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Howie Carr: City Council blotter …

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

The Wednesday meeting at City Hall traditionally begins with the clerk saying, “The Council will come to order.”The way things have been going lately, a more appropriate start to the Council meeting might be with these words:“Will the defendants please rise?”The preliminary elections in Boston are less than three weeks away now. At the candidates’ nights, the moderator usually admonishes candidates to “try to answer the questions within the time limits.”Now, the more appropriate warning to the incumbents might be: “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”State-run media has been whining of late about a lack of “civility” on the fifth floor at Boston City Hall. Actually, what’s in short supply is not “civility,” it’s “law and order.”Consider the crime wave that has engulfed 1 City Hall Square.The “Mr. Big” of the lawless mob is “Ricky” Ricardo Arroyo, the district councilor from Hyde Park. He is “embattled,” to use the...

Teen with a knife wounds an 8-year-old boy at a school in eastern Germany

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A teenager armed with a knife wounded an eight-year-old boy at a school in eastern Germany on Wednesday, police said.Police said the incident happened in Bischofswerda, east of the city of Dresden, German news agency dpa reported. The boy was taken to a hospital by helicopter with injuries to the head and neck, according to the regional education ministry, and was in a stable condition.Police initially said that the victim was a girl, but then corrected that information.The 16-year-old assailant, also a student, was overpowered and he also was taken to a hospital. The situation was under control, according to police. The school building was evacuated after police were alerted to the situation at about 9:45 a.m.The Associated Press

The German Cabinet has approved a plan to make it easier for people to legally change name, gender

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan to make it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official documents, legislation that the justice minister said aims to make life easier for “a small group for which it has great significance.”The legislation still needs approval by parliament. It is one of several reform plans that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition of three socially liberal parties has embarked on, and has been criticized by the conservative opposition.Under the planned “self-determination law,” which has been in the works for over a year, adults would be able to change their first name and legal gender at registry offices without further formalities. They would have to notify the registry office three months before making the change.The existing “transsexual law,” which dates back four decades, currently requires individuals who want to change gender on official documents to first obtain assessmen...

Richardson and Lyles get off to a fast start in quest for second medals at the world championships

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles each kicked off their quest for a second medal at the world championships Wednesday by easily winning their heats in the 200-meter preliminaries.Richardson finished in 22.16 seconds and Lyles in 20.05 in a pair of no-drama returns to the track after they gave the United States the first sweep of the 100 meters at a worlds since 2017, when Justin Gatlin and Tori Bowie won in London.Three women who have run faster than Richardson in the 200 this year — Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred and the United States’ Gabby Thomas — also qualified easily.Defending 800-meter Olympic and world champion Athing Mu, who wavered on running at the worlds through much of the summer, showed up and won her opening heat.Heats for the women’s 5,000 meters, where Faith Kipyegon opens her quest for a second medal after winning the 1,500 on Tuesday, were moved to the evening session because of the he...

Female cyclist killed in hit-and-run crash in Mississauga

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

A female cyclist is dead and police are searching for a driver after a hit-and-run crash in Mississauga early Wednesday morning.Emergency crews were called to the area of Airport Road and Thamesgate Drive, north of Derry Road, just after 6 a.m.Police say a woman who was riding a bike was struck by a vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.The vehicle involved left the area before officers arrived.Airport Road is closed in both directions at Thamesgate for the investigation. Motorists are being asked to avoid the area.This is a developing story. More to come.

American sprinter Gabby Thomas well-researched in power of sleep, even writing paper on rest

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Rest assured, Gabby Thomas is a big believer in the power of a good night’s sleep.Because to dream big, the American sprinter must first dream well.Thomas wrote a paper on the subject of rest as part of her recently completed master’s degree from the University of Texas. It’s a look at racial disparities in sleep disorders and evaluates sleep epidemiology among Black Americans.Her takeaway is simple: Catching valuable shut-eye matters. A lot.She’s going to need her rest given what lies ahead for her at the world championships. Thomas began Wednesday by winning her first-round heat of the 200 meters. The semifinals and final follow the next two days before the 4×100 relay (final on Saturday) and possibly the 4×400 relay (Sunday).Good night, indeed.“The biggest takeaway for me is that sleep is a public health crisis and as a society, we don’t recognize that,” said Thomas, who earned her undergraduate degree in neurobiology and global health fro...

Russia’s ‘General Armageddon’ reportedly dismissed after vanishing in wake of Wagner uprising

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

Gen. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine who was linked to the leader of an armed rebellion, has been dismissed from his job as chief of the air force, according to Russian state media. The report Wednesday came after weeks of uncertainty about his fate following the short-lived uprising.Surovikin has not been seen in public since armed rebels marched toward Moscow in June, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group. In a video released during the uprising, Surovikin urged Prigozhin’s men to pull back. During his long absence, Russian media have speculated about Surovikin’s whereabouts, with some claiming he had been detained due to his purported close ties to Prigozhin.Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing an anonymous source, reported that Surovikin has been replaced as commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces by Col. Gen. Viktor Afzalov, who is currently head of the main staff of the air force.The agency f...

Residents in southern Syria raid ruling party offices, block road as protests over economy intensify

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Angry protesters raided the local offices of the ruling Baath party in a southern Syrian province Wednesday, as protests intensified against the country’s government during a severe economic and financial crisis battering the war-torn country.Opposition activists said protesters also partially blocked a highway that links the Druze-majority Sweida province to the capital Damascus in anti-government rallies that broke out Tuesday night.The demonstrations were sparked by worsening living conditions and inflation that surged after President Bashar Assad’s decision last week to double public sector wages and pensions.Protests have so far not spread to government strongholds along the Mediterranean coast, the capital Damascus and the largest cities, including Aleppo and Homs.However, they have also taken place in the nearby Daraa province that borders Jordan. The region’s economy has deteriorated and crime has risen since government forces reclaimed it in 2018.T...

Australian prosecutors drop case against actor Amber Heard over pet Yorkshire terriers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian prosecutors dropped a potential criminal case against American actor Amber Heard over allegations that she lied to a court about how her Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo came to be smuggled into Australia eight years ago, the government said Wednesday.Heard and her then-husband Johnny Depp became embroiled in a high-profile biosecurity controversy in 2015 when she brought her pets to Australia’s Gold Coast, where Depp was filming the fifth movie in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, a biosecurity watchdog, said the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions decided against prosecuting 37-year-old Heard for allegedly feigning ignorance about the nation’s strict quarantine regulations.“Prosecution action will not be taken against … Heard over allegations related to her sentencing for the illegal import of two dogs,” the department said in a statement.The department had investigat...

European firefighters and planes join battle against wildfires that have left 20 dead in Greece

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:04:54 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Water-dropping planes from several European countries joined hundreds of firefighters Wednesday battling wildfires raging for days across Greece that left 20 people dead, while major blazes also burned in Spain’s Tenerife and in northwestern Turkey near the Greek border.Greece’s largest active forest fire was burning out of control for the fifth day near the city of Alexandroupolis in the country’s northeast, while authorities were trying to prevent a blaze on the northwestern fringe of Athens from scorching homes and reaching the Parnitha national park, one of the last green areas near the Greek capital.Over the last three days, 209 wildfires have broken out across Greece, fire department spokesman, Ioannis Artopios, said Wednesday morning. The blazes, fanned by gale-force winds and hot, dry summer conditions, have led authorities to order the evacuations of dozens of villages and the main hospital in Alexandroupolis.Although gale-force winds were gradually ab...