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METCO lobbies for boost in budget

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

Hundreds of students and parents roamed the halls of the State House on Tuesday to ask state lawmakers to support increased funding for the largest school integration program in the country.Advocates want to bump up the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity’s (METCO) line item amount in the fiscal year 2024 budget, despite Gov. Maura Healey’s recommendation to level-fund the program. Healey’s version of the budget also does not renew a one-year $500,000 earmark that METCO says it needs to implement a new racial equity system.METCO is a “voluntary school desegregation” program, which sends 3,103 Boston area students to 33 districts in surrounding suburban communities known for their high-achieving public schools. Of Boston-area METCO participating students, 64% are Black, 26% are Hispanic and 3% are Asian.“METCO was started 57 years ago, before many of us were even thought of, but we know that they were fighting for racial integration an...

Feds looking at expanding FDIC coverage, sources

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

U.S. officials are studying ways they might temporarily expand Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage to all deposits, a move sought by a coalition of banks arguing that it’s needed to head off a potential financial crisis.Treasury Department staff are reviewing whether federal regulators have enough emergency authority to temporarily insure deposits greater than the current $250,000 cap on most accounts without formal consent from a deeply divided Congress, according to people with knowledge of the talks.Authorities don’t yet view such a move as necessary, especially after regulators took steps this month to help banks keep up with any demands for withdrawals, the people said, asking not to be named describing confidential talks.“We will use the tools we have to support community banks,” White House spokesman Michael Kikukawa said, without directly addressing whether the measure is being studied. “Since our administration and the regulators took decisive action last weekend, we h...

9 killed as strong earthquake rattles Pakistan, Afghanistan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattled much of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday, sending panicked residents fleeing from homes and offices and frightening people even in remote villages. At least nine people died.More than 100 people were brought to hospitals in the Swat valley region of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a state of shock, Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s emergency services told The Associated Press. “These terrified people collapsed, and some of them collapsed because of the shock of the earthquake,” he said. Faizi said most were later discharged from the hospital.Faizi and other officials said nine people were killed when roofs collapsed in various parts of northwestern Pakistan. Dozens of others were injured in the quake, which was centered in Afghanistan and also felt in bordering Tajikistan. The earthquake triggered landslides in some of the mountainous areas, disrupting traffic.Taimoor Khan, a spokesman fo...

Sports wagering getting 2nd chance in North Carolina House

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A second-chance effort this year to authorize sports wagering across North Carolina took off on Tuesday with its relatively easy passage through a state House committee already favorably disposed to the idea. The House Commerce Committee voted 17-10 for the measure, which, if enacted, would open wide the sports wagering industry within the country’s ninth most populous state. It’s a largely untapped market, with several major-league sports franchises, college basketball, NASCAR and golf. The bill would allow online and some in-person betting on professional, college and Olympic-type sports offered through up to a dozen wagering companies.“There is big money in sports, as we know,” Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincoln County Republican and a chief bill sponsor, said during committee debate. “We feel like this is a responsible way to approach this issue.” Whether this form of legalized gambling will cross the legislative finish line this year is no sure bet yet. A ve...

States cranking out even more tax cuts amid cash surpluses

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Just six months after passing what was billed as the largest tax cut in Missouri history, the Republican-led state House voted Tuesday for an even bigger income tax cut that could return over $1 billion annually to individuals, corporations and retirees. The Missouri legislation is the latest in a series of aggressive tax reductions that swept across U.S. states last year and have continued into 2023 — even as some warn that it might be wise for states to hold on to record large surpluses amid economic uncertainty.“Wouldn’t it be a good idea for us to all just pause for a year?” Democratic state Rep. Deb Lavender asked rhetorically before her Republican colleagues endorsed the tax cut on a 109-45 party-line vote. The Missouri legislation still has a ways to go — it needs a second House approval before it can move to the Senate and then to the governor. But legislatures and governors in several states already have given final approval to tax cuts and rebate...

Biden creates national monuments in Nevada, Texas mountains

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is establishing national monuments on more than half a million acres in Nevada and Texas and creating a marine sanctuary in U.S. waters near the Pacific Remote Islands southwest of Hawaii. The conservation measures are “protecting the heart and soul of our national pride,” Biden said.Speaking at a White House summit on conservation action, Biden said the new monuments are among the “natural treasures” that “define our identity as a nation. They’re a birthright we have to pass down to generation after generation.”Biden designated Avi Kwa Ame (ah-VEE’ kwa-meh), a desert mountain in southern Nevada that Native Americans consider sacred, as a national monument, along with the Castner Range in El Paso, Texas. He also moved to create a national marine sanctuary in U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands.Conservation and tribal groups praised Biden’s actions, but Nevada’s new Republican governor slamm...

US: No reason for China to react to Taiwan leader stopover

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is putting out the word that planned stopovers in the United States by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in the coming weeks fall in line with recent precedent and should not be used as a pretext by China to step up aggressive activity in the Taiwan Strait.Taiwan’s office of the president confirmed on Tuesday that Tsai is tentatively scheduled to transit through New York on March 30 before heading to Guatemala and Belize. She’s expected to stop in Los Angeles on April 5 on her way back to Taiwan. The office did not provide details of her itinerary while in the U.S.Ahead of Taiwan’s announcement, senior U.S. officials in Washington and Beijing have underscored to their Chinese counterparts in recent weeks that transit visits through the United States during broader international travel by the Taiwanese president have been routine over the years, according to a senior administration official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity...

Georgia senators send gender care restrictions to governor

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A bill banning most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies in Georgia for transgender people under 18 is headed to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk after senators gave it final passage on Tuesday.Senators voted 31-21 along party lines with Republicans pushing through Senate Bill 140, despite impassioned pleas from Democrats and LGBTQ advocates against what has become the most fiercely contested bill of Georgia’s 2023 legislative sessionIt’s part of a nationwide effort by conservatives to restrict transgender athletes, gender-affirming care and drag shows. Governors in Mississippi, Utah and South Dakota have signed similar bills. Missouri’s Senate on Tuesday advanced a pair of bills to prohibit gender transitioning health care treatments for minors and restrict them from competing in sports.Andrew Isenhour, a spokesperson for Kemp, wouldn’t say if the Republican governor would sign the bill into law. Opponents said they believe the b...

Procession for Edmonton police officers shot and killed responding to call

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

EDMONTON — Dozens of police cruisers and emergency vehicles lined streets in Edmonton as hearses took the bodies of two slain city officers from a medical examiner’s office to a funeral home. Two helicopters circled the sky and officers and civilians, some wearing blue ribbons and scarves, stood along the five-kilometre procession route.Family members and colleagues of the fallen officers embraced and wiped away tears.The bodies of constables Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan are to be kept at the Serenity Funeral Home until a public regimental funeral is held Monday.Police have said the officers were responding to a family dispute at a northwest apartment complex Thursday when they were shot by a 16-year-old boy.They said the teen shot and wounded his mother during a struggle for the gun then shot and killed himself.Police also said the officers had no opportunity to respond and that the shooting was consistent with an ambush.This report by The Canadian Press was first published M...

Carjackers stab Indiana rideshare driver, steal vehicle: police

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:23 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN) — Police in Indianapolis are asking for help identifying three armed carjackers accused of stabbing a rideshare driver and stealing the victim's vehicle. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said the carjacking happened around 10 p.m. Monday. Is Blockbuster coming back? The rideshare driver told police that three men wearing masks stabbed him and stole his vehicle near the intersection of 10th Street and North Whitcomb Avenue. Photos of suspected carjackers via IMPDPhotos of suspected carjackers via IMPDPhotos of suspected carjackers via IMPDPhotos of suspected carjackers via IMPDOfficers reportedly found the stolen Mazda unoccupied nearby.Robbery detectives say they are now hoping the public can help them identify and apprehend the men, whose faces were partially visible in surveillance images.Anyone who recognizes the suspects are asked to contact Det. Todd Lapin at the IMPD robbery office at (317) 327-3475. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stop...