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Robbins: Citizens stand up for democracy around the world

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

The fight to preserve democracy around the world has come to resemble a game of Whack-A-Mole, with autocrats wielding power or chasing it emerging on the global scene only to be faced down, then to emerge again. The biggest battle of them all is playing out in Ukraine, where a conscience-less war criminal unrepentant about committing mass murder has sought to lay waste to civilians indiscriminately, and where a historically brave population is showing the world, quite simply, what it means to fight and die for freedom.In Iran, tens of thousands of citizens protesting in the wake of the killing of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian-Kurdish woman who died in the custody of that regime’s “morality police,” have been detained. According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, an organization that tracks the government’s repression of dissidents, at least 530 demonstrators have been killed by the mullahs’ enforcers. That is likely an underestimation, and does not include those summarily executed by...

Boston boy killed in skiing accident at Pats Peak ‘brought joy to everyone he met’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

The 15-year-old Boston boy who was killed in the skiing accident at Pats Peak over the weekend was “a kind and caring person who brought joy to everyone he met.”Christopher DiPrima has been identified as the Boston teenager who died following the incident at New Hampshire’s Pats Peak on Saturday evening.DiPrima attended Excel Academy High School in East Boston.“Excel Academy grieves the loss of our student, Christopher DiPrima, who died in a skiing accident this weekend,” Excel Academy Charter Schools said in a statement.“Christopher was a 10th grader at XLHS and graduated from XLGW in 2021,” Excel added. “Christopher was a kind and caring person who brought joy to everyone he met. He will be truly missed.”The accident happened on the Duster Ski Trail at around 6:35 p.m. on Saturday.The Pats Peak Ski Patrol arrived at the scene shortly after the accident, and they brought the boy to the base area — where the Henniker, N.H.,...

Two boys, ages 14 and 15, accused of stealing rifle from Massachusetts State Police cruiser

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

Two Malden boys have been arrested in connection with allegedly stealing a patrol rifle, high-capacity magazine and ammunition from a Massachusetts State Police cruiser last week.During the overnight hours of March 23, the two juveniles — ages 14 and 15 — allegedly went to an apartment complex’s parking garage located on Overlook Ridge Drive in Malden, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.The two boys are accused of breaking into the marked cruiser in the parking garage, and the 14-year-old took the rifle, the DA’s Office said. That firearm and other stolen items were later found in a Malden home connected to the 15-year-old boy.The 14-year-old boy has been charged with breaking and entering a vehicle in the nighttime to commit a felony, larceny of a firearm, possession of a firearm and conspiracy to commit a crime.The 15-year-old boy has been charged with breaking and entering a vehicle in the nighttime to commit a felony, larceny of a...

Healey administration finds someone crazy enough to take MBTA GM job

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

The MBTA’s new General Manager was equal parts jovial and serious sounding promises of readiness to tackle the tough tasks ahead when he joined the governor alongside the Green Line Monday afternoon to announce he would take the helm of the state’s apparently rudderless transportation network.“I’d like to start off by addressing the big elephant in the room: no I’m not a Yankees fan,” the former President of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Long Island Rail Road, Phillip Eng, said at Riverside Station.Eng, who also served as interim president of New York City Transit system, on Monday morning was announced by Gov. Maura Healey and Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca as the much anticipated new chief of the MBTA. An engineer from New York with four decades of experience in mass transit, Eng will be relocating to Massachusetts before he starts his new $470,000-a-year job on April 10.“I take great pride in public service and I cherish the opportunity to again work in publ...

Father arrested in death of 7-week-old baby girl

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A father has been arrested after the death of his seven-week-old baby girl, who was found not breathing at a home in the University City neighborhood, authorities said.The incident occurred Mar. 18 around 10 p.m. in the 3700 block of La Jolla Village Drive, when officers responded to a call of a non-breathing infant at a townhome, Lt. Adam Sharki with the San Diego Police Department stated in a news release Monday. While at the scene, police contacted the parents of the infant, a 36-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man, per SDPD. The infant was taken to a hospital, where she died from her injuries three days later, Sharki said. Two arrested in Chula Vista after police pursuit Investigators found that the infant suffered serious traumatic internal injuries that suggested physical child abuse, according to police. Detectives believe the infant's death appears to be a "tragic domestic-related incident where the infant's father inflicted the fatal injuries upon his daught...

Man killed in shooting outside Kaiser office buildings

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

SAN DIEGO — One person was killed Monday after a shooting in the Grantville area.According to the San Diego Police Department, a man was shot around 5:50 a.m. outside some Kaiser Permanente office buildings near Fairmount Avenue and San Diego Mission Road.Upon arrival, officers found a man in his late 30s to mid-40s with a gunshot wound to his chest, Lt. Steve Shebloski told FOX 5.Officers rendered first aid on the man until medics arrived. He was then transported to a nearby hospital where he later died, according to police.The Kaiser buildings, which are administrative offices that do no see any medical patients, were closed at the time the of the shooting. 1 injured after City Heights stabbing A large portion of the parking lot was closed off and a heavy police presence was on scene as authorities investigated the area.Police believe the shooting was an isolated incident and that there is no present danger to the surrounding community, Shebloski noted.The incident was under inv...

State, defense request another stay of execution for Glossip

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s top prosecutor and attorneys for death row inmate Richard Glossip both asked a court on Monday to once again delay Glossip’s upcoming execution while his attorneys seek to have his conviction overturned.Attorney General Gentner Drummond and one of Glossip’s attorneys, Warren Gotcher, filed a joint motion for a stay of execution with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. They ask that the execution, currently set for May 18, be delayed until at least August 2024 so that the court can consider a separate motion from Glossip’s attorneys for an evidentiary hearing they suggest could prove his innocence. Shortly after Drummond took office in January, he made available to Glossip’s defense team a box of material that Drummond’s predecessor, John O’Connor, had not permitted them to view. O’Connor had designated the materials, consisting largely of prosecutor’s notes in the case, as “work product,” accor...

In Trump probe, key witness returns, no indictment vote yet

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A pivotal figure in the hush money payment investigation of Donald Trump returned on Monday to the building where a grand jury has been meeting for months, a repeat appearance suggesting his testimony could be key as prosecutors push toward potential criminal charges.There was still no word on when the panel might vote on a possible indictment of the former president.David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend and the former chief executive of the parent company of The National Enquirer, was back as the grand jury heard testimony in the probe for the first time since last Monday, when a witness favorable to the ex-president appeared. The grand jury is now back on the Trump matter, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss secretive proceedings. The ex-president is being investigated over payments during his 2016 campaign to two women who alleged affairs or sexual encounters with him.Trump denies being involved with either o...

Family of US couple kidnapped in Haiti pleads for release

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Nikese Toussaint was at church, so she didn’t see the text message from her sister.All she knew at that point was that their brother and his wife, who live in the U.S., had landed safely in Haiti to visit ailing relatives and prepare for Rara, a colorful and boisterous festival born out of the dark days of slavery.It wasn’t until Toussaint got home and her sister followed up the unread text with a phone call that she learned her warnings had materialized: their brother, an accountant; his wife, a social worker; and another person were snatched off a public bus amid a surge in gang-related kidnappings.Toussaint took a deep breath. Not again, she thought.Seventeen years earlier, gangs had kidnapped two of her cousins in the capital of Port-au-Prince. They were eventually released but remain traumatized.This time, the gang that kidnapped her brother, wife and another person is demanding $200,000 — each.“How are we ever going to come up with that money?” Tou...

Arizona governor: scheduled execution is unlikely next week

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:39:39 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — A vow by Arizona’s governor not to proceed with any executions amid lingering questions about the rights of death row prisoners appears to have paused a scheduled execution next week, even though it hasn’t officially been called off.Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs won a key battle recently when the Arizona Supreme Court concluded a state law didn’t require her to proceed with the planned April 6 execution of Aaron Gunches, even though his execution date wasn’t canceled. Hobbs has vowed no prisoners will be executed until there’s confidence that the state isn’t violating constitutional rights when enforcing the death penalty.Gunches was scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 2002 killing of Ted Price, who was his girlfriend’s ex-husband. He had pleaded guilty to a murder charge in the shooting death near Mesa, Arizona.Price’s sister, Karen Price, had tried unsuccessfully to get the court to order Hobbs to carry out the execution. Pric...