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End Dates Still Unknown For T’s Slow Zones

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

A comprehensive plan outlining when all speed restrictions will be eliminated on each subway line is “not ready to be released,” MBTA General Manager Phil Eng said Thursday.Fielding questions from reporters for about 15 minutes after an MBTA Board of Directors meeting, Eng said his focus for now is on forecasting shorter-term maintenance projects — and related service disruptions for riders — that can be accomplished more quickly to tackle the worst stretches of slow zones, which were suddenly imposed in March.“We can give them a better timeline on when we’ll be tackling those, but maybe the specifics of which week, things of that nature, has to be a little more as we get closer to those points,” Eng said about providing commuters with a sense of when to expect improvements.MBTA officials still have not explained why the speed restrictions now pitched as a safety necessity were not in place before a March site visit by Department of Public U...

Julian Assange loses latest attempt to appeal against extradition to the US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

London (CNN) — A High Court judge in London has denied Julian Assange permission to appeal an order to extradite him to the United States, where he faces criminal charges under the Espionage Act.The decision was dated Tuesday and is the latest in a years-long legal saga. His camp told CNN on Thursday that they will lodge a new appeal next week.In a ruling dated June 6, 2023 and seen by CNN, Mr. Justice Swift said Assange’s application had been refused stating that “none of the four grounds of appeal raises any properly arguable point.”In a separate ruling, the High Court judge also denied Assange permission to appeal and challenge the dismissal of other parts of his case during a ruling by district judge Vanessa Baraitser in January 2021. After revising eight proposed grounds of appeal the judge argued he did not consider the proposed appeals raised “any properly arguable case.”The 51-year-old is wanted by US authorities on 18 criminal counts after WikiLeaks, the orga...

New studio working to bring hip-hop back to downtown Toronto while celebrating its history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

This year marks the 50th anniversary since hip-hop became established as both a musical genre and culture.In Toronto, neighbourhoods like Malvern and Rexdale are credited with producing the most hip-hop artists and music in the city, but one dance studio chose to set up shop in an unlikely part of the city with a hidden hip-hop history.Choreographers and co-owners Aaron Aquino-Annobil and Nicole Rosove, along with their third business partner Lisa Heath, opened Run The Flex dance studio this year after initially launching the dance program in 2017.Located just north of Yonge Street and Davenport Avenue in the neighbourhood of Rosedale-Moore Park, the studio is aiming to bring the culture of hip-hop back to the downtown core and celebrate its history by teaching its students about the narratives and architects behind various choreography.“I want dance to become the next jogging. A lot of people back in the days used to think that jogging was meant for athletes and Olympians to get re...

Indie artist Caroline Rose is proud of new album’s vulnerability, despite moments of regret

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — During a recent performance at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, indie musician Caroline Rose disappeared from the stage and emerged moments later atop a table in the back of the room.“We’re going to do a trust fall,” they told the audience, encouraging concertgoers to gather around before plunging backward into the sea of people and letting it carry her back to the stage.The stunt was emblematic of her latest album — admittedly, their most unguarded yet — about a breakup and its aftermath. One to always hide behind humor, Rose said this level of vulnerability was new for her and that she is still processing whether it was even the right choice.“When I’m writing the material, it feels really cathartic. And I’m like, ‘Wow, I made something beautiful from this really dark time.’ But performing the songs has been totally different,” they said of having to recount those dark memories over and over.But despite having some “huge moments of regret,” the singer, songwrite...

Archdiocese of St. Louis to pay $1 million to settle sex abuse lawsuit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Archdiocese of St. Louis will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who previously spent 12 years in prison for abusing another boy, an attorney for the victim said Friday.The plaintiff was an altar boy at Ascension Catholic Church in Chesterfield, Missouri. The suit alleged he was abused by the Rev. Gary Wolken starting in 1993, when the boy was in fourth grade, and continuing through 1995. The lawsuit said the plaintiff repressed memories until he was an adult. The man’s lawsuit, which did not use his name, was filed in 2018.His attorney, Rebecca Randles, said the settlement was reached this week.“We applaud our client who has been very brave in facing down the Archdiocese of St. Louis in a case that was very hard-fought and difficult from an emotional and legal standpoint,” Randles said.The archdiocese didn’t immediately respond to messages Friday but said in a statement to the St. Louis P...

UConn students getting expelled for vandalism that followed team’s NCAA championship

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Some University of Connecticut students are getting expelled for vandalizing their campus following their basketball team’s April 3 victory in the NCAA championship game, a university spokesperson said Friday.“Although we can’t address individual students’ outcomes, we can say that some reviews have concluded with expulsions,” UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said. She said the investigations are ongoing for other students who were arrested following the vandalism at the Storrs campus, which included smashing windows and damaging a police vehicle.The Huskies’ 76-59 win over San Diego State University in the championship game in Houston secured UConn’s fifth NCAA title in 24 years. Most of the celebrations that followed in Storrs were peaceful, but some students pulled down signs and light poles and smashed windows.The vandalism, which included damaging a campus police cruiser and flipping a van on its side, caused thousands of dollars w...

Reparations campaigns get boost from new philanthropic funding

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The campaign to win reparations for Black Americans plans to bring broader support for smaller nonprofits advancing the cause, with a new philanthropic funding initiative announced Friday at the “Alight Align Arise” national conference in Atlanta.The Decolonizing Wealth Project, an organization dedicated to creating racial equity through education and “radical reparative giving,” is committing $20 million over five years to boost campaigns for reparations across the country, along with a research collaboration with Boston University to map reparation projects.The project’s founder and CEO Edgar Villanueva announced the plans at the Atlanta gathering of advocates, including the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the Democratic congressman whose district represent parts of The Bronx and Westchester County in New York.“The point of all of this for us is to elevate the issue and the opportunity for reparations and t...

Ontario to stop giving out free COVID-19 rapid test kits in pharmacies, grocery stores

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

An Ontario program that distributes free rapid tests for COVID-19 at grocery stores and pharmacies will end after this month.The Ministry of Health wrote in a memo to the retailers recently that with lower rates of COVID-19, high vaccination rates and decreasing demand for tests, the program will wind down as of June 30.The ministry is encouraging grocery stores and pharmacies to place final orders by June 16.However, the ministry says free rapid tests will still be distributed in some “high priority” communities through organizations such as community health centres and Ontario Health Teams until December 31.The ministry says the extended distribution of tests will go toward groups that represent people at the highest risk for severe outcomes of COVID-19.NDP health critic France Gelinas says the tests should continue to be available to people who need them, and there are vulnerable people across the province.RELATED: Health Canada warns of counterfeit COVID-19 rapid ant...

Trump shakes up legal team in documents case after indictment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

Former President Trump on Friday announced a significant change in his legal team representing him in the case of whether he mishandled classified documents, one day after he was indicted by the Justice Department.Trump posted on Truth Social that he will be represented by attorney Todd Blanche moving forward, “and a firm to be named later.” Attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley will no longer represent Trump in the case, he said.“I want to thank Jim Trusty and John Rowley for their work, but they were up against a very dishonest, corrupt, evil, and ‘sick’ group of people, the likes of which has not been seen before,” Trump wrote. “We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days. When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation? MAGA!”Trusty appeared Thursday night on CNN to speak about the case, and he went on NBC’s “Today” show earlier Friday to discuss the indictment.In a joint statement labeled “OUR DECISION” shortly after Trump’s announcement, t...

WATCH LIVE | Sen. Durbin discusses national cancer drug treatment shortage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:58 GMT

A growing shortage of common cancer treatments is forcing doctors to switch medications and delaying some care, prominent U.S. cancer centers say.The National Comprehensive Cancer Network said Wednesday that nearly all the centers it surveyed late last month were dealing with shortages of carboplatin and cisplatin, a pair of drugs used to treat a range of cancers. Some are no longer able to treat patients receiving carboplatin at the intended dose or schedule. Dr. Kari Wisinski has had to turn to other treatments for some patients or switch the order in which people receive their drug combinations. She said she’s done that “hoping that within three months there will be a better carboplatin supply.”“It’s really difficult as a physician to have these conversations with a family or a patient about not having a medication you’d like to prescribe to them,” she said.Wisinski is a breast cancer specialist with the UW Health Carbone Cancer Center in Madison, Wisconsin, a member of the netwo...