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Online Lottery Momentum Stalls Out In Senate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

The Senate on Tuesday rejected a proposal to authorize online Lottery, setting up a closed-doors fight with House negotiators over the latest proposed expansion of gambling. In the first hour of debate on their fiscal year 2024 budget, senators shot down an amendment from Sen. Paul Feeney that would have allowed the Massachusetts Lottery to offer its products online. No one spoke about Feeney’s amendment before the vote. Senate leaders wove the measure alongside 90 other amendments into a bundle that senators rejected with a single voice vote. The House in its budget authorized an “iLottery” system and called for all new revenue from online Lottery sales to be directed toward Commonwealth Cares for Children, or C3, grants to early education and care providers. House Democrats estimate the measure could generate $200 million in revenue for the strained early education and care sector. Feeney’s amendment would have steered revenue from an online Lottery to citi...

State Eyes More Restrictive Student Cellphone Policies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

The state’s K-12 education department is encouraging districts to restrict or ban students’ cellphone use in schools, possibly moving toward a statewide mandate in the future. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley announced Tuesday that the department will “likely” create a matching grant of up to $1 million for districts that pilot a cellphone restriction policy. This is “not a mandate at this time,” he said, “but we’re certainly interested in piloting more of this.” Riley invited teachers, administrators and students from schools that have instituted restrictions or bans to speak before the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education at their monthly meeting on Tuesday. Some school representatives discussed their policies requiring students to give up their phones at the start of class. Other schools restrict phone use in hallways as well. One school, the Eliot K-8 Innovation School in Bost...

WATCH: Wranglers capture runaway cow on I-75 in Michigan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

OAKLAND COUNTY, Michigan (WWJ) — It was an eventful Sunday afternoon on I-75 in Holly as a runaway cow managed to get on the freeway.According to Michigan State Police, troopers responded to a traffic control request around 2:50 p.m. Sunday along I-75 near Belford Road as a group attempted to wrangle a cow that was stuck in a gravel put on Belford Road.A group of wranglers on horses and four-wheelers on the shoulder of I-75 attempted to capture the cow, but the bovine outsmarted them and ran across the northbound lanes of I-75.Troopers shut down the northbound and southbound lanes for safety.The group eventually captured and removed the cow from the freeway.MSP says the cow is now back in the pasture.

Guam residents stock up, batten down as dangerous Super Typhoon Mawar closes in

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER (Associated Press)HONOLULU (AP) — President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration as an intensifying Super Typhoon Mawar approached Guam, where anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere and emergency shelters began to fill ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. Pacific territory in two decades.Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said on social media that the declaration will support the mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.” Guerrero ordered residents of coastal, low-lying and flood-prone areas of the territory of over 150,000 people to evacuate to higher elevations.Federal assistance will be needed to save lives and property and “mitigate the effects of this imminent catastrophe,” Guerrero said in a letter to the president requesting a “pre-landfall emergency” for Guam. Officials warned resident...

Trump to make second Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ court appearance, virtually

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

By Josephine Stratman, New York Daily NewsDonald Trump was set for a virtual Tuesday appearance in a Manhattan courtroom, with a judge expected to warn the former president to abide by new restrictions set in his “hush money” case.Judge Juan Merchan has already imposed a protective order on Trump and his team to block them from talking about evidence or witnesses in the case on social media.He agreed to take the additional step of personally addressing the issue on the restrictions on Trump after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team expressed their concerns about the case.Former U.S. President Donald Trump during a round of golf at his Turnberry course on May 2, 2023 in Turnberry, Scotland. (Photo by Robert Perry/Getty Images)Trump could face contempt charges if he uses evidence shared by prosecutors in pre-trial discovery to intimidate witnesses or anyone else involved in the case. The order would also bar Trump or his layers from sharing evidence with third parties or po...

LeBron James noncommittal on future, hints at retirement after loss to Nuggets: ‘I’ve got a lot to think about’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

Could this be the end?LeBron James’ cryptic press conference Monday after the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 4 loss to the Denver Nuggets raises legitimate questions about his future.The 38-year-old hinted at retirement after being swept out of the Western Conference Finals.“We’ll see what happens going forward,” James said Monday night at Crypto.com Arena. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve got a lot to think about, to be honest. Just for me personally going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about. …”“It’s all about availability for me and keeping my mind sharp, and things of that nature,” James said. “Being present on the floor, being present in the locker room and bus rides and plane rides, things of that nature. It’s challenging, for sure. It was a very challenging season for me, for our ballclub, and obviously we know whatever went on early on [in the Lakers...

Illinois AG’s investigation finds 451 Catholic clergy sexually abused kids, far more than the 103 the church named

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois AG’s investigation finds 451 Catholic clergy sexually abused kids, far more than the 103 the church named.

For teens, traditional summer job may work better than side gig

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

Teens looking for summer work may think “side hustles” and social media are the only ways to make money.“What we hear from a lot of young people is that they’d rather try to start a business than have traditional jobs,” says Ed Grocholski, chief marketing officer of Junior Achievement USA, an organization that helps young people prepare for career success.It’s easy to see why teens are excited. Social media influencers appear to be cashing in on their images and hobbies, and side hustle culture makes it look more feasible than ever to market and sell a product or service. But what teens might not realize is that early entrepreneurial endeavors usually take time to take off. Put another way, they don’t provide steady pay.But traditional jobs do, and for teenagers looking to eventually be their own boss online or off, such in-person work can lay beneficial groundwork. Here are some options for working-age teens and what lessons they could learn on the job.A positive attitude can...

Music Review: Robert Ellis proves he’s today’s news on moody, vulnerable album ‘Yesterday’s News’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

“Yesterday’s News” by Robert Ellis (Niles City)In the title track to his new album, “Yesterday’s News,” singer-songwriter Robert Ellis suggests in thinly-veiled terms that he’s washed up. But the album proves he’s anything but.Ellis isn’t for everybody, and large-scale commercial success may not be his destiny. His voice is expressive but reedy, his lyrics quirky, even eccentric. But the originality that made him a critics’ darling going back at least to his brilliant 2014 album, “The Lights of the Chemical Plant,” shines as brightly as ever here.The nine songs on “Yesterday’s News” are set against a subdued background of acoustic finger-picking on nylon strings, backed by an upright bass and light percussion. The playing often sounds more like classical guitarist Andres Segovia than anything country or Americana, and Ellis leans into it for long instrumental stretches.Several songs hint at pandemic themes, and while it’s true that mos...

Biden leaning into global diplomacy to manage migration at US-Mexico border

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:16 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — On President Joe Biden ‘s first day in office, he handed Congress a legislative plan to modernize the nation’s immigration system.It went nowhere, just like so many past overhaul attempts. Meanwhile, the number of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border climbed to record highs and so did the backlog of cases in the nation’s immigration court system. Title 42 emergency health powers that allowed border officials to turn away many migrants were sure to end as the coronavirus pandemic eased. And Congress couldn’t agree on even simple questions like whether the U.S. should let in more people, or fewer.So administration officials went looking outside the U.S. for solutions, seeking to portray immigration not as one of America’s most intractable problems, but as an issue for the entire Western hemisphere to address. It was a shift in focus that plays to Biden’s faith in the power of global diplomacy, and one that also may hold mor...