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Massachusetts revenues plunge as spending soars 

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Beacon Hill’s growing financial headache got worse when the Healey administration reported that tax collections tumbled in November, putting the state’s revenue picture about $627 million below the projection for this point in the year.The Department of Revenue announced it collected $2.253 billion in taxes last month, which was $131 million or 5.5% less than in November 2022. It was also $274 million or 10.9% short of the benchmark figure the administration set for the month.Through the first five months of fiscal year 2024, Massachusetts has hauled in about $14.097 billion in taxes. That’s a slight increase of $146 million, or 1%, over the first five months of fiscal year 2023, but $627 million or 4.3% less than the estimates the Healey administration and Legislature used to craft this year’s record $56 billion budget.Tax collections have failed to hit benchmarks for five straight months, getting this state budget year off to a rocky beginning, and forcing ...

Nixing MCAS requirement, psychedelic decriminalization advance toward 2024 ballot

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Advocates looking to advance their ballot questions to the 2024 state elections cleared another hurdle Wednesday when they submitted thousands of signatures to the secretary of state’s office.Campaigns focused on ending the use of the MCAS as a high school graduation requirement, auditing the Legislature, decriminalizing psychedelics for mental health treatments, opening a pathway for rideshare drivers to unionize, and classifying rideshare drivers as independent contractors all said they had enough signatures to keep moving forward.Members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association rallied outside the State House before heading over to the Secretary of State’s office to finish off filing the more than 135,000 signatures they gathered.The question would end the use of the test as a graduation requirement, not nix the test altogether. The union announced they had cleared the 75,000 signature requirement in early November, among the first initiatives to do so.“We have very high s...

City Council opposes plan to move O’Bryant exam school to West Roxbury following community opposition

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

The City Council passed a resolution Wednesday opposing the controversial plan to move the O’Bryant School of Math and Science from Roxbury to West Roxbury proposed by the mayor and BPS superintendent this summer.“It is the responsibility of the Boston City Council to prioritize the needs of students, parents/guardians, and educators in school building decisions that directly impact residents and their neighborhood,” the resolution states. “Moreover, decisions should not be rendered without an equitable community engagement process.”The resolution, offered by Councilors Julia Mejia, Tania Fernandes Anderson and Erin Murphy, follows a impassioned five-hour hearing on the subject Tuesday night. It states that the council “stands with the O’Bryant community in opposing the current proposed plan” and calls on BPS to release a 10-year district-wide facility plan.The resolution passed with 10 votes in favor and Councilors Ricardo Arroyo and Sharon...

Patriots might need help from practice squad based on injury report

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Four players did not travel to Pittsburgh for the team’s game Thursday night against the Steelers: rookie wide receivers Demario Douglas (concussion) and Kayshon Boutte (shoulder), running back Rhamondre Stevenson (ankle) and cornerback Shaun Wade (illness).Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Devin McCourty finds fault in Patriots organization for Mac Jones’ struggles New England Patriots | Patriots free-agent addition will be shut down for 2023 season New England Patriots | Callahan: The Steelers are who the Patriots should have been New England Patriots | Patriots get mixed injury news at Tuesday practice before Steelers game New England Patriots | Bill Belichick has made it ‘pretty clear’ Bailey Zappe is Patriots’ starting QB Defensive tackle Christian Barmore (shoulder), offensive tackle Trent Brown (ankle/hand) and wide receivers DeVante Parker (knee) and JuJu Smith-...

Review: A filmmaker confronts her pedophile grandfather in the HBO documentary ‘Great Photo, Lovely Life’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Nina Metz | (TNS) Chicago TribuneEarly in the HBO documentary “Great Photo, Lovely Life,” filmmaker and photojournalist Amanda Mustard says she always knew her grandfather was “creepy” and that “some things happened.” But she didn’t know the details of his pedophilia. “And now that I’m looking closer and finding concrete rape charges that he managed to kind of weasel out of, it’s just scratching the surface. I just need to keep looking. Maybe I can hold him accountable.”Her extraordinary film is subtitled “Facing a Family’s Secrets,” and that’s what she’s after. Her grandfather is William Flickinger, a retired chiropractor she interviews before his death — as well as others including her mother, who was both victim and enabler — to get at the truth.In his assisted living community, everyone comments on what a nice person Flickinger is. Then a woman stops by their table. “I hope you are being a good boy,” she jokes. But there’s an edge to their exchange. Maybe it’s not a joke. When s...

'No further threat,' Sheriff says after massive police response to shooting at UNLV, campus being evacuated

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- Las Vegas police are reporting a suspect in the UNLV campus shooting Wednesday is dead and police are evacuating one building at a time. Sheriff Kevin McMahill said there is no further threat to campus. Metropolitan police responded to reports of an active shooter at the UNLV campus at around 11:45 a.m. and said "There appears to be multiple victims at this time." Northbound 1-15 is closed from Blue Diamond to Charleston, state police said. Maryland Parkway is closed to traffic near UNLV and drivers are urged to stay away from the area. Director of University Police Services Southern Command Adam Garcia was joined by Sheriff Kevin McMahill to provide an update on the situation. Sheriff McMahill said there is no information on any motive from the shooter. He said there were victims taken to multiple area hospitals, but there is currently no information on the number.Police said they would be providing an update on victims shortly. Garcia said all NSHE campuses in...

Meet the candidates seeking to be national chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

OTTAWA — The Assembly of First Nations is choosing a new national chief as part of its three-day special assembly in Ottawa.There were six candidates competing to lead the Assembly of First Nations, a political advocacy organization representing more than 600 First Nations across Canada.The first round of voting did not produce a winner and the two lowest-ranking candidates, Reginald Bellerose and Craig Makinaw, were dropped from the second ballot Wednesday afternoon.Here are the four remaining candidates competing to be the assembly’s chief advocate. Sheila North: North, a former grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women, is running on a platform promising to prioritize respecting the inherent rights of First Nations. North has also said the assembly itself needs to improve and act in the best interest of the chiefs it represents.David Pratt: Pratt currently serves as the vice-chief for the Federation of Sovereign...

Suspended Florida prosecutor tells state Supreme Court that DeSantis exceeded his authority

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis exceeded his authority when he removed a Democratic prosecutor from her elected office after a teenager fatally shot a girl and a news reporter, her attorney told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.The state constitution only allows for the suspension of an elected official for egregious misconduct, and Monique Worrell was simply doing her job as she sees fit — not anything illegal or negligent — when DeSantis suspended her, said her lawyer, Laura Ferguson.“It is the voters, not the governor, to whom Ms. Worrell is accountable,” Ferguson said.But an attorney for DeSantis said Worrell’s history of failing to prosecute crimes committed by minors and in not seeking mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes put the public in danger in her central Florida district. Statistics show that Orlando and the surrounding area were grossly underperforming compared with other prosecutorial districts in the state, lawyer Jeffrey DeSousa said. If...

Movie Review: In ‘Poor Things,’ Emma Stone takes an unusual path to enlightenment

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

It is sickly hilarious to make a movie in which so much consensual sex is had, often so gleefully, that is not the least bit sexy. Though Bella Baxter’s insatiable libido might be her guiding light at first in “Poor Things,” sexual liberation (or “furious jumping,” as she calls it) is only part of this fantastical, anarchic journey to consciousness.Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and his star, Emma Stone, have a good and strange thing going whether she’s playing a striving scullery maid who works her way into the favor of Queen Anne, or a re-animated Victorian woman finding independence. Stone helps make his black humor more accessible, and he creates unorthodox opportunities for her to play and stretch. We, the audience, are the benefactors.“Poor Things” was not a whole cloth invention. It is an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, done by “The Favourite” screenwriter Tony McNamara whose edges and wit haven’t dulled and in fact flourishes outside the cruelty of the previous film. D...

Films about monsters, residential schools among those with Canadian links at Sundance

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

A horror film about a rampaging monster and a documentary about missing residential schoolchildren are among the projects with Canadian ties heading to the Sundance Film Festival.Organizers announced 82 feature-length films, including several involving Canadians, bound for the Park City, Utah festival set for Jan. 18 to 28.They include Toronto director Chris Nash’s horror film “In A Violent Nature,” about an undead monster that goes on a killing spree in the remote wilderness.In the competitive documentary category, California-raised Julian Brave NoiseCat directs “Sugarcane,” which investigates the history of an Indigenous residential school in British Columbia.“Kidnapping Inc.,” billed as a co-production from Canada, Haiti and France, follows two bumbling kidnappers who find themselves wrapped up in a political conspiracy.And the Winnipeg-shot “Winner,” directed and co-written by U.S. filmmaker Susanna Fogel, is based on the tru...