Ex-official admits falsifying veteran status

A former Lawrence School Committee member pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing and exhibiting a fake military discharge document and falsely asserting he was a US Marine who had received a Purple Heart medal, the US attorney's office in Boston said. James F. Stokes, 63, was arrested on the charges Jan. 9. He resigned from his School Committee post after weeks of phone calls from angry residents and angry veterans showing up on motorcycles at a committee meeting. For each charge, Stokes faces a maximum punishment of one year in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine, federal prosecutors said. Sentencing has been scheduled for May 15 in US District Court.

A nursing home that has repeatedly harmed patients has been added to a national list of facilities that must improve or face increasingly severe penalties, the federal officials said yesterday. Piety Corner Nursing Home of Waltham will face increased scrutiny by regulators to address the problems, which have included unnecessarily placing a urinary catheter in a patient, failing to provide proper diets, and failing to prevent accidents, sasid Helen Mulligan, a spokeswoman for the Boston office of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Two other Massachusetts nursing homes remain under scrutiny, Cedar Hill Health Care Center in Randolph and Harborside Healthcare in Wakefield. They are among 131 facilities nationwide in that status.

One of the missing hikers found in Franconia Notch has died, and the second is fighting for his life. Fish and Game officials said Laurence Fredrickson, 55, of South Sutton was pronounced dead on arrival at Littleton Regional Hospital Monday night. James Osborne, 36, of Manchester was reported in critical condition. The two were found on Little Haystack mountain about 7:30 p.m. Monday by a search team that had spent six hours fighting below-zero temperatures, 60-mile-an-hour winds, and deep snow. A ground and air search began Monday afternoon after co-workers in Concord reported the men had not shown up for work. Searchers said it appeared the men were equipped only for a day hike. An Army National Guard helicopter made two dangerous nighttime landings in high winds to retrieve victims and rescuers. (AP)

To ease a $50 million budget deficit, Governor John Lynch plans to freeze state hiring, equipment purchases, and out-of-state travel. The governor wrote to state department heads to say he will present his plan to a legislative committee next week, with an executive order outlining budget cuts. He said he will exempt public safety and direct-care positions, such as state nurses, from the jobs freeze. The governor told his department heads to begin the freeze immediately. Lynch said the state is feeling the impact of the slowdown in the national economy, but Republicans say that state spending was just too high and that Lynch ignored warnings about it last year. (AP)

Highway officials are considering shutting down the southbound lanes of a 22-mile section of Interstate 295 this summer to rebuild the highway from Gardiner to Topsham. Joyce Taylor of the Maine Department of Transportation says that closing the road and rerouting traffic onto the Maine Turnpike or Route 201 is the safer option for travelers and construction workers. She says that approach, rather than closing down lanes here and there during reconstruction, can cut up to 75 percent of the time needed for road projects. (AP)

Former astronaut Jay Buckey is withdrawing from the US Senate primary, leaving former governor Jeanne Shaheen as the lone Democrat to face Senator John Sununu, a Republican. In a statement e-mailed early yesterday, Buckey, a Dartmouth Medical School professor who lives in Hanover, said he remains committed to his campaign goals, but doesn't have the money to campaign full time. He wished Shaheen well. Two other Democratic contenders, party activist Katrina Swett of Bow and Mayor Steve Marchand of Portmouth, bowed out after Shaheen announced last fall. Both said they had not been pressured and said they were clearing the field for Shaheen, because a Democratic win was so important and Shaheen was the strongest candidate. (AP)