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Cannabis commission retaliating against pot lab for speaking out, committee hears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

Lawmakers meeting to hear public testimony on several bills aimed at changing the way the cannabis industry works in the Bay State instead got an earful from speakers who say pot regulators are not listening to whistleblowers and retaliating against licensees who complain.According to testimony provided by the CEO and founder of the state’s first independent marijuana testing lab, the Cannabis Control Commission responded to his reporting what he described as serious public health concerns by launching an investigation into his business.“The investigation was then cited by the CCC as an excuse to prevent us from engaging with commissioners regarding consumer safety. I believe CCC enforcement staff may be misusing investigations as a pretext to silence and harass licensees,” CEO Michael Kahn told the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy during a Tuesday hearing.Kahn told lawmakers he was testifying in support of S.58 and H.106, or “An Act establishing an internal special audit unit wit...

Wiz Khalifa throws first pitch at Pittsburgh Pirates game while ‘shroomed out’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

Wiz Khalifa threw the first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game Monday night, but what baseball fans might not have known was that the rapper was high on mushrooms as he took the pitcher’s mound.Khalifa announced his intentions on Twitter ahead of the game, in which the Pirates took on the Cleveland Guardians at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Penn.“Finna get stoned af and throw this first pitch at the pirates game,” he tweeted on Monday afternoon. A minute later, he tweeted, “Shroomed out throwin a baseball is crazy.”In other Twitter posts from Monday, Khalifa posted photos of his view from a PNC Park box and his bag of Cracker Jack. (“F— yea,” he captioned the latter pic.)An MLB video clip of his big moment shows him waving to a cheering crowd as the ballpark announcer welcomes “Pittsburgh’s very own Wiz Khalifa.” The rapper then throws the ball, shrugs, and starts walking away.Video from another angle shows he got the ball ...

Machete fight leads to ICE capture of 3 illegal immigrants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

ICE is grabbing three suspects allegedly involved in a machete fight in Waltham that includes a charge of assault and battery on a pregnant person, immigration officials tell the Herald.Police were called to Hammond Street at around 6:30 p.m. Friday for a fight that left two people slashed and ended in three arrests. None of the injuries were too serious, officials said. Others attempted to break up the fight that was reportedly over a traffic beef.Immigration officials reported that Osman Aguilar-Borrayo, 27, Kevin Aguilar-Borrayo, 21, and Bryan Aguilar-Borrayo, 19, are all in the country illegally. They now face being deported.All three, Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports, crossed over into the U.S. from Mexico in Texas. All were apprehended and told to appear later before immigration officials, but never did.Waltham police arrested Osman Aguilar-Borrayo for armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery on a pregnant person, assault and battery with a dangerous...

Crime Briefs: New Bedford undercover cop shot in face, drives himself to the hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

An undercover New Bedford Police Detective was shot in the face while sitting in his car in the city’s Goulart Square neighborhood on its south end, but was remarkably able to drive himself to the hospital.Det. Lavar Gilbert, assigned to the department’s Organized Crime Intelligence Bureau, was sitting in his unmarked vehicle at Rivet Street and Orchard Street in the Goulart Square neighborhood when gunshots erupted at around 8:45 p.m. Monday, according to a police statement. One bullet shattered the vehicle’s window and struck Gilbert in his face.Despite the injury, Police Chief Paul Oliveira wrote in a statement, he stayed conscious and was able to drive himself to the St. Luke’s Hospital, where he was listed by Tuesday afternoon as in stable condition, police say.Oliveira said that there is no indication that Gilbert was specifically targeted, nor evidence that there is an ongoing threat to the neighborhood.“Being told that one of your own has been shot is a phone call that no po...

Tupac Shakur’s long-unsolved killing again under spotlight as Las Vegas police conduct search

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

By RIO YAMAT, JONATHAN LANDRUM and MARIA SHERMAN (Associated Press)LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities in Nevada served a search warrant this week in connection with the long-unsolved killing of rapper Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago, they confirmed Tuesday.Shakur, one of the most prolific figures in hip-hop, was killed on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He was 25.The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the search warrant was executed Monday in the nearby city of Henderson. It’s unclear what they were looking for and where they were looking.Department spokesperson Aden OcampoGomez said in a brief phone call that he couldn’t provide further details on the latest development in the case, citing the open investigation. Nevada does not have a statute of limitations for prosecuting homicide cases.Shakur was gunned down while sitting inside a black BMW with Marion “Suge” Knight, head of Death Row Records. Police have said ...

Boston Licensing Board to weigh ‘character and fitness’ of North End restaurateur wanted by police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

The Boston Licensing Board plans to hold a hearing Thursday to determine whether a North End restaurant owner charged with attempted murder should be stripped of his liquor license.A city spokesperson said the 4 p.m. hearing is being held in response to the pending charges against Patrick Mendoza, who is wanted by police for allegedly shooting at a man outside a North End pastry shop last Wednesday.Mendoza, 54, is listed as the manager and liquor license holder at Monica’s Trattoria, according to Analyze Boston, the city’s open data hub.“The Licensing Board has scheduled an informational hearing to review the character and fitness of the licensee and manager of record pursuant to state law,” a city spokesperson said on Tuesday.State law dictates that before issuing or renewing a license, a local licensing authority must determine that the applicant is “a person of good character in the city or town in which he seeks a license hereunder.”A liquor license can also be suspended or revo...

Texas trooper’s accounts of bloodied and fainting migrants on US-Mexico border unleashes criticism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s escalating measures to stop migrants along the U.S. border with Mexico came under a burst of new criticism Tuesday after a state trooper said migrants were left bloodied from razor-wire barriers and that orders were given to deny people water in sweltering heat.In one account, Texas Trooper Nicholas Wingate told a supervisor that upon encountering a group of 120 migrants on June 25 — including young children and mothers nursing babies — in Maverick County, a rural Texas border county, he and another trooper were ordered to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico.” The trooper described the actions in an email dated July 3 as inhumane.Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Safety, said the accounts provided by the trooper were under internal investigation. He said the department has no directive or policy that instructs troopers to withhold water from migrants or push them back into the river...

North Korea fires 2 short-range missiles into the sea as US docks nuclear submarine in South Korea

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea early Wednesday in what appeared to be a statement of defiance as the United States deploys a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in decades.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that from 3:30 to 3:46 a.m. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from an area near capital Pyongyang that flew about 550 kilometers (341 miles) before landing in waters east of the Korean Peninsula.Those flight details were similar to the assessment of the Japanese military, which said the missiles landed outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone and that there were no immediate reports of damage from ships or aircraft in affected areas.The flight distance of the North Korean missiles roughly matched the distance between Pyongyang and the South Korean port city of Busan, where the USS Kentucky arrived Tuesday afternoon in the first visit by a U.S. nuclear-armed submar...

House passes resolution to show support for Israel after Democrat’s comments about ‘racist’ state

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday passed a Republican-led resolution reaffirming its support for Israel with strong bipartisan approval — an implicit rebuke of a leading Democrat who, over the weekend, called the country a “racist state” but later apologized.The resolution, introduced by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, passed with over 400 lawmakers backing the measure. It did not mention Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., by name, but was clearly a response to her recent remarks about the Jewish state. The measure was drafted soon after she criticized Israel and its treatment of Palestinians at a conference on Saturday.Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, walked back the comments the next day, insisting her comments were aimed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and not the Jewish state. “I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist,” Jayapal said in a statement. “I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has e...

Lack of compensation for Doukhobor religious group disappointing: B.C. ombudsperson

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:48 GMT

VICTORIA — Children taken from their homes 70 years ago due largely to the religious beliefs of their parents will soon receive a formal apology from British Columbia’s government, but their quest for compensation remains uncertain, says the province’s ombudsperson.Jay Chalke said he’s “deeply disappointed” the province won’t commit to compensating members of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors, who were forcibly removed from their parents in the 1950s and placed in a former tuberculosis sanatorium at New Denver, B.C., for up to six years. The Sons of Freedom were a small group within the Doukhobor community, an exiled Russian Christian group that was once known for naked protests and periodically burning down their own homes as a rejection of materialism.There may be up to 100 survivors from the Sons of Freedom group, who are now aged in their 70s or 80s, Chalke said at a news conference.His office released a report on the Doukhobors on Tuesday, entit...