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Feds find airbag inflators defective

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

DETROIT — The U.S. government is taking a big step toward forcing a defiant Tennessee company to recall 52 million air bag inflators that could explode, hurl shrapnel and injure or kill people.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday said it has made an initial decision that the inflators made by ARC Automotive Inc., and under license by another company, are defective. The agency scheduled a public hearing for Oct. 5, a required step before deciding to seek a court-ordered recall.In May the agency asked ARC to recall the inflators, which it says are responsible for at least seven injuries and two deaths in the U.S. and Canada since 2009. But ARC has refused to issue a full-scale recall, setting the stage for the possible court fight.Messages were left seeking comment from ARC. The company maintains that no safety defect exists, that NHTSA’s demand is based on a hypothesis rather than technical conclusions, and that the agency has no authority to order a pa...

Firearms charges dropped against New England Patriots CB Jack Jones

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

The firearms charges against Patriots cornerback Jack Jones were dropped Tuesday.“He’s grateful that the case is resolved, and he’s looking forward to playing football full time,” his defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio told the Herald. “That’s what he wants to do.”Massachusetts State Police troopers stationed at Boston Logan International Airport arrested Jones, 25, the afternoon of June 16 after they say two pistols were found on his carry-on bag as he was going through a TSA security checkpoint.He was charged with two counts each of possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm and possession of a large-capacity feeding device.He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in municipal court in East Boston on June 20, posted $30,000 cash bail and has been out since.Assistant District Attorney John Blazo on Tuesday filed a nolle prosequi, droppi...

SAG-AFTRA march and rally on Labor Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

Greater Boston Labor Council Labor Day breakfast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

Padres to host first-ever rodeo at Petco Park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Padres? More like Yee-Hawdres.The San Diego Padres will host the first-ever rodeo at Petco Park in 2024, the team announced Tuesday.The Padres are teaming up with C5 Rodeo Company and Outriders Present to bring the three-day competition to America's Finest City from Friday, Jan. 12 to Sunday, Jan 14. Petco Park named best MLB ballpark by USA Today The competition will feature "the world’s top cowboys competing for over half a million dollars in prize money," the team said.General sale tickets for the event go on sale Monday, Sept. 18 and can be purchased here.The San Diego Rodeo will follow a string of other big events scheduled at Petco Park to close out 2023 including the Wild Horses Festival with Zach Bryan, the Proper NYE New Year's event, the 2023 Holiday Bowl and concerts from The Revivalists and Band of Horses, Kolohe Kai, Pixies and Modest Mouse, Daniel Caesar, The All-American Rejects and Newfound Glory, RL Grime, Hosier and Deftones.

Fierce storm in southern Brazil kills at least 21 people and displaces more than 1,600

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — At least 21 people died in southern Brazil due to a fierce storm that caused floods in several cities, authorities said Tuesday.Rio Grande do Sul Gov. Eduardo Leite said the death toll is the state’s highest due to a climate event. He said about 60 cities had been battered by the storm, which was classified as an extratropical cyclone.Leite said 15 of the deaths occurred in one house in Mucum, a city of about 50,000 residents.The Rio Grande do Sul state government said it had recorded 1,650 people made homeless since Monday night. TV footage showed familes on the top of their houses pleading for help as rivers overflowed their banks. The city hall at Mucum recommended that residents seek out supplies to meet their needs for the next 72 hours.The governor said one of the dead was a woman who was swept away during a rescue attempt.“I regret the death of a woman in a rescue attempt over the Taquari river,” Leite said in his social media channels. “The wire broke,...

Enbridge to purchase three U.S. utilities for $14 billion in cash and debt

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

CALGARY — Enbridge Inc. has signed a US$14 billion cash-and-debt deal that represents a major vote of confidence by the Canadian company in the future of natural gas.The Calgary-based energy infrastructure giant said Tuesday it will purchase three U.S.-based utility companies— The East Ohio Gas Company, Questar Gas Company and its related Wexpro companies, and the Public Service Company of North Carolina — all of which are owned by Virginia-based Dominion Energy Inc.Enbridge, which plans to finance the deal through a combination of US$9.4 billion of cash consideration and US$4.6 billion of assumed debt, said the deal will double the scale of its gas utility business and will serve to balance its asset mix evenly between natural gas and renewables, and liquids.In a presentation for investors Tuesday afternoon, Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel said the company’s earnings mix is currently about 60 per cent weighted towards crude oil and liquids, and 40 per cent weighted towards natural gas...

To mask or not to mask? Biden goes both ways after first lady tests positive for COVID-19

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden turned up in a mask for the first time in months on Tuesday, a day after his wife tested positive for COVID-19. But the president quickly ditched it during a ceremony honoring an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran, and the two unmasked octogenarians shared a hearty handshake before they parted.The White House had said earlier that Biden, who had tested negative for the virus earlier in the day, would wear a mask indoors, but that he might remove it when standing at a distance from others.The reality looked somewhat different from the promised protocol, a reflection of how messy coronavirus precautions can become at a time when the national emergency has ended and so have mask mandates, but new waves of the virus are cresting. Hospitalizations are up, but not like they were before, and doctors are hoping to get more shots in arms next month when a new booster becomes available. Biden and Capt. Larry Taylor, who both took off their masks after entering t...

Georgia can resume enforcing ban on hormone replacement therapy for transgender youth, judge says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia can resume enforcing a ban on hormone replacement therapy for transgender people under 18, a judge ruled Tuesday, putting her previous order blocking the ban on hold after a federal appeals court allowed Alabama to enforce a similar restriction.Attorneys for the state had asked Judge Sarah Geraghty to vacate the preliminary injunction in light of the Alabama decision.Geraghty did not go that far, but she also said keeping her injunction in place was not possible after last month’s ruling on Alabama’s law by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Georgia. She instead issued a stay, or hold, on her injunction in anticipation of a possible rehearing of the Alabama case before a larger panel of the court’s judges.The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment to a spokeswoman for the Georgia attorney general’s office. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the Georgia case said they would comment later Tuesday.The 1...

Minnesota seeks unifying symbol to replace state flag considered offensive to Native Americans

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:27 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A state commission went to work Tuesday on designing a new state flag and seal for Minnesota to replace a current emblem in both that’s considered offensive to Native Americans.One of the main elements of Minnesota’s state flag includes a prominent state seal against a blue background. The seal depicts a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plows his field with his rifle leaning on a nearby stump. The imagery suggests to many that the Indigenous people were defeated and going away, while whites won and were staying. Not only do the state’s Dakota and Ojibwe tribes consider that offensive, but experts in the scientific and scholarly study of flags — known as vexillology — say it’s an overly complicated design. Guidelines from the North American Vexillological Association say flags should be simple but meaningful, with just a few colors, easily recognizable from a distance, and without seals or lettering. The assoc...