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House Speaker Ronald Mariano says he will run for re-election in 2024, seek speakership

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

House Speaker Ronald Mariano said Tuesday he plans to run for re-election in 2024 and if successful, seek the chamber’s top legislative leadership post again, though he would not commit to serving out a full term.Mariano, a 76-year-old Quincy Democrat, is in his 14th term as a state lawmaker after first being elected to office during a 1991 special election. He is in his second term as speaker of the House, taking over for former Speaker Robert DeLeo who was the longest-serving person in that role.Asked if he would run for re-election, Mariano said “sure.” Asked if he would run for speaker next session, Mariano again said “sure.” But it “remains to be seen,” Mariano said, whether he would serve out the rest of that next term.“The speaker looks forward to the work ahead the remainder of this term. He intends to run for re-election for his seat and the speakership. He’s grateful to the membership for their collaboration and support,” a Mariano spokesperson said in a statement only min...

Ex-Michigan gubernatorial candidate sentenced to 2 months behind bars for Capitol riot role

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge on Tuesday sentenced a former Republican candidate for Michigan governor to two months behind bars for joining a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he riled up other rioters and ripped a tarp outside the building.Ryan Kelley, who finished fourth in a primary field of five Republican gubernatorial candidates last year, pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor for his role in the siege.Several months before his guilty plea, Kelley posted on social media that the Capitol riot was an FBI “set up.” His campaign posted the words “political prisoner” on Facebook after his June 2022 arrest.U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper told Kelley that he misused his platform as a candidate for public office by promoting lies about election fraud, including the baseless claim that Jan. 6 was somehow part of an FBI plot.“A lot of folks voted for you. A lot of folks followed you,” Cooper said before sentencing Kelley t...

Prosecutors seeking to recharge actor Alec Baldwin in fatal shooting on movie set

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

By MORGAN LEE (Associated Press)SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Special prosecutors said Tuesday they are seeking to recharge actor Alec Baldwin in the 2021 fatal shooting on a Western movie set in New Mexico by presenting evidence to a grand jury.New Mexico-based prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis said they’ll present evidence to grand jury within the next two months, noting that “additional facts” have come to light in the shooting on the set of the film “Rust” that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.Baldwin, a coproducer of the film, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on the film’s set on outside Santa Fe when the gun went off on Oct. 21, 2021, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.“Additional facts have come to light that we believe show Mr. Baldwin has criminal culpability in the death of Halyna Hutchins and the shooting of Joel Souza,” Morrissey and Lewis said in an email. “We believe the appropriate course of action is to permit a panel of New Mexico c...

Bruins notebook: John Beecher softening the loss of Tomas Nosek

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

Much of the early season buzz around the Bruins has been about Matt Poitras, and rightly so. Poitras very well could be the top six centerman the B’s have been looking to develop for over a decade now.But the emergence of fellow rookie John Beecher has been a welcome and timely development as well. Beecher, centering the fourth line between Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko that was the one unit that coach Jim Montgomery left alone in Monday’s practice, has helped mitigate the underrated loss of Tomas Nosek in the early going of the season.Seeing just 12.5% of offensive zone starts, Beecher so far has shown himself to be a reliable defensive-minded pivot while holding his own in the faceoff dot (12 up, 10 down).Plenty more challenges lay ahead, but so far so good.“I’m definitely getting a little more comfortable out there and settling in nicely. The guys have made it a good transition for us. They’ve helped out a lot,” said Beecher, the 30th overall pick in the 201...

Celtics’ Derrick White discusses contract extension, being snubbed from ESPN Top 100 list

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

Derrick White and the Celtics have until 11:59 p.m. on Monday to reach an agreement on a contract extension or have to wait until after the season is over. But the guard doesn’t seem worried about it one way or the other.“I love it here. It’s been great here being a Celtic,” White said. “That will never change whether I sign before the season or not. If it happens, great. If not, I’m still excited for the season to be here.”White has two years remaining on the four-year, $70 million extension he signed with the Spurs in 2020. He’s due to earn $18.4 million this season and then $19.6 million in 2024-25. Under the new rules of the collective bargaining agreement, White can extend for three years at 140% of his 2024-25 salary, so a deal would look like something around three years, $85 million that would begin in 2025-26.White could certainly command more money by building off his breakout 2022-23 season and having another big year in 2023-24. But the Celtics have already m...

Israel denies involvement in Gaza hospital blast, says explosion caused by Palestinian rocket

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

By NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMYA KULLAB, RAVI NESSMAN and MATTHEW LEE (Associated Press)KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military says it had no involvement in an explosion that killed hundreds of people at a Gaza City hospital and that the blast was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says an Israeli airstrike caused the blast, and that it killed some 500 people, many of whom had sought shelter from an ongoing Israeli offensive.The Israeli military, however, said Palestinian militants had fired a barrage of rockets near the hospital at the time.Photos and video purportedly from al-Ahli Hospital on social media showed fire engulfing the building and the hospital’s grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. Around them in the grass were blankets, school backpacks and other belongings. The images could not immediately be independently verified.The strike came as the U.S. was trying to convince Israel to allow the deliv...

Mayor denies discussing absentee ballots with campaign volunteer at center of ballot stuffing claims

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

The mayor of Connecticut’s largest city denied under oath Tuesday ever discussing absentee ballots with a campaign volunteer who resembles a woman seen on surveillance video stuffing papers into a drop box multiple times ahead of the mayoral primary.In a court hearing, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim tried to distance himself from Wanda Geter-Pataky, a local Democratic official and supporter who has been accused by Ganim’s opponent of absentee ballot fraud in connection with Ganim’s narrow victory in September’s primary. Geter-Pataky last week refused to say whether she was the woman seen on surveillance footage making multiple trips to an election drop box and stuffing papers inside that looked like ballots.Ganim also testified he did not talk to Geter-Pataky about handling absentee ballots differently after state elections officials investigating allegations of absentee ballot fraud in Ganim’s 2019 primary referred her and two others with ties to his campa...

Trump returns to his civil fraud trial, hears an employee and an appraiser testify against him

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump returned Tuesday to the civil fraud trial that imperils his real estate empire, watching and deploring the case as an employee and an outside appraiser testified that his company essentially put a thumb on the scale when sizing up his properties’ value. Incensed by a case that disputes his net worth and could strip him of such signature holdings as Trump Tower, the former president is due to testify later in the trial. But he chose to attend the first three days and came back Tuesday to observe — and to protest his treatment to the news cameras waiting outside the Manhattan courtroom. Star witness Michael Cohen, a onetime Trump fixer now turned foe, postponed his scheduled testimony because of a health problem.Instead, Trump company accountant Donna Kidder testified that she was told to make some assumptions favorable to the firm on internal financial spreadsheets. Outside appraiser Doug Larson said he didn’t suggest or condone a former Trump...

No charges for deputy who fatally shot 21-year-old during traffic stop

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a 21-year-old man during a traffic stop won’t be criminally charged, a prosecutor announced on Tuesday.Jarveon Hudspeth was shot and killed June 24 by a Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputy after the deputy approached his car and tried to stop it from leaving the scene, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.Videos of the traffic stop show a deputy holding onto the car’s steering wheel and being carried away as the vehicle speeds off, but does not show the moment when the deputy shot the driver.The deputy was hospitalized in critical condition but has since been released.“It is still not clear to us what the reason was for the traffic stop,” Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy told news outlets. “What is clear is that Mr. Hudspeth, when he’s outside the vehicle talking with the deputy, had been instructed by the deputy not to reenter his vehicle. He nonetheless did so and started to...

Cleanup cost for nuclear contamination sites has risen nearly $1 billion since 2016, report says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:37 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The estimated future cost to clean up 19 sites contaminated by nuclear waste from the Cold War era has risen by nearly $1 billion in the past seven years, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.The GAO report urges the Army Corps of Engineers to improve management practices for cleaning up contaminated sites under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, or FUSRAP. The recommendations include improved planning so resources can be better shared among sites and developing more comprehensive cost estimates.Officials say inflation is partly to blame for the cost increase, along with uncertainties about the cleanup. The report found that four sites with “complicated cleanup remedies or large amounts of contamination” are responsible for about three-fourths of the cost increase. Two of those sites are in New York state — one near Niagara Falls and one in Lockport. The others are in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, an...