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Boston to update zoning code for first time since 1964

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

The city’s antiquated zoning code will receive its first comprehensive update in six decades, following the release of a BPDA-commissioned report highlighting how today’s regulations hinder residential development.The report, written by Sara Bronin, director of the National Zoning Atlas, at the direction of the Boston Planning & Development Agency, is critical of the “extreme length and inconsistencies” that make the city’s current zoning code inaccessible to most residents.These failures make it difficult for the city to create new housing units, and impede residents from making “even small changes” to their home or business without hiring a lawyer, the BPDA stated upon the report’s release.Related ArticlesPolitics | Worst of Hurricane Lee to miss Boston, but nor’easter and huge waves along coast Politics | Boston City Council rejects $2.55M set aside for police department intel Politics | Flaherty to Mayor Wu: Don’t wait on Bost...

Abandoned boat found on Torrey Pines State Beach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- An abandoned boat was found drifting ashore on Torrey Pines State Beach Thursday morning, U.S. Border Patrol confirmed to FOX 5.CBP's San Diego Sector was notified of a possible maritime smuggling event in the area around 7 a.m. Officials say a caller reported seeing 10-12 individuals running from a beached vessel. Man hit by Amtrak train in San Diego dies CBP agents responded to the location and found the abandoned boat, along with 15 personal floatation devices. CBP Air and Marine Operations seized the vessel, officials confirmed.No other information has been provided at this time.

Person of interest in fatal Tennessee shooting caught after 2-day manhunt, authorities say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

MAYNARDVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man wanted in connection with a fatal shooting in Tennessee has been arrested following a two-day manhunt that unsettled a community in Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains, authorities said Thursday. Jason Dockery was taken into custody at about 2:45 p.m. near Maynardville in Tennessee’s Union County, which is outside Knoxville, authorities said. The manhunt ensued after Tuesday’s fatal shooting of a woman in Anderson County, which is also outside Knoxville. Dockery led police on a car chase Tuesday that ended in Virginia’s Lee County, where he ran into the woods, authorities said. By Wednesday evening, authorities said Dockery was known to have hitchhiked back to eastern Tennessee. Shain Vowell, a captain with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, told The Associated Press Thursday that law enforcement is considering Dockery a “person of interest.” He had previously been described by law enforcement officials in news releases ...

DNA match in Ibrahim Ali murder case as exact as identical twins, B.C. court is told

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

VANCOUVER — An RCMP expert testifying at Ibrahim Ali’s murder trial told the court she has never seen a DNA match as close as the one between the suspect and samples found on his alleged victim — except for DNA matches between identical twins.Forensic biologist Christine Crossman said police investigators were very thorough in their collection and testing of genetic samples from the body of the 13-year-old girl, whose identity is protected by a publication ban.Crossman told the court only the DNA of Ali and the girl was detected from swabs of the girl’s vaginal area, where sperm cells yielded samples that matched Ali’s DNA.Ali has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the killing of the girl whose body was found in a Burnaby, B.C., park six years ago.“In any type of occurrence in which there is possibly a sexual component, the best exhibits from a biology perspective are internal swabs from the alleged complainant or victim,” Crossman said about how th...

Government websites down in four provinces, territories; cyberattacks blamed in two

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

Government websites in four provinces and territories were shut down Thursday, with at least two jurisdictions blaming cyberattacks for their outages.Websites for Yukon, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Nunavut were all inaccessible. P.E.I. and Yukon said cyberattacks were behind their shutdowns.“At midnight on Sept.14, Yukon.ca experienced a cyberattack that shut down the website and other public-facing Yukon government websites,” said a statement from the territory.A news release from P.E.I. said an attack had not compromised data but warned it might hinder transactions at government service centres.Manitoba said its interruption was due to network and server infrastructure and there was no indication it was related to a cyberattack.The government of Nunavut could not be immediately reached for comment.Officials in Yukon and P.E.I. said cyberattackers used the denial-of-service tactic, in which the target website is flooded with too many requests.“A denial-of-s...

Donald Trump’s last-minute legal challenge could disrupt New York fraud trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

A last-minute legal challenge by Donald Trump ’s lawyers could disrupt a trial scheduled for next month in the business fraud lawsuit against the former president and his company by New York Attorney General Letitia James.A state appeals court judge on Thursday ordered a potential postponement of the non-jury trial, scheduled to start Oct. 2, after the former president’s lawyers filed a lawsuit accusing the trial judge, Arthur Engoron, of repeatedly abusing his authority.Justice David Friedman, a judge on the state’s intermediate appellate court, granted an interim stay of the trial and ordered the full appeals court to consider the lawsuit on an expedited basis. The court indicated it would issue a decision the week of Sept. 25, meaning the trial could still start on schedule depending on how it rules.Among the issues raised by Trump’s lawyers were Engoron’s terse refusal to grant their recent request for a three-week trial delay, which he ruled as “completely without merit,”...

Bill Clinton remembers Bill Richardson as skilled, informal US diplomat: ‘The bad guys liked him’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Bill Clinton paid homage at a funeral mass Thursday to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as a groundbreaking Latino politician and unorthodox master diplomat who could coax good things out of dictators and despots. Richardson served as the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary under the former president, who described his unique trust in Richardson on the international stage and as a custodian of national security and nuclear weapons labs, including facilities at Los Alamos, New Mexico.“The bad guys liked him. But there’s a reason for that,” said Clinton, describing an early mission by Richardson as U.N. ambassador to encourage a democratic transition of power in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “If you scratch hard enough and long enough on anybody, there’s almost always still a person down there somewhere. … He may be twisted beyond untwisting. But once in a while, they do the right thing anyway. Bill Ric...

Miami city commissioner charged with bribery and money laundering

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — A city of Miami commissioner accused of bribery and money laundering was arrested Thursday on multiple corruption charges, officials said.Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla and a co-defendant, Miami attorney William Riley Jr., were both booked into the Miami-Dade county jail and were expected to make their first court appearances on Friday, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.Separate attorneys for Diaz de la Portilla and Riley both said their clients are innocent and look forward to vindication in a court of law.Diaz de la Portilla said in a statement that the charges were politically motivated.“When the smoke clears, I am confident that these spurious charges will evaporate into thin air,” Diaz de la Portilla said.Diaz de la Portilla and Riley accepted more than $15,000 in payments for the Miami-Dade County Court judicial campaign of Diaz de la Portilla’s brother but did not report them, as required by state law, investigators said. R...

Families challenge North Dakota’s ban on gender-affirming care for children

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Families and a pediatrician are challenging North Dakota’s law criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors, the latest lawsuit in many states with similar bans.Gender Justice on Thursday announced the state district court lawsuit in a news conference at the state Capitol in Bismarck. The lawsuit against the state attorney general and state’s attorneys of three counties seeks to immediately block the ban, which took effect in April, and to have a judge find it unconstitutional and stop the state from enforcing it.State lawmakers “have outlawed essential health care for these kids simply and exclusively because they are transgender,” Gender Justice attorney and North Dakota state director Christina Sambor told reporters. “They have stripped parents of their right to decide for themselves what’s best for their own children. They have made it a criminal offense for doctors to provide health care that can literally save children’s lives.”T...

Ohio attorney general rejects language for political mapmaking reform amendment for a second time

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:31:52 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Attorney General’s Office again rejected petition language Thursday for a constitutional amendment aimed at remaking the state’s troubled system for drawing political maps, frustrating the effort’s backers. In his rejection letter, Republican Dave Yost said Citizens Not Politicians’ second submission had one “critical omission”: How party affiliation would be determined under the new system.He said because a key feature of the new citizen-led redistricting commission would be political balance, “how political affiliation is determined, who makes those determinations and what rules apply are critical issues that must be included in a summary of the proposed amendment if it is to be fair and truthful.”The group, which includes two former Ohio Supreme Court justices, aims to place the proposal on next year’s fall ballot. A spokesman said they will collect more signatures and keep trying.“We are disappointed and frustrated that the Attorn...