Even though Franklin voters turned down a $2.8 million override last month, Franklin school officials say they still may be able to salvage late bus service for students involved in extracurricular activities.

Officials predicted that late bus service would be a casualty if the override failed, but recently Superintendent Wayne Ogden told the School Committee that enrollment in regular bus service for the coming school year had not dipped as significantly as anticipated, which could free up some extra funds to bring back a portion of the late bus schedule.

School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy says that several committee members remain committed to bringing back late-bus service and will look at a number of measures, including possibly instituting fees or working with the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority to secure additional vehicles.

-- Rachel Lebeaux

More Than Words, a nonprofit bookstore that aims to help at-risk youths, is launching a new café training program, to provide young adults with skills in business, food handling, and customer service.

The four-year-old bookstore/social enterprise seeks to empower youth “who are in the foster care system, court involved, homeless or out of school, to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business,” Executive Director Jodi Rosenbaum said in a press statement.

The Moody Street bookstore has helped over 70 youth “pursue their education, obtain jobs and develop plans for their transition to adulthood and self sufficiency,” Rosenbaum stated.

The new cafe will allow the nonprofit to expand training, from about 16 young people to about 24.

-- Lisa Kocian

Thomas Roache, Medfield High School graduate and progressive community organizer, officially kicked off his campaign for state representative last week with an event at the Zullo Gallery in Medfield.

Challenger Thomas Roache (jointom.net image)

Roache, an independent, is hoping to unseat Wrentham Republican Richard Ross, who has held the Ninth Norfolk district seat since 2005. The 28-year-old is running on a platform of making the state more affordable and says he will not hold another job if elected.

Incumbent Richard Ross (Globe file image)

Roache, a former captain of the Medfield High School football team, has also worked for an international development think tank in Washington D.C. and for an aid agency that provided psychological counseling to war victims in Beruit. Ross owns and operates R. J. Ross Funeral Home in Wrentham.

-- Calvin Hennick

Dr. Joseph Z. Zolot, a Needham physician who is under federal investigation for allegedly overprescribing addictive narcotics to his patients -- at least six of whom died of overdoses or drug abuse -- has permanently given up his medical practice.

The state Board of Registration in Medicine suspended Zolot's medical license a year ago. But Zolot, 57, decided last week to give up his appeal of the suspension. In a written notice to the state, the doctor said he could not properly defend himself against the board's actions because of "serious ongoing medical issues" and because he does not have access to findings in the ongoing criminal investigation.

Zolot said his decision is "in no way an acknowledgement of wrongdoing or culpability."

Earlier this year, the Globe reported that members of the Russian community were reallying behind Zolot.

Two historic train depots that were designed by renowned architect H.H. Richardson will be getting new tenants soon.

Both the Newton Highlands and Newton Center depots, which are located along the Riverside Branch of the MBTA's Green Line trolley system, were built in the 1880s by the Boston and Albany Railroad. They were designed by Richardson, who is also responsible for other local landmarks including the Masonic Temple in Newtonville, in collaboration with Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Boston's "Emerald Necklace" park system and is widely acknowledged as the father of American landscape architecture.

About a year ago, the MBTA sold the old Newton Highlands depot, which housed an auto parts store for years, to Leonard Strauss, a Newton periodontist. Strauss said he hopes to relocate his practice from Washington St. to the new space, which he is renovating now, around Jan. 1. Strauss said he also plans to lease the other half of the depot to another professional service.

The former depot at Newton Centre currently houses a Starbucks coffee shop that is slated for closure, one of seven in Massachusetts that are part of a national 600-store closure plan by the Seattle-based company.

The MBTA owns that building but has a long-term lease with American Companies Inc., a division of Boston Development Group. David Zussman, the chairman and CEO of BDG, said he doesn’t yet know who the replacement tenant will be.

-- Lisa Kocian

Readers of Lisa Kocian's recent story on the move to place cameras at intersections to stop red light violators will want to know that drivers can get help in identifying those hot spots.

According to Newsweek, a device that is a combination of GPS technology, and the "fuzzbusters" that have been with us since the 70's, help notify drivers that a red light camera is ahead.

"The devices constantly check the car's position against a database of verified camera-equipped intersections. When drivers are approaching such a danger zone, a voice announces, "Photo enforcement ahead"—advising them not to push their luck with that yellow light,'' Newsweek reports in this article.

Despite a high bid of $2 million, the former Caritas Southwood Hospital property in Norfolk failed to sell at auction recently because the bidding did not reach the seller's reserve price.

The almost-90-acre facility, which opened in the 1920s and was once known as the Pondville State Hospital, was rezoned in recent years for a development as a senior housing complex but the plan fizzled when environmental contamination was discovered at the site. Any new owner of the site would be required to clean up an oil spill on the property, officials said.

The Town of Norfolk has assessed the Route 1A campus at $15 million. The owner, Caritas Christi Health Care, is New England's second largest health care system.

-- Michele Morgan Bolton

Change is brewing in Newton. And resident Denis Goodwin is boiling mad.

Last week, Goodwin created an online petition to protest the closing of the Starbucks at 70 Union St. As of late yesterday, nearly 100 people had offered support at savemystarbucks.com.

Starbucks Corp. plans to close 600 stores nationwide, seven in Massachusetts. There are efforts afoot to save other stores across the country.

Goodwin, who visits the Union Street shop about five times a week, said he hopes to persuade the company to instead close the more generic "McStarbucks" nearby at 1269 Centre St. To drum up support, he leaves fliers in the Union Street store directing patrons to the petition.

The Union Street location, he said, "is kind of an example of how a big company can still be kind of unique." This Starbucks is in a historic Green Line train station.

In a statement, the company said several factors went into its decision to close certain stores.

Goodwin's cup runneth over with support: Many who commented on the online petition cited the Union Street site's warm ambience and convenient location at the Newton Center T stop.

But some customers said they prefer to have their joe on Centre Street. "That whole Union Street is one of the most beautiful in Newton," said Taraneh Farhangmehr, 18, of Newton. But the other location, she adds, "is more practical because it's on a main street."

Others, like Aaron Gilbert, 44, don't care. "I think there are other causes a little more vital than petitioning to keep a Starbucks open," said Gilbert, who visits the Union Street shop several times a week. "As far as political activism, that doesn't go to the top of my list of things to do."

Carrie Izard Richardson once wrote that her columns in the Globe allowed her to be "a surveyor of the west suburban landscape," mapping a terrain where issues that drive national conversations jockeyed for space with the commonplace.

Carrie Richardson

Those dispatches from a cluttered desk in her Waltham home also formed an autobiography in chapters of fewer than 800 words. Using anecdotes from her roles as a mother and a daughter, a wife and a writer, she examined triumphs and setbacks - the giddy joy and the numbing grief of her life in the 1990s.

Of the challenges and endless wonders that came with raising her two daughters, she wrote in 1994: "How could I possibly have fantasized the level of emotion that would spring from the first step, the first loose tooth, the first report card, the first crush on a boy, the first tentative questions about life or the first favor asked of me that I can never grant: 'Mom, when you die, will you become a star so I can wish on you and make you alive again?' "

Mrs. Richardson, whose columns appeared in the Globe's West Weekly edition for several years and who more recently was assistant director of public and media relations at Bentley College, died July 10 in Newton-Wellesley Hospital. She was 52 and was diagnosed with a brain tumor about seven months ago.

With her husband, David, she bought a house in Waltham 21 years ago. As with many young couples starting a family, they envisioned that first home as a stepping stone to more affluent suburbs. Instead, she found a community that nourished her family's life and her writer's imagination.

Read more here.

Medfield town officials have given local merchants permission to hold their annual downtown street fair on Sept. 20, but have decided not to schedule the town's yearly fireworks display to coincide with the event.

Fireworks have been held on Medfield Day, which is sponsored by the Medfield Employers and Merchants Organization, in some recent years, but Selectman Osler Peterson said this year's display would be held the week before, to coincide with the Sept. 13 Fall Fest.

The event showcases high-school rock bands.

-- Calvin Hennick

Natick's selectmen have approved a measure exempting senior citizens and people with disabilities from a taxicab fuel surcharge.

The surcharge, which went into effect July 1, adds 50 cents to rides under $10, adds $1 to rides between $10 and $24.99, and adds $2 to rides $25 and over.

The exemption, which applies to people age 60 and older or anyone with a disability, goes into effect on Aug. 1. The program will be reevaluated by town officials next May.

Selectman Joshua Ostroff said riders would not be required to show proof of their age or disability.

“Natick is still a small town, and there’s an element of trust,” he said.

-- Calvin Hennick

Newtonites can be justifiably proud of their city's recent lofty rankings in CNNMoney.com's 2008 "Best Places to Live" survey, but they may need to take the honors with a grain of salt.

According to the annual survey, Newton is the most desirable place to live in Massachusetts and the 49th best place to live in the entire US. But how much could CNNMoney know about Newton if the editors think that the Newton Police Department is headquartered in a church in Newton Corner?

In the Newton page for the online version of the survey, CNNMoney ran this photo with the caption "The Police Station of Newton." The photo credit reads: "Courtesy: City of Newton"

(CNNMoney online image)

Whoops. Actually, that's an old picture of the Newton Corner Worship Center, an innovative religious space that offers worship and office space to fledgling religious communities until they can afford a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque of their own. (For more information, see Globe West Bureau Chief Erica Noonan's excellent story on the worship center.)

This is a picture of the building taken yesterday.

(Globe staff photo by Ralph Ranalli)

This is Newton Police Headquarters in West Newton.

(Globe staff photo by Ralph Ranalli)

The rest of CNN/Money's Garden City sales pitch wasn't all that convincing either. While the editors included a cautionary note about high housing prices, there was no mention of the fact that Newton consistently ranks as one of the safest cities of its size in the US. As amenities, the piece mentioned a couple of city-run seasonal concert series, but omitted the fact that Newton is home to not one but two (count 'em) critically acclaimed symphony orchestras.

In fairness, they did get the city's village character right, however, noting that: "Instead of one main downtown, Newton has six to seven downtown areas, making shopping and eating out easy for everyone."

Jeremy Solomon, the spokesman for Mayor David B. Cohen and the person who usually handles such things, said today that he didn't know where CNNMoney got the photo. But, he added, it's the thought that counts.

"We appreciate the appropriate recognition of the city as one of the best places to live in the country," he said.

-- Ralph Ranalli

Needham officials have launched an environmental study of the Newman School, part of which was shut down this year because of indoor air quality issues.

The town has hired the architecture firm of Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc. to conduct the study, and in particular to review the condition of the heating and cooling system. At least five classrooms at the school have been temporarily closed after teacher and students complained of feeling ill this spring.

The study will include an assessment of the options for replacing the system as well as an investigation into what caused the problems, said Steven Popper, director of construction and renovation for the town.

The study, which is already underway, should be completed by mid October, Popper said.

-- Laura Colarusso

Upton's director of emergency services is scheduled to propose a new partnership today that will restore advanced life support ambulance service, which the town has been without since last month.

Upton does not offer its own advanced life support service, meaning that local emergency crews cannot intubate patients or administer intravenous medications on the way to the hospital and must meet up en route with ambulance crews capable of administering advanced care. Milford Regional Medical Center, which used to provide the service to the town, stopped running advanced life support crews last month, and the town has been using a patchwork of replacement services ever since.

Emergency Medical Services director Brian Kemp is scheduled to will meet with selectmen today to suggest a permanent partnership with Alert Ambulance Service, which operates a Milford office, to intercept patients who require advanced life support.

-- Calvin Hennick

Marlborough officials are asking boaters and swimmers to stay out of the Ft. Meadow Reservoir tomorrow, when it will be treated with an herbicide to control the invasive milfoil plant that is already starting to clog the waterway.

Milfoil: The uninvited guest that just won't leave. (Globe file image)

Straddling Marlborough and Hudson, the reservoir is being invaded by Eurasian watermilfoil and variable watermilfoil, non-native weeds that if left to grow will make boating, swimming, and fishing difficult,, according to a press release issued by the city's the Conservation Department.

Anyone seeking more information is urged to contact the Conservation Commission at 508-460-3768.

-- Lisa Kocian

Despite cutting nearly eight full-time positions, Wrentham’s elementary schools will expand foreign language instruction next year, Superintendent Jeffrey Marsden said.

A part-time instructor already teaches Spanish to children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, and a new part-time teacher will be added to teach children in the first, second, and third grade, [all grade levels], Marsden said.

Kindergartens will also receive instruction if scheduling allows, Marsden said.

He said he would also like to add Chinese instruction in the next several years.

-- Calvin Hennick

In recent quality tests, water drawn from a town-owned parcel of land that could become the source for a public water district in Sherborn's Town Center met all state primary drinking water standards, town officials said.

The tests were the second round conducted on samples taken from test wells at the Price Woodlands. They were deemed necessary after first round tests found high levels of iron and manganese -- a result that, if confirmed, would have required the installment of an expensive treatment system.

Town Planner Gino Carlucci said the first round samples were likely contaminated by rust in the test well equipment.

-- Anna Fiorentino

Irish tunesmiths Songs for Cieldh will be featured in Medway's annual summer concert series.

MEDWAY

The Medway Parks Department is once again sponsoring its annual summer concert series and farmer’s market at Choate Park this summer.

Scheduled performers include Four Guys in Tuxes on July 14, Songs for Ceilidh on July 21, the U.S. Air Force Band on Aug. 1, and the Claflin Hill Symphony Summer Winds on Aug. 4.

The farmer’s market begins at 4 p.m.; concerts begin at 7 p.m. Anyone seeking further information is urged to visit the town's web site.

-- Rachel Lebeaux

A young woman from Northborough just starting her career in Washington D.C. was killed this morning when she was run over by a garbage truck while riding her bicycle to work.

Alice Swanson, 22, was pronounced dead at a Washington hospital after she was struck at the intersection of 20th Street and R Streets in the city's Northwest section. She was riding westbound on R Street when a garbage truck traveling in the same direction took a right and apparently didn't see her, said Officer Joshua Aldiva, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesman.

(Middle East Institute Photo)

A 2007 Amherst College graduate, Swanson was fluent in Spanish and Arabic. She recently completed an internship program at The Middle East Institute, a D.C.-based think tank. A lover of international affairs and travel, she studied abroad in India and Nicaragua during college.

The Institute expressed its sadness at Swanson’s death, calling her "a true spirit of friendship" in a memorial statement on their website.

"Alice's intelligence and passion for learning was rivaled only by her great warmth and friendliness," Adam Mendelson, Swanson’s former boss and the managing editor of the organization's Middle East Journal publication, said in a statement. "I can't ever recall her without a smile on her face."

Swanson’s family is left with a deep loss.

"She is so energetic and enthusiastic. She always wants to explore or travel," said her father, Brian, reached by telephone in Northborough, where Alice was born and raised. "She’s got a room full of maps here, world maps and things like that. She wanted to travel."

"I just feel that she had so many things that she wanted to do -- to help people. Now it's not going to happen."

-- John M. Guilfoil

Franklin school officials say they plan to file an updated Statement of Interest with the Massachusetts School Building Authority as they move forward with a request for state funding toward a renovation or reconstruction of the town's 37-year-old high school.

Officials say that state aid for such a project will be crucial, since the town cannot afford to foot the full bill for a $100 million renovation or a $130 million new high school, cost estimates that were released by the town's architect earlier this year.

Franklin High School: Obsolete at 37? (Franklin Schools image)

State Treasurer Timothy Cahill has criticized cities and towns for expecting the state to underwrite extravagant high school projects, and Franklin officials have said recently that they will be looking to scale back the project to make it more affordable.

Assistant Superintendent Maureen Sabolinksi is currently working with the state to review the town's previous Statement of Interest.

"This is an opportunity for us to update and review our project," she said. "Over the next few weeks, we'll be reviewing the feedback and looking to see what additional information we would like to provide, as well as looking at the project as a whole and seeing where to go with it."

-- Rachel Lebeaux