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Saints former top pick Payton Turner aims to take over at defensive end

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

METAIRIE, La. (AP) — Saints defensive end Payton Turner accepts the notion that his first two NFL seasons were a disappointment and that the stakes are high for him in Year 3.“It’s no secret it’s a big year,” the 2021 first-round draft choice said after his third practice of training camp on Friday. “Especially for me in my situation. “The past two years haven’t been what I expected them to be or what the front office expected,” added Turner, who now finds himself in pole position to fill the void left by former starter Marcus Davenport’s departure in free agency.The 6-foot-6, 270-pound Turner has been lining up with the first team defense during 11-on-11 drills, on the opposite edge from 13th-year pro and defensive captain Cameron Jordan. “We’re looking to see who’s going to be that guy that’s going to line up on the other side,” coach Dennis Allen said. “And somebody’s got to — not be given that role — somebody’s got to take that role. He’s earn...

Throngs of fans greet Lionel Messi on Lincoln Road after visit to Adidas store

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

Messi mania spilled onto South Beach after the soccer superstar made a visit to an athletic apparel store on Lincoln Road.Cellphone video captured Lionel Messi and his family as they walked out of the Adidas store at 846 Lincoln Road, late Friday afternoon.A mob of fans greeted Messi and began chanting his name. Some of them surrounded the Audi where he got in and was taken away.Just after 6:10 p.m., 7News cameras captured a couple dozen people standing outside the store, perhaps hoping Inter Miami’s star player would return. These latecomers said they heard the buzz about Messi being on Lincoln Road. Unfortunately, they were unable to get a glimpse of him.Among these fans was a man who came to have his jersey signed by Messi.“It’s crazy, and him coming here, so it’s unbelievable,” he said. When asked how he felt about Messi’s surprise Lincoln Road stop, the man replied, “I’m in shock.”While Messi would likely be mobbed by fans i...

Body recovered amid search for woman missing after Stock Island yacht fire

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

Crews have recovered a body days after a yacht caught fire at a marina on Stock Island.The body was pulled from the water and taken to a Key West marina on Friday. According to authorities, it’s presumed to be the body of 51-year-old St. Petersburg resident Linda Vella, who had been missing since the blaze broke out early Wednesday morning.Her husband and son, 58-year-old Michael Kenneth Robson and 21-year-old Anthony Joseph Vella, were airlifted to a hospital for medical treatment.As of Friday, the cause of the fire remains under investigation by both the state Fire Marshal’s Office and detectives with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Team.

Another arrest is made in investigation into Maine corrections official accused of taking kickbacks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A second arrest has been made in the investigation into a Maine corrections official accused of steering purchases to certain vendors in exchange for kickbacks in a long-running scheme, officials said.Melanie Ann High, who was arrested Thursday in Florida, is accused of using kickbacks to induce Gerald E. Merrill, deputy superintendent at the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston and Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport, to make repeated purchases from companies she controlled, according to court records.High, 67, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was being held without bail Friday at a jail in Broward County, Florida, on Maine charges of theft by unauthorized taking and bribery in official and political matters, according to records.The state charges against Merrill and High indicate the spending threshold of the crimes surpassed $10,000, but the actual amount of money transferred over a period of about 10 years is believed to be far ...

Massachusetts lawmakers agree on a final state budget, a month overdue

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Nearly a month after it was due, Massachusetts lawmakers said Friday they’ve agreed on a final state budget.Lawmakers are expected to vote Monday on the spending plan that will start July 1.The heads of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees said they have reached an agreement “in principle reconciling the differences between the House and Senate versions” of the budget.“Our respective teams are actively engaged in ironing out the details and working diligently to finalize the agreement,” Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport and Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston, both Democrats, said in statement.The two — who did not reveal details of the final spending plan — are part of a six-member conference committee charged with hammering out a compromise version of the separate proposals.That compromise version is the sent to each chamber for a vote and cannot be amended.“We are confident that the Conference Committee Report will be filed in the coming days, ensuring ...

Feds arrest, charge Chelsea felon they say deals machine guns

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

Lots of gang members get charged with carrying machine guns, but the conversion kits have to come from someone — and the feds and Chelsea Police teamed up to arrest just such a “switches” dealer.Michael Williams, 49, of Chelsea, was arrested Thursday and charged with one count of transferring or possessing a machine gun. He appeared before Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell in federal court in Boston Friday afternoon for an initial appearance and is scheduled to return on Monday.The charge refers not to possession of an actual machine gun itself, but for Williams allegedly selling a conversion kit, or a “Glock switch,” which would convert a semi-automatic gun into fully automatic firing capability, to undercover FBI agents working with a neighborhood informant in January, according to an affidavit backing up the criminal complaint.The feds say that Williams met up with the two agents and the “Confidential Human Source,” or CHS, in a vehicle outside his home in Chelsea on Jan. 12.Duri...

Automaker Tesla is opening more showrooms on tribal lands to avoid state laws barring direct sales

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

Tesla is ramping up efforts to open showrooms on tribal lands where it can sell directly to consumers, circumventing laws in states that bar vehicle manufacturers from also being retailers in favor of the dealership model. Mohegan Sun, a casino and entertainment complex in Connecticut owned by the federally recognized Mohegan Tribe, announced this week that the California-based electric automaker will open a showroom with a sales and delivery center this fall on its sovereign property where the state’s law doesn’t apply. The news comes after another new Tesla showroom was announced in June, set to open in 2025 on lands of the Oneida Indian Nation in upstate New York. “I think it was a move that made complete sense,” said Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, which has lobbied for years to change Connecticut’s law. “It is just surprising that it took this long, because Tesla had really tried, along with Lucid and Rivian,...

Mexico to set up center for third-country migrants and U.S. will take referrals for possible refuge

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. government announced Friday it will take referrals of Haitian, Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan citizens from Mexico for possible resettlement as refugees in the United States. Mexico announced earlier this week it will set up a service center offering jobs and resettlement for people from those four countries. It said the center will be on the southern border with Guatemala, but did not specify where or when it would open.When the U.S. government began requiring asylum seekers to apply on line or from their home countries, many of them had already begun the journey to the U.S. border and wound up up stuck in Mexico. The Mexican center is meant to serve those people.“We are announcing our full support for an international multipurpose space that the Government of Mexico plans to establish in southern Mexico to offer new refugee and labor options for the most vulnerable people who are currently in Mexico,” saidU.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan s...

Kurdish groups: Turkish strikes in Syria, Iraq kill eight fighters

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Kurdish-led armed groups in Iraq and Syria alleged that Turkish airstrikes killed a total of eight of their fighters Friday.The counterterrorism service of the regional government in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq said in a statement that four members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were killed and another wounded in a Turkish drone strike in Sharbazher district in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish region of Iraq.The drone targeted a vehicle carrying PKK fighters near the village of Rangina, it said.Also Friday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls much of northeast Syria, said in a statement that four of its fighters were killed by a Turkish drone attack on the village of Khirbet Khwei in the Amuda region.The statement accused Turkey of “aiming at undermining security and stability in the region.”There was no immediate comment from Turkey on the strikes.The violence was the latest in a monthslong escalation between Turkey a...

Montana judge temporarily lifts ban on drag performances ahead of major Pride event

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:10:02 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge in Montana on Friday temporarily blocked a new law that restricts drag performances just days before thousands of people are expected to attend Montana Pride’s 30th anniversary celebration in Helena.The way the law is written “will disproportionally harm not only drag performers, but any person who falls outside traditional gender and identity norms,” including transgender people, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said.The law seeks to ban minors from attending what it calls “sexually oriented” performances, and bans such performances in public places where minors might be present. However, it does not adequately define many of the terms used in the law, causing people to self-censor out of fear of prosecution, plaintiff’s attorney Constance Van Kley with Upper Seven Law argued Wednesday. “Plaintiffs, along with the approximately 15,000 Montanans who wish to attend the (Montana Pride) events, cannot avoid chilled speech or exposu...