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State Police union celebrates ruling undoing punishment of unvaccinated troopers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Days after an arbitrator ruled the state was unjust in punishing State Police troopers who refused to get vaccinated for COVID-19, the police union declared the decision a “victory for organized labor and our members.”“Nearly two years ago, we stood in this very spot shoulder-to-shoulder with the National Troopers Coalition, our State Police Partners from around the country, to denounce and promise to fight against Charlie Baker’s draconian Executive Order,” said State Police Association of MA President Patrick McNamara at a press conference Monday morning. “Today we bring this full circle.”An independent arbitrator ruled Friday in favor of eight state troopers suspended without pay for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine due in October 2021 — though one trooper received the vaccine and returned to work before the ruling.The troopers were suspended under Executive Order 595, which instated a vaccine mandate for all employees of the Commonweal...

Adam Montgomery sentenced in gun case, proclaims innocence in daughter’s death

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

A New Hampshire father proclaimed his innocence in the murder of Harmony Montgomery, his 5-year-old daughter who vanished in 2019 after he was awarded custody and is presumed dead.Adam Montgomery, 33, spoke before being sentenced Monday on unrelated gun charges.Harmony was reported missing in November 2021, nearly two years after investigators say her father killed her. The body has not been found, but Harmony’s stepmother has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.Dressed in an orange prisoner jumpsuit, Montgomery acknowledged that a jury had found him guilty of possessing weapons despite his previous felony convictions. But he asked the judge not to consider his daughter’s murder case when sentencing him.“I did not kill my daughter Harmony and I look forward to my upcoming trial to refute those offensive claims,” he said, acknowledging that he was an addict and would use his time in prison to “change things about myself”“I could have had a m...

Cape Cod shark spotted 10 yards from shore, seal with shark bites reported

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Great white sharks have been spotted swimming very close to the Outer Cape shoreline in recent days, while a seal with shark bites was also reported along the Cape’s northern tip.This is the busiest time of the Cape’s shark season, as the apex predators hunt for seals close to shore.Over the weekend, multiple shark sightings were reported within 30 yards from popular beaches.“White shark spotted 10 yards from shore off Nauset Beach (Orleans),” reads the Sunday afternoon shark sighting on the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app.“White shark spotted 30 yards from shore a mile south of Coast Guard Beach (Eastham),” reads another shark sighting from Sunday afternoon.On Sunday morning, a shark alert went out for a shark swimming off of Chatham, a hotbed of great white activity this time of year.“!! SHARK ALERT !! White shark spotted 100 yards off North Beach Island,” tweeted MA Sharks, which is run by shark researcher J...

Robbins: Sorry Trump, First Amendment doesn’t cover coup

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Donald Trump has boasted that he regards being indicted as “a badge of honor.” If so, he has racked up quite a pile of badges. Last week’s latest federal indictment brought the total number of criminal charges against him in New York State court and federal courts in Florida and in Washington, D.C. to nearly 80 and he is about to be awarded another batch of badges by a grand jury in Georgia. So it has been a bumper crop for Trump where badges are concerned, and things are about to get bumpier.In truth, Trump did not seem all that honored when he stopped at Reagan National Airport on Thursday to speak to reporters after being arraigned. He lashed out at trash collection in Washington before boarding his private plane.That Trump was not feeling quite as honored by the new criminal indictment was strongly suggested by his furious reaction to it. “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M GOING AFTER YOU” proclaimed our model citizen on his social media platform, which sounded an awful lot like a threat ...

Donald Trump’s lawyers claim First Amendment protects his attacks on Special Counsel

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Cutting it awful close on Monday, Donald Trump’s response to the Justice Department’s request that the judge overseeing his most recent legal entanglements restrict what he can say in public and on social media arrived just 5 minutes before the court’s 5 p.m. deadline.In a 29-page filing seeking to narrow the government’s proposed protective order, attorneys for the former president told the court that their client’s legal woes are actually the result of a political calculation on the part of President Biden and his administration as the 2024 election draws closer and that the 45th president is protected by the First Amendment when he declares, a day after his arrest, that “if you go after me, I’m coming after you!”“In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights. Worse, it does so against its administration’s primary political opponent, during an election season in which the administration, prominent party mem...

Mets demote struggling Brett Baty to Triple-A Syracuse: ‘It’s in the best interest of his development’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

The overhaul of the Mets’ big league roster since the trade deadline continued on Monday. The Amazins’ optioned struggling third basemen Brett Baty to Triple-A Syracuse before the first of a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs at Citi Field.Baty, the club’s No. 2 prospect entering the season, has seen his rookie season flip on its head since the beginning of June owning a slash line of .198/.272/.287 in his last 49 games. The 23-year-old is being sent back to the farm to take a breather from what has been a tough rookie season.“Just a little timeout,” manager Buck Showalter said Monday. “Kind of a take a breath. Just let him kind of work on some things without the day-to-day [grind]. … But, I think with Brett it’s in the best interest of his development. I’ve had a lot of young players who have gone through this.“I think it’s in his best interest to go down and take a breath and get back to doing what he was do...

Trump lawyers urge judge to narrow proposed rules on evidence sharing in election subversion case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Donald Trump’s legal team told a judge overseeing the election conspiracy case against him on Monday that prosecutors’ proposed protective order aimed at preventing the public disclosure of evidence is too broad and would restrict his First Amendment rights. Lawyers for the early 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner said the judge should impose a more limited order that would bar the public release only of materials deemed “sensitive” — such as grand jury documents — rather than all evidence handed over by the government in the case accusing Trump of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss. Prosecutors have said a protective order — not unusual in criminal cases — is particularly important in Trump’s case because of his penchant for using social media. They have expressed concern that Trump could improperly share sensitive case information online that could have a “harmful chilling effect on witnesses.” In their filing Friday seeking the order, p...

Niger coup leaders refuse to let senior US diplomat meet with nation’s president

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — A senior U.S. diplomat said coup leaders in Niger refused to allow her to meet Monday with the West African country’s democratically elected president, whom she described as under “virtual house arrest.”Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland also described the mutinous officers as unreceptive to U.S. pressure to return the country to civilian rule.“They were quite firm about how they want to proceed, and it is not in support of the constitution of Niger,” Nuland told reporters. She characterized the conversations as “extremely frank and at times quite difficult.”She spoke after a two-hour meeting in Niger’s capital, Niamey, with some leaders of the military takeover of a country that has been a vital counterterrorism partner of the United States.In speaking to junta leaders, Nuland said, she made “absolutely clear the kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored.”If the U.S. determines that a democratically elected...

Thousands of flight cancelations and power outages as strong storms move into DC area

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of U.S. flights were canceled or delayed Monday as forecasts warned of destructively strong storms, including tornadoes, hail and lightning, and residents were warned to stay indoors and prepare for the worst.Rain began falling in the Washington area shortly after 5 p.m., and the skies gradually turned an ominous dark gray, a precursor to the severe weather and mass power outages that were predicted. The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the greater D.C. area, lasting until 9 p.m., as well as a flood warning extending through Tuesday morning. A special Weather Service statement warned, “There is a significant threat for damaging and locally destructive hurricane-force winds, along with the potential for large hail and tornadoes, even strong tornadoes.”The storms’ spread was massive, with tornado watches and warnings posted across 10 states from Tennessee to New York. The National Weather Service said the area of greatest concern ce...

B.C. festival evacuated due to wildfire, more properties on alert over long weekend

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 GMT

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Organizers touted it as the “hottest music festival” of the summer, but attendees at the Under the Stars event near Princeton, B.C., this weekend likely didn’t take it literally before a fire erupted nearby.A wildfire sparked by an all-terrain vehicle forced the evacuation of the event’s 1,000 participants as flames spread in the village of Coalmont, a community of about 500 residents approximately 20 kilometres west of Princeton in the province’s interior. In a statement Monday, Princeton RCMP said a quartet were riding ATVs near Coalmont Sunday evening when one of the vehicles caught fire, and flames rapidly spread near the viallage. Emergency crews and Mounties, along with BC Wildfire Service personnel, showed up on the scene and said all festival-goers were safely evacuated, though no one was injured and no evacuation orders were issued. Elsewhere over the weekend, dozens more properties in the B.C. Interior have been placed on evac...