Law seeks booster seats for youngsters

BOSTON
Under Massachusetts law, children ages 5 through 12 must wear seat belts when in the car, a requirement that safety advocates say doesn't do enough to protect them in a crash. "If you're following the letter of the law, you're not protecting your children," said Arthur Kinsman of AAA Southern New England. A bill promoted yesterday at the State House would establish a booster seat law. Currently law requires children up to age 5 and weighing 40 pounds to be in an infant or toddler seat. After growing out of a toddler seat, children would have to be secured in a booster seat until their eighth birthday or until they reach a height of 4 feet, 9 inches, the bill provides. (AP)

There was an equipment malfunction in the American Eagle aircraft that nearly crashed Wednesday morning at Logan International Airport, federal investigators confirmed yesterday. The National Transportation Safety Board tested the Embraer 135, and when they used cockpit controls, indicators showed that all three landing gear had extended, but only the nose wheel door had opened, said Peter Knudson, spokesman for NTSB. Knudson said further testing will be done to determine what the problem is on the aircraft.

A Roxbury man was ordered held on $10,000 bail after he was charged yesterday with intimidating a witness in a pending murder case, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. Police arrested Nathaniel Yarde, 18, earlier this month while investigating the 2005 stabbing death of a 22-year-old Sudbury man, whose case comes to trial in September. Police said that last month, Yarde allegedly approached a witness who had spoken with investigators, produced a 6-inch knife, and told a crowd around the witness: "Get away from that snitch. You're lucky there are cameras around here." Yarde is the third Suffolk County defendant charged with witness intimidation this month.

NEWTON

A 71-year-old Newton woman suffered a laceration on her head Wednesday night after she was assaulted and robbed in the parking lot of a local market, police said. The woman, who was not identified, was getting into her car outside The Auburndale Market about 8:30 p.m. when a tall man with gray hair attacked her and stole her pocketbook, police said. Newton police found the woman lying unconscious in the middle of Auburn Street.

BERLIN, N.H.

David Cobb, the former prep school teacher dubbed the Pumpkin Man after he was arrested with a backpack full of child pornography and a pumpkin mask, is to be released from prison today from the state prison in Berlin after serving 11 years. Cobb, 71, was sentenced for attempted sexual assault of a 12-year-old boy and possessing hundreds of images of child porn. Cobb taught English at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. (AP)

LAWRENCE

Following a request by Senator John F. Kerry, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff agreed yesterday to halt deportation proceedings against the wife of a soldier from Lawrence while her husband is missing in action in Iraq, Kerry's office reported. Chertoff lifted the pending removal proceedings against Yaderlin Hiraldo, who is from the Dominican Republic and is the wife of Army Specialist Alex Jimenez, allowing her to stay in the country and apply for permanent resident status. Jimenez has been missing since May 16.

FRAMINGHAM

Two college students who stole copies of the campus newspaper because they thought they looked fat in a front page photo showing them baring their bellies are paying the cost of reprinting the lost editions, a school official said. The photo in the April 27 edition of The Gatepost shows seven fans at a women's lacrosse game with "I [heart] Noonan," the name of a friend on the team, spelled out on their stomachs. Two students eventually admitted stealing hundreds of copies of the paper. Apparently they weren't pleased with their appearance in the photo, according to the paper's faculty adviser. They were not criminally charged, and the college did not release their names. (AP)