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Former foster children win $7M settlement after alleging state turned blind eye to abuse

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Four former foster children who were allegedly abused by a Massachusetts couple will be paid $7 million under a settlement with the state.Lawyers for the four announced the settlement Friday afternoon. One of the four died before the settlement was concluded.The plaintiffs sued the Department of Children and Families Services and 17 DCF workers in Middlesex Superior Court, claiming their constitutional rights were violated by the organization’s indifference to the children’s treatment by Raymond and Susan Blouin.The lawsuit alleged the children were locked in dog crates, forced to perform sex acts, submerged in ice baths to the point of drowning and threatened with death while under the couple’s care. The plaintiffs also allege that DCF — then known as the Department of Social Services — ignored multiple reports of abuse and was deliberately indifferent to the abuse allegedly occuring in the home.The four lived with the couple in Oxford, Massachusetts, at various...

Woman accused of Tyngsboro daycare child pornography released to live at parents’ home ahead of trial

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

The Tyngsboro daycare center employee charged with creating pornographic images of the children she supervises has been released from federal custody.“Briefly stated, the defendant’s release would pose a risk of danger to another or to the community but that risk can be sufficiently mitigated through a combination of conditions that can reasonably assure the safety of (sic) community,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell wrote in his Friday order.Lindsay Groves, 38, of Hudson, N.H., was charged with sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography by criminal complaint filed in federal court in Boston on June 22 and arrested that same day.She is accused of taking nude photos of children around the ages of 3 to 5 years old she worked with at the Creative Minds daycare in Tyngsboro largely during naptimes and bathroom breaks for the sexual enjoyment of herself and her former romantic partner, former New Hampshire state representative Stacie Marie Laughton, 39, ...

67 confirmed dead in Maui wildfires, officials say. Follow live updates

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

By REBECCA BOONE (Associated Press)Follow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters.The death toll from wildfires burning in Maui jumped to 67, Maui County officials said Friday. Officials have said the number is expected to increase as crews search the wreckage that wiped out the popular tourist town of Lahaina. The Lahaina fire is not yet contained.This week’s wildfires are expected to be the second costliest disaster in the history of Hawaii, second only to damages from 1992’s Hurricane Iniki, according to a Friday statement from a prominent disaster and risk modeling company.Karen Clark & Company said in the statement that approximately 3,500 structures w...

Everett mayor’s stunning pre-trial win in defamation case against newspaper: defendants must set aside $850K

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

A judge has ruled Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr. is entitled to real estate attachments up to $850,000 on defendants’ real estate assets to cover the damages the mayor “has demonstrated a likelihood that he will recover” in his defamation action against the Leader Herald and its owners.Related ArticlesCrime & Public Safety | Justice Department drops inquiry into claims of discrimination in Everett “This is a highly unusual ruling in a defamation case, particularly one brought by a public official where the standard is demonstrating actual malice,” Jeff Robbins, one of DeMaria’s attorneys, told the Herald Friday. “The ruling speaks to the egregiousness of the evidence that was presented to the court, showing that these defendants had acted in a way that was dishonest and intentional.”Robbins is, in addition to serving as one of DeMaria’s attorneys, a regular contributing columnist for the Boston Herald.Middlesex Superior Associate Justice William F. Bloomer...

Hundreds of dead fish wash up on Florida beaches

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

It would have been just another beautiful day at the beach if not for one freakish thing: All the dead fish floating in the ocean and washing up on shore.Clive Taylor has been going to Hollywood beach his entire life and has never seen anything like it.“They’re like everywhere,” he said. “On the shore and in the water. You can smell them.”Hollywood was not the only beach impacted.Hallandale Beach had at least 2,000 tiny dead fish floating up on shore Friday, according to Jim McCrady, supervisor of the city’s lifeguards.With water temperatures rising to record levels over the summer, climate scientists have warned of the potential for coastal fish kills and other impacts to South Florida’s marine environment, including algae blooms and coral reef bleaching.Waters off Florida’s southeastern coast are running about 3.5 degrees higher than normal in Fahrenheit, with waters in the Florida Keys running a staggering 7 degrees above average, according to a recent report by The Miami Herald....

Yankees Notebook: Anthony Rizzo showing signs of progress post-concussion

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

MIAMI — Anthony Rizzo is showing signs of progress after the Yankees placed him on the injured list with post-concussion syndrome on Aug. 3.Rizzo played for about two months after a collision with the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. likely caused the concussion in late May. While initial testing cleared Rizzo of a concussion, the issue cascaded as he experienced fogginess while enduring a career-worst slump.On Thursday, Rizzo had a doctor’s appointment that involved retesting. Rizzo, who was in Miami with the Yankees on Friday, said that those tests showed the first baseman is moving in the “right direction.”Rizzo is still week-to-week, but he has been keeping his body moving. He hopes to do more baseball activities in the next week. He has already played catch and worked out with medicine balls in the weight room. He’s able to run, too, though not too hard.“Theoretically, I guess I was playing on this for two months,” said Rizzo, who added...

Hearing scheduled for Marine after 14-year-old girl found on base

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A preliminary hearing is scheduled for a Camp Pendleton Marine after a 14-year-old girl was found in the barracks on base, military officials said.The teen was found on the Marine Corps base north of Oceanside on June 28 after she was reported missing on June 13, four days after running away from home, according to San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. The Marine, who has not been publicly named, faces a charge of sexual assault of a minor -- along with violating liberty restriction from a prior, unrelated case -- by military prosecutors, Capt. Charles Palmer with 1st Marine Logistics Group said in a statement. Family demands answers after girl, 14, found in Camp Pendleton barracks After the hearing, the command will review evidence and charges to make a decision as to whether the case should be tried by court-martial, officials said.Since Camp Pendleton is federal property, the Naval Criminal Investigative Services is handling the investigation, ac...

Death toll rises to 67 in Maui wildfires

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Hawaii officials say the confirmed wildfire death toll on Maui has risen from to 67, up from 55 previously. Maui County says in an online statement that firefighting efforts are continuing and the Lahaina fire is not yet contained. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Incinerated cars crushed by downed telephone poles. Charred elevator shafts standing as testaments to the burned-down apartment buildings they once served. Pools filled with charcoal-colored water. Trampolines and children’s scooters mangled by the extreme heat.Residents of Lahaina were being allowed back home on Friday for the first time since wildfires that have killed at least 55 people turned large swaths of the centuries-old town into a hellscape of ashen rubble.Associated Press journalists witnessed the devastation, with nearly every building flattened to debris on Front Street, the heart of the Maui community and the economic hub of the is...

Prosecutors decline to charge officer who shot and wounded autistic Utah teenager

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

Prosecutors in Utah on Friday declined to file charges against a Salt Lake City police officer who shot and badly wounded an unarmed 13-year-old boy with autism after responding to his mother’s 911 call for help when the boy had a breakdown.The September 2020 shooting drew widespread scrutiny and was one of several around the U.S. that fueled questions about how police respond to calls involving people with mental illness. The family of victim Linden Cameron reached a $3 million settlement with Salt Lake City last year in a civil lawsuit over the life-changing injuries and emotional trauma the boy suffered from the shooting.Salt Lake County District Attorney Sam Gill called the shooting “unjustified” in a letter sent to the city’s police department. But Gill declined to charge the officer in part because two use-of-force experts who reviewed the case came to opposite conclusions regarding the officer’s conduct.“We cannot say that the shooting of an unarmed 13-year ...

Men attacked Alabama boat co-captain for ‘just doing my job,’ he says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:25 GMT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama boat co-captain was hanging on “for dear life” as men punched and tackled him on the capital city’s riverfront, he told police after video of the brawl circulated widely online. Dameion Pickett, a crew member of the Harriott II in Montgomery, described the brawl in a handwritten statement to authorities included in court documents, saying he was attacked after moving a pontoon boat a few feet so the city-owned riverboat could dock. Four white boaters have been charged with misdemeanor assault in the attack against Pickett, who is Black, as well as a teen deckhand, who was punched and is white. The deckhand’s mother heard a racial slur before Pickett was hit, she wrote in a statement. A fifth person, a Black man who appeared to be hitting people with a folding chair during the subsequent fight, has been charged with disorderly conduct, police announced Friday.Video of the melee sparked scores of memes and video reenactments.Pickett told police...