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‘Once-in-a-lifetime’: Fisherman describes close encounter with two whales off Nantucket coast

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

A close call off of Nantucket when two whales came right up to a fisherman’s boat earlier this week.“I’ve seen them close before, maybe a couple hundred yards, but that was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime for them to come that close to the boat,” Josh Holdgate said.Holdgate was tuna fishing with five others aboard Captain Pete Kaizer’s Althea K about 30 miles east of Nantucket.Holdgate said the fog was thick which made it harder to spot the whales.“Usually, you can see them for a couple miles,” he said. “The only time you could see them was inside that fog bank which is maybe 300 yards of visibility, so once they came up, they’re already on top of you. They’re 50 feet long. It’s pretty incredible.”They took the boat from the island’s harbor Monday, but their fishing trip quickly turned into a sightseeing tour.“People go on whale watches for hours and hours and don’t have an experience as close as that,” he said.

Solve It 7: Bank Account Bummer

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

Time and money were running out for a local medical school student after identity thieves cleaned out her bank account. When she had trouble getting her money back, she contacted Solve It 7.Kaitlyn was worried! How would she buy food and pay her bills?“I was really stressed,” Kaitlyn said.  Her cash concerns started in May. She used an app to order coffee, and her debit card was declined.“So I went right to my banking app, and then saw that my account had $0 in it,” Kaitlyn said.  Kaitlyn discovered she was hit by identity thieves.“There was a strange account that I didn’t recognize that had been created under my name. And I went into that account and saw that all my money had been transferred into it and then withdrawn from an ATM,” Kaitlyn said.  She says more than $1000 was gone.“That part was the scariest part knowing that someone had stolen my identity and was able t...

Report: Kristaps Porzingis signs two-year extension with Celtics

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

Kristaps Porzingis has signed an extension with the Boston Celtics, according to a report.The center/forward has inked a two-year, $60 million extension with the team, his agents told ESPN on Wednesday night. The Celtics acquired Porzingis more than two weeks ago in a three-team trade which saw Boston deal guard Marcus Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies.Porzingis is now under contract for $96 million through the 2025-26 season. The oft-injured big man is coming off his best NBA season as a member of the Washington Wizards, as he averaged 23.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game.The 27-year-old is considered a part of Boston’s big three with star forwards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the Celtics continue to chase a championship. The addition of Porzingis and the subtraction of Smart drastically changes the makeup of the roster.Porzingis arrived in the NBA to great fanfare with the New York Knicks. But injuries when he was with the Knicks and later the Dallas Mavericks pr...

Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara clocked at more than double speed limit before Jamaica Plain crash

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

A newly obtained police report alleges that City Councilor Kendra Lara was traveling at a high rate of speed during “heavy” pedestrian and vehicular traffic when she slammed into a Jamaica Plain house late last month, causing her son to bleed “profusely.”The police report, which was filed on July 5, finds that Lara, 33, was driving the Honda Civic involved in the crash at a “minimum speed of 53.41 miles per hour” in the road with a 25 mph limit, and could have been traveling as fast as 59.29 mph according to another formula that worked back from the speed at impact to the home.An initial police report obtained by the Herald on the day of the June 30 crash alleged that Lara was driving an unregistered vehicle and her license had been revoked. It further alleges that her child was not in a booster seat, which is a violation of state law for children younger than 8 or shorter than 57 inches.The new report backs up these same violation allegations and adds new possible citations: reckle...

Opening South Boston beach delayed; boss away in England

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

If state wildlife officials had the final say, Southie residents could now be cooling off at the L Street Beach behind the renovated Curley Center.With MassWildlife outlining a beach access plan — with a shorebird monitor — the city still has to complete its own review and adopt a state beach proposal.“They don’t need any extra permissions because we have already issued our determination,” a MassWildlife spokesperson told the Herald on Wednesday. “As long as they follow their beach management plan, there is no other review on our end.”City officials say the Conservation Commission is scheduled to vote July 19 on the beach management plan, which outlines conditions the city needs to take for access not to have an adverse effect on the piping plover.The Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, head of the city’s Environment Department, which oversees the Conservation Commission, has been out of town. She received an invite from the U.S. Embassy of London to participate in a discussion ...

Manhattanhenge is a bust as clouds hide NYC sunset. Last chance this year is Thursday

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — There’s only one more chance this year to possibly take in Manhattanhenge, the biannual alignment of the setting sun with the city’s east-west streets that brings New Yorkers out of their apartments to watch it bathe the urban canyons in a rosy glow. With gray, gloomy weather socking in the horizon at Wednesday’s sundown, fans of the spectacle will have to hope the clouds part Thursday.“I tried but it’s not going to happen today,” said Kevin Andrade, a restaurant server who had the day off and waited in hopes of a fiery sky show on West 23rd Street. “I’m so sad about it.”It was Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, who coined the term Manhattanhenge to describe the phenomenon. He was inspired by Stonehenge, where tourists and modern-day Druids camp out on the summer solstice to watch the rising sun align with the prehistoric stones.Manhattanhenge attracts its own Druids when it happens for two nights around Memorial...

Top tribunal certifies Guatemala’s election result minutes after another court suspends one party

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s troubled presidential election was thrown into even greater turmoil Wednesday when the country’s top electoral tribunal confirmed the results of the June 25 vote while the Attorney General’s Office announced that the second place party had been suspended.The seemingly contradictory moves fed more than two weeks of rising tensions and suspicions after the first round of voting, which had seemingly sent conservative Sandra Torres and progressive Bernardo Arévalo into a Aug. 20 presidential runoff.There were immediate calls Wednesday for Guatemalans to take to the streets in protest and demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Electoral Tribunal until heavy rain drove them away.It was not immediately clear how the situation would play out now that yet another court had intervened in Guatemala’s electoral process, but electoral authorities said Torres and Arévalo would face each other on Aug. 20.But Rafael Curruchiche, the special prosecutor aga...

69-year-old woman dies in hospital, struck by vehicle in Etobicoke this week

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

Toronto police say a woman has died in a local hospital from injuries sustained when she was struck by a vehicle in Etobicoke this week.Emergency crews responded to the Horner Avenue and Thirtieth Street area near Kipling Avenue just before 2 p.m. on Tuesday.Police said the woman was crossing from the north side of Horner to the south side when she was hit in a marked crosswalk by a Dodge Ram pick-up truck turning left onto Horner from Thirtieth.The female pedestrian was rushed to a local trauma centre with serious injuries, but her condition worsened. Police said the 69-year-old woman died in hospital on Wednesday. She was not identified by authorities.The driver remained at the scene. It’s unclear if any charges will be laid.Traffic Services have taken over the investigation.With files from Patricia D’Cunha of CityNews

Tornado touches down near Chicago’s O’Hare airport, disrupting hundreds of flights

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A tornado touched down Wednesday evening near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, prompting passengers to take shelter and disrupting hundreds of flights. There were no immediate reports of injuries. A confirmed tornado was on the ground around 7 p.m., according to the National Weather Service in Chicago. “This tornado has been touching the ground intermittently so far and is moving east. There are additional circulations along the line south of O’Hare. Seek shelter if in the warned area,” it said.By 8 p.m. the weather service said the Chicago forecast area was “currently tornado warning free.” It said the storm was moving east toward Michigan, where tornado warnings were issued.Video from TV stations showed hundreds of people taking shelter in an O’Hare concourse. Some 169 flights were canceled and nearly 500 were delayed, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.The National Weather Service issued two tornado warnings for portions of the ...

Kim vows to boost North Korea’s nuclear capability after observing new ICBM launch

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:29:21 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further bolster his country’s nuclear fighting capabilities as he supervised the second test-flight of a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the mainland U.S., state media reported Thursday.Kim’s statement suggested North Korea would ramp up weapons testing activities to expand its arsenal in response to recent U.S. steps to enhance its security commitment to ally South Korea.“The present unstable situation in which the security environment on the Korean peninsula is being seriously threatened by the hostile forces every moment,” Kim said, according to state media. “(That) requires more intense efforts to implement the line of bolstering nuclear war deterrent.”The Korean Central News Agency reported Kim’s comments a day after the launch of the Hwasong-18, which was first test-fired in April and which Kim has called the most powerful weapon of his nuclear forces. The road-mobile ICBM has bu...