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Editorial: MBTA fixes rival cost of Big Dig

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

Move over Big Dig, the MBTA is in hot contention for the State’s Priciest Boondoggle title.The notoriously over- budget Big Dig highway project was initially estimated to cost $2.5 billion when it began in 1991. It ended up costing a whopping $14.8 billion when it was finished  in 1997. Transportation officials later put the estimate of the complete cost of the Big Dig (allowing for principal and interest) at some $24.3 billion.Now, MBTA officials put the price of fixing the mountain of issues that have plagued the transportation agency at a head-smacking $24.5 billion.The T’s assessed the state of its trains, tracks, signals, construction equipment, etc. and the findings were grim, according to the State House News.Nearly two-thirds of MBTA assets are not in good repair. Passengers who’ve been booted off dead trains and herded on to buses, or waited far too long for the next train to inch toward them on one of the many slow zones could attest to that. It wasn̵...

Champion: Where is outrage at Hamas over Gaza death toll?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

It’s something close to a law of nature that the farther people are from a conflict, the more simplistic their views about its causes and solutions. That couldn’t be more apparent now in Gaza, where Israel’s invasion is drawing howls of outrage around the world.That outrage is well-deserved. There is no question that the Israel Defense Forces could and should be doing more to avoid civilian casualties. Yet the fact that the anger of so many is directed only at Israel is disturbing, because there are two armed forces responsible for the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. The other is Hamas.Hamas invited the Israeli invasion with the barbarism of its terrorist attack on Oct. 7, and it has been open about how it fully expected Israel to retaliate. Recent reporting by the Washington Post would, if verified, underscore that this was the purpose of its attack, dubbed operation al Aqsa Flood, and that Palestinian deaths weren’t a bug in that plan but an essential part of it. “The blood of the...

‘Cat Person’ navigates uncharted waters of dating

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

With it’s close-up look at the invisible, often unfathomable gulf between the sexes, “Cat Person” manages laughs and horror.Margot (Emilia Jones of “Coda”), 18 and in school, works at a movie theater refreshment counter and meets the much taller, who knows how much older Robert (Nicholas Braun, “Succession”).He eventually asks her out on a date. That it does not go well is perhaps prophesied in the Margaret Atwood quote that begins Susanna Fogel’s feature film: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”“That, in a nutshell, is what the movie is,” Fogel, 43, said in a Zoom interview. “For both actors, the subtext that’s going on underneath is an unfortunate situation. Neither one is comfortable with the other and is unable to be completely open on what they feel, what they want.  Because they’re still relative strangers.“So, every time they interact, there’s a subtext. When he’s a little bit critical, the subtext ...

Dear Abby: Supporting pal with nightmare wife

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

Dear Abby: My best friend “Owen’s” wife, “Shirley,” is a narcissist, and she’s driving everyone away from him. They have been married for 10 years. I’ve known Owen since high school. He has always been a quiet, easygoing guy. Shirley is a nightmare. She has berated him at work and has left him by himself on holidays, including birthdays. She orders him around, and she runs everything without hardly paying for anything. I am divorced and I’ve been through it.I don’t know how to tell Owen that there’s a safety net for him. I know telling him his wife is a crazy narcissist and he should leave isn’t the answer. She has berated me for “getting in their marriage.” My friend is afraid he has no support if he leaves because Shirley has alienated him from all of his friends, and the only family he has are his parents and sister, who live many miles away. She has pushed me away from him as well. What can I say to Ow...

Massachusetts ‘stuck in neutral’ on addressing transportation woes: Poll

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

Massachusetts is “stuck in neutral” when it comes to addressing transportation issues plaguing the state, residents said in a MassINC poll released Friday.Bay Staters handed Gov. Maura Healey and the Legislature mediocre scores for their handling of transportation problems, a MassINC Polling Group survey of 1,390 residents found. From traffic to road safety and continual issues at the MBTA to regional transit, grades for state officials were “middling,” the polling group said.Negative stories about the MBTA — from track problems on the Green Line to the billions it will take to repair the system — have influenced residents’ views of Healey, even though many of the transit agency’s issues predate her administration.“The state of the T and other public transit systems is the top transportation issue cited by residents, followed by traffic congestion and road conditions. Priorities do vary by region, with public transit dominant in Greater Bost...

‘Bring them home’: As the battle for Gaza rages, hostage families wait with trepidation

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

Abbey Onn lost her aunt and a young cousin when Hamas attackers rampaged through Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. Now Onn is worried about what will happen to three other family members taken hostage that day as Israel pounds Gaza City in a bid to end Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip. She wants the world to remember that Ofer Kalderon and his children Sahar, 16, and Erez, 12, are caught in the crossfire.“As long as they are hostage, we’re all hostage,” Onn says. “And we need them home so that whatever is happening there can be solved. I don’t think it’s a simple solution, but you can’t hold hostages and fight a war at the same time.”As the Israeli military tightens its grip around Gaza City, friends and family of the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas fear their loved ones will be an afterthought for the politicians and generals directing the campaign. Hamas on Monday released video of the first hostage confirmed to have died in captivity.With much of northern Gaza flattened and face...

Karol G wins best album at Latin Grammys, with Bizarrap and Shakira also taking home awards

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

SEVILLE, Spain (AP) — Karol G, Bizzarap, Shakira and Natalia Lafourcade, won big at the Latin Grammy Awards held Thursday.Karol G’s “Mañana será bonito” was crowned best album of the year and best urban music album.Argentine producer Bizarrap took home the awards for song of the year and best pop song for “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” with the Colombian star.Shakira, who attended the ceremony held in Seville, Spain, accompanied by her two children, Milan and Sasha, said that she wanted to dedicate the award to them “because I have promised them that I am going to be happy.”Natalia Lafourcade, who holds the title for most Latin Grammys in history, added more awards to her record-breaking list with record of the year.Edgar Barrera, who began the night as a favorite with 13 nominations, had to settle for three awards: composer of the year (a category awarded for the first time), producer of the year and best regional Mexican song. That award came for the composition “un X100...

‘No-brainer’: Alberta panel hears callers urge split from Canada Pension Plan

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

EDMONTON — The panel hearing feedback on whether Alberta should quit the Canada Pension Plan heard multiple callers tell them Thursday it’s time to embrace a “no-brainer” provincial program.“I think it’s time we start looking after Albertans,” a caller identified as Gary from Sherwood Park told the panel led by former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning in its fourth telephone town hall.“We already send (away) billions of dollars in equalization payments. Here’s an opportunity for Albertans to be winners.”Caller Darlene said Alberta is taken for granted by Ottawa and that other provinces will oppose an Alberta pension plan out of self-interest.“Albertans should stand up for themselves,” she said.She said Premier Danielle Smith’s government has to do a better job of reassuring Albertans who are “scared of change.”Caller Keith said Albertans are paying in more than they are getting back, and that lower contributions and higher benefits from an Alberta plan are appealing.“It’s a no-braine...

Gang attack on Haitian hospital leads to a call for help and an unlikely triumph for police

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The bullets began piercing the windows of the hospital as women cradling young children ran from room to room searching for a safe place to hide while the heavily armed gang drew closer.The louder the gunfire grew, the more the women screamed until a hospital employee begged them to stay quiet and ordered them to lie on the ground. Mothers with babies and shaky hands forced one breast into their tiny mouths to keep them quiet, wondering if they would live through Wednesday’s attack on the Fontaine Hospital Center and the surrounding community in the Haitian slum of Cite Soleil.A couple of hours went by. The gunfire never ceased. Suddenly, an employee appeared, told them to get up and go to the front yard without making noise. Police were waiting with armored cars.“Get in! Get in! Get in! Get in quickly!” the employees shouted as women carrying children and babies stepped into buses and private ambulances that officers would escort out of Cite Soleil, a r...

Argentina’s Peronist machine is in high gear to shore up shaky votes before the presidential runoff

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:45:31 GMT

CIUDAD EVITA, Argentina (AP) — As Argentina heads for a presidential runoff election on Sunday, the decades-old populist movement known as Peronism is on shaky ground, its candidate having lost some traction even among longtime loyalists living in a suburb of the capital that is its literal and figurative embodiment.Built in the 1950s by Peronism’s founder, then-President Juan Domingo Perón, Ciudad Evita’s original boundaries were shaped like the profile of his wife, former first lady María Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as Evita. It provided workers not just large homes but also dignity, and its generations of inhabitants have been ardent supporters of a political movement that champions social justice and workers’ rights.But that support has been rattled by rising poverty and red-hot inflation that has punished society. Some Ciudad Evita residents are tempted to do the previously unthinkable: Vote against the Peronist candidate, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, on Sunday. That ha...