Cold weather causes water main to burst
SOMERVILLE
Freezing temperatures apparently caused a 100-year-old water main to burst early yesterday on Elm Street, leaving 30 homes and businesses without water for about 12 hours, said Mark Horan, spokesman for Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. Fliers were distributed at the affected locales urging customers to boil water they planned to consume until tests on water samples determine it is safe to drink, Horan said. The 12-inch pipe broke at about 4:30 a.m., flooding the street, Horan said. Salt and sand were applied to the icy road and Elm Street was reopened in time for rush hour, Horan said.
BOSTON
BU hires firm for presidential search
Boston University has hired the executive search firm Spencer Stuart to help identify candidates for the school's presidency, BU announced yesterday. The company will begin seeking candidates for the position immediately, said David D'Alessandro, vice chairman of the trustees and head of the 15-member search committee. Boston University, the nation's fourth-largest independent university with 29,000 students, made its final appointments two weeks ago to the 15-member search committee, which will seek a permanent replacement for Jon Westling, who resigned in the summer of 2002. Dr. Aram V. Chobanian, dean of the medical school and provost of the medical campus, has been serving as interim president since November 2003. He is not a candidate for the permanent job.
Woman charged with credit card theft
A 51-year-old Dorchester woman was arrested yesterday, accused of stealing credit cards and racking up charges, police said. Police arrested Theresa Lee on charges she used a ''bogus organization" called the Greater Boston Youth Collaborative to buy goods and services with stolen credit cards and credit card numbers, police said. The credit cards and card numbers were used to order food from restaurants, clown services, out-of-state bus tours, office supplies, clothing, and gift cards, police said. Store surveillance tapes identified Lee, who has two outstanding warrants for larceny and credit card fraud, police said. She is scheduled to be arraigned today in Roxbury District Court.
Weis suit alleges medical malpractice
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis has filed a malpractice lawsuit against doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital over complications from weight-loss surgery in 2002. Weis, who once weighed more than 300 pounds, nearly died from excessive bleeding and bacterial infection after the gastric bypass surgery and he still walks with a slight limp as a result of nerve damage. Weis's attorney, Michael Mone, declined to comment on the suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court. But William J. Dailey Jr., an attorney for the doctors, insisted that Weis received good medical care at Mass. General. Weis has lost considerable weight since the operation, and this week he was named head football coach at Notre Dame.
Plymouth
Braintree man dies in single-car crashA 50-year-old Braintree man was killed in a single-car accident yesterday morning on Plimoth Plantation Highway. William Pagnani, the operator and sole occupant of the 2002 Kia minivan, was pronounced dead shortly after being transported to Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, police said. A witness reported observing the minivan operating normally in the southband lane just after 11 a.m. when it swerved abruptly to the right, striking a bridge abutment, police said. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
CAMBRIDGE
Another hearing set on wind farm plan
The US Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to hold its fourth and final hearing on the commercial wind farm proposed off the Cape and islands, tonight at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Building 10, Room 250, at 77 Massachusetts Ave. The public is invited to comment on Cape Wind Associates' plan to build the nation's first offshore wind farm, consisting of 130 wind turbines, each 417 feet tall, in Nantucket Sound. Registration for the hearing begins at 6 p.m. The Army Corps will accept written comments through Feb. 24.
