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Apple, Google partner to combat creepy tracking tactics

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple and Google are teaming up to thwart unwanted tracking through Bluetooth devices that were created to help people find lost keys, keep tabs on luggage or to locate other things that have a tendency to be misplaced or lost.The two companies behind the iPhone and the software that powers Android phones on Tuesday submitted a proposal to set standards for combatting secret surveillance on Apple’s AirTag trackers and similar gadgets. The concept also has the backing of Samsung, which sells the most Android smartphones worldwide, as well as tracking products similar to the AirTag such as Tile, Chipolo, and Pebblebee.The $30 AirTag has become a popular item since its 2021 release, helping users pinpoint the locations of a wide variety of lost property. But stalkers have also deployed AirTags and similar products to shadow former love interests and other people who don’t realize they are being tracked.“Bluetooth trackers have created tremendous use...

Officer who held back crowd during George Floyd’s murder convicted of aiding and abetting manslaughter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

 (CNN) — A Minnesota judge found former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter for his role keeping bystanders back in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, according to court documents filed Monday.In a 177-page verdict, Judge Peter Cahill wrote that Thao “actively encouraged his three colleagues’ dangerous prone restraint of Floyd” contrary to his training that the positioning could cause fatal asphyxia.“Like the bystanders, Thao could see Floyd’s life slowly ebbing away as the restraint continued,” Cahill wrote in the verdict. “Yet Thao made a conscious decision to actively participate in Floyd’s death: he held back the concerned bystanders and even prevented an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter from rendering the medical aid Floyd so desperately needed.”The decision marks the end of a series of state and federal trials for the four former officers involved i...

Attleboro police seek persons of interest as arson investigation involving auto body shop continues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

Police in Attleboro are asking for the public’s help in identifying two men considered to be persons of interest in an arson investigation.The Attleboro Police Department shared images of the two males as authorities continue to investigate an arson case involving County Auto & Sales at 42 County Street.In a news release, the department said the two males were last seen in the area around 5:09 p.m. on April 15, the day of the incident.The police department described both individuals as being white males in their “late-teens to early 20’s.”One of the suspects was said to have a large build with brown, short hair and a goatee, in addition to a white Fila hoodie and work boots.The other male suspect was described as having a medium build, light-brown hair, and facial hair.“Any one able to identity either party is asked to contact Detective Keith Shepard at 508-222-1212,” the department stated on Twitter.Those who wish to provide information...

Hampshire’s Jack Schane sees himself in the Chicago Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks. With one tweak. ‘A lefty Kyle Hendricks.’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

Interestingly enough, when Hampshire’s Jack Schane compares himself to a major league pitcher, the junior left-hander’s choice ends up being a certain right-hander.Even though their stuff isn’t exactly the same, the approach on the mound is similar.“It’s like Kyle Hendricks,” Schane said. “A lefty Kyle Hendricks.”Without a dominant fastball, Schane concentrates on featuring location and pitch mix as the name of his game — much like Hendricks does as a pitcher for the Cubs.Schane put that on display Monday night at Judson’s Hoffer Field in Elgin, striking out seven for the Whip-Purs in a 6-1 nonconference victory over Harvest Christian.While Schane (3-2) earned the win, allowing an unearned run on four hits and a walk over six innings, Evan Spenk paced the offense for Hampshire (12-9) with a double and a triple.Spenk also stole a base and scored two runs. Kyle Johnson and Casey Kaszniak each had two hits. Ben Mitchell and Ja...

Healey looking for massive wind energy development bids

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

State officials are looking for an offshore wind company to build a new farm that could produce more than a quarter of Massachusetts’ annual electricity demand, according to filings made public Tuesday.Beacon Hill is pitching the new push for wind energy as a big win for Massachusetts ratepayers, with Gov. Maura Healey saying the state is “all-in on offshore wind and ready to be the industry’s hub.” If approved, the Healey administration said the new project would be the biggest in New England’s history.“Our proposal is a commitment to Massachusetts ratepayers to chase after all clean energy for our homes and business,” the Democratic governor said in a statement, adding the state is looking for up to 3,600 megawatts, or 25% of the state’s annual electricity demand.The administration said that its project request — filed with the Department of Public Utilities on Tuesday — places an emphasis on supporting low-income workers, workers of color, and workers from “impacted e...

Wisconsin Republicans kill legalized pot, stadium repairs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans voted Tuesday to kill proposals to legalize marijuana, pay for renovations at the Milwaukee Brewers’ stadium and create a paid family leave program, moves that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers derided as “foolish.”The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee killed more than 500 proposals from Evers with a single vote.Evers had proposed tapping the state’s record-high $7 billion budget surplus to pay for a wide array of spending priorities that Republicans ultimately rejected.“These aren’t fringe ideas, controversial concepts, or Republican or Democratic priorities—they’re about doing the right thing,” Evers said on Twitter after listing more than a dozen items being killed. “With a historic surplus comes historic responsibility, and today, when we can afford to do more, this vote is foolish and a wasted opportunity.”The move comes as no surprise after Republicans, who control the state Legislature with large majorities, d...

Wisconsin Supreme Court won’t order ivermectin use for COVID

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s conservative-controlled Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a hospital could not be forced to give a deworming drug to a patient with COVID-19.The panel ruled 6-1 in favor of Aurora Health Care, with three liberals and three conservatives in support and only conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley dissenting.The decision upholds a lower court’s ruling against Allen Gahl, who sued Aurora in October 2021 when doctors refused to treat his uncle, John Zingsheim, with ivermectin. Gahl was authorized to make medical decisions for Zingsheim and had researched the drug online after Zingsheim was put on a ventilator to treat COVID-19 complications.Ivermectin became popular among conservatives after commentators and even some far-right doctors held up the antiparasitic drug as a miracle cure for the coronavirus and other illnesses. But the Food and Drug Administration has not approved it for use in treating COVID-19 and warns that misusing ivermectin can be ha...

Canadian Pacific hit with violation notice after derailment in Maine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

MONTREAL — State authorities in Maine have hit Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. with a violation notice over fallout from its cleanup efforts after a freight train went off the tracks last month.Officials sent a notice of violation to the railway after heavy construction equipment deployed to access the crash site caused a “significant amount of sediment” to enter local waters in violation of a pollution control law, according to Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection.“Culverts were crushed and dirt has been shifted in and around a number of streams as a result of heavy machinery using the forest management roads,” the department said in a release Friday.Melanie Loyzim, the department’s commissioner, sent a second letter instructing CPKC to implement erosion control measures “immediately.”On April 15 a Canadian Pacific Kansas City train hit a track washout in a wooded area near Moosehead Lake in northwestern Maine, some 220 ki...

‘La Bohème’ in space returns to Paris, 6 years after uproar

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

Claus Guth was pleased with initial reaction to his outer space version of Puccini’s “La Bohème” at a special pre-premiere show limited to people under age 28.“They were extremely euphoric,” he said. “It was an amazing performance with standing ovations.”Three nights later at the official opening of the Paris Opéra’s first new “Bohème” in 22 years, a high-profile occasion featuring conductor Gustavo Dudamel’s formal company debut, the response was far different.“The real premiere was bizarre because some people freaked out so early that Dudamel had to stop conducting once because there was just too much booing,” Guth recalled.That uproar on Dec. 1, 2017, weighed on the German director’s mind when he arrived at the Bastille Opéra last week to supervise the first revival of his staging, which opens Tuesday night for a run of 12 performances through June 4.Soprano Ailyn Pérez takes over as the terminally ill seamstress Mimì, tenor Joshua Guerrero is the poet Rodolfo and Michele Mariott...

Media coalition challenges gag order again in Idaho slayings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:52 GMT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A coalition of 30 news organizations launched another effort Monday to get a gag order lifted in the criminal case of a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death. The coalition, which includes The Associated Press, had asked the Idaho Supreme Court earlier this year to reject the gag order issued in the criminal case against Bryan Kohberger, contending it violates the First Amendment rights of a free press. The order prohibits attorneys, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies and others involved in the case from talking to the news media unless they are quoting directly from a court document. But last week the Idaho Supreme Court unanimously denied the request, saying the news groups should have first asked the lower court to have the order lifted. The Supreme Court justices did not weigh in on whether the gag order violates First Amendment rights. “This Court has long respected the media’s role in our constitutional republic, and honored ...