Latest news with #Garabedian
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Winged Victory' honors vets at air museum
WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — Under billowing skies and the occasional roar of a plane from Bradley International Airport, hundreds of visitors sat in World War II-era planes and honored local veterans as part of the New England Air Museum's 'Winged Victory' event on Saturday. The event, named for Connecticut's own 43rd Infantry Division 169th Regiment, was staffed with re-enactors of the 169th Regiment who wore military-green uniforms, brandished WWII-era weapons, and set up an outdoor field camp packed with period water tanks and food rations. Some members of the group are descended from soldiers who fought in the unit, including Doug Crawford, 58, whose father, Charles B. Crawford, was a technician in F Company. The 169th regiment fought in multiple campaigns during World War II, including Guadalcanal. Sisters Emma and Amanda Loefflad of Tolland, Connecticut, wore vintage clothing and custom dresses to portray citizens during the war. 'It's a very different world now and people dress so differently,' Emma said. 'You put a lot of effort into wearing this every day.' At noon, the museum held a short memorial to honor all fallen soldiers. 'We gather here not to glorify war but to honor the sacrifice of those who gave their last full measure of devotion in the cause of freedom,' Crawford said in his opening remarks. Crawford has been participating in military reenactments for over twenty years, he said, and his son, Mason, 23, of Tolland, Connecticut, has taken after him as a way to honor his grandfather, Charles, who passed away in 2014. 'It's kind of a way to connect with him now that he's not here and to show people what he went through,' Mason said. 'These were kids going into war.' Affixed to his uniform was a poppy pin, a symbol of remembrance taken from John McCrae's poem, 'In Flanders Fields,' which was recited during the museum's memorial ceremony. The museum also hosted Robert Garabedian, 100, of Tolland, Connecticut, who served in the Army Air Corps during WWII and flew P-40 and P-47 fighter jets. He sat at a table in front of a 1945 Republican P-47 D Thunderbolt and told visitors his story. Garabedian trained in New Mexico and overseas, and had been scheduled to participate in the invasion of Japan as a fighter pilot. Those plans were scrapped after the United States dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and effectively ended the war. Garabedian called it 'an honor' to attend the ceremony and pay tribute to fellow soldiers and those who built the planes he flew. But he also considered the futility of war in general. 'War is a terrible way to settle disputes,' he said. Garabedian has 12 children and a total of 71 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren, and wants them to live in a 'peaceful world.' 'We have to share with others,' Garabedian said. 'We have to give them a chance. We have to listen with respect to what their problems are and, instead of adding to them, try to help solve them.' Lego fans have block party at MassMutual Center in Springfield Mass. man convicted in savage 1990 Springfield rape denied parole again Mass. casino winner: Big jackpot won playing card-based game Not rubbish! These UMass grads have recycling all sorted out with their trash robot Speed bumps petition gains support after child killed by car in Springfield Read the original article on MassLive.


Forbes
19-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Making Sustainable Jet Fuel From Clean Hydrogen
Current Climate brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability every Monday. Sign up to get it in your inbox. Christie Hemm Klok for Forbes The clean hydrogen push in the U.S. has cooled in the past year, but Electric Hydrogen, a maker of highly efficient, cheaper electrolyzers, just snagged a deal to supply a 100-megawatt hydrogen production system to Infinium to make sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at Infinium's new Pecos, Texas, plant. Electric Hydrogen's tech, which splits water molecules using renewable electricity, will produce 45 tons of hydrogen a day, CEO Raffi Garabedian told Forbes. When it begins full operation in 2027 it will be one of the largest electrolytic hydrogen plants in the U.S. The companies aren't disclosing the project's financial details. 'That hydrogen will go into a gas-to-liquids synthesis plant–a chemical plant–which also takes CO2 out of a pipeline that would've otherwise been vented from nearby wellheads,' he said. The elements are combined to make hydrocarbon chains, building blocks of different fuels, including SAF. 'It's pretty cool technology to go from power to gas to liquid fuel that you can put in an airplane.' 'The entire process is effectively zero carbon,' he said. 'The plant is powered 100% off of procured renewable power, a combination of solar and wind. The CO2 is 'free' CO2 because it's CO2 that was otherwise vented into the atmosphere.' Electric Hydrogen's goal is to be able to supply affordable clean hydrogen in the absence of subsidies, a wise move as the Trump Administration and Republican Congress move to end federal support for a broad range of clean energy initiatives. And though U.S. policies have changed, international markets, particularly Europe, are powering ahead. 'Our market is primarily in Europe, and Europe is a completely different animal,' Garabedian said. 'Europe is messy; it's slow; it's cumbersome in a lot of ways. But it's also consistently committed to a program of energy transformation.' Along with the EU's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, it's pushing for much greater energy independence and seeking to cut reliance on imported fuels, like LNG, which make energy costs there higher. 'Europe is doing what it's doing not just because it's green, but also because the economics are different there,' Garabedian said. 'As a result, we're focused on the European market and it's pretty good news, honestly.' We're once again seeking nominations from founders, policymakers, investors, organizers, artists, scientists and others driving meaningful impact in climate and sustainability efforts around the world. Is this you or someone you know? Sign up here: Sustainability Leaders 2025 Deadline for nominations is 9:00am ET on Friday, June 13, 2025. tmp5i61axgm General Motors, which sells the biggest lineup of electric vehicles in the U.S., plans to slash the cost of its rechargeable pickups and large SUVs by thousands of dollars thanks to a new type of battery that uses more of the cheap material manganese and much less of expensive metals cobalt and nickel while still offering a long driving range. The lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) cathode, which has been in development by GM and battery partner LG Energy for a decade, will cut the cost of battery packs in electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer and Cadillac Escalade by more than $6,000, GM's vice president of battery propulsion Kurt Kelty told Forbes. It has nearly the same driving range as 'high nickel' lithium-ion cells now used in most EVs while competing on price with cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells from Chinese battery makers that are heavier and offer less range, he said. The new batteries are also durable enough to be recharged frequently for at least eight years. 'We look at this as a game-changing battery for EV trucks, and that's really going to set the new bar for performance in this particular segment,' said Kelty, who built up Tesla's battery operations for over a decade and previously worked for battery maker Panasonic. 'With LMR we can actually deliver over 400 miles of range while reducing our costs.' Read more here Jonathan Silver You're advising cleantech companies, but will Multplier also be an investor? Silver: No. One of the things that makes Multiplier unique is that our interests are aligned completely with the entrepreneurs and initial investors. We're not taking fees or retainers, there's really no cash compensation upfront at all. What we end up with is a modest piece of equity in the company, and then when the company wins, we win. If the company doesn't win, we don't win either. Our interests are completely aligned with their successful outcome. What will that look like? If I have a hydrogen company, a battery company, a solar company, what would multiplier do for me? Shah: We're only selecting companies that we think have a confident pathway by which we can help them get to an exit. Whether they're in hydrogen or solar or EV charging or advanced building materials, there are a lot of sectors that encompass sustainability. The goal for us is to determine that they've achieved enough product and market fit and that they've got enough really excited customers, that we see a pathway to helping them get to an exit within a reasonable amount of time. Silver: We think we can help a certain number of companies in certain industries turbocharge their growth. We want to be working with companies that already have product and take them to additional potential customer relationships. We want to help them avoid some of the things that we refer to as scar tissue that we've seen many companies have to work their way through. We also want to talk to them seriously about the nature of the company they're building. Many of these companies have terrific products, but they're really point solutions. The question is, is the intent to grow a dominant company around a single-point solution? Or is it a better strategy to tuck up under a larger strategic or different platform so that the technology has room to breathe? Shah: One of the things I've found through all the conversations I've had with these companies is that for most they have never actually plotted out their exact course to an exit. If you say to them, who do you want to exit to? They're like, 'oh, I don't have a ready answer.' Is it an IPO? Is it a sale to a company? If it's a sale to a company, do you have three companies in mind that you think would want to buy you? What do they want you to accomplish before they buy you? Part of this is just helping them with that checklist and saying, if they want you to hit these three milestones, are you actually working toward those three milestones so that you could sell your company to these folks? There's been an assumption in the cleantech sector that it will operate the same as the Silicon Valley traditional approach. I think the reality is that what we do for a living doesn't operate under a go-fast-and-break-things model. We're working in global infrastructure. By definition, people's lives are on the line. Stuff actually has to work. Given moves by the Trump Administration and Republican-controlled Congress isn't this going to be a tough time for cleantech startups? Shah: It's very clear that you have a set of technologies that we've invented and demonstrated here in this country, and for years and years and years, those technologies went to other countries to be scaled up. Then we imported them back in. I think over the last four years, there was a set of policies passed to get people to do big things here in this country. With the uncertainty of this administration and the recent House Bill, you're starting to see some of those technologies revert back to going to other countries. We continue to invent the best stuff in the world, and I think for a short period of time there we tried to get people to commercialize the technologies here. I do think that the message this administration is sending and that the House bill is sending is that [cleantech] commercialization is not something we have the patience for here in this country. Silver: The great tragedy in this is that it's a self-inflicted wound because by pulling away from these technologies, which are inarguably among the fastest-growing industries in the world, we're sort of ceding the field and all the related business opportunities to the rest of the world and especially to China. To circle back, one of the reasons we wanted to do [Multiplier] was to help U.S.-based companies realize the value of the work they've done, get those technologies more deeply embedded in the marketplace and create value for the entrepreneurs, whether that's in the form of a sale or anything else. Otherwise, we run the risk of creating literally nothing at all. Jigar Shah House Republicans stall spending package for steeper cuts to Medicaid and green energy. In a massive setback, Republicans failed to push their big package of tax breaks and spending cuts through the Budget Committee as a handful of conservatives joined all Democrats in a stunning vote against it (Associated Press) GOP budget plan contains a massive poison pill for clean energy. 'Totally unworkable' rules could kill manufacturing and clean energy investment by restricting tax credits for any project remotely tied to China, experts warn (Canary Media) A clean energy boom was just starting. Now, a Republican bill aims to end it. The party's signature tax plan would kill most Biden-era incentives, but there's a sticking point: G.O.P. districts have the most to lose (New York Times) Trump officials want to cut limits on PFAS in drinking water – what will the impact be? The EPA is attempting actions that violate the law, some say, and Biden administration's progress can't be fully undone (The Guardian) Polestar's luxury electric SUV has a lower lifetime environmental impact than a tiny petrol car. Yes, the planet should have fewer cars, but small ICE cars are not necessarily cleaner than some large EVs (Forbes) U.S. energy industry trade groups have launched a last-minute lobbying blitz to urge Congress members to spare a slew of former President Joe Biden's clean energy tax credits from the chopping block in the Republican budget plan (Reuters) Texas is failing to fix the grid (again). For more than 25 years, the Texas Legislature has done nothing to address ERCOT's fatal design flaw (Forbes)
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘Why is he now Pope?': Boston attorney concerned over new pope's leadership amid clergy allegations
After Pope Leo XIV's first day as the pontiff, a local attorney says he and his clients aren't thrilled about the decision from the Vatican. Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based attorney, has represented thousands of victims and survivors over decades of alleged clergy sexual abuse. He told Boston 25 News on Friday he was disappointed to see Pope Leo XIV was appointed. 'There's a track record here that doesn't give many survivors or victims hope,' said Garabedian. 'He doesn't send a message he's going to protect children or help survivors heal.' He pointed towards two incidents over the last 25 years. Garabedian said in 2000, as head of the Augustinian Order in Chicago, Prevost allegedly housed a priest near a school facing accusations of sexual abuse. Garabedian explained, 'That priest was a pedophile, and those children were susceptible.' He also pointed to an incident while Pope Leo XIV was serving in Peru. The attorney criticized his handling of alleged sexual abuse against three young women. Garabedian continued, 'Those women have stated ... Pope Leo did a shallow job in the investigation.' The majority of New Englanders who spoke to Boston 25 News were happy about the appointment of Pope Leo XIV. Richard Heath said outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End, 'I was really excited about that!' Alexa MacPherson, a client of Garabedian's, said she was the victim of sexual abuse at a parish in Dorchester in the 1980's. She is still demanding action from the Vatican with new leadership. MacPherson asked, 'You're doing God's work? Well, you're not when you're hiding predatory priests.' The archdiocese of Boston said in a statement Friday: 'The Archdiocese of Boston has a robust, effective trauma - informed program in place to address the long-term impact of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. We have long been proactive with a vigorous child protection program that requires background screening, adult education, and youth education. We take our responsibilities seriously including reporting any allegations to law enforcement. We are committed to the protection of the young people entrusted to our care and to the prevention of any harm to them by anyone. Our new Holy Father has shown his compassion and commitment to the people entrusted to his care over and over again throughout his priestly ministry. We have full faith and confidence in our new Holy Father.' A celebration mass for Pope Leo XIV is set for Friday at 7 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
10 Mass. shelters waiving adoption fees for larger dogs next week
BOSTON (WPRI) — The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) and several other shelters across the state are waiving adoption fees for dozens of dogs next week. The adoptathon — called 'Big Dog Energy' — begins Monday, April 21, and runs through Sunday, April 27. 'We've been saying for a long time that adoptions of larger dogs have slowed down over the past couple of years, and it's causing a capacity problem for us and many other shelters,' explained MSPCA's Jamie Garabedian. Garabedian said adoption fees will be waived for larger dogs ages one and older at 10 shelters across the state: MSPCA's Boston Adoption Center: Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. MSPCA at Nevins Farm: Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 4:30 p.m. MSPCA's Cape Cod Adoption Center: Tuesday through Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. MSPCA's Northeast Animal Shelter: Monday through Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Lowell Humane Society: Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Berkshire Humane Society: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m to 4 p.m. Worcester Animal Rescue League: Open by appointment only. Boston Animal Control: Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dakin Humane Society: Tuesday through Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.* Thomas J. O'Connor Adoption Center: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 3 p.m. and Saturdays by appointment only. *Dakin Humane Society is only participating in the adoptathon April 25-26. Garabedian said the MSPCA's local intake of dogs has increased 11% from the same time last year. 'We want to continue to be there for all the animals who need to come into our care for various reasons, but if we aren't able to free up space, that might not be possible,' she added. The goal is for at least 100 dogs to find their forever homes next week, according to Garabedian. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.