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M-DCPS to provide students with free healthy breakfast and lunch options when school year begins

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

When students in Miami-Dade County head back to school later this month, the school system wants to ensure parents that their children will be nurtured through their mind and their body.Angie Kasselakis, food nutrition officer of Miami- Dade County Public Schools, on Wednesday showed 7News some of the healthy options students will have to select from.“This clean-label item has five ingredients: ground beef, sea salt pepper onion and garlic,” she said. The school system wants to present students with options like pinwheel calzones.“Which is our vegetarian option,” Kasselakis said.Or breaded chicken.“That has no artificial colors,” Kasselakis said. Aside from a healthier lunch options for students, the school system is also focused on providing students with a well-balanced breakfast.“We have our egg and cheese potato patty, a whole grain chip muffin top. We have our turkey sausage and cheese breakfast pockets, and we also have a strawberry-ba...

Thieves foiled in attempt to steal nearly $7K violin at Pompano Beach music store

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

Quick-thinking staff at a Pompano Beach music store prevented a thief from making off with a violin priced at nearly $7,000 in a daring morning incident. The thwarted theft occurred Wednesday at Fiddlershop, located at 2703 Gateway Drive.The subject, seen on surveillance cameras dressed in all black, had previously targeted the store, according to store owner Pierre Holstein. During Wednesday’s incident, the thief, accompanied by a second individual wearing a colorful bucket hat, entered the store. “Well he rang the doorbell, he came in and asked to see some instruments and violins,” said Holstein, “and Charlie, who was helping him, asked him what kind of instrument he was looking for, and he was kind of stumbling and didn’t know what to say, and he said ‘My daughter.'” Wednesday’s incident marks the second time the store has been targeted by the same individual.The initial incident occurred in May, when the suspect stole a guitar worth nearly $1,...

More Storms On The Way

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

Editor’s Note: Tonight’s blog was written by 7Weather intern Tyler Hughes.Today was a pretty calm day for us in New England, and tomorrow will start off the same, before taking a turn in the evening hours. Temperatures will be mild as you wake up but will quickly rise into the 80s around lunchtime, aided by a robust westerly breeze. Cloud cover will be increasing throughout the afternoon as a low pressure system tracks to our south, bringing yet another chance for storms.Unfortunately, the area that’s more likely to see severe storms tomorrow is also the area that was hit the hardest Tuesday – the South Coast and Cape. Although you may get an isolated downpour or hear a rumble of thunder north and west of 495 tomorrow evening, the brunt of the storm activity will be in the red and yellow regions here.The strongest concerns here are the possibility of heavy rain, which could lead to localized flooding. Also of concern is the risk for strong winds and the possi...

Massachusetts joins a small but growing number of states adopting universal free school meals

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts has joined a small but growing number of states adopting universal free school meals programs.Spending for the program was included in an overdue $55.98 billion state budget signed into law by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday. The budget covers the 2024 fiscal year that began July 1.The budget includes spending on schools, child care, workforce development, public transit, housing, climate resiliency and other key areas that will help make Massachusetts more affordable, competitive and equitable, said Healey, signing her first budget as governor.The budget will also make community college free for students aged 25 and older, expand grants for early education and care providers, increase funding for apprenticeships and other workforce development programs, and dedicate one percent of the budget to energy and the environment for the first time, she added.About $172 million in permanent funding is also included in the budget to provide uni...

FBI accuses indicted Air National Guardsman of sharing classified information with someone living in a foreign country

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

(CNN) — Recently filed court documents allege that Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified intelligence online, knowingly shared classified information with at least one person appearing to reside in a foreign country.According to a sworn statement by an FBI agent who investigated Teixeira, the 21-year-old shared government information in at least three Discord servers, one of which had some foreign nationals among its 150 members. Those users had foreign IP addresses, the statement by Special Agent Luke Church said.In February 2020, Teixeira, who has pleaded not guilty, asked another user to confirm that they lived in a foreign city, the exact name of which was redacted from the document filed last week.“You live near [foreign city] yeah?” Teixeira asked, according to the statement.“[Y]eah,” the other user responded. “[V]illage next to it.”Teixeira then responded, “Good,” and said there would be a “wave of [N-words] from [city in Ukraine] s...

Robbie Robertson leaves a ‘lost-in-time’ music legacy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

A Canadian born in 1943 wrote one of the definitive songs about the American Civil War.And one of the definitive songs about the fight to form U.S. labor unions during the Great Depression.And one about street hustlers, one about a lovestruck, gambling truck driver headed to Lake Charles, Louisiana, and another that collects a gaggle of oddballs into a setting inspired by Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel.These tales — “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “King Harvest,” “Life Is a Carnival,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and “The Weight” — were penned by Robbie Robertson. The chief songwriter and lead guitarist for The Band, Robertson, who passed away Wednesday at age 80, practically invented the Americana genre.When The Band retreated to Woodstock, New York, in 1967 to compile the tracks that would become its debut LP “Music from Big Pink,” psychedelia was raging. London was swinging, the Beatles sang “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” Jimi Hendrix lit his guitar on fire. But Robertson and T...

Mets Notebook: Buck Showalter confident in David Peterson, other starting rotation options

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

It’s no secret that the outlook of the Mets rotation has changed since the Aug. 1 trade deadline. What was once built around the foundation of two Hall of Fame starting pitchers — Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer — has quickly turned short on options.Despite the perception of lacking depth for a consistent rotation, manager Buck Showalter is confident in the options within the organization, including southpaw David Peterson, who took the ball Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs.“I hear some of the sarcasm ‘If not them, than who [will start]?,” said Showalter. “We do have who, we do. … We have people that are coming, we have people that are pitching well that we like and we think [can contribute].“So, we’re going to run Pete out there. It’s not because we don’t have other options, we think it will be good for him and good for the Mets if he can finish [strong] and kind of get back to where he was last year....

Ice Bucket Challenge: Nine years later, Pete Frates’ family sees ‘the ripple effect’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

Pete Frates knew challenging people to dump buckets of ice water over their heads would eventually make a difference in the world of ALS research.Nine years later, the former Boston College baseball star’s appeal that went viral has certainly accomplished its mission.The Ice Bucket Challenge, which took social media by storm in the summer of 2014, raised more than $220 million. And just last September, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug funded through some of those donations.The drug, Relyvrio, is designed to slow the disease by protecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord destroyed by the relentlessly progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorder.Nancy Frates is not surprised the cause her son started has led to some groundbreaking developments that have advanced research toward curing ALS.“It’s called the ripple effect. Once somebody gives somebody money others will follow, and that’s exactly what has happened in our world. The best part about that ...

Sales tax holiday returns this weekend – here’s how it works and what’s tax free

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

It’s nearly that special time of year again when, for a brief 48-hour window, Massachusetts becomes a little bit more like New Hampshire.This weekend and this weekend only the state will pause its 6.25% tax on qualifying purchases, bringing it temporarily more into line with its permanently tax free neighbor to the north.“As Citizens for Limited Taxation use to say, every tax cut is a pay raise. For one short weekend, Massachusetts taxpayers can take advantage of the benefit New Hampshire taxpayers enjoy every single day,” Paul Craney, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance told the Herald. “There is nothing gimmicky about Massachusetts taxpayers saving some more of their hard earned money. No one knows how to better spend their own money, than the taxpayers.”First tried for a single day in 2004, the practice became an annual full weekend holiday in 2018 with an aim toward boosting consumer spending, even if at the expense of millions in sales tax revenue.Accordi...

A shark along Cape Cod got hooked by a bass fisherman’s lure; shark washes up on Crane Beach

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:17:06 GMT

Fishing along Cape Cod these days? There’s a chance you could hook a large apex predator.After multiple fishermen reported great white sharks jumping out of the water to grab striped bass on fishing lines, the latest shark and fishermen encounter involved a great white getting hooked by a bass fisherman’s lure.Triton Sportfishing — based out of Rock Harbor, Orleans — recently caught a white shark when the apex predator took a bite on a bass lure.“Catch of the day right there,” a crew member said in a video of the hooked great white shark.“New England is swimming with sharks this year, and this crew got an up close look at this beautiful, wild creature,” Triton Sportfishing posted, later adding, “You never know what you’re going to get when you go fishing in Cape Cod!”The great white shark was let go after it was hooked. The sharks are federally protected, and fishermen must release them.“Lots of bass fishermen a...