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Up in smoke: Cannabis Commission to meet without suspended chairwoman

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

The Cannabis Control Commission meets Monday absent its chairwoman after she was suddenly suspended from her job last week.On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Deb Goldberg removed pot boss Shannon O’Brien from her post just a year after the former gubernatorial candidate took the job steering marijuana policy for the state. The suspension, with pay, was made public the next day.O’Brien, who previously won election as State Treasurer, was appointed to lead the five member commission by Goldberg last August. The chairwoman is paid $181,722 per year for her work.At the time of her appointment, Goldberg said she was confident that O’Brien’s “financial background, experience in corporate governance, executive management, and business development, combined with outstanding leadership skills and an acute knowledge of the legislative process, will help the Massachusetts cannabis industry be fairly regulated, equitable, and successful.”After Thursday’s suspension, it’s quite clear th...

In the dark: RMV records restricted with immigrant driver’s license law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

The state department of transportation will no longer release driving records to the public after the implementation of an immigrant driver’s license law this summer, which has given the agency cover to deny records requests for the documents.The records were considered public and easily accessible from MassDOT before July 1, the start date of the driver’s license law, which provides a pathway to legal driving for immigrants who can provide some form of documentation.But language included in the law bars the state from releasing any information related to a Massachusetts license holder. The statute says the information shall “neither be a public record nor disclosed by the registrar, except as authorized by regulations promulgated by the attorney general.”The Herald requested on Aug. 21 all city councilors’ and Mayor Michelle Wu’s driving records to test whether the documents remained publicly accessible under the new law. In a letter Thursday, MassDOT Records Access Officer W...

Russia urges UN’s top court to toss out Ukrainian case that seeks to halt Moscow’s invasion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Russia on Monday called a Ukrainian case alleging that Moscow abused the Genocide Convention to justify its invasion last year an “abuse of process,” as lawyers for Moscow sought to have judges at the United Nation’s highest court throw it out.The leader of Moscow’s legal team at the International Court of Justice, Gennady Kuzmin, told the 16-judge panel that Ukraine’s case that seeks to halt the invasion “is, hopelessly flawed and at odds with the longstanding jurisprudence of this court.”He said Ukraine’s filing is “a manifest disregard of the proper administration of justice and constitutes an abuse of process.”Kyiv’s case filed shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, argues that the attack was based on false claims of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine and alleges that Moscow was planning genocidal acts in Ukraine.Ukraine claimed that “Russia has turned the Genocide Convention on its head — m...

Republican legislatures flex muscles to keep power in closely divided North Carolina and Wisconsin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In 2020, North Carolina seemed the model of an evenly-divided swing state. Then-President Donald Trump barely won, beating Democrat Joe Biden by just over a percentage point. Meanwhile, the state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, won reelection by a relatively comfortable 5 points.Even last year, as Republicans won two seats on the state Supreme Court, North Carolina’s congressional delegation split evenly between Democrats and the GOP. But it’s the Republican Party that is making the decisions in the state, thanks to recent seat gains in the legislature and aggressive stances from GOP lawmakers. It has passed voting changes over Democrats’ objections and this week could vote to wrest power from the governor over how the state’s elections are run.In both cases, Republicans are expected to override the governor’s veto thanks to their legislative supermajorities. Those major changes will come on the heels of similar power plays...

Stock market today: World shares lower, Tokyo closed, as focus turns to Federal Reserve meeting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

Shares fell Monday in Europe and Asia, as investors awaited a meeting this week of the U.S. Federal Reserve.Germany’s DAX lost 0.4% to 15,827.65 and the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.7% to 7,326.66. Britain’s FTSE 100 was virtually unchanged at 7,709.53. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.1%. Hong Kong’s benchmark was pulled lower by property stocks following reports over the weekend that police had detained staff at the wealth management business of troubled real estate developer China Evergrande.The Hang Seng dropped 1.4% to 17,930.55. On Friday, China’s national financial regulator announced it had approved the takeover of the group’s life insurance arm by a new state-owned entity. Defaults on debts in the property sector since 2021 have resulted in half-finished apartment buildings, disgruntled homebuyers and fears the industry’s troubles might further slow the world’s second-largest economy and shake global financ...

UK police urged to investigate sex assault allegations against comedian Russell Brand

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A senior British politician on Monday urged police to investigate sexual assault allegations against Russell Brand, as entertainment industry figures faced questions about whether the comedian’s bad behavior went unchallenged because of his fame.Brand denies allegations of sexual assault made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary and The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. The accusers, who have not been named, include one who said she was sexually assaulted during a relationship with him when she was 16. Another woman says Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.Brand, 48, has rejected all the claims, saying in a video statement that his relationships were “always consensual.”The Times said Monday that more women had contacted the newspaper with allegations against Brand and they would be “rigorously checked.”Conservative legislator Caroline Nokes, who chairs the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, urged police in both Britain and the United S...

Pope meets with new Russian ambassador as second Moscow mission planned for his Ukraine peace envoy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Russia’s new ambassador to the Vatican met Monday with Pope Francis for a protocol visit, as signs emerged that the Vatican’s Ukraine peace envoy could soon be undertaking a second mission to Moscow. The Vatican said Ambassador Ivan Soltanovsky was presenting his credentials to Francis, signaling the official start of his term. His motorcade was seen leaving the Russian embassy Monday morning, bound for the Vatican, and returning about two hours later. Soltanovsky replaced Ambassador Alexander Avdeev, whom Francis met with on Feb. 25, 2022 in a remarkable in-person papal visit to the embassy the day after Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine.The credential presentation appointment comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in recent days that Moscow was ready to meet again with Francis’ Ukraine peace envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, a veteran of the Catholic Church’s peace initiatives.“The Vatican is continuing its efforts. The papal envoy will c...

Report on racism against Roma and Sinti in Germany shows widespread discrimination

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s leading Roma and Sinti group recorded hundreds of incidents of discrimination and racism against the minority community in the past year, a report said Monday, warning that increasing nationalism and right-wing extremism is contributing to violence against Germany’s minorities. The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma said that of the 621 incidents recorded, most were cases of discrimination and “verbal stereotyping.” But there were also 11 cases of threats, 17 attacks and one case of “extreme violence,” the group said, adding that racism against Roma and Sinti is likely much higher because many cases are not reported. Roma and Sinti are recognized minorities in Germany. Around 60,000 Sinti and 10,000 Roma live in Germany, according to Germany’s Federal Agency for Civil Education. The report “clearly shows the dangers of increasing nationalism and right-wing extremism, which again leads to aggression and violence against Sinti and Roma a...

Ontario elementary teachers voting on whether to give union strike mandate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

Teachers in Ontario’s public elementary schools are set to start voting Monday on whether they want to give their union a strike mandate.The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is holding in-person strike votes for its members between today and Oct. 17, with teachers in various regions voting on different days.ETFO has filed for conciliation, citing what it calls the “unacceptably slow pace of bargaining,” but has rejected a government proposal to leave any outstanding issues to be decided by an arbitrator.RELATED: Ontario elementary teachers reject government’s arbitration offer ahead of strike voteThe Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation has tentatively agreed to negotiate with the government until the end of October and then move to binding arbitration, which would eliminate the possibility of a strike.Education Minister Stephen Lecce has urged the other teachers’ unions to accept the same deal, but they have said no.The O...

Judge will hold hearing on ex-DOJ official’s request to move Georgia election case to federal court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:30:21 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge who rejected efforts by former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his charges in the Georgia election subversion case to federal court is set to hear arguments Monday from former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on the same issue.Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has accused Clark and Meadows, along with former President Donald Trump and 16 others, of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory and keep Trump in power. The 41-count indictment includes charges under the state’s anti-racketeering law. All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty.Clark is one of five defendants seeking to move his case to federal court. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, who will preside over Monday’s hearing, rejected Meadows’ attempt for removal earlier this month, saying the actions outlined in the indictment were taken on behalf of the Trump campaign and ...