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MBTA Preparing To Tap Reserve $$$ Amid Plateaued Subway Ridership

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

MBTA overseers want to press ahead with a budget that uses hundreds of millions of dollars in one-time funding to boost the agency’s spending by nearly 7 percent next fiscal year, much of it on new safety and training initiatives.The T’s Board of Directors on Wednesday unanimously approved a $2.72 billion preliminary budget for fiscal 2024, sending it to an outside organization for review ahead of a final vote expected in the summer.But while officials pitched the nearly $175 million spending increase as necessary to address myriad safety and infrastructure problems, they simultaneously warned that the MBTA’s needs continue to outstrip its consistent resources, especially with ridership lagging more than three years after the pandemic began.“While I am deeply grateful that staff has found a way to fund the full budget for next year, it is clear to anyone looking at this presentation that this is not a sustainable financial situation,” said MBT...

Giants’ Joe Schoen can’t say if Saquon Barkley will be on field in Week 1: ‘I haven’t talked to him’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

Giants GM Joe Schoen could not say Thursday whether he expects Saquon Barkley to be on the field in Week 1 for the Giants.“You’ll have to ask him,” Schoen said at the team’s practice facility in East Rutherford. “I’m not sure. I don’t know what his plan is. I haven’t talked to him in probably three weeks.”Asked if Barkley still wants to be a Giant, Schoen added: “I haven’t talked to him.”If Schoen spoke to Barkley three weeks ago, around the NFL’s owners meetings, that would be a new development. That week in Phoenix, both Schoen and co-owner John Mara said they hadn’t spoken with Barkley directly in 10 days.Regardless, Schoen’s point seemed to be that they have made zero progress since tabling negotiations after placing the $10.1 million franchise tag on his running back in mid-March.Barkley, 26, has not signed the franchise tag tender and therefore is not reporting to the team’s facilit...

Bruins notebook: Center Patrice Bergeron still on sidelines for Panthers series

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

Bruins center Patrice Bergeron was on the ice Thursday morning but his status for Friday night’s Game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Florida Panthers will be determined by the team’s medical staff.Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was uncertain if Bergeron would make the trip to Sunrise, Fla., where the Bruins will play the next two opening round games at FLA Live Arena.“He skated just now so that is obviously a positive sign,” said Montgomery during a press briefing at Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton.“But I have not talked to the medical staff and the athletic trainers about where he is at to determine if he will be on the trip or not.”The Bruins’ captain suffered an undisclosed upper body injury in the season finale at Montreal and missed the first two games against the Panthers.Bergeron’s leadership and prowess in the faceoff circle was sorely missed in the Bruins’ 6-3 loss to the Panthers on Wednesday night at the TD Garden.“He carries himself with such confidence and h...

Boston Athletic Association meets with Black running groups after Boston Marathon police presence: ‘We did not deliver on our promise’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

The head of the Boston Athletic Association is admitting that the Boston Marathon organizer must “do better” after Pioneers Run Crew and another racially diverse running group were blocked by police officers at their cheering spot in Newton on Marathon Monday.B.A.A.’s leaders met with Pioneers Run Crew and TrailblazHers Run Co., on Wednesday night after Newton Police officers with bicycles lined up at their tent along Heartbreak Hill at Mile 21. This restricted the group’s cheering access to the road and their ability to give out high fives to runners. Cops also took positions behind the group’s tent.The police officers did this after the B.A.A. had alerted police three times about spectators crossing the rope barrier and impeding runners. Pioneers Run Crew and other running groups have noted that thousands of spectators jump onto the course, but this type of police presence only happened to a group of predominantly Black and Brown spectators.In the wak...

Shooting reported in Mira Mesa: SDPD

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Police Department responded to a report of a shooting in Mira Mesa Thursday morning.Around 10:30 a.m., SDPD confirmed to FOX 5 that officers were en route to a reported shooting near 9810 Sydney Lane.SkyFOX footage of the scene showed several SDPD vehicles in the large apartment complex.San Diego Fire-Rescue Department was also on scene to assist any possible victims related to the shooting.Information regarding any possible victims or suspects were not immediately known.This is a developing story. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.

Coast Guard searches for 4 missing fishermen off

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday was searching for four missing fishermen in the waters off of Cape Ann in Massachusetts.Coast Guard aircraft found an overturned vessel about 7 miles (11 kilometers) northeast of Cape Ann on Thursday, officials said. The Coast Guard did not see anyone in the water. Michael Sai, and three others, left Hampton Harbor in New Hampshire on Wednesday morning in a 17-foot (5-meter) boat headed for fishing grounds near Jeffreys Ledge, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) offshore, the Coast Guard said. Cape Ann is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Boston.Boston, The Associated Press

Biden, Colombia’s Petro to meet amid deep policy differences

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to host Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday for talks at the White House amid deep differences on U.S. drug policy and Venezuela but a shared desire to deepen cooperation on climate change, migration and energy policy. Petro has sharply criticized U.S.-led efforts to prohibit cocaine, saying at a speech at the United Nations last year that oil consumption promoted by “global powers” is more deadly than cocaine and that the “war on drugs has failed.”As cocaine production in Colombia continues to rise, Petro’s government has been reluctant to eradicate coca fields planted by small farmers. The Colombian president says that he prefers to chase money launderers and large-scale drug traffickers instead of stripping small farmers in isolated areas of their livelihood. This new approach has been criticized by U.S. officials who long have advocated for the eradication of coca fields in Colombia as part of the effort to undermine d...

Bank regulator action on climate change “overdue and now urgent”: audit

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s environment commissioner says action by the federal banking regulator on climate change is overdue and now urgent.Commissioner Jerry DeMarco says in an audit released Thursday that it’s encouraging that the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OFSI) both recognizes the risks of climate change to banks and the financial system, and is taking action on the challenge.But he notes that since climate change has only recently become a priority of the regulator, full implementation of the strategy is still years away.DeMarco also says that OFSI’s plan to improve the resilience to climate change of banks and other financial institutions stops short of actually encouraging the transition to a net-zero emissions economy.Among the auditor’s recommendations are that OFSI set clearer guidance about the information banks need to report in their transition plans as a way to avoid greenwashing.The agency agreed with all five of the audito...

Registration closes for Paris Olympics ticket lottery draw

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Online registration for a lottery draw where winners can buy tickets for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris closed on Thursday.Entries for the draw ended at 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT), and applicants must now wait until early next month to find out if they were successful.After a first phase of ticket sales featuring packages ended March 15, registration for a lottery draw for single tickets began that day.On Thursday, Paris 2024 organizers tweeted a final message at around 3 p.m. to encourage any last-gasp applicants to sign up.They wrote “ cross the line before 18H ” along with a photo of multiple Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix of the United States crossing the line victoriously at the 2016 Rio Games.Figures on the number of applications, where they were from and other statistics, were not made available Thursday. Details were expected to be provided on Friday.Those successful in the lottery will each receive an allocated time slot for when they can purch...

Roberts asked to testify on court ethics amid Thomas reports

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:08 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary chairman has invited Chief Justice John Roberts to testify next month on ethical standards at the court, a hearing that would undoubtedly focus on business transactions and travel involving Justice Clarence Thomas.Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said there has been a “steady stream of revelations” regarding Supreme Court justices “falling short of ethical standards expected of other federal judges.” “The time has come for a new public conversation on ways to restore confidence in the Court’s ethical standards. I invite you to join it, and I look forward to your response,” Durbin wrote in a letter Thursday to the chief justice.Court officials did not immediately reply to a request for comment.In recent weeks, news reports have focused on the purchase by a conservative donor of three properties belonging to Thomas and his family in a transaction worth more than $100,000 that Thomas never reported, according to the nonprofit investigative...