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Mega Millions jackpot up to $476M for Friday’s drawing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday’s drawing is an estimated $476 million with a cash option of $256 million, according to the Mass Lottery.Friday’s Mega Millions drawing will be the 21st since the jackpot was last hit on Jan. 31, when a ticket sold in Woburn won a $31 million jackpot. One week earlier, on Jan. 24, a ticket sold in Belchertown won a $33 million jackpot. This week’s jackpot is the game’s largest since Jan. 13, when a ticket sold in Maine won a $1.35 billion jackpot.Mega Millions tickets are $2 each and can be played in 45 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets for Friday’s drawing can be purchased until 10:45 p.m. Friday at Mass Lottery retailers throughout the state. Drawings are held every Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 p.m. in Atlanta, GeorgiaThe Powerball jackpot for the Saturday, April 15 drawing is an estimated $219 million with a cash option of $119.7 million, and the Megabucks Doubler jackpot for Saturday is an estimate...

Trump will answer questions in NY fraud lawsuit, lawyer says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

By MICHAEL R. SISAK (ASSOCIATED PRESS)NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump arrived at the offices of New York’s attorney general Thursday for his second deposition in a legal battle over his company’s business practices, with his lawyer signaling that he intends to answer questions this time instead of invoking his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.“President Trump is not only willing but also eager to testify before the Attorney General today,” his attorney, Alina Habba, said in a statement. “He remains resolute in his stance that he has nothing to conceal, and he looks forward to educating the Attorney General about the immense success of his multi-billion dollar company.”The Republican was meeting with lawyers for Attorney General Letitia James, who sued Trump last year. Her lawsuit claims Trump and his family misled banks and business associates by giving them false information about his net worth and the val...

Mary Quant, miniskirt designer who swung the 60s, dies at 93

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

By DANICA KIRKA and JILL LAWLESS (Associated Press)LONDON (AP) — Mary Quant, the visionary fashion designer whose colorful, sexy miniskirts epitomized Swinging London in the 1960s and influenced youth culture around the world, has died. She was 93.Quant’s family said she died “peacefully at home” in Surrey, southern England, on Thursday.Quant helped popularize the miniskirt — some credit her with inventing it — and the innovative tights that went along with it, creating dresses and accessories that were an integral part of the look. She created mix-and-match, simple garments that had an element of whimsy. Some compared her impact on the fashion world with The Beatles’ impact on pop music.“I think it was a happy confluence of events, which is really what fashion is so often all about,” said Hamish Bowles, international editor at large for American Vogue magazine. “She was the right person with the right sensibility in the ri...

Portsmouth High School in New Hampshire closes after receiving school shooting threat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

Portsmouth High School, on New Hampshire’s coast, did not open for school today and remains closed after it received a threat of a school shooting.“This evening the Portsmouth Police Department notified me of a threat to commit a school shooting at Portsmouth High School via a social media platform. They received a video of someone saying they would shoot up the school. The police department is following up on leads,” Portsmouth Superintendent of Schools Zach McLaughlin wrote in a statement posted to the school’s Facebook page at 10:23 p.m. Wednesday.McLaughlin wrote that he made the decision to close the schools “out of an abundance of caution and a commitment to the safety of our school community.”The state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management released a statement this morning that it is “aware of a threat.”“We continue to work with our local, state and federal partners to ensure that schools in New Hampshire ...

Survival diaries: Decade on, Boston Marathon bombing echoes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

By JIMMY GOLEN (AP Sports Writer)BOSTON (AP) — She didn’t even know the Boston Marathon was going on when she wandered out for a walk along Boylston Street. Nor could she understand why someone would run 26.2 miles for “a statement necklace and a banana.”Then, Adrienne Haslet says, “My life changed.”The ballroom dancer was standing next to the second of two pressure-cooker bombs that exploded among the spectators watching the finish of the 2013 race. Three people were killed and nearly 300 others wounded. Seventeen people lost limbs in the blast. Haslet was one of them.She relearned to walk with a prosthetic left leg and vowed to return to dancing. She also set a goal that surprised friends and family who knew her as someone who didn’t like to sweat in public: She would return to the course, this time as a runner.Haslet completed the race for the first time in 2016, and she is back in the field for Monday’s 127th Boston Marathon as the...

Advocates allege in lawsuit new Ontario nursing home law violates Charter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

Advocates allege in a lawsuit that a controversial Ontario long-term care law violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.The Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly say the law that allows hospitals to charge discharged patients $400 a day if they do not move to a nursing home not of their choosing violates patients rights to privacy and informed consent.The government introduced and quickly passed Bill 7 last fall, allowing hospital placement co-ordinators to accept a spot in a long-term care home and share their health information without a patient’s approval.Should patients refuse to move to that home, they could be fined $400 a day.The law also allows patients to be sent to nursing homes up to 70 kilometres from their preferred spot in southern Ontario and up to 150 kilometres away in northern Ontario.The province did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Expelled to reinstated: Pearson returns to Tennessee House

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The second of two Black Democrats kicked out of the Republican-led Tennessee House followed his colleague back to work at the Capitol on Thursday, a week after their expulsion for participating in a gun control protest propelled them into the national spotlight.Rep. Justin Pearson, a lawmaker from Memphis, was sworn in Thursday outside the statehouse. The day before, Shelby County commissioners easily voted to reinstate him.“Yes indeed, happy resurrection day,” Pearson said Thursday morning, as he signed paperwork for his return.Before Pearson returned to the House floor, lawmakers cheered and applauded as the police officers who responded to a recent deadly Nashville school shooting — the event that prompted the gun control protest — were honored in the chamber. Democratic Rep. Bob Freeman praised the officers’ bravery, but also stressed to his fellow lawmakers that “inaction is not an option” on how to respond to the tragedy.Republicans banished Pearson and...

Slovakia’s central bank chief fined for bribery, faces trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — The head of Slovakia’s central bank, who is a member of the European Central Bank committee that decides monetary policy for 20 countries, was convicted Thursday of bribery and fined 100,000 euros ($110,000).The country’s Special Criminal Court handed National Bank of Slovakia Gov. Peter Kazimir a two-year suspended sentence, said Katarina Kudjakova, a spokesperson for the court. Not paying the fine would mean jail time.The verdict was issued without a trial, however, and the state prosecution service appealed it shortly afterward, sending the case back to court. Kazimir also could appeal.Kazimir is accused of handing a bribe of 48,000 euros ($53,000) to the head of the country’s tax office related to a tax investigation of private companies, but few details were available because there was no trial.Kazimir didn’t immediately comment, but he previously denied any wrongdoing.President Zuzana Caputova said Kazimir should consider resigning, and Prime ...

Amazon’s Jassy says AI will be a ‘big deal’ for company

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon CEO Andy Jassy signaled confidence that the company will get costs under control in his annual shareholder letter, where he also noted the tech giant was “spending heavily” on AI tools that have gained popularity in recent months. In the letter, Jassy described 2022 as “one of the harder macroeconomic years in recent memory” and detailed the steps Amazon had taken to trim costs, such as shuttering its health care initiative Amazon Care and some stores across the country. The company had also slashed 27,000 corporate roles since the fall, marking the biggest rounds of layoffs in its history.“There are a number of other changes that we’ve made over the last several months to streamline our overall costs, and like most leadership teams, we’ll continue to evaluate what we’re seeing in our business and proceed adaptively,” Jassy wrote.The company’s profitable cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services also faces “short-term headwinds right now,” despite growing 29% y...

Youth records in mainly Black Louisiana areas may go public

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As public frustration over Louisiana’s violent crime grows, Republican gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Jeff Landry is backing legislation that would make certain confidential juvenile court records public in three of the state’s parishes, all of which are predominately Black.Advocates for incarcerated youths oppose the bill with some calling it blatantly racist. They fear it would have detrimental generational effects on juvenile delinquents, some of who have not been convicted of a violent crime but simply accused of one. The advocates argue that making records public defeats one major purpose of the state’s juvenile system — rehabilitation into the community — and would risk their opportunities for employment, education and housing.“You have a (teenager) whose brain is not fully developed and who has made a mistake. And 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, they still aren’t able to put that behind them,” Kristen Rome, the co-executive director of L...