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Massachusetts hospital patients were possibly exposed to HIV, hepatitis while undergoing endoscopy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

Hundreds of Massachusetts hospital patients are on high alert after officials said they may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV during a medical imaging procedure.Salem Hospital officials revealed on Wednesday that roughly 450 patients receiving an endoscopy between June 2021 and April 2023 were potentially exposed during the administration of IV medications “in a manner not consistent with our best practice.”An endoscopy is a medical imaging procedure in which doctors use a tube to look at internal organs.A statement from the hospital highlighting the development on Wednesday did not provide details on how the exposure may have occurred and how it was corrected. Officials remained mum about specifics on Thursday.After becoming aware of the issue earlier this year, officials said they fixed the practice and notified its quality and infection control teams.“Salem Hospital has notified all potentially impacted patients, set up a clinician-staffed hotline ...

Harvard chasing Ivy title in showdown with Yale

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

Harvard can clinch its 18th Ivy League title and first since 2015 when the Crimson engage the Yale Bulldogs in the 139th rendition of The Game on Saturday (noon) at Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn.No. 19 Harvard (8-1, 5-1) secured a share of the Ivy League title with a 25-23 triple overtime victory over Penn that ended on a gadget two-point play.Yale (6-3, 4-2) can capture a share of the Ivy League title and spoil Harvard’s off-season in the process with a victory, an outcome the Bulldogs and their generations of followers would find most satisfying.A Dartmouth (5-4, 4-2) win over Brown combined with a Yale win over Harvard would create the three-way logjam at the top of the Ancient Eight.“There is so much parity in the league,” said Harvard head coach Tim Murphy, who is in his 30th season. “More than ever the competition is really challenging and the games and the scores this year shows anybody can beat anybody on any given day.“We have not had an easy time of it for sure. We had to g...

Starbucks Red Cup Rebellion shuts down stores in Greater Boston as workers seek better treatment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

Red Cup Day is one of Starbucks’ busiest days of the year, with thousands of customers seeking the free reusable cup for their holiday drink, like a peppermint mocha.Those seeking to get in on the action at stores in Greater Boston on Thursday, however, came away empty handed.Baristas shut down stores in Allston, Brighton, Newton, Worcester and Gardner as part of the Red Cup Rebellion, a nationwide movement demanding the coffee giant stop refusing to bargain over staffing, scheduling and other issues.“People go crazy for these red cups, but they do not staff us appropriately,” said Kaid Goodrich, a barista at the Allston Starbucks. “Like this morning, we had scheduled two people to open and be open by themselves until 7 a.m. … You need a lot more people, certainly more than two.”Goodrich and her colleagues joined more than 5,000 workers taking part in the Red Cup Rebellion at 200-plus Starbucks across the country, the largest strike yet in the two-year-old effort to unionize the com...

UMass faces a big test at No. 25 Liberty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

Liberty is one of three FBS programs from the Group of Five that has found it way onto the AP Top 25 rankings.Liberty (10-0) is the class of Conference USA and checked in at No. 25 after knocking off Old Dominion 38-10 last Saturday. The other Group of Five members in the Top 25 are No. 17 Tulane (9-1) of the AAC and No. 18 James Madison (10-0) from the Sun Belt Conference.The UMass Minutemen (3-7) captured their second straight win with a victory over Merrimack at home on Nov. 4. The Minutemen are coming of their second bye week of the season and will engage the Liberty Flames on Saturday (1 p.m.) at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Va.Liberty and UMass have played each other over the last five seasons with the Flames going 4-1 in the series. Liberty scored a 42-24 win over UMass last season at McGuirk Stadium.“They are 10-0 so obviously they have gotten off to a good start and just kept going,” said UMass second-year heard coach Don Brown. “We are excited about the challenge that’s ...

Boston girl accused of assaulting 84-year-old man at MBTA station

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

A 15-year-old Boston girl is accused of assaulting and injuring an 84-year-old man at the Forest Hills MBTA station, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.The girl was ordered held for 60 days after being charged on Thursday in West Roxbury Juvenile Court. She has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot) on a person over 65.The alleged assault happened on Tuesday at about 8:54 p.m., when MBTA police responded to the upper busway at Forest Hills station for a report of a man being assaulted and injured.When police arrived, they found the 84-year-old man on the ground bleeding from his forehead. Three MBTA riders — two doctors and a medical student — were seen helping the victim.The victim, who remained conscious after the assault, was transported to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for evaluation and treatment.Police at the scene learned that the man had been assaulted by a group of juveniles, the DA’s Of...

Two dozen taken to hospitals after commuter train crashes into snow plow in Chicago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

Deanese Williams-Harris, Sarah Freishtat, Rebecca Johnson, Alex Hulvalchick | Chicago TribuneNearly two dozen people were taken to the hospital after a CTA Yellow Line train struck a piece of agency equipment on the tracks Thursday morning near the border of Evanston and Chicago, according to the Chicago Fire Department.Thirty-eight people were seen by paramedics, including seven CTA employees, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. Of those, 23 were taken to the hospital in varying conditions, including four children, he said.Three people were in serious-to-critical condition, but their injuries were not believed to be life threatening, Langford said. One of the injured CTA employees was the operator of the train, who was seriously injured, and two others were on the snow plow, said Eric Dixon, president of the union that represents CTA’s train employees.Around 10:35 a.m., a two-car Yellow Line train that was carrying passengers rounded a curve and hit a snow plow m...

It's the first El Niño winter in 5 years. What will be different?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – El Niño is back with a vengeance. After years of back to back La Niña, this winter will be the first in five years with an El Niño pattern in place.The last time we saw El Niño was in the winter of 2018 to 2019, and even that year's El Niño was substantially weaker than the one we're seeing now. During an El Niño winter, the southern third to half of the United States, including California, tends to see wetter weather. (Exactly where that dividing line falls varies from year to year.)Meanwhile, the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Ohio Valley tend to be dry and warm. Hawaii also often sees below-average rain during an El Niño year. ‘Strong’ El Niño winter coming: Here’s where we could see more snow La Niña is basically the opposite: less rain or snow for the southern half of the country, and colder, wetter conditions in the Pacific Northwest.The influence of El Niño shows up in a new long-range winter forecast released by the Climate Prediction Center on Thursda...

MLB owners approve A’s move from Oakland to Las Vegas, with a new ballpark to open in 2028

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — One of Rob Manfred's first trips after his election as baseball commissioner nine years ago was to Oakland to consult with Athletics owner John Fisher on attempts to keep the team in the Bay Area.Unable together to make that work, the A's will instead move to Las Vegas and become only the second Major League Baseball team in more than a half-century to shift cities.All 30 MLB team owners gave their approval Thursday to Fisher's relocation plan, which was endorsed by Manfred. "There was an effort over more than a decade to find a stadium solution in Oakland. It was John Fisher’s preference. It was my preference,” Manfred said at a news conference. “This is a terrible day for fans in Oakland. I understand that and that’s why we’ve always had a policy of doing everything humanly possible to avoid a relocation, and truly believe we did that in this case. I think it’s beyond debate that the status quo in Oakland was untenable.”After years of complaints about the O...

Toronto man, 20, charged with possessing child porn

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

A 20-year-old man from Toronto has been charged with possessing child pornography.Police arrested the man on Wednesday.He was identified as 20-year-old Malcolm Bryce-Brown of Toronto. He’s facing one count of possessing child pornography. He was expected to appear in court on Thursday.A Toronto police spokesperson said members of the public can report any online exploitation at Canada’s National Tipline for Reporting the Online Sexual Exploitation of Children at cybertip.ca.“The Toronto Police Service recognizes that parents and caregivers are the frontline when it comes to protecting children on the Internet and electronic devices,” they wrote.“We encourage you to remain vigilant in your efforts – the safety tips outlined below are recommended for children of any age.”

Corporate, global leaders peer into a future expected to be reshaped by AI, for better or worse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:49 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Joe Biden and other global leaders have spent the past few days melding minds with Silicon Valley titans in San Francisco, their discussions frequently focusing on artificial intelligence, a technology expected to reshape the world, for better or worse.For all the collective brainpower on hand for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, there were no concrete answers to a pivotal question: Will AI turn be the springboard that catapults humanity to new heights, or the dystopian nightmare that culminates in its demise?“The world is at an inflection point — this is not a hyperbole,” Biden said Thursday at a CEO summit held in conjunction with APEC. “The decisions we make today are going to shape the direction of the world for decades to come.”Not surprisingly, most of the technology CEOs who appeared at the summit were generally upbeat about AI’s potential to unleash breakthroughs that will make workers more productive and eventually...