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Lucas: Democrats put climate before crime & costs

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

If you were looking for information about skyrocketing gas and grocery prices, increased crime or the illegal immigrant influx, you came to the wrong place.While those are the issues everyone else is talking about, speakers at the 2023 Massachusetts Democratic convention in Lowell last weekend instead talked about everything else, especially abortion, green energy, climate change, saving the planet and the Republican threat to democracy.No one, including Gov. Maura Healey, nor local Lowell politicians like U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan or state Sen. Edward Markey or Lowell Mayor Sokhary Chau  even mentioned the 900 illegal migrants from Venezuela and Haiti who are moving into the city’s only downtown hotel. Lowell City Manager Tom Golden did not even show up.That hotel, the UMass-owned Lowell Inn and Conference Center, is a short walk from the Tsongas Convention Center where the Democratic gathering was held. Dormitory students were kicked out and immigrants are moving in.But it was unmenti...

Dear Abby: Hubby’s younger ‘crush’ is back in town

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

Dear Abby: When our son went to college years ago, he traveled all summer with a school-sponsored ministry singing group. The members were all smart, attractive, talented young men and women — a group of four.I stopped going to his concerts because my husband became attracted to one of the young women. She was very outgoing and annoying, so I didn’t mind letting my husband go alone. After they all graduated, I thought I’d never see her again. Now, all these years later, she’s a missionary, and the church we attend is sponsoring her, so I have had to see her once and I’ll probably have to see her again.I know to keep quiet about it because my husband says he doesn’t want to hear it. I don’t honestly think his thoughts are inappropriate. I just think he’s not aware of how obviously attracted he is to this young woman. I don’t act that way toward other men, even if they are attractive. Maybe especially if they are attractive. I wond...

Powerball jackpot rises to $925 million after another drawing without a big winner

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Powerball jackpot climbed to an estimated $925 million after no players hit it big Wednesday night, continuing a stretch of lottery futility that has lasted for more than two months.The winning numbers were: 1, 7, 46, 47, 63 and 7.The jackpot for the next drawing Saturday night remains the world’s ninth-largest lottery prize of all time, behind earlier prizes in the Powerball and Mega Millions games that all topped $1 billion.The jackpot has grown so large because there have now been 30 consecutive drawings without a big winner, dating back to July 19. Powerball’s terrible odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes becoming ever larger as they repeatedly roll over when no one wins.The largest jackpot was a $2.04 billion Powerball prize hit by a player in California in November 2022.In most states, a Powerball ticket costs $2 and players can select their own numbers or leave that task to a computer.The $925 million jackpo...

The woman who torched Wyoming’s lone, full-service abortion clinic is about to be sentenced

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A woman who says anxiety and nightmares led her to set fire to Wyoming’s only full-service abortion clinic, setting back the facility’s opening almost a year, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.Lorna Roxanne Green could be sentenced to 20 years in prison for burning the Wellspring Health Access facility in Casper. She pleaded guilty to a federal arson charge in July.Green said at that hearing she regretted what she did and took full responsibility.“I knew right after” setting fire to the clinic that it was wrong, she told U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson.The May 2022 fire happened weeks before the clinic was to open. Extensive damage to the building being remodeled for the clinic kept it from opening for almost a year.Green admitted to breaking in, pouring gasoline around the inside of the building and lighting it on fire, according to court documents.The Casper College mechanical engineering student showed no sign of anti-abortion views on...

Trump goes to Michigan to rail against Biden’s electric vehicle push while GOP rivals debate

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — As his Republican rivals sparred onstage in California at their second primary debate, Donald Trump was in battleground Michigan Wednesday night working to win over blue-collar voters by lambasting President Joe Biden and his push for electric cars in the midst of an autoworkers’ strike.“I will not allow under any circumstances the American automobile industry to die,” Trump said at Drake Enterprises, a non-unionized auto parts supplier in Clinton Township, about a half-hour outside Detroit.The Republican front-runner’s trip came a day after Biden became the first sitting president in U.S. history to walk a picket line as he joined United Auto Workers in Detroit. The dueling appearances had the feel of the opening salvo of the 2024 general election, which increasingly looks like a rematch between Trump and Biden, even though primary voting won’t begin until next year.Trump’s decision to skip another debate comes as he maintains a commanding lead ...

Lotto 649 winning numbers for Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

TORONTO — The winning numbers in Wednesday’s Lotto 649 draw for an estimated $5 million: 09, 17, 25, 30, 38 & 48.Bonus: 35The winning number for the guaranteed $1 million: 50755138-03 In the event of any discrepancy between this list and the official winning numbers, the latter shall prevail.The Canadian Press

Taiwan launches the island’s first domestically made submarine for testing

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s president launched the island’s first domestically made submarine for testing Thursday at a port in Kaohsiung. The submarine, if successful in its tests, will be a major breakthrough for Taiwan in shipbuilding and design.“In the past, a domestic made submarine was considered impossible, but today a submarine designed and built by our countrymen is in front of you,” said President Tsai Ing-wen at the launch ceremony. “It is the concrete realization of our resolution to protect” Taiwan. The process was “torturous,” said Cheng Wen-lon, head of Taiwan’s CSBC Corporation, which led the constructions of the submarine. But its completion marks an important milestone in Taiwan’s strategy of adopting asymmetric warfare. “Although we have worked quietly the past several years, it doesn’t mean the process was very smooth,” he said at the ceremony held in CSBC’s shipyard. After years of construction and design, th...

At US Antarctic base hit by harassment claims, workers are banned from buying alcohol at bars

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — From Sunday, workers at the main United States base in Antarctica will no longer be able to walk into a bar and order a beer, after the federal agency that oversees the research program decided to stop serving alcohol.McMurdo Station will not be going entirely dry, the National Science Foundation confirmed. Researchers and support staff will still be able to buy a weekly ration of alcohol from the station store. But the policy shift could prove significant because the bars have been central to social life in the isolated environment. The changes come as concerns grow that sexual misconduct has been allowed to flourish at McMurdo. An investigation by The Associated Press last month uncovered a pattern of women who said their claims of harassment or assault were minimized by their employers, often leading to them or others being put in further danger.In some of the cases outlined by the AP, alcohol played a role. But the NSF told the AP the changes invol...

A government shutdown is nearing this weekend. What does it mean, who’s hit and what’s next?

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is just days away from a shutdown that will disrupt many services, squeeze workers and roil politics as Republicans in the House, fueled by hard-right demands, force a confrontation over federal spending.While some government entities will be exempt — Social Security checks, for example, will still go out — other functions will be severely curtailed. Federal agencies will stop all actions deemed non-essential, and millions of federal employees, including members of the military, won’t receive paychecks.A look at what’s ahead if the government shuts down on Oct. 1.WHAT IS A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?A shutdown happens when Congress fails to pass some type of funding legislation that is signed into law by the president. Lawmakers are supposed to pass 12 different spending bills to fund agencies across the government, but the process is time-consuming. They often resort to passing a temporary extension, called a continuing resolution or CR...

NY Attorney General Letitia James has a long history of fighting Trump, other powerful targets

Published Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:13:00 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Letitia James fixated on Donald Trump as she campaigned for New York attorney general, branding the then-president a “con man” and ″carnival barker” and pledging to shine a “bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings.”Five years later, James is on the verge of disrupting Trump’s real estate empire after a judge ruled Tuesday that he defrauded banks, insurers and others by exaggerating the value of assets on paperwork used for deals and securing loans.The ruling shifts control of some of Trump’s companies to a court-appointed receiver, meaning he could lose control of prized properties like Trump Tower, a sprawling suburban estate, office buildings and more.For James, a Democrat, it’s just the latest joust with a powerful foe.Here’s a look at her political background and some of her biggest cases:LAWSUITS AGAINST TRUMPJames began investigating Trump just about as soon as she took office as attorney general in 2019. She launched several lawsuit...