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MBTA adds commercial driver’s permit program to bus operator training amid shortage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

A bus driver shortage at the MBTA led the agency to incorporate a commercial driver’s license permit program into new hire onboarding, a move the authority’s top hiring official said helped boost recruitment efforts and bring in more candidates.The workforce challenge has plagued the MBTA since last year, where officials have turned to sign-on bonuses and hiked pay for operators in an attempt to attract more people. But even if applicants made it all the way to a job offer, the commercial driver’s license requirement was still a “barrier to entry,” said Gil Alzate, director of talent acquisition at the MBTA.The MBTA started by offering a “CDL familiarization course” hosted twice a month on Tuesdays before offering an opportunity to obtain a commercial learner’s permit program as part of new-hire training, Alzate said.“So now we hire folks, clean driving record, they meet all our policy requirements, and we embed them into the program. The first two weeks are targeted around getting ...

Got Sriracha? The price for a bottle of Huy Fong’s iconic hot sauce gets spicy with supplies short

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS (AP Business Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — It’s not just you. Sriracha is hard to come by these days — at least for one popular brand.The shortage of Huy Fong Foods’ Sriracha, the beloved red hot sauce packaged in those green-capped bottles, isn’t new — with the company pointing to a scarcity of chile pepper supply for several years now. And as frustrated fans continue to face store shelves missing the Huy Fong name, third-party resellers are punching up prices.Huy Fong Sriracha, which used to go for under $5 or $10 a bottle, is now selling for shocking amounts in some listings posted to sites with vast third-party marketplaces — including Amazon, eBay and Walmart. Many are simply sold out.For those still in stock, prices range depending where you look. As of Thursday morning, for example, ads for a single 17-ounce bottle on eBay stretched from around $20 to a whopping $150 — contrasting significantly from the price...

Judge approves Minneapolis police reform deal forged after George Floyd’s killing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (AP) — Minneapolis must enact police reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, after a judge on Thursday approved a settlement agreement between the city and the state Human Rights Department.The Star Tribune reported that Hennepin County Judge Karen Janisch signed the settlement, which calls for de-escalation whenever possible, limits on the use of tear gas and other chemical agents, and an end to police stops for broken taillights and searches based on the smell of marijuana. “This is a huge framework. There is going to be a lot of work that the city is going to be doing in the near future,” Janisch said. “I hope that the city is up to that task and that you can find good people to be able to carry this forward.”The Human Rights Department began investigating shortly after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020, disregarding the Black man’s fading pleas that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd’s death spa...

Suspended Nigeria central bank governor charged after weeks in detention

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — The suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria was charged after a month in detention under a court directive Thursday that officials act against the man or let him go, the secret police agency announced.Godwin Emefiele was charged after being investigated for alleged “criminal infractions,” said Peter Afunanya, spokesman for the secret police, the Department of State Services.Afunanya’s statement, however, did not specify the charges filed against Emefiele in the capital, Abuja. The police agency had in 2022 accused him of terrorism financing and economic crimes, both of which carry long jail terms.Shortly after he took office in June, new President Bola Tinubu directed Emefiele’s suspension, saying the move was related to the investigation of his office as the central bank governor and planned reforms in the financial sector.Emefiele was then taken into custody and has been detained since, prompting him to sue the secret police recently on the gro...

Judge sentences man to 15 years for arranging smuggling trip that ended with crash killing 13 people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for coordinating a smuggling trip in which two dozen migrants were stacked into a Ford Expedition that crashed into a tractor-trailer, killing 13 people outside a California desert town.Jose Cruz Noguez pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges stemming from the March 2, 2021, crash near Holtville, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of San Diego. It was one of the deadliest highway crashes involving migrants smuggled into the United States. Cruz Noguez also admitted to trying to still get payment for the smuggling trip from the survivors, prosecutors said. Neither Cruz Noguez nor his attorney could be reached for comment.“Cruz Noguez organized one of the most callous and inhumane smuggling attempts that law enforcement has responded to in this district,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said. “He and his co-conspirators treated these individuals like a worthless commodity.”Cruz Noguez arranged ...

A stray bullet hit a woman lying in bed. A federal judge dismissed her lawsuit against police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Mississippi woman who says she was hit by a stray police bullet while lying in bed. Latasha Smith, 49, was in bed on Dec. 11 when an officer from the state-run Capitol Police fired several bullets at a suspect running through her Jackson apartment complex, according to her federal complaint. A stray bullet entered Smith’s apartment and struck her arm. Smith, who said her teenage daughter was home during the episode, was taken to a hospital. In April, Smith sued Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell and Capitol Police Chief Bo Luckey, arguing that police officers under their watch violated her constitutional rights by acting with “deliberate indifference” for her life. She also claimed that Tindell and Luckey failed to properly train officers. In a Wednesday ruling, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee granted Tindell and Luckey’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, writing that they cannot be liabl...

Lisa Marie Presley died from small bowel obstruction caused by bariatric surgery, coroner says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lisa Marie Presley died from complications from bariatric surgery she had several years ago, authorities said Thursday.The January 12 death at age 54 of the singer, songwriter and heir of Elvis Presley was ruled as being from natural causes due to effects of a small bowel obstruction.Additional details about what caused Presley’s death were included in an autopsy report released Thursday afternoon by the office of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.The report says the complication that Presley experienced is a common complication from bariatric surgery, which is a weight loss procedure. The Mayo Clinic says it is often done when other weight loss methods haven’t worked or if a person has a serious medical condition.Presley died at a Los Angeles hospital, where she had been rushed by paramedics responding to a 911 call of a woman in cardiac arrest at her home. No indication was made public at the time of what may have caused the medical iss...

Stock market today: Wall Street’s winning week stays perfect as inflation eases further

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s winning streak barreled into a fourth day Thursday following the latest signal that inflation is easing its chokehold on the economy.The S&P 500 rose 37.88, or 0.8%, to 4,510.04 and its highest close since April 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.71, or 0.1%, to 34,395.14, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 219.61, or 1.6%, to 14,138.57 as Big Tech stocks led the way.The S&P 500 is on track for its seventh winning week in the last nine after more data raised hopes that inflation is cooling enough to get the Federal Reserve to soon end its blistering run of hikes to interest rates. Inflation at the wholesale level slowed more than expected in June, and prices paid by producers were just 0.1% higher during the month than a year earlier. That’s down from 11.2% inflation last summer.High inflation has been the main reason investors have been fearing a possible recession, because of how high the Federal Reserve has cranked interest ra...

Aspartame now listed as possible cancer cause. But it’s still considered safe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

The World Health Organization’s cancer agency has deemed the sweetener aspartame — found in diet soda and countless other foods — as a “possible” cause of cancer, while a separate expert group looking at the same evidence said it still considers the sugar substitute safe in limited quantities.The differing results of the coordinated reviews were released early Friday. One came from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a special branch of the WHO. The other report was from an expert panel selected by WHO and another U.N. group, the Food and Agriculture Organization.The Lyon, France-based cancer agency periodically reviews potential cancer hazards but doesn’t determine how likely they are to cause cancer in their evaluations which range from “possibly” carcinogenic to “probably” to cancer-causing.Aspartame joins a category with more than 300 other possible cancer-causing agents, including things like aloe vera ext...

Tornado Warning issued for McHenry County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:43:17 GMT

UPDATE: The National Weather Service in Chicago has issued a Tornado Warning for McHenry County until 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.Latest warnings and watches from the National Weather Service.CHICAGO — Thursday will be fairly quiet with some patchy fog to start the day and a mix of sun and clouds throughout the day. Highs will reach the mid to upper 70s this afternoon with light northwesterly winds. 4 confirmed tornadoes after Wednesday night’s storms: National Weather Service Our next chance of showers and storms moves in overnight will just a small chance of non-severe storms likely after midnight. Thursday night:  Isolated t-storms exit the area. Becoming mainly clear, seasonably mild. Low: 67.Friday:  Sun through building summertime cumulus clouds. Quite warm, and humid. Scattered thunderstorms develop over at least half the metro area before the day is over. High: 86/locally near 90 in some of the typically warmer locations. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm h...