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Mass. lawmakers may extend pandemic-era policy allowing restaurants to sell cocktails to go

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

Massachusetts lawmakers are expected to discuss potentially extending the state’s pandemic -era policy allowing restaurants to sell cocktails to go. Right now, the law is expected to expire on April 1. The Massachusetts Restaurant Association has been pushing to keep the rule in place. The debate is set to kick off on Beacon Hill Monday morning.

US futures fall as US bank failures make markets jittery

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

By YURI KAGEYAMA and DAVID McHUGH (AP Business Writers)Bank stocks sagged and U.S. stock futures were mixed Monday ahead of the market’s open in New York, shaken by worries the biggest U.S. bank failure in nearly 15 years might have ripple effects around the world.Futures for the Dow Jones industrials fell 0.7% before the bell, while futures for the S&P 500 were off 0.4% after being up earlier.Wells Fargo fell 4.3% and Bank of America was off more than 5%.The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, tumbled further to 4.06% early Tuesday. It’s fallen a full point since last week, when it hovered around 15-year highs.Markets in Asia ended mixed after assurances by U.S. officials that they were taking steps to protect depositors at Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB.But the role that recent sharp interest rate increases by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks played in the bank’s collapse caused jitters over the possibilit...

Tom Waddle, WMVP-AM co-host and former Chicago Bears player, lists Lake Forest home for $3.25M

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

WMVP-AM weekday afternoon co-host and former Chicago Bears wide receiver Tom Waddle and his wife, Cara, have placed their five-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot mansion in Lake Forest on the market for $3.25 million.Waddle, 56, played for the Bears from 1989 until 1994. He then went into broadcasting, first on WFLD-Channel 32 and then on WLS-Channel 7. He signed on at WMVP in 2007.In Lake Forest, Waddle and his wife paid $2.15 million in 2015 for the house. Built in 2002, the three-story brick and limestone mansion has five full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, a newer DaVinci roof, a grand foyer with a double staircase and a chandelier, 10-foot ceilings, eight-foot doors, hardwood and travertine floors, and tray and barrel ceilings.Other features include five fireplaces, skylights, extensive moldings, wainscoting, a finished third floor with a kitchenette and a cedar closet, a heated four-car garage and radiant heated floors on the main level, in the second-floor guest suite and in the prim...

Ex-NFL QB Griffin sells custom-built estate in Bella Collina

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

RG3 is moving on from his Lake County estate in Bella Collina.Public records show former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III and his wife, Grete Griffin, sold their home to a Texas-based LLC for $4.25 million, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.“They wanted to be somewhere that was family oriented and peaceful. This made sense to them and they loved it here,” said listing agent Penny Stokes-Hilton with Top Villas Realty, who has worked with the family before. “His career is taking him in a different direction and it’s time to move.”The Griffins designed the 7,646-square-foot home on Pendio Drive and finished it in 2020.The builders “worked closely with the family and designed it in a really great way with an open plan concept and high ceilings,” Stokes-Hilton told GrowthSpotter, adding the views of Lake Apopka are different than many others in the area.“It’s literally like a house on the ocean rather than a lake. You don’...

Pfizer buys Seagen for $43B, boosts access to cancer drugs

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

Pfizer will spend $43 billion to buy Seagen and deepen its reach into treating cancer.The pharmaceutical giant said Monday that it will pay $229 in cash for each Seagen share.Bothell, Washington-based Seagen Inc. is a biotech drug developer that specializes in antibody-drug conjugate, or ADC, technology. Its key products use lab-made proteins called monoclonal antibodies that seek out cancer cells to help deliver a cancer-killing drug while sparing surrounding healthy tissue.The deal announced Monday will combine Seagen’s technology with Pfizer’s scale and strength, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.Pfizer’s oncology division brought in $12 billion in revenue last year and already includes treatments for prostate cancer and the breast cancer treatment Ibrance.Seagen, which changed its name from Seattle Genetics in 2020, saw total revenue grow about 25% last year to nearly $2 billion. The company shaved its loss to $610 million last year. That’s down from $674 million in 2...

UK: Tens of thousands of doctors kick off 3-day strike

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of junior doctors went on strike across England on Monday to demand better pay, kicking off three days of widespread disruption at the U.K.’s state-funded hospitals and health clinics.Junior doctors — who are qualified but in the earlier years of their career — make up 45% of all doctors in the National Health Service. Their walkout means that operations and appointments will be canceled for thousands of patients, and senior doctors and other medics have had to be drafted in to cover for emergency services, critical care and maternity services.The British Medical Association, the doctors’ trade union, says pay for junior doctors has fallen 26% in real terms since 2008, while workload and patient waiting lists are at record highs. The union says burnout and the U.K.’s cost-of-living crisis are driving scores of doctors away from the public health service. The union said newly qualified medics earn just 14.09 pounds ($17) an hour.“All ...

Hugh Grant’s awkward Oscars red carpet interview has people talking

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

Actor Hugh Grant’s uneasy Oscars red carpet interview is gaining traction on social media, and not in a good way.The 62-year-old, who presented an award on Sunday, caught the ire of many accusing him of talking down to model Ashley Graham while she was asking him questions, including about his role in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.When Graham asks Grant if he’s hoping to see any actor win an award, he appears confused by the question, responding, “No one in particular.” The interview would get more tense and awkward from there.“What are you wearing tonight, then?” Graham asks. “Just my suit,” Grant replies, noting that he doesn’t remember the name of his tailor.hugh grant wants no part of this dumb shit pic.twitter.com/uBQ70QcZGf— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) March 12, 2023Graham awkwardly transitions to Grant’s brief cameo in Glass Onion, hoping to get a sense of the long-time actor’s experience on set.“...

Ex-Haiti mayor accused of killing, torture faces civil trial

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — The former mayor of a small Haitian town accused of terrorizing his political opponents goes on trial in Boston federal court on Monday in a case that highlights the violent nature of Haiti’s politics and the lack of accountability.The suit filed against Jean Morose Viliena, who now lives in suburban Boston, includes claims of killing, torture and arson in the town of Les Irois, which is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.The plaintiffs in the suit filed by the Center for Justice and Accountability in San Francisco are three Haitian citizens who allege they or their relatives were violently persecuted by Viliena and his political allies.They allege Viliena — a loyalist of former Haitian President Michel Martelly — and his associates killed the brother of a man who accused Viliena of misconduct in office, attempted to kill two others during a raid on a community radio station, and burned down 36 homes while targeting pol...

BBC backtracks on Lineker over tweet slamming UK asylum plan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The BBC secured a draw on Monday in its showdown with Gary Lineker, reversing the former soccer great’s suspension from the airwaves for a tweet that criticized the U.K. government’s new migration policy.The about-face followed a weekend of chaos and crisis for Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster, which faced a huge backlash after sidelining one of its best-known hosts for expressing a political opinion.“Gary is a valued part of the BBC and I know how much the BBC means to Gary, and I look forward to him presenting our coverage this coming weekend,” BBC Director-General Tim Davie said.Lineker said he was “glad that we have found a way forward.”Lineker, one of English soccer’s most lauded players and the corporation’s highest-paid television presenter, was suspended Friday after he described the government’s plan to detain and deport migrants arriving by boat as “an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that ...

Arctic security is critical. Is Canada ready to stand on guard?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:29 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, twice in the last month, Canadians were shown just how open our northern border can be. First, the Prime Minister ordered a UFO shot down. Then, we learned that Canadian Forces had found Chinese monitoring buoys in our Arctic waters. Dr. Whitney Lackenbauer is a Canada Research Chair in the Study of the Canadian North and a professor in the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University. He joins us to discuss the shifting geographic and geopolitical Arctic landscape, and how Canada should adapt to emerging threats in the coming years.“I think what’s happened over the last year is we’ve seen that imagined circumpolar cooperative space, run into the harsh reality that the arctic is not insulated from the realities in the rest of the world,” he said. As geopolitical tensions rise, the Arctic is perhaps where Canada is most vulnerable. So how do we monitor it? How is a changing climate making it more vulnerable? And what k...