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Massachusetts reports 1,853 new COVID cases, hospitalizations jump

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Massachusetts reports 1,853 new COVID cases, hospitalizations jump


State well being officers on Wednesday reported greater than 1,800 new COVID-19 instances, whereas virus hospitalizations jumped throughout the area.

The state Division of Public Well being’s report of 1,853 instances was a bit down from final Wednesday’s complete of 1,969 infections. Nonetheless, the variety of reported exams was a 27% drop from final week.

The omicron BA.2 “stealth” variant is at present the dominant pressure within the U.S., in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. The subvariant has sparked an increase in virus instances, as extra individuals collect indoors with out masks. The Boston-area COVID wastewater information goes up.

In the meantime, the Massachusetts common p.c positivity has climbed to 4.34%, considerably up from 1.6% a number of weeks in the past. The constructive take a look at common for Wednesday’s rely was 3.88%.

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State well being officers reported 24 COVID deaths, bringing the state’s complete recorded loss of life toll to twenty,208. There may be sometimes a lag in loss of life reviews following a protracted vacation weekend.

The every day common of COVID deaths is now 4. The loss of life charge had been a lot greater after omicron hospitalizations surged.

After COVID hospitalizations jumped by 45 sufferers, the state’s total affected person rely is now 373 sufferers. Hospitalizations had been spiking at a speedy tempo amid the omicron surge, however then plunged. Now, hospitalizations seem like rising once more.

Of the hospitalized COVID sufferers statewide, 29% of sufferers have been reported as being hospitalized attributable to COVID — and 71% of hospitalized sufferers have been reported as testing constructive for COVID whereas hospitalized for different causes.

Throughout the state, there are actually 29 coronavirus sufferers in intensive care models, and 10 sufferers are intubated.

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Over the last two weeks, the 20-29 age group within the state had probably the most reported instances. That age group’s 5,901 instances topped the 30-39 age group’s 3,834 instances.

Greater than 5.3 million individuals in Massachusetts are actually totally vaccinated, and virtually 3 million individuals have gotten a booster dose. Additionally, 201,443 further booster doses have been administered.



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Massachusetts

Scores of recruits injured at Mass. State Police Academy in recent years, data show

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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.

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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.

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Massachusetts military secrets leaker Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years in prison

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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.”

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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.

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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.”

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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.”

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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.

Margaret Small via AP, File

This artist depiction shows Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, right, appearing in U.S. District Court in Boston, April 14, 2023. (Margaret Small via AP, File)

Jack Teixeira of Dighton is taken into custody in April 2023. (AP photo)

AP photo

Jack Teixeira of Dighton is taken into custody in April 2023. (AP photo)

 

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Winning $50,000 Powerball ticket sold in Massachusetts

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Winning ,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.

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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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