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Boston bus stops double as digital libraries under new pilot program

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Bus stops in Boston are beginning to double as digital libraries under a new pilot program being rolled out across the city.Riders at 20 bus stops can now dip into free digital content by using a QR code to browse and borrow audiobooks, eBooks, e-newspapers and e-magazines for all ages, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said Thursday.Library cards are not required and readers don’t need to download an app. The program, which runs through the end of August, features blue slip-proof decals on sidewalks at the bus stops.Wu said the initiative “builds on our efforts to make public transportation more enjoyable, while also connecting our residents to the resources the Boston Public Library already offers.”Riders will be able to enjoy offerings primarily in English and Spanish with a focus on items that are easy to read on the go, including poetry, short stories and short audiobooks, as well as a selection of bestsellers and titles for children and teens.The newspaper and magazine co...

Dolly Parton’s star-studded debut rock album to feature McCartney, Lizzo, Miley, Elton and many more

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

For her very first entry into rock ‘n’ roll music, Dolly Parton pulled out all the stops, thumbing through her rhinestone-studded Rolodex for collaborators.The 77-year-old country music icon, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year, announced the lineup for her upcoming album, “Rockstar.”Boasting a whopping 30-tracks, the opus is set to be released Nov. 17. The album will feature superstar collaborations on new versions of popular songs — many with the artists who originally made them hits.Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunite for Parton’s take on their 1970 Beatles classic “Let It Be” with special guests Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood.Meanwhile, Sting joins the diva on a new version of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take.”Parton and her famous goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, team up for a cover of Miley’s hit ballad “Wrecking Ball.” The pair previously duetted on 2017′s “Rainbowland,” which was banned from a Wisconsin first grade spring concert in March over ...

EPA: New pollution limits proposed for US coal, gas power plants reflect ‘urgency’ of climate crisis

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

By MATTHEW DALY (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration proposed new limits Thursday on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants, its most ambitious effort yet to roll back planet-warming pollution from the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change.A rule announced by the Environmental Protection Agency could force power plants to capture smokestack emissions using a technology that has long been promised but is not used widely in the United States.“This administration is committed to meeting the urgency of the climate crisis and taking the necessary actions required,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.The new rule would “significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, protecting health and protecting our planet,” Regan said. The plan would not only “improve air quality nationwide, but it will bring substantial health benefits to communities all acro...

Perfect brunch cocktails to celebrate moms on Mother’s Day

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

So far this year we have cleared four of the five hurdles of the annual Spring Cocktail Steeplechase — Mardi Gras, Easter, Cinco de Mayo and the Kentucky Derby. If we’ve made it this far, we can probably knuckle down and make it over the last one: Mother’s Day.When Anna Jarvis first conceived of a day to honor her mother in 1908, she was thinking of a pretty solemn affair, specifically surrounding a special Methodist Sunday church service. Jarvis was pretty adamant that the day should be rendered as “a singular possessive, for each family to honor its own mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world.” She made the establishment of just such a day her life’s work, succeeding on a national level in 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May a national holiday celebrating mothers (plural).Jarvis had by then already famously said that “her” Mother’s Day was a day to honor “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the worl...

Army officially designates Fort Moore, dropping Confederate name Benning

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

FORT MOORE, Ga. (AP) — The Army’s training hub in Georgia was renamed Fort Moore during a ceremony Thursday, replacing the name of a Confederate officer that had adorned the base for more than a century with that of a decorated Vietnam War commander and his wife.The name change for the post formerly known as Fort Benning had been in the making for more than a year, since an independent commission recommended in May 2022 renaming nine of its bases commemorating Confederate officers.Soldiers and dignitaries attended a ceremony Thursday unveiling the new sign that will stand outside the base headquarters. The post commander, Maj. Gen. Curtis Buzzard, welcomed attendees for the first time to Fort Moore, named in honor of the late Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia Moore. Located just outside Columbus, the Georgia base trains soldiers to fight in the infantry, to serve in tank crews and is home to the elite Army Ranger School. Roughly 70,000 soldiers and civilian workers are st...

Turkish candidate drops out in boost to Erdogan’s main challenger

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A candidate in Turkey’s presidential election announced his withdrawal from the race Thursday, a move that’s likely to benefit President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main challenger.The candidate who pulled out, Muharrem Ince, is the leader of the center-left Homeland Party. He was one of four contenders running in Sunday’s presidential election. Turkey holds a parliamentary election the same day. Ince had faced criticism for potentially ciphering support from the six-party Nation Alliance, which has united behind the candidacy of opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and thereby forcing the presidential contest into a second-round.“I am withdrawing from the race,” Ince told reporters in front of his party’s headquarters, following weeks of resisting calls to step down. “I am doing this for my country.” Erdogan, who has led Turkey as prime minister and president since 2003, is facing the most challenging election of his 20-year rule. Pol...

New York attorney general sues manufacturer over magazine lock used in Buffalo store massacre

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s attorney general sued a gun accessory manufacturer Thursday for selling a lock that can be easily removed to attach high-capacity magazines, which are illegal in the state.The white gunman who massacred 10 Black shoppers and workers in a Buffalo supermarket last year carried out the attack with a semiautomatic rifle he purchased legally, but then modified so he could load it with illegal high-capacity ammunition magazines, as previously reported. New York law bans the possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. “We lost 10 innocent lives because a hate-fueled individual was able to make an AR-15 even deadlier through a simple change at home,” Attorney General Letitia James, an elected Democrat, said in a statement. “We cannot undo the devastating harm that was done, but this lawsuit against Mean Arms is part of our ongoing effort to pursue justice for the ten innocent lives that were unjustly taken.”Email messages seeking...

Trump turned his liabilities into laugh lines at CNN town hall, underscoring GOP rivals’ challenge

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Republicans in the audience laughed when former President Donald Trump mocked a woman who accused him of rape. They cheered when he defended his role during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And they applauded again after he said he was “honored” to “terminate Roe v. Wade.”Trump’s defiant performance at the CNN town hall on Wednesday may ultimately hurt his standing with key groups of voters in next fall’s general election, especially women, suburbanites and independents. But the reaction of those who attended also demonstrated his extraordinary grip on the conservative voters who will soon decide the fight for the GOP presidential nomination.The magnitude of the challenge ahead for Trump’s Republican rivals was clear as the former president repeatedly turned his greatest political liabilities into jokes and applause lines for the GOP base. On Thursday, a day after the town hall, Trump’s Republican critics conceded they don’t kn...

Oklahoma police rush to respond to cries for help … from a goat

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

ENID, Okla. (AP) — Sometimes a wrong call can really get your goat.Police in Enid, Oklahoma at first walked slowly and cautiously through the grassy, wooded area of a farm seeking the source of faint cries in the distance.“That’s a person,” one of the officers said to the other on a video that has been widely shared from a Facebook post by the police department in the city about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of Oklahoma City. The distressing noise that sounded like human cries for help escalated as officers David Sneed and Neal Storey began running to help who they thought was perhaps a person trapped under farm equipment.Instead, it was a goat.“That’s a goat? … from a long distance it sounds it sounds like help,” Sneed asked through laughter.“The farmer said he had two male goats in the barn, and he took one out and he wasn’t happy,” according to police spokesperson Cass Rains. Now the town and the police department are enjoying the tale of the rescue ...

Republicans continue push to restrict teachings on race in South Carolina

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:11:52 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Republicans are one step closer to restricting how teachers discuss race in K-12 classrooms.As conservatives nationwide push bans on so-called “critical race theory,” the state Senate passed a likeminded effort Wednesday in a late night 27-10 vote after nearly six hours of debate. Parents could challenge any educational materials they say violate banned teachings around white privilege and implicit bias under a bill sent back to the GOP-controlled House.Missing from the bill is the explicit phrase “ critical race theory.” It instead prevents teaching that an individual “bears responsibility for actions committed in the past” by other members of their race, and that someone is inherently privileged or should receive “adverse or favorable treatment” due to their race.The bill states that nothing prevents teachings about any ethnic group’s history or the “fact-based discussion” of “controversial” periods and current events. Senate Majority Lea...