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Leominster man accused of attempted attack on flight to Boston allegedly tried to attack 2 guards at RI detention facility

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

A 33-year-old Leominster man who is facing charges after allegedly trying to stab a flight attendant and open an emergency exit door while on board a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston also tried to attack two guards at a Rhode Island detention center, according to 7NEWS sources. Francisco Severo Torres, 33, was taken to the Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island on Tuesday after being charged with one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon.Officials said the initial incident happened aboard a plane on Sunday. Officials said the flight crew received an alarm roughly 45 minutes before landing, alerting them that a side door had been disarmed. “Upon inspection, a flight attendant found that the door’s locking handle had been moved out of the fully locked position – approximately a quarter of the way towards the unlocked position – and that the emergency slide arming lever had been moved to ...

‘It hurts my heart’: Neighbors speak out on former NH bus driver charged with assaulting students with disabilities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

HUDSON, N.H. (WHDH) – Neighbors are speaking out after a former bus driver was accused of assaulting students with disabilities between the ages of five and six years old in Hudson, NH.Police said 68-year-old Virene Poliquin was charged with class A misdemeanors in connection with the incident.Up until last month, Poliquin worked for a private contractor which provides special needs transportation for students in the Hudson School District. Police arrested her on Monday following a two week probe after they said she allegedly struck children on her bus during a ride home from school on Feb. 17.During the course of the investigation, officials said they determined Poliquin assaulted one student seven times and two other students once. The nature of the assaults included slapping, kicking, grabbing, covering the mouth with a hand, and pouring water on a victim, according to Hudson Police Chief Tad Dionne.“There’s not much that disturbs me,” Dionne said. “Unfortunately, this...

Midmorning shooting in Dorchester leaves at least one person wounded

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

Boston police are investigating after a shooting left one person wounded in Dorchester on Wednesday.Authorities said it was around 10:40 a.m. when the Boston Police Department received a call for a shooting in the area of Thetford Avenue.Officials told 7NEWS a victim was later found and taken to Boston Medical Center for treatment as police began investigating the scene.A SKY7 camera spotted an area near the intersection of Thetford and Evans Street had been taped off by police, across from the Thetford Evans Playground.Details on the victim’s condition or any possible suspects have not yet been released.This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.

Astronomers detect water molecules swirling around a star

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

(CNN) — A nearby star system is helping astronomers unravel the mystery of how water appeared in our solar system billions of years ago.Scientists observed a young star, called V883 Orionis, located 1,300 light-years away using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of telescopes, or ALMA, in northern Chile.The star is surrounded by a planet-forming disk of cloud of gas and dust leftover from when the star was born. Eventually, material in the disk comes together to form comets, asteroids and planets over millions of years.A team of researchers used ALMA to measure chemical signals in the planet-forming disk, and they detected gaseous water, or water vapor. Their detection allowed the astronomers to trace the water’s journey from the gas clouds that formed the star and will eventually give rise to planets.Their findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests that comets formed from the sun’s planet-forming disk could have brought water ...

Tolls And Traffic Rebound Before Transit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

The state highway system is bringing in nearly as much money from tolls as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic hit three years ago.The Department of Transportation collected $215.9 million from motorists using tolled roads in the first two quarters of fiscal 2023, only $5 million less than the same span in fiscal 2019, the last full budget cycle before the public health emergency upended life and rewired work and travel patterns.With that year-to-date haul, MassDOT expects it will wrap up the year with 99 percent as much toll revenue as before COVID, an outlook chief financial officer David Pottier called “great news.”Recovery has been substantial, but not identical, across the various roadways where the state imposes charges on motorists.Comparing the first half of fiscal 2023 to the first half of fiscal 2019, toll revenues in the Boston-area Metropolitan Highway System (MHS), which includes the Central Artery, Sumner and Callahan Tunnels, and the Massachusetts Turnpike...

DOJ announces it will review Memphis Police Department following Tyre Nichols’ death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

(CNN) — The Department of Justice will perform a review of the Memphis Police Department after the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols, the department announced Wednesday, ahead of the expected release of about 20 more hours of footage from Nichols’ January encounter with police.The review, requested by the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, and the city’s police chief, will cover “policies, practices, training, data, and processes related to MPD’s use-of-force, de-escalation, and specialized units,” according to a news release from the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.A public report outlining the office’s findings and recommendations will be made public at the end of the review, the release states. The announcement Memphis came shortly before the DOJ issued a scathing critique of the Louisville Metro Police Department following a separate two-year review of that agency after the botched raid that...

Louisville Metro Police Department uses ‘excessive force’ and ‘unlawfully discriminates against Black people,’ DOJ report says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

(CNN) — The Justice Department issued a scathing critique Wednesday on the Louisville Metro Police Department after a nearly two-year review it launched into the force following the botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor.The review, looking at whether the Louisville Metro Police Department used excessive force, found that officers use unreasonable tactics including unjustified neck restraints, police dogs and tasers. The report also found that the police department executes search warrants without knocking and announcing.“For years, LMPD has practiced an aggressive style of policing that it deploys selectively, especially against Black people, but also against vulnerable people throughout the city,” the report said.“LMPD cites people for minor offenses, like wide turns and broken taillights, while serious crimes like sexual assault and homicide go unsolved,” the report added. “Some officers demonstrate disrespect for the peopl...

Mike Preston: Lamar Jackson only has himself to blame for breakdown in negotiations with Ravens | COMMENTARY

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

Maybe Lamar Jackson has finally figured out he needs an agent to conduct contract negotiations.The star quarterback has been negotiating on his own behalf with the Ravens but has been outmaneuvered throughout the nearly 2 1/2-year process. The team outplayed him when it applied the nonexclusive franchise tag on him Tuesday.While some have said it was risky business for the Ravens to allow Jackson an opportunity to sign with another team, I thought the decision was superb and showed that the team’s front office had thoroughly studied the landscape and his value throughout the league.The emotion over at The Castle might be a little subdued, but there surely has been some high-fiving.Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta could have used the exclusive franchise tag on Jackson, 26, which would cost about $45 million, but instead chose the nonexclusive, which is about $32.4 million.Jackson is free to start negotiations with other teams Monday and the Ravens would have five days to mat...

Saquon Barkley will be part of Giants, but ‘still mapping out’ resolution, says GM Joe Schoen

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

Giants GM Joe Schoen said Wednesday that Saquon Barkley is “gonna be a part of this team going forward,” but the franchise tag was always a possibility if a deal didn’t get done by Tuesday, and Barkley knew that.“That’s negotiations,” Schoen said on Zoom. “We had some deals out there. We tried to get a deal done with him and his representatives, and we couldn’t. And I think both parties knew at the end of the day that this was an option.“I think if he’s frustrated I can understand some of that, and we can be frustrated as well that we weren’t able to get a deal done,” the GM added. “But I love Saquon, he’s a good player, he’s gonna be a part of this team going forward. And we’ll see where it goes from here.”Schoen said with Barkley under the tag, “as we build the team and continue with our offseason plan, we’ll do what’s best for the team. And we’re still map...

Suffolk DA drops case against noted NBA skills trainer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:48 GMT

Suffolk prosecutors on Wednesday dropped the case against high profile NBA skills trainer Robert McClanaghan who had been charged with allegedly drugging and raping a woman at a Boston hotel.Suffolk DA Keven Hayden’s office said in a release Wednesday it had filed a Nolle Prosequi with the court, effectively ending the case.“Rob and his family are relieved that this nightmare is over,” said defense attorney Kelli Porges. “He has maintained his innocence from the beginning.”In the filing with the court, Hayden’s office stated “ the Commonwealth has determined that it cannot prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.””Our responsibility in all cases is to follow the evidence wherever it leads,” Hayden’s office said in the announcement. “In some cases that endeavor does not add up to a viable prosecution. We have a duty to recognize that conclusion and to take the appropriate action when it is reached. We have taken that appropriate action today. Out of respect for the pri...