Mass. to borrow up to $1.27b for housing

Massachusetts will borrow as much as $1.27 billion over the next five years to make housing more affordable across the state. Governor Deval Patrick signed the state's biggest-ever housing bond authorization bill in a ceremony yesterday at an affordable housing complex in Allston. The legislation gives the state permission to borrow the money over five years. The bonding authority includes $500 million to update state-owned public housing developments. Another $220 million will support the state's Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The rest of the bonding authority will be spread across other housing programs. (AP)

As the legislative season winds down and fall campaigns start to percolate, the Legislature's Joint Committee on Election Laws is poised to advance a bill raising the $500 cap on individual campaign contributions, the first increase since 1994. The bill would bump that cap to $750 and tie it to future inflation. A preliminary version of an omnibus political finance package would also increase fines and penalties associated with campaign finance violations and tighten disclosure requirements on the duties that consultants perform for candidates. (State House News Service)

Outgoing Simmons College president Susan C. Scrimshaw has been named interim president of The Sage Colleges, which comprises three institutions in Albany and Troy, N.Y. Scrimshaw will assume the post Aug. 1, replacing retiring president Jeanne Neff, Sage announced yesterday. Simmons, a women's college in the Fenway, announced in April that Scrimshaw was leaving at the end of the semester after less than two years as president.

A Lawrence man pleaded not guilty to drug charges yesterday after a state trooper stopped the man for driving with a broken taillight and said he found 101 grams of cocaine in the suspect's clothes. Hector Burgos, 27, was charged in Suffolk Superior Court with trafficking in more than 100 grams of cocaine and drug trafficking in a school or park zone, the district attorney's office announced. Prosecutors said the trooper pulled over Burgos's Volkswagen on Washington Avenue in Chelsea. When the trooper frisked Burgos, he found the cocaine in a clear plastic bag, prosecutors said.

Randolph authorities and workers from the Animal Rescue League of Boston rescued about 50 adult dogs and puppies from an unoccupied home in Randolph yesterday. The conditions inside the Thayer Circle residence led the Randolph Board of Health to temporarily condemn the house, said Christopher Smalley, spokesman for the Animal Rescue League. The league executed a search warrant on the home along with Randolph police, Randolph Animal Control, and the state Department of Agricultural Resources, after receiving a tip from a concerned neighbor.

An Andover High School senior who lost her father to cancer is fighting to sit with her class for graduation, though she will not get a diploma. Sarah Pearson is two credits shy of earning her degree and will not finish until August. School policy says students cannot participate in graduation ceremonies unless they have completed the required work. Pearson's father, Bradford, died the summer before her junior year after an 18-month fight with prostate cancer. Her mother is lobbying the School Committee to make an exception. (AP)

Framingham police said a 13-year-old student pulled a knife on his teacher in the classroom and demanded money so he could buy a video game. The Fuller Middle School student is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, possession of a knife, and possession of a dangerous weapon. Police Lieutenant Paul Shastany said the assault occurred about 10 a.m. Tuesday. He said the boy stayed behind after other students had left the classroom, pulled the 11-inch knife, and asked for $20. After the teacher refused, he lowered his demand to $1, Shastany said. The teacher took the knife from the student.