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Winterfest Family Fun Day draws guests of all ages to Fort Lauderdale’s Esplanade Park

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

Family fun hit downtown Fort Lauderdale this weekend, just in time for the holidays.The Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Winterfest Family Fun Day brought festive activities and more to Esplanade Park, located at 400 SW 2nd St., Sunday afternoon.Families were treated to food and live music. Organizers said their goal was for everyone to have a good time.“It really is about our partnerships that we’ve established with our community,” said Lisa Scott-Founds, Winterfest Inc.’s president and CEO. “We’ve got beautiful – I’m getting ice on my head, the kids are playing, the snowballs, and they’re throwing them at me. It doesn’t get any better than that.”Activities included free riverboat rides, giveaways and more. Even the nearby Museum of Discovery and Science opened its doors for free after the event.

UM Health System holds plane crash simulation in Miami to test first responders and health workers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

A training exercise in Miami brought an air disaster to life.The University of Miami’s health system simulated a plane crash to test the preparedness of first responders and health officials.The event happened Sunday morning at the intersection of Northwest 12th Avenue and 14th Street.Organizers said this type of exercise has never been done before.“So this is a very unique opportunity, it’s a unique environment. An aircraft disaster exercise in an urban scenario is something that I haven’t seen done before,” said Vincent Torres, director of emergency management at UM.The exercise used role players in makeup as victims, crashed vehicles and more to simulate the disaster, all in hopes of preparing for the worst.

31 premature babies are evacuated from Gaza’s largest hospital, but scores of trauma patients remain

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Health officials said 31 premature babies in “extremely critical condition” were transferred safely Sunday from Gaza’s main hospital and will go to Egypt, while over 250 patients with severely infected wounds and other urgent conditions remained stranded days after Israeli forces entered the compound to look for Hamas operations there.The plight of the babies, along with Israeli claims against Shifa Hospital, have become potent symbols in the devastating war between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli offensive has taken a heavy toll on Palestinian civilians, while Israel has accused Hamas of using Shifa and other hospitals as headquarters for military operations.The newborns from the hospital, where power was cut and supplies ran out while Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants outside, were receiving urgent care in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. They had dehydration, hypothermia and sepsis in some cases, said Mohamed Zaqout, director of Gaza h...

Fiery right-wing populist Javier Milei wins Argentina’s presidency amid discontent over economy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Right-wing populist Javier Milei will become the next president of Argentina after promising a dramatic shake-up to the state in a fiercely polarized election campaign held amid deep discontent over soaring inflation and rising poverty.Economy Minister Sergio Massa of the Peronist party conceded defeat and congratulated Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who has drawn frequent comparisons to former U.S. President Donald Trump.Immediately after Massa’s concession speech, the Argentine electoral authority began releasing partial results. With 95% of votes tallied, Milei had 55.8% and Massa 44.2%. If that margin holds, it would be wider than predicted by all polls and the widest since Argentina’s return of democracy in 1983.In the streets of Buenos Aires, drivers honked their horns and many took to the streets to celebrate in several neighborhoods. Outside Milei’s party headquarters, a hotel in downtown Buenos Aires, supporters were eu...

The Bidens start Thanksgiving early by serving dinner and showing ‘Wonka’ to service members

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — President Joe Biden visited naval installations in Virginia on Sunday to kick off the Thanksgiving holiday week, introducing an early screening of the upcoming movie “Wonka” and sharing a “friendsgiving” meal with service members and their relatives.Biden also paid tribute Sunday to former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died Sunday, and to President Jimmy Carter. “They brought so much grace to the office,” Biden said.The president and first lady Jill Biden headed to a packed auditorium at Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads to introduce the new film centered around the early life of Roald Dahl’s fictional eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka. It will be officially released Dec. 15.He joked to the many youngsters in the crowd: “I like kids more than adults” and added “I wish I could stay and watch Wonka with you.”Instead, the Bidens helped serve dinner with service members from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. F...

Boston Medical tech charged in drug prescription fraud scheme

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

A Boston Medical Center radiology tech was arraigned Friday for his alleged part is a scheme involving Adderall, Clonazepam, injectable testosterone and other drug prescription fraud, Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden announced Sunday.“Insurance fraud hurts everybody,” Hayden said. “Putting controlled substances on the street for personal gain—which appears to be the motive here—pushes that hurt even further. The fact that these are people abusing their legal and ethical responsibilities is an added level of medical and professional duplicity.”The radiology tech, Rafael Garcia, 44, was charged with conspiracy to violate drug laws, obtaining drugs by fraud and larceny of a drug. Garcia was arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court Central Division and held on $2,500 bail.Police first caught on to Garcia’s coworker, BMC nurse practitioner John Cann. A pharmacist in Malden flagged Cann and contacted police after becoming suspicious of Cann’s prescription prac...

Week 11 updates: Late TD drive gives Detroit Lions a 14-10 halftime lead over Chicago Bears in Justin Fields’ return

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

The 3-7 Chicago Bears are playing the 7-2 Detroit Lions at Ford Field in a Week 11 matchup. Here’s what you need to know.Halftime: Lions take 14-10 lead with late TD driveQuarterback Jared Goff led a 75-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes of the first half to help the Lions to a 14-10 halftime lead against the Bears on Sunday at Ford Field.Goff completed seven passes on the drive, including a 7-yard touchdown strike to Amon-Ra St. Brown with 11 seconds to play in the second quarter. He threw for 107 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions in the half.In his return from a four-game absence due to a dislocated right thumb, Bears quarterback Justin Fields threw for 103 yards and rushed for 43.Fields came out strong on the Bears’ opening 75-yard touchdown drive, completing 3 of 4 passes for 38 yards and running for 28 yards. D’Onta Foreman scored on a 1-yard run to make it 7-0. The Bears didn’t have a third down on the drive.The Bears had two first...

‘Steel Magnolia’: Former first lady Rosalynn Carter dead at 96

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

ATLANTA — Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the closest adviser to Jimmy Carter during his one term as U.S. president and their four decades thereafter as global humanitarians, has died at the age of 96.The Carter Center said she died Sunday after living with dementia and suffering many months of declining health. The statement announcing her death said she “died peacefully, with family by her side” at 2:10 p.m. at her rural Georgia home of Plains.“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” Carter said in the statement. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”President Biden called the Carters “an incredible family because they brought so much  grace to the office” and also spoke of the couple’s “great integrity.”“Imagine they were together for (77) years?” Biden said. “...

Bidens start Thanksgiving early, visit service members

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

NORFOLK, Va. — President Joe Biden visited naval installations in Virginia on Sunday to kick off the Thanksgiving holiday week, introducing an early screening of the upcoming movie “Wonka” and sharing a “friendsgiving” meal with service members and their relatives.Biden also paid tribute Sunday to former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died Sunday, and to President Jimmy Carter. “They brought so much grace to the office,” Biden said.The president and first lady Jill Biden headed to a packed auditorium at Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads to introduce the new film centered around the early life of Roald Dahl’s fictional eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka. It will be officially released Dec. 15.He joked to the many youngsters in the crowd: “I like kids more than adults” and added “I wish I could stay and watch Wonka with you.”Instead, the Bidens helped serve dinner with service members from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhow...

Online abuse of politically active Afghan women tripled after Taliban takeover, rights group reports

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:56 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Online abuse and hate speech targeting politically active women in Afghanistan has significantly increased since the Taliban took over the country in Aug. 2021, according to a report released Monday by a U.K.-based rights group.Afghan Witness, an open-source project run by the non-profit Center for Information Resilience, says it found that abusive posts tripled, a 217% increase, between June-December 2021 and the same period of 2022.Building on expertise gained from similar research in Myanmar, the Afghan Witness team analyzed publicly available information from X, formerly known as Twitter, and conducted in-depth interviews with six Afghan women to investigate the nature of the online abuse since the Taliban takeover.The report said the team of investigators “collected and analyzed over 78,000 posts” written in Dari and Pashto — two local Afghan languages — directed at “almost 100 accounts of politically active Afghan women.” The interviews indicated that the spre...