The five officers at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster were taken to hospitals after the confrontation Wednesday night, Scott Croteau, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, said in a statement Thursday. Four have since been released and one was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. ??????????

Last month, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total was also considered evidence that the job market has been slowing steadily, compelling the Fed to start cutting interest rates. ??????????

During the first four months of 2024, applications for jobless benefits averaged just 213,000 a week before rising in May. They hit 250,000 in late July, supporting the notion that high interest rates were finally cooling a red-hot U.S. job market. ??????????  

The focus has now decisively shifted to the labor market, and there’s a sense that the Fed is trying to strike a better balance between jobs and inflation,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management. ??????????

In response to weakening employment data and receding consumer prices, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut its benchmark interest rate by a half of a percentage point as the central bank shifts its focus from taming inflation toward supporting the job market. The Fed's goal is to achieve a rare “soft landing,” whereby it curbs inflation wit