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Arbitrator rules in favor of some Mass. state troopers fired for refusing to get COVID-19 vaccine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

Standing with some of the Massachusetts state troopers who were fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine shot, the State Police Association of Massachusetts claimed victory Monday after an arbitrator ruled the Massachusetts State Police must give troopers their jobs back with full back pay. The troopers’ union said the arbitrator ruled the state police failed to provide reasonable accommodation for the troopers who the state said qualified for a religious exemption. “We’re expecting to see our troopers back to work in the next few weeks and we’re very excited by that,” said Patrick McNamara, the President of the State Police Association of Massachusetts. Seven troopers impacted by the arbitrator’s ruling were among those placed on unpaid leave after an order from former Gov. Charlie Baker in 2021 required state executive department employees to be vaccinated, the Associated Press reported.“The members that had a medical exemption were afforded accommodations to st...

Tanker truck rolls over in Charlestown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

Crews were on scene in Charlestown late Monday morning after a tanker truck rolled over on a local road. The incident happened on Terminal Street where the cement truck could be seen resting on its side and blocking part of the road. Crews were seen working to get the vehicle back upright. No further information was immediately available.This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.

Woman charged with manslaughter in connection with deadly stabbing in Marlboro

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

A woman was arrested over the weekend and arraigned on Monday in connection with a deadly stabbing in Marlboro last week, the Middlesex District Attorney’s office announced. Authorities first responded on Wednesday to an apartment on Saint Ives Way after a neighbor called 911 to report an altercation, the DA’s office said.On scene, the DA’s office said Marlboro police found 45-year-old Eric Murray suffering from apparent stab wounds. In addition to Murray, the DA’s office said police found 37-year-old Darlene Carreras with cuts on her hands. Murray was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Carreras was also taken to a hospital before being released. The DA’s office said Murray’s son, who was under the age of 18, was found unhurt in the home when police responded.“The preliminary investigation suggests that Ms. Carreras and Mr. Murray had been in a romantic relationship and had been seeing each other regularly,” the DA’s office said in its announcement on Monday...

Musk promises to fund legal fights of discriminated X users

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

By Michael Sin and Vlad Savov, Bloomberg NewsElon Musk has offered to fund the legal bills of any users of his social network, X, who’ve been discriminated against by their employer because of their actions on the platform.The proposal comes with “no limit” on costs and X Corp. will “go after the boards of directors of the companies too,” he said in messages posted to the site Saturday night. The billionaire, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October and recently rebranded it as X, has made a habit of announcing major policy changes for the service late at night or over weekends. The X rebrand happened over the course of a weekend in July.Musk has been responding affirmatively to suggestions posted to X of cases his company could support.Musk himself has been known to throw barbs against former employees and critics. Amid firing thousands after his purchase of Twitter, the billionaire publicly mocked senior director Halli Thorleifsson after the worker tried to gain clarity on ...

How leprosy arrived in Florida, and how it is spreading: New clues are emerging

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

By Cindy Krischer Goodman, South Florida Sun-SentinelHealth officials are seeing more cases of the rare disease of leprosy in Florida, and want to find out why.Are foreign travelers bringing the disease to Florida with them? Are people in the state getting it from armadillos, which are naturally infected with the bacteria that causes the disease? How is this rare disease spreading in the Sunshine State, and who is vulnerable to it?Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s Disease, has been around for centuries, and now mostly is in countries like India, Brazil and Indonesia. People untreated who have the infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae often have disfiguring skin sores or deformities like claw hands or hammer toes.Knowing you have leprosy and getting treated early is crucial. However, it could take about five years after contracting the disease to show symptoms, such as patches of pink skin that become numb, lumps on your face or earlobes, and numbness in your h...

New Hampshire is sued over removal of marker dedicated to Communist Party leader

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Supporters of a former historical marker dedicated to a feminist and labor activist from New Hampshire who also led the U.S. Communist Party sued the state Monday, saying officials violated a law around administrative procedures and should put it back up.The green and white sign describing the life of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was installed May 1 in Concord close to where she was born Aug. 7, 1890. It was one of more than 275 across the state that describe people and places, from Revolutionary War soldiers to contemporary sports figures. But it was taken down two weeks after it went up.Known as “The Rebel Girl” for her fiery speeches, Flynn was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and advocated for women’s voting rights and access to birth control. The marker said she joined the Communist Party in 1936 and was sent to prison in 1951. She was one of many party members prosecuted “under the notorious Smith Act,” the marker said, which forbade attempts to a...

NATO, EU send aid to Slovenia after devastating floods that killed at least 6 and left many homeless

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — The European Union and NATO began sending urgent aid Monday to Slovenia after severe flooding over the weekend affecting two-thirds of the small European country killed at least six people and left hundreds homeless.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob on Monday, expressing his sympathy and NATO’s strong solidarity with Slovenia, a NATO statement said.“I express my deepest condolences to the people of Slovenia for the loss of life and widespread devastation caused by this weekend’s floods,” Stoltenberg said.On Sunday, Slovenia and Cyprus activated a European Union Civil Protection Mechanism because of the floods in Slovenia and wildfires in Cyprus that have affected those EU states.The EU is sending to Cyprus two Canadair firefighting airplanes from the EU’s Civil Protection Pool stationed in Greece. Greece is also sending 20 tons of liquid retardant via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.The floo...

Scouts, including hundreds of Canadians, to evacuate Korea jamboree ahead of storm

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

South Korean officials say they will evacuate tens of thousands of scouts, including hundreds of Canadians, from an international scouting jamboree along the country’s western coast before the expected arrival of a typhoon. Kim Sung-ho, a vice minister at South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety, says more than 36,000 scouts from 158 countries will begin leaving Tuesday morning, with most heading to venues in the capital city, Seoul, and the nearby metropolitan area.Scouts Canada says 235 Canadian youth and 143 volunteers are attending the event.Spokeswoman Anissa Stambouli says the weather at the jamboree site remains normal and jamboree activities will continue in the Seoul area.More than 4,000 British scouts and hundreds of scouts from the United States began leaving the campsite on Saturday due to extreme heat. Scouts Canada says six Canadian youth and four volunteers suffered from heat stress, but no members of the Canadian contingent have been hospitalized...

Indigenous leader inspires an Amazon city to grant personhood to an endangered river

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

GUAJARA-MIRIM, BRAZIL (AP) — On the banks of the Komi Memem River, the activity never ceases: women go down the embankment from Laje Velho village carrying basins to wash clothing, while men embark in small canoes on hunting and fishing expeditions. At day’s end, it’s the children’s turn to dive into its tea-colored waters.The river, named Laje in non-Indigenous maps, is vital to the Oro Waram, one of the six subgroups of the Wari’ people, who have inhabited the Western Amazon for centuries. However, this immemorial relationship is under increasing threat. The relentless expansion of soybeans and pastures encroaches on their land, while land-robbers promote illegal deforestation. To protect themselves, the Wari’ people are resorting to a new strategy: the white man’s law. In June, the municipality of Guajara-Mirim passed a groundbreaking law proposed by an Indigenous councilman that designates the Komi Memem and its tributaries as living entities with rights, ranging from maintainin...

West African leaders will meet Thursday after Niger’s junta defies key deadline and shuts airspace

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:03 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Leaders of West Africa’s regional bloc said Monday that they would meet later this week to discuss next steps after Niger’s military junta defied a deadline to reinstate the country’s ousted president while its mutinous soldiers closed the country’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.The meeting was scheduled for Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighboring Nigeria, according to a spokesman for the ECOWAS bloc.State television reported the junta’s latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum is not returned to power.A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted “the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country,” and said Niger’s airspace will be closed until further notice. Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with “an energetic and immedi...