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Giant African land snail infestation prompts quarantine and treatment area in Broward County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

In response to the detection of giant African land snails in the Miramar area of Broward County, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) and its Division of Plant Industry have announced the establishment of a quarantine and treatment area in specific regions of Broward County.The quarantine prohibits the movement of giant African land snails or regulated articles within, through, or from the defined quarantine area without a compliance agreement. Regulated articles include plants, plant parts, plants in soil, soil, yard waste, debris, compost, or building materials.The giant African land snail is notorious for being one of the most destructive snail species globally, devouring over 500 different types of plants. As a result, they pose a significant threat to Florida’s agriculture and natural areas, causing extensive damage to tropical and subtropical environments.In addition to the agricultural and environmental concerns, these snails also pose a s...

Bud Light is ‘coming back’ but controversy is a ‘wake-up call,’ Anheuser-Busch exec says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

New York (CNN) — Anheuser-Busch InBev’s top marketing executive is speaking out following a monthslong boycott of Bud Light that has cost the brand its title as America’s top-selling beer.“When things get divisive and controversial so easily, I think it’s an important wake-up call to all of us marketers to be very humble,” said Marcel Marcondes, Anheuser-Busch’s global chief marketing officer, at a conference on Monday.Bud Light sales have tumbled since the company’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney sparked an anti-trans backlash and calls for a boycott. The company’s tepid response angered LGBTQ+ advocates, and the episode became ground zero in America’s culture wars.“It’s tough to see all the controversial and divisive debates happening in the US the last couple of weeks involving lots of brands and companies, including, especially, Bud Light,” Marcondes told an audience at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. He said brands i...

Somerville man accused of shooting woman in the head in Malden arraigned from his hospital bed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

A man accused of nearly killing a woman by shooting her in the head during what prosecutors say was an attempted robbery in Malden was charged with the crime as he lay in a hospital bed and avoided being photographed.Mohamed Abdulaziz, 35, of Somerville, is charged with armed assault with intent to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm without a license and possession of ammunition. He appeared before a Malden District Court judge Tuesday afternoon via the Zoom internet teleconferencing program from his hospital bed, though only his lawyer, Tim Flaherty, could be seen in the video feed.“He’s present, he’s participating, he’s suffering from multiple injuries,” Flaherty said after requesting that Abdulaziz’s “image or his likeness not be distributed at this time,” citing concerns that his client may have been misidentified or that seeing him would unfairly prejudice any future jury trial.Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Carrie Spiros, the prosecutor for the ...

Quick Fix: Summer Berry and Turkey Salad celebrates the season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

Linda Gassenheimer | Tribune News ServiceI love this time of year when there’s a plentiful display of colorful berries. I decided to create a summer salad dinner, adding them to cooked turkey strips.Here are a few tips on selecting and using berries. Strawberries don’t ripen off the vine. Look for bright red ones when buying them. The sweetest raspberries are the darker red ones. Although you won’t be able to tell until you get them home, blueberries should be firm to touch. Look to make sure there is no mold on the berries. They should be washed just before using them.Helpful Hints:— You can use any type of berries can be used.— You can use any type of salad greens can be used.— If cooked turkey breast isn’t available in the meat case, use cooked turkey breast from the deli.Countdown:— Prepare all the ingredients.— Assemble the salad.Shopping List:To buy: 1 bag washed, ready-to-eat salad greens, 3/4 pound cooked turkey breast, 1 cucumber, 1 bunch celery, 1 container fresh strawberr...

When signing a lease, watch out for these ‘gotcha’ clauses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

Akin to having 50-yard line seats to the Super Bowl, very few people have experienced selling a company and crafting a lease with the buyer on a building that you own.As you’ll recall, last week I delved into clauses and terms that you – as the owner of the real estate – should consider.Today’s subject is a bit broader. Many of you have leased commercial real estate or know someone who has.Certain paragraphs in commercial leases are non-starters and should be carefully avoided, or at a minimum, carry a complete understanding of the impact. I’ve often called these “gotcha” clauses because they can be like a blitzing linebacker who strikes from the blind side. You don’t see them coming until it’s too late to avoid the carnage.So, we’re going to continue dissecting those common “gotchas” that are often hiding in the fine print of your commercial lease agreement. And continuing our football theme, let’s dive right back in, shall we?First, there’s the infamous “pass-through” provision. T...

At least 1.7M Americans use health sharing arrangements, despite lack of protections

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

Markian Hawryluk | KFF Health News (TNS)The report from the Colorado Division of Insurance found that more than 1.7 million Americans rely on sharing plans and that many of the plans require members to ask for charity care before submitting their bills.The total membership numbers are likely even higher. The state agency collected data from 16 sharing plans across the U.S. but identified five other plans that did not report their data.“These plans cover more people than we had previously known,” said JoAnn Volk, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.Under the arrangements, members, who usually share some religious beliefs, agree to send money each month to cover other members’ health care bills. At least 11 of the sharing plans that reported data operated in or advertised plans in all 50 states in 2021.Sharing plans do not guarantee payment for health services and are not held to the same standards and consumer protections as health insurance...

Florida deputy and motorist survive being swept through storm drain amid huge rainstorm

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff’s deputy and a motorist are lucky to be alive after they were sucked into a flooded storm drain during a torrential downpour, then dragged underwater for around 30 seconds before emerging — soaked but unharmed — on the other side of a highway.Deputy William Hollingsworth was helping stranded drivers amid the rapidly rising water early Friday when he saw the motorist disappear beneath the surface. Hollingsworth “rushed to his aid without regard to his own safety,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons told reporters. The pair traveled nearly 100 feet (30 meters) under four lanes of Highway 98, Simmons said. The episode was recorded by the deputy’s body camera — although the underwater portion of the video is completely dark, filled only with the muffled sounds of rushing water.After emerging on the other side, Hollingsworth calls out to the driver while wading toward him, shouting “Buddy I g...

4 dead after fire at New York City e-bike shop spreads to apartments

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A fire at a New York City e-bike shop quickly spread to upper-floor apartments and killed four people early Tuesday in the latest deadly blaze linked to exploding lithium ion batteries.The fire, reported shortly after midnight, happened at a shop that was cited last summer for safety violations related to the storage and charging of batteries, officials said.A pile of burned bikes, scooters and other debris lay on the sidewalk outside the shop, HQ E-Bike Repair, which was on the ground floor of a six-story building in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood.So far this year, there have been more than 100 fires and 13 deaths linked to battery explosions in the city, said Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.“There was a very large number of both batteries and e-bikes,” Kavanagh said at a morning news conference. “This location is known to the fire department. We have written violations at this location before and we have conducted enforcement at t...

Blood-red crickets invade Nevada town, residents fight back with brooms, leaf blowers, snow plows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

ELKO, Nev. (AP) — Dana Dolan was driving through her small Nevada hometown when she thought she had come upon a gory crash. The ground surrounding Elko’s stretch of Interstate 80 looked as if it had been covered in blood. As the red color shifted and moved, she realized instead it was an infiltration of crickets, some bigger than her thumb. “It’s almost like a biblical plague,” Dolan told The Associated Press last week, laughing at the absurdity of the situation that is playing out in Elko, where she’s lived for six years. Tens of thousands of Mormon cricket eggs buried about an inch deep in the soil began to hatch in late May and early June. For weeks, the red critters have been invading swaths of northern Nevada and causing chaos, said the state’s longtime entomologist Jeff Knight. The invasion of the cannibalistic crickets has hit especially hard in Elko, a small town of about 20,000 near Idaho and Utah known for its gold mining. The big red bugs leave behind a ...

IMF applauds Canada’s climate action, warns of ‘race to the bottom’ with subsidies

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:52:01 GMT

OTTAWA — The International Monetary Fund warns that Canada’s green subsidies could stoke an international race to the bottom, even as it credits the country for a “multipronged” approach to addressing climate change. The international agency published Tuesday the preliminary findings of its staff from an official visit to Canada.“Canada’s actions to meet its climate commitments and to incentivize investment in green sectors are welcome, although the design of some incentives could pose some risks,” the report says. The IMF applauded Canada’s climate action, including its carbon-pricing regime and 2023 federal budget investments in the green economy. But it called for better international co-ordination to avoid a “race to the bottom” where countries compete over investments with even larger subsidies. “Moreover, the current strong focus on electric vehicles — and their batteries in particular — as key to Canada’s green indus...