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South Florida organization helps rebuild veteran’s Miami home

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

A South Florida veteran who has sacrificed for her country has gotten some help from local organizations and businesses.Nereida Núñez has a story to tell. “To make a long story short, it’s all about choices and I choose to be happy,” said the army veteran with a smile on her face. Although she is all smiles now, it hasn’t always been easy for Núñez. In 2019, she lived in Atlanta when her parents passed away in her childhood Miami home after it burned to the ground.“This home was built from the ground up,” said Núñez. “My father did it for my mother.” After she got control of the house, she began to make plans on reconstructing the damage.“‘You’re the one who likes construction, you go down and do it,'” she said as she recalled what her siblings told her.When she got around to making preparations, she was faced with some obstacles. “I didn’t have the money to get it installed,” said Núñez. R...

Hingham police searching for two men after attempted ATM theft

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

A search was ongoing in Hingham late Friday morning for two men who allegedly tried to steal an ATM from a local bank, police said. Hingham police in a statement said officers responded to the Bank of America location at 95 Sgt. William B. Terry Drive around 3:45 a.m. on Friday after receiving a report of two men trying to break into a drive-up ATM. An alarm company, according to police, said the would-be thieves had placed a chain around the machine and attached it to their SUV. When officers arrived, police said the men jumped into their SUV and drove away. Police said the men headed east down Route 3A, leading officers on a “short pursuit” before abandoning the vehicle behind a home on Bradley Park Drive. The men fled on foot after ditching the car, according to police. While the ATM in this incident was damaged, police said no cash was taken. The same ATM involved in this incident has been broken into on three occasions over the past three years, accordi...

Matthew Judon explains early limitations in Patriots training camp

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

FOXBORO — Patriots outside linebacker Matthew Judon stayed on the practice field for the entire third day of training camp.That’s not exactly noteworthy stuff for most players on the Patriots roster, but Judon was limited in practice Wednesday and Thursday and spent most of Day 2 on a side field working on conditioning despite not starting camp on the PUP or NFI lists. Red flags were raised and it was wondered aloud whether he was “holding in,” a popular practice among players who are unhappy with their contracts but don’t want to face the fines of not reporting to training camp. Multiple sources told the Herald that Judon was not holding in, and that was evidenced by the fact that the edge defender did participate in team drills Friday.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Patriots skill player ‘day to day’ in absence from training camp New England Patriots | Matthew Judon deserves a pay raise from Patriots; what would it look like? New England Patr...

Knicks contracts see increased value as NBA salaries skyrocket

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

The Knicks, in terms of salary construction and inside the context of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, are in a good position. Their house is in order, even if they remain far off title contention.What does that mean, exactly? It’s multi-layered, but best explained by this encouraging statistic: The Knicks, who finished among the top 8 after winning their first playoff series in a decade, don’t have a single player in the top 50 of the NBA’s highest-paid for next season.They have No. 52 (Jalen Brunson, $26.3 million), No. 53 (Julius Randle, $25.7 million) and No. 61 (RJ Barrett, $23.9 million), but none of their current contracts can be considered bad. At worst, some are questionable. Even Evan Fournier’s expiring contract has value.This may change soon with extensions due for Josh Hart and Immanuel Quickley. We’ll see. The word on Hart’s extension, which will be delivered in August, is in the range of four years, $75 million. Quickley, we...

Fellow Democrats urge Biden to withhold $320 million in military aid to Egypt over rights abuses

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nine senior Senate Democrats and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders urged the Biden administration Friday to withhold part of the United States’ annual military aid to Egypt for a third consecutive year, calling it important to keep up the pressure on President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on human rights abuses.More than 20 leading U.S. and international rights groups and think tanks separately made the same appeal, arguing that the U.S. practice of holding back some aid was leading el-Sissi to make “limited, albeit insufficient ” rights improvements in Egypt. About a quarter of a $1.3 billion appropriation is at issue. The request may be especially tough this year for President Joe Biden, who is focusing on keeping countries around the world, including Egypt, aligned behind Ukraine as it battles Russia’s globally destabilizing invasion. Neither the State Department nor the Egyptian Embassy in Washington immediately responded to requests for comment Friday.The l...

Mexican government statistics agency says it had to pay gangs to enter some towns to do census

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s government statistics agency has acknowledged it had to pay gangs to enter some towns to do census work last year. National Statistics Institute Assistant Director Susana Pérez Cadena told a congressional committee Thursday that workers also were forced to hire criminals in order to carry out some census interviews. One census taker was kidnapped while trying to do that work, Pérez Cadena said. She said the problem was worse in rural Mexico, and that the institute had to employ various methods to be able to operate in those regions.“There are a lot of different strategies, including in some cases, paying in order to enter,” she said. “Another very important one is hire people from the area who know the local inhabitants very well in the area being surveyed, and who are very well known to the locals as people are may be involved in crime.”In north-central Mexico, where drug turf wars and migration are problems, census workers found abandoned farming commun...

Plaintiff in abuse lawsuit supports call to halt federal funding for Calgary Stampede

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

CALGARY — One of the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the Calgary Stampede says he agrees with a member of Parliament who wants the federal government to temporarily withdraw funding for the organization.A partial settlement was reached this week in the lawsuit that alleges the Stampede allowed a performance school staffer to sexually abuse boys. The settlement involves an admission of negligence and breach of duty, but it must still be approved by a judge. The Stampede would pay damages that are to be worked out later this summer.Phillip Heerema is serving a 10-year sentence for luring boys into sexual relationships when he worked for the Stampede’s Young Canadians School of Performing Arts. Heerema admitted to using his position with the group, which performs each year in the Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show, to lure and groom six boys into sexual relationships. The school is operated by the Calgary Stampede Foundation.The lawsuit’s three dozen plaintiffs a...

Teen says she ‘just prayed’ while saving girl in Michigan school shooting

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A teenager recalled Friday how she helped save a girl who was severely wounded during a Michigan school shooting in 2021, telling a judge that she moved her to an empty classroom, applied pressure to stop the bleeding and prayed with her.“I asked her if she knew who God was. She said, ‘Not really,’” Heidi Allen, 17, recalled. “I think I’m supposed to be here right now,” she said, describing how she felt at the time. “Because there’s no other reason that I’m OK, that I’m in this hallway, completely untouched.”Heidi testified at a hearing to determine whether Ethan Crumbley, 17, will get a life prison sentence, or a shorter term with an opportunity for parole, for killing four students and wounding seven other people at Oxford High School.She said she recognized him as soon as he exited a bathroom and brandished a gun.“It fired,” Heidi recalled. “Everything kind of slowed down for me. It was all slow motion. I had covered my he...

Boots and dog tags Alan Alda wore on ‘M-A-S-H’ sell at auction for $125,000 that will go to charity

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — The combat boots and dog tags Alan Alda wore while playing the wisecracking surgeon Hawkeye on the beloved television series “M-A-S-H” sold at auction Friday for $125,000.Alda held onto the boots and dog tags for more than 40 years after the show ended but decided to sell them through Heritage Auctions in Dallas to raise money for his center dedicated to helping scientists and doctors communicate better.The buyer’s name wasn’t released.Alda, 87, said he wore the boots and dog tags for the 11-season run of the show about a Korean War medical unit. His character, Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, was a talented surgeon who helped ease the stress of working in a war zone with quips and practical jokes. The show’s final episode, which aired in 1983 and was written and directed by Alda, was the most watched TV show in U.S. history.The boots and dog tags, given to him by the costume department, “made an impression on me every day that we shot the show,” s...

Sen. McConnell says he plans to serve his full term as leader despite questions about his health

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:13:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly said he is “fine” since he froze up midsentence during a press conference on Wednesday. And now his office is trying to tamp down speculation that he might not fill out his term as leader because of his health.In a statement, his office said McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues and “plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do.”The statement, first reported by Politico, comes after McConnell, 81, has suffered health problems in recent months. At his weekly press conference, he froze and stared vacantly for about 20 seconds before his GOP colleagues standing behind him grabbed his elbows and asked if he wanted to go back to his office. He later returned to the news conference and answered questions as if nothing had happened.When asked about the episode, he said he was “fine,” a statement he repeated in a hallway to reporters later that day. Neither McCo...