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State commission fines all three Massachusetts casinos for offering betting on unauthorized events

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

The Mass. Gaming Commission dinged all three of the physical casinos it oversees on Tuesday for taking illegal bets on Massachusetts college sports at their sportsbooks, levying a cumulative $50,000 in fines for violations that occurred in the earliest days of legal sports wagering here. Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville was fined $20,000 for taking bets on a Feb. 2 regular season men’s basketball game between Merrimack College and Long Island University, MGM Springfield was hit with a $20,000 penalty for offering action on regular season Harvard men’s basketball games on Feb. 3 and Feb. 4, and Encore Boston Harbor in Everett was fined $10,000 for taking a bet on a Feb. 2 regular season game involving the Boston College women’s basketball team.Massachusetts law prohibits wagering on events that involve Massachusetts colleges unless it is part of a tournament of at least four teams. The Gaming Commission determined the incidents were each “a serious violati...

Food and liquor license for Monica’s Trattoria temporarily suspended after owner arrested in connection with North End shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

The food and liquor license for Monica’s Trattoria in the North End has been temporarily suspended after the restaurant’s owner was arrested in connection with a shooting in Boston earlier this month.The Boston Licensing Board announced the suspension on Tuesday, saying the license will remain suspended “until such time as a new manager can be duly appointed and approved.”Patrick Mendoza was arrested on Friday of last week, just over a week after police said he allegedly tried to shoot a man outside Modern Pastry on Hanover Street. The victim took cover behind a nearby vehicle and eventually ran off. No one was hurt in the shooting, but the incident left a bullet hole in one of Modern Pastry’s windows. Court documents obtained on Friday revealed Mendoza and the man he is accused of shooting at had a long-running feud that may have led up to the shooting. Mendoza was arraigned on several charges following his arrest in Falmouth. He is due back in court on Wed...

Celtics’ Jaylen Brown agrees to $304M extension, biggest in NBA history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

The Celtics are set to give Jaylen Brown the biggest contract extension in NBA history, agreeing to a 5-year, $304 million super-max deal.The contract goes into effect for the 2024-25 season, during which Brown will earn $52.3 million, his agent told ESPN on Tuesday. The extension runs through the 2028-29 season, when the forward will make $69.1 million.His deal beats the previous record of $276 million given to the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic last year. Jokic, a two-time regular season MVP, led Denver to its first NBA championship last month.Brown, 26, is coming off a 2022-23 season in which he averaged career-highs with 26.6 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. His 49% field goal percentage was also the best mark of his seven-year career.The Celtics went 57-25 last season, finishing as the No. 2 seed in the East and advancing to the Conference Finals. They were eliminated in seven games by the Miami Heat, with Brown averaging 19 points on 41.8% shooting in that series.Brown was secon...

Cape Cod beach closes to swimming after lifeguards spot great white shark: ‘Plenty of activity today’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app has sure been busy in the last week.The shark activity along Cape Cod continued on Tuesday, as a beach closed to swimming for some time after lifeguards spotted a great white shark close to shore.Wellfleet’s Marconi Beach shut down to swimming early Tuesday afternoon for one hour following the shark sighting.“!! SHARK ALERTS !! plenty of activity today,” tweeted MA Sharks, which is run by local shark researcher John Chisholm, who confirms shark sightings for the Sharktivity app.“Make sure you download the @sharktivity app to stay up to date,” Chisholm added.Shark alerts on the app are issued when a white shark sighting is confirmed close to a public beach. A notification goes out with each alert.Earlier on Tuesday, a shark alert was issued for a great white shark spotted about a quarter-mile off of Longnook Beach in Truro.Another shark sighting was reported off of Chatham’s North Beach I...

The painful legacy of ‘law and order’ treatment of addiction in jail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

Renuka Rayasam | (TNS) KFF Health NewsJASPER, Ala. — Megan Dunn, who has struggled with addiction since her teens, points to the moment her life went “deeply downhill.”After dropping out of high school, she gave birth at age 19 to a son she named Preston. Six weeks later, Dunn said, he died of sudden infant death syndrome.“From then on, I went into this, like, PTSD, depression,” said Dunn, now 28.Megan Dunn visits Jasper Mall in Alabama. Dunn has been arrested on charges related to illicit drug use. While in Walker County’s jail, she says, she was once placed in a holding cell known as the “drunk tank,” a concrete room that lacks water, a bed, or a toilet. (Renuka Rayasam/KFF Health News/TNS)Shortly after the baby’s death, Dunn said, she started using pain pills again. Eventually, she said, she was arrested on charges related to her illicit drug use, such as trespassing. She said she has had more than 30 stays in Walker County’s jail, a brick building in downtown Jasper. And each ti...

Karen Read case: Judge will not recuse herself in case of alleged murder of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

The Karen Read murder trial has gained national attention, and it showed in a full-blown rally in support of the defendant held on the Norfolk Superior Court steps ahead of a 2 p.m. motions hearing Tuesday afternoon.Read is accused of running over her boyfriend of two years, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022.At the top of a stack of defense motions — which remained impounded ahead of the hearing, with the clerk citing personal information contained within them that the judge would need to clear before public consumption — was a motion to have Judge Beverly Cannone recuse herself from the case.Cannone denied the motion after a brief recess to review the matter after arguments.“Your honor, there has been an undeniable erosion of the public’s confidence” in the court’s ability to impartially oversee this case, defense attorney Alan Jackson said during the hearing.“It is not an indictment of this court...

Orioles center fielder Aaron Hicks placed on 10-day injured list with left hamstring strain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

The Orioles are already down one center fielder. After Monday night, they are down another.Aaron Hicks was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain Tuesday after exiting Monday night’s 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Outfielder Ryan McKenna was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk in a corresponding move.Hicks dove for a line drive hit by Johan Rojas in the third inning, threw the ball back to the infield and sat for a moment before training staff members came out to evaluate him. He eventually left the game with what the team called a left hamstring injury and was replaced in center field by rookie Colton Cowser.Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said Monday the injury could be a strain or a cramp, but he did not know until Hicks had the chance to be evaluated Tuesday.Hicks ran to his right on the liner and fully stretched out to make a spectacular catch. Rojas was ruled out, although replay later showed the ball popped out of Hicks’ glove.Entering Tue...

Hunter Biden will plead guilty to federal tax charges Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

By Emily Bloch, The Philadelphia InquirerHunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is expected in court Wednesday to plead guilty to federal tax charges.It will mark the end of a yearslong investigation into Biden’s taxes and foreign business dealings that has been spotlighted throughout his father’s presidency. It’s also the first time the Justice Department has brought charges against a sitting president’s child.Biden, 53, is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses as part of a plea deal.The plea agreement in federal court in Delaware will make the investigation “resolved,” Biden’s attorney Chris Clark said in a statement.As part of the deal, federal prosecutors will decline to pursue a felony gun charge, allowing Biden to avoid potential jail time.With the investigation unfolding in the public eye, the president and his second son became the center of scrutiny in political circles, particularly right-wing Republicans.Here’s what you need to know:How did we ge...

Boston suspends liquor license of North End restaurant owned by alleged shooter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

The Boston Licensing Board voted to suspend the liquor license for Monica’s Trattoria, effectively shutting down the North End restaurant until management is officially transferred from its current owner, who is facing an attempted murder charge.Board Chair Kathleen Joyce said the panel was within its purview to suspend the restaurant’s liquor license, based on the owner Patrick Mendoza’s failure to appear at an informational hearing held last Thursday to assess his “character and fitness” as the manager of record and licensee.Mendoza, 54, is facing charges in connection with a shooting that occurred at a North End bakery on July 12, and allegedly evaded police for more than a week before he was arrested at a Cape Cod treatment facility last Friday.“We need to know as a regulatory body at any given time who is in charge of a licensed premises,” Joyce said at a Tuesday board meeting, later adding, “I have serious concerns about the person who’s still listed as the manager of record a...

Ohio voters will decide on abortion access in November ballot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:56:20 GMT

By JULIE CARR SMYTH (Associated Presss)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters will have the opportunity this fall to decide whether to guarantee access to abortion in the state, setting up a volatile fight rife with emotional messaging and competing factual claims.State officials said Tuesday that a ballot measure to change the state constitution had enough signatures. It would establish “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.” In language similar to a constitutional amendment that Michigan voters approved last November, it would require restrictions imposed past a fetus’ viability outside the womb, which is typically around the 24th week of pregnancy and was the standard under Roe v. Wade, to be based on evidence of patient health and safety benefits.“Every person deserves respect, dignity, and the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including those related to their own pregnancy, miscarriage care, an...