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The people’s inflation is still a big problem

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

What is inflation? Officially, it’s the change in average consumer prices over a period — a number that has, in recent months, been easing down toward the US Federal Reserve’s 2% target. But for many people, it’s a way to describe in one word the struggle to make ends meet.On the latter front, the battle against inflation is far from won.Can’t afford to buy a home? Using credit card debt to buy groceries? Paying out of pocket for prescription drugs? All these problems are part of the people’s inflation, which isn’t rooted in supply chain issues or monetary policy or how quickly the Fed acted. It reflects the systemic weaknesses and market failures that have long dogged our economy.The list of markets that fail to deliver affordable and accessible goods and services is long, including child care and prescription drugs, but the surge in prices of the past couple years has brought to the forefront two items crucial to survival: food and shelter.Food prices have risen 25% since the star...

2 Massachusetts State Police struck by car fleeing traffic stop in Boston

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Two Massachusetts State Police troopers were struck by a door of a vehicle their agency says fled a traffic stop on Blue Hill Avenue. Neither suffered serious injuries.At 10:30 a.m. Monday, a trooper saw a black Land Rover driving down Blue Hill Avenue. The trooper said he stopped the vehicle because it had no front license plate and “extreme” dark tint on the windows — later tested as so dark it allowed only 3% of light through, significantly less than the minimum 35% allowed by state law.When the trooper and his partner approached the vehicle and told the driver to lower the tinted window, they say they saw three males inside who “appeared to be very nervous.”A records check for the driver, who police identify as Tylique K. Ortiz-Howard, 25, of Boston, allegedly revealed a criminal history for firearms violations, so they called in a Boston Police officer for backup before the troopers approached again.Ortiz-Howard allegedly became hostile when the troopers asked him to step out. ...

Armed man breaks into Colorado Supreme Court building, causes ‘significant and extensive’ damage

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

A man shot through a window and broke into the Colorado Supreme Court building early Tuesday morning, causing “significant and extensive” damage in several areas of the building before surrendering to police, according to the Colorado State Patrol.The incident happened two weeks to the day after the state Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump cannot appear on the state’s primary ballot based on his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach and the riot by his supporters. Colorado State Patrol officials said in a news release that Tuesday’s incident is not believed to be “associated with previous threats to the Colorado Supreme Court justices.”Police were investigating threats made to the Supreme Court justices in the week after the ruling and increased patrols around their Denver homes following at least one “hoax report,” the Associated Press reported.The man who broke into the courthouse was involved in a crash about 1:15 a.m. near 13th Avenue and Lincoln Street a short...

Gina Fiandaca no longer employed by Healey administration, official confirms

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Former Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca is no longer employed in Gov. Maura Healey’s administration, ending a roughly three month run as a senior advisor, a position she took on after unexpectedly stepping down from her cabinet-level post.A spokesperson for Healey confirmed Fiandaca’s employment ended Dec. 31, 2023, three months and two weeks after stepping into the advising role on Sept. 11, 2023, a move Healey said ensured a “smooth transition” on her way out the door.A message sent Tuesday to a number listed in Fiandaca’s name did not immediately receive a response.No reason was given for why Fiandaca stepped down as secretary but the August announcement came after revelations the Massachusetts Department of Transportation awarded a no-bid contract worth $900,000 to a company affiliated with a personal associate of hers.At an unrelated press conference days after the announcement, Fiandaca did not answer multiple questions about why she was leaving and where she plann...

Earthquake rattles Queens, may have caused Roosevelt Island explosions in NYC

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Thomas Tracy | New York Daily News (TNS)NEW YORK — An earthquake rattled parts of Queens Tuesday morning and may have sparked a series of underground explosions reported on Roosevelt Island, city officials said.“The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports that a 1.7 magnitude earthquake has occurred near Astoria, Queens,” Notify NYC reported. “The earthquake has reportedly been felt in the New York City area, but there are no reports of injuries or damage in New York City at this time.”Residents of both Manhattan and Queens reported hearing multiple explosions just before 6 a.m. centered on Main St. in Roosevelt Island  just south of the Roosevelt Island Bridge to Queens. Callers reported that at least one building near the explosion shook, an FDNY spokesman said.Firefighters arrived and found no flames and no one injured. The explosion, which may be electrical, appeared to have occurred underground.The FDNY handed the job over to Con Edison, which was investigating. Resident...

Brother of powerful Colombian senator pleads guilty in New York to narcotics smuggling charge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

New York (AP) — The brother of a powerful leftist senator in Colombia pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal narcotics charges as part of a sting in which he offered to introduce U.S. drug informants to dissident guerrillas who could help smuggle huge quantities of cocaine to New York.Álvaro Córdoba, dressed in prison garb, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to a single count of conspiring to send 500 grams or more of cocaine into the U.S. He will be sentenced to a mandatory five years and prison but could also face more than two decades behind bars. His plea does not contain any promise to cooperate with law enforcement.“I knew that the cocaine would end up in the United States and I knew what I was doing was wrong,” Córdoba, who will be sentenced in April, told Judge Lewis J. Liman. Córdoba, 64, was arrested in Medellin, Colombia, in 2022 and extradited to the U.S. almost a year ago by President Gustavo Petro, who was elected with the support of Córdoba’s sister, Sen. Pied...

Ottawa to accept 1,000 applications from Canadians’ relatives seeking way out of Gaza

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government says a maximum of 1,000 Palestinian relatives of Canadian citizens will be able to apply to escape the Gaza Strip with Canada’s help.The special extended family program for people in Gaza is set to launch next week, after Palestinian Canadians pleaded for months to get help from the government to rescue their loved ones as the Israel-Hamas war continues.The policy details released last week says the program will stop taking applications either after it receives 1,000 requests, or after a year has elapsed.The program would offer Palestinians visas allowing them to take refuge in Canada for three years if their families are willing to financially support them during that time. But the immigration minister says Canada cannot guarantee safe passage out of the Palestinian territory, and Ottawa has no control over who can cross the tightly controlled border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on any given day.A spokesman for the National Council of Canad...

Biden administration asks Supreme Court to allow border agents to cut razor wire installed by Texas

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit over the wire continues.The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal Tuesday, asking the justices to put on hold last month’s appellate ruling in favor of Texas, which forced federal agents to stop cutting the concertina wire the state has installed along roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) of the Rio Grande near the border city of Eagle Pass. Large numbers of migrants have crossed there in recent months.The court case pitting Republican-led Texas against Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration is part of a broader fight over immigration enforcement. The state also has installed razor wire around El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, where migrants have crossed in high numbers. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also has authorized installing floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and...

TTC reviewing crowding at Union Station after NYE festivities, fight a factor

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

A fight on a Toronto subway train that took it out of commission not long after the new year was rung in contributed to crowds at the city’s largest transit hub as revelers were travelling home, Toronto’s transit operator said Tuesday as it planned to review what happened.The Toronto Transit Commission said the large crowds at Union Station, as well as what led to them, will be reviewed when it meets with the city and regional transit operator Metrolinx later this week.Videos posted on social media showed people crammed shoulder to shoulder in parts of Union Station following New Year’s Eve festivities in the city.TTC’s spokesman Stuart Green said a fight took place on a subway train that had to be taken out of service shortly before 12:30 a.m., when people started leaving downtown Toronto. Green said that caused a 10-minute delay and entry to that platform was restricted.“As customers on the incident train were being offloaded onto an already busy plat...

Cherelle Parker publicly sworn in as Philadelphia’s 100th mayor

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Cherelle Parker, who has held local and state office and first got involved in politics as a teenager, publicly swore her oath of office on Tuesday as Philadelphia’s 100th mayor, becoming the first woman to do so.The 51-year-old Democrat with years of political experience took the helm of the nation’s sixth-largest city in a ceremony at the historic Met in Philadelphia. She succeeds term-limited Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney.“By every statistic imaginable, I am not supposed to be standing here today,” Parker told supporters gathered for her roughly hourlong address. “I, Cherelle Parker, was a child who most people thought would never succeed. And they almost did have me thinking the same thing.”Surrounded by family, friends, former mayors and current U.S. and state legislators and officials, Parker echoed her campaign promise: to make Philadelphia the “safest, cleanest, greenest big city in the nation that will provide access to economic opportunity for all.”Parker had emerged e...