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Massachusetts federal prison employee accused of accepting payments from inmate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

A federal prison employee in Massachusetts is accused of accepting more than $90,000 in benefit payments and a $50,000 property loan from an ultra-high net worth inmate.William Tidwell, 49, of Keene, N.H., a correctional counselor for the Bureau of Prisons assigned to Federal Medical Center Devens, has been charged with accepting payments from an inmate under his care, in violation of his duties as a public official.Tidwell has also been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with lying to a bank about a loan he received from the inmate’s business associate, and forging the associate’s signature to support this false claim.He has been employed by the Bureau of Prisons since 2000, and working at FMC Devens since 2008. Then in 2014, Tidwell began working as a correctional counselor at FMC Devens, so he was responsible for monitoring inmate work assignments, assigning inmate housing assignments, arranging inmate legal calls and coordinating prison visits for inmates.On...

25 killed in wildfires sweeping across Algeria, including soldiers fighting flames

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Wildfires raging across Algeria have killed 25 people, including 10 soldiers trying to get the flames under control in the face of high winds and scorching summer temperatures, government ministries said Monday.At least 1,500 people were evacuated, the Interior Ministry said, without providing details.The Interior Ministry announced 15 deaths and 24 injuries. In addition, the Defense Ministry later announced 10 soldiers were killed and 25 injured as they fought fires in the resort area of Beni Ksila east of the capital Algiers.It wasn’t immediately clear over what period of time the casualties happened but the fires have been burning for several days. Wildfires, some spread by strong winds, moved across forests and agricultural areas in 16 regions causing 97 blazes in the north African country. The largest and deadliest fires ravaged parts of Bejaia and Jijel — in the Kabyle region east of Algiers — and Bouira, about 100 kilometers (60...

Plane crashes in eastern Sudan killing 9 people as the war reaches the 100-day mark

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A civilian plane crashed after taking off from an airport in eastern Sudan, killing nine people including four military personnel on board, the military said, as the conflict in the northeastern African country reached the 100-day mark on Monday with no signs of abating.The military said in a statement that a child survived the late Sunday crash in Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea that so far has been spared from the devastating war between the military and rival powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.The Antonov plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, the military said. It blamed a technical failure for the crash without elaborating. The statement provided no further details.Al-Taher Abdel-Rahman, the secretary of Finance Minister Gebreil Ibrahim, was among the dead, according to the minister, who took to social media to mourn his employee.Sudan has plunged into chaos since mid-April when monthslong tensions between the military and the RSF...

Toronto Humane Society, shelters struggling as owners surrender pets welcomed during pandemic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

While welcoming a pet into your home can certainly be an amazing experience, one many people took part in through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, some pet owners are starting to surrender their animals as they realize they don’t have the means to take care of them.Animal shelters and foster organizations have noticed a sharp uptick in owner surrenders and now, they are struggling to keep up with the demand.Melissa Shupak, the Division Manager of Shelter Programs at Toronto Humane Society, tells CityNews rising costs have a lot to do with it.“The rising cost of care, access to care, unstable housing, job insecurities and all those factors where people are ending up, where they have animals that they love and are devoted to and committed to, but then they’re stuck in this position of how do I continue to provide care for them, or can I do that while also maintaining that with myself.”Shupak said some people have come to them trying to make a decision betwe...

MUST-WATCH: Some days, you can’t get rid of a bomb

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

Christopher Nolan’s latest film hasn’t just done insanely well at the box office, it’s also entered the MUST-WATCH Top 10! But will the father of the atomic bomb reign supreme, or could it go to the return of Futurama? Perhaps a cloning effort gone wrong? You’ll have to keep reading to find out!They Cloned TyroneWhere to watch: NetflixFirst up, let’s start with some blaxploitation throwback!John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jaime Foxx in They Cloned Tyrone, courtesy of Netflix.They Cloned Tyrone is a new film starring John Boyega (from the Star Wars sequel trilogy), Teyonah Parris (from WandaVision), and Jaime Foxx (from Django Unchained). The three are respectively a hustler, a ‘pro’, and a pimp. One day, the three of them encounter what appears to be a secret lab holding a clone of Boyega’s character. The three continue to investigate, learning that there is a great conspiracy at risk. They’ve got to get the whole community toge...

Police were told a Mississippi man killed himself, but his widow faces a murder charge 5 years later

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — Police were told a Mississippi man had killed himself in 2018, but five years later, his 75-year-old widow has been arrested and charged with murder in the death.The Forrest County Sheriff’s Office arrested Harriet Howe on Thursday. She remained jailed Monday in Hattiesburg, with bail set at $1 million. It’s unclear whether she has a lawyer representing her.George Howe of Dixie died from a single gunshot, and investigators were told he had killed himself. But Forrest County Sheriff Charlie Sims told WDAM-TV that investigators never entirely believed that.“John Tryner, who is now captain over investigations, was actually the investigator on that case,” Sims said. “He had some doubts about that story, was working that case, ran into some dead ends.Investigators were unable to unlock an electronic device that they believed would show “conclusively” what had happened, Sims said. But in recent months, the sheriff’s office joined a task force wi...

Champagne launches consultation to ensure wireless coverage for all TTC riders

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s federal industry minister says he’s taking action to ensure riders on Toronto’s transit system have wireless coverage as soon as possible.Minister François-Philippe Champagne says in a press release that he is directing his department to launch an expedited consultation process to revise the licences of the four major carriers to ensure all TTC riders have coverage as soon as technically feasible.He says the action comes after what he says is limited progress between Canada’s major telecoms carriers on reaching an agreement to provide wireless service on the TTC subway system. Such an agreement has been a point of contention ever since Rogers bought the company that had been providing wireless on the subway, which only had a deal with Freedom Mobile for wireless coverage. Rogers has pledged to work with its rivals and make the upgraded system accessible for other mobile carriers to use. However, Bell and Telus have been pushing back against ...

Connecticut’s governor orders an independent investigation into falsified traffic tickets

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday ordered an independent investigation into the state police after an audit last month that showed troopers falsified information on at least 26,000 traffic stops from 2014 to 2021.Data analysts with the University of Connecticut said t he reports resulted in too many drivers being identified as white. They cautioned, however, that they did not try to determine whether the records were intentionally falsified or were wrong due to carelessness or human error. Lamont originally asked Connecticut’s chief state’s attorney’s office to look into the discrepancies and said there was no evidence of intentional wrongdoing.But on Monday, the governor said an independent investigation is needed to “get to the bottom of this and learn how it happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from ever happening again.”The governor’s office said it has appointed Deirdre Daly, a former United States attorney for Conn...

GTA families struggling amid implementation of $10-a-day child care

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

With the introduction of the $10-a-day childcare nationwide, families are struggling to find spaces now more than ever.One woman from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) tells CityNews she’s on 15 to 20 waitlists for her six-month-old son and fears she will have to choose between extending her maternity leave or spending $25,000 per year on daycare.“It’s not something I’m looking forward to doing. It’s something that I want to do. I like to go back to work and have that work-life balance, but that might not be possible,” said first-time mom Samantha Rodrigues.Rodrigues has been looking for child care since finding out she was pregnant with her son Oliver, even going far outside her local area in hopes of finding a spot.“It’s becoming more and more stressful because I don’t know what type of care facilities my child was going to have. And it’s becoming real. As each day passes, I try to check-in. I try to see… the availabil...

B.C. government announces new programs, police standards for sexual assault

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:02 GMT

VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government is updating policing standards in response to sexual assaults to ensure more effective investigations and improved outcomes for survivors. The province also says it’s committing to providing stable annual funding to 68 sexual assault programs across B.C., while it sets new standards for police to collaborate with victims services workers during investigations. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says survivors deserve to be treated fairly after going through trauma and shielded from further harm, and the new standards and programs will “empower” those people. The province says the funding for the new programs kicks in this month, while new policing standards coupling investigators with victims services workers will begin next year, applying to all B.C. police officers. The RCMP began a review of its sexual assault complaints after a Globe and Mail investigation in 2017 reported police classify an average one in five sex...