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South Florida dealership spreads holiday cheer with annual toy giveaway for over 700 kids

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

Brickell Motors hosted its annual toy giveaway at its Miami location, Friday afternoon. More than 700 children from the Centro Mater Foundation, who come from low-income families, lined up to receive festive gifts.“Today’s a special day for us. It’s our 23rd year that we give back to the community where we have children come that are less fortunate to be able to enjoy and have great Christmas presents, and we really work hard, and our people work really hard together as an organization to form this opportunity to go out and get 800 to 1000 gifts,” said Mario Murgado, the owner of Brickell Motors. Children at the event were able to choose from an array of toys, including cars, dolls, sports balls and Legos.

Surveillance video shows tractor-trailer crashing into parked car in South Boston

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

A destructive drive was recently caught on camera in South Boston as surveillance video showed a tractor-trailer turning down a street and crashing into a parked car. The crash happened in the area of East Fourth Street and G Street in South Boston just before 6 a.m. Thursday. After investigating, police said at least two other cars appeared to have been hit by the same truck just a two blocks from the initial crash site. “It definitely seemed like it was something very, very astonishing for the block,” said neighbor Sandy Perez. “We get some noise around here but never something that loud.” In home security video, the truck can be seen driving the wrong way down G Street before turning right onto East Fourth Street. The truck is then seen scraping along the side and back of a blue Subaru Crosstrek, leaving it a mangled mess.Perez said he came home from the gym shortly after the crash to see his upset neighbors dealing with the aftermath. The husband of the car’s...

Hull man arrested after allegedly ramming two Quincy PD vehicles with stolen van, attempting to hide at ski area

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

A man from Hull is facing multiple charges after police say he allegedly fled from officers in a stolen work van, crashing into multiple vehicles in the process before driving off and attempting to hide at a ski area.Steven Ford, 49, pleaded not guilty in court on Friday, a day after his arrest. According to police, Ford was taken into custody after he was first spotted in Quincy, when an undercover officer saw the van he was driving around 2:45 p.m. near School and Franklin Streets.Running a query, police found the vehicle had been stolen out of Brockton on Nov. 29, leading to officers attempting to stop Ford.Instead, authorities said the Hull resident attempted to flee, ramming two, unmarked Quincy police vehicles as well as a third vehicle.He allegedly went on to strike a fourth vehicle as he fled onto I-93 South, driving in a breakdown lane before getting onto Route 28 North and traveling into Milton.Massachusetts State Police later found the van crashed at the Blue Hills Ski Ar...

Mild weekend start, timing out more showers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

We’re watching some light showers on radar. Grab the umbrella or rain jacket for your Friday night plans. After a mild start to December, our second day of the month will be another above-average one in the 50s. Temperatures will be more seasonable Sunday as wet weather returns.Showers will fill in more past 7:00 and continue for a few hours. Any amounts will remain light around a .10″ for most towns. Rain will end overnight with areas of fog by sunrise. Our coolest towns will drop into the upper 30s with most of us in the 40s to start tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is a dry day with more clouds than sun. Highs stay on the mild side in the 50s.Sunday morning starts off in the 40s. Temperatures won’t rebound much with abundant cloud cover and a northeast breeze.Sunday features the return of wet weather. A few showers in the morning with more afternoon showers before heavy rain past sunset. The colder temperatures remain to areas north of us, where some spots of Northern...

Top affordable destinations for travel this holiday season

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

Laurie Baratti | (TNS) TravelPulseWith the holiday season upon us, U.S. travelers may be be wondering about the best domestic destinations where they can enjoy a seasonal getaway without breaking the bank. To that end, online travel agency Priceline has delved into its proprietary data to create some insightful advice about where vacationers may want to go on their wintry escapes.To help travelers maximize their brumal break periods, Priceline has released a list of places that are likely to prove popular over the coming months based on a number of factors, including their affordability quotient. According to data, obtained by Travel + Leisure, the season’s most in-vogue and budget-friendly destinations within the U.S. represent an assortment of chilly locales for snowy getaways and warm-weather spots for escaping the cold.Affordable accommodationsClaiming the top position is Branson, Missouri, which boasts an enticing average hotel price of just $107 per night during December. Whil...

Harvard students ‘terrified’ after pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt classes with antisemitic chants and bullhorns

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

A pro-Palestinian protest full of antisemitic chants and bullhorns “terrified” Harvard students this week, as Jewish groups urge the university to hold the protesters accountable for disrupting classes and their anti-Israel hateful slogans.The protesters on Wednesday interrupted Harvard classes, using bullhorns to blast antisemitic calls to “globalize the intifada” and call for the elimination of the Jewish state “from the river to the sea,” according to Harvard Hillel.The disruptive protest is not protected by Harvard’s free speech guidelines, the Jewish student group said.“These calls for genocide and anti-Jewish violence throughout the world represent antisemitic speech and are not protected by the University’s community standards,” Harvard Hillel said following the protest.Harvard Hillel is pushing for the university to hold both the protesters and the protest groups accountable.They also called on Harvard President Cla...

20 years on, a transformed New Zealand looks back at ‘Lord of the Rings’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

Kevin Baxter | Los Angeles Times (TNS)WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand was primarily known abroad for its sheep, its wine and its rugby team on the September day in 1998 that filmmaker Peter Jackson’s helicopter landed on a sprawling family farm about 100 miles south of Auckland.The country’s film industry was another matter: Though New Zealand had produced crossover successes like Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures” and Jane Campion’s Oscar winner “The Piano,” it was nearly as far from the thinking of Hollywood studios as it was from Hollywood itself.But that was about to change.The lush farmland on which Jackson’s crew alighted would soon become the backdrop for “The Lord of the Rings,” one of the most ambitious, influential and profitable film series ever made. And in the two decades since the release of “The Return of the King,” the Oscar-winning final film in Jackson’s trilogy, New Zealand has b...

X says Walmart pulled ads in October, weeks before Media Matters hate speech report and Musk rant

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY (AP Technology Writer)Walmart is the latest company to publicly join the growing flock of major advertisers to pull spending from X, Elon Musk’s beleaguered social media company, amid concerns about hate speech — as well as reaching a sizeable audience on the platform. “We aren’t advertising on X as we’ve found some other platforms better reach our customers,” Walmart said in a statement. While Walmart went public with the pullout on Friday, Joe Benarroch, head of operations at X, said the company has not advertised on the platform since October. The company, he added, “has just been organically connecting with its community of more than one million people on X.”Walmart did not immediately respond to a message for further comment on Friday afternoon.The announcement comes two days after Musk went on an expletive-ridden rant in an on-stage interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin about companies halting spending o...

Court orders Texas to move floating buoy barrier that drew backlash from Mexico

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Texas must move a floating barrier on the Rio Grande that drew backlash from Mexico, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, dealing a blow to one of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s aggressive measures aimed at stopping migrants from entering the U.S. illegally. The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals requires Texas to stop any work on the roughly 1,000-foot (300-meter) barrier and move it to the riverbank. The order sided with a lower court decision in September that Abbott called “incorrect” and had predicted would be overturned.Instead, the New Orleans-based court handed Texas its second legal defeat this week over its border operations. On Wednesday, a federal judge allowed U.S. Border Patrol agents to continue cutting razor wire the state installed along the riverbank, despite the protests of Texas officials. For months, Texas has asserted that parts of the Rio Grande are not subject to federal laws protecting navigable waters. But the judg...

Ontario Liberals set to pick new leader on Saturday

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:12 GMT

The Ontario Liberals will choose a new leader on Saturday that they hope will bring the party into the future.Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie has been tagged as the frontrunner in the field of five candidates, including Toronto MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Ottawa MP Yasir Naqvi, and Kingston and the Islands MPP Ted Hsu.Liberal MP and former provincial cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi and Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith have urged supporters to select each other as their number two choice, to stop Crombie from winning the leadership.Interim Liberal leader John Fraser has been the glue holding the party together after the last two disastrous elections but said it was time to move on.“I couldn’t steal any more time away from my grandkids and my kids. And I did that because I was interim leader and also caring for my mom for five years. So it was just that’s the decision,” said Fraser.“And I think it’s time for another generation. You have to make space for...