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Whistleblower fired by Deval Patrick denied punitive damages, court rules

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

A whistleblower fired by former Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014 for interfering with a state decision that allowed Patrick’s brother-in-law to stay off the sex offender registry is not entitled to punitive damages, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.Essex Superior Court Judge James Lang wrote that while Patrick’s decision to fire Saundra Edwards, former chair of the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board, “constituted an unlawful act of retaliation,” it was not done “out of an evil motive or any intent to harm the plaintiff’s career.“The court concludes that the evidence does not support a finding that Governor Patrick’s actionable conduct was undertaken in reckless indifference to the plaintiff’s rights,” Lang wrote.Upon becoming SORB chair, Edwards allegedly sought to change a 2007 decision from hearing officer A.J. Paglia, who ruled that Bernard Sigh’s 1993 spousal rape conviction in California — involving Patrick’s brother-in-law and sister — was “more akin” to indecent assault ...

Boston invites more early education providers to join expansion of universal pre-K

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

The city is expanding pre-K access a step further for the 2023-24 school year, the city announced Tuesday, opening up funding for more early education providers and taking another step in the Universal Pre-K plan.“We’re determined to make Boston the first choice for families, and that includes closing gaps in access and availability of early education options,” said Mayor Michelle Wu.The city’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) model aims to offer kids ages three and four free early education for 6.5 hour school days 180 days a year, according to the city. Tuesday’s announcement follows a $20 million investment in the program last July.The city is looking to expand the program by inviting in new community-based childcare providers to participate in the UPK model.Providers — including “nonprofit and for-profit organizations, early education providers, private schools, religious schools” — may apply through the city’s portal to receive ci...

Boston councilors seek ‘scofflaw’ landlord list

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

Some city councilors are looking at creating a “scofflaw property owner list” in an effort to rein in any misbehaving landlords.The proposal from City Councilors Liz Breadon and Ruthzee Louijeune would target “rental property owners who continually fail to comply with the City’s rental unit regulations and provide tenants with safe and adequate housing,” according to the filing that’s set to be introduced at Wednesday’s council meeting.The idea is to disincentivize bad behavior by publishing an annual “scofflaw” list and also by preventing anyone on it from doing business with the city until they get their act together.“For too long, negligent landlords and owners who refuse to clean up their properties have been getting nothing more than a slap on the wrist,” City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune said in a statement. “This ordinance will give our neighborhoods stronger protections and enforcement mechanisms against these ...

Former Patriots LB Dont’a Hightower announces retirement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

Former Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower didn’t play last season, and he won’t be playing any NFL football moving forward.On Tuesday, Hightower officially announced his retirement after playing nine seasons in New England. The 33-year-old shared his news in an article he published on The Players’ Tribune.“They say time flies in this league. Boy, they’re not lying. Today, I am officially retiring from the NFL,” Hightower wrote in the article. “I know these announcements always feel bittersweet, but I can’t think of a better story than the one I wrote in New England. A decade, three Super Bowls, two Pro Bowls, and the birth of my son — all playing for one franchise. How many guys have a story like that?”Hightower played in 117 regular-season games with the Patriots, who selected him in the first round of the 2012 draft. He quickly proved to be an impact player in the middle of Bill Belichick’s defense with 13 starts as a rookie and a Super ...

Macron welcomes back to France journalist freed in Mali

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A French journalist who was held hostage by Islamic extremists for nearly two years in Mali was welcomed home by French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, one day after his release.Olivier Dubois was kidnapped in April 2021 in northern Mali, a region wracked by jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.Leaving the plane at the Villacoublay military airport, southwest of Paris, with a big smile on his face, Dubois was applauded by the group of people waiting for his arrival. He was greeted with great joy by his sister and father, and then he hugged Macron. Speaking to French media, Dubois said he listened to French radio to keep himself sane in captivity and read the Quran “to understand” his captors. Dubois told RFI radio Tuesday that although he was not “hit or humiliated,” it was a grueling experience.“You are chained, you are a prisoner, you are considered a disbeliever, an infidel,” he said. “It was living outside all the time — w...

Lawsuit seeks to block abortion pill ban in Wyoming

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

Abortion-rights supporters filed an amended lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block Wyoming’s new abortion pill ban from taking effect.A group hoping to open what would be the state’s second clinic offering abortions filed the amended lawsuit days after Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed what is the nation’s first explicit ban on abortion pills. Absent court intervention, that ban would take effect July 1. Abortion-rights supporters already were seeking to block a separate sweeping abortion ban that took effect Sunday in Wyoming without the governor’s signature. That law seeks to overcome objections that prompted a judge to suspend a previous ban. Both of the new Wyoming abortion bans make exceptions to save a pregnant woman’s life and for cases of rape or incest that are reported to police.Until Gordon signed the ban on medication abortions, no state had passed a law specifically prohibiting such pills, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that s...

Trump’s potential indictment caps decades of legal scrutiny

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — For 40 years, former President Donald Trump has navigated countless legal investigations without ever facing criminal charges. That record may soon come to an end.Trump could be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury as soon as this week, potentially charged with falsifying business records connected to hush money payments during his 2016 campaign to women who accused him of sexual encounters.It’s one of several investigations that have intensified as Trump mounts his third presidential run. He has denied any allegations of wrongdoing and accuses prosecutors of engaging in a politically motivated “witch hunt” to damage his campaign.An indictment in New York would mark an extraordinary turn in American history, making Trump the first former president to face a criminal charge. And it would carry tremendous weight for Trump himself, threatening his long-established ability to avoid consequences despite entanglement in a dizzying number of cases.Indictment, says biogr...

Only 1 Black rep gets role in talks on Mississippi policing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — One Black lawmaker and nine white ones have been chosen to negotiate final versions of bills that could expand the territory of a state-run police department inside Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city.Critics say the bills are a way for the Republican-controlled state government to exert control over Jackson, which is 83% Black and is governed by Democrats.The Black lawmaker chosen as a negotiator, Democratic Rep. Earle Banks of Jackson, said Tuesday that his goal is to have a safer city. With just under 150,000 residents, Jackson has had more than 100 homicides for each of the past three years.“I think there is a desire by citizens in the city of Jackson for additional police protection, and Capitol Police may be the answer to that,” Banks told The Associated Press.Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn, both Republicans, on Tuesday finished selecting the senators and representatives to work on the final versions of two bills. The ...

Federal decision to shut down B.C. salmon farms prompts company court challenge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia salmon farming company is going to court to challenge the federal government’s decision not to renew the licences for its open-net farms off Vancouver Island.Documents filed in Federal Court in Vancouver by Mowi Canada West apply for a judicial review of the decision last month by Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray to shut down 15 salmon farms.Mowi’s application seeks an order quashing or setting aside Murray’s decision to shut down the company’s 11 open-net salmon farms located off the Discovery Islands, near Campbell River.It asks the court to have the matter referred back to Murray and a declaration the minister’s February decision was “unreasonable, invalid and unlawful.”The federal government has not responded to the application, but as she announced the decision last month Murray said recent science indicates uncertainty over the risks fish farms pose to wild salmon and government was committed to transition...

Couple faces murder charges in Crow girl’s 2019 death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:43:25 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana couple faces charges of murder and tampering with evidence in the 2019 disappearance and death of a 6-year-old girl on the Crow Indian Reservation, according to court documents.Mildred Alexis Old Crow was physically assaulted and left in a bathtub to drown before her body was wrapped in plastic and concealed inside a container, Big Horn County Attorney Jeanne Torske said in court documents.The container was taped shut and remained hidden for more than two years while the defendants collected benefits that were meant for the victim, Torske wrote.Roseen Lincoln and Veronica Dust, both 36 years old, could face life in prison if convicted in state district court. They remained in custody Tuesday on $1 million bond each and were scheduled to be arraigned on March 28 before state District Judge Matt Wald in Hardin.Indigenous women are victimized at astonishing rates, with federal figures showing that they — along with non-Hispanic Black women — have experi...