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Lovely & Kane: Mass. Caucus of Women Legislators tackling barriers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote and hold office, was ratified in 1920. Just three years later, Massachusetts elected the first two women to the legislature. One hundred years later, 234 women have served in the Massachusetts General Court — compared to over 20,000 men.Today, women make up 31% of the Massachusetts legislature, and the 62 women who serve are all members of the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators. Since our 1975 founding, our membership has grown in size and diversity, and our areas of focus have expanded.While still a minority of the legislature, our members are a force to be reckoned with. They hold a variety of leadership titles and serve as leaders on policies ranging from energy to health care. Women are in an unprecedented five of the six constitutional offices, including Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll.We are honored to be co-chairing the Women’s Caucus for the 2023-2024 legislative session. Supported b...

Editorial: College isn’t only path to success

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

Spurred by a robust job market, a growing number of young Americans are choosing to forgo college for the workforce. Politicians of both parties should welcome this trend and build on it — not least, by shifting resources from traditional college pathways and toward work-based alternatives that provide students with real-world skills.Last year, 62% of recent high school graduates were enrolled in college, the smallest share in two decades and eight points lower than 2009, when enrollment peaked. Some of that drop can be attributed to pandemic-era school closures, during which many college-age students abandoned their studies and never returned. Rising wages have also made entry-level work more appealing.Yet there’s evidence that many students are not so much rejecting higher education as seeking a better return on their investment. While overall enrollment in community colleges has plunged nearly 20% since the start of the pandemic, demand has risen for two-year programs that award ...

Dear Abby: Doc’s bedside manner turns flirty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

Dear Abby: Is it a problem that my doctor is a bit of a flirt? I had a procedure recently, and when it was completed, the doctor announced, “All set!” My reflexive response of gratitude, relief and optimism that the procedure would help me was, “Beautiful!” Doctor’s response to that was, “Just like you.”Now, that could mean “Just like you to respond that way,” or it could mean, “You are beautiful.” I don’t mind either way. But is this a problem that should be noted somewhere? It’s not the first flirty-type double-entendre. — Don’t Mind But Others MightDear Don’t Mind: If the compliment was followed by anything else that made you uncomfortable, you should have spoken up and told him so. He may have meant that you are a beautiful person rather than any physical attribute. Or he may say something similar to ingratiate himself to all his female patients. Bottom line: If you feel you must be o...

BET Awards honor Busta Rhymes, hip-hop’s 50 years and pay tribute to legends like Takeoff, Turner

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 2023 BET Awards celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with tributes to the genre’s earliest voices, late legends, and new talent during a show packed with spectacular performances that consistently felt like a party.Sunday’s biggest surprise came when Quavo and Offset, the surviving members of Migos, performed “Bad and Boujee” in front of an image of Takeoff, who died in a shooting last December.“BET, do it for Take,” the duo shouted near the beginning of their set, as their backdrop switched from the image of a space shuttle to one of Takeoff pointing in the air.Throughout the show, whether it was Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Biz Markie or Pop Smoke, performers and emcee Kid Capri paid homage to late hip-hop stars, often by quickly highlighting a taste of their best-known hits. In a show where few awards were given, Capri and BET kept the emphasis on the music.Busta Rhymes took home the night’s biggest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, handed to him by ...

With abortion rights on the line, an August special election has Ohio election offices scrambling

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A high-stakes August special election with national political implications is upending local election offices across Ohio, as already stressed election workers are suddenly faced with a mountain of logistical challenges after Republican lawmakers backtracked on their own law.Officials have to lure poll workers away from vacations, relocate polling places booked for summer weddings, maintenance or other events, and repeatedly retest ballot language after the state’s high court found errors.“It’s disheartening. It’s exhausting,” said Michelle Wilcox, a Democrat who is the director of elections in tiny Auglaize County in northwest Ohio. “When you’re overworked, haven’t had breaks, are stressed, things can happen. These are the things that lead up to catastrophes on Election Day, and to have to do it on such a short timeline is troubling.”The tight timeframe was imposed by Republican lawmakers, who reversed a new law that had taken effect in Janua...

No early indication of leaders in early vote count from Guatemala’s presidential election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Electoral workers slowly tallied ballots across Guatemala late Sunday, and early counts gave no indication of which two candidates from a huge field of presidential contenders would advance to a runoff.While some isolated incidents interrupted the vote in some localities, voting appeared to have been orderly and peaceful in much of the country. Voters also cast ballots in hundreds of congressional and local races,Many Guatemalans had expressed disappointment with their presidential choices after three opposition candidates were excluded by authorities. A large number of null ballots were expected, and experts said it could depress turnout.Early in the count, with about 7% tallied, null votes led all candidates in the presidential race.With none of the 22 presidential candidates polling near the required 50% threshold for winning outright, a second round of voting on Aug. 20 between the top two finishers was almost certain. At a polling place in central Guatemal...

The Supreme Court’s biggest decisions are coming. Here’s what they could say.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is getting ready to decide some of its biggest cases of the term. The high court has 10 opinions left to release over the next week before the justices begin their summer break. As is typical, the last opinions to be released cover some of the most contentious issues the court has wrestled with this term including affirmative action, student loans and gay rights. Here’s a look at some of the cases the court has left to decide from the term that began back in October:AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONThe survival of affirmative action in higher education is the subject of two related cases, one involving Harvard and the other the University of North Carolina. The Supreme Court has previously approved of the use of affirmative action in higher education in decisions reaching back to 1978. But the justices’ decision to take the cases suggested a willingness to revisit those rulings. And when the high court heard arguments in the cases in late October, al...

Suspect set to plead guilty in attack that killed 5 at Colorado Springs sanctuary for LGBTQ+

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub is expected to plead guilt y Monday in an attack last year that killed five people and wounded 17 at a longtime sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community in the mostly conservative city. The plea could bring a life sentence for suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich and end the court case just seven months after the shooting — sparing victim’s families and survivors a potentially painful trial that would force them to revisit the attack. Victims’ family members and survivors are expected to speak at Monday’s hearing about how their lives were forever altered by the terror that erupted just before midnight on Nov. 19 when the suspect walked into Club Q and indiscriminately fired an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.Aldrich, who is nonbinary and uses they and them pronouns, had been arrested over a year before the attack for threatening their grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass killer.” B...

Stock market today: Asian shares mixed, oil prices flat after armed rebellion quelled in Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are mixed after a short-lived armed rebellion in Russia added to uncertainties over the war in Ukraine. Benchmarks rose in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul and fell in Shanghai and Sydney. U.S. futures rose and oil prices were little changed. The rebellion by mercenary soldiers who briefly took over a Russian military headquarters on an ominous march toward Moscow was over. But the brief weakened President Vladimir Putin just as his forces were facing a fierce counteroffensive in Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner troops were some of Russia’s most effective fighters in Ukraine. Their aborted takeover of the capital also left their fate uncertain.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 recouped early losses, gaining 0.2% to 32,846.24. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.5% to 2,581.83. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.1% to 18,898.51, while the Shanghai Composite, reopening after a holiday, dropped 0.7% to 3,173.37. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4% to 7,07...

Your state has a law on bathrooms and trans kids? Officials may not know how it will be enforced

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:27:14 GMT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — When North Dakota restricted what bathrooms transgender students can use in public schools and universities this year, the school district in the state’s largest city promised to ignore the new rules. A Republican legislator then called for confiscating its state funding, but the law doesn’t include that possibility.The defiance in Fargo shows that it’s not exactly clear how bathroom laws will play out in local communities after being enacted in at least 10 states with Republican-controlled legislatures.Kansas’ GOP attorney general planned to discuss his state’s law Monday, five days before it was to take effect. His view is likely be challenged. Even Florida’s law, allowing the state to threaten the licenses of educators who don’t comply, says a transgender student or staffer must first be asked to leave a restroom and refuse. Some schools already have gender-neutral bathrooms and changing spaces or allow trans student...