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Healey names transportation safety chief

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

A transportation exec with experience at systems around the country was named the new Chief Safety Officer in Massachusetts, a post that will have him overseeing safety and operations for the MBTA, highway, rail and paratransit operations.Governor Maura Healey named Patrick J. Lavin to the post created when she took office earlier this year.Lavin has previously worked as Chief Safety Officer for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and as Senior Director of Operations for system safety at the New York City Transit.“Pat Lavin is a dedicated public transportation expert who shares our administration’s commitment to improving safety and reliability across our transportation system, including the MBTA,” said Healey in a statement accompanying the announcement of Lavin’s appointment.. “We created this position to ensure we had a senior official coordinating efforts across all modes of transportation and driving strategies across the system to improve safety for rider...

Chris Perkins’ final NFL mock draft: Who will Dolphins take at No. 51?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

The South Florida Sun Sentinel’s third and final 2023 NFL mock draft has Dolphins columnist Chris Perkins going until pick No. 51, Miami’s first selection this year. Trades, which are sure to happen, are factored into this mock draft, similar to Dolphins writer David Furones’ mock draft, but unlike Perkins’ initial mock draft. The NFL draft is Thursday-Saturday in Kansas City.1. Carolina Panthers (from Chicago): Bryce Young, QB, AlabamaThis remains a tough choice between Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, but I’ll give the Panthers the guy believed to have the higher football IQ.Top needs: QB, Edge rusher, ILB2. Houston Texans: C.J. Stroud, QB, Ohio StateStroud likely remains the No. 2 selection here even though there’s talk that the Texans like Kentucky’s Will Levis.Top needs: QB, Edge, WR3. Tennessee Titans (mock trade with Arizona): Anthony Richardson, QB, FloridaThere’s chatter that veteran quarterback Ryan Tannehill is on t...

2 hospitalized after City Heights shooting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO — A shooting early Monday morning in the City Heights neighborhood left two people injured, police said.According to the San Diego Police Department, the shooting happened shortly after 2 a.m. in the area near 4070 42nd Street.Two people, who were only described as males, were shot and taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that were said to be non-life-threatening.The circumstances that led to the shooting are still under investigation by police.No suspect description or additional details on the shooting were immediately available.

Drake adds North American dates in 2023, new shows in Toronto

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

Drake is expanding his 2023 “It’s All a Blur” tour with rapper 21 Savage to include new cities, including stops in Toronto.The Canadian rapper delayed the start of the tour, shelving shows in New Orleans, Nashville, Houston, Dallas, Miami, and Atlanta until late summer.The new cities added include Toronto, Columbus, Memphis, Denver, Austin, Milwaukee, and Charlotte. The two concerts in Toronto at Scotiabank Arena are tentatively scheduled for October 5 and October 7.RELATED: OVO Fest ticket costs frustrate Drake fans as prices reach $900 for lawn seatsThe Toronto pre-sale is slated to begin at 10 a.m. ET on April 27. The general public sale will be held a day later, at 1 p.m. ET on April 28.In March, Drake fans filed a class-action lawsuit against Ticketmaster. He claimed that seat prices for the original run of shows were artificially inflated.The Canadian rapper is coming off two album releases in 2022, including “Honestly, Nevermind” and a collab alb...

U2 creating new experience with Sphere Las Vegas concerts

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — U2 is familiar with rocking out in major sporting arenas and stadiums, but the legendary band will soon hit the stage to create a new immersive concert experience inside a high-tech, globe-shaped venue in Las Vegas.Live Nation and Sphere Entertainment announced Monday the dates for U2’s upcoming “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere” shows starting Sept. 29. The rock band’s special five-night run of shows will be held until Oct. 8 at The Venetian’s Sphere with a state-of-the-art audio and visual system designed for each concertgoer.“This is a venue designed for entertainment, not sports,” said U2 guitarist The Edge in a recent interview. He first learned about the cutting-edge venue after lead singer Bono sent him a link about the concept. He said the screen is 20 times bigger than the one during the band’s Joshua Tree tour in 2019 — the last time U2 performed live in a concert setting. “Sports is a simple formula. You want to see the action,” he continued. “But no o...

4 years later, a disciplinary hearing in fatal NYPD shooting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Kawaski Trawick’s interaction with the police lasted less than two minutes. Starting with a door knock, it ended with the 32-year-old Black man shot dead by a white New York Police Department officer in his own apartment, the killing caught on body camera and surveillance video.An internal NYPD investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the officer or his partner. The district attorney in the Bronx, where the shooting took place in 2019, declined to bring charges.Now, four years after Trawick’s death, a civilian agency tasked with oversight of the NYPD is pursuing a last-ditch attempt to get the department to discipline the officers.An administrative trial starts Monday to determine whether either violated department rules during the encounter.The Civilian Complaint Review Board will argue that Officer Brendan Thompson, who fired both his Taser and his handgun at Trawick, used an improper amount of force, and both he and his partner, Officer Herbert...

Jury selection begins over 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jury selection began Monday in the federal death penalty trial of a truck driver accused of shooting to death 11 Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.Robert G. Bowers, who is from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, faces 63 counts in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three Jewish congregations were holding Sabbath activities. The charges include 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death. Bowers, 50, could get the death sentence if convicted. He offered to plead guilty in return for a life sentence, but federal prosecutors turned him down even though Joe Biden pledged while campaigning for president three years ago that, if elected, he would work to end the federal death penalty. Bowers’ lawyers also recently said he has schizophrenia and structural and functional brain impairments.It ...

Hundreds of migrants reach Italian isle; 23 reported missing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

ROME (AP) — With the return of calm seas, migrant smugglers launched a score of boats from Tunisia during the weekend and their passengers reached a tiny Italian island by the hundreds. A body was found in one of the boats, Italian news reports said, while survivors of two rescues said 23 persons were missing.Dozens of the migrants sat Monday morning near Lampedusa’s port awaiting transfer to the island’s overcrowded shelter or eventually to Sicily or the Italian mainland.Earlier Monday, a fishing boat off Lampedusa aided a distressed migrant boat that contained 34 people and a body, the Italian news agency ANSA said. Survivors reportedly told rescuers that some 20 fellow passengers were missing from the boat, which had set out from a Tunisian port on Saturday night.A few hours later, the Italian Coast Guard rescued 42 migrants from a boat foundering off Lampedusa after setting out Saturday night from Tunisia, ANSA said. Survivors told rescuers that three men were missing.The ...

Susan Rice, Biden’s top domestic policy adviser, departing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that his top domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, will leave her post next month. As director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Rice had broad sway on the administration’s approach to health care, immigration and racial inequality. It was a surprising shift for Rice, a longtime Democratic foreign policy expert who served as President Barack Obama’s national security adviser and U.N. ambassador, the only person to serve in both positions. She worked closely with then-Vice President Biden in those roles and was on his short list to become his running mate during the 2020 campaign.“After more than two years of her steady leadership of the Domestic Policy Council — it’s clear: there is no one more capable, and more determined to get important things done for the American people than Susan Rice,” Biden said in a statement announcing her departure. Rice went into the job a flashpoint for Republican attacks dating back to th...

Tennessee lawmakers who faced expulsion to visit White House

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday plans to welcome to the White House the three Tennessee lawmakers who faced expulsion for participating in gun control protests at their statehouse. The episode has turned the lawmakers, known as the “Tennessee three,” into Democratic heroes. Vice President Kamala Harris already visited Nashville earlier this month to show her support.The statehouse protest took place days after the shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school where three children and three adults were killed. The three lawmakers — Rep. Justin Pearson, Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Gloria Johnson — approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn as protesters filled the galleries.The Republicans who control the Tennessee legislature called for their expulsion because they disrupted House proceedings. Pearson and Jones, both Black, were expelled, while Johnson was not. Pearson and Jones were later reinstated on an interim basis by local officials, ...