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Boston pizza shop owner called to court after arrest on forced labor charge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

A Boston pizza shop owner was called to federal court in Boston for a detention hearing on Monday a matter of days after he was arrested last week on a charge of forced labor. Stavros Papantoniadis, 47, of Westwood is accused of abusing employees, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on Thursday. U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, who spent most of the day watching Papantoniadis’ detention hearing on Monday, said Papantoniadis is guilty of a form of human trafficking by using threats and physical violence to retain employees. One employee told a Homeland Security investigator he worked between 85 and 110 hours a week at Stash’s Pizza in Dorchester with no days off, according to officials.Special Agent John Heaton, testified that one victim, an undocumented immigrant from North Africa, was brutally beaten on multiple occasions. Heaton said the man even lost his teeth. In 2007, Heaton said Papantoniadis kicked the man in the groin when he asked for a...

Failed Dem Lt. Gov., AG candidate lands $160K job in Healey admin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

Former candidate for attorney general Quentin Palfrey has landed a sweet new job in the Healey-Driscoll administration, as their new Director of Federal Funds and Infrastructure, the governor’s office announced.“Massachusetts has a unique opportunity to aggressively compete for billions of federal dollars to support crucial infrastructure, climate and economic development projects in our state – from the Inflation Reduction Act to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to the CHIPS and Science Act and beyond,” Gov. Maura Healey said along with the announcement.“Quentin Palfrey’s extensive federal and state government experience, combined with his passion for serving the people of Massachusetts, make him the perfect fit to take on this challenge and deliver results,” she continued.The position is an entirely new invention of the Healey Administration, though Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration did have a similar Director of Infrastructure Investment gig to oversee the spending of st...

Banned in Boston? Nips, guinea pigs on the chopping block

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

The City Council’s looking to add two new entries to the “banned in Boston” ledger: nips and guinea pigs.Councilors introduced two new items that would — separately from each other — look to hold a hearing to explore the ban of miniature liquor bottles generally known as “nips” and bar the sale of guinea pigs.The nip order comes from City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, the district councilor from Hyde Park — a neighborhood where some locals have been waging war against what they’ve said are thousands of discarded nips.“The data is clear that in cities that have banned the sale of nips there is a significant and positive impact on public health,” Arroyo said in a statement. “We should put the wellbeing of our communities first by banning the sale of nips in Boston as well.”Nips are typically sold at liquor stores and, per Arroyo, generally can’t be recycled. The councilors said that other local cities and towns including Chelsea ...

Trump arrest wouldn’t change support, might hurt his campaign, pollster says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

Whether or not former President Donald Trump is in fact arrested Tuesday or later, apprehension by law enforcement will not substantially impact his support among the Republican faithful, according to a pollster.“Voters have very well formed opinions of Donald Trump,” John Cluverius, a professor of political science at UMass Lowell and the director of survey research at their Center for Public Opinion, told the Herald Monday. “I don’t think there are any Republicans who will like Trump less or more because he’s been indicted.”The 45th President of the United States took to his Truth Social Media platform early Saturday to inform followers he would be arrested on charges brought against him by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, following allegations he made a hush-money payment to a porn star mistress ahead of the 2016 election.Trump has offered a number of reasons for the payment, disclosure of which eventually sent former attorney Michael Cohen to prison, most recently seemi...

Robbins: Donald Trump prepares to face the music

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

Sir Walter Scott’s famous line about what a tangled web it is that we weave when first we practice to deceive was written in 1808, but the poet might as well have prophesied Donald Trump’s ill-fated one night stand with Stormy Daniels when he wrote it.The “assignation,” let’s call it, was suffused with dishonesty at every stage, and it is that dishonesty that may soon result in the most famous mug shot in history.The sexual liaison between the real estate mogul and the porn star occurred in Lake Tahoe, while Trump’s wife Melania was back home with their newborn son. Not a great start to the story for Trump. He had numerous conferences in 2015 and 2016 about how to keep that adulterous tryst and at least one other one hidden. When the public disclosure of the “Access Hollywood” tape threatened to torpedo his chances of winning the 2016 election just before the voting began and the additional risk that the revelation of his decidedly non-business meeting with Daniels would...

Dog stolen in Beacon Hill has been found safe: ‘We’re so glad she’s back home’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

A small dog that was stolen by two men in Beacon Hill Monday morning has been found safe and is back home, according to the nonprofit Missing Dogs Massachusetts.Boston police has been investigating the dognapping incident after Rose — a 9-year-old mixed breed female terrier — was grabbed by a Hispanic man who then got into a blue Honda Civic with another Hispanic man.Several hours later on Monday, Rose was reunited with her owner.“We’re so glad she’s back home and that she’s safe,” Erin Thomas, a volunteer for Missing Dogs Massachusetts, told the Herald Monday evening.Police did not immediately confirm that Rose had been found as of 7:45 p.m. Monday.Before noon on Monday, the dog walker had tied up Rose and two other dogs to a pole in the area of Mount Vernon and Walnut streets in Beacon Hill when the 11-pound tan canine was stolen. The dog walker had tied up the three pups to pick up another dog on Walnut Street.The two suspects in the blue...

Monica Cannon-Grant, husband arraigned on new federal charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

Monica Cannon-Grant and her husband were back in court, pleading not guilty to the expanded raft of federal charges the controversial former Boston nonprofit activist now faces.Cannon-Grant, 42, and her husband, Clark Grant, 39, only were in court remotely for a hearing that lasted around 10 minutes on Monday, according to authorities following the court event that wasn’t publicly available due to a technological snafu, but the pair entered the pleas of not guilty that are typical for arraignments.The couple was originally charged nearly a full year ago on March 15, 2022, with 18-fraud related counts that hinged on three distinct conspiracy allegations. The first is the misuse of donations to the couple’s charity Violence in Boston for personal use, the second is the misuse of public funds — including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program — and the third is alleged fraud related to the mortgage on the couple’s Taunton home.The pair now face a total of 27 fraud-related c...

Mayor Wu’s MBTA ceiling panel joke knocked as ‘insensitive’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

One of Mayor Michelle Wu’s jokes at the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast was an egg, some say.Wu, appearing to knock the MBTA for its frustrating slow zones, used the example of a ceiling panel that fell March 1 at the Harvard station nearly hitting a woman as a comedic hook.Wu joked at the breakfast that Gov. Maura Healey gave her an update on the toppled panel and said “the MBTA’s internal investigation was complete and it said the tile was actually scheduled to fall an hour-and-a-half before that but there were some delays.”She got some laughs and quickly added she “still rides the T.”Mela Bush-Miles, director of the MBTA Riders’ Union, said the mayor’s joke writer needs to find the straphanger who was “nearly killed” and make “sure she’s OK.” A 25-pound ceiling panel just missing you isn’t comedy — it was almost a tragedy, Bush-Miles added.“That was insensitive,” Bush-Miles tol...

No telling how much more snow coming for Sierra Nevada

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — No one really knows how much snow fell on the infamous Donner Party when the pioneers were trapped atop the Sierra Nevada for months and dozens died near Lake Tahoe in the winter of 1846-47. But this season has now etched its way into the history books as the second snowiest in the 77 years of record-keeping at the Central Sierra Snow Lab — more than 56.4 feet (677 inches, 17.2 meters) with no end in sight.And there’s still a chance it could surpass the record of 67.7 feet (812 inches, 20.6 meters) set in 1951-52 when more than 200 passengers on a San Francisco-bound luxury train from Chicago were stranded for three days near Donner Pass west of Truckee, California.Over the weekend, the “winter that just doesn’t want to end” as the National Weather Service in Reno put it, topped the previous No. 2 record of 55.9 feet (651 inches, 17 meters) set in 1982-83. That was the second of back-to-back blizzard buster seasons remembered most for an avalanche that killed...

Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino accepts job at St. John’s

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:31 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Rick Pitino is back in the Big East Conference.St. John’s hired the Hall of Fame coach Monday to boost a storied program that’s been mired in mediocrity for much of this century. The school announced that Pitino will be introduced during a news conference Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.Following a successful run at nearby mid-major Iona, the 70-year-old Pitino was plucked away to replace Mike Anderson, who was fired after four seasons in charge of the Red Storm without making the NCAA Tournament.Reports quickly surfaced that St. John’s planned to target Pitino, who grew up on Long Island not far from the school’s Queens campus in New York City.“Coach Pitino is one of the most brilliant minds in the history of the game and has won at the highest levels everywhere he has coached,” athletic director Mike Cragg said in a press release. “There is no doubt in my mind he will restore a championship-level program and culture for St. John’s Basketbal...