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Tax-cap law, online lottery featured in thousand-plus Senate budget amendments

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

A push to digitize state lottery sales and prevent changes to a once-obscure tax cap law are among the thousand-plus amendments senators filed this week to their fiscal 2024 budget proposal.A total of 1,049 amendments were filed to the Senate’s fiscal 2024 budget with the largest number pertaining to health and human services. Senators are scheduled to debate the budget starting May 22, and will likely take several days to wrap up deliberations.An amendment filed by Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican, would delete budget language that exclude revenue from an income surtax known as the “Fair Share Amendment” from state tax revenue cap calculations under Chapter 62F.That part of state law was triggered last year when revenues exceeded the annual cap for fiscal 2022 by $2.9 billion. Eligible taxpayers received refund checks from the state that roughly equaled 14% of their personal income tax for 2021.Chapter 62F was established through a successful ballot initiative in the 19...

Aaron Judge’s two-homer day ignites Yankees’ improbable comeback victory over Shane McClanahan, Rays

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

O captain! My captain! When the Yankees needed him most, No. 99 answered the call.Aaron Judge’s two-homer day ignited an improbable 9-8 comeback win against the MLB-best Tampa Bay Rays with their horse on the hill.With the Bombers’ trailing 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth, Judge slapped an opposite-field bomb to right field off Rays’ ace Shane McClanahan, one inning later the 31-year-old stepped up and launched a go-ahead bomb to left field giving his club a 7-6 lead.Judge’s second homer came in the midst of a five-run inning for the Yanks — capped off by an Oswald Cabrera two-RBI single which proved to be the difference in the game — who fought back from down 6-0 entering the bottom of the fifth with one of the best pitchers in baseball on the bump.McClanahan entered the afternoon 7-0 with a 1.76 ERA and left with a 2.34 ERA after he was tagged for four earned runs by the Bombers in four innings of work. The Yanks appeared to be in an insurmountab...

Amid violence, Boston Schools and Police look to formalize response agreement

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

Boston Public Schools and the Police Department are formalizing an agreement that would clarify when officers should be called to respond to violence and other safety incidents occurring on school property.Officials said the memorandum of understanding would not put police officers back in schools, but it would clear up some of the confusion that followed the Massachusetts Police Reform Act of 2020, and ensure clarity as to each department’s obligations under that law.The agreement has been in the works for the past two years, according to Superintendent of Schools Mary Skipper, and comes amid a recent spate of violence in the district and poll results released last month that indicated two-thirds of BPS parents had concerns about their children’s safety.“We’re living in a time where incidents of violence in schools are becoming more and more common, and we see it in cities across the country,” Skipper said at a Friday City Council subcommittee meeting on school safety.“So I do hear...

MSTCA Coaches Invitational: Oliver Ames star Ryan Sarney puts on a show in the mile

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

NORTON — Oliver Ames’ Ryan Sarney was very much aware of what the meet record was in the mile and came oh so close to dethroning a legend.Dropping down from his specialty in the two mile, Sarney looked smooth and in control as he led from the gun and was never challenged on the way to breaking the tape in 4 minutes, 15.47 seconds at Saturday’s MSTCA Coaches Invitational.The time was a six-second personal best for Sarney, who owns a PR of 9:09 in the two mile, and was just off the 4:15.20 run by the great Bobby Goss of Chelsea way back in 1978.Sarney will run one more mile race at the Hockomock League Championships off the 60-65 miles a week he is packing in for the two mile.“This is the only mile I’ll run in a big race for the rest of the season,” said Sarney. “I felt so good doing it. I’m a two-miler and I wanted to get a fast mile time.”The Tigers also picked up the mile win on the girls’ side and it was impressive. Katie Sobie...

Haverhill Police seeking 6 missing siblings

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

Authorities are searching for six siblings ranging in age between 7-months- and 9-years-old who went missing from their Haverhill home for days.Haverhill police responded to a report of child abuse that Wednesday when another sibling, the oldest, reported that her mother and stepfather abused her and her seven siblings.The location of the six youngest children is unknown, with a Massachusetts State Police statement indicating that “the parents and other family have been uncooperative with attempts to locate the children.”The children could be in the Randolph area, according to the statement, but there is no reason for this listed.The oldest missing child is Jatari Baker-Wooden, 9. The five other missing children all the share the last name Great: boy Omnisty, 7 months; boy Cypher, 11 months; girl Cyphaya, 3; girl Journea, 5; and girl Odyssea, 6. All are described as black and are the six youngest children in the attached, undated photograph.Anyone with any information on...

Delaney Moquin tosses gem as Silver Lake blanks Middleborough

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

MIDDLEBOROUGH — A huge Saturday non-league matinee broke out on Mother’s Day Weekend, and everything came out roses for Silver Lake.Delaney Moquin tossed a one-hit shutout and struck out 10 as the Lakers blanked Middleborough 3-0 in a regular-season battle that had some playoff atmosphere between the two South Shore juggernauts.Moquin struck out five of the first six batters she faced and only allowed a clean single to Mackenzie Conlon in the bottom of the third with two outs.“I can’t say enough about Delaney. For a young team, we opened up some people’s eyes,” said Silver Lake head coach Tony Pina. “(Delaney) is a sophomore in name only, has the poise of an upperclassman, the focus of an upperclassman, and there were times she was down 2-0 or 3-0 in the count and got strikeouts or fly balls. She has exceeded expectations; she is only getting better.”The Lakers (14-1, 12-0 in Patriot League play) finally got to Sachems starter Cassidy Machado with all three runs coming in the ...

This tribe’s land was cut in two by US borders. Its fight for access could help dozens of others

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

For four hours, Raymond V. Buelna, a cultural leader for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, sat on a metal bench in a concrete holding space at the U.S.-Mexico border, separated from the two people he was taking to an Easter ceremony on tribal land in Arizona and wondering when they might be released.It was February 2022 and Buelna, a U.S. citizen, was driving the pair — both from the sovereign Native American nation’s related tribal community in northwestern Mexico — from their home to the reservation southwest of Tucson. They’d been authorized by U.S. officials to cross the border. But when Buelna asked an agent why they were detained, he was told to wait for the officer who brought him in.“They know that we’re coming,” said Buelna, who has made the trip for a variety of ceremonies for 20 years. “We did all this work and then we’re still sitting there.”Now, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe is trying to change this — for themselves and potentially dozens of other tribes in the U.S. Tr...

Israel, Islamic Jihad reach cease-fire to end 5 days of fighting

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Gaza Strip agreed to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire late Saturday, ending five days of intense fighting that left 33 Palestinians, including at least 13 civilians, dead. Two people in Israel were killed by rocket fire. The cease-fire took effect just after 10 p.m., with a last-minute burst of rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes stretching several minutes past the deadline announced by Egypt.While the calm brought a sense of relief to Gaza’s more than 2 million people and hundreds of thousands of Israelis who had been confined to bomb shelters in recent days, the agreement did nothing to address the underlying issues that have fueled numerous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office put out a statement thanking Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi for his efforts to restore calm. Egypt frequently acts a...

One killed as tornado hits south Texas near the Gulf coast, damaging dozens of homes

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

LAGUNA HEIGHTS, Texas (AP) — One person was killed when his mobile home was crushed as a powerful tornado tore through a community near the southern tip of Texas before dawn Saturday, damaging dozens of residences and knocking down power lines, authorities said.At least 10 others were hospitalized, including two people who were listed in critical condition, said Tom Hushen, the emergency management coordinator for Cameron County. Many residents also suffered cuts and bruises.The tornado hit at about 4 a.m. as most people were in their homes asleep in the unincorporated community of Laguna Heights, located on the mainland across from South Padre Island, off the Gulf of Mexico. The county has among the highest poverty rates in Texas and is dotted with substandard housing.There was no advance warning. Instead, the first warning of a tornado “went out at the same time it was touching ground,” said Barry Goldsmith, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in ...

DeSantis in Iowa warns of GOP ‘culture of losing’ as weather sidelines Trump’s event in the state

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:56:00 GMT

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (AP) — Warning of a Republican “culture of losing,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sought Saturday to weaken former President Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP as he courted voters in battleground Iowa.DeSantis, expected to announce his 2024 presidential campaign any day, briefly flipped burgers and pork chops at a picnic fundraiser in Sioux Center that drew hundred conservatives to the northwest corner of the state. At the podium, he highlighted his willingness to embrace conservative cultural fights and sprinkled his remarks with indirect jabs at Trump.“Governing is not about entertaining. Governing is not about building a brand or talking on social media and virtue signaling,” said DeSantis, who wore a blue button-down shirt without a tie or jacket. “It’s ultimately about winning and producing results.”Trump, a candidate since November, had hoped to demonstrate his political strength with a large outdoor rally in Des Moines, the capital, later in the day, but he ...