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Healey, And Her Mom, Receive Irish ‘Welcome Home’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday was welcomed as a “hero and a trailblazer” to Ireland, on her first foreign trip in her new role. An emotional Healey addressed the Irish Senate, almost exactly 60 years to the day since President John. F Kennedy did the same. The Chair of the Irish Senate, Jerry Buttimer, welcomed the governor and hailed Healey as “a person of firsts,” noting her position in history as the first woman elected governor of Massachusetts, the first member of the LGBTQI+ community elected as governor, and the first governor of Massachusetts to address the Irish Senate. Buttimer, himself a member of the LGBTQI+ community, noted that legislation decriminalizing homosexuality was passed in Ireland 30 years ago this week. “I’m personally delighted that Governor Healey is here today to mark that historic occasion in our civil rights journey,” Buttimer said. “Your presence reminds us all and should remind every boy and...

Jeffrey Epstein suicide result of misconduct, but not foul play, Justice Department watchdog says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeffrey Epstein was left alone in his jail cell with a surplus of bed linens the night he killed himself. Nearly all the surveillance cameras on his unit didn’t record. One worker was on duty for 24 hours straight. And, despite his high profile and a suicide attempt two weeks earlier, he wasn’t checked on regularly as required.The Justice Department’s watchdog said Tuesday that a “combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures” by the federal Bureau of Prisons and workers at the New York City jail enabled the wealthy financier to take his own life in August 2019, finding no evidence of foul play.Inspector General Michael Horowitz blamed numerous factors for Epstein’s death, including the jail’s failure to assign him a cellmate and overworked guards who lied on logs after failing to make regular checks. Had the guards done so, Horowitz said, they would’ve found Epstein had excess linens, which he used in his suicide.The failures are deep...

Ryan Seacrest will host ‘Wheel of Fortune’ after Pat Sajak retires next year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The category? “Proper Name.” The answer? Ryan Seacrest, who will become the new “Wheel of Fortune” host after Pat Sajak’s retirement next year.Seacrest and Sony Pictures Television announced Tuesday that Seacrest has signed a multiyear deal to host the long-running game show starting with Season 42. Sajak recently announced the upcoming 41st season would be his last on the show.It’s the latest hosting gig for Seacrest, the popular “American Idol” host who also now rings in the new year for many on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”“I’m truly humbled to be stepping into the footsteps of the legendary Pat Sajak,” Seacrest said in a statement. “I can say, along with the rest of America, that it’s been a privilege and pure joy to watch Pat and Vanna on our television screens for an unprecedented 40 years, making us smile every night and feel right at h...

Should you financially support adult kids?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

Some parents will tell you firsthand there’s no expiration date on this raising kids gig. For some, that means they extend financial help to their kids into adulthood. When I was 21 and got into a master’s program at a college of my dreams, my mom swooped in to help me pay for my degree. Many parents have been kind enough to do this and more.When I say “many,” I’m backed up by a 2023 survey from Savings.com that found 45% of parents with a child 18 or older spend an average of over $1,400 per month supporting their kids financially, excluding adult kids with disabilities.But is this financial support always a good idea? A certified financial planner and a therapist who both have experience in this department share their thoughts.Why parents support adult kidsThere are many reasons a parent may choose to support their adult kids. Disabilities and wanting to help them achieve major life milestones are a couple. Shelmeshia Hill-Brown, the CEO of Wholistic Resolutions LLC in Chesapeake,...

Massachusetts, Ireland share ‘powerful and necessary’ relationship, Healey says in Dublin

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

Massachusetts’ relationship with Ireland is a “powerful and necessary” resource for advancing the wellbeing of and opportunity for residents in the state, Gov. Maura Healey told the Irish Senate in Dublin on Tuesday.Healey, on her first international trade trip since taking office as the first openly lesbian governor in the United States, spoke heavily of her Irish roots during a speech before local lawmakers. Her great-grandmother left Ballinasloe, Ireland in 1912 for New York before eventually traveling north to Boston, she said.Beyond her personal connection to the country, Healey said the economic partnership between Massachusetts and Ireland are reflected in the hundreds of companies employing thousands of people on both sides of the Atlantic ocean and the billion of dollars and euros in trade and investments that are exchanged.Healey also pitched Massachusetts — and Ireland — as having a “competitive advantage” because of its work on reproductive and LG...

3 Camp Pendleton Marines among 4 dead in fiery crash on 5 Freeway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

Three of the four victims killed in a fiery single-car crash early Saturday morning on the 5 Freeway in Downey have been identified as United States Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton. According to a release from the California Highway Patrol, the single-vehicle crash involving a 2018 Dodge Charger happened around 2:30 a.m. on the southbound span of the 5 Freeway south of Lakewood Boulevard.  CHP confirmed that the vehicle was on fire when they arrived and that all four occupants of the vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene.  “Preliminary information indicates that the driver lost control of the vehicle at a high rate of speed causing the vehicle to collide with a guardrail and the bridge abutment of the Lemoran Avenue pedestrian overcrossing,” CHP said in a statement. “The force of the impact caused the vehicle to split in two, subsequently ejecting the two rear passengers onto the right shoulder.” The rear end of the car was found approximately 100 fe...

Cuban entrepreneurs get business training from the US, and hope that Biden lifts sanctions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — Musicians Ana María Torres and María Carla Puga started making bracelets and necklaces at home in Cuba during the pandemic, and they now have a flourishing business. On an island that for decades prohibited private enterprise, they have had an unlikely adviser: the U.S. Embassy. Torres and Puga are part of a small group of entrepreneurs that benefited from a business training program the embassy recently offered in Cuba, where many young entrepreneurs are less wary of the American government than those in previous generations.“We see it as a great opportunity,” says Torres, 25, who co-founded a store and workshop named Ama, which has a cafeteria and employs 12 people.Ama is one of almost 8,000 small- and medium-sized companies that were legally authorized to operate in Cuba over the past year and a half.The embassy training featured weekly online meetings covering everything from marketing tools and brand management to basic finances and the creation of web pages...

Newly all-male South Carolina Supreme Court scrutinizes abortion ban months after tossing one out

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A potential swing vote on the newly all-male South Carolina Supreme Court grilled lawyers over whether patients have enough time to get an abortion after learning of their pregnancy as the justices weighed whether a new ban is similarly unconstitutional to one that got shot down earlier this year.The right to an abortion in South Carolina was back before the state’s highest court Tuesday as Republicans try to restore the ban that was overturned in January.A 3-2 majority in January tossed a similar law that banned abortion once cardiac activity is detected, or at about six weeks and before most people know they are pregnant. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster recently signed into law a similar ban that starts once cardiac activity is detected. That restriction has been placed on hold as the case involving the new ban moves through the courts. Meanwhile, abortion remains legal through 22 weeks in this conservative state.But lawyers for the state and abortion pr...

American who filmed tourist carving name in Colosseum ‘dumbfounded’ as hunt for culprit intensifies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

ROME (AP) — Italy’s culture and tourism ministers have vowed to find and punish a tourist who was filmed carving his name and that of his apparent girlfriend in the wall of the Colosseum in Rome, a crime that resulted in hefty fines in the past.The message reading “Ivan+Haley 23” appeared on the Colosseum at a time when Romans already were complaining about hordes of tourists flooding the Eternal City in record numbers this season. A fellow tourist, Ryan Lutz, of Orange, California., filmed the incident and posted the video on YouTube and Reddit. The video received over 1,500 social media views and was picked up by Italian media. Lutz told The Associated Press on Tuesday he was “dumbfounded” that someone would deface such an important monument. Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano called the writing carved into the almost 2,000-year-old Flavian Ampitheater “serious, undignified and a sign of great incivility.” He said he hoped the culprits would be found “and punished according to o...

Sierra Leone’s president wins second term without need for runoff, election commission announces

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:25 GMT

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio has won a second term in office, receiving 56.17% of ballots cast and narrowly clearing the threshold for avoiding a runoff in the West African nation, electoral officials said Tuesday.Main opposition candidate Samura Kamara immediately disputed the results showing he had received 41.16% of the vote in Saturday’s election.“It is a sad day for our beloved country,” Kamara tweeted after the announcement. “It is a frontal attack on our fledgling democracy. These results are NOT credible and I categorically reject the outcome so announced by the electoral commission.”To win in the first round of voting and avoid a runoff, the top contender had to secure 55% of the vote. Supporters of both parties had claimed to have won in recent days, with Kamara saying earlier that he was on an “irreversible path to an overwhelming victory.” He also alleged that security forces had opened fire Sunday on a celebration at his ...