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Editorial: Councilor Fernandes Anderson learns first-hand Boston cops are vital

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes-Anderson was mugged by reality over the weekend.What was taken: her phone, and any pretext for portraying Boston Police as anything less than vital to public safety.As the Herald reported, Fernandes Anderson was robbed during a Mass and Cass walkthrough early Saturday night.According to a redacted Boston Police report, an “unnamed victim” approached a police officer around 7:43 p.m., and reported that an unknown white man stole her phone. The victim was Tania Fernandes-Anderson.Why the redaction? As Fernandes Anderson posted on X Monday: “I asked that I remain anonymous on the police report. Somehow information always gets leaked. How is this keeping victims of worse crimes safe? Then the Media writes their version. Stop your propaganda. I have children for crying out loud. Front page for a stolen cell phone?”No, not for a stolen cell phone. Front page for a Boston City Councilor who proposed sweeping budget cuts to the B...

King: AI already beginning to take jobs – control is needed

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

The conventional wisdom — don’t you love it? — holds that artificial intelligence won’t cost jobs. But it will. The evidence is mounting.I say this after doing my best to divine the thinking of the AI community on jobs in my reporting. I have made three television programs on AI and conducted one press briefing, and I have talked to experts at four universities and four AI companies.All these savants directed me to look at what happened with automation. They pointed out that it was feared that automation — the industrializing of production — would cost jobs, but it had the opposite effect. It created new work since the first steam engine was deployed in England in 1712.Trade unions have fought every advancement in automation in every industrial sector when they have feared jobs would be lost. Jobs have been lost, but new avenues of employment have emerged.But AI is different and will likely subtract jobs without producing new ones.All the indicators are that jobs will disappear. So ...

Treat Her Right fans treated to a reunion, and then some

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

When the now-legendary Boston band Treat Her Right did its regular shows at the Plough & Stars in Cambridge or the Rat in Kenmore Square, there would inevitably be a few female admirers dancing upfront. When the band plays a one-off reunion at Sally O’Brien’s Thursday, the “Treat Her Right Dancers” will take their rightful place onstage.A local favorite in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, Treat Her Right opened punk-trained ears to the blues and R&B that they loved. Two of its members, guitarist Mark Sandman and drummer Billy Conway, went onto national success with Morphine. Both are now deceased, but cofounders David Champagne (vocals/guitar) and Jim Fitting (harmonica) have remained fixtures on the rock and roots scene. They’ll take a rare spin through the Treat Her Right catalogue, with the core band completed by drummer Jerome Deupree (Conway’s friend and a fellow Morphine alum) and Russ Gershon (the local jazz saxophonist, here taking a rare turn on bass guitar). And the “dance...

Gallery: Red Sox blow lead and lose big to Astros 13-5

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

Boston Red Sox lose to the Houston Astros 13-5

Dear Abby: DIL uses false charges to cut off grandma visits

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

Dear Abby: I have had a wonderful relationship with my only grandson for nine years. Since I retired, he visits every other weekend, which makes me so happy. He has autism and didn’t speak for the first six years, but now he talks constantly. It’s wonderful. I’m very close to my son as well.I guess you know what’s coming: My daughter-in-law cut my grandchild out of my life four months ago. She says he was molested in my care by my husband. I took my husband of 13 years, who has never been alone with my grandson, ever, to the police station. He passed all lie detector tests, and the police said they believe my husband.My grandson didn’t say a word; only my DIL spoke. I had CPS come out and they did a thorough investigation. They said that, in their opinion, she was making this up. She hasn’t spoken to her family in 12 years. She cuts everyone off if they upset her.My grandson needs me. What can I do? My son says if I move and live next door to them...

Police release suspect description in sex assault near SDSU

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego police on Monday released new details in their investigation into a sexual assault involving a San Diego State student in the College Area.The university first announced the reported assault on Sunday.According to police, the student, a woman, got into a car on a residential street south of campus and believed she was getting into a rideshare vehicle."The male driver drove her around the College Area and sexually assaulted her inside the car," Lt. Carmen Rivera said in a news release. "The man dropped her off on 70th Street somewhere between Mohawk Avenue and Alvarado Road." Missing woman, 48, last seen in Del Cerro Shortly before 2 a.m., police responded to the 5100 block of 70th Street to meet the caller.Police described the suspect as a man in his mid-20s with tan skin and an accent who was driving a sedan. The color, make and model of the vehicle was still being investigated.Questions remain regarding the circumstances leading up to the assault, includin...

U.S. Open honours Billie Jean King on 50th anniversary of equal prize money

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — After a rousing tribute from former first lady Michelle Obama, Billie Jean King on Monday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Open becoming the first sporting event to offer equal prize money to female and male competitors, promising never to stop fighting to maintain that hard-won progress.“While we celebrate today, our work is far from done,” King said in a speech to a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd between night matches.Echoing a quote from Coretta Scott King, she said: “Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and you win it in every generation.”Obama introduced the 79-year-old tennis legend by recalling how King, the U.S. Open champion in 1972, rallied her fellow women players to threaten a boycott of the next year’s tournament unless women got the same pay as men. It was announced that summer that the women’s champion’s paycheque would increase $15,000 so that both men’s and women’s cha...

Backpage founder faces 2nd trial over what prosecutors say was a scheme to sell sex through ad sales

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — A founder of the lucrative classified site Backpage.com will face his second trial on charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money in what authorities say was a scheme to knowingly sell ads for sex on the site.Jury selection for Michael Lacey and four former Backpage employees is scheduled to begin Tuesday in federal court. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in September 2021 when a judge concluded prosecutors had too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge.Lacey had founded the Phoenix New Times weekly newspaper with James Larkin, who was charged in the case and died by suicide in July. Lacey and Larkin held ownership interests in other weeklies such as The Village Voice and ultimately sold their newspapers in 2013. But they held onto Backpage, which authorities say generated $500 million in prostitution-related revenue from its inception in 2004 until 2018, when it was shut down by the government.In all, fi...

Guatemala progressive’s presidential victory certified, but his party is suspended

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Progressive candidate Bernardo Arévalo was confirmed the winner of Guatemala’s presidential election by the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Monday, but the same day another government body ordered his political party suspended.Arévalo has faced a slew of legal challenges and allegations of irregularities since his unexpected victory over a candidate favored by the country’s conservative elite.Arévalo appears certain to take office as president on Jan. 14, but it was not clear whether his Seed Movement lawmakers would be able to take their seats in the country’s Congress.Arévalo called the suspension ruling legally void and said his party would appeal it. “As of this moment, no one can stop me from taking office on Jan. 14,” he told a news conference. The electoral registry’s ruling arose from an investigation into the Seed Movement by Guatemala’s attorney general’s office for alleged irregularities in the gathering of signa...

Typhoon Saola to bring heavy rain and strong winds to southern Taiwan on its way to China’s coast

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:50:28 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s weather authorities warned residents of heavy rain and strong winds starting Wednesday as Typhoon Saola skirts by the island’s southern coast on its way to China’s southern coast. The typhoon is moving northwest with sustained winds of 162 kph (101 mph) and gusts of up to 198 kph (123 mph), according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. The typhoon’s eye won’t hit Taiwan’s mainland, but is expected to graze the island’s southern cities with its outer bands.The weather bureau also warned late Monday night that high waves and swells are expected to make any boat journeys dangerous.Heavy rain is expected in Taiwan’s eastern and southern areas Wednesday going into Thursday. Taiwan’s weather bureau has so far categorized the storm as a mid-strength typhoon, and said there’s a slight chance the storm could strengthen.The typhoon is then expected to hit southern Fujian and Guangdong provinces in China’s south. Saola caused flooding in the northern ...