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A Massachusetts Town Is Suing Monsanto for Its Cancer-Causing PCBs

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

Clare Lahey has lived with her husband in the home he grew up in, just up the street from the Housatonic River in the town of Lee, Massachusetts, for nearly five decades. Now, in the twilight of their lives, they’re watching as the same chemicals that have ravaged the health of people living along the river for years are now being dredged and dumped near their home. Lahey has had bladder cancer twice, 15 years apart; her husband is wracked with illnesses including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease even though he never smoked. She believes that proximity to the river is to blame for their health problems, and she’s not alone: The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, warns that the river’s PCBs are likely to cause cancer in humans, and a Massachusetts Department of Public Health study on the cancer link is scheduled to be released this year.“Why don’t we just move away?” Lahey asked. “Well, because he’s 85 and I’m 82, and we want to finish out our lives ...

Netflix to charge an additional $8 month for viewers living outside US subscribers’ households

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

Netflix on Tuesday outlined how it intends to crack down on the rampant sharing of account passwords in the U.S., its latest bid to reel in more subscribers to its video streaming service amid a slowdown in growth.To combat password sharing, Netflix said it will limit viewership of its programming to people living in the same household. Those who subscribe to Netflix’s standard or premium plans — which cost $15.50 to $20 per month — will be able to allow another person living outside their household to use their password for an additional $8 per month, a $2 discount from the company’s standard stand-alone plan.Subscribers will still be able to watch Netflix when they are traveling. The company based in Los Gatos, California has 70 million U.S. accountholders.The long-anticipated move, telegraphed by Netflix nearly a year ago, seeks to end a practice that the company allowed to go unchecked for years while its streaming service was attracting subscribers in droves. At tha...

Lakers hoping LeBron James decides to continue career after playoff elimination

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers hope LeBron James will decide to continue his career after he recovers from the difficult end to their season.James didn’t meet with the media on the day after the top scorer in NBA history said he needed time to think about his basketball future following the Lakers’ elimination from the Western Conference finals.The 38-year-old James has skipped his team’s postseason media exit interviews before, but his decision Tuesday left Lakers fans hanging about his intentions with his enigmatic comments following a four-game sweep by the Denver Nuggets.General manager Rob Pelinka and head coach Darvin Ham said they’ll speak with James soon about his future.“We all know that (James) speaks for himself, and we’ll look forward to those conversations,” Pelinka said. “LeBron has given as much to the game of basketball as anyone who has ever played. When you do that, you earn the right to decide if you want to give more. R...

Walter Royal, North Carolina chef who won on ‘Iron Chef America’ cooking with ostrich, dies at 67

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

Walter Royal, the chef of a destination steakhouse in North Carolina who triumphed as a challenger on “Iron Chef America” by cooking mostly Southern dishes with ostrich meat, has died.The Angus Barn in Raleigh, where Royal served as executive chef since the 1990s, announced his passing on its website. The restaurant’s statement said Royal died Monday at the age of 67. The announcement did not provide a cause or say where the chef had died. The grandson of farmers, Royal grew up in rural Alabama and worked as a social worker before honing his craft under acclaimed Southern chefs, The Raleigh News & Observer reported. Royal was already well established as a chef in the Raleigh area when he cooked before a national audience in a 2006 episode of “Iron Chef America.” Judge Joel McHale said Royal used one of the world’s “ugliest birds” to create one of the best desserts. It was a chocolate soufflé made with an ostrich egg.Royal led a team challenging celebrity chef Cat Cor...

Audit: State departments fell short when it came to reporting and justifying some pandemic emergency contracts

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

This content was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.The Senate co-chair of the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Evaluation Committee said changes to state procurement law will likely prevent future mishandling of emergency contracts, such as those during the recent COVID-19 pandemic identified in a recent report by the Office of Legislative Audits.The Office of Legislative Audits found that the Office of State Procurement within the Department of General Services skirted some record-keeping requirements and failed to provide timely notification on millions of dollars in contracts. Sen. Clarence K. Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel) said the report provides more detail of a problem highlighted in a 2021 audit that triggered lawmakers to tighten state law.“Certainly, part of the challenge is that, by nature, things that are an emergency are intended to bypass a lot of the rou...

Priest killed in Mexico; 9th under the current administration

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest has been killed in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, the ninth killed during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.The church’s Catholic Multimedia Center identified the priest as Rev. Javier García Villafaña, who had been assigned to the Capacho parish in Huandacareo just one month earlier.The killing came one day after the Mexican Episcopal Conference expressed its solidarity and condemnation of an attack against Monsignor Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez, archbishop of the northern state of Durango.On Sunday, an elderly man tried to stab Armendáriz in Durango’s cathedral. The archbishop escaped uninjured.The conference confirmed García’s murder and said it was preparing to release a statement.The Catholic Multimedia Center said in the statement that García was shot while driving near Capacho on the shores of Cuitzeo lake.Source

Timmy Tillman switches national team affiliation to US from Germany

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Los Angeles FC midfielder Timmy Tillman has been approved by FIFA to change his national team affiliation to the United States from Germany, following a move made by younger brother Malik a year earlier.Timmy Tillman, 24, was born in Nuremberg, Germany, to a father in the U.S. military and a German mother. He played for Germany in qualifying for the 2018 European Under-19 Championship and joined LA this year after four seasons with Greuther Fürth. He has two goals in 10 MLS matches.“As a kid, my brother and I dreamt of playing for a national team together and now we’re one step closer,” Tillman said in a statement released Tuesday by the U.S. Soccer Federation.Malik Tillman, who turns 21 on Sunday, played for the U.S. under-15 team in 2016 and for Germany at several youth levels. He made his U.S. senior debut last June 1 and has played three international matches, all exhibitions. He was not included on last year’s World Cup roster. Malik Tillman has spent...

Who’s behind the attack on a Russian region on the border with Ukraine?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russia alleges that dozens of Ukrainian militants crossed into one of its border towns in its Belgorod region, striking targets and forcing an evacuation, before over 70 of the attackers were killed or pushed back by what the authorities termed a counterterrorism operation.Ukraine denied any involvement in the skirmishes Monday and Tuesday, instead blaming two Russian groups that claim to be volunteers fighting alongside Kyiv’s forces in an uprising against the government of President Vladimir Putin.While neither version could be independently verified, whatever happened appears to have sent Moscow scrambling to respond to one of the most serious border incursions since Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said an elderly woman died in the chaotic evacuation, and 12 people were wounded in the attack and shelling. As fighting there apparently continued Tuesday morning, he urged residents not to return t...

Prosecutors: Man drove car into planned Illinois abortion clinic in attempted arson

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

DANVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A 73-year-old man is facing federal charges after he rammed a car into a planned abortion clinic in an eastern Illinois city and also was trying to set the building on fire, authorities announced Tuesday.Police arrived at the clinic site in Danville about 4:30 a.m. Saturday to find Philip J. Buyno of Prophetstown, Illinois, stuck inside a car that had backed into the building’s entrance and he had several containers filled with gasoline, according to federal prosecutors.The planned clinic has generated controversy. The Danville City Council voted this month to ban the mailing or shipping of abortion pills even as state Democratic officials have warned that the move violates Illinois law protecting abortion as a fundamental right.Buyno also faces county criminal charges for the clinic damage. Federal prosecutors charged him with attempted arson of a building used in interstate commerce.Information on any defense attorneys representing Buyno who could comment on ...

Hanging Lake closed after trail becomes run-off river

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:23 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- The Hanging Lake hiking trail in Glenwood Springs was temporarily closed due to high run-off that made the trail look more like a river. The Forest Service said it closed Hanging Lake Trail Sunday as run-off waters flowed down the trail in multiple locations. Earlier this month: Large mudslide blocks access to Hanging Lake Reservations that were made through June 2 are being canceled and refunded, according to the Forest Service, in hopes that conditions will allow a reopening on June 3.The Forest Service said it closed Hanging Lake Trail Sunday as run-off waters flowed down the trail in multiple locations. (Credit: United States Forest Service)The Forest Service said it closed Hanging Lake Trail Sunday as run-off waters flowed down the trail in multiple locations. (Credit: United States Forest Service)The closure came just days after the service announced its plans to improve the trail "to better accommodate high water and debris flows."The project includes rebui...