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Snake stolen from Westford Petco, investigation ongoing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

Police are trying to identify three people who they believe stole a snake from the Westford Petco store. According to Westford Police, a male individual removed the snake, a Colombian Red Tailed Boa, from a display habitat at the pet store around noon on Tuesday, Dec. 12. Authorities believe the male suspect was working in conjunction with two female accomplices who were actively distracting an employee while he purloined the predator.“We are aware of and shaken by the theft of a reptile from our Westford, Mass. location, and are cooperating with authorities on their investigation,” Petco said in a statement.Anyone with information on the theft or the identities of the individuals is asked to contact Westford Police at 978-399-2345.

Former Boston Herald reporter to detail the life and times of Marvelous Marvin Hagler in an upcoming book

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

Brockton-born New York Times bestselling author and former Boston Herald reporter Dave Wedge will pen the definitive tale of middleweight boxing champ Marvelous Marvin Hagler in a new book for Hamilcar Publications titled Blood & Hate: The Untold Story of Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s Battle for Glory.“Dave is one of the premier nonfiction storytellers in America today, whether he is writing about the Boston Marathon bombings, Deflategate, the Whitey Bulger saga, or his most recent bestseller about biker subculture, Riding with Evil,” said Hamilcar publisher Kyle Sarofeen. “His unrivaled journalistic skills and passionate writing style, coupled with the fact that he grew up in Brockton during the Hagler era, will ensure that this book is the definitive story of one of the all-time greats not only in boxing, but in sports history. It’s a perfect fit for Hamilcar and we look forward to sharing this incredible, never-before-told story.”BLOOD & HATE will, for the first time, tell th...

Police standoff ends in arrest after woman reportedly held hostage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A three-hour standoff in Clairemont ended in an arrest after a woman was allegedly held against her will, authorities said.The incident occurred just after 1 a.m. Friday at an apartment complex at 5255 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. The San Diego Police Department said a call came in reporting a woman was being threatened and held hostage. This La Jolla restaurant just earned Michelin Guide status Responding officers found there was, in fact, a man and woman inside one of the units. Police in tactical gear arrived to the scene, and SDPD said the man refused to come out of the apartment. Three hours later, the woman exited the unit unharmed. Around 4 a.m., the suspect finally surrendered to police and the standoff ended peacefully. According to authorities, this situation may have started from an domestic violence incident."That suspect has been identified as Brandon Grosso. He's being arrested for false imprisonment among other charges," said San Diego Police Department Lt. Ad...

International court rules against Guatemala in landmark Indigenous and environmental rights case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Guatemala violated Indigenous rights by permitting a huge nickel mine on tribal land almost two decades ago, according to a ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Friday.The landmark verdict marks a monumental step in a four-decade struggle for Indigenous land rights and a long, bitter legal battle which has at times spilled into the streets of northern Guatemala.It also comes at the close of the United Nations climate summit COP28, which stressed the importance of renewables and energy transition minerals like nickel more than ever.According to a verdict read from Costa Rica in the early hours of the morning, the Guatemalan government violated the rights of the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ people to property and consultation, by permitting mining on land where members of the community have lived at least since the 1800s.Guatemala will have six months to begin the process of awarding a land title to the community, and was ordered to set up a development fund....

Prince Harry’s phone hacking victory is a landmark in the long saga of British tabloid misconduct

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry’s victory against Mirror Group Newspapers on Friday over what a British judge called “habitual” illegal activity is a landmark moment in the long and twisting saga of lawbreaking by Britain’s tabloid press.Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that Mirror newspapers had hired private investigators to snoop for personal information and engaged in illegal phone hacking for well over a decade.It’s the latest chapter in a tale of tabloid power and attempts to tame it stretching back years — but it’s unlikely to be the end of the story.WHAT IS PHONE HACKING?In the pre-digital era, Britain’s fiercely competitive tabloid newspapers sold millions of copies a day and would go to great lengths to get scoops, including by using underhanded techniques.One method was phone hacking — calling someone’s number and punching in 0000 or another default PIN number in hope that would give access to their voice messages. Often, it did.Targets included members of the royal family, ...

NewsAlert: Online News Act funding capped for private broadcasters, CBC: report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

OTTAWA — The amount of funding private broadcasters will get through the Online News Act will be limited — with an even lower cap for the CBC — a federal government source confirms final regulations will say today.The source confirmed a report on the final regulations published in the Globe and Mail, on the condition they not be named so they could discuss matters not yet made public.More coming.The Canadian Press

Man in critical condition from head-on collision in Caledon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

A man is in critical condition due to a head-on collision in Caledon on Friday morning.Emergency services responded to a call at approximately 6:10 a.m. of a collision on Highway 10 at Old School Road.The collision was reportedly between a small truck and a car, with the front of the car smashed in.Peel paramedics say a man was sent to local hospital in critical condition.Highway 10 is closed from the 410 to King Street.

‘Reacher’ star Alan Ritchson talks season two of hit show and how ‘Amazon took a risk’ on him

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

There’s a common phrase associated with Jack Reacher in Lee’s Child’s books: “Reacher says nothing.” Saying nothing, however, can be terrifying for Alan Ritchson, who plays Reacher on TV.“He’s socially awkward, very stoic, very cerebral and none of those things should make for an interesting character,” Ritchson recently told The Associated Press. “As I play Reacher, I swear there’s not one scene where I feel like, ‘That was the most interesting scene of all TV.'”“And then like the director, Sam Hill will come out, ‘It was so good! Oh, it’s so muscular and it was so full and like, it was right there, and we could just feel it coming out of your pores!“I was just standing there,” deadpans Ritchson.Reacher is a former U.S. Army officer who travels the country with only a toothbrush and wants no attachments or possessions. Nomad life leads Reacher to constantly meet new people and be in different environments, providing “Reacher” an easy set up for i...

Shops in 2 Dutch cities start selling legally grown cannabis in an experiment to regulate pot trade

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

BREDA, Netherlands (AP) — A paradox at the heart of the Netherlands’ permissive pot policy went up in smoke Friday in two Dutch cities as “coffeeshops” began selling the country’s first legally cultivated cannabis as part of an experiment to regulate the trade.The experiment could mark the beginning of the end for a long-standing legal anomaly — you can buy and sell small amounts of weed without fear of prosecution in the Netherlands, but growing it commercially remains illegal.“This is really a very, very big step in the right direction,” Derrick Bergman, chairman of the Union for the Abolition of Cannabis Prohibition, said as he sat in the De Baron cannabis cafe in the southern Dutch city of Breda.Dutch Health Minister Ernst Kuipers visited earlier to launch the new policy. The plan for the experiment dates back to 2017 and is seen as as a way of providing “quality-controlled” weed to coffeeshops — places that are allowed to sell marijuana — and shutting out ille...

Police officer fatally shoots 19-year-old in Mesquite, Texas, suspect in a vehicle theft

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:25 GMT

MESQUITE, Texas (AP) — Police in Mesquite, Texas, say an officer investigating a stolen vehicle fatally shot a 19-year-old man who was in another vehicle. The officer saw the stolen vehicle being followed by a second vehicle, then both stopped at a convenience store early Thursday in the east Dallas suburb, the Mesquite Police Department said in a statement.The officer found the stolen vehicle unoccupied at gas pumps and saw two men fleeing the scene as he went to the second vehicle where four people were inside, police said.The driver of the second vehicle refused to obey the officer’s orders to turn off and stop moving the vehicle.“The driver continued making furtive movements inside the vehicle and during the course of the encounter the officer fired three rounds, striking the driver,” the police statement said.Police identified the driver as Payton Lawrence, 19, of Mesquite.Firearms were found inside the vehicle, police said.The three people inside the vehicle were questio...