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Owner of Boston-area pizza chain accused of abusing employees, faces federal charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

The owner of a pizza chain with multiple Boston-area locations appeared in court Thursday facing federal forced labor charges amid accusations that he abused an employee and threatened to report the employee’s immigration status. Stavros Papantoniadis, 47, of Westwood was charged with one count of forced labor, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced.Papantoniadis owns Stash’s Pizza with locations in Dorchester and Roslindale. Homeland Security investigators said he threatened and physically assaulted employees over the years, even kicking one long time employee in the groin and knocking his teeth out on another occasion.Papantoniadas allegedly targeted vulnerable employees who lacked immigration status. While officials said he owns two Boston locations, Papantoniadis also used to own other pizza shops in Norwell, Norwood, Randolph, Weymouth and Wareham U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins discussed allegations against Papantoniadis in a s...

Maine tribes make sovereignty call in first address in years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Tribal leaders in Maine, who have long sparred with state leaders over the issue of sovereignty for Native American tribes, used their first address to the Maine Legislature in 21 years to call for greater autonomy.The tribes hope to alter the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act of 1980, which treats reservations like municipalities that are subject to state law. Other federal recognized tribes are treated like sovereign nations, and Maine tribes’ different status has led to conflicts with the state over issues such as natural resources and economic development.It’s time to modernize the agreement between state government and Maine tribes, because the current arrangement makes Maine Native Americans “outliers in Indian Country,” said Clarissa Sabattis, chief of the Houlton Band of Maliseets.“I look forward to forging a new path forward that is not only better for our tribe but also better for this great state that we all call home,” Sabatt...

Mild for St. Patrick’s Day with an evening shower

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

7Weather – It’s been a pretty nice day with some sun and high temperatures in the upper 40s/low 50s! More 50s on tap for tomorrow. How about that wind? It was still noticeable today. We’ll have less of it tomorrow, then track an evening spot shower. Light wind and 50s stick around for Saturday, before temperatures tumble and it turns blustery Sunday.Here’s what we have going on for St. Patrick’s Day. Temperatures start in the low 30s with a lot of clouds around, and light wind. We’ll see mostly clouds through the day, but that won’t stop temperatures inland from climbing into the 50s. The wind will be out of the southeast so it’ll keep the Cape in the 40s. The farther north you go and where there’s still a snowpack, temperatures will stay a few degrees cooler as well.A spot shower is possible late Friday evening through the night. It won’t be anything like Tuesday morning’s heavy rain. Any showers tomorrow night will ...

Priced Out, Activists Appeal For Urgency On Housing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

Bishnu Tamang’s home in Massachusetts has always been infested with cockroaches.After immigrating years earlier from Nepal, Tamang moved to a public housing apartment in Brookline in 2015 with her four-year-old son, where she found not only pests but cracked tile floors and grease-caked cabinets. Tamang did not intend to wear shoes at home, but she recalled being told to do so “to protect us from asbestos.” The cockroaches are still there today, she said, even though the floor has been fixed and the cabinets painted.When Gov. Maura Healey was on the campaign trail last year, Tamang told the Democrat about her experience, and Healey replied that the living conditions she described were “unacceptable,” according to Tamang.Tamang was surprised, then, to find that Healey’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposal unveiled this month kept the line item for subsidies to public housing authorities level-funded at the same $92 million as this year.“Based on...

Dolphins bringing ex-Jets WR and former Hurricane Braxton Berrios back to Miami

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

Braxton Berrios is coming back to where he played his college football.The former Miami Hurricanes receiver and return man is signing with the Miami Dolphins, according to a league source. He comes back to play his home games at Hard Rock Stadium after playing for the division-rival New York Jets the past four seasons.Berrios, a capable slot receiver at 5-9, 190 pounds, has 107 receptions for 1,085 yards and five touchdowns, plus four rushing touchdowns, in his NFL career. He also has a kick return touchdown and was an All-Pro as a return specialist in 2021.Berrios was originally drafted by the New England Patriots in 2018 but never played in New England that season. He was waived and then picked up by the Jets, where he contributed over the past four years.The addition of Berrios brings another receiver to a corps that will be led by the star combination of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Trent Sherfield and River Cracraft are free agents. Miami also has Cedrick Wilson Jr., a free-a...

Wait, the Heat offense doesn’t stink anymore? Offensive optimism on the rise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

It is an epiphany more than 60 games in the making. But the Miami Heat have discovered the joys of scoring.It is an awakening that not only has taken the scoreboard to the next level, but could well fuel something beyond the middling record the team has carried through most of the season.“Boy, it’s taken a long time. It really has,” coach Erik Spoelstra said in the wake of Wednesday night’s 138-119 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies at Miami-Dade Arena, “And sometimes things that you hope or think might happen don’t. You just have to figure it out. And you have to grind. It ultimately is about winning.“So first 45 games of the year, we knew how we could win games, and that’s defending at an incredible high level and keeping games close and have our closers finish it off. But we’ve been diligently working on our offensive efficiency, getting the ball where it needs to go, making sure we have the right shot profile and get to our s...

Rev. Wheeler Parker was there in the bedroom when Emmett Till was abducted. His memoir recounts the 70-year push for federal charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

Christopher Borrelli | (TNS) Chicago TribuneThe Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. lives just outside Justice.This has been true his whole life. In the geographic sense, he has lived in Summit (or the subdivision of Argo, annexed long ago into Summit) for most of his 83 years. Summit ambles alongside the Des Plaines River, a bit north of the village of Justice. In a more poetic sense, though, Parker has also lived outside justice since 1955, when he visited Mississippi with his cousin Emmett Till. He is the last witness to the encounter that sealed Till’s fate and the last living witness to Till’s abduction four nights later.Other than Carolyn Bryant, whose accusation unleashed the full wrath of Jim Crow.She’s almost 90 today. Till was murdered at 14.The irony of having lived outside Justice most of his life — not to mention the twin irony of being born in a Mississippi town named Slaughter — is not exactly lost on Parker.“I mean, some things are literally true,” he said, leaning forward in hi...

Hot Property: Newton home picture-perfect

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

We love the anticipation and build-up of a long, circular drive — you just know there’s something special waiting for you at the top. Tucked back from the street behind a crisp front lawn and that aforementioned circular drive, 315 Waverley in Newton is a traditional brick Colonial chock-full of surprises.First, the home sits on nearly an acre and a half — that’s living large even for Newton standards. The estate encompasses the main house, extensive patio and backyard space, an in-ground pool area, and a two-bedroom carriage house above the five-car garage and pool cabana. The sprawling acreage is matched by more than 8,000 square feet of living space. If it’s grand proportions you’re after, 315 Waverley’s got you covered.Period character throughout the home harkens back to its 1915 roots, including lovely millwork, moulding, beams, and paned glass, but the home isn’t stuck in the past. In fact, oversized doorways and picture windows throughout lend a flow and openness to the main ...

Sources: Banks working on rescue plan for First Republic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A group of Wall Street banks is planning a rescue package of around $30 billion for First Republic Bank, sources told The Associated Press on Thursday.The rescue package comes as San Francisco-based First Republic has been battered by investors and worries have grown that the midsized bank might be the next to fail, after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.Sources familiar with the matter said that JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs are part of the group of banks pulling together the package. It is likely to consist of $30 billion in deposits and capital for First Republic.The list of 11 banks involved also includes Truist, Morgan Stanley, BNY Mellon, State Street, US Bank, PNC and Bank of America, a source said.The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because the package was still being developed.A First Republic spokesman declined to comment on the reports.First Republic serves a similar clientele as Silicon Valley Bank, which faile...

Abortion ban injunction upheld by N. Dakota Supreme Court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:07:58 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a state abortion ban will remain blocked while a lawsuit over its constitutionality proceeds.The ban was designed to take effect once the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But a district judge had put it on hold this summer while the Red River Women’s Clinic (RRWC) pursued a lawsuit arguing the state constitution protected a right to an abortion.“While the regulation of abortion is within the authority of the legislature under the North Dakota Constitution, RRWC has demonstrated likely success on the merits that there is a fundamental right to an abortion in the limited instances of life-saving and health-preserving circumstances, and the statute is not narrowly tailored to satisfy strict scrutiny,” Chief Justice Jon J. Jensen wrote in the ruling.The law — one of many abortion-restricting measures passed by state legislatures in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Roe — includes ...