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City Councilor Kendra Lara gets October date for a motion to dismiss hearing for June crash

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara was due in court this morning in connection to a June crash that left her son injured and a home in Jamaica Plain damaged.A lawyer for Lara entered a not guilty plea on her behalf to traffic charges stemming from the crash at a hearing in July after a police report said she was speeding down Centre Street, crashed into a house, and endangered her son by not putting him in a car seat.The hearing only set the next court date for a defense motion to dismiss scheduled for Oct. 20 at 9 a.m.Lara previously said she was committed to seeing the legal process through.“I have faith and trust in the court process and I will continue to go through it as is required of me,” Lara said after her arraignment. “My commitment right now and my focus is continuing to represent my constituents in District Six and making sure that I’m representing them in the best way that I can.”Lara is scheduled for a pretrial hearing in West Roxbury Municipal Court, according to the c...

Tropical storm causes heat warnings and high surf in San Diego

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A tropical storm off the coast of Baja California is causing a strange weather pattern blowing through the county. National Weather Service experts are warning of a heatwave posing fire threats, followed by possible flooding in the foothills. “The door is open, and what I mean by that is the weather pattern is set up,” said Alex Tardy with the National Weather Service. Results: District 4 Supervisor special election A regional heat wave covering the northwest is also threatening the power system with a possible flex alert, but San Diego is not expected to suffer like northern California and Oregon. “Ongoing warm temperatures, fire weather threat but then it rains and the rain could be widespread. And yes, we are concerned with flooding, and we could see that as early as this weekend or next week,” said Tardy. Cal Fire crews are now on standby to handle whatever is to come. “We try to jump on these fires are quickly as we can. We send the full ground resources and ful...

Testimony starts in trial of 2 white Mississippi men in shooting at Black FedEx driver

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — Witnesses began testifying Wednesday in the trial of two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home.Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Charles Case, are charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle driven by D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022. Gibson, who was 24 at the time, was not injured. But the chase and gunfire led to complaints on social media of racism in Brookhaven, about an hour’s drive south of the state capital, Jackson. District Attorney Dee Bates told the majority-white jury in his opening statement Tuesday that Gibson made deliveries for FedEx on Jan. 24, 2022, while driving a rental van with the Hertz logo on three sides. Gibson dropped off a package at a home on a dead-end road, Bates said. Gregory Case then used a pickup truck to try to block the van from leaving, and Brandon Case came outside with a gun, the...

Dozens of Senegalese migrants are dead or missing after their boat is rescued with 38 survivors

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A boat believed to have departed Senegal with more than 100 migrants in early July has been rescued with 38 survivors and several dead on board near the Atlantic island nation of Cabo Verde, authorities and migrant advocates said.Senegal’s foreign affairs ministry said the boat was rescued Tuesday by the coast guard in Cabo Verde, an island nation about 620 kilometers (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa. Authorities did not confirm how many migrants died, or what caused the trip to fail.The Spanish migration advocacy group Walking Borders said the vessel was a large fishing boat, called a pirogue, which had left Senegal on July 10 with more than 100 migrants on board.Families in Fass Boye, a seaside town 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital Dakar, had reached out to Walking Borders on July 20 after ten days without hearing from loved ones on the boat, group founder Helena Maleno Garzón said.Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the local fishermen’s asso...

Ontario college faculty get salary boost after Bill 124 struck down

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

College faculty members represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union will be receiving an additional 6.5 per cent in salary increases over three years.They are the latest group of public sector workers to see their pay boosted due to an Ontario court finding a provincial wage restraint law known as Bill 124 unconstitutional.The Progressive Conservative government’s 2019 law capped salary increases for broader public sector workers’ next set of contracts at one per cent a year for three years.The government appealed after the court declared the law unconstitutional last year, but in the meantime many workers have been awarded additional wages due to “reopener” clauses in their contracts that were triggered when the law was struck down.RELATED: Ontario hospital nurses awarded additional pay after Bill 124 struck downThe 16,000 full-time and partial-load college faculty represented by OPSEU will now be receiving wage increases of three per cent in e...

Social worker charged with multiple counts of sexual assault in Durham

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

A 41-year-old male social worker is facing sexual assault and sexual exploitation charges in Durham Region.Durham police’s special victim’s unit arrested the male after a youth reported that their social worker had been inappropriately touching them.Between June and July of this year, the suspect would allegedly pick up the victim in his personal car for their sessions, and on various occasions, the suspect touched the victim inappropriately. The suspect is a social worker for the Durham District School Board and Durham Alternative Secondary School.Shahzad Khan, 41, of Kleinburg, was charged with three counts of sexual assault and three counts of sexual exploitation.He was released on an undertaking. 

Libya deploys security forces across Tripoli after clashes between rival militias left 27 dead

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Libyan security forces patrolled the streets and fanned out across Tripoli on Wednesday, a day after clashes between rival militias killed at least 27 people in the country’s capital, authorities said.The fighting was some of the most intense to shake Tripoli this year and in addition to the 27 deaths, over 100 people were wounded, Libya’s Emergency Medicine and Support Center said. The clashes erupted late on Monday between militiamen from the 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force, and continued into Tuesday evening. Tensions flared after Mahmoud Hamza, a senior commander of the 444 brigade, was allegedly detained by the rival group at an airport in Tripoli, according to local media reports. Hamza was later released as part of deal aimed at quelling the violence, the reports said. It was unclear how many of the dead were militiamen or civilians.Libya’s Interior Ministry said security forces were deployed to areas where the fighting was most intense, includ...

Former West Virginia coach Bob Huggins enters diversion program after drunken driving arrest

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

Former West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins has entered a 12-month diversion program to resolve a drunken driving arrest.Huggins had been scheduled for a formal arraignment on Thursday. According to court records in Pittsburgh, that hearing was canceled last month after he was accepted into the program. Under the agreement, his one-year probation period can be done after six months if he meets all conditions, including completion of an alcohol treatment program.Huggins was assessed $2,810 in court costs and fees, including $300 for an alcohol highway safety program. His driver’s license was suspended for at least 60 days.The diversion program was first reported by West Virginia network MetroNews.Huggins stopped his SUV in the middle of traffic in Pittsburgh with a shredded tire on June 16. A breath test determined his blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit and he was arrested.West Virginia announced the next day that Huggins had resigned, based in part...

Two people missing after float plane crashes in St. Lawrence River near Quebec City

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

QUEBEC — Two people are missing after a float plane crashed Tuesday in the St. Lawrence River southwest of Quebec City.Quebec provincial police spokesperson Sgt. Nancy Fournier says authorities received a call at around 8 p.m. about a crash in the water between Neuville, Que., and St-Antoine-de-Tilly, Que.Police officers, firefighters and coast guard members were deployed to search for the aircraft, with aerial support from the army.Fournier says they located debris later that evening but have not found the bulk of the aircraft.Two men, aged 55 and 57, are missing.Provincial police divers joined the search this morning.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2023.The Canadian Press

A Muslim mob attacks churches in eastern Pakistan after accusing Christians of desecrating the Quran

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:10 GMT

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Angry Muslims went on a rampage Wednesday, attacking a Christian area in eastern Pakistan, burning a church and damaging two others, police said. The mob also demolished a man’s house after accusing him of desecrating Islam’s holy book and attacked several other Christian homes.The attacks in Jaranwala, in the district of Faisalabad in Punjab province, erupted after some Muslims living in the area claimed that a local Christian, Raja Amir, and his friend had torn out pages from a Quran, thrown them on the ground and written insulting remarks on others. Police chief Rizwan Khan said this angered the local Muslims. A mob gathered and began attacking multiple churches and several Christian homes, burning furniture and other household items. Some members of the Christian community fled their homes to escape the mob. There were no immediate reports of any casualties.Police eventually intervened, firing into the air and wielding batons before dispersing the a...