Uncommon Knowledge
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Initial filings for unemployment benefits in Massachusetts dropped last week compared with the week prior, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.
New jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 8,995 in the week ending June 28, down from 9,011 the week before, the Labor Department said.
U.S. unemployment claims rose to 238,000 last week, up 4,000 claims from 234,000 the week prior on a seasonally adjusted basis.
North Dakota saw the largest percentage increase in weekly claims, with claims jumping by 83.8%. Vermont, meanwhile, saw the largest percentage drop in new claims, with claims dropping by 56.9%.
The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly unemployment insurance claims report.
BOSTON – Massachusetts health officials said a person from Worcester County has been diagnosed with the first confirmed case of measles in the state since 2020.
The Department of Public Health said the person, who is an adult, recently traveled internationally.
There are currently large measles outbreaks happening in Europe and elsewhere globally.
When the person returned to Massachusetts, the person was diagnosed with measles in early July 2024.
The last measles case in the state was early 2020.
Health officials said people who may have been exposed to measles from this case were contacted and provided with health recommendations.
The DPH said many of the cases in the United States have been connected to recent travel. There was an alert in June about an international visitor who traveled through Boston to Amsterdam while they were infectious.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of July 11 there have been a total of 167 measles cases in 2024 around the country. A total of 84% of those cases were in unvaccinated patients or people with an unknown vaccination status.
“Measles is a highly contagious, airborne disease, which has increased worldwide, including here in the United States and in neighboring states in New England,” Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said in a statement. “Cases of measles have been reported in 30 states since the beginning of last year, mostly in people and communities who are unvaccinated. Vaccination is the best way to protect against measles.”
Anyone who does not know their measles immunization status is asked to contact their doctor to get vaccinated.
The summer tourist season for Massachusetts is in full swing, drawing in visitors of all shapes and sizes, not to mention species.
An American Flamingo, associated with decidedly warmer climes than Massachusetts, made a number of bird watchers very happy, and a blue whale literally made a splash off the coast of Gloucester.
Though there have been no more unusual whale sightings since then, user-reported bird watching database Ebird exploded once again on Monday with sightings of a Brown Booby in South Boston.
For non-birders, a Brown Booby is a tropical bird. The fact that it’s common in the Carribean should give most people an idea of why it would be so surprising to find it in New England.
The first report of the Brown Booby on ebird was posted Saturday, July 13 a little after 9 a.m., by user Dan O’Brien, but the actual first sighting is credited to one Laura Markley the day before in a number of notes. Meaning the animal has been in the area for at least six days now.
O’Brien wrote that the bird was perched at the end of the wooden piling when he arrived, right as it began to rain. “When the rain started to let up it joined the feeding frenzy of gulls and terns. Saw it plunge diving a few times!” he said in the details section.
Plunge diving is a distinctive behavior used by a number of fishing bird species, diving from the air to the water for fish. Unlike other fishing birds, brown boobys perform relatively shallow dives of about two meters. They are also known to steal food from other birds, known as klepto-parasitism.
O’Brien speculated that the steady southern winds over the last week, and especially Wednesday through Friday, may have brought a few southern birds north, explaining why the bird was so far out of its normal territory.
This species breeds on islands and coasts in the pantropical (tropics in the eastern and western hemispheres) areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, often on islands in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. They can also be seen on islands in the Pacific and Indian ocean and even the northern coast of Australia. A wide range but all having one thing in common – south.
Massachusetts state lawmakers on Wednesday filed joint legislation to amend state gun laws by cracking down on “ghost guns,” expanding the state’s red flag law and limiting dangerous individuals’ access to firearms.
The new bill, a compromise between the pending State House and State Senate bills, is likely to be approved by both chambers in a vote tomorrow. After that, it will appear on Democratic Governor Maura Healy’s desk to be signed into law.
The initial impetus for the legislation was the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, a case that expanded gun rights. The majority ruling in the case stated that both the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a gun for self-defense outside the home.
A joint collaboration between Massachusetts’ House and Senate was led by State Representative Michael Day and State Senator Cynthia Creem.
According to NBC Boston, Day and Creem said in a joint statement that the bill “delivers meaningfully on our promise to align our statutes with the challenges gun violence poses to our communities today and incorporates the perspectives of firearm owners, law enforcement, community leaders and those impacted directly by gun violence.”
AP Photo/Elise Amendola
Newsweek reached out to Day and Creem for comment via email on Wednesday.
The proposed bill is hard on “ghost guns,” which are largely untraceable, privately made firearms from different non-serialized and often mixed and matched parts. These weapons pose a significant safety concern, with nearly 38,000 ghost guns recovered since 2017, although that number is likely an underestimate given their untraceable nature.
A summary of the legislation obtained by NBC shows that the bill would require all firearms to be serialized and would impose new penalties for the possession, creation and transfer of the so-called “ghost guns.”
House Speaker Ronald Marino issued a statement ahead of Thursday’s vote, saying: “While the Commonwealth’s existing gun laws have proven to be effective in preventing gun violence compared to other states, relative success is never a cause for complacency.”
Newsweek reached out to Mariano for comment via email on Wednesday. Newsweek also reached out to Senate President Karen Spilka for comment via email on Wednesday.
Additionally, the bill is set to expand the state’s red flag law by authorizing health care professionals and others to petition a court to suspend an individual’s right to firearm possession.
The legislation also forbids carrying firearms in public spaces like government buildings, polling places and schools, with exemptions for law enforcement members. It would also require people applying for a firearm license to pass a basic safety exam and live fire training.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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