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Massachusetts residents should get vaccinated against COVID, flu ahead of Thanksgiving gatherings: Department of Public Health

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

With Thanksgiving only a couple of weeks away, state health officials are again encouraging residents to get a COVID booster and flu shot before the holiday gatherings.The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is also urging eligible residents to get the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine — including those who are pregnant, newborns, and many people 60-plus.“With Thanksgiving just two weeks away, now is a great time for those preparing to celebrate with friends and loved ones to get vaccinated for flu, COVID-19, and RSV, if eligible,” said Public Health Commissioner Robert Goldstein.“Getting vaccinated now will maximize protection against these respiratory viruses,” Goldstein added. “We want Massachusetts residents to have a safe, healthy, and fun holiday season and part of that is getting vaccinated to protect yourself and those around you.”The seasonal flu vaccine and updated COVID booster both take up to two weeks for full prot...

Should domestic violence offenders have guns? Supreme Court hears arguments

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

A case over whether or not people subjected to restraining orders should lose their right to carry guns was heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, as justices mull a legal challenge that could upend firearms laws nationally.The high court seemed skeptical as they accepted oral arguments in United States v. Rahimi, a case involving a Texas man convicted for his unlawful possession of guns after he had been ordered to stay away from his girlfriend.After the restraining order was issued, Zackey Rahimi was arrested as the suspect in unrelated shootings. When police searched his home they found guns. Police charged him with violating federal law and he pleaded guilty to those charges.But last summer the Supreme Court declared in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen that most extraordinary firearms licensing requirements are at odds with the plain reading of the Second Amendment. That decision effectively overturned gun laws in the dozens of states which had placed...

Son of Bruins player suspended from NHL for betting returns to Boston to thank fans

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

The son of a Bruins player suspended from the NHL for betting in the 1940s says he’s not angry about how the league treated his father, and instead, he’s thanking fans for their support over the decades.Don Gallinger Jr. returned to Boston last week with his wife and daughter, handing out cards of his father Don Gallinger to fans outside the TD Garden prior to last Thursday’s win over Toronto.In the 1947-48 season, NHL president Clarence Campbell banned Gallinger and his teammate Billy Taylor for life from the league for betting on games involving the Bruins. The suspensions were lifted 22 years later.“Anybody who is my age or older are aware of the story and aware of my father,” Gallinger Jr. told the Herald. “Many people today who’d be in their 20s or 30s, they’ve never heard of my father.”“He never got a chance to say goodbye,” Gallinger Jr. said of his father. “And he never got over it. It ruined his life and tainted everything he attempted to do thereafter.”Hockey historian Fre...

Jaquan Brisker is ready to ‘fly around’ with Eddie Jackson on defense for Chicago Bears: ‘Put us in there and we’ll be good’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

Jaquan Brisker was pushing to return from a concussion, his second in two seasons, at New Orleans Sunday but said the Chicago Bears and doctors involved wanted to err on the side of caution.Now, after missing two games, the strong safety is set to start Thursday night against the Carolina Panthers at Soldier Field. It will provide a glimpse of the defense we haven’t seen much this season.Brisker was injured on the two-point conversion at the end of the Bears’ 30-12 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 7. He initially passed concussion protocol and then was out of the building with an illness. When he felt better from the illness, concussion symptoms took over and the Bears placed him in protocol, which sidelined him for a second week.He said the latest head injury wasn’t nearly as difficult as the one he endured late last season from a concussion in the Week 11 loss at Atlanta. It sidelined him the next two games and the bye week that followed before returnin...

13-year-old girl who 'ditched' school prompts search in North County

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

SAN DIEGO — San Diego County Sheriff's deputies launched a search for a missing 13-year-old girl who last seen near a North County school on Tuesday. She has since been found safe, the department confirmed.According to SDSO, the young girl was last seen just before 10 a.m. near San Elijo Middle School at 1600 Schoolhouse Road. The ASTREA helicopter was launched to assist in the search for the girl, SDSO said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Over 100 firearms collected at North County gun safety event: SDSO At 11:50 p.m., authorities told FOX 5 her disappearance was not believed to have been an abduction.A spokesperson for the San Marcos Unified School District (SMUSD) said that the girl's friends reported her missing to a "trusted adult" at the middle school, because they noticed she was nowhere to be found after seeing her dropped off at school this morning.SMUSD contacted SDSO to search for the student, who school officials later determined voluntarily left the campus ...

Biden administration warns of major disruption at border if judges halt asylum rule

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

The Biden administration on Tuesday urged an appeals court to allow sweeping new asylum restrictions to stay in place, warning that halting them would be “highly disruptive” at the border.The government is urging a panel of judges in Pasadena, California — two appointed by President Bill Clinton and one by President Donald Trump — to overturn a July ruling that sought to block the new asylum restrictions. The new restrictions made it far more difficult to qualify for asylum if a migrant didn’t first apply online or traveled through another country, such as Mexico, and didn’t seek protection there. They have remained in place during the appeal.Although the judges didn’t rule immediately and gave no indication how they were leaning, the arguments occurred against a backdrop of Senate Republicans seeking to legislate far-reaching changes to asylum eligibility as part of President Joe Biden’s request for military aid to Ukraine and Israel.Courts blocked similar m...

More Bukele critics join effort seeking to nullify El Salvador leader’s candidacy for re-election

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

SAN SALVADOR (AP) — As President Nayib Bukele seeks re-election, a growing number of voices are urging electoral authorities to reverse their acceptance of the popular leader’s candidacy, arguing it is a clear violation of El Salvador’s constitution.Bukele has gained the unwavering support of many in this Central American nation of 6.5 million people after his fierce crackdown on the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs halted what had been near constant terror in their day-to-day lives. But many experts and international watchdog groups say that security has come at the expense of human rights and say Bukele’s heavy-handed moves have slowly eaten away at the nation’s already delicate democracy. They are calling for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to annul Bukele’s candidacy in the February election, though the body already accepted him and have given no indication they might change course.Two lawyers, a citizen and another political party on Tuesday wer...

Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco still on track but no major breakthroughs expected

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The anticipated meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping is on track for next week on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, but the White house is not expecting the face-to-face to result in major changes to the relationship between the two nations, according to a person familiar with the planning. The White House announced late last month that U.S. and China had come to an agreement in principle for Biden and Xi to speak to each other in person on the sidelines of the summit — the first engagement between the leaders in what’s been a tension-filled year between the world’s two biggest economic powers. But with Biden set to arrive in San Francisco in a week for the summit, exact timing and other logistical details have not yet been formally announced.The U.S. believes that the two sides will be able to made some modest announcements following their meeting, but the fundamental differences in...

Robbers break into home of Brazilian soccer star Neymar’s partner, she said on social media

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thieves entered the home of Brazilian soccer star Neymar ‘s partner and took her parents hostage early Tuesday morning, Bruna Biancardi, the mother of Neymar’s baby girl, wrote on her verified Instagram account.Local media reported that the home is located in Cotia, a city in Sao Paulo’s metropolitan area, and that one of the three armed robbers, a neighbor of Biancardi’s parents, has been apprehended.News outlet R7 reported that the trio had insistently asked after the whereabouts of Biancardi and her baby girl. Biancardi said on Instagram that she and her daughter had no longer been living at the house. Online news outlet G1 reported that Biancardi’s parents were bound and gagged, and that the assailants made off with luxury purses, watches and jewelry. Security camera footage revealed that the escape car was owned by a neighbor, who told authorities that he had loaned it to his son. The 20-year-old was soon found and confessed to the ...

California unveils Native American monument at Capitol, replacing missionary statue toppled in 2020

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:26:34 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — An eight-foot-tall bronze statue of a late Native American leader known for preserving cultural dances now stands surrounded by trees in a historic park outside of California’s state Capitol building, replacing a statue of a Spanish missionary that protesters toppled it in 2020.California lawmakers, tribal leaders and hundreds of others on Tuesday celebrated the unveiling of a statue depicting Miwok leader William J. Franklin, Sr., in recognition of the Native American tribes whose ancestral lands are now the grounds of the state Capitol.“Finally, the California Indian people will have a monument here on the Capitol grounds for all those visiting to know that we are still here,” said Assemblymember James C. Ramos, the first Native American in the state Legislature. “We’re here because of the resiliency of our elders and ancestors.”It is one of several moves that California lawmakers have made in recent years to acknowledge the history of Native ...