Patrick report gives security tips

Three large-scale evacuation centers, a statewide text-messaging alert system, inspections of all smaller chemical facilities - those are some of the steps Massachusetts can take to improve its homeland security, according to a report scheduled to be released today by the Patrick administration. The report says the most important thing the state can do is improve communications between first responders and state and local officials. Undersecretary for Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem says that while local communities have learned lessons from the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, only the state can coordinate large-scale disaster management. She says the state is focused on defending systems that would have region-wide repercussions if attacked - like the Port of Boston. (AP)

The Department of Social Services is investigating how a 3-year-old girl wandered from her family in Boston on Sunday, said DSS spokesman Michael MacCormick. Boston police were called at 5:30 p.m. to investigate the child, who was found at Forest and Vine streets in Roxbury wearing only a T-shirt and underwear, police said. She was taken to Boston Medical Center for evaluation. Shortly afterward, family members looking for her flagged down officers in the area, police said. The mother was reunited with the girl, and was allowed to retain custody, MacCormick said. The Brockton residents were visiting family in Boston, police said.

An Allston man was arrested after police say he stole a steamroller on a dare from friends and drove it into someone's car. Police responded at 3:30 a.m. yesterday to reports of a fight at 15 Pratt St., and found the car's owner among a group of people in the street. He told police his car had been damaged by someone on a steamroller. Police arrested Matthew Gilman, 22, and charged him with destruction of personal property and larceny of a motor vehicle.

A 35-year-old Weymouth man died early yesterday after losing control of his vehicle on Route 3, State Police said. Alain Seigneur was killed about 6:30 a.m. when his 1998 Chevrolet sedan veered off the northbound highway, about a half mile south of exit 3. The car entered the median strip and struck a tree, police said. Seigneur died at the scene, State Police said.

Some guns that sharpshooter Annie Oakley once donated to raise money for the Spanish-American War effort are to be auctioned next month. Firearms for sale at James Julia's auction house in this central Maine town Oct. 8-10 will include an engraved, gold-plated .38-55-caliber Marlin rifle, valued at $150,000 to $250,000. Oakley, an entertainer with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, donated many of her specialty rifles and trophies to raise money after the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898. Julia said his auction, with 1,400 items, could exceed $12 million. (AP)

Combat boots - 161 pairs - are on display in the town library to represent New England soldiers who have died in the Iraq war. Boots are on bookshelves, in the elevator, next to chairs, and by the fireplace. Each pair is tagged with the name, age, and hometown of a soldier who died. The traveling exhibit, called "Eyes Wide Open: an Exhibition on the Human Costs of the Iraqi War," was put together by the American Friends Service Committee, said librarian Sandy Whipple. The exhibit will remain in Goffstown Library all month. (AP)