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MBTA lifts speed restrictions on Red Line between JFK/UMass and Park Street in Boston

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

The MBTA has removed nine speed restrictions on the Red Line, leaving less than 10 miles of track with slow zones, which officials say is the lowest amount since March.Officials on Tuesday said the beleaguered transportation network has completed “critical track work” between JFK/UMass and Park Street stations after commuters had to take shuttle buses a couple evenings last week and then over the weekend.Six of the slow zones lifted are in the area between South Station and JFK/UMass, as planned, while officials said the agency “maximized the unencumbered access to the track … by alleviating another three restrictions near Downtown Crossing Station.”“Each step we take to repair our infrastructure is the building block for rebuilding public trust and restoring the level of service that the public deserve,” MBTA GM Phillip Eng said in a release.  “As we continue to move towards restoring service levels across the system, lessons learned will continue to be incorporated to streamline e...

3 arrested in New Hampshire for allegedly trespassing at Israel-based defense contractor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

Two Massachusetts residents and a Connecticut resident were arrested Monday in New Hampshire for allegedly trespassing on and causing damage to the roof of an Israel-based defense company, police said as the incident drew condemnation from Gov. Chris Sununu.Merrimack, New Hampshire police arrested Calla Walsh, 19, of Cambridge; Sophie Ross, 22, of Housatonic, and Bridget Shergalis, 27, of Dayville, Connecticut on the roof of a building used by Elbit Systems, which describes itself as a “high technology company” engaged in defense and homeland security. The company is headquartered in Haifa, Israel, according to its website.Police said they received calls just before 8 a.m. from employees at Elbit Systems reporting protestors blocking the driveway and “multiple people believed to be on the roof.” The local fire department responded alongside police “due to a report of smoke coming from the roof.”Protestors eventually left the driveway after they voiced “support for Palestine,” accord...

After parts of Massachusetts see snow, a rainy and windy travel day before a sunny Thanksgiving

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

Travelers trying to get an early start on the day before Thanksgiving should expect some rainy and blustery conditions on the roads before conditions clear out for a sunny Turkey Day.After some parts of Massachusetts were under a “Winter Weather Advisory” for up to 4 inches of snow and slippery conditions Tuesday night, all areas of the Bay State will be dealing with periods of rain on Wednesday.Fairly gusty winds are also in store for the busy travel day, with the strongest winds expected along Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Ann. Wind gusts up to 50 mph will be possible, in addition to downed tree branches and isolated power outages.“It will definitely be a rainy and blustery morning for those heading on out,” Torry Dooley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Boston office, told the Herald.“By the early afternoon, we’ll see improvements from west to east with rain showers coming to an end,” he ad...

Mexican officials admit secrecy-shrouded border train project had no environmental impact study

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The governor of Mexico’s northern state of Sonora acknowledged Tuesday that a secrecy-shrouded train project was an army undertaking that has not yet submitted any environmental impact statement, months after construction had already started.The rail link between the port of Guaymas and the border city of Nogales threatens to cut through and damage environmentally-sensitive conservation lands.Sonora Gov. Alfonso Durazo justified the new rail line project saying it would solve the problem of a rail line that passed through the center of Nogales by diverting rail traffic outside the city.But while the state is partially financing the project, it is “being carried out by the Defense department,” Durazo said Tuesday, adding that the state’s operational role is limited to helping the Army secure the rights-of-way.The Sonora state government is trying to convert Guaymas, on the Gulf of California, into a major container port, but the current railway connecti...

Review: Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’ leaves many notes of Bernstein unplayed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” a high-wire act of a biopic, leaps constantly between on stage and off, flying through Leonard Bernstein’s very public life as a conductor while diving into his more private marriage to Felicia Montealegre. How each side of Bernstein’s existence interacts with the other is the tension and harmony of “Maestro.” Which is authentic? Which a performance?Resolving those dichotomies is, thankfully, not the aim of Cooper’s admirably ambitious if performative drama about the musical conscience of 20th century America. Bernstein’s polymorphous life was spread between his family life and a string of male lovers, just as it was between conducting and the solitary toil of composing. “Maestro” resists neat conclusions about any facet of an expansively contradictory life.“If you carry around both personalities, I suppose that means you become a schizophrenic and that’s the end of it,” Bernstein (Cooper) says with a laugh in a TV interview alongside Montealegre (Carey M...

Founder of far-right Catholic site resigns over breach of its morality clause, group says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

The founder of a far-right, unofficial Catholic media group has resigned for an unspecified violation of the organization’s morality clause, the group said in a statement Tuesday.Michael Voris stepped down as president of St. Michael’s Media and Church Militant, a Michigan-based enterprise established to address what Voris’ official biography calls “the serious erosion of the Catholic faith in the last 50 years.” Voris did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.“Michael Voris has been asked to resign for breaching the Church Militant morality clause,” the organization said in its statement. “The board has accepted his resignation.” More details were not provided, and the board said it “has chosen not to disclose Michael’s private matters to the public” but asked for prayers for him as he is “focusing on his personal health.”The Church Militant site and its sleek newscasts have drawn a loyal following with a mix of fiercely right-wing p...

Rain helps ease wildfires in North Carolina, but reprieve may be short

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

PINNACLE, N.C. (AP) — Heavy rain and lower temperatures helped slow down some wildfires in North Carolina on Tuesday, including blazes that had prompted evacuations of homes and campgrounds, forestry officials said.But the reprieve for crews will likely only last through the Thanksgiving weekend, since rain isn’t expected again for another 10 days, according to Shardul Raval, director of fire and aviation for the U.S. Forest Service’s southern region.“Unless we get some more continuous rain, we will probably be back to being active again in a few days,” he said. On Saturday, a fire broke out in North Carolina’s Sauratown Mountains and grew to more than 750 acres (303 hectares) by Tuesday, according to Jimmy Holt, a ranger with the North Carolina Forest Service. The rainfall helped crews reach 41% containment Tuesday, Holt said. Evacuations there have been lifted. “It’s so much better than it was a couple of days ago,” Holt said. The Black Bear Fire in N...

Alabama inmate asks judge to block first nitrogen gas execution

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Lawyers for the first inmate scheduled to be put to death with nitrogen gas argued in Monday court filings that Alabama is seeking to make him the “test case” for an experimental execution method and asked a federal judge to the block the January execution.Attorneys for Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, filed an amended lawsuit challenging the proposed new execution method as a potential violation of the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. They asked a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction to block the execution from going forward next year. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey this month set a Jan. 25 execution date for Smith using nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma but that has never been used to put an inmate to death. The Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office did not have an immediate comment on the lawsuit, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. The multi-pronged lawsuit asked a fe...

Voter-approved Oregon gun control law violates the state constitution, judge rules

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A voter-approved Oregon gun control law violates the state constitution, a judge ruled Tuesday, continuing to block it from taking effect and casting fresh doubt over the future of the embattled measure.The law, one of the toughest in the nation, was among the first gun restrictions to be passed after a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year changed the guidance judges are expected to follow when considering Second Amendment cases.The decision was handed down by Circuit Court Judge Robert S. Raschio, the presiding judge in Harney County in rural southeast Oregon.The law requires people to undergo a criminal background check and complete a gun safety training course in order to obtain a permit to buy a firearm. It also bans high-capacity magazines.Measure 114 has been tied up in state and federal court since it was narrowly approved by voters last November.The state trial stemmed from a lawsuit filed by gunowners claiming the law violated the right to bear ar...

Skilling: Sunny, cooler Wednesday ahead of Thanksgiving

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:55 GMT

The Chicago area received its most soaking rain in 5 week today.  Final rainfall tallies came in at 0.61" at O'Hre—but more than 1" (1.05") at Midwest.A number of 1"+ tallies were recorded including 1.31" at Crete, 1.24" Chicago Heights, 1.22" Morris and totals exceeding 1" at Joliet, Frankfort, Munster IN, Glenwood, Burnham, Markham, South Holland, Wilmette, Rogers Park in Chicago and Hickory Hills.But the rain's over and the dry pattern which has dominated November here is back in control.  Clouds break later tonight in the chilly "NW" winds on the retreating storm's back side.A series of SUN-FILLED DAYS and just mixed clouds follow—including for Thanksgiving (Thursday)--with temps headed for the mid to upper 40s the next two days.Frank Wachowski reminds us 7" of snow fell on this day 8 years ago in 2015.And while no snow is in our immediate future even as we march into the closing week of November, a survey of Chicago weather records since 2000 indicates that 16 of the past ...