State GOP names executive director

The Massachusetts Republican Party announced yesterday that Robert Willington, who has been political director since January 2006, will become executive director. Willington, of Rockport, graduated from Salem State College, where he studied political science and became the executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans. He worked as a legislative aide for state Representative Paul Loscocco of Holliston between 2002 and 2005.

Emerson College is among five US universities selected to send students to the 2008 Beijing Olympics to work for the official Olympic News Service. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Missouri, Ithaca College, and the University of Iowa were also picked to send students. The students will work with professional staff and cover Olympic events, create news material for the international press, and provide background information on athletes. Those selected by their schools will leave July 7 and stay through August to cover all games.

Boston University has named a federal scientist who specializes in the study of the deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses to the number two position at its controversial high-security laboratory being built in the South End. Thomas W. Geisbert will become associate director of the Biosafety Level-4 Laboratory and related facilities on Albany Street, where scientists will work with the world's most dangerous germs, including Ebola, anthrax, and plague. Geisbert held a similar position at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, helping to manage the agency's Biosafety Level-4 lab in Maryland.

A Woburn man will serve 2 1/2 years in jail and 10 years of probation after pleading guilty Wednesday to four counts of possessing and disseminating child pornography online, police said. In July 2004, Raymond Lefebvre, 40, sent 71 images suspected to be child pornography to a Yahoo Internet group. As part of his sentence, Lefebvre must register as a sex offender, submit to random searches of his personal computer, and live at least 1,000 feet from children.

Drivers should steer clear of the Sumner Tunnel in Boston for the next three weekends. The tunnel will be closed beginning at 10 p.m. each Friday and remain closed until 5 a.m. Monday. The closings will give workers time to repair the aging tunnel's ceilings. One-lane daytime closings may still be needed during the week. Motorists traveling from Route 1A, Logan Airport, and East Boston should use the Ted Williams Tunnel as an alternative route. (AP)

A Hyde Park man was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting his former girlfriend's daughter more than a decade ago, the Suffolk district attorney's office said. Juan Baez, 37, assaulted the then-9-year-old girl on two occasions in 1994 and 1995 when her mother was at work and Baez was left with the victim and her brothers. The victim did not tell anyone about the abuse until 2004.

A man was arrested upon reentering the United States on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting an 11-year-old girl in mid-August, Revere police said. John W. Canadyan had been previously arrested on two charges of indecent assault and battery on a person under 14, but fled to the Kahnawake Indian Reservation near Montreal to escape the court hearing. Homeland Security officials caught Canadyan when he reentered the United States on a train from Ontario to New York. He is scheduled to be arraigned today in Chelsea District Court.

A 20-year-old Weymouth man accused of the rape and murder of his 6-year-old cousin was sent back to Bridgewater State Hospital yesterday for more tests to determine whether he is competent to stand trial. Ryan Bois stood in Quincy District Court in a light gray prison jumpsuit and said little during the 10-minute proceeding. He is accused of raping Joanna Mullin at her grandmother's home on Aug. 5 and fleeing in the grandmother's sport utility vehicle with the child's body.