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Ticker: Workers’ comp rate to drop 10%; Amazon’s iRobot deal under UK scrutiny

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

Massachusetts businesses got a break on the high-cost front Wednesday with news that workers’ compensation rates will drop an average of 10%.Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced the settlement with the Workers’ Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau and the State Rating Bureau, saying it will enable businesses to save about $130 million on workers’ comp insurance starting July 1.“By lowering workers’ compensation insurance rates, we can help better protect workers and ensure that small businesses can offer higher wages, better benefits and lower prices,” Campbell said in a statement.Campbell’s office said this year’s rate case started earlier than is required by statute because the AG “secured an order requiring that rates be reviewed sooner than the usual two-year cycle.”Amazon’s iRobot deal under UK scrutinyBritish antitrust regulators have started investigating Amazon’s purchase of robot vacuum maker...

FDA orders premature birth drug off market

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

WASHINGTON  — The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ordered the immediate market withdrawal of a drug intended to prevent premature births, which has remained available for years despite data showing it doesn’t help pregnant women.The decision follows repeated efforts by Swiss drugmaker Covis Pharma to keep Makena on the U.S. market while it conducted additional studies. The medication was the only drug approved in the U.S. to help reduce the risk of early births in women with a history of preterm deliveries.In recent months, Covis finally bowed to FDA pressure, proposing a “winding down” period of several months so that women taking the drug could complete their treatment. The FDA rejected that and said Thursday that the action against Makena and several generic versions should take effect immediately.“Makena and its generics are no longer approved and cannot lawfully be distributed in interstate commerce,” the agency said in a statement.The inj...

Downtown sports bar Sons of Boston to reopen under a new name, Loyal Nine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

Sons of Boston will no longer bear that name when the downtown sports bar near Faneuil Hall reopens following a yearlong closure.The city Licensing Board voted unanimously Thursday for ownership group Causeway Union LLC to change the bar’s name to Loyal Nine, honoring a group of Boston colonists.Sons of Boston closed last spring after a bouncer allegedly stabbed a patron to death.The Loyal Nine formed in reaction to the passage of the Stamp Act 1765, which required colonists to pay a British-imposed tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents and playing cards.Shopkeepers and artisans, who comprised the Loyal Nine, looked to prevent the Stamp Act from taking effect by holding protests throughout the city, according to the Boston Tea Party Museum. The group often met at the former Boston Gazette newspaper in the area of Union Street, Sons of Boston’s attorney Carolyn Conway told the Licensing Board on Wednesday.During a phone call with the Herald, Conway said s...

Easter egg hunts in San Diego this week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- For those looking to fill their children's Easter baskets with joy and and chocolate this week, let this be your ultimate guide to finding the most golden of eggs. You can't say some-bunny didn't fill you in -- here are some go-to spots for Easter egg hunts in San Diego that are sure make this holiday a hoppy one. Nip it in the bud: How to ward off spring allergies in San Diego East County-- San Diego Animal Sanctuary & Farm: Hop on over to the farm for an Easter celebration in nature at The Children’s Nature Retreat, located at 5178 Japatul Spur in Alpine. The farm is organizing four egg hunts starting at 11 a.m. from Thursday to Sunday this week. The cost is $12 per basket, along with regular admission fees. Each child can take home home up to 12 eggs. Tickets can be purchased here.-- Pacific Southwest Railway Museum: Families can first hop on the "Bunny Train" at the Campo Depot for a 45-minute ride to the museum’s Display Building, where two Easter egg hunting...

Israel begins airstrikes in Gaza following rocket fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says it has struck targets in the Gaza Strip following a day of rocket fire from the Palestinian territory and from Lebanon.A pair of explosions were heard in Gaza late Thursday. It was not immediately clear what was targeted.The airstrikes came as Israel’s Security Cabinet was meeting to discuss a response to the rocket fire.Tensions have been rising in recent days following unrest at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site — where police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque and beat Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside. The violence in Jerusalem has led to repeated rocket fire from Gaza. On Thursday, militants in Lebanon fired over 30 rockets into Israel as well.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised an “aggressive response.” THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.JERUSALEM (AP) — Militants in Lebanon fired a heavy barrage of rockets at Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, forcing...

Few details in SF stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Details of how tech executive Bob Lee came to be fatally stabbed in downtown San Francisco early Tuesday were scarce as friends and family continued to mourn the man they called brilliant, kind and unlike others in the industry.San Francisco police found Lee, 43, on the sidewalk in front of a condominium building with stab wounds shortly after 2:35 a.m. Tuesday. He was taken to a hospital where he died. He leaves behind two children. The neighborhood where the stabbing occurred is near the Embarcadero waterfront and full of tech offices, towering condominium buildings and not much else late at night. Lee is known for creating the widely-used mobile payment service Cash App while working as chief technology officer of the payment company Square, now known as Block. He was chief product officer for cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin at the time of his death.Lee was back in San Francisco for a visit after moving to Miami in October, his father, Rick Lee, said on social...

Family looking for answers after man dies in custody at Etobicoke detention centre

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

The family of Anthony Chatzimanolakis is looking for answers after the 30-year-old died while in custody at the South Toronto Detention Centre in Etobicoke in late March.An overdose is being investigated as the likely cause.“He was just like a crazy, in a good way, good-hearted person that would take the shirt off his back for anybody and he had a big heart, and he loved his family a lot,” shared his sister Melissa. “Anytime he walked into a room, he lit up the room. He was the life of the party.”She tells CityNews her late brother was her best friend and an involved uncle with a keen interest in motorcycles and dirt bikes. Anthony was also recently engaged.Melissa described their family as small but close knight. “We’re devastated. We’re broken. In complete shock.”Anthony was arrested in mid-September of last year on charges including car theft and possessing a loaded gun. His case was still before the courts, and he had not been convicted.“Your first thought is how are...

Kansas OKs bill on opting kids out of LGBTQ-themed lessons

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers approved a bill Thursday aimed at helping parents opt their children out of public school lessons with LGBTQ-themed materials, as a Democratic lawmaker whose vote was crucial to banning transgender female athletes from girls’ and women’s sports faced calls to resign.The Republican-controlled Kansas House voted 76-46 to approve a “parental rights” measure that would allow a parent to place their child in an alternative to a public K-12 school lesson or activity that “impairs the parent’s sincerely held beliefs, values or principles.” The GOP-dominated Senate approved the measure last week, so it goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.“If there is one family who are denied their rights, we need to address it,” said Republican state Rep. Susan Estes, of Wichita. While the measure covers lessons and materials dealing with race and possibly even evolution, it also is in line with the push by Republicans in statehouses across the U.S. to ...

New details of Johnston mandate emerge as MPs allege obstruction on foreign meddling

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

OTTAWA — More details have come to public light about the mandate and remuneration for former governor general David Johnston, whom Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed to investigate allegations of foreign interference in the last two federal elections.Orders in council made public this week show that Johnston will receive between $1,400 and $1,600 per day while working on a part-time basis, over a term expected to end in December. Trudeau’s office had previously announced that Johnston would have access to classified national-security documents during his tenure, that he would report on whether a public inquiry is needed by May 23, that he would provide regular reports to Trudeau and that he would release his final conclusions by the end of October.His mandate includes assessing the extent and impact of foreign interference in Canada’s electoral process and reviewing the federal government’s response to threats in the past two elections, including the extent t...

Biden vetoes bill that sought to toss EPA water protections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defending his administration’s actions on clean water, President Joe Biden on Thursday vetoed a congressional resolution that would have overturned protections for the nation’s waterways that Republicans have criticized as overly intrusive.Republicans — and some Democrats — targeted an Environmental Protection Agency rule protecting thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, labeling it an environmental overreach that harms businesses, developers and farmers.In separate votes, the House and Senate used the Congressional Review Act to enact a measure blocking the clean water rule, which was adopted at the end of last year. In his veto message Thursday, Biden said the bipartisan measure would leave Americans without a clear definition of “Waters of the United States. ” A dispute over the term — and the breadth of the landmark Clean Water Act — stretches across at least three presidential administrations.Environmentalists and Democratic presidents...