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‘A few’ Boston school students taken to hospital after consuming edibles, district says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

The Boston Public School District says it’s “deeply concerned” after several students ended up in the hospital after eating pot edibles.“I am writing to inform you that today a few students ingested what appeared to be a cannabis-infused food item, otherwise commonly known as an edible,” Henderson K-12 Inclusion School head Stephanie Sibley wrote in a letter to families on Tuesday.She wrote that the investigation into what happened at her school remains ongoing.“School staff immediately notified BPS Safety Services and Boston Police of the incident,” she wrote. “The families of all students involved were immediately notified along with the school nurse. Boston EMS was also notified of the incident, and the students were taken to a local hospital for further medical care as a precaution.”She noted that drugs are prohibited on school grounds and “School staff will conduct searches as outlined in the district’s student search ...

Teen held in Texas school shooting that left 1 dead, 1 hurt

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A 15-year-old arrested in a fatal shooting outside a Dallas-area high school will remain in custody following a Tuesday detention hearing, the boy’s lawyer said.The Monday shooting on a high school campus in the suburb of Arlington left one student dead from a gunshot wound and another injured by shrapnel. The early-morning gunfire prompted officials at Lamar High School to lock the building down for hours, although police said they arrested a student on a capital murder charge stemming from the shooting within minutes.Lisa Herrick, a court-appointed attorney for the boy, said that after questioning, a state judge Tuesday found there was probable cause for the teen’s arrest. The judge ordered he remain at a juvenile detention for the next 10 days after which his custody will be re-evaluated, Herrick said. Herrick said prosecutors are yet to formally charge the boy, but that in addition to the capital murder charge Arlington police referred a terro...

US ‘concerned’ by Mexican seizure of Alabama company’s port

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it was “concerned about the fair treatment of our companies in Mexico” after Mexican police seized a cargo terminal owned by an Alabama-based company. Mexico’s seizure of the Caribbean cargo port stretched into its second week Tuesday. Police are holding the port and have apparently used it to unload cargo from a Mexican cement and aggregates company, Cemex.The Alabama company, Vulcan Materials, said Tuesday that police and prosecutors still had not presented any legal paperwork to justify the seizure. The State Department said that “cases like these have the potential to impact our ability to achieve our shared vision for improving livelihoods in one of Mexico’s most economically disadvantaged regions. It also impacts Mexico’s efforts to attract future investments.”The office of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has not responded to requests to comment on the issue. The president has been publicly sparring with Vul...

Springsteen, Kaling, Louis-Dreyfus among 22 honored by Biden

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden welcomed a high-wattage collection of singers, authors, artists and humanitarians to the White House on Tuesday to present them with medals — and then stole the show himself with a quip about seeking reelection.Bruce Springsteen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling and Gladys Knight were among the 22 people and organizations being honored. When author Colson Whitehead’s award was announced, Biden noted that the author of “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys” has already won back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes. The president, who is expected to announce for reelection this spring, quickly picked up on that and joked that he was looking “for a back-to-back myself,” drawing a laugh from the audience.It was a feel-good event in the East Room, as the honorees stepped forward to receive their awards one by one. Louis-Dreyfus, who channeled Biden’s resume when she starred in “Veep,” jokingly sagged under the weight when the president placed the medal...

Fox, Dominion face off over airing of false election claims

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Fox News and a voting machine company that claims the conservative network defamed it by amplifying baseless allegations of fraud following the 2020 presidential election faced off in a courtroom Tuesday during a key hearing over whether journalists have a responsibility to be cautious with explosive and implausible allegations.Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems argued that Fox recklessly repeated false accusations from supporters of former President Donald Trump that its machines and the software used were responsible for Trump’s 2020 election loss. Documents released during the lawsuit have shown that top Fox executives and personalities didn’t believe the claims but aired them anyway.“There was a deliberate decision by those responsible for the broadcasts … to let the story be out there,” Dominion attorney Rodney Smolla said, adding that Fox News was desperate to win back viewers infuriated that the network had correctly called Arizona, a key...

Data shows big drop in Ontario Mpox cases in 2022, Toronto Public Health urges 2nd vaccine doses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

As Ontario continues to see a low number of new Mpox cases in 2023, Toronto Public Health officials are urging people who got a first dose of Imvamune but not their second to make an appointment to do so.“It’s not gone … we’re still seeing some transmission although it’s quite low,” Dr. Rita Shahin, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health, said during a recent interview with CityNews.“The vaccine, although it’s not 100 per cent effective, really reduces the severity of the disease for individuals.”According to the latest Public Health Ontario surveillance report, there have been 703 confirmed Mpox cases to date in the province and more than 73 per cent of those cases were confirmed by Toronto Public Health.The report said 20 people were hospitalized and two of those individuals had to be admitted to an intensive care unit. No one in Canada has died of Mpox, but Shahin noted Mpox can be life-threatening to people with ...

Number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico drops 22%

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The number of monarch butterflies wintering in the mountains of central Mexico dropped 22% from the previous year, and the number of trees lost from their favored wintering grounds tripled.Frost and “extreme temperatures” in the United States may have played a role in the butterfly’s decline during the most recent winter season, said Humberto Peña, director of Mexico’s nature reserves.Monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada overwinter in the fir forests of the western state of Michoacan, west of Mexico City. The total area they occupied this past winter dropped to 5.4 acres (2.21 hectares), from 7 acres (2.84 hectares) a year earlier.The annual butterfly count doesn’t calculate the individual number of butterflies, but rather the number of acres they cover when they clump together on tree boughs.Gloria Tavera, conservation director of Mexico’s Commission for National Protected Areas, said the area of forest cover appropriate for the bu...

Some Android users should turn off Wi-Fi calling due to security concerns, Google team warns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

(NEXSTAR) - If you have an Android phone, you may want to stop using Wi-Fi calling, a team of security experts with Google warns. Earlier this month, Google's Project Zero team confirmed it had found multiple vulnerabilities in Exynos chipsets, made by Samsung. Of those, four can allow "Internet-to-baseband remote code execution," giving hackers the ability to remotely compromise certain Android phones. The hacker would only need to know your phone number, explained Project Zero, a team of security researchers that study zero-day vulnerabilities, which are flaws in software that are known but don't yet have a patch to protect against them. Fungus an ‘urgent’ threat, already in 28 states: CDC "With limited additional research and development, we believe that skilled attackers would be able to quickly create an operational exploit to compromise affected devices silently and remotely."The remaining 14 vulnerabilities found by Project Zero were determined to be "not as severe."Device...

Chicago native spreading message of kindness on World Down Syndrome Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

CHICAGO - More than anything, Nate Simon, a Chicago native with Down syndrome, wants more people to be kind and supportive of those with the condition. He's hoping his clothing line, 21 Pineapples, spreads awareness and acceptance about the genetic disorder."I just want more love and support," Nate Simon told WGN News.The 20-year-old and his mom, Holly Simon, appeared on the WGN News at 4 p.m. to talk about World Down Syndrome Day and their work to change people's perception of those with Down Syndrome and special abilities "one Hawaiian Shirt at a time."Read more: Latest Chicago news headlines"When Nate was born, they told me an entire book's worth of what Nate wouldn't be able to do, but no one came in the room and said, 'he could be a CEO;' 'he could be a model;' so I as a mom had to pave those ways for him. And we're doing a great job at it. We've got so many friends out there that are creating their own companies and businesses and showing people that kids with Down Syndrome ar...

A one-woman mission to save 15 duck eggs from being destroyed in Cedar Park H-E-B parking lot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Mieka Davenport was headed Saturday to her local H-E-B in Cedar Park when she spotted two black-bellied whistling ducks in the parking lot. “There's no water or anything around, so they were kind of out of place,” Davenport said. “We were curious as to what they were doing because they seemed a little distressed.”Davenport is a self-described “crazy bird lady,” so she wanted to figure out why the ducks were behaving abnormally. She noticed a blighted tree with a hole in the center. When she approached the tree to look inside, the ducks began frantically quacking. “And sure enough, [there was] a whole bunch of eggs – 14, 15 or more eggs,” Davenport said. “I was very concerned because they're not going to make it in a parking lot [and] there's no water.”And, even more concerning, she said there was a marker on the tree, indicating it would be removed. Davenport contacted Austin Wildlife Rescue, which advised her to wait a couple more weeks before re...