Mayor cuts ties with No Place for Hate

The city has joined a growing number of communities ending their relationship with an Anti-Defamation League program, No Place for Hate, over the organization's failure to "unequivocally recognize" the Armenian genocide, a spokeswoman for Mayor Joseph Curtatone said yesterday. Curtatone is president of the Massachusetts Mayors' Association and sits on the board of its parent group, the Massachusetts Municipal Association. After that group voted unanimously to sever ties with No Place for Hate, which promotes diversity and antibias efforts, Curtatone decided to have Somerville do the same, said spokeswoman Lesley Delaney Hawkins. The city will join the National League of Cities Partnership for Working Toward Inclusive Communities, she said.

Service on the Red Line resumed yesterday after a small trash fire on the Longfellow Bridge halted trains for 21 minutes, said a spokesman for the MBTA. Boston firefighters responded to extinguish the small blaze, which required that power be shut off on the third rail at 10 a.m., according to spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

Authorities are searching for a man wanted for an armed robbery in Leicester Wednesday night. The suspect - described by police as Hispanic, about 20 years old, and with a pony tail - is wanted for forcing a man out of his car at gunpoint on Auburn Street and then robbing him of clothing and other possessions. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Leicester police at 508-892-7010.

A 7-year-old boy was killed in a car crash on Interstate 395 in Oxford on Tuesday when a 79-year-old driver lost control of the car they were in and hit some trees, State Police said. The boy, whose name was not released, was wearing a seat belt when the 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass veered off the highway near Exit 5 at 6:30 p.m., according to State Police. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver, Jose Rivera of Worcester, suffered serious injuries and was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. At 7 p.m., State Police responded to a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 290 in Worcester that killed a 51-year-old man and injured two others. Joseph Thompson was pronounced dead at the scene after the sport utility vehicle he was driving swerved into another lane near Exit 10 and rolled over. Both crashes were under investigation.

Springfield's men in black are returning. Police Commissioner William Fitchet says members of the department's Street Crime Unit will again don black, military-style uniforms as part of his strategy to deal with youth violence. His predecessor, Edward Flynn, had banned the black attire as part of an effort to soften the unit's image. Flynn left Springfield in January to become the police chief in Milwaukee. Sergeant John Delaney told a City Council hearing Wednesday that the stark uniforms send a message to criminals that officers are serious about making arrests. Delaney said a sense of fear has been missing in recent years. (AP)

A former clerk with the state Registry of Motor Vehicles pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing about $76,000 from the agency's Milford office in 2005. Diana Coroniti, 36, of Walpole, was sentenced to five years in prison, the first year of which will be spent under house arrest, the attorney general's office said. Worcester Superior Court Judge Peter Agnes also ordered Coroniti to pay $25,000 restitution, perform 500 hours of community service, and undergo counseling for a gambling addiction.

The owners of the struggling Villa Augustina School in Goffstown have approved selling the school to parents. Five months ago, the Religious of Jesus and Mary told parents that the Catholic order could no longer support the school and planned to close it. Since then, parents have raised $400,000 for repairs and another $120,000 toward the purchase price. The next step toward reopening it as an independent Catholic school for prekindergarten through the eighth grade is drafting a formal purchase-and-sale agreement and closing the deal, parents said. (AP)