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Massachusetts National Guard set to deploy Wednesday to help unstaffed shelters

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

Massachusetts National Guard service members are scheduled to deploy Wednesday to emergency shelters across the state that are housing displaced and migrant families as part of an up to six-month call-up.Gov. Maura Healey activated up to 250 members to serve more than 40 shelters that do not have contracted service providers. Uniformed troops will support logistics and administrative duties but the exact shelters they are serving will remain secret due to privacy concerns, a Healey spokesperson said.The Guard activation is one of the few major moves Healey has taken under the state’s more than month-old state of emergency. The Healey spokesperson said the call-up is for up to six months, “however this is a rapidly evolving situation that will continue to be assessed.”It was unclear Tuesday afternoon how many troops would mobilize at the outset of the call-up. Soldiers and airmen are being drawn from units across the state and the mission commander is Lt. Col. Patrick Donnelly, a Mas...

More cities, towns need to share burden of Massachusetts’ shelter crisis, officials say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

Leaders of communities playing host to emergency shelters for local and migrant families called on the state Tuesday to spread out the burden of servicing people in need across more municipalities in Massachusetts.A month after Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency in response to an overcrowded shelter system, local officials have acknowledged that managing an unpredictable crisis is difficult. Anywhere from 20 to 35 families are entering emergency shelters each day and the state projects up to 1,000 may enter each month.But a handful of the 70-plus host communities voiced concerns that they are unfairly bearing the brunt of a crisis when there are 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.Westborough Town Manager Kristi Williams said nearly 80 families are staying at a spot in town with a service provider, nine families are in a hotel without a provider, and more are expected to arrive in mid-October.Students of those families are enrolling in local schools, including 25 stud...

Attorneys for Karen Read request Google Nest security footage

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

The attorneys for Karen Read, the Mansfield woman accused of mowing down her boyfriend outside a house in Canton last January, are gearing up for another evidence discovery fight ahead of Friday’s status conference hearing.Read is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, as well as charges of manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. Prosecutors say she backed into him and ran him over after dropping him off at 34 Fairview Road in Canton in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2023.It began on the first of the month when they filed a motion for GPS records for the snowplow responsible for removing snow from in front of the house — where O’Keefe’s body was found just after 6 a.m.that morning. The request came with a defense interview of the plow driver, who said he didn’t see a body in the yard at around 2:30 a.m. when he allegedly drove past the house.And then ...

Virginia candidate who livestreamed sex videos draws support from women, Democratic leader

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

By DENISE LAVOIE and MATTHEW BARAKAT (Associated Press)RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Democratic Virginia legislative candidate whose race was rattled by the revelation that she and her husband livestreamed themselves having sex moved forward with her campaign Tuesday and drew some early support in the high-stakes contest. Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner with two children, is running against a Republican businessman in one of a handful of highly competitive races that could determine the balance of power in the General Assembly. The race in a suburban district outside Richmond has attracted large amounts of spending and interest for an off-year legislative race.Gibson has been gaining support as an abortion rights candidate in a state that is an increasingly rare abortion access point in the South, where many states have passed new restrictions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade.On Monday, after The Washington Post and The Associated Pr...

Trump should stay on ballot, New Hampshire lawmakers write

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

A group of current and former New Hampshire lawmakers have signed onto a letter asking their Secretary of State to ignore attempts by some to have former President Donald Trump’s name barred from the ballot.At the end of August, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and Secretary of State David Scanlan said in a joint statement saying the latter had asked the former to interpret the Fourteenth Amendment of U.S. Constitution and its potential impact on the 45th president’s eligibility to hold office or appear on the state ballot.That amendment includes an oft forgotten but of late extraordinarily relevant clause which states no one who swore an oath to the U.S. Constitution who then participates in or aids an insurrection against the government no longer qualifies for elected office.Trump’s alleged involvement in the events of January 6th, 2021, meets that standard, according to several legal scholars and even a few lawsuits attempting to keep Trump out of office.On Monday, in...

MTV Video Music Awards set to begin with Olivia Rodrigo, Karol G, Cardi B in attendance

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

By MARIA SHERMAN (AP Music Writer)The MTV Video Music Awards return Tuesday night, and for the first time, only women are nominated in the show’s artist of the year category. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Karol G and Shakira are contenders for the night’s prize.On Tuesday morning, the VMAs announced its final round of presenters, which include A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, Anuel AA, Ashanti, Billy Porter, Chloe Bailey, Dove Cameron, Fat Joe, Halle Bailey, Nelly Furtado, Reneé Rapp, Saweetie, Shenseea, Thalia, Tiffany Haddish, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean.The VMAs, which takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey — just outside of New York City — will be hosted by Minaj. Last year, she emceed alongside Lil Wayne and Jack Harlow; this year, she’s solo.The show will be packed with stars, with Olivia Rodrigo, Cardi B, Offset, Megan Thee Stallion, Haddish and Karol G among the attendees.The show will also celebrate 50 years o...

MassDOT, MBTA quietly get new boss

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

The state has a new Secretary of Transportation, though if you weren’t paying attention you may not have noticed the change.On Monday, while city officials were holding a wreath laying ceremony in memory of the victims of 9/11 at the corner of the the Public Garden, state officials were just a few hundred yards away quietly swearing in the Commonwealth’s newest cabinet member.About two weeks ago, now-former Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca suddenly announced she would step down from her role leading the state’s highway divisions and overseeing the MBTA effective on September 11. Gov. Maura Healey was quick to announce that Fiandaca’s undersecretary, Monica Tibbits-Nutt, would take the helm.In an event advertised by the governor’s office as open to press photography only, held in the Healey’s ceremonial office at the State House on Monday, Fiandaca left and Tibbits-Nutt was sworn in as Acting Secretary of Transportation.The governor’s office issued no release on the...

Teacher in hospital following student fight at Roxbury high school

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

A scuffle between two students at a Roxbury high school landed a teacher who attempted to intervene in the hospital with minor injuries.“This afternoon, an escalated verbal altercation occurred between multiple students during dismissal. In an attempt to de-escalate the situation a staff member sustained minor injuries while responding to the incident,” Sidney Brown, the head of Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, wrote to parents in staff in a letter shared with the Herald.A Boston Police Department spokesman said police were called at around 2:30 p.m. Thursday for the incident. The teacher, according to police, was running to break up a fight and fell in the process.The unidentified teacher was first seen by the school nurse before being tended to by Boston EMS, the letter states, before finally be taken to an area hospital for further examination.The students involved could face disciplinary action based on the Boston Public Schools’ Code of Conduct, according to Brown...

Alleged North End and Charlestown serial rapist to next appear in court on Halloween

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

The man suspected of stalking women in Charlestown and the North End with a series of rapes 15 years ago won’t be back in court until Halloween.The attorneys for Matthew Nilo, 35, of New Jersey, filed for a continuance of the hearing scheduled for Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston and were granted a new hearing date of Oct. 31.Nilo, a corporate attorney who was working in the New York City area when he was arrested at the end of May, is out on a combined bail of $550,000. That’s $500,000 imposed June 15 when he pleaded not guilty to a series of Charlestown rapes, and then another $50,000 imposed on charges leveled a month later that finger him for a series of North End rapes.The Charlestown rapes for which he was originally charged took place in the Terminal Street area on Aug. 18 and Nov. 22 of 2007, and Aug. 5 and Dec. 23 of 2008. In the first three cases, Nilo is accused of picking women up with his car, driving them to the Terminal Street area and then rap...

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu: ‘No chance’ I would leave office for Harvard, any other job

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:31:51 GMT

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu again dismissed speculation she was considering leaving for a job at Harvard University, saying there’s no job out there that could woo her away from the office.“This has been fascinating,” Wu said of the speculation. “There is absolutely no chance I would abandon this role for any other job at any organization, any other level of government.”Wu made her remarks on GBH’s Boston Public Radio Tuesday, when she was asked to address speculation that Harvard brass had offered her a job there, as reported by the Herald last week.A reporter had first pitched the question at an unrelated press conference last Wednesday, during which time the mayor said she had not talked to Harvard about a job at her alma mater, but stopped short of saying there’s no truth to the rumor.“No, I mean, not that I would share it with you,” Wu said at the time, laughing before adding, “I’m always honest.”Since that time, the rumor persisted, but a source said the talk inside City Ha...