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‘Boston Strong, forever’: Thousands gather at the Boston Marathon finish line, remembering the pain of the 2013 bombings and the resilience that followed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

A little over an hour after daybreak, a bagpiper led a procession of family members who marched with Mayor Michelle Wu and Gov. Maura Healey toward the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street.Ten years ago, terrorist brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev bombed the 117th running of the marathon, killing three spectators and injuring hundreds more. Two police officers died in the aftermath of the bombings.Families of those killed as well as Wu and Healey gathered for a solemn ceremony early Saturday morning, remembering their losses but also acknowledging the strength and resilience that followed the unfathomable tragedy.Wu said she couldn’t help but think about being a mother to her 5- and 8-year-old sons throughout One Boston Day, which has become an annual holiday in the city, when many people across the region conduct community service projects in honor of the victims.“There’s nothing like a mother’s love,” the mayor said, “and to know what many of these moms and familie...

Nets Notebook: Jacque Vaughn appears to be unsatisfied with officiating on Joel Embiid in Game 1 loss

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

The Nets appear unhappy with how MVP frontrunner Joel Embiid was officiated in their Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.Embiid scored 26 points and shot 7-of-15 from the field, but he did a large chunk of his damage at the foul line, making all 11 of his attempts on the night.Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said admitted turnover woes and a lack of three-point shooting were the driving factors in Brooklyn’s series-opening loss.“But hopefully they’ll be calling a travel and three seconds on the big fella next game,” Vaughn said postgame. “So I’ll look forward to that.”Vaughn also said officials missed an out-of-bounds call on Embiid seconds before both he and Nets wing Royce O’Neale got tangled up. Embiid shoved O’Neale in the chest twice, and officials assessed double technical fouls to both.“Equal opportunity I think it was. They wanted to give one to one guy, so they gave it to the other guy,” Vaughn sa...

Martin Richard Foundation bringing people together, continuing Martin’s simple and profound legacy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

Baseball coach Pat Ryan remembers Martin Richard’s “very sharp sense of humor,” especially when he caught the 7-year-old smiling when a teammate had a mouth full of bubble gum.Running coach Vicky Shen looks back at how the energetic boy used to crack jokes with his friends during practice. “Martin really was somebody all of the kids loved to be with,” she says.The world knows Martin Richard for the powerful poster he created during a second-grade class assignment about nonviolent protest that read “No more hurting people — Peace.”Martin died at age 8, a pair of terrorists cutting his life short when they bombed the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.Ten years later, the Dorchester boy’s simple and profound legacy carries on through the Martin Richard Foundation, which his parents Bill and Denise created within a year of the bombings.The foundation has invested millions into community programs that work to advance inclusion, kindness, justice and peace — values that Martin found pride...

Martin Richard’s friends get ready to run the Boston Marathon in his honor 10 years later: ‘Carrying Martin’s message of peace’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

Ten years after the Boston Marathon bombing, friends of the 8-year-old boy Martin Richard, who was killed that day, are gearing up to run the marathon in his honor on Monday, a day that has always been very difficult for them.“Martin was a dear friend of mine, one of my best friends growing up, and to be able to cross that finish line for him and his family is going to mean a lot,” said 19-year-old Theo Stanley, a member of the Martin Richard Foundation’s MR8 Tribute Team.“I truly do not know how I’m going to feel because I don’t think I will have ever felt that feeling before,” he told the Herald a few days before race day. “I live every day with him in my mind, and I try to do right by him. It’s going to be really impactful to cross that finish line.”Fifty runners on the MR8 Tribute Team are taking on the Boston Marathon course to commemorate the Dorchester boy’s life and his love for community, friends, and family....

Mikal Bridges shrugs off 30-point performance in Game 1 loss to 76ers: ‘None of that s–t matters when you lose’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

PHILADELPHIA — Mikal Bridges scored 30 points and only missed six shots in his first playoff game as Brooklyn’s No. 1 scoring option — but it was a 20-point loss in a game the Nets hoped to play better.Bridges, who has been on a scoring surge since the trade to Brooklyn averaging 27 points per game since Feb. 9, shrugged off the impressive performance.“None of that s—t matters when you lose,” he said after the Nets’ 121-101 loss to the 76ers in Game 1 of this Eastern Conference first-round series. “It feels good to make some shots, but I’d rather miss shots and win, so it’s whatever.”Bridges scored 11 points in the first quarter and tallied 23 by halftime, but said he struggled when the Sixers adjusted in the second half. While his scoring was on point, the Nets’ star struggled to pass against the trap.He turned the ball over three times, either on drives to the rim or reacting to an extra body coming his way.&#...

Celtics notebook: How Joe Mazzulla, Quin Snyder connected long before playoffs meeting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

Quin Snyder didn’t have a job last summer after he resigned from the Jazz, but the longtime coach still loved talking basketball with whoever was willing. Brad Stevens, who has developed a strong relationship with Snyder over the years, had just the guy for him.Long before it was even a remote possibility that the two would face each other in a playoff series, Snyder connected with Joe Mazzulla and immediately hit it off.“I tried to kind of not think too much about basketball, but I really enjoyed talking to him,” Snyder, now the head coach of the Hawks, said before Saturday’s Game 1. “Just in those conversations, not only a heck of a coach, but very thoughtful about the game, very smart. It was an opportunity for me to learn, too. You got people who have different experiences.”Neither Snyder nor Mazzulla was a head coach at the time. But after unforeseen circumstances – Snyder replacing Nate McMilan midseason and Mazzulla being promoted from assistant to head coach after Ime Udoka’...

Easter: church head laments conflict in ‘historical’ Russia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Worshipers including President Vladimir Putin crowded into Moscow’s vast Christ the Savior Cathedral for Easter services led by Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill, a supporter of Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.The services began late Saturday and were to extend long into Sunday as phalanxes of white-robed clerics circulated through the cathedral swinging smoking censers and a choir sang and chanted.Most Western churches observed Easter on April 9, but the Russian Orthodox Church follows a different calendar.In a video message broadcast on state televison before the start of the service, Kirill lamented the “grave events taking place on our Russian historical land, ” echoing the claim of Putin and other Russian officials that an independent Ukraine is essentially a fiction.Kirill called for prayers “so that peace and a common good life, fraternal relations again unite our peoples, who were once the one people of united Russia.” Putin was sho...

Man critically injured in daytime shooting in Keelesdale neighbourhood

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

A man suffered life-threatening injuries after being shot in the Keelesdale neighbourhood of the city. Police say they were called to an apartment building on Clearview Heights, near Eglinton Avenue West and Black Creek Drive, just before 5 p.m. Saturday. When they arrived they found a man suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to a trauma centre in critical condition. There is no word yet on any suspect information.

Researchers want Health Canada to post updated data on effects of drinking alcohol

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

Researchers behind the latest guidance on drinking alcohol want Health Canada to update findings on its website to inform the public about safe levels of consumption.And federal Health Minister Jean-Yves agrees Canadians should have access to that “important piece of advice.”The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) released a Health Canada-funded report in January that says scientific evidence from around the world suggests no amount of alcohol is safe and low-risk is defined as two drinks per week, instead of two drinks per day, based on its previously recommended limits from 2011. But the old information remains on the federal agency’s site.Duclos said people need access to the latest, robust data online to make decisions about drinking and their well-being.“I think every Canadian deserves to know what the experts believe,” he said in an interview. “In the end, it’s for people to decide. They need to have easy access to th...

California man wore armor in hostage killing, report says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

ROSEVILLE, Calif. (AP) — The suspect in a Northern California shooting last week was wearing body-armor vest when he took two hostages in a public park, killing one, wounding the other and opening fire at California Highway Patrol officers, authorities said.The CHP officers approached suspect Eric Abril on April 6 near Mahany Park in Roseville, northeast of Sacramento, authorities said. He was wanted for questioning in connection with a freeway shooting.But the situation turned violent. The officers confronted Abril — in a park where families played nearby at baseball fields and children attended camp — and he took two hostages in response and opened fire, prompting a gun battle that became deadly, authorities said. Investigators are “confident” that Abril fatally shot James MacEgan and wounded his wife, Patricia MacEgan, according to Roseville police and court documents filed by the Placer County District Attorney’s Office.The criminal complaint filed against Abril says Offic...