Man guilty of bludgeoning wife to death

A Rowley man was found guilty yesterday of bludgeoning his wife to death while she slept, according to the Essex district attorney's office. A Newburyport Superior Court jury found Kenneth Scott Richards, 49, guilty of first-degree murder for beating his 38-year-old wife, Rachel Richards, to death with an aluminum baseball bat in June 2006, the district attorney's office said. Richards then stabbed himself repeatedly in a failed suicide attempt, and the couple was found by their young daughter, who called 911. Richards told police in a taped confession that his wife told him she no longer loved him and that they had no future together, according to prosecutors. He was sentenced by Judge Richard Welch to life in state prison without the possibility of parole.

Police and sheriff's deputies staged a predawn drug sweep yesterday on Cape Cod, arresting 21 people in Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable, and other communities. Substantial amounts of money and illegal drugs were discovered during the raids, which happened at 6 a.m., Falmouth police said. Police said those arrested faced charges including possession and distribution of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. Police said the investigation was conducted with the help of the Cape Cod Drug Task Force; the State Police; police from Mashpee, Barnstable, and Bourne; and the Barnstable County Sheriff's Department.

Governor Don Carcieri and union leaders agreed yesterday to more talks about the governor's plan to force state workers to take six unpaid days off to help solve a $151 million budget crisis. The Republican governor met in his Statehouse office with key labor representatives without reaching an immediate agreement, according to labor leaders who attended the meeting. George Nee, secretary treasurer of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, called the discussion tense but respectful. Carcieri did not speak after the meeting, and his spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment. (AP)

A federal appeals court overturned yesterday the conviction of two former hospital executives who were accused of paying a state senator to advance the hospital's agenda at the Rhode Island State House. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled that the judge's instructions to the jury were too broad and allowed Robert Urciuoli and Frances Driscoll to be found guilty for conduct that was not illegal. The court sent the case back for a new trial. Urciuoli, former president of Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, and Driscoll, former vice president, were convicted in October 2006 of hiring former state senator John Celona to support or kill legislation based on the hospital's interests. (AP)

Bowdoin College became the latest college to eliminate loans for students receiving financial aid, saying yesterday it would replace them with grants starting in the 2008-2009 academic year. The liberal-arts college in Brunswick, Maine, is one of only two colleges with an endowment of less than $1 billion to eliminate loans and the only college with that level of endowment that uses need-blind admission to do so. Bowdoin provides need-based financial aid to 40 percent of its 1,710 students, and the cost of attending the college, including tuition, room, board and fees, is $46,260. To fund the financial aid program, the college said it would will earmark about $22 million for the 2008-2009 academic year, 16 percent of its operating budget. Other colleges that have replaced loans with grants include Harvard University, Yale University, and Amherst College.

The plan to name a stretch of Interstate 93 for fallen Franconia police Corporal Bruce McKay has been put off for a year. Members of a House committee voted Thursday to study the proposal over the summer to give them time to hear from the town and communities that surround it. McKay was shot to death in May by Easton resident Liko Kenney. A passerby then shot Kenney to death. At a hearing on the proposal, some area residents and a member of Kenney's family said they opposed it. The shootings divided the town. Some believe McKay should be honored. Others believe the officer pushed Kenney to the breaking point with aggressive police tactics. (AP)