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Tobin Bridge’s future up in the air; MassDOT to study potential replacement

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

After years of repairs to the Tobin Bridge, MassDOT has started discussing whether the structure will be viable for future generations.The agency will be releasing a request for proposals on Friday “to procure a transportation planning and engineering consultant team to develop and evaluate options for the eventual replacement” of the bridge, according to acting Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt.Since opening in 1950, the 2-mile bridge has carried traffic over the Mystic River between Boston and Chelsea, and repair projects have become increasingly commonplace, some leading to lane closures.“Repairs are not a permanent solution,” Tibbits-Nutt told the MassDOT Board of Directors on Wednesday. “That’s (why) we are releasing the RFP for a planning and engineering team to do a study which is intended to help us think and gather perspective on the bridge’s future, while it’s still in good working order.”Wednesday’s board meeting marked Tibbits-Nutt’s first as acting secretary,...

First Bob Ross TV painting, completed in a half an hour, goes on sale for nearly $10 million

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

By MARK VANCLEAVE and SCOTT McFETRIDGE (Associated Press)MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — What would Bob Ross think?The artist who brought painting to the people, with works completed for PBS viewers in less than a half-hour with little more than a large bristle brush, putty knife and plenty of encouragement, certainly wouldn’t have envisioned one of his works going up for sale for nearly $10 million.But that’s the price a Minneapolis gallery is asking for “A Walk in the Woods,” the first of more than 400 paintings that Ross produced on-air for his TV series “The Joy of Painting.”“It is season one, episode one of what you would call the rookie card for Bob Ross,” Ryan Nelson, who owns the gallery, Modern Artifact, said of the work created in the show’s debut, which aired Jan. 11, 1983.Growing up in a small town, Nelson said he was introduced to art through Ross’ show and loves his paintings. He doesn’t expect a quick sale giv...

San Diego leaders urge Newsom to declare an emergency over Tijuana River pollution

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Another group of San Diego leaders are urging California Governor Gavin Newsom to declare an emergency over the Tijuana River sewage crisis. The water from the Tijuana River Valley is contaminated with sewage that comes from Mexico and other areas of the border. The situation has caused South Bay beaches to be closed for 650 consecutive days now.  4,500 more Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in San Diego vote to strike The crisis, however, has been an issue that’s been ongoing for decades. San Diego leadership is now saying it has stop stop as it is affecting and threatening the public’s health.Commissioners with the Port of San Diego are now joining the fight.“Today our families and friends are forced to choose between public access and public health, between toxic pollution in the ocean or toxic pollution on land. No more," said Sandy Naranjo, Vice Chair of the Port of San Diego. "An emergency declaration today means a fast track to funding to effi...

Newsom's self-critique of state COVID response about 'humility'

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

(NewsNation) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in the middle of assessing his state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a process he says is about "grace and humility."The "self-reflective critique" will look at policies the state implemented on mask mandates and lockdowns, as well as how vaccines were distributed. "It's about humility and grace, it's about acknowledging the criticism. It's about taking that to heart, about learning from the past so you don't repeat it. It's about being more prepared going forward," Newsom said Tuesday on "CUOMO." Newsom recently told NBC's "Meet the Press" that "we would've done everything differently," given what he knows now about the pandemic."None of us knew what we didn't know. We're all geniuses in hindsight; not just experts, geniuses," he said. House GOP pulls key vote on stopgap spending bill amid conservative opposition During the pandemic, Newsom faced criticism over the strict lockdowns and mask mandates he implemented in the state;...

Two Montreal Island towns file court challenge to Quebec language law reform

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

MONTREAL — Two Montreal suburbs filed a court challenge today to Quebec’s 2022 language reform, seeking to be exempted from several articles of the law commonly known as Bill 96.Hampstead and Town of Mount Royal say the articles, which limit government communications in languages other than French, contradict elements of the law that allow certain municipalities and government agencies to use other languages.The lawsuit also seeks to have the court declare unconstitutional a provision of the law that declares the French text of Quebec laws takes precedence over the English version if there is a discrepancy between the two.It also argues that the Quebec government cannot unilaterally change the Canadian Constitution — which states that French and English can be used in Quebec’s legislature and courts — to make French the province’s only official language.Both towns have bilingual status, allowing them to communicate with citizens in French and English, but they say ...

Four young firefighters heading home die in head-on crash on B.C. highway: RCMP

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

CACHE CREEK, B.C. — Four young men travelling home after helping in the battle against wildfires in central British Columbia are dead after a fiery head-on crash, police and provincial officials said Wednesday.RCMP Cpl. James Grandy said the crash happened on Highway 1 east of Cache Creek in the province’s southern Interior early Tuesday morning.A provincial statement said the men were heading home after aiding wildfire response efforts in the Vanderhoof area, west of Prince George.Grandy said the initial investigation suggests a Ford F-350 pick-up truck the young men were travelling in had failed to navigate a bend in the highway and slammed head-on into a semi-truck travelling in the opposite direction.The semi-truck caught fire, but the driver was able to escape before the vehicle was “engulfed,” the Mounties said in a statement.All four men inside the pick-up truck died at the scene. They have been identified as subcontractors for the BC Wildfire Service, polic...

Railroads work to make sure firefighters can quickly look up what is on a train after a derailment

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — In the chaos after a Norfolk Southern train careened off the tracks and caught fire in eastern Ohio in February, it took roughly 45 minutes for firefighters to learn exactly which chemicals were involved.Now the railroad industry is trying to ensure that never happens again.Ever since that Feb. 3 derailment prompted concerns about rail safety nationwide, the major railroads have redoubled their efforts to make sure that more and more first responders can immediately look up the contents of any freight train. This week, the two counties that handled the initial response to the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border were set up with the AskRail program that will allow dispatchers to look up everything a train is carrying as soon as they get one car number. That is part of an effort the Association of American Railroads trade group launched this spring to sign up emergency dispatch centers in the program. “It’s going to allow us to make bett...

Behind all the speechmaking at the UN lies a basic, unspoken question: Is the world governable?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Work together. Go it alone. The apocalypse is at hand. But the future can be bright. The squabbles never cease, yet here are human beings from all across the world — hashing out conflicts with words and processes, convening under one roof, trying to write the next chapter of a common dream. At the United Nations, “multilateralism” is always the goal. Yet so is the quest for a coherent storyline that unites all 193 member states and their ideas. Those two holy grails often find themselves at odds when leaders gather each September at the United Nations — a construct whose very name can be a two-word contradiction.You hear a lot about “the narrative” these days in politics (and everywhere else). It’s a way to punch through the static and make sure people are absorbing your message — and, ultimately, doing what you want them to do. But how to establish a coherent storyline when the very notion of many nations with many voices is baked into the pie to begin w...

UN chief warns of ‘gates to hell’ in climate summit, but carbon polluting nations stay silent

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the United Nations warned Wednesday that the “gates of hell” are at hand as climate change intensifies, and top international officials said the world’s leaders still aren’t doing nearly enough to curb pollution of heat-trapping gases. They pleaded with major emitting nations to do more.Those nations remained silent. They weren’t allowed to speak because, organizers said, they had no new actions to take. The only countries that touted their efforts — “first movers and doers,” the United Nations called them — were responsible for just one-ninth of the world’s annual carbon pollution.“Humanity has opened the gates to hell,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday, opening a special climate ambition summit with yet another plea for action. “ Horrendous heat is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods. Sweltering temperatures spawning disease. And thousands fleeing in fear as hi...

Officers kept Elijah McClain in neck hold despite pleas of ‘I can’t breathe,’ prosecutors say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:39:42 GMT

BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — Two Denver-area police officers ignored Elijah McClain’s pleas of “I can’t breathe” when they put the Black man a neck hold before he was injected with a powerful sedative and died, prosecutors said Wednesday, in a 2019 confrontation that became a rallying cry for protests and spurred police reform.In opening arguments for the first of several trials stemming from McClain’s death, lawyers for the two sides painted contrasting pictures of the fatal struggle after he was stopped by police in Aurora. Officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt approached McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, as he walked home from a convenience store carrying only a plastic bag with three cans of ice tea and his phone. A 911 caller had reported him as suspicious.If prosecutors can convince jurors the stop was unjustified, that would undermine any argument that McClain’s injuries were a result of the officers just doing their jobs.Roedema and Rosenblatt are both ch...