Food pantry chief, wife face charges

The executive director of Randolph Community Food Pantry and his wife have been charged with shoplifting from a local supermarket. Ronald DiGuilio, 60, the pantry's executive director, and his wife, Rita, 52, both of Randolph, pleaded not guilty in Quincy District Court yesterday to charges that they stole between $50 and $60 worth of goods from a Shaw's Supermarket on Memorial Parkway, according to David Traub, spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney's office. Rita DiGuilio said the incident Monday was a misunderstanding because she and her husband were having trouble with the store's self-checkout machine and called over a store employee for help. "The [employee] punched in her code and she told him [her husband] that he was all set, so he just assumed that everything was OK," she said. The couple were stopped as they were walking out because some of the items had not actually been scanned and paid for, she said. "It is just really devastating because it wasn't something that was done intentionally," she said. The case has been continued until June 18, Traub said, and the charge carries a maximum penalty of a $250 fine.

Massachusetts health authorities urged consumers last night not to consume ice distributed by Triumph Foods Inc. of Everett and sold under the brand names Tube Ice and Carlstadt Consumers Ice Co. After receiving complaints, the state Department of Public Health tested ice from Triumph, discovering fine brown particles and fibrous matter. So far, no illnesses have been attributed to the contaminated ice. The ice is packaged in 5-pound plastic bags and was distributed at several retail outlets across the state, including BJ's Wholesale Club, Stone's Retail Market in Abington, and the Massachusetts Avenue Sunoco Station in Boston.

The City Council will take up a proposal to regulate commercial kitchen hood and vent cleaners next week, instead of today as councilors had hoped, Councilor Michael Ross said yesterday. The rules would establish a $200 fine for restaurants that fail to have their ventilation systems regularly cleaned by a company certified and licensed by the city. The ordinance is a reaction to the death in August of two Boston firefighters battling a blaze at a West Roxbury restaurant that started in a kitchen ventilation system. Councilors had hoped to vote today, but Ross said the law was being tweaked. Among the changes to the ordinance being considered are provisions ensuring a low-cost certification option for small, established cleaning companies, and a second one adding a requirement that cleaners notify the city if part of a ventilation system could not be cleaned.

A panel investigating the safety of a controversial research laboratory being built by Boston University will hold a public meeting next week at the State House. The panel, commissioned by the director of the National Institutes of Health, will meet from 9 a.m. till noon May 16 in Gardner Auditorium. Members of the public will be able to address the scientists. The panel was convened after the National Research Council, an independent board of scientists, issued a report in November sharply critical of NIH's earlier safety reviews of the project.

The state's highest court is set to consider whether Governor Deval Patrick had grounds to fire Massachusetts' former chief medical examiner. Dr. Mark Flomenbaum was fired last year after his office lost a body that was later found buried in the wrong grave. At the time, Patrick said Flomenbaum had serious managerial problems and cited his "unacceptable handling" of the case of the missing body. Flomenbaum contends in a lawsuit that under the terms of a five-year agreement he signed with former governor Mitt Romney, he could be fired only for serious wrongdoing or mismanagement. The state Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case today. Flomenbaum was brought into the office in 2005 to clean up an agency plagued by chronic underfunding and staff blunders. (AP)

The Massachusetts Senate has approved a nearly $500 million tax package, including a $1-a-pack hike on cigarettes. At the same time, the Senate voted to lift the state-mandated minimum price for a pack. The package also closes so-called corporate tax loopholes. The House and Senate now must iron out differences between their versions of the tax bill. Republicans say the tax initiative is unnecessary given that the state has been collecting more tax revenues than anticipated. (AP)