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Buoyed by savings, Mass. bond rating upped by S&P to pre-2017 levels

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

On the back of promising economic numbers, speedy post-pandemic recovery and strong future financial prospects, the state’s bond rating has been returned to 2017 levels by ratings agencies.“The upgrade reflects our view that the Commonwealth’s commitment to strengthen its budget management practices supported by the state’s improved reserves and strong economy will be sustained through near-term recessionary pressures,” Standard & Poor’s said in notice to investors.According to Treasurer Deb Goldberg, the ratings agency has moved the rating for general obligation bonds issued by the state from AA or “positive outlook” to AA+ or “stable outlook”. The state’s long term ratings for Commonwealth Transportation Fund bonds moved from AA+ to AAA.“We are extremely pleased that the S&P credit rating is now aligned with the other ratings for the Commonwealth’s General Obligation bonds,” Goldberg said in a Tuesday statement. “The Governor’s proposed Fiscal Year ...

1 person killed, five others injured in Manhattan parking garage collapse

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

By Rocco Parascandola, Janon Fisher, Michael Gartland and Ellen Moynihan | New York Daily NewsOne person was killed and five others were injured in a partial building collapse Tuesday in lower Manhattan, according to emergency officials.The top floors of the four-story structure, a parking garage at Ann and Williams streets, “pancaked” just after 4 p.m., city officials said.Members of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) arrive at the scene of a parking garage that collapsed in lower Manhattan, New York City, on April 18, 2023. (Photo by PETER GERBER/AFP via Getty Images)The upper floors, which were packed with cars, crumbled, sending the vehicles into the void below, photos taken from adjacent buildings show.“A couple of floors of the concrete slab floors collapsed, crushed some of the cars that are inside,” FDNY Chief of Operations James Esposito said at a press conference near the scene.The façade of the building also buckled around 5 p.m. and was in danger of falling into the ...

Son confronts mom, testifies in doomsday plot murder trial

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The only surviving child of a woman charged in the murders of her two youngest children and a romantic rival confronted his mother about his siblings’ deaths in an emotional phone call played for jurors on Tuesday in a trial that has touched on claims of evil spirits, zombie children and an additional murder charge in another state.Prosecutors played the call shortly after Colby Ryan, Lori Vallow Daybell’s oldest child, took the stand in the bizarre triple murder case in Idaho. The call was made after the bodies of Ryan’s siblings, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, were found buried in an eastern Idaho yard in 2020, and after Vallow Daybell was jailed in connection with the crime. It starts with Ryan asking his mom if she thought she could keep hiding from him.“I’m not hiding, why would you think I’m hiding?” Vallow Daybell responds.“Probably because you murdered my siblings! Maybe you should understand,” Ryan continued, before his mother interrupted...

Going on a trip? Oregon’s magic mushroom experiment advances

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s pioneering experiment with legalized magic mushrooms took a step closer to reality as the first “facilitators” who will accompany clients as they experience the drug received their state licenses, authorities said Tuesday.Voters approved the regulated use of psilocybin in a 2020 ballot measure, and anticipation has been building over the past 2 1/2 years for the day — expected to come later this year — when people can gain access to the drug that studies indicate has therapeutic value. Hundreds of people have invested thousands of dollars apiece in this budding industry, and some worry that the rollout is proceeding too slowly. “We thank you for your dedication to client safety and access as we move closer to opening service centers,” Oregon Psilocybin Services Manager Angie Allbee said in a statement Tuesday to three people who received the state’s first facilitator licenses.But to date, no service centers — where customers would access...

1st Black chief judge for New York state confirmed

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s Senate confirmed Rowan Wilson as the state’s first Black chief judge Tuesday, two months after lawmakers dealt Gov. Kathy Hochul a political defeat by rejecting her initial nominee for the top court post.Wilson has been an associate judge of the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, since 2017. Hochul tapped him earlier this month to lead the seven-member high court and oversee the state’s judicial system. The confirmation vote caps months of conflict between Hochul and her fellow Democrats in control of the Senate over the direction of the court.“Judge Wilson has proven himself to be one of the most thoughtful, well-written and persuasive jurors in the nation, and in the history of the Court of Appeals,” state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, chair of the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee, said on the floor.Wilson’s nomination came after Hochul’s first choice, Hector LaSalle, faced a barrage of criticism from liberal senators and thei...

Russian minister visits Venezuela, offers full support

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Russia and Venezuela reviewed some of their hundreds of bilateral agreements covering the financial, energy, agricultural and several other sectors during discussions between their top diplomats and other high-level officials Tuesday in the South American country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Venezuelan counterpart Yván Gil held a joint press conference in Caracas hours after the former arrived to the allied country in the second stop of a tour of four Latin American nations. Both men vowed continued support for each other’s country and condemned the economic sanctions that the United States government has imposed on them.“We fully support the position of our Venezuelan friends,” Lavrov said. “It is their country … and we are going to support it in any way so that the Venezuelan economy becomes an independent economy from the pressures of the United States and other western actors.”Lavrov’s remarks were translated from Russian to Spa...

Neighbor: Man in wrong-turn shooting disliked trespassers

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

When Kaylin Gillis and her friends took a wrong turn into an upstate New York driveway last weekend, they couldn’t have known the property was owned by a man who, according to a neighbor, had grown increasingly bitter over the years at people driving onto his land by mistake.This time, the error proved fatal. The Hebron landowner, Kevin Monahan, opened fire Saturday night, killing 20-year-old Gillis as she and her friends drove away after turning around in the long dirt driveway, Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said.Monahan, 65, was arrested on a second-degree murder charge and remains detained pending a bond hearing.One of his neighbors, Adam Matthews, who runs an auto repair shop in nearby Salem, said Monahan had become more and more upset in recent years at people making wrong turns into his driveway.“I’m just a bit overwhelmed,” Matthews said in a phone interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday after speaking to other news outlets. “It is a tragic...

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to be deposed in Epstein suit

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon must undergo up to two days of questioning by lawyers handling lawsuits over whether the bank can be held liable in financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls and women, a federal judge said Tuesday.During a telephone conference with lawyers, Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan ordered Dimon to set aside two days for deposition testimony, though he didn’t specify when. He said one day of testimony might be sufficient and lawyers would have to get his approval to continue to a second day.The New York bank, the nation’s largest, has been sued by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and two women, both identified as Jane Doe, who say they were abused by Epstein.The lawsuits contend JPMorgan should have seen evidence of Epstein’s sex trafficking and avoided profiting from it.The bank, besides denying the allegations, has sued one of its former executives, saying the man hid Epstein’s decades of sex abuse ...

5 indicted in NY for scheme to drug, kill and rob men

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, died in a taxi of an overdose last April after leaving a bar in Manhattan with a group of men. Relatives grew suspicious when they discovered money missing from his bank account.A month later, John Umberger was found dead in a townhouse after leaving a nightclub so incapacitated that he had to be helped by several companions, police say.Umberger’s family suspected foul play, doubting that the 33-year-old political consultant visiting New York City from Washington, D.C., would have purposely taken a lethal dose of drugs. Suspicions heightened when his bank, too, appeared to have been drained. A grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday names five men in connection to the drugging deaths of the two men as part of a criminal operation to steal money. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said the group targeted men at bars and clubs — befriending them and then plying them with potent and dangerous drugs. When their victi...

Activists demand police reform after Jayland Walker decision

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:12:34 GMT

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Social justice activists called for widespread police reforms while marching through the streets of Akron on Tuesday, a day after a grand jury declined to indict eight police officers who fired 94 shots at Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man killed after what started as a traffic stop.Organizers of the march told dozens of protesters to make their voices heard but urged them not to become violent. Protests following Walker’s death and the release of body-camera footage of the shooting led to daily protests last summer and a citywide curfew. City leaders in recent days set up a protest zone downtown in anticipation of more demonstrations. Walker was shot 46 times in a barrage of gunfire that lasted just under seven seconds on June 27 after he jumped out of his still-moving car and ran from police. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said Monday the state’s investigation found that Walker fired at least one round at officers while he was in his car and then la...