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Ticker: Audit finds $2.7M in benefits fraud; Gas prices up slightly   

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

Investigators in the state auditor’s office looked into 1,135 cases of suspected public benefits fraud over the last three months of 2022 and identified fraud in 255 cases totaling $2.7 million, according to Auditor Diana DiZoglio.The auditor last month filed a report with the Legislature outlining the recent work of the Bureau of Special Investigations, which occurred while Suzanne Bump, DiZoglio’s predecessor, was finishing out her term.During the last quarter of 2022, investigators found $1.6 million in Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (TAFDC) fraud, $771,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud, $283,000 in Medicaid fraud, and $7,300 in Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC) fraud.The bureau detected $13.5 million in fraud in fiscal 2022, and $6 million in fiscal 2021.Gas prices up in MassachusettsThe average gas price is up 2 cents in Massachusetts, averaging $3.29 on pressures from the coming swi...

Dave Hyde: The quiet signing of Mike White is Dolphins’ most important this offseason

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

He’s a developing talent, a popular teammate, a tough-minded quarterback who tested just fine in his career cameos.Mike White fits that way as the Miami Dolphins most important signing this offseason.He’s a hometown name, a local sensation, a Pembroke Pines kid who grew up a few miles from the stadium he’ll now play.White coming home works in that warm-hearted way, too.Finally — and this is important — no one outside White’s family and friends got overly excited about him signing Monday with the Dolphins. He’s not Tom Brady or even Jimmy Garoppolo, who were among those loudly reported to be Dolphins targets in ways that threatened the cocoon of confidence built around Tua Tagovailoa.There’s nothing loud about White’s signing. He isn’t even a veteran starter like Teddy Bridgewater, who kick-started a national debate last offseason on if he was better than Tagovailoa upon his signing. White brings no debate with him. Even the...

Mattapan woman charged with attacking 13-year-old boy at MBTA station; Sandwich man charged with assaulting, robbing owners of Hanover Street store

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

A 35-year-old Mattapan woman is accused of attacking a 13-year-old boy at a South Boston MBTA station last week, while a Sandwich man has been charged with assaulting and robbing the owners of a Hanover Street store last year.In Thursday’s incident at Andrew Station, MBTA Transit Police responded to a call at 7:30 a.m. for a juvenile who had been attacked and suffered a cut to his face.The boy told police that he was waiting for a bus with some friends, while a woman he did not know was walking around the bus stop yelling obscenities. Without provocation, the woman — later identified as Monica Velez-Caraballo — walked up to the boy and allegedly hit him in the face with a soda can that had jagged edges.A few minutes after police arrived, the boy spotted Velez-Caraballo. After being arrested, Velez-Caraballo told police, “They started it. They threw a chemical on my skin and it’s burning me.”Police officers reported that Velez-Caraballo was not suf...

Sportsmanship at the highest level

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

Game often respects game, but Xaverian junior goalie Cole Pouliot-Porter took that respect for an opponent to another level Sunday night at Tsongas Center.Teammate Joe DiMartino had just delivered a goal in overtime to propel the Hawks to a 1-0 win over 14th-seeded Reading in a Div. 1 state semifinal, sending No. 7 Xaverian to TD Garden for another bid at the state title. On the far end of the ice, Pouliot-Porter – briefly soaking it all in  – saw all his teammates bombard the senior at the glass by the student section in celebration. Right next to the frenzy was Rockets junior goalie Chris Hanifan, knelt to the ground in front of the net he posted a shutout in 48 minutes and 13 seconds of high-level hockey.Skating the length of the ice slowly, Pouliot-Porter decided he could wait a few more moments before celebrating with his team. First, he’d embrace Hanifan for a job well-done.“Chris obviously had a great playoff run and obviously he was a backbone of his team during the season, ...

Banks tumble; others rise on hopes for easier rates

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

NEW YORK — Bank stocks tumbled Monday following the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history. But other stocks rose on hopes the bloodletting will force the Federal Reserve to take it easier on the hikes to interest rates that are shaking Wall Street and the economy.The S&P 500 dipped 0.2% after whipsaw trading, where it careened from an early loss of 1.4% to a midday gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 90 points, or 0.3%, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.The sharpest drops came from banks and other financial companies. Investors worried that a relentless rise in interest rates meant to get inflation under control are approaching a tipping point and may be cracking the banking system.The feds announced a plan late Sunday meant to shore up confidence following the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank since Friday.Most pressure is on the regional banks a couple steps below in size of the massive, “too-big-to-fail” banks that he...

Manitoba aims to lift ban on ticket resales, promises better rules

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government introduced a bill Monday that would end a long-standing but hard to enforce ban on reselling tickets to sports and entertainment events at higher prices.The current ban has not prevented ticket prices from soaring because much of the reselling is conducted outside Manitoba and beyond the reach of provincial law, said James Teitsma, minister for consumer protection.“A lot of the reselling is happening in these grey markets, (by) third parties, things that are out of province, out of country,” Teitsma said.“I don’t want to put the Manitoba resellers at any kind of disadvantage. So if a third-party reseller in another country is able to sell those tickets, then I want those Manitoba-based ones to be able to sell those same tickets.”Teitsma pointed to the company that owns the National Hockey League Winnipeg Jets as an example of a local firm that has followed the law. The Jets host an online ticket exchange that forbids t...

Man arrested in Texas hookah lounge shooting that killed 2

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A 19-year-old was arrested in a January shooting at a hookah lounge in Austin that left two high school students dead and three other people seriously wounded, police said Monday.Christijan Stevens was arrested Wednesday in Killeen, north of Austin, and is charged with capital murder, police said. Jail records did not list an attorney for him who could comment about the allegations.Police have said that the shooter left the lounge after opening fire on Jan. 28. They have said he “had prior history with one of the victims” but haven’t said which one. Police on Monday did not provide any additional information on what led to the shooting. Brayden Bolyard, 17, died at the lounge, and Jaitron Tatum, 18, died on Feb. 1. The school district in Jarrell, located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Austin, has said that both of them were students there. The Associated Press

Signature Bank seized to send banks a message, director says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

A regulatory takeover of a New York-based bank was intended to send a message to U.S. banks to stay away from the cryptocurrency business, a former member of Congress who was on the bank’s board says.Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that he believes the state officials behind the action were trying to make an example of Signature Bank.“This was just a way to tell people, ‘We don’t want you dealing with crypto,’” Frank told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.Frank, a Democrat who served in Congress from 1981 until 2013, coauthored the Dodd-Frank act that boosted government oversight of banks following the 2008 financial crisis.He was a director at Signature Bank until the New York Division of Financial Services took it over Sunday and gave control of it to the FDIC, the federal agency that insures bank deposits, until the bank can be sold.Signature’s takeover came two days after regulators seized California-based Silicon Valley Bank. Both followed a rush of ...

Police: Woman fatally stabbed near train named the attacker

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A 26-year-old woman who was stabbed at a downtown Chicago train platform uttered the name of her attacker before dying, police said Monday.Police announced a murder charge against a 31-year-old man who was arrested Saturday, roughly 13 hours after the early morning stabbing.Samantha Maldonado was attacked as a train approached at an elevated platform in the Loop and stabbed repeatedly around 1:30 a.m. She ran down stairs to street level and collapsed.“The key piece of evidence in this case came from the victim herself,” said Eric Carter, police first deputy superintendent. “She named … the offender before she succumbed to her injuries.”They had a prior relationship, Carter said.The man was denied bond during a court appearance Monday.The Associated Press

Audience for 95th Oscars rebounds slightly to 18.7 million

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:39:10 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Whether it was the lingering drama of The Slap or the prominence of blockbusters in the best picture race, a bigger audience was lured back to the Oscars this year. The 95th Academy Awards, which aired Sunday night on ABC, was viewed by an estimated 18.7 million, according to preliminary Fast National Live+Same Day numbers released Monday by ABC. That’s up 12% from last year’s show, but still low compared to most years.The evening’s main counterprogramming, the season finale of “The Last of Us” pulled in 8.2 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max. The show began at 9 p.m. EST, an hour after the Oscars started.A frequent criticism of the Oscars is that the show celebrates films that don’t have wide appeal. This year was markedly different, however, with two billion-dollar blockbuster sequels in the mix: “Top: Gun Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” were both nominated for best picture. Angela Bassett was nominated for a Marvel movie, a first. Even ...