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FEMA visits Leominster to survey flash flooding damage as residents await much-needed relief

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

A full month after flash flooding affected Leominster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency visited Thursday as some frustrated residents are awaiting aid.“We’re trying to be patient,” Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said. “I can understand people where people lose patience.”Leominster was flooded with at least nine inches of rain, and the storm washed out roads and bridges. The area is struggling to get back on its feet as clean-up is underway“We have about 1,100 forms that people have filled out,” Mazzarella said.John Shea is one of the residents looking for aid after groundwater flooded his finished basement with about five inches of water. He’s now gutting the basement. Shea has no insurance to pay for expensive repairs which could top $50,000, including upgrades he’s choosing to do.“I know that FEMA’s aware of all of the flooding in Leominster so we’re hoping that comes through and we can get a little assistance from them,” Shea said. A damage assessment tea...

Taylor Swift attends ‘Eras Tour’ concert movie premiere in Los Angeles

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

(CNN) — Taylor Swift filled a “blank space” on the red carpet of the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Concert Film” premiere in Los Angeles on Wednesday.As seen in videos posted to social media, the singer made a surprise – though highly anticipated – appearance at the event in a strapless blue gown. She posed for photos with her “Eras Tour” dancers and supporters along the carpet.“I can’t thank you enough for wanting to see this film that so vividly captures my favorite adventure I’ve ever been a part of: The Eras Tour,” Swift wrote on her Instagram shortly before the premiere began, adding, “And the best part is, it’s an adventure we’re still on together.”Swift wrote in her post that “due to unprecedented demand,” early access showings of the movie will open on Thursday in the US and Canada, and extra showtimes will be added throughout the weekend.The premiere was held at The Grove, an upscale shopping complex that includes a multi-screen A...

17 Florida sheriff’s deputies charged in pandemic loan fraud

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

Seventeen deputies at the Broward Sheriff’s Office are accused of falsifying paperwork to collect money under government programs meant to help keep small businesses alive during the COVID pandemic.Officials allege the fraud came from assistance offered by the Paycheck Protection Program, known as PPP, and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, or EIDL, programs.Charges were brought in 17 separate cases filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Many of the Sheriff’s Office deputies made their first appearance in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick M. Hunt.All are charged with fraud in connection with the emergency federal loan programs. Eight of them work in law enforcement, including a sergeant. Nine of them work in the department of detention, including a sergeant.U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe said at a Thursday news conference the sworn law enforcement officers are accused of “diverting funds for th...

Wisconsin Assembly approves transgender sports restrictions, gender-affirming surgery ban

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly signed off Thursday on contentious legislation limiting transgender youth participation on sports teams and outlawing gender-affirming surgery for minors despite Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ vow to veto proposals.GOP legislators across the United States want to limit the rights of transgender youths, sparking fierce pushback from the transgender community and triggering discrimination lawsuits along the way. Now the battle has come to Wisconsin.The legislation goes next to the Republican-controlled state Senate. If that chamber passes the package it would go next to Evers, who has promised the bills will never become law.“We’re going to veto every single one of them,” Evers told transgender youth and their supporters who gathered at the state Capitol last week for packed hearings on the proposals. “I know you’re here because you’re pissed off and you want to stop it, and you will stop it, and I&...

Health ministers wrap up meetings in P.E.I. with a plan to grow the health workforce

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

CHARLOTTETOWN — The federal health minister says Canada intends to tackle its health workforce shortages by making it easier for nurses and doctors to practice in other provinces, streamlining credentials for internationally-trained health workers and through a new nursing retention program. Mark Holland shared the strategies as he wrapped up two days of meetings with his provincial and territorial health minister counterparts in Prince Edward Island Thursday.“Our plan for a strong and sustainable health workforce is one that is shared by all levels of government and dominated our conversations over the last two days,” Holland said during a news conference. Holland said while there is much to be proud of in Canada’s health system, “it’s also really stretched.”“And this is a time particularly in the workforce where we’re facing a crisis and where we have to rise to that occasion.”The minister laid out a five-part workforce plan, which includes the creation of a so-called ...

Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer fails to hurt credibility of the government’s star witness at fraud trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer did little to dent the credibility of the government’s key witness in the former crypto mogul’s fraud trial Thursday, meandering through a cross-examination of Caroline Ellison that at times left even the judge puzzled and impatient. During the prior two days of testimony, the prosecution presented Ellison as a high-level insider who had, at Bankman-Fried’s direction, overseen the improper borrowing of funds from customers at the FTX crypto exchange run by Bankman-Fried. The funds often were used for investments at an affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, that was headed by Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s one-time girlfriend. Bankman-Fried’s lead defense attorney, Mark Cohen, was expected to try to shift the blame for the problems at Alameda to Ellison, following up on his opening statement in the trial where he said Bankman-Fried didn’t commit fraud and instead was trying to clean up a mess largely created by his lieu...

Vermont police get more than 150 tips after sketch of person of interest released in trail killing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

CASTLETON, Vt. (AP) — More than 150 tips have come in since Vermont State Police released a sketch of a person of interest in the killing of a retired college dean who was shot dead a week ago on a recreation trail in the small college town, authorities said Thursday. The composite sketch was made public Wednesday afternoon and is based on witnesses’ accounts of a man they saw on the trail before they came across the body of Honoree Fleming, 77, police said. Fleming died of a gunshot wound to the head while walking along the trail on the afternoon of Oct. 5, about 1 mile (1.61 kilometers) south of the Vermont State University Castleton Campus. Detectives have been pursuing leads in response to the tips, state police said. The person of interest is described as a 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) white male in his 20s with short, red hair. He was wearing a dark gray T-shirt and carrying a black backpack and is considered armed and dangerous, police said.Witnesses reported that the man was actin...

Ronald Isley, founding member of Isley Brothers and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, dies at 84

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

Rudolph Isley, a founding member of the Isley Brothers who helped perform such raw rhythm and blues classics as “Shout” and “Twist and Shout” and the funky hits “That Lady” and “It’s Your Thing,” has died at age 84.“There are no words to express my feelings and the love I have for my brother. Our family will miss him. But I know he’s in a better place,” Ronald Isley said in a statement released Thursday by an Isley Brothers publicist. Further details were not immediately available.A Cincinnati native, Rudolph Isley began singing in church with brothers Ronald and O’Kelly (another sibling, Vernon, died at age 13) and was still in his teens when they broke through in the late 1950s with “Shout,” a secularized gospel rave that was later immortalized during the toga party scene in “Animal House.” The Isleys scored again in the early 1960s with the equally spirited “Twist and Shout,” which the Beatles liked so much they used it as the closing song on their debut a...

France has banned pro-Palestinian protests and vowed to protect Jews from resurgent antisemitism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

PARIS (AP) — France’s interior minister on Thursday ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts since Hamas attacked Israel over the weekend. President Emmanuel Macron urged French people not to allow the war in the Mideast erupt into tensions at home.Soon before Macron spoke in a televised address to the nation about the Mideast conflict, Paris police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who had defied a ban and demonstrated Thursday against the Israeli government.’’Let us not bring ideological adventures here (to France) by imitation or by projection. Let us not add national fractures … to international fractures,″ Macron pleaded. ’’Let us stay united.″With several French-Israeli citizens believed held hostage by Hamas, Macron pledged that France would protect its Jewish citizens and be ’’ruthless toward all those who bear hate,″ and noted concerns about hostility toward France’s Muslims...

Former Mountie tells court he was unaware of secrets sent to investigative targets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:07 GMT

OTTAWA — A former RCMP investigator who worked on a money laundering probe says he was unaware at the time that someone had sent secret information to people who were of interest to authorities. Disclosure of the material in question could have tipped off suspects or even jeopardized the safety of police, retired staff sergeant Patrick Martin testified Thursday in the trial of Cameron Jay Ortis, a former RCMP intelligence official charged with breaching Canada’s secrets law. Ortis, 51, has pleaded not guilty to violating the Security of Information Act by allegedly revealing secrets to three individuals in 2015 and trying to do so in a fourth instance. The Crown alleges that Ortis anonymously sent secret information to people who were of interest in the money laundering investigation, including Salim Henareh and Muhammad Ashraf. Ortis’s lawyers have said they will argue their client had the authority to take the actions he did. Martin, who was involved in the probe known...