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Mayor Wu to share plan on Boston’s Mass and Cass on Friday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

A new plan for Boston’s Mass. and Cass area is expected to be announced Friday when Mayor Michelle Wu is scheduled to speak about the ongoing substance use disorder, mental health and homelessness crisis near the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. Wu is slated to hold a press conference in Roxbury Friday morning, at which point she could announce new steps such as a ban on encampments and an increased police presence. “This year, we have fewer people that are truly unhoused and looking for services and more people that are coming to the area to participate in the drug market or to partake in criminal activity,” said Mass and Cass Response Team Director Tania Del Rio this week.Officials have been holding public meetings leading up to Friday’s announcement. Among feedback, Del Rio said officials have heard from police “that they need visibility as far as all of the activity that’s criminal in the area going on.”“The tents, tarp structures —...

Dozens of Trump supporters cheer him on as former president turns himself in at Georgia jail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

By SUDHIN THANAWALA and KATE BRUMBACK (Associated Press)ATLANTA (AP) — Roads between the Atlanta airport and the Fulton County Jail were blocked off as former President Donald Trump arrived in a motorcade to turn himself in on charges related to his efforts to remain in power after his 2020 election loss, giving the scene something of a presidential aura.But Trump was going to do something no other president has ever done — surrender for booking on criminal charges and have a mug shot taken.As word spread that Trump was on his way, demonstrators near the main entrance on the Rice Street side of the jail lined security barricades two to three deep. There were more Trump supporters than opponents braving the intense Georgia summer heat, but both groups were outnumbered by media. The crowd, which began gathering in the morning, had grown as the hour of Trump’s booking approached.Trump entered on the opposite side, along Jefferson Street, where police had blocked off t...

Column: Tony La Russa 3.0 is a fitting way to end the Chicago White Sox trilogy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

Tony La Russa 3.0 is the sequel you didn’t know you needed.Every trilogy needs an ending to tie up all the loose ends, so the return of La Russa to the Chicago White Sox as adviser, consultant, resident sage or whatever title the team prefers was probably inevitable.A meeting among Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, manager Pedro Grifol and La Russa took place Wednesday night, as first reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.It came a day after Reinsdorf fired executive vice president Ken WIlliams and general manager Rick Hahn, who hired Grifol to replace La Russa when he left for health reasons after the 2022 season.“I’ve had these meetings before,” Grifol said. “I said it a couple days ago. This is not my first meeting. I had a couple meetings in April, a couple meetings in May. This is an ongoing thing. We’re all in this thing together, top to bottom. So this is not because of what transpired. This is something that we do in ways that we’ve ...

Howie Carr: Dems crave subsidizing sloth

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

I hope it’s just a trial balloon, but it appears that the usual Deep State suspects are trying to gin up another Pan(dem)ic, just in time for the 2024 elections.Here we go again!As bad as Joe Biden’s public polls are, the Democrats’ internal numbers must be even worse, if they’re playing the COVID card this far out from the election.You may have thought Dr. Anthony Fauci retired, but apparently not. He’s still out there claiming the sky is falling.“We are not done with COVID,” he said this week. “We know that.”“We” being the Democrat party and the Red Chinese who concocted the virus in the first place.The comrades employ the virus as if it was that old box with the fire extinguisher on the wall of a public building – “In case of emergency, break glass.”This is an emergency, dammit.Do you realize that millions of deadbeat losers are supposed to resume making payments on their student loans next month? Bummer, man, totally.Between hits on their bongs full of designer weed, this is wha...

Chicago Cubs bring Keegan Thompson back from Triple-A Iowa to bolster a taxed bullpen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

The Chicago Cubs bullpen is getting a reinforcement.The call-up of right-hander Keegan Thompson before Thursday’s series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates became the first domino to help an overworked bullpen. Thompson, who replaced optioned right-hander Michael Rucker as the corresponding move, gives manager David Ross a multi-inning reliever who likely will be used in two-inning stretches.The Cubs’ last eight games have been decided by two runs or fewer, leading to heavier reliever usage, particularly the back end of the bullpen.“It‘s definitely taken a toll,” President Jed Hoyer said Thursday. “This is August, this is the dog days and the guys that feel it the most I think are the the bullpen guys. … We haven’t gotten any really deep starts and we haven’t been blown out and we’re not blowing people out.“The reality is that if we keep doing that, we’re going to have to rely on guys in high leverage or guys...

President of Guyana demands slavery reparations ahead of apology from plantation owner descendants

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Guyana president Irfaan Ali on Thursday lashed out at the descendants of European slave traders, saying those who profited from the cruel, trans-Atlantic slave trade should offer to pay reparations to today’s generations.The leader of the South American country also proposed that those involved in the slave trade be posthumously charged for crimes against humanity.Ali spoke ahead of Friday’s planned formal apology in Guyana by the descendants of Scottish 19th-century sugar and coffee plantation owner John Gladstone, saying the apology should also include issues of compensation and reparative justice.The president said that while he welcomed plans by the family to acknowledge what he called the sins of the past, it also implies “an acknowledgement of the cruel nature of African enslavement and indentureship in Guyana and an act of contrition that paves the way for justice. The Gladstone family has admitted that it benefited from African enslavement and inden...

One image, one face, one American moment: The Donald Trump mug shot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

A camera clicks. In a fraction of a second, the shutter opens and then closes, freezing forever the image in front of it.When the camera shutter blinked inside a jail in downtown Atlanta on Thursday, it both created and documented a tiny inflection point in American life. Captured for posterity, there was a former president of the United States, for the first time in history, under arrest and captured in the sort of frame more commonly associated with drug dealers or drunken drivers. The trappings of power gone, for that split second. Left behind: an enduring image that will appear in history books long after Donald Trump is gone.“It will be forever part of the iconography of being alive in this time,” said Marty Kaplan, a professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications. In the photo, Trump confronts the camera in front of a bland gray backdrop, his eyes meeting the lens in an intense glare. He’s wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red ti...

Savannah picks emancipated Black woman to replace name of slavery advocate on historic square

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Georgia’s oldest city, steeped in history predating the American Revolution, made a historic break with its slavery-era past Thursday as Savannah’s city council voted to rename a downtown square in honor of a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write.Susie King Taylor is the first person of color whose name will adorn one of Savannah’s 23 squares. It’s the first time in 140 years that Savannah has approved a name change for one of the picturesque, park-like squares that are treasured features of the original plan for the city founded in 1733. “It’s one thing to make history. It’s something else to make sense. And in this case, we’re making both,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said. He noted that five Black women sit on the nine-member city council, something people of Taylor’s era “never would have fathomed.”Public spaces and monuments in the Southern city have long been dedicated almost exclusively to Georgia’s colon...

A retired Wyoming bishop cleared by Vatican of sexual abuse despite local findings has died at 91

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A former U.S. bishop cleared by the Vatican of multiple allegations he sexually abused minors and teenagers, after a review board under his diocese in Wyoming found that allegations against him were credible, has died.Retired Wyoming Bishop Joseph Hart, of Cheyenne, died Wednesday, according to the Diocese of Cheyenne. He was 91.Hart long maintained his innocence, denying all allegations of misconduct. In 2021, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith cleared him of seven accusations of abuse and determined that five others couldn’t be proven with certainty.Two other cases involving boys who were 16 and 17 couldn’t be prosecuted because the Catholic Church didn’t consider them minors at the time of the alleged abuse. The Vatican decree didn’t address another alleged victim.Hart’s attorney, Thomas Jubin, at the time called some of the allegations “specious,” based on second- and third-hand information and some accuse...

Man dead, woman injured in Toronto west-end shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:30:15 GMT

Toronto police say a man is dead and a woman is in hospital following a double shooting in the city’s west end on Thursday night.Authorities were called to the Northcliffe Boulevard and St. Clair Avenue area around 7:30 p.m. for reports of gunshots.Police located two victims who had been shot — one was rushed to hospital via an emergency run, and a second victim was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.Officers later confirmed that one man had died from his injuries. A woman remains in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.A firearm was discovered at the scene, police said, noting a suspect had fled on foot.The homicide unit has taken over the investigation.The St. Clair Avenue West and Northcliffe intersection is shut down for the investigation.A heavy police presence is expected.