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Wu reports progress clearing out Mass. and Cass

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

Since Monday, a city effort has reduced the number of makeshift encampments at Boston’s intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard from 50-plus to 14 as of Wednesday morning and Mayor Michelle Wu said nearly all of the unhoused people who had been living on the street there are now connected to shelter or housing.In both a live interview on “Java with Jimmy” and a morning press conference, Wu laid out the latest changes at Mass. and Cass, the epicenter of the region’s substance use disorder, mental health, and unsheltered homelessness crises. Wu and the city’s Coordinated Response Team Director Tania Del Rio spoke to reporters on Atkinson Street, where the city has been busy since Monday clearing out encampments and connecting people staying there to services and shelter.“As you can see, tents continue to come down when individuals are moving into their placements and packing up their belongings and then accessing that [city] t...

Vulnerable New York GOP House members ask Republican colleagues to vote to expel George Santos

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

(CNN) — Five vulnerable New York Republican House members are asking the conference to vote Wednesday to expel GOP Rep. George Santos from the chamber.“As Republican Members from the New York delegation, we fully support Santos’ expulsion, and ask all of our colleagues to join us in voting yes,” the lawmakers wrote in a new letter to their colleagues dated Thursday.Freshman Reps. Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito, Marcus Molinaro, Brandon Williams and Mike Lawler signed the letter. The vulnerable members from New York’s congressional delegation address several specific concerns raised by their colleagues including the arguments to let Santos’ voters decide and that by removing him they are only decreasing their impossibly slim majority.All five Republicans stuck with the GOP in July to refer a similar Democratic effort to the Ethics committees.“This issue is not a political one but a moral one. … This is a question of right and wrong,” they wrote, rebutting the ar...

In a reversal, Schumer says he will move forward to confirm hundreds military promotions previously held up by Tuberville

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

(CNN) — In a reversal of a months-long stance, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that he will bring a resolution to the Senate floor that, if passed, would overcome the military promotions block from Sen. Tommy Tuberville.The Alabama Republican has held up more than 300 promotions over his objections to the military’s reproductive rights policy.The resolution, introduced by Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed, would allow the promotions to be processed en bloc. Schumer said he will bring it to the floor as soon as it clears the Senate Rules Committee, which will determine the parameters needed for the resolution to pass.The move comes in addition to the three military promotions they are acting on Wednesday that had previously been held by Tuberville.Tuberville released a statement Wednesday arguing that he forced Schumer’s hand on the top three military nominees that were advanced on Tuesday evening.“For months, Schumer publicly s...

Getting a second opinion can help ward off misdiagnosis

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

By John Rossheim | NerdWalletWhy spend the time and expense to get a second opinion if your doctor recommends surgery or they diagnose a serious disease? After all, you’ve been examined, tested and evaluated by an expert with many years of training.But the harsh reality is that misdiagnosis happens a lot — and sometimes with the gravest consequences. Each year, approximately 371,000 people in the U.S. die because of diagnostic error, according to a July 2023 study in the medical journal BMJ Quality & Safety.A medical second opinion can increase the chances that you get the correct treatment from the start, saving money, distress and maybe your life.“Second opinions are probably the single fastest way to address diagnostic errors today,” says Dr. David Newman-Toker, director of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Center for Diagnostic Excellence.Seeing the right specialist or subspecialist can make all the difference. “We know [from research] that if a patient with sarcoma is seen at a sarc...

Politicians love to cite crime data. It’s often wrong

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

Amanda Hernández | Stateline.org (TNS)When Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his presidential campaign in May, he proudly told the nation that Florida’s crime rate in 2021 had reached a 50-year low.But really, DeSantis couldn’t say for sure.That’s because fewer than 1 in 10 law enforcement agencies in his state had reported their crime statistics to the FBI. In fact, more than 40% of the Sunshine State’s population was unaccounted for in the data used by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in its 2021 statewide crime report.In Wichita, Kansas, Democratic Mayor Brandon Whipple claimed in May that violent crime had decreased by half during his term. But Whipple’s source, the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, missed half the violent crimes recorded by the Wichita Police Department, possibly because the agency couldn’t mesh its system with the FBI’s recently revamped system.Across the country, law enforcement agencies’ inability — or refusal — to send their annual crime data...

Student loan debt payments hit HBCU graduates especially hard

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

Jarrell Dillard | (TNS) Bloomberg NewsThe return of federal student loan payments in October threatens to derail prospects for graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a cohort already facing steep economic disadvantages.Aid makes college possible for many HBCU students: 85% of their graduates in 2020 used federal loans, versus 59% of non-HBCU students, according to the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, with HBCU graduates and their parents on average holding almost $21,000 more in federal loan debt.The nation’s more than 100 HBCUs, including Spelman College in Atlanta and Howard University in Washington, D.C., serve more low-income and first-generation students than traditional schools and aim to help close the wealth gap between Black households and their white counterparts.Parents of HBCU students are also more likely to take on loans to support their kids, on average. With payments resuming amid high prices and mortgage rates, entire families are forced...

Calgary Real Estate Board reports 17 per cent increase in home sales for October

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

CALGARY — The Calgary Real Estate Board says the city saw 2,171 home sales in October, marking a 17 per cent increase compared with the same month last year and among the highest levels it has ever reported for October.New listings also rose compared with last year, reaching 2,684 units, which mark the most reported for October since 2015.But inventory levels in October remained more than 40 per cent lower than what’s traditionally available for the month as relatively strong sales prevented any significant shift.The unadjusted residential benchmark price rose to $571,600, nearly 10 per cent higher than October 2022.CREB chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie says supply levels remain a challenge in the market and “it will take some time to see a shift toward more balanced conditions and ultimately more price stability.”The board reported record high sales of apartment condominiums thanks to big gains in new listings, and noted that year-to-date price gains for the category hav...

N.L. wants details on environmental impact before hydrogen project can move forward

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Newfoundland and Labrador’s government says it wants more information from the company hoping to build a massive wind-powered hydrogen and ammonia project.The province ruled today that World Energy GH2 must include more details in its assessment of the project’s potential environmental impacts.The company is led by seafood mogul John Risley and Brendan Paddick, a friend of Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey and former chair of Nalcor Energy, the province’s now-defunct Crown energy corporation.Phase 1 of Project Nujio’qonik aims to erect up to 164 wind turbines on western Newfoundland’s Port au Port Peninsula, and a hydrogen production plant in the nearby town of Stephenville.The proposal has led to local protests, and the provincial government announced last year that the development would require an environmental impact assessment, which the company submitted in August.The news release today from the provincial gove...

Suspect arrested after stabbing in Corso Italia neighbourhood

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

A stabbing in the city’s Corso Italia neighbourhood sent one man to hospital on Wednesday afternoon.Police say it happened just before 1 p.m. near the intersection of St. Clair Avenue West and Dufferin Street.The victim, a man in his 40s, was found near the scene and taken to hospital. The extent of his injuries isn’t currently clear.A suspect was arrested nearby.No further details were immediately available.

DEA agent leaked secret information about Maduro ally targeted by US, prosecutor says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:57:29 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal narcotics agent leaked sensitive case information about one of Washington’s top criminal targets in Venezuela as part of a scheme to sell government secrets to defense lawyers seeking to attract deep-pocketed clients, a jury was told this week. In a wiretapped phone call, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent John Costanzo Jr. revealed the exact date in 2019 when prosecutors in Miami planned to bring charges against businessman Alex Saab for allegedly siphoning $350 million from state contracts.The leak, not previously made public, marks yet another embarrassing case of high-profile agent misconduct at the U.S.’ premier anti-narcotics agency and could complicate the Justice Department’s already-fraught prosecution of Saab.Saab has become a cause célèbre among allies of President Nicolas Maduro. The socialist leader claims the Colombian-born businessman is a Venezuelan diplomat targeted for his efforts to bypass American sanctions imposed by the T...