Nantucket man sentenced in porn case

A Nantucket man who filmed himself engaged in sex acts with young girls in Asia was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in prison on federal pornography charges in US District Court in Boston. William H. Constable, 53, a self-employed contractor, pleaded guilty in March to producing child pornography and transporting it to the United States. He was arrested last fall when he tried to retrieve a digital camera in a Cape Cod hotel room. Hotel employees found the camera and alerted the Barnstable police, who arrested Constable. The camera contained at least 40 digital video clips of girls between the ages of 6 and 8 in sex acts. Some of the images featured Constable raping a screaming girl, according to federal prosecutors.

A bill designed to spur development in the state's life sciences industry gained approval yesterday from a key legislative committee. The $1 billion expenditure over 10 years, which has been a cornerstone of Governor Deval Patrick's agenda, is scheduled to go for final approval before the House today and the Senate tomorrow. Lawmakers are hoping to trumpet the legislation at an international biotechnology conference next week in San Diego. While nearly $300 million is still earmarked, one of the most controversial examples of local spending was eliminated. Hart said the final proposal does not include $49.5 million to build a science center at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams.

A four-alarm fire at an Allston restaurant yesterday sent three firefighters to the hospital for heat exhaustion, officials said. Two of the firefighters were treated at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center and released. A third was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital to receive hyperbaric chamber therapy. The blaze at the Grecian Yearning restaurant on Harvard Avenue caused $2.5 million in damage, while two adjoining businesses suffered extensive smoke and water damage. The cause of the fire was a short-circuit in a first-floor electrical panel in the restaurant, Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said.

The Beacon Hill Civic Association has officially approved an agreement with Suffolk University that broadens an existing nonexpansion zone on Beacon Hill and caps undergraduate enrollment at 5,000 over the next decade. In exchange, the association has agreed not to oppose the university's expansion plan, now under city review. "This agreement creates a mechanism that legally protects the residential quality of Beacon Hill and enables the [association] to constructively engage with Suffolk for years to come," said John Achatz, the association's board chairman.

A Waltham District Court judge is considering a request by a lawyer for Marilyn Petitto Devaney, a member of the Governor's Council and a Watertown councilor at large, to throw out charges against her client, saying Waltham police selectively enforced the law in deciding to file felony assault charges. Devaney stands accused of striking a store clerk with a shopping bag containing a curling iron during an April 2007 confrontation. "If Mrs. Devaney was anybody but who she is, this wouldn't be prosecuted," attorney Janice Bassil said June 3. "She's been treated differently" because she is an outspoken public figure, Bassil told Judge Gregory C. Flynn.

The Westborough Teachers Association and the School Committee have reached a settlement in their bitter, yearlong contract negotiations. The settlement, reached Monday, would give teachers a 1 percent retroactive pay raise for the past school year, when they worked without a contract, and then another half-percent increase on June 30. For the next two school years, teachers would receive 3 percent annual salary increases. Under union rules, teachers need to wait 10 school days from when the contract is presented before they can hold a vote, said union president Bonnie Ross. With school ending June 17, a vote cannot take place until September. Town Meeting also must approve the contract in October.