College faculty to protest contract impasse

Professors and staff at Westfield State College say they have had enough of stalled contract talks with the state Board of Higher Education. The faculty planned to set up a picket line on the campus today to protest the impasse. Kenneth Haar, president of the school's chapter of the Massachusetts State College Association, said the union will demand that Governor Deval Patrick give the board the financial parameters it needs to negotiate a new contract. Haar said it is time for the governor to "put resources behind his rhetoric." Westfield president Evan Dobelle planned to march in support of the faculty. He said professors at the school, on average, were earning 19 percent less than the national median. The contracts expired June 30. (AP)

About 8,000 people walked all or part of the Boston Marathon course in the name of cancer research and care. Organizers of the 20th annual Jimmy Fund Walk said the goal of yesterday's event was to raise $7.2 million for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Participants could choose between several options on the route. While some trekked the entire 26.2-mile marathon course, others walked a half-marathon course from Hopkinton to Wellesley, while still others opted for a 5-mile or 3-mile walk to Boston. Organizers say the walk has raised more than $51 million over its first 19 years. (AP)

State health officials say that more than 9,500 Massachusetts residents received a free 10-day supply of nicotine patches over the summer. The patches were distributed under a program created after the Legislature raised the sales tax on cigarettes by $1 a pack. The patches were offered along with information and tips on quitting smoking. The state Department of Public Health plans to conduct a phone survey in January to determine how many people who were given the patches in July and August actually gave up smoking. The department says that while smoking rates have fallen in recent years, more than 8,000 state residents die each year from smoking-related illnesses. (AP)

Massachusetts environmental officials are launching a "listening tour" to seek public comment as the state drafts its landmark ocean protection plan. The tour comes after Massachusetts became the first state to embark on the ambitious initiative to create a document to cover a myriad of ocean activities, from wind farms and ocean fishing to whale watching and environmental conservation. The Ocean Act of 2008 requires Massachusetts to make sure all decisions and permits related to state-controlled waters up to 3 miles from the coast conform to a single science-based management plan, instead of being considered on a case-by-case basis. The tour, which includes stops in more than a dozen communities, begins tomorrow in Gloucester. (AP)

A 19-year-old Becker College student was fatally stabbed in a fight early yesterday at North Ashland and Dix streets, police said. William L. Smith, 19, of Scotland, Md., was stabbed once in the chest and pronounced dead about 2:45 a.m., according to the Worcester Police Department and Becker College. No arrests had been made by last evening in the killing. Police said there was a group of 50 people at the scene when they were called to the area at 2:02 a.m. Some people in the group were area college students, authorities said. Police said they do not believe the assailants were Becker students. Smith, a sports management major, had transferred to Becker this semester from a college in West Virginia, officials said. (Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

The first group of potential jurors in Michael Addison's capital murder trial will be called to Hillsborough County Superior Court today, but seating a jury could take more than a month. The court sent 1,200 summons - four times the number typically called for first-degree murder cases. Selection will start with 65 potential jurors arriving today to pick up lengthy questionnaires, followed by groups of about 100 every few days until 12 jurors and six alternates are chosen. Addison, 28, is charged with capital murder in the shooting death of Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in October 2006. Given the intense media coverage of the case, lawyers say it will be hard to find jurors who arrive without preconceived notions. (AP)