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New Bedford threatens MBTA with possible lawsuit over taking land for South Coast Rail project

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

The city of New Bedford has hurled a potential lawsuit at the MBTA, threatening the state’s embattled transit agency with a suit over taking land for the much anticipated South Coast Rail project.Lawyers for the city have drafted a lawsuit against the T, arguing that the land takings for a proposed rail station in New Bedford should be “declared invalid.”The city in the suit claimed that the MBTA’s payment for the properties was “grossly inadequate,” and the city is seeking damages from the T.“This is an action to invalidate a series of purported takings and to obtain damages… resulting from the attempted eminent domain acquisition by Defendant MBTA of certain real property of Plaintiffs, near the proposed passenger rail station in downtown New Bedford as part of the South Coast Rail Project,” reads the city’s draft lawsuit.“The Defendant’s stated purpose for acquiring the land was to create parking for MBTA emp...

Manhunt on for gunman in Texas mass shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

CLEVELAND, Texas — A widening manhunt for a Texas gunman who killed five neighbors continued turning up nothing Sunday as officers knocked on doors, the governor put up $50,000 in reward money and the FBI acknowledged they had “zero leads” after nearly two days of searching.“What we need from the public is any type of information, because right now we’re just we’re running into dead ends,” James Smith, the FBI’s special agent in charge, said during an afternoon news conference. “I can tell you right now, we have zero leads.”The search for the suspect has grown in scale since the Friday shooting, with more than 200 police from multiple jurisdictions searching for Francisco Oropeza, many going door to door, looking for the 38-year-old suspect and asking for tips. Local officials and the FBI also chipped in reward money, bringing the total to $80,000 for any information about Oropeza’s whereabouts.Oropeza is considered armed a...

Kevin Love to Aaron Rodgers: ‘I’ve got the best QBR in New York’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

Kevin Love was hesitant, but with Aaron Rodgers sitting courtside, he had to let it fly.Love had already done it twice in the third quarter of the Heat’s Game 1 victory over the Knicks on Sunday, but this time was different. This time, he fired a two-handed, full-court outlet pass over 2022 Slam Dunk Champion Obi Toppin’s leaping contest as Miami’s star Jimmy Butler out jumped Toppin to catch the ball, then proceeded with an uncontested two-handed dunk.Then Love saw Rodgers, the newly acquired Jets savior at the quarterback position, sitting nearby.“I said ‘I’ve got the best QBR (quarterback rating) in New York,’” the Heat big man said postgame. “He hasn’t played a game yet here, but I saw him sitting over there. We’re friendly, so I went and said hello.“I saw him sitting there, so, might as well throw something at him.”If the Jets are lucky, Rodgers will have the same kind of connection with his newfound ...

Massachusetts weather forecast: After nasty rainy Sunday, an ‘unsettled’ week with showers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

As heavy April showers dominated the final day of the month, the first week of May should also include “unsettled” conditions with rain at times across Massachusetts.Just more rainfall for those May flowers to bloom.Following a nasty rainy Sunday with heavy showers and localized flooding in poor drainage areas, the start of the workweek — and first day of May — will have drier and milder conditions in the mid-60s.“It should fortunately clear out a bit on Monday, rapidly improving after sunrise,” Kristie Smith, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office, told the Herald on Sunday. “Sunshine should appear around lunchtime. It should be a pleasant day.“Unfortunately, it will then get a bit unsettled for the rest of the workweek,” Smith added.The average high temp for Boston for the first week of May is 62 degrees. After Monday’s warm up to the mid-60s, temps are expected to dip below average into the 5...

‘Enough is enough’: Thorncliffe Park tenants call for May 1 rent strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

On Sunday afternoon, tenants of 71, 75 and 79 Thorncliffe Park Drive held a rally, kicking off what they describe as a rent strike as they plan to withhold rent starting May 1.The tenants contend that the building’s owners – Starlight Investments and PSP Investments – have been seeking rent increases of 4.2 per cent in 2022 and 5 per cent or more in 2023. “We can’t afford the kind of rent increase they are asking for,” rally organizer Abdelaziz Dardake tells CityNews. “And we’re trying to send a message to the landlord that enough is enough.“People they are barely surviving and the economy is very, very bad, very expensive.”Tenant Khalil Aldroubi says the rising costs have forced many to do whatever they can just to make ends meet. “We wait patiently for the flyers to come out from Food Basics and Costco to save some money for the end of the month. And all that saving, in the end, is not enough.”Several tenants ...

Paraguay’s long-ruling party takes big lead in early returns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — The long-governing Colorado Party appeared headed to extending its hold on Paraguayan politics as early returns from Sunday’s election gave a substantial lead to its presidential candidate, Santiago Peña.With almost two-thirds of voting places reporting, Peña had almost 45% of the vote, compared to nearly 28% for Efraín Alegre, the candidate of the Pact for a New Paraguay, a broad-based opposition coalition that hoped to end Colorado’s reign.Before the vote, analysts said the race looked to be tight because of public discontent and predicted Alegre could have a chance of unseating South America’s longest-governing party, which has essentially ruled Paraguay uninterrupted since 1947. Paraguay doesn’t have a runoff, so whoever of the 13 candidates received the most votes would be the next president. Voters were also casting ballots for members of Congress. “Today is the day we have to be protagonists in the construction of the future of the nation...

Brazilian police probe deadly shooting on Indigenous land

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s federal police said Sunday they are investigating a shooting that killed one and wounded two Yanomami Indigenous people, saying the main suspects were illegal gold miners working in that area of Roraima state.A police statement said in a statement that the incident took place Saturday and added that the government sent members of the ir force and the Indigenous issues agency FUNAI to help with the probe. Earlier this year, Brazil’s government pushed illegal gold miners out of Yanomami territory, saying their mining had caused widespread river contamination, famine and disease for one of the most isolated groups in the world.Brazil’s government estimated about 20,000 people were engaged in illegal mining in February, often using toxic mercury to separate out gold. Since then, several federal police and military raids have made it harder for gold miners to reach that area. An estimated 30,000 Yanomami people live in Brazil’s largest Indigeno...

Ontario Line forces 4.5-year partial closure of Queen Street, TTC launching 2-phase diversion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

As construction of the Ontario Line ramps up in downtown Toronto, part of Queen Street is set to be closed for at least four-and-a-half years in order to build a major interchange station.Queen Street will be closed to vehicles between Bay and Yonge streets as well as Yonge and Victoria streets as of May 1. However, Metrolinx officials said pedestrian access along the affected parts of Queen Street will be maintained as will vehicular traffic on Yonge Street.“We understand that that’s a long stretch of time. But by doing it this way with a full closure, we’re actually going to speed up construction of the Ontario Line Queen station by about a year,” James Wattie, a spokesperson with Metrolinx, told CityNews when asked about the lengthy closure.“Instead of going and doing partial closures, like you might see with other construction projects where it’s closed one weekend or closed for a few days here and there, this gives our construction teams time...

Founding member of BTO dies, Randy Bachman confirms through manager

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

A founding member of the Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Tim Bachman, has died.Randy Bachman confirmed the death of his brother through his manager on Sunday.Tim Bachman’s son, Paxton Bachman, posted on Facebook that his father died Friday, explaining that he got a call last week from the care home where his father was staying, telling him that his dad’s condition had worsened and that later tests revealed cancer throughout his brain.The Winnipeg-based BTO released its first album in May 1973 and the band’s second album, Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, released in December 1973, became a huge hit in the U.S. and Canada, with hit singles “Let it Ride” and “Takin’ Care of Business.” Tim Bachman, who played guitar and sang, left BTO in 1974 but had rejoined BTO for tours over the years.His death follows that of his brother Robbie Bachman, another co-founder of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, in January at the age of 69.This report by The Canadian...

Rally decries lack of federal regulation targetting shipbreaking operations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:47 GMT

A Vancouver Island community is sounding the alarm about the lack of federal and provincial regulations targetting boat-dismantling operations that may leak pollutants like asbestos and heavy metals into Canadian waters.Several residents of Union Bay, B.C., located about 180 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, voiced their opposition to one such local operation during a rally on Sunday, decrying the lack of specific rules that would prevent boat-dismantling on the shores of nearby Baynes Sound.The rally’s organizers, The Concerned Citizens of Baynes Sound, say Deep Water Recovery has been dismantling barges at a Union Bay site for the last two years, and there is fear among local residents that the operation may release hydrocarbons, raw sewage and cadmium into the marine environment. Baynes Sound is where 50 per cent of B.C.’s harvested shellfish come from and is also the location of the last commercial coastal herring fishery in the Georgia Straight, they added.But Cana...