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Former Mass. state senator faces ethics charges for allegedly using state payroll to conduct campaign activities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

Former State Sen. Dean Tran has been indicted and charged for using his senate staff to illegally conduct campaign activities, officials announced Friday.The Attorney General’s Office announced that 47-year-old Tran, a Fitchburg native, was indicted on two counts of violating the state ethics law.The charges allege that Tran had members of his staff campaign for him while on state time and payroll. Staff members organized fundraisers, knocked on doors and created mailers, officials said.The Senate Committee on Ethics raised concerns in 2020, which prompted an investigation by the AG.Tran pleaded not guilty last year on charges that he stole a gun from an elderly woman. The Attorney General’s office alleged in 2022 that Tran used his status as a public official to intimidate the woman into parting with the firearms, making her sign a pre-prepared contract for $1,500 cash before stealing the gun.7News reached out to Tran for comment but did not hear back.

As Hollywood strikes roll on, are shows premiering this fall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

Hollywood has been in limbo these last few months. It’s been especially tough for everyone who earns their living making TV and film. But it also means viewers will start seeing just how that is impacting the fall network lineup. A prolonged strike — still ongoing — will inevitably have that effect and the work stoppage has reshaped prime time in significant ways.If the studios are unable to resolve the strikes soon, their streaming pipeline will slow to a trickle. We’ll know more when we see just how many (or few) premieres there are this winter. Until then, here’s a look at some offerings in the first few weeks of the fall TV season, in order of their premieres “The Changeling” (Sept. 8 on Apple TV+): The eight-part drama stars LaKeith Stanfield as a new father who finds his life spinning out of control. It’s adapted from a novel that has been described as a “punchy cocktail of modern parenting and ancient magic” wherein the “anxieties of fatherhood, race and money are dwarfed by ...

The Dianne Feinstein they knew: Women of the Senate remember a tireless fighter and a true friend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Washington Sen. Patty Murray received a call early Friday morning that Sen. Dianne Feinstein had died, she immediately started calling her fellow female senators.The Democrat’s first call was to Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who had worked with Feinstein almost as long as she had. Murray and Feinstein were elected in 1992 — “the year of the woman” — and Collins was elected just four years later. Murray then called several other female Senate colleagues, hastily arranging a tribute.“My immediate response was my women Senate colleagues that have been her friends and her family for so long, and that we needed to be together on the floor.” Murray said in an interview in her Capitol office Friday afternoon.They were all there when the Senate opened at 10 a.m., just hours after Feinstein had died at her home in Washington after serving more than three decades in the Senate. Standing near Feinstein’s Senate desk, now draped in black cloth, the senators — along with ...

The Supreme Court will take up abortion and gun cases in its new term while ethics concerns swirl

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is returning to a new term to take up some familiar topics — guns and abortion — and concerns about ethics swirling around the justices.The year also will have a heavy focus on social media and how free speech protections apply online. A big unknown is whether the court will be asked to weigh in on any aspect of the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump and others or efforts in some states to keep the Republican off the 2024 presidential ballot because of his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Lower-profile but vitally important, several cases in the term that begins Monday ask the justices to constrict the power of regulatory agencies. “I can’t remember a term where the court was poised to say so much about the power of federal administrative agencies,” said Jeffrey Wall, who served as the deputy solicitor general in the Trump administration.One of those cases, to b...

When Kula needed water to stop wildfire, it got a trickle. Many other US cities are also vulnerable

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

Hours before devastating fires scorched the historic town of Lahaina on Maui, Kyle Ellison labored to save his rental house in Kula, a rural mountain town 24 miles away, from a different blaze.As high winds whipped burning trees and grass, Ellison and his landlord struggled with plummeting water pressure. Ellison had to wait for pots to slowly fill in the sink before running them to the fire; his landlord wielded a garden hose with little more than a trickle. Firefighters had to rush away for half-hour stretches to find a working fire hydrant to refill their tanker, and every time they did, the fire gained.“It’s a very disconcerting feeling when the fire department shows up and they don’t have water,” Ellison said.The lack of backup power for critical pumps seriously hindered firefighting in Kula, county water director John Stufflebean told The Associated Press. Once the winds knocked out electricity, pumps were unable to push water up into tanks and reservoirs that were key t...

6 miners killed, 15 trapped underground in collapse of a gold mine in Zimbabwe, state media reports

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Six people have died in the collapse of a gold mine in Zimbabwe, and 15 others are still trapped underground, according to state media reports.State-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation quoted deputy mines minister Polite Kambamura as saying 34 miners had been caught in Friday’s collapse. Thirteen managed to escape.The broadcaster on Saturday said rescue operations were underway at Beyhose mine in the gold rich town of Chegutu, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the capital, Harare.The police and the mines ministry could not be reached for comment Saturday.Incidents of mine collapses, often involving artisanal miners, are rampant in the southern African country that is rich in gold, coal and diamonds. The country of 15 million people also has Africa’s largest reserves of lithium, a mineral in global demand due to its use in electric car batteries.Zimbabwe’s mineral-rich national parks, abandoned mines, rivers and even towns are often swarmed with ...

President Biden says the looming shutdown isn’t his fault. Will Americans agree with him?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Staring down a likely government shutdown, the White House wants to make sure any blame falls at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue — specifically on House Republicans. After all, it’s House Republicans who have been paralyzed by their inability to pass a funding package, and Republicans who don’t want to uphold a bipartisan spending agreement from earlier this year. President Joe Biden is hoping the rest of the country will see things the same way. It’s a murky proposition at a time of extreme political polarization, with many Americans dug into their partisan corners regardless of the facts of the matter.A shutdown would arrive at a tenuous moment for Biden, who already faces low poll numbers and concerns about the economy as he seeks a second term in office, partially on the pitch that he offers steady stewardship in Washington.If no spending bill passes Congress by the end of Saturday, federal workers stop getting paid, air travel could be e...

Saturday Forecast: Low 80s and sunny

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

Saturday: Sunny & warmer -- except lakeside. SE 0-10 mph. Air quality is in the Good category for Chicagoland.  High 82, upper 70s by the lake. Saturday night: Mostly clear & mild for the season. Patchy fog after midnight. SE 0-5 mph. Near: 60Sunday: Sunny & warm. Cooler by the lake.  SSE 0-5 mph. Highs low 80s, cooler lakeside. Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Extended outlook calls for sunshine and temps in the mid to low 80s for Mon/Tue and possibly Wednesday too as we see increasing clouds. Showers and possible thunderstorms look likely for Thursday with temps in the mid 70s and wind developing. Some rain at times and highs near 70 for Friday. 

Weekend Break: America's First Responders Fest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

Check out Weekend Break with Christine Flores where she visit's Americas First Responders Fest in South Elgin. Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

Tip screen fatigue? Here's how much Americans are actually tipping: survey

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:59:59 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – Whether it's an airport self-checkout machine or a $14 beer at a concert, the controversial tipping option is often the last step — but how many people actually tip at the suggested percentages, usually 20% and up?A recent Forbes Advisor survey of 2,000 Americans suggests that while most people tip more when they leave a digital tip, they don't often surpass 20%.While the vast majority of respondents said they tip always or often (76%), the average gratuity amount was 16%.When did tipping become so divisive?Several factors have ratcheted up consumers' emotions around the practice in recent years. After the pandemic crushed foot traffic to a number of service-oriented businesses, many Americans started tipping more to support their servers, bartenders, hair stylists and gig workers. Nearly a third (32%) of those surveyed said they still tip more now than before the pandemic.Digital transactions and the seemingly ubiquitous tipping screen have only pressurized the decision...