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Get your balance right: Essential tips to help prevent falls by older adults

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

Last week, we provided some facts to validate H.K.’s concern about her 89-year-old father who has balance problems yet refuses any help. Despite his refusal, we know there are things we can do to mitigate the risks by creating a living environment that is as risk-free as possible.     The National Institute on Aging provides some tips useful for everyone, regardless of age.Floors, stairway and hallways: Handrails on both sides are ideal. If the handrail is only on one side – use it and carry what you need in the free hand. If needed, make a second trip. Also, no small throw rugs, even if they are heirlooms, worth a lot of money or add just the perfect touch to your floor or hallway. Carpets need to be fixed firmly to the floor. Bathrooms: This is one of the most dangerous rooms. According to the National Institute on Aging, 80 percent of older adult falls happen in the bathroom due to slippery floors and surfaces. Here are some tips: Place a non-slip mat inside and outside the tub. ...

Andover Education Association ‘very close’ to reaching deal with School Committee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

Andover teachers say they are “tremendously hopeful” that they will be reaching a contract agreement with the School Committee by the end of the day.The state Department of Labor Relations granted the Andover Education Association a 2-hour extension for the union to finalize a contract with the School Committee, delaying what could be a $60,000 fine to the state, a source told the Herald just after 3 p.m.An Essex County Superior Court judge on Monday ordered the union pay a $50,000 fine to the state for failing to end its strike by Monday evening. In Massachusetts, teachers strikes are illegal.The judge ruled that the fine would keep going up $10,000 each day until the strike ends. Each new fine was to be assessed at 3 p.m., a deadline that loomed before the union received the extension this afternoon.Around 100 teachers rallied in front of the State House earlier today, calling on Gov. Maura Healey and the state Legislature to support them during their strike which has reached its ...

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien agrees to fight challenge from Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin: ‘I’d love to do it right now’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

Round two between Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin was sure a doozy.The Senate floor on Tuesday almost transformed into a wrestling ring/UFC Octagon when the Republican senator challenged Charlestown’s O’Brien to an actual fight.It never turned physical, but the shouting match led to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders getting in the middle of the battle as he started yelling and banging his gavel.The beef between O’Brien and Mullin has been building for months. They went at each other during a March Senate hearing as they argued about unions, their salaries and union members’ dues. During the intense exchange, O’Brien said Mullin had “hid money” when he owned a company.Then after that Senate hearing, O’Brien — a fourth generation Teamster who joined Teamsters Local 25 in Charlestown when he was 18 — tweeted several times about Mullin.“After you left here, you got pretty excited about ...

Maine’s yellow flag law invoked more than a dozen times after deadly shootings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — A Maine law used to restrict access to guns during a mental health crisis has been invoked more than a dozen times since the killings of 18 people last month, and several people whose guns were temporarily removed referenced the name of the gunman responsible for the mass shooting.An updated list from the state shows weapons restriction orders were imposed 13 times under the yellow flag law since the Oct. 25 mass shootings in Lewiston, the deadliest in state history. That brings the total to 94 times since the law went into effect in July 2020.Four people either mentioned Lewiston gunman Robert Card’s name or said they would become the “next mass shooter,” according to the state’s list, which includes a brief synopsis of the circumstances in each case. On Friday, the law was invoked five times that day, according to the list.The updated figures were released Monday during a law enforcement training that focused on the yellow flag law, Shannon Moss, state polic...

Israeli soccer team captain displays shoe of kidnapped child ahead of qualifying match in Hungary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

FELCSUT, Hungary (AP) — The captain of Israel’s soccer team on Tuesday displayed the shoe of a young boy he said was kidnapped by Hamas militants during their deadly Oct. 7 raid, an act of solidarity with Israelis held captive in Gaza ahead of the team’s game in Hungary. Team captain Eli Dasa was addressing a news conference in Felcsut, the small Hungarian village where Israel’s team is set to face Switzerland on Wednesday in a Euro 2024 qualifying match, when he raised the small athletic shoe and displayed it to reporters. “It is hard to speak at the moment, but I don’t think that any of you can guess what is the story behind this shoe,” Dasa said. “This kid is in Gaza Strip at the moment with seven, seven people from his family.” “That’s all what’s left from his house. This left shoe. We wait for him here,” he continued, before standing up and leaving the news conference. The shoe was taken from Be’eri kibbutz, the small community in Israel from which 8-yea...

CEO of Hachette Book Group will step down at end of the year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The head of Hachette Book Group, Michael Pietsch, is retiring as CEO and will be succeeded by Hachette UK CEO David Shelley. Pietsch, who has worked with authors ranging from Keith Richards to Donna Tartt, will serve as chairman of the U.S. publisher starting Jan. 1 of next year.“I’m proud of everything that all of us at Hachette Book Group have accomplished in the past decade, in close partnership with our authors — thriving, growing, and reinventing ourselves through complex and challenging times,” Pietsch, 67, said in a statement Tuesday. Shelley, who will also remain as UK CEO, said in a statement that “Hachette Book Group publishes some of my favorite authors of all time and it’s hugely exciting to be able to get to know them and work on their books with the talented team in the U.S. I’d like to pay special tribute to Michael as he has been a key figure for me over the years.”Richard Kitson, deputy CEO of Hachette UK, will also take on the same role for Ha...

Northern Manitoba First Nation says member who went to fight in Ukraine has died

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

THE PAS, Man. — The chief of a First Nation in northern Manitoba says one of the community’s residents has died after going to fight in Ukraine.Chief Maureen Brown of Opaskwayak Cree Nation says Austin Lathlin-Bercier went to fight with the Ukrainian army shortly after the war broke out last year.She says his family received word Monday that he had died.The First Nation did not provide more details about his death.Global Affairs Canada has not released any information.Brown says flags in the community have been lowered and there will be a service to honour Lathlin-Bercier at a later date.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2023.The Canadian Press

GOP senator stands up and challenges Teamsters head to a fight in a fiery exchange at a hearing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional hearing devolved into an angry confrontation between a senator and a witness on Tuesday after Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma challenged Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to “stand your butt up” and settle longstanding differences right there in the room.Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the Senate panel that was holding the hearing, yelled at Mullin to sit down after he challenged O’Brien to a fight. Mullin had stood up from his seat at the dais and appeared to start taking his ring off.“This is the time, this is the place,” Mullin told O’Brien after reading a series of critical tweets O’Brien had sent about him in the past. “If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.”The two men never came face to face in the hearing room. But they hurled insults at each other for around six minutes as Sanders repeatedly banged his gavel and tried to cut th...

New Jersey casinos, track forfeit $77K in money won by prohibited gamblers, many of them underage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Five Atlantic City casinos and a horse racing track are forfeiting over $77,000 worth of money won by underage gamblers or those who had placed themselves on a list to be excluded from gambling activities.New Jersey gambling regulators also fined DraftKings, the online sportsbook and casino platform, $7,500 for similar violations, and online gambling company Rush Street Interactive $2,000 for taking bets on unapproved events and taking pre-match bets on games that had already begun.The forfeited money will go to the state to be used for programs to treat compulsive gambling, as well as on programs benefiting senior citizens and those with disabilities.Most of the cases involved patrons who were either asked to provide identification when claiming a manual payout from slot machines or other games, and were either found to be underage or to have produced inadequate identification. The casinos then withheld the patrons’ winnings, placing them in an escr...

Texas school reverses decision that banned transgender student from role in musical

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:22 GMT

SHERMAN, Texas (AP) — A Texas school district has apologized and reversed a decision that ousted a transgender student from a part in the musical “Oklahoma!”The school board in Sherman voted unanimously Monday to reinstate the original show and cast after a meeting in which dozens criticized them and spoke in support the 17-year-old transgender boy who’d lost his role in the production because of a new policy.“We want to apologize to our students, parents and our community regarding the circumstances that they have had to go through to this date,” President Brad Morgan said in a statement on behalf of the board following the vote.Sherman, a city of 45,000 about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Dallas, became the latest community embroiled in the national debate over the rights of transgender students this month over its production the the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. In early November, Max Hightower, a senior and theater enthusiast, was cast in a prominent part tha...