Massachusetts
Massachusetts Legislature publishes report on PFAS, or ‘forever chemicals’ that cause firefighter cancer
A brand new report by a activity pressure finding out PFAS, or “perpetually chemical substances” generally present in nonstick cookware, some clothes and firefighter gear, is being praised by the firefighting neighborhood.
“It was actually stunning, each by means of testimony that we heard and coming to grasp that PFAS is in the entire turnout gear that’s utilized by our firefighters, and with the rise of PFAS in gear, we’ll additionally see will increase in most cancers charges,” stated state Rep. Kate Hogan, D-Stow, co-chair of the committee.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are added to merchandise to make them water-, grease- and stain-resistant, however they persist within the setting and people’ our bodies, and might trigger a myriad of well being results together with kidney and liver illness, immune system suppression, beginning defects and most cancers. PFAS have been detected in water programs all through the state.
After 9 public hearings over the previous a number of months, the committee issued 30 suggestions throughout eight broad technique areas. These eight areas embrace funding PFAS detection and remediation, supporting environmental justice communities, phasing out PFAS in shopper merchandise, increasing non-public effectively testing for PFAS and supporting firefighters and native fireplace departments.
Firefighters from advocacy teams throughout the state testified all through the listening to course of for the duty pressure, which Hogan referred to as “actually shifting and extremely knowledgeable.”
Hearth Marshal for the state’s Division of Hearth Providers Peter Ostroskey served on the duty pressure. “We all know that we’re exposing firefighters to carcinogens,” he stated, including that the firefighting neighborhood can also be involved about its environmental impacts.
“Giant portions of PFAS exist in our fireplace gear, and these perpetually chemical substances have been linked to many cancers,” stated Wealthy MacKinnon, Jr. President of the Skilled Hearth Fighters of Massachusetts. “This report is a step in the proper path to protecting firefighters wholesome. We now look to the Nationwide Hearth Safety Affiliation to make the wanted modifications and ban PFAS from our gear.”
By one estimate, as many as 68% of firefighters develop cancers, in comparison with 22% of the overall inhabitants.
State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, additionally famous that Massachusetts could be “certainly one of solely a handful of different states,” together with Maine and California, that will implement a shopper ban on PFAS merchandise, which might be phased out by 2030, and labeled sooner than that as containing the chemical.
Hogan stated legislators are pursuing “a number of legislative alternatives” by means of a number of payments to advance these suggestions. She and Cyr famous that each the Division of Environmental Safety and the Division of Public Well being have acquired vital funding will increase, which can bolster these efforts.
Massachusetts
Scores of recruits injured at Mass. State Police Academy in recent years, data show
Broken bones, muscle tears, concussions, even a gunshot wound — those are just some of the injuries sustained by Massachusetts State Police recruits during their training in recent years.
After a recruit died following a training exercise in September, the NBC10 Investigators began asking how many other recruits have been injured during training.
There have been 185 injuries reported across recruiting classes since 2018, according to police records obtained by NBC10 Boston. Among the injuries are broken fingers and broken ribs, torn ACLs, dislocated limbs, back injuries, eye injuries and two cases of rhabdomyolysis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by overexertion of the muscles
Dozens of these injuries have resulted in 180 recruits being awarded workman’s compensation, and from those recruiting classes, 49 recruits resigned from the academy following their injuries.
Asked about the data, a police spokesman said in a statement the agency is committed to all employees’ health and safety, and that an on-site medical team monitors trainees throughout their time at the police academy to ensure they can physically perform their duties “with excellence.”
Enrique Delgado-Garcia died after a defensive tactics training exercise. His mother Sandra Garcia told NBC10 Boston at the time that the training is too brutal. An outside investigator was tapped to look into Delgado-Garcia’s death.
The NBC10 Investigators were invited inside the academy walls to get a firsthand look at what it takes to become a Massachusetts state trooper and the extremely demanding training involved after we began asking questions about the high attrition rate of this class.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts military secrets leaker Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years in prison
The Massachusetts Air National Guard tech support member responsible for “one of the most significant leaks of classified documents and information in United States history” will spend a decade and a half behind bars.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Jack Teixeira to 180 months, which is 15 years, in federal prison at a sentencing hearing in federal court in Boston’s Seaport on Tuesday afternoon. She also ordered, among other conditions, that he enter a mental health treatment program and barred him from taking any jobs where he would have access to sensitive government materials. She did not impose a fine because he did not have the resources to pay a fine.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for all the harm I’ve wrought and I’ve caused,” Teixeira, wearing an orange Plymouth County Correctional Facility jumpsuit, said before Talwani delivered her sentence.
“I can’t really sum up how contrite I am that my behavior has caused such a maelstrom,” the 22-year-old continued, “affecting my family and everyone overseas. I understand that all of the responsibility and consequences come on my shoulders alone and I accept whatever that will bring. I’m at your mercy, your honor.”
Teixeira, of Dighton, was arrested in April 2023 and pleaded guilty in March to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act.
Teixeira, who served as a Cyber Defense Operations Journeyman at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, leaked more than 40 highly classified military documents, including many regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine, to a cadre of fellow video game players on the social media platform Discord.
He was looking at a maximum of more than 16 years for his crimes, if Talwani had followed the plea agreement, which she wasn’t bound by in calculating sentencing. Teixeira entered the plea agreement in late February and finalized with his guilty pleas days later on March 4.
Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen called Teixeira “a textbook example of an insider threat.”
“His actions compromised military plans, sources and methods, and allowed our most significant adversaries access to some of our most closely guarded intelligence,” she continued in a press conference following sentencing.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy at the same press conference said that the “heavy price” of the sentence “sends a powerful message to every individual who holds a top secret clearance.”
“I expect that starting tomorrow, Jack Teixeira’s name will be mentioned when people are trained about the gravity of a top secret clearance and the consequences if you leak information,” Levy said.
Sentencing arguments
The federal prosecutor, Jared Dolan, in arguing for a sentence of 200 months, called Teixeira’s crimes “exceptionally serious” and compared his actions to those of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. He said that the sentence should be large enough to be a huge deterrent to anyone else who is considering such disclosures.
“Our military is built on a backbone of people his age and younger,” Dolan said. “And we trust that the training for those individuals put them in a place to succeed and that’s what they do every single day.”
“The defendants job was to not tell anyone else, what he promised to not tell anyone else,” he continued. “Youthful brains make impulsive decisions, but this was not an impulsive decision and if it was then it was an impulsive decision that he made every day for more than a year.”
Talwani spoke at length about her thought process on sentencing a crime for which there was “very little case law.”
“It seems to me that this is not one harm, this is multiple harms,” Talwani said when arguing that she disagreed with the plea agreement’s argument that the crimes could be grouped. She compared it to rape or robbery, to where even if the victim remained the same each new offense was a different crime.
“Yes the victim is the same here, the victim is the United States,” she continued. “But I don’t know how you can say it’s the same if he did it for one month instead of 13 months. … Each time you are creating a new risk, each time is new information, new disclosure.”
In sentencing memos filed last month, the defense recommended a sentence of 11 years whereas the prosecution recommended a sentence of 16 years and eight months, citing not only the need for Teixeira’s adequate punishment but to deter anyone else from even considering similar actions.
Defense attorney Michael Bachrach argued that Teixeira had no intention whatsoever to harm the United States, and that “motive matters.”
Unlike Manning and Snowden, who each chose to disclose secrets with purpose, Bachrach argued that Teixeira’s “truly bad decision making” was built on both his youth and his autism and wanting to find a community.
“What he cared about was having a community to speak to because he didn’t have that community at Otis Air Base,” Bachrach said, adding that his recommended sentence of 11 years is “significant” and is more time than half of the defendant’s life at the time of the crimes.
Talwani took some exception with Bachrach’s argument but did agree that she was leaning toward a downward departure based on Teixeira’s age.
Originally Published:
Massachusetts
Winning $50,000 Powerball ticket sold in Massachusetts
A lottery player won $50,000 playing Powerball in Massachusetts on Monday.
The winning numbers for the Powerball drawing on Nov. 11 were 3, 21, 24, 34, 46 and Powerball: 9. The multiplier was a 3X.
The $50,000 ticket sold in Massachusetts matched four of the first five numbers, and the Powerball number. It was sold in Waltham at a 7-Eleven.
Overall, at least 200 prizes worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Monday, including eight in Springfield, seven in Worcester and 20 in Boston.
The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.
So far, the largest lottery prize won in Massachusetts this year was worth $1 million a year for life.
The prize was from the lottery’s “Lifetime Millions” scratch ticket game. The winner claimed their prize through a trust on July 10, and opted to receive a one-time payment of $15.4 million.
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