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Healey chips away at housing crisis with $250M in awards

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey added a drop into the state’s nearly empty affordable home bucket Thursday during a trip to Lowell where she announced about $250 million in direct subsidies, state and federal housing tax credits aimed at addressing the statewide shortage of homes.Healey’s announcement of 27 project awards spread across 20 separate Massachusetts cities and towns comes as the state stares down a veritable housing catastrophe, with some estimates saying the commonwealth needs more than 100,000 new units built just to meet current demand.The awards, which Healey’s staff say will create 1,600 new units, demonstrate her administration’s commitment to tackling the housing issue head on, according to the governor.“These are the types of projects that our Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities will be driving in close collaboration with local, federal and private sector partners to address our housing crisis,” the governor said.Newly appointed Secretary of Housing...

Some states hope to move climate-threatened species, but others say no way

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

Alex Brown | Stateline.org (TNS)North Carolina might need to move a snail.A tiny mollusk known as the magnificent ramshorn has long made its home in the state’s freshwater coastal ponds. But sea level rise and storm surges are making those ponds saltier, and the snail can’t tolerate salt. The coastal plain that was once the species’ habitat has no snails left — the only surviving members are bred in captivity.The state hopes to reintroduce the snail in one remaining pond, but little of the habitat where it once lived can now support it.“There are very few places that exist in its known historic range that would still be suitable for it to live,” said Kyle Briggs, chief deputy director of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.If the magnificent ramshorn is to flourish in the wild again, it may well have to be somewhere new. It’s among many species that are finding their long-established habitats increasingly inhospitable because of warmer temperatures, rising oceans, wildf...

Amid DeSantis fight, Disney pulls plug on $1 billion Orlando campus

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

Amid its political feud with Gov. Ron DeSantis, Disney is dropping plans to build a nearly $1 billion corporate campus in Orlando’s Lake Nona neighborhood that would have brought 2,000 high-paying jobs to the Central Florida.In 2021, Disney paid $46.4 million for 58 acres that it planned to turn into a complex for its creative team, Imagineering, and other jobs. The average salary of the positions was cited as $120,000.But in a memo to employees Thursday, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro attributed the project’s cancellation to “changing business conditions,” without mentioning The Walt Disney Co.’s escalating battle with the governor.“Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus. This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one,” his messag...

2 killed, several hurt in Mission Bay crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Two people were killed and four others were injured Thursday after a crash in the Mission Bay area, officials confirmed.The crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. near Quivira Avenue and West Mission Bay Drive, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.According to police, a motorcyclist was traveling over 100 miles per hour, driving in the bike lane to avoid other vehicles, when the motorcycle collided with a Toyota Prius making a right turn on a green light.The motorcyclist was ejected from their vehicle and died from their injuries.The Prius had five people inside the vehicle at the time of the crash. One of the passengers, who police say was may have been a minor, was killed in the crash.The other four occupants were transported to nearby hospitals with varying injuries, including an infant who did not suffer major injuries, according to officials. Man accused of killing 2 sisters on Mother’s Day pleads not guilty According to police, the five people inside t...

Ex-wife of D.C. sniper raising awareness of connection between mass shooting and domestic violence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

Mildred Muhammad escaped a years-long abusive relationship with her ex-husband John Huhammad before he became notoriously known as the D.C. sniper, the gunman was behind the random shooting deaths of 17 people in the Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2002.“Law enforcement didn’t tell the public that I was the intended target although the theory was that he was killing innocent people to cover up murder so he could come in as the grieving father and gain custody of our children … a domestic violence child custody issue,” said Muhammad.Now, Muhammad is raising awareness of the connection between domestic violence and mass shootings.The man behind the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people was accused of repeatedly assaulting his wife before the rampage.And an inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass shooting showed the gunman had a long history of domestic violence in his family, going back generations.“Most mass shootings start at home with terrorizing the family and ...

Wounded Warriers offering new support to families of first responders

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

For the fifth time in nine months, an Ontario police officer was laid to rest on Thursday, a tragedy that leaves behind unspeakable grief.And now the wives of first responders are speaking out about the trauma of losing their loved ones and the support system that has essentially saved their lives.“I felt like I was re-living the day he died almost every day,” said Sarah Routhier, whose husband was an Ontario Provinical Police officer.Sylvain, who was a 14-year veteran in Ottawa with OPP began to struggle with mental health and died by suicide.Routhier said the sudden death of her beloved husband and adoring father to their three children left a gaping hole filled with grief and sadness. “I would go through the motions of the day and then at nighttime, when I was alone, I would cry and have a very hard time sleeping,” Routhier told CityNews.Elizabeth Hargrave also knows those feelings all too well. Her husband James lost his life while battling a wildfire in ...

Meet D’Arcy Drollinger, a drag queen who’s now the first drag laureate in the US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Anti-trans legislation is roiling the nation. Bills prohibiting drag performances are cropping up in statehouses. Violence and vitriol are turning children’s drag story hour events into headline-news protests.San Francisco is fighting back Thursday by naming the nation’s first drag laureate, an ambassador-style position designed to represent the city’s famous LGBTQ+ community at a time when rights are under attack.In a city known for its support of LGBTQ+ rights, San Francisco Mayor London Breed says it was a natural step to create a position that not only embraces drag culture but puts government resources toward it. D’Arcy Drollinger, a well-known drag performer and nightclub owner, will receive a $55,000 stipend in her 18-month role as the city’s inaugural drag laureate.“My goals are to make San Francisco sparkle. I think drag performers bring a lot of sparkle and humor and glamor and silliness to the world. I think that is part of why drag is so ...

New Mexico authorities describe caregivers’ torture of disabled woman who died

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — “Torture” is how New Mexico’s top prosecutor describes the treatment a 38-year-old developmentally disabled woman endured before her death at the hands of her caregivers, who he said were paid thousands of dollars a month through a special program meant to offer an alternative to institutional care.Attorney General Raúl Torrez detailed the woman’s injuries during a news conference Thursday, saying she died after being found in the back of a van as the caregivers tried to take her to Mexico so her wounds could be treated.“The abuse and neglect that she endured was horrific and the injuries she sustained are among the worst I have seen in my career as a prosecutor,” Torrez said. “This was torture. There’s really no other word for it.”Three people were arrested and charged Wednesday with abuse and neglect following an investigation that began with the stop at the U.S.-Mexico border in April. The case spurred a statewide review of New Mexico’s entire...

FDA advisers back RSV vaccine for pregnant women that protects their newborns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A first-of-its-kind RSV vaccine for pregnant women guards their newborns against the scary respiratory virus -– and federal health advisers on Thursday backed Pfizer’s shot despite some lingering questions.RSV fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall and winter, and the virus struck earlier than usual and especially hard in the U.S. this past year.If the vaccine pans out, “many infants and their parents will breathe easier in the coming years,” said Dr. Jay Portnoy, a member of the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel from Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.The idea: Give women a single injection late in pregnancy, between 24 weeks and 36 weeks, so they develop RSV-fighting antibodies that pass through the placenta — just like they pass protection against other bugs to their babies.In Pfizer’s international study of nearly 7,400 pregnant women, maternal vaccination proved 82% effective at preventing severe RSV during babies’...

White House vows more federal aid to reduce homelessness in 5 cities and California

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:30 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Five major U.S. cities and the state of California will receive federal help to get unsheltered residents into permanent housing under a new plan launched Thursday as part of the Biden administration’s larger goal to reduce homelessness 25% by 2025.The All Inside initiative will partner the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and its 19 federal member agencies with state officials in California and local governments in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and the Phoenix metro area. The goal is for the federal government to provide “knowledge, resources and elbow grease” to population centers where nearly half the nation’s unhoused residents live, said Susan Rice, President Joe Biden’s domestic policy advisor. The administration will offer “tailored support” for two years to improve efforts toward housing unsheltered people in the participating communities, including embedding a federal official in each area, officials said.In addition, tea...