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Biden’s 2024 budget request includes $350M to replace Cape Cod bridges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

President Joe Biden unveiled his massive 2024 budget proposal on Thursday, which includes funding to replace the bridges to Cape Cod. The president is allocating $350 million to replace the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges, which were built in the 1930s.Biden has also committed to giving $600 million in total to complete the project. Officials say the new bridges will look similar to the current bridges, with some modern updates.Out of three different designs considered, the current arch design proved most popular with the public, MassDOT says. However, there will be some upgrades to improve efficiency and cost.

Unborn child among seven killed by shooter at Jehovah’s Witnesses center in Germany

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

(CNN) — An unborn child was among the seven victims of a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in Hamburg, the interior minister for the city said in a press conference Friday.German police are still searching for a possible motive after the shooter opened fire on Thursday evening. ”Hamburg has never seen a mass shooting like this,” Interior Minister Andy Grote told reporters.The Interior Minister went on to say that the gunman ”killed himself” after police stormed the building, and that he acted alone. ”There could have been more victims if police had not intervened so quickly,” he said.The city’s police said in their latest statement: ”Eight people are dead — including the alleged perpetrator.“Other people were injured in the incident, some seriously.”The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany said in a statement: “The religious community is deeply saddened by the horrific attack on its memb...

Car drives onto tarmac and crashes into terminal at North Carolina airport, deputies say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

(CNN) — A driver in North Carolina is accused of crashing a car through doors and windows into a terminal at Wilmington International Airport after driving onto the tarmac.The suspect, whom investigators have not identified, faces state and federal charges, the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office said.The white, compact car broke through an airport fence shortly before 7 p.m. and was driven around on the tarmac, according to a sheriff’s office news release and photos.The driver was engaged by deputies, then crashed the car into the terminal and was detained, the sheriff’s office said.The car, its windsheld smashed and front end crumpled, later rested next to a potted tree on the ivory and blue terminal floor, a photo shows.No one from the public was injured, the airport said in post on Twitter. The airport remained open Thursday night with “minimal impact to operations,” the post said.

More than 3.2 million Calico Critters toys recalled after deaths of two children

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

(CNN) — More than 3.2 million Calico Critters toys that were sold in a set with a baby bottle and pacifier accessories are being recalled because they pose a serious choking hazard for small children, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.Epoch Everlasting Play, based in Pine Brook, New Jersey, makes the products. It said it is aware of three incidents involving the pacifier accessory, including two deaths.One fatal incident involved a 2-year-old child in 2018 in New Mexico, and the other fatal incident involved a 9-month-old child in 2015 in Japan, the CPSC said.This recall involves all Calico Critters flocked animal figures and sets sold with bottle and pacifier accessories. The bottle accessories were sold in yellow, pink, blue and orange colors.One style of the bottle has two yellow handles. The pacifier accessories were sold in yellow, orange, pink, dark pink, blue and teal colors.The sets, priced between $10 and $80, were sold at Walmart, Meijer, and ...

Cactus League report: ‘A rough night’ for Dylan Cease — while a Cubs pitcher opens some eyes in bid for a bullpen spot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

It was a “mental game” for the likes of the Chicago White Sox’s Oscar Colás and Romy Gonzalez, who watched Thursday’s game along with coaches from the dugout.Catcher Carlos Pérez had two hits and one RBI for the Sox in a 5-4 loss to Team Colombia in an exhibition game at Camelback Ranch.“(Colás is) off from the physical stuff but not from the mental side of it or the development side of it,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “The guys who are there and not in the game, the young guys coming up, it’s a mental game for them. We have to take full advantage of that.”Jameson Taillon didn’t let a long three-run first inning derail his outing Thursday against the Cincinnati Reds. The veteran right-hander got the work in he wanted, going 3⅔ innings in the Cubs’ 8-6 comeback win, their eighth straight Cactus League victory.“Sometimes days like that can be valuable,” said Taillon, who gave up four hits...

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH 2023: New York Liberty play it forward

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

The championship buzz is building for the New York Liberty’s coming season. Thanks to recent signings and trades that added Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot and Jonquel Jones to the roster, players and staff feel New York City’s WNBA team is poised for glory.“We want to bring the championship back to New York,” said Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello, referencing the 1973 Knicks NBA championship win, the last time a city team won it all.“It’s been a great offseason, and we had the ability to bring great players in. They complement the players we have, and I am excited to get to the work,” Brondello continued.Liberty CEO Keia Clarke is just as optimistic about the coming campaign. “There is something exciting going on. We have a long legacy of fans and partners and this is the third season in our Barclays home. We want to restore our place as New York City’s team,” Clarke said.New York is known as a basketball town, and...

Many kids need tutoring help. Only a small fraction get it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

David Daniel knows his son needs help.The 8-year-old spent first grade in remote learning and several weeks of second grade in quarantine. The best way to catch him up, research suggests, is to tutor him several times a week during school.But his Indianapolis school offers Saturday or after-school tutoring — programs that don’t work for Daniel, a single father. The upshot is his son, now in third grade, isn’t getting the tutoring he needs.“I want him to have the help,” Daniel said. Without it, “next year is going to be really hard on him.”As America’s schools confront dramatic learning setbacks caused by the pandemic, experts have held up intensive tutoring as the single best antidote. Yet even as schools wield billions of dollars in federal COVID relief, a small fraction of students have received school tutoring, according to a survey of the nation’s largest districts by the nonprofit news organization Chalkbeat and The Associated Press.In eight of 12 school systems that provided d...

Iran, Saudi Arabia agree to resume relations after tensions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and Saudi Arabia on Friday agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after years of tensions between the two countries, including a devastating attack on the heart of the kingdom’s oil production attributed to Tehran. The deal, struck in Beijing this week amid its ceremonial National People’s Congress, represents a major diplomatic victory for the Chinese as Gulf states perceive the United States slowly withdrawing from the wider Middle East. It also comes as diplomats have been trying to end a yearslong war in Yemen, a conflict in which both Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply entrenched. The two countries released a joint communique with China on the deal, which apparently brokered the agreement. Chinese state media did not immediately report on the deal. Iranian state media posted images and video it described as being taken in China with the meeting. It showed Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National...

German police: 6 dead in Jehovah’s Witnesses hall shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — A former member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses shot dead six people at a hall belonging to the congregation in the German city of Hamburg before killing himself after police arrived, authorities said Friday. Police said an unborn baby also died, without clarifying whether the baby’s mother was among the dead. Eight people were wounded, four of them seriously.There was no immediate indication of a possible motive for Thursday night’s attack, which stunned Germany’s second-biggest city, but prosecutors said there was no evidence for a terrorist link. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, described it as “a brutal act of violence.”Hamburg’s top security official said officers who arrived just minutes after receiving the first emergency call at 9:04 p.m. A special operations unit that was nearby reached the site at 9:09 and was able to separate the gunman from the congregation, Hamburg’s state Interior Minister Andy Grote said.“We can assume that they...

Erdogan sets May 14 election date as he seeks to extend rule

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:45 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking to extend his two decades in power, on Friday formally set the country’s parliamentary and presidential elections for May 14 — a month earlier than scheduled despite last month’s devastating earthquake.The elections could be the country’s most significant vote in decades. It will determine whether the country will take a more democratic path or continue on the increasingly authoritarian course set by the strongman politician.Erdogan has ruled over Turkey since 2003 — first as prime minister and as president since 2014 — but this year’s elections could be his most challenging. The country is struggling with a troubled economy, soaring inflation and the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that killed more than 46,000 people and left hundreds of thousands of people across 11 Turkish provinces sheltering in tents or temporary accommodation.Many have criticized his government’s response to the earthquake and ac...