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Water quality grades are in for Boston-area rivers: How did the Charles, Mystic and Neponset score?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

The annual water quality grades for the three rivers that flow into Boston Harbor — the Charles, Mystic and Neponset rivers — were released on Thursday, revealing a mix of progress and sliding scores across the region.In the Charles River, EPA grades ranged from A’s in the upper and middle watershed, B’s in the headwaters and Lower Basin, and a C in the Muddy River.Some areas saw grades drop slightly due to various factors, according to environmental officials. They noted that increased rainfall, drought, and heat from climate change has led to combined sewer overflows (CSOs), stormwater pollution, low water levels, and toxic cyanobacteria blooms.The upper watershed fell from a B+ in 2021 to a B last year, the upper middle watershed decreased from an A in 2021 to an A-, and similar trends were seen in the Stop River (B+) and Lower Basin (B).The Muddy River’s grade improved from a C- to a C. But a C grade is still not acceptable, the officials emphasized...

Ed Flynn is Boston’s acting mayor while Michelle Wu takes 10-day break

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

City Council President Ed Flynn will be Boston’s acting mayor for 10 days while Michelle Wu takes a family vacation, her office said.Wu filed a letter of absence with City Clerk Alex Geourntas on Wednesday, stating that she will be “out of town” until Saturday, Aug. 12 at 10 p.m. She left Boston at 10 a.m. on Thursday, temporarily relinquishing her mayoral authority to Flynn.Per the city charter, the president of the council is acting mayor “whenever the mayor is absent from the city or unable from any cause to perform his duties, and whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the mayor from any cause.”“Yes, I am acting mayor,” Flynn told the Herald. “It is in the city charter.”Flynn will “perform the duties of mayor” while Wu’s “absence, inability or vacancy continues,” the charter states.He will also preside over next Wednesday’s City Council meeting, which overlaps with his time as acting mayor.“I’m honored to work closely with the Wu administration, city officials,...

Ex-NFL QB Alex Smith gears up to bike 200 miles across Massachusetts for the Pan-Mass Challenge; last year has been ‘extremely difficult’ as daughter fights brain tumor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

A few years after suffering a catastrophic leg injury, former NFL QB Alex Smith is aiming to bike 200 miles across the Bay State in this weekend’s Pan-Mass Challenge as he raises money for cancer research.The bike-a-thon fundraiser for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has become quite personal for the ex-quarterback, he told the Herald this week. Last year, his daughter Sloane was diagnosed with a very rare brain tumor.“It has changed our lives forever,” Smith said ahead of this weekend’s PMC. “The last year-plus has been extremely difficult.”His daughter last May was rushed to the ER with stroke-like symptoms. After an MRI, doctors discovered that she had a very rare brain tumor — called a neuroepithelial tumor — and she needed to undergo an emergency craniotomy.Sloane bounced back from the brain surgery, but the tumor remains an unknown. She has to get scanned every eight weeks, and she underwent another resection a few months ago. Again...

Court throws out conviction after judge says Black man ‘looks like a criminal to me’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

By ED WHITE (Associated Press)DETROIT (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday overturned the drug conviction of a Black man, saying his rights were violated by a Detroit federal judge who was upset over delays in the case and declared: “This guy looks like a criminal to me.”“Such remarks are wholly incompatible with the fair administration of justice,” the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III, who is white, apologized nearly two years later when the case against Leron Liggins finally was ready for trial. He explained that he was mad at the time “and I regret it.”Nonetheless, the appeals court said Murphy should have removed himself as Liggins’ attorney had requested. The court threw out a heroin distribution conviction and 10-year prison sentence and ordered a new trial with a different judge.Allowing the conviction to stand “would substantially undermine the public’s confidence in the j...

Patriots training camp Day 9: Jack Jones stops practicing, Mac Jones keeps rolling, Kendrick Bourne catches on

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

FOXBORO — History would suggest Jack Jones sauntered off the Patriots’ practice field by himself after receiving zero medical attention Thursday because he was ejected.A minute before he left, Jones broke up a pass intended for Kendrick Bourne during an 11-on-11 period. A crowd of players immediately gathered at the spot where they had fallen near the defensive sideline. After standing up, Jones spoke with Jabrill Peppers as they paced the sideline together and walked away from the play.Then, the young corner walked away from everybody, his head down as he ambled down a staircase and back into the stadium. It was the same path dozens of Patriots have taken over two decades under Bill Belichick for fighting, throwing a punch or committing some other cardinal sin of practice.Except 20 minutes later, Jones returned.He strolled back onto the same field and took a knee on the defensive sideline, where director of player personnel Matt Groh dropped to his level. They spoke for just ...

Climber who died on El Cajon Mountain remembered as loving husband, teacher

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Thirty-four-year-old Adam Shmidt is being remembered as a man who gave everything he did -- his all -- as a teacher, loving husband and avid climber. Shmidt died while hiking and climbing El Cajon Mountain, or El Capitan, in Lakeside. He left home to hike around 9 a.m. Monday, and was supposed to return home by 2 p.m. When he didn't come home, his family called authorities. On Tuesday around 8:45 a.m., crews found a man’s body in their search for a 34-year-old hiker near one of the hiking trails on El Cajon Mountain. Mountain biker dies while trying to save dehydrated hikers in Jacumba Becca Fink, Shmidt's wife of 13 years, told FOX 5, "... on July 31 he went to the place where he felt most connected to himself and nature. Adam died doing his favorite thing in his favorite place."She shared the following words to honor her husband:"Adam Shmidt seized every opportunity that life gave him. If he had an interest in something, it would fully consume him. As summer began, ...

Florida man who dropped appeals is executed for 1988 hammer killing of a nurse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

A Florida man who recently dropped all legal appeals was executed Thursday for the 1988 murder of a woman who was sexually assaulted, killed with a hammer and then set on fire in her own bed.James Phillip Barnes, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke. Lying on a gurney, Barnes appeared to already have his eyes shut when the curtain was opened for witnesses. He didn’t respond when prison officials asked if he had a final statement, and he remained motionless except for breathing for about 10 minutes until that stopped. A doctor then pronounced him dead. The 61-year-old inmate was sentenced to death for the murder of nurse Patricia “Patsy” Miller. It was the fifth execution in Florida this year.Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife, 44-year-old Linda Barnes, when he wrote letters in 2005 to a state prosecutor claiming responsibility for killing Miller years earlier at her condomini...

A Learjet pilot thought he was cleared to take off. He wasn’t. Luckily, JetBlue pilots saw him

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

Federal investigators said Thursday that the pilot of a charter jet took off without permission, creating a “conflict” with a JetBlue plane that was preparing to land on an intersecting runway at Boston’s Logan International Airport in February.A screen grab from video shot from the JetBlue cockpit captures the moment that the Learjet operated by charter service Hop-A-Jet crossed the runway just in front of the JetBlue plane.Pilots of the JetBlue Embraer jet estimated they were about 30 feet (9 meters) off the ground when they saw a plane cross in front of them — the captain said he couldn’t estimate how close they were to the smaller plane, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The JetBlue pilots were able to pull up and circle around and land safely. The captain of the Hop-A-Jet said he heard air traffic controllers tell him to line up and wait before taking off — and even repeated the order back to the controller — “but in his mind, they...

Man survives being stabbed through the head with a flagpole, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A man is expected to survive being stabbed through the head with a flagpole at a fast-food restaurant in Oklahoma, police said Thursday. The stabbing occurred Wednesday evening at a Sonic in Tulsa and ended with the arrest of Clinton Collins, who was charged with felony maiming, the Tulsa Police Department said in statement. The police department statement did identify the victim or provide an age for Collins. “The pole entered the victim’s head beneath his jaw and exited the other side of his head near his right temple area,” police said. “The American Flag was still attached the pole at the time.” Firefighters with the Tulsa Fire Department had to cut part of the flagpole in order to fit the victim into an ambulance, police said. “Miraculously, we’re told the victim will survive his injuries, but will likely lose an eye,” police said. Witnesses told investigators that they saw Collins charge at the victim and stab him with the flagpole, according to the police ...

Mexican marines find 110 pounds of dynamite in drug cartel lab

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:10 GMT

Mexican marines found 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of dynamite hidden in a methamphetamine laboratory run by a drug cartel, the navy said Thursday.The navy said the explosives may have been intended for use in “mines and explosive artifacts” of the kind that cartels have been increasingly using to attack law enforcement personnel in Mexico.“It could be used to manufacture bombs, as well as mines and other explosive artifacts that would be capable of damaging highly armored vehicles,” the Navy Depaertment said in a statement.Other explosives were also found at the site, a cave-like structure in the northern state of Sinaloa. Sinaloa is the headquarters of the drug cartel of the same name. Marines also found three other drug labs holding almost one ton (8,620 kilograms) of “nearly finished” meth in the raids that took place starting Monday. In July, another drug cartel set off a coordinated series of seven roadway bombs in western Mexico that killed four police officers and two civilians...