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BSO detective testifies in trial of former school resource officer; state rests case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

As the trial for a former school resource officer enters its eighth day, jurors heard from the detective who lead the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting investigation. Scot Peterson is accused of failing to protect students during the 2018 shooting. Broward Sheriff’s Office Detective John Curcio testified, Wednesday morning.“Once you get closer, and you hear those guys, ‘How many rounds do you think you heard?’ and then that was the response on page 10. It wasn’t many, two, three,” Curcio said. “And how many rounds in total between the second and the third floor from that time after Aaron Feiss was shot onward?” an attorney said. “70,” Curcio said.Curcio also read to jurors the statement he took from the former deputy after the tragedy.“Well, as the units start coming in, the first units are coming in and saying, ‘Hey, there’s someone shot over by the football field,’ you know, I know where the...

Pompano Beach man arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching girls at community pool

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

A 61-year-old man was arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching two girls at a community pool in Pompano Beach. The alleged incident occurred last July at the Blue Lake Condominiums swimming pool, prompting an investigation by the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO).According to the girls, who were on a large floatie in the pool at the time, the suspect, Andre Pereira, of Pompano Beach, who was swimming laps, repeatedly touched their buttocks underwater. After confronting him, Pereira apologized and left the pool area. The girls reported the incident to a trusted adult, who then notified the association manager. To their surprise, they learned that there had been a prior complaint involving Pereira.Further inquiries by BSO revealed that a similar incident involving Pereira had taken place in 2015 at a beach in Deerfield Beach. However, due to the victims’ parents being on vacation and opting not to press charges, no prosecution ensued.Months later, detectives interviewe...

What’s new, pussycat? Malta launches massive €200K neutering scheme

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

Malta’s government isn’t pussyfooting around.Valletta on Wednesday announced a €200,000 stray cat neutering program to tackle mass feline overpopulation on the Mediterranean island.Malta has long struggled with cat numbers, with some foster carers last summer reporting being overwhelmed by the number of stray kittens — but authorities are now paw-sitive they have a solution.“Cats will continue to be neutered until the funds are exhausted and the initiative renewed — until the problem is solved,” said Maltese Animal Rights Minister Anton Refalo.According to the Times of Malta, only €50,000 had originally been earmarked for neutering stray cats but that amount has now been bumped up, as the government shows its claws.The neutering campaign will begin on July 4.

BMC Team Chosen To Redevelop Jamaica Plain Hospital Campus

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

The state on Wednesday announced that Boston Medical Center has been provisionally designated to lead the redevelopment of the sprawling Lemuel Shattuck Hospital Campus on Morton Street in Jamaica Plain. The BMC team’s initial proposal calls for two facilities with 326 treatment beds, 200 units of permanent supportive housing, 205 units of family supportive housing, 120 emergency housing beds, and more than seven acres of green and open space. The state issued a request for proposals in June 2022. The site is deed-restricted for public health use, and the state described its vision for the site as “an innovative campus that promotes health, reduces barriers to treatment, integrates physical and behavioral health care with supportive housing, and prioritizes connections to the natural environment.” On its website, the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance said that the state had received one proposal by last August, from Boston Medical Center an...

Woman who abandoned newborn in Maine gravel pit in 1985 sentenced to 6 years

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

HOULTON, Maine (AP) — A Massachusetts woman who abandoned her newborn daughter to die in a gravel pit in northern Maine on a cold winter day in 1985 has been sentenced to six years in prison.Lee Ann Daigle, of Lowell, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after DNA evidence helped police solve the decades-old crime. The baby’s body was discovered after a dog found it in the gravel pit and took it to a family’s front lawn in Frenchville.Daigle gave a tearful apology in court on Tuesday, saying she panicked instead of seeking help.“I could’ve done more. I should’ve done more,” she told the judge.Her name was Lee Ann Guerrette when police were alerted to the grisly discovery on Dec. 7, 1985. Detectives tracked the dog’s path to the gravel pit where the baby had been born and abandoned in sub-zero temperatures.The death of Baby Jane Doe went unsolved for years until a DNA match provided a break in the case, leading to Daigle’s indictment last year. In the inter...

Waukegan has vacant lakefront land available for potential Chicago Bears stadium

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

As the Chicago Bears consider whether to build a new stadium on the former Arlington International Racecourse they own, remain at Soldier Field or consider invitations to move from other municipalities, Waukegan has several potential lakefront sites to consider.One of the parcels — the former Johns Manville site north of Greenview Avenue — is more than 300 acres, rivaling the onetime racetrack in size. Two other locations just north of the city beach can be combined into a 90-acre site.City officials currently look forward to listening to proposals from potential developers, including the Bears, on nearly 400 acres north of the beach to turn the site of onetime Rust Belt factories into something suitable for the 21st century.Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor wrote to Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren June 12 inviting the team to consider Waukegan as a location for its new stadium. She mentioned it as a way to keep the team playing its games along Lake Michigan, as it does now...

Missing OceanGate Expeditions Titanic sub updates: Rescuers hear underwater noises, ‘there is cause for hope’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

The rescuers searching for the missing OceanGate Expeditions sub with five people on board have heard underwater noises in the search area, some “cause for hope” with limited time left to find the sub that explores the Titanic wreck site.The U.S. Coast Guard out of Boston and partner agencies have been desperately searching for the missing 21-foot submersible research vessel.The sub on Sunday morning lost contact during a dive, about 900 miles east of Cape Cod. Thursday is when the 96-hour oxygen supply is expected to end for the five people on board.Early Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard shared that some underwater noises have been heard in the remote area of the North Atlantic Ocean.“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the First Coast Guard District tweeted. “As a result, ROV (remotely operated vehicle underwater) operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yi...

Explosion hits a building in Paris, injuring 16. Police are trying to determine the cause

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A strong explosion hit a building in Paris’ Left Bank on Wednesday, leaving at least 16 injured and igniting a fire that sent smoke soaring over city monuments and prompted the evacuation of surrounding buildings, police said. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. The facade of a building in the 5th arrondissement, or district, collapsed and emergency services were working to determine if anyone was still inside, a Paris police official said. The explosion hit near the historic Val de Grace military hospital.Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told reporters there were 16 people injured, including seven in “emergency condition.” The authorities did not specify whether the injured were in life-threatening condition.The fire was contained but not extinguished, Nunez said. Florence Berthout, mayor of the arrondissement, said, “The explosion was extremely violent,” describing pieces of glass still falling from buildings.The polic...

Getting more EVs will require recycling more old batteries

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

By 2040, 20,500 kilotons of used electric vehicle batteries could enter the recycling stream every year — roughly the weight of a fully loaded Boeing 747 every 11 minutes — according to the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. That’s up from 50 kilotons in 2020.“All the people that are doing what we do are scrambling to basically get these facilities in place to get ready for that amount of material that’s going to be passing through the system,” says Roger Lin, vice president of global marketing and government relations at Ascend Elements, a battery recycling company.The environmental benefits of recycling are clear — pound for pound, recycled battery material typically emits much less greenhouse gas than an equivalent amount of mined material. Recycling will play a pivotal role in manufacturing and ownership, too.Making enough EVs to meet growing demand and selling them at prices consumers won’t balk at will require a supply of battery material that mining alone can’t sup...

DCF takes custody of four children found in apartment with ‘alcohol, drugs, sex toys,’ Healey says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:24:50 GMT

Four children who were found in a disturbing South Boston apartment alongside a dead man over the weekend have been taken into state custody as officials investigate why they were in the presence of alcohol, drugs, and sex toys, Gov. Maura Healey said Wednesday.A Boston Fire Department incident report said first responders found the children, who are 5 to 10 years old, on Saturday morning in “extremely unsanitary conditions” and in a back bedroom where an adult male was in the process of hiding them.Healey said the Department of Children and Families, which works to keep children safe from abuse and neglect, had taken the four children into their care. She said the situation was “absolutely heartbreaking.”“We’ll do everything we can to provide them support and services. The matter is being investigated, obviously,” Healey told reporters at the State House. “I will do, and our administration will do, whatever we can to lend support with any investigation.”The fire departm...