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Celtics’ Jaylen Brown agrees to $304M extension, biggest in NBA history

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

The Celtics are set to give Jaylen Brown the biggest contract extension in NBA history, agreeing to a 5-year, $304 million super-max deal.The contract goes into effect for the 2024-25 season, during which Brown will earn $52.3 million, his agent told ESPN on Tuesday. The extension runs through the 2028-29 season, when the forward will make $69.1 million.His deal beats the previous record of $276 million given to the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic last year. Jokic, a two-time regular season MVP, led Denver to its first NBA championship last month.Brown, 26, is coming off a 2022-23 season in which he averaged career-highs with 26.6 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. His 49% field goal percentage was also the best mark of his seven-year career.The Celtics went 57-25 last season, finishing as the No. 2 seed in the East and advancing to the Conference Finals. They were eliminated in seven games by the Miami Heat, with Brown averaging 19 points on 41.8% shooting in that series.Brown was secon...

Cape Cod beach closes to swimming after lifeguards spot great white shark: ‘Plenty of activity today’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app has sure been busy in the last week.The shark activity along Cape Cod continued on Tuesday, as a beach closed to swimming for some time after lifeguards spotted a great white shark close to shore.Wellfleet’s Marconi Beach shut down to swimming early Tuesday afternoon for one hour following the shark sighting.“!! SHARK ALERTS !! plenty of activity today,” tweeted MA Sharks, which is run by local shark researcher John Chisholm, who confirms shark sightings for the Sharktivity app.“Make sure you download the @sharktivity app to stay up to date,” Chisholm added.Shark alerts on the app are issued when a white shark sighting is confirmed close to a public beach. A notification goes out with each alert.Earlier on Tuesday, a shark alert was issued for a great white shark spotted about a quarter-mile off of Longnook Beach in Truro.Another shark sighting was reported off of Chatham’s North Beach I...

The painful legacy of ‘law and order’ treatment of addiction in jail

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

Renuka Rayasam | (TNS) KFF Health NewsJASPER, Ala. — Megan Dunn, who has struggled with addiction since her teens, points to the moment her life went “deeply downhill.”After dropping out of high school, she gave birth at age 19 to a son she named Preston. Six weeks later, Dunn said, he died of sudden infant death syndrome.“From then on, I went into this, like, PTSD, depression,” said Dunn, now 28.Megan Dunn visits Jasper Mall in Alabama. Dunn has been arrested on charges related to illicit drug use. While in Walker County’s jail, she says, she was once placed in a holding cell known as the “drunk tank,” a concrete room that lacks water, a bed, or a toilet. (Renuka Rayasam/KFF Health News/TNS)Shortly after the baby’s death, Dunn said, she started using pain pills again. Eventually, she said, she was arrested on charges related to her illicit drug use, such as trespassing. She said she has had more than 30 stays in Walker County’s jail, a brick building in downtown Jasper. And each ti...

Karen Read case: Judge will not recuse herself in case of alleged murder of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

The Karen Read murder trial has gained national attention, and it showed in a full-blown rally in support of the defendant held on the Norfolk Superior Court steps ahead of a 2 p.m. motions hearing Tuesday afternoon.Read is accused of running over her boyfriend of two years, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022.At the top of a stack of defense motions — which remained impounded ahead of the hearing, with the clerk citing personal information contained within them that the judge would need to clear before public consumption — was a motion to have Judge Beverly Cannone recuse herself from the case.Cannone denied the motion after a brief recess to review the matter after arguments.“Your honor, there has been an undeniable erosion of the public’s confidence” in the court’s ability to impartially oversee this case, defense attorney Alan Jackson said during the hearing.“It is not an indictment of this court...

Orioles center fielder Aaron Hicks placed on 10-day injured list with left hamstring strain

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

The Orioles are already down one center fielder. After Monday night, they are down another.Aaron Hicks was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain Tuesday after exiting Monday night’s 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Outfielder Ryan McKenna was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk in a corresponding move.Hicks dove for a line drive hit by Johan Rojas in the third inning, threw the ball back to the infield and sat for a moment before training staff members came out to evaluate him. He eventually left the game with what the team called a left hamstring injury and was replaced in center field by rookie Colton Cowser.Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said Monday the injury could be a strain or a cramp, but he did not know until Hicks had the chance to be evaluated Tuesday.Hicks ran to his right on the liner and fully stretched out to make a spectacular catch. Rojas was ruled out, although replay later showed the ball popped out of Hicks’ glove.Entering Tue...

Hunter Biden will plead guilty to federal tax charges Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

By Emily Bloch, The Philadelphia InquirerHunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is expected in court Wednesday to plead guilty to federal tax charges.It will mark the end of a yearslong investigation into Biden’s taxes and foreign business dealings that has been spotlighted throughout his father’s presidency. It’s also the first time the Justice Department has brought charges against a sitting president’s child.Biden, 53, is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses as part of a plea deal.The plea agreement in federal court in Delaware will make the investigation “resolved,” Biden’s attorney Chris Clark said in a statement.As part of the deal, federal prosecutors will decline to pursue a felony gun charge, allowing Biden to avoid potential jail time.With the investigation unfolding in the public eye, the president and his second son became the center of scrutiny in political circles, particularly right-wing Republicans.Here’s what you need to know:How did we ge...

Boston suspends liquor license of North End restaurant owned by alleged shooter

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

The Boston Licensing Board voted to suspend the liquor license for Monica’s Trattoria, effectively shutting down the North End restaurant until management is officially transferred from its current owner, who is facing an attempted murder charge.Board Chair Kathleen Joyce said the panel was within its purview to suspend the restaurant’s liquor license, based on the owner Patrick Mendoza’s failure to appear at an informational hearing held last Thursday to assess his “character and fitness” as the manager of record and licensee.Mendoza, 54, is facing charges in connection with a shooting that occurred at a North End bakery on July 12, and allegedly evaded police for more than a week before he was arrested at a Cape Cod treatment facility last Friday.“We need to know as a regulatory body at any given time who is in charge of a licensed premises,” Joyce said at a Tuesday board meeting, later adding, “I have serious concerns about the person who’s still listed as the manager of record a...

Ohio voters will decide on abortion access in November ballot

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

By JULIE CARR SMYTH (Associated Presss)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters will have the opportunity this fall to decide whether to guarantee access to abortion in the state, setting up a volatile fight rife with emotional messaging and competing factual claims.State officials said Tuesday that a ballot measure to change the state constitution had enough signatures. It would establish “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.” In language similar to a constitutional amendment that Michigan voters approved last November, it would require restrictions imposed past a fetus’ viability outside the womb, which is typically around the 24th week of pregnancy and was the standard under Roe v. Wade, to be based on evidence of patient health and safety benefits.“Every person deserves respect, dignity, and the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including those related to their own pregnancy, miscarriage care, an...

Trevor Reed, Marine veteran freed from Russia in 2022, is injured while fighting in Ukraine, US says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former U.S. Marine who was released from Russia in a prisoner swap last year has been injured while fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said Tuesday.Trevor Reed was wounded several weeks ago, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He has been taken to Germany for medical care, said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.U.S. officials said little about Reed’s injury or presence in Ukraine beyond noting that his activities weren’t on behalf of the U.S. government. But Reed’s decision to take up arms during Russia’s war with Ukraine potentially complicates U.S. efforts to win the release of two other Americans still detained by Moscow, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and corporate security executive Paul Whelan. His fighting also risked a potentially dire scenario if he’d been captured and re...

Cabinet shuffle expected Wednesday as ministers announce they won’t seek re-election

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

OTTAWA — With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expected to shuffle his cabinet as early as Wednesday,a string of Liberal ministers have confirmed they will not run in the next federal election. Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Public Services and Procurement Minister Helena Jaczek and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett all announced this week that they will not seek re-election. A government source with knowledge of the matter said the cabinet shuffle would happen as soon as Wednesday. They were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly.Trudeau spent Monday and Tuesday holding private meetings in the capital, while several other ministers cancelled public events — both signs of an impending shake-up.Appearances by Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen, Treasury Board President Mona Fortier and Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor were dropped early this week. The last time Trudeau shuffled h...