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Second wave of Mass. firefighters head to Canada to fight wildfires

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

Local firefighters received a special send-off Wednesday in Carlisle as they head to Canada to fight wildfires.16 firefighters from the Department of Conservation and Recreation and MassWildlife are headed to Quebec where they will help crews battle more than 70 wildfires that have been burning since the beginning of June. “Currently in Quebec there’s still 77 fires that are active,” said Chief David Celino, Fire Warden Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. This is the second wave of Massachusetts firefighters sent across the border. The first returned June 30.“Once you have a little over a million acres burning, it’s really difficult to put those fires out,” he said. “We’ve noticed it here in New England with smoke impacts repeatedly over the last 3 to 4 weeks, and so we’re really happy to help out.”The team of firefighters will work on the fire line for two weeks, containing fires and protecting buildings nearb...

Bruins notebook: Kevin Shattenkirk happy to come back to Boston

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

Considering Kevin Shattenkirk’s name has been linked to the Bruins for well over the decade, you figured there had to be a union at some point.And at the age of 34, the former Boston University Terrier will finally don the Black and Gold after signing a one-year, $1 million deal on Saturday. After winning the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2020, he’s spent the last three years with also-ran Anaheim Ducks. He’s excited to join a team that he believes has a chance to contend regardless of whether Patrice Bergeron and/or David Krejci come back.“It seems like there’s been opportunities and discussions along the way even back to when I was drafted. I thought Boston was actually where I was going to end up,” said Shattenkirk, who was taken by Colorado with the 14th pick in the 2007 draft (the B’s reached for Zach Hamill at the eighth slot). “This year, Don Sweeney called us and laid out his thoughts on me and how I fit with the team and it just unfolded that w...

Green Line Extension will not shut down this month, as MassDOT postpones repairs on Somerville bridge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

In a reversal, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has announced that the Green Line Extension will actually not be shut down for six weeks in the middle of summer, delaying repairs on a deteriorating Somerville bridge until September.The change comes as the Sumner Tunnel closure went into effect on Wednesday, wreaking havoc on traffic around the region.The announcement also comes after a group of Somerville state representatives wrote to state officials about their concerns regarding the Green Line Extension shutdown.Last week, the MBTA said Green Line train service between Lechmere and Union Square stations would be suspended for 42 days from July 18 to Aug. 28. This planned service disruption was because of repair work by MassDOT on the Route 28 Squires Bridge, which crosses over tracks near Union Square station.But now, that repair work will be pushed until September.“The Healey-Driscoll Administration is postponing construction on the Squire Bridge until September 20...

Ticker: JetBlue dumping American Airlines deal; Christmas Tree Shops expects to liquidate 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

JetBlue says it won’t appeal a judge’s ruling against its partnership with American Airlines, effectively dropping the deal in an effort to salvage its purchase of Spirit Airlines.JetBlue Airways said Wednesday that it wind down the deal with American in New York and Boston in the coming months and “turn even more focus” to its proposed $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit.The U.S. Justice Department sued to block the Spirit sale, saying it would hurt competition by eliminating Spirit, the nation’s biggest discount airline. JetBlue hopes that dropping the deal with American might persuade the government to allow the Spirit purchase to go ahead.A federal judge decided in May that JetBlue and American must end their partnership because it violates U.S. antitrust law. American has said it will appeal the ruling.Christmas Tree Shops expects to liquidateChristmas Tree Shops is poised to liquidate all of its stores roughly two months after the struggling home-good...

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor guts Republican tax cut, increases school funding for 400 years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed off on a two-year spending plan Wednesday after gutting a Republican tax cut and using his broad veto powers to increase school funding for centuries. Evers angered Republicans with both moves, with some saying the Democratic governor was going back on deals he had made with them.He got creative with his use of the partial veto in this budget, which is the third passed by a Republican Legislature that he’s signed.Evers reduced the GOP income tax cut from $3.5 billion to $175 million, and did away entirely with lower rates for the two highest earning brackets. He also used his partial veto power to increase how much revenue K-12 public schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425.Evers took language that originally applied the $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and instead vetoed the “20” and the hyphen to make the end date 2425.Evers, a former state education secretary and teacher, had propose...

Federal government, Stellantis reach deal over battery plant in Windsor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

Stellantis and LG Energy Solution say their electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor is back on track after they reached a financing deal with the federal government.The two companies stopped construction earlier this year to negotiate for government funding to match what the United States would offer under its new Inflation Reduction Act.More to come

UN records the highest number of ‘grave violations’ against children in conflicts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Children experienced the highest number of “grave violations” in conflicts verified by the United Nations in 2022, with the conflicts between Israeli and Palestinians and in Congo and Somalia putting the most youngsters in peril, the U.N. children’s agency said Wednesday.UNICEF also expressed particular concern about their plight in Haiti, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ukraine, where Russia has been put on the U.N. blacklist.“Grave violations” include the recruitment and use of children by combatants, killings and injuries, sexual violence, abductions, and attacks on schools and hospitals.Omar Abdi, UNICEF’s deputy executive director, told the U.N. Security Council the more than 27,000 grave violations, up from 24,000 the previous year, are the highest number verified by the U.N. since its monitoring reports began in 2005. The number of conflict situations “of concern” was also the highest — at 26.Since the report, Abdi said, a serious conflict has erupted ...

CP NewsAlert: Feds, Stellantis reach deal over battery plant in Windsor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

OTTAWA — Stellantis and LG Energy Solution say their electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor is back on track after they reached a financing deal with the federal government.The two companies stopped construction earlier this year to negotiate for government funding to match what the United States would offer under its new Inflation Reduction Act.More coming.The Canadian Press

Province could expropriate Toronto-owned lands at Ontario Place if agreement isn’t reached: report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

The provincial government will have to expropriate City of Toronto-owned water or lands at Ontario Place if an agreement between the governments is not reached, according to a new report.Ontario quietly released a Draft Environmental Study Report online that identifies 6.4 acres of city property that would need to be transferred to the province in order for them to complete the redevelopment of Ontario Place.“If an agreement to transfer the City of Toronto-owned water or lands … to the Government of Ontario is not reached, expropriation will be required,” read the report.Toronto land that could be expropriated by the provincial government for the Ontario Place re-vamp. Credit: Province of Ontario.Toronto Mayor-elect Olivia Chow has voiced concerns over the project, which includes a new concert stage and a private waterfront park and spa, but it seems she would have little bargaining power to stop it.Premier Doug Ford has also already made it clear he wouldn’t...

Trudeau says Conservatives blocking consensus on foreign interference inquiry

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:44:42 GMT

SAINT-HYACINTHE, Que. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he hopes he’ll be able to announce a decision about a public inquiry on foreign interference in the coming weeks, but he is accusing the Conservatives of stalling the process. Trudeau told reporters that cross-party agreement is needed on the structure of the inquiry and who is best suited to lead it.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said his party will only co-operate on those details after Trudeau confirms an inquiry will go ahead.Trudeau says negotiations that began in June with the Bloc Québécois and the NDP about a possible inquiry are going well but the Conservatives are blocking the needed consensus.In March, Trudeau delegated former governor general David Johnston to investigate allegations that the Chinese government attempted to interfere in the last two federal elections and to decide whether a public inquiry should be called.Johnston, who recommended against an inquiry, resigned in early June amid al...