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9 books that combine reading and the outdoors

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

Today we’ve got suggestions for books that combine reading and outdoor activities and a roundup of nature guides that help your family explore our natural environment and its inhabitants.“Busco: We are all just mutts after all”: by Robert J. Kowalski, illustrated by Larisa Ivankovic (Independently Published, $14)Busco is a mutt who escapes from an animal shelter and wanders far away to a place where he sees big and small dogs happily playing in a park. Sleeping in the forest every night, Busco wishes he could join the fun but he’s afraid he won’t be accepted because of his mixed-color coat. Then the dog angels help him meet a little girl who’s also lonely. Together they enter the park, and Busco frolics in the water with the other dogs, who don’t care what Busco or any other of their friends looks like. Kowalski, a St. Paul native, made his writing debut with “Jaycee: A Heroine’s Journey,” a novel about what the world would be like if Jesus had been born a woman. After Kowalski comp...

‘Blindsided’: State slams BPS over O’Bryant plans

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

Education Commissioner Jeff Riley blasted the proposal by Boston Public Schools to move the highly rated O’Bryant School to West Roxbury, saying state officials were “blindsided” by the announcement.Riley ticked off a host of issues the district is grappling with under a mandatory improvement plan signed with the state and said the best grade he could offer on those agreed upon goals would be an “incomplete.”“Well, we were candidly blindsided by a major plan for high schools that seemed half-baked at best,” Riley told the state Education Board. “Worse, it seems that neither DESE nor relevant stakeholders and that includes parents, teachers and some School Committee members were given any heads up about it before it was announced.”Riley delivered the animated comments during his commissioner’s update at Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.The remarks come three weeks after Mayor Michelle Wu and School Superintendent Mary Skipper announced they’r...

Chicago’s air quality is worst in the world after Canadian wildfire smoke blankets the region, global pollution index shows

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

By Vivian La, Jenna Smith and Deanese Williams-Harris, Chicago TribuneThick smoke from Canadian wildfires coated Chicago and the surrounding areas with haze as weather officials issued an air quality alert for parts of the Great Lakes, Lower Mississippi and Ohio valleys Tuesday morning.According to the monitoring site IQAir, Chicago had the worst air quality out of 95 cities worldwide Tuesday.As of 11 a.m., the air quality index had risen to a level considered “very unhealthy,” according to AirNow, a website that combines data from county, state and federal air quality agencies nationwide. This means everyone is at risk of experiencing health effects.Joggers run along the shoreline of Lake Michigan with heavy smoke from the Canadian wildfires in the background, on June 27, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)Lake breezes would bring more smoke Tuesday afternoon, creating hazy conditions, said Zachary Yack, meteorologist with the National Weat...

1 person killed in City Heights shooting

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

SAN DIEGO — One person was killed Tuesday in a shooting in the City Heights neighborhood, police say.The shooting happened around 11 a.m. in the area near 40th and Thorn streets, according to San Diego police.The victim was taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital. Around 12 p.m., SDPD confirmed to FOX 5 that the victim had died from their injuries. 3 Camp Pendleton Marines among 4 dead in fiery crash on I-5 Officials have blocked off 40th Street from Thorn Street to Redwood Street as they investigate the incident.Police did not immediately release any information regarding a suspect in the shooting.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Future infrastructure funding to require climate change be taken into account

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s new national climate adaptation strategy will tie future federal infrastructure transfers to the provinces to projects that incorporate adaptation efforts starting next year.By 2025, provinces and territories will also have to build climate resilience into recovery efforts to get federal help after a disaster.The strategy was finalized Tuesday, at a time when most Canadians have already directly experienced the changing weather patterns of global warming.“We all recognize Canada is not ready to face the impacts of climate change,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said as he presented the final strategy at a news conference in Vancouver.He said while Canada must do more to slow climate change by cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, it also must accept that we need to adapt our lives to the changes that have already happened. The costs to people and the economy are already steep.In 2021, severe weather caused $2.1 billion in insured damag...

Share of US employees working on-site drops from 84% to 74% in pandemic’s first year

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

Workers in the fields of computer science, real estate, finance and insurance experienced the greatest bumps in working from home during the first years of the pandemic, while it barely budged for laborers in occupations like stockers, truck operators and order fillers, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.The share of employees working on-site in computer and mathematical jobs went from 60% in 2019 to 30% in 2021, and it went from 67% to 43% for workers in insurance, finance and real estate jobs, according to figures from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).On the flip side, it went from 97% to 96% for workers in what are called “material moving occupations,” such as laborers, truck drivers and machine operators.Looking at all U.S. jobs, the share of employees working on-site dropped from 84% to 74%, the survey said.Meanwhile, the share of workers in hybrid jobs, that is those spending some days on-site and other days at home, increased f...

Maple Leafs’ Treliving confirms Sheldon Keefe will remain as head coach

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

Speaking to reporters in Nashville ahead of the NHL Draft on Wednesday and Thursday, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager, Brad Treliving, confirmed Sheldon Keefe would return next year to guide the Buds. “Sheldon will be back,” Treliving said. Treliving, of course, has only been the Leafs GM since former GM Kyle Dubas and the organization parted ways in May following Toronto’s second-round loss to the Florida Panthers. Given the guy who hired him — Dubas — is no longer at the helm, to say nothing of the fact Keefe is on a contract that expires at this time next year and has one playoff series win in five attempts with Toronto, there was plenty of speculation that a new executive may want his own guy behind the bench in an attempt to find a winning formula. Not so. Treliving indicated he had really never crossed paths with Keefe before the former took his new job. That changed during an intense period of meetings that took place over a few days. The result of that was Treliving being...

Prosecutors want to dismiss some charges for former Atlanta official in corruption case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal prosecutors plan to ask a judge to dismiss convictions for wire fraud and to resentence a former high-ranking Atlanta city official who is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence stemming from an investigation into corruption at City Hall, according to a court filing.Mitzi Bickers, who served as director of human services under former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and who also worked as a pastor and political operative, was convicted on multiple charges last year. At her sentencing in September, U.S. District Steve Jones said the evidence in the case showed that she was involved in “a deliberate, calculated plan to cheat” Atlanta taxpayers.Bickers has asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse her conviction and send the case back to the lower court for a new trial. In a filing with the appeals court Friday, prosecutors rejected most of Bickers’ arguments, but they did ask that the case be sent back to Jones for dismissal of four wire fraud c...

Billions are being spent to turn the tide on the US West’s wildfires. It won’t be enough

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Using chainsaws, heavy machinery and controlled burns, the Biden administration is trying to turn the tide on worsening wildfires in the U.S. West through a multi-billion dollar cleanup of forests choked with dead trees and undergrowth.Yet one year into what’s envisioned as a decade-long effort, federal land managers are scrambling to catch up after falling behind on several of their priority forests for thinning even as they exceeded goals elsewhere. And they’ve skipped over some highly at-risk communities to work in less threatened areas, according to data obtained by The Associated Press, public records and Congressional testimony.With climate change making the situation increasingly dire, mixed early results from the administration’s initiative underscore the challenge of reversing decades of lax forest management and aggressive fire suppression that allowed many woodlands to become tinderboxes. The ambitious effort comes amid pushback from...

Maine Senate joins House in supporting greater access to abortions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:02 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Senate voted to expand abortion access Tuesday following an emotional debate, advancing a proposal that would give the state one of the least restrictive abortion laws in the country.The 21-13 vote lacked the 11th-hour hustle to ensure support that happened before the bill was narrowly approved late last week in the House. Two more votes were needed, one in the House and one in the Senate, to enact the bill.Demonstrators opposed to the bill later sang hymns, held signs and chanted “kill the bill!” in the hallways.Current state law bans abortions after a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks, unless a mother’s life is at risk. The bill would allow abortions any time before birth if deemed medically necessary by a doctor. Supporters said the change was necessary in heartbreakingly rare circumstances when fatal anomalies are discovered later in a pregnancy.“How do we legislate the unimaginable?” said Sen. Jill Dusan, D-Portland. “We ...