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MBTA boosts pension benefits amid hiring difficulties

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

The MBTA agreed to a more generous pension agreement with its largest union, to bolster hiring efforts and retain employees at the struggling agency.Ahmad Barnes, the T’s senior director of labor relations, said the arbitration decision this fall, which would have raised the retirement age from 55 to 65, was ultimately spiked because it was seen as “detrimental to the Authority’s hiring efforts.”“The (arbitration) award essentially reduced employee benefits,” Barnes said. “That will require all employees to work until age 65, essentially zeroing out current benefits for employees.”Barnes said the $150,000 compensation cap in the arbitration decision, which was challenged by the Boston Carmen’s Union Local 589 in court, was also “critical,” in terms of factors that made the award unappealing to both sides.The new pension agreement, approved by the MBTA Board of Directors late this week, allows employees to work for a shorter period of time — 10 years rather than 25 —  to reach ...

‘Insane’ scene in Scituate after fire destroys homes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

A devastating five-alarm fire that lit up the night sky late Friday burnt four seaside homes to the ground and destroyed another along Minot Beach in Scituate.After extinguishing the powerful blaze that damaged three other homes, a handful of firefighters remained on scene Saturday as many residents stopped by to get a glimpse of what resembled a post-apocalyptic movie set.“Seeing this is just insane,” Scituate resident Ben Wheeler told the Herald. “I wouldn’t have expected this to happen. As you can see now, just the excavator moving all of their belongings, literally just crushing their house. That’s just awful.”Scituate firefighters responded to the fire on Glades Road after 8 p.m. Friday. The two-alarm fire quickly escalated to five alarms, with a handful of homes in the area of 71 Glades Road fully involved.Sixty firefighters from Scituate, Duxbury, Kingston, Hanover, Norwell, Hull, Rockland, Plymouth and Hanson battled the blaze throughout the night and early morning hours, ge...

Community rallies behind San Diego woman paralyzed from rare neurological disorder

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The Pacific Beach community is rallying behind one of their own this weekend after a rare neurological disorder has left a local woman suddenly paralyzed.Molly Row, a 32-year-old photographer and bartender, was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome in early February. According to the CDC, the condition happens when a person’s own immune system harms their body’s nerves.Her symptoms began with tingling in her hands and feet on Feb. 2, Carla Russo, a friend of Molly's, told FOX 5. Those symptoms increased into the following days, turning painful with sensations of pins and needles in her limbs. San Diego health professionals quell fears as deadly infection spreads at ‘alarming rate’ nationwide Russo said Molly eventually started losing her ability to walk. At that time, Molly's husband, San Diego-based U.S. Coast Guard serviceman Dylan Edwards, took her to a local emergency room.Days later, Molly could no longer move her arms or legs and she lost her ability to speak, ...

Trump to rally supporters in Waco ahead of possible charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

WACO, Texas (AP) — Staring down a possible indictment, a defiant Donald Trump is hoping to put on a show of force Saturday at the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign, held in a city made famous by deadly resistance against law enforcement.Trump’s supporters began lining up the day before doors opened on the airport grounds in Waco, which will mark the 30th anniversary of the Waco massacre next month. In 1993, an attempted raid by law enforcement of a compound belonging to the Branch Davidians, a religious cult, resulted in a shootout that led to a 51-day siege, ending in a blaze that left dozens dead.The rally comes as Trump has berated prosecutors, encouraged protests and raised the prospect of possible violence should he become the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges. Some of his recent rhetoric has echoed language he used before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters seeking to stop the transfer of...

Nicholas Lloyd Webber, son of famed composer, dies at 43

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Nicholas Lloyd Webber, the Grammy-nominated composer, record producer and eldest son of Andrew Lloyd Webber, died Saturday in England after a protracted battle with gastric cancer and pneumonia. He was 43.“His whole family is gathered together and we are all totally bereft,” the 75-year-old Webber said in a statement emailed by a representative. “Thank you for all your thoughts during this difficult time.”Nicholas died at a hospital in the south-central English town of Basingstoke, his father said. Webber, the famed composer, missed the Broadway opening Thursday of his “Bad Cinderella” to be at his son’s side with other loved ones.Nicholas is best known for his work on the BBC One’s “Love, Lies and Records,” which was based on the book “The Little Prince.” He also worked on his father’s 2021 “Cinderella,” earning a Grammy nod for best musical theater album.Nicholas is Webber’s son with his first wife, Sarah Hugill, also the mother of his older sister, Imo...

Ex-Navy swimmer tried to drown security guard, officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A former Navy rescue swimmer is charged with attempted murder after Florida authorities say he almost drowned a security guard in a condominium’s swimming pool. Okaloosa County sheriff’s investigators say late Friday the security guard told Seth Beavers, 33, of Mount Sterling, Illinois, that the pool at the Panhandle condo was closed and he would have to leave. The security guard told investigators that Beavers attacked him, wrapped his leg around him and dragged him into the pool, saying he would drown him. Beavers then held the guard’s head underwater before the guard was able to break free and get to the side of the pool, authorities said. But Beavers put him in a headlock and again pulled him underwater before he was finally freed. The victim told investigators he cannot swim, and he feared he was going to be killed. His name was not released. Investigators say that as a Navy swimmer, Beavers received extensive training in how to ...

After tornado, harrowing tales of survival in Mississippi

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

SILVER CITY, Miss. (AP) — Nothing remained of William Barnes’ home in the tiny western Mississippi town of Silver City after a killer tornado tore it off its foundations. He stood in disbelief Saturday as he surveyed the lot where he’d lived for 20 years, twisted debris of cinder blocks and mangled wood siding scattered across where his home once stood.“We lost everything but got out alive,” he said, holding his young granddaughter in his arms.Throughout the town of just over 200 people, the stories were similar — utter destruction, incredible survival and tragic deaths from Friday’s twister that killed at least 23 as it surged nearly 170 miles (274 kilometers) across the Deep South.A child’s Shrek doll lay face down in the dirt next to a pile of broken plywood and branches, feet from a busted-up refrigerator with its back torn clean off. Limbs from several fallen trees blocked an abandoned school bus. Outside the wall of what used to be a house, a bike lay strewn upside down ...

Court bars Robinho from leaving Brazil

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Former soccer star Robinho was ordered to hand over his passport while Brazilian judicial authorities determine whether he should serve his nine-year sentence for rape in Brazil.Robinho was convicted in Italy in 2017 for his part in the group sexual assault in Milan that took place four years previously, when he was playing for Serie A team AC Milan. Italy’s top court upheld the Brazilian’s sentence in 2022, after which Italian prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant.Judge Francisco Falcão “prohibited the sportsman from leaving the country. He has to deliver his passport to the court within five days,” a statement from a Brazilian court said Friday.Brazil does not extradite its own citizens when they are sentenced in other countries, and Italy has asked that Robinho serve his sentence in his home country. There is no deadline for a decision of Brazil’s superior court of justice to decide whether he will serve his sentence in Brazil.The 39-year-...

Protests erupt in NYC – not for Trump but for ‘The Joker’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Throngs of protesters gathered at the courthouse steps, chanting for freedom for their embattled hero. Police kept watch as passions flared and voices roared. Squad cars and television trucks encircled the commotion.It’s a scene New York City authorities have been bracing for as prosecutors consider an indictment against former President Donald Trump, who has invited followers to rally on his behalf. But on Saturday, it was just a movie shoot — for the “Joker” sequel to be precise.The roars faded and the crowds dispersed — on command — when the director yelled, “Cut!”The New York City shoot for the upcoming “Joker” sequel had been planned for months; but in recent days, production crews wrestled with the possibility that filming could be disrupted by real-life protests over the Trump case — none of which have so far materialized. In the end, film workers forged ahead, said Leo Maniscalchi, a production assistant, who was taking a break at a nearby coffee house.“They ...

Venezuela: 21 officials, businessmen arrested in oil scheme

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s attorney general said Saturday that 21 people, including senior officials in the government of President Nicolás Maduro and business leaders, have been arrested in connection with a corruption scheme involving international oil sales.Prosecutor Tarek William Saab said the alleged scheme involved selling Venezuelan oil through the country’s cryptocurrency oversight agency in parallel to the state-run Petróleos de Venezuela SA. The oversight agency allegedly signed contracts for the loading of crude on ships “without any type of administrative control or guarantees,” violating legal regulations, Saab said, without mentioning the amounts involved. Once the oil was marketed, “the corresponding payments were not made” to the state oil company. The attorney general’s statement comes five days after Venezuela’s once-powerful oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, resigned amid allegations of corruption against some of his closest associates. El Aissami said ...