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Tibbits-Nutt named new state transportation secretary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey removed the acting prefix and made Monica Tibbits-Nutt its full-fledged transportation secretary Monday, putting her fully in charge of trying to stabilize the MBTA and make inroads in the efforts to ease traffic congestion.One year ago, many on Beacon Hill thought Tibbits-Nutt would be considered for the transportation secretary role in Gov. Maura Healey’s new administration. Instead, Healey appointed Gina Fiandaca as secretary and named Tibbits-Nutt as transportation undersecretary. When Fiandaca resigned in mid-September, Tibbits-Nutt took over as acting secretary.“Monica Tibbits-Nutt is a proven leader who has done important work at MassDOT over the past year as we’ve worked to make Massachusetts’ transportation system more reliable, safe and accessible,” Healey said in a statement Monday. “As Acting Secretary, she hit the ground running by working with the MBTA to prepare a first-of-its kind plan to fix the tracks by the end of next year, tak...

Krispy Kreme to give away free donut boxes today, ‘World Kindness Day’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

By Theresa Braine, New York Daily NewsKrispy Kreme is giving away free dozen-donut boxes to the first 500 customers who walk into locations nationwide today, “World Kindness Day.”“World Kindness Day is an opportunity to make a positive difference by being generous — from paying it forward to meaningfully connecting with each other,” Krispy Kreme’s chief brand officer Dave Skena said in a statement.“Simple gestures of caring and thanks, including sharing a sweet treat, is a great way to do that. We hope a dozen Original Glazed doughnuts — one doughnut for you and many to share with others — will inspire millions of small acts of kindness.”Launched in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement, the day aims “to inspire individuals and connect nations to create a kinder world.” It was thought in 1997 when members gathered in Tokyo for a conference on boosting kindness.“We have to make kindness the norm, not the exception,” Brooke Jones, vice president of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation...

A new RSV shot could help protect babies this winter — if they can get it in time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

By Amelia Templeton, Oregon Public Broadcasting | KFF Health NewsEmily Bendt was in her third trimester of pregnancy when she first heard the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had approved a new shot for infants to protect them from the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.By Oct. 5, Bendt was cuddling with her new baby, Willow, on the couch at home in Vancouver, Washington. She was excited to get Willow the new therapy for infants, called nirsevimab, which had started shipping in September — but Bendt, a pediatric home health nurse, couldn’t find it anywhere.That very morning, at Willow’s two-week checkup, Bendt had asked the pediatrician when Willow could get it. “She literally just shrugged and was like, ‘Well, it’s coming, but we don’t know when,’” Bendt said. “I don’t know why I feel like I’m having to chase people down and still not get answers.”Bendt searched online, too, for clinics or pharmacies or government websites offering nirsevimab — and found nothing.By mid-O...

Medics and patients, including babies, stranded as battles rage around Gaza hospitals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY (Associated Press)KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Battles between Israel and Hamas around hospitals forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from some of the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza, stranding critically wounded patients, including newborns, and their caregivers with dwindling supplies and no electricity, health officials said Monday.The Israeli military has urged Palestinians to flee south on foot through what it calls safe corridors. But its stated goal of separating civilians from Hamas has come at a heavy cost: More than two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.Thousands fled Gaza’s Shifa Hospital over the weekend as Israeli troops encircled it, but hundreds of patients and displaced people remain, officials say. Shifa “is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” World Health Organization Dir...

Column: Chicago Bulls could break the mold of the city’s sports futility this winter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

It’s probably too early to be overly concerned about the Chicago Bulls’ shaky start.The season is only 10 games old after Sunday’s 119-108 win over the Detroit Pistons, and we’ve seen this Bulls’ core long enough to know they can go on a roll when it plays up to its talent level.But with the rest of our professional teams enduring nothing but agony and heartbreak in 2023, and the possibility of a nuclear winter for the Chicago sports scene on everyone’s minds, the onus is on the Bulls to save the city.The Bears and Blackhawks have no shot. Only the Bulls have a chance to break the mold, and it has to start now.After a rare three-day break in the schedule, the Bulls entered a nine-day stretch Sunday that could have a significant impact on the rest of the season.Five of their six games will be played at the United Center, giving the Bulls a chance to revert to the form of the start of the 2021-22 season.Their only road game is Monday in Milwaukee, w...

NH special operations soldier among 5 killed in helicopter crash, Pentagon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

By TARA COPP (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon on Monday identified the five Army aviation special operations forces killed when their UH-60 helicopter crashed in the Eastern Mediterranean.The military’s European Command said the helicopter went down over the weekend during an air refueling mission as part of military training.The five service members who died were Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tennessee; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, California; Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, New Hampshire; Sgt. Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona; and Sgt. Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minnesota.The U.S. has built up its force presence in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. There are two carrier strike groups operating in the region, U.S. Air Force squadrons have received additional crews and warplanes, and U.S. special operations forces...

Police seek to identify person of interest after shooting outside of Halloween party

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

Toronto police are trying to identify a person of interest after gunshots were fired outside of a Halloween party at a short-term rental.Officers were called to the Eglinton Avenue West and Scarlett Road area on Sunday, Oct. 29, at around 4 a.m. after reports of shots fired.Police say a large party was taking place in a short-term rental unit when gunshots were heard outside the address, causing partygoers to flee in a panic.When officers arrived they found shell casings.Luckily no one was injured.Police have released an image of a person of interest in the shooting.

Jill Biden will lead new initiative to boost federal government research into women’s health

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday announced a White House initiative to improve how the federal government approaches and funds research into the health of women, who make up more than half of the U.S. population but remain understudied and underrepresented in health research. That underrepresentation can lead to big gaps in research and potentially serious consequences for the health of women across the country, Biden administration officials and others told reporters during a White House conference call to announce the new effort. The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research will be led by first lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. President Biden said he’s long been a believer in the “power of research” to help save lives and get high-quality health care to the people who need it. He was to sign paperwork Monday directing federal departments to get to work on the initiative. “To achieve scientific breakthroughs and str...

Congressional delegations back bill that would return land to Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The congressional delegations from Nebraska and Iowa have thrown their support behind legislation that would return land to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska that the federal government took decades ago but never developed.The Army Corps of Engineers took the roughly 2.5-square-mile (6.5-square-kilometer) tract of land along the Missouri River in Iowa in 1970 through eminent domain for a recreation project, but it was never built. The tribe has been trying to get it back.“The Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to condemn and seize land from the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska was a classic case of government overreach,” Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, of Nebraska, said in a statement last week. “My colleagues in the Nebraska and Iowa delegations and I want to see this wrong corrected, and the land returned to the Winnebago people.”In recent years, some tribes in the U.S., Canada and Australia have gotten their rights to ancestral lands restored with the growth ...

Quebec tribunal says jail violated rights of Black man left naked in cell for hours

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:16:52 GMT

Quebec’s human rights tribunal has found that provincial jail guards violated the rights of a Black inmate who was left for hours naked and wet in a cell without a mattress. In a Nov. 3 decision, Judge Christian Brunelle ordered the provincial government and several guards at a Quebec City jail to pay Samuel Toussaint a total of $41,500 in damages and ordered the Public Security Department to create a plan to fight discriminatory profiling.Toussaint, who was 21 at the time of the 2016 incident, was serving an intermittent sentence on weekends.The tribunal says that he flicked a cigarette toward a guard who had told him to stop smoking in the parking lot, resulting in a series of escalating interventions by jail staff.Brunnelle says guards found Toussaint unco-operative and cut his clothes off with a knife, moved him around the jail while he was naked, and didn’t follow decontamination procedures after they pepper-sprayed him.The judge says the behaviour of the guards — a...