Northern right whale found dead off coast
A female northern right whale was found dead Monday off the coast of Nantucket, the Coast Guard said. There are only an estimated 300 northern right whales still alive after they were hunted almost to extinction in the early 1900s. Crew members aboard the Coast Guard cutter Escanaba took a DNA sample from the 45-foot-long mammal and put a locating beacon on the carcass. ''Hopefully the DNA test will prove that the female whale was not actively reproducing," Seaman Paul Miliken said in a Coast Guard statement. Escanaba located the whale 78 miles east of the island after the carcass was spotted by a surveillance plane. Last month, scientists off the southeast US coast freed a young right whale entangled in more than 150 feet of lobster fishing gear. (AP)
BOSTON
Town of Rockland sues bank in fraud case
The town of Rockland sued
Pittsfield lawmaker resigns to join firm
Democratic state Representative Peter J. Larkin of Pittsfield, a top lieutenant of recently departed House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, announced yesterday that he was resigning his seat immediately to join the high-power Boston lobbying firm ML Strategies. Larkin, who most recently served as vice chairman of the influential Ways and Means Committee, will become the company's vice president of government relations, a press release said. The 51-year-old father of two was first elected to represent the Third Berkshire District in 1990 and served for seven two-year terms, playing a key role in the bilingual education debate.
EAST BRIDGEWATER
Neighbor enters plea in dog beating
An East Bridgewater man was arraigned yesterday on charges of cruelty to animals and maiming an animal after he attacked his neighbor's dog, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said. Forrest Emery, 48, attacked his neighbor's Newfoundland with a shovel at about 8 a.m. Monday, Officer Kevin Sullivan said. The dog was tied to the shed when police arrived, and Sullivan said there was no indication that the dog had attacked Emery. The dog, Crash, lost several teeth, sustained serious injuries, and was to undergo surgery yesterday. According to Sullivan, Emery left a message on Kristen Chancholo's answering machine about 15 minutes before the incident, warning that if she did not move her dog, which he said was on his property, he would take care of it himself. Emery was being held on $2,000 cash bail with numerous conditions, including staying away from both the Chancholo family and their dog, Cruz said.
SPRINGFIELD
Convicted killer of 4 is denied a retrial
A Springfield man convicted of raping and killing four women in a case that spread fear through the city and set off a manhunt has lost his bid for a new trial. The state's Supreme Judicial Court yesterday denied an appeal by Alfred Gaynor, 37, who is serving four consecutive life sentences for sodomizing and strangling the women over a 3-month period in 1997 and 1998. His lawyers appealed on several grounds, including the decision to hold a single trial for all four killings. The defense also appealed the decision to try Gaynor, who is black, before an all-white jury in Berkshire County. The defense had sought to have the case moved to Boston. All of Gaynor's victims were black. Justice Francis X. Spina wrote in the decision, however, that ''when a defendant moves for a change of venue, he waives his right to be tried by a jury drawn from a pool that is representative of the venue where the crime was committed." He also pointed out that Superior Court Judge Daniel Ford had considered racial issues and found ''no allegation that race was a motivating factor in any of these crimes and no reason to suppose the case is racially charged." (AP)
