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Editorial: Does Boston City Council deserve pay hike?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

The freshly sworn-in members of the Boston City Council started the year off by getting a pay raise right out of the gate.Must be nice.The raise has been in the pipeline for two years, when the council voted for a heftier boost. Mayor Michelle Wu vetoed it, and the council came back with a slightly downsized pay hike.This year, councilors will get $115,000 (up from $103,500) and an additional $5,000 next year and another $5,000 in 2026.The question is: Do they deserve it?In most private-sector companies, pay raises are linked to performance reviews: turn in a stellar year, and you are rewarded. But with the state of dysfunction so robustly displayed by the council over the last year, what are they being rewarded for? And if raises are not, in large part, based on merit, they should be.One could make the argument that elections are the ultimate performance review, but with historically low turnouts for city council elections, that point is weak.Not so for members of Congress. Members...

Dear Abby: New GF is pal’s ex, should I tell him?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

Dear Abby: I am a 40-plus-year-old single male. I recently started hanging out with one of my friend “Tom’s” ex-girlfriends. It is now turning into more than friends. “Pam” and I both have feelings for each other. She and Tom dated for five months and broke up eight months ago.Do I owe it to Tom to ask his permission or tell him I’m seeing her? Pam has asked me to not say anything and to let him find out on his own, which will happen because we have many mutual friends. I want to respect her choice. But also, as Tom’s friend, I feel the right thing to do is tell him. Please advise. I’m stuck between her wishes and doing what I think is right. — Stuck in the Middle in IowaDear Stuck: Have a talk with Pam. Explain that you are not sure how Tom will react if he sees the two of you arm-in-arm with no warning. He may not care, but he also could be upset that you are dating and hid it from him. Then tell Pam that, in light of your frie...

Rescuers search for possible missing swimmer near Ocean Beach Pier

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- First responders on Monday night are searching for a swimmer who possibly got swept away in Ocean Beach, authorities said.The man was last seen entering the water near the Ocean Beach Pier, the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) confirmed to FOX 5. Large waves damage Ocean Beach Pier SDPD's chopper, lifeguards, as well as the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department are assisting with the search.Check back for updates on this developing story.

Powerful earthquakes leave at least 30 dead, destroy buildings along Japan's western coast

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

WAJIMA, Japan (AP) — A series of powerful earthquakes hit western Japan, leaving at least 30 people dead and damaging buildings, vehicles and boats, with officials warning people in some areas on Tuesday to stay away from their homes because of a risk of more strong quakes.Aftershocks continued to shake Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas a day after a magnitude 7.6 temblor slammed the area on Monday afternoon. Thirty people were confirmed dead in Ishikawa, officials said. Seven others were seriously injured, while damage to homes was so great that it could not immediately be assessed, they said. “Saving lives is our priority and we are fighting a battle against time,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday. “It is critical that people trapped in homes get rescued immediately.” A quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 shook the area as he was speaking. Japan's military dispatched 1,000 soldiers to the disaster zones to join rescue efforts, Kishida said, stressing they were fa...

Brazil’s economy improves during President Lula’s first year back, but a political divide remains

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva likes to boast he had a good first year after returning to the job. The economy is improving, Congress passed a long-overdue tax reform bill, rioters who wanted to oust him are now in jail, and his predecessor and foe Jair Bolsonaro is barred from running for office until 2030.Still, the 78-year-old leader has struggled to boost his support among citizens and lawmakers. Some major setbacks, including a series of votes by Congress to override his vetoes, signaled that Lula’s future could be less productive in a Brazil almost evenly split between his supporters and Bolsonaro’s.“Brazil’s political polarization is such that it crystallized the opinions of Lula and Bolsonaro voters beyond the economy,” said political consultant Thomas Traumann, the author of a recent best-selling book on Brazil’s political divisions. “These groups are separated by very different world views, the values that form the identity ...

Ex-gang leader makes his bid in Las Vegas court for house arrest before trial in Tupac Shakur case

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with killing hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 in Las Vegas plans to ask a judge on Tuesday to release him to house arrest ahead of the trial in June.Court-appointed lawyers for Duane “Keffe D” Davis say their 60-year-old client is in poor health, poses no danger to the community and won’t flee to avoid trial. They want the judge to set his bail at not more than $100,000.Davis has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge and has remained jailed without bail since his arrest Sept. 29 outside his home in suburban Henderson, where Las Vegas police had served a search warrant in mid-July. He is the only person ever charged with a crime in the shooting that also wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight.Prosecutors allege in a court filing submitted last week that jail telephone recordings and a list of names provided to Davis’ family members show that there are witnesses at risk of harm if Davis was released.They also ...

A missing person with no memory: How investigators solved the cold case of Seven Doe

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Buried at the edge of a Chicago Catholic cemetery are an elderly person’s remains marked only by a cement cylinder deep in the ground labeled with the numbers 04985. The person died in 2015 at a nursing home not remembering much, including their own name.They went by Seven. Now police specializing in missing people and cold cases have discovered Seven’s identity in one of the most unusual investigations the Cook County sheriff’s office has pursued and one that could change state law. Using post-mortem fingerprints, investigators identified Seven as 75-year-old Reba C. Bailey, an Illinois veteran missing since the 1970s.The breakthrough is bringing closure to generations of relatives and friends. But whether they knew the name or the numeral, the investigation has unearthed more mysteries about how Reba, a Women’s Army Corps veteran raised in a large family, became homeless with no recollection, aside from wanting to be identified as a man called Seven.Public records, ...

Biden and Trump are poised for a potential rematch that could shake American politics

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — U.S. presidential elections have been rocked in recent years by economic disaster, stunning gaffes, secret video and a pandemic. But for all the tumult that defined those campaigns, the volatility surrounding this year’s presidential contest has few modern parallels, posing profound challenges to the future of American democracy. Not since the Supreme Court effectively decided the 2000 campaign in favor of Republican George W. Bush has the judiciary been so intertwined with presidential politics. In the coming weeks, the high court is expected to weigh whether states can ban former President Donald Trump from the ballot for his role in leading the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court is weighing Trump’s argument that he’s immune from prosecution. The maneuvers are unfolding as prosecutors from New York to Washington and Atlanta move forward with 91 indictments across four criminal cases involving everything from Trum...

States and Congress wrestle with cybersecurity at water utilities amid renewed federal warnings

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The tiny Aliquippa water authority in western Pennsylvania was perhaps the least-suspecting victim of an international cyberattack.It had never had outside help in protecting its systems from a cyberattack, either at its existing plant that dates to the 1930s or the new $18.5 million one it is building.Then it — along with several other water utilities — was struck by what federal authorities say are Iranian-backed hackers targeting a piece of equipment specifically because it was Israeli-made.“If you told me to list 10 things that would go wrong with our water authority, this would not be on the list,” said Matthew Mottes, the chairman of the authority that handles water and wastewater for about 22,000 people in the woodsy exurbs around a one-time steel town outside Pittsburgh. The hacking of the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa is prompting new warnings from U.S. security officials at a time when states and the federal government are wrestling with how...

Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai pleads not guilty to sedition and collusion charges

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:20:31 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Prominent activist and publisher Jimmy Lai on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to three charges of sedition and collusion with foreign countries in a landmark national security trial in Hong Kong.Lai, a media tycoon who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, faces one count of conspiring to print seditious publications to incite hatred against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments, as well as two counts of collusion with foreign countries to call for sanctions and other hostile actions against China and Hong Kong.Flanked by three prison officers, Lai formally pleaded not guilty to the charges read to him, shortly after the court rejected a last-ditch attempt by his counsel to throw out a sedition charge against him. The court began hearing opening statements from the prosecution on Tuesday.Dressed in a navy blazer and a white shirt, Lai smiled and waved at his family members as he entered the courtroom ahead of the start of the court session.Lai, 76, was arrested ...