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Kelly Ayotte blames Massachusetts for fentanyl traffickers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

Former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte has continued her crusade against the Bay State saying fentanyl has a pipeline into New Hampshire from “Biden’s open border to Massachusetts.”In launching her bid to be the Granite State’s next governor, the Republican former state attorney general warned her state was one election away from turning into its heavily liberal neighbor. On Thursday, she was more pointed in her critique.“Fentanyl is being trafficked from Biden’s open border to Massachusetts and into New Hampshire,” she wrote on Twitter, before sharing almost a dozen news stories documenting the arrests of Massachusetts residents in New Hampshire on drug-related charges.During an early week appearance on “Fox and Friends,” Ayotte said the deadly synthetic opioid is coming into her state through the cities of Lowell and Lawrence. Her comments were met with a sharp rebuke from officials in Lawrence and Bay State political pundits, one of whom Ayotte says “attac...

Shohei Ohtani rewards Angels with 1-hit shutout, 2 home runs as Los Angeles runs risk with keeping him

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

It didn’t take long for Shohei Ohtani to reward the Angels — at least in the short-term — for apparently deciding not to trade him.Hours after Sports Illustrated reported Los Angeles plans to keep the impending free agent through the season, Ohtani pitched the first complete-game shutout of his career Thursday, holding Detroit to only one hit in the first game of a doubleheader.Then in the second game, Ohtani slugged two home runs as a hitter.The dominant performances marked the latest highlights in a season full of them for the two-way sensation, who improved to 9-5 as a pitcher and whose 38 homers lead all MLB batters. He became the first player to pitch a shutout and hit two home runs on the same day since since Sonny Seibert did so in a single game in 1971, according to MLB’s Sarah Langs.Until recently, many believed the Angels would shop Ohtani, 29, who is expected to command a record contract exceeding $500 million this offseason. Los Angeles entered th...

Officials say panic on Philippine ferry caused vessel to capsize, killing at least 26

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A small Philippine ferry turned over when passengers suddenly crowded to one side in panic as fierce winds lashed the wooden vessel Thursday, and at least 26 people died, while 40 others were rescued, authorities said.The coast guard and police said search and rescue efforts halted late Thursday but would resume Friday morning. Officials said it remained unclear how many people were aboard the M/B Princess Aya, which capsized in Laguna de Bay in Rizal province. When people rushed to one side of the vessel amid severe winds, the boat tilted and its outrigger broke, then the boat capsized shortly after leaving a wharf in the town of Binangonan for nearby Talim island. The accident happened only about 46 meters (150 feet) from shore, police and coast guard officials said at a news conference.The Rizal provincial police said that they immediately launched a rescue operation with the help of the coast guard and other local authorities, but that at least 26 peop...

Man who killed 1 Fargo officer, hurt 2, was interviewed about guns in 2021 after tip, FBI says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The heavily armed man who killed one Fargo police officer and wounded two as they were investigating a traffic stop had been interviewed about his guns in 2021 after the FBI received a tip, authorities said Thursday. In a statement in response to questions from The Associated Press, the FBI and Fargo Police Department said the FBI received an anonymous tip about Mohamad Barakat in July 2021, in which the tipster expressed concern about Barakat’s mental state, saying he had access to a “significant number of firearms” and had used threatening language. The FBI forwarded the information to the Fargo Police Department. The statement says detectives made three visits to Barakat’s apartment over the next two weeks. They reached him on the third visit and observed several firearms in the apartment, but none were illegal, the statement said. In an interview, Barakat “denied any ill-intentions,” the statement said. “As there was no evidence of any ongoin...

Ex-Mississippi prison guard pleads guilty to federal charge in 2019 inmate beating

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A former Mississippi prison guard pleaded guilty to a federal charge Thursday in the 2019 beating of an inmate, the U.S. Justice Department said.Jessica Hill pleaded guilty to deprivation of an inmate’s rights by using excessive force when she was a corrections officer at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. Hill beat an inmate with a pepper spray canister and repeatedly punched the inmate in the head, the indictment said. The inmate was not resisting and was on the ground in the fetal position while being beaten and kicked.Hill faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, authorities said. Her sentencing is set for Oct. 25. A second officer indicted in the case pleaded guilty earlier this year and is set for sentencing in September.The Associated Press

Public Safety department says Liberal law did not factor into Bernardo’s transfer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

OTTAWA — Serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo would have been transferred to a medium-security prison even if a previous version of the corrections law were been in place, according to the federal Public Safety department. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said the transfer would not have happened if the Liberal government hadn’t changed the law with Bill C-83 in 2019.  Bernardo is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murders of teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy in the early 1990s and has been designated a dangerous offender. His transfer in late May triggered widespread outrage and the families of French and Mahaffy have asked for him to return to maximum security. The Liberal government’s 2019 legislation was meant to end the use of solitary confinement, and amended the corrections law to say officials should ensure inmates are held in the “least restrictive environment.”Poilievre has repeatedly pointed to that l...

Victim identified, man charged in targeted Etobicoke shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

Toronto police have identified the victim of a targeted shooting in Etobicoke and charged a man with second-degree murder.Officers were called to The Queensway and Kipling Avenue around 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 24, for reports of a shooting.Authorities located one victim with life-threatening injuries. They were transported to a local hospital via an emergency run, police confirmed, where the victim was later pronounced dead.On Thursday, police identified the man as 24-year-old Sophonias Haile of Toronto. Investigators arrested 44-year-old Kenneth Grant of Toronto. He’s been charged with second-degree murder.The accused was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.Insp. Jeff Bangild said two male suspects entered a residential building and opened fire.“This appears to be a targeted shooting,” Insp. Bangild said. “Given that the individuals entered the apartment [and] selected a precise location where this individual was essentially murdered.”It’s ...

Five homes in Northwest Territories lost in wildfire, road closed: fire agency

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

YELLOWKNIFE — An out-of-control wildfire in the Northwest Territories has destroyed five homes in a community about 100 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife. Mike Westwick, who is the fire information officer for the territory, says the fire has reached the community of Behchoko in Rae.He says three homes were lost Wednesday, while two more burned down Thursday.Westwick says the same wildfire is about 45 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife.He says the capital is not at risk at this time, but crews are preparing to address future threats.Westwick says a portion of Highway 3, which connects Behchoko to Yellowknife, has been closed and crews are focusing on dousing spot fires and protecting homes in the community of Behchoko.He says visibility remains an issue for the 64 firefighters responding to the fire in the area.This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2023.The Canadian Press

Judge questions FBI’s role in post-9/11 sting and orders 3 of ‘Newburgh Four’ freed from prison

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Three men ensnarled in an infamous post-9/11 terrorism sting have been ordered freed from prison by a judge who deemed their lengthy sentences “unduly harsh and unjust” and decried the FBI’s role in radicalizing them in a plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down National Guard planes.Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen — three of what’s known as the “Newburgh Four” — were “hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals” caught up in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a dodgy informant, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said in her ruling Thursday.“The real lead conspirator was the United States,” McMahon wrote in a 28-page decision granting the men’s request for compassionate release, effective in three months.The judge, citing concerns for the men’s health and her own qualms about the case, cut the 25-year mandatory minimum sentences she imposed on the men in 2011 to time served plus ...

Florida woman who stole nearly $3 million from Holocaust survivor gets over four years in prison

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:11:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida woman who drained an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor’s life savings by posing as a love interest and then lived lavishly off the $2.8 million she got was sentenced Thursday to over four years in prison.Peaches Stergo, 36, of Champions Gate, Florida, was described by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos as “unspeakably cruel” and motivated by greed as he announced the sentence in Manhattan federal court.Given a chance to speak, Stergo said: “I’m sorry.” She pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud, admitting that she drained the life savings of a man she met on a dating website seven years ago.Stergo began asking the once successful businessman for money in May 2017, claiming she needed money to pay a lawyer who was refusing to release the payout from a bogus injury settlement, prosecutors said. He paid her $25,000. Over the next four years, she used lies to coax the man to write 62 checks totaling over $2.8 million until he was broke, they added.She got him ...