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New union contract bumps pay 18% for MBTA workers as agency looks to continue hiring spree

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

A new union contract between the MBTA and nearly half its workforce offers an 18% pay hike, incentives to stay at the transit agency, and targeted hiring goals for hard-to-fill positions, officials said Wednesday.The contract still needs to be approved by the MBTA board, which meets next on Thursday, but MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng and Boston Carmen’s Local 589 boss Jim Evers gave their stamp of approval at a press conference outside of the MBTA’s Cabot Yard.The contract — which covers maintenance workers, bus drivers, train drivers, and other frontline employees — will provide an 18% wage increase over four years, codifies “a number of attraction and retention” measures, better pay progression for new hires, and sign-on bonuses, Gov. Maura Healey said.“It also expands benefits, adding 10 days of paid parental leave, bereavement leave for domestic partners, and dental and vision coverage for part time workers,” she said. “These are opportunities that current T worke...

Pittsburgh synagogue shooter sentenced to death for deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

The gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers will be sentenced to death for perpetrating the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.Robert Bowers spewed hatred of Jews and espoused white supremacist beliefs online before methodically planning and carrying out the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three congregations had gathered for Sabbath worship and study. Bowers, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, also wounded two worshippers and five responding police officers.The same federal jury that convicted the 50-year-old Bowers on 63 criminal counts recommended Wednesday that he be put to death for an attack whose impacts continue to reverberate nearly five years later. A judge will formally impose the sentence later.The verdict came after a lengthy trial in which jurors heard in chilling detail how Bowers reloaded at least twice, stepped over the bloodied bodies of his victims to look for...

4.2-magnitude earthquake recorded east of Ocotillo Wells

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

SAN DIEGO — An earthquake shook an area near San Diego County Tuesday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.A 4.2-magnitude earthquake struck near Niland, California in Imperial County at 10:38 p.m., USGS data shows. This area is east of Ocotillo Wells and just east of the Salton Sea. How to visit Cabrillo National Monument for free this week The quake occurred at a depth of about 2 miles, sending shockwaves that could be felt for several miles, according to USGS.A USGS intensity map shows the quake was felt in El Centro and Mexicali, which is directly across the U.S. border with Mexico. It also shows some intensity being felt in San Diego County's Ocotillo Wells and Borrego Springs. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Lowest-paying jobs in San Diego

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. may be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but financial inequality prevails within its borders. That divide is growing, especially between the poorest and richest U.S. residents.The middle class is shrinking. In 2021, just half of adults lived in a middle-income household, a huge drop from 61% in the 70s. This dip meant some middle-class adults broke into the high-income bracket. At the same time, the share of lower-income residents is growing: 29% of adults lived in low-income households in 2021, compared to 25% in 1971.Wages over this period grew at all income levels, but the rich got significantly higher bumps. Pew Charitable Trusts found that high incomes grew 69% over the past 50 years, while low incomes grew just 45%. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and further exposed these harsh financial gaps.The difference in pay for the highest- and lowest-paying jobs in the U.S. last year was over eightfold: from about $28,000 for entertainment attendant...

Riding ever higher in polls, Trump indicted for trying to overturn 2020 election loss

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

WASHINGTON — “You’re too honest,” Donald Trump allegedly told Mike Pence on the first day of 2021, six days before supporters of a defeated yet defiant president stormed Capitol Hill and tried to subvert the outcome of a free and fair election.That assessment of the former vice-president and his commitment to democracy is just one of the revelations in what is the third — but perhaps most explosive — indictment of Trump to come down in just the last four months. And it comes, remarkably, with the former commander-in-chief seemingly at the height of his post-presidential powers, with polls showing him with a towering lead in the race to challenge Joe Biden for the White House. “The defendant lost the 2020 presidential election,” special counsel Jack Smith writes in the first paragraph of the long-awaited 45-page indictment delivered late Tuesday. “Determined to remain in power,” Trump spent the next two months systematically testing and ignor...

Unifor says Metro terminating benefits of striking workers, plans to provide in lieu

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

TORONTO — The union representing striking Metro workers across the Greater Toronto Area says the grocery chain plans to terminate their access to benefits during the labour dispute.In a note to members on Wednesday, Unifor Local 414 says in lieu of employer provided benefits, the union will provide group insurance benefits to eligible striking workers through Green Shield Canada.It says participation in strike duty entitles members to benefits including hospital care, drug, life, accidental and dismemberment premiums and out-of-province, which is paid for by the Unifor Strike and Defence Fund.To access benefits, workers must complete an enrolment form that is available at local picket lines.Last week, workers at 27 Metro grocery stores rejected a tentative agreement that had been reached just after a strike deadline, as 3,700 frontline store employees walked off the job Saturday instead of accepting the deal.Metro Ontario Inc. a subsidiary of Metro Inc., issued a statement at the ti...

Greek authorities charge 2 migrants for destroying dinghy carrying 40 as rescue boat approached

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities rescued 40 migrants from a sinking dinghy in the Aegean Sea on Wednesday and charged two of them with causing a shipwreck and endangering lives for allegedly scuttling the flimsy vessel as a coast guard boat approached.A coast guard statement said all 40 people were in good health after being picked up from the inflatable dinghy off the eastern Greek island of Lesbos. Lesbos is close to the Turkish mainland and a major entry point for people from the Middle East and Africa seeking a better life in the European Union, who pay smuggling gangs for a berth on a small boat.The statement said one of the people on the boat slashed its rubber sides with a sharp implement “endangering the passengers” as the coast guard patrol boat approached, while the other threw the small outboard engine into the sea.It wasn’t immediately clear why the migrants sought to destroy the vessel. Similar incidents have been reported in recent weeks off Lesbos and oth...

Amazon to open robotics-backed fulfilment centre in Southwold, Ont., will hire 1,000

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

SOUTHWOLD, Ont. — Amazon Canada. says it will open a new robotics-backed fulfilment centre south of London, Ont. later this year.The e-commerce giant says the new fulfilment centre is expected to open in Southwold on Oct. 1.The centre, known as YXU1, will see employees work alongside robotics technology to pick, pack and ship up to 750,000 items a day.Amazon expects to hire more than 1,000 full-time employees to staff the centre.The company will begin its hiring efforts for the site in September.Amazon says that hires will receive competitive wages as well as medical, vision, and dental coverage and a group RRSP plan.  This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug 2, 2023.The Canadian Press

Movie Review: Passion and love get messy in Ira Sachs’ smoldering ‘Passages’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

If you’ve been wondering where all the sex has gone from the movies, you’re in luck: The new film “Passages” does not hold back in depicting the fresh passion of a love affair.But “Passages” should really come with a warning, and not because of its realistic illustrations of queer and heterosexual intimacy, which got the film slapped with an NC-17 rating. (Its distributor, MUBI, opted instead to release it in theaters as unrated.) No, “Passages” should come with a warning for its brutal honesty about the intoxicating haze of a new relationship and all its casualties.At least it’s fun and dangerous at the start (aren’t they all, though). Directed by Ira Sachs, working again with his co-writer Mauricio Zacharias, “Passages” is centered on Tomas (Franz Rogowski), a German living in France with his English husband Martin (Ben Whishaw), who begins an affair with a French woman, Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos).Tomas is a film director. We’re introduced to him micromanaging actors in a ...

FBI looks for more possible victims after woman escapes from cinderblock cage in Oregon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:39 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man who posed as an undercover police officer kidnapped a woman in Seattle, drove her hundreds of miles to his home in Oregon, and kept her locked in a makeshift, cinderblock jail cell until she bloodied her hands while breaking open the door to escape, the FBI said Tuesday.The man now faces federal charges, and authorities said they are looking for additional victims after linking him to sexual assaults in at least four more states.“This woman was kidnapped, chained, sexually assaulted, and locked in a cinderblock cell,” Stephanie Shark, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland field office, said in a news release. “Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare.”Negasi Zuberi, 29, of Klamath Falls, was arrested has been charged with interstate kidnapping. Court records did not list an attorney who might speak on his behalf.The FBI said Zuberi also went by the names Sakima, Justin Hyche and Justi...