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Neighbors react to accusations former Harvard Medical School morgue manager stole and sold body parts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

Neighbors in Goffstown, New Hampshire, reacted on Wednesday after federal officials announced allegations against a former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School, accusing him of selling human remains after stealing them from the school. Donated human cadavers are used in teaching medical students at Harvard Medical. Cedric Lodge, 55, was one of several people charged in the case, which spanned multiple states. “It’s weird that somebody would do that with body parts,” one of Lodge’s neighbors said.Officials said Lodge took body parts to his home in New Hampshire to then ship them to buyers. On Wednesday, neighbors said they woke up to what they described as a shocking scene when they said federal authorities showed up around 6 a.m. to take Lodge and his wife, Denise, into custody.Wednesday’s events, in turn, followed a matter of months after neighbors said investigators descended on the Lodge’s home in March wearing white tyvek jumpsuits in the snow and leaving...

DeMarcus Walker has emerged as a tone-setter. But do the Chicago Bears still need pass-rushing help?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

Matt Eberflus referenced a 40-day window between the end of the Chicago Bears’ minicamp Thursday and the opening of training camp in late July as a period for players working through injuries, such as wide receivers Chase Claypool and Darnell Mooney, to get up to speed.It’s also nearly six weeks for general manager Ryan Poles to add a veteran edge rusher to the mix for a defense that certainly looks like it could use one.Eberflus said late last month the team was interested in a lot of free agents and after Wednesday’s second minicamp session at Halas Hall, he said, “That is one position we are looking at and potentially we could get that done” when asked directly about adding pass-rush help in the weeks ahead.Yannick Ngakoue, the well-traveled defensive end who spent last season with the Indianapolis Colts, looms as the best remaining option after Leonard Floyd (Buffalo Bills) and Frank Clark (Denver Broncos) were signed last week. ESPN’s Adam Sc...

Bud Light, top US seller since 2001, loses sales crown to Modelo as beer backlash continues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

By DEE-ANN DURBIN (AP Business Writer)After more than two decades as America’s best-selling beer, Bud Light has slipped into second place.Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager, overtook Bud Light in U.S. retail dollar sales in the month ending June 3, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting. Modelo controlled 8.4% of U.S. grocery, convenience and liquor store sales; Bud Light fell to 7.3%. It’s a milestone in Bud Light’s months-long sales decline since early April, when critics who were angered by the brewer sending a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney vowed to boycott the brand. Bud Light has also faced backlash from Mulvaney’s fans, who think the brand didn’t do enough to support her.Dave William, Bump Williams’ vice president of analytics and insights, said Bud Light has been the top-selling U.S. beer since 2001, and it could still retain that crown this year. He noted that Bud Light’s year-to-dat...

American Airlines adds bag charge on international trips

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

American Airlines is charging all customers who book basic economy airfares to check bags.The first checked bag on a transpacific or transatlantic basic economy airfare will now cost a passenger $75. Flights to Mexico, Haiti, the Caribbean, Central America, Guyana, Suriname, Panama or South America for basic economy seats will cost anywhere from $30 to $45, with some countries excluded. American already charged for check bags on domestic flights for basic economy travelers.“We are simplifying our product offerings to make it easier for customers when they are shopping for travel,” said Andrea Koos, American Airlines spokesperson. “With this change, our basic economy product will include all of the same features whether a customer is purchasing it for a domestic or international flight.”The changes come at the start of a busy summer for international travel. According to Hopper, Europe is the No. 1 destination for international travelers. Airfare to Europe this summer is averaging ne...

A look at how the Bell layoffs affect their journalism platform

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

TORONTO — BCE Inc. announced Wednesday that it is cutting 1,300 positions, around three per cent of its workforce, and closing or selling nine radio stations as the company plans to “significantly adapt” how it delivers the news. Here’s a look at who and what’s affected by the cuts to their journalism platform.Fewer JournalistsThe layoffs include a six per cent cut at Bell Media. Many of those who received notices of their termination shared the news on social media throughout the day, including some of Bell’s prominent journalists.As part of Bell’s shift to a more streamlined newsroom across its brands, the company said CTV National News executive producer Rosa Hwang is no longer with the company, effective immediately.The company updated the online profile of several journalists to say they were no longer with the company. Those include CTV National News Ottawa bureau chief Joyce Napier, senior political correspondent Glen McGregor, chief intern...

Robert Gottlieb, celebrated literary editor of Toni Morrison and Robert Caro, dies at 92

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Gottlieb, the inspired and eclectic literary editor whose brilliant career was launched with Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” and continued for decades with such Pulitzer Prize-winning classics as Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker,” has died at age 92.Gottlieb died Wednesday of natural causes at a New York hospital, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced. Caro, who had worked for decades with Gottlieb on his Lyndon Johnson biographies and was featured with him last year in the documentary “Turn Every Page,” said in a statement that he had never worked with an editor so attuned to the writing process.“From the day 52 years ago that we first looked at my pages together, Bob understood what I was trying to do and made it possible for me to take the time, and do the work, I needed to do,” Caro said in a statement. “People talk to me about some of the triumphant moments Bob and I shared, but today I remember other moments, toug...

House rejects effort to censure and fine Democrat Adam Schiff over Trump-Russia investigations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has rejected an effort to censure California Rep. Adam Schiff, voting to turn aside a Republican attempt to fine the Democrat over his comments about former President Donald Trump and investigations into his ties to Russia.Schiff, the former Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the lead prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial, has long been a top Republican political target. Soon after taking back the majority this year, Republicans blocked him from sitting on the intelligence panel. But Schiff was helped Wednesday by more than 20 Republicans who voted with Democrats to stop the censure resolution or voted “present,” denying Republicans the necessary votes. The censure resolution from Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who was elected last year, says that Schiff held positions of power during Trump’s presidency and “abused this trust by saying there was evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.” Sc...

Canadian writers picket in support of U.S. counterparts, say there’s uncertainty here

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

TORONTO — More than one hundred Canadian film and TV workers gathered under cloudy skies and sporadic showers to picket in support of striking Hollywood writers Wednesday, warning that many of the labour issues upending U.S. sets plague Canadian ones, too.Members of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)waved union placards and handwritten signs in front of the Toronto offices of Amazon and Apple Canada, chanting: “The writers, united, will never be divided.”The demonstration was among dozens planned around the world as a “day of solidarity” in support of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which is now six weeks into a work stoppage.WGC president Alex Levine said unionized Canadian screen workers want their U.S. counterparts to know they support their fight for better compensation and working conditions.He said the labour dispute has also disrupted American productions that shoot in Canada, putting Canadian crews out of wo...

Russia says relations ‘on the verge of being severed’ as Ottawa seizes cargo plane

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

OTTAWA — Moscow is warning that relations with Canada are “on the verge of being severed” after the federal Liberal government moved to forfeit a massive Russian cargo plane.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Ukraine on the weekend, where he announced that Canada officially seized an airplane that had been sitting on the tarmac at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport since February 2022.“We perceive this act as cynical and shameless theft,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in an English-language statement posted Tuesday.A year ago, Canada became the first G7 country to enact a law that allows Ottawa to not just seize assets held by sanctioned people, but to forfeit the money and have it diverted to victims of a sanctioned regime.The law remains unused, but Trudeau said Ottawa plans to begin a process to either transfer the plane to Ukraine or sell it for money that would support the country’s recovery.“We’re going to do it as...

2 arrested in firebombing of California Planned Parenthood clinic last year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:42 GMT

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A U.S. Marine and a second man were arrested Wednesday on federal charges of firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Southern California last year, authorities said.Agents of the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service arrested Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine, and Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada.They were named in a criminal complaint that charged each with using an explosive or fire to damage real property affecting interstate commerce, the statement said. Both men were expected to appear Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Santa Ana. It was not immediately known if they had attorneys to comment on the allegations. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the front of a clinic in Costa Mesa around 1 a.m. March 13, 2022. Security video recorded two people in hooded sweatshirts and face masks carry out the attack, the statement said.Th...