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Flash flooding in Massachusetts town leaves residents trapped, submerged vehicles as more rain expected across swaths of southeast New England | CNN

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Flash flooding in Massachusetts town leaves residents trapped, submerged vehicles as more rain expected across swaths of southeast New England | CNN




CNN
 — 

Dangerous flooding in the city of Leominster, Massachusetts, has trapped residents, submerged vehicles and sent water gushing through the streets as storms bring the threat of flooding across portions of the Northeast, officials say.

Leominster, a city in central Massachusetts about 40 miles northwest of Boston, is under a local state of emergency due to flooding “all over the city,” Mayor Dean Mazzarella said in a Facebook post on Monday.

Heavy rains that began Monday and are expected to continue across western portions of Massachusetts overnight have prompted flood or flash flood warnings in the area through Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The region had seen between 6 to 9 inches of rain as of Monday night.

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“Life-threatening” flash flooding was expected across the impacted parts of Massachusetts as well as portions northeastern Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island, the agency said, noting as many as 8 inches of rain had fallen around Providence by Monday night.

In Leominster, videos posted on social media show vehicles submerged by dark flood waters on a highway. Elsewhere, footage shows emergency vehicles and other drivers trying to navigate a street overtaken by rapidly-moving water as rain continues to fall. Another video shows water filling a gaping sinkhole in the middle of a street lined with houses.

Fire crews from the nearby town of Hubbardston responded to Leominster to assist with emergency response and reported that several people had been trapped in the area.

Schools in the area will be closed Tuesday due to the flooding, Leominster Public Schools announced.

The mayor urged residents to remain inside and avoid venturing out.

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“Trust me when I tell you, if you do not have to go out – don’t,” Mazzarella said in a Facebook live stream Monday evening, “There are very few streets that aren’t flooded.”



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Massachusetts

Michigan man wanted to blow up satanic temple in Massachusetts, feds say

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Michigan man wanted to blow up satanic temple in Massachusetts, feds say


A Michigan man carrying explosives traveled to Massachusetts in 2023 and later said he wanted to blow up a building in Salem known as the Satanic Temple, according to a federal indictment.

Luke Terpstra was charged in western Michigan with two felonies: transportation of an explosive and possession of an unregistered explosive.

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“Building explosive devices and transporting them with the intent to injure civilians and damage property puts us all at risk,” U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said Wednesday.

The indictment was filed Tuesday. Terpstra, 30, of Grant, Michigan, is being held in the Newaygo County jail on related state charges. He faces a hearing in federal court next Monday.

The court file doesn’t list an attorney yet who could speak for Terpstra.

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The Satanic Temple in Salem says it doesn’t believe in Satan but describes itself as a “non-theistic religious organization” that supports secularism. There is an art gallery at the site.

Terpstra had an explosive device, multiple firearms and ammunition when he traveled to Salem in September, the indictment says. The indictment doesn’t mention an alleged motive. No violent acts occurred.

“It is terrifying that he walked in our midst planning such violence,” Salem officials said in January when local authorities in Michigan filed the initial charges.

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In April, a man from Oklahoma threw a pipe bomb at the main entrance of the Satanic Temple, causing a minor fire and other damage, according to federal authorities. A handwritten note found nearby referred to a fight against “crybaby Satan.”



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Black women in Massachusetts invited to take part in groundbreaking cancer study

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Black women in Massachusetts invited to take part in groundbreaking cancer study


Black women are disproportionately impacted by cancer — especially breast and cervical cancer. Now, Black women in Massachusetts can take part in a multi-state study, which is planning to cover at least the next 30 years of their lives.

The “VOICES of Black Women” is a study led by the American Cancer Society to investigate exactly why Black women die of certain cancers more than any other racial and ethnic group, and what factors in their lives could be the cause of the mortality.

“There’s so many women who could talk about experiences through, their doctors, through their lifestyles, that could help the future women,” said Nekia Clark, director of patient services and outreach at the Ellie Fund, a Needham-based nonprofit that works to support people diagnosed with breast cancer.

To register, Black women must be between the ages of 25 to 55 and never had cancer. They will be followed by researchers to see how Black women’s medical history, lifestyle, and encounters with racism impact their risks of the disease.

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The goal is to enroll at least 100,000 women across 20 states and Washington, D.C. Once qualifications are met, women can participate by completing an online health and life history survey and updating health information twice a year for at least 30 years.

The states where Black women can enroll in the new study.


Image courtesy of American Cancer Society

Breast cancer kills Black women at a 40% higher rate than white women, according to the National Cancer Institute. For cervical cancer, that number is 60% more likely, according to a report in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

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“VOICES of Black Women represents a crucial step toward achieving health equity in a population that is long overdue,” said Dr. Alpa Patel, co-principal investigator of the study and senior vice president of population science at the American Cancer Society. “By centering Black women’s voices and experiences, we can dig deeper in uncovering the unique challenges and barriers contributing to cancer disparities and develop tailored interventions to mitigate them.”

Clark is also a breast cancer survivor and had her disease caught early. But she lost her mother to a resurgence of cancer in 2020. Clark said she tells countless Black women that it’s important to advocate for themselves.

“If you’re educated on your health, you’re able to advocate for yourself to your doctor and know if that doctor is not listening to you, you can go to another doctor who will listen.”

Clark said she often hears that “it’s a wait and watch” approach for Black female patients. They go into some doctor’s office’s with symptoms of breast cancer, and they’re told to “just keep watching it.” The gaslighting can have catastrophic impacts, she said.

“It results in an early-stage cancer becoming a late-stage cancer where it’s metastatic. And they have to continue treatment for the rest of their life and eventually they will die from the disease.”

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Jani Raynor, 46, is a year into remission from breast cancer. She has several female and male friends in other states who felt like their doctors didn’t listen to their concerns about symptoms. While she didn’t have diagnoses issues, Raynor said she suffered from a lack of support to get preventive care in Massachusetts.

“I never felt like I was encouraged to make sure that I was getting my mammogram or that I was doing self-examinations,’’ she said. “I definitely do those because I have breast cancer history in my family.”

Local providers say the study is important, especially given the lack of focus on Black women historically in clinical trials.

“We know that a lot of the reasons why these rates for Black women are related to systemic racism,” said Rachel Preiss, a women’s health nurse practitioner at The Dimock Center in Roxbury. “We know that it occurs on multiple levels, and we know that that leads to multiple avenues of missing breast cancer in patients.”

The Dimock Center, she said, is less involved with treatment, and more involved in preventive care. That means making sure women have mammograms, and ordering exams that could diagnose cancer early. Sometimes, that means being a patient’s second opinion.

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“For cancer and everything else, I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve sat with a patient, and they told me that another provider just didn’t listen to them,” Preiss said.





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Severe Storm Threat In MA: Hail, Damaging Wind Possible

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Severe Storm Threat In MA: Hail, Damaging Wind Possible


MASSACHUSETTS — The first significant thunderstorms of spring may arrive on Wednesday afternoon, delivering possible hail and strong winds to Massachusetts.

The National Weather Service is predicting scattered thunderstorms across the state between 1 and 8 p.m. Hail will be the biggest threat in the eastern half of the state, with western Massachusetts set up for wind damage.

“The primary threat is large hail, but damaging wind gusts are possible especially across western MA and northern CT,” the weather service said in a tweet Wednesday morning.

There will also be a high chance of rain, with up to an inch possible in the Worcester area, and 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in Boston.

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The weather service had not issued any storm warnings for eastern Massachusetts as of 7 a.m. A hazardous weather outlook was issued for Berkshire County, warning of strong winds and hail up to an inch in diameter.



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