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Education commissioner names ‘attendance priority schools’ to address ‘staggering’ chronic absenteeism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley announced Tuesday he will not name the typical “chronically underperforming schools” this year, shifting focus instead to “attendance priority schools” to address a persistent, chronic absenteeism crisis.“While (underperforming) designations have served us well in the past, in reviewing the data this year, it’s clear that we need a different approach, one based on collaboration and working together as opposed to merely labeling schools,” Riley said at a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting Tuesday morning. “One that is focused laser focus on school attendance.”Though the attendance has begun to recover from the pandemic peak — from 28% absenteeism statewide to 22% this year — the schools across the state are still at “unprecedented” levels of absenteeism. From 2019 to 2023, according to DESE data, chronic absenteeism has grown 72%.Chronic absenteeism i...

Patriots coaches confirm injured All-Pro out for the season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

Patriots cornerback/returner Marcus Jones will miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury, multiple assistant coaches confirmed Tuesday.“It’s unfortunate,” cornerbacks coach Mike Pellegrino said, as transcribed by NESN.com. “We’d love to have him this year, but (it’s a) different plan, different path for him this year. He’ll grow from it. The experience isn’t a good one, but he’s a mentally tough guy. He’ll push through it, he’ll come back stronger.”Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Patriots-Bills film review: How Bill O’Brien and Mac Jones found a winning formula New England Patriots | Patriots QB Mac Jones opens up on playing for Bill Belichick New England Patriots | Why Patriots first-round flier ate into DeVante Parker’s snaps in win over Bills New England Patriots | Bill Belichick gives more context to key Patriots personnel switch in win over Bills New England Patriots | ...

Emmer emerges as House GOP's pick for Speaker: Live coverage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (Minn.) emerged Tuesday as the Republican conference's nominee for House Speaker as the chamber tries to elect a leader. It took five rounds of votes to get to consensus.Emmer beat House Republican Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson (La.).The day started with eight candidates. Over the course of about three hours, candidates were dropped through the internal voting process or stepped aside.Emmer now needs to reach 217 votes on the House floor to become Speaker.The conference's first nominee for Speaker — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) — withdrew his name before even receiving a floor vote when it became clear he couldn't reach that threshold. Its second nominee — House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — lost three votes on the House floor before the House GOP voted to remove him as its nominee.Follow along with live updates below.

NHL rescinds Pride tape ban, NHL players to have option to use it for social causes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

The NHL, NHLPA and NHL Player Inclusion Coalition have agreed that players will be able to represent social causes with stick tape this season, including games and practices, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Tuesday.This issue has been a hot-button topic since the NHL banned all pre-game tributes ahead of this season.Arizona Coyotes defenceman Travis Dermott is the first player known to have disobeyed the ban when he put rainbow tape on his stick for a game Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks.The NHL made the decision to ban Pride tape and specialty jerseys — widely seen as a promising step, if performative, to promote inclusivity in a largely insular hockey culture — after several notable players across the league publicly opted out of participating in Pride Night activities, including Ivan Provorov and Andrei Kuzmenko. Related: Flyers’ Provorov cites religion for boycott on Pride night Speaking on Sportsnet’s Halford & Brough e...

Hungary in the spotlight after Turkey presses on with Sweden’s bid to join NATO

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The Hungarian parliament on Tuesday refused a proposal to hold a vote on Sweden’s bid to join NATO, further delaying the Nordic country’s inclusion in the military alliance. Hungary is the main hurdle to Sweden’s admission into NATO after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan submitted a protocol to Turkey’s parliament on Monday to approve its admission. All 31 allies must endorse the accession.The governing Fidesz party — led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who is widely considered one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s only allies in the EU — which holds an absolute majority in the Hungarian parliament, has stalled Sweden’s bid since July 2022, alleging that Swedish politicians have told “blatant lies” about the condition of Hungary’s democracy. Fidesz lawmakers blocked the Tuesday proposal to schedule a vote, according to Agnes Vadai, a lawmaker with Hungary’s opposition Democratic Coalition party and a former secretary of st...

Montana man pleads not guilty to charges that he threatened to kill former House Speaker McCarthy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges that he threatened to assault and murder former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Richard Lee Rogers of Yellowstone County in southern Montana entered the plea during an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan in federal court in Billings. Rogers is charged with threats to injure and murder a member of Congress, which carries a 10-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine. He faces a second charge of making harassing telephone calls.The threats allegedly happened Feb. 3, several weeks after Republicans elected McCarthy to his short-lived tenure as speaker —which was characterized by frequent clashes with hard-right members of his own party.A grand jury indictment filed last month said the threats were intended as retaliation for McCarthy’s actions as House speaker but did not provide details. The indictment said Rogers made repeated interstate phone calls “solely to harass a perso...

Atlanta temporarily closes 3 fire stations as city amid truck, firefighter shortages

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — The city of Atlanta has temporarily closed three of its more than 30 fire stations because of truck breakdowns and a shortage of firefighters.Atlanta Fire Rescue Chief Roderick Smith told a City Council committee of the closures on Monday.Smith told the committee that the department had 17 fire trucks out of service on Monday, including eight of 31 fire engines and nine of 15 ladder trucks. Many of the trucks are being repaired, but those repairs can take months.Some other trucks, while still running, don’t have their full capabilities.“Right now I think we’re down to two or three fully operational ladder trucks in the whole city,” said Dustin Hillis, chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee.While Hillis described the fire truck fleet as being “in shambles”, Smith told council members the situation while serious, is “not in a dire space right now.” He said the city is working to replace its reserve fleet.Firefighters have seen the number ...

U.S. states sue Meta claiming Facebook, Instagram are addictive and harming children’s mental health

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

Dozens of U.S. states, including California and New York, are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for harming young people’s mental health and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.The lawsuit filed in federal court in California also claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms,” the complaint says. “It has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.”The Meta logo is seen at the Vivate...

Grain farmers hit by seaway strike, as management asks labour board for exception

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

MONTREAL — Grain farmers, steelmakers and fertilizer shippers are all feeling the squeeze from a strike by St. Lawrence Seaway workers.The job action by 361 Unifor members at 13 of the 15 locks along the key trade corridor kicked off Sunday, shutting it down immediately.Crosby Devitt, who heads the Grain Farmers of Ontario, says the majority of crops yielded by the 28,000 producers he represents are exported, as farmers wrap up the soybean harvest and begin to reap corn.Devitt says there is no export alternative to the seaway, which runs between Lake Erie and Montreal and carried $16.7 billion worth of cargo last year — nearly half of it grain and iron ore.The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. says it has applied to the Canada Industrial Relations Board for an exception on the transport of grain, a request that if granted would see the commodity flow through the artery despite the strike.Meanwhile, Algoma Central, the biggest domestic ship operator on the Great Lakes, has said ma...

Stranded at a closed border as bombs fall, foreign nationals in besieged Gaza await evacuation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:00 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — For more than a week, Talaat Ghabayen, a citizen of Norway who spent his whole life in Oslo, has waited days and nights at the Gaza Strip’s land crossing with Egypt as his embassy advised, hoping to flee Israel’s bombardment and looming ground invasion and reunite with his wife and sons back home.“Egypt is literally meters away, I can see it,” Ghabayen, a 54-year-old insurance agent who traveled to Gaza before the war erupted for his mother’s funeral, said Tuesday from the Rafah crossing. Under intense Western pressure, the gates at Rafah opened over the weekend for the first time since the war broke out, letting a trickle of humanitarian aid into the besieged strip and stoking hopes that hundreds of foreign nationals trapped in Gaza would be able to cross into safety.But with each passing hour, Ghabayen loses hope. And each day that Rafah remains shut, he said, is another day that he could die. “They tell us to go south, then they bo...