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City Hall Plaza hosts new outdoor beer garden featuring two local breweries

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

A local collaboration is on tap this summer. Two local breweries are creating a beer garden right next to City Hall.The D&D Beer Garden is located on City Hall Plaza and officially opened Wednesday afternoon. It’s part of an effort to revitalize Downtown Boston with social and economic opportunities. “Being outside and being a part of Faneuil Hall and the history of Boston,” said Michael Belley, Director of Operations Democracy Brewing. “It’s a great location and having a great spot to hang in the summer, whether you’re a local or a tourist.”The two local breweries featured are Distraction Brewing in Roslindale and Democracy Brewing in Downtown Crossing.“We’re two, independent, small breweries. We both opened not too soon before COVID and both really dealt with COVID,” said Lora Estey, co-owner Distraction Brewing “It’s been rough”“There’s a lot of big names around here, so it’s nice to have some small guys that can show what we can do and have fun with it,” Belley said.Bot...

Lionel Messi says he’s going to MLS club Inter Miami

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

(CNN) — Argentine superstar Lionel Messi said Wednesday he’s going to join the Major League Soccer club Inter Miami.“I made the decision that I am going to Miami. I still haven’t closed it one hundred percent. I’m missing some things but we decided to continue my journey there,” the seven-time world player of the year said in an interview posted by Spanish outlets SPORT and Mundo Deportivo.The blockbuster announcement comes months after Messi was awarded the Golden Ball at the World Cup – the prize given to the best player in the tournament – and catapulted his country to World Cup glory in December. It also followed rumors of a lucrative deal in the Middle East and reports of a move back to his beloved Barcelona.Instead, Messi has chosen the path of other superstar players who moved to the MLS.The move to David Beckham’s Inter Miami isn’t entirely surprising. Beckham is a well-known fan of Messi and, in 2019, teased, “You never know what can happen in football,”...

New study questions renewable policies’ impact on energy costs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

Renewable energy policies in New England are driving up energy costs in the region, according to a report by the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance released Wednesday.“Even if you support 100% renewable energy, this path that we’re going down, where we’re adding more regulations on top of other regulations, is driving up costs,” said Paul Craney, spokesperson for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, at a virtual press conference announcing the report Wednesday morning.The report found that from 2008 to 2020 the region saw an 11.4% drop in annual energy demand but over the period the average cost per kilowatt hour for residents has risen 20% — a trend, Craney said, “smacks in the face of common sense.”The report attributes this rise to renewable energy regulations, noting the six New England state imposes 26 energy mandate programs on the companies that supply the region. Massachusetts requires compliance with nine energy programs, the report states....

Mayor Brandon Johnson meets with Bears CEO after saying he wants to keep the team ‘shuffling’ in Chicago

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

Mayor Brandon Johnson met with the Chicago Bears’ president and CEO Wednesday about their “shared … commitment to Chicago” as the NFL franchise floats interest in potentially moving to a suburb other than Arlington Heights.News of the meeting was announced Wednesday, hours after Johnson again stated he wanted to keep the Bears in Chicago. Johnson spoke at an unrelated news conference when asked about the Bears flirting with a move to Naperville as the franchise’s push for state financial support and property tax breaks has stalled.Johnson and Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren released a joint statement late Wednesday afternoon: “Today we met and discussed our shared values and commitment to the City of Chicago, the importance of deep roots and the need for equitable community investment throughout the city. We are both committed to the idea that the city and its major civic institutions must grow and evolve together to meet the needs of the fut...

Millions breathing hazardous air as smoke from Canadian wildfires streams south over US

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

By JENNIFER PELTZ and ROB GILLIES (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, holding up flights at major airports, postponing Major League Baseball games and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.Canadian officials asked other countries for additional help fighting more than 400 blazes nationwide that already have displaced 20,000 people. Air with hazardous levels of pollution extended into the New York metropolitan area, central New York state and parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Massive tongues of unhealthy air extended as far as North Carolina and Indiana, affecting millions of people.“I can taste the air,” Dr. Ken Strumpf said in a Facebook post from Syracuse, New York, which was enveloped in an amber pall. The smoke, he later said by phone, even made him a bit dizzy. The air quality index, a U.S. Environ...

Jaylon Johnson says he ‘100%’ would like a new contract. But that’s not why the Chicago Bears cornerback was absent from OTAs.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

Jaylon Johnson would “100%” like to sign a contract extension with the Chicago Bears this offseason, he said after wrapping up practice Wednesday at Halas Hall.But the fourth-year starting cornerback reiterated that his absence during the first two weeks of organized team activities didn’t have anything to do with his contract.Johnson returned to Lake Forest this week for the final stretch of OTAs before veteran minicamp next week, ramping up first in individual drills and now in team drills. He said on an ESPN radio show last week and again Wednesday that he skipped the earlier voluntary sessions because he wanted to spend time with his 3-year-old daughter in their hometown of Fresno, Calif., where he also ran an event for his charity last weekend.“Before I’m a football player, before I’m anything, I’m a dad first,” Johnson said. “I don’t get to spend too much time with her during the season because she’s back at hom...

‘It was kind of orange’: Chicago White Sox game in New York is postponed because of ‘clearly hazardous’ air from Canadian wildfires

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

Chicago White Sox second baseman Romy Gonzalez said catching pop-ups Tuesday against the hazy sky at Yankee Stadium was “tough.”Conditions didn’t get any better Wednesday, and Major League Baseball postponed the scheduled Sox game against the New York Yankees because of what it called “clearly hazardous air quality.”New York is under a haze because of smoke carried down from wildfires burning in Canada.“These are health issues,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “We’ve been through everything — snow, rain, hail. I don’t think I’ve been through something like this.“Today at one point, it was pretty bad out there. We walked out of the dugout and it was kind of orange.”The game will be made up Thursday as part of a straight doubleheader beginning at 3:05 p.m. Central time.“They did the right thing,” Grifol said. “They got all the information. If they are comfortable setting up a doublehea...

Accused rapist Gary Zerola’s defense team hammers credibility of witnesses in second day of trial

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

A woman who had a sexual relationship with accused rapist Gary Zerola and is one of the best friends of his alleged victim, and was sharing the same couch where the alleged crime took place seven years ago, took the stand on the second day of Zerola’s trial.“I woke up to (the alleged victim) shaking me,” Colleen Daley, 29, said in an answer to one of prosecutor Ian Polumbaum’s questions Wednesday at Suffolk Superior Court in downtown Boston. “She was very serious and said ‘Get up, we’re leaving.’”Daley had been a former client of Zerola, 51, when he represented her as a defense attorney in 2015 into 2016, according to her testimony. Zerola, who has two past acquittals for similar charges, had served as a prosecutor in district attorneys’ offices in both Essex and Suffolk before becoming a criminal defense lawyer.She said their relationship moved from attorney-client into friendship and then that the pair “became more” when her case closed in early 2016.But the focus of this tr...

Carlos Rodon faces hitters as Yankees officially place Aaron Judge on IL

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

Carlos Rodon is used to throwing smoke. On Wednesday, he pitched beneath it.Rodon took the Yankee Stadium mound for the first time as a pinstriper for an expected session against live hitters, a notable stage in his rehab following a spring training forearm injury and, more recently, back issues. Rodon threw 20 pitches to Oswaldo Cabrera and Jake Bauers. Or, as Rodon called him, “Rake” Bauers.“It was a big step,” said Rodon, who threw all his pitches. His fastball sat between 92 and 94 miles per hour, a perfectly reasonable range at this point in his recovery.Rodon’s first trip to the Bronx mound as a Yankee came under unusual circumstances, and not just because he threw in front of empty seats.Smoke from Canadian wildfires has been blanketing New York City. The Yankees canceled outdoor batting practice and had players do pregame work inside before Wednesday’s game against the White Sox was postponed, but that didn’t stop Rodon from throwing...

Air pollution cloaks eastern US for a second day. Here’s why there is so much smoke

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:12 GMT

Intense smoke blanketed the northeastern United States for a second day Wednesday, turning the air a yellowish gray and prompting warnings for people to stay inside and keep windows closed. The smoke is flowing from dozens of wildfires burning in several Canadian provinces. Much of the air was in the “unhealthy or worse categories in areas from the mid-Atlantic through the Northeast and parts of the Upper Great Lakes,” according to an advisory issued by the Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday night. U.S. authorities issued air quality alerts in multiple regions and smoke was expected to persist for days.Conditions were especially bad in parts of central New York, where the airborne soot was at hazardous levels. In New York City, officials on Wednesday said everyone should stay indoors. The conditions arrived late Tuesday afternoon, obscuring views of New Jersey across the Hudson River. Here’s a closer look at what’s happening and what’s in the smoke:GENESIS OF THE SMOKEU...