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Lee could approach Category 5 hurricane strength in record-warm Atlantic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

(CNN) — Lee rapidly intensified into a strong tropical storm Wednesday morning as it tracks over record-warm ocean waters and an environment favorable for strengthening, which will fuel the storm to near Category-5 strength as it approaches the eastern Caribbean.Lee was a strong tropical storm late Wednesday morning with sustained winds of 70 mph and higher gusts, the National Hurricane Center reported, located 1,200 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands. Lee’s sustained winds strengthened by 35 mph in the 24 hours after it formed as a tropical depression Tuesday morning.Even more rapid intensification – defined as an increase in wind speeds of at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less – is expected in the coming days. The forecast track takes the hurricane across some of the warmest waters in the Atlantic Ocean and through relatively calm upper-level winds, which will allow Lee to explode in strength. By Friday night, Lee is expected to be a monstrous Category 4 hurricane with susta...

‘Nasty evil person’: Florida father kills 16-year-old son, sheriff says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

LAKE WALES, Florida (WFTS) — An investigation is underway in Polk County after authorities said a man killed his 16-year-old son Monday morning in Lake Wales.According to the sheriff’s office, Stephen Lee Rodda was murdered by his father, who shares the same name.Authorities said the teenager lived with his grandfather, who left the house that day around 8 a.m. When he came home about three hours later, authorities said his son, Stephen Thomas Rodda met him outside.According to the sheriff’s office, Rodda told his father, “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you. I killed someone. You may need to call the police.”Rodda’s father then entered the house and found his grandson dead in the kitchen/dining room area, authorities said.Stephen Thomas Rodda left the house. He was found by deputies about a mile away before being taken into custody. He’s charged with first-degree murder.“When we took him into custody, he told our deputy, ‘You p...

Florida mother creates app to reduce overdose deaths after losing daughter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

PINELLAS COUNTY, Florida (WFTS) — A mother in St. Petersburg is making it her life mission to reduce the number of overdose deaths in our country.According to the CDC, more than 100,000 people died from a drug overdose in 2022 alone.Carolyn Bradfield started a company called Interact Lifeline. Its original purpose was to educate people on the dangers of fentanyl and opioids. It also aims to keep people connected to treatment after they get out of rehab.Bradfield started the company after she lost her daughter to an overdose in 2017.“Like many, many families over the past years, I had a personal tragedy in my family. My daughter overdosed and died at Christmas,” Bradfield said.A tragedy that most mothers never recover from. Bradfield said she felt her daughter’s death was a call to action.“Pretty soon after her death, I started researching why were people relapsing and overdosing at such a high rate,” Bradfield said.From there, Bradfield used her technology and business b...

Top US diplomat visits Kyiv amid deadly airstrike in Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on Wednesday amid a flurry of Russian airstrikes, including one that killed at least 16 civilians.That airstrike hit a market in Kostyantynivka, an eastern city near the frontlines, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post. Overnight, Moscow fired cruise missiles at Kyiv in the first aerial attack on the capital in almost a week, according to Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s regional military administration.Blinken touched down early Wednesday, with plans to meet Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to show “unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and democracy” as its counteroffensive against Russian troops continues, the State Department said in a statement.The counteroffensive has progressed slowly in recent months, drawing concerns from the international community about Ukraine’s ability to pierce Russia’s fo...

EU enlargement chief backs 2030 deadline

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

BRUSSELS — The EU’s enlargement chief backed European Council President Charles Michel’s 2030 timeline for letting in candidate countries over the official stance of his own boss Ursula von der Leyen.  Hungarian Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi disagreed with the European Commission’s stance that there should be no target date for EU enlargement, raising questions over the EU executive’s internal unity on this key file.Referring to an enlargement timeline proposed by Michel, Várhelyi said on Wednesday the Commission should be ready to let in new members by 2030.“On our side we have been working tirelessly to that end — so I’m very happy to see finally, the member states are also starting to move and mobilize politically, and ready to invest politically to have new members of the EU by 2030,” Várhelyi said during a press conference in Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.This is a departure from the Commission’s official line that EU enlargement is a “merit-based process...

Authorities identify 18-year-old who died while swimming at Westford quarry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

Authorities have identified a man who died while swimming at a quarry in Westford on Monday as a 18-year-old from Methuen, state police announced. Emergency crews responded to Merrill’s Quarry Monday afternoon. In an update on Wednesday, state police said investigators determined Chester Rodriguez had been swimming with friends shortly before 5 p.m. when he began struggling and went underwater. Westford officials said divers later recovered the body of the victim, now identified as Rodriguez, in about 40 feet of water around 5:30 p.m.State police on Wednesday said there is no evidence of foul play in this incident and noted several “private property” and “no trespassing” signs posted at Merrill’s Quarry.There was a visible emergency presence around the quarry for several hours on Monday as authorities from multiple area communities joined Westford police, Westford firefighters and Massachusetts State Police personnel at the scene.One Tyngsboro firefighter received minor injurie...

Russian strike on a market in an eastern Ukrainian city kills 17 and wounds dozens, officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

By SAMYA KULLAB (Associated Press)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile struck an outdoor market in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The deadly attack came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv and was expected to announce more than $1 billion in new American funding for Ukraine in the 18-month-old war.Associated Press journalists at the site of the attack in the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region saw covered bodies on the ground and emergency workers extinguishing fires at market stalls, with blackened and mangled cars nearby. Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said 17 people were killed, and another 32 were wounded. The Defense Ministry said the market was hit by a ballistic missile.Firefighters extinguished blazes that burned about 30 pavilions at the market, he added.Twenty shops, power lines, an administrative building and the floor of an apartment building were damaged, according t...

Questions on MCAS repeal, rent control clear hurdle for ballot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

Attorney General Andrea Campbell gave the green light to two ballot questions nixing the MCAS as a graduating requirement for students and peeling back Massachusetts’ ban on rent control.Wednesday’s certification of the questions represents the first major hurdle supporters had to clear to land the issues on the ballot. The AG reviewed the questions to determine if their language met constitutional muster. Supporters who want to pursue their proposals must now collect more than 75,000 signatures in roughly three months to place the issues before voters in the fall of 2024.The rent control question, backed by state Rep. Mike Connolly, a Cambridge Democrat, would reverse a voter-approved 1994 statewide ban on rent control.The proposed law would allow municipalities to regulate residential evictions, rents and fees, brokers fees, and the removal of of housing units from the rental market.Connolly collected the legal paperwork from the Attorney General’s office around 11 a.m. Wedn...

Judge rules Trump in 2019 defamed writer who has already won a sex abuse and libel suit against him

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

By JENNIFER PELTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Four months after a jury found that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that still more of the ex-president’s comments about her were libelous. The decision means that an upcoming second civil trial will concern only how much more he has to pay her.The ruling stands to streamline significantly the second trial, set for January. It concerns remarks that Trump made in 2019, after Carroll first publicly claimed that Trump sexually attacked her in a luxury department store dressing room in the 1990s, which he denies.The first trial, this spring, concerned the sexual assault allegation itself and whether more recent Trump comments were defamatory. Jurors awarded Carroll $5 million, finding that she was sexually abused but rejecting her allegation that she was raped.“The jury considered and decided issues that are common to both cases — includi...

Cirque du Soleil returns to San Diego with seven-show stint

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:10:49 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A charming contemporary circus performance is coming to Pechanga Arena this week to wow San Diegans.Entertainment company Cirque du Soleil is bringing its "Corteo" production to America's Finest City in a seven-show stint between Sept. 6-10. Directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, "Corteo" first premiered in Montreal in April 2005. Since then, the show has been performed for over 10 million spectators in 20 countries. First-ever Del Mar Wine & Food Festival set to take over parts of San Diego County According to Cirque du Soleil, "Corteo" is "a festive parade imagined by a clown." While describing the production further, the company says "the show brings together the passion of the actor with the grace and power of the acrobat to plunge the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth."Cirque du Soleil is coming to Pechanga Arena. (Photo: MajaPrgomet; Costumes: Dominique Lemieux; Courtesy of ...