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Court reinstates charges against leaders of veterans’ home

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ highest court overruled a lower court judge Thursday and reinstated criminal neglect charges against two top former officials at a veterans’ home. Nearly 80 veterans died at the Veterans’ Home in Holyoke after contracting the coronavirus in one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in a long-term care facility in the nation. The ruling allows the case against Bennett Walsh, the former superintendent at the facility, and Dr. David Clinton, its former medical director, to move forward. In their ruling, the majority of the justices found that the facts presented to the grand jury constituted probable cause to believe that Walsh and Clinton violated the elder abuse statute and that Hampden Superior Court Judge Edward McDonough Jr. erred in dismissing the charges.“Of course, sometimes bad things happen for no discernable reason, and no one is to blame. At any subsequent trial, prosecutors will need to prove their case. We conclude only that they will have the...

UN urges Afghanistan’s Taliban to reverse bans on women

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to swiftly reverse their increasingly harsh restrictions on women and girls, which range from very severely restricting education to banning women from most jobs, public spaces and gyms.The council condemned the Taliban’s ban on women working for the U.N., a decision the resolution calls “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations.”The unanimous vote, with the United States, Russia and China all in favor, was a sign of the widespread global concerns over the Taliban’s actions. It was a rare moment of unity on a high-profile issue at a time of steep international divisions over the Ukraine war.When the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war, they initially promised a more moderate rule than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001. But there has been a g...

West Virginia Gov. Justice running for Manchin’s Senate seat

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice announced Thursday that he is running for Democrat Joe Manchin’s U.S. Senate seat in 2024, setting up what could be a hard-fought campaign against two of the state’s most prominent politicians.Justice, an ultrawealthy businessman who is barred from running for a third consecutive term as governor, ended months of speculation with the announcement at a posh resort he owns in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It came on Justice’s 72nd birthday.“I absolutely will promise you to God above that I will do the job, and I will do the job that will make you proud,” Justice told a crowd to a standing ovation.Among the speakers at the announcement were West Virginia’s other U.S. senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, and South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham. Earlier Thursday, Justice’s campaign filed a statement of organization for a Senate run on the Federal Election Commission’s website.“Jim Justice is a proven...

Pence testifies before election probe grand jury: AP source

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence testified Thursday before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the matter.Pence’s appearance before a grand jury in Washington scrutinizing the president he once loyally served is a milestone in the Justice Department’s investigation and likely gives prosecutors a key first-person account about certain conversations and events in the weeks preceding the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It also carries significant political implications, coming as Pence hints at entering the 2024 presidential race and a potential run against Trump, the Republican front-runner.The testimony, confirmed by a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss a secret grand jury matter, came hours after a federal appeals court in a sealed order rejected a bid...

Health minister tells committee he didn’t interfere in arm’s-length drug price agency

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

OTTAWA — Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Thursday he did not put any undue political pressure on the independent federal agency that regulates the price of patented drugs to influence its efforts to lower medicine costs.Duclos defended himself against the accusation at the House of Commons health committee, which is investigating reforms to the way the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board regulates the cost of drugs.The board has a mandate to make sure drug costs don’t become excessively expensive, which includes looking at the price of similar medications in other countries.The reforms will see the board compare Canadian drug prices to those in a wider range of countries. The changes were delayed multiple times, and finally came into force in July.The agency was in the process of consulting on the finer details associated with the new rule in November when Duclos wrote to its acting chair and suggested the process be paused to give drug companies, patient groups, provi...

‘Little hero:’ Boy stops Michigan school bus with ill driver

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

WARREN, Mich. (AP) — A boy grabbed the steering wheel on a school bus and hit the brakes, bringing the vehicle to a safe stop on a busy Detroit-area road after the driver had passed out, authorities said.“Someone call 911. Now!” seventh-grader Dillon Reeves shouted to dozens of other middle-school kids on the bus Wednesday.Dillon was hailed as a hero: He stopped the bus as it was veering toward oncoming traffic.“In my 35-plus years of education, this was an extraordinary act of courage and maturity on his part,” said Robert Livernois, superintendent of Warren Consolidated Schools.The incident was recorded on a video camera just above the driver. The video shows the driver fanning herself with a baseball cap and informing the transportation office that she needs to pull over.Seconds later, Dillon jumped into action, hitting the brake pedal and clutching the steering wheel.“I don’t know that it could have gone any better,” Livernois said, noting that adults helped kids out...

Downers Grove South High School coach arrested on child pornography charge

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. — An assistant girls track coach at Downers Grove South High School is under arrest and charged with possessing child pornography.According to federal court documents, Homeland Security Investigations agents served a search warrant at Glenn Messmer's home on Tuesday and found multiple child pornography files on his computer, including child pornography of girls as young as four years old. Cow located in Niles after ‘senior prank’; students cited Federal authorities allege the 46-year-old interacted with at least two minors in Georgia on Snapchat and Telegram. According to the documents, Messmer is alleged to have convinced the minors to produce child sexual abuse material and provided specific instructions in at least one instance.He then paid the minors for the child pornography using CashApp, according to the documents.In an interview, he told authorities he solicited between 30 to 60 underage girls for nude photos on Snapchat and paid a total of $2,000 to th...

Migrants in Chicago look to shelters for help

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

CHICAGO -- The Olive Branch Mission is among the groups providing assistance to the migrants who arrived in Chicago from South and Central America. Currently, they're housing about a dozen mothers and children.The shelter started welcoming migrants since November and has seen more than a 100 of them walking through their doors. ‘We feel isolated from society’: Migrants in Chicago seek assistance with housing The shelter director said once they arrive, they're provided a room with a bed, clothing, food, and toiletries. Then within the days, the shelter director said they meet with a case manager and social worker to help them with the paperwork process of applying for government benefits.The most recent group of migrants arrived about a week ago.WGN spoke with a Venezuelan mother on Wednesday, who expressed the need for legal help, WIC, Medicare, and for her children to have the opportunity to go to school. She said she hasn't received any of those benefits yet, but the shelter dir...

1 dead, 1 injured after shooting on Chicago's Near South Side

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

CHICAGO — One person is dead and a man is injured after they were shot while inside a car Thursday afternoon on the Near South Side, Chicago police said.Chicago Police Department officers were called to the shooting around 3:30 p.m. in the 1900 block of South State Street. 1 dead in 4-car crash on Jane Adams Tollway in Schaumburg Two people were inside a car when someone in a stolen white Kia drove by and shot at them, police said.One person, a male of unknown age, was shot and later died, police said. An 18-year-old man was shot in the hand and taken to a hospital in good condition.Officers later found the stolen Kia near Cermak and State, police said.No one has been arrested in connection with the shooting and the incident is under investigation by Area Three detectives.

Florida woman's car totaled in her driveway by Amazon driver

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:29 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Sara Dooley was sitting in her driveway on a Friday night in February when an Amazon delivery driver made a big mistake. "He hits the gas thinking he's going to go out — and he rams right back into my car," Dooley said. "It knocked it forward and backward. And the step he uses to get into the truck was actually in my car."Her 2018 Toyota RAV4 was left with back-end damage. Dooley says it took weeks to get the car into a body shop, and then Amazon's insurance company told her the shop found more damage, and it was too costly to repair. Indiana woman accused of posting another woman’s nude pictures on Facebook "They started saying, 'Oh, we're going to total it," Dooley said. "That's just two days after I had just paid the car off."Two days after she paid off her first car, she learned it was a total loss. She says Amazon is paying for a rental car and she was told she'd get a check for the value of her car. But now, two months after the accident, Dooley says Ama...