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Maura Healey proposes $734M supplemental budget

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey filed a $734 million supplemental budget proposal that invests in public health, free school meals, clean energy and technology, and recruitment efforts to enhance the MBTA’s strapped workforce.The bill, filed Friday, builds upon the $55.5 billion fiscal year 2024 state budget proposal the governor submitted on March 1.“In our supplemental budget, Lt. Gov. (Kim) Driscoll and I are proposing additional investments that will move us forward on our goals of increasing affordability, competitiveness and equity in Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement.The supplemental budget would direct $171 million to extend state-funded universal free school meals through the 2023-24 school year.It also directs the Executive Office of Education to report, by Jan. 15, 2024, on ways to modify or extend this program “in a way that promotes equity, maximizes federal revenue and improves predictability and sustainability of funding into the future,” Healey wrote in a letter to the Le...

Kansas appeals court reinstates lawsuit over voting law

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

The Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday reinstated a lawsuit that challenged provisions of a voting law enacted in 2021 that opponents argue is unconstitutional and limits voting rights.The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by Loud Light, the League of Women Voters of Kansas, the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center and the Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. They challenged provisions of a law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature that limit how many advance mail ballots individuals can collect and require election officials to match the signatures on an advance ballot to a person’s voter registration record.Supporters of the law argued that restricting individuals from collecting and returning more than 10 advanced ballots per election would reduce “ballot harvesting” and limit voter fraud. Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the measure, but lawmakers overrode her veto.The unanimous opinion Friday, written by Judge Stephen Hill, said the two provisions impair ...

Supreme Court honors legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose death ahead of the 2020 election led to a conservative shift on the Supreme Court, was remembered Friday during ceremonies at the high court as a legendary champion for women’s rights.Speaking just two days after what would have been the justice’s 90th birthday, Chief Justice John Roberts called her a “woman of conviction, courage and quiet compassion.”“Small in stature, she stands as a giant in the history of this court,” Roberts said during a ceremonial session of the court attended by its nine current members as well as former justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.Ginsburg’s death just over six weeks before the 2020 election was immensely consequential. It allowed then-President Donald Trump to fill the liberal justice’s seat on the court with a conservative, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and gave conservatives a 6-3 majority on the bench. Barrett was among the justices who voted last year to overturn Roe v. Wade...

Judge orders more Trump lawyer testimony in Mar-a-Lago probe

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

Federal prosecutors investigating the potential mishandling of classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate will be able to again question a Trump lawyer before a grand jury, a judge ruled Friday in a sealed order.The order will require M. Evan Corcoran to answer additional questions as prosecutors pursue their investigation into classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago as well as potential efforts to obstruct that probe. The order was described by a person familiar with it, who was not authorized to discuss a sealed proceeding and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.The precise scope of the order, which is expected to be appealed, was not immediately clear. Neither Corcoran nor his lawyer returned messages seeking comment, and a spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation, also did not respond to an email about the order.A Trump spokesman said the Trump team would “fight the Department of Justice...

Mormon Church gives water to boost imperiled Great Salt Lake

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Donating a small reservoir’s worth of water rights to Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Replacing grass with rocks and water-wise landscaping around neatly manicured meetinghouses. Reducing water use by more than one-third outside the headquarters in Salt Lake City’s Temple Square. These are among the actions that the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is taking to address the realities of a rapidly approaching, drier future.Remarks from Bishop Christopher Waddell at the University of Utah on Friday underscored how the church — one of the biggest land and water rights holders in the western United States — is expanding its role in conservation and looking for solutions “that protect the future for all God’s children.”“Our ability to be wise stewards of the earth is dependent on our understanding of the natural resources we have been blessed with,” the high-ranking church official said at a symposium on the future of the Great S...

Man who crashed through gates of Rideau Hall to threaten PM loses sentence appeal

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

OTTAWA — The Ontario Court of Appeal has quashed a sentencing appeal in the case of a Manitoba man who stormed the gates of Rideau Hall in 2020 and sought an armed confrontation with the prime minister. A decision dated Thursday says the six-year sentence handed to Corey Hurren in March 2021, less a year for the time he spent in custody before his sentencing, was “entirely fit.”Hurren, a sausage-maker who served with the military’s Canadian Rangers, had pleaded guilty to seven weapons charges and one mischief charge for his actions on the morning of July 2, 2020.He crashed his pickup truck through the gates of the Rideau Hall grounds, where both the governor general and prime minister live, and set out on foot with three loaded firearms and a knife before getting into a 90-minute standoff with RCMP officers.Hurren, who was 46 at the time, told the officers he was there to arrest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and he was angry about COVID-19 restrictions and recent ...

Trump to hold first 2024 rally in Texas this month

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump will be holding the first rally of his 2024 campaign later this month in Waco, Texas.The rally will be held the evening of March 25 in a Republican state where he has a large following, increasing the chances of a packed house.Trump spent the first months of his campaign mostly confined to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, but has begun to make visits to early-voting states. On Monday, he took his first trip to Iowa, which will hold the Republican Party’s first nominating contest.The rally plans come as Trump is facing a series of investigations, including one in New York that appears to be nearing its conclusion. Porn actor Stormy Daniels met Wednesday with Manhattan prosecutors who are investigating a $130,000 hush money payment she received on Trump’s behalf — the same day Michael Cohen, a former Trump attorney who orchestrated the payment, delivered a second day of testimony before a New York grand jury.The payment was made in 20...

Florida man sentenced for role in Jan. 6 Capitol attack

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to four years and seven months in federal prison for three felony charges related to the insurrection and storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Mitchell Todd Gardner II, 34, of Seffner, Florida, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in the District of Columbia, according to court records. He pleaded guilty last year to civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon.Gardner was arrested in Tampa in June 2021.According to court documents, Gardner joined with others in objecting to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over then-President Donald Trump. A mob attacked the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying election results for Biden over the Trump, a Republican, authorities have said. Five people died in the violence.According to the criminal complaint, Gardner was part of a mob just outside the lower west terrace tunnel of ...

‘It really brings the character to life:’ How prop-making can make costumes pop

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

Toronto Comicon is back in town this weekend and it’s a chance for cosplayers to show off their incredible costumes that can often take months to create. One well-known cosplayer explains that the pretend weapons and accessories that go with them can be just as elaborate.“I put, I think, over 200 hours into this,” says prop-maker Kiren Vy, showing off a helmet with a giant chainsaw blade, long-sharp teeth and faux electrical wiring that helps her transform into Chainsaw Man from the anime series of the same name.Vy, who is studying technical production for theatre at Sheridan College, says props are a vital part of any costume.“I think props are really important. I like how expressive you can be with props — it really brings the character to life,” she says.Kiren Vy speaks at a prop-making workshop at Toronto Comicon 2023. CITYNEWS/Dilshad BurmanA cosplayer since the age of 14, Vy has honed her prop-making skills for years.“My brain has this desir...

Jackson: 'Gun violence is not simply a statistic' in Chicago

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:58:55 GMT

CHICAGO -- U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra stopped in Englewood Friday for a community roundtable discussion on mental health and gun violence.Becerra joined a community roundtable at Kennedy-King College Friday alongside U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL-01) and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)."Gun violence is not simply a statistic here," U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson said. "Gun violence and the trauma that ensues affects all of the families here."Activists and politicians joined the community for Friday's discussion at Kennedy-King College in Englewood to address some of the city's most pressing challenges."The Englewood area has the lowest life expectancy in the city at 60 years 30 years lower than our neighbors in the gold coast in Streeterville, especially our young Black males," Kennedy-King College Interim President Katonja Webb Walker said. WATCH: Biden cabinet member discusses Chicago gun violence, mental health Secretary Becerra also said the Bide...