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Rideshare drivers again battle over their positions, push for ballot question

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

For the second election cycle in a row some Massachusetts rideshare drivers are working to have the voters decide whether they can be legally classified as independent contractors or employees.Before Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell sit no less than nine versions of an initiative petition submitted by the group Flexibility and Benefits for Massachusetts Drivers, all of which advocates say aim to keep drivers independent and any one of which should meet the state’s legal requirements to be placed before voters on their 2024 ballots.“There are thousands of us, ten thousands of us, who just want to be able to keep our flexibility and independence while getting benefits that fit the way we work,” rideshare driver Charles Clemons Muhammad said. “We all know that, no matter what our opponents say, there is no way to get that kind of flexibility while being an employee. We know because we’ve been employees — many of us still are at other jobs. This ballot question will protect ou...

Red Sox crumble late, finish road trip with 6-3 loss to Mariners

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

This past week’s west coast swing didn’t get off to a good start, but for most of Wednesday it looked like the Red Sox were going to finish the trip on a high note.Then the bullpen ran out of steam and the club seemingly embraced all its bad habits at the worst possible time.The Red Sox came unglued in the late innings, allowing six unanswered runs from the sixth inning onwards to lose 6-3 to the Seattle Mariners. John Schreiber allowed four runs over an inning-plus of work, and a pair of defensive breakdowns helped the Mariners put the game away with a four-run bottom of the seventh.Boston finishes its road trip 2-4 and will now limp back to Boston to regroup ahead of a critical 10-game homestand set to begin Friday.Things started off as well as Boston could have hoped for. Jarren Duran put the Red Sox ahead with a two-run home run in the top of the third inning, and Masataka Yoshida added an RBI double in the fifth to make it 3-0.Kutter Crawford, meanwhile, enjoyed ano...

AG’s Office gets 42 initiative petitions filed by deadline – here is what’s proposed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

The state Attorney General’s Office says that 18 groups have submitted 42 different initiative petitions for a proposed new law or constitutional amendment by this year’s deadline.The following petitions submissions were made in 2022 and were already certified by the Attorney General’s office as constitutionally compliant:Three versions of a law relative to the gas taxA law relative to zero-emission vehicles and zero-emission homeA law relative to non-ionizing radiation limitsA constitutional amendment for privacyThe following submissions, presented mostly as titled by petitioners, will be reviewed by Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and her staff for compliance with state law:A law to remove MCAS performance as a condition for High School graduationTwo further submissions for a law relative to the gas taxAn act to establish a non-partisan top five election systemAn act expanding opportunities for voter registrationA act prohibiting political spending by foreign-influenced entit...

Healey’s ‘Climate Czar’ broke ethics rules in leaving EPA, watchdog group alleges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

The Healey Administration’s climate chief violated ethics rules at the EPA after she began the process of seeking a job with the state, according to an ethics complaint filed by a government watchdog group.In a letter dated Aug. 1 and sent to Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General Sean O’Donnell, a group called Protect the Public’s Trust said their investigation into the circumstances surrounding the departure of Melissa Hoffer from her position as EPA Principal Deputy General Counsel revealed the Bay State’s Climate Chief failed to follow the agency’s ethics rules for seeking work outside of the federal government.“Ms. Hoffer served as one the highest-ranking lawyers at EPA, yet she apparently failed to comply with routine ethics obligations when seeking employment with a non-federal entity. While certainly not the first instance PPT has identified at the EPA, the apparent ‘look-the-other-way’ approach to ethics violations under the current administrati...

Graves Light not in the town of Hull, judge rules, settling long-running land dispute

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

A decade after the sale of the long-abandoned Graves Light, a judge ruled it is not in — or subject to taxes from — the town of Hull.“It was basically a history lesson going back into the 1600s, with really old parchments and maps and things like that,” said Dave Waller, co-owner of Graves Light, also known as Graves Ledge. “(Judge Diane Rubin) walked through the evidence, and she really did make the right decision I think.”In a 50-page decision based on documents dating back to the 17th century and expert testimony, Judge Rubin said “Graves Ledge lies neither within the municipal land nor tide water boundaries of the Town of Hull.”The Land Court case kicked off in 2019, six years after Dave and Lynn Waller bought the lighthouse on the Boston Harbor ledge for a record-setting $933,888, when they received a tax bill for $3,461 from the town of Hull.The Wallers said previously the bill came as a surprise, since the deed said the property...

‘Boston has been engaging in blatant discrimination’: Satanic Temple to appeal opening prayer ruling

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

The Satanic Temple plans to appeal a federal court decision that allows the Boston City Council to exclude Satanists from delivering an opening prayer at meetings, saying that the judge who issued the ruling “never hid her bias.”Malcolm Jarry, co-founder of the Salem-based Satanic Temple, said U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley demonstrated “dangerous and corrupt” disregard for the First Amendment when she chose to dismiss the group’s lawsuit against the city.“Boston has been engaging in blatant discrimination, which they even admitted,” Jarry wrote in a Wednesday email to the Herald. “However, during the entire proceedings, U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley never hid her bias.”He added, “Twice she vacated the City of Boston’s defaults. She also interfered with our discovery process by not letting us depose Michelle Wu, who was president of the Boston City Council when we applied to deliver an invocation.”The Satanic Temple filed suit against the City of Boston in January 2...

Monica’s Trattoria anticipated to reopen in the North End this weekend with new manager

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

Monica’s Trattoria has a new manager, and its attorney believes the North End restaurant will reopen this weekend after it shuttered last week while its former leader is being held without bail on attempted murder charges.The Boston Licensing Board on Wednesday unanimously approved a petition to change the manager of Monica’s from Patrick Mendoza to Amanda McQueen, a six-year employee of the popular Italian eatery.“We are hoping to be serving food this weekend,” attorney William Ferullo told the Licensing Board during a quick hearing and meeting in which no members from the public offered testimony.McQueen, a resident of Danvers, said she started at Monica’s in 2017 on the administrative side before becoming a server, floor manager and most recently, an operations manager.In her operations manager role, McQueen said she was at the restaurant for about 40 to 50 hours a week, overseeing 31 employees while also being responsible for interviewing, hiring and training new employees, cond...

Niger’s military ruler warns against foreign meddling, urges population to defend the country

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger’s new military ruler lashed out at neighboring countries and the international community in a nationally televised speech Wednesday night, and he called on the population to be ready to defend the nation.In one of few addresses to the West African country since seizing power from Niger’s democratically elected president a week ago, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani warned against foreign meddling and military intervention against the coup. “We therefore call on the people of Niger as a whole and their unity to defeat all those who want to inflict unspeakable suffering on our hard-working populations and destabilize our country,” Tchiani said.Tchiani, who commands Niger’s presidential guard, also promised to create the conditions for a peaceful transition to elections following his ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum.His speech comes amid rising regional tensions as the West African regional bloc ECOWAS threatens to use military force if Bazoum isn’...

Shopify optimistic about ‘new shape’ of business following layoff, AI announcements

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

Shopify Inc.’s president said a recent move to streamline operations with a significant layoff and bolster merchant offerings with technology like artificial intelligence has left the company well positioned for growth.“The new shape of Shopify is enabling us to make faster decisions, flex with the rapid pace of technology and deliver innovative solutions that increase our merchants’ odds of success,” Harley Finkelstein said on a Wednesday call with analysts.“Even after 17 years and all the changes we have made recently, we know the opportunities for Shopify are only growing.”He said he feels those opportunities lie across several domains: online and in-person commerce, small and medium businesses, direct-to-consumer models, and domestic and global markets.Finkelstein’s optimism comes amid a period of immense change at Shopify, a Canadian tech darling turned e-commerce stalwart that counts Unilever, Nestle and even pop star Taylor Swift amon...

Surfs up takes on new meaning as California waves get bigger as Earth warms, research finds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:23:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Waves are getting bigger and surf at least 13 feet (about 4 meters) tall is becoming more common off California’s coast as the planet warms, according to innovative new research that tracked the increasing height from historical data gathered over the past 90 years.Oceanographer Peter Bromirski at Scripps Institution of Oceanography used the unusual method of analyzing seismic records dating back to 1931 to measure the change in wave height.When waves ricochet off the shore, they collide with incoming waves and cause a ripple of energy through the seafloor that can be picked up by seismographs designed to detect earthquakes. The greater the impact, the taller the wave is.Until now, scientists relied on a network of buoys by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that collect data on wave height along U.S. coasts, but that data along the California coast only went back to 1980.“Until I stumbled upon this data set, it was almost impossible to make that co...