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Back on her flippers: Loggerhead ‘Tina’ returns to the ocean after recovery at Turtle Hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

Tina, an adventurous 200-pound adult loggerhead sea turtle, is swimming free once again following a months-long recovery from a tangled mess. The heartwarming release occurred at Higgs Beach in Key West, Friday.Tina’s story began when boaters Tina and Randy Summerlin spotted her in a bit of a pickle off Big Pine Key back in July tangled up in a trap line.Thanks to the boaters’ quick thinking, Tina got a one-way ticket to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon.At the Turtle Hospital, Tina, who’s believed to be around 40 years old, got the VIP treatment. The team took care of her neck wound from the trap line and gave her some antibiotics, vitamins, fluids and a buffet of seafood.On Friday, the Turtle Hospital, led by the hospital’s founder Richie Moretti and manager Bette Zirkelbach, rolled up to Higgs Beach. Everyone pitched in, including the Summerlins, to make sure Tina had a grand send-off.“All species of sea turtles in the United States are listed on the Endang...

NASA orbiter spies likely lunar crater from Russia’s Luna 25 crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

(CNN) — A new crater has appeared on the moon, and it was likely created when Russia’s uncrewed Luna 25 mission crashed into the lunar surface.Images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and released by the agency on Thursday reveal the fresh crater.The Luna 25 spacecraft, Russia’s first lunar lander in 47 years, launched on August 10 and was expected to land near the lunar south pole a couple of weeks later.But communication with the spacecraft was disrupted and Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, reported an “emergency situation” occurred while Luna 25 tried to enter a pre-landing lunar orbit on August 19.Officials at Roscosmos later said engine failure was the likely cause of the crash.The agency shared an estimate of the impact point on August 21, which allowed members of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team to send commands to the spacecraft the following day to take images of the site.The orbiter took images during a four-hour period on Aug...

Chicago Cubs prospect Alexander Canario earns his 1st major-league call-up after overcoming devastating injuries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

Nothing about felt Alexander Canario’s baseball future felt guaranteed in the moments after his devastating injury nearly 10 months ago.He thought his baseball career might be over when he required surgery to repair a fractured left ankle and separated left shoulder following a devastatingly freak moment from hitting first base while playing winter ball. Months of rehab included his mother, Juana González, helping him because of how limited Canario became after two surgeries.Canario’s extensive rehab process paid off Friday when the Cubs called him up before their doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds along with right-hander Shane Greene from Triple-A Iowa.“I never doubted that I was going to be able to achieve this,” Canario said through an interpreter before the Cubs’ 6-2 Game 1 win. “I definitely see the injury as part of the progress. Everything happens for a reason.”He returned in June but needed a few weeks to get his timing do...

Cable customers furious as Spectrum, Disney dispute knocks ESPN, ABC, U.S. Open off the air

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

Larry McShane | New York Daily NewsCollege football fans waiting for kickoff in the eagerly-awaited showdown between Utah and Florida got a kick in the head as a dispute between Spectrum Cable and The Walt Disney Co., owner of ESPN, blacked out the game for many fans.The Thursday night season opener was pulled minutes before the game’s first play, leaving angry boosters for both teams livid. The cable company serves 14.7 million subscribers, many of them infuriated by the decision.“Waited all day for the SEC football kickoff between Florida and Utah,” wrote one angry fan on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Only to have ESPN CUT OFF RIGHT BEFORE KICKOFF due to a dispute between Spectrum and Disney. This is awful, AWFUL. YOU MIGHT WANNA THINK ABOUT LETTING FOLKS SEE THE GAME.”Spectrum Cable pulled the Florida football game right at kickoff. A dispute between them and Disney who owns ESPN. We pay for ESPN so how dare they pull the programming during the game. I was already ticked off wit...

US Marine from Massachusetts accused of stolen valor: Feds say he applied for Purple Heart he hadn’t earned

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

A former U.S. Marine from western Massachusetts was arrested following an indictment in federal court alleging he had lied about his service experiences to receive disability benefits and even tried for a Purple Heart he hadn’t earned.Paul John Herbert, 52, of Shelburne Falls, was arrested Friday following an indictment handed down by a federal grand jury sitting in Springfield the day before. The indictment charges him with theft of government property and making false statements. He was released from custody following an initial appearance in court.“Individuals who steal veterans disability benefits and falsely represent themselves as decorated veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces degrade the service of the men and women who selflessly serve our country,” said Patrick Hegarty, the special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Defense, investigative service for the northeast, in a statement.The false statement charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, while the the...

School Committee gives Superintendent Skipper’s first year mixed reviews

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

Following her first year on the job, the Boston School Committee gave Superintendent Mary Skipper generally tepidly positive feedback on her first steps in the position.“The Committee recognizes that the timing of the Superintendent’s arrival, with hiring season and budget season having already been completed, limited her ability to make significant changes or new investments in year one,” the committee’s summative evaluation read. “With this in mind, the Committee expressed broad agreement that the Superintendent was proficient in her performance and is supportive of her work.”The evaluations, completed by each committee member and compiled into a group evaluation by members Stephen Alkins and Michael O’Neill, follow Skipper’s self-evaluation presented to the committee in late July.The evaluations rank the new superintendent on the categories Instructional Leadership, Management and Operations, Family and Community Engagement and Professional Cul...

EEE detected in mosquitoes in Massachusetts for the first time this year: ‘A late season emergence’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

EEE has been detected in mosquitoes in the Bay State for the first time this year, as the risk level for EEE was raised in communities ahead of Labor Day weekend.After zero EEE activity in Massachusetts over the last two years, the state Department of Public Health announced the season’s first Eastern equine encephalitis positive mosquito samples.The presence of EEE was confirmed on Friday by the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory in mosquito samples collected in Douglas and Southbridge in Worcester County. No human or animal cases of the rare but serious and potentially fatal disease have been detected so far this year.This EEE detection comes after the Department of Public Health earlier this week reported the first two human cases of West Nile virus in state residents this year. A man in his 40s was exposed to the virus in Middlesex County, which is an area already known to be at moderate risk for West Nile virus. The other case is a woman in her 70s, who was expo...

Brockton School Committee votes for audit, investigation of $14.4 million budget deficit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

An unexpected $14.4 million deficit in this past fiscal year’s budget, which the Brockton School Committee learned about at the time its superintendent announced he’d be taking an extended medical leave, has prompted an independent, third-party audit and investigation.The committee authorized the audit and investigation of the budget during a rare Friday emergency meeting at Brockton High School.Fiscal year ’23 ended June 30, but Mayor Robert Sullivan said the deficit wasn’t learned about until this week, prompting an emergency executive session meeting that lasted four hours Thursday night.“I support this wholeheartedly,” Sullivan said of the audit and investigation during Friday’s meeting. “I want to do a deep dive. I want to work with a firm that specializes in this type of thing, not connected to the city of Brockton. I think that’s extremely important.”Superintendent Mike Thomas, who has been in the district for 30 years, informed the committee this week he’d be out on ex...

Ticker: Ahead of big sports weekend, dispute with Disney leaves millions of cable subscribers in the dark; Wall Street edges higher

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

A company representing nearly 15 million cable subscribers and The Walt Disney Co. blamed each other Friday for a dispute that has cut off Disney-owned stations to viewers on the eve of a big sports weekend for U.S. Open tennis and college football fans.The dispute between Disney and Charter Communications Inc. resulted in ESPN, ABC, FX, National Geographic and Disney-branded stations going abruptly dark on Thursday night for Charter’s Spectrum TV subscribers. ABC-TV was also cut in seven markets, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.Both the cable company and Disney said the other side rejected short-term extensions that would have kept Spectrum subscribers’ access to the networks.Wall Street edges higherA choppy day of trading on Wall Street ended Friday with slight gains for stocks, as the market notched its second straight winning week.The market got a boost early on from a closely watched government report that showed U.S. job growth increased at a healthy, b...

Man who escaped Oregon mental health hospital while shackled found stuck in muddy pond

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:30:45 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man charged with attempted murder who escaped from a psychiatric hospital in Oregon while fully shackled was arrested Friday after he was found floundering in a muddy pond.Christopher Pray was found buried up to the armpits in the pond in Portland, the Oregon State Police said. Portland Fire & Rescue personnel extricated the man using ropes and he was taken to the hospital. Police said he gave a false name, but a hospital employee recognized Pray and police were called.The Oregon State Police are investigating how Pray managed to escape on Wednesday as he was being taken to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem. Restrained with leg shackles, a belly chain and handcuffs, Pray slid into the driver’s seat of a van he was being transported in when the driver was outside the vehicle and drove away. Pray faces charges including attempted murder, robbery, assault and felon in possession of a firearm in Multnomah County Circuit Court, where Portland is located...