Massachusetts police officer saves Christmas after finding 80 Amazon packages in woods

BOSTON — A local Massachusetts police officer “likely saved a Christmas headache” after he discovered roughly 80 Amazon packages left behind in the woods, days before the holiday.

Early Sunday morning, Lakeville Police Sgt. Shawn Robert stumbled upon “three large totes full of Amazon packages” that a driver for the e-commerce company reportedly left on the side of a road because of “stress,” Chief Matthew Perkins said in a release on Monday.

The packages had been left unattended for roughly seven hours. Perkins said the Amazon driver left the items in a wooded area on the side of a local road around 7 p.m. Saturday. Robert discovered the totes hours later, at about 2 a.m. Sunday, he added.

Body camera footage that Lakeville police released on Monday shows Robert approaching the items, confused about what they were before calling for assistance to drive the packages back to the station.

—Boston Herald

Social Security's full retirement age will jump in 2025. When can you collect your full benefits?

LOS ANGELES – If you were planning to retire next year, double check your math because a law passed in the '80s is annually raising the age when Americans can collect their full Social Security benefits. And next year is no exception.

In 1983, Congress passed a law that gradually increases the age at which people may receive 100% of their Social Security benefits. The increase is aimed to match increasing life expectancy.

Full retirement age is based on the number of years you have worked as well as your annual income throughout your working life, according to the Social Security Administration.

Most Americans consider the typical age of retirement to be 65 but that's been steadily rising. The law increased the age beginning with people born in 1938 or later, Social Security officials said. The retirement age has been increasing by two months for each subsequent birth year.

—Los Angeles Times

Walking pneumonia, the 'great masquerader,' on the rise in Washington

SEATTLE — This holiday season, try not to give your loved ones something that will take their breath away. At least, not like this.

This year, in addition to more familiar respiratory viruses like influenza, RSV and SARS-CoV-2, local health experts are also warning about a particular type of pneumonia infection.

Infections caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae bacteria — often associated with "walking" pneumonia — have startled providers as cases have surged through the United States since the spring, especially in young children.

Infections appeared to peak in late August, but have stayed at high levels, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in October.

—The Seattle Times

4 journalists, police officer killed by gangs at reopening of Haiti’s largest hospital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Four journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday after armed gangs opened fire on them inside an old military hospital in Haiti’s capital. The attack also left at least six other people, several of them journalists and one police officer, with gunshot wounds.

The injured were being treated at La Paix Hospital after a specialized unit of the Haiti National Police went inside the facility that is part of the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, better known as the General Hospital, to rescue the wounded.

Police officers told waiting journalists that they had left four bodies on the ground; at least two of them were online journalists.

The tragedy unfolded while the press was awaiting the arrival of the minister of health to cover the reopening of the General Hospital, which had been closed for months because of gang attacks. As reporters waited inside, they could hear gunfire out in the streets, where two armored police vehicles were patrolling.

—Miami Herald