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4 Marblehead elementary school staff on leave as district reviews restraint policies

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

Four elementary school staff members in Marblehead are on paid administrative leave while the district reviews protocols and policies around restraining students.The school district said this is due to a recent incident involving the restraint of a student and that they are bringing in an outside evaluator to assist in the review process.“The safety and security of all of our students and staff is our top priority,” said Marblehead Public Schools Interim Superintendent Theresa McGuinness in a statement. “The district will take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that all of our schools are safe and welcoming learning environments for all.”State guidelines allow staff who have received proper training and certification to restrain students, but only as a last resort in specific situations when a student’s behavior poses a threat of assault, or imminent, serious, physical harm to self or others.

Family of worker killed in Waltham crash seeking justice

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

The family of the National Grid worker killed last week in a crash in Waltham is seeking justice.Roderick Jackson, 36, was working a roadside project lsat week when he and Waltham Police Officer Paul Tracey, 58, were struck and killed. Two other National Grid workers were also hurt.“The man accused of killing Mr. Roderick Jackson and Officer Paul J. Tracey is a habitual offender who should have never been in the position to take the lives of these two beloved members of our community,” the Jackson family’s attorney said in a statement. “The system failed these two innocent men and we intend to seek civil justice to the fullest to avenge Mr. Jackson’s tragic passing.”Peter Simon, of Woodsville, New Hampshire, is accused of killing Jackson and Tracey. He’s facing several charges, including two counts of manslaughter.

Harvard faculty voice support for embattled president

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

Harvard President Claudine Gay is facing growing calls to resign following her testimony on antisemitism on Capitol Hill last week, but a large contingent of university faculty are urging the administration to not remove the school’s leader.Roughly 300 faculty members signed onto a letter addressed to the president and fellows of Harvard College in support of Gay’s continued tenure.“We, the undersigned faculty, urge you in the strongest possible terms to defend the independence of the university and to resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom, including calls for the removal of President Claudine Gay,” the letter read. “The critical work of defending a culture of free inquiry in our diverse community cannot proceed if we let its shape be dictated by outside forces.”Last week, Gay testified in Congress alongside the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsyl...

Fall River fire department battles blaze amidst windy, wet weather

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

Twelve people were displaced from their homes Sunday night following a fire in Fall River.Flames from a garage fire spread to two homes, with the wet and windy weather making firefighters’ efforts to quell the blaze more difficult.“There were probably six structures within five minutes that would have been involved if the fire didn’t get knocked down when it did,” Fall River Fire Chief Roger St. Martin said.One individual, a bystander who went into the structure to check that all residents has exited, was transported to a local hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Lucas: Border crisis presents another national security risk

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

It is good that the FBI brought finally down a U.S. ambassador who had been a career-long spy for Cuba.But did it need 40 years to do it?Because that is how long alleged spy Manuel Rocha, 73, of Miami, a veteran State Department official and former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, had been secretly working for the Cubans, according to the FBI.In announcing Rocha’s arrest last Monday, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, chief of the agency’s’ National Security Division, said “For decades Rocha allegedly worked as a covert agent for Cuba and abused his position of trust in the U.S. government to advance the interests of a foreign power.”Rocha, a naturalized citizen from Columbia was, according to the FBI, a covert agent for Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence while serving on the National Security Council and as an advisor to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, which overseas Cuban activity.The FBI said he used to refer to Fidel Castro as “Comandante,” and his Cuban...

Pressure mounts on Hungary to unblock EU membership talks and funds for Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Pressure mounted on Hungary on Monday not to veto the opening of European Union membership talks and the supply of economic aid to war-torn Ukraine at a pivotal EU summit this week, after Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanded that the issue be struck from the agenda.With tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance blocked by Senate Republicans in the United States, Ukraine is desperate to ensure longer-term financial and military assistance as fighting in its almost 2-year war with Russia bogs down.In a draft of the summit statement seen by The Associated Press, the EU’s leaders will decide to open accession negotiations with Ukraine. But Orban insists that a “strategic discussion” is needed, given the stalemate on the battlefield and uncertainty about U.S. leadership after elections next year.“I hope that the European unity will not be broken because this is not the moment to weaken our support to Ukraine. Just the contrary, this is the moment to ...

Biden administration says New Hampshire computer chip plant the first to get funding from CHIPS law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Monday it would provide $35 million to BAE Systems to increase production at a New Hampshire factory making computer chips for military aircraft, including F-15 and F-35 jets.This is the first allocation of incentives from last year’s bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which provides more than $52 billion to boost the development and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States. The Commerce Department’s choice of a military contractor instead of a conventional chip manufacturer reveals the national security focus of the law, as more and more weapons systems depend on advanced chips that could be decisive in both preventing and fighting wars. President Joe Biden signed the incentives into law in August 2022 partly out of concerns that a military attack on Taiwan could deprive the world of advanced computer chips and plunge the U.S. into a recession.“We can’t gamble with our national security by depending solely on on...

Doctor and self-exiled activist Gao Yaojie who exposed the AIDS epidemic in rural China dies at 95

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

Renowned Chinese doctor and activist Gao Yaojie who exposed the AIDS virus epidemic in rural China in the 1990s died Sunday at the age of 95 at her home in the United States. Gao’s outspokenness about the virus outbreak — which some gauged to have infected tens of thousands — embarrassed the Chinese government and drove her to live in self-exile for over a decade in Manhattan, New York.Lin Shiyu, a woman close to Gao and who compiled an oral history of her, confirmed to The Associated Press in an email Monday that Gao’s “guardian,” Columbia University professor Andrew J. Nathan, contacted her to let her know of the physician’s death. Nathan did not immediately respond to emailed questions by the AP.Gao became China’s most well-known AIDS activist after speaking out against blood-selling schemes that infected thousands with HIV, mainly in her home province of Henan in central China. Her contributions were ultimately acknowledged to a certain extent by the Chinese governme...

It’s a tough week for Rishi Sunak. He faces grilling on COVID decisions and revolt over Rwanda plan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces one of the toughest weeks of his 13 months in office as he’s grilled by lawyers about his decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic while fending off a rebellion from lawmakers over his signature immigration policy.Sunak will be questioned under oath on Monday at a public inquiry into Britain’s handling of the pandemic, which left more than 230,000 people in the country dead. Sunak was Treasury chief to Prime Minister Boris Johnson when the coronavirus hit, and backed a discount initiative that encouraged people to go back to restaurants in August 2020 after months of lockdown.The government’s scientific advisers have told the inquiry they were not informed in advance about the “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme, which scientists have linked to a rise in infections. One senior government science adviser referred to Sunak in a message to colleagues at the time as “Dr. Death.”Johnson told the inquiry last week that the restaurant plan “was...

Trump doubles down on 'dictator' remarks at New York Republican gala

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:00 GMT

(The Hill) - Former President Trump on Saturday appeared to double down on remarks he made about whether he would abuse power or serve as a "dictator" if reelected to the White House, reiterating that he only wants to be a "dictator for one day" in order to secure the southern border and begin drilling in the U.S."[Peter] Baker today in the New York Times said that I want to be a dictator,” Trump said Saturday while delivering a keynote speech to the New York Young Republican Club's 111th Annual Gala. “I didn’t say that. I said I want to be a dictator for one day. You know why I wanted to be a dictator? Because I want a wall, and I want to drill, drill, drill." His remarks prompted chants of "build a wall" from the audience before Trump added, "Well we did." Trump was making an apparent reference to an article published earlier Saturday by The New York Times's chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker, in which he discussed the implications of Trump's "dictator" remarks in a...