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State House evacuated due to electrical fire in basement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

Staff and lawmakers were evacuated from the Massachusetts State House Tuesday after a fire was discovered in a transformer room, according to officials.Massachusetts State Police said the building was evacuated and nearly all surrounding streets on Beacon Hill were closed as crews responded to what appeared to be an electrical fire that broke out around 2:15 p.m. in a sub-basement at the capitol building.Smoke was largely not visible outside the State House. Inside, though, state police spokesperson David Procopio said there were smoky conditions in parts of the building. As of 3 p.m., he said firefighters were waiting for utility workers to cut power “before they make entry to extinguish the fire.”Multiple Boston fire engines could be seen parked around the structure as authorities responded. Speaking with reporters, Fire Commissioner Paul Burke wires to a transformer caught fire, requiring utility crews to isolate the line and shut off power.According to a staffer who ...

Cement truck rolls over at construction site in Taunton

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

Emergency crews responded in Taunton Tuesday after a cement truck rolled over at a construction site. The incident happened Tuesday morning near Jefferson Street. SKY7-HD was later over the scene, showing the truck resting on its side. Taunton fire officials said the truck’s driver was able to get out of the truck without help before being taken to an area hospital as a precaution. 

Memorabilia from iconic Boston bar ‘The Pour House’ to be sold at auction 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

Items from the iconic Boston bar, “The Pour House,” are scheduled to be sold on Wednesday as part of an online-only auction. The auction will offer almost 200 items including many signs, posters and decorative items. The Pour House had been open in the Back Bay on Boylston Street for more than three decades before it announced its closure on social media back in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the years, many famous faces made a stop at the treasured landmark. Among visitors, Rihanna made an appearance in October of 2019 and took pictures with fans and employees. “Every Bostonian has at least one fond memory from the Pour House,” said Michael Saperstein of auction firm Paul E. Saperstein Co. in a statement this week. “While we all hate to say goodbye to such a treasured landmark, we hope this auction will allow everyone to take a little piece of the Pour House with them.”Learn more about the auction at the link here.

Cannabis commission retaliating against pot lab for speaking out, committee hears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

Lawmakers meeting to hear public testimony on several bills aimed at changing the way the cannabis industry works in the Bay State instead got an earful from speakers who say pot regulators are not listening to whistleblowers and retaliating against licensees who complain.According to testimony provided by the CEO and founder of the state’s first independent marijuana testing lab, the Cannabis Control Commission responded to his reporting what he described as serious public health concerns by launching an investigation into his business.“The investigation was then cited by the CCC as an excuse to prevent us from engaging with commissioners regarding consumer safety. I believe CCC enforcement staff may be misusing investigations as a pretext to silence and harass licensees,” CEO Michael Kahn told the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy during a Tuesday hearing.Kahn told lawmakers he was testifying in support of S.58 and H.106, or “An Act establishing an internal special audit unit wit...

Wiz Khalifa throws first pitch at Pittsburgh Pirates game while ‘shroomed out’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

Wiz Khalifa threw the first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game Monday night, but what baseball fans might not have known was that the rapper was high on mushrooms as he took the pitcher’s mound.Khalifa announced his intentions on Twitter ahead of the game, in which the Pirates took on the Cleveland Guardians at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Penn.“Finna get stoned af and throw this first pitch at the pirates game,” he tweeted on Monday afternoon. A minute later, he tweeted, “Shroomed out throwin a baseball is crazy.”In other Twitter posts from Monday, Khalifa posted photos of his view from a PNC Park box and his bag of Cracker Jack. (“F— yea,” he captioned the latter pic.)An MLB video clip of his big moment shows him waving to a cheering crowd as the ballpark announcer welcomes “Pittsburgh’s very own Wiz Khalifa.” The rapper then throws the ball, shrugs, and starts walking away.Video from another angle shows he got the ball ...

Machete fight leads to ICE capture of 3 illegal immigrants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

ICE is grabbing three suspects allegedly involved in a machete fight in Waltham that includes a charge of assault and battery on a pregnant person, immigration officials tell the Herald.Police were called to Hammond Street at around 6:30 p.m. Friday for a fight that left two people slashed and ended in three arrests. None of the injuries were too serious, officials said. Others attempted to break up the fight that was reportedly over a traffic beef.Immigration officials reported that Osman Aguilar-Borrayo, 27, Kevin Aguilar-Borrayo, 21, and Bryan Aguilar-Borrayo, 19, are all in the country illegally. They now face being deported.All three, Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports, crossed over into the U.S. from Mexico in Texas. All were apprehended and told to appear later before immigration officials, but never did.Waltham police arrested Osman Aguilar-Borrayo for armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery on a pregnant person, assault and battery with a dangerous...

Crime Briefs: New Bedford undercover cop shot in face, drives himself to the hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

An undercover New Bedford Police Detective was shot in the face while sitting in his car in the city’s Goulart Square neighborhood on its south end, but was remarkably able to drive himself to the hospital.Det. Lavar Gilbert, assigned to the department’s Organized Crime Intelligence Bureau, was sitting in his unmarked vehicle at Rivet Street and Orchard Street in the Goulart Square neighborhood when gunshots erupted at around 8:45 p.m. Monday, according to a police statement. One bullet shattered the vehicle’s window and struck Gilbert in his face.Despite the injury, Police Chief Paul Oliveira wrote in a statement, he stayed conscious and was able to drive himself to the St. Luke’s Hospital, where he was listed by Tuesday afternoon as in stable condition, police say.Oliveira said that there is no indication that Gilbert was specifically targeted, nor evidence that there is an ongoing threat to the neighborhood.“Being told that one of your own has been shot is a phone call that no po...

Tupac Shakur’s long-unsolved killing again under spotlight as Las Vegas police conduct search

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

By RIO YAMAT, JONATHAN LANDRUM and MARIA SHERMAN (Associated Press)LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities in Nevada served a search warrant this week in connection with the long-unsolved killing of rapper Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago, they confirmed Tuesday.Shakur, one of the most prolific figures in hip-hop, was killed on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He was 25.The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the search warrant was executed Monday in the nearby city of Henderson. It’s unclear what they were looking for and where they were looking.Department spokesperson Aden OcampoGomez said in a brief phone call that he couldn’t provide further details on the latest development in the case, citing the open investigation. Nevada does not have a statute of limitations for prosecuting homicide cases.Shakur was gunned down while sitting inside a black BMW with Marion “Suge” Knight, head of Death Row Records. Police have said ...

Boston Licensing Board to weigh ‘character and fitness’ of North End restaurateur wanted by police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

The Boston Licensing Board plans to hold a hearing Thursday to determine whether a North End restaurant owner charged with attempted murder should be stripped of his liquor license.A city spokesperson said the 4 p.m. hearing is being held in response to the pending charges against Patrick Mendoza, who is wanted by police for allegedly shooting at a man outside a North End pastry shop last Wednesday.Mendoza, 54, is listed as the manager and liquor license holder at Monica’s Trattoria, according to Analyze Boston, the city’s open data hub.“The Licensing Board has scheduled an informational hearing to review the character and fitness of the licensee and manager of record pursuant to state law,” a city spokesperson said on Tuesday.State law dictates that before issuing or renewing a license, a local licensing authority must determine that the applicant is “a person of good character in the city or town in which he seeks a license hereunder.”A liquor license can also be suspended or revo...

Texas trooper’s accounts of bloodied and fainting migrants on US-Mexico border unleashes criticism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s escalating measures to stop migrants along the U.S. border with Mexico came under a burst of new criticism Tuesday after a state trooper said migrants were left bloodied from razor-wire barriers and that orders were given to deny people water in sweltering heat.In one account, Texas Trooper Nicholas Wingate told a supervisor that upon encountering a group of 120 migrants on June 25 — including young children and mothers nursing babies — in Maverick County, a rural Texas border county, he and another trooper were ordered to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico.” The trooper described the actions in an email dated July 3 as inhumane.Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Safety, said the accounts provided by the trooper were under internal investigation. He said the department has no directive or policy that instructs troopers to withhold water from migrants or push them back into the river...