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House Speaker says gun bill should clear lower chamber this week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

The Speaker of the Massachusetts House is confident a gun control measure under consideration by the lower chamber but opposed by the state’s law enforcement leaders will get the votes it needs to advance.According to House Speaker Ron Mariano, the gun control bill, also known as  An Act modernizing firearm laws, which last week was the subject of a Ways and Means Committee hearing, will have the support required to head for the state Senate when he brings it to the floor this week.“We’ve talked to the members. We had two meetings with the members in the committee. We aired all of the questions that were posed around the first bill,” Mariano said.Offered by Stoneham Rep. Michael Day, the bill would broadly expand a list of banned firearms, adding most popular AR-15 styles to a list of “assault style weapons.” It would also require licensed concealed carry holders to secure permission before entering another’s home with a firearm and require additional training for license holders. T...

Sweet 16: Revolving QB door no matter to Mashpee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

You need a roster to figure out who is playing quarterback at Mashpee High School this fall.The Falcons have gone through four signal-callers in six games, yet have managed to put together a 5-1 record headed into the final two weeks of the regular season. Head coach Matt Triveri credits the kids for not hanging their heads when they had every opportunity to do so.“They’re a great group of kids. There’s not a lot of them, but they are great,” Triveri said. “We constantly talk about how life is full of setbacks. You can either dwell on them and stay pat or keep moving forward.“These guys have been great about doing whatever is needed. I can’t remember one time where a guy told us they can’t move from one position to another and that’s why we’ve had the success we’ve had so far this year.”Dominic Matteodo was the starter and someone Triveri felt was capable of a breakout season. After guiding the Falcons to a 1-1 start (36 points a game), Matt...

Soccer notebook: Abington boys battle for attention

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

ABINGTON — When opportunity comes a knockin’, you are often presented with a choice to make.For Iury Cassemiro, the chance came this year when he was selected as a captain for Abington’s boys soccer program.“This past summer, I kind of woke up,” said Cassemiro. “I knew I had the potential to (stand out). My Dad talked to me about it, and it’s all about him. He always believed in me. I think he tried, so I kept working harder and harder this summer… and it led me to this.”Cassemiro’s journey began in Recife, Brazil. When he was in middle school, he and his family emigrated to Abington.Could it have been a leap of faith? Maybe. Despite the change in scenery, however, soccer remained a constant.Now, Cassemiro has thrived, emerging as one of the South Shore League’s premier scoring threats.“It’s not surprising,” said Abington coach Brian Claus. “He’s shown the potential to be a very great player for years now. He actually was selected to the varsity team as a freshman. He got some time ...

New home construction to be accelerated in San Diego with SANDAG funds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- New funding from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) will support five initiatives to speed up home construction in the region.According to the City of San Diego,$4.8 million is being allocated for these efforts through SANDAG's Housing Acceleration Program.Officials say the money will be used to support local governments, developers, tribal nations, and transit agencies to develop policies that will help quicken home production. San Diego finished handing out green composting bins. How have they done? “This funding will help us build off the work we’ve done, and continue to do, to produce more homes, reach our climate goals and engage with the community about the importance of addressing our housing crisis,” said Mayor Todd Gloria. “We are thankful to the state and SANDAG for recognizing and supporting our efforts to create homes that San Diegans can afford.”The funding will go toward the following five City Planning Department initiatives:-- Affordabl...

Man killed Muslim boy and wounded woman in hate crime motivated by Israeli-Hamas war, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A 71-year-old Illinois man was charged Sunday with a hate crime, accused of fatally stabbing a young boy and seriously wounding a woman because of their Islamic faith and the Israel-Hamas war, authorities said.Officers found the 32-year-old woman and 6-year-old boy late Saturday morning at a home in an unincorporated area of Plainfield Township, southwest of Chicago, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on social media. The statement added that the boy was pronounced dead at a hospital and the woman had multiple stab wounds and was expected to survive. An autopsy on the child showed he had also been stabbed multiple times. “Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the sheriff’s statement said. According to the sheriff’s office, the woman had called 911 to report that her landlord ...

Greece’s ruling conservatives suffer setbacks in regional, municipal elections

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s ruling New Democracy party suffered a setback in Sunday’s runoff elections for regional governors and mayors, losing the country’s two largest cities and five of the six regional contests.Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had explicitly said that his goal was to win all 13 regions plus the cities of Athens, Thessaloniki and Piraeus, “13 plus 3,” as he said.The results of the first round, last Sunday, appeared to consolidate New Democracy’s political dominance, already expressed in the double national election, last May and June. Its endorsed candidates won all seven regions whose result was decided in the first round, as well as Piraeus. This included two cases, Piraeus and the region of Crete, where New Democracy decided to hitch itself on the bandwagon of the incumbents, whom it had opposed in the previous local elections in 2019.But on Sunday, voters, at least those that bothered to turn out, inflicted a reality check on New Democracy’s triumphalis...

UN aid chief says six months of war in Sudan has killed 9,000 people

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Six months of war between Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary group has killed up to 9,000 people and created “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history,” the United Nations humanitarian chief said Sunday.Sudan has been engulfed in chaos since mid-April, when simmering tensions between military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open warfare.“For six months, civilians … have known no respite from bloodshed and terror,” U.N. Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths said in a statement marking the six-month anniversary of the war. “Horrific reports of rape and sexual violence continue to emerge.”The fighting initially centered in Khartoum, but quickly spread to other areas across the east African nation, including the already conflict-wrecked western Darfur region.Griffiths said the fighting reportedly killed up to 9,000 and forced millions of p...

Poland’s opposition leader Tusk declares win after exit poll shows ruling populists losing majority

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk declared the beginning of a new era for his country after opposition parties appeared to have won enough votes in Sunday’s election to oust the ruling populist party.That party, Law and Justice, has bickered with allies and faced accusations of eroding rule of law at home in its eight years in power. It appeared that voters were mobilized like never before, voting in even greater numbers than when the nation ousted the communist authorities in 1989.If the result predicted by an exit poll holds, Law and Justice won but also lost. It got more seats than any other party but not enough to build a government and pass laws in the legislature. The Ipsos exit poll suggested that Law and Justice obtained 200 seats. The far-right Confederation got 12 seats, a showing the party said was a defeat.It also showed that three opposition parties have likely won a combined 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, the Sejm. T...

Quebec Liberals won’t name new leader until spring 2025

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

The Quebec Liberals say they will not select a new leader until the spring of 2025, a decision that has split the party between backers of the only declared candidate and the rest of the general council.Nicholas Plourde, who chairs the provincial Liberals’ executive council, said an earlier vote would be “premature” and stressed the opportunity for more candidates — “from different horizons, including from the outside if possible” — afforded by a longer timeline.“Nobody wants this race to be a coronation. It would be the worst thing for our party,” Plourde told some 400 Liberals at a policy convention in Drummondville, Que., on Sunday.“This race must be the occasion for several candidates to debate on the ground and to go meet the members.”The eventual party chief will replace Dominique Anglade, who announced she was stepping down five weeks after the provincial election last year that returned Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec to the l...

Man killed Muslim boy, 6, in hate crime motivated by Israeli-Hamas war: Illinois police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

WILL COUNTY, Ill. (WGN) — A man accused of brutally killing a 6-year-old boy and seriously injuring a 32-year-old woman in Illinois is facing hate crime charges, according to the Will County Sheriff's Office.Authorities say 71-year-old Joseph Czuba has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crime, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the Will County Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted to social media. US working to assist Americans seeking to leave Gaza, West Bank The charges stem from a violent attack that occurred at a home in unincorporated Plainfield Township, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, just after 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.Will County deputies and officers from the Plainfield Police Department initial...