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Ticker: Mass part of new maritime tech hub; Gas prices slide 3 cents lower 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

Massachusetts is part of a newly-designated federal tech hub for emerging maritime artificial intelligence.The Department of Commerce announced the news on Monday afternoon, awarding the Ocean Tech Hub of Southeastern New England designation to Rhode Island and Massachusetts as part of an effort led by the Rhode Island Commerce Corp.Thirty-one tech hubs were announced, all authorized under the CHIPS and Science Act signed by President Joe Biden in August 2022. The winners were selected from nearly 400 applications, and are eligible to apply to receive between $40 million and $70 million each for implementation funding.The commerce department, led by former Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, said the designations represent “an endorsement of the region’s plans to supercharge their respective technological industries to create jobs, strengthen U.S. competitiveness, and protect national security.”In September, the Biden administration chose Massachusetts to create a bio...

Tesla says Justice Department is expanding investigations and issuing subpoenas for information

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

By TOM KRISHER (AP Auto Writer)DETROIT (AP) — Federal prosecutors have expanded investigations into Tesla beyond the electric vehicle maker’s partially automated driving systems, and they have issued subpoenas for information instead of simply requesting it, the company disclosed Monday.In a quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla said the Department of Justice is looking into “personal benefits, related parties, vehicle range and personnel decisions” without giving details.The additional investigation topics and the subpoenas suggest that prosecutors have broadened their inquiry, and they have found the need to force Tesla to disclose information, legal experts say. The filing indicates prosecutors may be investigating Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and whether the company has been candid in describing the features of its vehicles, they say.In January, Tesla disclosed that the Justice Department had requested documents related to its ...

Man found in Ramona home with gunshot wound to head; SDSO investigating

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Authorities are investigating a homicide after a man was found dead in his Ramona home on Friday, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.Around 5 p.m., SDSO received a call reporting a deceased person in a home on the 400 block of 16th Street, Lt. Joseph Jarjura said in a release. Upon arrival to the scene, deputies spoke to the person who alerted authorities to the body.Jarjura said the reporting party told deputies that he had found his brother, identified as 26-year-old Eduardo Aguilar Alba, deceased inside his home under suspicious circumstances.Authorities checked the residence and found Alba unresponsive with an apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Boy hit, killed by trolley Alba's body was taken to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy. According to SDSO, the preliminary cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the head and the manner was ruled a homicide.The investigation into the in...

San Diego has hundreds of ghost stories. Here are six you may not have known

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The season of ghostly haunting is nearing its peak with Halloween and Día de Muertos right around the corner. It's the time when spirits are said to walk among the living, many believed to be revisiting a place of significance in their life.Some cities with storied buildings and vast cemeteries -- destinations like Savannah, New Orleans and Salem -- have reputations for their history of paranormal encounters. However, many people may not be aware of the extensive folklore of ghosts right here in San Diego."(San Diego) has been here since the mid-1700s and it has just as much history," Ghosts and Gravestones Trolley tour manager, Kalani Baker, told FOX 5. "You also see the mixing of cultures, of ideas … And with the sharing of stories, of oral traditions, those are going to pass down and go through different types of transformations along the way."Most locals are probably familiar with the tall tales of spirits haunting sites like the Whaley House in Old Town and the Hot...

Top Chinese diplomat to visit Washington ahead of possible meeting between Biden and Xi

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

Washington (AP) — China’s top diplomat will come to Washington Thursday for a three-day visit, the latest move by Washington and Beijing to keep high-level talks open amid tense bilateral relations.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan over a range of issues, including the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine war and a recent vessel collision in the South China Sea, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the trip.Wang’s trip will come just about two weeks ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, where it’s possible that President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet. The officials did not confirm the leaders’ meeting, nor did they say if Wang’s visit would prepare for such a meeting. Instead, Wang’s trip was described as reciprocal to Blinken’s vis...

New deadly bird flu cases reported in Iowa, joining 3 other states as disease resurfaces

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two commercial turkey farms in Iowa have been hit by the reemerging highly pathogenic bird flu, causing about 100,000 birds to be killed to prevent the disease from spreading.The Iowa Department of Agriculture reported the infected commercial poultry flocks within weeks of a turkey farm in South Dakota and one in Utah reporting the first outbreaks in the U.S. since April, raising concerns that more would follow. The U.S. Department of Agriculture shows 12 commercial flocks in South Dakota, Utah and Minnesota have been affected in October, totaling more than 500,000 birds.Bird flu last year cost U.S. poultry producers nearly 59 million birds across 47 states, including egg-laying chickens and turkeys and chickens raised for meat, making it the country’s deadliest outbreak ever, according to USDA figures. The outbreak caused spikes in egg and turkey prices for consumers and cost the government over $660 million.Iowa was the hardest-hit state last year, with nea...

California man gets year in prison for sending vile messages to father of gun massacre victim

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A California property manager was sentenced to a year in federal prison for sending more than 200 vile online messages to a father of a teenage girl who died in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. James Catalano, 62 of Fresno, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola in Miami after pleading guilty in March to cyberstalking. Prosecutors called the messages he sent Fred Guttenberg “callous and cruel.”Guttenberg’s 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg was murdered in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting in Parkland that left 14 students and three staff members dead. Catalano also received three years probation and must undergo mental health treatment. Catalano sent Guttenberg messages for eight months starting in December 2021 that celebrated Jaime Guttenberg’s death and reveled in the wounds she suffered. He also mocked the sadness and loss Guttenberg feels and directed obscenities, slurs and distur...

Autopsies confirm 5 died of chemical exposure in tanker crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Autopsies have confirmed that five people who died when a chemical tanker overturned in central Illinois last month died from exposure to caustic anhydrous ammonia fumes, an official said Monday.The official results confirmed preliminary findings from the Sept. 29 crash, Effingham County Coroner Kim Rhodes said. The victims, including two children, suffered severe chemical burns to their entire bodies, as well as their eyes and respiratory systems, she said.The crash involving a tanker truck carrying the agricultural fertilizer occurred about 8:40 p.m. on U.S. 40 just east of Teutopolis, 110 miles (177 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis.Killed in the crash were Danny J. Smith, 67, of New Haven, Missouri; Vasile Cricovan, 31, of Twinsburg, Ohio; 34-year-old Kenneth Bryan of Teutopolis and his children Walker, 10, and Rosie, 7, of Beecher City.Traffic had been diverted onto U.S. 40 from Interstates 57 and 70, about five miles (eight kilometers) west of Teutopo...

It’s Israeli boy’s 9th birthday as he is held in Hamas captivity — and his family waits

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

KFAR SABA, Israel (AP) — Ohad Munder-Zichri’s ninth birthday is on Monday. But instead of celebrating at home with his family and friends, he is believed to be somewhere in Gaza, one of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas since the militants’ devastating Oct. 7 incursion.The fourth-grader from the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba was nabbed along with his mother and grandparents during a holiday visit to his grandparents’ kibbutz of Nir Oz along the border with Gaza.Ohad’s beloved uncle was killed in the attack. The boy, his mom and grandparents disappeared with the only thread of information about them coming from a cellphone signal traced to Gaza.It’s that uncertainty that has been most agonizing for Ohad’s grief-stricken father, Avi Zichri.“I keep imagining what he is going through. He’s a sensitive boy. Did he see dead bodies? He wears glasses. Did they take them from him? Can he see anything?” Zichri said as he nervously chain-smoked cigarettes on his front porch....

5th suspect arrested in 2022 ambush shooting outside high school after football scrimmage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:25:55 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Federal authorities have announced the arrest of the fifth and final suspect wanted in an ambush shooting that killed a 14-year-old and wounded several other teenagers outside a Philadelphia high school after a football scrimmage last year.U.S. marshals in Philadelphia said 17-year-old Dayron Burney-Thorn was taken into custody Monday in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood after more than a year on the run. Authorities said he jumped from a fourth-story window in an unsuccessful effort to elude capture and was taken to a hospital for treatment.Burney-Thorn, also wanted in a separate homicide a day before the September 2022 shooting near Roxborough High School, had been sought in the Atlanta area but deputy marshals later learned he might have returned to the city and tracked him to a Germantown apartment early Monday, officials said.The reward for information leading to Burney-Thorn’s capture had been increased to $50,000, the U.S. Marshals Eastern...