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Eight members of BPS task force resign over inclusive education changes

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

Eight member of the English Learners Task Force have resigned in protest of parts of the new Inclusive Education Plan moving the majority of English Language Learners to General Education classrooms.“This shift represents a clear move away from expanding access to instruction in the students’ native languages and highlights a fundamental divide between EL Task Force leaders and BPS leaders that we no longer feel can be bridged,” the members wrote in a letter to the School Committee sent Tuesday. “For this reason, we write to you today to resign from the EL Task Force of the Boston School Committee.”Under the Inclusive Education Plan — presented at the Oct. 18 School Committee meeting — English Learners (ELs) and ELs with disabilities would be integrated in General Education classrooms with English as a Second Language (ESL) support rather than being taught in separate classes in their native languages.The EL Task Force was appointed in 2009 to sup...

Protesters of Israel defense contractor’s Cambridge location arrested; 2 charged with assault of police officer

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

Nine people among the 200-strong who protested at the Cambridge location of an Israeli defense contractor were arrested — with two of them charged with assault and battery on a police officer.Cambridge Police on Monday arrested Eliza Sathler, 26, of Revere; Pearl Delaney Moore, 29, of Boston; Calla M. Walsh, 19, of Cambridge; Sophie Ross, 22, of Housatonic; Vera Van De Seyp, 30, of Somerville; Michael Eden, 27, of Cambridge; Evan Aldred Fournier-Swire, 19, of Bristol, R.I.; Willow Ross Carretero Chavez, 21, of Somerville; and Molly Wexler-Romig, 33, of Boston.They were each arraigned Tuesday morning in Cambridge District Court. All had charges of disorderly conduct, but some were also charged with vandalizing property and resisting arrest. Moore and Sathler were also charged with assault and battery on a police officer, with Sathler also charged with possessing and throwing an incendiary device.“Starting at 10 am, Cambridge Police officers were monitoring a protest outside Elbit Sys...

Attorneys in case of accused Charlestown, North End serial rapist Matthew Nilo hash out evidence details

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

Accused serial rapist of Charlestown and the North End Matthew Nilo appeared in court on Halloween day for attorneys to attempt to settle some background issues.Nilo, 35, a New York City corporate attorney who lives in New Jersey, was arrested at the end of May and charged with a series of rapes in the Terminal Street area of Charlestown in 2007 and 2008. He was charged a month later with another series of rapes over an 18-month period between January 2007 and July 2008. He pleaded not guilty to each charge and has been out on a combined bail of $550,000.On Tuesday, prosecutor Lynn Feigenbaum and defense attorneys Rosemary Scapicchio and Joseph Cataldo met briefly in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston before Clerk Magistrate Edward Curley to argue over the prosecution’s proposals for a buccal swab from Nilo and to redact court documents provided for him.“The Commonwealth is only seeking that the names and identifying information — names, addresses — will not be provided in writing to ...

Bruins star Charlie McAvoy whacked with four-game suspension

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

The Bruins have started their season on a the longest point streak in their history at 8-0-1, but they’ll be hard-pressed to extend it without their best defenseman for the next four games.That’s the punishment Charlie McAvoy received for his check to the head of Oliver Ekman-Larson in the third period of Boston’s 3-2 overtime win over the Florida Panthers on Monday.On the play in question, the B’s were in the attacking zone when, well after the Panthers’ defenseman had gotten rid of the puck from in front of the Florida net, McAvoy delivered a check to the head of Ekman-Larson. McAvoy was assessed a match penalty on the play.In the NHL’s video announcing the suspension, it is pointed out that the head is the direct point of contact and that the head contact is avoidable.McAvoy’s history was also taken into account. He was been fined by the league and suspended a game in the 2019 playoffs when he caught Columbus’ Josh Anderson with an ...

As Trump tried to buy Buffalo Bills, bankers doubted he’d get NFL’s OK, emails show at fraud trial

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

By JENNIFER PELTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — When Donald Trump tried to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014, investment bankers doubted the NFL would allow it but encouraged him to stay in the running, according to internal emails aired Tuesday at the former president’s civil fraud trial.“Trump has little chance of being approved by the NFL,” given that he had owned casinos and had a role in the rival USFL’s 1980s antitrust suit against the NFL, then-Morgan Stanley executive K. Don Cornwell wrote to colleagues in April 2014. “That being said, his strong show of support doesn’t hurt the process.”“He probably does have the dough” and claimed he’d been courting the NFL, another Morgan Stanley banker, Jeffrey Holzschuh, wrote back, adding: “but never know the real facts with him.”Three months later, Trump offered $1 billion cash for the Bills, becoming one of three known finalists seeking to buy the team afte...

New Mexico attorney general accuses landowners of preventing public access to the Pecos River

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s top prosecutor is going after landowners who he says are illegally and unconstitutionally depriving the public of access to stretches of one of the state’s most well-known rivers.The case involving access to the Pecos River is the first brought after the state Supreme Court in 2022 settled a long-simmering dispute over whether boaters and anglers had a right to access streams and rivers that cross private property. Under the New Mexico Constitution, water within the state belongs to the public but the banks next to that water and the land beneath the water may be owned privately. The court found that public easement covers what would be reasonably necessary to use the water itself and that any use of the beds and banks must have minimal impact. Attorney General Raúl Torrez brought the case after people reported being threatened by landowners with physical violence for wading, fishing and boating on portions of the Pecos River that flow thr...

Closing arguments next in FTX founder Sam Bankman’s fraud trial after his testimony ends

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried underwent a final barrage of questions on Tuesday from a prosecutor aimed at showing that he’s not being honest about how much he knew about the disappearance of $8 billion from his customers’ accounts, setting the stage for final arguments in his fraud trial on Wednesday.The four days of testimony by the 31-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur will be summarized by his lawyer and prosecutors before a jury begins deciding his fate as early as Thursday.Bankman-Fried insisted in his testimony in Manhattan federal court that he didn’t defraud anyone before his cryptocurrency empire collapsed last November, leading to his arrest a month later and his extradition to New York to face fraud charges that could result in decades in prison if he is convicted.Initially freed on a $250 million personal recognizance bond, he was permitted to reside with his parents in Palo Alto, California, until August, when Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that he...

B.C.-based Helijet orders first electric vertical-takeoff aircraft

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

VICTORIA — A British Columbia helicopter airline says it’s placed Canada’s first order for an electric vertical-takeoff aircraft to add to its passenger and cargo fleet.Helijet International president Danny Sitnam says the ALIA aircraft built by Vermont-based BETA Technologies will allow quicker, quieter and more efficient landings and takeoffs from hospitals and other emergency zones.The ALIA is an eVTOL aircraft, standing for electric vertical takeoff and landing, and Sitnam says those capabilities offer tremendous potential for emergency response, air ambulance and organ transfer services in B.C.Sitnam says the zero-emission aircraft, which is currently undergoing regulatory tests, will carry five passengers and a pilot.It has wings, four drone-like horizontal rotors that allow it to take off like a helicopter, and a propeller at the back for thrust.   Helijet, which is based in Vancouver, says the ALIA will be available for private and commercial service in 2026.BETA...

Natalee Holloway’s confessed killer returns to Peru to serve out sentence in another murder

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A Dutchman who recently confessed to killing American high school student Natalee Holloway in 2005 in Aruba was returned to Peru on Tuesday to serve the remainder of his prison sentence for murdering a Peruvian woman.Joran van der Sloot arrived in Lima in the custody of law enforcement. The South American country’s government agreed in June to temporarily extradite him to the U.S. to face trial on extortion and wire fraud charges.Van der Sloot was long the chief suspect in Holloway’s disappearance in Aruba, though authorities in the Dutch Caribbean island never prosecuted him. Then in an interview with his attorney conducted in the U.S. after his extradition, he admitted to beating the young woman to death on a beach after she refused his advances. He said he dumped her body into the sea.Van der Sloot, 36, was charged in the U.S. for seeking a quarter of a million dollars to tell Holloway’s family the location of her remains. A plea deal in exchange for a 20-year s...

Why are so many ladybugs trying to get into your home right now?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:50 GMT

If you think there are a lot more ladybugs in Toronto than usual, you’re right — and also wrong. While they’re making their presence felt inside homes and garages right now, the sudden increase in ladybug sightings is not an indication of increased numbers.“It’s called the Halloween Beetle, but it’s also called the Asian multicoloured Ladybird Beetle, and its scientific name is Harmonia Axyridis,” explains Antonia Guidotti, entomology technician at the Royal Ontario Museum.They’re looking to get inside at this time of year for the same reason everyone else is — it’s cold.“These ladybird beetles really need a warmer place [to overwinter]. So they’re coming into our homes or garages and they’re looking for the south side of the building because that’s a little bit warmer and they congregate when they come indoors to hibernate,” she explains.That’s partially because they are not native to Ca...