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2030? Pffft! Balkan leaders slam EU chief’s enlargement timeline 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

Balkan leaders blasted European Council President Charles Michel’s 2030 target for EU enlargement.EU candidate countries accused the Brussels institutions of shifting the goalposts and expressed a number of concerns with Michel’s timeline.Speaking at a forum in Bled, Slovenia, on Monday, the Council chief indicated that the EU should be ready to accept new members in 2030 in a bid to re-energize the EU’s enlargement debate. But his words were met with annoyance from Western Balkan leaders and the European Commission, which refused to endorse the target.Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama expressed doubts that his country will be ready to join by 2030 — but he pinned the blame on Brussels for that.“There should not be only reforms and criticism that are necessary, but also the most consistent support, and I’m not talking only from the financial point of view, but also the market access of our enterprises,” the Albanian leader said, noting that the EU is lagging behind the U.S. and China...

Indict 2, Get None Free: 2 Taunton women indicted for counterfeit coupon ring, stealing $27K worth of goods

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

A grand jury has handed down indictments for two women who authorities say ran a counterfeit coupon ring that netted $27,000 worth of stolen goods.The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday that Jacqueline White, 41, and Crystal Travis, 40, were indicted on multiple larceny-related charges following a months-long investigation by police in Hingham, Abington and the Coupon Information Center (CIC), a non-profit that focuses on fighting coupon fraud.“The indictments allege that from March 10, 2023 through June 2, 2023, White and Travis entered numerous Stop and Shop grocery stores in Massachusetts, and used counterfeit coupons to steal approximately $26,547 of products,” the DA’s office stated in a news release. “The indictments further allege that White and Travis operated a complex scheme using social media sites and apps like Facebook and Dropbox to purchase counterfeit coupons.”Authorities said the two women would allege...

Millions more workers would be entitled to overtime pay under a proposed Biden administration rule

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration will propose a new rule Tuesday that would make 3.6 million more U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay, reviving an Obama-era policy effort that was ultimately scuttled in court.The new rule, shared with The Associated Press ahead of the announcement, would require employers to pay overtime to so-called white collar workers who make less than $55,000 a year. That’s up from the current threshold of $35,568, which has been in place since 2019 when Trump administration raised it from $23,660. In another significant change, the rule proposes automatic increases to the salary level each year.Labor advocates and liberal lawmakers have long pushed a strong expansion of overtime protections, which have sharply eroded over the past decades due to wage stagnation and inflation. The new rule, which is subject to a publicly commentary period and wouldn’t take effect for months, would have the biggest impact on retail, food, hospita...

Howie Carr: Police reform report arresting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

It’s great to be a cop – at least a politically connected cop.Of course, if you’re a cop who’s not wired, you might as well be wearing a red MAGA cap, because they’re going to throw the book at you, or at least try to make your life miserable for a while.That’s my first takeaway from reading the 318-page report from the new MA Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission.It details more than 3000 disciplinary proceedings against cops, and once again, the old saying seems to apply:“In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.”First thing that’s obvious: the Mass. State Police motto should be “Omerta” – silence.I heard this spring from a guy who’s been all tangled up in a family domestic dispute with a state cop. He complained to what is called the Office of Professional Integrity and Accountability (don’t laugh; not a joke!) claiming that this trooper had been running his family’s license plates, compulsively.The guy showed me the official letter he got years ...

Callahan: The Patriots failed to help Mac Jones this offseason and paid for it on cutdown day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

After Tuesday’s flurry of 53-man roster cuts, only one player will report to the Patriots’ quarterbacks room Wednesday morning.Just two players will walk into the running backs meeting.And close to a dozen, in fact 11, hulking, giant, sweaty offensive linemen will rumble into their own sitdown with new coach Adrian Klemm.How did we get here? How did the Patriots get here?Go back to March. Armed with more cap space than virtually the entire league, the Pats went bargain shopping at offensive tackle.Riley Reiff signed a one-year, $5 million deal. Calvin Anderson inked a two-year contract with a maximum value of $7 million. Conor McDermott re-signed with the Pats before he could even hit the open market.Now? Reiff is hurt because he was forced to play in the preseason finale at a new position. McDermott is out for the year, also hurt. And Anderson recently recovered from a serious illness that wiped out his entire training camp and once had him worried about his future in f...

With eyes on ‘playing an extra month,’ Orioles’ six-man rotation exceeding expectations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

The Orioles’ use of a six-man rotation isn’t only to get the team’s inexperienced starters through the regular season. Baltimore has its eyes on what will follow.“We’re planning on playing an extra month,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’ve got to get there first.”The way the change has worked thus far, it’s hard to envision the Orioles not reaching the postseason. In the 16 games since left-hander Cole Irvin made his first start back in the rotation to stretch it to six, the Orioles’ starters have a 3.30 ERA and 1.047 WHIP. Baltimore ranked fourth and second, respectively, in those metrics among all rotations in that span even before right-hander Dean Kremer allowed one run over six innings in Tuesday night’s 9-3 win over the Chicago White Sox.Asked whether the sextet has met his expectations, Hyde responded, “and then some,” then knocked on the table in front of him in hopes of avoiding a jinx on th...

Rescues underway for migrants on board sailboats off the coast of western Greece and in Cyclades

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Two rescue operations were underway Wednesday for migrants crammed on board sailboats, one far off the coast of a western Greek island and the other off the coast of a Cycladic island near the Greek capital, the coast guard said.A group of 76 people were rescued from a sailing boat in distress 64 nautical miles (74 miles, 118 kilometers) southwest of the Ionian Sea island of Zakynthos in western Greece, the coast guard said. All were taken on board a passing Egyptian-flagged cargo ship, and there were no reports of any missing people.It was not immediately clear where the sailboat had set out from, but the area lies on the route often used by smuggling vessels carrying migrants from northern Africa to Italy.In the second incident, a rescue operation was launched for a “sizeable number” of people on board a sailboat near the northwestern coast of Kythnos island, one of the Cyclades to the southeast of the Greek capital.It was not immediately clear how many peopl...

Universities pull course info from public sites for safety, faculty want more say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

Several Ontario universities are removing course location and other information from their public websites as a safety measure, as faculty representatives look to be more involved in efforts to prevent harassment and hate crimes on campus.The move to pull some information from public pages comes after a triple stabbing at a University of Waterloo gender studies class in June, which police described as a hate-motivated attack.The school removed class locations and instructor names from its public websites after the stabbing and several other post-secondary institutions have either done the same or are considering the measure.In Toronto, York University and the University of Toronto said they were taking down course room locations from the public domain, while Toronto Metropolitan University said it does not publicly post any class scheduling information.“Based on consultations this summer and with security in mind, room information has been removed from the University’s publicl...

Greenpeace releases animated video in campaign against fossil fuel sponsorship of Rugby World Cup

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Environmental group Greenpeace released an animated video Wednesday showing a massive amount of oil flooding the field for the upcoming opening game of the Rugby World Cup in a campaign against fossil fuel sponsorship of big sporting events.The video takes aim at energy giant TotalEnergies, a sponsor of the event in France.The film shows the Stade de France seconds before the start of the first match of the tournament between France and New Zealand on Sept. 8. Oil spills out of TotalEnergies advertising boards hanging in the stadium.“The global fossil fuel industry extracts enough oil to fill a rugby stadium every 3 hours and 37 minutes,” Greenpeace said.The environmental group said Rugby World Cup Limited tried to block the release of the video on Tuesday on the eve of its release.“But we won’t be silenced,” said Edina Ifticene, a campaigner at Greenpeace France. “Fossil fuel companies like TotalEnergies sponsor events like the Rugby World Cup to distract everyone from...

176 global leaders and Nobel laureates urge Bangladesh to halt cases against Peace Prize winner

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:24 GMT

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — More than 170 global leaders and Nobel laureates have urged Bangladesh’s prime minister to suspend legal proceedings against Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people.In an open letter, the leaders, including former U.S. President Barack Obama, former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and more than 100 Nobel laureates, said they were deeply concerned by recent threats to democracy and human rights in Bangladesh.“One of the threats to human rights that concerns us in the present context is the case of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. We are alarmed that he has recently been targeted by what we believe to be continuous judicial harassment,” said the letter, dated Tuesday. “We are confident that any thorough review of the anti-corruption and labor law cases against him will result in his acquittal,” it said.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina responded by...