at this time, according to Chula Vista police.Check back for updates on this developing story.

Ed Sheeran testifies in ‘Let’s Get It On’ copyright suit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Ed Sheeran took the witness stand in a New York courtroom Tuesday to deny allegations that his hit song “Thinking Out Loud” ripped off Marvin Gaye’s soul classic “Let’s Get It On.”Sheeran, 32, was called to testify in the civil trial by the heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the 1973 soul classic. The family has accused the English star of violating their copyright, claiming his 2014 hit bore “striking similarities” and “overt common elements” to the famed Gaye track.Sheeran, in a dark suit and tie, was adamant that he had come up with the song himself. His testimony was at times contentious, as he sparred during cross-examination with the plaintiff’s attorney, Keisha Rice.In response to video footage played in the courtroom that showed the musician segueing on stage between the two songs, Sheeran said it was “quite simple to weave in and out of songs” that are in the same key.“I’d be an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 peop...

Venezuela’s Juan Guaid’0 not seeking political asylum in US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Tuesday said he is not seeking political asylum in the United States and has not ruled out the possibility of running in a presidential primary in his homeland planned for October.Guaidó spoke to The Associated Press by phone from Miami, where he arrived on a commercial flight that departed Colombia’s capital Monday night, hours after he crossed the border between that country and Venezuela with the intent of meeting with diplomats and other participants in an international conference focused on Venezuela’s political crisis.“I will have work meetings and obviously also time to assess the security situation among other things,” he said. “I am not requesting political asylum at this time.”His remarks came after Colombian authorities said he was subject to an administrative process for having crossed the border without getting his passport stamped upon entry, like millions of Venezuelans who have left their country in...

Yoon opens state visit with spotlight on space, mega deals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol opened his state visit to Washington on Tuesday by touring a NASA facility with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Biden administration looks to deepen ties with a close ally that it sees as only growing in importance in an increasingly complicated Indo-Pacific.Before Harris and Yoon’s visit to the Goddard Space Flight Center in suburban Greenbelt, Md., the two countries signed a joint statement on cooperation in space communications and navigation, and received briefings from NASA scientists on cooperative efforts on space exploration and addressing the climate crisis,“Our alliance is leading on some of the most important and pressing issues of our time,” Harris said in remarks with Yoon by her side at the NASA facility.Yoon, for his part, recalled his exhilaration as a third-grader watching on television as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped off Apollo 11 to become the first humans to set foot on the moon in 1969. N...

Mom, boyfriend get life sentences in 10-year-old boy’s death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The mother of a 10-year-old boy and her boyfriend were each sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for torturing and murdering the child, who was beaten, brutalized and starved in Southern California.Heather Barron, 33, and Kareem Leiva, 37, were convicted of first-degree murder involving torture last month in a nonjury trial. They also were found guilty of abusing two other children in their Lancaster home.Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta sentenced them both to life without the possibility of parole, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. The sentencing followed emotional statements from the boy’s relatives and friends, ABC7 reported. The judge called Anthony Avalos a “helpless child” dependent on his mother for his basic needs. “Instead Anthony was tortured and killed,” Ohta said.Neither Barron nor Leiva spoke during Tuesday’s hearing, according to the TV station. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies w...

Moon mission could boost Canadian health-care, climate efforts: Artemis II astronauts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

OTTAWA — Four astronauts selected to orbit the moon say the Artemis II mission can help inform how Canada responds to food insecurity, health-care needs and climate adaptation in the Arctic.“How do we actually get eight billion people to row in the same direction and work on these problems? Because these are global problems,” said Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian colonel who will join three Americans in space.“We can do great things together. We can do better as a human race. And here’s one small example,” he said alongside his crewmates in a Tuesday interview with The Canadian Press.The mission planned for November 2024 is part of an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon, and has NASA hoping Ottawa further boosts its spending on outer space.The 10-day mission involves slingshotting into deep space for a figure-8 manoeuvre around the dark side of the moon.If it is successful, Artemis II will mark the first time any human has ventured so ...

Boy, 16, charged in TTC bus stabbing at Old Mill Station

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

Toronto police have arrested and charged a 16-year-old boy in connection to a stabbing on board a TTC bus that was parked at Old Mill Subway Station in Etobicoke last January.Officers were called to the station just before 4 p.m. on Wednesday, January 25, for reports of a stabbing.The victim, a 16-year-old boy, was found suffering from multiple stab wounds and was taken to a trauma centre with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.Police say the victim was on a bus parked at the station when he became involved in a brief conversation with another male. Investigators say the suspect stabbed the victim several times.Investigators originally said they were seeking an adult man in the case, but in an update Tuesday night police said the alleged culprit is a 16-year-old boy. He was arrested on Tuesday and is now facing charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, carry concealed weapon and possess a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Judge tosses felony charge against former parole chairperson

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:28:50 GMT

RACINE, Wis. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday dropped a felony charge against the former chairperson of the Wisconsin Parole Commission. Racine County Circuit Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz dismissed the case against John Tate II on Tuesday, the Racine Journal Times reported. Prosecutors charged Tate on April 18 with using his public position as a Racine alderman for his private benefit, online court records indicate.According to a criminal complaint, Tate unlawfully negotiated the terms of his employment for Racine’s new violence interruption coordinator position after approving the creation of the job as Common Council president. He then applied for the position, and city officials offered it to him. Tate initially announced that he would resign as an alderman to begin his role as the coordinator in mid-November. However, he didn’t resign until his term finished April 17 after he said he had been advised that state law prohibits sitting local elected officials from taking positions that were...