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Investigation underway after acidic chemical poured on playground in Longmeadow

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

Authorities in Longmeadow asked for the public’s help Monday after they said an acidic chemical was poured on playground equipment at a local park, injuring two children over the weekend. The Longmeadow Fire Department said police and fire personnel first responded to Bliss Park Playground on Sunday morning after a report of a suspicious substance on the Playground. Crews also responded to a home, according to fire officials, after receiving a report of two children with “burn-like injuries” after they left the park. Officials said investigators found a pump room in the basement of a nearby pool building had been broken into and pool chemicals were stolen. Investigators said a pool chemical determined to be muriatic acid that was stored in the pump room was later poured on slides at the Bliss Park Playground. “The pool chemicals had been stored properly in a secured area,” the Longmeadow Fire Department said. “A great deal of effort was employed to enter this space. We sus...

Ticker: Judge extends time for airlines to unwind deal; Sales tax holiday date to be decided

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

A federal judge who ordered American Airlines and JetBlue Airways to spike their Northeast partnership is giving the airlines more time to unwind the deal.U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston said in an order Monday that the injunction he ordered last month will take effect 21 days after he issues a final judgment imposing terms on the airlines. It’s not clear when that will be.The airlines had faced a deadline next weekend, just 30 days after the judge’s May 19 decision in favor of the U.S. Justice Department, which sued to break up the deal.American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said last month that his Texas-based airline will appeal the May ruling. New York-based JetBlue has not indicated whether it will appeal.Date of sales tax holiday to be decidedThe Legislature faces a Thursday deadline to select an August weekend as this year’s sales tax holiday, when the typical 6.25% levy does not apply to most retail items less than $2,500.Retailers Association of Massa...

Saquon Barkley’s case for Giants importance is only missing clarity on deals he’s turned down

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

Saquon Barkley’s most passionate comment Sunday night in Jersey City was his last one.While lamenting teams’ suppression of the running back market by using the franchise tag, Barkley pivoted into a detailed explanation of why not every running back’s situation is identical.Every team is, in his words, “different.”“There’s a [stat] that goes up about quarterbacks in the Super Bowl and how many rushing yards the top rusher [has], but every team is not — like Pat Mahomes is a two-time Super bowl MVP, two-time MVP. And not everybody has Pat Mahomes,” Barkley said at his AMPT Events kids’ football camp. “And this is no knock to Daniel Jones. So don’t even try to flip it like that.“And then you look at the Eagles,” Barkley added. “Jalen Hurts is a great quarterback. That team is amazing. But every team is not the Eagles. Every team don’t have that much talent.”That’s when Barkley d...

US halts online asylum appointments at Texas crossing after extortion warnings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

By VALERIE GONZALEZ and JULIE WATSON (Associated Press)LAREDO, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration has stopped taking mobile app appointments to admit asylum-seekers at a Texas border crossing that connects to a notoriously dangerous Mexican city after advocates warned U.S. authorities that migrants were being targeted there for extortion.U.S. Customs and Border Protection gave no explanation for its decision to stop scheduling new appointments via the CBP One app for the crossing in Laredo, Texas.Several asylum-seekers told The Associated Press that Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, had threatened to hold them and make them miss their scheduled asylum appointments unless they paid them. Humanitarian groups in Laredo say they had recently warned CBP of the problems and that certain groups were controlling access to the international crossing on the Mexican side.Migrant advocates say the situation in Nuevo Laredo, which is plagued by car...

Patriots release top free-agent signing after 3 months

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

The Patriots waived running back James Robinson on Monday, less than three months after making him one of their highest-profile free-agent additions.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Mac Jones reacts to DeAndre Hopkins’ reported Patriots visit: ‘Obviously we’d love to have him’ New England Patriots | Bill Belichick expresses uncertainty about DeAndre Hopkins’ Patriots visit New England Patriots | Mac Jones, Bill O’Brien and 5 things to follow at Patriots minicamp New England Patriots | Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson ready to be ‘the guy’ in 2023 after Damien Harris’ departure New England Patriots | Belichick: Patriots ‘moved on’ after losing 2 workout days for NFL rules violation The 24-year-old was expected to serve as the primary backup to Rhamondre Stevenson. His departure leaves Stevenson as the only proven rusher on the roster. Robinson signed a ...

What’s the point of TV cliffhangers in the streaming age?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

Take this with a grain of salt and a whole lot of pepper: TV cliffhangers don’t work in the streaming era.Maybe they do once in a while. I can’t think of any off the top of my head. My colleague Michael Phillips recently singled out the ending of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” as an exception to the rule, and movie audiences can be fairly certain another installment will turn up in theaters.When it comes to streaming originals, that expectation is less assured.I happen to like a narrative that unfolds, beginning to end, with some economy. Wrap it up, I say! I want off this narrative treadmill! But Hollywood isn’t in the business of telling a satisfying story over the course of a single episode anymore. Serialization remains ascendant and streaming shows are defined by their season-long (sometimes series-long) story arcs.If you’re lucky, those seasons end with some semblance of resolution.Often, they don’t.So what purpose does a cliffhanger serve if you don’t know when a show ...

Epstein fallout: JPMorgan settles victim lawsuit for $290M

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

JPMorgan Chase announced a tentative $290 million settlement Monday with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein who had accused the bank of being the financial conduit that allowed the financier to continue operating a sex trafficking operation.Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York. He was found dead in jail in August of that year, at age 66. A medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court in November sought to hold JPMorgan financially liable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of teenage girls and young women. A related lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. Virgin Islands.The proposed settlement comes roughly two weeks after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified in a deposition for the case, where he denied knowing about Epstein and his crimes until the financier was arrested in 2019, according to a transcript of the videota...

Biden got a root canal and it upended his schedule for the day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

By SEUNG MIN KIM (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden got a root canal Monday and it left something of a cavity in his daily schedule, forcing him to bow out of a public event with college athletes and postpone his meeting with NATO’s general secretary by a day. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre minimized the significance of the procedure at the Monday afternoon news briefing. She called it “routine” and said Biden is feeling “just fine.” She declined to say what caused Biden’s dental pain and led to the root canal.“I am certainly not a dentist by any means,” Jean Pierre said. “As far as the health of the president’s teeth, I cannot speak to that.”More than 15 million root canals are completed each year, according to the American Association of Endodontists.Biden’s personal physician, Kevin O’Connor, said in a memo released by the White House that Biden reported the pa...

Concerns about traffic, safety raised in Naperville’s second stadium meeting with Chicago Bears, councilman says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

Questions about traffic and public safety were raised in Naperville’s second conversation with the Chicago Bears about building an NFL stadium in the city instead of Arlington Heights, Naperville City Councilman Benny White said.White was part of an online meeting organized by Mayor Scott Wehrli with Bears representatives last week. He would not disclose who else was part of the session, how things were left or if a third meeting was planned.The concept of Naperville as a possible alternative stadium location was broached by Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli when he wrote a letter to the team and then held a June 2 in-person meeting with Bears President/CEO Kevin Warren. Wehrli has stressed that conversation was very preliminary.White, a council liaison to the Naperville Development Partnership and senior council member, said his goal in the second meeting was to ask the questions residents have raised after news of the first meeting became public.“My main concern was the im...

A third of Canadians support changing anthem to ‘our home on native land’: poll

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:26 GMT

A new poll suggests only a third of Canadians support a proposal from Mississauga to ask the federal government to change the lyrics of the national anthem.The proposed resolution put forward by Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie would – if passed by council – ask Ottawa to alter the line that reads “O Canada! Our home and native land” to “O Canada! Our home on native land.”Market research firm Leger surveyed 1,525 people online between June 7 and June 11, asking whether they support the proposal.The results indicate 33 per cent of those polled support changing the anthem, with 48 per cent opposed and 19 per cent saying they don’t know.Support for the change was higher among younger Canadians, with 42 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 34 supporting the proposed move.RELATED: ‘Our home on Native land’: Crombie motion pushes for permanent change to national anthemMeanwhile, 53 per cent of respondents aged 35 or older said they oppose the change...