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Ex-FBI agent John ‘Zip’ Connolly remains a free man indefinitely

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

Aging ex-FBI agent John “Zip” Connolly can remain a free man in Massachusetts, a Florida parole board has ruled.The prediction that he’d be dead by now has, obviously, been proven incorrect. Still, the Florida Commission on Offender Review is allowing Connolly to convalesce indefinitely with his wife in the Bay State, the Herald has learned. His next review with be in “two to seven years.”Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 for wearing his FBI-issued sidearm when he met with mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in Boston to warn him of what businessman John Callahan knew. Bulger was murdered in a West Virginia prison in 2018.Callahan, the former president of World Jai Alai, was shot dead by John Martorano, one of Bulger’s hitmen. Martorano testified he was working for Bulger when he killed Callahan, who was also a friend of his. Bulger wanted Callahan dead because the Boston businessman could implicate them in a 1981 slaying of another World Jai Alai ex...

New MBTA leader dogged by overtime problems

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

Years of rampant overtime abuse and pension fraud at the Long Island Rail Road should have served as a “warning sign” for Gov. Maura Healey, when choosing its former president as the next MBTA general manager, one fiscal watchdog said.Pointing to the soaring payroll costs that already plague the MBTA, MassFiscal spokesman Paul Craney said the public can expect more of the same, or perhaps worse, when Phillip Eng takes the reins of the region’s embattled transit agency on April 10.“I think what’s interesting is that Gov. Maura Healey picked someone that comes from a railroad system that clearly has incredible problems with costs and efficiency, to the point that it is the poster child of an agency that’s doing it wrong,” Craney said.“She didn’t pick someone that comes from a transit agency that is being innovative and efficient in how it’s spending its money.”Craney was referencing past reporting from the New York Times, which first highlighted massive disability fraud at Long Island...

GO Transit expands weekend trains to Brampton, 4 lines to see buses for certain trips

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

For commuters on several GO Transit train lines, they will see multiple schedule changes, and the biggest service adjustment will see all-day, two-way trips between Toronto and Brampton.Beginning on Saturday, Kitchener line trains will be running hourly between Union Station and Mount Pleasant GO station. On weekends, the first trip will be eastbound from Mount Pleasant at 7:49 a.m., and the last trip will be westbound from Union Station and 11:51 p.m. The train trips will shave several minutes off the current journey by bus.There will still be bus trips on the corridor on weekends, with buses beginning or ending mostly at York Mills GO Bus Terminal or Bramalea GO station.ONTARIO BUDGET 2023: No plans yet for TTC, GO Transit co-fares unlike elsewhere in GTAOn weekdays, GO Transit will also be operating two extra morning eastbound trips and an extra afternoon westbound trip on parts of the Kitchener line corridor.When it comes to new bus services, there will also be several changes, ...

Berlusconi says he believes he’ll recover ‘once again’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

ROME (AP) — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said he believes he will overcome the lung infection caused by a chronic leukemia that has hospitalized him in intensive care, Italian daily Il Giornale reported on Friday.“It’s hard, but I’ll make it once again,” the 86-year-old media mogul said in a phone call with Il Giornale’s editor in chief, Augusto Minzolini.“I managed, also in delicate and difficult situations, to pull myself up,” Berlusconi added, according to the report. The media tycoon and three-time premier spent a second consecutive night in intensive care at Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital, where his doctors on Thursday signed off on a medical bulletin saying that he has had leukemia “for some time,” but that the cancer of the blood cells is in a “persistent chronic phase.” The statement was the first official word from doctors since Berlusconi was admitted to San Raffaele on Wednesday.“The current treatment strategy envisions treatment of the pulmonary infection” as ...

2 killed in West Bank after Israel strikes Lebanon, Gaza

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel conducted rare airstrikes in Lebanon and continued bombarding the Gaza Strip on Friday, an escalation that sparked fears of a broader conflict following violence over Jerusalem’s most sensitive site. With tensions running high across Israel and the region, an alleged Palestinian shooting attack near an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank killed two women in their 20s and seriously wounded a 45-year-old, Israeli medics said. The attack, coming after weeks of unusually heightened unrest in the West Bank, suggested that the recent tensions in Jerusalem could be spilling over to the occupied territory. Even as quiet returned to Israel’s northern and southern borders, the early morning Israeli strikes on Lebanon — which analysts described as the most serious border violence since Israel’s 2006 war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants — threatened to push the confrontation into a new phase. Israeli strikes came in retaliation for a major barrage of roc...

'Stunning': James Webb telescope provides new view of Uranus

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After capturing the best photos of Neptune in decades in 2022, NASA has pointed the James Webb telescope’s high-powered lenses at the solar system’s other ice giant, Uranus.NASA said the telescope’s “stunning” new view of Uranus, captured on Feb. 6, provides a detailed look at the planet's faint, rarely photographed rings. 10 hard-to-pronounce Oregon words that even confuse some natives “The new image features dramatic rings as well as bright features in the planet’s atmosphere,” NASA announced on April 6. “The Webb data offer exquisite sensitivity for the faintest dusty rings, which have only ever been imaged by two other facilities: the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past the planet in 1986, and the Keck Observatory with advanced adaptive optics.”Uranus and its near horizontal axis as captured by the James Webb telescope. (NASA)Uranus, six of its moons and distant galaxies. (NASA's James Webb telescope)The zoomed-in image of Uranus also shows the planet’...

Widespread rain ahead of drier, milder weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Another round of widespread rain expected as we close out the work week.Live radarLive traffic conditionsCentral Texas rainfall totalsRepeated batches of on & off showers and storms is expected to impact most of our area through this evening. Additional rainfall totals will remain under 1" for most, but a few isolated spots could top 1" by the end of the day today.Remember, if you ever come across a water-covered roadway, "Turn Around, Don't Drown!"Cooler temperatures and breezy winds will have a lot of keeping jackets on all day. But milder weather and drier skies move in for the weekend.Outside of a few spots of leftover rain early Saturday, expect a mix of sun and clouds and a gradual warming trend to get underway over the holiday weekend.Dry and cool for Easter egg hunts Sunday morningFIRST WARNING WEATHER: Stay up to date with your Central Texas forecast, sign up for our weather newsletter at kxan.com/newsletters Stay up-to-date with the First Warning Weath...

Ascension nurses protest staffing, patient safety

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A large group of nurses with National Nurses United gathered outside Ascension Seton Medical Center on Thursday.Nurses told KXAN they are frustrated with how the hospital is addressing some of their biggest concerns.Nurses claim there is chronic short-staffing, which can impact patient care.The nurses are also disappointed with how contract negotiations are going with the hospital."Staffing is what is lacking, we are having issues retaining the nurses we have, and recruiting new nurses," said Kristine Kittelson who is a nurse. "They are not putting the investments they have into us that have been here for a while, and they are firing our educators and ancillary staff."The hospital's nurses voted to unionize in September and have been in contract negotiations for the first year."The main issue is making sure we are able to care for our patients adequately," said Monica Gonzalez, who's also a nurse. Ascension Seton nurses say hospitals unsafely staffed, hospital call...

Sheldon Jacobson: Until TikTok’s fate is decided, take responsibility for protecting your data online

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

Few, if any of us, live in a place like Mayberry, the fictitious town in North Carolina that provides the bucolic setting for the 1960s television program “The Andy Griffith Show.” Before we leave our homes, we secure our doors and windows. When leaving our vehicles, we lock their doors. We install complex security systems to protect our property against intruders.Yet when we enter the cyberworld, we act like it is a version of Mayberry. We tend to act nonchalantly with our personal information. We rely on companies and their websites to protect our data, no matter how sensitive it may be. We use our smartphones in a manner that often exposes our personal information to cybercriminals and bad actors.Few companies intentionally misuse or expose their clients’ personal data. In spite of all the safeguards deployed, security breaches occur with regularity. An enormous cybersecurity industry has surfaced, with revenue on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars ann...

Khury Petersen-Smith: Golf tournament spotlights Saudi human rights abuses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:45 GMT

Saudi Arabia — in the news for cutting oil production and pushing up the price of gas — is also making headlines for perhaps a more unusual reason: golf.After a rollout last year hobbled by controversy, LIV — the Saudi-based golf league — is making a stronger debut this year. With 14 tournaments scheduled and half of those in the United States, the new league is poised to compete with the PGA.LIV is only the kingdom’s latest foray into professional sports.The Saudi national soccer team upset Argentina at the World Cup last year. The third Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, a Formula One race, was held in Jeddah. And more recently, the country’s Al-Nassr soccer team signed international superstar Christiano Ronaldo for a contract worth $500 million.Boosters might welcome Saudi participation — and oil money — in global sporting events. But critics call it “sportswashing” — an effort to use splashy sporting events to distract from...