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Miami, Florida Keys getting additional area code of ‘645’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — It looks like the singer Pitbull is going to have to add some digits to his ode to Miami’s area code, “305 Anthem.”That’s because Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys are getting a new area code, “645,” starting next week.Beginning next Friday, area customers who request new phone numbers will be assigned the “645” area code, the Florida Public Service Commission said in a news release on Friday.The new area code will supplement the existing codes of “305” and “786″ which already are used for the Miami area and the Florida Keys.“While minimizing the impact to current customers, the Commission must plan for the continuing influx of new residents and businesses to the region — a testament to South Florida’s growing economy,” Andrew Giles Fay, the commission’s chairman said in a statement. “The new 645 area code will ensure that customer demand for new lines is met.”

Federal Judge orders City of Miami to adopt new voting map ahead of November elections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

A federal judge has issued a mandate to the City of Miami that implements a new voting map before the upcoming November elections. The revised map will shift the boundaries of Miami’s five districts, potentially reshaping the city’s political landscape.Notably, Commissioner Joe Carollo is among those affected by the redrawing of district lines. As a result of the changes, Commissioner Carollo will find himself residing outside his designated district, forcing him to comply with city laws that require elected officials to live within their respective districts.Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla would also face a potential challenger in his newly designated district.A lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the city and argued that the voting map commissioners adopted in 2022 cut along racial lines. City officials have been given a tight deadline, and they must submit the new voting map to election officials, Monday.

Spanish police arrest Mexican drug cartel kingpin in Madrid

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

The leader of the European division of the Mexican Los Zetas drug cartel was arrested by Spanish authorities in Madrid Monday. The accused, who goes by the name of “Said,” is Moroccan and 54 years old, El Mundo reported. Four more cartel members were also apprehended.“A total of five people have been arrested in addition to the seizure of 400kg of narcotic substances and 220,000 euro in cash,” the Spanish National Police wrote. The cartel had been trying to establish a base in Spain and posting agents across Europe, especially the Netherlands, according to local media.The Spanish authorities collaborated with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Colombian National Police in what constitutes the second biggest blow against the Zetas in Spain. In 2016, the Spanish police arrested Said’s predecessor, Juan Manuel Muñoz Luévano over money laundering and drug trafficking, El Pais reported. Los Zetas, originally founded by Mexican special forces ...

Quincy college dorm to house up to 58 families experiencing homelessness, migrants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

A college dorm in Quincy will offer emergency shelter for up to 58 families experiencing homelessness, including newly-arrived migrants, as the state opens a second “welcome center” in the city Monday to serve as a point of entry to shelter and services in Massachusetts, the Healey administration announced.Bay State Community Service plans to run the new “welcome center” alongside officials from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the Healey administration said in a statement. The center is located in the Cove Fine Arts Center on the campus of Eastern Nazarene College.The center will operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday “to facilitate efficient connection of families to temporary and longer-term shelter as appropriate,” the statement said.State officials have repeatedly said Massachusetts is facing a steady rise in shelter demand due to the skyrocketing cost of housing in major cities and an influx of people a...

2 killed, 4 injured during outbreak of violence in Boston overnight

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

An outbreak of violence in Boston Sunday night took the lives of two people and injured four others in a series of incidents that police are still investigating.Officials said Boston police were notified of a shooting on Blue Hill Avenue near the Washington Street intersection in Roxbury around 7:47 p.m. There, police said they found an adult man suffering from gunshot wounds who was transported to a local hospital by Boston EMS. He was pronounced dead there, officials said.Then around 11:08 p.m., police said they were notified of another person shot in Roxbury, at the Quincy and Weldon Streets intersection, less than two miles away. There, another adult man was found suffering from gunshot wounds and was also transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead there, officials said.Police were then called back to Dorchester just after 11:30 p.m. Sunday night and found another adult man suffering from gunshot wounds at 99 Draper Street. The man, police said, was taken to a local hos...

Russian missile strikes kill at least 4 people in Zelenskyy’s hometown in central Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles slammed into an apartment complex and a university building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih Monday, killing four people and wounding scores of others as the blasts trapped residents beneath rubble, Ukraine’s interior minister said.One of the two missiles destroyed a section of the apartment building between the fourth and ninth floors, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. Video showed black smoke billowing from corner units and burned out or damaged cars on a tree-lined street.A 10-year-old girl was among those killed, officials said. Dnipro Gov. Serhii Lysak said 53 people were wounded in the morning attack, which also destroyed part of the four-story university building. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian artillery strike on partially occupied Donetsk province killed two people and wounded six in the regional capital, according to Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the illegally annexed province. A bus was also hit as Ukrain...

Whitney Houston’s estate announces second annual Legacy of Love Gala with BeBe Winans, Kim Burrell

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — This year Whitney Houston would have turned 60, and a special celebration to raise money for a good cause is being planned for her birthday.Houston’s estate, Sony and Primary Wave Music will host the 2nd annual Whitney Houston Legacy of Love on Aug. 9, which will benefit the late singer’s foundation aimed at helping young people.Houston’s close friends BeBe Winans and Kim Burrell will perform at the gala at Atlanta’s St. Regis Hotel, as will Whitney’s brother, Gary, who toured with her for three decades.“When I turned 50, Whitney gave me two celebrations — one in Ireland and one in London. I always tell everyone now that one of them was for her,” says Pat Houston, Whitney Houston’s sister-in-law and the executor of her estate. Houston died in February 2012 at age 48. “This year is Whitney at 60 — we’re all looking forward to being a part of the power of love in that room.”Founded by the singer in 1989, the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children ...

Yellow is shutting down and headed for bankruptcy, the Teamsters Union says. Here’s what to know

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Trucking company Yellow Corp. has shut down operations and is headed for a bankruptcy filing, according to the Teamsters Union and multiple media reports.After years of financial struggles, reports of Yellow preparing for bankruptcy emerged last week — as the Nashville, Tennessee-based trucker saw customers leave in large numbers. Yellow shut down operations on Sunday, according to the Wall Street Journal, following the layoffs of hundreds of nonunion employees on Friday.In an announcement early Monday, the Teamsters said that the union received legal notice confirming Yellow was ceasing operations and filing for bankruptcy.“Today’s news is unfortunate but not surprising. Yellow has historically proven that it could not manage itself despite billions of dollars in worker concessions and hundreds of millions in bailout funding from the federal government,” Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “This is a sad day for workers and the American fre...

Blue blood from horseshoe crabs is needed for medicine, but a declining bird relies on crabs to eat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A primordial sea animal that lives on the tidal mudflats of the East Coast and serves as a linchpin for the production of vital medicines stands to benefit from new protective standards.But conservationists who have been trying for years to save a declining bird species — the red knot — that depends on horseshoe crabs fear the protections still don’t go far enough.Drug and medical device makers are dependent on the valuable blue blood of the crabs — helmet-shaped invertebrates that have scuttled in the ocean and tidal pools for more than 400 million years — to test for potentially dangerous impurities. The animals are drained of some of their blood and returned to the environment, but many die from the bleeding.Recent revisions to guidelines for handling the animals should keep more alive through the process, regulators said. The animals — not really true crabs but rather more closely related to land-dwelling invertebrates such as spiders and scorpions —...

Book Review: Richard E. Grant’s emotional roller coaster memoir, ‘A Pocketful of Happiness’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:51:25 GMT

“A Pocketful of Happiness” by Richard E. Grant (Simon & Schuster)The title of Richard E. Grant’s memoir, “A Pocketful of Happiness,” is both misleading and utterly truthful. On the one hand, the book is full of charming anecdotes which are indicative of the Swaziland-born, British actor’s sunny disposition, but, on the other, it charts the grim journey of losing his wife of 35 years to lung cancer in the span of 10 months.As iconic director Eileen Fisher asks Grant — in one of the book’s anecdotes — Why would anyone write their memoir in the day and age of the internet? — he finds a cogent answer in his own. The book is not so much a memoir as it is the anatomy of a love story and partnership. The 10 chapters are each based on a month starting with December 2020 when the couple got the grim news until Joan Washington, dialect coach to the stars extraordinaire, died in September 2021.The most career-related information is given to his awards campaign experience on “Can You Ever F...