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Massachusetts State Police union pushes new bill for ‘equal pay for equal work’ for troopers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

The union for State Police troopers is pushing a bill in the Legislature that they say will mean “equal pay for equal work.”“When you call 911, it’s because you need help … You need the most trained, most professional people to show up,” State Police Association of Massachusetts President Patrick McNamara told the Herald. “Right now, there is little incentive to become educated in the Massachusetts State Police.”This, he said, is because the Police Career Incentive Pay Program, also known as “The Quinn Bill,” came to an end for new State Police hires in 2009. That program included incentives for education among troopers, from a 10% pay boost for those with an associate’s degree to a 25% jump for those with a master’s or law degree, according to a SPAM summary.Companion bills in the state House and Senate — respectively, H.2353, sponsored by Rep. Michael Kushmerek, a Democrat of Fitchburg; and S.1608, sponsored by Sen. John Velis, a Democrat representing Hampden and Hampshire countie...

Tributes pour in for civil rights lead Mel King, dead at 94

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

An outpouring of both sadness and gratitude met the news that longtime civil rights leader Mel King had died after decades of influencing politics, policy and people in his lifelong home city.King, a former state representative and mayoral candidate whose singular impact on Boston politics is difficult to sum up in any concise way, died Tuesday.The 94-year-old was still living in the same South End neighborhood where he grew up and spent his whole life aside from four years down south for college.In Boston particularly starting in the 1960s, the 6-foot-3-plus King would cast a long shadow over local and state politics for the next several decades. He was could be either a soft-voiced rabble-rouser or a larger-than-life statesman when the situation called for it.“He’d say, ‘You’ve gotta take it from the streets to the suites,'” onetime Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey told the Herald on Wednesday.Janey, who said there’s a “direct line” bet...

Hello, governor? State House main line finally updated tonight

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

Until just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, if you were looking for the governor, you had to settle for a “forester.”The main phone line to the Corner Office, 617-725-4000, declared: “You have reached the office of Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.”They changed that message quickly after word got out, but if you pressed two for the “names directory” and asked for “Maura Healey” earlier, the automated reply was “I think you mean Laura Dooley.”Dooley is a forester with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. The Comptroller’s office lists her as last earning $128,127. Dooley’s cell phone on her message did not work. I wonder if her phone was being lit up these past few months?Gov. Maura Healey earned $185,377 as Attorney General last year and is slated to pull down $222,185 this year in the top job, the Comptroller’s site states. She’s now taking your calls, too.You were, however, stil...

Lawsuit against Supervisor Fletcher alleges sexual assault

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 5:10 p.m. to include details from the lawsuit filed by the former employee, after FOX 5 obtained a copy of the complaint.SAN DIEGO -- San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher is facing a lawsuit over allegations of sexual assault and battery from a claimed extramarital affair that he engaged in with a subordinate who worked for the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System.Fletcher announced the potential lawsuit in a statement Wednesday, saying that he had consensual interactions with a former employee of MTS and that individual had filed a lawsuit for several million dollars against him and his wife, former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez.The complaint, however, details two alleged instances of sexual assault by the County Supervisor in his role as chairman of the agency’s board. MTS was also named as a defendant in the complaint. Gonzalez, on the other hand, is not a named party. South American theft ring targets San Diego neighborhood...

Mexico investigates 8 over deadly fire at migrant facility

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Mexican authorities said Wednesday that eight employees or officials are being investigated for possible misconduct at a migrant detention center where a fire killed 39 detained men.Anger and frustration in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez boiled over as hundreds of migrants walked to a U.S. border gate hoping to make a mass crossing.Mexican officials appeared to place blame for the deaths in the fire late Monday largely on private, subcontracted security guards at the detention center in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. Video showed guards hurrying away from the smoky fire apparently without trying to free detainees.No charges were announced, but authorities said they would seek at least four arrest warrants later in the day, including one for a migrant who was part of what they described as a small group that started the fire.Five of those under investigation for possible misconduct are private security guards, two are fed...

Vermont deputy indicted in New York state brawl, shooting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A Vermont lawman who was shot multiple times by police responding to gunfire in the historic center of Saratoga Springs has been indicted on charges including attempted murder and possessing a firearm in a “sensitive location.”Vito Caselnova, a sheriff’s deputy in Rutland County, Vermont, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday.The charges came more than four months after a chaotic sidewalk brawl and series of gunshots left three people, including the deputy, wounded, and questions about who shot who. Three other men involved in the fight — one of whom police initially accused of also firing a gun — were charged only with throwing punches.Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen said the decision to levy the most serious charges against Caselnova, who was off-duty at the time of the incident, was made by a grand jury. In a press statement, she criticized the city’s public safety commissioner and mayor for their initial account of how the v...

Gwyneth Paltrow’s defense leans on experts in ski trial

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow’s attorneys came close to wrapping up their case on Wednesday by relying on more experts to mount their defense on the seventh day of trial over her 2016 ski collision with a 76-year-old retired optometrist.Paltrow’s defense team called to the stand a radiologist, a neurologist, a neuropsychologist and a forensic psychologist, leaning on medical analysis rather than the testimony of the actor-turned-lifestyle influencer’s friends or husband in order to make their case. In the final hour of their last full day to call witnesses though, they called Terry Sanderson, the man suing Paltrow, back to the witness stand.The eight-person jury is expected to get the case Thursday to deliberate after closing arguments. More than just a display of their financial investment in the case, Paltrow’s team allotting most of their time to expert testimony is a gamble. Throughout the trial, bombshell testimony from Paltrow and Sanderson has...

How ‘swatting’ calls spread as schools face real threats

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

A spate of threats and false reports of shooters have been pouring into schools and colleges across the country for months, raising concerns among law enforcement and elected leaders. Schools in Pennsylvania were the latest targeted by so-called swatting. Computer-generated calls on Wednesday made claims about active shooters, but it was all a hoax. One day earlier, nearly 30 Massachusetts schools received fake threats. School officials are already on edge amid a backdrop of deadly school shootings, the latest Monday at a Christian school in Nashville.Here is a look at the issues involved:WHAT IS SWATTING?Hundreds of cases of swatting occur annually, with some using caller ID spoofing to disguise their number. The goal is to get authorities, particularly a SWAT team, to respond to an address.An FBI official said in November that they believe the wave of false threats focused on schools may be coming from outside of the country.Officials said at the time that they had identified call...

Officials warn of wildfire risk as Southwest US dries out

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Snowcapped mountains in the Southwestern U.S. signal a possible delayed start to the wildfire season for some higher elevations, but officials in New Mexico and Arizona warned Wednesday that dry, windy conditions in other areas are increasing wildfire risks and prompting red flag warnings.With leaves crunching under her feet and the wind starting to kick up, New Mexico’s governor warned that if the state wants to avoid a historic wildfire season like last year’s when more than 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) burned, she said everyone will have to be prepared.“You can start to think about the landscape in New Mexico and the extreme drought here,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told those gathered at the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park. “We are at extreme risk.”New Mexico is coming off a devastating wildfire season that included the largest blaze in the state’s recorded history — a conflagration sparked last spring by the U.S. government ...

Graphic novelist, 9 other writers win $50,000 Whiting Awards

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:09 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A graphic novelist based in Hawaii, a reporter for an offshoot of The Economist and a contributor to The New Yorker are among this year’s winners of the Whiting Award, a $50,000 honor given annually to 10 emerging fiction and nonfiction writers. R. Kikuo Johnson is the first graphic novelist to receive a Whiting since the prize was established in 1985, according to the Whiting Foundation, which announced the awards Wednesday night. Other winners include Linda Kinstler, who writes for The Economist’s 1843 magazine; New Yorker writer Stephania Taladrid; fiction writers Marcia Douglas, Sidik Fofana and Carribean Fragoza; poets Tommye Blount and Ama Codjoe; dramatist Mia Chung and poet-dramatist Emma Wippermann.“Every year we look to the new Whiting Award winners, writing fearlessly at the edge of imagination, to reveal the pathways of our thought and our acts before we know them ourselves,” Courtney Hodell, Whiting’s director of literary programs, said...