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An Olympic Champion Goes in Search of a New Identity

There is a shelf at Carissa Moore’s home in Honolulu where she keeps her journals. She has carried blank pages around the globe since she was a little girl, scribbling her thoughts and worries and goals as she became one of the best surfers in the world. She still does it. This year, knowing that she was going to retire from competition, she wrote a new goal: Face your fears. Moore is 31. She is a five-time world champion and current defender of an Olympic gold medal. Now she wants to start a family with her husband, Luke Untermann. She wants to extract herself from the loose structure and warm cocoon of her sport’s global tour, to redefine success on her own terms and in her own mind. She wants to be challenged in a different way, even though the easiest thing might be to stick around.

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Attention parents: Trick-or-treaters in Mass. town given alcohol-infused chocolates

WEST BOYLSTON, Mass. — Parents are being urged to check their children’s Halloween candy after alcohol-infused chocolates were given to trick-or-treaters in one Massachusetts town. West Boylston police put out a post warning parents that two trick-or-treaters found candy that contained alcohol. Both parties said they were trick or treating in the Horseshoe Drive neighborhood. The candy given out contains Jose Cuervo and police recommend that parents check their children’s candy. Police are investigating this incident and asking anyone with any information concerning this candy, and from which house it came, to please call the West Boylston Police Department at 774-450-3510. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW ©2023 Cox Media Group

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Memphis vs. Iowa State: How to watch the Liberty Bowl for free

The Memphis Tigers, appearing in its 10th straight bowl game, take on the Iowa State Cyclones in the Liberty Bowl. The Tigers are 9-3 while the Cyclones are 7-5, having won six Big 12 games. Memphis, which had the AAC’s No. 2 scoring offense (39.7 ppg), is led by 1,000-yard rusher Blake Watson. Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht is the Big 12 offensive freshman of the year. The Cylcones are 1-2 in the Liberty Bowl. Fans looking to watch this college football bowl game can do so for free on fuboTV, which offers a free trial (as well as RedZone, for you NFL fans) or on DirecTV Stream, which also offers a free trial. SlingTV has promotional offers available, as well. Through the end of 2023, fuboTV is also offering $20 off the first two months of subscription (in addition to the 7-day free trial). Who: Memphis vs. Iowa State When: Friday, 3:30 p.m. ET Where: Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee Stream: fuboTV (free trial); or Sling; or DirecTV Stream Tickets: StubHub and *VividSeats Gear: Shop around for jerseys, shirts, hats, hoodies and more at Fanatics.com Sports Betting Promos: Football fans can wager online on Massachusetts sports betting with enticing promo codes from top online sportsbooks. Use the FanDuel Massachusetts promo code and the DraftKings Massachusetts promo code for massive new user bonuses. RELATED CONTENT: Memphis is playing Iowa State in the Liberty Bowl for the second time since 2017. The Tigers have a chance for some payback after losing that game by a point. Memphis needs a victory on its home field for just the fifth season in school history with at least 10 wins and the fourth since 2014. Iowa State is 1-2 all-time in this bowl. The Cyclones are trying to finish winning three of their final four. They upset then-No. 19 Kansas State 42-35 in the regular season finale. Iowa State is playing in its sixth bowl since Matt Campbell took over as coach. WHAT’S AT STAKE? With a victory, Memphis can post just the fifth season in school history with at least 10 wins and the fourth since 2014. The Tigers also can get a little payback after losing this bowl to Iowa State 21-20 in 2017. The Iowa State Cyclones are 1-2 all-time in this bowl. Iowa State is looking to finish winning three of its final four and comes in having upset then-No. 19 Kansas State 42-35 in the regular season finale. KEY MATCHUP Iowa State’s opportunistic defense against a Memphis offense that averaged 39.2 points a game this season. The Cyclones ranked fifth in the NCAA picking off 16 passes and tied for 18th nationally with a plus-8 turnover differential. PLAYERS TO WATCH Iowa State: QB Rocco Becht is the Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and has school freshman records with 20 touchdown passes and 2,674 yards passing that had been held by Brock Purdy, now in the NFL with San Francisco. Becht also has the freshman mark with 209 completions in 12 career starts. Memphis: Seth Henigan is the third-youngest starting quarterback at 20 in FBS this season. He comes in needing to throw for 321 yards for a school record, and he already has 17 300-yard passing games and five 400-yard passing games that are the most in program history. He ranks 10th averaging 293.2 yards passing per game and 11th with 3,519 yards passing for the season. He is ninth averaging 313.8 yards in total offense per game. FACTS & FIGURES Iowa State is playing its sixth bowl game with coach Matt Campbell, a big improvement for a program that had made 12 bowl appearances in its 124 seasons. ... Memphis is one of nine teams in FBS with nine or more straight bowl appearances, a group that includes Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and Iowa. ... Iowa State is 7-2 all-time against American Athletic Conference teams. The Cyclones are 1-5 all-time in games played in Tennessee, including 1-3 in Memphis. ... Memphis has won 87 games since 2014, 16th-most nationally in that span and most among AAC schools. ... Memphis has scored 20 or more points in 26 straight games for the longest active streak nationally. ... Memphis has forced at least one turnover in 24 of the last 30 games with 54 takeaways in that span. ... Iowa State has won 20 straight games when leading at halftime and is 41-5 when leading at the half under Campbell. The Associated Press contributed to this article

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New robots help Mansfield distribution center workers become more productive, less fatigued

New robots help Mansfield distribution center workers become more productive, less fatigued New robots help Mansfield distribution center workers become more productive, less fatigued New robots help Mansfield distribution center workers become more productive, less fatigued MANSFIELD -- At a time when businesses are struggling to find workers, a Mansfield distribution warehouse just brought on eight new ones. But these are robots giving current employees a big boost. Warehouse workers at "Top Notch" used to spend hours walking the warehouse floor, lifting heavy boxes, and pushing carts. That's all changed with the addition of new autonomous robots from fulfillment solutions company 6 River Systems. The robots that zoom around the warehouse, tell employees how many of each item is needed, where the items can be found, and how to organize them. Fallout from the pandemic has left many businesses with a labor crunch and this collaboration between Top Notch and 6 River Systems allows them to make jobs less stressful, both physically and mentally. "From a fatigue perspective, you don't want your pickers walking any more than they need to," said Gillan Hawkes, the Vice President of Product and Analytics at 6 River Systems. "So, benefit to both the associate and a benefit to the operation." Top Notch warehouse manager Bob Wallace said productivity has more than doubled with pickers going from 300 items a day to 700. Time and energy are also saved by an algorithm grouping items together to be picked and sending the robots to specific zones. "Operators can do more with the same number of associates," says Hawkes. "Because those associates are happier. They're satisfied, less fatigued." And employees we spoke to agree it has been a game-changer. "Instead of pushing a cart along with heavy stuff on it and then you have to go up and lift the boxes," said worker Joey. "With these robots, it's the greatest thing that ever happened." 6 River Systems said employees training to work with the robots is simple and only takes a few minutes. The Top Notch warehouse plans to add more robots to its fleet in the coming months.

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Mass. lottery player wins $25,000 a year for life Lucky for Life prize

A lottery player from Massachusetts who won $25,000 a year for life said he’s been playing the same random numbers for the past five years. Venkataramanan Balakrishnan of Shrewsbury won the multi-state “Lucky for Life” drawing on Nov. 28 after he matched the first five numbers on his ticket in the drawing. Balakrishnan claimed his prize on Dec. 1 at Massachusetts State Lottery headquarters in Dorchester and chose the cash option on his prize to receive a one-time payment of $390,000 before taxes. “Lucky for Life” drawings are conducted seven nights a week at 10:38 p.m., and tickets to play cost $2.

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Crash on Route 140 in New Bedford kills 28-year-old woman

A 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on Route 140 in New Bedford on Friday, according to authorities. Julia Luiz was identified as the New Bedford woman killed in the multi-vehicle crash on the highway Friday afternoon, Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn’s Office said in a statement. Massachusetts State Police responded to 911 calls around 5:10 pm Friday about the multi-vehicle crash just before exit 3 on Route 140, according to the statement. Law enforcement’s preliminary investigation revealed Luiz was driving a Toyota Camry when it apparently became disabled in the left lane. She was outside her car in the roadway when a 63-year-old New Bedford man driving a Toyota RAV4 struck her vehicle, the district attorney’s office detailed. Moments later, a Toyota Camry driven by a 58-year-old Rochester man also hit Luiz’s disabled car, according to Quinn’s office. Luiz died as a result of the crash. None of the other drivers were seriously injured, the district attorney’s office said. Read more: RI man faces negligence charge in Foxborough YMCA crash that hurt 4 children The investigation into the crash is active and ongoing. No criminal charges have been filed, Quinn’s office noted.

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Remains of 5 U.S. crew members killed in Air Force crash off Japanese coast found

U.S. and Japanese divers have discovered wreckage and remains of five crew members from a U.S. Air Force Osprey aircraft that crashed last week off southwestern Japan, the Air Force announced Monday. The CV-22 Osprey carrying eight American personnel crashed last Wednesday off Yakushima island during a training mission. The body of one victim was recovered and identified earlier. The Air Force Special Operations Command said two of the five newly located remains have been recovered but their identities have yet to be determined. The joint U.S.-Japanese search operation is still working to recover the remains of three other crew members from the wreckage, it said. The search is continuing for the two people who are still missing, it said. “The main priority is bringing the Airmen home and taking care of their family members. Support to, and the privacy of, the families and loved ones impacted by this incident remains AFSOC’s top priority,” it said in a statement. The U.S. military identified the one confirmed victim as Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday. Galliher, who was stationed in Japan, was a 2017 graduate of Taconic High School in Pittsfield, the city police department said in a statement Friday morning. He left behind his wife, 2-year-old and 7-week-old sons, and a loving family in Western Massachusetts. In a statement, Galliher’s family called him “an amazing father, son and brother dedicated to his family and friends.” “During this period of immense grief, we kindly ask for privacy and understanding as we navigate this unimaginable loss,” the family said. “Our thoughts and support are with the families of Jake’s fellow crew members who are dealing with this tragedy as well.” On Monday, divers from the Japanese navy and U.S. military spotted what appeared to be the front section of the Osprey, along with possibly five of the missing crew members, Japan’s NHK public television and other media reported. Japanese navy officials declined to confirm the reports, saying they could not release details without consent from the U.S. The U.S.-made Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but can rotate its propellers forward and cruise much faster, like an airplane, during flight. Ospreys have had a number of crashes, including in Japan, where they are used at U.S. and Japanese military bases, and the latest accident rekindled safety concerns. Japan has suspended all flights of its own fleet of 14 Ospreys. Japanese officials say they have asked the U.S. military to resume Osprey flights only after ensuring their safety. The Pentagon said no such formal request has been made and that the U.S. military is continuing to fly 24 MV-22s, the Marine version of Ospreys, deployed on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. On Sunday, pieces of wreckage that Japan’s coast guard and local fishing boats have collected were handed over to the U.S. military for examination, coast guard officials said. Japan’s military said debris it has collected would also be handed over to the U.S. Coast guard officials said the recovered pieces of wreckage include parts of the aircraft and an inflatable life raft but nothing related to the cause of the crash, such as an engine. Local witnesses reported seeing fire coming from one of the engines. Under the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, Japanese authorities are not given the right to seize or investigate U.S. military property unless the U.S. decides otherwise. That means it will be practically impossible for Japan to independently investigate the cause of the accident. The agreement has often made Japanese investigations difficult in criminal cases involving American service members on Okinawa and elsewhere. It has been criticized as unequal by rights activists and others, including Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, who has called for a revision.

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School early releases in Mass. for Monday, Dec. 18

With almost 300,000 people without power throughout Massachusetts, a high-wind warning in effect until Monday night and downpours causing flooding in some parts of the state, some schools are sending students home early. Downpours and possible thunder persist in Eastern Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service, and are moving northeast after noon. “A strong storm moving up the eastern seaboard will bring very strong winds, heavy rain and coastal flooding along the south coast today,” the National Weather Service website said. “Although conditions to improve late this afternoon and early tonight, it remains unsettled into Tuesday with clouds and perhaps a spotty shower.” Minor river flooding was reported shortly after noon Monday near Williamstown, Deerfield and Westfield and other rivers in Western Mass. were near flood stage, according to the National Weather Service’s river observations report. Minor flooding was also reported in Fitchburg. Good morning Gateway Families, I've spoken to some town highway superintendents as well as the bus company and several... Posted by Gateway Regional School District on Monday, December 18, 2023 At least two Western Mass. school districts have sent students home early due to flooding and transportation concerns. “I’ve spoken to some town highway superintendents as well as the bus company and several selectboard members. There is a real concern with road closures and detours continuing to worsen as rain and wind continues throughout the day. The goal is to get students home safely with sufficient time to navigate detours during daylight hours,” Gateway Regional School District Superintendent Kristen Smidy posted on Facebook at 10:20 a.m. Monday. “Because of this, the middle and high school will dismiss at 12:10pm. Elementary will dismiss at 2pm to give the first routes a little more time to navigate detours. Wrap around is canceled today along with all other after school activities. Afternoon PreK is also cancelled. All early dismissals, tardies and absences can be excused today.” Due to flooding and transportation concerns, HRHS will be dismissing all students at 11:30. Elementary schools will... Posted by Hampshire Regional Administrative Team on Monday, December 18, 2023 Hampshire Regional School District also sent students home early due to transportation concerns. Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has posted some safety tips on X, formerly known as Twitter, for those driving: Take it slow on the roads and be aware of fallen tree limbs/debris Never drive or walk through floodwater Avoid downed power lines and call 911 to report Call your utility provider to report a power outage The following public school districts have announced early dismissal for Monday, Dec. 18. These listings are updated regularly, click here to refresh. B Blackstone - Millville Regional School District — closed Monday F Foxborough Regional Charter School — Early dismissal Monday G Gateway Regional School District — Early dismissal Monday H Hampshire Regional School District — Early dismissal Monday T Triton Regional School District — Early dismissal Monday

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Celtics rookie describes unforgettable NBA debut

BOSTON — When Jordan Walsh checked into Wednesday’s win over the Spurs, the TD Garden fans knew the magnitude of the situation. While the game was a blowout and hundreds of fans were already gone, those who stuck around made sure to cheer loudly for Walsh’s NBA debut. It wasn’t just that first moment. Every time Walsh touched the ball — even for a split-second — C’s fans made some noise for the 19-year-old rookie. And when Walsh put up the 3-pointer with 47 seconds left, the crowd was ready to explode. It didn’t quite go in, but Walsh still reflected on the experience. “I definitely could,” Walsh said of feeling the crowd. “Soon as I was open, the ball started heading towards me and everyone started screaming. I may have been a little nervous. But it’s all part of the game. But I was definitely excited.” BetMGM BET $5, GET $158! BONUS BETS CLAIM OFFER Promo code: MASS158 STATES: MA, KY, AZ, CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA. Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21 years of age or older to wager. MA Only. New Customer Offer. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets. Bonus bets expire 7 days from issuance. In Partnership with MGM Springfield. Play it smart from the start with GameSense. GameSenseMA.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org. Walsh finally got some NBA action after spending the majority of the season in Maine suiting up for the G-League version of the C’s. There, he’s averaged 16.3 points and 7.9 rebounds in eight games — notably, he’s also shooting 40.8% on 6.1 3-pointers a game. The rookie was selected 38th overall in last year’s draft, so he’s the lone rookie on the Celtics. At this point, minutes are going to be hard to come by with the C’s boasting such a loaded roster. So that’s why Walsh is getting meaningful reps at the G-League level. He doesn’t turn 20 until March, so there’s plenty of development in his future as a pro. “There’s definitely been improvements, I feel like,” Walsh said. “If you go that long without getting any better, you’re not really going very hard. I definitely feel like I’ve improved a little bit. The guys around me have made it so easy for me. The coaches have made it easy for me. Even when I’m in Maine, they’re up in Boston still, texting me, coming to games, stuff like that.” Walsh has had a few stints being around with the NBA club even if he didn’t play, like during Christmas where his family also got to come hang out with him. Otherwise, the improvements have come from behind the scenes as he looks to transform into a contributor down the line. So Wednesday was the first step in what the Celtics and Walsh hope will be a long, fruitful NBA career. Walsh finished with four rebounds in his three minutes Wednesday. While there weren’t any points or fireworks, Walsh was plenty of appreciative of playing in front of the Garden crowd. “For me personally, it’s been easy knowing that I’m in the best team, the best organization there is in the NBA right now,” Walsh said. “So, keeping that in my mind, knowing that the time is coming, it’s a process for everybody. I’m just at this point in my process, and hopefully by the end of this process, I’ll be where I want to be. And that’s kind of like how I approach every day, just wanting to get to that final end goal.”

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Chris Christie to drop from GOP race at N.H. town hall, source tells AP

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is planning to announce he’s dropping his Republican presidential bid at his New Hampshire town hall on Wednesday night. That’s according to a person with direct knowledge of the former New Jersey governor’s plans who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions. Christie has been under intense pressure to exit the Republican presidential primary race as critics of Donald Trump work to unify behind a viable alternative to the former president. Christie is scheduled to host a town hall meeting in Windham at 5 p.m., hours before two of his rivals, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, meet for the fifth GOP presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle. It is the only debate that Christie did not qualify for. The news comes as a surprise, given that Christie had staked the success of his campaign on New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, which is less than two weeks away. He had insisted as recently as Tuesday night that he had no plans to leave the race, rebuffing growing calls for him to step aside as he continued to cast himself as the only candidate willing to directly take on the former president. “I would be happy to get out of the way for someone who is actually running against Donald Trump,” he said at a town hall in Rochester, New Hampshire, while arguing that none of his rivals had stepped up to the plate. “I’m famous enough. ... I’ve got plenty of titles. ... The only reason to do this is to win,” he added. “So I’d be happy to get out of the way for somebody if they actually were going against Donald Trump.” But Christie faced a stark reality: While recent polls showed him reaching the double digits in New Hampshire, Haley shows signs of momentum. A CNN/UNH poll conducted in the state this week found Trump’s lead down to the single digits, with 4 in 10 likely Republican primary voters choosing Trump and about one-third now choosing Haley.

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Holyoke and Providence Ministries set up emergency shelter ahead of weekend storm

HOLYOKE — If some people don’t take refuge in a shelter, they will be on the street during this winter’s first big storm. That has moved Jennie Adamczyk, executive director of Providence Ministries for the Needy, to team up with the city of Holyoke to open an emergency pop-up shelter in anticipation of snow forecast for Saturday night into Sunday. With no other emergency shelters in Holyoke, the only other option for unhoused people in the city is to try to get public transportation to Springfield for a bed at a shelter, Adamczyk said. It is hard to maneuver without transportation, so it is important for services to be in place in Holyoke when temperatures dip, Adamczyk said. The pop-up emergency shelter aims to make sure those without a home are safe during severe weather conditions, Mayor Joshua A. Garcia said in a statement. Unhoused residents in Holyoke can access the shelter on 51 Hamilton St. through the Kate’s Kitchen door in the back parking lot on Saturday starting at 5 p.m. Doors close at 7 p.m. There are 24 beds available. People who come to the shelter can expect a hot shower, a fresh change of clothes, a hot dinner, a warm place to sleep, breakfast and medical attention for issues like frostbite and diabetes, in addition to detox referrals for those in need. Volunteers take cots from Holyoke's Emergency Management trailer in the parking lot of Kate's Kitchen. The city, in collaboration with Providence Ministries, will be opening a shelter above Kate's Kitchen in anticipation of a weekend storm. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 1/5/2024The Republican Adamczyk said the pop-up shelter is unique because traditional daily shelter organizations typically separate men and women. And because they do not operate daily, they have a little more flexibility. “Couples who are unsheltered would rather stay out in a tent than be separated,” she said. “We don’t separate couples.” According to Adamczyk, the ministry has seen an increase in the number of new people seeking services over the last year. She anticipates the emergency pop-up shelter to be open several nights over this winter season. The shelter’s schedule is weather-dependent. It is open when it is 10 degrees and below, and when the wind chill is expected to sink below zero. It also opens during brutal heat of the summer, she said. Although it is uncertain how much of the population in Holyoke is unsheltered, a single person living on the street is too many, Stephanie Trombley said. Trombley, the executive assistant and financial coordinator at Providence Ministries, said the emergency shelter program that ran last year filled each night. Last year, Providence Ministries served more than 300 people over the 14 nights the pop-up shelter was in operation. “We take care of the unsheltered population in a big way, and we have seen a greater need,” Trombley said. All guests who stay at the shelter have to leave by 7 a.m. to ensure a smooth transition into daily operations of the facility by 8 a.m. Providence Ministries is always taking donations of warm-weather gear, blankets, travel-sized toiletries and socks to make care packages for people on their way out. Unsheltered people are on their feet during harsh weather and go through a lot of socks, Trombley said.

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Israeli Invasion Plans Target Gaza City and Hamas Leadership

The Israeli military is preparing to invade the Gaza Strip soon with tens of thousands of soldiers ordered to capture Gaza City and destroy the enclave’s current leadership, according to three senior Israeli military officers who outlined unclassified details about the plan. The military has announced that its ultimate goal is to wipe out the top political and military hierarchy of Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza and led last week’s terrorist attacks in Israel that killed 1,300 people. The assault is expected to be Israel’s biggest ground operation since it invaded Lebanon in 2006. It would also be the first in which Israel has attempted to capture land and at least briefly hold onto it since its invasion of Gaza in 2008, according to the three senior officers. The operation risks locking Israel into months of bloody urban combat, both above ground and in a warren of tunnels — a fraught offensive that Israel has long avoided because it involves fighting in a narrow and tightly packed sliver of land populated by more than 2 million people. Israeli officials have warned that Hamas could kill Israeli hostages, use Palestinian noncombatants as human shields, and have strewn the territory with booby traps.

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New Bedford teen killed in Dartmouth car crash attended technical high school

Jacob Pothier, the 18-year-old New Bedford resident who was killed in a car crash in Dartmouth on Friday, was a student at Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School (GNBVT), according to the school’s superintendent. “The death of a person so young, no matter the circumstances, is a tragedy. It is the stark reminder of a life not realized,” GNBVT Superintendent said in a statement on Saturday. The school cancelled its varsity non-league hockey game against East Boston High School Saturday evening out of respect of Pothier’s family, according to the statement. Additionally, the school will have crisis councilors available this week, and those in need of support can call 508-998-4698. Read more: New Bedford teen dies after thrown from car in Dartmouth Friday On Jan. 5, the car Pothier was in crashed near the intersection of Gulf and Smith Neck Road in Dartmouth around 10:30 p.m., Dartmouth police said previously. Pothier and 44-year-old Dartmouth resident Kathleen Martins were thrown from the car. Both were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, and Pothier was soon declared dead, police said previously. Martins suffered life-threatening injuries, and was still in critical condition on Sunday, Dartmouth police said. Dartmouth police are still investigating the crash, and put out a call for information on Facebook Sunday afternoon. They are looking for people who may have seen the car that crashed — a white 2022 Honda Accord — traveling in or near the town landing on the west side of the Padanaram Bridge before 10:30 p.m. Friday. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call police at 508-910-1790.

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Layoffs hit Mass. biotech sector after years of hype

Dwight Morrow was let go by Rubius Therapeutics five months before it shut down in February. But the veteran scientist quickly moved to a small startup and then got a high-ranking job at Moderna, one of the state’s biggest biotechs, all without leaving Cambridge. Gina Calvanese got laid off from Jounce Therapeutics, a struggling Cambridge biotech, in April but landed a higher-paying, six-figure administrative job at a Boston drug maker within days. Robert Janoschek hasn’t fared as well. He lost his job at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals in Marlborough after its Japanese parent restructured its US subsidiaries. He has applied for hundreds of jobs at other drug companies since April, he said, but can’t find anything he wants. Advertisement “It’s stunning to see how many other people are applying for the same job,” said Janoschek, who once counted 917 aspirants for an opening on LinkedIn. “This is like playing the lottery.” Calvanese, Morrow, and Janoschek are among thousands of Massachusetts biopharmaceutical workers laid off in the past two years in what experts describe as one of the industry’s biggest shakeouts in decades. Their experiences provide a snapshot of a sector settling down after years of hope and hype. The state’s biotech scene exploded in the mid-2010s and early in the pandemic as exuberant investors disregarded the high failure rate in drug development and bet on buzzy technologies such as gene editing and messenger RNA vaccines. When the inevitable setbacks occurred — roughly 90 percent of experimental drugs fizzle out in clinical trials — investments plunged and firms shut down or shed workers. To be sure, the life sciences sector remains robust, a major pillar of the economy, and companies are generally happy to pick up talent cast aside. But the drumbeat of layoffs in 2022 has only grown louder this year. Advertisement At least 56 drug firms based in Massachusetts (or with operations here) have made layoffs or closed in 2023 through September, according to Dan Gold, president of Fairway Consulting Group, a life sciences recruiting firm. He estimated US biopharma firms cut about 6,000 jobs in 2022 and 11,000 so far this year. Roughly one-third of the layoffs have been in Massachusetts, he said. Many factors play a role in how quickly laid-off workers find new positions, industry observers say, including their areas of expertise, the salaries they are seeking, and their reputations in the state’s tight-knit drug-making sector. Scientists who develop drugs to treat cancers, neurological conditions, and rare diseases are especially in demand, Gold said, as are people with expertise in creating vaccines. Workers with experience in dealing with the Food and Drug Administration are also a hot commodity. And although many companies are making layoffs, others are expanding. Overall employment in Massachusetts biopharma increased 6.9 percent to about 114,000 in 2022, compared to nearly 107,000 the year before, according to a report released Sept. 6 by industry association MassBio. Because the job totals were reported as of Dec. 31, the trade group’s snapshot didn’t reflect layoffs this year. Morrow, the scientist who ended up at vaccine maker Moderna, had already survived at least one round of layoffs at Rubius when he learned in September 2022 that he would lose his job as a vice president. Moderna, which makes messenger RNA vaccines for COVID, is now the biggest Massachusetts-based biopharma employer. Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg He had worked at drug companies since the late 1990s, including nearly 16 years at British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, and had never been laid off before. Advertisement “I was bummed,” said Morrow, 62, who oversaw drug development technologies at Rubius, which wanted to turn red blood cells into potent new medicines. “But I was confident I was going to find something else.” He was contacted by several executive-level headhunters before he left Rubius and landed a similar job as a vice president at Parallel Bio, a small startup. He left Parallel in June to become executive director of biological sciences at Moderna, which makes messenger RNA vaccines for COVID and is now the biggest Massachusetts-based biopharma employer. It has nearly 4,200 workers in the state, according to MassBio. A long list of other biotechs have shuttered this year or plan to, including Jounce; Frequency Therapeutics, and Cyteir Therapeutics, both of Lexington; and Magenta Therapeutics and Intergalactic Therapeutics, both of Cambridge. “I’ve never seen this many companies fold in such a short period of time,” said Kara Coluccio, managing partner of Perspective Group, a Cambridge company that recruits executives for life sciences firms. “There are a lot of companies folding that probably shouldn’t have been formed in the first place.” Other companies are still in business but have shed workers because of FDA decisions. In August, Sage Therapeutics said it will lay off about 40 percent of its workforce, roughly 275 employees, after regulators approved the Cambridge biotech’s new drug for postpartum depression but not for major depressive disorder, a far bigger market. (Sage had developed the drug with Biogen.) Advertisement Around town, workers’ experiences finding new jobs have varied widely. Calvanese, 31, said she was “very shocked” when Jounce laid her off in April from her job as an executive assistant to the chief executive and chief financial officer. “I wasn’t even there fully a year, so I was still trying to wrap my brain around what we did scientifically,” said Calvanese, who lives in South Boston. Jounce had made a round of layoffs several weeks earlier, she said, but she was among 40 employees retained as the startup sought a buyer. Not long afterward, Jounce chief executive Rich Murray held a company meeting to say that another firm had agreed to acquire the startup but was laying everyone off. Calvanese immediately contacted a recruiter and got interviews with four companies. She took a job with Tango Therapeutics, which is developing cancer treatments. She is now manager of administration and executive assistant to the chief executive, Barbara Weber. And it didn’t hurt that Calvanese’s six-figure salary exceeds what she was earning at Jounce, she said. But other workers, like Janoschek, have struggled to find a job they want. Janoschek, 56, had worked for Sunovion and a predecessor firm for 22 years and lost his job in March in a restructuring that shed hundreds of workers. The big blow to Sunovion, he said, was the loss of patent protection for Latuda, its best-selling schizophrenia drug, which led to competition from cheaper generic medicines. Advertisement As associate director of manufacturing sciences and technology, Janoschek acted as a liaison between Sunovion and companies that made its medicines in the United States and overseas. He said he has applied for similar positions at other drug firms at a pay range of $180,000 to $210,000 a year, less than what he was earning at Sunovion. He has had several interviews but received only one offer, from a biotech startup. He wasn’t interested. “Having done the startup thing before [in the early 1990s], where it’s a lot of 80-hour work weeks, I’m not sure I wanted to do that,” he said. He wonders whether being in his mid-50s is hurting his chances. But, he said, he’s not worried about money at this point. “The severance package that I received from Sunovion was very generous and will tide me over until December,” he said. “That said, would I rather have a position? Absolutely.” Robert Janoschek with his dogs, Skippy and Remy. Janoschek had worked for Sunovion Pharmaceuticals in Marlborough and a predecessor firm for 22 years and lost his job in March in a restructuring that shed hundreds of workers. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.

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The Bombshell Colorado Ruling

It has been clear for months that politics and the law were going to bump into one another in next year’s presidential race, with Donald Trump playing a dual starring role: criminal defendant and a candidate for the country’s highest office. This week, that awkward bump turned into a head-on collision. It is now clear that the courts — especially the Supreme Court — could shape the contours of the election in extraordinary and previously unimaginable ways. In case you missed it, there was big news: Yesterday, Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled that Trump is disqualified from holding office again because of his actions leading up to Jan. 6. The Colorado ruling is based on a provision of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which bars people who have engaged in insurrection from holding office. Trump’s campaign immediately said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Select Board yet to decide on using outside consultant in police chief search

SOUTHWICK – When Select Board member Jason Perron proposed using an “oral board” to help the board choose a candidate to replace retiring Police Chief Robert Landis during the board’s last meeting, his fellow board members wanted think about it before deciding. And while that didn’t change when the board broached the subject again Tuesday during its weekly meeting, Board member Diane Gale pressed Perron for his reasons for proposing an oral board for the candidates, which is essentially a Q&A conducted by current or retired police chiefs. “Jason, you want to start?” Gale asked Perron after Board member Doug Moglin started the discussion.

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Mild air starts the weekend, snow ends it for some

As the weekend approaches, New England has shifted gears in weather. A fast-moving southern stream disturbance is poised to bring changes, with dry and sunny conditions prevailing in the morning on Friday, but clouds will increase as the swift-moving system approaches from the southwest during the mid to late afternoon. This system will usher in a bout of light rain, beginning in western-central Massachusetts and Connecticut between 2 and 4 p.m. and spreading eastward into Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts between 3 and 5 p.m. The accompanying southwest flow will elevate temperatures to unseasonably mild levels, peaking in the low to mid-50s across eastern Connecticut, Rhode Island, and eastern Massachusetts, while other areas can expect upper 40s. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. The night will remain damp, with light rain and mild temperatures, and the potential for areas of fog, particularly in Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts. Saturday, some drying is expected after a few morning showers north of Boston as the departing disturbance leaves behind mostly cloudy conditions with temperatures into the 50s again. More showers are expected in the morning for northern New England, and northern Maine will see periodic light snow accumulating to one to three inches by Saturday night. That cold air in the far North Country sits behind a slow-moving cold front that will sag southward into southern New England Saturday night, but won't deliver enough cold air for a change to snow Sunday — except in northern New England. Ski and snowmobile country will find a change to snow from north to south and hilltop to valley Sunday into Sunday evening, meaning return trips from ski areas to southern New England are best started before sundown Sunday. The snow line should stop somewhere around the Berkshires and Monadnock Region to Lakes Region Sunday night into Monday morning, as precipitation is expected to taper sometime Monday. Our team has issued a First Alert Sunday due to expected heavy rain and downpours later this weekend. Stay with NBC10 Boston for the latest information. Thereafter, the midweek next week looks cool and dry before renewed showers are possible next Friday into Friday night, though from this early view our First Alert Team remains optimistic for conditions Saturday at Gillette Stadium for the Army-Navy football game, with highs in the middle 40s and likely dry conditions expected at this point.

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Update to Four Infants found in Freezer on East Broadway Last Year

A person whose body was found in a basement apartment in Lawrence Tuesday appears to have been killed, according to authorities. Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker and Lawrence Acting Chief of Police William Castro announced in a press release Tuesday evening they are investigating an apparent homicide but assure people there is no “ongoing threat to the public.” Lawrence Police were called to a basement apartment at 243 Salem St. for a well-being check at about 7:48 a.m. Dec. 26. Officers found an unresponsive person who was pronounced dead at the scene, the press release said. Officials did not name the person or indicate the gender, although NBC10 Boston has reported sources told the media outlet the body was that of a woman. Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the District Attorney’s Office and the Lawrence Police Department are investigating the death as “an apparent homicide.” Officials did not anticipate releasing any other information Tuesday night.

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Its a Game Show!

Are you even in the holiday spirit if you’re not watching cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies every night in December? This season, Hallmark has a handful of new films dropping, including “My Norwegian Holiday” on Friday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. ET. Fans looking to check it out can do so for free (Christmas came early?) by going to fuboTV and signing up for a free trial or by going over to Philo for their free trial. From Hallmark’s website: “JJ, grieving the loss of her grandmother and seeking dissertation inspiration, stumbles upon an unexpected holiday destiny. Meeting Henrik, a Norwegian from Bergen, their connection deepens when he discovers she has a troll figurine from his hometown. To explore the troll’s history and her grandmother’s ties, JJ agrees to join Henrik on a journey to Norway. In Bergen, they’re drawn into Henrik’s family Christmas and wedding traditions, with his sister’s wedding the day before Christmas Eve. JJ embarks on a holiday adventure, uncovering the troll’s origins and finding her own path to healing, love and family. Starring Rhiannon Fish and David Elsendoorn.” Hallmark is also promoting three other new Christmas movies this holiday season, in addition to “My Norwegian Holiday”: “A Not So Royal Christmas” staring Brooke D’Orsay and Will Kemp; “Christmas With a Kiss” starring Mishael Morgan, Ronnie Rowe Jr. and Jaime M Callica and “Magic in Mistletoe” starring Lyndie Greenwood and Paul Campbell.

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Friend who warned officials of Maine shooter says I literally spelled it out

The International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest judicial body, will begin hearings this week in a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The hearings, the first step in a lengthy process should the case go forward, will be the first time that Israel has chosen to defend itself, in person, in such a setting, attesting to the gravity of the indictment and the high stakes for its international reputation and standing. Genocide, the term first employed by a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent in 1944 to describe the Nazis’ systematic murder of about six million Jews and others based on their ethnicity, is among the most serious crimes of which a country can be accused. In its submission to the court, South Africa cited that lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, expounding on the definition of genocide. South Africa, whose post-apartheid government has long supported the Palestinian cause, accused Israel of actions in Gaza that are “genocidal in character.” It says Israel has killed Palestinian civilians, inflicted serious bodily and mental harm, and created for the residents of Gaza “conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.”

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Somerville learns to love the triple-decker, again

[This article, which was originally published for 2017’s winter solstice, has been updated for 2023. Sign up for The Times Space Calendar here.] On Dec. 21, or Thursday this year, the sun will hug the horizon. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it will seem to barely rise — hardly peeking above a city’s skyline or a forest’s snow-covered evergreens — before it swiftly sets. For months, the orb’s arc across the sky has been slumping, shortening each day. In New York City, for example, the sun will be in the sky for just over nine hours — roughly six hours less than in June at the summer solstice. The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, before the sun reverses course and climbs higher into the sky. (At the same time, places like Australia in the Southern Hemisphere mark the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.) This is a good opportunity to imagine what such a day might look like if we had evolved on another planet where the sun would take a different dance across the sky. You might want to feel thankful for the solstices and seasons we do have, or we might not be here to witness them at all.

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Jeff Bezos Giant Yacht Is Apparently Too Big to Anchor Near Others in Florida

First, Jeff Bezos’ new megayacht was too big to pass under a bridge in the Netherlands. Now, the massive vessel’s size — it’s more than 400 feet long — has played a role in preventing it from keeping company with other private yachts in Port Everglades, Fla., where it is anchored. Instead, the megayacht, named Koru, is hanging with huge oil tankers and general container ships. The yacht is docked there because of its size and also because of what berths were available in the seaport, according to a spokeswoman for Port Everglades. Koru is a sailing yacht, unlike the much bigger diesel-powered boats popular with other billionaires. It is the largest sailing yacht in the world, according to Oceanco, the Dutch company that finished building the boat earlier this year. The deck space of the three-masted schooner has three Jacuzzis and a swimming pool. The inside has a “timeless, contemporary style,” according to Oceanco, with natural wood tones, warm neutrals, and patterned textiles. It also includes a mermaid on the bow that appears to resemble Mr. Bezos’ partner, Lauren Sánchez.

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The Tissue That Connects Our Muscles May Be a Key to Better Health

“We’re still at the very, very beginning” of understanding fascia, said Helene Langevin, the director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes of Health. “This is a part of the body which we have neglected for so long.” What is fascia? Your body has two forms of fascia: dense and loose. Each type is key to facilitating movement. Dense fascia, made of sturdy collagen fibers, helps give your body its shape. It holds muscles, organs, blood vessels and nerve fibers in place. It helps your muscles contract and stretch, and stabilizes your joints. The more slippery loose fascia allows your muscles, joints and organs to slide and glide against one another like a well-oiled machine. How does fascia get damaged? In 2007, an anatomy professor named Carla Stecco at the University of Padova in Italy found that fascia is alive with nerve endings. This means it can be a source of pain. The longer it is damaged or inflamed, the more sensitive it becomes. When you’re sedentary for a long time, fascia can shorten, become overly rigid and congeal into place, forming adhesions that limit mobility, said David Krause, a physical therapist at the Mayo Clinic. Over time, inactivity can also lead fascia to reshape itself. If you spend most days hunched over a computer, the fascia surrounding your neck and shoulder muscles may change so that your posture becomes curved. Fascia can also become damaged from repetitive movements, chronic stress, injury or surgery — becoming inflamed, overly rigid or stuck together. And it stiffens with age.

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Passport lost in Boston returns to Irish woman via good Samaritan in Grafton

It’s a good thing that information doesn’t need a passport to travel the world. A woman from Ireland visiting friends in Framingham was reunited with her lost passport Wednesday after relatives living in Ireland used social media to find that her passport had somehow traveled to the Grafton Police Department despite the woman having never been there. Chloe Margaret O’Brien, 25, said she often kept her passport with her in a coat pocket but lost it after a night out at a bar in Boston. On that evening, she had last seen the passport after she hung the coat on a coatrack. At the end of the night, the coat came back on, but it wasn’t until the Uber driver had dropped her off at home that O'Brien realized that the passport was missing. After checking with the Uber driver and calling the bar in Boston, the woman from Cork, a city in southern Ireland, said she gave up hope and resorted to having to order a new passport to get back home. Sunday morning, O’Brien’s husband’s social media account was bombarded with messages from friends, family and strangers from Ireland who said that an Irish passport with her name on it had been turned in to the Grafton Police Department, according to a Facebook post by the department. The post had almost 10,000 shares as of Friday afternoon, while a thread with a screenshot of the police department’s post appeared on Reddit about 24 hours later. Sgt. Jimmy Crosby of the Grafton Police Department said a person named Seetharmr Chimangala had turned in the passport Sunday, saying to have found it in the area of Milford Road in Grafton. Chimangala was unable to be reached at the phone number they had provided to the department. Neither Crosby nor O’Brien have any ideas for how the passport traveled from her pocket to Milford Road in Grafton. “Thank you so much for having such a great heart and saving my new year,” said O’Brien, referring to the person who returned her passport. When she picked up the passport Wednesday at the department, O’Brien added that the passport had some damage and looked like it had been outdoors, although it was still viable for her to use Dec. 29, when she returns to Ireland with her family. O’Brien was said to have been in the Framingham area for the past two and a half months, while she had also visited the country last year for about six weeks.

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Doctor Who Welcomed Its 15th Doctor. Heres How He Stacks Up.

With most TV shows, a major casting change is a dreaded event. But for fans of the long-running British series “Doctor Who,” big casting changes are expected, even anticipated. With the show’s latest Christmas episode, which premiered Monday on Disney+, we got acquainted with the newest Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”) — the 15th Doctor and the first Black, openly queer one in series history. The arrival of a new Doctor, the show’s titular time-traveling, space-wandering alien, is always a buzzy occasion. But although the Doctor typically dies and is regenerated in the final minutes of some climactic episode, it is the one immediately following that truly establishes the new incarnation and what kind of flavor he or she will offer. These first full episodes with a new Doctor, including this year’s Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road,” can reveal a lot about how that Doctor’s tenure will go. Here’s a look back at the first post-regeneration episodes of every Doctor since the show’s 2005 revival.

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New Trump Cases Shadowed by Rocky Relationship With Supreme Court

Indeed, the Trump administration had the worst Supreme Court record of any since at least the Roosevelt administration, according to data developed by Lee Epstein and Rebecca L. Brown, law professors at the University of Southern California, for an article in Presidential Studies Quarterly. “Whether Trump’s poor performance speaks to the court’s view of him and his administration or to the justices’ increasing willingness to check executive authority, we can’t say,” the two professors wrote in an email. “Either way, though, the data suggest a bumpy road for Trump in cases implicating presidential power.” Now another series of Trump cases are at the court or on its threshold: one on whether he enjoys absolute immunity from prosecution, another on the viability of a central charge in the federal election-interference case and the third, from Colorado, on whether he was barred from another term under the 14th Amendment. The cases pose distinct legal questions, but earlier decisions suggest they could divide the court’s conservative wing along a surprising fault line: Mr. Trump’s appointees have been less likely to vote for him in some politically charged cases than Justice Clarence Thomas, who was appointed by the first President Bush, and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was appointed by the second one. In his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, Mr. Trump spoke ruefully about his three appointees: Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, suggesting that they had betrayed him to establish their independence.

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Bill Belichick Coach Updates

Some were struck by the finality of the news, saying that even though a 4-13 season had prepared them for this as a possibility, it was still a shock. 7:15 p.m.

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Visible Mending: The Healing Powers of Knitting - The New York Times

I started making this short documentary as a response to my mom developing dementia in her early 60s and forgetting how to read a knitting pattern. After years of having her knit for me, I taught myself how to knit by watching YouTube tutorials. As I learned more, and my mom’s health declined, I began to understand the solace that knitting brings. I started interviewing members of the Merrymakers, a small group of older knitters in rural Shropshire, England, over five years ago. All the members had their own stories illustrating the therapeutic power of textile arts and how knitting granted them the time and space to process grief, frustration or health struggles. As the film started to take shape, I expanded my interviews to weave in more voices — Mike Donnelly, a Glaswegian knitter who makes baby shrouds for a hospital; Betsan Corkhill, an occupational therapist who explores how knitting alleviates physical pain; and Lorna Hamilton-Brown, an artist and community activist who uses knitting as a way to bring people together. I represent each voice with a knit character the participants made or chose. These characters come to embody the stories of their makers, illustrating that we can mend ourselves through creative acts. Sometimes emotional repair can be found in something as simple as a skein of yarn.

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Howie Carr takes on City Hall

If the persistent rumors about ambulance calls to Mayor Michelle Wu’s house are so “baseless,” then why has the City of Boston been stonewalling me for 14 months in my attempts to obtain the very records that will put the lie to the scurrilous gossip once and for all? It’s not like I haven’t been patient. I filed my first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the city on Oct. 9, 2022. Fourteen months ago. The secretary of state’s Public Records Division just ordered the city to turn over the documents, known as Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) records, that show all police, fire and ambulance calls to her home. Those records do exist. I sent the hackerama CAD documents for randomly selected addresses in the city, and guess what – they all included ambulance calls. They’re very easy to get, unless you ask for the mayor’s house. First they refused to send me the CAD records for the mayor’s address. Last December, they sent me some worthless spreadsheets and basically claimed they didn’t know what I was asking for. That’s when I sent them the real CAD records from places where members of the protected classes don’t live. Finally, last September, 11 months after I first asked for the documents (under the law they had 10 days to respond), they sent me a version of CAD document for the mayor’s address in Roslindale. With all the relevant parts redacted, by way of being listed as “Default.” Now they’re saying that the city “does not release ambulance or health records for any resident of Boston.” But once again, the city hacks are not telling the truth. Here’s a story from the Boston Globe, dated March 26 of last year, about these so-called “baseless” rumors regarding Wu: “Records of January and February emergency calls show no ambulance was dispatched to her (Wu’s) home to collect her for medical treatment.” So the records of emergency calls to 15-17 Augustus Ave. in Ward 18 are apparently public… but only for the Globe. To reiterate, they’re not public for the Herald, or for anybody else. Just the Boston Globe. Have I got that right? Rules for thee but not for me. I wonder if the Globe actually saw the unexpurgated CAD records? Or did they just take the word of Mayor Wu? After all, the paper’s motto is, “Afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable?” And who could possibly be more comfortable than the hacks at City Hall? All I’m asking for is what they gave the Boston Globe – but not just for those two months. I want all the CAD records for the mayor’s house, dating back to 2021. And when I get ‘em, I’ll put everything out there, for everyone to see just how baseless and pathetic the rumors are. I ask for no special treatment. I merely ask to be treated like a “reporter” for the Boston Globe. Some people have asked me, why did I drag my own feet so long? Why did I wait over a year before I appealed the city’s obvious, blatant stonewalling? The reason is, believe it or not, Boston City Hall is no longer a major beat, for me or anybody else. In my own recent personal experience, if I want to make sure I get the minimum number of downloads for my podcasts, or next to no clicks for my columns – I just have to write about city politics. For most Americans who work for a living and pay taxes, anything about politics in the city of Boston has become a “feel-good story.” It’s called a feel-good story because it makes them feel good that they don’t live in the city anymore and thus don’t have to deal with all the insanity, depravity and corruption. I know this first-hand. These last 14 months, every time City Hall gave me another run-around, I felt good – that I sold my little condo on Marlborough Street and was no longer paying (directly anyway) for all the happy horse bleep. The flack for Michelle Wu is named “Ricky” Ricardo Patron. He’s from Wisconsin, and now he’s the spokesman for the mayor, who’s from Illinois. He was born in 1988, and she was born in 1985. Here’s his take on the records that the Globe is entitled to, but not the Herald. “This is another pathetic and baseless rumor from the conspiracy theory crew longing for 1970’s Boston.” Is Ricky Ricardo talking to me – 1970’s Boston? What do any of those comrades know about 1970’s Boston? What do the Hamas terrorists call Israelis? Colonial settlers, isn’t it? Can those of us now slurred as “1970’s Boston” start referring to the blow-ins running City Hall as “colonial settlers?” The colonial settlers of the Mideast have been there a lot longer than Patron, Wu et al. have been flopping here in Boston as colonial settlers at the public trough. If these drifters who so obviously despise us are in fact colonial settlers, then what is the “1970’s Boston” population? Are we native Americans, or the Palestinians of New England? Personally, I don’t have a lot of nostalgia for 1970’s Boston. What I remember from back then was Democrats – white Democrats – stalking me with guns, not to mention C-4 explosives they got from other Democrats in the Boston office of the FBI. On Wednesday, when I first tweeted out the letter from the Secretary of State ordering the city to turn over the real ambulance documents, a female friend texted my wife and asked her what was involved in this dispute. My wife told her friend what was really going on, and her friend texted back to her: “But aren’t all liberal women basket cases?” One way or another, City Hall, the story is going to get out. (Order Howie’s new book, “Paper Boy: Read All About It!” at howiecarrshow.com or amazon.com.)

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Patriots have new kicker on standby as Chad Ryland struggles (report)

FOXBOROUGH — After missing 35-yard field goals in back-to-back losses, Chad Ryland’s job security is in jeopardy. The Patriots worked out five kickers on Tuesday, and according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Bill Belichick told one of them to hang around Foxborough. “Kicker intel: Matt McCrane stayed in town after being 1 of 5 to work out for the Patriots Tuesday, and was on standby pending another workout(s) Wednesday (possibly Matthew Wright, who was released from Falcons practice squad Tuesday),” Reiss tweeted. “So possibility of 2nd kicker still in play.” $200 INSTANT BONUS DRAFTKINGS MASS CLAIM OFFER BET $5, GET $200 BONUS BET FANDUEL MASS CLAIM OFFER BET $50, GET $250 BONUS CAESARS MASS CLAIM OFFER $1,000 FIRST-BET BONUS BETMGM MASS CLAIM OFFER MA only. 21+. Gambling Problem? If you or a loved one is experiencing problems with gambling, please call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org for 24/7 support. LiveChat with a GameSense Advisor at GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234 MA Gambling Helpline. MA only. 21+. Gambling Problem? If you or a loved one is experiencing problems with gambling, please call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org for 24/7 support. LiveChat with a GameSense Advisor at GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234 MA Gambling Helpline. McCrane has been on five NFL rosters and spent time in the XFL. His only NFL kicks came in 2018, when he went 8-for-12 on field goals and 9-for-9 on extra points with three different teams. Wright, the second kicker Reiss noted as a possibility, has more NFL kicks on his resume, going 40-for-46 with a long of 59 yards with the Chiefs last season. Belichick was tightlipped about his kicking situation in his Wednesday morning press conference, but on WEEI’s Greg Hill Show Monday, he offered a blunt assessment Ryland’s play. “Chad’s a very talented player, but this is two weeks in a row we’ve basically missed extra points,” Belichick said. “So it’s not good enough.” With the most recent miss, Ryland fell to 12-of-18 (66.7%) on the season. There’s nothing he can do about it, but the rookie’s totals look even worse compared to Nick Folk 21-of-22 (95.5%), who remains nearly automatic in Tennessee.

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With Climate Change, Smaller Storms Are Growing More Fearsome, More Often

At first, it looked as if New York would simply be grazed by light rain on Friday. David Stark, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that earlier this week he was tracking what looked to be typical offshore weather. But on Wednesday night, a storm, which was supposed to stay south of the city and over the ocean, started to edge north, he said. And that changed everything. The storm ended up joining forces with another low-pressure weather system coming in from the west. “Where they converged is where the heavy rain occurred,” he said. That just happened to be right over New York City. And “that is the nature of science sometimes,” he added.

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Mass. synagogues among those targeted in similar bomb threats nationwide

Multiple bomb threats were made to Jewish synagogues and affiliated facilities over the weekend, according to state police spokesperson David Procopio. No explosives or hazards were located at any site on Sunday, Procopio said.

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Westfield wrestling lands seven pins, rallies past Holyoke, 51-27

WESTFIELD – The Westfield High School boys wrestling team started off slow in its first dual meet of the 2023-24 season. The Bombers finished at a blistering pace. Westfield exploded for seven pins – three of which came in the first 30 seconds – to defeat Holyoke, 51-27, Tuesday night at home.

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SpaceX Makes Progress in 2nd Launch of Giant Moon and Mars Rocket

SpaceX, Elon Musk's spaceflight company, launched its Starship rocket from the coast of South Texas on Saturday, a mammoth vehicle that could alter the future of space transportation and help NASA return astronauts to the moon. Saturday’s flight of Starship, a powerful vehicle designed to carry NASA astronauts to the moon, was not a complete success. SpaceX did not achieve the test launch’s ultimate objective — a partial trip around the world ending in a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. But the test flight, the vehicle’s second, did show that the company had fixed key issues that arose during the earlier test operation in April. All 33 engines in the vehicle’s lower booster stage fired, and the rocket made it through stage separation — when the booster falls away and the six engines of the upper stage light up to carry the vehicle to space.

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Longmeadow wrestling escapes Westfield with narrow victory, 42-39

WESTFIELD – The Westfield High School wrestling team finally met its match. In an emotionally-charged matchup, Longmeadow escaped Westfield with a narrow 42-39 victory. Although it was the first league loss of the season for the Bombers, they still managed to clinch a share of the Valley Wheel league title. Ludlow won the league title a year ago.

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Dogs belonging to Stephanie Croteaus family are up for adoption in Springfield

Dogs belonging to the family of Stephanie Croteau, the Springfield mom who died in an October car crash after her child and mother were killed in a murder-suicide in August, have been put up for adoption, a family friend confirmed to MassLive. The Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center in Springfield wrote on Facebook Sunday that the two dogs, named Lola and Marley, are ready to find a new home. According to the adoption center’s website, both dogs are 2-year-old Siberian husky mixes. “Marley and Lola are sweet pups that came to TJO after a number of tragedies in their lives. At the request of the family, we are placing these two beautiful pups together. They are loved dearly, and it shows in their sweet nature,” adoption center workers wrote about the dogs. The dogs have experience with children, and will likely do well with other kids and pets if introduced properly, the adoption center wrote on its website. As is the case with most huskies, they require lots of exercise and brushing, but the adoption center said the dogs don’t have any additional medical issues. A third dog belonging to Croteau’s family was killed along with Croteau’s 10-year-old daughter, Aubrianna Serra, and her mother, 52-year-old Kim Fairbanks, on Aug. 14 when their upstairs neighbor entered the family’s Berkshire Avenue apartment and began shooting. Victor Nieves, 34, a close family friend who was reportedly dealing with mental health issues, then shot and killed himself. At the time, Fairbanks was babysitting Croteau’s three children while their parents were at work. Croteau’s 12-year-old daughter was also shot during the incident but survived, and her 5-year-old son was uninjured. According to Western Mass. News, Croteau’s 12-year-old daughter is adamant that Marley and Lola be adopted together even though it can be difficult to find a home willing to take two dogs. “We’ve got a situation here where a family needs our help,” Lori Swanson, the adoption center’s executive director, told the news station. Those interested in adopting Marley and Lola are asked to call 413-781-1484 ext. 2 or visit the adoption center’s website.

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A Book Club Took 28 Years to Read Finnegans Wake. Now, Its Starting Over.

All along Central Park West on Thursday, throngs of people gathered for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and packed street corners or sat on folding chairs set up since dawn. They wedged themselves on slivers of sidewalk, and some placed their toddlers atop food carts for a better view. Madison Burgess, 26, was kind of over it. “You don’t realize how slow the cadence is in real life,” she said as she left the parade route. For nearly three hours, Ms. Burgess added, she had peered up at balloons of animated characters like Bluey, Goku and Monkey D. Luffy. She had watched the event only on television, and as a TV production coordinator, she realized how she preferred seeing the spectacle. “Edited,” she said.

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Mass. weather: Heres which Mass. communities have been impacted by Saturday rainfall

Another rainfall on Saturday has brought with it flooding across Massachusetts after two storms caused flooding through parts of the week. Boston, Provincetown and Dennis have or are forecasted to have moderate flooding, according to National Weather Service flood risk maps. Nantucket, Bridgewater, Dover, Saxonville, Maynard, Gloucester, Andover and Scituate have or are forecasted to have minor flooding, the map shows. Snow melt from Sunday’s nor’easter dropped as much as 18 inches on parts of Massachusetts, followed by a rainstorm earlier in the week that brought 2-3 inches of rain. With the flooding on Saturday, also comes road closures. In Cohasset, Atlantic Avenue, margin and Border Street are flooded and closed to traffic, according to the Cohasset Police. In Quincy, Rockland Street and Spring Street as well as the Squantum Causeway are closed temporarily due to flooding, according to police. Read more: Car crash on Route 129 in Billerica kills man “Several vehicles have become disabled attempting to pass through this area, we urge you not to drive through flowing, flooding waters you cannot determine the depth of,” Quincy Police wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Duxbury Fire Department posted on X that they had recalled off-duty firefighters and were dealing with “significant flooding in numerous parts of time.” The fire and police departments are reminding residents to not drive through the flooded roads. In Salisbury, Beach and Ferry Road are closed and Broadway is likely to be closed due to flooding, police said on X. Route 286 in Seabrook is also closed, the Salisbury Police said. While many communities are dispatching resources to deal with the flooding, the bulk of the heavy flooding is lifting in the North and East, according to the National Weather Service. However, larger rivers will continue to rise after the rain ends and swollen rivers will likely continue into Sunday and Monday, the weather service said. If your area is experiencing an outage, follow the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s outage map for all updates.

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After 2022 fire, Northamptons Smith Voc seeks help funding $6 million upgrade to horticulture building

NORTHAMPTON — The horticulture building at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School, a barn that had been extended over the years, was inadequate even before a 2022 fire. Now, the public high school with nearly 600 students has a plan — and an estimated price tag of about $6.8 million — to replace the building. But the plan along with a fundraising goal of about $760,000 to close an expected funding gap, said Richard Aquadro, a former local building contractor and member of the school’s board of trustees now working as a resident engineer on building projects at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Teachers have been outed for posting on OnlyFans. Is that legal?

At a small rural Missouri high school, two English teachers shared a secret: Both were posting adult content on OnlyFans, the subscription-based website known for sexually explicit content. The site and others like it provide an opportunity for those willing to dabble in pornography to earn extra money — sometimes lots of it. The money is handy, especially in relatively low-paying fields like teaching, and many post the content anonymously while trying to maintain their day jobs. But some outed teachers, as well as people in other prominent fields such as law, have lost their jobs, raising questions about personal freedoms and how far employers can go to avoid stigma related to their employees’ after-hour activities. At St. Clair High School southwest of St. Louis, it all came crashing down this fall for 28-year-old Brianna Coppage and 31-year-old Megan Gaither. “You’re tainted and seen as a liability,” Gaither lamented on Facebook after she was suspended. Coppage resigned. The industry has seen a boom since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is now believed 2 million to 3 million people produce content for subscriptions sites such as OnlyFans, Just for Fans and Clips4Sale, said Mike Stabile, spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry. “I think that there was a time prior to the pandemic where the idea that someone might become a porn star was akin to saying that someone might be abducted by aliens,” Stabile said. “I think that what the pandemic and the sort of explosion of fan content showed was that a lot of people were open to doing it.” It frequently proves risky, though. A recent report from the trade association found 3 in 5 adult entertainment performers have experienced employment discrimination. The report, based on a survey of more than 600 people in the industry, said 64% of adult creators have no other significant source of income, while there were no details on the occupations of those who did. In St. Clair, Coppage was the first to be outed after someone posted a link to her OnlyFans account on a community Facebook group. Superintendent Kyle Kruse said Coppage was not asked to resign, but she did anyway. “I do not regret joining OnlyFans,” Coppage told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in September. “I know it can be taboo, or some people may believe that it is shameful, but I don’t think sex work has to be shameful. I do just wish things just happened in a different way.” Gaither, who also coached cheerleading, said she used her account to pay off student loans. She also was outed, although she wrote that she had an alias and did not show her face. Neither teacher responded to phone or email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. But both women told other news outlets that their OnlyFans earnings soared from the publicity. Read more: Longmeadow preschool para fired after taking explicit OnlyFans photos in school The district said little, but parents and even some students voiced concerns. “As a society, if we’ve come to it to think that it’s OK for children to be seeing their teacher having sex, that’s outrageous,” said Kurt Moritz, the father of a 7-year-old boy in the district. “We shouldn’t be giving children an extra reason to fantasize over their teachers.” Moritz and a former student said they were particularly alarmed when Coppage did a YouTube interview with an adult content creator and said she would be willing to film with former students. Moritz said the remark went too far, and 17-year-old Claire Howard, who moved out of the district midway through last school-year, agreed. “That’s something that shouldn’t be sexualized,” Howard said. Whether fired adult content creators have a legal recourse is unclear. Employers have wide latitude to terminate employees. The question is whether firing people moonlighting in the adult entertainment industry has a disproportionate effect on women and LGBTQ+ people, said attorney Derek Demeri, an employment law expert in New Jersey. Both groups are protected, and data from the Free Speech Coalition shows they are the ones who overwhelming produce adult content, he noted. “If you have a policy that on its face is not about discrimination but ends up having a disparate impact on a protected community, now you’re crossing into territory that may be unlawful,” Demeri said, adding that this applies even in cases where the day job involves working with children. Attorney Gregory Locke, who was fired in March as a New York City administrative law judge after city officials learned about his OnlyFans account, was contacted by a handful of adult content creators who were terminated from their day jobs. He hasn’t yet sued but said he agrees with Demeri’s legal reasoning. Locke’s termination followed an online spat over drag queen story hours in which he used a profane remark in response to a councilmember who opposed the events. Locke, who is gay, said people need to stop treating sex work like such a big problem. “We’re a gig economy now and millennials have more student debt than we know what to do with,” he said. “There’s all sorts of reasons why people would reach out for outside income like sex work, like OnlyFans.” At least one lawsuit has been filed in a similar situation. Victoria Triece sued Orange County Public Schools in January, alleging she was banned from volunteering at her son’s Florida elementary school because she posts on OnlyFans. “When you start getting the moral police involved in it, where does it stop? At what point does the school have the right to intervene in one’s private life?” asked her attorney, Mark NeJame. In South Bend, Indiana, 42-year-old Sarah Seales said she was fired last year from her job teaching science to elementary school children through a Department of Defense youth program called STARBASE after she began posting on OnlyFans to make more money to support her twins. A Department of Defense spokesperson said it was inappropriate to comment on matters of pending litigation. Attorney Mark Nicholson, who specializes in revenge porn cases, interviewed Seales and hired her to work on his firm’s podcast. They ultimately decided against suing the blogger who drew attention to Seales’ side gig, he said. “If we pay our teachers as much as we pay athletes,” Nicholson said, “maybe she wouldn’t have had to open up an OnlyFans.”

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WordleBots New Preferred Opening Word: Trace

In our recent analysis of 515 million Wordle games played over a year, we noted that a few changes would soon be coming to WordleBot’s dictionary. As of today, those changes are now live — including a new opening word in both regular and hard mode. WordleBot plays no role in the words selected to be Wordle solutions and doesn’t know the solutions. But, unlike human players, who are free to guess just about every five-letter word in the English language — 14,855 of them — we’ve limited the bot to a smaller set of roughly 4,500 relatively common words to choose from when making its guesses and recommendations. We listened to feedback from readers who wanted certain words added (like BARRE and MOREL and MERCH) and certain ones deleted (PWNED has been owned, and EGADS to YEESH; all three are out). We also have new data on reader guesses that has helped us get a feel for which words are more familiar to more people. Perhaps the most noticeable effect of all these changes will be that, starting today, the bot’s preferred opening guess has shifted — ever so slightly — to TRACE, from SLATE. And in hard mode, the bot’s favorite word is now neither TRACE, nor SLATE, but TROPE.

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Army-Navy football belongs on everyones sports bucket list | Vautour

FOXBOROUGH — Early in the first quarter of the Army-Navy game, the crowd camera providing images to Gillette Stadium’s giant video board paused on a section of cadets sitting in the lower bowl seats just off of the south end zone. For a split second, in their spotless dress gray coats and hats, they were the picture of sharp uniformity. Exactly the stock image most people have of a West Point student. That was until they realized they were on the scoreboard. Then they smiled, shouted and gestured gleefully enjoying their seconds of extremely localized fame until the camera moved on to someone else. The same script played out nearly identically on the other side of the stands moments later among the Midshipmen fans. The moments were a perfect encapsulation of the young men and women from the United States Military and Naval Academies, in the stands and on the field. They are ordinary people preparing to live extraordinary lives. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. There are a lot of things that make the Army-Navy football game special and unique. Among the most compelling is that these aren’t college football’s most physically gifted athletes but they are extremely impressive people, some of whom happen to be very good at football. For just the third time in 124 games, the rivalry left the Mid-Atlantic. The 65,878 fans who did get their hands on one of the toughest tickets in Gillette Stadium history learned first-hand that Bill Belichick is right. There are a lot of big games in college and professional football, but Army-Navy is special. It is one of those bucket list sporting events that has no peers. It is concurrently an event and a game. It’s often a great game befitting the rivalry, but it doesn’t have to be for Army-Navy to be a great event. Tailgating began more than six hours before the game. As the fans left the unpaved lots to cross Route 1 toward Gillette, fan after fan in uniform paused to wipe the dirt and mud from their footwear. Even football games are no place for unshined shoes in the military. Inside Patriots Place, each fan base had a restaurant serving as their headquarters. Splitsville housed the “Beat Navy Tailgate!” In the back parking lots, ESPN’s Gameday was hopping. The desk crew of media celebrities showed clear reverence for the many members of the military brass that made guest appearances. In the crowd, the messages on signs are on brand both for a standard Gameday crowd as well as the schools that are represented. “If Maverick had gone to West Point, Goose would still be alive” and “Army swims in the shallow end.” In addition to the March On, where the students from both schools parade onto the field in formation, the annual prisoner exchange returns is a pregame staple. A small group of students from each academy attend the other for a semester before being “returned” to their rightful school before the game. Eight Midshipmen each wore a letter of “N-U-K-E A-R-M-Y’ on the back of their jackets while their West Point counterparts responded with “E-A-T S-Q-U-I-D.” Once officially freed they ran back to student seating, where Rob Gronkowski, a former Patriots legend and current USAA had just been posing for pictures. After skydivers from both military branches followed, there were flyovers by jets and military helicopters. While the atmosphere was reliably memorable, the game delivered an exciting ending to a slow-starting football game. Army defended the goal line, stopping Navy twice inside the 2-yard line to seal the 17-11 win. While many of the Cadets stormed the field, the Navy players and their fans watched in disconsolate silence. After a few minutes, the two teams came together to sing “Navy Blue and Gold” in front of the Midshipmen fans and then the “West Point Alma Mater” in front of the Cadets. It’s a moving tradition. After a hard-fought game, the two rivals come together. They each understand the hardships and sacrifices the other faces better than anyone, who has never been where they’re standing. They’re adversaries for an afternoon but will be teammates moving forward. It would sound almost hokey, but the entire Army-Navy experience makes it hard to be cynical. It’s impossible to truly comprehend what awaits the players on the field and their classmates in the stands. The seniors on both sides already have their active duty assignments. Fittingly Army cornerback Cameron Jones moves to “air defense artillery” from air defense on wide receivers. Navy starting guard Josh Pena will change his focus from quarterback protection to “surface warfare (nuclear).” All betting sites in MA will have promo codes for signing up. Don’t forget to check out BetMGM Massachusetts and DraftKings Massachusetts. With all of that in mind, Navy coach Brian Newberry had the game in proper perspective. “I would say that the people who came to the game were entertained and hopefully proud of what they saw. This game, in the grand scheme of things, is about more than football,” he said. “It’s about celebrating some of the finest young men in the country on the field and then celebrating and recognizing all those that have dedicated their life to service, that have served and are serving your country. Shining a light on them, celebrating them and showing gratitude for their sacrifice and their commitment. That’s what it’s all about. I think, at the end of the day, whoever was in the stands was proud of what they saw these young men do, as far as their fight and their grit and their toughness and their resolve.” Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.

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2023 All-Western Mass. Boys Cross Country: Selections announced for fall season

MassLive announced its All-Western Mass. boys cross country selections for the 2023 season on December 29. Led by a strong crop of juniors, Ludlow won the Class A Western Mass. team competition and followed it up by taking home the runner-up trophy at the state meet.

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Opinion | Sam Altman, Sugarcoating the Apocalypse

My favorite “Twilight Zone” episode is the one where aliens land and, in a sign of their peaceful intentions, give world leaders a book. Government cryptographers work to translate the alien language. They decipher the title — “To Serve Man” — and that’s reassuring, so interplanetary shuttles are set up. But as the cryptographers proceed, they realize — too late — that it’s a cookbook. That, dear reader, is the story of OpenAI. It was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit to serve man, to keep an eye on galloping A.I. technology and ensure there were guardrails and kill switches — because when A.I. hits puberty, it will be like aliens landing. When I interviewed them at their makeshift San Francisco headquarters back in 2016, the OpenAI founders — Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman — presented themselves as our Praetorian guard against the future threat of runaway, evil A.I., against bad actors and bad bots and all the lords of the cloud who had Mary Shelley dreams of creating a new species, humanity be damned.

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Opinion | Finding Light in Winter

The mornings are dark, the late afternoons are dusky, and before we finish making dinner, the daylight is gone. As we approach the darkest days of the year, we’re confronted with the darkness of wars, a dysfunctional government, fentanyl deaths, mass shootings and reports of refugees crawling through the Darién Gap or floundering in small boats in the Mediterranean. And we cannot avoid the tragedy of climate change with its droughts, floods, fires and hurricanes. Indeed, the world is pummeled with misfortune. We can count ourselves lucky if we do not live in a war zone or a place without food or drinking water, but we read the news. We see the disasters on our screens. Ukraine, Israel and Gaza are all inside us. If we are empathic and awake, we share the pain of all the world’s tragedies in our bodies and in our souls. We cannot and should not try to block out those feelings of pain. When we try, we are kept from feeling much of anything, even love and joy. We cannot deny reality, but we can control how much we take in. I am in the last decades of life, and sometimes I feel that my country and our species are also nearing end times. The despair I feel about the world would ruin me if I did not know how to find light. Whatever is happening in the world, whatever is happening in our personal lives, we can find light. This time of year, we must look for it. I am up for sunrise and outside for sunset. I watch the moon rise and traverse the sky. I light candles early in the evening and sit by the fire to read. And I walk outside under the blue-silver sky of the Nebraska winter. If there is snow, it sparkles, sometimes like a blanket of diamonds, other times reflecting the orange and lavender glow of a winter sunset.

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Empathy Is Exhausting. There Is a Better Way. - The New York Times

In mid-October, a few days after the attack on Israel, a friend sent me a text from a rabbi. She said she couldn’t look away from the horror on the news but felt completely numb. She was struggling to feel even the tiniest bit useful: “What can I even do?” Many people are feeling similarly defeated, and many others are outraged by the political inaction that ensues. A Muslim colleague of mine said she was appalled to see so much indifference to the atrocities and innocent lives lost in Gaza and Israel. How could anyone just go on as if nothing had happened? A common conclusion is that people just don’t care. But inaction isn’t always caused by apathy. It can also be the product of empathy. More specifically, it can be the result of what psychologists call empathic distress: hurting for others while feeling unable to help. I felt it intensely this fall, as violence escalated abroad and anger echoed across the United States. Helpless as a teacher, unsure of how to protect my students from hostility and hate. Useless as a psychologist and writer, finding words too empty to offer any hope. Powerless as a parent, searching for ways to reassure my kids that the world is a safe place and most people are good. Soon I found myself avoiding the news altogether and changing the subject when war came up. Understanding how empathy can immobilize us like that is a critical step for helping others — and ourselves.

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All concerts coming to the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford for 2024

Top musical acts from across the country are taking a visit to the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut this summer. These include big names like Janet Jackson, Blink-182, Alanis Morissette and more. Fans can shop for tickets at the venue for open lawn seating or regular seating. See the list below of concerts to watch in 2024 at the Xfinity Theatre and where to buy tickets. Third-party vendor websites like VividSeats and StubHub offer options for those looking to buy cheaper tickets. *New customers who purchase tickets through VividSeats can get $20 off a $200+ ticket order by using the promo code MassLive20 at checkout.* Summer 2024 concerts at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford:

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Paula Welden went missing in Vermont in 1946; Her case remains cold 77 years later

On Sunday, Dec. 1, 1946, Paul Welden left her college campus in Vermont, telling her roommate she was going for a hike. She never returned. Nearly 80 years later, the disappearance of the 18-year-old Bennington College student, which directly led to the formation of the Vermont State Police in 1947, remains unsolved. At the time of Welden’s disappearance, the struggle to find her showed a desperate need for a dedicated law enforcement agency to investigate missing people in Vermont. Investigators from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York were all called in due to the limited police services available in the Green Mountain State. A year later, the Vermont State Police was formed. Read more: Killing of Beverly Polchies in Maine remains unsolved nearly 40 years later “VSP was born out of tragedy, the still-unsolved disappearance of 18-year-old Bennington College student Paula Jean Welden in late 1946,” Vermont State Police wrote in a Facebook post on the 75th anniversary of the agency’s formation in 2022. “The case ultimately rallied Vermonters and their political leadership to launch the Vermont State Police after many years of hesitation and debate.” Today is a big day for all of us at the Vermont State Police: our 75th anniversary! On July 1, 1947, what was then the... Posted by Vermont State Police on Friday, July 1, 2022 In the decades since Welden went missing, the cold case has haunted the college and state authorities alike. The area where she went missing around Glastenbury Mountain has been called the Bennington Triangle in the wake of her and four others’ disappearances between 1945 and 1950, the Brattleboro Reformer reported. Friday marked the 77th anniversary of Welden’s disappearance. Information on the college student continues to be submitted to Vermont State Police. However, she is still listed as a missing person, and her case remains cold. Welden was last seen on the afternoon of Dec. 1, 1946. Several hikers reported seeing her on the Long Trail just off Route 9 near Glastenbury Mountain. She was reported missing by her roommate the following morning after she did not return to campus, according to Vermont State Police. An extensive search of the area did not show any signs of Welden. Investigators were called from out of state, and numerous theories were explored, but no conclusive outcome was ever determined, Vermont State Police noted. Anyone with any information about Welden’s disappearance is asked to call Vermont State Police’s Shaftsbury office at (802) 442-5421.

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Court Papers Offer Glimpse of Trumps Defense in Classified Documents Case

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump on Friday told the federal judge overseeing his prosecution on charges of mishandling classified documents that they intended to ask the government for new information, including assessments of any damage to national security. The lawyers also told the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, that they planned to ask prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, for additional information about how the documents at issue were related to national defense — a requirement of the Espionage Act, one of the statutes that Mr. Trump has been accused of violating. In addition, they said they wanted “tracking information” concerning the classified records. Mr. Trump’s legal team is poised to make the requests on Tuesday, when it files motions asking for additional discovery evidence. This is a standard part of the pretrial process in which the defense seeks to get as much information about the case out of the government as it can. Discovery motions often indicate how lawyers intend to attack charges before a trial begins or how they plan to defend against them once the case goes in front of a jury. The papers filed on Friday suggest Mr. Trump may be planning to attack the multiple Espionage Act counts he is facing by, among other things, questioning whether the documents he took from the White House were actually related to national defense. They also suggest he may seek to downplay how damaging their removal from the White House was to the country’s security.

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Ex-Haymarket Cafe employees claim unsafe work conditions; owners GoFundMe raises $25k+

Growing up in Leverett, Camila Hwang-Carlos, 24, said one of her favorite traditions was a weekly “girls’ night” with her mother at Haymarket Cafe in Northampton. But years later, when she began working at the cafe in July 2022, the business turned from a special place filled with positive memories into what she described as an unsafe working environment.

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The Weekender

Overlooked at its release, the Killers’ signature hit has become one of the most inescapable rock songs of its time. _____

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20 Acts in 60 Minutes

Our new audio app is home to “This American Life,” the award-winning program hosted by Ira Glass. New episodes debut in our app a day earlier than in the regular podcast feed, and we also have an archive of the show. The app includes a “Best of ‘This American Life’” section with some of our favorite bite-size clips, so you can enjoy the show even if you don’t have a lot of time.

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Celtics injury report: 1 starter listed for Spurs game

The Celtics will be much healthier when they face the Spurs at 7 p.m. Sunday to finish off the 2023 part of their season. After missing three rotation players in their Friday win over the Raptors, the C’s only have one starter listed on their injury report. Jrue Holiday is questionable with a right ankle sprain. He was also questionable ahead of the Raptors game, though he ended up playing. Notably, the Celtics will be at full strength otherwise. That means all of Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford will play after missing Friday’s game. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. The C’s have been beaten up recently, though there fortunately hasn’t been any serious long-term injury. Jaylen Brown missed the Pistons game because of the back contusion he suffered against the Lakers. But he suited up for the Raptors game and put up an impressive night. The Celtics took care of business as part of their back-to-back against the Pistons and Raptors, winning a pair of close games. They are 25-6 on the season, including a 16-0 mark at home. Next up for the Celtics are the Spurs, who are 5-26 and last in the West this season. Rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama is coming off a 30-point game against the Trail Blazers, and he’s averaging 18.8 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists after going first overall in last year’s draft. But otherwise, it’s been a struggle for the Spurs to put together victories.

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Joe Mazzulla shows crucial evolution in Celtics blowout loss to Bucks

The Celtics suffered their first true blowout of the 2023-24 season on Thursday night in horrific fashion against the Bucks. A rested, motivated Bucks squad was awaiting a Boston squad looking to get back on track after losing five of their last eight games. Meanwhile, the Celtics arrived at their hotel in Milwaukee at 3 a.m. ET according to team sources, coming off a hard-fought overtime win over the Timberwolves Wednesday night. The Celtics had their entire roster available for Thursday night outside of a resting Al Horford but this was a weary crew that was playing their fifth game in seven nights. If there was ever a scheduled loss in the NBA, this was as close as you’ll find to it in the regular season given the travel schedule involved. Of course, that’s not the sole explanation for Boston’s horrific 135-102 loss, a game that was over before halftime as the Bucks built up a 75-38 lead with the assistance of a 25-0 run midway through the second quarter. The Bucks are going to present the Celtics with a lot of defensive challenges this year and Boston is going to be in a heap of trouble if they aren’t hitting their jump shots against them on any night. Still, the biggest development on Thursday night was not the loss by the Celtics itself. Instead, it was the strategic rest maneuver that Joe Mazzulla pulled in the second half. Rather than wasting minutes chasing an improbable comeback, Mazzulla simply elected to sit everyone in the second half. No starter played more than 21 minutes. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. “It’s tough,” Mazzulla told reporters in Milwaukee of his choice. “They want to play; they prepared. Again, it was my decision. It wasn’t theirs. At the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to do what’s best for them and the team. If I said, ‘Hey, you want to go out there?’ They’re going to do it. It was me. I told them and I felt like it was my responsibility to do it.” This maneuver from Mazzulla showed shades of Gregg Popovich resting a contending Spurs squad amid a tough schedule stretch a decade ago. However, the idea of Mazzulla doing this even a year ago would have been far fetched. Back then, the rookie coach was riding his starters for big minutes in wins or losses, even playing them for long stretches in blowout wins to help them to run up big stats. All that mileage took a toll on this group to various degrees in their loss to the Heat last postseason as they looked like a group that ran out of gas for much of the extended playoff run. One year later, Mazzulla’s attitude with minutes and the regular season has clearly shifted with this decision. Resting guys strategically is becoming more of a priority and it was evident on Thursday night more than ever. If a game is gone, Mazzulla was willing to let it go for the long game. That’s not a leap he was willing to make for much of last season. For the Celtics to be in prime form entering the postseason this year though, this is the right mindset to have. A loss to the Bucks hurts in the standings but there’s no need to make it worse by wearing down an already tired group with more minutes. Getting ready for the Rockets on Saturday took priority once the game was out of reach even if resulted in the white flag being waved earlier than expected. Mazzulla may not be perfect but this type of evolution in his thinking bodes quite well for the Celtics’ title chances this year. Boston can be well rested and still take home the top seed in the East in the regular season by the time April rolls around. Decisions like we saw on Thursday night should help with that process.

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How to watch the ABC special Olafs Frozen Adventure, stream for free

The ABC special “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” will air on the network on Sunday, Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m. EST. For those without cable who want to watch the special, they can do so for free through either FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users. According to ABC, “when the kingdom of Arendelle empties out for the holiday season, Anna and Elsa realize that they have no family traditions of their own. So Olaf sets out on a merry mission to bring home the very best traditions and save Christmas.” How can I watch the ABC special for free without cable? The new episode is available to watch through either FuboTV or DirecTV Stream. Both offer free trials to new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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Select Board yet to decide on using outside consultant in police chief search

SOUTHWICK – When Select Board member Jason Perron proposed using an “oral board” to help the board choose a candidate to replace retiring Police Chief Robert Landis during the board’s last meeting, his fellow board members wanted think about it before deciding. And while that didn’t change when the board broached the subject again Tuesday during its weekly meeting, Board member Diane Gale pressed Perron for his reasons for proposing an oral board for the candidates, which is essentially a Q&A conducted by current or retired police chiefs. “Jason, you want to start?” Gale asked Perron after Board member Doug Moglin started the discussion.

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Inside the A.I. Arms Race That Changed Silicon Valley Forever

Eventually a compromise was reached. They would limit the rollout, Ms. Gennai said. And they would avoid calling anything a product. For Google, it would be an experiment. That way it didn’t have to be perfect. (A Google spokeswoman said the A.T.R.C. did not have the power to decide how the products would be released.) What played out at Google was repeated at other tech giants after OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022. They all had technology in various stages of development that relied on neural networks — A.I. systems that recognized sounds, generated images and chatted like a human. That technology had been pioneered by Geoffrey Hinton, an academic who had worked briefly with Microsoft and was now at Google. But the tech companies had been slowed by fears of rogue chatbots, and economic and legal mayhem. Once ChatGPT was unleashed, none of that mattered as much, according to interviews with more than 80 executives and researchers, as well as corporate documents and audio recordings. The instinct to be first or biggest or richest — or all three — took over. The leaders of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies set a new course and pulled their employees along with them. Over 12 months, Silicon Valley was transformed. Turning artificial intelligence into actual products that individuals and companies could use became the priority. Worries about safety and whether machines would turn on their creators were not ignored, but they were shunted aside — at least for the moment. At Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, who had once proclaimed the metaverse to be the future, reorganized parts of the company formerly known as Facebook around A.I.

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Multiple Bomb Threats Made To Jewish Synagogues In MA Over The Weekend

A man has been arrested a day after a woman was found dead at a massage parlor in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Thanksgiving, as newly-released court documents reveal that the woman was shot in the head. Worcester police announced Friday that 31-year-old Marcel Santos-Padgett, of Leicester, was taken into custody on Friday at Columbia Park in Haverhill. The state police violent fugitive apprehension squad and the Haverhill Police Department assisted Worcester police with the arrest. Santos-Padgett was arrested on an outstanding warrant for armed assault to murder in connection to the investigation into a woman's suspicious death at Angie's Body Work Spa on Thursday, police said. Worcester Police responded to Angie’s Body Work Spa on Pleasant St. for a report of a woman experiencing a medical issue. Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters. Investigators have not revealed many details of the circumstances leading up to the shooting, but say they got a call about a woman experiencing a possible medical issue at the Pleasant Street business around 11:37 a.m. Thursday. When officers arrived at the spa, a man flagged them down and brought them to the woman who was unconscious. First responders were not able to revive her and she was pronounced dead on scene. Police initially called the woman's death suspicious but they now say this is a homicide. According to investigators, Santos-Padgett allegedly pulled a gun on the woman inside the massage parlor and shot her in the head. Police were able to identify him from license plate reader data that placed his vehicle in the area of the crime scene. Santos-Padgett lives in Leicester but was arrested at a home in Haverhill on Friday. Court records indicate that investigators have not yet been able to identify the victim. A tenant who rents a room inside the spa told NBC10 Boston he didn’t know much about the incident, and placed a sign on the door referring all questions to police. “When this place opened I said this is bad news for the neighborhood,” said David Balyan who lives on Pleasant Street. Santos-Padgett is expected to be arraigned on Monday. Attorney information was not immediately available.

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Inflation rises 0.1% in November, slightly more than expected

The Labor Department said Tuesday that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price of everyday goods including gasoline, groceries and rent, rose 0.1% in November from the previous month, slightly more than expected. Prices climbed 3.1% from the same time last year, which is in line with estimates by Refinitiv economists. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Lottery's $177,752 chief marketing officer placed on paid leave

The Chief Marketing Officer at the Massachusetts State Lottery has been suspended with pay and without a cause offered. Lottery CMO Edward Farley has been out of the office since early November, according to an agency spokesperson. No reason was given for Farley’s temporary ouster from his $177,752 per year position, nor was an end date for his leave provided. “He is currently on paid administrative leave, effective November 8,” a lottery spokesman told the Herald when asked to respond to rumors of Farley’s removal. “As a matter of policy, the Lottery does not discuss personnel matters.” A spokesperson for State Treasurer Deb Goldberg, who oversees the state lottery, referred questions on the matter to lottery staff. Farley has been with the lottery since at least 2015, serving as both assistant executive director and chief administrative officer before taking the role as the head of the agency’s marketing efforts in the summer of 2022. At the end of October, the lottery’s marketing department was recognized for its efforts by the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries as an award finalist at their annual conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Massachusetts State Lottery won a Boston New England Regional Emmy Award in 2022 for a composite of marketing videos made by Keith Macri and Geoff Filleti under Farley’s leadership. Farley could not be reached for comment.

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Westfield board worries Russian church school building would bring disruption

WESTFIELD — Planning board members expressed aesthetic and traffic concerns this week with a proposed expansion of the Russian Evangelical Baptist Church. Rebecca Lee of R. Levesque Associates, representing applicant Andrey Korchevskiy, said at the Dec. 19 meeting that the church is proposing a 6,750-square foot, two-story, metal Butler Manufacturing building north of the existing church building at 866 North Road, in a strip along Lapointe Road. The building would host classrooms and office space for the church’s Sunday School. The Russian Evangelical Baptist Church already runs a K-8 academy in the church building.

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This concert series for Boston-area homeless shelters takes inspiration from the shelter clients themselves

Music This concert series for Boston-area homeless shelters takes inspiration from the shelter clients themselves The public can hear Shelter Music Boston's "Songs of Life" program at a free performance on Sept. 27. Shelter Music Boston performs at CASPAR Emergency Shelter in Cambridge in 2019. Carrie Eldridge-Dickson Shelter Music Boston’s latest concert series, “Songs of Life,” was inspired by — and created for — the clients of local homeless shelters, recovery centers, and affordable housing communities. Shelter clients aren’t the traditional audience for classical music, artistic director Adrian Anantawan admitted — but that’s the whole point. Shelter Music Boston has been performing at Boston-area shelters and substance use recovery centers for years. They’re musicians, but they also see themselves as delivering a social service. Classical music can be therapeutic, Anantawan explained; it can restore dignity; it affirms our shared humanity. Advertisement: “‘Songs of Life’ was a response to the continual feedback that we get from our audiences of, ‘Oh, can you play this piece of music that is important to me in my life?’” Anantawan told Boston.com. “I thought that it would be really lovely to … use those stories and the songs that are meaningful to them to inspire new pieces of classical music so that our audiences really had a form of agency in the music that we’re playing.” Anantawan — a prolific violinist himself, as well as an educator and disability advocate — asked four composers to take shelter audience suggestions and adapt them into new, classical compositions. Composer and violinist Dr. Francine Trester, a Berklee College faculty member who has collaborated with Shelter Music Boston before, chose to riff off of Survivor’s 1982 hit “Eye of the Tiger.” Trester’s quartet takes the recognizable motifs of “Eye of the Tiger” and reworks them into something new. Composing with the theme of “hope” in mind, Trester paid special attention to the song’s opening lyrics. “One of the lines is ‘rising up,’ and that really spoke to me,” Trester said. “So one of the things that my music does is [it] gradually rises from a low C, it climbs to a higher C.” Advertisement: For Trester, the process of reworking a preexisting piece and imbuing mimicked the fundamentally human experience of adapting to life’s unexpected twists and turns. “You take what you’re given, and then you make something for yourself out of it,” she said. “I mean, that’s an act of hope, in a way. So I hope that [the audience hears] something familiar in it, but then hear that it’s been taken someplace else, and that they translate that process, that journey, to their own trajectory.” In addition to Trester’s take on “Eye of the Tiger,” the “Songs of Life” program includes original compositions by Ché Buford (who drew inspiration from the Brazilian pop/alternative rock band Tribalistas’ “Eu Gosto de Você”), Anthony R. Green (inspired by A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?”), and Sato Masui (inspired by Dead Prez’s “Happiness”). The concert series consists of five private performances by Shelter Music Boston’s string quartet at shelters and recovery sites the week of Sept. 18, plus one free, public performance on Sept. 27 at St. Cecilia Parish in Back Bay. Reservations for the concert are recommended. Advertisement: Dwayne Brown is a volunteer services coordinator for the Boston Public Health Commission who has worked with Shelter Music Boston to set up performances at the Southampton Street and Woods Mullen shelters. “The guests really, truly love Shelter Music Boston coming in,” Brown told Boston.com. “Music sets a tone. It gives you a certain feeling.” “Being in the shelter setting, it’s very busy.” Brown continued. “You’re doing a lot… your mind is full, [but] then by the end of their selection, you’re feeling more relaxed.” At a time when most of the headlines about homelessness in Boston invoke a “crisis” at Mass. and Cass, or reduce struggling people to statistics on a page, Anantawan hopes the public concert leaves people feeling empathy toward the shelter clients whose input shaped the program. “Music is one of those shared languages that we have across cultures, across time, and especially across, just, the people that we see all the time who are going through these challenges,” Anantawan said. “Music provides its own type of shelter,” Trester said, “which everybody needs.”

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Video shows police knew Maine shooter was a threat and felt unsafe confronting him

Police in Maine feared that confronting an Army reservist in the weeks before he killed 18 people in the state’s deadliest mass shooting would “throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gas,” according to video released Friday by law enforcement. The footage, which was released to the Portland Press Herald and then sent to The Associated Press, documents a call between Sagadoc County Sheriff’s Sgt. Aaron Skolfield and Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer. Skolfield was following up with Reamer about the potential threat posed by Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist from the Lewiston area who carried out the Oct. 25 attacks at a bowling alley and a restaurant. Skolfield mentioned Maine’s yellow flag law, which can be used to remove guns from potentially dangerous people, after Reamer said Card had refused medical treatment after his hospitalization during his Army service. Reamer echoed the idea that officers could get hurt if they went further to make sure Card wasn’t a threat: “I’m a cop myself. ... Obviously, I don’t want to want you guys to get hurt or do anything that would that would put you guys in a compromising position have to make a decision.” A second video, which is also blurred, shows an officer at the home of Robert Card Sr. trying to check whether the shooter’s brother Ryan has his guns. “I understand that Ryan has his weapons, and I just want to make sure that’s the case. Are you familiar with that at all?” the officer asks. But Card Sr. says he hasn’t spoken with Ryan in the last few days. The officer says he’ll try again later. “I just wanted to make sure Robert doesn’t do anything foolish at all,” he says. Two days after the attacks in Lewiston, Card’s body was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days after the shootings. Reports soon began to emerge that he had spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital months before the attacks and had amassed weapons. Under Maine’s yellow flag law, a warning to police can trigger a process where an officer visits an individual and makes a judgment call on whether that person should be placed in temporary protective custody, triggering assessments that with a judge’s approval can lead to a 14-day weapons restriction. A full court hearing could lead to an extension of restrictions for up to a year. Since the Lewiston shooting, questions have been raised about why the law wasn’t used to remove guns from Card. In the newly released videos, Reamer said the Card family had taken responsibility for removing the weapons, and Skolfield said he would reach out to a brother of Card’s and ensure that any weapons had been removed. Skolfield referred to the Cards as “a big family in this area,” and indicated that he didn’t want to publicize that police were visiting the home and kept the information off the police radio. A report released last week by Sheriff Joel Merry previously made clear that local law enforcement knew Card’s mental health was deteriorating. Police were aware of reports that he was paranoid, hearing voices, experiencing psychotic episodes and possibly dealing with schizophrenia. Merry declined to comment on the release of the videos. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has appointed an independent commission led by a former state chief justice to review all aspects of the tragedy. And Maine’s congressional delegation said Friday there will be an independent Army inspector general’s investigation to review the Army’s actions, alongside an ongoing administrative Army investigation.

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Things to know about Minnesotas new state flag and seal

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Love it, hate it or yawn at it, Minnesota is set to get a new state flag this spring that echoes its motto of being the North Star State, replacing an old flag that brought up painful memories of conquest and displacement for Native Americans. During the monthslong selection process, some publicly submitted designs gained cult followings on social media but didn’t make the final cut. They included: a loon – the state bird – with lasers for eyes; a photo of someone’s dog; famous paintings of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; and an image of a rather large mosquito. Instead, the flag design adopted in December includes a dark blue shape resembling Minnesota on the left, with a white, eight-pointed North Star on it. On the right is a light blue field that to those involved in the selection process symbolizes the abundant waters that help define the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The new state seal features a loon amid wild rice, to replace the image of a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plows his field with a rifle at the ready. The seal was a key feature of the old flag, hence the pressure for changing both. Unless the Legislature votes to reject the new emblems, which seems unlikely, they will become official May 11. Other states are also considering or have already made flag changes. Here are things to know about Minnesota’s new flag and seal, and how the debate unfolded. Why this design? The flag was designed by committee — a commission that included design experts and members of tribal and other communities of color. More than 2,600 proposals were submitted by the public. The commission picked one by Andrew Prekker, 24, of Luverne, as the base design. The main changes the commission made were rotating the star by 22.5 degrees so it pointed straight north, and replacing the original light blue, white and green stripes with a solid, light blue field. The significance of the light blue area is up to the beholder. The original Dakota name for Minnesota, Mni Sóta Makoce, which will go on the new seal, can be translated as “where the water meets the sky.” The commission’s chairman, Luis Fitch, said that to him, the light blue represents the Mississippi River, which originates in Minnesota, pointing to the North Star. The criticism It’s fair to say that much of the public reaction to the new flag fell into the category of “meh” or worse when the design adoption was announced. But supporters of the new flag hope it will grow on people. It’s not like many people were particularly attached to the old flag. Some criticism circulated by conservatives has been inaccurate. The flag does not resemble that of Somalia nor of its Puntland region. While it’s true that both the original design and the Puntland flag had light blue, white and green stripes in the same order, the commission dropped the stripes in favor of simplicity and symmetry. And it’s a stretch to say the final version bears much resemblance to the Somali national flag, which is a solid light blue with a white, five-pointed star right in the center. The state Democratic Party chairman issued a news release taking one GOP lawmaker to task for fueling the spread of the misinformation on social media. Two Republican lawmakers who were nonvoting members of the commission objected to putting the Dakota name for Minnesota on the seal. They said they will propose letting voters decide up or down this November. That proposal is unlikely to get traction in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. And Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon, a commissioner who backed both designs, said a referendum would probably be unconstitutional. Additionally, Aaron Wittnebel — a voting member of the commission for the Ojibwe community — said in a minority report last week that adopting the Dakota phrase on the seal “favors the Dakota people over other groups of peoples in Minnesota.” The praise While the new flag might strike some critics as uninspired — and a waste of time and the $35,000 budgeted for the commission — the change is important to many Native Americans in a state where there are 11 federally recognized Ojibwe and Dakota tribes. “Dare I say anything that’s not a Native person being forced off their land is a flag upgrade?!” tweeted Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “Excited to have a new state flag that represents every Minnesotan.” Democratic state Sen. Mary Kunesh, a descendant of the Standing Rock Lakota, was a chief author of the bill that launched the redesign and a nonvoting member of the commission. She said in a statement that the more than 2,600 submissions and the lively public debate showed that Minnesotans care deeply about their state. “It was an incredible experience to see our community’s energy and passion captured in the beautiful designs they submitted,” Kunesh said. “From loons and wild rice to water and the North Star, we have captured the essence of our state in the new flag and seal. These designs honor our history and celebrate the future of Minnesota.” One Indigenous graphic designer is already selling T-shirts online that bear the new design and say, “At least the flag isn’t racist anymore.” Ted Kaye, secretary of the North American Vexillological Association, who studies flags and was involved in the redesign, has said the new Minnesota flag gets an “A+” from him for its simplicity, uniqueness and inclusion of meaningful symbols. The rest of the country Several other states also have been redesigning flags. The Utah Legislature last winter approved a design featuring a beehive, a symbol of the prosperity and the industriousness of its Mormon pioneers. Mississippi chose a new flag with a magnolia to replace a Confederate-themed flag. Other states considering simplifying their flags include Michigan, Illinois and Maine. ___ Associated Press writer Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis contributed to this report. By Steve Karnowski Associated Press

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Seeking a Big Edge in A.I., South Korean Firms Think Smaller

ChatGPT, Bard, Claude. The world’s most popular and successful chatbots are trained on data scraped from vast swaths of the internet, mirroring the cultural and linguistic dominance of the English language and Western perspectives. This has raised alarms about the lack of diversity in artificial intelligence. There is also the worry that the technology will remain the province of a handful of American companies. In South Korea, a technological powerhouse, firms are taking advantage of the technology’s malleability to shape A.I. systems from the ground up to address local needs. Some have trained A.I. models with sets of data rich in Korean language and culture. South Korean companies say they’re building A.I. for Thai, Vietnamese and Malaysian audiences. Others are eyeing customers in Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, and in industries like medicine and pharmacy. This has fueled hopes that A.I. can become more diverse, work in more languages, be customized to more cultures and be developed by more countries. “The more competition is out there, the more systems are going to be robust: socially acceptable, safer, more ethical,” said Byong-Tak Zhang, a computer science professor at Seoul National University.

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Americas Truckers Face a Chronic Headache: Finding Parking

In the wee hours one night in July, a Greyhound bus heading to St. Louis turned onto an exit ramp leading to a rest area in Southern Illinois and hit three parked tractor-trailers, smashing its front, crumpling its roof and ripping off part of its side. Three passengers were killed. The tractor-trailers were parked along the ramp’s shoulder, a common sight on the nation’s highways. “It’s scary because it can happen in the blink of an eye,” said Carmen Anderson, 64, a South Dakota-based truck driver for America’s Service Line, who recently had to park on an off-ramp in North Carolina after not being able to find parking at rest areas or truck stops. The accident in Illinois highlighted a widespread complaint among the nation’s truckers: Parking spots for commercial trucks are hard to come by.

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No concern or remorse: Some Patriot Property tenants face imminent eviction

SPRINGFIELD — Several renters on Mattoon Street are facing the struggle of finding new homes after their new landlord recently filed no-cause evictions against them in regional Housing Court. The company — Patriot Property Management Group — sent out notices of the pending evictions of several long-term tenants in late October, shortly after taking over management of the properties. Many of the cases are being heard for the first time in Western Housing Court this month and into early February. Through one of its subsidiaries, Amat Victoria Curam LLC, Patriot Property filed six “no-cause eviction” cases against tenants, court documents show. Resident Kelsey Almonte said she had her first hearing on Jan. 2. She’s been a tenant for five years at 20 Mattoon St. “I’m seeing many familiar faces in court,” Almonte said of her neighbors. “People who are longtime tenants, just like me, (are) getting notices to vacate their apartments for no reason.” Almonte said many of her neighbors are elderly people. She also said she has been paying her rent on time and has never had problems like this with her landlords in the past. It is legal in Massachusetts for landlords to evict tenants, even if they haven’t done anything wrong. The management company did not respond to requests for comment about the eviction letters. 12-20 Mattoon St. apartment complex in Springfield is now managed by Patriot Property Management Group. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican, File) Gordon P. Shaw, an adjunct law professor at Western New England University and a housing attorney at Community Legal Aid in Springfield, told The Republican that first Housing Court hearings are set aside for mediation, ”where a court-appointed mediator, the landlord’s lawyer and the tenant attempt to settle the case.” Almonte has two children, one of whom has special needs, and lives in a studio apartment. During mediation, Almonte agreed to move out of her apartment by June 30 of this year, according to court documents obtained by The Republican. “My daughter needs until at least the end of the school year before I disrupt her sense of normalcy,” she said. “It’s a lot to look for an apartment in this economy. I’ve been saving up to move out as I continue to pay my rent.” Springfield Gardens, cited by the city as an absentee landlord with a history of substandard properties, previously owned Almonte’s apartment building. “Springfield Gardens wasn’t great — they didn’t respond to management requests or make any effort to improve the life of tenants — but, they weren’t trying to wipe out tenants,” she said. “It just seems like (Patriot Property) has no concern or remorse.” Patriot Property Management Group, which is run by two West Springfield real estate agents, purchased 12-20 and 66 Mattoon St., as well as apartments on Federal and Belmont streets in a sale in August last year. The company bought seven more Springfield Gardens buildings in late October. At the time of Patriot Property’s first purchase from Springfield Gardens, a spokesperson for the buyer said improvements would be made to the buildings on Mattoon, Belmont and Federal streets; however, tenants said that no improvements have been made, and building conditions still remain poor. Another 20 Mattoon St. tenant, Kenneth Lafland, said he has lived in his apartment for three years. The Springfield human services organization, the Center for Human Development, helped him get his apartment and continues to help with his rent, which is split with another tenant. The pair’s first hearing was scheduled for Jan. 3 but was pushed to later this month. “I work part time, and I’m still waiting for a disability check to come in,” he said. “I can’t afford to move out right now.” Lafland said he never received any previous letters from Patriot Property about rent increases — or anything that would indicate the company would want him to leave his apartment. “They’ve just been bullies,” he said. “If I’m evicted, it’ll be on my record.” Despite the upheaval they can cause, Shaw said the no-cause evictions are “a common law practice.” “Not just for Massachusetts, but for some neighboring states, as well,” said Shaw. While tenants have the right to make a counterclaim, especially if the landlord has “failed to maintain the property to the state’s sanitary standards,” they are only able to use housing code violations that date back to when the landlord took ownership of the property, Shaw said. “So, in this case, since Patriot Property only took over ownership in late fall, tenants would likely not be able to use that counterclaim,” he said. Many tenants who face their landlords in Housing Court go without representation, and unlike criminal cases, there is “no right to counsel in eviction cases,” he said. Once a tenant has been served with an eviction, called a notice to quit letter, they will be given a date for their first mediation hearing. Three days before their mediation, tenants must provide their legal answer to the eviction, Shaw said. “In many cases, at (the first hearing), the mediator will get a tenant and landlord to settle on a decision for when the tenant will move out,” Shaw said. “In the chance they don’t settle, they await trial before a judge.”

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In L.A. District Attorney Race, Rhetoric Shifts From Reform to Fear

Politics Trump transformed the Supreme Court. Now the justices could decide his political and legal future. With three Trump-appointed justices leading a conservative majority, the court is being thrust into the middle of two cases carrying enormous political implications just weeks before the first votes in the Iowa caucuses. Former President Donald Trump speaks during a commit to caucus rally, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023, in Waterloo, Iowa. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump touts his transformation of the U.S. Supreme Court as one of his presidency’s greatest accomplishments. Now his legal and political future may lie in the hands of the court he pushed to the right. With three Trump-appointed justices leading a conservative majority, the court is being thrust into the middle of two cases carrying enormous political implications just weeks before the first votes in the Iowa caucuses. The outcomes of the legal fights could dictate whether the Republican presidential primary front-runner stands trial over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and whether he has a shot to retake to the White House next November. Advertisement: “The Supreme Court now is really in a sticky wicket, of historical proportions, of constitutional dimensions, to a degree that I don’t think we’ve ever really seen before,” said Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Trump’s lawyers plan to ask the Supreme Court to overturn a decision Tuesday barring him from Colorado’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it from holding office. The Colorado Supreme Court ruling is the first time in history the provision has been used to try to prohibit someone from running for the presidency. “It’s a political mess the Supreme Court may have a hard time avoiding,” said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor. It comes as the justices are separately weighing a request from special counsel Jack Smith to take up and rule quickly on whether Trump can be prosecuted on charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election results. Prosecutors are hoping the justices will act swiftly to answer whether Trump is immune from prosecution in order to prevent delays that could push the trial — currently scheduled to begin on March 4 — until after next year’s presidential election. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case. Advertisement: The three justices appointed by Trump — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — were among more than 230 federal judges installed under Trump as part of a GOP push to transform the ideological leanings of the bench. His impact on the high court has been seen in rulings rescinding the five-decade-old constitutional right to abortion, setting new standards for evaluating guns laws and striking down affirmative action in college admissions. “This is a court that is already a lightning rod in our contemporary political discourse. A court that is viewed quite skeptically by a large swath of the American electorate,” Vladeck said. But he added, “It’s also a court that has not bent over backwards for Trump.” For example, in January 2022, the high court rebuffed Trump’s attempt to withhold presidential documents sought by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The justices also allowed Trump’s tax returns to be handed over to a congressional committee after his refusal to release them touched off a yearslong legal fight. The Supreme Court was also thrust into the middle of a presidential election more than 20 years ago, in the razor-thin contest between Al Gore and George W. Bush. In 2000, the justices ruled 5-4 to stop a state court-ordered recount of the vote in Florida, a ruling that effectively settled the election in favor of Bush since neither candidate could muster an Electoral College majority without Florida. Advertisement: But that case came after the votes were cast. And in 2023, “the general political instability in the United States makes the situation now much more precarious,” wrote Rick Hasen, an election-law expert and professor at the UCLA School of Law, on the Election Law Blog. It’s far from certain that the Supreme Court will decide now to take up Trump’s immunity claims in the election interference case, which were rejected by the trial court judge in a ruling that declared the office of the president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.” Smith is asking the Supreme Court to bypass the federal appeals court in Washington, which has expedited its own review of the decision. So the Supreme Court may wait to get involved until after the appeals court judges hear the case. Trump’s lawyers urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday not to intervene before the appeals court rules, writing that the case “presents momentous, historic questions” that require careful consideration. The Colorado Supreme Court put its decision on hold until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case. Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots. Mario Nicolais, one of the Colorado attorneys on the case, said the “Supreme Court can move just as fast as it wants, and if they want to hear this before Jan. 5 they can.” It’s possible the high court will try to dodge the issue and not decide the merits of the Colorado case. Gerhardt said the justices may say that the matter is left to the states or Congress. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says: “Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House” undo the disqualification of someone found to have “engaged in insurrection.” Advertisement: “It would be like kicking the hornet’s nest for the court to get into the merits of this,” Gerhardt said. “It’s a political hot potato. And the court generally tries to avoid taking on sort of hot-button issues that are political by nature … And the easier route for the court is to just say ‘somebody else has got the responsibility, not us.’” But the Supreme Court may feel compelled to answer the issues at the heart of the case now. “There’ll be a lot of political instability if we go through a whole election season not knowing if one of two major candidates is disqualified from serving,” Hasen said. “It’s hard to fathom the kind of world we’re living in, where not only a serious candidate, but a leading candidate, of one of the political parties is in so much legal jeopardy.” Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporters Nicholas Riccardi and Brittany Peterson in Denver contributed.

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After 60 Episodes, Peter Morgan Says Goodbye to The Crown

On a chilly day in December 2016, Peter Morgan stood on a London street, watching the filming of a scene from his new television series about the British royal family. Half an hour later, he flopped into a chair, running his hands through his hair. As both the show’s writer and showrunner, he was already working on Season 2 while keeping an eye on every detail of Season 1. “I love doing this, but it’s overwhelming to a degree that isn’t sustainable over a long time,” he said. “This” was the “The Crown,” Morgan’s ambitious six-part series that would span most of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, exploring national and international politics, personalities and social change through the prism of an intergenerational — and royal — family. After 60 episodes, all written or co-written by Morgan, he has seen it through. On Thursday, Netflix will release the last six episodes of the sixth season, marking the end of a show that has been one of the most watched, argued over and influential creations in recent television history.

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Trump Makes Another Pitch to Appeals Court on Immunity in Election Case

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday made their final written request to a federal appeals court to grant Mr. Trump immunity to charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, arguing the indictment should be tossed out because it arose from actions he took while in the White House. The 41-page filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was the final step before the defense and prosecution debate the issue in front of a three-judge panel next Tuesday. The dispute over immunity is the single most important aspect of the election interference case, touching not only on new questions of law but also on consequential issues of timing. The case is scheduled to go to trial in Federal District Court in Washington in early March, but has been put on hold until Mr. Trump’s efforts to have the charges tossed on immunity grounds are resolved. In their filing to the appeals court, Mr. Trump’s lawyers repeated some of the arguments they had made in earlier submissions. They claimed, for instance, that a long history of presidents not being charged with crimes suggested that they all enjoyed immunity. They also said that prosecuting Mr. Trump now could unleash a chain reaction of other presidents being indicted.

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Nate Landrebe IDd as man shot, killed by police during New Hampshire standoff

A man who was shot and killed by police during a standoff in New Hampshire Monday has been identified as 42-year-old Nate Landrebe, and his death has been ruled a homicide, Attorney General John M. Formella said Tuesday. An autopsy on Landrebe’s body determined that the 42-year-old’s cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, and that the manner of his death was homicide, Formella said on Nov. 21. Landrebe was engaged in an armed standoff with officers at his home at 32 West Bow St. in Franklin, New Hampshire beginning the evening of Nov. 19-20. A woman living across the hall from Landrebe called police saying that he tried to break through her front door just before 10 p.m. on Nov. 20. The woman said she was unharmed. When they arrived, officers saw that the door had been shot at with a gun, according to the attorney general. Officers also heard gunshots coming from inside Landrebe’s apartment. An armed standoff occurred and the New Hampshire State Police SWAT Unit were called to the scene, Formella said. Residents in area of Central and West Bow Streets were forced to shelter in place at around 2:45 a.m. as a result. That order has since been lifted. Smoke was also seen coming from the apartment building around 2:35 a.m. Then, just after 3 a.m., police saw fire from inside the building where Landrebe had exchanged multiple gunshots with state troopers. Landrebe was found with gunshot wounds behind the building near a first-floor window, Formella said. Two SWAT members were said to have fired their weapons during the incident. Their names have yet to be released. First responders tried to perform CPR on Landrebe, but the fire was too strong for them to get close enough to him. He was pronounced dead onsite, Formella said. No one in law enforcement was physically harmed during the standoff, and officials said there is not threat to the public. The building was severely damaged from the fire, which is under investigation by the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office. Officials do not believe the fire was caused by law enforcement action. The exact circumstances surrounding this incident remain under active investigation. More information will be released as it becomes available, Formella concluded.

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How to watch Sister Wives for free (Jan. 7)

A new episode of “Sister Wives” will air on TLC on Sunday, Jan. 7 at 10 p.m. ET. Those without cable can catch “Sister Wives” for free either on Philo, on FuboTV or on DirecTVStream, each of which offer a free trial to new users. The series follows the four wives Meri, Janelle, Robyn and Christine and their shared husband, Kody Brown, along with Kody and his wives’ combined 18 children, according to FuboTV. In the new episode, “after years of struggling in her plural marriage to Kody, Christine Brown has met the love of her life: David Woolley. After a year-long courtship, they are getting married! Set against the majestic red rocks of Moab, Utah, Christine gets the big traditional wedding she has always dreamed of having.” How do I watch “Sister Wives” if I don’t have cable? Viewers can stream the new episode on Philo, FuboTV and DirecTV Stream, which all offer a free trial for new users. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels.

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Americas Truckers Face a Chronic Headache: Finding Parking

In the wee hours one night in July, a Greyhound bus heading to St. Louis turned onto an exit ramp leading to a rest area in Southern Illinois and hit three parked tractor-trailers, smashing its front, crumpling its roof and ripping off part of its side. Three passengers were killed. The tractor-trailers were parked along the ramp’s shoulder, a common sight on the nation’s highways. “It’s scary because it can happen in the blink of an eye,” said Carmen Anderson, 64, a South Dakota-based truck driver for America’s Service Line, who recently had to park on an off-ramp in North Carolina after not being able to find parking at rest areas or truck stops. The accident in Illinois highlighted a widespread complaint among the nation’s truckers: Parking spots for commercial trucks are hard to come by.

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What Patriots players are saying about new coach Jerod Mayo

Here’s how several of them reacted to Friday’s news: Even though the decision to hire Mayo came in an unorthodox way, bypassing the usual head coaching search process, the move was praised by current and former Patriots players. The Patriots acted swiftly in finding Bill Belichick’s replacement, hiring Jerod Mayo as their next head coach on Friday. Former Patriots DB Jason McCourty McCourty shared a pair of ecstatic reactions to the news of Mayo’s hiring on both social media and on his TV show, “Good Morning Football,” on Friday. He said he was “fired up” by the news, sharing some insight from playing in New England for a couple seasons while Mayo was on the staff. Advertisement “I’ve gotten a chance to be around Jerod, and for Patriots fans, you’ve had Bill Belichick for the past 24 years with all of the success and personality that Bill comes along with. Jerod Mayo, you heard Ian [Rapoport] say they called him ‘little Belichick,’” McCourty said. “A lot of that has to do with Jerod’s football knowledge. When he was a linebacker, he handled all the checks, he knew what everybody was doing on the football field. He’s a leader at his core. His specialty is people. Get Breaking Sports Alerts Be the first to know the latest sports news as it happens, and get the Globe's most interesting reporting right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up “When it comes to personality and how things are going to be, Jerod Mayo is completely different than a Bill Belichick. Jerod’s laughing at all times in that building, and he’s getting to know guys, he’s close with them. Jerod’s personality and the vibe that he has when he walks in the room, everybody brightens up, everybody stands straight up.” McCourty added that Mayo helped the Patriots’ linebacker corps “get in the right direction” upon his arrival in 2019, when New England led the league in total defense. “This guy’s a fantastic coach beyond just Xs and Os,” he said. “He’s one of the best leaders in this game. I’m excited for what his regime is going to bring in. What everybody’s going to be watching closely now is that for the last few years, Jerod’s been on this staff. His meetings with Robert Kraft and Jonathan Kraft, that’s him saying what he’s seeing and what needs to be done to move forward to get this organization back in the right direction. Advertisement “So, in the coming weeks and months, it’s going to be fascinating to see — this is a Patriots organization that you think when it passes onto somebody that’s been there, ‘Well, a lot of guys are still going to be there.’ What does Mayo see about the staff and everything above it of what he’s going to change moving forward. Who’s going to remain there? Who’s going to be the new people there? “I’m excited as hell for Jerod Mayo. He’s a great dude and he’s a fantastic coach.” Former Patriots WR Julian Edelman Edelman, who was teammates with Mayo for seven seasons, congratulated Mayo in an Instagram story. “Congrats @jerod_mayo51 time to get to work #15,” Edelman wrote, sharing a video of Mayo’s playing career highlights from the Instagram account of his podcast. Former Patriots LB Dont’a Hightower Hightower was happy for the man he played next to for four seasons. “Head coach Jerod mayo!!! Love the sound of that!! congratulations big bro,” Hightower wrote in an Instagram story. Following Hightower’s retirement in the 2023 offseason, Mayo actually shared some insight on his former teammate’s coaching potential. Advertisement “I think Hightower would be a phenomenal coach,” Mayo told reporters. “So, we’ll see. When I get a chance to run my own ship, I’ll try to recruit him.” Patriots LB Mack Wilson Wilson, who has played under Mayo’s coaching for the last two seasons, was among the first active Patriots players to react to Friday morning’s news, sharing several posts on social media in excitement over the hiring. “The start of a New Era that I’d love to be apart of,” Wilson wrote in a series of posts. “So happy for this dude.. Well deserved BIG COACH! ❤️” Patriots LB Ja’Whaun Bentley Bentley, who’s been with the team since 2018 and has played under Mayo for five seasons, kept his message of celebration concise. “Yessirrrr!!!” Bentley wrote in a social media post. Reactions from other current Patriots players Several other Patriots players reacted to Friday’s news with brief messages on their Instagram stories. Defensive end Deatrich Wise Jr. wrote, “Congratulations Coach [Jerod Mayo]. Looking forward to create great memories!” Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster wrote, “Oh we gonna be lit!,” while Marcus Jones added, “Oh yeah let’s get it 💯.” Rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez simply posted three exclamation marks, and safety Jabrill Peppers posted three saluting emojis in reaction to Mayo’s hiring. Other former Patriots players Former Patriots wide receiver Deion Branch seemed ecstatic. “YESSIRRRRRRRRRR CONGRATS CONGRATS CONGRATS MY BOIIIII 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 PATRIOTNATION IS IN GREAT HANDS I MUST SAY,” Branch wrote in a social media post. Meanwhile, former Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins made a bold claim for Mayo’s first season on the job: “playoff bound first year. Remember this tweet,” Collins wrote. Advertisement

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Winthrop police lieutenant facing child rape charge placed on leave

Winthrop Police Lieutenant James Feeley has been placed on leave “pending the outcome of a criminal investigation,” Winthrop Police Chief Terence M. Delehanty said in a statement Wednesday. Feeley is facing charges of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in an email to MassLive. He will be arraigned in East Boston Division of Boston Municipal Court on Wednesday, the Clerk’s Office told MassLive. Feeley was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant in 2020 after holding the rank for three years. Before that, Feeley served as Patrolman for six years and Reserve Police Officer for eight years. According to his LinkedIn, Feeley has been with the department for 22 years. The investigation is being conducted by State Police Detectives assigned to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

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Israeli Teenager Recounts Her Time as a Hostage in Gaza

Hila Rotem Shoshani had invited her friend Emily Hand over for a sleepover in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel. The girls, then 12 and 8, woke early the next morning, Oct. 7, to the sound of thundering booms — the start of the deadliest attack in the history of their country. For about six hours, Hila and Emily hid in the home’s safe room with Hila’s mother, Raaya Rotem, 54, as Hamas attackers overran the kibbutz. Then armed gunmen burst in with guns and knives and took the three out into a landscape of horror, past dead bodies and burning buildings, to a car. One of the attackers noticed Hila clutching a stuffed animal. He grabbed it and tossed it aside. “I had it in my hand the entire time. I didn’t notice,” Hila said on Friday in an interview in New York, before she spoke at a rally in support of the remaining hostages. “When you’re afraid you don’t notice.” Hila was one of more than 30 children kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, and held until late November, when they, along with dozens of adults, were released during a brief truce. Hila, now 13, is the youngest of the returned hostages to speak out about the harsh conditions in which they were held, seeking to highlight the plight of more than 100 hostages who remain in Gaza.

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Ludlows Samantha Bertini, Longmeadows Gianna Reed lead WMass wrestlers at Mahars Senators Girls Tournament

Even though a reunion between the Red Sox and lefty starter James Paxton is considered unlikely, there still appears to be a chance the veteran remains in the American League East. The pitching-needy Orioles are “eyeing” Paxton, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, though it’s unclear how serious Baltimore’s interest is. Paxton is a member of the second tier of free agent starters who remain available along with Hyun Jin Ryu, Mike Clevinger and Michael Lorenzen. Southpaws Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell remain unsigned at the top of the market. Paxton was reported to be drawing strong interest from the Red Sox earlier in the winter but The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier threw cold water on the idea of a reunion earlier this month. He has been loosely linked to two other teams for whom he has previously played — the Mariners and Yankees — though it’s unclear if New York is still in the market for pitching after signing Marcus Stroman earlier this week. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. Paxton is likely seeking a short-term deal (one or two years) after returning from injury in 2023 and going 7-5 with a 4.50 ERA in 19 starts (96 innings) with the Red Sox. After overcoming multiple setbacks in his return from Tommy John surgery and making his season debut on May 12, Paxton was dominant in his first 10 starts, posting a 2.73 ERA and striking out 64 batters over 56 innings. Manager Alex Cora boldly proclaimed that Paxton was one of the best pitchers in the big leagues during that time — a number backed up by Paxton winning AL Pitcher of the Month honors in June. The second half of Paxton’s campaign was not nearly as sharp. In nine outings after the All-Star break, Paxton allowed a 6.98 ERA while opposing hitters tagged him for 31 earned runs and 52 hits (including 10 homers) in 40 innings. After striking out 32.7% of batters he faced in his first seven starts, he punched out just 19.6% in his final 12. In total, the metrics generally liked Paxton’s season — especially when it came to his average fastball velocity of 95.2 mph — though he will have to limit hard contact more frequently in order to be effective in 2024. He was shut down for the final month of the season with a knee injury. Though Paxton said the Red Sox did not approach him about an extension at any point during the season, the consistent contact between the sides since the end of the year suggested mutual interest in a fit. Paxton appreciated the organization’s commitment to getting him healthy throughout 2022 and the beginning of 2023 and said he was open to a return in September. “I had a great experience here,” Paxton said then. “Really enjoyed the people, really enjoyed my teammates, the team, the city, fans, everything. We’ll see what happens. “I think the future’s bright here. There’s some great talent coming through and you’ve seen that a lot (in September) with these guys playing. I think the future is bright for for the Boston Red Sox.”

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Some areas of northern New England got up to a foot of snow overnight

Most of Greater Boston saw heavy rain and strong winds overnight. But in parts of northern New England, it was a serious snow event. The highest snowfall totals in the region were in Vermont, which saw as much as a foot in some areas. Happy Monday!🤠 We picked up over 10 inches of snow at mid mountain overnight - not a bad way to start the week! pic.twitter.com/2XuF7tHXiB — Sugarbush, Vermont (@Sugarbush_VT) November 27, 2023 Here's a look at snowfall totals across New England, according to the National Weather Service. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. Maine Madrid: 5.3" Rangeley: 4.7" Dallas: 2.3" Sinclair: 2" Castle Hill: 1.6" Caribou: 1.5" North Brighton: 1" New Hampshire Mount Washington: 8" Littleton: 4.5" Carroll: 2.5" Pittsburg: 2" Lyme: 1.5" Jefferson: 1.3" Whitefield: 1" Lancaster: 1" Vermont Hyde Park: 12" Duxbury: 9.5" North Calais: 9.5" East Warren: 9.5" Stannard: 9" Cabot: 9" Waterbury Center: 8" Smugglers Notch: 8" Worcester: 7.5" East Barre: 7.3" Sutton: 6.5" Stowe: 6.5" South Ludlow: 5.8" Topsham: 5.5" North Waitsfield: 5" Morrisville: 5" Landgrove: 5" Waterbury: 4.8" West Hartford: 4.3" Montpelier: 4.2" West Norwich: 4" Orleans: 3.8" West Burke: 3.5" Countryside Estates: 2.8" Manchester: 2.7" West Arlington: 1.5" South Essex Center: 1"

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A Once Despairing Sandwich Shop Owner Sees a Miracle

Joe Faillace looked out the front windows of his sandwich shop this month and barely recognized the neighborhood where he has worked for almost 40 years. There were no tents within view, no emergency sirens, no campfires, no drug users slumped over on his patio or the sidewalk. Instead, he saw customers walking down quiet, clean streets toward his restaurant in time for a lunch rush that now doubles his average daily sales from early in the year. “The difference over the last six months is something I never believed was even possible,” he said. “It’s an entirely new place. Every day feels like a miracle.” The transformation is in fact the result of a fractious, litigious and arduous process that has consumed much of downtown Phoenix since Sept. 20, when a Maricopa County judge ordered the city to clear away its largest homeless encampment, a tent city of more than 1,000 residents known as The Zone. The judge ruled that the encampment had become a public nuisance, a place of “lawlessness and chaos” with such high rates of crime that it violated the rights of local businesses, and therefore needed to be removed within 45 days. The city spent more than $30 million to open three homeless shelters in October and then worked with a team of local nonprofits to clean up The Zone block by block. Outreach workers offered temporary shelter to more than 700 people living in The Zone, and 585 eventually accepted help and chose to move indoors. The city also added 362 transitional beds for longer-term housing and turned a nearby parking lot into a sanctioned camping area with security and portable restrooms; a few dozen people now pitch their tents there.

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ESPN BET promo code MASS: Unlock $250 in bonus bets towards on NBA, NFL this weekend

Sports Betting Dime provides exclusive sports betting content to MassLive.com, including real-time odds, picks, analysis and sportsbook offers to help sports fans get in on the action. Please wager responsibly. Register with our ESPN BET promo code MASS to get the largest welcome bonus. Instead of a $200 bonus, you’ll get $250 in bonus bets when using our code on the newest sportsbook app in the US. Click here to place your first wager on the NBA In-Season Tournament title game. New users can sign up with MASS as the ESPN BET promo code to gain a $250 bonus. All it takes to unlock this bonus is a bet of any amount. It can literally be a $1 wager on the Lakers to beat the Pacers on Saturday night. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. The Lakers are 4.5-point favorites over the Pacers to win the NBA In-Season Tournament Cup. LeBron James has the best odds to win MVP, followed by Tyrese Haliburton. You can place your opening wager on any market, such as who will score the first basket of the game. If you place your opening bet on Saturday night, you’ll have bonus bets to use for NFL Week 14 games on Sunday. ESPN BET releases new odds boosts every weekend for NFL games. These are certain wagers with enhanced odds, creating higher potential winnings. Sign up here and use MASS as the ESPN BET promo code. Place your first bet of any amount on the Pacers vs. Laker to gain $250 in bonus bets. Use our ESPN BET promo code for Lakers vs. Pacers I’m taking the Lakers to beat the Pacers for the first-ever NBA In-Season Cup. James has been tough throughout the tournament, scoring 30 points in their latest win over the Pelicans. Here are some of the specials you can find on the ESPN BET after selecting the game. Anthony Davis, Myles Turner and James to each have over 1.5 blocks: +1000 Haliburton, Buddy Hield and James to each make over 2.5 three-pointers: +325 James and Davis to each score over 29.5 points: +500 How to sign up with MASS for a $250 bonus Take these simple steps to use our ESPN BET promo code. Customers who use our code get an extra $50. Sign up for an account here and use MASS. Enter the other info needed to confirm your identity and age. Download the ESPN BET app on your iPhone or Android and enable location services. Deposit money into your account with an accepted banking method. Place a bet of any amount on the Pacers vs. Lakers. The outcome of your bet doesn’t matter. Win or lose, you’ll get $250 in bonus bets to use toward NFL action on Sunday. ESPN BET promo code results in bonus bets for NFL Week 14 The Patriots started Week 14 with a win in Pittsburgh. Games are back on Sunday, including the Lions vs. Bears, Colts vs. Bengals and Bills vs. Chiefs. All eyes will turn to SNF at 8:20 pm ET as the Eagles take on the Cowboys. This is just one of several games that will have an impact on the NFL future odds. Sign up here to use our ESPN BET promo code MASS. Place a bet of any amount to receive a $250 bonus this weekend. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. Get the latest sports betting news, advice and promos sent straight to your inbox. Enter your email here: Think you know Patriots football? Play the MassLive.com Prop Bet Showdown for a chance to win prizes! If you or a loved one has questions and needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call the Massachusetts Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org to speak with a trained specialist to receive support. Specialists are available 24/7. Services are available in multiple languages and are free and confidential. 21+ and present in participating states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.

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Trent Brown still missing, reportedly has next team picked out

FOXBOROUGH — Trent Brown still hasn’t returned to the Patriots practice field since serving as a healthy scratch in Buffalo. Brown missed practice on Wednesday — he was listed with an illness again on the injury report — and was nowhere to be found on Thursday, either. Brown has now missed four practices in the past two weeks with the illness designation, despite coming off the injury report last Friday and posting a number of social media photos from a New Years Eve party over the weekend. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. According to the Boston Herald, the free-agent-to-be already has his next destination picked out. “Brown had dealt with knee and ankle injuries in late October, and had his mind on free agency,” Andrew Callahan and Doug Kyed wrote. “After a surprising upset at Pittsburgh, Brown openly discussed plans to play for an NFC team in the team locker room.” It’d make a lot of sense if that was the Dallas Cowboys, who are hours from Brown’s ranch in Texas and have high-profile tackle Tyron Smith heading into free agency. Elsewhere on the practice field, Myles Bryant returned from an illness and the Patriots had perfect attendance beyond Brown. With snow in the forecast for Sunday’s season finale against the Jets, quarterback Bailey Zappe is looking forward to playing in some New England weather. “It’ll be exciting. I’m from Texas,” Zappe said. “We don’t really play in snow very much, so it’s going be fun. It’s going to be a great environment, last game, try to end the year out strong. So, I’m ready for it.”

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Scarlet Sweaters and Scotch Tape: Readers Share Their Travel Hacks

The next time you’re on a plane, if the person next to you doesn’t seem to own anything that isn’t bright red, it might be Celia Paerels. Kindle case, sweater, sunglasses, headphones, charging cord, everything in shocking scarlet: It’s how she avoids leaving anything behind in the seat or the seat pocket. “Everybody clues into red,” said Ms. Paerels, 62, of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. “If you see a cardinal, you’ll know it’s a cardinal. You don’t notice a sparrow.” Ms. Paerels is one of more than 180 New York Times readers who responded to our invitation in September to share their favorite travel hacks. A large number of the tips focused on packing (Ziploc bags), sleeping better in hotels (binder clips for the curtains) or eking out more space on planes (strategies abound for snagging empty seats). But a few ideas stood out as especially clever, or unusual. Here, in addition to Ms. Paerels’s color-coded advice, are nine of the best. 1. Put the language where you can see it. Technology has helped break language barriers. Translation programs abound, and travelers can always cram before the trip with a few Duolingo sessions. But inevitably, you’ll still end up accidentally wishing someone “Good night” over morning coffee as your brain struggles to retrieve the right words.

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Why Boston wants to ban guinea pig sales in pet stores

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here. We may not have as much snow as Mount Washington, but some parts of coastal Massachusetts are seeing their first flakes of the year this morning. While you put on those hats and gloves, and make your way to that almost fully reopened Green Line, let’s get to the news: Guinea pigs on the agenda: The Boston City Council is slated to vote today on a proposed ordinance to ban the sale of guinea pigs at pet shops in the city. It’s not because city councilors dislike the furry rodents. They’re actually hoping to cut down on the growing number of abandoned and surrendered animals. Supporters of the ban say people buy guinea pigs without realizing how much work they require. According to the MSPCA, 60% of the guinea pigs the group has rescued were originally acquired at pet stores, and they spend nearly twice the time in shelters as cats and dogs. “In 2023, we have taken in a total of 383 guinea pigs,” Deb Bobek, the director of operations at Boston’s MSPCA, said during a City Council hearing Monday. “We have also seen a large increase in the number of abandoned and stray guinea pigs, a sign that owners are becoming more desperate for help.” The deets: In 2016, Boston passed an ordinance banning pet shops from selling dogs, cats and rabbits from commercial breeders. The new proposal — filed by Councilor Liz Breadon — would simply add guinea pigs to that list. (Cambridge and Attleboro already have similar bans.) If passed, it would mean guinea pigs could only be sold by shelters and rescue animal groups in Boston. The fine for violators would be $300 fine per animal. We have a deal: If you’ve listened to any of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s monthly interviews on Radio Boston, you know she’s been focused on the city’s police union contract negotiations as a vehicle for police reform. This week, after months of negotiations, the city finally agreed to a new five-year contract with its largest police union. And for the first time yesterday, Wu and Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association President Larry Calderone shared the details of the deal. What BPPA members got: The contract includes a 21% increase in base salary over the 2020-2025 period, including retroactive pay. Officers can also get higher pay for working on a new “high priority” category of construction details. What the city got: Wu says the contract includes “significant” reforms, including to the disciplinary process and police detail work. The contract prohibits officers from using arbitration to overturn disciplinary action for a list of specific serious offenses. It allows unfilled detail shifts to be filled by retired officers, college police and even civilians. And it calls for an independent medical examiner to settle disagreements over whether an officer can return from medical leave. (About 10% of the entire BPD force had been on medical leave for over a year when negotiations began.) You can read through a full overview of the reforms here. The post-agreement vibe: Calderone says his membership is pleased with what he called a “fair and equitable” agreement. “We help policing evolve,” he said. “I know the famous word out there is reform, but I like to look at it as police evolving.” What’s next: Funding for the contract — a total of $82.3 million — must now be approved by the Boston City Council. (BPPA members already voted to ratify the deal on Monday night.) It’s official: The Worcester Red Sox will soon have new owners. New York-based Diamond Baseball Holdings announced its plan yesterday to buy a majority stake in the Red Sox Triple-A affiliate. The group already owns nearly 30 minor league baseball teams, including the Portland Sea Dogs and Salem Red Sox. What stays the same: The WooSox will keep playing at Polar Park and former Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino will remain as chairman. What could change: Diamond Baseball Holdings CEO Peter Freund told the Boston Herald the group should be able to use its scale to bring more big events, like concerts, to the ballpark. In other baseball news: The Sox traded outfielder Alex Verdugo to the New York Yankees last night in exchange for three pitching prospects. ESPN has more details on the trade. P.S.— Today is the last day of WBUR’s year-end fundraiser and we still have $148,000 to go. Over 3,200 independent journalism fans have already made their gift. Please consider joining them to help us reach our goal.

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Did you ask Santa for a white Christmas? Heres the forecast in Mass.

For those with visions of a white Christmas this year, the National Weather Service has some bad news. There is virtually no chance of it. However, there is a silver lining: it actually will be warmer than usual. The National Weather Service said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Southern New England will be mainly dry through next Tuesday before widespread rain returns by mid-week. A slight chance of showers is possible for Christmas Eve, but the weather service does not expect this to have an impact on those traveling for the holiday. The chances for precipitation across the state stand at 20-30%. Read More: First Night Boston 2024 will have everything from Sammy Adams to ice sculptures The weather service said these “hit-and-miss” showers lose their steam by Sunday evening, making way for clear skies on Christmas. Temperatures also have the potential to reach the upper 40s to low 50s Sunday into Monday — Christmas Day, according to forecasters. So perhaps the best gift we can expect this year from Mother Nature, is a serene and calm Christmas celebration with the family. Happy holidays to all!

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ESPN BET promo code MASS: Get $250 bonus win or lose for NFL Week 15, UFC 296

Sports Betting Dime provides exclusive sports betting content to MassLive.com, including real-time odds, picks, analysis and sportsbook offers to help sports fans get in on the action. Please wager responsibly. Week 15 features three NFL matchups on Saturday, making it the perfect weekend for our ESPN BET promo code. Sign up here and enter our promo code MASS to score five bonus bets, which you can also use for UFC 296. Create an account with our ESPN BET promo code MASS and start with a $10 wager on any NFL game. You’ll receive $250 in bonus bets no matter the outcome. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. The final NFL game on Saturday is between the Broncos and Lions. Detroit will try to bounce back after a tough loss to the Bears. I think Denver has a great chance at covering the 4.5-point spread on the road. They have won six of their last seven after a bad start to the season. As this game is wrapping up, there will be a ring walk for the welterweight championship. Colby Covington is hoping to take the belt from Leon Edwards. Sign up here to use MASS as the ESPN BET promo code. Place your first $10 wager on an NFL game to secure $250 in bonus bets. Use our ESPN BET promo code for NFL this weekend ESPN BET promo code MASS ESPN BET welcome offer Bet $10, get $250 in bonus bets Last verified December 16, 2023 Verified by Alex Payton If you place a $10 bet on a Saturday NFL matchup, you will have $250 in bonus bets to use for other Week 15 games. No teams are on a bye, so there are still plenty of games on Sunday. Key matchups include the Bears vs. Browns, Texans vs. Titans, Chiefs vs. Patriots, Cowboys vs. Bills and Ravens vs. Jaguars. Week 15 will end on Monday night with the Eagles vs. Seahawks. Be sure to check the promotions page to opt-in to parlay protection and start using the 12 Days of Bet & Gets. ESPN BET is giving customers the chance to earn a $5 bonus bet every day until Christmas. How to sign up with the ESPN BET promo code MASS Follow these steps to use our ESPN BET promo code to get a guaranteed $250 bonus this weekend. Click here to sign up for an account with ESPN BET promo code MASS. Enter the information needed to verify your identity or age. Deposit $10 or more with an accepted banking method. Download the ESPN BET app on your iPhone or Android. Place a $10 wager on any NFL game. The result of the wager doesn’t matter. ESPN BET will give you five $50 bonus bets to use for the games of your choice. UFC 296 main card at 10 pm ET – Edwards vs. Covington UFC fans have a great card to bet on this Saturday night. Covington has been talking a lot of trash leading up to the welterweight belt, which isn’t the only title fight on the card. There are also odds for the flyweight title between Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval. The other two fights on the main card are Shavkat Rakhmmonov vs. Stephen Thompson and Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett. Click here to sign up with the ESPN BET promo code MASS. Begin with a $10 wager on any NFL game for a $250 bonus. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. Get the latest sports betting news, advice and promos sent straight to your inbox. Enter your email here: Think you know Patriots football? Play the MassLive.com Prop Bet Showdown for a chance to win prizes! If you or a loved one has questions and needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call the Massachusetts Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org to speak with a trained specialist to receive support. Specialists are available 24/7. Services are available in multiple languages and are free and confidential. 21+ and present in participating states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.

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Jayson Tatum injury: Joe Mazzulla provides update on stars ankle

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jayson Tatum will officially miss his first game of the season when the Celtics take on the Kings on Wednesday. The Celtics star suffered a sprained left ankle in their loss to the Warriors on Tuesday. While Tatum returned to the game, the injury will keep him out of the second game of the back-to-back. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said they’re taking the injury day-by-day for now. There’s no timetable for his return at this point, Mazzulla added. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. “He loves to play,” Mazzulla said. “I’m sure he would do anything to play but it was obviously sore, obviously swollen. You could tell it limited him during the game. He did a good job of fighting through it, but it’s a day-to-day thing and we’ll see how it goes.” Tatum sprained his ankle a few minutes into Tuesday’s game, which forced him to retreat to the locker room. But he returned to the Celtics bench later just a few game minutes later, and he was ready to play by the start of the second quarter. Tatum ended up playing 41 minutes, but he struggled from the field as he shot 5-for-17 for 15 points. The Celtics get two days off, so Tatum will get a chance to rest his ankle. They take on the Clippers on Saturday in Los Angeles. Before that, the Celtics will look to bounce back after Tuesday’s loss. “When you sprain your ankle, you’re not 100%,” Tatum said postgame Tuesday. “So you gotta figure out other ways of what you can do or what feels more comfortable out there. You can’t move how you want to. You still try to figure out other ways to be effective.”

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Massachusetts weather: Storm to bring strong winds, heavy rain

Over 130 flights were cancelled at Boston Logan Airport Monday morning as a strong storm brought high winds to the Boston area. By 9:20 a.m., the airport had experienced 137 cancellations and 124 delays, according to FlightAware. The cancellations were split almost evenly between flights departing from and arriving into Logan, but flights due to arrive at Logan were more likely to be delayed. Out of the 137 canceled flights, most were being operated by two airlines, according to FlightAware. Cape Air canceled 73 flights — 97% of its flights that were scheduled for Logan on Monday — and Republic canceled 54 flights, nearly half of its total flights out of Boston. Other airports in the region, such as Worcester Regional, Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport and Rhode Island’s T.F. Green Airport, did not seem to be experiencing as many delays and cancellations, based on FlightAware data. The National Weather Service predicts that the storm’s worst impacts will subside by the mid-afternoon. Wind gusts are expected to peak between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. But Boston and much of Eastern Massachusetts is under a high wind warning until 7 p.m. Monday. The weather service predicts 25 to 35 mph winds with gusts up to 60 mph. At 4 a.m., a weather spotter recorded 63 mph winds in Goshen, according to the weather service. Winds between 45 and 55 mph were also recorded in nearly every county in Massachusetts.

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Congress Approves Sweeping New Protections for J.R.O.T.C. Cadets

Background: J.R.O.T.C. programs have operated with little oversight. The program has grown over the past century and now serves a half-million students each year, teaching teenagers military history, leadership, life skills and marksmanship. The programs are offered in public high schools, with retired officers or noncommissioned officers vetted by the military acting as instructors. The New York Times reported in 2022 that at least 33 J.R.O.T.C. instructors had been criminally charged with sexual misconduct involving students over a five-year period, and uncovered other cases that had not resulted in charges or discipline. The investigation showed that instructors had exploited their role as mentors to manipulate and abuse students. The instructors often operated with little oversight, working on the fringes of school campuses and without direct supervision by military overseers. Some high schools were automatically enrolling students in J.R.O.T.C., keeping them there even when they objected to the classes. At some high schools, in places like Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Oklahoma City and Mobile, Ala., more than 75 percent of students in a single grade were enrolled. Military leaders have viewed J.R.O.T.C. as a valuable recruiting tool, as students who encounter the program are more likely to enlist. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee’s panel on personnel, has pushed for changes in the J.R.O.T.C. program. She said that Pentagon officials during questioning had acknowledged a lack of oversight in the program. “J.R.O.T.C. can be a terrific opportunity for a young person to get a taste of military service, but that only works if our military has an ironclad commitment to make certain that every young person who participates is safe and secure and treated respectfully,” Ms. Warren said on Friday. What Happens Next: The legislation requires more Pentagon oversight. The legislation, part of a military spending bill that is expected to be signed by President Biden, requires schools to notify the military within 48 hours of any allegations of misconduct, and to inform students of how to report sexual misconduct. The Department of Defense will be required to produce an annual report on any such allegations and on what was done to investigate them. The Pentagon must also conduct regular inspections of J.R.O.T.C. units. The legislation requires participating schools to have a process to ensure that students who enroll are doing so voluntarily. Ms. Warren said she also expected a report from the Government Accountability Office, which has been reviewing J.R.O.T.C. programs.

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North Korea launches suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile that can reach distant U.S. bases

World News North Korea launches suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile that can reach distant U.S. bases The Joint Chiefs of Staff called the launch a provocation that poses a serious threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula. A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024. North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Sunday, its neighbors said, in its first missile launch this year, as the North is expected to further raise regional animosities in an election year for its rivals South Korea and the United States. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) SEOUL, South Korea (A.P.) — North Korea fired a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile into the sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, two months after the North claimed to have tested engines for a new harder-to-detect missile capable of striking distant U.S. targets in the region. The launch was the North’s first this year. Experts say North Korea could ramp up its provocative missile tests as a way to influence the results of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. presidential election in November. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected the launch of a ballistic missile of an intermediate-range class from the North’s capital region on Sunday afternoon. It said the missile flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Advertisement: The Joint Chiefs of Staff called the launch a provocation that poses a serious threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula. It said South Korea’s military will maintain its readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocations by North Korea. The South Korean assessment suggests North Korea could have launched a new intermediate-range ballistic missile, whose solid-fuel engine it said it had tested in mid-November. The missile is mainly designed to hit U.S. military bases in the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, which is about 3,400 kilometers (2,110 miles) from Pyongyang, the North’s capital. With a range adjustment, the missile can also be used to attack closer targets — the U.S. military installations in Japan’s Okinawa island, according to Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul. Built-in solid propellants make missile launches harder to detect than liquid-fueled missiles, which must be fueled before launch and cannot last long. North Korea has a growing arsenal of solid-fuel short-range missiles targeting South Korea, but its existing Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile is powered by liquid-fuel engines. Japan’s Defense Ministry said its analysis showed the missile traveled at least 500 kilometers (300 miles) at the maximum altitude of 50 kilometers (30 miles), data that suggests North Korea may have fired a short-range and not an intermediate-range missile. Advertisement: Japan and South Korea said they closely exchanged information about the launch with the United States, but they didn’t immediately explain the discrepancy in data. The last time North Korea performed a missile launch that was publicly announced was Dec. 18, when it test-fired its Hwasong-18 solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile, the North’s most advanced weapon. The Hwasong-18 is the country’s only known solid-fuel ICBM and it’s designed to strike the mainland U.S. On Jan. 5, North Korea fired a barrage of artillery shells near the disputed western sea boundary with South Korea, prompting South Korea to conduct similar firing exercises in the same area. South Korea accused North Korea of continuing similar artillery barrage in the area for the next two days. The site is where the navies of the two Koreas have fought three bloody sea battles since 1999, and attacks blamed on North Korea killed 50 South Koreans in 2010. In recent days, North Korea has also been escalating its warlike, inflammatory rhetoric against its foes ahead of an election year in South Korea, and the U.S. Leader Kim Jong Un, during visits last week to munitions factories, called South Korea “our principal enemy” and threatened to annihilate it if provoked. Advertisement: Experts say Kim likely wants to see South Korean liberals win the election and pursue rapprochement with North Korea, and for former U.S. President Donald Trump to be elected again. They say Kim may believe he could win U.S. concessions like sanctions relief if Trump returns to the White House. Negotiations over North Korea’s advancing nuclear arsenal have been dormant since the Kim-Trump diplomacy broke down in 2019. Kim has since focused on enlarging his nuclear and missile arsenals in what foreign analysts think is an effort to boost his leverage. In recent months, North Korea has also been expanding its military and other cooperation with Russia. The U.S. government said it has evidence that missiles provided by North Korea to Russia had been used in the war in Ukraine. In a joint statement last week, the U.S., South Korea and their partners said the missile transfer supports Russia’s war of aggression and provides North Korea with valuable technical and military insights. North Korea and Russia announced Sunday that North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will visit Russia from Monday to Wednesday at the invitation of her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. “Pyongyang’s show of force should be of concern beyond Seoul, as its military cooperation with Moscow adds to the violence in Ukraine, and because it may be more willing to challenge the U.S. and its allies while global attention is fixed on the Middle East,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. Advertisement: Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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They Sold Everything to Go on a 3-Year Cruise. How It All Unraveled.

Kara and Joe Youssef sold their two apartments, withdrew their life savings, gave up most of their belongings and, in late October, set out for Istanbul for the trip of a lifetime: a three-year cruise around the world, scheduled to depart Nov. 1. But in late November, after months of behind-the-scenes chaos, the Youssefs were stuck in Istanbul, with the cruise company canceling the trip. It did not have a ship that could handle the journey. The Turkish company, Miray Cruises, had announced the cruise, called Life at Sea, in March. It claimed it would be the longest cruise ever — 382 port calls over 1,095 days — and a community at sea, with opportunities to explore the globe. Starlink internet and a business center would allow passengers to work remotely. The cruise seemed ideal for a post-pandemic era, targeting people longing for an escape. With fares starting at $90,000 for an inside cabin and going up to $975,000 for a suite, the trip even seemed like a bargain to some prospective passengers, cheaper than living three years in many cities.

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He Went Out for Cigarettes. A Decade Later, His Car Was Found in a Pond.

One morning in late December 2013, Donald L. Erwin, a 59-year-old disabled veteran, told his wife he was going to buy cigarettes. He often woke before dawn and was a heavy smoker. She went back to sleep. Sometime after 6 a.m., Mr. Erwin got into his silver Hyundai and left his mobile home in the central Ozarks. He never returned. For nearly a decade, Mr. Erwin’s family, together with some friends and locals, have scoured the hilly region near his home in Camdenton, Mo., for clues. “I did not stop for nine years,” Mr. Erwin’s sister, Yvonne Erwin-Bowen, said in an interview, noting that she would travel from her home in Kansas City at least twice a year to search. Mr. Erwin’s wife has since died. By last year, Ms. Erwin-Bowen, 62, had begun to lose steam. “I didn’t go look for my brother one time,” she said. “I literally put it in God’s hands.”

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Menendez Case Focuses on How Qatar Trades Its Riches for Clout

When Senator Robert Menendez arrived in Qatar in 2022 to attend the country’s lavish production of the men’s soccer World Cup, he gave an unusual interview to the authoritarian government’s news agency praising the progress that Qatar had made on labor rights. The tiny Gulf state was facing an onslaught of international criticism over its preparations for the world’s biggest sporting event, including over the exploitation of migrant workers who built the tournament’s infrastructure. But Mr. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said he preferred to highlight positive aspects of the games, and the host nation. Traveling to Qatar gave Mr. Menendez “the experience to say wow!” he said, according to the Qatari state news agency. “My short visit to Doha was joyful and I saw that the global community came to Qatar and were well received and well respected.” Less than a year later, Mr. Menendez, 70, was charged in a federal indictment with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including bars of gold, to wield his power at home and abroad. The case initially focused on actions that benefited Egypt. But on Tuesday, updated court documents added new details related to Qatar.

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Opinion | Theres Not Just One Way to Be Japanese

I spent much of my young life proving how Japanese I was. I would grow angry when people praised my impeccable Japanese. Too often I felt I didn’t belong in my own society. It was all too much. Always standing out felt so suffocating that at 19 years old, I moved to New York. Japan was closed off from the Western world until the late 1800s. For much of the country’s history, mixed-race children were uncommon, particularly outside Tokyo. In the post-World War II era, derogatory words like “ainoko” and “konketsuji” were used to describe children born of a Japanese and foreign parent. It wasn’t until the 1980s that interracial marriages became more common.

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They Cant All Be Nominated for Best Picture, Can They?

The good news is that it’s been a great year for movies. The bad news is that, now, the battle for best picture will be bloodier than ever. With such a wide field of acclaimed contenders, plenty of worthy films will be dealt a bad hand when the Oscar nominations are announced on Jan. 23. Even today’s self-imposed assignment to narrow the list to the 10 likeliest nominees proved a harrowing task; instead, I have hedged with an unlucky 13. Ahead of the Golden Globes on Sunday, and the bellwether industry nominations next week from the producers’ and actors’ guilds, here are the current contenders with the most viable shot at a best-picture nomination, ranked in descending order according to their certainty. Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic has the feeling of an old-fashioned sweeper: It’s a highbrow film and a populist hit — exactly the sort of movie Oscar voters and general audiences should be able to agree upon. Still, this race isn’t sewn up. Recent best-picture winners tend to tug more at the heart than at the head, and there are a slew of contenders that can make a more effective case for that organ. And though Nolan has been nominated five times before, he has never been able to convince voters to actually hand him the Oscar: Even when he directed “Dunkirk” (2017), the sort of technically stupendous World War II movie that should have been a slam-dunk for the academy, voters flocked to the warm and cuddly Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”) over the crisp, professorial Nolan.

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Why did Claudine Gay resign? The Harvard president tenure ends

But she said that “after consultation with members” of Harvard’s top governing board, it became clear to her that “it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.” She will return to teaching and scholarship as a tenured faculty member. A daughter of Haitian immigrants who rose through the sharp-elbowed politics of higher education to reach the pinnacle of academia, Gay described her decision to resign as “difficult beyond words” in a message sent to the Harvard University community. CAMBRIDGE — Claudine Gay’s tenure as the first Black president of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious university came to a bitter end Tuesday after her brief term was derailed by controversies stemming from the Israel-Hamas war, campus antisemitism, and allegations of plagiarism in her scholarly works. Harvard provost Dr. Alan Garber will serve as interim president, the board said Tuesday. Advertisement Gay’s resignation is an embarrassment for the elite university and its powerful oversight board, known as the Harvard Corporation, which selected Gay and helped orchestrate her ascension from within Harvard’s ranks. Gay’s six-month tenure as president is the shortest in Harvard’s history. Since Oct. 7, Gay pinballed from one controversy to another, never managing to fully resolve the last before the next arose. It began with withering criticism that her initial statement about the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel was late and weak, and then escalated with allegations that she was too slow to respond to reports of resurgent campus antisemitism. Public pressure for her ouster intensified after she gave legalistic answers during a Dec. 5 congressional hearing to questions about whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate Harvard’s rules. Finally, allegations emerged in December that she had committed plagiarism in some of her scholarly works. Harvard has publicly acknowledged instances of “inadequate citation” and “duplicative language” in two of Gay’s peer-reviewed journal articles and in her PhD dissertation, completed in Harvard’s government department in 1997. Advertisement Gay’s decision comes at an unsettled and anxious moment for higher education, especially the country’s most elite institutions. Conservative leaders have denounced universities as incubators of a rigid progressive ideology, at odds with meritocracy and open debate. Supreme Court justices and lawmakers have moved to restrain, through political force, what they view as universities’ excesses, including the way top universities factored race and ethnicity into admissions decisions. Those battles were the backdrop for an extraordinary political conflagration in recent weeks in which some conservatives attacked Gay’s academic lapses and caricatured her as a kind of diversity, equity, and inclusion apparatchik, while Harvard professors denounced the attempts of lawmakers to intervene in the university’s affairs. The partisan rancor, and a sense that right-wing elements were weaponizing Gay’s missteps to fight other ideological battles, scrambled internal debates, especially among faculty, about the gravity of the plagiarism claims and the seriousness of her misstep at the congressional hearing. Asked at the hearing whether calls for genocide of Jews would violate Harvard’s rules, Gay said, “It depends on the context.” She later apologized. University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill was criticized for offering similar testimony at the hearing, and subsequently resigned on Dec. 9. MIT president Sally Kornbluth, who also answered similarly and faced denunciations, received a public and unconditional vote of confidence from the executive committee of MIT’s governing board days after the hearing. Advertisement Some Harvard professors and students viewed the backlash over Gay’s testimony as motivated, at least in part, by racism. Some also viewed the unearthing of the plagiarism allegations as a partisan campaign to damage a university known for left-leaning values, and to smear a leader who has championed diversity initiatives and affirmative action in higher education admissions. (The plagiarism allegations were first widely circulated by a conservative activist and a conservative news outlet, the Washington Free Beacon.) A Globe review of the allegations found that some sentences and passages in Gay’s work matched, nearly verbatim, language from other sources. Several scholars said some amounted to plagiarism. Some faculty members and students also argued that an undergraduate would face discipline, including suspension, for similar transgressions. On Monday, the Free Beacon published additional allegations of plagiarism against Gay. By that time, Gay had already decided to resign, according to a person close to her. “[I]t has been distressing,” Gay wrote in her Tuesday message, “to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.” Gay, 53, will now “return to the faculty, and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do,” she wrote. Advertisement Lawrence Bacow, Gay’s predecessor as president, said he was saddened by Gay’s resignation. “Claudine is a person of great intellect, integrity, vision and strength,” he said in an email. “She had much to contribute not just to Harvard, but to all of higher education. I regret that she will not have that opportunity.” Her resignation follows months of unrest at American universities prompted by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza. Protesters at numerous campuses have occupied buildings and barged into lecture halls with megaphones to protest Israel’s prosecution of the war, which has killed more than 20,000 people, according to Palestinian officials. “People are calling this the Vietnam War moment of our generation,” Nadine Bahour, a recent Harvard graduate who is Palestinian, said of the protests. Meanwhile, some Jewish students, at Harvard and other campuses, have reported that antisemitism is on the rise. They pointed to controversial protest slogans, such as “Globalize the intifada” or “From the river to the sea,” that some Jews hear as calls for violence against Jews and Israelis, but that pro-Palestinian protesters say are peaceful calls for liberation. The maelstrom over antisemitism and free expression came to a head at the Dec. 5 congressional hearing, convened by a Republican-controlled committee. Gay’s answers to the genocide question prompted new calls for her resignation, and pushback from faculty against outside influence on the university. After the plagiarism allegations emerged several days later, the corporation publicly backed her on Dec. 12. Advertisement “Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” the board’s 11 appointed members formally known as the Fellows of Harvard College wrote in a statement. But they also acknowledged her missteps and said an independent review of her academic writings had revealed “a few instances of inadequate citation.” Calls for her resignation intensified after Harvard announced, on Dec. 20, a second round of updates to her scholarly work due to “duplicative language” in her PhD dissertation. In her resignation message, Gay wrote, “Sad as I am to be sending this message, my hopes for Harvard remain undimmed. When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity — and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education.” Gay is the second Harvard president in two decades to step down amid controversy, following the resignation of Lawrence Summers in 2006 after clashes with faculty members and blowback about remarks he made about women in science. His tenure lasted five years. Garber, an economist and physician, who is Jewish, will serve as interim president “until a new leader for Harvard is identified and takes office,” according to the corporation’s Tuesday message. He has been Harvard’s provost since 2011 and helped guide the university through the COVID-19 pandemic. But his ascension isn’t stopping the cavalcade of critics taking aim at Gay. In October, in the days after the Oct. 7 attack, an activist group called Accuracy in Media sent trucks to Harvard Square displaying photos of pro-Palestinian students beneath the words “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.” This week, the group’s president, Adam Guillette, said he will send U-Haul trucks to Harvard as Gay moves out of the presidency. Mike Damiano can be reached at mike.damiano@globe.com. Hilary Burns can be reached at hilary.burns@globe.com. Follow her @Hilarysburns.

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American Companys Moon Lander Disintegrates in Earths Atmosphere

A spacecraft that was headed to the surface of the moon has ended up back at Earth instead, burning up in the planet’s atmosphere on Thursday afternoon. Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh announced in a post on the social network X that it lost communication with its Peregrine moon lander at 3:50 p.m. Eastern time, which served as an indication that it entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific at around 4:04 p.m. “We await independent confirmation from government entities,” the company said. It was an intentional, if disappointing, end to a trip that lasted 10 days and covered more than half a million miles, with the craft traveling past the orbit of the moon before swinging back toward Earth. But the spacecraft never got close to its landing destination on the near side of the moon. The main payloads on the spacecraft were from NASA, part of an effort to put experiments on the moon at a lower cost by using commercial companies. Astrobotic’s launch was the first in the program, known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS. NASA paid Astrobotic $108 million to transport five experiments.

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Austin Returns to Israel With a Tougher Message and Lessons Learned

After three years as President Biden’s quiet man at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III stepped off his plane at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Monday and into the limelight. It was his second visit to the region since Israel launched a war in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7. During meetings and conversations with Israeli officials, Mr. Austin has stressed both the Biden administration’s support for Israel and concerns about the rising Palestinian death toll. But his message has become more blunt: Israel, Mr. Austin recently predicted, could face “strategic defeat” that would leave the country less secure if it does not do more to protect civilians. The warning is one that Mr. Austin is well equipped to deliver. The retired four-star general brings a wealth of military experience in combat, including urban warfare. Early U.S. efforts to target the Taliban and insurgents in Afghanistan in 2004. The troop “surge” in Iraq in 2007. The planning to pry Mosul, Iraq, from the hands of the Islamic State in 2016. Mr. Austin was involved in all of that.

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Feds seek charges against clients connected with Massachusetts brothel ring

For the first two years, he brought along one of his two lifelong friends, Kinnan Abdalhamid, a student at Haverford College, or Tahseen Ali Ahmad, who attends Trinity College. This year was special, though, because for the first time all three of the Palestinian college juniors were here together for the long weekend. They grew up and went to school together in Ramallah, in the West Bank, and treasured their reunions. BURLINGTON, Vt. — Ever since he enrolled at Brown University three years ago, Hisham Awartani made the trek north from Providence to Vermont every Thanksgiving to spend the long holiday weekend with relatives. Advertisement They stayed here at the home of Awartani’s grandmother, Marian Price, and spent much of their time next door, at the home of his aunt and uncle, Kimberly and Rich Price. On Saturday, the three 20-year-olds joined the Price family at a bowling alley for a birthday party for Awartani’s 8-year-old twin cousins, Matthew and Merrett Price. “As college students, they had every right to say, ‘A birthday party for 8-year-olds, that sounds terrible.’ But they wanted to be there for my sons,” Rich Price said, standing in the kitchen of his house. “That’s the kind of young men they are. Incredibly gracious.” Rich Price, uncle to victim Hisham Awartani. Caleb Kenna for The Boston Globe When they got home from the party, Matthew declared, “Best birthday ever!” Awartani and his two friends smiled and excused themselves to take their nightly stroll, having a cigarette and a conversation in the hybrid of Arabic and English they commonly use. They were two blocks away from the Price home when a white man with a scruffy beard walked down the porch steps of a sprawling white apartment building, pointed a handgun and shot all three of them. “They told me the shooter didn’t say a word,” said Rich Price, who has spent most of the last three days in the room at the University of Vermont Medical Center where his nephew and two friends are being treated for gunshot wounds. “He stepped out of the dark. They used the term ‘stone cold’ to describe him.” Advertisement Rich Price said Ali Ahmad was struck in the chest, Abdalhamid in the glute area, and both should recover with time. The prognosis for Awartani is not as encouraging. Rich Price said the bullet that smashed through his nephew’s clavicle lodged in his spine. “His recovery is going to be a long one,” Rich Price said. The sudden, tragic twist ended what had been a long, languorous weekend of food and family. The three college students played board games with the five Price boys, hung out at Marian Price’s house, and sat down for a sprawling, traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Kimberly and Rich Price’s house. There’s a family tradition of proclaiming what food they were most looking forward to, and Awartani announced it was the pumpkin pie. Another family tradition involves asking who they would most want at the table who wasn’t, and what they were most thankful for. “All three of them said they wished their parents were at the table,” Rich Price said. “They said they were thankful for being welcomed into our homes. They were grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with each other. We just did what so many families do on Thanksgiving and the days that follow.” Those parents are now trying to get to Vermont, to see their sons in the hospital. Advertisement “They have been incredibly resilient,” Rich Price said of his nephew and his two friends. “They have been brave and even retained a sense of humor.” The three have been ribbing each other about who got the worst of it. The friends keep each other’s spirits up. “There is a rapport between all three of them that is amazing,” Kimberly Price said. Awartani’s mother, Rich Price’s sister Elizabeth, has lived in Ramallah for 20 years, in a region where armed conflict has been a constant. He said people often ask how dangerous it is where his sister lives. “The tragic irony of it,” Rich Price said. “They send their kids to Vermont for Thanksgiving and that’s where they get shot. There’s a level of vitriol that exists in our civic discourse, we have a sickness with gun violence, that in a way doesn’t even exist in a place like Palestine.” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said it is too early in the investigation to classify the shootings as a hate crime. He said the suspected shooter, Jason Eaton, had only been living in Vermont recently, and that, other than a traffic stop, has had no known involvement with law enforcement. Rich Price said he and his family are willing to let the investigation play out, but said given the circumstances “our fear is that this crime was motivated by hate.” He said his nephew and his friends had taken a nightly stroll each of the three days that preceded the shooting, that at least two of them were wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf, and that they spoke at least some Arabic. Advertisement “It’s possible the shooter saw them the previous evenings and was waiting for them,” Rich Price said. Murad said Eaton was not at home, or did not answer the door, Saturday night, when investigators first knocked on doors at the apartment building where the three friends were shot. But when an ATF agent knocked on the door in follow-up canvassing Sunday afternoon, Eaton opened the door and said, “I’ve been waiting for you,” Murad said. When the agent asked why he was waiting for them, Eaton asked for a lawyer, Murad added. As Rich Price spoke in the kitchen of his home, Kimberly Price stepped out to the foyer and greeted a local rabbi who came by with food and support. The minister at the Congregational church the Price family attends visited the three friends at their hospital room. US Representative Becca Balint called to offer support. “As awful as this has been, the outpouring of support from friends and neighbors has been amazing,” Rich Price said. “The community has really rallied around us. The hospital has been fabulous.” On Sunday night, Rich Price spoke by phone to his brother-in-law, Ali Awartani, in the West Bank. “Thanks to God, a thousand times, my son is alive,” Ali Awartani told him. “They are just so grateful he is alive,” Rich Price said. “So are we.” Advertisement The Price family was watching TV Sunday night when news about the shooting came on. “I don’t understand what’s going on,” 8-year-old Matthew said. Rich Price looked at his son, a study of innocence, and replied, “Neither do I.” On Monday morning, Matthew sat at the kitchen table and used a pencil and crayons to fashion a handmade get-well card for his cousin and his cousin’s two friends. “I hope you all get better soon,” Matthew wrote. He folded the letter over and drew a flower on the front. Kevin Cullen is a Globe reporter and columnist who roams New England. He can be reached at kevin.cullen@globe.com.

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Westfield Public Health Bulletin: How to calm a cough

Are you still coughing? You are not alone. It seems everyone is coughing and coughing and coughing. With all the respiratory illnesses circulating, coughs are lingering. Cases of RSV, influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses are prevalent locally and throughout the country. Whooping cough (a highly contagious bacterial infection preventable by vaccine) cases have joined in. A cough occurs when an irritant stimulates nerves that send a message to your brain. The brain directs your chest and abdominal muscles to push air out your lungs to eliminate the irritant. Coughs are persisting for many reasons. People may have overlapping infections especially after holiday gatherings. Immunities are diminished after the pandemic. Vaccination rates are down. And of course, our society dictates that we just keep going even when we don’t feel well. Many have limited or no sick time and can’t afford to stay home or lose their job. An acute cough is defined as lasting for three weeks and is usually due to a viral illness. Most people expect to feel better within a week and this isn’t always realistic. Pneumonia is considered when symptoms include fever, chills, shortness of breath and purulent phlegm. A subacute cough lasts three to eight weeks. A post infectious subacute cough may be due to bacterial sinusitis, upper airway irritation and inflammation and postnasal drip. A chronic cough continues over eight weeks and may be caused by but not limited to asthma, medication, acid reflux, smoking, chronic bronchitis and other more serious etiologies. Acute illnesses can also exacerbate chronic conditions such as asthma and COPD.

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A Good Coat Is Hard to Find

Fi Cotter Craig, a television producer in Britain, was scrolling through Instagram one day when she was struck by a photo. “I saw my friend wearing a jacket that I actually thought I would kill her for,” Ms. Cotter Craig said. “Rather than kill her, I rang her up and said, ‘Where did you get that jacket?’” Chloe Speed, who lives in Amsterdam and works in marketing for Nike, envied her husband’s new blue chore coat and poached it for herself. “The color was so iconic and beautiful,” Ms. Speed said. “Every time you wear it, it gets a little softer in places and fits better.” Ethan Cannon, a divinity student in St. Louis, was pulling into a restaurant parking lot one rainy night when he was stopped by the attendant. “He’s standing in the rain, holding up traffic,” Mr. Cannon recalled. “First thing he said was, ‘Where did you get that jacket?’” The maker of all three coats is Paynter Jacket Co., a small British label run by Becky Okell and Huw Thomas, a married couple who take an unusual approach to their business.