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Mathews: California and I need a jubilee to reflect on the future

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

Ye shall hallow the 50th year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land… it shall be a jubilee unto you. Leviticus 25:10I’m not grown-up enough to be 50.So perhaps it’s fitting that I passed the half-century mark while coaching California kids in their Little League opener. My party was post-game cupcakes and fourth-grade humor.Or maybe I missed an opportunity to take some time off. Under the Biblical tradition of jubilee, every 50 years you are supposed to forgive debts, free slaves, return property to its owners, and go home to rest.Rest and reassessment sound pretty good right now, and not just for your columnist, who has been banging out these weekly pieces for 10 years.California could use its own jubilee year, to reflect on its future.I, like the state’s 21st century governing system, -am a rare bird, and a child of the 1970s. Fewer people were born in the United States in 1973 than in any year since 1945. It was a tough time — gas lines, Vietnam, Watergate.The resulting p...

Brooks: The Cold War with China is changing everything

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

So I guess we’re in a new cold war. Leaders of both parties have become China hawks. There are rumblings of war over Taiwan. Xi Jinping vows to dominate the century.I can’t help wondering: What will this cold war look like? Will this one transform American society the way the last one did?The first thing I notice about this cold war is that the arms race and the economics race are fused. A chief focus of the conflict so far has been microchips, the little gizmos that not only make your car and phone work, but also guide missiles and are necessary to train artificial intelligence systems. Whoever dominates chip manufacturing dominates the market as well as the battlefield.Second, the geopolitics are different. As Chris Miller notes in his book “Chip War,” the microchip sector is dominated by a few highly successful businesses. More than 90% of the most advanced chips are made by one company in Taiwan. One Dutch company makes all the lithography machines that are required to build cut...

Opinon: Why winter storms won’t end California’s water shortage problems

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

During a winter of blizzards, floods and drought-ending downpours, it’s easy to forget that California suffers from chronic water scarcity — the long-term decline of the state’s total available fresh water. This rainy season’s inundation isn’t going to change that.How is this possible, given the unrelenting series of atmospheric river systems that have dumped near-record snowfall over the Sierra and replenished the state’s reservoirs?It’s all about groundwater.California uses more water each year — most of it for food production — than is supplied by renewable sources such as rain and snowfall, even in the wettest of winters like this one. The gap is filled by groundwater, which has for a century underpinned California’s water resources — in particular, during drought, when it provides 60% or more of agriculture’s irrigation water supply.But groundwater can be renewed only slowly, to the extent it can be renewed at all.It is the long-term disappearance of groundwater that is the maj...

Pope expands norms to fight sex abuse to cover lay leaders, reaffirms that vulnerable adults can also be victims.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope expands norms to fight sex abuse to cover lay leaders, reaffirms that vulnerable adults can also be victims.Source

Brussels to Berlin: We’ll find a way to save the car engine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

On the future of the internal combustion engine, Germany has gotten its own way, again.The European Commission and Germany’s Transport Ministry announced a deal Saturday morning that commits the EU executive to figuring out a legal way to allow the sale of new engine-installed cars running exclusively on synthetic e-fuels even after a mandate comes into force requiring sales of only zero-emission vehicles from 2035.“We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars,” the Commission’s Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans said on Twitter. “We will work now on getting the CO2 standards for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible.”The deal heads off a row over car legislation that was all-but-agreed until Germany, along with a small club of allies, slammed on the brakes just days before formal final approval on a law that is the centerpiece of the EU’s green agenda.Timmermans said the Commission would “follow up swiftly” with “legal steps” to turn ...

Fire officials investigating massive blaze that damaged multiple homes in Scituate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

Fire officials are working to identify the cause of a massive, multi-alarm blaze that damaged at least five homes in Scituate Friday night.As fire crews worked late into the night to identify hot spots and extinguish the flames, heavy smoke cast a large plume across the scene on Glades Road near Minot Beach. In an update, officials said they first received a call about the fire shortly before 8 p.m. Officials said crews soon arrived to find three buildings already in flames. Officials said crews worked to contain the fire as wind blew through the area, though fire eventually spread to two additional homes. More than 60 firefighters joined in the fire response.There were no reported injuries as of around 10 p.m.In a statement Friday night, Scituate police asked anyone not immediately affected by the fire to stay away from the area. Residents, police said, should expect power outages and water related issues including pressure issues and discoloration as a result of the fire. Cell pho...

Mississippi tornadoes kill 23, injure dozens overnight

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Emergency officials in Mississippi said 23 people have been killed by tornadoes that tore through the state on Friday night, destroying buildings and knocking out power as severe weather that produced hail the size of golf balls moved through several southern states.The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed there had been 23 deaths as of 6:20 a.m. Saturday with dozens of injuries and four people missing throughout the state. The agency said in a Twitter post that search and rescue teams from numerous local and state agencies were deployed along with personnel to assist those impacted by the tornadoes.The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado caused damage about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Jackson, Mississippi. The rural towns of Silver City and Rolling Fork reported destruction as the tornado swept northeast at 70 mph (113 kph) without weakening, racing towards Alabama through towns including Winona and Amory into the night.The...

Fire breaks out on Spirit of Boston while docked in the Seaport

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

Fire crews rushed to contain a fire that broke out on the lower level of the Spirit of Boston while it was docked in the Seaport late Friday night. Heavy, black smoke could be seen coming from the ship as crews worked from the dock, on the boat, and in the water to extinguish the flames around 11:30 p.m.There was no one on board when the fire broke out and no reported injuries.https://twitter.com/BostonFire/status/1639471646523416576The cause of the fire remains under investigation.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

2 hospitalized after motorcycle hits pedestrian in Cambridge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

Police are investigating a pedestrian crash in Cambridge early Saturday morning that sent two people to the hospital.Officers responding to the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Exeter Park around 1 a.m. found a serious crash involving a motorcyclist and a pedestrian that left the pedestrian, a male in his 60s, with serious head injuries, police said.The motorcyclist was also hospitalized.A preliminary investigation suggests the motorcyclist had a green light and the right of way when they struck the pedestrian in the crosswalk.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Homes burned to the ground in Scituate fire on Minot Beach

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:14 GMT

The morning will show that multiple homes have burned to the ground in Scituate after flames jumped from house-to-house in the Minot Beach area.Scituate, Hanover, Hull, Duxbury, Rockland, Plymouth and Hanson firefighters all responded. People were displaced but no injuries are being reported.MEMA’s Plymouth County coordinator was on scene and the plume from the blazes could be seen on radar.Scituate fire Chief John Murphy estimated that the fire started sometime between 7:30 p.m. Friday. “Upon arrival, we had three homes well underway with flames,” Murphy told WCVB. “Everybody was evacuated.”This is a developing story …Homes burn along the Glades section of Minot beach at a multi alarm fire on March 24, 2023 in , Scituate, MA. . (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)Homes burn along the Glades section of Minot beach at a multi alarm fire on March 24, 2023 in , Scituate, MA. . (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)Homes burn along the Glades section of Minot beach a...