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Catch the harbor delights at great Mass. waterfront fests

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

What you need this time of year is a safe harbor – a safe harbor for fun, that is. All along coastal Massachusetts, that’s just what you’ll find.Our harbor towns and cities love to celebrate their beauty with festivals that not only highlight their ports, but keep visitors entertained all day with fun, food and more.Consider these in the coming weeks.Gloucester Waterfront Festival: The Gloucester Waterfront Festival , set for Aug. 19-20 this year, has been celebrating their culture and location for 42 years.This year, the show is back and bigger than than it was pre-pandemic.The day starts out early for those who want to make it a full experience with the town’s delicious Rotary Club pancake breakfast, taking place from 7:30 – 11 a.m. at  Stage Fort Park, where the entire weekend of events are centered.The breakfast, a fundraiser for the organization, is $9 for adults and $5 for children six and under. Tickets can be pre-purchased at www.gloucesterrotary.org, or purchased at the doo...

Engaging K’Lonie likes listening to music

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

K’Lonie is a sweet young girl who is social and engaging. She enjoys getting her nails done and watching videos. She likes listening to music and humming along and loves interacting with her teachers and peers.K’Lonie currently attends a residential school where she participates in lessons and activities but requires supervision throughout her day. She has shown immense potential for learning new skills.K’Lonie will thrive with an energetic and committed two-parent family that has natural supports in place. A family will also need to be strong educational advocates and comfortable accessing community services. The ideal family for K’Lonie will help her maintain contact with members of her birth family and support their relationships.Can I Adopt?If you’re at least 18 years old, have a stable source of income, and room in your heart, you may be a perfect match to adopt a waiting child. Adoptive parents can be single, married, or partnered; experienced or not; renters or homeowners; LG...

Get on the same page with your co-parent

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

Q. My daughter tells me she doesn’t want to go back to her father’s house when her time with him is up. I told her father and he said that is exactly what she tells him (about going back to my house). I am confident my daughter wouldn’t lie about something like that. What’s good ex-etiquette?A. That your child tells you she doesn’t want to leave does not necessarily mean she prefers your home. It means exactly what she is telling you. She doesn’t want to leave — and she may very well be telling her father the same thing because she doesn’t want to leave him, either.Your child may be torn between the two people she loves the most. When she’s settled in, she doesn’t want to pack up and go back to the other home. Consider that she’s not lying, and neither is her father. They are both telling the truth.A poor response would be:“You have to go, it’s a court order.” “The judge says you have to go.”A child’s parents or other trusted caregivers are that child’s greatest source of security. ...

How to choose an insect repellent for your child

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

Warmer weather means more chances for kids to go outside to play, hike and enjoy the fresh air with family and friends. Warmer weather also means preventing insect bites.Biting insects such as mosquitoes and biting flies can make children miserable. More worrisome is that bites from some insects can cause serious illnesses.Depending on where you live, you may already be familiar with illnesses that spread from insects to people. For example, Lyme disease, West Nile virus and Zika spread through the bite of a mosquito or tick. Recently, insect-borne illnesses are on the rise, due in part to the effects of climate change.One way to protect your child is to use insect repellents. Choose one that is effective at preventing bites from insects commonly found where you live. Follow the instructions on the label for proper use.Keep in mind that most insect repellents don’t kill insects. Insects that bite — not ones that sting — are kept away by repellents. Biting insects include mosqu...

Maui deaths rise to 89 with more than 2,200 structures destroyed or damaged. Follow live updates

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

By REBECCA BOONE (Associated Press)Follow live updates about wildfires that have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters.In a press conference Saturday, Gov. Josh Green said the number of confirmed deaths from the Maui wildfires has risen to 89, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years.Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said officials have identified two of the 89 victims, but the process is extremely challenging because “we pick up the remains and they fall apart.”“When we find our family and our friends, the remains that we’re finding is through a fire that melted metal. We have to do rapid DNA to identify them. Every one of these 89 are John and Jane Does,” Pell...

Dear Abby: Stay out of teen kids’ rom-drama

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

Dear Abby: My son dated a girl for 3 1/2 years in high school. Both were sure they had found their life mate. While my husband and I knew it was a long shot, they believed it was true because the girl’s parents had been high school sweethearts.When school ended, they split up, hoping to remain friends and maybe rekindle when they were older. They are now off to college. Before my son left, rumors started flying that the breakup was his fault, and lies were spread to create a victim and a villain. The gossip came from the girl. My son refused to defend himself. Not one of his friends stood up for him and asked if it was true; they just quietly cut him out.Three weeks after the breakup, his ex started dating another boy in the friend group. No one, including the parents, have spoken up and pointed out that this is even mildly unethical. To make matters worse, the boy my son’s ex is dating is the brother of my older son’s girlfriend. They are in a serious long-distanc...

East County license plate-reading cameras assist in stolen vehicle arrest

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

EL CAJON, Calif. -- License plate-reading cameras in El Cajon assisted police in the arrest of a suspect believed to have stolen a vehicle last year, authorities announced.On Saturday at about 3:06 p.m., El Cajon police received a notification from the cameras' Flock Safety alert technology, which is a system that sends a real-time notifications to police when a stolen or wanted vehicle in law enforcement databases are detected.According to police, the vehicle was reported stolen in the City of El Cajon on Mar. 3, 2022. Officers were able to locate the vehicle and the driver in the 900 block of Broadway.The driver, identified by authorities as 55-year-old Lakeside resident Celestina Thomas, was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of a stolen vehicle. Man fatally stabbed in Mira Mesa park; 17-year-old suspect arrested According to ECPD, the suspect had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for her arrest. The charges that prompted the warrant were not disclosed by authoritie...

New San Elijo activity hub opens after completion of $9M project

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

ENCINITAS, Calif. -- The new San Elijo Activity Hub Park & Ride has officially opened in Encinitas, marking the latest project in the massive Build North Coast Corridor infrastructure program to reach completion.The San Diego Association of Governments unveiled the new $9 million activity hub on Saturday alongside local leaders, Caltrans representatives and the Nature Collective. According to officials, the San Elijo Park & Ride will serve as a centralized location for residents and visitors to park their vehicles to access the nearby lagoon, while conveniently accessing the new Interstate 5 carpool lanes. Torrey Pines State Beach namesake considered rarest pine species in world “The new San Elijo Activity Hub Park & Ride is a valuable addition to our community," SANDAG Second Vice Chair and Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner said in a release. "This facility will reduce congestion by promoting ridesharing and active transportation use, increase coastal access throughout ...

Alabama riverfront brawl videos spark a cultural moment about race, solidarity and justice

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — As bystanders trained their smartphone cameras on the riverfront dock while several white boaters pummeled a Black riverboat co-captain, they couldn’t have known the footage would elicit a national conversation about racial solidarity.Yet, a week after multiple videos showing the now-infamous brawl and valiant defense of the outnumbered co-captain were shared widely on social media, it’s clear the event truly tapped into the psyche of Black America and created a broader cultural moment.Andrea Boyles, a sociology professor at Tulane University, said a long history of anti-Black racism and attacks and current events likely magnified the attack’s impact and response.“Especially at a time like now where we see an increase in anti-Black racism through legislation and otherwise, whether we’re thinking about history, the banning of Black history and curriculum and all sorts of things across the state of Florida” and elsewhere, Boyles said. “So this is why it i...

As death toll from Maui fire reaches 89, authorities say effort to count the losses is just starting

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:40 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — As the death toll from a wildfire that razed a historic Maui town reached 89, authorities warned Saturday that the effort to find and identify the dead was still in its early stages. It’s already the deadliest U.S. wildfire for over a century.Crews with cadaver dogs have completed just 3% of the search area, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said. “We’ve got an area that we have to contain that is at least 5 square miles and it is full of our loved ones. And we’ve got 89 so far. Today we identified two,” noting that the death toll is likely to grow and “none of us really know the size of it yet.”He spoke as federal emergency workers picked through an ashen moonscape left by the fire that razed the centuries-old town of Lahaina. Teams marked the ruins of homes with a bright orange X for an initial search and HR when they found human remains.Pelletier said that identifying the dead is extremely challenging because “we pick up the remains and they fall apart...