Eastern equine encephalitis patient dies

A 73-year-old Essex County man bitten repeatedly by mosquitoes while vacationing in northern New England has died from Eastern equine encephalitis, state health authorities said yesterday, a day after disclosing his illness. The man, whose identity was not released because of patient confidentiality laws, died Sunday, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said, but authorities said they did not become aware of his death until yesterday. The victim had golfed and camped in Maine and New Hampshire in the weeks before he developed symptoms, which first appeared Sept. 21. The man is the first Massachusetts resident to die from Eastern equine encephalitis in two years.

All is forgiven for more than 50,000 children who use the Boston Public Library. On Saturday, the library will waive all the fines and lost book charges rung up by the children. Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Amy Ryan, Boston Public Library president, will summon a magician to make the fees disappear. A statement released yesterday said the New Start initiative is intended to encourage children to use the library as a resource for homework assistance, computer access, and free programs.(AP)

The state has overpaid more than $600,000 in claims for personal care attendant services, according to a joint review of Medicaid costs by the federal and state levels, state Auditor Joe DeNucci said yesterday. MassHealth, the agency that administers the Medicaid program, reimbursed members $302 million for the 802,000 claims last fiscal year, DeNucci said in a statement. Massachusetts paid $610,333 for fraudulent claims, according to the review by DeNucci and the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services. DeNucci reviewed 200 claims, 118 of which were for consumers already in nursing homes, he said. MassHealth is reviewing its procedures to stop such fraudulent claims, DeNucci said.

Framingham officials have rejected a proposal to build a 100-foot cellphone tower in a cemetery owned by the Archdiocese of Boston. In a unanimous decision Monday night, the Zoning Board of Appeals denied the request by Omnipoint Communications, a subsidiary of T-Mobile, to erect the cell tower in St. George's Cemetery near a wooded area off Cherry Street and Upper Joclyn Avenue. "It was adjacent to the tombstones in the cemetery," said Eugene Kennedy, the board's administrator. A spokesman for the archdiocese, Terrence Donilon, said the archdiocese leased the land to T-Mobile and had not intended to support or oppose the cell tower.

A Northborough teacher won a $25,000 bonus yesterday as part of a 2008 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award. Chris Louis Sardella, a fifth-grade teacher at Marion E. Zeh Elementary School, is one of 80 recipients this year. Sardella is the 36th teacher in Massachusetts to receive the recognition. Each recipient receives a check for $25,000 and a trip to Los Angeles for a conference and awards ceremony. Sardella was nominated by his colleagues.

The superintendent of the Wachusett Regional School District has come up with a way to deal with rising energy costs at a time of shrinking budgets. Superintendent Thomas Pandiscio said at Monday's school committee meeting that lights in every building, parking lot, and athletic field in the 12-school system will be turned off between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. He says some lights have never been turned off, and he made the decision after consulting with the local police and fire departments, who did not object. Pandiscio did not say how much money the action would save but says the savings will help offset a $123,000 loss of state money to the district. The district covers the towns of Holden, Paxton, Princeton, Rutland, and Sterling. (AP)