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Lowry: Immigration is Biden’s Mariela boatlift

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

“Worse than Jimmy Carter” is an epithet Republicans often throw at Democratic presidents.It’s a label, though, that Joe Biden clearly deserves on immigration, an area where — along with inflation and the Afghan debacle — there are echoes of the Carter years.Back in 1980, an overwhelmed Carter administration struggled to cope with the Mariel boatlift, a rapid surge of Cubans into South Florida, just as the hapless Biden White House is watching the current migrant crisis strain communities around the country.A promising young Democratic governor, Bill Clinton, ended up collateral damage when boatlift migrants housed at a fort in Arkansas rioted. Clinton’s predicament brings to mind the political agony of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other Democratic officeholders now paying the price for a failed border policy outside their direct control.Of course, the two crises, separated by more than 40 years, aren’t the same. The scale of the influx...

Editorial: Cities see migrant crisis, Harris sees ‘progress’

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

Border crisis? What border crisis?Even though cities and states across the country are buckling under a never-ending influx of migrants, Vice President Harris says the country is “seeing progress.”CBS anchor Margaret Brennan asked Harris on “Face the Nation” if increasing illegal border crossings indicate migration policies are no longer working. Her response: “Absolutely not.”Perhaps the question should have clarified that she meant working for this country.As The Hill reported, recent data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed illegal border crossings increased by 33% in July when compared to the previous month.You don’t have to tell Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey –  she declared a state of emergency last month as the state’s shelters started to strain with newly arrived migrants and high housing costs. The state is spending more than $45 million a month on programs and emergency shelter for new migrant and displaced families. Healey has even called...

Curtain rises on fall theater

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

Everybody loves one of the following: Disney, Shakespeare, reinventions of Shakespeare, Sondheim, James Bond, political satire, or the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”It’s an irrefutable fact. The Boston theater knows this and will put everything from “Frozen” to “Fat Ham” on stages over the fall theater season.“Assassins”Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, Lyric StageThose who thought Stephen Sondheim had no new ground to tread by 1990 were proved spectacularly wrong with “Assassins.” With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, this dark, comic musical looked at successful and failed presidential assassins John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley, Jr. Unlike anything Sondheim had done, so, basically, like every other Sondheim work. Lyricstage.com“The Taming of the Shrew”Sept. 15 – Oct. 1, the Modern Theatre at Suffolk UniversitySo… Taming of the Shrew… in 2023… Fear not, in the hands of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project this is su...

Dear Abby: 20-something wants to boost popularity

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

Dear Abby: I’m 26 and not currently in a relationship. I don’t have many friends. I’d like to have more, and I try. I wasn’t popular in middle and high school, either. I have been in and out of college, so I haven’t been able to make friends there. I have worked at my job for three years and it’s the same story.People say I’m “sweet, nice and cheerful,” but those traits aren’t helping me. I know you’ve written about this problem before. Can you give me some tips for being someone who others want to be around? — Eager in South CarolinaDear Eager: The keys to being well-liked by both men and women are these: Be kind. Be honest. Be tactful. Don’t be afraid of giving someone a compliment if it is deserved.You do not have to be beautiful (or handsome) to put your best foot forward. Be well-groomed, tastefully dressed and conscious of your posture. (People who stand tall project self-confidence.) Stay informed a...

Putin welcomes Kim Jong Un at cosmodrome for meeting that shows how leaders are coming together

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived at a cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East on Wednesday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that underscores how the two leaders’ interests are aligning in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States.Putin welcomed Kim at the entrance to a launch vehicle assembly building. The two men shook hands and Putin said he was “very glad to see” Kim. Kim’s translator thanked Putin for the warm welcome, “despite being busy.” The two leaders will inspect the cosmodrome and then sit down for talks, Russian state media reported. Hours earlier, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in North Korean weapons testing since the start of 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development.For Putin, the meeting with Kim is an opportunity to refill ammunition stores that the 18...

More than a dozen people are feared dead in a massive fire at an apartment building in Hanoi

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Around a dozen people are feared dead after a massive fire broke out at an apartment building in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, state media said on Wednesday.The fire is believed to have started late Tuesday and 54 of the 70 people who were rescued from the building were hospitalized with injuries, the report said.Authorities are yet to confirm the exact death toll.The fire has been extinguished but rescue operations are continuing.The Associated Press

New England braces for more rain after hourslong downpour left communities flooded and dams at risk

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — More heavy rain was in the forecast Wednesday in New England, where residents were cleaning up after downpours dropped nearly 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in six hours and flooded parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.The rainfall was a “200-year event,” said Matthew Belk, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston. Two communities declared a state of emergency and officials ordered evacuations out of concern for a dam listed in poor condition.Rain from Hurricane Lee didn’t contribute to Monday’s flooding but could inundate parts of the coastal Northeast during the weekend, forecasters said.Up to 300 people were evacuated by Tuesday morning in Leominster, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Boston, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said. That included residents of a high-rise apartment building and a nursing home. Schools closed and shelters were opened.Mazzarella said the city has not seen such widespread damage since a 1936 hurri...

Crimea shipyard burning after a Ukrainian attack and 24 are injured, Russian-installed official says

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

The Sevastopol Shipyard in Russian-annexed Crimea was on fire Wednesday after a Ukrainian attack, and 24 people were injured, local Russian-installed official reported.Mikhail Razvozhayev, Moscow-appointed governor of the port city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, said on Telegram on Wednesday that the fire was sparked by a missile attack. The official posted a photo of the fire with smoke billowing over it. The Sevastopol Shipyard is of strategic importance to Russia as vessels in its Black Sea fleet are being repaired there.The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine launched 10 cruise missiles at the shipyard and three sea drones at Russian ships in the Black Sea. Seven missiles were shot down and all the sea drones have been destroyed, the military said, but some of the missiles damaged two ships that were being repaired in the shipyard.The Associated Press

School district takes teachers union to court for wave of absences that forced school closures

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — School district officials in Las Vegas are asking a judge to put an end to what it claims is a coordinated union campaign of teacher absences during a bitter contract battle, forcing school closures and classroom disruptions in a state where it is illegal for public employees to strike.Since Sept. 1, unexpected staff shortages have forced seven schools to cancel classes for the day and two others to combine classes, according to the Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas. The district’s motion seeking an emergency court order said one of those schools had 87% of its teachers call out sick on the same day.“The absentee level at the affected schools is unprecedented,” the motion said, “and these mass sickouts have left students, parents, staff, and administrators scrambling to ensure students’ wellbeing.”The tense contract negotiations in the nation’s fifth-largest school district are unfolding at a time when labor unions across the country...

North Korea fires 2 short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern seas

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:15:57 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern seas Wednesday, its neighbors said.The launch came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was traveling in Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin while there are international concerns about a potential arms deal that could fuel Moscow’s war efforts in Ukraine.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the missiles being fired 10 minutes apart from an area in Sunan, the site of Pyongyang’s international airport, and that the weapons flew cross-country toward the country’s eastern seas. It didn’t immediately say how far the weapons flew.Japan’s Coast Guard, citing Tokyo’s Defense Ministry, said the missile likely has landed but still urged vessels around the Japanese coasts to watch out for falling objects. Kim has been using the international distraction caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine to ramp up the North’s weapons development, a process that has i...