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MIAA Football Committee: Gillette to host 8 championships

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

State championship football will return to Gillette Stadium.The only difference is that the games will not be contested on the traditional first Friday and Saturday of December. Due to the fact that the Patriots will be hosting the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 3, MIAA football committee liaison Richard Pearson said it appears the eight championships would be contested on Wednesday (Nov. 29), Thursday (Nov. 30) and Friday (Dec. 1).As for semifinal venues, Pearson said the MIAA is currently looking at several sites in which to host the 16 games. Committee member Steve Dembowski expressed a concern shared by several coaches that some facilities didn’t provide locker room accessibility among other things.Mother Nature played havoc with some of the football games last weekend. Three of the games, including the Swampscott-Auburn affair, were not completed due to inclement weather. Pearson said the games have to be played to completion and if they aren’t, they would have to app...

Cannabis Control Commissioners butt heads over acting pot chair role

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

You would think the people in charge of the weed would be a little more chill.An attempt by state pot regulators to appoint an acting chair to fill the void left by their suspended leader grew heated enough Monday morning that commissioners had to take a quick break to collect themselves after they spent half an hour arguing.An attempt by Commissioner Kimberly Roy to run the Cannabis Control Commission’s public meeting in the absence of Chair Shannon O’Brien was stymied shortly after the group was gaveled together after one of the commission’s attorneys informed the group they had no chair and would have to appoint an acting officer to continue their discussion.“We do and we are going to stick to the agenda. New business is the fourth item,” Roy said when Acting General Counsel Andrew Carter told the commission they had no chair.Roy objected to Carter’s assertion, saying she, as commission secretary, is to serve as acting commission chair when O’Brien is not present.“There are two w...

Chicago Cubs’ playoff hopes are in a precarious position after getting swept by Arizona Diamondbacks

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

Their worst stretch of play in months could not have come at a much worse time for the Chicago Cubs.The veteran team needed to regroup on Monday’s day off after a dreadful 1-5 trip against the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks. Five consecutive losses culminated with Sunday’s 6-2 defeat as the Cubs were swept for the first time in almost three months and returned to Chicago for their final homestand desperately trying to regain their playoff position.The Cubs (78-72) entered Monday tied with the Miami Marlins for the final National League wild-card spot, though the Marlins hold the tiebreaker.“They were better than we were in all aspects of the game,” manager David Ross said of the Diamondbacks. “They played better defense, they pitched better, they had timely hitting, they ran the bases better. We got beat all the way around. A bad road trip. Try to wash it on the off day tomorrow.”The Cubs wasted their best opportunity to erase Arizona&#...

DA investigates death of Patriots fan at Gillette Stadium

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

The death of a 53-year-old New Hampshire man at Sunday night’s Patriots game is under investigation, the Norfolk DA announced.Foxboro police and fire personnel responded into the 300’s tier of Gillette Stadium where Dale Mooney of Newmarket, N.H., “was in apparent need of medical attention at approximately 10:57 p.m.,” the DA’s office said Monday.Mooney was transported to the Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro where authorities say he was pronounced dead.State troopers are following “normal protocol” by investigating the death, the DA added.“The matter remains under active investigation. The District Attorney’s Office has been informed that the autopsy is not scheduled to be conducted (Monday). There are no charges in place at this time,” the announcement added.The State Police said Mooney suffered an “apparent medical event” during the game. His wife was quoted as saying he was a father of two and a season ticket holder...

Phil Mickelson says he’s done gambling and is on the road to being ‘the person I want to be’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

Phil Mickelson won’t be betting on football this year — much less the Ryder Cup — saying in a lengthy social media post Monday that he previously crossed the line from moderation into addiction and “it wasn’t any fun.”“The money wasn’t ever the issue since our financial security has never been threatened, but I was so distracted I wasn’t able to be present with the ones I love and caused a lot of harm,” Mickelson wrote in the post.His public admission of a gambling addiction comes more than a month after renowned gambler Billy Walters wrote in his book that Mickelson wagered more than $1 billion over the last three decades and wanted to place a $400,000 bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup while playing for Team USA.Mickelson denied ever betting on the Ryder Cup, which starts next week outside Rome.Mickelson has been relatively quiet since Walters did a media tour in August for his book, “Gambler: Secrets from a Life of Risk.” He returns to competition this week w...

House gives unanimous consent to rubber-stamp bail reform bill, send it to Senate

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

OTTAWA — The House of Commons has unanimously agreed to adopt the Liberal government’s bail-reform bill at all stages and send it to the Senate for review. The decision came on MPs’ first day back in Ottawa after a summer break. The proposed legislation would make it harder for some repeat, violent offenders to be granted bail. Canada’s justice system currently requires prosecutors to prove why someone should stay behind bars, but the legislation would instead put the onus on some offenders to prove why it would be safe for them to be let out of prison. The Liberal government introduced the bill in the spring amid sustained pressure from premiers, police associations and victims’ rights groups to change the law. Liberals hinted during debate that they would be open to the bill’s speedy passage, and it was a Conservative motion to make that so that ultimately received support from all parties. The motion stipulated that the bill would be considered adopt...

Bears raid a Krispy Kreme doughnut van making deliveries on an Alaska military base

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — Two bears on an Alaska military base raided a Krispy Kreme doughnut van that was stopped outside a convenience store during its delivery route.The driver usually left his doors open when he stopped at the store but this time a sow and one of her cubs that loiter nearby sauntered inside, where they stayed for probably 20 minutes Tuesday morning, said Shelly Deano, the store manager for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson JMM Express. The bears chomped on doughnut holes and other pastries, ignoring the banging on the side of the van that was aimed at shooing them away, Deano said. “I was beating on the van and they’re not moving. I could hear them breaking open the packages and everything,” she said. “I was like, ‘They don’t even care.’”When the bears couldn’t be roused, base security was called and sounded sirens meant to scare the bears off, she said. The bears eventually came out and wandered in front of the conveni...

Marines pause aviation operations for two days as search continues in South Carolina for fighter jet

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — All U.S. Marine Corps aviation units are pausing operations for two days after a fighter jet’s apparent crash over the weekend marked the third costly accident in recent weeks.Gen. Eric Smith, the acting commandant of the Marine Corps, ordered the stand-down Monday while authorities searched near two South Carolina lakes for the missing FB-35B Lightning II aircraft. The pilot, whose name hasn’t been released, parachuted to safety into a North Charleston neighborhood about 2 p.m. Sunday. He was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition, Marines Maj. Melanie Salinas said Sunday.It’s the third event documented as a “Class-A mishap” over the past six weeks, according to a Marine Corps announcement. Such incidents occur when damages reach $2.5 million or more, a Department of Defense aircraft is destroyed, or someone dies or is permanently disabled.Commanders will spend the stand-down reinforcing safe flying policies, prac...

Norfolk Southern announces details of plan to pay for lost home values because of Ohio derailment

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

Norfolk Southern announced new details Monday about its plan to compensate East Palestine residents for lost home values since the fiery derailment disrupted life in the eastern Ohio town in February.The railroad’s program will no doubt be welcomed by some people who want to sell their homes and move away from the town rather than deal with the lingering health worries. But some critics say the railroad should be doing more to address those health concerns instead of worrying so much about economic recovery in the area.And the details are still tentative because the Ohio Attorney General’s office is still negotiating an agreement that will create a long-term fund to compensate homeowners along with two other funds to pay for any health problems or water contamination issues that crop up down the road. The Attorney General’s office said it’s not clear when those funds will be finalized because of all the unanswered questions at this stage.Already, the railroad...

A top Maine Republican leader, a lobsterman, survives boat capsize from giant wave ahead of Lee

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:36:00 GMT

Like most lobstermen, the Maine House Republican leader scrambled to complete his work ahead of the remnants of Hurricane Lee. Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham was rushing home from sea when a giant wave rose up, seemingly from nowhere, and towered over his boat.Moments later, he and fellow fishermen Alex Polk found themselves plunged into the cold North Atlantic as they witnessed a horrifying sight: The sturdy 40-foot (12-meter) vessel built for offshore fishing had flipped over, its propeller still turning and its diesel engine belching black smoke.“This boat was turned upside down in a nanosecond like a bathtub toy,” Faulkingham recounted.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Coast Guard had warned mariners at noon Friday that they needed to immediately begin making plans to avoid the onrushing storm — just about when Faulkingham was turning to home at Winter Harbor, a few miles (kilometers) east of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park.Suffering a black e...