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Worcester City Council expected to vote on proposed stipend for police officers wearing body cameras

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

The Worcester City Council is considering a proposal that could increase police officer paychecks with a new incentive based on officers wearing body cameras. The council is scheduled to meet Tuesday night to vote on the proposed $1,300 annual stipend to each officer using the new cameras. The meeting is scheduled to begin around 6:30 p.m. and is expected to be divisive. “I think it’s important that people realize there is extra work here and it’s a change,” said Worcester City Councilor and Public Safety Chair Kate Toomey.Toomey said several towns and cities have offered similar compensation to police who agree to wear the cameras. “These men and women are putting their lives on the line everyday when they leave their home out on the street,” she said. “With an average pay of $77,000 for a patrolman, I don’t think that an extra $1,300 a year is outrageous for the added work they have to do. It benefits everyone.”The Worcester Police Department rolled out its bod...

Local leaders celebrate opening of new Mattapan affordable housing community

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

City and state leaders gathered in Mattapan Tuesday to celebrate the opening of a new affordable housing community. The Loop at Mattapan Station is a 135-unit affordable mixed-use housing community. Among offerings, the facility features a non-profit community grocery store with affordable groceries. The building also has a gym, community rooms, a basketball court, a roof deck, a bike room and an e-bike station.The Loop is designed to be commuter friendly in its location near an MBTA bus stop, the Mattapan Trolly line and the Mattapan Commuter Rail station. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was among those in attendance Tuesday. She said the building marks a positive step forward for Boston. “The Loop at Mattapan Station demonstrates what’s possible when we work together across levels of government, with nonprofits, community development corporations, residents and businesses to create holistic, transit oriented housing that doesn’t just provide a place to liv...

Bergeron returns to practice rink after missing first four games of Bruins-Panthers playoffs series

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

A familiar face was back on the rink and practicing with the Bruins Tuesday morning after missing the B’s playoff run so far.Patrice Bergeron was on the ice and skating with teammates after sitting out all of his team’s postseason play due to an injury.Bergeron skated on his own last week, but did not make the trip to Florida for Games 3 and 4 against the Florida Panthers, where the Bruins won twice and built a 3-1 series lead.Tuesday marked Bergeron’s first, full practice since the playoffs started, putting him on track to make a postseason debut for Game 5 in Boston on Wednesday night.Speaking with reporters, the captain said he was feeling pretty good following the practice, adding that he was hopeful there would not be any setbacks keeping him out of the lineup.However, he noted the importance of playing it smart and not forcing the issue too soon.“It’s one of those things where you try to get back as quickly as possible, but at the same time, you&#...

Jury to deliberate in major Jan. 6 case against Proud Boys

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The seditious conspiracy case against former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants went to the jury on Tuesday after dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.The jury will begin deliberating Wednesday to decide whether the onetime Proud Boys national chairman and four co-defendants are guilty of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors allege was a desperate plot to keep President Donald Trump in the White House after the Republican lost the 2020 election. Prosecutors in Washington have shown jurors hundreds of messages exchanged by Proud Boys in the days leading up to Jan. 6 that show the far-right extremist group peddling Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and trading fears over what would happen when President Joe Biden took office.Defense attorneys say there was no conspiracy and no plan t...

Dolphins’ Bradley Chubb to hold himself to ‘higher standard’ with full offseason in Miami

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

Bradley Chubb was brought to the Miami Dolphins to make a major impact. That’s what an NFL franchise expects when it trades a first-round pick for a player.The acquisition of the standout outside linebacker is half the reason why the Dolphins don’t own one of those valued first-round selections in Thursday’s draft. The other, of course, is the penalty the league handed down on the Dolphins for tampering with quarterback Tom Brady and coach Sean Payton. Miami once had two 2023 first-round picks.For the first half-season Chubb had with the Dolphins, after the big trade-deadline move and ensuing five-year, $110 million extension with $63.2 million guaranteed, he feels he didn’t quite deliver on the team’s investment.“I was up and down with it,” Chubb said Tuesday in a web conference call with reporters with the Dolphins in their second week of the offseason workout program. “Grasping a whole new defense, grasping a new set of teammates, I...

Biogen receives FDA approval for breakthrough ALS treatment: ‘Pivotal moment in ALS research’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

Cambridge-based Biogen has gotten the green light for a breakthrough ALS treatment that targets a devastating, ultra-rare genetic form of the progressive neurodegenerative disease.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday granted approval of Qalsody for the treatment of ALS in adults who have a mutation in the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene. Biogen’s treatment is the first approved treatment to target a genetic cause of ALS.“For more than a decade, Biogen has been steadfast in our commitment to pursuing treatments for ALS, and I want to thank the scientists as well as the entire ALS community who have all worked tirelessly to bring this first-of-its-kind treatment to people with SOD1-ALS,” said Christopher Viehbacher, Biogen’s president and CEO.About 30,000 people in the U.S. have ALS, according to estimates. SOD1-ALS is diagnosed in about 2% of all ALS cases, with about 330 people in the U.S. living with the disease.The FDA approval for the treatm...

Union Station platform construction project to facilitate better GO Transit service progressing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

Various construction projects at Union Station in Toronto have been going on for well more than a decade, but a project at the south end of the rail hub to boost GO Transit train capacity is now fully underway.CityNews recently toured the $560-million Union Station Enhancement Project to get a behind-the-scenes look at the work being done.Located where the old platforms 24/25 and 26/27, those platforms were removed to make way for a new track alignment. As a result of that realignment, there will be two new, wider platforms.“There’s the potential for trains to come in faster to the station,” Michael O’Brecht, a program integration manager at Metrolinx, said when asked why the new platforms are needed.“We’ll be able to have more passengers come onto the platform in order to get onto the trains, we’ll also be able to potentially add additional trains onto those platforms, and we should increase a lot of the safety issues that we may have throughout ...

Yukon government starts funding 40 hours of paid sick leave

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

WHITEHORSE — Yukon is the first jurisdiction in Canada to provide government-funded paid sick leave with a program targeting workers who are most likely to suffer from taking unpaid time off, Premier Ranj Pillai says. Retroactive to April 1, those without paid sick leave through their employer and who are making less than or equal to $33.94 per hour, will qualify for 40 hours of pay over 12 months covered by the government.Pillai said in an interview on Tuesday that the government-funded program supports the private sector in a tight labour market where the territory has among the lowest unemployment rates in the country.“We just felt, as a government, that it was important for us to show that commitment to the private sector, understanding that the private sector in Canada is going to be where the growth is as we see federal government spending start to slow,” he said. The threshold to qualify represents the average Yukon private-sector wage. Pillai said people who make...

Petition calls for tax deadline extension amid federal worker strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

There are calls to extend this year’s tax deadline amid a federal public service strike that some say is making it hard to file on time, but experts are still urging Canadians to make every effort to file by May 1.An online petition by Ottawa accountant Eric Saumure calls on Ottawa to push the filing deadline to June 15, from May 1. The Change.org site had collected more than 25,000 signatures by early afternoon Tuesday.Saumure said the job action has reduced staff for a Canada Revenue Agency help line, forcing some callers to wait hours for advice and possibly jeopardizing their ability to file on time.He said lower-income taxpayers who need help but don’t have an accountant would be most vulnerable.“I kind of see this as if you’re writing an exam in school but the professor just doesn’t let you ask questions,” Saumure said.“And if you make a mistake, there’s a penalty. There’s a financial penalty. And so that’s just not fair for Canadians.”About...

Colorado becomes 1st to pass ‘right to repair’ for farmers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:00:59 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Sitting in front of a hulking red tractor, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill Tuesday making Colorado the first state to ensure farmers can fix their own tractors and combines with a “right to repair” law — which compels manufacturers to provide the necessary manuals, tools, parts and software.Colorado, home to high desert ranches and sweeping farms on the low-and-level plains, took the lead on the issue following a nationwide outcry from farmers that manufacturers, such as John Deere, blocked them from making fixes and forced them to wait precious days for an official servicer to arrive — waits that imperiled profits.While their increasingly high-tech tractors or combines sit impotent, a hailstorm could decimate a crop or a farmer could miss the ideal planting window, farmers said.“Farmers have had to wait three or four weeks to get repairs done to equipment when they can do repairs themselves. That’s just unfathomable,” said Bill Midcap, whose son is a fifth-g...