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Inspector General: MBTA Could Not Prove 2017 Contract Was Awarded Fairly

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

Knocking the agency for slipshod record-keeping and potentially running afoul of its own procurement rules, the state’s inspector general said the MBTA could not prove its award of a private police dispatch contract was “free from favoritism.”Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro published a new report Wednesday raising concerns about the way the T handed out a five-year, $4.8 million contract to IXP Corporation in 2017, writing that the public transit agency “could not demonstrate that its solicitation and advertising process was fair and competitive” and that one email exchange in fact should have disqualified the bid altogether.Shapiro’s latest findings build on a report his office released in December 2022 examining the IXP contract, this time zeroing in on the fairness and competitiveness of the procurement process that led to the deal.“Based upon our investigation, significant concerns were raised regarding whether or not the sel...

Inside the Pentagon’s slow effort to clean up decades of PFAS contamination

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

By Hannah Norman and Patricia Kime, KFF Health NewsOscoda, Michigan, has the distinction as the first community where “forever chemicals” were found seeping from a military installation into the surrounding community. Beginning in 2010, state officials and later residents who lived near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base were horrified to learn that the chemicals, collectively called PFAS, had leached into their rivers, lakes, and drinking water.Thirteen years later, the community is still waiting on whatever it will take to clean its water. As a result of dogged activism and pressure from government officials, the Air Force has finally taken initial steps simply to contain the chemicals.Wurtsmith is just one of hundreds of contaminated U.S. military sites. Under congressional pressure, the Defense Department has acknowledged it has a big mess to clean up. It has spent years trying to grasp the scale of the contamination and assess the costs U.S. taxpayers will shoulder to clean it...

Federal judge accepts redrawn Georgia congressional and legislative districts that will favor GOP

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

By JEFF AMY (Associated Press)ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday accepted new Georgia congressional and legislative voting districts that protect Republican partisan advantages, saying the creation of new majority-Black voting districts fixed illegal minority vote dilution that led him to order maps be redrawn.U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, in three separate but similarly worded orders, rejected claims that the new maps didn’t do enough to help Black voters. Jones said he couldn’t interfere with legislative choices, even if Republicans moved to protect their power. The maps were redrawn in a recent special legislative session after Jones in October ruled that a prior set of maps illegally harmed Black voters.The approval of the maps sets the stage for them to be used in 2024’s upcoming elections. They’re likely to keep the same 9-5 Republican majority among Georgia’s 14 congressional seats, while also retaining GOP majorities in the sta...

Companies grew more confident about initial public offerings in 2023, raising recovery hopes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The signs of life shown by the IPO market, especially in the second half of the year, are giving analysts hope that more companies will be enticed to go public in 2024. Overall, 108 initial public offerings raised proceeds of about $19.4 billion in 2023, according to Renaissance Capital. That’s up from a dismal 71 IPOs for proceeds of $7.7 billion in 2022, when high inflation and rising interest rates discouraged companies from hitting the market. This year’s big IPOs included healthcare products company Kenvue in May, U.K. chip designer Arm Holdings in September and footwear company Birkenstock in October. They accounted for over half of the total IPO proceeds, according to Renaissance Capital. Instacart also had a splashy IPO in late summer.A post-pandemic surge for IPOs was stifled by the highest inflation in four decades in 2022, raising concerns about the economy buckling under the pressure. The Federal Reserve then embarked on a historic round of rate hikes to ...

Pierce Brosnan is in hot water, accused of trespassing in a Yellowstone thermal area

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Pierce Brosnan, whose fictitious movie character James Bond has been in hot water plenty of times, is now facing heat in real life, charged with stepping out of bounds in a thermal area during a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park. Brosnan walked in an off-limits area at Mammoth Terraces, in the northern part of Yellowstone near the Wyoming-Montana line, on Nov. 1, according to two federal citations issued Tuesday.Brosnan, 70, is scheduled for a mandatory court appearance on Jan. 23 in the courtroom of the world’s oldest national park. The Associated Press sent a request for comment to his Instagram account Thursday.Yellowstone officials declined to comment. Brosnan was in the park on a personal visit and not for film work, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Wyoming said.Mammoth Terraces is a scenic spot of mineral-encrusted hot springs bubbling from a hillside. They’re just some of the park’s hundreds of thermal features, which range from s...

At least 4 injured in multi-vehicle crash in Brampton

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

At least four people have been taken to hospital after a multiple vehicle crash in Brampton.Peel police were called to Queen Street East and Goreway Drive on Thursday morning around 11 a.m. One male was transported to hospital with critical injuries while three others suffered non-life-threatening injuries and have been taken to hospital. It’s unknown whether anyone else was injured in the collision.Police say they don’t know if all the vehicles involved remained on the scene and no cause has been determined.The intersection is currently closed as police investigate.

'Didn’t deserve that': Daughter speaks out after video released of 3 wanted in Chatham security guard's killing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

CHICAGO — Surveillance video has been released by Chicago police of three suspects wanted in the slaying of a security guard outside of a Chatham store last week.On the afternoon of Dec. 20 at around 1 p.m., officers responded to DTLR, located in the 700 block of East 87th Street, on the report of a shooting.Edward "Fontaine" Creamer, 53, of Calumet City, who was working as a security guard for the store at the time, was involved in an altercation with two males and a female.CPD said one of the suspects shot Creamer three times. He later died at the University of Chicago Medical Center. WGN News spoke with his daughter, Ashley, Thursday who said Creamer was a beloved father of seven and grandfather of five."That’s somebody’s father, that’s somebody’s granddad, that’s somebody’s brother, that’s somebody’s child," she said. "Nobody deserves to die like that."Creamer and his daughter Ashley Previous: Security guard fatally shot in Chatham ID’d Surveillance footage below, released by ...

Mayor Johnson announces 2 more appointments to key city leadership positions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson has appointed two more to key city leadership positions.In a news release, the mayor announced Thursday the appointment of Lissette Castañeda to serve as the city's Department of Housing (DOH) commissioner and Jose Tirado to serve as the executive director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC).Thursday's announcement comes on the heels of Mayor Johnson's announcement last week of three city department commissioner appointments.Here is more on Thursday's two new appointments:Lissette Castañeda Castañeda comes to the role of DOH commissioner with two decades of experience in affordable housing development, housing services and organizational leadership. According to a news release from the Mayor's Office, Castañeda will be tasked with streamlining the affordable housing development process, in accordance with the mayor's recent executive order, and expanding homeownership to Chicagoans in "historically dis...

Hypochondriacs at risk for early death — and more

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

For Thursday, Dec. 28, WGN’s Dina Bair has new medical information, including: More Coverage: WGN's Medical Watch Study: Care riskier for patients of hospitals owned by private equityHospitals owned by private equity firms make health care more hazardous for patients. According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, more adverse events were reported at hospitals after private equity firms purchased them. Researchers compared the results to hospitals not owned by private equity. Firms have been buying into the US healthcare system.  Acquisitions include nursing homes, behavioral health systems, and private physician offices.  Further research shows higher death rates at nursing homes and more costs to taxpayers when private investment is involved. Hypochondriacs at risk for early deathPeople who are paranoid about being or becoming sick are at higher risk of dying of a severe illness. Those with anxiety disorder are diagnosed as ...

Cher files for conservatorship of her youngest child Elijah Blue Allman 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:20 GMT

(The Hill) — Famed singer and actress Cher has filed for a conservatorship of her son, Elijah Blue Allman, citing his alleged substance abuse and mental health struggles as grounds for assuming control of his estate. According to court documents obtained by media outlets including People, Page Six, and USAToday, the “Goddess of Pop” claims that Allman, her youngest child, is "substantially unable to manage his financial resources," adding that a conservator is "urgently needed ... to protect Elijah’s property from loss or injury.”Cher argues in the documents that she should act as sole conservator, claiming that it would not be in her son’s best interests for his estranged wife, Marieangela King, to take on the role. The filing, first reported by The Blast, states that King and Allman, who entered divorce proceedings in 2021, had a “tumultuous relationship” marked by a “cycle of drug addiction and mental health crises.”According to USA Today, the singer’s attorneys claim that if Kin...