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US lawmakers target Pentagon plan to ramp up missile production for Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee are making significant cuts to an ambitious Pentagon goal to ramp up production of missiles as it seeks to arm Ukraine while preparing for a potential conflict with China.Appropriators exacted more than $2.5 billion in reductions to sections of their Pentagon spending bill that deal with missile procurement across the military services, according to a draft committee report obtained by POLITICO that includes funding tables to accompany the legislation.The shift in funding to other accounts by the influential spending committee is a blow to a major pillar of President Joe Biden’s defense plans laid out in his most recent budget proposal. Billions of dollars worth of weapons poured into Ukraine, forcing military planners to reconsider how it buys munitions to be prepared for another conflict. The result was a first-ever request by the Pentagon for Congress to fund multiyear purchases of munitions in a bid to kick production i...

Police investigating shooting at Malden apartment complex that sent woman to hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

Police are searching for evidence at an apartment complex in Malden Sunday morning in what officials confirm is a shooting investigation, and the Middlesex County DA confirmed that one woman was transported to the hospital as a result.Malden police and Massachusetts State Police are at Quarrystone at Overlook Ridge putting up crime scene tape and searching for evidence in the lobby. No other information was immediately available.This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.

US authorities seize shipment of swim bladders from endangered fish valued at $2.7 million

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

(CNN) — US Customs and Border Protection officers in Arizona have seized 242 pounds of swim bladders – the organ that helps fish control their buoyancy – that came from the endangered Totoaba fish, authorities said.Officers working at the Nogales Port of Entry in Santa Cruz County discovered the organs hidden inside a commercial shipment of frozen fish fillets, CBP announced.The swim bladders discovered on April 13 were valued at an estimated $2.7 million, according to a news release.The US Fish and Wildlife Service conducted preliminary DNA testing that revealed the bladders belonged to the Totoaba macdonaldi species native to Mexico’s Gulf of California. The agency took possession of the bladders and is investigating the smuggling attempt with Homeland Security Investigations.Authorities said the seizure is likely the second largest of its kind in the US and the largest Totoaba seizure in Arizona.Totoaba fish, whose swim bladders are considered an Asi...

Navy’s fifth annual Frogman swim kicks off Father’s Day morning

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

The fifth annual Boston Navy Frogman swim kicked off Sunday morning in East Boston to honor the SEAL community’s fallen warriors.More than 90 swimmers, 50 kayakers and over 30 Gold Star families will be participating in the 5K in the Boston Harbor.Swimmers began around 8 a.m. on Father’s Day at the Piers Park Sailing Center, and the challenging course will go until about 11. The SEALs are also hosting a post-event party for after the swim around 11:30 a.m.

Mike Veeck’s unique story of family and baseball (Disco Demolition) the subject of new doc ‘The Saint of Second Chances’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

There is always love in baseball.Love of the game. Love between father and son in appreciating a great game together and in “The Saint of Second Chances,” there is wonderful love between father, sons and daughter with baseball as the backdrop.This documentary, which is airing at the Tribeca Festival until June 18 and will premiere on Netflix this fall, is about a life of hard times, fun times and abject sorrow concerning one Mike Veeck.The name should ring a bell. His father was the maverick, peg-legged baseball owner of the Cleveland Indians (integrating the American League with future Hall of Famer Larry Doby and winning the World Series in 1948), St. Louis Browns, and lastly the Chicago White Sox. You know … Bill Veeck … as in wreck.His final endeavor with the Pale Hose literally went up in smoke as young Veeck reminisces about Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979 (aka Disco Sucks) and how the insanity at old Comiskey Park that ended his father’s ...

MLB notes: This Father’s Day hits different for Trevor Story, who recently welcomed second son since joining Red Sox

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

Hours before Tuesday’s game, Trevor Story was out on the field taking batting practice when he abruptly stopped, flipped his bat and jogged over to the dugout.There waiting for him was his wife Mallie and two sons, 14-month-old Stetson and newborn Nolan. He picked up Stetson and took a few steps out onto the field, taking in the view of the Green Monster with his son, who was born days after Story signed with the Red Sox last March.“It’s been a whirlwind honestly, just a lot of change going on professionally and personally, but all amazing things,” Story said this week. “He’ll only know me playing for the Red Sox, which is cool, but a whirlwind for sure but all things that were taken in stride.”Story’s journey as a father and as a member of the Red Sox have been deeply intertwined, and this Father’s Day promises to be extra special for the two-time All-Star. He and his wife welcomed Nolan last month, and this week they have all b...

Nearly 100 die as India struggles with a sweltering heat wave in 2 most populous states

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — At least 96 people died in two of India’s most populous states over the last several days, officials said Sunday, with swaths of the country reeling from a sweltering heat wave.The deaths happened in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and eastern Bihar where authorities warned residents over 60 and others suffering various maladies to stay indoors during the daytime.All the fatalities in Uttar Pradesh, totaling 54, were reported in Ballia district, some 300 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Lucknow, the state capital. Authorities found out most of those who passed away were over 60 years old and had preexisting health conditions, which may have been exacerbated by the intense heat.S. K. Yadav, a medical officer in Ballia, said in the past three days, some 300 patients were admitted to the district hospital for various ailments aggravated by heat.Due to the gravity of the situation, authorities canceled leave applications of medical personnel in Ballia ...

20 shot, one dead at parking lot party in suburban Chicago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

WILLOWBROOK, Ill. (AP) — At least 20 people were shot, one fatally, early Sunday during a gathering in a parking lot in suburban Chicago, authorities said.TV news video showed the strip mall lot filled with debris and police tape in Willowbrook, about 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.“There were at least 20 individuals shot. One victim is deceased,” said Eric Swanson, deputy chief at the DuPage County sheriff’s office. “The motive behind this incident is unclear. … We transported numerous victims from the scene. Others just walked into area hospitals.”The conditions of the wounded were not immediately available, Swanson told reporters.“It was supposed to be like a Juneteenth celebration. We just started hearing shooting, so we dropped down until they stopped,” witness Markeshia Avery told WLS-TV.Another witness, Craig Lotcie, said: “Everybody ran, and it was chaos.”The Associated Press

Woman who founded Father’s Day was a renegade, great granddaughter says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

You could call her the mother of Father’s Day.The late Sonora Smart Dodd launched the celebration of dads in 1910 in her hometown of Spokane, Washington. As a result, she is the one responsible for those annual gifts that run the gamut from embarrassingly silly-looking neckties to kids’ finger paintings crafted with so much love by those tiny hands that they can bring a tear to the eye of even the most stoic father.It’s a tradition Dodd decided to start as she sat in a Spokane church on Mother’s Day 1909, listening to a sermon about – what else? – Mother’s Day.“And it bugged her,” Dodd’s great-granddaughter, Betsy Roddy, told The Associated Press in 2017. “She thought, ‘Well, why isn’t there a Father’s Day?”Dodd and her five younger brothers, after all, had been raised by their father after their mother died in childbirth in 1898.William Jackson Smart became a farmer after fighting in the Civil...

Stalled contract jeopardizes relations between new Disney governing body and firefighters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:13:20 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — After appointees of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took over Walt Disney World’s governing district earlier this year, its firefighters were among the few employees who publicly welcomed them with open arms.But that warm relationship is in jeopardy as a new district administrator has reopened negotiations on a contract that was approved last month by the unionized firefighters, promising pay raises and more manpower.A vote on the contract originally was targeted for last month during a meeting of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board of supervisors but it was never brought up, and it did not appear on an agenda released ahead of the next meeting scheduled for Wednesday.Under the three-year contract proposal overwhelmingly approved by 200 firefighters and first responders, annual starting pay for firefighters would increase to $65,000, up from $55,000. It also promised hiring up to three dozen firefighters and paramedics.At several meetings since the De...