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Mass. school districts cancel classes, dismiss students early as hot, humid weather continues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

Soaring temperatures and a lack of air conditioning continue to drive school districts to either let classes out early or cancel them altogether this week.Woburn Public Schools was one of them, announcing Thursday that due to excessive heat and safety concerns, the school district would have early releases on Friday, just a day after the school year started.“We are writing to let you know that due to the oppressive heat and safety concerns at some of our buildings without air conditioning, we will be having an early release tomorrow, Friday, September 8th for all schools,” officials said in a statement to the school community. “Our early dismissal times are as follows: 11:30 a.m. for WMHS, 12:00 for Middle Schools, and 12:30 at our elementary schools. Our Kindergarten students will still have the delayed start time, and be dismissed at 12:30.”The decision came after a day of brutal temperatures, with hot, humid and hazy conditions plaguing the state, with are...

Hurricane Lee is ‘rapidly strengthening’ toward a Category 5 monster. New England will ‘need to keep a close eye on’ the forecast track

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

The most powerful and potentially dangerous hurricane of the year is quickly gaining steam in the Atlantic Ocean’s record-warm waters, as meteorologists tell East Coast residents to “keep a close eye on” the major storm’s forecast track over the next several days.Hurricane Lee strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph on Thursday while the storm remained far east of Puerto Rico. Forecasters were predicting that Lee would become a major hurricane by Thursday night.Lee is expected to gain strength to a monster Category 5 hurricane, which would be the first storm to hit that highest hurricane intensity level this year.“It looks like Lee is rapidly strengthening right now, and we expect it to continue to quickly strengthen,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist John Feerick told the Herald on Thursday.“It’s difficult to say this far out, but there’s potential for this to impact the East Coast from t...

Farmers find some relief from flooding in the form of donated funds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

It was clearly hard for Bay State farmer Jim Lattanzi to recount just how devastating unseasonal frost and ceaseless rains have been for businesses like his.Lattanzi, flanked by Gov. Maura Healey, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern and community group leaders, at times struggling to speak through his emotions, explained from inside his Hollis Hills Farm stand the damage done by mother nature this year and the unexpected response he received from the state and his community.“As a farmer, you have to be resilient, but I’ll tell you it takes the wind out of your sails when you work so hard and watch it wash away,” he said. “To know that we have the support of our governor, our legislators, our business partners, to kind of come out of nowhere and say ‘hey, we’re here to help,’ it blows a little wind back in your sails. We can do this.”In July, the Healey Administration joined United Way of Central Massachusetts in soliciting fund donations to help farmers impacted by flooding or unexpected cold sn...

Marty Walsh backs Ruiz over Arroyo, Wu-pick Pepén for Boston City Council

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

Former Mayor Marty Walsh and Mayor Michelle Wu are both passing on the embattled incumbent Ricardo Arroyo in District 5, but differ on who they want to see replace him on the Boston City Council.Walsh said he’s backing Jose Ruiz, a retired Boston police officer. The decision puts him at odds with the city’s current mayor, who announced two weeks ago that she was endorsing her former employee, Enrique Pepén.“Jose Ruiz has been an amazing mentor to so many youngsters in the city as a youth coach and he’s an amazing person,” Walsh told the Herald Thursday. “His whole life has been devoted to being engaged in the community.”Walsh, who left the Biden administration to run the NHL Players Association, said he has worked with Ruiz over the years when he was a youth coach and Boston police officer.“He would bring all of that vital experience to the City Council,” Walsh said. “That’s why I’m backing him.”Walsh’s decision to endorse Ruiz was first reported by the Dorchester Reporter. He is al...

Trump says migrant influx ‘destroying’ the country

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

The migrant waves crippling New York City and now the Bay State is just the start, warns former President Donald Trump.“Forget Fifth Avenue and New York City, it’s coming to everywhere in the country,” Trump said on Howie Carr’s radio network Thursday.“This is a poisoning and destroying of our country,” he added, when asked to comment on New York City Mayor Eric Adams saying the same about the Big Apple.“People are just pouring into our country,” Trump said less than a day after Adams said he doesn’t “see an ending to this” migrant meltdown.The flow of migrants crossing the Southern Border hit a one-month record in August, with 91,000 migrants who crossed as part of a family group, according to the U.S. Border PatrolThe Border Patrol made more than 177,000 arrests along the Mexico border in August, up from 132,652 in July and 99,539 in June, according to the Washington Post.

Alabama teen sentenced to life for killing 5 family members at 14

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama teenager convicted of killing five family members, including three younger siblings, when he was 14 years old has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Circuit Judge Chadwick Wise handed down the sentence Thursday to Mason Sisk, now 18. Wise wrote that the crime was “ghastly, disturbing, and draped in unmitigated evil” and warranted the harshest punishment allowed by law.A jury in April convicted Sisk of multiple counts of capital murder for the 2019 shooting deaths of his father, adoptive mother and younger siblings. All five were shot in the head at their home in Elkmont. The youngest was an infant. John Wayne Sisk, 38, and Mary Sisk, 35, were found dead in their home on Sept. 2, 2019, along with their three children — 6-year-old Kane, 4-year-old Aurora and 6-month-old Colson. All had been shot in the head.Authorities said Mason Sisk initially told police he was in the basement playing video g...

2 attacks by Islamist insurgents in Mali leave 49 civilians and 15 soldiers dead, military says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Two attacks by Islamist insurgents in the restive north of Mali on Thursday killed 49 civilians and 15 government soldiers, according to a provisional death toll given by the country’s military junta read on state television.A passenger boat near the city of Timbuktu on the Niger River and a Malian military position in Bamba further downstream in the Gao region were targeted, according to the statement, which said the attacks have been claimed by Islamist extremist insurgent group JNIM, an umbrella coalition of armed groups aligned with al-Qaida. The Malian government announcement said its forces, in responding to the attacks, killed some 50 assailants. Three days of national mourning to honor the civilians and troops killed begin Friday.Timbuktu has been blockaded by armed groups since late August, when the Malian army deployed reinforcements to the region. The insurgents are preventing the desert city from being supplied with basic goods. Over 30,000 resi...

Movie Review: In ‘Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,’ the wedding’s in Greece and the formula feels ancient

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

“We’re getting married!” This rather inevitable line crops up early in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,” and if you’re like me, it will inspire mixed reactions.First: Wait, so soon? We didn’t know anyone was even engaged! And second: Phew, it’s about time! Because, just like there can be no sunrise over the glittering Ionian sea without a sun, there can be no “big fat Greek wedding” movie without … you know.Yet the mere fact that a wedding is so crucial to the DNA of this trilogy — which surely will morph into a quadrilogy and then a quintology – raises its own issues. Which Greek philosopher was it who said there’s no problem that can’t be solved with a wedding? Right, that would be Nia Vardalos, the franchise star, writer and now director, too. But is she also saying a wedding is the only possible happy ending?That would be out of sync with certain obvious efforts in this script — some more swallowable than others — to modernize a formula that worked so well in the b...

Only media report spurred Yukon to tell parents of sexual abuse in school: ombudsman

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

WHITEHORSE — Yukon’s ombudsman said in a new report Thursday the territory’s government had a policy and legal duty to notify parents at a school where a child was sexually assaulted, but instead delayed revealing the information for 19 months. Ombudsman Jason Pedlar and investigator Rick Smith concluded in the report that the delay in telling parents at Hidden Valley Elementary School was unwarranted and unfairly denied them an opportunity to take steps to help their children. The investigation found the Yukon government “did an about-face” and shared information with parents on the case in August 2021 only after CBC published a report weeks earlier about a civil lawsuit alleging an education assistant had sexually assaulted a student. The education assistant pleaded guilty to sexual interference in late 2020 and was sentenced in January 2021, months before parents learned of the criminal charge. In a written response, Yukon Education Minister Jeanie McLean ...

Victoria’s Secret overhauls its racy fashion catwalk in the company’s latest move to be inclusive

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:57 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — For more than 20 years, Victoria’s Secret had bolstered its image built on a man’s vision of sexiness with one big annual event: its fashion catwalk extravaganza, with supermodels like Naomi Campbell sashaying down the runway in Swarovski-crystal covered wings, thongs and million-dollar fantasy bras.Now, after a four-year hiatus, the lingerie brand came back Wednesday night with a complete overhaul that was part fashion event and part preview of a documentary-style film featuring 20 global creatives. It celebrated all different body shapes. Top models like Winnie Harlow, who has vitiligo, a skin condition, showed up wearing some of the designs. The event also showcased the creators’ looks on headless mannequins of all body types. The Victoria’s Secret World Tour, to be aired globally on Amazon Prime Video on Sept. 26, marks the company’s biggest marketing investment in the past five years and its latest bid to reverse its supercharged sexy image that left it irreleva...