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Massachusetts Task Force 1 returns to Mass. after Vermont flooding response

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

It was mission complete Tuesday for a task force of responders from Massachusetts who were sent to Vermont to help with rescue and recovery efforts after devastating flooding last week.The group returned to Beverly where one member spoke to 7NEWS about her experience on the ground. “We got to use our training to do exactly what we wanted to do,” said Massachusetts Task Force 1 Safety Officer Leah Shatkin.The 45 members of the task force set out on July 10. Over the ensuing days, task force members braved treacherous conditions to rescue about 30 people from floodwaters that surrounded homes and buildings. “To be in a community on a city street with your local CVS and your Mazda dealership and have a river essentially running downstream cutting off access to people in need is kind of an eye opening thing,” Shatkin said.In addition to personnel, the task force sent boats and other equipment to Vermont to help with rescue efforts amid record breaking rainfa...

Evan Fournier: Another season with Knicks ‘would be a disaster’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

With free agency petering out and only about two months until training camp, Evan Fournier remains on the Knicks roster but is worried that another season in New York would ruin his career.“If I stayed, it would be a disaster, sportingly, for my career, everything,” Fournier told French publication L’Equipe in a wide-ranging interview from his home in Manhattan. “A year without playing, I can manage.“Two… that would be terrible.”Fournier, who signed a three-year, $54 million deal in 2021, was pulled from Tom Thibodeau’s rotation in December and spent most of the season parked on the bench.The 30-year-old said he took it hard, at first.“You want to spit on everyone. You have hatred,” Fournier said. “Derrick Rose [who was also pulled from the rotation] and I looked at each other and said to each other, ‘What the hell are we doing here?’“During the 5x5s at practice, we were on the side like some prospec...

Trump downplays his legal challenges on the campaign trail in Iowa after revealing new target letter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump joked about his legal challenges while campaigning in eastern Iowa on Tuesday night, just hours after announcing he’d received a target letter in the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Headlining a Republican county meeting, Trump attacked investigators while trying to make light of what could be his third criminal indictment since March.“I didn’t know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries. Now I’m becoming an expert,” he told the audience at an Elks Lodge in Cedar Rapids. He also taped a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity that was set to air later Tuesday night.The trip to the leadoff GOP voting state was yet another indication that, when it comes to Trump, none of the rules of politics ever apply. Trump did not cancel the trip to huddle with advisers, and he was not disinvited by organizers. Instead, he carried on as he has for months, incorporating his latest legal...

Alaska man inadvertently films his own drowning on a glacial lake, officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man inadvertently filmed his own drowning on a glacial lake with a GoPro camera mounted on his helmet, but authorities who recovered the camera have not yet found his body, officials said Tuesday.Alaska State Troopers said teams would continue to search Mendenhall Lake for the body of Paul Rodriguez Jr., 43, of Juneau.Troopers said a helmet with a camera attached to it that was confirmed to have belonged to Rodriguez was recording on July 11 when a kayak Rodriguez was using overturned and Rodriguez went into the water. “The recording continued showing that the kayak overturned due to a strong current coming from the glacier,” Troopers spokesperson Tim DeSpain said by email.DeSpain said the helmet was found on the lake shore. He said it was turned in to troopers on Monday.Juneau police on Monday said Rodriguez was believed to have gone missing on July 11 somewhere in the vicinity of the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area. Police received a report Sunda...

Strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake shakes Central America

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

A powerful 6.5 magnitude earthquake in the Pacific Ocean off the Gulf of Fonseca on Tuesday shook much of Central America from Nicaragua to Guatemala.Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua all share coastline around the gulf on the Pacific coast.The U.S. Geological Survey reported the epicenter was 27 miles (43 kilometers) south of Intipuca, El Salvador at a depth of 43 miles (70 kilometers).Nicaragua Vice President and first lady Rosario Murillo said there were no reported victims immediately in that country.San Salvador,El Salvador, The Associated Press

Adrift for 3 months, Australian and his dog lived on raw fish until Mexican fishermen rescued him

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

MANZANILLO, Mexico (AP) — An Australian sailor who was rescued by a Mexican tuna boat after being adrift at sea with his dog for three months said Tuesday that he is grateful to be alive after setting foot on dry land for the first time since their ordeal began.Timothy Lyndsay Shaddock, 54, disembarked in the Mexican city of Manzanillo after being examined on board the boat that rescued him, the Maria Delia.“I’m feeling alright. I’m feeling a lot better than I was, I tell ya,” Shaddock, smiling, bearded and thin, told reporters on the dock in the port city about 210 miles (337 kilometers) west of Mexico City.“To the captain and fishing company that saved my life, I’m just so grateful. I’m alive and I didn’t really think I’d make it,” Shaddock said, adding that he and his “amazing” dog Bella are both doing well.Shaddock described himself as a quiet person who loves being alone on the ocean. Asked why he set out in April from Mexico’s Baja Peninsula to cross the Pacific Ocean to...

Missouri man charged in Indiana trooper’s traffic death seeks change of venue

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

PLAINFIELD, Ind. (AP) — An 18-year-old Missouri man charged with murder in the traffic death of Indiana State Police Trooper Aaron Smith requested a change of venue Tuesday for his upcoming trial, online court records show.The request Tuesday seeks to move the trial of Eddie Jones of Sikeston, Missouri, to another county or to bring a jury in from another county, news outlets reported.Jones also is charged with auto theft and resisting law enforcement.Jones is accused of driving a stolen vehicle and leading police on a chase that killed Smith on June 28 as he was trying to deploy stop sticks on Ronald Reagan Parkway, north of Interstate 70 in Plainfield, state police have said. Smith, 33, of Franklin, died after being taken to an Indianapolis hospital.The Associated Press

Border Patrol fails to assess medical needs for children with preexisting conditions, report says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

Border Patrol does not have protocols for assessing medical needs of children with preexisting conditions, according to an independent report made public Tuesday on the death of an 8-year-old girl from Panama who was in federal custody.The girl’s death was “a preventable tragedy that resulted from” failures in “medical and custodial systems for children” within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that includes the Border Patrol, the report found.It’s the latest damning finding in the May 17 death of Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez, who was on her ninth day in custody with family in Harlingen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the busiest corridors for migrant crossings. She had a chronic heart condition and sickle cell anemia.An internal investigation found Border Patrol medical staff declined to review the girl’s file. The report made public Tuesday was conducted by an independent monitor working to enforce compliance with the latest terms of the Flores set...

Florida county reports its 7th case of locally contracted malaria

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — A southwest Florida county has document a seventh case of malaria, state authorities said.The Florida Department of Health reported a new locally acquired case of malaria in Sarasota County during the week of July 9-15. That’s in addition to five cases last month and one case in May. Sarasota County and Manatee County directly to the north have been under a mosquito-borne illness alert for nearly a month. The area is located on the Gulf of Mexico, just south of Tampa Bay.Sarasota County officials have been been using aircraft, trucks and ground crews to apply insecticide to the area where the malaria cases were reported. Mosquito control workers are trapping the insects and sending them to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for evaluation.About 2,000 U.S. cases of malaria are diagnosed each year — the vast majority in travelers coming from countries where malaria commonly spreads.Since 1992, there have been 11 outbreaks involving malar...

Pennsylvania woman who used bullhorn to direct Capitol rioters is convicted of Jan. 6 charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:38:37 GMT

A Pennsylvania woman who used a bullhorn to direct rioters attacking the U.S. Capitol was convicted on Tuesday of charges that she joined the mob in an attempt to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth heard testimony without a jury before he convicted Rachel Marie Powell of felony charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. Powell, who was convicted of all nine counts in her indictment, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 17, according to court records.Powell, wearing a distinctive pink hat and fur-lined jacket hoodie, joined a mob of rioters who confronted police officers at bike rack barriers on the west side of the Capitol. She used her back to push against the police line, prosecutors said.A video captured Powell using a bullhorn to encourage other rioters to “coordinate together if you’re going to take this building.” She also gave them “very detailed instructions” about the layout of the Capitol, according to an FBI...