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Battenfeld: Auditor DiZoglio’s quixotic bid to audit Legislature runs into buzz saw

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has run into a powerful buzz saw in the form of Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Senate President Karen Spilka and is now just wasting time and money in a doomed attempt to audit the Legislature.Even if the auditor goes forward and gets a ballot question passed giving her authority to look at lawmakers’ books, it’s highly likely it will be ruled unconstitutional by the courts because of the separation of powers’ principle. It’s over.Campbell, in a letter to DiZoglio on Friday, concluded that the auditor has no “legal authority” to audit the Legislature without their consent – which Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano immediately jumped on to buttress their case.The Democratic AG also warned that if the ballot measure passes, “we may need to consider whether, and the extent to which, constitutional limitations affect how the law would apply.”Boom. Those words should make DiZoglio pause before she continues her quixotic bid to go after Spilka an...

Uber Exec: If New York can figure out rideshare driver benefits, why not Massachusetts?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

A top Uber executive hopes settlements with officials in New York will persuade Massachusetts lawmakers to move forward with policies that classify rideshare drivers as independent contractors with some additional benefits.New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday a pair of settlements totaling $328 million with Uber and Lfyt to resolve allegations of “cheating drivers out of hundreds of millions of dollars” that will return back pay to drivers, put in place an earnings floor, paid sick leave, hiring notices, and define their working time.A separate settlement with the New York State Department of Labor will see Uber make quarterly payments into the state’s Unemployment Trust Fund and make retroactive payments owed since 2013.Those deals could swing the pendulum on long-running debates in Massachusetts over rideshare drivers’ employment classification, a conversation that has already seen one ballot question tossed aside by the Supreme Judicial Court, a lawsuit sche...

Two Red Sox prospects named Arizona Fall League Fall Stars

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

A pair of Red Sox prospects have been named to this weekend’s Arizona Fall League Fall Stars Game, with left-handed pitcher Zach Penrod and outfielder Corey Rosier both earning a spot on the American League’s team.Penrod, who signed with Boston out of independent ball in August, continued his rapid ascent since joining the organization. The 26-year-old led all AFL starting pitchers with 1.29 ERA in four starts, and that came after he also played a pivotal role in the High-A Greenville Drive’s run to the South Atlantic League championship.Rosier ranked among the Glendale Desert Dogs’ top hitters with a .303 batting average and eight stolen bases in 19 games. This past summer he batted .285 with a .781 OPS and 49 stolen bases in 116 games, mostly with Double-A Portland.In addition to the two Red Sox prospects, former Central Catholic star Dom Keegan of Methuen also earned Fall Star honors. The ex-Vanderbilt star is now a catcher in the Tampa Bay Rays organizati...

Armed man killed in Escondido police shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

Editors note: The correct address for the shooting investigation is in the 2550 block of East Valley Parkway.ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- An armed man was killed Friday in Escondido after exchanging gunfire with police, authorities said.The shooting occurred around 6:40 a.m. in the 2500 block of East Valley Parkway, Lt. Adam Sharki with the San Diego Police Department said in a news release.Officers responded to a call about a man sleeping in a sleeping bag on the porch of a mobile home, according to authorities. The man, who did not belong at the residence, then had gotten up and started pushing a blue motorcycle through the mobile home complex.When officers arrived on scene, they spoke to the man who matched the suspect's description, learning he had a felony warrant for a parole violation out of Indiana, per SDPD.As police were detaining the man, who is believed to be a 48-year-old from Indiana, the suspect turned and ran while reaching into his waistband. Kids in San Diego County can ...

Water polo player fighting to keep hand after crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A club water polo player and sophomore at Patrick Henry High School is in the hospital as doctors try to save her hand.Fifteen-year-old Tessa Eaton is known for her infectious personality, in and out of the pool.“She walks onto the pool deck with a big smile and a high five or a skip to her step, and she’s so positive and upbeat,” Charlie Equels, the head water polo coach at Patrick Henry High School, said. “To look out there and not see her purple or pink hair or her bubbly smile is going to be a constant change, it's going to be hard to get used to.” Del Mar home sold for record-breaking $44.1M as countywide sales slow Tessa was a passenger in a vehicle, on her way to practice for her club water polo team, The San Diego Shores, when she was involved in a rollover crash Oct. 24. Her hand was crushed and she was rushed to the hospital, where she has been since the crash.According to close family friend who has been helping facilitate financial efforts, Susan Furtak, T...

You damaged the unit and your landlord wants you out. Now what?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

Apart from not paying rent or the landlord wanting to renovate, sell or move back into a rental unit, tenants in Ontario can also face eviction for issues revolving around their conduct and the way they treat the unit.There are broadly two sets of circumstances that could lead to such evictions: Interfering with others, damage or overcrowdingCausing serious problems in the unit or complex.Interfering with others, damage or overcrowding: The N5 process“Landlords can seek to evict tenants based on them alleging that the tenant, a visitor or someone living with the tenant has substantially interfered with the reasonable enjoyment of the landlord or other tenants, or has substantially interfered with the landlord’s lawful rights or privileges,” explains Samuel Mason, staff lawyer at Parkdale Community Legal Services.In such a case a landlord may issue the tenant an N5 notice to end tenancy. Mason says common reasons cited on such a notice include not keeping the unit s...

Federal appeals court upholds Illinois semiautomatic weapons ban

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld Illinois’ prohibition on high-power semiautomatic weapons, refusing to put a hold on the law adopted in response to the mass killing of seven people at a 2022 parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.A three-judge panel of the 7th District U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 on the issue. The majority recognized a difference between firearms for personal use and those the state law reserves for “trained professionals,” semiautomatic weapons, including the popular AR-15.“There is a long tradition, unchanged from the time when the Second Amendment was added to the Constitution, supporting a distinction between weapons and accessories designed for military or law-enforcement use and weapons designed for personal use,” Judge Diane Wood said in the opinion. “The legislation now before us respects and relies on that distinction.”Ed Sullivan, a lobbyist for the Illinois State Rifle Association, said gun-rights advocat...

El Salvador electoral tribunal approves Bukele’s bid for reelection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

SAN SALVADOR (AP) — El Salvador’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal on Friday ruled President Nayib Bukele can run for reelection next year, even though the country’s Constitution technically prohibits it.The decision comes one week after the popular Salvadoran president registered to run with the New Ideas party. In a vote Friday, electoral authorities approved Bukele’s reelection bid by four votes to none, with one abstention.The Supreme Electoral Tribunal took to X, formerly Twitter, to confirm Bukele and his vice presidential candidate, Félix Ulloa, meet “the legal requirements” to run in February 2024.Bukele also celebrated the decision on X writing “Legally registered! And without any votes against.”Officials also voted unanimously in favor of the candidacy of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front — an old-guard leftist party formed of ex-guerillas from El Salvador’s civil war.The FMLN expelled Bukele from its ranks in 2017, a decision he repaid as pre...

After raid on fundraiser’s home, NYC mayor says he has no knowledge of ‘foreign money’ in campaign

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

New York (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams denied any involvement in illegal political fundraising Friday, but his campaign pledged it would review its books, a day after federal agents raided the home of one of the Democrat’s chief fundraisers. “I am outraged and angry if anyone attempted to use the campaign to manipulate our democracy and defraud our campaign,” Adams said in a statement on Friday. An attorney for his campaign, Vito Pitta, said they were reviewing “all documents and actions by campaign workers connected to the contributors in question.”The comments came one day after federal agents searched the Brooklyn home of Adams’ top campaign fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, prompting the mayor to scuttle a planned trip to meet with White House officials in Washington and instead return to New York.The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment on the investigation, but The New York Times reported that it had obtained a search warrant indicating th...

Toddler critically injured in accidental shooting after suspect discards gun on daycare playground

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:14 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A toddler in Las Vegas was hospitalized in critical condition after finding a gun on a daycare playground that had been discarded by a teenage suspect fleeing the scene of a nearby shooting, authorities announced Friday.Deputy Police Chief Reggie Radar said the toddler, who is under the age of 5, “found the firearm, picked it up, and the firearm discharged, injuring the toddler.” Radar said the toddler was in stable but critical condition Friday afternoon.Police officers found the suspect in the area of the daycare in northeastern Las Vegas and took him into custody.Radar said it wasn’t immediately clear what charges the suspect will face but that the police department was consulting with the local district attorney’s office about “all applicable charges” and whether he will be charged as an adult.Radar did not identify the suspect, who he said was younger than 18.He said the teenager had been fleeing after shooting a man on a city bus when he jumped ove...