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Healey, Spilka say they expect tax cuts before the end of the year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

The people in charge seem optimistic about tax reform.Following an event in Lawrence on Tuesday, Gov. Maura Healey and Senate President Karen Spilka  were asked if either thought the state would see a significant tax cut package pass this year. Both said it is their hope the joint conference committee working to iron out the differences in proposals offered by the House and Senate — for more than two months now — will soon have a compromised piece of legislation for lawmakers to consider and make law.“I am very hopeful,” Spilka said. “As I said at the end of session, we’ll pick that up immediately. I believe that we need to get that done.”Long before lawmakers departed for their August recess, state representatives proposed about $640 million in tax cuts and were answered by an about $590 million plan from the Senate. Both plans offer cuts to help seniors, renters and low-income families, but a major difference between the pair is a House pr...

Tuition costs for undocumented students drop under new state budget

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

Joan Shauri didn’t appear nervous as she approached a microphone at Northern Essex Community College in Lawrence.Just after Gov. Maura Healey helped her stow her purse away under the podium, despite the fact it was probably the first time she’d ever stood next to so many state officials for a press conference, when she started to share her story she did so standing straight-backed and without a quaver in her voice.The nursing student was an obvious outlier in a line-up otherwise composed of public figures, visibly far less advanced in years than those around her, and one of the last to speak after about a dozen state officials and college system administrators had explained what brought everyone together Tuesday morning.They’d gathered because for some students, like Shauri, the state has paved the way for them to get a higher education otherwise made more difficult or denied through no fault of their own.Brought to the U.S. from her native Tanzania as a 10-year-old, Shauri told the...

Orioles’ Tyler Wells to pitch in relief after move to Triple-A: ‘Definitely want to see what that looks like’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

Tyler Wells was a key reliever for the Orioles down the stretch of the 2021 season. They’re hoping for a repeat in 2023.After making three starts with Double-A Bowie, Wells will join Triple-A Norfolk to work out of the Tides’ bullpen, manager Brandon Hyde said before Tuesday night’s matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays.The right-hander, who turns 29 on Saturday, was Baltimore’s best starter in the first half, but signs of fatigue showed in his three starts out of the All-Star break. Using Wells as a reliever will help the team manage a career-high workload while also potentially adding another capable arm to Hyde’s late-inning mix.“Definitely want to see what that looks like just because of how Tyler pitched out of the bullpen a couple years ago and how well he did there,” Hyde said. “He’s thrown a lot of innings this year for us in the rotation and kind of where we are, hopefully we can stay healthy the rest of the way, but just k...

Lizzo breaks silence on allegations; former dancers’ lawyer doubles down (EXCLUSIVE)

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

Lizzo is responding to the allegations from her former dancers, who this week sued the Grammy winner for alleged harassment, weight-shaming and more.In the bombshell lawsuit filed Tuesday, Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis and Noelle Rodriguez list a series of accusations such as discrimination, weight shaming, and sexual harassment that included ‘inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers’ at a club in Amsterdam.“Yeah, she was there with the dildos and the bananas and the vaginas,” the dancers’ attorney Neama Rahmani tells the Daily News. “She’s the one that asked everyone to go, and everyone felt pressure to go to get along with Lizzo. Telling Arianna to touch the nude woman and telling the security guard to pull down his pants. He was whipped by one of the nude performers. Lizzo was an active participant in all of this.”The “Truth Hurts” artist released a statement Thursday denying all allegations in an Instagram post writing, “These last few days have been gu...

Boston welcomes National Association of Asian American Professional convention

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

The largest Asian American professional network in the country announced the kick off of their national convention in Boston Tuesday, detailing a line-up of networking events and business showcases.“Here in NAAAP we create communities, and we build leaders,” said Harris Zhao, NAAAP Chapter President at a press conference at City Hall. “That is why this year we have chosen Boston to host our convention — I know because I was born and raised here that we are an inclusive city and a city of visionaries.”The 2023 Leadership Convention will last from Thursday through Saturday at the Sheraton Hotel in Back Bay, organization leaders said, welcoming over 700 attendees to Boston. This year’s theme, speakers said, is unifying visionaries.NAAAP will be hosting a Maker’s Market at the hotel from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., featuring AAPI-owned businesses or creators. The following day the organization will host a Diversity Career Fair open to the public from 1 p....

Quebec court authorizes class action over alleged sterilization of Indigenous women

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

Quebec’s Superior Court has authorized a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Atikamekw women who say they were sterilized against their will. Justice Lukasz Granosik green-lit the lawsuit on behalf of “all women of Atikamekw origin who have undergone surgery that has impaired their fertility without having given their free and informed consent … since 1980.”The lawsuit, dated Aug. 21, demands unspecified damages from two doctors — identified as R.M. and Y.B. — and from the estate of a third, M.T., all three of whom the plaintiffs say violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Quebec’s civil code.The lead plaintiffs, who are identified by the initials U.T. and M.X., are also putting some of the blame on an unnamed integrated health and social services centre, known in Quebec as a CISSS.Identified only as CISSS A, the health authority is accused of having allowed, “by its actions or its negligence, that wrongful or criminal acts be perpetrated...

Court battle begins over Missouri’s ban on gender-affirming health care for minors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey and the families of transgender children are in court this week fighting over whether a new law banning minors from receiving gender-affirming health care will take effect as scheduled Monday. Lawyers last month sued to overturn the law on behalf of three families of transgender minors, doctors and two LGBTQ+ organizations. They asked a county judge to temporarily block the law as the court challenge against it plays out.Hearings over pausing the law are taking place this week in Springfield. A judge is expected to rule before Monday. THE LAWThe law, signed by Republican Gov. Mike Parson in June, would prohibit Missouri health care providers from providing puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries to minors. Minors prescribed puberty blockers or hormones before Aug. 28 would be able to continue to receive those treatments.Missouri’s Planned Parenthood clinics had been ramping up available appoi...

A bus carrying Mexicans and Venezuelan migrants crashes, killing 15 people and injuring 36

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A bus carrying Mexicans and Venezuelan migrants crashed into a freight truck Tuesday in central Mexico, killing 16 people and injuring 36, local authorities said.The National Immigration Institute said that 15 of the dead were Mexicans, but one was a Venezuelan citizen. Nine of the injured were Venezuelans who had appointments on the CBP app to apply for asylum at the U.S. border. The accident happened early Tuesday on a highway that runs south toward Oaxaca state. The route is frequently used by migrant smugglers.Migrants frequently use trucks and buses to travel through Mexico to reach the U.S. border, and accidents involving those vehicles are not uncommon in Mexico.In July, five Honduran migrants were killed and another 18 injured when the van they were riding in crashed on a road on Mexico’s southern Gulf coast.In February 17 migrants were killed when the bus they were traveling in crashed in Puebla.Migrants frequently use trucks and buses to travel through M...

Yale police union flyers warning of high crime outrage school, city leaders

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

Yale University and New Haven officials blasted the labor union representing campus police officers Tuesday for handing out flyers telling new students it was unsafe to leave school grounds, walk alone, take public transportation or be outdoors after 8 p.m.The pamphlets, distributed Sunday as incoming Yale freshmen moved into their dorms, came emblazoned with a hooded skull and purported to be a “survival guide” for first-year students at the prestigious university.They portrayed Yale’s home city on the Connecticut coast as a place to be avoided, especially after dark.“The incidence of crime and violence in New Haven is shockingly high, and it is getting worse,” it warned, offering examples of recent crimes.School and city officials called the handouts a misleading scare tactic by a union seeking a new contract.“They handed out unbelievably offensive flyers with misrepresentative information, scaring Yale students and promoting a narrative of our city that is inaccurate and to...

Kentucky commission approves licenses for September launch of sports wagering

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:26:02 GMT

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky awarded licenses Tuesday for horse tracks to operate sports betting facilities and for companies to accept online bets, paving the way for legal wagering on sporting events to start in September.The action by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission means bettors now know where they can place in-person sports wagers starting Sept. 7 and which mobile applications can take wagers beginning Sept. 28.The Bluegrass State has been on an accelerated push to launch legal sports wagering since Kentucky lawmakers passed a sports betting measure at the end of their session in late March.Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear praised the horse racing commission on Tuesday for “getting this done right and getting it done in time for the opening of the NFL season.”The following Kentucky racetracks and their satellite facilities were approved to open a retail sportsbook: Churchill Downs, Louisville; Derby City Gaming, Louisville; Ellis Park, Henderson; the Mint Gaming Hall Cumberlan...