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Pozniak: Politicizing disasters doesn’t help anyone

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

There has been a barrage of political blame and animosity from both parties in Congress about the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, which spewed toxic chemicals into the air causing local evacuations, environmental and health chaos.Democrats criticized Donald Trump for bowing to the powerful rail lobby and eliminating regulations that could have prevented this accident and his campaign appearance at the derailment site.Republicans have put the White House on the defense by criticizing President Biden for his handling of this disaster and Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg for his failure to rush to the scene. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has launched investigations into what they claim was the Biden Administration’s inadequate and slow response to the Ohio crisis. All of this rancor and grandstanding deflects from the real culprit of this disaster; the Norfolk Southern railroad. This financially successful rail carrier should be the focus of the ...

Moir: Saving Mass. forests can slow climate change

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

The forests of the U.S. Northeast are in peril. Global warming has raised temperatures, improving conditions for insects such as the emerald ash borer, to ravage trees already stressed due to drought and scorching summers.Massachusetts forests experienced 97 wildfires across the state during the summer of 2022. Keeping pace with destruction by fire is the clear-cutting of forests for timber and primarily for development. Exposing forest soils releases carbon dioxide into the air, equivalent to carbon emissions from burning.American forests are losing an abundance of carbon. Twelve percent of the carbon loss is from fire, drought, wind, and pests, 3% is from forest conversion, and 85% is from cutting forests. Growing existing forests to their biological carbon storage potential optimize carbon dioxide removal.Researchers in Massachusetts recently established that an 80-year-old stand of trees is drawing more carbon out of the air and storing much more than twice the carbon of a 40-ye...

Dear Abby: Longtime BF has no empathy for ailing partner

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

Dear Abby: I have been with my boyfriend for 11 years. In all this time he has never once asked me if I’m OK whenever I have gotten hurt. I got used to it, you might say. Well, I recently lost the ability to walk, and ended up in a nursing home for rehabilitation. My boyfriend would come to visit, but would never ask about progress. Furthermore, when I would show him my progress he wouldn’t act happy.Now I’m home, and he treats me like garbage. I don’t know why. When I brought it up, he said he doesn’t know why. Should I end this relationship so I can find someone who’s supportive and who will help me get back to 100%? Or should I stay and work on this relationship? I’m less and less happy every day. — Hurting in the MidwestDear Hurting: Your boyfriend of 11 years is not a nurturer. That he doesn’t ask if you are hurt or injured shows he lacks empathy. If I had to hazard a guess, I would opine that he treats you like garbage now ...

BU, Merrimack win overtime thrillers, will meet in Hockey East final

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

The Providence College Friars dominated Boston University in regulation only to let their upset bid slip away in overtime.BU freshman right wing Quinn Hutson scored the game winner at 10:52 of OT to lift the Terriers to a 2-1 victory in the opening game of the Hockey East semifinals on Friday night at the TD Garden. Left wing Luke Tuch set up Hutson for his 14th of the season.BU goalie Drew Commesso backboned the effort with 37 saves. Providence outshot BU 33-14 in regulation but the Terriers were 10-4 better in the OT.“It was pretty crazy and it was slow motion when I saw it go in but I wasn’t sure,” said Hutson. “Then I saw everybody celebrating.”Boston University celebrates its game-winning goal in overtime during a 2-1 Hockey East semifinal win over Providence on Friday night. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)The No. 5 ranked and top seed Terriers (26-10-0, 19-6-0) advanced to the final for the 13th time and will take on No. 2 seed Merrimack (23-12-1, 17-8-0)  on Saturday night (7) ...

Elderly man beaten in North County home invasion

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

DEL MAR, Calif. -- An 80-year-old man was assaulted Friday at his home in Del Mar, authorities said.The incident occurred around 1:40 p.m. in the 1800 block of Santa Fe Avenue, where deputies learned the elderly man was beaten and had his hands bound inside the residence, Det. Jack Reed with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department stated in a news release.The victim was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to officials.Law enforcement confirmed video surveillance shows two unidentified attackers at the scene.Anyone with any information related to the crime is encouraged to call the North Coastal Sheriff's Station at (760) 966-3500.

SeaWorld San Diego rescue team discusses beached whale death

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A community came together Thursday during a rescue attempt to help a beached whale in North County. Sadly, SeaWorld San Diego reported the adult pygmy whale died on the way to their rescue facility.“When we realized not a respiration rate for quite some time, and the heart rate was getting slower and slower,” said Jeni Smith, the SeaWorld San Diego rescue team supervisor. “We gave it life saving-measures but unfortunately the animal didn’t make it.”The rescue team showed gratitude for the dozens of people who helped along the way.Around 4 p.m., the rescue crew got a call for a beached whale at Carlsbad State Beach. When the team arrived, they were met with a community ready to go.“Hands flew up, they said they would help,” Smith said.Dozens helped carry the roughly 900-pound whale on a stretcher, one mile up the beach to the SeaWorld rescue team truck. Bluff collapses in North County “There was a lot of communication. OK, does anyone need a break? Who needs to switch ...

Westbound SR-78 closure extended to next week

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The closure of all westbound lanes on State Route 78 has been extended to next week as crews continue to make emergency repairs.Westbound SR-78 lanes from College Boulevard to El Camino Real will be closed until sometime next week as Caltrans crews work to repair a sinkhole that formed due to heavy flooding, Caltrans said in a news release. The day on when it will be completed is uncertain at this time, the traffic agency told FOX 5.On Thursday, Caltrans said the westbound closure was expected to last until Saturday, but the expected closure time has now been extended.Drivers will be detoured to the College Blvd./ Vista Way off-ramp, then go west on Vista Way and then to the SR-78 on-ramp at El Camino Real.The closure began Thursday, following a storm that brought significant rain to the region, causing heavy flooding in the area. Initially one westbound lane was closed, but it was later extended to all lanes for the impacted area. Bluff collapses in North Coun...

Wyoming governor signs measure prohibiting abortion pills

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill Friday night prohibiting abortion pills in the state and also allowed a separate measure restricting abortion to become law without his signature. In a statement, Gordon expressed concern that the latter law, dubbed the Life is a Human Right Act would result in a lawsuit that will “delay any resolution to the constitutionality of the abortion ban in Wyoming.” He noted that earlier in the day, plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit filed a challenge to the new law in the event he did not issue a veto.“I believe this question needs to be decided as soon as possible so that the issue of abortion in Wyoming can be finally resolved, and that is best done with a vote of the people,” Gordon, a Republican, said in a statement.The Wyoming governor’s decision on abortion pills comes after they took center stage this week in Texas, where a federal judge raised questions about a Christian group’s effort to overturn the decades-old U.S...

West spotlights North Korea rights abuses; China opposes

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States, its Western allies and experts shone a spotlight on the dire human rights situation and increasing repression in North Korea at a U.N. meeting Friday that China and Russia denounced as a politicized move likely to further escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula.China blocked the U.S. from broadcasting the informal Security Council meeting globally on the internet, a decision criticized by U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield as an attempt to hide North Korea’s “atrocities from the world.” Webcasting requires agreement by all 15 council members. But the U.S. envoy said Beijing’s effort was in vain because the meeting will be made public, and the U.S. and many others will continue to speak out against Pyongyang’s human rights abuses and threats to international peace.James Turpin, a senior official in the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the ongoing tensions on the Korean peninsula pose a threat to regional and i...

Election conspiracy movement grinds on as 2024 approaches

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:39:39 GMT

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) — One by one, the presenters inside the crowded hotel ballroom shared their computer screens and promised to show how easy it is to hack into voting systems across the U.S.Drawing gasps from the crowd, they highlighted theoretical vulnerabilities and problems from past elections. But instead of tailoring their efforts to improve election security, they argued that all voting machines should be eliminated — a message that was wrapped in conspiracies about elections being rigged to favor certain candidates.“We are at war. The only thing that’s not flying right now is bullets,” said Mark Finchem, a Republican candidate for secretary of state in Arizona last year who continues to contest his loss and was the final speaker of the daylong conference.Finchem was among a group of Republican candidates running for governor, secretary of state or state attorney who disputed the outcome of the 2020 election and who lost in a clean sweep last November in important pol...