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State breaks ground on new veterans facility – what does $482 million buy?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

The ground was broken in south central Massachusetts on Monday where the state’s new Veterans’ Home in Holyoke will eventually open.The long term care home and hospital, funded in part by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs State Home Construction Grant Program, is expected to replace the former Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, located on the city’s Cherry Hill, with a new facility capable of providing care for up to 234 full time residents. Coming in at a cost of $482 million, the project will take about three years to wrap construction and five years to complete.Design of the 350,000 square-foot building, according to the construction partnership Commodore Builders and Walsh Brothers, Inc., is based off the VA’s “small house model” for veterans care, and floors will be divided into three “houses” of 12 beds, with each house receiving nursing support and shared community, dining and living spaces.Veterans will have access to on-site p...

Red Sox notebook: Finally nearing full strength, it’s time for Sox to show us who they really are

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

For all the ups and downs the Red Sox have endured this season, we still haven’t seen what they’re capable of at full strength.Now, the gang is nearly back together, and not a moment too soon.Trevor Story is back. Chris Sale is back. Garrett Whitlock is back. Tanner Houck’s return is right around the corner. For the first time all season the Red Sox will get to play with their full deck of cards, a crucial development as the club looks to fight its way back into the playoff picture.It also means many of the biggest knocks against this club may no longer be applicable.The days of relying on two openers a week are over, and now if the Red Sox go that route it will be a strategic decision rather than a necessity. The parade of depth arms who have kept the club afloat has reached its end too, and once Houck is activated the Red Sox pitching staff will arguably be as deep as it’s been at any point since the 2018 World Series.The shambolic middle infield that was c...

Moving forward: state breaks ground on new veterans home after COVID deaths

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

As the state embarks on a $482 million project to rebuild the the Holyoke Soldiers Home, there’s plans for memorial garden dedicated to the dozens of former service members who died, far from war or conflict, while ostensibly under the care of the Commonwealth.Having survived what turmoil battle brought to their lives or withstood the extraordinary physical and mental pressures of military service through peacetime, these veterans will tragically be memorialized not for what they did, but for what wasn’t done for them.“You cannot ignore the tragedy of what happened here,” U.S. Rep. Richard Neal said Monday.The Congressman, joined by Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, and Secretary of the Executive Office of Veterans’ Services Dr. Jon Santiago, was on hand to break ground on a $482 million care home to be built adjacent to the state’s current veteran’s hospital, a project that comes in no small part to make up for the government’s failures at the last f...

Need for water to fight Hawaii fires rekindles fight over stream diversions. Follow live updates

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER (Associated Press)Follow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters.As Hawaii officials claim there is a shortage of water available for firefighters, they’re pointing a finger at a recent court ruling that required more water be kept in East Maui streams amid drought and competing demands for use. Environmentalists are pushing back less than a week after the state’s attorney general’s office filed a petition with the Hawaii Supreme Court on Wednesday blaming a senior environmental court judge, for there not being enough water for firefighting. The dispute connects the current blazes to an earlier court battle that pit Hawaiian acti...

Rays place Wander Franco on restricted list, MLB launches investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

Wander Franco won’t be with the Tampa Bay Rays for at least a week, and is under investigation by Major League Baseball.Early Sunday afternoon, social media posts alleging that Franco, 22, had been involved with a 14-year-old girl in his native Dominican Republic, went viral. The country’s legal age of consent is 18.Franco happened to be out of the lineup on Sunday afternoon.Earlier this season, Rays manager Kevin Cash benched the shortstop for “not being the best teammate,” sidelining him for two games. But on Sunday morning, Cash told reporters it was “just a day off” for Franco, and stuck to that story following his team’s 9-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.“I am aware of the speculation,” Cash said. “I’m not going to comment any further on that, but the day off was because of the day off.”While the shortstop had played the last 40 consecutive games, it was surprising that he’d get Sunday day off, when the Rays’ giveaway for fans aged 14 and under was a “Wander Franco Snap...

Yankees Notebook: Aaron Boone talks tough losses, handling team’s struggles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

ATLANTA — Shortly after the Yankees suffered a ninth-inning implosion and a loss to the Marlins on Sunday, Aaron Boone spent some time watching videos of his players’ postgame interviews.Asked why, the manager said that he loves the YES Network on Monday. Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay was sitting next to Boone when he cracked the joke.In all seriousness, Boone said that he usually watches the postgame interviews, as he likes to see how players answer questions in the moment.On Sunday, Gerrit Cole, Aaron Judge and Clay Holmes — whose meltdown handed Miami an 8-7 win — all used the word “flush” when describing how the Yankees needed to move on from yet another Worst Loss of the Year contender. On Monday, Boone added that the team just needs to “Keep going. It’s what we do. I know that’s hard for people to understand.”“They have a hard time answering it because that’s what you do,” the skipper continue...

Patriots training camp Day 20: Mac Jones loses a top target, multiple WRs heat up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

FOXBORO — There he was. The receiver that was promised.Not the sought-after No. 1 option, a magnet for defensive attention or touchdown machine. The established fan favorite. The steady, reliable, affable, funny even, starter whose offseason work has been hailed for months with little to show for it in training camp.That is, until Monday.Patriots receiver Kendrick Bourne scored and celebrated his way through practice, his best of the summer. Bourne snared a 1-handed touchdown pass from Mac Jones in one team period and beat Jack Jones for a catch during another, while inhaling every target. The timing couldn’t have been better.Tight end Mike Gesicki went down with an upper-body injury during a 1-on-1 tackling drill early in practice and did not return. Gesicki hunched over and favored his right side as he walked off the field with members of the medical staff, indicating a possible right shoulder, arm or collarbone injury.The injury bug also nipped outside linebacker Anfernee J...

Lawyers say Hunter Biden’s plea deal on gun charge still valid 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

WASHINGTON — Attorneys for Hunter Biden are pushing to keep part of a plea deal they reached with the prosecutor whose new status as special counsel has intensified the tax investigation into the president’s son ahead of the 2024 election.As House Republicans continued their own investigations, Biden’s attorney argued in court documents that an agreement sparing him prosecution on a felony gun charge still is in place even though the plea deal on misdemeanor tax offenses largely unraveled during a court appearance last month.His lawyer argues the Justice Department decided to “renege” on its end of the deal on tax charges. The agreement on the gun charge also contains an immunity clause against federal prosecutions for some other potential crimes.Biden plans to abide by the terms of that agreement, including not using drugs or alcohol, attorney Christopher Clark said in court papers. Prosecutors who “largely dictated” the agreement after inviting ...

Robbins: GOP doubles down on Hunter Biden baloney

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

Just to compound the other serious mistakes he has made in his life, Hunter Biden made the mistake last week of overplaying his hand. Afforded the opportunity to plead guilty to tax crimes committed while addicted to crack and other drugs, the president’s son held out for a commitment by the Justice Department that it would never prosecute him for anything else. This was a commitment the Department could not and would not make – and it was a commitment that any practical person mindful of his past misconduct would have known wouldn’t be made.The younger Biden’s demand that the Justice Department declare that it was absolving him of any further criminal jeopardy left Department lawyers with no choice but to tell him to pound sand. And it left Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose fealty to the rule of law exceeds that of all of his Congressional critics combined, with no choice but to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate anything and everything Hunter Biden-related. And speakin...

Trial set in lawsuit from woman struck by Waste Management truck

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:11 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A woman who was seriously injured after she was hit by a Waste Management San Diego vehicle is set to go to trial this fall with a lawsuit against the company seeking thousands in damages.Deanna Beck, a former SeaWorld dolphin trainer and bartender, was hit by one of the company's vehicles on Feb. 5, 2021 in the parking garage of her Mission Valley apartment complex in the 1600 block of Hotel Circle South. At the time of the incident, a trash collection driver employed by Waste Management was working to clear one of the company's dumpsters in the garage. Fletcher seeking $10K in fees from accuser over alleged failure to disclose messages According to video surveillance, Beck attempted to cross the garage in a marked crosswalk behind the collection truck while it drove forward. As she walked, however, the driver set the truck into reverse, striking her with one of the metal arms on the vehicle's rear.Court documents allege that the driver was on the phone at the time h...