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Andover teachers vote to go on strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

Educators in Andover have voted to go on strike effective immediately, the Andover Education Association announced Thursday.The union in its statement said the vote followed more than nine months of bargaining with the Andover School Committee over a new contract. Union members, the education association said, have “reached a breaking point.”“We appreciate the community’s support and are eager to settle this contract as quickly as possible,” the education association said.Andover School Committee Chair Tracey Spruce in a message to the community said the school committee had filed a petition with the state Department of Labor Relations to stop the strike as of Thursday nightSpruce in a subsequent statement said the Andover Public Schools would be closed on Friday due to the strike vote. “We are incredibly disappointed in this decision by the AEA to take this illegal action that unfairly disrupts the education of our students,” Spruce said. “The School Committee bargaining ...

New England lobstermen threaten to sue feds over planned Massachusetts fishing closure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

New England lobstermen are threatening to sue a federal agency planning to make fishing on Massachusetts waters even more challenging from February until May, when they already face restrictions on where they are allowed to tend to their livelihood.NOAA Fisheries is looking to permanently add a wedge between state and federal waters to an existing closure that stretches roughly 9,000 square miles off the Massachusetts coast, a measure feds have put in place to preserve the North Atlantic right whale.An emergency rule prohibited trap and pot fishery buoy lines on the wedge during the past two years, but the feds are looking to make the zone permanent and have the backing of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.The proposed permanent expansion to the Massachusetts Restricted Area has caught lobstermen by surprise.Dustin Delano, chief operating officer of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, took exception to the “recklessness” of the proposal after an amendme...

Healey admin wants to study psychedelics for vets with ‘historic’ legislation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

Just in time for the arrival of Veterans Day, the Healey Administration announced a new plan to significantly expand benefits for Massachusetts residents who served in the armed forces and study if psychedelics could be useful in their medical treatment.During a press conference in Braintree on Thursday, Gov. Maura Healey announced the filing of An Act Honoring, Empowering and Recognizing Our Servicemembers and Veterans, or the HERO Act, which according to her administration is the first “comprehensive and expansive” veterans-centric piece of legislation introduced by a Bay State governor in two decades.“Our veterans have sacrificed so much for our country, and this transformative legislation marks an important step toward ensuring that Massachusetts supports them in return,” Healey said. “From day one, our administration has been committed to revitalizing veterans’ services in Massachusetts and ensuring that every one of these heroes receives the benefits, resources and...

Media watchdog says it was just ‘raising questions’ with insinuations about photographers and Hamas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

The executive director of an Israeli media watchdog organization says it was simply “raising questions” by publicly wondering whether Palestinian photojournalists who documented the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel — and sent some of the first images of its aftermath to a watching world — had been tipped off in advance that it would happen.The report by the group HonestReporting, however, had serious ramifications at a time of war.It led two Israeli politicians to suggest the journalists be killed. Several of the world’s biggest news organizations — CNN, The New York Times, The Associated Press and Reuters — issued statements Thursday denying they knew about the attack ahead of time.HonestReporting, which describes itself as an organization devoting to fighting media disinformation about Israel and Zionism, did not specifically make those accusations against the companies. It did, however, suggest that freelance photographers whose work from that day was used by the outlets might...

Two days after an indictment, North Carolina’s state auditor says she’ll resign

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina State Auditor Beth Wood announced on Thursday that she will resign from her elected post next month, a decision coming two days after she was indicted on charges that she misused her state-owned vehicle for personal activities. Wood, a Democrat who was first elected auditor in 2008, had already announced last week that she wouldn’t seek reelection in 2024. That came before a Wake County grand jury formally accused her of a pair of misdemeanors.“I will step down as State Auditor on December 15, 2023, completing 30 years of service to the State of North Carolina,” Wood said in a written statement, “I made this decision because we have such a great team doing incredibly important work and I don’t want to be a distraction. It has been an honor and privilege to work with such a talented staff and to serve the citizens of this great state.”The indictment followed an eight-month investigation by state agents that appeared to germinate after she was...

Illinois lawmakers OK new nuclear technology but fail to extend private-school scholarships

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois House on Thursday approved development of new nuclear reactors, reversing a 1987 moratorium and sending to Gov. J.B. Pritzker a plan that addresses the Democrat’s safety concerns over the proposal. The 98-8 vote to allow construction of so-called small modular reactors beginning in 2026 came a day after developers of the only such project approved by federal regulators pulled the plug because of rising costs. The Illinois proposal is largely the same as one that earned overwhelming legislative approval but was vetoed by Pritzker last spring. It adds a study on the risks of new nuclear technology and puts a state agency in charge of oversight, issues missing from the original plan. Thursday was the final day of the Legislature’s fall veto session, six days that saw a much lighter agenda than in recent years and which left on the table issues involving extending a private-school scholarship program and allowing legislative staff member...

2 men accused of assaulting officers with flagpole, wasp spray during Capitol riot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two men in Indiana and Illinois were arrested this week and accused of separately assaulting peace officers with a flagpole and wasp spray during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.Troy Allen Koen, 53, of Brownsburg, Indiana, faces federal felony charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, destruction of government property and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Koen also faces four additional misdemeanor charges in connection with the riot. No attorney was listed for Koen in federal court records, and he declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday evening. He was arrested Thursday in Indianapolis and was expected to make an appearance in the Southern District Court of Indiana that day, the attorney’s office said.Separately, 57-year-old William Lewis of Burbank, Illinois, faces federal felony c...

Former Arizona senator reports being molested while running in Iowa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A former United States senator from Arizona has said she was molested while jogging along the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa.Martha McSally described the Wednesday morning attack in a video she posted online. “A man came up behind me and he engulfed me in a bear hug and he molested and fondled me until I fought him off,” she said. “I then chased him down. I said a lot of swear words in this moment. I was in a fight, flight or freeze. And I chose to fight.”After McSally chased the man into the brush at Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park, she called police. Council Bluffs Police said in a statement that McSally lost sight of the man before officers arrived around 11 a.m., and he escaped. Police are still looking for him.The former Senator turned keynote speaker who failed to win reelection in 2020 said she was in the area to deliver a speech about courage just across the Missouri River in Omaha Wednesday night.The first woman to fly a fighter plan in com...

Canopy Growth Corp. reports net loss of $324.8 million in second quarter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

SMITHS FALLS, Ont. — Canopy Growth Corp. says its net loss for the second quarter was $324.8 million, compared with $305.8 million a year earlier.The company says its net loss from continuing operations was $148.2 million, compared with $196.5 million during the same quarter last year. Revenues for the quarter were $82.1 million, down from $100.4 million a year earlier. The company says its Canadian cannabis business delivered its third consecutive quarter of organic revenue growth while significantly reducing costs. This September, the company obtained creditor protection for BioSteel Sports Nutrition Inc. and said it intends to sell the business.In August, the company announced it had signed a deal to sell the Hershey building in Smiths Falls, Ont., back to the chocolate maker for around $53 million. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:WEED)The Canadian Press

Chase on Texas border that killed 8 puts high-speed pursuits in spotlight again

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:34 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The white Honda Civic sped down Highway 57, a rural two-lane corridor that reaches the U.S.-Mexico border, after a Texas sheriff’s deputy tried pulling over the car and gave chase when it didn’t stop. High-speed pursuits of migrants and suspected smugglers have become routine in Texas. But Wednesday’s chase came to one of the deadliest endings in recent years: a head-on crash that killed eight people, including Honduran citizens and two residents of Georgia. The mangled wreckage at the scene near La Pryor, a small town about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of San Antonio, laid bare the danger of high-speed pursuits undertaken by an ever-expanding presence of law enforcement at the border. Texas alone has stationed hundreds of additional troopers the past two years in the name of curbing the flow of migrants and drugs. The crash has also renewed criticism that the pursuits are too fast and have gone on for too long despite chases that have ended...