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MBTA hikes sign-on bonus for new hires to $7,500

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

The MBTA has hiked its hiring bonus to $7,500 across eligible positions in an effort to fill jobs as it struggles to run timely trains and buses amid a hiring crunch and a variety of safety concerns.The T announced Monday it was bumping up the hiring bonus to $7,500 from its previous $4,500 level.Open jobs that qualify for the bonus include bus operators, rail repairers, track laborers, streetcar operators, subway train operators, service technicians, and fuelers.  Previously, only bus operator slots qualified for the sign-on cash.The hiring push comes on the same day that the fiscal watchdog Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation issued an in-depth analysis finding the statewide effort to support the T was sorely lacking.The MTF report calls for an all-hands on deck approach from Beacon Hill legislators and the Governor’s office to get the agency back on track, emphasizing that the T can’t do it alone.“Even with a larger pipeline, sufficient resources, and faster hiring processes...

NASA announces 4 astronauts flying to the moon on Artemis II

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

Richard Tribou | Orlando SentinelHumans haven’t traveled beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years, but that’s set to change with the launch of the Artemis II mission to orbit the moon next year. Just who will be flying was revealed Monday.NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced the four crew members that will climb aboard the Orion spacecraft to be launched atop the Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center as early as November 2024.Commanding the mission will be Reid Wiseman, the former head of NASA’s astronaut office who stepped down to be eligible to fly on missions again. He will be joined by NASA astronaut Victor Glover, who will act as pilot, NASA astronaut and mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.Fly ‘em to the Moon!@NASA has named @NASA_Astronauts @Astro_Christina, @AstroVicGlover, @astro_reidand @csa_asc @Astro_Jeremy as the crew of the #Artemis II mission. Artemis II will fly the crew of four to t...

Trump arrives in New York to face charges in criminal probe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump flew Monday from Florida to New York for his historic booking and arraignment on hush money charges, as the nation’s largest city bolstered security and warned potential protesters it was “not a playground for your misplaced anger.”Trump’s motorcade ride from his Mar-a-Lago club to his red, white and blue Boeing 757, emblazoned with his name in gold letters, was carried live on cable television. It took him past supporters waving banners and cheering, decrying the case against him — stemming from payments made during his 2016 campaign — as politically motivated. Trump is already months into a third campaign to reclaim the White House he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, and he and his advisers seemed to relish the attention. Cable networks followed his plane at airports in Florida and New York with video from the air, and Trump was joined aboard by a small group of senior campaign aides as well as his son, Eric Trump, who ...

Circle back: Maine claims biggest ice disk, at 1,776 feet

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

MADAWASKA, Maine (AP) — Volunteers cut a big ol’ circle in a frozen lake and set it in motion, claiming a world record in a category that few people know exists: The biggest ice carousel.With a diameter of 1,776 feet — or 541 meters — the giant piece of ice estimated at 146,000 tons moved slowly like a Lazy Susan to hoots, hollers and high fives on Saturday.Northern Maine Ice Busters had to cut through ice nearly 30 inches thick on a path painstakingly measured by survey crews to create a perfect circle measuring nearly six football fields across. It’s a laborious-but-fun way to provide entertainment during the long, cold winter, and it has turned into something of a rivalry in places like Finland, Minnesota and Maine. There’s even a World Ice Carousel Association.“It’s a friendly competition,” said John Mazo, media liaison for the Northern Maine Ice Busters.On Saturday, it took a herculean effort to get the giant disk moving with 10 outboard boat engines, farm equ...

Canada first to develop medical standards to keep kids from suffering pain in silence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

OTTAWA — The Health Standards Organization has released a new set of guidelines to help hospital workers manage children’s pain — particularly for those who can’t communicate when they’re hurt.It’s the first national standard in the world focused on pediatric pain. Emergency physician and pediatric pain researcher Dr. Samina Ali says for a long time, doctors believed young children’s nervous systems were so underdeveloped they couldn’t feel or remember pain.“In the mid-’80s, babies were receiving open heart surgery with no anesthesia,” said Ali, who is also a professor of pediatrics and an adjunct professor of emergency medicine at the University of Alberta.“Even if those little ones don’t have the words at that time, their bodies remember and we see the long-term consequences of that in their physical and psychological development.”Since then, the country has made major strides toward managing the pain of young...

Stocks are mixed as jump in oil prices fans inflation fears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock markets around the world are mixed Monday, as a jump in oil prices threatens to add upward pressure on inflation. The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in afternoon trading after drifting between small gains and losses through the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 323 points, or 1%, at 33,598, as of 3:15 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower. Oil jumped 5.6% after Saudi Arabia and other crude-producing countries said over the weekend they would cut production. That lifted stocks of energy companies, including a 6.5% rise for Exxon Mobil, 10.9% leap for Marathon Oil and 3.1% gain for BP. While oil’s jump helps energy producers, it also weighs on much of the rest of the market. Beyond raising gasoline prices and other costs for everyone, it also dents one of the main themes that helped stocks rise in this year’s just completed first quarter: that turmoil in the banking system and a continued slowdown in inflation could push...

McDonald’s temporarily closes US offices ahead of layoffs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

NEW YORK — McDonald’s has closed its U.S. offices through Wednesday and told its corporate staff to work remotely as it prepares to announce a round of layoffs.In a memo to workers posted on the website TheLayoff.com, the Chicago-based burger giant said it wanted to “ensure the comfort and confidentiality of our people during the notification period” and would hold all notification meetings virtually. It told international corporate staff to follow guidance in their particular regions.The company said in the memo that the layoffs are intended to make McDonald’s more efficient.“We have a clear opportunity ahead of us to get faster and more effective at solving problems for our customers and people and to globally scale our successful market innovations at speed,” the company said.McDonald’s declined to comment on the memo or the layoffs on Monday. The memo was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.Though the U.S. labor market remains strong, layoffs have b...

Rogers CEO pledges reduced prices as company finalizes $26-billion merger with Shaw

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

TORONTO — The head of Rogers Communications Inc. pledged to lower costs for customers and brushed aside competition concerns after the company closed its $26-billion purchase of Shaw Communications Inc. on Monday.“What we want to make sure we get right is all the things for our customers, and in particular, affordability,” Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said in an interview.“One of the key pluses of this is that competition is going up, especially in the west, and prices are going to come down.”The deal, which was first announced in March 2021, cleared its final regulatory hurdle last week after Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne agreed to the transfer of Shaw-owned Freedom Mobile’s wireless licences to Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron. But though he signed off on the deal, Champagne issued a stern warning to the companies involved as he announced 21 “enforceable” conditions that Rogers and Videotron must adhere to, aimed at bolstering competition ...

Venezuela opposition envoy urges Biden to ease oil sanctions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — The new representative of Venezuela’s opposition in the U.S. is urging the Biden administration to relax crippling oil sanctions on Nicolas Maduro’s government or risk seeing the socialist-run country turn into another Cuba with Washington scapegoated for increasing authoritarianism and economic hardships.Fernando Blasi’s comments to The Associated Press represent a sharp break from the opposition’s “maximum pressure campaign” of the past four years when it was relying on the U.S. to muscle Maduro out of power. The failure of that hardline approach led the opposition in January to oust the beleaguered former lawmaker Juan Guaidó from his role as “interim president,” a title he claimed as head of the National Assembly elected in 2015 — widely considered Venezuela’s last democratic vote. The opposition has replaced that arrangement with a more horizontal style of leadership of mostly exiled politicians. “If we continue down this path, Venezue...

Gulf of Mexico oil worse for climate than thought, study

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:35:21 GMT

Offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico are releasing far more climate-changing methane than official estimates show, according to a new study published Monday.Using data collected from aircraft in part, climate scientists found the additional methane coming from oil and gas platforms in shallow waters of the Gulf region raises their carbon intensity — the amount of climate-changing gas per unit of energy in the fuel — to twice as much as estimated by U.S. agencies like the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The study is published in PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Reductions in both methane and carbon dioxide emissions are essential to lessen the future severity of climate change, the study notes. “You don’t have to travel halfway around the world to find unusually high emissions in oil and gas fields,” said Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist who was not involved in the study. “It’s happening right here in our backyard...