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Dems on Beacon Hill Face Short Window For Spending Deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

The Massachusetts Senate on Tuesday night approved a plan that injects $250 million more into the state’s emergency shelter system, opening a window of just about 30 hours for House and Senate Democrats to hammer out differences before lawmakers depart on a holiday break.Senators voted 36-3 to approve a roughly $2.8 billion spending bill that, in addition to directing more funding to the emergency shelter crisis, would also close the state’s financial books for fiscal year 2023, schedule the next primary for Sept. 3, 2024, and remove barriers to construction of a professional soccer stadium in Everett.There’s consensus in both branches on most of the spending, including about $2.1 billion for MassHealth, hundreds of millions of dollars for collective bargaining agreements, and $75 million to support school districts saddled with a spike in special education costs.But House and Senate Democrats have different visions for how the state should respond to an unpre...

Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance gets props from Chiefs coach: It’s ‘a good thing’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has again endorsed Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s romance.The NFL coach endorsed the globally watched relationship again on Monday when he was asked about the media swarm enveloping Kelce and the team, specifically addressing whether he’s seen an uptick in requests for autographs and tickets due to Taylormania.“Nobody’s really mentioned much on that,” Reid said in a virtual interview with Kansas City-based reporter Tod Palmer.“It is what it is,” the coach added. “I’m just glad he’s found somebody he likes and she’s found somebody she likes. That’s a good thing.”Perhaps Reid caught that wholesome video of the “Cruel Summer” singer running straight into the tight end’s arms after her Saturday show in Buenos Aires? Yes, the same show in which Swift updated “Karma’s” lyrics to reference “the guy on the Chiefs coming straight hom...

Average home price in Canada rises to $656,625 as monthly sales slow: CREA

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

OTTAWA — The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold last month was up 0.9 per cent compared with October 2022 as the national average home price rose to $656,625 — up 1.8 per cent from a year ago.On a month-over-month basis, sales in October were down 5.6 per cent as the association says there were fewer sales in most of Canada’s largest markets.CREA chair Larry Cerqua says it appears many prospective homebuyers “have already gone into hibernation” while some sellers may be shelving their plans until next spring.While home price declines are still mainly occurring in Ontario, the association says some regions of B.C. are now also starting to see softening.New listings across Canada fell 2.3 per cent from September, marking the first decline since March.The national sales-to-new listings ratio fell to a 10-year low of 49.5 per cent, compared with the long-term average of 55.1 per cent for this measure.This report by The Canadian Press was first pub...

Yemen’s Houthis have launched strikes at Israel during the war in Gaza. What threat do they pose?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — For years, the Houthi rebels controlling northern Yemen have chanted slogans at their mass rallies calling for the destruction of Israel. But they never acted on it until the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7.Since then, the Iran-backed Shiite Muslim force has launched at least six drone and missile attacks toward southern Israel, causing little to no damage. Most have been intercepted by Israeli air defenses on their journey of over 1,600 kilometers (960 miles) from northern Yemen.The Houthis said the barrage is in retaliation for the Israeli army’s bombardment of Gaza and will continue until “Israeli aggression stops.” Here’s a look at the attacks and what threat they pose.THE REBELS WHO SEIZED SANAAIn 2014, the Houthis swept from their stronghold in Yemen’s northern mountains and seized the capital, Sanaa, along with other central areas of the country.The Islamist group follows the Shiite Zaydi faith, a branch of Shiite Islam almost exclusively found in northwes...

Union workers at General Motors appear to have voted down tentative contract deal with the company

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — The tentative contract agreement between General Motors and the United Auto Workers union appears to be headed for defeat.The union hasn’t posted final vote totals yet, but workers at five large factories who finished voting in the past few days have turned down the four year and eight month deal by fairly large margins.The vote tracker on the UAW’s website shows the deal winning by 686 votes. But those totals do not include votes from GM assembly plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Wentzville, Missouri; Lansing Delta Township and Lansing Grand River in Michigan, and a powertrain plant in Toledo, Ohio, which all voted against the deal, according to local union officials.In most cases the vote tallies ranged from 55% to around 60% against the contract. Workers were awaiting totals from a large assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, but many said they expect the contract to be voted down. A message was left seeking comment from the union’s spokesman. It wasn&#...

Édgar Barrera is the producer behind your favorite hits – and the Latin Grammys’ top nominee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Édgar Barrera is one of the most in-demand people in music. He’s worked with everyone from Madonna and Shakira to Peso Pluma and Karol G. He has one Grammy and 18 Latin Grammys already to his name, and is the top nominee at Thursday’s 2023 Latin Grammys ceremony. Unlike most of his contemporaries dominating the music industry, though, Barrera is a producer and songwriter first, recently receiving a songwriter of the year nod for the Grammys in February.“Being an artist who is a public figure and things like that doesn’t really catch my attention,” he told The Associated Press in Spanish during a video call from Miami earlier this year. “I don’t like that prominence or anything like that. Being hidden behind, writing the songs, producing, doing what I like to do, what I know how to do, that is enough, and I don’t need the mark of being the artist, of being named.”Yet named he is — 13 times at this year’s Latin Grammys, held in Seville, Spain, incl...

Russian woman goes on trial in a cafe bombing that killed a prominent military blogger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — A woman went on trial Wednesday in the bombing at a St. Petersburg cafe that killed a prominent Russian military blogger after he was given a bust of himself that later exploded.Darya Trepova, 26, is charged with carrying out a terrorist attack, illegal trafficking of explosive devices and forging documents in the April 2 blast at the cafe in which Vladlen Tatarsky was killed and 52 others were injured.She was arrested shortly after the bombing and faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, according to Russian news reports. Tatarsky, 40, was an ardent supporter of the Kremlin’s military action in Ukraine and filed regular reports on the fighting from the front lines.Trepova was seen on video presenting Tatarsky with the bust moments before the blast at the riverside cafe in the historic heart of Russia’s second-largest city where he was leading a discussion.Russian media have reported that Trepova told investigators she was asked to deliver the...

Ukraine says it now has a foothold on the eastern bank of Dnieper River near Kherson

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A top Ukrainian official said its troops have established a beachhead on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River near Kherson, an important advance in bridging one of Russia’s most significant strategic barriers in the war.Andriy Yermak, head of the president’s office, provided no details but confirmed the development that has been widely discussed in military forums over the past month. “Against all odds, Ukraine’s defense forces have gained a foothold on the left bank of the Dnieper,” Yermak told the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, in a speech Monday.Ever since Russian forces left the city of Kherson and the territory around it in November 2022, the only area they controlled on the west bank of the Dnieper, the river became a natural dividing line along the southern battlefront, preventing Ukrainian troops from advancing further into the Kherson region and towards Russian-annexed Crimea.The barrier also allowed Russia to conce...

Suspected German anti-government extremist convicted of shooting at police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A suspected anti-government extremist was convicted of attempted murder in Germany on Wednesday for firing at police who had come to search his home for an unauthorized weapon.The Stuttgart state court sentenced the 55-year-old German citizen, whose name it didn’t release, to 14 1/2 years in prison. He was convicted of several counts of attempted murder, along with attacking and resisting officers and bodily harm.The court said the defendant had for years been writing letters to authorities that were typical of the Reich Citizens scene, which rejects the legitimacy of Germany’s postwar constitution and has similarities to the Sovereign Citizens and QAnon movements in the United States.In 2021, he moved to a farm in Boxberg in southwestern Germany, where he lived along with others with similar views in an isolated community. He showed signs of increasing radicalization. Earlier that year, his weapons license was revoked, and he didn’t respond to demands that...

Dolly Parton’s new album is a detour from country music – could R&B be next?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:12:23 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Last year, Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — against her wishes. Now, almost exactly a year later, she’s releasing her first rock ‘n’ roll album, appropriately titled “Rockstar,” on Friday.In 2022, Parton shared a statement announcing that she didn’t feel she had “earned” the right to be nominated, but the Hall inducted her anyway. “I just didn’t think that I had done enough in the rock world to be considered, to be put in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when there were so many great rock artists that are not even in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Parton told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “They were going to put me in anyway, so I just accepted it gracefully. But I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have to earn my keep,’” she says. Parton once thought she’d record a “Linda Ronstadt-type rock album,” but had felt she was getting too old. This presented a fresh opportunity. “I jumped on that like a...