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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu backs Henry Santana in at-large City Council race

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has formally endorsed Henry Santana for councilor-at-large, and plans to keep lending her name to other candidates throughout this election season.“I’m watching all the races very closely,” Wu told the Herald on Thursday. “It’s a really important election.”Wu said Santana, her former director of civic organizing, is best equipped to address some of the “institutional knowledge” that will be lost when longtime Councilor-at-Large Michael Flaherty steps down after this year’s election.“I think Henry will be a great choice to really hit the ground running because he knows City Hall inside and out, having formerly worked as a Council aide and also within the administration, coordinating across all departments,” Wu said. “I also feel aligned with him on his values and what must be.”Santana is one of eight candidates seeking four at-large seats on the City Council. The three incumbents and five challengers will all be on the ballot this November, as Flaherty’s deci...

South Boston beach set to reopen Tuesday, at last

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

It won’t be long until people can finally put their toes in the water at Southie’s L Street Beach.The beloved beach will reopen Tuesday, three years after it closed to make way for the $31.2 million renovation of the Curley Center. Piping plovers, a threatened beach-nesting bird species, caused further delays, but officials say the chicks have fledged, meaning they can sustain flight.Southie residents and Curley Center members will get the chance to cool down next week after the Conservation Commission on Wednesday approved an operations and maintenance plan, which outlines conditions the city needs to take for access not to have an adverse effect on the piping plover.Boston Centers for Youth and Families opened the Curley last month, and some city officials and dignitaries became skeptical that the piping plover was the reason behind the prolonged beach closure.MassWildlife determined earlier this month that beach access would not harm the threatened piping plover as long the city ...

BPD asks for help identifying suspect vehicle in fatal Hyde Park hit-and-run

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

Police have released video and screenshots they say depict the vehicle that struck and killed 4-year-old Ivan Pierre in Hyde Park.The video shows a few cars traveling along Wood Avenue and crossing Safford Street and appears to be from a residential surveillance camera. According to police tweets and statements, the car in question is the second vehicle, which appears to be a small, gray or silver 4-door hatchback, though its make and model is unclear.Ivan Pierre was struck in the hit-and-run near 165 Wood Avenue at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the details BPD Superintendent-in-Chief Gregory Long provided in a press conference at the scene about 2 hours later, as police behind him continued canvassing the area.Pierre’s uncle Heroldy Limage, who spoke with reporters outside the family home the day after the tragedy, urged the driver responsible to “Just turn yourself in.”Police ask that anyone who knows anything about the incident or recognizes the suspect vehicle call Bost...

Crime Briefs: 3 Massachusetts men in federal court in separate child pornography cases

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

A 51-year-old Quincy man who lives in his parents’ basement has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.Matthew Orman, 51, stored his child pornography in a folder labeled “hc” within a network drive named “The_Castle.” From this hard drive connected to his local area network, he was able to stream data, including the 401 video files across 114 gigabytes of data included in the filthy folder, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.Three of the files within the folder are described in the document as representative, all of which depict young girls between the ages of 4 and 7 years old being coerced to perform sex acts on adult men. He watched these films on two custom-built PCs in his basement room, which the affidavit states was strewn with sex toys.Orman was charged in April and entered into a plea agreement on Wednesday that recommends prison time of five years to be followed by five years of supervised release. The judge can choose to sentence him to a maximum ...

Commanders’ Dan Snyder fined $60 million for sexually harassing employee, financial improprieties

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder sexually harassed a team employee and oversaw team executives who deliberately withheld millions of dollars in revenue from other clubs, and he has agreed to pay a $60 million fine, the league announced Thursday.The NFL released a 23-page report detailing the findings of an independent investigation into Snyder’s conduct just minutes after its owners unanimously approved the sale of the Commanders to Josh Harris for a record $6.05 billion. The fine represents 1% of the sale price; Snyder bought the team, then known as the Redskins, for $800 million.The investigation was led by former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White and conducted by her law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton. The league had pledged to make the findings of the probe public.Investigators concluded that Washington withheld $11 million in revenue that should have been shared with other teams, an amount the report suggests may have been far greater. WhiteR...

REVIEW: Barbie is more than Kenough

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

Whether you’re a Barbie girl in a Barbie world, whether you hate the standard the doll has set for femininity, or whether you’re a dude, this film is universal to all those experiences. It’s pretty rare we get a film as hugely cultural as this, one that becomes such a juggernaut before it comes out. We’ve all seen Ryan Gosling talk about his Kenergy, we’ve seen the numerous trailers for this film and the gorgeous sets and costumes. But to watch this film is a beautiful, powerful experience.Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in Barbie, courtesy of Warner Bros.It’s been hard to avoid Barbie, but in case you have this is a film about the doll many young girls have played with for decades. Barbie (played by Margot Robbie from Babylon) lives a perfect life in Barbieland. Everything is amazing until one day everything starts feeling off. Her feet become flat, she feels grumpy when waking up, and she finds herself contemplating her own mortality. Confused an...

Man wanted in sexual assault on walking trail near U of T Scarborough

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

Toronto police are searching for a man following a sexual assault that occurred on a walking trail near the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.Investigators said the victim was walking in the Valley Land Trail area in Scarborough between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on July 10.The male suspect allegedly attempted to engage in a conversation with the victim. The victim then tried to walk away from the suspect.Police said the male suspect sexually assaulted the victim. The suspect then fled the area in an unknown direction.It’s unclear if the sexual assault victim is a student at U of T in Scarborough.The man is described as white, around six-foot-four, 20-30 years old, unshaven, with light brown hair.He was last seen wearing a black t-shirt, khaki pants and sandals.Land Valley Trail, a 500-metre trail that connects to the Highland Creek Valley, opened to the public in August 2019.A school spokesperson told The Varsity at the time of its introduction to the public that the mo...

Police seized laptops, memoir from Vegas-area home of witness to Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A home that Las Vegas police raided this week in connection with the 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur is tied to one of the only surviving witnesses to the crime, a man long known to investigators whose nephew was seen as a suspect shortly after the rapper’s killing.Detectives sought items “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur” from Duane “Keffe D” Davis, according to warrant documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. Davis, now 60, is a self-described “gangster” and the uncle of Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, one of Shakur’s known rivals. Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s killing, and died two years later in a shooting in Compton, California.Police reported collecting multiple computers, a cellphone and hard drive, “documentary documents,” a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, “purported marijuana,” several .40-caliber bullets, two “tubs containing photographs” and a copy of Davis’ 2019 tell-all memoir, ”Compton Street Legend.”The ...

Parched conditions push B.C.’s wildfire battle south, as rain brings relief in north

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s wildfire fight is set to move toward the province’s more populated southern areas amid hot and windy weather, while cooler temperatures and rain are expected to bring some relief in scorched northern regions.In the province’s southeast corner near Cranbrook, an unconfirmed number of homes have been lost to the out-of-control St. Mary’s River fire, B.C. government and Aq’am First Nation officials said Thursday.“We are certainly seeing a shift further south,” BC Wildfire Service spokesman Cliff Chapman said at a news conference. The rain forecast in the north will likely ease threats in the Fort Nelson area where crews have been battling the massive Donnie Creek fire, the largest fire in B.C. history, he said.“But with that, though, we’re also going to see continued hot, dry weather in the south, predominantly in the Cariboo and Kamloops fire centres and the Southeast fire centre,” said Chapman. ...

A timeline of the Paul Bernardo case and controversial prison transfer

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:00:44 GMT

The Correctional Service of Canada announced Thursday that a review found Paul Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security prison from a maximum-security penitentiary was sound and followed proper policies and laws.Public backlash had erupted following its decision to move the convicted murderer and serial rapist, engulfing the Liberal government with questions about its handling of the matter and who knew what and when.Here is a timeline of events that led to Thursday’s announcement, including key dates from the Bernardo case and his recent controversial transfer.1991June 15 — Leslie Mahaffy, 14, disappears from outside her home in Burlington, Ont., in the early hours of the morning.June 29 — Mahaffy’s body parts are found encased in concrete blocks in Lake Gibson near St. Catharines, Ont. The same day, Paul Bernardo marries Karla Homolka.1992April 16 — Kristen French, 15, is abducted as she walks home from school in St. Catharines.April 30 — French’s body is found i...