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Editorial: Biden too slow on the draw over Maui disaster

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

Where’s the Joe Biden of 2021?That was the year the president, who endorsers touted for his sense of decency, visited several states upended by natural disasters.“Empathy matters,” said Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2020. “And in this moment of crisis, it is more important than ever that the next president restores Americans’ faith in good, effective government.”In December of 2021, Biden visited Kentucky to survey damage and pledge federal support for the victims of more than 30 devastating tornadoes that killed dozens and left thousands more in the region without heat, water or electricity, the Associated Press reported.A month after he took office, Biden went to Houston to survey the damage from a historic storm. He toured Idaho, Colorado and California to survey wildfire damage over the summer. After Hurricane Ida struck, Biden went to Louisiana as well as New Jersey and New York in September.Biden consoled a family in Manvil...

Luscious Atlantic Beach pie with a salty twist

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

Some foods just speak to the season.In July and August, citrus often rules supreme because its bright, sunny taste brings to mind the roadside lemonade stands and fruity Popsicles we enjoyed as kids.Now that we’re adults, lemon and lime add sparkle to so many refreshing cocktails. They’re easy to find just about anywhere and provide a relatively inexpensive way to add a punch of acidic flavor to everything the fruit rubs shoulders with.This modern take on a vintage Southern pie made with lemon and lime juices absolutely shines on a dessert table when it’s hot and muggy outside. It was created a little over a decade ago by cookbook author Bill Smith, who was the chef at Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for nearly 30 years until his retirement in 2019.In 2011, he was asked to teach a group of food writers and chefs from the Southern Foodways Alliance about his home state’s food traditions (he grew up in New Bern, North Carolina). To illustra...

Shrimp rolls a delish summer treat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

I love biting into a buttery, toasted roll filled with a fresh shrimp salad. It’s a summer treat. Instead of buying cooked shrimp, this recipe has a two-minute foolproof way to cook your own. It keeps the shrimp juicy and flavorful. You can make the shrimp filling a day ahead and simply toast the rolls when you’re ready to serve the shrimp rolls.I like to buy frozen shrimp to have on hand. It’s easy to remove what you need. They take only a few minutes to defrost in a bowl of cold water.Helpful Hints:Buy shelled shrimp.You can use any type of pickles.TAG GOES HEREShrimp RollINGREDIENTS3/4 pound large shrimp, shell and tail removed1/2 cup sliced celery1/4 cup sliced scallions3 tablespoons chopped chives, divided use1/4 cup reduced fat mayonnaise1/2 tablespoon lemon juiceSalt and freshly ground black pepper4 whole wheat hot dog buns1/2 tablespoon butter4 large lettuce leaves12 bread and butter pickle slicesDIRECTIONSPlace shrimp in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Heat the water ...

In Between Days fest keeps it lively & (mostly) local in Quincy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

Plenty of people love megafests. They love traveling a thousand miles to see a band who also traveled a thousand miles play for a crowd too big to fit into Fenway. Now this experience isn’t without its rewards (like peeping, for the first time in years, a reunited Pixies or Outkast or Rage Against the Machine). But it can be overwhelming.“I love a big music festival,” In Between Days festival director James Macdonald told the Herald. “There’s something truly magical about 40,000 people singing the same song. It just happens that’s not an experience I like to create professionally.”Macdonald joined In Between Days in time for its second, greatly-expanded-but-still-manageable festival this weekend at Quincy’s Veterans Memorial Stadium. As someone with Massachusetts roots (his resume includes work with Life Is Good and Guster), Macdonald was attracted to In Between Days’ emphasis on local music, vendors and vibes.“We’re right on the Red Line, equally close to two train stations as Bost...

Jose Butto gives up 3 runs after getting called up to majors, Mets lose to Pirates, 7-4

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

The Mets called up Jose Butto from Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday knowing that they might need a pitcher to provide length out of the bullpen. This has often been the case for the Mets this season and it’s one of the factors that led them to sell at the trade deadline two weeks ago.Their premonition proved correct. Left-hander David Peterson lasted only 3 2/3 innings and Butto, a spot starter, took over from there, taking the loss (0-2) after a seventh-inning blowup in the Mets’ 7-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at Citi Field.The series is now tied at 1-1.“It’s a command issue,” said manager Buck Showalter. “Something we hope he gets better at.”Peterson held the Pirates (54-66) to only one run but struggled with his fastball command right away. He walked six hitters and hit one, exiting in the fourth with one on and two outs. After working out of the bullpen earlier this season, he was able to stretch out to 91 pitches but th...

Moore: Battery fires on rise – is it time to ban electric vehicles?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

The New York Fire Department recently reported that so far this year there have been 108 lithium-ion battery fires in New York City, which have injured 66 people and killed 13. According to FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, “There is not a small amount of fire, it (the vehicle) literally explodes.” The resulting fire is “very difficult to extinguish and so it is particularly dangerous.”Last year there were more than 200 fires from batteries from e-bikes, EVs and other devices.A fire ignited at an e-bike shop and killed four people near midnight on the morning of June 20. Two individuals were left in critical condition. The fire commissioner has warned New Yorkers that such devices could be very dangerous and typically explode in such a way that renders escape impossible.FDNY also reports that in just three years, lithium-ion battery fires have surpassed those started by cooking and smoking as the most common causes of fatal fires in New York City. It’s ...

Lowry: NYC’s Adams vindicates immigration hawks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

The public intellectual Irving Kristol famously said that the definition of a neoconservative is “a liberal who has been mugged by reality.”By the same token, the definition of a convert to immigration restrictionism is a big-city mayor dealing with a surge of illegal immigration in his city.In his desperate pleas for federal help to deal with about 100,000 migrants who have come to New York City since the spring of 2022, Mayor Eric Adams is vindicating the hawkish position on immigration with almost every utterance.All that it has taken to explode the lazy cliches that have defined the progressive position on the issue is a heavy flow of illegal immigration.If immigration is an unalloyed good, this influx should be a boon to New York City and its future. Why stop at 100,000 if the city could have 200,000, or 300,000? If immigration has no cost, why is New York spending $5 billion this year absorbing this flow?According to Adams, New York City “is being destroyed b...

Klietmann: Expanding drug price controls will hurt innovation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

Lawmakers in Washington are getting even more heavy handed in their approach to prescription drugs.House Democrats just proposed legislation to expand the dangerous price-setting provisions in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. This would decrease investment in cancer treatments and other medications — and cause major job losses, especially here in the Bay State.For the sake of our health and our livelihoods, Congress must abandon, not broaden, its price control schemes.The IRA requires Medicare officials and pharmaceutical companies to “negotiate” the price of drugs. But that’s not the right word: Companies that don’t agree to government-proposed prices will face excise taxes of up to 95%. That’s a shakedown, not a negotiation.The government will announce the first 10 drugs subject to IRA price controls in September. Which means we haven’t even seen this arrangement’s worst effects yet. Nonetheless, some lawmakers already want...

Dear Abby: Man unnerved by scantily clad stepdaughter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

Dear Abby: I have been married to my second wife for 10 years. Most everything is fine, but we have one area of conflict. It is regarding her daughter, my stepdaughter, who has grown from a cute little 9-year-old into a beautiful 19-year-old. The problem is her attire around the house. She routinely wears a sports bra and panties around the house (around me). I find it distracting, to say the least. I have discussed it with her mother, but she sees nothing wrong with it, probably because she dresses pretty much the same way. I can’t get my wife to understand that what might be OK for her is inappropriate for her daughter. What should I do? By the way, I have never said or done anything inappropriate, but I find myself taking a look at her more often than I should. Help! — Stepdad Who Sees in TexasDear Stepdad: If you haven’t told your wife DIRECTLY that a beautiful young woman parading around in her underwear and a sports bra is arousing, and you would prefer her d...

An abandoned desert village an hour from Dubai offers a glimpse at the UAE’s hardscrabble past

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:57 GMT

AL-MADAM, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Nestled in sand dunes an hour’s drive from the skyscrapers of Dubai, a desert village abandoned in the 1990s stands as an eerie relic of the rapid urbanization of the United Arab Emirates.Built in the 1970s to house semi-nomadic Bedouin, the village of al-Ghuraifa was abandoned two decades later as oil wealth transformed the country into a global hub of commerce and tourism, home to the futuristic cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.In recent years, the ghost village near the town of al-Madam in the Sharjah emirate has become something of a tourist attraction, offering an escape from the concrete jungles of the coastal cities and a glimpse at the Emirates’ hardscrabble past.The village, which comprises two rows of homes and a mosque, “can teach us a lot of the modern history of the UAE,” said Ahmad Sukkar, an assistant professor at the University of Sharjah who is part of a team researching the site.It was built as part of a public housing project aft...