Girl rescued from harbor is still critical

A 13-year-old girl who was rescued from South Boston waters Tuesday remained in critical condition yesterday at Boston Medical Center. The girl was not breathing when she was pulled from the water just south of Carson Beach shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday. She had been swimming with two other girls when she ran into trouble near Mothers' Rest, a fishing pier, and clung onto pilings for a while before disappearing. She was found more than a half-hour after rescuers received a 911 call.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's $2.4 billion budget passed the City Council on an 11-to-2 vote yesterday, despite a last-minute appeal from youths for increased funding for street workers to combat violence. The spending plan represents a 5.2 percent increase over the current budget. In what has become an annual protest, the youths stood and symbolically turned their backs on the 13 councilors and walked out. Councilor Charles Yancey was one of two votes against the mayor's spending plan, saying that adding one-half of 1 percent to the budget could have added dozens of street workers. Ways and Means Committee chairman Stephen J. Murphy defended the budget, saying councilors approved $2.2 million for additional year-round youth jobs. Councilors also approved an $832 million School Department budget and backed a $10 million emergency appropriation to cover a shortfall in the School Department's 2008 budget year, which ends next week.

An 18-year-old male was pulled from the water in the Foss Reservoir after his friends lost sight of him while swimming, according to the Fire Department. The youth's friends called 911, and the Framingham fire and police departments, along with the Natick Fire Department and the Massachusetts State Police dive team, responded, eventually finding his body underwater. Framingham Assistant Fire Chief John Magri said the teenager had been submerged "a couple of hours." He was taken to MetroWest Medical Center, but no details on his condition were available last night.

Lawyers for a Beverly officer charged with vehicular homicide are asking the Supreme Judicial Court to dismiss the case due to prosecutorial misconduct. Stuart Merry was convicted in March of killing a woman in 2007 when his cruiser crashed into her parked car. Merry argued that he had had a seizure. Prosecutors said Merry made a crack in the windshield with his head, showing that he had been sitting up. A judge ordered a new trial in May after a crash analyst told prosecutors after the trial that the crack came from a stress fracture. In an appeal to the SJC, Merry's lawyers say prosecutors did not ask their expert witness about the crack to avoid cross-examination, which was tantamount to suppressing the truth. Prosecutors say they did not need the evidence about the crack to make their case. (AP)

The historic schooner Bowdoin has reached the northernmost point of its two-month training cruise for Maine Maritime Academy students. The 88-foot wooden vessel arrived Monday night at Hareo Island off the coast of Greenland. To mark the occasion, the crew and students held a "farthest north" ceremony, which included sparkling cider, blueberry doughnuts, and a swim in the icy Arctic waters. The schooner is now headed south with one more planned stop in Greenland before sailing toward Canada. It is scheduled to return to Castine in July. Built in 1921 in East Boothbay, the Bowdoin made 25 scientific expeditions to the Arctic Circle under the leadership of Admiral Donald MacMillan. (AP)

A Mansfield police officer has been sentenced to serve two months in prison for an accident that killed a 10-year-old girl. Prosecutors said Aaron Fine, 35, was behind the wheel of his family's landscaping truck on Dec. 2, 2006, when it struck Rose Shatz as she rode her bicycle near her Foxborough home. Fine, who was off duty at the time of the crash, was found guilty last month in a bench trial of operating negligently and without the proper license. (AP)