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Zito: From Afghanistan to Maui, Biden’s empathy is AWOL

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

Last week, after spending several hours on Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, President Joe Biden was asked by a member of the press pool about the rising death toll in Hawaii.Bloomberg reporter Justin Sink tweeted Biden’s “no comment” response as the president left for his home in Delaware.With over 100 people dead and 10 times that number still unaccounted for, how hard would it have been for Biden to say something evoking the empathy the people of Hawaii need, the country needs, in those brief moments as he walked in the sand from his day at the beach?But he didn’t. And we’ve seen this craven indifference before.Almost to the day two years ago, a chaotic two-week evacuation of 125,000 people from Kabul resulted in the horrific deaths of 13 American service members; it took Biden over a week for him to address the deaths to the public, and when he did in a speech to the nation, he spent the entire 23 minutes forcefully rejecting any criticism of his decision...

Transfer QB Taisun Phommachanh to start for UMass in season opener

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

Quarterback Taisun Phommachanh matched all of the specifications that UMass’ head coach Don Brown looks for in a refugee in the NCAA transfer portal.Phommachanh was a four-star recruit out of prep school and rated in the top 10 at his position by Rivals, 247Sports and ESPN. Phommachanh gravitated towards two Power-5 college programs with lofty ambitions only to became a depth chart casualty at both places.Phommachanh had unproductive stints in the ACC at Georgia Tech and Clemson before choosing UMass to make a fresh start with a realistic opportunity of seeing the playing field.Phommachanh’s perseverance was rewarded on Monday when Brown named him the Minutemen’s starter in the season opener on Saturday night (7) at New Mexico State. UMass lost to NMS 23-13 last season.“We are going with Taisun,” said Brown. “It was not a scenario where one guy didn’t win the job and the other guy did. It was really just that his play was exemplary and I’m comfortable and happy with the other guys a...

Anuzis: Proposed EPA emissions rules threaten consumers

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

The Biden administration has set out to diminish our nation’s climate impact through various regulations and policies, many of which have been misguided and counterproductive. That agenda has borne itself out with federal agencies rapidly accelerating climate action by proposing their own rules, like the Environmental Protection Agency.In April, the EPA introduced two proposed rules that intend to set emissions standards for nearly every road vehicle — ensuring that two-thirds of light- and medium-duty vehicles sold in 2032 will be electric vehicles. The EPA and the administration have continually failed to realize the consequences these rapid-paced actions will have on American consumers who didn’t sign up for this scheme.Following the recent announcement by Ford stating that its EV operation will cost them nearly $5 billion in operating losses, it is evident that automakers won’t be the only ones hurting if these rules are implemented. Ford’s retail shareholders will suffer from F...

Helen Mirren works her magic to make ‘Golda’ shine

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

“Golda” is a reminder of what a brilliant and charismatic leader, in this case a chain-smoking elderly woman aka “the Iron Lady of Israeli politics,” Golda Meir (Helen Mirren), means to a country fighting for its life. The film takes on more meaning at a time when Ukraine is in such a dire fight against the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his army. “Golda” mentions in its opening the Six-Day War of 1967, which ended with Israel defeating a coalition of Arab armies and gaining territory four times its original size, creating a lasting resentment among the Arab world.“Golda” begins a la “Oppenheimer” with a political investigation into actions taken by Prime Minister Meir during the latter Yom Kippur War of 1973. A frail, but grim-looking Meir (we learn that on top of everything else, she is receiving cobalt radiation treatments for cancer during the conflict), faces a group of nameless white-haired men who want to know why she did what she did and obviously second-guess her choic...

‘The Hill’ hits some, misses some

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

An inspirational, baseball-centric, 1960s-70s-era tale based on the true story of Rickey Hill (Colin Ford, TV’s “Walker” as an adult), “The Hill” features an oxygen-depleting, central performance by 69-year-old Dennis Quaid (“The Right Stuff”) as Rickey’s bullying Baptist pastor father James Hill.James wants his younger son Rickey (played as a boy by the gifted Jesse Berry), who is encased in ankle-to-groin leg braces, to grow up to be a preacher like his daddy. Rickey is James’ and wife’s Helen’s middle child with older brother Robert (Mason Gillett) and younger sister Connie (Hailey Bithell). The three Hill siblings are mostly inseparable growing up in rural Texas. In spite of his immobilizing braces, Rickey can whack small rocks with a stick and send them sailing away like “homers,” according to Rickey’s friend Gracie (Gracie (Mila Harris). Gracie, whose father Earl (James Devoti) is an abusive drunk, has declared that Rickey is her boyfriend, ...

‘Retribution’ drives suspense gimmick into the ground

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

Liam Neeson hits a heavy bag in the opening shots of “Retribution.” That’s about all he does that’s heavy in the movie. Do you, like me, find scenes in films in which the characters drive from one place to another annoying? Get ready.In the Berlin-set action movie/thriller “Retribution,” all Neeson does is drive around. Some genius screenwriter came up with the idea of writing an entire film in which the main character does nothing but drive. We recently saw this abomination in Steven Knight’s “Locke,” a 2013 Tom Hardy film that my colleagues praised to the skies (I hated it). Apparently, screenwriter Alberto Marini loved “Locke,” too, and reused this plot line in “Retribution,” a 2015 film starring Spanish actor Luis Tosar.Some genius on Neeson’s team thought that the big Irishman should remake it: paychecks all around. After hitting that bag, Neeson’s Matt Turner has an awkward, morning encounter with his cold-as-ice wife Heather (Embeth Davidtz) in t...

Editorial: South End can’t keep bearing Mass and Cass burden

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

It should go without saying that the solution to a problem shouldn’t entail making the problem worse.For Boston, finding a solution to the humanitarian crisis playing out daily at Mass and Cass has been an endless loop of one step forward, two steps back.Now the city is taking three steps back.On Tuesday, Hub officials announced a plan to clear the encampments on Atkinson Street in the South End, as Boston 25 reported.  This sounds like a good idea, especially as violence has been on the rise in the area.But there’s more.The city is looking to open up a new “safe sleeping area” and clinical services site at 725-727 Mass. Ave. near Albany Street, said Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission.Welcome to Mass and Alb.“All we’re trying to do is find a safe place for a small group of people to exist and sleep temporarily while we bring some order to that street,” said Dr. Ojikutu.City leaders have been trying to bring order to that street ...

Dear Abby: Wife worried as hubby ignores his health

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

Dear Abby: My husband and I are in our 30s. I love him, and I’m worried because he has a “laissez-faire” attitude about everything — especially his health. He has had high cholesterol for five years and has done little to nothing about it. He found out only because I kept hounding him for a year to get a physical.To say I’m “concerned” is an understatement. When I asked him how he can be so complacent about something so dangerous, I got this blank stare and “I don’t know what you want me to say.” Or he says I’m being rude. I can’t understand why this doesn’t scare him. Should I try to force him to go back to the doctor and deal with this, or must I sit and wait for the consequences of him ignoring his health to happen? — Wife Who Cares in IowaDear Wife: Try this: “I love you. But I’m worried sick about the state of your health. I need US to start being more health conscious because WE are...

Former residents of a New Hampshire youth center demand federal investigation into abuse claims

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Frustrated former residents of New Hampshire’s only youth detention center are pushing for a federal investigation into allegations of decades of abuse.The Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, previously called the Youth Development Center, has been under criminal investigation by the state since 2019. Ten former workers and an 11th who worked at a pretrial facility in Concord were arrested in 2021.Close to 1,000 men and woman have sued the state alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse. But the slow pace of the criminal and civil proceedings has some calling for the federal Department of Justice to step in.“Get the state out of it, because they’re not looking to give us real justice,” said Charles Glenn, who spent several years at the facility in the mid-1990s. “They’re complicit to sexual physical violence in this institution for over 40 years because for over 40 years, they’ve done nothing.”Glenn, 42, helped organize a rally planned for Friday afte...

What is Stockholm syndrome? It all started with a bank robbery 50 years ago

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:32 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — It’s a common term these days, deployed to describe the bond that victims of kidnappings or hostage situations sometimes develop with their captors: “Stockholm syndrome.” And it got its name 50 years ago this week, during a failed bank robbery in Sweden’s capital. Stockholm syndrome — dubbed by its founder “Norrmalmstorg syndrome,” after the square where the bank heist took place — has since been used in connection with hostage-takings around the world, including the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst in the 1970s.Here’s a look at Stockholm syndrome and how it got its name.WHAT IS STOCKHOLM SYNDROME?It refers to the bond that can develop between hostages and their captors in hostage-taking and kidnapping situations. In some cases, hostages may develop sympathies for their captors and their cause — and even turn against the police. Rather than a diagnosis of a disorder, experts describe it as a psychological coping mechanism used by some hostage...