Category Archives: Boston

Columbia University calls for inquiry into leadership as student protests sweep 40 campuses

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Professors at Emory University arrested as campuses follow Columbia’s lead in demanding ceasefire and divestment

At least 40 pro-Palestine protest camps have arisen across US campuses following Columbia University’s example earlier this month, as the New York school’s senate called for an investigation into its leadership, the New York Times reported.

While many remain provocative though peaceful, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment by their institutions from companies with ties to Israel, hundreds of students and outside protesters have been arrested, and there have been some fierce clashes with police.

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Snow from nor’easter storm leads to canceled flights in north-eastern US

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Meteorologists predicted New York City could get as much as eight inches of snow, with a foot or more possible in Boston

A strong nor’easter storm hit the north-east of the United States overnight on Tuesday, causing airlines to cancel more than 1,000 flights and disrupt the morning work commute for millions.

Meteorologists predicted New York City could get as much as eight inches of snow, with a foot or more possible in Boston. However, warm ground temperatures meant that snow was not yet heavily accumulating in Manhattan.

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Airport K9 sniffs out mummified monkeys at Boston airport

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Passenger returning from the DRC said luggage contained dried fish, but inspection revealed four dead monkeys

A US customs and border protection dog has caused a stir at Boston’s often bustling airport after sniffing out something unusual in luggage from a traveler returning from Africa: mummified monkeys.

The passenger returning from a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported that the luggage contained dried fish. But an inspection at Boston Logan Airport revealed four dead monkeys whose bodies were dehydrated, agents said. The traveler said he brought the monkeys into the US for his own consumption, customs and border patrol spokesperson Ryan Bissette said Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Last US lighthouse keeper steps down from role at Boston Light Beacon

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Sally Snowman waxed philosophical about her 20 years tending the lighthouse on Little Brewster Island in Massachusetts

Sally Snowman, the last remaining official lighthouse keeper in the US, retires this weekend from her post looking after the first lighthouse built in North America, on a tiny island in Boston harbour, in what would later become the United States.

Snowman, 72, has been looking after Boston Light Beacon on Little Brewster Island for two decades, and it’s now being sold to a private owner. The arrangement – the new owner will be required to preserve it – comes almost 60 years after it was designated a national landmark and government funding was secured to keep it staffed, making it the last staffed lighthouse in the country.

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Boston fertility doctor accused of impregnating patient with own sperm

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Dr Merle Berger told patient Sarah Depoian sperm had come from an anonymous donor, new lawsuit claims

A leading Boston-based fertility doctor secretly impregnated a patient with his own sperm despite telling her that it had come from an anonymous donor, new a lawsuit has claimed.

According to a civil claim filed in US district court in Boston on Wednesday, Dr Merle Berger, founder of Boston IVF and a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard medical school for over three decades, secretly impregnated a patient, Sarah Depoian, who had been seeking intrauterine insemination.

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At least seven injured in shooting at Caribbean parade in Boston

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Gunfire occurred during J’ouvert parade on Saturday morning and several arrests were made, police say

At least seven people have been injured in a shooting during a Caribbean parade in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, police said on Saturday.

The victims were taken to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries and several arrests were made and firearms recovered, according to Boston police Sgt Det John Boyle.

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Tom Petty’s family accuses auction house of stealing his clothes

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Musician’s family says items for sale are ‘clearly stolen’, but Boston auction house claims it bought them after Petty’s former home was foreclosed in 2015

The family of the late musician Tom Petty has accused a Boston auction house of stealing his clothing in order to sell it at auction, urging fans and collectors to not buy the items while it pursues legal action.

RR Auction house currently has more than 40 items of Petty’s clothing listed for auction, including jackets, bags, boots, hats and T-shirts. On its website, the auction house claims it acquired the clothes after Petty’s first wife, Jane Benyo Petty, lost their family home in Encino to foreclosure in 2015.

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Jack Teixeira, suspect in Pentagon leaks, charged under Espionage Act

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Government to seek 10 years on each of two charges, says prosecutor in Boston court

Jack Teixeira, the air national guardsman arrested on suspicion of leaking hundreds of secret defence documents, has been charged in a Boston court on two counts under the Espionage Act as Washington reeled from the fallout of the worst leaks of US intelligence in at least a decade.

The clean-cut 21-year-old was brought into court in a beige jumpsuit, and his handcuffs were removed by a bailiff. He sat quietly, turning only once to three family members to smile weakly.

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Massachusetts man arrested for stabbing United Airlines flight attendant

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Francisco Severo Torres also attempted to open the aircraft’s emergency door and was taken into custody after the plane landed

A man on a plane flying from from Los Angeles to Boston has been arrested after stabbing a flight attendant and attempting to open the aircraft’s emergency door, the justice department has announced.

The Massachusetts man, Francisco Severo Torres, 33, was arrested at Boston Logan international airport after United Airlines flight 2609 landed and he was charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants and using a dangerous weapon.

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JetBlue pilot’s ‘evasive action’ averts crash at Boston’s Logan airport

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A Learjet on Monday was directed to wait for passenger plane to land but began to take off, forcing JetBlue craft to ‘climb out’

US aviation authorities are investigating a near miss at Boston’s Logan international airport after a JetBlue pilot had to take “evasive action” while landing when another aircraft crossed an intersecting runway.

The close call occurred at about 7pm on Monday when the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance as a JetBlue flight was preparing to land on an intersecting runway, according to a preliminary review from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

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Earthshot fund gives £1m to UK scientists fighting climate crisis

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Scientists who have replaced plastic packaging with seaweed among those to be given prize by Prince of Wales

Scientists who have replaced plastic packaging with seaweed are among those who have been given a £1m prize by the Prince of Wales’s Earthshot fund.

The prize is aimed at rewarding innovative solutions to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies, and is named after former US president John F Kennedy’s Moonshot challenge in the 1960s, which united millions of people around the goal of putting a person on the moon within a decade.

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William and Kate fly to US to promote prince’s environmental prize

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Days later, Harry and Meghan will head to New York for human rights award, with no plans for brothers to meet

The Prince and Princess of Wales will fly to the US on Wednesday hoping to shine a light on the climate crisis against a media backdrop obsessed with sibling rivalry and turf war with the Sussexes.

In their first US trip in eight years, Prince William and Princess Catherine are visiting Boston to promote the prince’s environmental Earthshot prize.

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Boston bans artificial turf in parks due to toxic ‘forever chemicals’

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The city joins a growing number across the US in limiting the use of artificial turf made with dangerous PFAS compounds

Boston’s mayor, Michelle Wu, has ordered no new artificial turf to be installed in city parks, making Boston the largest municipality in a small but growing number around the nation to limit use of the product because it contains dangerous chemicals.

All artificial turf is made with toxic PFAS compounds and some is still produced with ground-up tires that can contain heavy metals, benzene, VOCs and other carcinogens that can present a health threat. The material also emits high levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and sheds microplastics and other chemicals into waterways.

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Suspicion falls on employee after explosion at university in Boston

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Man who said he discovered package at Northeastern University may have staged incident, law enforcement officials say

Federal officials are now examining whether the employee who reported an explosion at Northeastern University may have lied to investigators and staged the incident, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

Investigators identified inconsistencies in the employee’s statement and became skeptical because his injuries did not match wounds typically consistent with an explosion, said one official.

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Boston police save the day by ferrying stranded groom to wedding in harbor

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Patrick Mahoney – plus groomsmen, photographer, DJ and flowers – needed help from police harbor patrol to get to Thompson Island

Officers with the Boston police department’s harbor patrol unit are used to helping boaters in distress, but last weekend Officer Joe Matthews came to the rescue of a groom in danger of missing his own wedding.

Patrick Mahoney was scheduled to get married on Thompson Island in the middle of Boston Harbor on Saturday, but the boat that was supposed to ferry him to the island where his bride-to-be was waiting broke down, police said in a post on their website.

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North-eastern US braces for record-breaking heat

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One heat-related death reported in New York while authorities in Philadelphia extend health emergency declaration

Residents in the north-east US braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures on Sunday as a near-week-long hot spell continued, prompting officials to warn of dangerous heat.

At least one heat-related death, in New York, was reported. Around the region, athletic events were shortened or postponed and cities opened cooling centers and even turned to buses to offer relief from the heat.

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Boston’s new hero: woman who jumped from burning subway car into river

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The anonymous woman jumped into the water, swam to shore, and carried on with her day. How Bostonian!

Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz will be inducted into the baseball hall of fame this weekend. Aside from the three World Series he helped bring to the city, among the memories this is likely to stir up among fans is the rousing speech Big Papi gave shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing. “This is our fucking city!” he shouted at Fenway Park.

Many locals had a similar reaction to the heroics of another Boston figure on Thursday morning when an MBTA train heading into the neighboring city of Somerville caught on fire.

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Boston Marathon turns into sprint on 50th anniversary of first women’s race

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  • Peres Jepchirchir wins thrilling women’s race
  • Kenya’s Evans Chebet takes men’s title with ease
  • Race returns to Patriots’ Day spot after Covid disruption

Peres Jepchirchir celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Boston Marathon women’s division by winning a see-saw sprint down Boylston Street on Monday as the race returned to its traditional Patriots’ Day spot in the schedule for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Running shoulder to shoulder for most of the course, the reigning Olympic champion and Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh traded places eight times in the final mile, with Jepchirchir pulling ahead for good in the final 385 yards. The Kenyan finished in 2 hours, 21 minutes and 1 second, four seconds ahead of her rival.

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Sword found hidden in cane during X-ray scan at Logan airport

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Man carrying the cane said he had no idea it concealed a sword and was able to catch his flight after it was confiscated

A man passing through a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) checkpoint was stopped for having a sword concealed in his cane – and claimed he had no idea the blade was there.

Around noon last Tuesday, TSA officers at Logan airport in Boston were searching the traveler, a Massachusetts resident headed to New York.

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Nor’easter lashes eastern US with snow and wind gusts near hurricane force

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  • Philadelphia, New York and Boston in path of storm
  • Flooding, high winds and cold weather expected

A nor’easter with hurricane-force wind gusts battered much of the US east coast on Saturday, flinging heavy snow that made travel treacherous or impossible, flooding coastlines and threatening to leave bitter cold in its wake.

The storm thrashed parts of 10 states, with blizzard warnings from Virginia to Maine. Philadelphia and New York saw plenty of wind and snow, but Boston was in the crosshairs. The city could get more than 2ft of snow by early Sunday.

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