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After record-breaking rain, Boston Harbor has a public health warning; more flood watches for Massachusetts with downpours on the way

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

The record-breaking deluge of rain over the weekend has sparked a public health warning for Boston Harbor due to sewage discharge, while flood watches are yet again in effect for the Bay State with more downpours on the way.Between the relentless rain, tropical humidity and smoke from wildfires, this has truly been the summer from hell.The torrential rain from Sunday led to a daily rainfall record in the city, as 1.6 inches of rain was measured at Boston Logan International Airport, smashing the previous record for July 16 of 0.97 inches of rain in 2000.The intense rain also sparked sewage discharge in Boston Harbor, also known as a combined sewer overflow (CSO). A CSO occurs when a large storm overwhelms the combined sewerage system, causing rainwater to mix with wastewater and discharge to a nearby waterway. This prevents sewage backups into homes and businesses.“Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Outflow MWR203, located in the Upper Inner Harbor, upstream of North Wash...

Grants for dam removal awarded following days of flooding in Western Mass.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

Following days of pounding rain, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has announced the recipients of $5.6 million in grant funds aimed at shoring up the state’s coastal infrastructure and removing unsafe dams.Administered through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Dam and Seawall program, according to Healey’s office the grants will fund projects in more than a dozen Commonwealth communities working to remove old and obsolete water barriers or repair “critical infrastructure” threatened by a changing climate.“Last week, I saw firsthand the catastrophic flooding impacting many people’s personal and professional lives,” Healey said with the announcement of the grant awards. “As we continue to experience the impacts of climate change, it’s critical to invest in programs like this that will enhance our safety and infrastructure. We are proud to announce these awards, which will help us build a more resilient Massachusetts.”Grant funds may be used for de...

Early voting begins in District 4 special election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Early voting officially begun on Monday for the special election to fill the vacant District 4 seat on the County Board of Supervisors.Registered voters in the Fourth Supervisorial District will be able to drop off their completed ballots at the Registrar of Voters' office in Kearny Mesa from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. Early voting ballot drop box locations are also set to open this week at 27 locations throughout the county. To find a nearby drop box, voters can go to the County Registrar of Voters' website. Timeline: Unfolding of the Nathan Fletcher scandal The opening of these early voting centers come about a month ahead of the Aug. 15 primary election to fill former Supervisor Nathan Fletcher's seat on the county board. Fletcher resigned on May 15 following accusations of sexual misconduct in his role as chairman of the MTS board, leaving the seat open.Four candidates are running for the vacant seat: Marine Corps veteran and LGBTQ+ advocate Janessa Goldb...

Several top editors at Penguin Random House accept buyout offers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Some of publishing’s most celebrated and enduring editors are leaving Penguin Random House after accepting buyout packages.Longtime editors of such prominent writers as Anne Rice, Lorrie Moore and Nobel laureates Alice Munro and Elie Wiesel are among those stepping down by the end of the year. Penguin Random House declined Monday to comment on any individual staff members, but multiple publishing officials with knowledge of the buyouts confirmed that departing editors include Vicky Wilson, Jonathan Segal and Ann Close. The officials were not authorized to discuss the decisions and asked to not be identified. “All of us at Penguin Random House greatly respect the life-changing decisions of those U.S. colleagues who have chosen to take the recent company-wide Voluntary Separation Offer,” reads a Penguin Random House statement provided Monday to The Associated Press.“Their contributions to our publishing, our booksellers, and to our readers have made a meaningful ...

In California’s wide-open Senate race, Rep. Adam Schiff builds big fundraising edge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The crowded 2024 contest to fill the seat of retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is considered wide open, but U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff has built a substantial fundraising edge over his chief rivals, federal records showed Monday.Schiff, a Southern California Democrat who rose to national prominence as the lead prosecutor in then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, announced earlier this month that he had raised $8.1 million over the past three months, ending with nearly $30 million in his campaign stockpile.According to government records, his tally was followed by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of Orange County, who reported raising over $3.1 million from April through June, and ended the period with about $10.4 million on hand in her campaign treasury. That total gives Schiff a nearly 3-to-1 edge in campaign funds over Porter, although the March primary is still months away.U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee from Oakland, another Democratic House member i...

Jurors weighing fate of Pittsburgh synagogue killer hear of the devastation he left behind

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The gunman who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue targeted them because of their faith and has never once expressed remorse, a federal prosecutor said Monday in asking jurors to impose a death sentence. The defense argued that life in prison is sufficient punishment for the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack.Opening statements Monday in the sentencing phase of Robert Bowers’ federal trial painted dueling portraits of the man who opened fire during religious services in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community: That of an unrepentant killer motivated by his hated of Jews, and of a psychologically damaged loner with a terrible childhood who fell under the influence of online extremists.Bowers, 50, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, killed members of three congregations who had gathered at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. He also wounded two worshippers and five police officers.After returning a conviction on all 63 c...

Potential jurors share strong feelings about Trump ahead of trial over Michael Cohen’s legal fees

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Jury selection began Monday in Michael Cohen’s civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, in which the former president’s personal attorney and fixer claims he is owed more than $1 million.Roughly three dozen prospective jurors sat inside a Manhattan courtroom, largely silent as Judge Joel Cohen outlined the coming trial dates and posed a series of questions meant to weed out candidates with potential conflicts of interest.Then the judge asked the assembled group, all New Yorkers, whether they had strong opinions about former President Donald Trump or his family members. A few people snickered. More than half raised their hands.“Did we get everyone?” Judge Cohen asked as he tallied the responses. “I feel like an auctioneer here.”The jury selection process comes one week before scheduled opening statements in Cohen’s lawsuit, initially filed in 2019. In it, Cohen accused the Trump Organization of reneging on an agreement to cover his legal costs, leaving him ...

Biden and Sanders meet union organizers amid labor turmoil

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — With labor turmoil roiling industries from coast to coast, President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders met with organizers at the White House on Monday to talk about ways to boost union membership.The organizers represent industries and workplaces that have not traditionally been represented by unions, such as Starbucks coffee shops and video game companies. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, said outside the White House that more people are “standing up and saying it is important for us to have a union so we can earn better wages, better working conditions, better pensions and dignity on the job.”White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president believes that “worker power is essential for growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”The meeting took place as strikes have been launched and threatened around the country. Entertainment unions representing actors and writers have shut down film and television production over concerns ...

Book Review: Colson Whitehead pens entertaining, uneven sequel to 2021 bestseller ‘Harlem Shuffle’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

“Crook Manifesto” by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)In his bestselling 2021 crime novel “Harlem Shuffle,” Colson Whitehead introduced the complicated character of Ray Carney, a Black furniture store owner and small-time fence clawing his way into the middle class while resisting the urge to follow in the footsteps of his thuggish father. That novel played out in Harlem during the civil rights struggles of the early 1960s, and the city itself was a major character.Now he’s written a sequel. When “Crook Manifesto” opens, it is 1971, Carney has been on the straight and narrow for four years, and civic harmony is in short supply, “like honest mayors and playgrounds free of nodding junkies and broken bottles.” Carney’s desire to score impossible-to-get Jackson 5 tickets for his increasingly aloof teenage daughter prompts him to seek out the corrupt cop and fixer he used to do business with — and all hell breaks loose. With Carney back in the game, Whitehead proceeds to show us “the invisibl...

Alabama Republicans reject call for 2nd majority Black district, despite Supreme Court ruling

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Republicans, under orders of the U.S. Supreme Court to redraw congressional districts to give minority voters a greater voice in elections, rejected calls Monday to craft a second majority-Black district and proposed a map that could test what is required by the judges’ directive. Lawmakers must adopt a new map by Friday after the high court in June affirmed a three-judge panel’s ruling that Alabama’s existing congressional map — with a single Black district out of seven statewide — likely violated the Voting Rights Act. In a state where more than one in four residents is Black, the lower court panel had ruled in 2022 that Alabama should have another majority-Black congressional district or something “close to it” so Black voters have the opportunity to “elect a representative of their choice.”Republicans, who have been resistant to creating a certain Democratic district, proposed a map that would increase the percentage of Black vot...