State to get $280m for special education

Massachusetts school districts will receive $280 million from the federal stimulus package during the next two years to help them pay the cost of special education. Governor Deval Patrick announced yesterday at Brockton High School that half the money will be distributed by the end of the month and the rest of it will be allocated this fall. (AP)

A 30-year-old man was shot to death early yesterday in Roxbury, police said. The man was found about 12:57 a.m. in a grassy area on Warwick Street, suffering from several gunshot wounds, officials said. The victim, whose identity was not immediately released, was treated at the scene and rushed to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The slaying is the seventh homicide in Boston this year, compared with 13 murders at this time last year.

A 33-year-old Chelsea man will be summoned to court to face charges that he accosted a teenage girl who was walking to a bus stop earlier this week in Needham, police said. Orlando Guevara faces charges of enticement of a child, accosting a person, and assault and battery, police said in a statement. Guevara was identified as a suspect the night of the offense and he was questioned by officers the day after, police said. The alleged assault occurred at 7:20 a.m. Tuesday when the 13-year-old was walking to a bus stop at Webster and Morton streets, according to a summary sent to parents by the School Department. A dark-colored sedan drove by the girl on Morton Street and circled back. The driver allegedly asked the girl whether she wanted a ride. The girl told police that the man reached through the passenger window at one point and tugged on her sweatshirt. She broke away and continued walking to her bus stop.

Police believe that the culprit in a Holbrook bank robbery yesterday had called in a bomb scare at a nearby school just before the robbery, then set his car on fire to cover his escape as he fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. Given the seriousness of the events, the FBI has joined police in the investigation. Police said a man, identified as white, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with salt and pepper hair, brown eyes, and wearing a green jacket and scarf over his lower face, showed a gun when he robbed the Randolph Savings Bank on South Franklin Street around 10:51 a.m. He fled in a green 2009 Toyota Tundra. The vehicle, stolen from an Avis rental company in Hanover, was later abandoned and set on fire on a nearby street. About 23 minutes before the robbery, authorities had received a bomb scare call at the South Elementary School, also on Franklin Street, and believe the call was linked to the robbery in an attempt to keep police distracted.

Police Chief Robert DeMoura has drawn fire over recent comments in support of giving illegal immigrants access to driver's licenses. City Councilor Dean Tran told the Sentinel & Enterprise this week that he vehemently opposes the idea because in his eyes it rewards illegal behavior. And state Representative Stephen DiNatale, a Democrat, said he would not support such changes to state law until Congress overhauls immigration laws. DeMoura drew a standing ovation this week at an immigration forum when he said giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses would help his department with public safety. (AP)

A Marlborough woman died in a car crash yesterday when the vehicle she was driving was struck by a tractor-trailer on Main Street in Northborough. Alice Dineen, 88, was making a left turn out of a parking lot when her vehicle's driver side was hit by the oncoming tractor-trailer, police said. Her husband, John Dineen Jr., 81, was also in the vehicle, but survived the crash. No criminal charges are anticipated, police said.