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November 30, 2007

Drug bust nets $500K in cash, drugs

(Courtesy of Bristol district attorney's office)

A small fortune in drugs and cash.

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

Norton police said they seized cash and drugs worth a half-million dollars in a raid Thursday at a home in the city.

Bruna Juliana Santos and Sebastian Pollack, both 26, were arrested when police raided their Plain Street home and seized nearly 90 pounds of marijuana, drug packaging materials, scales, paraphernalia, and bundles of cash, according to a statement from Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter's office.

The marijuana was valued at more than $300,000, and there was about $218,000 in cash.

Both suspects were arraigned Friday in Attleboro District Court on charges of trafficking marijuana and conspiracy to violate the drug laws. They were each ordered held on $250,000 cash bail. A pretrial hearing is set for Dec. 18.

The investigation was led by State Trooper Michael Smith and Norton Detective Todd Bramwell, both of whom Sutter praised for their efforts.

"The success of this operation is a direct result of the strong spirit of cooperation between the local police departments, my state police unit and prosecutors from the District Attorney's office," Sutter said in a statement Friday.

Posted by mfinucane at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)

State trooper charged with selling cocaine

By John R. Ellement and Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

A veteran Massachusetts state trooper pleaded not guilty tonight to federal charges that he sold cocaine out of his Saugus home, an allegation that the state police commander called "disheartening."

Trooper John T. Foley wore a long sleeve gray T-shirt, black sweatpants, flip-flops -- and handcuffs -- when he made his initial appearance in US District Court about 6:40 p.m.

Foley, 62, was indicted on a single count of distributing cocaine on Oct. 11, but Assistant US Attorney George Vien indicated in court that more charges could be coming. He also said prosecutors want to seize Foley's Highland Street home.

Foley is assigned to the Revere barracks and has been on the job since October 1971, according to a joint statement released by State Police and federal officials.

State Police Superintendent Colonel Mark F. Delaney, in the statement, said he was dismayed by Foley's arrest.

"It is always disheartening when a law enforcement officer betrays his solemn oath of office by committing a criminal act," he said. "Not only has he dishonored himself, but he has wantonly betrayed troopers who risk their lives every day, enforcing the very laws he so willfully violated."

John Salsberg, a veteran Boston criminal defense attorney, was appointed to represent Foley. The attorney declined comment afterwards.

During the brief court appearance, Foley was polite and generally calm. His voice seemed to quaver when the judge inquired about how much equity his family has in his Highland Street home.

"My wife, she pays all of that," Foley said.

Reached last night at home, Patricia Foley declined comment. Foley was originally a member of the Metropolitan Police department, but joined the State Police when the two agencies merged in the 1990s.

If convicted of the single charge he now faces, Foley could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined $1 million.

Foley was released on personal recognizance and is due back in court Dec. 11.

Posted by mfinucane at 8:41 PM | Comments (0)

Hostage standoff ends at Clinton campaign office in N.H.

(Brian Snyder/Reuters)

The suspect unstraps the flares from his body as he surrenders to police.

By Scott Helman and James Pindell, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- A 46-year-old man wearing what looked like a bomb under his sweater and tie walked into Hillary Clinton's campaign office today and took five people hostage. But the incident ended with the release of all the hostages and the arrest of the man, authorities said.

Leeland Eisenberg of Somersworth, N.H. faces state charges of kidnapping, reckless endangerment, and criminal threatening after the 5 1/2-hour standoff that began sometime after noon. He could also face federal charges, said Rochester Police Chief David Dubois.

Dubois said Eisenberg had acted "for his own personal reasons" and wouldn't detail his motives further.

Colonel Frederick Booth, the head of the New Hampshire State Police, said Eisenberg had wanted to speak to Clinton, but negotiators had refused.

"As a tactical standpoint, that would have not been a wise move," Booth said. He said bomb disposal experts had determined that the devices Eisenberg had strapped to his body were road flares.

"We're grateful that there was a peaceful outcome, that the hostages are now safe and with their loved ones," Kelly Ayotte, the New Hampshire attorney general, said at a news conference this evening with law enforcement officials.

Clinton told the media earlier at a news conference outside her Washington home that it had been a "very difficult day, personally and emotionally." She said she was "especially just relieved to have this situation end so peacefully without anyone being injured."

"I just could not be prouder of the people who are in my campaign," she said.

She held a second news conference in New Hampshire tonight, praising her campaign workers' courage, and thanking law enforcement officials for their work.

The possibility of a bomb brought the city of about 30,000 to a standstill as agents from the FBI, Secret Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms joined bomb squads and SWAT teams from the New Hampshire State Police and local officers. The officers blocked off the downtown area and trained automatic weapons on the office.

Three staffers, a volunteer, and a small child were in the office when Eisenberg entered. Eisenberg immediately let the mother and child leave. The mother notified police. Two of the other hostages were released; the third escaped, authorities said.

At the end of the standoff, Eisenberg walked out of the office with his arms up, slowly removed his sweater, and pulled off the contraption duct-taped to his waist. Members of the SWAT team ordered him to the ground and handcuffed him.

The authorities wouldn't identify any of the hostages.

Booth said the hostages had been communicating with the police during the standoff.

"I don't think he fully had control of them during the whole process," he said. He added that the hostages "were extremely helpful in bringing this to a successful conclusion."

Clinton was scheduled to give an address at the Democratic National Committee meeting in Vienna, Va., this afternoon, but DNC Chairman Howard Dean announced from the podium that Clinton would not speak.

Workers for Senator Barack Obama's campaign office in Rochester also were evacuated, a campaign spokesman said. The office is four doors away from Clinton's. John Edwards's staffers also were evacuated from their nearby office.

At the trailer park where he lived in Somersworth, about 10 miles from Rochester, neighbors described Eisenberg as "crazy" and "always starting fights." They said he and his wife this summer moved into an old trailer, which they refurbished.

"From Day One, I said, 'This guy is nuts,'" said Kathleen Carlson, who lives in the trailer next door to Eisenberg and his wife.

She and other neighbors said Eisenberg was unemployed and frequently drunk.

"He started fights with people leaving my house," Carlson said. "He was always drunk. I felt sorry for his wife. He was always fighting with her, always throwing things at her. I told her, 'If you have any trouble during the night and you’re scared, come over and knock on my door.' He is crazy. I never wanted to speak to him."

(Scott Helman/Globe Staff)

Posted by aryan at 8:05 PM | Comments (0)

Mourners grieve for jail officer shot by police after chase

By David Abel, Globe Staff

They wore black bands over their badges, more than hundred of them, stone-faced sheriff’s deputies in their powder blue shirts and white gloves.

They stopped traffic in Roxbury this morning as fellow jail officers carried Marquis J. Barker’s body into the St. John Missionary Baptist Church -- where he had been married just four years before -- and saluted him with an honor guard, bag pipes, and all the tributes for a man who spent 18 years keeping prisoners in line at the Nashua Street Jail.

"What happened was so out of character of him, it feels like a dream," Kim Sanders Barker told the family, friends, and colleagues who came to mourn her husband. "Never in a million years did I think I would be here, never did I imagine this ... What did I miss? I don't know."

Last week, Barker, the normally soft-spoken jail officer for the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department, was "losing it," his wife said in a 911 call. When police arrived at their home in Dorchester, Barker allegedly waved a pellet gun at them that resembled a semiautomatic handgun. He yelled, "Shoot me! Kill me!” and then allegedly stole a police cruiser that had been left running by one of the officers, leading police on a chase through Dorchester and Mattapan.

It ended a half-mile away when Barker crashed into a metal fence at a Walgreens and was surrounded by police, who ordered him to drop the gun. When he didn’t, police said, officers opened fire and killed him.

At his funeral this morning, colleagues described him as brave, funny, and always there for others.

Posted by aryan at 1:34 PM | Comments (0)

Bag of bullets found in South Boston High School

By Globe Staff

A plastic bag containing 10 bullets was found today inside South Boston High School, prompting officials to lock down the facility while police searched the building.

A school police officer on routine patrol found the small bag at 9:45 a.m. on the lower floor of the building, which houses three separate high schools. Police are dusting the bag for fingerprints, according to Elaine Driscoll, a Boston police spokeswoman.

"There are no indications of any danger to any students or staff as a result of the activity today," Jonathan Palumbo, a Boston Public Schools spokesman, said in a statement. "We placed the school in containment mode and conducted a sweep of the building to ensure there were no other issues. The sweep resulted in an all clear and the school was taken out of containment mode."

School officials said they sent a message home to parents to tell them what happened.

School officials said they sent a message home to parents to tell them what happened.

Posted by aryan at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

Panel recommendations for Boston Fire Department

Random drug and alcohol testing

The panel urges random testing be instituted for all BFD personnel in safety-sensitive positions, from the Fire Commissioner down to entry-level firefighters;
Members of the Department who receive a positive test result should immediately be removed from duty and referred to the Department’s Employee Assistance Program;
In its report, Review Panel members say, random drug testing “will be worthless if it is not actively supported by the Department and the union”;
(Current BFD policy permits drug and alcohol testing pre-employment, randomly during a firefighter’s first year of employment, following a critical incident, or if there is a reasonable suspicion of substance abuse while on duty);
Random drug testing needs to be negotiated with the firefighters union to be implemented.

Creating three high-level civilian management positions

Three Deputy Fire Commissioner positions would be created to be held by civilians; These three civilian managers would focus on administration and finance, planning and organizational development, and responsibilities related to labor and management; This recommendation would require the hiring of one new civilian and would require reconfiguring two current civilian administrative positions.

Establishment of a permanent Strategic Planning Committee

Establish a Committee of representatives from the BFD leadership team, the union, and the City of Boston;
The Committee initially should be chaired by the Fire Commissioner and focus on the recommendations in this report;
Eventually, the Committee should be chaired by the Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Organizational Development and would provide a report every three months on the progress of this report’s recommendations. Within two years, the Committee would provide a comprehensive report to the public.

Re-emphasizing firehouse management policies

Day-to-day management and administrative polices which have languished over the years should be reinstituted;
Daily activities must be consistently followed at all firehouses, including, daily roll calls and requiring supervisors to oversee the swapping of shifts among personnel.

Implementing new management tracking programs and reports

The Fire Commissioner should issue an annual "State of the Boston Fire Department" report; The Deputy Commissioner for Administration and Finance should create and distribute an annual operating budget for every division and staff element; Updates should be done for personnel reporting databases and the time/attendance reporting system should be automated; Weekly community fire prevention activities should be mandatory for every fire station; Multi-level working groups should be created to focus on issues of concern; Formal monthly personnel inspections should be conducted, focusing on such things as firefighter gear and facilities.

Creating new professional training programs to help managers

A credentialed professional development academy program should be established with specific curriculum developed for company and battalion-level officers; All current officers and all officers upon promotion should participate in this training; An in-house exam preparation program should be established so that members of the BFD who seek promotions will receive assistance; The BFD should redouble efforts to diversify its membership and its leadership ranks.

Implementing new health and fitness policies

There should be annual physicals and more regular fitness testing, including a fitness test at the time of promotion;
There should be pre-employment psychological testing;
Each fire station should have a designated fitness officer, exercise equipment, and a specific fitness program.
In order to implement annual physicals, ask the membership to participate in other types of medical diagnostics, or require a fitness test for promotions, the City of Boston would need to get union approval at the bargaining table.

Posted by aryan at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

Panel urges firefighter drug testing as part of overall wellness program

By Globe Staff

In addition to random drug and alcohol testing, a panel examining substance abuse in the Boston Fire Department called today for the creation a health and wellness program to help firefighters deal with the dangers of their work.

The three-member panel of outside specialists made seven recommendations that include augmenting the fire commissioner’s civilian staff, creating a “credentialed professional development academy” for company and chief-level officers, and offering classes to nurture new leaders and prepare firefighters for promotional exams. Panel member James M. Shannon, president of the National Fire Protection Association, urged officials to adopt the recommendations as a whole, and not just focus on the recommendation to immediately begin random drug and alcohol testing.

"If all that comes out in this report -- or that all that is covered in the media -- is random drug testing, we will feel we have failed," Shannon said at a press conference at City Hall. "Random drug testing must be part of an overall program of health and wellness ... a new emphasis must be put on the total health and fitness of members of the department."

The seven-week review was instituted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino after autopsy reports for two firefighters killed in a West Roxbury restaurant blaze indicated that one had alcohol in his system and the other had traces of cocaine. The Boston firefighters' union has consistently blocked randomly testing its members for substance use, saying it would be a significant concession in the union contract. Union officials said that their organization is willing to consider random testing, but that the city has not offered sufficient compensation in return for making such a concession.

“This is an issue of public trust,” Menino said today. “This issue of random drug testing is on the negotiating table right now with the firefighters’ union. I hope that the union negotiators will do the right thing and agree to accept.”

The call for drug and alcohol testing has grown significantly since the Aug. 29 fire that claimed the lives of firefighters Paul J. Cahill and Warren J. Payne. Autopsy results showed Cahill's blood alcohol content was 0.27, more than three times the legal limit to drive in Massachusetts, and Payne had traces of cocaine in his system, according to two government officials with knowledge of the results.

Currently, firefighters are tested for alcohol or illegal drugs before they are hired and within a six-month probationary period but are not tested after that unless supervisors witness visible signs that they are under the influence while on the job.

“The Boston Fire Department has an excellent employee assistance program, but it has inadequate means to identify which of its members has substance abuse problems,” Shannon said. “This must be rectified.”

The other members on the panel were Dr. Sheila Chapman, a practitioner of addiction and internal medicine at Boston Medical Center, and Craig P. Coy, former chief executive of the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Posted by aryan at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

Injured kitten 'doing great' after being rescued twice

(Angell Animal Medical Center)

Dasher with an oversized cast on his leg before surgery.

By Globe Staff

Sometimes, when you're a stray kitten, you have to depend on the kindness of strangers. Just ask 8-week-old Dasher, who had to be rescued twice in one day.

Dasher was scooped up by a good Samaritan from a road in Taunton Tuesday. He'd suffered a broken leg after being hit by a car. The woman brought him into the warmth of her car, but he wasn't out of trouble yet. The little gray tabby climbed inside the dashboard.

Taking care not to put on any fans, the woman drove to Silko Honda in Raynham, which donated five hours of labor to get Dasher out of the dash. He was taken to a veterinarian in Stoughton for treatment. And yesterday, he underwent surgery at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston to save his leg.

"He's looking great," Angell spokesman Brian Adams said after the surgery. Adams said it will take six weeks for him to heal.

Dasher, who was named for his dashboard experience and in honor of Santa's reindeer, will likely be put up for adoption, Adams said. He said people can get updates on Dasher on the Internet at www.mspca.org/dasher.

Posted by mfinucane at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2007

Archdiocese to close two parish schools in Boston as part of system overhaul

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

Five parochial schools in Dorchester and Mattapan will be combined into a regionalized Catholic system, with renovated buildings, a reworked curriculum, and higher teacher salaries, under a plan that officials from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston outlined tonight to elected officials.

Archdiocesan officials said they will close two of the eight parish schools in the area -- St. Peter, at Meeting House Hill, and St. Kevin, at Uphams Corner. Those are two of the more troubled sections of Dorchester, but archdiocesan officials said the church remains strongly committed to serving the poor, and said that all but two of the surviving schools also serve significant numbers of low-income children.

The officials said the archdiocese will spend several million dollars upgrading the Bowdoin Street After School Program and Teen Center located at St. Peter's as a demonstration of its commitment to the area. They also said that the archdiocese hopes that the pupils of St. Peter's and St. Kevin's will attend another Catholic school, and said they will seek to provide transportation assistance to make that possible.

"No one is serving the poor more than the Catholic schools, even at what would appear to be fewer buildings," said Jack Connors Jr., the retired advertising executive who is heading a committee that is advising the archdiocese on how to shore up its struggling urban schools, which, like many Catholic schools around the nation, have been losing students for decades.

City Council President Maureen E. Feeney, who attended the briefing, expressed sadness but understanding at the decision to close the schools.

"There are fiscal realities that none of us can ignore," she said. "It's unfortunate that any school has to close, but the cost of maintaining and running these schools has brought us to this point."

Feeney praised the archdiocese for pledging to invest in the St. Peter's Teen Center, which she said was an important resource for multiple families.

The archdiocesan plan, which has been approved by Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, will combine five parochial schools, now overseen by parish priests, into one regional pre-K-8 school system, called the Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy, with campuses at the five parishes -- St. Angela in Mattapan, St. Ann in Neponset, St. Gregory in Lower Mills, St. Mark in Fields Corner, and Blessed Mother Teresa near Edward Everett Square.

The new system will be overseen by a regional board and a regional director, modelled after a system put into place this year in the Brockton Catholic schools.

The committee headed by Connors is pledging to raise $50 million to $60 million to refurbish the surviving Dorchester and Mattapan schools, boost teacher salaries, and provide ongoing teacher training. The committee expects by 2010 to extensively renovate or replace the school building at St. Ann's, which will require moving those students elsewhere during a yearlong construction phase, and to permanently relocate the students of Blessed Mother Teresa from the school building at the former St. William's parish, in Savin Hill, to the school building of the former St. Margaret's parish, on Columbia Road.

The school at St. Brendan Church, in the Cedar Grove section of Dorchester, will remain a parish school; that school declined to be part of the regionalized system.

The eight schools currently educate about 1,600 students. Archdiocesan officials are hoping that by improving the quality of facilities and curriculum, they will be able to increase enrollment at the surviving six buildings.

The Connors committee plans next to turn its attention to individual schools or clusters of schools that request assistance with planning; it is already consulting with a parish school in Gloucester.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.

Posted by mfinucane at 6:35 PM | Comments (0)

Body found in van in Medford parking lot

By Globe Staff

A woman's body was found today in a minivan parked in the parking lot of a Staples on Mystic Avenue in Medford, city police said.

The body was found at about 2:10 p.m., said Police Lieutenant Paul Covino.

The identity of the woman and the cause of death are undetermined, said Covino.

But he said the minivan matched the description of the vehicle driven by a woman who was reported missing in Salem a few days ago.

Middlesex district attorney's spokesman Corey Welford said that authorities didn't believe foul play was involved. He wouldn't provide any further details.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:16 PM | Comments (0)

Chelmsford highway ramp closed; motorists advised to seek alternate routes

By Globe Staff

State police say the ramp from Interstate 495 northbound to Route 3 southbound in the town of Chelmsford will be closed for an undetermined amount of time, while a tractor-trailer crash is investigated and the vehicle is removed.

The crash happened at about 3:35 p.m. State police advised motorists to seek alternate routes, due to possible traffic delays.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:39 PM | Comments (0)

Volunteer accused of stealing $120k from Watertown nonprofit

By Globe Staff

The former athletic director of a Watertown organization for Armenian youths was accused today of embezzling $120,000 from the nonprofit and blaming the missing funds on the Internal Revenue Service. Some of the money allegedly included deposits paid by young athletes so they could attend an Olympic-like competition in Athens.

Raffi Donoyan, 49, was indicted by a Middlesex grand jury on two counts of larceny over $250 for allegedly stealing from Homenetmen Eastern Region Inc., an international charitable organization. Donoyan, of Belmont, volunteered at Homenetmen from early 2003 to August 2005 and was athletic director and a board member.

According to press release from the state attorney general, Donoyan made cash withdrawals from the organization’s account and wrote checks payable to himself. The money included deposits for the Homenetmen’s World Athletic Games in Athens in July 2005.

In 2005, the treasurer and president of Homenetmen allegedly confronted Donoyan about irregularities in the bank account. Donoyan blamed the deficiencies on the IRS, saying the government had taken money out of the account, according to the attorney general.

Donoyan is to be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge on Dec. 5.

Posted by aryan at 4:15 PM | Comments (0)

Two killed, one injured, in Wareham crash

By Globe Staff

Local and State Police are investigating a four-car crash this morning that killed two people on Cranberry Highway in Wareham.

A car crossed onto the wrong side of the road at about 9:10 a.m. and struck three other vehicles, said Officer Richard Robidoux.

One injured person was taken by medical helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he said.

No further details were immediately available.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:23 PM | Comments (0)

Sparks from welding seen as cause of mill inferno

(Christine Peterson/Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

A day after the fire, firefighters continued to pour water on the smoldering wreckage.

By Globe Staff

Sparks from welding have been pinpointed as the the most probable cause of the massive eight-alarm fire in July that ravaged the Bernat Mill complex in the Central Massachusetts town of Uxbridge, state and local officials said today.

The state fire marshal and the Uxbridge police and fire chiefs said in a statement that the welding was performed in "an environment that did not meet the safety requirements of the fire and building code." They also said no permit had been obtained for the welding and that the sprinkler system in the area had been padlocked in the closed position without the fire department being notified.

"This allowed the fire to quickly overwhelm the sprinkler system," the officials said in a statement.

The fire broke out July 21. It destroyed dozens of businesses and threw hundreds of people out of work.

The officials said welding had caused small fires in the past and that, on the day before the fire, welding had been done in the area where the fire started.

Unprotected flammable material was near the origin of the fire, the officials said, noting that "a spark could have landed anywhere and started a smoldering fire" that went undetected for hours.

East Coast Machine, which was conducting the welding, was cited for three code violations. Capron Corp., the building owner, was also cited for failing to maintain the sprinkler system. Other citations were also issued.

The building housed 65 businesses with a total of 300 to 500 employees. More than 80 percent of the building was lost when the fire broke out in the center of the converted mill complex.

More than 400 firefighters from some three dozen communities took more than 24 hours to put out the fire.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:02 PM | Comments (0)

Former owner of hardware store accused of massive fraud

(Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office)

By Globe Staff

The former owner of a South Boston hardware store has been charged with larceny for allegedly making fraudulent charges to customers' credit cards in a scheme that prosecutors said may involve more than 100 victims and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Erik Joseph, 52, is accused of making fraudulent charges on the credit cards of his customers at Seaport Hardware on Congress Street and funneling the money to a fake business, according to a release issued today by Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office.

Joseph, of Belmont, pleaded not guilty Tuesday at his arraignment in South Boston Municipal Court. He was ordered held on $75,000 bail. He is due back in court Jan. 11.

According to prosecutors, the fraud dates to September 2005. Joseph allegedly set up a dummy business and obtained an American Express merchant number, a post office box, and a bank account. Using the shell company, Joseph allegedly made 43 fraudulent charges on customers’ credit cards that totaled more than $8,000.

Investigators allege that dozens more cardholders from across Boston and New England have been victimized by the scheme. The state’s Financial Crimes Task Force and US Postal Inspectors had developed evidence that Joseph set up several shell companies, each with its own merchant numbers, PO Box, and phony contact person, according to the press release.

Posted by aryan at 2:56 PM | Comments (0)

$2.9 billion bond bill would fix bridges, improve mass transit

By Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick filed a $2.9 billion transportation bond bill today that includes money to fix roads and bridges, extend the Green Line in Somerville and the Blue Line in Lynn, and add commuter rail service to Fall River and New Bedford.

The three-year bond targets what the administration describes as improvements to the state’s long-neglected network of roads, bridges, and mass transit while creating an estimated 10,000 construction jobs.

The legislation includes:

--$1.3 billion for improvements to roads and bridges. The investment would make the state eligible an additional $1.9 billion in federal funding for roads and bridges.

--$700 million for legally mandated projects intended to mitigate the environmental impacts of the Big Dig, which include improvements to the Fairmount commuter rail, the Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford, the design and engineering for a Red Line-Blue Line connector between Government Center and the Charles/MGH Stations, and the creation of new commuter parking spaces.

--$100 million for rail and mass transit planning projects that include the South Coast Rail extension to Fall River and New Bedford, the Urban Ring project, and the Blue Line extension to Lynn.

--$75 million for improvements to the Fitchburg commuter rail line, which would make the state eligible for an additional $75 million of federal funding.

--$25 million for regional transit authorities, which would include water transportation.

--$40 million for improvements at regional airports.

--$50 million for public works grants to cities and towns to support economic development.

--$20 million for fund public infrastructure improvements and affordable housing to support transit-oriented development.

--$15 million for transportation grants for small towns. The population limit was increased to 7,000 from 3,500, which will make 53 additional municipalities eligible for grants.

Posted by aryan at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

Gunshot victim's reckless driving conviction overturned

By Globe Staff

The state Appeals Court has overturned the reckless driving conviction of a man who tried to drive himself to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his stomach after a shooting in 2005 at a community center in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood.

The court said that Delano Livington's lawyer should have asked the judge to instruct the jury on the "necessity defense" -- essentially, that Livington needed to drive recklessly because he was rushing to get treatment for his wound.

Livington, 32, and several friends were visiting the Archdale Community Center March 15, 2005, when someone began shooting, according to evidence at the trial. Livington was wounded in the stomach. Livington allegedly drove for about 30 seconds on the wrong side of Washington Street at a high rate of speed before pulling into a gas station and falling out of the car.

Livington also faced gun charges after a loaded handgun was found in his car. But a West Roxbury District Court jury acquitted him of charges of carrying a firearm without a license and possession of ammunition without a license.

The jury convicted Livington of reckless driving, but he appealed, arguing, among other things, that his lawyer should have raised the necessity defense. That defense can be used when a crime is committed under the pressure of imminent danger and the harm the defendant seeks to avoid far exceeds the harm from the crime, the court said.

"Here, the risk of harm posed by the gunshot wound to defendant's abdomen outweighed the harm posed by his having briefly driven on the wrong side of the road to reach a location where he could obtain assistance," a three-judge panel of the court said in the decision written by Justice Elspeth B. Cypher.

"The Appeals Court found that the evidence we introduced was sufficient ... and really faulted the defense counsel," said Suffolk district attorney's spokesman Jake Wark. "We are prepared to retry the case."

Posted by mfinucane at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

Woman charged Needham hit-and-run death

(Courtesy WBZ-TV)

Jane Goodman at her arraignment today in Dedham District Court.

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

A Dedham woman was arraigned this morning on charges that she drove into a 67-year-old Framingham man while he was crossing a street in Needham last night.

Jane Goodman, 72, pleaded not guilty in Dedham District Court. She faces charges of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation, leaving the scene of an incident causing personal injury and death, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle, the Norfolk County district attorney's office said.

Police have said Goodman was driving her Saab west on Great Plain Avenue when she struck Michael Dorfman in the crosswalk at Glendoon Road at about 6 p.m. and did not stop.

Goodman was found in Wellesley after police received calls of a car being driven erratically.

Posted by aryan at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

Hundreds of North Station commuters delayed after engineer runs red light

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Several commuter trains out of North Station were delayed for as long as two hours last night after an engineer ran a red signal and broke some track-switching equipment near Leverett Circle.

About 250 passengers on the Beverly-bound train had to disembark and board another train after the accident, which happened at 5:55 p.m. Other lines delayed by the track problem resumed running at 8 p.m., said Scott Farmelant, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. the private consortium that runs commuter rail service for the MBTA.

Under company policy, the engineer who ran the red signal will be put on paid leave and be tested for drugs and alcohol as part of an investigation, Farmelant said. The engineer had an otherwise clean record.

The commuter rails have been under scrutiny since on-time performance has plunged in recent months. Three in 10 trains were late in October and November, the worst on-time performance since the MBCR began its contract with the MBTA in 2003.

Posted by aryan at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

Police surround, storm Dorchester home after 2 teens shot

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By John R. Ellement, George Rizer, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

More than 20 heavily armed Boston police officers wearing helmets and holding riot shields stormed a boarded up three-decker this morning in Dorchester searching for a suspect in a shooting that sent two teenagers to a hospital with gunshot wounds.

The abandoned building on Hendry Street in Meeting House Hill was empty and police are still searching for the suspect who shot two 16-year-olds a few blocks away on Cameron Street. The victims were rushed to Boston Medical Center gunshot wounds that were not life-threatening, according to Deputy Superintendent Darrin Greeley of the Boston Police Department.

Witnesses had told police that a suspect ran into the abandoned home on Hendry Street after the shooting. A gun and a jacket that witnesses said had been worn by the shooter were found in a yard between the streets, police said. A SWAT team surrounded the triple-decker and a standoff followed that last more than two hours.

“We felt a need to search [the three-decker] for the safety of the neighborhood,” Greeley said after police determined that the building was empty.

Officers used a loud speaker to order any suspects to surrender and tossed a stun grenade inside the home before storming the building.

Witnesses heard a blast of gunfire at 8:30 a.m. on Cameron Street. Around the corner, young children were waiting in clusters to get picked up by buses for school.

“You heard five loud shots. Bang. Bang. Bang ...,” said a contractor working a block away on Bowdoin Street who was afraid to give his name. “You could see guys scurrying up the street.”

One teenager was shot in the arm and another was shot in the leg. They were both taken to Boston Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening, according to Officer Eddy Chrispin, a department spokesman.

The contractor said he saw one teen with a gunshot wound in his arm run around the corner to a Boston police field office on Hancock Street. The other teen was picked up by an ambulance on Cameron Street, a quiet road lined by neatly kept three-deckers.

This was the second early morning shooting in Boston this week. At 6:30 a.m. Monday, a 18-year-old was grazed by a bullet in the jaw as he left his home in Mattapan to go to school, police said. He survived.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Posted by aryan at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)

Salisbury police probe abduction, assault of woman

By Globe Staff

Salisbury police are investigating the abduction of an 18-year-old woman walking along Forest Street yesterday.

The woman was walking about 2:30 p.m. when a minivan pulled up and three men wearing hoods jumped out and pulled her into a nearby wooded area, police said. The men tied the woman's hands behind her back and placed a plastic grocery bag over her head before they assaulted her.

After about five minutes the men left, and the woman flagged down a passing motorist and called for help. She was taken to a local hospital for treatment. The woman told police the minivan was a dark Chrysler with Massachusetts plates.

Anyone with information may call police at 978-465-3121. The woman was a victim of a similar attack about two weeks ago, police said.

Posted by aryan at 8:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2007

Rocky Marciano statue to be built in Boston, not Brockton

(United Press International file photo)

By Brian R. Ballou and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Rocky Marciano, the rugged heavyweight known as the "Brockton Blockbuster," will be immortalized with a statue in Boston after the World Boxing Council voted to shun the champ’s hometown.

The council voted at its 45th convention in Manila to build a statue in a city with a higher stature, making the monument accessible to more people, according Jose Sulaiman, president of the World Boxing Council. A plaque on the statue will pay homage to Brockton and note that the champ was born and raised in the city 25 miles to the south.

"We don't want to hurt Brockton, but we want to honor Rocky," Sulaiman said today by phone from Mexico City, where the World Boxing Council is based. "We believe that when people from Brockton go to Boston and see the statue, they can say this is our hero."

Marciano, who was raised in a working-class family in Brockton, was undefeated in 49 professional fights, with 43 knockouts. He reigned as world champ from when he knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott in Philadelphia in September 1952 to April 1956, when he retired. He died Aug. 31, 1969.

Word of the decision to build a statue in Boston comes as Marciano fans are pushing to rename the post office in downtown Brockton in the champ's honor. The high school football stadium already bears Marciano’s name, as does the street where he grew up. There is also a plaque in a park near his childhood home.

Posted by aryan at 4:43 PM | Comments (0)

Harvard graduate student accused of slaying takes stand in 2d trial

(AP Photo/Mark Thomson, Pool)

Alexander Pring-Wilson, a former Harvard graduate student, testified today in his second trial in Middlesex Superior Court.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- When Alexander Pring-Wilson took the stand today, the former Harvard graduate student did not reenact the 2003 street fight in which he said he stabbed a teenager to death in self-defense. The jury in Middlesex Superior Court had already watched a video of the dramatic testimony Pring-Wilson gave in his first trial, when he stepped out of the witness box, crouched on one knee, and showed how he used a knife to ward off Michael Colono, 18, and another man.

Instead, Alexander Pring-Wilson used words to describe how he said he reached into his back-right pocket for a knife and poked at his assailants as they pummeled him outside a Cambridge pizza shop.

"I was afraid the men who were beating me would not stop until I was killed," Pring-Wilson testified.

The first jury convicted him of manslaughter in 2004, but a judge ordered a new trial after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in another case that jurors should be allowed to consider a victim's violent history if it sheds light on a self-defense claim.

In this trial, Pring-Wilson's defense lawyers will be allowed to tell jurors about violence in Colono's past, which includes an incident in 2001 in which he threw money in the face of a cashier at a pizza restaurant, then kicked in the front door and shattered the glass.

Pring-Wilson has always said he stabbed Colono in self defense. Colono's cousin testified during the first trial that Pring-Wilson stabbed Colono repeatedly after Colono made fun of him.

Under cross examination today, Pring-Wilson contradicted the testimony he gave during his first trial and said repeatedly that he had forgotten many details from the fight over the last four years.

There was one point, however, in which he held firm. As in his first trial, Pring-Wilson again testified that he did not remember leaving an incriminating message on a friend's voice mail shortly after the fight in which he admitted having stabbed someone.

Pring-Wilson will continue testifying on Thursday.

Posted by aryan at 3:22 PM | Comments (0)

DiMasi to foot most of the bill on $40,000 office renovation

(Office of House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi)

A 3-foot rip in the carpet in the officer House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi had to be repaired with black duct tape after several people tripped, according to a press release. The carpet is being replaced.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

In the late 1980s, Senate President William Bulger caused a media frenzy when reporters learned that he spent $160,000 of taxpayer money renovating his private State House office, which included $41,000 for custom-made English carpet. Earlier this year, it was Governor Deval Patrick who grabbed headlines when the press learned he spent $27,000 to renovate his State House office, spending $10,000 alone on damask drapes.

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi may have learned from the experience of his fellow politicians. DiMasi's office issued a press release today announcing that work had begun on a $40,000-plus overhaul of the speaker's office, complete with photographs of water stains and torn carpet. One photograph showed a 3-foot cut in the 20-year-old carpet that had to be repaired with black duct tape after several visitors to the speaker's office tripped, according to the press release.

"The speaker is well aware that he media would be interested," said spokesman David Guarino. "That's why we put out the press released and in an attempt to be up front about the cost, most of which are being paid for by his committee."

DiMasi’s campaign fund will pay for $30,000 worth of office furniture, which will include a conference table with four chairs, two arm chairs, a sofa, coffee table, and two wing chairs that will sit in front of the speaker’s fireplace. Taxpayers will pay to replace the carpet in the speaker’s three public offices, which is estimated to cost $13,000.

Posted by aryan at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)

Winning lottery ticket unlucky for convicted bank robber

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

Luck ran out for a $1 million lottery winner who collected his first prize money this week: It turns out that buying the ticket was a probation violation.

Two-time bank robber Timothy Elliott had been forbidden from playing the lottery, under the conditions of his probation following a guilty plea for unarmed robbery last year.

Elliott, 55, was ordered "to not gamble, purchase lottery tickets, or visit establishments where gaming is conducted including restaurants where Keno may be played," according to probation order provided by Barnstable first assistant clerk magistrate John Dale.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe was unfamiliar with the specific reasoning for the probation order but noted that no-gambling conditions are often ordered after a criminal contends that a gambling problem spurred the crimes. "If somebody is saying my excuse for robbing this bank or convenience store was to get money to pay gambling debts," he said, then conditions are ordered to forbid gambling.

In 2001, Elliott had pleaded guilty to armed robbery. Last year, he pleaded guilty to unarmed robbery at a Cape Cod bank and was ordered to remain under the care of the Department of Mental Health and to stay in a treatment home at Taunton State Hospital.

But last August, he was allowed to be off the premises during the day without supervision. Last Friday, he paid $10 for an $800 million Spectacular lottery ticket at a Hyannis Stop & Shop and found himself a big winner.

Lottery spokesman Dan Rosenfeld said that before prizes are awarded lottery officials check winners' records for liens, delinquent child support, and unpaid taxes to ensure all debts are paid. Criminal records are not a factor.

"This is up to the courts,” Rosenfeld said. “We obviously will listen to what the courts order. It's their call.”

A surrender hearing is scheduled for Dec. 7, said Coria Holland, a spokeswoman for the state office of the commissioner of probation.

Posted by aryan at 1:35 PM | Comments (0)

Suspect in Millbury stabbing made spontaneous confession, court documents say

By John Dyer, Globe Correspondent

WORCESTER -- The man accused of fatally stabbing his former girlfriend outside a Millbury restaurant where she worked as a waitress made an unprompted confession to police, according to documents filed today in court.

Justin Hiser, 30, made a "spontaneous statement about stabbing someone earlier in the night to Westborough police" after a chase Tuesday that ended in Southborough's town center. Ronda Healey, 27, of Worcester, was stabbed in the chest at 3:30 p.m. a few feet from the T.G.I. Friday's where she worked at The Shoppes at Blackstone Valley. She died shortly thereafter at St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester.

In handcuffs and leg irons, Hiser shuffled into Worcester District Court today for arraignment wearing a blue prison jumpsuit. The slight man with spiky blond hair stood expressionless and said nothing during the proceeding, which lasted about five minutes.

Attorney Edward Ryan entered a not guilty plea on Hiser's behalf but did not offer a defense for his client. He told reporters after the hearing that he was still trying to determine the facts.

"He is very upset, very remorseful," Ryan said of his client. "He's, you know, almost in shock."

Healey is a mother of three children who lived with Hiser for a time on Gage Street in Worcester, prosecutors said. Patrolmen initially pursued Hiser on Tuesday because he was driving erratically and had struck two cars in Grafton and Westborough. No one was injured in the accidents, police said.

Posted by aryan at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

Power restored after failure in East Cambridge

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- A power failure cut electricity for about an hour this morning in East Cambridge, plunging the Middlesex Courthouse, county jail, and CambridgeSide Galleria into darkness.

The power went out at about 9:45 a.m. when equipment failed in a substation on East Cambridge Street, according to Caroline Allen, a spokeswoman for NStar. The outage only affected about 50 customers, but they included the courthouse and the mall. Power was restored at about 10:45 a.m.

In Cambridge Superior Court, the power failed as a defense attorney was questioning a witness in the retrial of Alexander Pring-Wilson, a former Harvard graduate student charged in the death of an 18-year-old Cambridge man. There was a loud pop and the courtroom went dark. A few moments later, emergency lighting kicked on. At least two people were trapped in an elevator during the outage, court officials said.

The Middlesex Courthouse is a 17-story building on Thorndike Street. The jail occupies the top floors of the building and is operated by the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office. The jail has backup generators and the power outage did not impact security, according to spokesman Michael Hartigan.

At the CambridgeSide Galleria, about 50 stores lost power just before the mall opened at 10 a.m., according to spokeswoman Jennifer Rotigliano. There were few customers in the mall, Rotigliano said.

Posted by aryan at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

Fire ripped through Cocoanut Grove nightclub 65 years ago

(Associated Press file photo)

By Globe Staff

People walking on Piedmont Street in downtown Boston may not realize it, but 65 years ago today it was the scene of a terrible tragedy.

The Cocoanut Grove burst into flames. The worst nightclub blaze in American history killed 492 people. In 1977, the Globe published a story that recreated what happened that night. It can be found here.

The site of the fire is roughly where the garage of the Radisson Hotel now stands, said Casey C. Grant, a fire protection engineer at the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy who has studied the fire.

"This was an event of historic proportions," said Grant, who has written an article on the fire for the NFPA website.

The fire showed the need for communities to adopt model fire safety codes and the need for communities to be prepared for disasters, Grant said. Both lessons still apply today.

"We work hard to try to make sure these disasters don't happen again," he said of his organization's work. "Unfortunately, they do. It's obvious there's more work to do."

(Globe file photo)

Posted by mfinucane at 9:41 AM | Comments (0)

Bicyclist assaulted near Brookline T stop

By Globe Staff

Brookline police are searching today for four teenagers who used a wooden two-by-four to assault a young man on a bicycle near the Longwood T stop Monday night.

The victim was riding a bicycle on the Longwood footbridge at 6:20 p.m. when, he told police, he saw three black teenagers wearing baggy jeans and dark sweatshirts standing in his path. One of the teens had a goatee and weighed 150 to 175 pounds.

A heavyset Asian teenager jumped out of some bushes and hit the bicyclist from behind with the two-by-four. The Asian teenager weighed about 185 pounds and was wearing baggy jeans and a blue bandana, police said.

The victim fell to the ground and was repeatedly kicked and punched by all four assailants before they fled on foot toward the Fenway area, police said.

Posted by aryan at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2007

Waitress stabbed to death in Millbury

By John Dyer, Globe Correspondent, and David Abel, Globe Staff

MILLBURY -- A waitress at a TGI Friday's at the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley was stabbed to death this afternoon in a nearby parking lot after ending her shift, co-workers said.

Police declined to comment. Officials from the Worcester district attorney’s office did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Rosa Gentile, a hostess at TGI Friday's, said the woman, Rhonda, whose last name she did not know, was "hard-working" and "always talking about her three children."

Police cordoned off the parking lot and customers had emptied out of the restaurant shortly after the stabbing occurred at about 3:30 p.m.

"Just everyone's sad, everybody's trying to leave," Gentile said.

A manager at TGI Friday's declined to comment last night, but their corporate office released the following statement: "This is an absolute tragedy and prayers go out to the family of our team member."

Posted by mfinucane at 7:12 PM | Comments (0)

Appeals court criticizes New Bedford immigration raid

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Add a federal appeals court to those criticizing how the government handled the March arrest of 361 immigrant workers at a New Bedford leather-goods factory.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said yesterday that the raid by the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which drew widespread public criticism for separating parents from children, was "ham-handed" and seemed callous.

The appeals court nonetheless upheld a May ruling by US District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns dismissing a civil lawsuit on behalf of the immigrants who sought to be returned from Texas detention centers where they were held after their arrests to await deportation.

The agency raided the Michael Bianco Inc. factory on March 6 and arrested suspected illegal immigrant workers, many of whom were from Guatemala and most of whom were women. They were flown to Texas, and many were unable to contact family members or lawyers, according to their lawyers.

The appeals court said it hopes ICE views the raid as a "learning experience in order to devise better, less ham-handed ways of carrying out its important responsibilities."

Posted by mfinucane at 6:50 PM | Comments (0)

Boston councilor wants hearings on warrantless search program

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner today called for hearings to scrutinize a Boston Police Department police program in which police would ask parents for permission to search for guns in their children's rooms.

"We should not encourage our police department to engage in clever strategies that undercut the constitutional rights of every citizen," Turner said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Boston police announced the Safe Homes program in which police would search youth's bedrooms without a warrant. The program is based on the premise that parents are so fearful of gun violence and the possibility that their own teenagers will be caught up in it that they will turn to police for help, even in their own households. Civil liberties activists have criticized the program.

Turner's main concern is that police will not tell residents that they can refuse. He also suggests that a visit by three police officers could be a "subtle coercion of permission." In addition, he says, paying the officers to work overtime could add unnecessary costs.

"While I understand and share the concern of the Menino administration regarding the spread of guns and the use of guns in the city," Turner said. "I do not believe that their warrant-less search approach is an appropriate response."

His call for hearings, which is being co-sponsored by councilors Felix Arroyo and Charles Yancey, will come up at tomorrow's City Council meeting.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:53 PM | Comments (0)

A rollercoaster, weather-wise

It was a day that started like spring, then turned back into fall. The temperature rose to 64 degrees in Boston during the early morning hours. By noon, the mercury dropped to 54 in Copley Square, where Globe photographer John Tlumacki caught Michael Moore of South Boston throwing spirals in his shirtsleeves. Forecasters say the temperature will slide further, reaching the low 30s tonight in Boston. Tomorrow's high: a chilly 42.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:42 PM | Comments (0)

Randolph schools declared 'underperforming'

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

The state Board of Education today declared Randolph an "underperforming" school district -- over the objections of Randolph officials -- setting into motion a potential state takeover of the beleaguered system.

Randolph, suffering from massive budget cuts and declining student achievement, joins just three other districts in the state -- Holyoke, Winchendon, and Southbridge -- deemed underperforming. The state has been working in partnership with those districts, rather than taking them over.

"In my view, the social compact has broken down in this community," state education board Chairman Paul Reville said before the Randolph vote, later adding, "There is ample evidence the school financial system is fraying at the edges."

Randolph school officials pleaded with the board, saying they feared the "underperforming" label would undermine the public's confidence in school leaders and cast students in a negative light. But they acknowledged the district's problems.

"We knew this day was coming. We are not surprised by it at all. We hit this iceberg four or five years ago due to funding. There is no masking the fact we have had to make massive massive cuts," said School Committee Chairman Larry Azer.

The vote triggers a 90-day process to evaluate whether Randolph officials are capable of turning around the district of 3,600 students or whether the state will have to place it in receivership. The latter move would enable the state to appoint its own leadership team and oversee all finances.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:06 PM | Comments (0)

Fire damages Duxbury Montessori school

(Essdras Suarez/Globe Staff)

Staff and some students of the school walked back towards the building after the fire was extinguished.

By Caitlin Castello, Globe Correspondent

A two-alarm fire damaged a Duxbury Montessori school this morning, but the children were safely evacuated and no injuries were reported.

The fire at the Bay Farm Montessori Academy started with an electrical problem in a ceiling fan in a bathroom, Duxbury fire officials said.

"It's an old building," said Fire Captain Peter Goggin. "Both ends were in good shape; the middle section was heavily damaged."

Class was in session when the fire broke out. The evacuation was orderly, Goggin said.

"There was no panic. Everything was done in a timely manner," he said.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

State ed board approves recommended high school program

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

The state Board of Education today adopted a set of recommended courses that it believes would better prepare high school students for college. The MassCore program includes four years of math, four years of English, three years of a lab science, three years of history, and two years of a foreign language.

The move was praised as a way to raise standards.

"It's simple: Our students shouldn't get to college and have to take high school level coursework," said acting Education Commissioner Jeffrey Nellhaus.

Today's vote will not make the MassCore program a graduation requirement, as some had wanted.

Education Department spokeswoman Heidi Guarino said that the board instead is making a strong recommendation to school districts that they adopt the program of studies.

"After this vote, it's now up to the districts. ... If they want to make it a graduation requirement, we'd be thrilled," she said.

College presidents have raised concerns that many public high school graduates are unprepared and must do remedial work when they arrive at college.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:47 PM | Comments (0)

UMass Amherst to become center for fuel cell research

(Globe file photo)

By Globe Staff

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst announced today that a federal grant will help the school become one of three national centers for the development of hydrogen fuel cells, a cleaner alternative to gas and oil.

The three-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation will give UMass Amherst a prominent role in the effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The award to the Fueling the Future Chemical Bonding Center will also put the school in a position to secure an additional $30 million in federal money.

"The aim of these centers is to give scientists opportunities to tackle big challenges in chemistry, in an atmosphere that's flexible and tolerant of risk," said Katharine Covert, director of the Chemistry Centers Program at the National Science Foundation, in a statement. "We want to encourage very talented people to attack major challenges that also engage the public and have a long-term societal benefit."

Hydrogen fuel cells create a direct current of electricity without carbon dioxide emissions. The technology will likely be used to power automobiles and boats and in computers and cell phones.

The UMass Amherst center will investigate how protons are transferred from one molecule to another, which will help increase the efficiency of fuel cells. The study will be led by S. "Thai" Thayumanavan, a UMass Amherst chemist.

"Nature has evolved systems for shuttling protons at really impressive rates — it's happening in our cells all the time. But these molecules cannot be taken out of their native environments and installed onto a fuel cell," Thayumanavan said in a statement. "Our objective is to discover the molecules and materials required to get really efficient proton transfer -- which groups are best at donating protons, which are best at accepting them -- and how can we optimize the handshake between the donor and the acceptor."

If UMass Amherst demonstrates high potential after three years, the school would be eligible for $15 million more in federal funding over five years. That grant could be followed by an additional $15 million.

Posted by aryan at 2:40 PM | Comments (0)

Victim's relatives vow to keep killer behind bars forever

(Globe file photo)

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Roberto Mulero was sentenced to life in prison today for the 2005 murder of a Liberian immigrant after the victim's relatives vowed to fight any parole efforts and make sure he stays behind bars forever.

"Your face will never see the sunlight again as along as I am alive,'' said Festus Kromah, the uncle of Dakermu "Eugene" Kollie, who was killed at a party on Colonial Avenue in Dorchester on Dec. 18, 2005.

Mulero was convicted of second-degree murder by a Suffolk Superior Court jury. Prosecutors alleged that he stabbed Kollie because Kollie had gotten in an argument with Mulero's sister. Prosecutors said that after the stabbing Mulero handed the knife to an associate and spat on his victim.

Relatives told Suffolk Superior Court Judge Regina Quinlan today that they had fled civil war in Liberia and moved to the United States to raise children in a safe environment only to see the 23-year-old lose his life in a senseless attack. Kromah, Kollie's uncle, spoke to Mulero directly, calling him an "idiot'' for tossing away his own freedom.

The victim’s stepfather, Ernest Troh, and mother Towon Troh, said they have been devastated by the murder. Towon Troh, who works in a North Shore hospice, described herself as a Christian and said she took no joy in Mulero being sent to prison.

"I hope this will be a means of making yourself available to God,'' Towon Troh said. "It has not been easy for me.''

Mulero faced his sentence with only his defense attorney, Robert M. Griffin, on his side. He did not speak on his own behalf and was sentenced by Quinlan to the mandatory life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 15 years.

Posted by aryan at 1:51 PM | Comments (0)

Activists: Wilmington pollution site has been a persistent problem

By Globe Staff

Environmental activists today are criticizing a Wilmington site as a persistent pollution problem that needs to be corrected.

The Olin Chemical site is an "egregious case," said Alyssa Schuren, the executive director of the Toxics Action Center.

The activists say the company has been "dragging its feet" on cleaning up the chemical manufacturing facility, which closed in 1986.

They're now concerned that Olin will sell the site and new work on the land could shift the contamination.

A spokeswoman for Olin didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

Activists from the Boston-based center awarded the Olin site one of their Dirty Decade Awards, which they gave to "bad actors" who have failed to make substantial progress in cleaning up their pollution.

The company "has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the community," Wilmington resident Kathy Barry said in a statement.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)

Video: Woman, 71, crashes into Lawrence store after accidentally hitting accelerator

(Lawrence Police Department)

By Globe Staff

A 71-year-old woman apparently hit the gas instead of the brake when she was trying to park a sport utility vehicle in Lawrence and crashed through a wall and into a White Hen Pantry, police said. The Mitsubishi Outlander smashed through the glass doors of the convenience store, plowed through several candy and potato chip displays, and came to a stop after the entire SUV was completely inside the building.

"There were skid marks inside the store," Chief John J. Romero of the Lawrence Police Department said today in a telephone interview.

No one was hurt although several people were inside the Haverhill Street store when the crash occurred just before 10 a.m. Sunday.

The driver, Emily Bowab of Methuen, will be cited for failure to use caution while parking, Romero said.

Posted by aryan at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)

Patrick creates volunteer corps

(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff/file)

By Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick today signed a bill establishing a $3 million state-run volunteer program that has been one of the early priorities of his administration.

The Commonwealth Corps has a goal of enlisting 250 volunteers, a number the administration hopes will grow to 1,000 members over the next five years. Members will dedicate at least one year of service, which will include teaching in after-school programs, mentoring underprivileged youth, helping the elderly, and cleaning up parks and beaches,

“Massachusetts has a strong history of community service, volunteerism, and civic action and I am proud that the Commonwealth Corps will become a new chapter in that history,” Patrick said in a statement. “Through volunteerism, citizens have the ability to alter lives and communities while also experiencing the pride that comes with such service. I am excited about this new opportunity and look forward to the work ahead.”

Members of the Commonwealth Corps must be at least 18 years and will include mid-career workers and retirees.Volunteers will serve in a part-time or full-time capacity.

"Governor Patrick made volunteerism a priority as he took office and he should be congratulated for the effort put forth to create the Commonwealth Corps," House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi said in a statement released by the governor’s office. "This new law will help foster the true spirit of volunteerism and civic engagement that are hallmarks of our Commonwealth."

The program also includes a student-based component that will be administered through five yet-to-be-named public colleges or universities. Participating students will combine volunteerism with their area of study.

"Commonwealth Corps acknowledges and promotes the benefits of volunteerism," Senate President Therese Murray said in a statement released by the governor’s office. "It creates an active and renewable resource to help communities in need while teaching participants the valuable lesson of civic responsibility."

Posted by aryan at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

Man escapes SUV stuck on Beverly train tracks

By Globe Staff

With a commuter train approaching at 60 miles per hour, a man escaped his sport utility vehicle after it got stuck at a rail crossing Monday night in Beverly and it was rammed by the locomotive.

William Kostifas, 40, was driving over the crossing at Hale Street when his 2004 brown GMC got stuck in the gravel along the edge of the tracks at about 8:50 p.m., according to Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Another motorist stopped and tried to help Kostifas push the SUV off the tracks.

"The lights started flashing, the (train) lights came up, and we bolted," Kotsifas told the Salem Evening News. "It was almost like something from a movie ... It's amazing how life changes in 30 seconds."

The northbound commuter train crumpled the SUV. None of the 150 passengers were hurt, but the train was delayed for 90 minutes, Pesaturo said.

Kotsifas, of Lowell, did not immediately return a phone message left by the Globe seeking comment. According to Pesaturo, no charges have been filed against Kotsifas.

“There’s no indication that he was trying to drive around the grade crossing,” Pesaturo said.

Posted by aryan at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

Nationwide hunt launched for man accused of Taunton slaying

(Bristol County District Attorney's office)

Timothy J. Cassidy is accused of fatally shooting a man in a Taunton parking lot last week.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Bristol County authorities have launched a nationwide search for a man accused of committing the first murder of the year in Taunton.

Timothy J. Cassidy, 38, allegedly shot and killed James Madonna, on Nov. 21 while in a parking lot at the Myles Standish Industrial Park. Madonna, 44, of Taunton was shot while sitting in his own car, authorities said. A spokesman for Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter today declined to identify a motive for Madonna's murder.

Cassidy was last seen driving 2005 Toyota Camry with Massachusetts license plate of 12T P32. He is described as a white male, about 5 feet 11 inches tall and 220 pounds. His last known address in Taunton was 305 Shagbark Road.

Cassidy has personal or professional ties to several Massachusetts communities, including Easton, Waltham, Weymouth, Norwell, Braintree, Revere, and Rockland. He also has connections to Starks, Maine and places in Texas and Georgia, authorities said.

Cassidy is considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call prosecutors at 1-866-SOLVE-07, the Taunton Police at 508-821-1471,l or the State Police assigned to Sutter's office at 508-993-2016.

Posted by aryan at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2007

Milford man arraigned in wife's stabbing death

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff

A 63-year-old Milford man allegedly stabbed his wife to death this morning, then reported his crime to the local police.

Joseph Ventola pleaded not guilty in Milford District Court this afternoon to a first-degree murder charge in the slaying of his wife, Esther, 60.

Prosecutors said police received a 911 call this morning at 8:38 a.m. from the Ventolas’ house on Mason Drive in which Joseph Ventola said, "I stabbed my wife. I stabbed my wife to death."

Police responding to the house found Ventola and his wife of 18 years. She had been stabbed multiple times.

Chief Thomas O'Loughlin said, "It's a shock, not only for the neighborhood, but for everyone, including us."

Ventola's attorney, James Gavin Reardon Jr., said his client was "very distressed and extremely depressed."

Judge Robert Calagione ordered Ventola to undergo a 30-day psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital.

Ventola, a frail-looking balding man with a fringe of silver hair, appeared in court in a white jumpsuit. He was handcuffed and his legs were shackled.

The judge scheduled another hearing in the case for Dec. 20.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:00 PM | Comments (0)

Controversial judge gets a boost from Superior Court chief justice

By Globe Staff

The top judge in the state's Superior Court today came to the defense of Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman, who is at the center of a brewing controversy because she released a man who allegedly went on to kill two people in Washington state.

Superior Court Chief Justice Barbara Rouse says Tuttman is "living every judge's nightmare: that a principled decision based on the law and the information provided to her was followed by tragic events over which she had no control."

Rouse said in a statement that the "bar, her colleagues, and the legal community all hold Judge Tuttman in high regard as she continues her work of producing fair, reasoned, thoughtful, and difficult decisions that faithfully apply the law to the facts before her."

The case has been gaining national prominence because former governor Mitt Romney, who is now running for president, appointed Tuttman. Romney has called on Tuttman to resign. Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who is vying with Romney for the GOP nomination, has used the case as a springboard to raise questions about Romney's record on crime.

Tuttman, who had worked 18 years as a prosecutor before becoming a judge, released Daniel Tavares in July after he had served 16 years for killing his mother. Prosecutors had wanted Tavares held on bail, because he was facing charges of assaulting two prison guards.

Tavares moved to Washington when he was released, where he now faces charges of murdering a young couple, Brian and Beverly Mauck.

Tuttman told the Globe on Saturday that she couldn't comment on her situation because of the rules regarding judges' conduct.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:37 PM | Comments (0)

Three passersby credited with rescue from flaming car

By Globe Staff

State Police are crediting three passersby with helping a trooper to pull a driver from a burning car after an accident last night on Route 6 in Yarmouth.

The crash happened at about 7:10 p.m. on the eastbound side of the road about a half-mile east of Exit 7.

A 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Jamie Frazee, 29, of Dennis went out of control, left the roadway, and entered a wooded area, State Police said in a statement.

The vehicle had rolled over and was in flames when Trooper Bruce Buckley and three passersby pulled Frazee to safety. Frazee was taken to Cape Cod Hospital and was in critical condition this afternoon, according to a hospital spokesman.

The crash remains under investigation, State Police said.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)

Recount underway in Worcester mayoral race

By Globe Staff

Who will be the next mayor of Worcester? That question was up in the air after the Nov. 6 election. But a recount today should provide the answer.

Officials are gathering in the Worcester City Council chambers to conduct the recount, said Donna Busha, a senior clerk in the city clerk's election division.

It's not clear how long the recount, which began at about 9 a.m., will take, said Busha.

In the initial tally, Konstantina B. Lukes, who took over the mayor's office after Tim Murray was elected lieutenant governor, led Frederick C. Rushton by about 108 votes.

If elected, Lukes would become the first woman to be elected mayor in the city's history.

Posted by mfinucane at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

Hearing slated for Patrick's $1b life sciences proposal

By Globe Staff

The vision is enticing: to make Massachusetts a leader in the biotech industry. But Governor Deval Patrick still needs to get his $1 billion proposal through the Legislature.

Today, a legislative committee will continue the process of collecting information on the proposal during a hearing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

The Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies will hold an open hearing at the university, the only hearing on the bill in Western Massachusetts.

Patrick introduced the measure in May, with Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi at his side, which made it seem a shoo-in for passage. But the Legislature hasn't approved it yet.

Over 10 years, the legislation would pump $25 million a year into research grants, $50 million a year into facilities and equipment grants, and $25 million a year into targeted tax incentives for biotech companies.

Patrick has warned that the state is losing its edge in one of its most important industries, saying the "threat is real, and the stakes are high."

Critics have argued that the plan costs too much and would reward biotech while ignoring other industries. Antiabortion activists have opposed the bill because it invests in embryonic stem-cell research, which they say destroys human life.

Posted by mfinucane at 9:20 AM | Comments (0)

Mattapan teenager wounded in early morning shooting

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A teenager was shot in the jaw early this morning as he left his home in the Mattapan area of Boston, police said.

Police said the 17-year-old was shot at about 6:30 a.m. on Southmere Road as he was getting into a car. He ran back into the house after the shooting.

The bullet traveled along his jaw line but did not penetrate his skull and he’s expected to survive, said Superintendent Daniel Linskey.

Police are at the scene right now, investigating. No arrests have been made.

The white house with maroon shutters in a neighborhood off River Street near Mattapan Square has been cordoned off with yellow police tape, along with the adjoining building. A sign in front of the house indicates that the Simply the Best day care facility is located there.

Posted by mfinucane at 8:38 AM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2007

Bedford suspends No Place for Hate program

By Kytja Weir
Globe Correspondent

The town of Bedford has become the latest to join the growing list of area communities to distance itself from an antibias program mired in controversy over the Anti-Defamation League's stance on the Armenian genocide.

The five-member Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Monday to suspend the ADL's No Place for Hate program at the urging of the community's Violence Prevention Coalition, an umbrella group that oversaw the community's participation in the national program.

"I don't think we should be carrying the banner of the Anti-Defamation League as long as it puts their interests ahead of protecting all of us from discrimination," Selectman Gordon Feltman said to a packed room of more than two dozen who turned out for the vote.

At least eight other Massachusetts towns - including Arlington, Belmont, Lexington, and Watertown - previously had suspended or severed ties with the ADL and No Place for Hate. Read more of the Globe Northwest story here.

Posted by ddahl at 8:57 AM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2007

Romney, Giuliani clash over judge

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

LACONIA, N.H. - After a Thanksgiving lull, the campaigns of Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani locked horns over their crime and fiscal records today in New Hampshire, where both candidates are spending a full weekend on the stump as the first presidential nominating contests loom less than seven weeks away.

Giuliani, in an interview with the Associated Press, singled out the case of the Massachusetts judge appointed by Romney who released without bail a convicted killer now charged with slaying a young couple in Washington state. Romney has already said that the judge, Kathe M. Tuttman, should resign, but Giuliani criticized his rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

"'The governor is going to have to explain his appointment, and the judge is going to have to explain her decision, but it's not an isolated situation," Giuliani told AP. "Governor Romney did not have a good record in dealing with violent crime."

Daniel T. Tavares Jr. completed a 16-year sentence for manslaughter for killing his mother this year, but prosecutors tried to keep him in prison for allegedly assaulting two prison guards. In July, Tuttman overturned a district court judge's decision to hold Tavares on $50,000 bail and freed him on personal recognizance.

Tavares surfaced in Graham, Wash., and on Monday, he was arrested for allegedly shooting to death Brian Mauck, 30, and Beverly Mauck, 28. Romney's campaign on Friday called Tuttman's decision to release Tavares '"an inexplicable lapse in judgment," and urged her to resign. Romney appointed Tuttman in 2006, after Tuttman had spent 17 years as a state prosecutor.

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said last night, "It's troubling that Mayor Giuliani would politicize this tragedy. ..... As far as Judge Tuttman goes, Governor Romney believes she should be held accountable."

On fiscal issues, Romney hit first, jabbing Giuliani's stewardship of New York's finances during his eight years as mayor. At a morning stop in Amherst, the former Massachusetts governor accused Giuliani of leaving a "budget gap twice as big as the one he inherited: over $3 billion." Romney also took issue with one of the leading Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a GOP rival, whom he called a liberal on fiscal issues.

Giuliani's campaign shot back immediately. Two top Massachusetts Republicans who are supporting Giuliani, former governor Paul Cellucci and former treasurer Joseph Malone, told reporters that Romney failed to achieve his goal of a rollback of the state income tax from 5.3 percent to 5 percent, as voters had called for in a 2000 referendum.

"He said one thing and did not get it done," said Cellucci, who, with Malone, was accompanying Giuliani on the first day of a two-day bus tour through southern New Hampshire, which will hold the first presidential primary on Jan. 8.

Posted by mfinucane at 8:30 PM | Comments (0)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver hospitalized

By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff, and John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the late President John F. Kennedy, is being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Shriver, 86, was admitted Nov. 18. She was listed in fair condition today, hospital spokeswoman Emily Parker said. The nature of her illness wasn't released.

Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics in 1968, was honored Nov. 16 for her work with the disabled, at an event organized by her four children at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Her daughter, Maria Shriver, and son-in-law, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, sat courtside at the Celtics-Lakers game last night.

A spokesman for Maria Shriver would not say why Eunice Kennedy Shriver was hospitalized. But he confirmed that she has struggled with health problems.

"Mrs. Kennedy Shriver has had a number of health concerns in recent months. But she has bounced back many times, and I fully expect that to be the case now," said Daniel Zingale, Maria Shriver's chief of staff.

Governor Schwarzenegger told The Associated Press in June that his mother-in-law was recovering from a series of strokes. In 2005, she suffered a minor stroke and a hip stress fracture. She has been hospitalized several times in the past 10 years, according to published reports.

Posted by mfinucane at 7:01 PM | Comments (0)

Judge declines comment on killer's release

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman, who is at the center of a growing controversy that has former Governor Mitt Romney calling for her resignation, declined to comment on the issue today.

"The canons of judicial conduct prohibit me from making any statements," she said in a brief telephone interview with the Globe.

Romney, who is running for president, has called on Tuttman to resign after she released a convicted killer who had served his sentence but faced new charges of assaulting jail guards. After being released, the killer, Daniel Tavares Jr., allegedly killed a newlywed couple in Washington state.

Romney appointed Tuttman when he was governor, and one of his Republican rivals, Rudy Giuliani, used the incident today to criticize Romney's record on crime.

"The governor is going to have to explain his appointment and the judge is going to have to explain her decision, but it's not an isolated situation," Giuliani told The Associated Press during an interview aboard his campaign bus during a stop in Laconia, N.H. "Govover Romney did not have a good record in dealing with violent crime."

Posted by mfinucane at 3:01 PM | Comments (0)

Man suffers third-degree burns in Mission Hill fire

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

A resident of Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood suffered third-degree burns on his arms and torso today when he tried to extinguish a mattress fire in his downstairs neighbor's apartment on Shepherd Street.

The one-alarm fire was reported shortly before noon. It was extinguished quickly and there was little damage to the three-story, brick building, said District 5 Fire Chief John Carey.

The man, whose name wasn't released, was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital, Carey said.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:20 PM | Comments (0)

Two dead in early-morning crashes

By Marc Robins, Globe Correspondent

Two people died in separate, single-car car crashes early this morning, state police said.

Around 1:40 a.m., Edward Roberts, 25, lost control of his 2007 Dodge pick-up on West Street in the western Massachusetts town of Goshen, police said. Roberts was taken by medical helicopter to Bay State Medical Center with serious injuries. His 15-year-old male passenger was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Around 4:50 a.m., a 30-year-old man lost control of his 2006 Land Rover on Interstate 95 south of Boston in Sharon, police said. The vehicle traveled into the median, struck several trees and became engulfed in flames. The driver was taken to Norwood Hospital with serious injuries. The passenger, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Both crashes are under investigation.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2007

Chelmsford slay suspect arraigned in his hospital room

(Pool photo)

Jeffrey McGee, lying in hospital bed with his face covered, was arraigned, with Judge Steven Ostrach, far right, presiding. McGee was ordered held without bail.

By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff

A 36-year-old Chelmsford man pleaded not guilty today to a first-degree murder charge in the slaying of his estranged wife.

Jeffrey McGee allegedly killed Christine Ayotte McGee, 31, on Tuesday in his apartment. He and the couple's 3-year-old son were later injured in a car crash in Methuen.

Thomas J. Ford, McGee's attorney, said he had no comment on the case, but added, "It seems like a tragic situation for everybody right now."

McGee was arraigned in his bed at Caritas Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.

Lowell District Court Judge Stephen Ostrach barred reporters from attending the arraignment, but allowed one newspaper photographer to attend.

Photographs showed McGee in a hospital gown with his face covered with a blanket. Only his bandaged arms were visible.

Corey Welford, Middlesex district attorney's spokesman, said McGee is in stable condition but declined to comment on the nature of his injuries. Welford said the couple's son is making "good progress" at an area hospital.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:43 PM | Comments (0)

After the turkey, a rush for bargains

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

Marie Ruiz used the glow of a cellphone screen to study a map of the Framingham Wal-Mart early this morning, as she and hundreds of other shoppers waited for the store to open its doors at 5 a.m.

"Toys are on one end, and clothes are on the other," Ruiz said. "So I've got my mother here."

When the doors opened, shoppers -- who began lining up at 9:30 p.m. Thursday -- rushed into the store, scooping up flat-screen televisions, digital picture frames, and GPS units.

At big-box stores, outlets, malls, and department stores across the country and in Greater Boston, retailers opened their doors well before dawn on Black Friday, offering bargains and other events in an attempt to lure shoppers facing high gas prices, exorbitant heating oil bills, and a slumping housing market.

In Greater Boston, crowds of deal-hungry holiday shoppers lined up extra early at big-box retailers and outlet stores to snag deeply discounted "doorbusters," and later in the day trickled into malls and department stores that didn't offer the same blockbuster bargains.

The annual rite of retail kicked off a holiday shopping season that the National Retail Federation is projecting will have the slowest growth in five years. The Washington.-based trade group forecasts holiday sales will rise just 4 percent this year, to $474.5 billion, falling below the 10-year average, and the slowest increase in sales since 2002 when sales grew 1.3 percent.

"Though retailers are anticipating a challenging holiday season, they are encouraged by the enthusiasm their Black Friday sales generated," National Retail Federation president and chief executive Tracy Mullin said in a statement.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:40 PM | Comments (0)

Police commissioner extends sympathies to family, friends of police shooting victim

(Boston Police photo)

Police released this image today of the pellet gun that they say Marquis Barker was brandishing.

By Globe Staff

Boston's police commissioner is expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Marquis Barker, the 38-year-old Suffolk County jail officer who was shot and killed by police on Wednesday night.

Commissioner Ed Davis also extended his sympathies to Barker's colleagues in the sheriff's department. At the same time, he said he wanted to "communicate his concern and support" for the officers involved in the shooting.

"My thoughts are also with the neighbors and community members impacted by this traumatizing series of events that occurred on Thanksgiving eve. This is clearly a tragedy for all involved," he said in a statement released today.

Barker's widow, Kim Sanders Barker, told reporters yesterday that she wants to know why police "let it go to the extent that they did."

"I need answers," she said. "Eighteen years in law enforcement, and this is what he gets? Shot in the head?"

It was the fifth fatal shooting by Boston police officers since 2002.

Sanders Barker said her husband was behaving strangely when she arrived home Wednesday afternoon. Police say that, when they arrived, they encountered a "hysterical male with a firearm." Barker then stole a cruiser and drove off.

A short distance away, Barker crashed the car into a fence in a Walgreens parking lot. Police said he gestured and pointed his weapon in "a threatening and menacing manner" and, fearing for their own safety and that of bystanders, officers fired their guns.

It turned out that Barker's weapon was only a pellet gun that was a "replica of a semiautomatic handgun," police said.

In conjunction with the district attorney's office, police are "conducting a very thorough and detailed investigation of this incident. There will be a full departmental analysis to ensure that officers followed protocol," Davis said.

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said, "While it is too early to characterize Wednesday evening's incident in legal terms, every resident of Boston should know that my office has already begun a thorough and meticulous inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding Mr. Barker’s death."

"We will apply the law to those facts and circumstances as expeditiously as possible, and we will share our conclusions with the public – as we have in the past – when our investigation is complete," he said.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:06 PM | Comments (0)

Driver hospitalized, but no injuries to passengers in Newton bus crash

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

A Peter Pan bus driver with a stellar record behind the wheel apparently blacked out this morning while driving 31 riders from Springfield to Boston, hitting a tree near an exit in Newton, a company executive said.

None of the passengers were injured; the driver was taken to a hospital in Boston, said Robert Schwarz, executive vice president of Peter Pan Bus Lines.

"He blacked out and hit his head on the steering wheel, and when he woke up a moment later, he asked everyone on the bus if they were okay,'" Schwarz said.

Schwarz did not disclose the name or age of the driver, but did say he had driven for 12 years, or over a million miles, without an accident. The driver is also an instructor who trains new drivers.

The bus left Springfield at 8:15 a.m. At 10 a.m., the driver took Exit 14 off the Mass Turnpike in Newton. The bus was headed for a brief stop at the Riverside MBTA Station in Newton, but seconds after taking the exit, the driver blacked out and the bus ran into a tree.

The passengers were picked up by another Peter Pan Bus, which took them the rest of the way to Boston, Schwarz said.

A Newton Police spokesman said no charges will be filed against the driver.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)

Taunton slay victim identified

By Globe Staff

Bristol County prosecutors have released the identity of a man who was found dead in his car at a Taunton industrial park earlier this week.

James V. Madonna, 44, of Taunton was found at about noon Wednesday in the Myle Standish Industrial Park inside his parked vehicle, suffering from several obvious gunshot wounds, the district attorney's office said in a statement. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The case is being investigated as a homicide, prosecutors said.

They urged anyone with information that could help solve the case to call their office at 1-866-SOLVE-07.

Posted by mfinucane at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2007

Veteran corrections officer fatally shot by police

By Erin Ailworth and David Abel, Globe Staff

When Marquis Barker arrived at his gray clapboard home in Dorchester Wednesday night his wife of four years did not not recognize him.

Barker, 38, a normally soft-spoken jail officer for the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department, was wild-eyed and rambling, Kim Sanders Barker said yesterday. So she called 911 and implored dispatchers to send someone to help subdue her husband.

When Boston police pulled up to the Fuller Street address, Barker allegedly waved a weapon -- which police yesterday identified as a pellet gun resembling a semi-automatic handgun. He then stole a police cruiser, and led officers on a chase through Dorchester and Mattapan.

It ended a half-mile away, when Barker crashed into a metal fence at a Walgreen's and confronted officers, who surrounded him while Barker screamed "Shoot me! Kill me!," police said yesterday. Officers fired, shooting Barker in his arm and head. Barker, who was in his 18th year as a jail officer for the sheriff's department, was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

It was the fifth fatal shooting by a Boston police officer since 2002. The officers who fired their weapons, whose names police did not release yesterday, will be on paid administrative leave until after the investigation.

Kim Sanders Barker told reporters outside her home yesterday that she wants to know why police "let it get to the extent that they did."

"I need answers," she said. “Eighteen years in law enforcement, and this is what he gets? Shot in the head?"

She added: "Taser the man. Handcuff him, and put him down on the ground. Get him to a medical facility."

The couple, who met at a birthday party, had been together 10 years and have five children ranging in age from 3 to 25. Kim Sanders Barker said she had never seen her husband act as he did Wednesday night, when he told her he had been to a mall in Dedham, though he rarely shopped.

She said she wondered if Barker was having an adverse reaction to medication; he suffered from Type 2 Diabetes.

"He totally looked like a stranger," she said. "He was just rambling on about a bunch of things. None of it made sense."

Prosecutors at the Suffolk district attorney's office are investigating the shooting.

Asked whether they have any evidence the shooting constitutes a justifiable use of force, Jake Wark, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said: "It’s far too early to comment."

Posted by dfilipov at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2007

Police fatally shoot man in Dorchester

Boston police officers shot and killed a man Wednesday night after he led them on a pursuit through Dorchester and waved a gun at them, Superintendent in Chief Robert Dunford said at the scene.

Police responded to a call about 5:50 p.m. about a man waving a gun on Fuller Street and ordered the man to drop his gun. He somehow jumped into a running police cruiser and drove down Fuller Street to the intersection of Morton and Norfolk streets, where he lost control and hit a van, police and witnesses said.

Police said the man then pointed the gun at officers, who then opened fire. Police would not say whether the suspect had fired his gun, or the number of shots the officers fired. Two officers suffered minor injuries in the pursuit. The suspect died shortly after he was taken to Boston Medical Center.

Posted by gwitherspoon at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)

Traffic slows on roads as planes and trains keep moving

(Essdras M. Suarez/Globe Staff)

Traffic on the westbound Mass. Pike slowed Wednesday in Newton.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Traffic slowed to a slog on Interstate 93 and the Mass. Pike Wednesday afternoon as drivers tried to make their Thanksgiving escape on what is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year.

Cars trudged along in stop and go traffic on the westbound Mass. Pike from Exit 17 at Newton Corner out to Interstate 295 in Worcester until early evening. I-93 was slow in both directions from Somerville to Braintree, and an accident exacerbated delays south of the city.

"It's busy, which is what we expected, but it's not as bad as yesterday," said Jeff Larson, general manager of Smart Route Systems, which monitors local traffic.

Logan International Airport avoided delays for much of the afternoon, but as evening set in a low weather ceiling began hampering arrival times. By 7:26 p.m., the weather had set back the average flight arrival by 44 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Control Command System.

Flights from the New York-New Jersey area were particularly affected. At the time of the FAA alert, planes from Newark International Airport were experiencing delays of 1 hour and 35 minutes on average, while arrivals from LaGuardia were set back by about 2 hours.

Traffic flowed a little smoother by rails than on land or in the air Wednesday. By 3:30 p.m., MBTA Commuter Rail trains had completed 282 trips, with more than 84 percent of those trains arriving on time, according to spokesman Joe Pesaturo. Ridership was particularly heavy on the Silver Line to and from Logan.

The Commuter Rail didn't avoid interruption completely, however. A mechanical failure on the Franklin/Forge Park line at about 6:37 p.m. caused a 20-25 minute delay, and travelers headed inbound on the Lowell line experienced a 15-20 minute hold-up due to mechanical failure, according to the MBTA website.

Amtrak also braced for its busiest travel day of the year, with more than 115,000 passengers expected to ride the rails. While passenger counts won't be completed until after the holiday weekend, ticket sales on Acela express trains were up 6 percent from the day before Thanksgiving in 2006, according to spokesman Cliff Cole.

"Our trains are running on or close to schedule," Cole said. "So far things are running efficiently."

Logan is expecting 564,000 travelers over the holiday, making it the airport's busiest week of the year. The real crush will come when people come home after the weekend.

"It looks like we will get real, real busy on Sunday and Monday," said Phil Orlandella, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates the the airport.

On a normal Sunday, Logan usually calls roughly 4,000 taxis for travelers. This Sunday, airport officials are preparing to call 9,000 to 10,000 taxis, Orlandella said.

Posted by aryan at 7:50 PM | Comments (0)

Man crushed while working on boom lift in Salisbury

By Globe Staff

A 52-year-old man working on a boom lift was killed when it collapsed on him this morning at a company in Salisbury.

The accident happened at Markland Welding, said Karen Dawley, a spokeswoman for the Essex County district attorney’s office. Police said they were called to the scene on Lafayette Road at about 8:11 a.m.

The device, a "cherrypicker"-type machine, extends up to 60 feet in the air. The man, whose name hasn’t been released, was repairing or replacing a part on it when it collapsed and crushed him, Dawley said.

Salisbury police said in a statement that the man was crushed between the lift arm and the body of the machine. Police said the lift arm weighed about 2,000 pounds.

The man was taken to Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Dawley, the district attorney's spokesman, said the death is considered an accident and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.

Posted by mfinucane at 7:32 PM | Comments (0)

A classic football rivalry: Wellesley v. Needham

By Keith O’Brien, Globe Staff

WELLESLEY –- On Thanksgiving Day in Wellesley, children will wake up hoping to ruin dinner for the good people down the road in Needham. Some will think – or say – nasty things. And some will even be ready to throw a punch to defend their town.

A few miles to the east, in Needham, children will wake up still tasting the bitterness from last year's loss to hated Wellesley in the annual Thanksgiving football game. They, too, will think – or say – nasty things about their neighbors. And they, too, will be ready to fight, if it comes to that. After all, they have fought the fine people from Wellesley before.

"I remember in 7th grade, one of my friends – a girl, actually – got into a fight with a 40- or 50-year-old man in the stands," said Needham High School senior Nick Simmons-Stern, a starting safety on the football team. "And they both got kicked out."

Nearly 180 high schools will face off across the Commonwealth in Thanksgiving Day football games, and more than a few of those games will feature fierce rivalries between neighboring towns. But no local rivalry has roots deeper than Needham-Wellesley's, the nation's oldest public high school rivalry, which began in 1882 when 22 boys assembled on a field in Wellesley to play football with a round ball.

Much has changed since then, including the ball. Pastureland pioneers have been replaced by suburban commuters. But the game – to be played for the 120th time this morning in Wellesley – has remained a staple of the fall in these two communities and surprisingly competitive, too. After 119 games, Wellesley has won 58 and Needham 52 with nine ties between them.

And so, even though both teams are 4-6 this year, this game between one comfortable suburban town and their slightly more comfortable neighbor still matters. It epitomizes life in both towns, marks the changing of the seasons, and lingers forever with those who actually play in the game.

No matter where the players go, or what they do, years down the line townspeople will only care about one thing: Did they beat Needham when they had the chance – or, alternatively, Wellesley?

"I'd give anything to win, if I was playing," said Paul Esposito, a Latin teacher at Wellesley High School who was a backup center in 1964 when the Needham Rockets beat his Wellesley Raiders, 20-14. "It's unfinished business. Always will be. That's the feeling."

Needham and Wellesley are more alike than different. They both have about 28,000 residents. They both are known for their good schools and safe streets, and they both are predominantly affluent suburban communities. But the two towns -- which are friendly neighbors today, except when it comes to matters on the football field -- did not always get along.

The main beef between Needham and Wellesley began more than 200 years ago when, as Needham folks are fond of pointing out, there was no such place as Wellesley. Needham, founded in 1711, was the only town in those parts. Wellesley? It was primarily just farmland, known as West Needham or the West Precinct, and people there claimed to feel slighted by the townspeople a few miles east.

In 1881, finally fed up, West Needham residents voted to form their own town. Wellesley was born – and soon, so was the football rivalry. In late November 1882, a slender high school boy from Wellesley, Arthur J. Oldham, challenged the Needham boys to a game of football.

Needham, still stinging from West Needham's defection, accepted and lost by the odd score of 4-0. But getting their revenge, the Needham kids won the next three. The game soon became an annual Thanksgiving tradition, passed on from generation to generation, and perhaps inevitably, kids grew up learning to take to take it seriously – and to take pot-shots at each other.

The Needham kids characterize their Wellesley counterparts as pompous preppies who live in McMansions. At Needham town hall, town counsel David Tobin likes to ask the selectmen's secretary, a Wellesley resident, how things are going in West Needham. And just last year, as a good-natured joke, the Needham board of selectmen marked Wellesley's 125th anniversary by inviting the town to "abandon its prodigal ways and once more return to the fold as West Needham."

Wellesley declined. After all, bashing Needham has been a local tradition for decades. When a school play in the 1960s called for cast members to play prostitute cheerleaders, Sue Melanson, a 1964 Wellesley graduate, recalls that they dressed the girls in Needham cheerleading outfits. And Wellesley kids today describe Needham kids as classless fans who are all talk
.
"They're always saying this is their year," said Phillip Zabriskie, a Wellesley junior. "But they can't follow through."

In fact, Needham has lost seven of its last 10 meetings against Wellesley. And at a pep rally this week, Wellesley kids said they had to win again. But Needham students were hoping this year would be different.

"Wellesley kids are, like, preppies," said Lindsey Farrell, a Needham senior.

"And their boys are so ugly," said Vanessa Myette, another Needham senior.

In the end, though, much of this is just pre-game chest-thumping – nothing more. Kids in Wellesley have friends in Needham and vice versa. The fights between the two factions were more prevalent years ago, according to Needham police. And today's game at 10 a.m. will be, as usual, a family affair, an event that will draw some 2,000 people.

Win or lose, most people are just happy that there is a game, that they have this tradition, and many say they will be thankful today if the kids just play their hardest. But those being honest are forced to admit the obvious: They will be more thankful if they win.

"This is the last time I'm ever going to be in full pads for a football game," said Simmons-Stern, remembering how much it hurt to lose to Wellesley last year. "I want to be able to come back to Needham High in future years – come back from college – and be able to say, 'We won my year. We won that game.'"

Posted by mfinucane at 7:10 PM | Comments (0)

A fatal stabbing, two shootings, rock Dorchester

By Globe Staff

Boston police are investigating a shooting this afternoon on Savin Hill Avenue in the city's Dorchester neighborhood, the third bloody incident there in less than 24 hours.

Police say a man was shot multiple times in front of a pizza shop at about 4.30 p.m. and was transported to Boston Medical Center in serious condition.

Police have made no arrests and are interviewing witnesses at the scene. A red newer-model Cadillac was seen fleeing the shooting scene.

The shooting comes on the heels of a fatal stabbing early this morning on the 500 block of Geneva Avenue, and a shooting Tuesday night on Beale Street that left a man in his 50s in critical condition.

Posted by aryan at 5:16 PM | Comments (0)

Chelmsford man faces murder charge in death of estranged wife

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A 36-year-old Chelmsford man is facing a first-degree murder charge in the slaying of his estranged wife, Middlesex County prosecutors said today.

Jeffrey McGee allegedly killed Christine Ayotte McGee, 31, sometime before 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in his apartment on Glen Street, District Attorney Gerard Leone said at a news conference this afternoon.

The case began to unfold Tuesday morning when Jeffrey McGee drove his red Toyota Corolla head-on into a dump truck on Route 110 in Methuen near the Dracut line. McGee and the couple's 3-year-old son were injured in the crash

Methuen police asked Chelmsford police to conduct a welfare check at McGee's apartment. Christine McGee's body was found there at about 2:30 p.m., prosecutors said.

Jeffrey McGee allegedly killed his estranged wife with a single puncture to her jugular vein that caused her to bleed to death, Leone said. The couple's son was in the apartment during the slaying.

Leone wouldn't say why McGee's car later crashed in Methuen.

McGee is being treated at the Holy Family Hospital in Methuen. He'll be arraigned Friday on a charge of first-degree murder in either Lowell District Court or his hospital bed, depending on his condition.

The child was taken to Children's Hospital in Boston with injuries from the accident. Authorities said Tuesday his condition was good. Today, Leone described his condition as "improving."

Posted by mfinucane at 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

Mashpee Wampanoags celebrate federal recognition

By Anna Badkhen, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- To the beat of a large drum, a dozen members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe filed in front of a blanket spread on the carpeted floor, each holding a stick in their hands.

One by one, they brought the sticks to their lips, moistened them with the tips of their tongues, and placed them in a pile in the center of the blanket in a traditional ceremony called "crossroads."

Historically, the ceremony is held to celebrate journeys and express gratitude for good fortune. Today, the tribe commemorated and gave thanks for their long-awaited and most cherished passage of 2007: the federal recognition of the tribe.

"It has been a long journey. I am so pleased to be here," said Earl Mills, the tribal leader also known as Chief Flying Eagle, who presided over the ceremony at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology.

During the ceremony, the tribe members also petitioned for the release of tribal items still being held in Britain.

American museums and federal agencies are required by law to return some Native American cultural items at the tribes' request. The Peabody Museum, which has 3 million Indian artifacts from North America in its collection, has returned some items to the Mashpee Wampanoag in recent years, said Patricia Capone, the associate curator at the museum. Most of those objects have been human remains and funerary objects, she said.

The tribe is not planning to ask the museum to return the remainder of the Mashpee Wampanoag collection "anytime soon," said Shawn Hendricks, president of the tribal council.

"We have that right to request our things back but we also need a place to put them," he said. "The Peabody Museum is a safer place to keep them for now."

The tribe, which hopes to build a resort-style casino in Middleborough, may build a museum to display its artifacts, Hendricks said.

The tribal leaders were quick to point out that the ceremony had nothing to do with Thanksgiving Day.

"We are not celebrating Thanksgiving," said Hendricks. "It's not one of the better holidays for us. Columbus Day, that's not our top holiday, either."

Instead, some tribe members will join members of other New England Indian tribes tomorrow on the waterfront in Plymouth to commemorate the National Day of Mourning, which has been held since 1970, Hendricks said.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)

Duxbury police officer jailed for 90 days

By Milton Valencia, Globe Staff

QUINCY -- A Quincy District Court judge sent a Duxbury police officer to jail today for at least 90 days, after finding that the officer posed a continuing threat to his girlfriend.

Officer Sean P. Moran, 30, will be held in the Dedham jail. An officer for two years, Moran has been in jail since he was arrested Nov. 10 on charges that he beat his girlfriend, a Milton police officer, and smashed her head against a fence.

The woman told police that Moran had abused her for several months and that, just three weeks before the arrest, he had pointed a gun at her head and said he would kill her.

Last week, Judge Mark S. Coven declared Moran a danger. Coven ruled today that he should be jailed 90 days, beginning with his Nov. 10 arrest.

Coven said he would have considered releasing Moran to a stress and alcohol addiction treatment program, rather than jail, but Moran’s lawyers could not find a guarded facility.

"I've got no desire to have to hold him in the House of Correction in this case, but until I can be assured of the safety of [the victim], I'm not prepared to release him," the judge said.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:47 PM | Comments (0)

Proposal to decriminalize pot clears a hurdle

By Globe Staff

Proponents of a law that would decriminalize marijuana possession in Massachusetts say that they've taken another step toward getting their proposal on the statewide ballot next fall.

The proponents have filed more than 105,000 voter signatures with city and town clerks, said Whitney A. Taylor, campaign manager for the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy. The signatures were filed in 349 of the state's 351 communities, she said.

The proposal would call for civil, rather than criminal, penalties for people caught with one ounce or less of marijuana. Taylor's group says it would save taxpayers millions in law enforcement costs and save 7,500 people a year from getting criminal records.

Opponents argue that marijuana is a "gateway drug" that could lead people into addiction to other drugs.

Today is a key deadline for those proposing to get new laws or constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot. They must file at least 66,593 signatures with the local clerks to keep their proposals alive. Most groups file more, in case some of their signatures are deemed invalid.

Activists who want a ban on greyhound racing in the state said yesterday that they had collected more than 100,000 signatures.

John Belskis, an activist leading a campaign for changes in Chapter 40B, a state affordable housing law, also said his group had submitted petition signatures in more than 200 towns. He said his group may have filed as many as 75,000 signatures.

Other ballot campaign organizers didn't return messages seeking comment.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:35 PM | Comments (0)

Public reprimand urged for judge who sent letters to Herald publisher after libel suit

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A hearing officer has recommended that Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy be publicly reprimanded for sending two taunting letters -- including one on court stationery -- to the publisher of the Boston Herald after winning a $2 million libel suit.

A 27-page report to the Commission on Judicial Conduct noted that although the letters were "improper in tone and content," Murphy was under "very substantial stress" as a result of "the Herald's articles and their aftermath."

The hearing officer, Peter W. Kilborn, wrote that while similar cases resulted in stiffer penalties that included a $5,000 fine or a six-month suspension, Murphy’s missteps were less grave.

"None of Judge Murphy's conduct in this matter involved his activities as a judge," wrote Kilborn, a retired state judge. "The conduct was part of his private, not judicial, life."

The recommendation comes after a two-day hearing last month at which Murphy and Herald Publisher Patrick J. Purcell both testified. Kilborn also recommended that Murphy be charged the costs incurred by the commission. The Supreme Judicial Court will make the ultimate decision about any disciplinary sanctions.

The Herald published a series of stories in 2002 that portrayed Murphy as a lenient judge. In one story quoting anonymous sources, the paper wrote that Murphy had instructed lawyers during a conference in his chambers to tell a 14-year-old rape victim to "get over it." Murphy testified that he had actually said they would have to help the victim get over the rape.

The same day a jury ordered the newspaper to pay him $2 million in damages, Murphy wrote Purcell a handwritten letter on court stationery. The judge urged the publisher not to appeal and demanded a confidential meeting in which he would bring a check to settle the suit. In a second letter dated March 18, 2005, Murphy warned Purcell that he had "a ZERO chance of reversing my jury verdict on appeal."

In a statement, Purcell said yesterday that the paper was "pleased with the hearing officer's report." Murphy's attorney, Michael E. Mone, did not return a phone message seeking comment.

The judge and the commission both have 20 days to submit written objections to the report by the hearing officer. Murphy and Purcell also have 20 days to request a full hearing before the nine-member commission. The commission can also initiate a full hearing.

The commission will present its own findings to the SJC.

Posted by aryan at 1:10 PM | Comments (0)

Cape Wind appeals ruling that blocked wind farm in Nantucket Sound

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

Cape Wind Associates today asked a state energy panel to overrule a decision by the Cape Cod Commission that blocked a plan to build a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind asked the state to green-light the project and approve all state and local permits needed for constructing the turbines.

In a sweeping, 32-page petition, the developer of the wind farm proposed off the Cape and Islands seeks a "composite certificate" that would overturn a decision by the Cape Cod Commission and grant all other required permits.

The petition was filed today with the state Energy Facilities Siting Board, which licenses energy projects and which approved of Cape Wind's transmission lines in 2005. The Siting Board was formed by the Legislature to ensure that the state creates a reliable energy supply with minimum impact to the environment at the lowest possible cost. The panel has broad authority to overturn the decisions of local boards such as the Cape Cod Commission if it believes an energy project is in the public's best interest.

A leading opponent of the wind farm called Cape Wind's request for a composite permit "underhanded" and said it showed "complete disregard for the Cape and Island communities."

"It's outrageous. Cape Wind is showing its true colors," said Susan L. Nickerson, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. "There's no more Mr. Nice Guy here."

Cape Wind's appeal notes that the Siting Board can overturn a decision because of inconsistencies between agencies -- and that the Cape Cod Commission's decision is inconsistent with the Siting Board's own 2005 ruling.

The Cape Cod Commission is a regulatory agency formed by the Legislature to protect natural resources on the Cape. Development projects large enough to trigger an environmental review by the state also must be approved by the commission. Though the wind farm would be built in federal water -- outside the purview of state or local agencies -- the commission and other state and local agencies have jurisdiction over two transmission lines needed to carry power from the wind turbines to a switching station in Barnstable.

The controversial wind farm won a favorable state environmental review, but still needs numerous permits from state and local agencies -- including a Chapter 91 license from the Department of Environmental Protection; a water quality certification from the state DEP; access permits from the Massachusetts Highway Department for work along state highways; a license from the Executive Office of Transportation for a railway crossing; orders of conditions from the Yarmouth and Barnstable Conservation Commissions; and road opening permits from Yarmouth and Barnstable.

The proposal for the wind farm is also still under review by the federal government. The Minerals Management Service, a division within the US Department of the Interior, has been conducting an environmental review, but its draft report has been repeatedly delayed and now is not expected until December.

Cape Wind first introduced plans for the wind farm in Nantucket Sound in 2001 -- and the lengthy time frame has frustrated the developer and environmentalists.

"With oil approaching $100 per barrel and strident calls from the scientific community to take action on climate change now, there is growing urgency to deliver the economic and environmental benefits of Cape Wind, and we hope our filing today will help make that happen," Cape Wind president Jim Gordon said in a statement.

Posted by aryan at 1:08 PM | Comments (0)

Gymnastics coach charged with sex assaults on students

By Globe Staff

A 51-year-old Connecticut man who has coached gymnastics in both Massachusetts and Connecticut is facing charges that he sexually assaulted two students in the early 1990s, the Middlesex district attorney's office said today.

Steven Infante of New Milford, Conn., was indicted by a county grand jury last week, prosecutors said. He turned himself in this morning and is to be arraigned this afternoon in Cambridge Superior Court.

A second gymnastics coach, Stephen DiTullio, 53, of Littleton was also indicted on a charge of perjury during the investigation of Infante.

Infante is the president of the Five Star Gymnastics camp, which was most recently held in Springfield; he's also the former owner of Olympia Gymnastics in Brookfield, Conn. DiTullio operates the Five Star Gymnastics gym in Stow, Mass.

Prosecutors said Infante indecently assaulted and raped one of his victims in incidents occurring from 1991, when she was 14, to 1994, when she was 18. Infante allegedly indecently assaulted a second victim in 1993, when she was 16.

Infante faces one count of rape, one count of rape of a child, and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. Prosecutors said some of the crimes were committed at DiTullio's home.

"We allege that the defendant, Steven Infante, took advantage of his position of authority to exert control over, manipulate, and sexually assault these young vulnerable girls," Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said.

There was no listing for a Steven Infante in the New Milford, Conn., area. Messages left for DiTullio at his home and at the Five Star Gymnastics School weren't immediately returned.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

More than 50 years later, a lost soldier is found in N. Korea

By Globe Staff

The remains of an Army sergeant from East Boston who went missing during the Korean War have been found, more than 50 years after he disappeared during a desperate battle against Chinese communist forces.

The Defense Department announced today that Sergeant Agostino Di Rienzo's remains have been identified.

Di Rienzo was assigned to the Third Battalion, Eighth Cavalry Regiment, First Cavalry Division, which was occupying a defensive position near Unsan, North Korea. On Nov. 1, 1950, the First Cavalry was attacked. In the process, the Third Battalion was surrounded and effectively ceased to exist, the Defense Department said in a statement.

Di Rienzo was one of more than 350 servicemen who went missing during the battle.

In 2002, a joint United States-People's Republic of North Korea team excavated a burial site south of Unsan, recovering human remains.

Di Rienzo was not the only soldier buried there. Another man's remains have already been identified and other sets of remains are still being studied in the lab, said Air Force First Lieutenant Mary Olsen, a spokeswoman for the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.

Scientists from the military used DNA and dental records, among other methods, in identifying the remains, the Defense Department said.

Posted by mfinucane at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2007

Judge allows delay in Entwistle case

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff

A Middlesex Superior Court judge has agreed to delay until March the trial of Neil Entwistle, the man charged with murdering his wife and 9-month-old daughter in their Hopkinton home last year.

Judge Diane Kottmyer today rescheduled Entwistle's trial from Jan. 28 to March 17.

Entwistle's lawyers had argued that they needed more time to review evidence that prosecutors were sharing with them.

"We have been frustrated by the pace we've received full discovery and disclosure," Elliot Weinstein, Entwistle's attorney, said in court.

Kottmyer ordered prosecutors to share the materials by mid-December.

"I expect to be notified immediately of any problems" in the process, she said.

Prosecutor Michael Fabbri said he had already turned over today much of the information required, and he would turn over all the required information by the judge's deadline.

The trial has already been rescheduled once. It was originally slated to begin Oct. 1.

Prosecutors allege that Entwistle shot and killed his wife, Rachel, and daughter, Lillian, on the morning of Jan. 20, 2006. Entwistle left for his family's home in England the next day. He was arrested in England several weeks later.

Posted by mfinucane at 7:11 PM | Comments (0)

With holiday approaching fast, traffic moves slowly

By Marc Robins, Globe Staff

A mixture of snowflakes and an upcoming holiday left Massachusetts roads filled with frustrated rush hour drivers today.

"It was possibly the worst commute ever or very close to it," said Jeff Larson, general manager of the traffic information company SmartRoute.

Larson said several accidents on major arteries caused massive delays during rush hour.

The Massachusetts Turnpike was particularly snarled as people tried to leave the state for the holiday.

Larson said the highway, at one point, was tied up from the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston to Interstate 290 in Auburn -- a distance of 47 miles.

Posted by mfinucane at 6:55 PM | Comments (0)

Elderly man charged in Framingham sledgehammer attack

By Globe Staff

A 73-year-old Framingham man pleaded not guilty today in Framingham District Court to charges that he beat a woman with a sledgehammer.

Police were called to a home on Underwood Avenue in the town at 8:12 a.m. They found the woman with her face covered in blood, holding a towel to her head. They also found Fred Woodard, 73, with blood on his face and hands, said Police Chief Steven Carl.

Woodard was arrested. The victim was taken to MetroWest Medical Center. Carl didn’t release her name and didn’t know her condition.

Woodard faces charges that include assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and attempted murder, said Middlesex district attorney's spokesman Corey Welford.

A judge at Woodard’s arraignment ordered him held pending a dangerousness hearing. The date for that hearing hasn’t yet been set, Welford said.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:36 PM | Comments (0)

Beacon Hill quiet as session end draws near

By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff

It's the last day of debate and voting in the 2007 legislative calendar year, but not much is going on at the State House today.

The most important piece of legislation under consideration is a bill that would move the state's presidential primary up by a month, to Feb. 5. The bill should sail through both the House and Senate, and Governor Deval Patrick has said he will sign it.

The bill, which would add Massachusetts to a list of 21 other states scheduled to hold primaries on that date, would give voters here a chance to weigh in on the parties' nominations --- before they're all sewed up. Most political experts believe the nominees will be determined on Feb. 5.

The House is not planning to take up any pieces of Patrick's sweeping biotech bill, despite Patrick's urging.

As a short-term alternative, House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi has proposed offering up to $40 million in targeted tax incentives to a handful of companies as a way of highlighting the importance of biotech while the Legislature takes its time deliberating Patrick's bill.

But the governor has told DiMasi that that is not the approach he wants to take, an aide to Patrick said.

Patrick wants to take the politics out of state subsidies for corporations; his bill would ask panels of scientists and other experts to determine which companies deserve tax breaks.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:32 PM | Comments (0)

Small earthquake hits Portsmouth, N.H.

By Globe Staff

Dozens of people called into the Portsmouth, N.H. police today, reporting that their houses were shaking or that they had heard an explosion. It turned out that a small earthquake had rumbled through the town.

Items were knocked off shelves and pictures fell off walls, but only one homeowner reported minor damage -- a crack in the ceiling -- and no injuries were reported by the more than 50 people who called, said Lieutenant Dante Puopolo of the Portsmouth police.

Professor John Ebel, director of the Weston Observatory at Boston University, said the quake measured 2.4 on the Richter scale.

It was the 10th small earthquake measured in New England since the beginning of October.

Ebel said suspects that seismic activity may be stepping up in the area, after a relative lull during the 1990s and the past few years.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:50 PM | Comments (0)

Smoking caused fatal blaze in Woburn

By Globe Staff

Fire investigators determined this afternoon that the improper disposal of smoking materials was the probable cause of a fatal blaze at an apartment house in Woburn Monday night that killed a 21-year-old woman. Investigators did not specify whether the fire was caused by a cigarette or another type of smoking material in a release issued by the State Fire Marshal's Office.

Firefighters responded to the blaze on Prospect Street at about 10:30 p.m. Monday and found heavy flames on the ground floor of a three-story wood structure, according Woburn Fire Chief Paul Tortolano. The woman was found in a front bedroom.

"The room that she was in was already flashed over and fully involved," Tortolano said this morning by phone. "Despite the valiant effort of fire and police, in my estimation there was nothing that could have been done."

A man was also in the apartment at the time of the fire. He was distraught but did not appear to be physically harmed, said Tortolano, who interviewed him outside the blaze. The name of the woman was not released pending the notification of her relatives.

There was nothing to suggest that the fire had been intentionally set, Tortolano said.

The bottom floor of the apartment house was completely burned out, and there was significant damage to the upper floors, Tortolano said. Damage was estimated at $200,000. Eight people were displaced.

Smoking has been the leading cause of fatal fires in Massachusetts since at least World War II, when the state began keeping detailed records. In 2006, smoking caused 32 percent of residential fire deaths, according State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan.

Posted by aryan at 3:46 PM | Comments (0)

Civil liberties activists criticize Boston police search program

By Globe Staff

Civil liberties activists say they are going to reach out to Boston residents to educate them about their rights under a new police program in which detectives will ask parents to allow them to search for guns in their children's bedrooms.

The program "does an end-run around basic constitutional protections and we question whether it will effectively reduce the number of guns on the street," Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said in a statement.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said that police won't make the searches unless they are given permission. He also emphasized that the program was intended to stop violence on the streets.

"There's a huge body of law on it that clearly indicates that it is justifiable under the Constitution, as long as it's informed consent," he said. "What we're trying to do is to help. We're not looking to prosecute the individual, we're looking to get the gun off the street."

The ACLU said its campaign would include distribution of "Know Your Rights" fliers in an effort to warn people about the dangers of consenting to the searches.

The ACLU emphasized that people did not have to agree to the searches. "If you say no, the police should leave," Amy Reichbach of the ACLU said in a statement.

Police have promised they won't charge a youth with unlawful gun possession, if a gun is found, unless the gun is linked to a shooting or homicide. But the ACLU said it was concerned that police might come across evidence of other crimes and charge the youth, or someone else in the home, with those crimes.

Davis said police are hoping the program will save lives.

"I can't keep showing up at crime scenes and seeing the carnage wrought by these firearms without trying everything in my purview to stop it," said Davis.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:51 PM | Comments (0)

First blast of winter turning to rain

(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A light dusting of snow covered Nevins Farm today in Methuen.

By Globe Staff

The first blast of winter blanketed the Berkshires and the Connecticut River Valley today with up to 2 1/2 inches of snow, causing a host of accidents on slippery roads in the western part of the state.

In Boston, a steady stream of flakes swirled in the air at noon, but the ground was too warm for it to stick. In the western suburbs, less than 1/10 of an inch accumulated, dusting roads and lawns.

The flakes are expected to turn to rain this afternoon when temperatures edge into the upper 30s, according to Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. The rain will wash any snow off roads and the evening commute should be no worse than normal, Simpson said.

Warmer temperatures are expected to eliminate any chance of snow through the weekend. That could make for muddy football games on Thanksgiving Day, when 50- and 60-degree temperatures will probably be sullied by rain.

Skies should be sunny and clear over the weekend, with temperatures in the low to mid 40s, Simpson said.

Posted by aryan at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

Taunton woman accused of stabbing her 2 children, mother

By Globe Staff

Police arrested a woman at her Taunton home early this morning after she allegedly stabbed her two young children and her 64-year-old mother.

The children, ages 10 and 12, and the mother were taken to Morton Hospital and treated and released for stab wounds. They are all expected to recover, according to a statement from Taunton police.

Sandra Meninno, 39, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Taunton District Court on charges that include assault with intent to murder, two counts of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, and three counts of assault and battery with a knife.

According to police, officers responded at 4:57 a.m. to a report of a stabbing at a home on Pondview Circle. When police arrived, they found Meninno in the kitchen. She no longer had a knife and was being held in a corner by her mother, police said.

Posted by aryan at 9:46 AM | Comments (0)

I-93 back open after crash in Wilmington

By Globe Staff

A 27-year-old man from Derry, N.H., was seriously hurt early this morning when his sport utility vehicle rolled over on southbound Interstate 93 in Wilmington, State Police said.

The road was completely closed in both directions for about an hour while a helicopter landed and flew the driver to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Delays have persisted since the interstate reopened at 6:48 a.m.

The driver crashed at 5.52 a.m. just north of Lowell Street, State Police said. The name of the driver was not released.

WCVB Channel 5 reported on its website that the driver was killed. A State Police spokesman spoke with troopers at the scene and said it was his understanding that the driver was still alive.

Posted by aryan at 9:02 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2007

Man who killed his mom held in more murders

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff

A former Massachusetts man who served time for killing his mother with a carving knife in 1991 was arrested in Washington state Monday for allegedly killing a newlywed couple.

Daniel Tavares Jr. was arrested Monday on two counts of aggravated murder, according to on-line booking records at the Pierce County jail. Sheriff’s deputies booked him at the jail shortly after noon.

Tavares’ wife, Jennifer Lynn Tavares, 37, was jailed for investigation of rendering criminal assistance and making false statements, authorities said.

The victims were 30-year-old Brian Mauck and his 28-year-old wife, Beverly Mauck, who lived near Graham, Washington, not far from Tacoma. Officials from the sheriff’s office said the Tavares knew the victims -- and lived nearby -- but they did not say how. A motive also was unknown, officials said. Nothing was believed to have been stolen from the Mauck’s house.

A neighbor found the couple on Saturday, after noticing that a door to their home appeared to have been kicked in, The Seattle Times reported.

Komotv.com in Seattle reported that Tavares, 41, had moved to Washington after his release to marry a pen pal he had corresponded with while in prison.

In Massachusetts, Daniel Tavares had been convicted of manslaughter in the 1991 death of his mother, Ann Tavares, in their Somerset home. He also was charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing Richard Pires, a neighbor who intervened in the fatal argument between the mother and son.

Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, said Monday that Tavares was "released to a warrant" on June 14 from MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole. Wiffin said Tavares had completed his sentence, and that a warrant had been filed in another jurisdiction at the time of Tavares’ release. She did not disclose where and refused to elaborate. It was unclear if he surrendered or was taken into custody elsewhere upon his release in June.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com.

Posted by gwitherspoon at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)

Distant cry leads to water rescue in South Boston

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A Massachusetts Port Authority police lieutenant heard a distant cry for help while patrolling the South Boston waterfront early this morning and helped rescue a 56-year-old fisherman who had fallen some 15 feet off a pier and was clinging to a pylon in the harbor.

Lieutenant Jim Flaherty was patrolling Conley Terminal at 4:30 a.m. in a blue, unmarked car when he rolled down his window and heard a faint cry above the squawking seagulls and creaking wooden piers.

"There's a lot of noise going on down there on a quiet night," said Flaherty, who has patrolled the waterfront as a Massport police officer for 28 years. "Every now and then I could just hear something -- just like a bug in my ear. I thought I could hear a voice."

That voice was Woon C. Ng, 56, who had been fishing a half mile away on the other side of the channel on Black Falcon Terminal. Flaherty drove to the pier and found an abandoned fishing pole. In the black water below, Ng "looked terrified," Flaherty said, and was screaming, "Help me! Help me!"

With the help of a boat from Massport Fire Department, Flaherty was able to fish Ng from the water. He was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was in serious condition this afternoon, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

"Clearly God wanted this guy to live," Flaherty said, reflecting on the rescue. "Why would I hear this guy's voice from a half-mile away?"

Posted by aryan at 6:34 PM | Comments (0)

Judge: FBI liable for slaying of two men allegedly killed by Bulger gang

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A federal judge ruled today that the FBI was liable for the 1982 execution-style deaths of two men allegedly killed by James "Whitey" Bulger and his associates, saying the government acknowledged in several other criminal cases that the men were killed because a rogue FBI agent told mobsters that one of the victims was an informant.

Judge Reginald C. Lindsay granted a motion for summary judgment in civil lawsuits brought by the widows of Brian Halloran and Michael Donahue. The judge lost his patience with a federal prosecutor who failed to explain why the case should go to trial given the government's admissions.

Lindsay said he will schedule a trial early next year to determine what damages should be received by the widows of Halloran and Donahue.

However, the judge urged Assistant US attorney Andrew Kaplan to tell high ranking officials in the Justice Department to settle the case and several others stemming from the FBI's mishandling of criminal informants.

"Mr. Kaplan please take back to Washington my suggestion that now is the time to settle the case and indeed all of them, " Lindsay said, referring to the remaining civil lawsuits brought by the victims of Bulger and the Winter Hill gang.

Posted by aryan at 5:56 PM | Comments (0)

College student died from fall, not fight, autopsy finds

By Globe Staff

An autopsy determined that a 21-year-old college student who died over the weekend in Allston suffered injuries consistent with a fall off the roof of a four-story building, not a fight, according to a statement released today by Boston police.

Shawn Dow’s body was discovered at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday behind an apartment building on Glenville Avenue, where police had responded to a brawl.

"Detectives interviewed more than twenty witnesses, none of whom placed Mr. Dow in or near the altercation,” police said in a statement. "This incident ... will be investigated as an accidental death."

Dow was a Peabody resident who was majoring in photography at the Art Institute of Boston. He had attended a party in the building on Glenville Avenue when he died.

Posted by aryan at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)

State acknowledges violating First Amendment rights of testing critic

By Andrew Ryan and Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

The state Department of Education acknowledged in a letter that it violated the First Amendment rights of a standardized testing critic by preventing him from speaking at a conference, according to a court settlement made public today.

The critic, Alfie Kohn, had his invitation to speak at a 2001 conference in Northampton rescinded after education officials threatened to withdraw funding if the Belmont author delivered the keynote address. In a letter dated Nov. 8, Rhoda E. Schneider, the general counsel for the Department of Education, wrote that "vigorous debate about education issues is healthy and welcome."

"The Department of Education acknowledges that a former DOE official violated the First Amendment rights of Alfie Kohn to be heard and to communicate information, and of people to hear and receive information, at a conference in western Massachusetts in 2001," the letter says.

Kohn's lawyers also received an additional $37,500 in court costs and legal fees from education officials on top of the $155,000 a superior court judge awarded in May. In exchange, Kohn agreed to drop a request for $300,000 in court costs and fees. As part of the settlement, education officials also dropped an appeal of the judge’s decision.

"DOE broke the law in an attempt to silence a critic of its policies," Kohn said today by phone. "Their actions constituted an outrageous attempt to suppress dissenting views."

Kohn linked the department's decision to rescind his invitation with its unwavering focus on standardized tests.

"The same sensibility that tries to suppress dissenting views also says to students, 'You don't get a diploma if you don't pass this single test regardless of other academic accomplishments,' " he said. "In both cases, it's a heavy-handed attempt to ram through a particular position on education."

Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which helped represent Kohn, said she hoped state education officials "learn a lesson" from the outcome of the case.

"Government officials need to understand that policy is generally better when there is real debate and discussion and not censorship," Wunsch said.

Kohn was invited to speak at a 2001 conference that had a focus on standardized testing, which had recently become a requirement for high school gradation in Massachusetts.

Two months before the conference, a state education official sent an e-mail to conference organizers threatening to withdraw federal funds administered by the department unless Kohn was barred from speaking, even though the money was not slated to be used to pay speakers. The state official's e-mail said "it was stupid" to use the state funds to support a speaker who is "diametrically opposed" to the state's agenda, according to court documents.

Posted by aryan at 3:13 PM | Comments (0)

45-foot Christmas tree arrives from Nova Scotia

By Globe Staff

A 45-foot white spruce completed its 750-mile trip from Nova Scotia today and arrived at Boston Common, where the towering evergreen will serve as the city's official Christmas tree.

The spruce comes as a gift from Christopher and Lisa Hamilton in Granville Center, a rural town on the bank of the Annapolis River, in the western end of the province. Nova Scotia donates a tree to Boston every Christmas as thanks for the doctors and supplies the city sent after an explosion killed almost 2,000 in Halifax in 1917.

"Each year, we search long and hard to find a tree deserving of this honor," David Morse, Nova Scotia’s natural resources minister, said in a statement. "With great pride, we present this tree to our friends in Boston, whose outpouring of kindness in 1917 will never be forgotten."

The tree received a police escort when it reached Billerica as it was driven down Route 3 to Route 128 and onto Interstate 93. It passed through Sullivan Square and crossed the Charlestown Bridge, weaving through downtown Boston. When it arrived on Tremont Street at the edge of Boston Common, the spruce was greeted by city officials, a Nova Scotian bagpiper, and a special appearance by Santa Claus.

The official tree lighting will take place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29.

Posted by aryan at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2007

Club without sprinklers can stay open through the weekend

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

One of three bars shuttered by Boston fire officials because they had failed to install fire sprinklers was allowed last night to re-open temporarily.

The Milky Way Lounge & Lanes won an injunction in Suffolk Superior Court allowing it to remain open until Monday.

A hearing slated for that day will determine whether the bar can continue to operate while state fire officials consider its appeal for a one-year extension on Thursday's deadline to install the sprinklers.

A law passed in 2004 after 100 people died in a Rhode Island nightclub fire gave entertainment venues with capacities of 100 people or more three years to install sprinklers.

Milky Way owners say they should be given more time because their lease on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain expires in July, and they may have to relocate. Installing a sprinkler system would cost $70,000, they say.

Sixty-four other establishments won a reprieve by either getting extensions or waivers of the sprinkler requirement.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)

Boston man acquitted of murder, convicted of firearm possession

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A 20-year-old Boston man was acquitted yesterday of second-degree murder, but convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm.

William Badgett was accused of shooting Louis DoSouto, 25, during a fight at a party on Hamilton Street in Dorchester on May 6, 2006.

Prosecutors wanted Badgett sentenced to four years in prison on the firearm charge, but Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano imposed an 18-month sentence, the time Badgett was held awaiting trial.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2007

Peabody woman killed in Route 1 crash

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A 73-year-old Peabody woman was killed today in a head-on crash on Route 1 in Danvers, state police said.

Joyce E. Oliver was driving north on the road at about 9 a.m. when a car driven by Buck C. Bishop, 18, crossed from the southbound to the northbound lanes and crashed into her car, police said. Oliver was rushed to Beverly Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Moments after the initial crash, a third car traveling north slammed into the vehicles.

Bishop and the driver and passenger of the third car suffered minor injuries.

The crash remains under investigation, police said. Route 1 was closed for about 90 minutes.

Posted by mfinucane at 7:12 PM | Comments (0)

Foster mother found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in death of boy, 4

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

A foster mother accused of causing the death of Dontel Jeffers was found guilty today of involuntary manslaughter for not immediately seeking medical attention after the 4-year-old was severely beaten.

Corinne N. Stephen, 25, had been charged with second-degree murder but was convicted of the lesser charge after the Suffolk Superior Court jury deliberated for two days. Prosecutors did not present any evidence during the seven-day trial that Stephen directly abused Dontel. Instead, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David Deakin argued that she should be held responsible for Dontel's death because she refused to seek medical help even though she knew he was in so much pain she gave him massive dose of Tylenol with codeine.

Stephen stood motionless and did not react as the jury read its verdict. She was taken into custody and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5 by Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle. Her attorney, John F. Palmer, vowed to appeal, saying before the verdict that the judge erred by telling the jury that failing to do something can be constituted as a malicious act.

Dontel's grandmother, Agatha Jeffers, and other family members shook their heads after the verdict and whispered among themselves. They declined to comment, but did not seem happy.

Dontel was healthy when he was entrusted to Stephen’s care on Feb. 24, 2005. Ten days later, she brought his body to Caritas Carney Hospital with a black eye, ruptured intestine, bruised throat, bruised arms, and ligature marks around his wrists and ankles. Doctors at Caritas tried for 40 minutes to revive the child, but were unsuccessful.

Palmer, the defense attorney, argued that investigators failed to search hard enough for the real killer and accused police and prosecutors of not conducting crucial forensic tests on physical evidence that could have identified other people who had contact with Dontel. Palmer told the jury during in his closing argument that Stephen was an unlikely killer because she served in the Army National Guard, had taken college level nursing courses, and drove the boy to the hospital the day he died.

Posted by aryan at 4:23 PM | Comments (0)

I-93 south in Charlestown reopened after crash

By Globe Staff

Southbound Interstate 93 has reopened after being closed for more than 90 minutes when a garbage truck overturned near the ramp to the Leverett Connector. Traffic remains heavy, and residual delays are expected to persist, although the garbage truck has been righted and removed from the roadway.

It does not appear that anyone was serious injured, and there was no damage to the interstate, officials said. It took crews some time to right the truck because it tipped on the lower deck of the expressway.

After the crash at 1:50 p.m., vehicles had been detoured onto the HOV lane until a second crash brought traffic to a standstill. Officials sent emergency vehicles and tow trucks north on the southbound lanes. Delays spilled onto Rutherford Avenue, the Tobin Bridge, and other roadways.

At about 2 p.m., there was not a single vehicle on the southbound lane of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, which is just past the site of the crash. An oversize tow truck could be seen on the Charlestown side of the bridge, driving north in the southbound lanes, toward the accident.

Posted by aryan at 3:45 PM | Comments (0)

With World Series win, local homeless to dine on Denver delicacies

By Globe Staff

This weekend some of Boston’s homeless will be sipping hot tea, snacking on chips and salsa, eating Quiznos sandwiches and Chipotle burritos, and slurping Rocky Road ice cream. It all comes compliments of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who made the mistake of betting against the Red Sox in the World Series.

When the Rockies dropped four straight, Hickenlooper lost his wager with Mayor Thomas M. Menino over homegrown food, which would be given to charity. (Menino bet clam chowder from Legal Seafood, Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee, and Brigham's Ice Cream.)

Nevermind that there is a Quiznos in Boston’s City Hall Plaza, or that Chipotle Mexican Grill has restaurants in Dedham, Medford, and Somerville. All of Hickenlooper’s offerings were created in Colorado, even if Aspen-based Celestial Seasonings tea is for sale at most food stores in Massachusetts. (In Boston, it may indeed be hard to find Mi Ranchito tortilla chips, Epic Valley Salsa, and Liks Rocky Road ice cream.)

The ice cream, tortilla chips, and salsa will be served at the Sojourner House in Roxbury. Guests at the Woods Mullen Shelter on Massachusetts Avenue will enjoy the burritos. And the Quiznos sandwiches and the Celestial Seasonings teas will be enjoyed at St. Francis House in downtown Boston.

Posted by aryan at 3:34 PM | Comments (0)

Judge: Failing to get medical attention could be 2d degree murder

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

A judge today told a jury deliberating in the trial of a foster mom accused of killing a 4-year-old that failing to seek medical attention could make a person guilty of second-degree murder.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle told the jury deliberating in the Dontel Jeffers child abuse case that an act can include an intentional decision to do nothing. At the close of its second day of deliberations Thursday afternoon, the jury asked: "In the charge of second-degree murder, does the term act include the failure to act as outlined in the charge of second-degree murder?''

The question and the response are central to the prosecution's case that Corinne Stephen, 25, caused the death of Dontel in March 2005 by failing to seek the appropriate care for his injuries. Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David Deakin did not argue during the case that Stephen directly abused Jeffers.

Standing outside the courtroom after the judge's response, defense attorney John Palmer said if the jury convicts Stephen on second-degree murder charges, he will file an appeal, based on his allegation that Hinkle erred when she initially instructed the jury that failing to do something can constitute a malicious act.

Stephen’s trial on a second-degree murder charge lasted seven days. Forensic pathologists testified that Dontel died from injuries consistent with child abuse. The jury could find her guilty of the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter.

Posted by aryan at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

3 Citizens Bank branches robbed

(FBI)

By Globe Staff

Three branches of Citizens Bank have been robbed in the last day, including a location in Medford Square where a man wearing a Yankees hat fired a handgun just before closing Thursday night, police said. This morning, two separate Citizens Banks were robbed in Brighton as the branches opened for the day.

Police are searching for three different suspects. It was not immediately clear whether the robberies were related.

No one was hurt in the Medford heist, according to Gail Marcinkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the Boston office of the FBI. A white male who was 5 feet 7 inches tall walked into the bank on Riverside Avenue and demanded money. He had the Yankees hat pulled low on his forehead and was wearing Rawlings brand batting gloves.

This morning, a dark-skinned black male robbed the Citizens Bank at 35 Washington St. at 9 a.m., according to Boston Police. The suspect was 5 feet 8 inches tall and was in his late 20s or early 30s. He was clean shaven and wearing a gray sweatshirt. It was not immediately clear whether he showed a weapon.

Minutes later, a Hispanic male wearing a greenish tan Red Sox hat robbed the Citizens Bank at 414 Washington St. The robber was 5 feet 3 inches tall and was in his 20s, police said. He did not show a weapon.

Posted by aryan at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

Forecasters growing more confident about a warm winter

(Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff)

What would be nice to avoid -- James Curley cleared a walk in Arlington in one of the few snows last winter. Forecasters say that storms could still come, despite generally warmer weather.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Federal climate prediction experts have good news for people concerned about their heating bills as cold weather approaches, predicting above-average temperatures this winter for much of the country, including most of New England.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center issued its final forecast for the months of December, January, and February.

"We still favor above-normal temperatures this winter in much of the Northeast other than Maine," said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the center.

Earlier this week, forecasters from AccuWeather.com, the commercial weather forecasting service, went further, saying the signs were pointing to this winter being one of the warmest on record.

The winter will be "warmer than normal, warmer than last winter, and overall a more consumer-friendly winter for those buying fuel and gas," the company's chief long-range forecaster, Joe Bastardi, said in a statement.

Accuweather.com forecasters a month ago predicted that winter temperatures in Southern New England would average 2 to 3.5 degrees above normal. (Last winter, the temperatures averaged 1.7 degrees above normal.) They said this week their confidence in the balmy forecast was growing.

"Everything seems to be running according to what we expected," said Ken Reeves, director of forecasting at the company.

The commercial forecasters have predicted a relative cold spell during November, then a warmup in late December, and warmer than usual temperatures until the middle part of February or even until March.

There is a "sizable chunk of the United States east of the Rockies that's going to have an unbelievably warm January," Reeves said.

The forecasters emphasized that the numbers are averages and that individual cold days and snowstorms could still happen.

Posted by mfinucane at 9:16 AM | Comments (0)

Man, 26, killed in Wellesley crash

By Globe Staff

A 26-year-old man was killed in Wellesley overnight when he lost control of his sport utility vehicle as he was merging onto Interstate 95, State Police said.

Ganael Pierre of Stoughton was driving a 1997 Honda Passport on the ramp from Route 9 East onto I-95 South at 10:49 p.m. He lost control of the SUV, drove off the left side of the ramp, and continued perpendicular to traffic on I-95, police said.

Pierre collided with a 1998 Dodge Ram pickup truck driven by Kevin E. McSweeney, 30, of Woburn, police said. McSweeney was wearing a seat belt and was taken to Newton Wellesley Hospital with minor injuries, police said. Investigators are still trying to determine whether Pierre was wearing a seat belt. He was also rushed to Newton Wellesley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Speed and wet weather conditions may have been a factor in the crash, which remains under investigation, police said. All lanes of I-95 were closed for 30 minutes while a medical helicopter landed to render aid at the scene. The two left lanes of the roadway remained closed for 2 1/2 hours while police investigated the crash.

Posted by aryan at 9:01 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2007

Honors for rescuers in Mattapan fire

(Jodi Hilton for The Boston Globe)

Al Pierre, who rescued several people from the fire, chats with Mayor Menino after the ceremony.

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Lodia Lombard, a 23-year-old Haitian immigrant who survived a three-alarm fire at her Mattapan apartment Monday, finally got to thank the man who carried her on his back and guided her to safety.

Lombard rushed Al Pierre, a 34-year-old construction worker, and hugged him tightly this afternoon, following a mayoral ceremony honoring those who helped rescue people from the Blue Hill Avenue triple-decker that was gutted in the fast-moving fire.

Several other residents of the apartment, including a pair of dialysis patients and a 13-year-old boy who lived on the first floor, crammed for the ceremony into a small room in the city-owned Parkman House on Beacon Hill.

They watched as Mayor Thomas M. Menino read proclamations thanking firefighters and a police officer for their service.

"As mayor, I'm very proud of the work they did," Menino said of the city employees. He also paid tribute to Pierre and a painting crew who left their lunch and brought their ladders to the scene to help second-floor tenants climb down.

Pierre, who was passing by the scene, scaled a post and stood on the second-floor balcony. From there, he caught a 1-year-old baby that a mother dropped to him from the third floor, before guiding her down.

He then stopped Lombard from jumping from the third floor. He coaxed her to step over the balcony, helping her down, too.

The construction worker, who will also be honored at a Celtics game this week, said he'll be happy when all the attention fades away."I just want this to go away, so I can get my life back," he said.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:23 PM | Comments (0)

Chelmsford woman charged with stealing $600K from adoption charity

By Globe Staff

A 60-year-old Chelmsford woman is facing federal mail fraud and tax evasion charges after she allegedly stole more than $600,000 from the adoption agency where she worked.

Natalie Fleury has been charged with 15 counts of mail fraud and five counts of tax evasion. Her husband, Thomas E. Fleury Sr., 60, who allegedly also benefited from the proceeds of the fraud, faces five counts of tax evasion.

From December 1998 through March 2006, Fleury defrauded the Florence Crittenton League Adoption Agency in Lowell, where she worked as office manager and bookkeeper, the US attorney's office said in a statement.

A woman who answered the phone this afternoon at the Fleury residence said, "I have nothing to say to you, thank you," then hung up.

The agency provides services for prospective parents in the United States who want to adopt children from foreign countries.

Prosecutors allege that Fleury altered checks the agency was issuing to a third-party vendor. Fleury allegedly made herself the payee, then deposited the checks into a joint checking account she shared with her husband.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:54 PM | Comments (0)

No luck in Senate for proposal to place casinos on ballot

By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff

A proposal fizzled today in the state Senate that would have allowed voters a chance to voice their opinions as soon as February on Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan.

State Senator Michael W. Morrissey of Quincy and Representative Brian P. Wallace of South Boston, both Democrats, sought a referendum on casinos on Feb. 5, the date proposed for the state's presidential primary.

"It would allow people the opportunity to engage in some discussion of the matter and get a sense of what the public feels," Morrissey said in floor debate. Both he and Wallace are supporters of bringing casinos to the state.

Senator Susan Tucker, a Democrat from Andover, responded, "The gentleman's amendment is clearly beyond the scope of what we are discussing and should be laid aside."

The bill to move the primary from March 4 to Feb. 5 passed, but the amendment was ruled out of order by Senate President Therese Murray, a Plymouth Democrat.

Murray said the amendment was “wholly unrelated”and “beyond the scope” of the bill being amended.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:20 PM | Comments (0)

Striking students surge into UMass administration building

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff, and Katie Huston, Globe Correspondent

AMHERST -- Hundreds of students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst boycotted classes and surged into the school's administration building today as part of a two-day strike.

Student leaders had called for students and graduate student teaching assistants to skip classes today and Friday to protest increased student fees and aggressive police patrols of dormitories, and to call for stepped-up efforts to recruit minority students.

Around 1 p.m., more than 1,000 students marched from the Student Union and surged into the main administration building, playing drums, trumpets, and cowbells and chanting "Whose university? Our university!"

Joyce Hatch, the vice chancellor for administration and finance, told protesters that the administration would like to negotiate with a group of three student leaders. But student organizer Elvis Mendez said that the demands are ones students have been making for years, and that negotiations have proven ineffective. "It's been four, five years that we have been doing this," he said.

Police eventually blocked more students from entering the building and asked students to evacuate at approximately 2 p.m. Students complied and marched along the main road to the campus center, where they continued the rally.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

A splash of color on a rainy, windy afternoon

The winds blow hard on Copley Square. Globe photographer John Tlumacki caught a woman in brightly colored attire struggling to keep her umbrella from collapsing during today's downpours.

The National Weather Service is warning people this afternoon of isolated strong thunderstorms with winds gusting to nearly 50 mph.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:38 PM | Comments (0)

Tufts fires student activity director accused of embezzling at least $300K

By Linda K. Wertheimer, Globe Staff

Tufts University's director of student activities, an 11-year employee of the college, has been fired in the wake of accusations that she embezzled an estimated $300,000 from the university, a Tufts official said today.

Confronted with the allegations, Jodie Nealley admitted to Tufts officials last week that she took at least a portion of the money, university officials said. The allegations stunned the officials as well as student leaders, who were told of Nealley's firing late Wednesday afternoon. Nealley was an incredible mentor, student leaders said.

"We are shocked, disappointed, and angered by Ms. Nealley's actions. She breached the trust that all of us at Tufts had placed in her," Tufts dean Bruce Reitman said in a statement.

Tufts officials, who are investigating to determine the exact time period and the amount of money involved, said they have referred the case to the Middlesex County district's attorney office because they also consider it a criminal matter.

A confidential tip to a hotline run by an independent company for Tufts led to scrutiny of Nealley, who was fired Friday, said Kim Thurler, a university spokeswoman.

Tufts is looking at several sources of funds that Nealley may have tapped, including student activity funds, supported by undergraduates' $258 annual activity fee, and ticket sales revenues.

Nealley could not be reached for comment on the story, which was first reported by the Tufts Daily, the student newspaper. Her attorney, Howard M. Lewis, of Framingham, said no charges have been filed.

"Ms. Nealley will be cooperative with all authorities when the time comes," Lewis said. "Once the accusations come out, there's an interesting story behind all of this that will explain a lot of actions." He would not give more details.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:07 PM | Comments (0)

Report: Boston students do well in reading and math, compared with students in other urban districts

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

Boston’s fourth- and eighth-graders are performing better in reading and math than students in other large urban school districts but still lag behind the national average, according to test scores released today.

The district demonstrated the highest math improvements among the 11 large school districts included in the urban portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Reading improvements were marginal, though Boston continued to outperform other urban school districts.

Traditionally, the results of the NAEP are used at the state level to compare Massachusetts' performance to other states. However, school districts participating in the Trial Urban District Assessment have the option of going further, comparing themselves to other urban districts.

Mike Casserly, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools, a coalition of 66 of the nation's largest urban public school systems, said it was useful to be able to compare Boston to other urban school districts, rather than to other districts within the state.

“In-state comparisons are very hard to make in a state like Massachusetts,” he said. “No one else looks like Boston.”

The test was administered to a sample of students in districts across the country earlier this year. In Boston, 1,300 fourth-graders took the math and reading test, while 1,100 eighth-graders took the math test and 1,200 took the reading test.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

Three Boston bars' permits suspended as nightclub sprinkler law takes effect

(Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe)

The Milky Way on Center Street in Jamaica Plain is one of the bars that were closed.

By Globe Staff

The Boston Fire Department says it has suspended the occupancy certificates of three bars for not coming into compliance with a 2004 law that requires the installation of fire sprinklers.

The bars with suspended permits are the Milky Way in Jamaica Plain, Packy Connors in Roxbury, and Kay's Oasis in Dorchester. Two other bars can remain open while they pursue appeals, the Sunset Grill in Allston and the Barking Crab in the waterfront district, the department said in a statement.

The deadline is today for installation of fire sprinklers in establishments with a capacity of 100 people or more.

The law was passed in 2004 after The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, which killed 100 people in a fiery stampede.

A panel convened by then-Governor Mitt Romney drafted the Fire Safety Act of 2004, which required that sprinklers be installed within three years in all nightclubs, dance halls, discotheques, bars, or other venues "for entertainment purposes" with a capacity of at least 100 people.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:37 PM | Comments (0)

Wrentham teen charged with threatening schoolmates

By Calvin Hennick, Globe Correspondent

A Wrentham teenager is facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder and threatening to commit a crime after police say he made verbal threats to shoot other students at King Philip Regional High School.

"The only information provided to us was some verbal threats were made," Detective Sergeant William McGrath said. "Obviously, there's an investigation that's continuing."

McGrath said the16-year-old was arrested yesterday and held overnight at a Department of Youth Services facility in New Bedford.

The teen, whose name was not released, was to be arraigned on the charges today in Juvenile Court in Dedham.

McGrath said another 16-year-old boy, who is not a King Philip student, told police that the Wrentham teen had made the threats. Police questioned the Wrentham teen, then took him into custody.

McGrath wouldn't say whether the teenager admitted to making the threats.

Police executed a search warrant yesterday at the teen's home. McGrath wouldn't comment on the results of the search, but he said there was no indication that the teen had access to weapons.

No specific individuals were named in the threats, and no specific date or time of an attack was given, McGrath said. Although the comments were "general," McGrath said, police were forced to take them seriously.

"Don’t fantasize and don't joke, because nothing stated in terms of threats will be treated as jokes," McGrath warned. "We have to act on it at the highest level possible for obvious reasons."

Posted by mfinucane at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)

Court rules that cellphone picture taking was intimidation

By Globe Staff

Taking a picture with a cellphone of an undercover police officer can constitute witness intimidation, the state appeals court ruled today.

David Casiano was convicted last year of witness intimidation for a Dec. 1, 2004, incident in which he pointed his cellphone at an undercover officer who was in a Boston courthouse corridor, waiting to testify against Casiano in a drug case.

Casiano, 37, of Boston's Dorchester section appealed, arguing, among other things, that he did not show any hostility toward the witness prior to the action taken.

But the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that "an action does not need to be overtly threatening to fall within the meaning of intimidation. Although the defendant did not expressly threaten the officer's person, his action threatened the undercover officer's continuing safety."

Casiano also argued that there was no evidence that any photographs were ever taken.

"It is irrelevant whether any photographs were taken, as the police officer was made to believe that the defendant was taking pictures of him and could disseminate his likeness, an act intended to intimidate," the court ruled in a three-page opinion written by Justice R. Marc Kantrowitz.

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said the ruling was a victory for law enforcement authorities who still see witness intimidation as they try to bring criminals to justice.

"It doesn't matter that the defendant never raised a fist to the officer. It doesn't matter whether his camera could take pictures," he said. "Fear itself can be used as a weapon, and it's one that we will not abide – not on our streets, and certainly not in our courthouses."

Posted by mfinucane at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)

Former House speaker ousted from job after going against Everett mayor

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

George Keverian, the former House speaker who was a powerful force in Boston politics for two decades, has been abruptly ousted from his post as director of assessors in his hometown of Everett.

Keverian, 76, said he was hand-delivered a letter Wednesday from Everett Mayor John Hanlon that ordered him to immediately clean out the office he has held for 12 years and turn in his keys at City Hall.

No reason was given for the dismissal. Keverian said he believes he was fired because he supported a candidate not backed by Hanlon in the mayoral election Nov. 6. Hanlon was knocked out of the race in September's primary, the first time in recent memory an incumbent Everett mayor did not survive the preliminary election.

"I am told I may have some rights because he violated my First Amendment rights, and that he can't remove me from my job for endorsing someone," Keverian said today in a phone interview.

Hanlon said Keverian was let go because his position was no longer needed, and that Keverian's dismissal was handled in the same manner as other City Hall employees'. The mayor denied that Keverian's support of a rival candidate was a factor.

"He can twist things around any way he wants," Hanlon said. "He is trying to set up a lawsuit. But he will lose."

Keverian served 24 years in the House of Representatives and was speaker from 1985 until 1990. Everett has since named a City Hall hearing room after him and an elementary school.

Hanlon did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Posted by aryan at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)

Report on Danvers explosion highlights gaps in state fire code

By Globe Staff

Federal investigators highlighted what they called gaps in the state fire code today in a report issued a year after a massive chemical explosion at an ink and paint factory in Danvers.

The US Chemical Safety Board found that state law did not require the plant to have safety devices on its chemical tank to prevent overheating. Investigators also noted that the owner of the plant, CAI Inc., did not have to undergo a safety review for its state license, which was originally granted to a previous owner in 1944 for 250 gallons of lacquer. Over the next 62 years, the license was changed, allowing the plant to store 11,500 gallons of flammable and combustible substances without any safety or public impact review.

Each year when the company paid its license renewal fee, it was simply asked how much flammable material was stored at the site so fees could be properly collected, said John Vorderbrueggen, the lead federal investigator.

The Chemical Safety Board is reviewing the state's licensing and land-use rules and oversight of facilities that handle flammable substances to determine if recommendations are appropriate.

"This was a devastating blast," William E. Wright, a safety board member, said in a statement. "Had the explosion occurred during waking hours, there would have been far more injuries and potential fatalities among members of the public. The purpose of our investigation is to understand exactly what happened and why and to prevent something like this from happening again in Danvers or elsewhere."

The report issued today also confirmed the earlier finding that workers at the plant regularly shut off a required ventilation system designed to prevent the build-up of chemical vapors, which ignited on Nov. 22, severely damaging 270 houses and businesses.

The explosion was apparently caused by a mixing tank containing highly flammable heptane and alcohol solvents that overheated because a single steam valve was inadvertently left open or leaking. Testing by federal investigators confirmed that the oversight likely allowed the building to fill with explosive vapor, which was ignited at 2:45 a.m. by an unknown source.

Investigators found that the building's ventilation system was routinely turned off at night to reduce noise in the community, allowing the accumulation of the flammable vapor.

Many residents had suspected that the explosion was caused by natural gas line near the plant, a suspicion ruled out by federal investigators.

“Our thorough analysis and completed laboratory testing clearly point to flammable vapor as the sole source of explosive material in this accident,” Vorderbrueggen said today. “We have therefore ruled out natural gas or propane as a fuel.”

In June, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it found 23 serious violations at the plant and proposed $32,100 in fines. The two companies that occupied the plant -- CAI and Arnel Co. -- can appeal the ruling.

Posted by aryan at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

Oysters on the half shell at a State House breakfast

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Where does a continental breakfast mean oysters on the half shell? In the Great Hall at the State House, of course, where lawmakers will be slurping shellfish with their coffee this morning as part of a lobbying effort by the Massachusetts Ocean Action Coalition.

"It's politicians," said Rob Moir, an organizer of Mass. Ocean Day. "They want their oysters ... That tends to bring legislators down to the Great Hall."

And oysters are just breakfast. Lunch from Legal Seafood will include bite-size lobster bits, cod cakes, clams, more oysters, and a bottomless pot of clam chowder.

The event, which will also include a 45-foot inflatable right whale and a top former staffer from the Clinton White House, is trying to build support for a bill overhauling the management of the state's coastal waters. The Massachusetts Ocean Act would establish a committee to increase communication between state agencies and set up an advisory council to gather input from scientists, fisherman, and others.

Speakers today will include Leon Panetta, a former chief of staff to President Clinton, Ian Bowles, the state secretary of energy and environmental affairs, and others. The bill, which has passed the Senate and is pending in the House, would target wind farms, natural gas terminals, dredging projects, and other offshore developments.

"We are not creating more government, and we are not creating more decision makers," said Moir, the manager of the Massachusetts Ocean Action Coalition, of the legislation. "We want to make better informed decisions."

Posted by aryan at 9:38 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2007

Vineyard tour bus driver wins $10M in lottery

By Globe Staff

A tour bus driver who lives on Martha's Vineyard won $10 million in the state lottery. She says she'll be doing some touring herself now.

Sandra I. Grant, 58, of Edgartown said she's going to quit her job and go on some cruises. It’s a big change for the woman who used to depend on the tips from the bus passengers, many of whom had come off cruise ships themselves.

Grant said her good fortune hadn't quite sunk in yet – and she hadn't made any big plans.

"I don't think I really realize how much I've really won," she said. "Every day there's different thoughts."

Grant won the money playing the new Billion Dollar Blockbuster scratch ticket game.

She will receive 20 annual payments of $500,000, before taxes.

Grant said she was surprised by the big chunk taken out of her first payment by taxes, but it would have still taken her five or six years to make that much money.

“She is a lovely woman and we wish her all the best,” Mark Cavanagh, the lottery executive director, said in a statement posted on the lottery's website.

Grant said she would also pay off bills, visit friends in South Carolina, and visit her brother in Florida.

“I’m not going to go crazy,” she said.

Posted by mfinucane at 7:20 PM | Comments (0)

Teenager walking home from school slain in Roxbury

By Michael Naughton

A high school student who was walking home from school was gunned down in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood this afternoon.

David Jones, 17, of Dorchester was shot multiple times on Bartlett Street at about 2:30 p.m., police said. He was rushed to Boston Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

Police said they had made no arrests in the case. They were canvassing the area for witnesses and forensic evidence this evening.

Jones's family said they didn't know who would shoot him or why. They said he had been in trouble in the past, but wouldn't elaborate, saying only that he was trying to turn his life around.

"He was very intelligent. He was very protective, especially of his younger brother," said his mother, Keeshawn Brown.

Posted by mfinucane at 7:10 PM | Comments (0)

A beacon shines blue for those with diabetes

(Dominic Chavez/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

If the Prudential tower in Boston looks a little different tonight, there's a reason. To commemorate World Diabetes Day, the top floors of the building will be lit with blue lights.

The organizers say 200 monuments across the world are being similarly lit in an effort to raise awareness of a disease that impacts 246 million people around the world.

Ed Linde, the chief executive of Boston Properties, which owns the building, said the company was proud to join the effort by decorating its 750-foot-tall building.

Nearly 21 million adults and children in the United States have the disease, including more than 300,000 people in Massachusetts. Experts say the number of cases is increasing each year around the world.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:55 PM | Comments (0)

Judge rejects delay in Entwistle case

By Globe Staff

A Middlesex Superior Court judge has rejected a bid by Neil Entwistle's lawyers to delay his trial on charges of murdering his wife and 9-month-old daughter in Hopkinton last year.

Judge Diane Kottmyer's ruling means that the trial is still slated to begin Jan. 28.

Entwistle's lawyers have argued that they need more time to review evidence that prosecutors have shared with them.

"There is a large volume of information that has been newly received by us," said Elliot Weinstein, one of Entwistle's attorneys. "In order to properly evaluate that information, in order to be properly prepared to defend Mr. Entwistle, we need the additional time."

Weinstein said the defense would continue to try to get more time to prepare. The defense would like a March trial date, he said.

The trial has already been rescheduled once. It was originally slated to begin Oct. 1.

"Our position was that we are prepared for trial in January and oppose the motion to continue" the case, said Corey Welford, a spokesman for District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.

Prosecutors allege that Entwistle shot and killed his wife, Rachel, and daughter, Lillian, in their Hopkinton home on the morning of Jan. 20, 2006. Entwistle left for his family's home in England the next day. He was arrested in England several weeks later.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)

Rhode Island man charged in his wife's mysterious Caribbean drowning

(Andrew Dickerman/Globe Staff)

Swain spoke in court during his civil trial last year.

By Globe Staff

A Rhode Island man is facing a murder charge in the British Virgin Islands in connection with the death of his wife during a Caribbean vacation in 1999, federal prosecutors said.

David Swain of Providence was arrested at about 12:30 p.m. in Jamestown, R.I., by US marshals and was brought to the federal court in Providence for a hearing, said Rhode Island US attorney's spokesman Thomas Connell.

A judge in the British Virgin Islands has issued a murder warrant for Swain in the death of his wife, Shelly Arden Tyre, in March 1999, prosecutors said in a statement. The United Kingdom has requested that Swain be returned to the islands.

Tyre went diving to explore two wrecks with Swain off the island of Tortola. Swain surfaced alone after a half-hour underwater. Minutes later, Tyre's lifeless body was discovered in 80 feet of water.

US prosecutors said the island authorities have indicated that there is "overwhelming circumstantial evidence proving that Swain murdered his wife."

That evidence, the prosecutors said in a complaint seeking Swain's arrest, includes "unusual behavior by Swain following the death of Tyre, evidence concerning Swain's financial motivation for murdering his wife, medical expert testimony ruling out all known causes of accidental or natural death while scuba-diving, and expert testimony concerning the condition of the scuba equipment used by Tyre."

Terrence Williams, director of public prosecutions in the British Virgin Islands, had no comment.

In 2002, Tyre's parents filed a wrongful death suit against Swain. And in February 2006, a civil jury in Providence awarded them $4.8 million.

Swain, a dive shop owner who is a former member of the Jamestown Town Council, has claimed he is an innocent man. He has said his former in-laws just can't accept that Tyre's death was an accident.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:13 PM | Comments (0)

Suspect in custody after workplace shooting in North Andover

By John C. Drake and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

NORTH ANDOVER -- A week after being fired from Independent Tire, Robert Hassam Jr. returned today with two handguns to the store where he once worked, police said. Bypassing customers waiting in the lobby at 10:30 a.m., Hassam quickly found the object of his anger: Peter Mandeville, a co-worker with whom he had a simmering feud, police said.

As Mandeville repaired a car, Hassam , 25, took aim, police said.

"He came in, and he didn’t say anything. He just started shooting," Lieutenant Paul Gallagher said at a press conference outside the North Andover Police Department.

Mandeville, 36, was hit by bullets in the hand, hip, and leg, police said. He was flown to a Boston hospital, where his condition was not immediately available.

When two employees ran out of the tire store on Old Clark Road, Hassam chased them and kept shooting, police said. The other employees were not shot. Hassam fled toward Lawrence Municipal Airport, which is just north of the tire store.

Sergeant Chuck Gray and Kyzer, a 3-year-old German shepherd, tracked Hassam to woods on airport property, Gallagher said. Hassam initially responded to commands, putting his hands above his head and getting on his knees, Gallagher said. Then, Hassam suddenly reached for his waistband, where he had the two handguns, Gallagher said.

Gray released Kyzer, who pounced on Hassam and bit him on the head and shoulder. Police arrested Hassam, who was taken to Lawrence General Hospital, where he underwent surgery for bite wounds, Gallagher said.

The airport, which handles general aviation and not commercial flights, was closed for approximately 45 minutes while police searched for the suspect, according to the manager, Michael P. Miller.

Chuck Scala, an Independent Tire employee, said he left the store an hour before the shooting and returned to lights and sirens. It was hard to believe that violence struck the tire store, Scala said, where most employees got along. "It's always been harmony," he said.

Police did not describe the nature of the feud between Mandeville and Hassam.

Posted by aryan at 3:12 PM | Comments (0)

Plans dropped for oil-fueled power plant in Chelsea

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

Cape Wind developer Jim Gordon today abandoned his plan to build an oil-fueled power plant in Chelsea, a project that has drawn harsh community opposition.

In a notice filed today with the state Energy Facilities Siting Board, attorneys for Chelsea Energy LLC -- a subsidiary of Gordon's Energy Management Inc. -- said the company "no longer intends to develop the project at the proposed site in Chelsea" and was withdrawing its applications for state approval.

Gordon's company was proposing to build a 250-megawatt power plant, big enough to serve about 180,000 average-sized homes, that would be run no more than 1,600 hours a year to cover times of peak electric demand such as hot summer afternoons or winter evenings.

Energy Management argued that the plant would improve, not worsen, air pollution because it would offset the need for dirtier-burning oil and coal power plants in Everett and Salem to run at certain times in the summer to cover electricity demand spikes.

But environmentalists and Chelsea political and community leaders disputed those claims and aggressively opposed the plant, in part because it would be less than 1,000 feet from an elementary school.

In May, state Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian A. Bowles warned that the Chelsea project "appears unlikely" to be able to get state environmental approval.

Energy Management had no immediate comment on whether it planned to consider other locations in the Boston area for the power plant. Another Gordon company has been pushing for years to build the 130-turbine Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, which has drawn both support and criticism from environmentalists and Cape residents.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:02 PM | Comments (0)

Defense: Foster mother didn't kill boy, 4

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Investigators failed to search hard enough for the real killer of Dontel Jeffers and prosecutors wrongly put the 4-year-old's foster mother on trial for his murder, a defense attorney for Corinne N. Stephen said today in court.

The attorney, John F. Palmer, said Boston Police and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office did not conduct crucial forensic tests on physical evidence that could have identified other people who had contact with the boy. Police found a blood stain in the Dorchester apartment where Dontel and his foster mother lived and recovered wire that may have been used to bind the boy's hands, but did not test the evidence for DNA. Palmer said police also failed to look underneath the fingernails of two other people who may have had contact with Dontel, whose face was gouged by a human fingernail.

"They weren't interested in developing evidence that would have helped my client," Palmer told the Suffolk Superior Court jury as he asked for an acquittal at the close of Stephen's trial on a second-degree murder charge. Closing arguments were watched today by Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, relatives of Stephen, and Agatha Jeffers, Dontel's paternal grandmother, who unsuccessfully tried to get custody of the boy.

Palmer described Stephen as an unlikely killer because she served in the Army National Guard, had taken college level nursing courses, and drove Dontel to Caritas Carney Hospital the day he died in March 2005. "I would suggest to you that a murderer would not bring her victim to the hospital," Palmer said.

David Deakin, an assistant Suffolk district attorney, said the evidence was overwhelming that Stephen murdered Dontel, who was healthy when he was entrusted to her care on Feb. 24. Ten days later, his body was bruised and battered.

Stephen should be held responsible for Dontel's death because she refused to seek medical help even though she knew he was in so much pain she gave him massive dose of Tylenol with codeine, Deakin said.

"The choices Corinne Stephen made cost Dontel Jeffers his safety, cost him his health, cost him his chance at childhood -- and it cost him his life,'' Deakin said. "She was late for the hospital, ladies and gentleman, she was far too late.''

Stephen was responsible for Dontel's death or stood by and let others attack the boy, giving him a black eye, ruptured intestine, bruised throat, bruised arms, and ligature marks around his wrists and ankles, Deakin said. Doctors at Caritas tried for 40 minutes to revive the child, but were unsuccessful.

The forensic tests highlighted by the defense were not performed because it would not have provided new information about the people known to have contact with Dontel, Deakin said. The DNA of the two people in question would have shown up because they were at the Ballou Avenue apartment where the boy was living, he said.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations today.

Posted by aryan at 1:17 PM | Comments (0)

Somerville Police find missing teen

(Somerville Police Department)

By Globe Staff

Somerville Police say they have found a 13-year-old boy with a slight learning disability who wandered away Tuesday from the Kennedy School.

Jack C. Kornfield-Shay, who was last seen at 2:30 p.m., was found shortly before noon today on a path alongside Storrow Drive near Boston University, said Police Captain Paul Upton.

"This is good news. He’s in good spirits. He's perfectly fine. Happy ending," said Upton.

Police said this morning they were concerned the teenager might be disoriented and confused.

They also said Kornfield-Shay was known to take long walks after school, particularly through the Cambridge area from Porter Square to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They said he was very shy and not likely to seek police assistance if he became lost.

Upton said the teenager had spent the night in an MIT building and apparently had brought food along for his adventure.

"He was just exercising some 13-year-old independence," he said.

Posted by aryan at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2007

Man bites dog in South End fray

By Globe Staff

"Man bites dog" – it’s usually the other way around. But it happened early Tuesday morning in the South End, when a man was struggling with a pit bull that had suddenly turned vicious.

David Prignano bit the pit bull in a desperate attempt to free another dog that the pit bull had in its jaws.

"He didn’t know what else to do. … He just bit her sort of on top of the head," said Prignano's partner, Dan Forrester, who was injured in the incident.

Forrester, 53, said Prignano was trying to force the pit bull's jaws open with his hands to free the other dog's head and "he didn't have any weapons left" so he had to use his teeth.

Prignano, 50, told WHDH-TV, "I got her mouth open, which is pretty unbelievable because their jaws lock. But I was biting her and I pulled open her mouth. He got his head out."

The incident ended with the pit bull shot by police and Forrester hospitalized for numerous wounds to his leg. The dog that was attacked turned out not to be injured, and Prignano only received minor injuries. He was out of town on a business trip today.

Forrester, in a telephone interview from his hospital room, said the couple, who have two pugs, were dogsitting the pit bull for a friend when it went haywire in their fashion design studio on Wareham Street, grabbing one of the pugs by the neck and attacking Forrester.

Forrester said the two men had taken care of the pit bull before and had not had any problems, though the animal recently had shown some signs of aggression.

"It breaks my heart, because she was a beautiful animal and I loved the dog like I love my own dogs. … I think she got confused," he said.

Police have said they were called at around 12:08 a.m. and the officer shot the dog when it approached him. The officer’s firing of his gun is being investigated.

Posted by mfinucane at 6:53 PM | Comments (0)

Norman Mailer, writer and icon, buried in Provincetown

(Vincent DeWitt for The Boston Globe)

Mr. Mailer's widow, Norris Church Mailer, spoke to reporters after the ceremony, holding the flag given to veterans' widows. Mr. Mailer served in the Army in World War II and made his literary debut with a novel based on his experiences.

By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff

PROVINCETOWN -- A few dozen family members and close friends gathered today at a cemetery at the tip of Cape Cod to say farewell to Norman Mailer, the larger-than-life writer whose career spanned nearly six decades and more than 30 books.

One by one, a dozen speakers and musicians walked to the front and stood next to the mahogany casket, which was flanked in a semicircle by six photos depicting the writer from childhood through the years when he had grown famous.

Years ago, Mr. Mailer penned his own obituary and asked one of his sons, John Buffalo, to read it at the writer's funeral.

Titled "Novelist Shelved," it began: "Norman Mailer passed away yesterday after celebrating his fifteenth divorce and sixteenth wedding. 'I just don’t feel the old vim,' complained the writer recently."

Mr. Mailer actually was married six times. His wife, Norris Church, sat in front next to Mr. Mailer's sister, Barbara Wasserman, and his sons Matthew and John. The funeral at the Provincetown Cemetery was held under a green tent that barely blocked the bright afternoon sun that shined in a cloudless sky.

"I'm just so grateful to have spent 35 years with him," she said at the conclusion of the service, before returning to tent with other family members as Mr. Mailer's casket was lowered into the grave.

The service was private, but the family allowed a pool reporter from The Provincetown Banner to stand with the gathering and share details later with other media. Only a handful of photographers and reporters were present.

The venue kept to a minimum the number of bold-face names and paparazzi, despite Mailer's decades as a celebrity author.

Mr. Mailer's son-in-law Peter McEachern began the service with a trombone solo, "Lament," a jazz standard by J.J. Johnson.

Mr. Mailer died Saturday at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital at 84. The cause of death was kidney failure.

Over the years, Mr. Mailer's writing won acclaim, but it also sparked controversy. His first book, "The Naked and the Dead" (1948), based on his experiences as a combat infantryman in the Phillipines in World War II, was both a literary and commercial success. He won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for "The Armies of the Night" (1968), and one for "The Executioner's Song" (1979).

Mr. Mailer's heyday was the turbulent 1960s, but he kept writing as the years progressed. He published two books this year.

Mr. Mailer began living year-round in Provincetown, which is at the tip of Cape Cod, in the 1990s, after summering there since 1945.

Posted by mfinucane at 6:36 PM | Comments (0)

Legislative commission emphasizes importance of afterschool programs

By Globe Staff

A special commission formed by the Legislature says afterschool programs play a key role in making sure young people realize their potential – and that many kids in the state don't participate in such programs.

The Massachusetts Special Commission on Afterschool and Out of School Time estimated that a large percentage of children and youth don't participate because of cost, transportation and other barriers.

"The programs are of great importance," said Rep. Marie St. Fleur, a Boston Democrat who was one of the panel co-chairs. "Learning continues beyond school hours. Learning happens all the time."

The commission is submitting its report this week to the Legislature. The report recommends, among other things, the creation of a coordinating council that would bring together government, business, and other interests in an effort to increase programming both after school and during weekends, school vacations, and summer vacations.

"Hopefully, we can continue to move forward and keep the discussion alive," said Rep. Thomas McGee, a Lynn Democrat who was the other co-chair of the committee.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:37 PM | Comments (0)

After losing World Series bet, Colorado senators send the beef

(John Bohn/Globe Staff)

Joseph Asaro, a US Army veteran who served in Viet Nam, and Bruce Viera, a US Air Force veteran who also served there, tucked into their steak dinners today.

By Globe Staff

Some 280 homeless veterans in Boston dined today on choice N.Y. sirloin strip steaks courtesy of the two senators from the home of the Rockies who made the mistake of betting on the World Series.

The 100 lbs. of Colorado-grown beef will be served with carrots, green beans, mushrooms, and baked potatoes at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans. Senators Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard made good on their wager after Boston swept the Rockies in one of the most lopsided World Series in recent history.

"We're so pleased that some of our most deserving members of the community will benefit from the Red Sox win and we thank our friends in Colorado for their generosity," Senator Edward M. Kennedy said in a statement.

The steak, which came from Coleman Beef, will be cooked by Steve Ravinski, the owner of Number 5 Strawberry in Acton and his sous chef, Gregory Ludlum. Katherine See, the executive chef of Kingfish Hall in Boston, will provide carrots, green beans, mushrooms, and baked potatoes.

Senator John F. Kerry couldn't resist upping the ante.

“Now I have just one more question,” Kerry said in a statement. “Would our colleagues from Colorado like to make it double or nothing and wager on our Patriots?”

Posted by aryan at 4:36 PM | Comments (0)

Boston Public Library board ousts longtime president

(Globe file photo/1998)

Bernard A. Margolis was removed today as president of the Boston Public Library.

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

The board of trustees of the Boston Public Library voted this afternoon to oust longtime president Bernard A. Margolis.

The nine-member board voted 7 to 2 not to renew Margolis's contract when it expires on June 30, 2008.

Margolis gave a brief statement after the vote, thanking his supporters and thanking the trustees for the opportunity to serve the city as head of the library system for 10 years.

Before the board's vote, supporters packed rows of chairs in the small meeting room at the Dorchester branch, and gave heated statements about Margolis. Many defended his record and one called his removal a political "power play" by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Anthony Penna, a Northeastern University professor, encouraged the board to step away from the “dark shadow” cast over the proceedings by Menino.

Since Margolis took over in 1997, the library has increased in circulation from 2.2 million items per year to 2.8 million. He has overseen the creation of local history centers in eight branch libraries, homework assistance programs in all branches, the expansion of a higher-education information program to four branches, and the development of a collection preservation program.

City officials have said Margolis's focus on the central library in the Back Bay has come at the expense of the 27 branch libraries in the city's neighborhoods.

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.

Posted by aryan at 3:34 PM | Comments (0)

Teen convicted of massacre plot gets 10 months in jail

(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

Kerns arrives for his hearing, escorted by a court officer.

By Emily Sweeney, Globe Staff

A former student at Marshfield High School was sentenced today to 10 months in jail for plotting in 2004 to commit a Columbine-style massacre at the school.

Tobin "Toby" Kerns, 19, was sentenced in Plymouth Juvenile Court by Judge Louis D. Coffin.

The judge handed down two 10-month jail sentences to be served concurrently for Kerns's convictions on charges of threatening to use deadly weapons and conspiracy to commit murder. The judge gave Kerns credit for five months he has already spent in jail, so he will only have to spend another five months in jail.

Marsha Chez, Toby Kerns's aunt, the lone Kerns family member who was able to attend, said, "I'm really concerned. I'm worried about his health. He looks way too skinny. My husband does criminal law, so I know what goes on in prisons. But it could have been way worse."

Authorities have said Kerns and another former student were looking for vengeance against people who had slighted them when they plotted to bring explosives to the school, padlock the doors, and kill students and staff on their hit list.

In two recent telephone interviews from the jail, Kerns denied responsibility for the plot, while repeatedly apologizing for the disruption his arrest caused, the Globe reported this morning.

"I'm sorry for anyone who's had to be involved in this. That's what I'm sorry for," he told the Globe.

More than a dozen of Kerns's friends and other supporters attended the hearing. He had faced up to 40 years in prison on the charges after his September conviction.

Kerns's family has since moved to Seattle and faces foreclosure on its 18th-century Cape-style house on Main Street because of financial strains stemming from the case.

The alleged plan was to launch an attack on April 20, 2005 to coincide with Hitler's birthday and the 1999 school shooting in Littleton, Colo. at Columbine High School. The date was moved to April 15 because of school vacations.

In September 2004, three of Kerns's fellow students went to police and told them Kerns had been planning the attack. Police arrested Kerns, who was 16 at the time, a month later and charged him as a youthful offender. Kerns has claimed he was set up by his three former friends.

Joseph Nee, one of the boys who turned Kerns in, is facing a Jan. 30 trial for his alleged role in the plot. The two others were granted immunity in exchange for their testimony.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:14 PM | Comments (0)

UMass: Professor caught in sex sting not working on research project

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The University of Massachusetts Medical School professor who said he was conducting research on infectious disease during his arrest in a Worcester prostitution sting is studying gonorrhea in human subjects, a school spokesman said today.

However, the school was not aware that the study -- "Immunology of Infection with Neisseria Gonorrheal" -- involved a trip to the corner of Main and Grand streets Saturday afternoon, where Dr. Peter A. Rice was arrested after allegedly offering to pay an undercover female officer $40 for sex.

"I don't think that his arrest had any connection to his work with the university," UMass spokesman Mark Shelton said this afternoon.

The gonorrhea study is one of two of Rice's research projects approved by the university that involves human subjects. “I don’t have any information or reason to think that Dr. Rice was working on either of these research projects” Shelton said.

Rice, 65, was one of 21 people arrested by Worcester police in a two-day sting. He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday. Neither Rice nor his attorney, Michael K. Fee, returned a phone message left today seeking comment.

Rice told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that he was "gathering information" when he was arrested, adding, "I'm not guilty."

Rice has been conducting his gonorrhea study since 2004 and has received more than $2.1 million in funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Extramural Activities, according to Research Crossroads, a website that tracks publicly funded research.

Before joining the UMass Medical School, Rice was ousted in January 2005 as chief of infectious disease research at the Boston University medical school. While Rice was in charge at BU, several researchers were exposed to tularemia, a bacterial illness commonly known as rabbit fever.

Posted by aryan at 2:35 PM | Comments (0)

Camera stolen from celebration honoring Marine who died in Iraq

Marine Capt. Jennifer J. Harris in a Marine Corps photo.

By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff

Someone crashed a Marine Corps ball Saturday, swiping a camera containing hundreds of pictures of a ceremony honoring Capt. Jennifer J. Harris, a Marine who died in battle in Iraq.

Swampscott Marine veterans who attended the ball say that the pictures have sentimental value. They want the camera or, at the very least, the memory card back. And they're offering amnesty to whoever turns the pictures in.

"No questions asked," said Jim Schultz, the town veterans agent who is also a Swampscott police detective.

Harris, a helicopter pilot from Swampscott, became the first Massachusetts woman killed in combat in Iraq, when she was shot down on her final mission.

A ceremony dedicating the Marine Corps League post in Swampscott in Harris's name on Saturday was followed by the ball celebrating Harris and the 232d birthday of the Corps. The festivities were held at the Franco-American Hall on Western Avenue in the neighboring city of Lynn.

Schultz said the camera was stolen from a table, near the end of the evening, at about 11:45 p.m. He thinks the camera was likely stolen by someone who wandered in off the street.

"The photographs document the entire night," Schultz said. "We'd love to get the camera back, but if not, the memory card, so that we can have the pictures."

A professional photographer had taken pictures of the ceremony and ball for a story about Harris to be published in an upcoming edition of Semper Fi, a national publication of the Marine Corps League.

Photographs include the formal signing of a new charter for the league, with Harris's family, fellow Marines, and veterans looking on. Other photographs were of the ball, which drew hundreds.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)

Buffer zone around abortion clinics expanded to 35 feet

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

A protester who declined to give her name stood this morning outside Planned Parenthood in Allston. The white line on the sidewalk marked the old buffer zone of 18 feet, which was increased today to 35 feet.

By Globe Staff

Protesters will now have to remain at least 35 feet from the entrances of abortion clinics under a bill that Governor Deval Patrick signed today.

The new law expanded the buffer zone from 18 to 35 feet. The old law, enacted in 2000, allowed a protestor to approach a person within that 18-foot zone if the protester had the person's consent, a stipulation that some said made the regulation difficult to enforce.

"Women in the Commonwealth have the right to obtain medical care free from violence, harassment or intimidation, and this new law will guard that right," Patrick said in a statement. "By widening the buffer zone around reproductive clinics we will protect patients from the harassment that so many have encountered as they seek care."

Although violations were reported under the old law, there were no successful prosecutions, officials said.

"The new, improved buffer zone law is enforceable, common-sense legislation to protect the rights and well-being of women and their healthcare providers,” Senate President Therese Murray, a Democrat from Plymouth, said in a statement.

Posted by aryan at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)

Man, 20, pleads not guilty in slaying of off-duty Revere officer

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A lawyer for the man accused of killing an off-duty Revere police officer told the media today that his client was not the shooter and charged investigators with abusing their power, in one instance making a "false statement" in a search warrant affidavit.

"We saw an investigation marred by wholesale speculation, with the police barging into people’s homes without a warrant, knocking down doors, and intimidating witnesses," defense attorney Peter Krupp said in a statement he read to reporters outside Chelsea District Court. "One has to question the validity of information gathered through such tactics."

In a courtroom packed with Revere officers in blue uniforms with black tape over their badges, Robert Iacoviello Jr., 20, pleaded not guilty. The officers took up three rows of seats and stood around the perimeter of court.

Iacoviello, a slight, short man from Revere, wore a long-sleeve white T-shirt and said nothing as he watched the proceeding from behind bulletproof glass. Judge Timothy H. Gailey ordered him held without bail.

Iacoviello is accused of killing officer Daniel Talbot, who had been drinking beer with several other off-duty Revere police officers outside Revere High School on Sept. 29.

Edmond J. Zabin, Suffolk assistant district attorney, alleged today in court that Iacoviello conspired with others to destroy the gun used in the fatal shooting. State Police investigators recovered pieces of the gun from several storm drains along Cushman Avenue and have matched ballistic evidence to Talbot’s death, Zabin said.

Iacoviello has been in custody at the Nashua Street Jail on a weapons charge and a probation violation since Oct. 1, when police searched his Thurlow Avenue apartment and found a 9mm handgun. Zabin said today that a different 9mm handgun was used to kill Talbot.

Iacoviello is the second person to be charged in connection with Talbot's slaying. Derek Lodie, 17, was charged last month with being an accessory to murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

According to prosecutors, Talbot and several other officers were sitting in the bleachers at the Revere High School athletic field. Lodie approached at 1:30 a.m. and exchanged angry words with the officers. Lodie walked away and called Iacoviello on his cellphone, prosecutors allege.

A short time later, Lodie returned and got into a heated exchange, prosecutors allege. Talbot and another officer, William Soto, began to move toward Lodie. Then Iacoviello appeared with two other men.

After Talbot was shot in the head, Soto returned fire at Iacoviello and the others, who fled the area, prosecutors allege.

Posted by aryan at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2007

Warm weather delays arrival of sea turtles on Cape

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

New England Aquarium intern Jenna Javar holds a rescued turtle, while a biologist checks its fins.

By Globe Staff

Chilled and disoriented sea turtles have begun washing up on Cape Cod beaches, arriving a couple of weeks later than usual this year because of the warmer than usual weather, experts at the New England Aquarium said today.

Twenty-five to 150 sea turtles are stranded each year as the water temperatures turn colder. Usually, the turtles begin to wash up around the end of October. This year, beach walkers in Brewster and Dennis found the first three turtles of the season on Sunday.

Aquarium officials pointed to the warmer than usual water temperatures in Cape Cod Bay. The water temperature in late October was still 56 degrees, but temperatures have turned downward since, helped along by the recent northeaster. By today, temperatures had dropped to about 48.

Ninety percent of the turtles that wash up are Kemp's-Ridley turtles, an endagered species, said Tony LaCasse, an Aquarium spokesman.

For some reason, many of the young turtles, rather than migrating south in the fall, get caught on the north side of the Cape as water temperatures drop. Then, when temperatures dip below 50 degrees, they become hypothermic and drift helplessly, stunned by the cold.

Volunteers from the Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary in Wellfleet hike Cape Cod Bay beaches after high tide, hoping to rescue the turtles before raccoons, birds, or dogs find them.

The turtles are examined by veterinarians and biologists at the aquarium who get them back into shape. Nearly 90 percent survive and all of those that can forage for themselves are released back into the wild, the aquarium said.

LaCasse said the aquarium, which has rehabilitated and released more than 400 turtles over years, is hoping to help rebuild a "critically endangered species."

"We feel very good and confident about that work, in terms of its cumulative effect over a long period of time," he said.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:06 PM | Comments (0)

Fire on Blue Hill Avenue injures at least 13

(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

Firefighters worked to douse the fire at 1458 Blue Hill Ave. earlier today.

By John Drake, Globe Staff

A three-alarm fire at a triple-decker on Blue Hill Avenue in Boston has injured at least 13 people, Boston fire and emergency service officials said.

Two of those injured were in critical condition, including a 2-year-old boy whose limp body was found by a firefighter groping his way through the smoke.

The fire on Blue Hill near Woodhaven Street in the city's Mattapan neighborhood broke out at around noon.

Richard Serino, chief of Boston Emergency Medical Services, said 11 civilians were injured, including residents of the building and passersby who tried to rescue them. A firefighter and police officer were also hurt.

Neighbors hailed a 34-year-old construction worker as a hero for climbing a pole and rescuing a baby and two women from the third-floor apartment.

Al Pierre said he saw the building on fire as he passed by and acted without thinking.

"Now that I think about it, it's kind of heavy," he said of his actions.

Firefighters plunged into the smoke and flames to rescue four children.

Firefighter Renard Miller said he was searching through the smoke on the third floor when he found the two-year-old sitting on the bed.

"I opened a couple of doors and heard a faint cry," he said. He felt around and found the baby.

"I took my mask off and put it on the baby. I felt good that I found the baby," he said.

But he also said, "The baby seemed lifeless. ... The baby was just limp in my arms."

Deputy Fire Chief Robert Dunderdale said the baby had suffered serious smoke inhalation injuries. No information was available on the identity of the second critically injured person.

Dunderdale said firefighters arrived at the scene within three minutes of the call. The fire was brought under control in 45 minutes. Damage has been estimated at $500,000.

"There were some tense moments. It was a very fast-moving fire," Dunderdale said.

He said fire department officials believe the smoke alarms were operating in the building and don't know why occupants of the second and third floors were not able to get out more quickly.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:37 PM | Comments (0)

Coast Guard helicopter rushes fisherman to Boston hospital

By Globe Staff

A crew member of a fishing boat is in stable condition at a Boston hospital with a severely injured hand after being picked up from his boat in the seas off Cape Cod early this morning, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard received a call at 5:15 from the 74-foot Teresa Marie III, which was 120 miles east of Cape Cod.

A Coast Guard helicopter flew to the scene and picked up the crewman, rushing him to Massachusetts General Hospital, said Petty Officer Lauren Downs, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

Selectman chairman dies suddenly in Ludlow

By Globe Staff

The chairman of selectmen in the Western Massachusetts town of Ludlow, who died yesterday of a heart attack, is being remembered as someone who cared a lot about his community.

Lawrence Nascimento, 65, "was an all-around devoted individual to the town of Ludlow," said fellow selectman Antonio Dos Santos.

"He was very sure of himself in what he believed in and strongly fought for what he believed in. Some people may not have agreed with him, but he certainly had the best interests of the town in mind," Dos Santos said. "I think the whole town is shocked."

Mr. Nascimento had served five terms on the board and held numerous other posts in town government and community organizations.

He is survived by his godmother, Ermina Marques, and many uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends.

His funeral was set for 9 a.m. Thursday at St. John the Baptist Church, followed by burial in St. Aloysius Cemetery.

Posted by mfinucane at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

Pope will pass on Boston, visit New York and D.C. instead

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

BALTIMORE -- Pope Benedict XVI will visit New York and Washington, D.C., in the spring, but will not come to Boston, the Vatican's top diplomat in the United States announced this morning.

In his first visit to the United States as pope, Benedict will speak at the United Nations, visit the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Manhattan, and meet at the White House with President Bush. He will also celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium in New York and at the new Nationals baseball stadium, which is now under construction in Washington.

The decision is a blow to Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who had pushed hard for Benedict to visit Boston, which will be celebrating its bicentennial as a Catholic diocese next year. But Boston was a controversial option because of its prominence as the city in which the clergy sexual abuse crisis erupted.

The details of the trip were announced by the papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, at the start of the semiannual meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore this morning.

The trip is to take place from April 15 to 20.

"Peter will be among us," Sambi said, using a biblical reference to the pope's role as the successor to the Apostle Peter in Catholic theology.

"He will not travel much, but will address himself to the whole people of the United States," Sambi said.

Benedict, who will celebrate his 81st birthday during the visit, is traveling much less than his predecessor, John Paul II, because of his age. John Paul II was 59 years old on his first visit to the United States in 1979, which began with a stop in Boston.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.

Posted by mfinucane at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

Former Northeastern president tops salary survey, with an asterisk

By Globe Staff

Former Northeastern University president Richard M. Freeland came out at the top of a survey of the pay of private college presidents, with total compensation of $2.9 million in 2005-2006.

But the figures from The Chronicle of Higher Education come with a footnote. Freeland, who stepped down in August 2006, was paid $514,500 in salary, while most of the remainder of his compensation was the value of an annuity for his retirement.

Justine Griffin, a spokeswoman for the university, said the university consulted with legal and compensation consultants before determining Freeland's retirement package.

She said the package wasn't extravagant and took into consideration a number of factors, including Freeland's "extraordinary contributions and service to the university."

"It's also in recognition of him advancing Northeastern to its current post as a nationally ranked and nationally regarded university," she said.

Posted by mfinucane at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2007

Literary giant Norman Mailer dies at 84

By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff

Norman Mailer, the self-proclaimed heavyweight champion of postwar American letters, whose six decades in the public eye helped make him one of America's most acclaimed and controversial authors, died this morning of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He was 84.

Mr. Mailer was 25 when he published his first book, "The Naked and the Dead" (1948). Based on his experiences as a combat infantryman in the Philippines, the novel was a great literary and commercial success.

Mr. Mailer went on to win two Pulitzer Prizes: for "The Armies of the Night" (1968), a nonfiction account of a 1967 anti-war march on the Pentagon, and "The Executioner’s Song" (1979), which Mr. Mailer described as a “real life novel,” about executed murderer Gary Gilmore.

The key book among the dozens Mr. Mailer published -- the one that did the most to create his outsized persona -- was "Advertisements for Myself" (1959). An audacious gathering of fiction, journalism, essays, and interviews, it served as Mr. Mailer's announcement that he was king of the literary hill.

"I am imprisoned with a perception," he wrote, "that will settle for nothing less than making a revolution in the consciousness of our time." His writing, Mr. Mailer went on to say, "will have the deepest influence of any work being done by an American novelist in these years."

What may be most striking about such bold claims wasn't Mr. Mailer's failure to achieve them but rather that so many people seriously considered the possibility that he might live up to them -- this despite the fact he then had just three novels to his name, and only "The Naked and the Dead" had been well-regarded.

In a sense, Mr. Mailer was the chief advertisement for himself. No book stands out as his masterpiece. Many of his books, quickly written for money or attention or both, do not stand out at all. Or they do so for the wrong reasons.

His 1983 novel, "Ancient Evenings," remains one of the great debacles in 20th-century literature. The most memorable character he created -- and it was no small accomplishment -- was himself. The novelist Gustave Flaubert remarked of his most celebrated creation, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" ("Madame Bovary is me"). Mr. Mailer could say the same thing about himself. "Norman Mailer" was Mr. Mailer's own most enduring creation: a roisterous, rebellious, shameless figure, at once seer and clown, man of letters and man of action, who sought in his writing to grab hold of very nearly all of contemporary American experience and make it his own.

When he published a collection of political journalism called "The Presidential Papers" (1963), it wasn't completely clear whether Mr. Mailer meant the title as a description of the contents or as a campaign declaration. The grandiosity of his ambitions extended that far beyond literature. Nor did Mr. Mailer’s sense of self-importance diminish over time. In 1997, he published a novel about Jesus Christ, "The Gospel According to the Son," written in the first person.

"I was a node in a new electronic landscape of celebrity, personality, and status," Mr. Mailer wrote in "Advertisement." It was a condition he embraced. Late-night talk shows became his home away from home. He appeared as a presenter at the 1977 Academy Awards, acted in the movie version of "Ragtime," and played himself in a 2004 episode of the television series "Gilmore Girls."

"His career seems to be a brawl between his talent and his exhibitionism," the critic Anatole Broyard wrote in his New York Times review of Mr. Mailer's novel "Why Are We in Vietnam?" (1967) -- another characteristically expansive title.

Mr. Mailer's heyday was the 1960s. He was very much a transitional figure between the '50s, whose buttoned-down sensibility he strove mightily to subvert, and the turbulence of the '60s.

The radical organizer Abbie Hoffman remembered seeing him give a speech at Brandeis in 1959, looking like "some tousle-haired Hebraic James Dean." Even as he recalled Dean, Mr. Mailer also looked ahead to Bob Dylan and Muhammad Ali (about whom he wrote two books). He was their pop-cultural peer, although he was a generation younger, as one of the decade's totemic personalities.

In his 1957 essay "The White Negro," Mr. Mailer lauded the hipster, a figure who would evolve into a '60s archetype: the noncomformist who flouts authority "to set out on the uncharted journey into the rebellious imperatives of the self."

With those words, Mr. Mailer could have been describing his own journey, both personal and literary. He was at once instigator, register, and recipient of the mad, transformative energy of the '60s. As the literary critic Lionel Trilling wrote in 1963, Mr. Mailer "probe[s] modern society on a level deeper than that of political and economic determinism."

He was most in his element, perhaps, with all hell breaking loose, and that description certainly fit the '60s. Between 1959 and 1973, Mr. Mailer published 19 books, made three "underground" movies, and ran for mayor of New York. (He finished fourth, in a five-man field, in the 1969 Democratic primary.)

During these years, Mr. Mailer was arguably the most important, presumably the most publicized, and certainly the most exciting writer in America. The brilliance and unconventionality of his reportage made him a founding father, along with Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote, of the New Journalism. "Norman, I really think you are the best journalist in America," he recorded the poet Robert Lowell saying to him in "The Armies of the Night." Using Lowell's nickname, Mr. Mailer replied, "Well, Cal, there are days when I think of myself as being the best writer in America."

The great issues, themes, and events of the '60s drove Mr. Mailer's writing _ writing which, in turn, helped define them. His essay "Superman Comes to the Supermarket" (1960) began the mythologizing of John F. Kennedy. His novel "An American Dream" (1965) reveled in sexual license and criminality. "Why Are We in Vietnam?" was about American excess and violence. "The Armies of the Night" dealt with the anti-war movement. "Miami and the Siege of Chicago" (1968) described the '68 presidential campaign. "Of a Fire on the Moon” (1970 meditated on the first Apollo lunar landing. "The Prisoner of Sex" (1971) confronted feminism.

"Mailer does not have to try to keep up with the times," the novelist Wilfrid Sheed wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1968. "He cannot help it."

In "Armies of the Night," Mr. Mailer described his thought as a "private mixture of Marxism, conservatism, nihilism, and large parts of existentialism." The unruliness of Mr. Mailer's personal life -- his six marriages, his loudly proclaimed indulgence in alcohol and drugs, the prominence of the words "orgy" and "ogasm" in his lexicon -- makes it easy to overlook the importance of "conservatism" in that list.

Mr. Mailer had a near-Luddite abhorrence of technology (he was fond of saying that plastics "caused" cancer). He had serious misgivings about contraception, and feminists mocked his views on women. Mr. Mailer assumed an uncharacteristically plaintive tone when he told Time magazine he'd supplied the text for "Marilyn" (1973), a best-selling coffee-table book about Marilyn Monroe, because "I wanted to say to everyone that I know how to write about a woman."

No small part of Mr. Mailer's difficulties with feminism sprang from his almost-parodic obsession with masculinity and violence. His acknowledged literary idol was Ernest Hemingway. He gravitated to violent characters in his fiction: from the murderous Sgt. Croft in "The Naked and the Dead," to Stephen Rojak, who kills his wife in "An American Dream," to Gilmore, in "The Executioner’s Song." The moral crux of "The White Negro" is the murder of a 50-year-old candy-story owner. "Mailer's waddle and crouch may look like a put-on but he means it when he butts heads," the critic Pauline Kael wrote in The New York Times Book Review of "Marilyn."

Violence figured in Mr. Mailer's life as well as art. He relished bullfighting and boxing -- the latter as both participant and fan -- and had a penchant for getting into fistfights. In 1960, he stabbed his second wife at a party with a penknife (she declined to press charges). Twenty-one years later, that incident had a gruesome echo. Mr. Mailer had befriended a convict, Jack Henry Abbott, and helped earn his release. Within weeks of getting out of prison, Abbott had stabbed a man to death.

Mr. Mailer's fascination with violence had its incongruous aspect. His generosity toward other writers and frequent graciousness was well-known in literary circles, as was his devotion to his children and amicable relations with all but one of his ex-wives. How to account for his tough-guy side? (Mr. Mailer published a novel in 1984 called "Tough Guys Don't Dance," and in 1987 directed a film version.) Perhaps it was an attempt to scrub away what he called in "Armies of the Night" "a last remaining speck of the one personality he found absolutely insupportable -- the nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn."

Norman Kingsley Mailer was born in Long Branch, N.J., on Jan. 31, 1923, the son of Isaac Barnett Mailer and Fanny (Schneider) Mailer. Mr. Mailer's father, a South African immigrant, was an accountant. His mother operated an employment agency. The family moved to Brooklyn when he was 4.

"Norman was not an ordinary child," his mother said at his 50th birthday party. "Other children always had that sameness about them, but not Norman. He was just different."

Mr. Mailer attended New York public high schools and wanted to go to MIT. Instead, he entered Harvard at 16 to study aeronautical engineering. He quickly turned his attention to writing. "All through December 1939 and January 1940 I was discovering modern American literature," he later wrote. "I had formed the desire to be a major writer." In 1941, he won Story Magazine’s annual college writing contest.

The influence of the writers who meant the most to him at the time, John Dos Passos and James T. Farrell, is apparent in "The Naked and the Dead." Mr. Mailer was very conscious of wanting to write a "big" book about World War II. After being drafted, in 1944, he was relieved to find his unit assigned to the Pacific. He was convinced a great book was likelier to come out of that theater of operations rather than the more familiar Europe.

Mr. Mailer became increasingly interested in radical politics after the success of "The Naked and the Dead." His next novel, "Barbary Shore" (1951), dealt extensively with left-wing ideology and was widely deemed a failure. "The Deer Park" (1955), which drew on Mr. Mailer's experiences as a fledgeling screenwriter in the late '40s, offered a scabrous view of Hollywood and received mixed reviews.

Journalism began to attract Mr. Mailer's interest. He helped found The Village Voice, an alternative New York weekly, in 1955 and wrote a column for it.

By the 1980s, Mr. Mailer had acquired grand old man status -- and was visibly enjoying it. He became a much-sought guest on the New York society circuit and served two years as president of the American branch of PEN, the international writers organization. In that capacity, he presided over the 1986 World PEN Congress, in New York. Once again, he became embroiled in controversy, for having invited Secretary of State George Shultz to address the meeting. It was a mark of just how much of an establishment figure Mr. Mailer had become that this, rather than some scandalous behavior, should be the occasion of outrage.

Yet even as he mellowed in his personal life and grew more august as a public figure, Mr. Mailer kept up many of his old literary compulsions and remained a man of the left. In his massive novel "Harlot's Ghost" (1991), he examined the power and influence of the CIA. He attacked George H.W. Bush and his handling of the Gulf War in "How the Wimp Won the War" (1991). His longstanding fascination with John F. Kennedy took a new turn in "Oswald's Tale" (1995), a nonfiction account of JFK's assassin.

In the 1990s, Mr. Mailer began living year-round in Provincetown, where he had begun spending summers in 1945. "There's something comic about the town," he said in a 2003 Globe interview. "You have the spot where the Pilgrims landed -- and right next to it a giant motel. I've always loved that. There's the very spirit of America expressing itself!"

Mr. Mailer leaves his wife, Norris Church; five daughters, Susan, from his first marriage, Danielle, and Elizabeth, from his second marriage, Kate, from his third marriage, and Maggie, from his fifth marriage; three sons, Michael, and Steven, from his fourth marriage, and John Buffalo, from his sixth marriage; a stepson, Matthew Norris; and 10 grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

November 9, 2007

Motorist killed after car rams tree in Foxborough

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

FOXBOROUGH -- A man who led a state trooper on a high-speed chase this morning on Interstate 95 was killed when his car crashed into a large tree in a Foxborough. State Police said the man, whom they did not identify, tossed a handgun out his window shortly before the crash.

The chase started on the southbound lanes of I-95 in Sharon and ended in a quiet, residential neighborhood in Foxborough, State Police spokesman Eric Anderson said.

The sedan hit the tree in the front yard of a home on Oak Street. The crumpled car came to rest on it side, with two wheels off the ground as it leaned against the tree. The bumper came completely off the car and landed 30 feet from the crash, near the front door of a home here.

The driver, whose name is being withheld pending the notification of relatives, tossed a handgun out of his dark-green Ford Taurus on Oak Street, Anderson said.

A state trooper spotted the man driving at about 80 miles an hour near Exit 10 and tried unsuccessfully to get him to stop, Anderson said. The driver followed Exit 8 off the interstate and took a left turn on Oak Street, Anderson said. At a sharp curve, the suspect apparently lost control of the Taurus, veered across the street and onto into a lawn, hitting the tree.A State Police accident reconstruction team responded to the scene.

Posted by aryan at 5:23 PM | Comments (0)

Man, 20, charged with shooting off-duty Revere police officer

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

A 20-year-old man was charged today with firing the fatal shot in September during an early morning confrontation with off-duty police in Revere that killed officer Dan Talbot.

Robert Iacoviello Jr., 20, was arrested on a murder charge in the Nashua Street Jail, where he was in custody on other charges, according Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

"We have had the luxury of being able to build a careful, methodical, thorough, exacting case against the individuals we believe are responsible for Daniel Talbot's homicide,'' Conley said said this afternoon at a press conference. “We are not done yet, however, much works remains to be done, but we are moving ever closer to finding justice for Daniel Talbot.''

Iacoviello has been in custody since Oct. 1 when police searched his home in Revere and found a 9mm handgun, according to court records. Authorities said the gun was not used in Talbot’s shooting. He was also charged with violating his probation.

Iacoviello, who will be arraigned Tuesday in Chelsea District Court, is the second person to be charged in connection with the fatal shooting behind Revere High School on Sept. 29. Derek Lodie, 17, has been charged as an accessory to murder for allegedly orchestrating and escalating the confrontation that culminated in Talbot’s death. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment last month.

According to prosecutors, Lodie got in an argument with Talbot and other off-duty Revere police officers who had been drinking beer near the bleachers behind Revere High School. Talbot had gone to a firing range with two fellow officers, then to Margarita's restaurant, where he was joined by his 28-year-old fiancée. About 1:30 a.m., the group went to drink behind Revere High School, where they encountered Lodie.

Lodie had a "heated exchange" with Talbot's group, Conley said without describing what was said. Lodie used a cellphone to call Iacoviello and other friends, who came to the scene, Conley said.

When Talbot approached, Iacoviello allegedly shot and killed him, Conley said. Officer William Soto returned fire as Lodie and Iacoviello fled, Conley said.

The investigation is not complete and there may be more arrests. However investigators determined that the off-duty police officers did nothing wrong.

"We have developed no credible evidence that Officer Talbot or any other member of his group was engaged in any illicit activity at all behind the high school beyond the minor infraction of drinking in public," Conley said.

Posted by aryan at 4:25 PM | Comments (0)

11 alleged Boston gang members taken into custody

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

Eleven alleged gang members described as "impact players" in Boston's most violent street wars have been taken into custody on drug and firearm charges in the last 10 days, law enforcement officials said today at a press conference.

The men were taken into custody as part on an ongoing crackdown on gang violence by Boston police, prosecutors, and federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

"These are real impact players," US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said at the press conference at US District Court in Boston.

The roundup included three men from the Bromley-Health housing project in Jamaica Plain who had already been convicted of drug trafficking and were sentenced Thursday to 10 to 15 years in prison.

Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said gang members are responsible for 75 percent of the city’s shootings.

"It's a big problem among a small group of people," Davis said. "Most of the time, we see the same people over and over again."

Since January, the crackdown on gang violence has taken 686 illegal guns off the street, Davis said.

Posted by aryan at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)

Julio Lugo draws attention to relief efforts in Dominican Republic

By Globe Staff

Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo appeared at a rally in Cambridge today to draw attention to relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Noel, which devastated his native Dominican Republic with floods and mudslides.

The region that includes Lugo's home city of Barahona in the southwestern part of the country was hit especially hard. Throughout the Dominican Republic, at least 79 people were killed and 62,000 were left homeless by the storm, according to the Associated Press.

To highlight a food and clothing drive, Lugo appeared today at Cambridge City Hall with the Red Cross, officials from the consulate of the Dominican Republic, and state Senator Anthony D. Galluccio.

"Julio Lugo puts a familiar local face on an international tragedy that should be of concern to us all," Galluccio said in a statement. "With the help of people like Julio Lugo, organizations like the Red Sox, and expert relief agencies like the Red Cross, relief efforts in the Dominican Republic will continue to make progress."

Other Major League Baseball players have also joined the effort. Former Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez delayed the start of his off-season training regimen in South Florida to stay in the Dominican Republic and try to help.

"There are a lot of people in need," Martinez told the New York Daily News. "It's devastating the way the area was totally wiped out. The little shacks and houses where they were living were wiped out."

Posted by aryan at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

November 8, 2007

Police commissioner vows to root out corruption

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Hours after Boston police officer Roberto Pulido abruptly ended his federal cocaine trafficking trial by pleading guilty today, Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis vowed to investigate other allegations of corruption that emerged during two days of testimony.

"There certainly was information that came out during the course of the trial that we have to review,'' Davis told reporters after giving a pep talk at the evening roll call of the motorcycle unit to which Pulido had belonged. He also posted a message to officers on the department's website. "There will be a thorough investigation.''

Davis, who became commissioner 11 months ago, declined to give specifics. But he was apparently referring to testimony by an FBI agent that Pulido told an informant that a sergeant ran gambling parties and that a patrol officer held illegal after-hours parties that competed with those Pulido protected.

A former Boston police officer and another who was later indicted in connection with the Pulido case were also heard in secretly recorded phone conversations with Pulido discussing buying steroids from him.

Davis said the department already knew about the allegations and were looking into them. He said he took the accusations seriously but that they were "not anywhere near the magnitude that Pulido was involved in, so we just have to quickly and effectively finish this investigation.'' He gave no timetable.

Addressing the approximately 30 officers of the Mobil Operations Patrol Unit on Warrent Street, Davis said the Boston police anticorruption unit worked with the FBI in the investigation of Pulido and two fellow officers who pleaded guilty to avoid trials. The Boston police, he said, would take the lead in rooting out any additional corruption.

"We're going to make sure we clean up our own shop,'' he said. "It's necessary to pay attention to the human frailty, the kind we saw in Pulido. This does not define the Boston Police Department.''

Posted by srhee at 7:36 PM | Comments (0)

North End restaurateur charged in connection with fire that killed his brother

By Globe Staff

A North End restaurateur has been charged with arson and related crimes in connection with a fire that killed his brother, federal prosecutors said today.

Albert L. Giorgio, 54, of Revere faces charges that include arson resulting in death, arson conspiracy, mail fraud, and use of fire to commit mail fraud.

Giorgio allegedly owned a building at 64-66 Salem St. and caused it to be burned on March 8, 2002, then filed an insurance claim for damages he wasn't entitled to because of his involvement in the fire, the US attorney's office said in a statement.

Giorgio's brother, Steven Giorgio, 42, of Revere, was alleged to have participated in the arson scheme. He died in the fire.

If convicted, Albert Giorgio could face a lengthy prison sentence and a fine of as much as $1.5 million, prosecutors said. The indictment was unsealed today in federal court.

Giorgio's Revere telephone number is unpublished.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

Senate Judiciary Committee approves Sullivan's BATF nomination

(William Moore for The Boston Globe)

Sullivan at a news conference this summer.

By Globe Staff

Michael J. Sullivan, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, won a key congressional approval today in his bid for the post of director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the appointment this morning in a voice vote, said Erica Chabot, a spokeswoman for Vermont Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the chairman of the committee.

The appointment will now go to the Senate floor.

Sullivan, a law-and-order Republican, has been acting head of the bureau for the past 13 months while remaining US attorney.

Sullivan has had "the impossible responsibility" of serving in both jobs and he's "done as good a job as one could have hoped at both. We'll miss him in Massachusetts, but he'll be a strong leader at ATF, and I look forward to working with him on key issues on gun control," US Senator Edward M. Kennedy said in a statement.

US Senator John Kerry said in a statement that Sullivan was a "good law enforcement officer who should do a fine job. ... Stretched way too thin over the past year caught between two full time jobs, he's still stood out as a highly competent professional and a person of character."

Sullivan was named US attorney by President Bush shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He served before that as district attorney in Plymouth County. He also served three terms as a state representative.

The Globe reported recently that, despite his crimefighting reputation, he has brought fewer criminal cases almost every year since he was appointed as US attorney.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:09 PM | Comments (0)

Boston schools reopen after precautionary lockdowns

By Globe Staff

Six Boston schools were locked down briefly this afternoon because police were searching for a robbery suspect in the area, school officials said.

Police received a report of a robbery at about noon. The victim said he had been robbed on River Street in Hyde Park and then kidnapped in a van. The van crashed at Seaver and Walnut in Roxbury, and the robbery victim escaped, calling police.

The police felt it would be safer for students to be kept in their classrooms while they hunted for the suspect, a police spokeswoman said.

Jonathan Palumbo, a spokesman for the Boston public schools, said six schools -- the Ellis, Lewis, Higginson, Hernandez, and Trotter schools, as well as Boston Latin Academy -- were locked down.

He emphasized that a lockdown simply means that no one is allowed in or out and that normal activities continue inside the schools.

The lockdowns began at 12:30 p.m. and police gave the schools an all clear by 1:45, he said.

"Unfortunately, it's not unusual," he said.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:44 PM | Comments (0)

Man gets two-year sentence in auto insurance scam that killed woman

By Globe Staff

A young man who staged a car accident in Lawrence that ended up killing one of his relatives – and setting off a crackdown on insurance fraud statewide -- was sentenced today in Essex Superior Court to two years in jail.

Jacinto Maldonado staged the accident in September 2003. But the plan went awry, and a distant relative, Altagracias Arias, 64, was killed. (Arias has been described in media reports as Maldonado’s grandmother, but family members said today outside the court that she was not.)

Anthony Arias, who was the elderly woman's grandson, asked Judge David Lowy to be lenient in sentencing, noting that Maldonado has three children.

"Other than this pleading guilty, he's never had any issues," said Arias.

Family members who attended the hearing said the family has suffered enough and a long sentence for Maldonado would only add to their suffering.

"He'll continue to feel grief about what happened. And whatever the sentence, he's going to continue to feel responsibility," said Hank Brennan, Maldonado’s attorney.

Prosecutor William J. Melkonian, who had sought a five- to seven-year sentence, emphasized that "a human being died in this case," arguing that the Maldonado had behaved recklessly.

The case sparked a major investigation into auto insurance scams in Lawrence and across Massachusetts.

An insurance fraud task force was formed in Lawrence of police, prosecutors, and insurance investigators.

The probe yielded scores of arrests and uncovered a large network of participants, including lawyers, chiropractors, insurance agents, "runners" who sold seats in cars for fake accidents, and participants in fake accidents.

Police say that Maldonado was driving a "bullet car" that was supposed to hit another car, but the car instead hit a telephone pole, killing Arias.

Maldonado fled the country but was eventually arrested in the Dominican Republic in January 2006.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:20 PM | Comments (0)

R.I. man arrested in Foxborough slaying

By Globe Staff

A 24-year-old Central Falls, R.I., man was arrested this morning in the shooting death of a man who was found last month on the road in a remote section of Foxborough.

Luis Lopez was arrested at his home at about 2:30 a.m. today. He is facing murder charges, the Norfolk County district attorney's office said in a statement.

The body of Carlos Gomez, 29, was found just after 1 a.m. on Oct. 15, lying on Route 106 in Foxborough near where the road passes under Interstate 95.

Prosecutors said the killing was the town's first since 1996.

Lopez is being held in Rhode Island. If he doesn't fight his return to Massachusetts, he could be arraigned as early as tomorrow morning in Wrentham District Court, District Attorney William R. Keating said in a statement.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

Governor expresses support for earlier primary

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick said today he supports moving the Massachusetts presidential primary up to Feb. 5 from March 4.

"I think it makes a lot of sense," Patrick said at a State House event today where officials unveiled a major new state energy bill. "Over time we may see a national primary -- not in this cycle -- and that wouldn't be bad at all."

Presidential primaries are set to be held in as many as 21 states Feb. 5, in states including New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin is pushing legislators to set the same date for the Massachusetts presidential primary, both to get the state more attention from presidential candidates and to save money by holding the presidential primary the same day as five special elections for state Legislature.

Many political observers think that by March 4, both parties' nominations could be wrapped up because so many other states -- potentially as many as 36 -- will have already voted.

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, appearing at the same event with Patrick, said he also backed the change.

"I think Massachusetts should have a larger role, a bigger role, and as important a role as some of the other states" in determining the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, he said.

Galvin hopes legislators will adopt the new primary date before the current session adjourns Nov. 21.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

After two days of testimony, Boston police officer pleads guilty to drug charge

By Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

Boston police Officer Roberto Pulido pleaded guilty this morning in federal court to possession of 140 kilograms of cocaine and possession of a firearm, stopping his trial on drug-trafficking charges after two days of testimony.

The abrupt guilty plea brought an end to a Boston police corruption scandal that involved officers allegedly protecting truckloads of cocaine shipped to the city as part of an FBI sting operation. Two other officers -- Nelson Carrasquillo and Carlos Pizarro -- had already pleaded guilty, and other officers were implicated in the testimony this week. Pulido was the alleged ringleader of the group that prosecutors said received thousands of dollars for their protection services.

"Our first impulse was to fight, and we had every intention to do so, but then you have to evaluate the situation," Pulido’s attorney, Rudolph F. Miller, said today outside US District Court in Boston. "We were looking at 30 years to life in prison. Because of that, we had to take a different turn."

The guilty plea was not part of a deal with prosecutors, Miller said. Pulido's sentence will be up to US District Judge William G. Young.

In a statement issued this afternoon US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said that Pulido's "plea today, which we hope will land him in prison for more than two decades, is a testament to the extraordinary work of the FBI agents and BPD Anti-Corruption detectives who worked this case for more than three years."

Pulido wanted to spare his family and especially his elderly mother from having to endure a trial, Miller said. Pulido had been suspended from the Boston Police Department after he was arrested in Miami.

Before the start of this week’s trial, Carrasquillo, 36, of Dorchester, pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiracy with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin and two counts of attempted aiding and abetting the scheme. Pizarro pleaded guilty two months ago to cocaine charges for his role in the scheme.

The three Boston police officers were arrested in Miami in July 2006 after they were accused of protecting 100 kilograms of cocaine that was trucked to Boston from Western Massachusetts the month before. FBI agents posing as drug dealers helped arrange the deal that involved government-seized cocaine.

An FBI affidavit filed in the case also accused Pulido of being involved in a network of schemes that included stealing the identities of motorists and guarding after-hours parties where uniformed officers mingled with drug dealers and prostitutes. He was not charged in those matters.

Posted by aryan at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

Judge refuses to throw out charges against alleged mob boss

(Robert Spencer for The Boston Globe)

DiNunzio listened to his lawyer during a recent court hearing on his motion to dismiss.

By Globe Staff

An Essex Superior Court judge has declined to throw out extortion and other charges against the alleged head of the Boston mob.

Judge David Lowy yesterday rejected Carmen DiNunzio's claim that prosecutors presented insufficient evidence to the grand jury for an extortion charge. The judge also rejected a claim that prosecutors presented "improper and prejudicial" testimony to the panel.

Lowy wrote in a 14-page decision that "the defendant's argument that the grand jury proceedings were impaired is without merit."

In addition to the extortion charge, DiNunzio, 50, of East Boston, faces charges of organizing and promoting an illegal gambling operation, and conspiracy to violate the gaming laws.

Prosecutors were pleased with the decision, said Essex district attorney's spokesman Stephen O'Connell. DiNunzio's attorney, Anthony Cardinale, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

DiNunzio was arrested late last year outside a social club in the North End of Boston.

Prosecutors said an investigation into DiNunzio’s alleged mob-related extortion of bookmakers had been ongoing since 2001.

If convicted, DiNunzio faces up to 15 years in state prison.

DiNunzio has been nicknamed "The Big Cheese" by police and the media but after a court hearing last month, the owner of Fresh Cheese in the North End, said, "Nobody calls me that. .. They call me the Cheese Man because I sell all kinds of cheese."

Posted by mfinucane at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

Two injured after state police chase on Interstate 495

By Globe Staff

A car being chased by State Police burst into flames, then hurtled off the road and hit a tree early this morning on Interstate 495 southbound in Boxborough. The driver was seriously injured, State Police said.

A trooper tried to pull over a car for speeding shortly after midnight in the southbound lanes in Westford. But the car didn't stop. The trooper began a pursuit, said Sergeant Mike Rafferty, a State Police spokesman.

A few miles down the road In Boxborough, the trooper reported that the car he was chasing had caught on fire. Rafferty said the fire could have been caused by a blown tire or an overheated engine.

The car then left the road and struck a tree. Troopers pulled two young men out of the car.

The driver, Shawn Nash, 22, of Lowell, was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston with serious injuries.The passenger, Ronald Theriault, 23, of Billerica, was taken to UMass Medical Center in Worcester with minor injuries.

Police are investigating the crash, Rafferty said.

Posted by mfinucane at 9:49 AM | Comments (0)

Man killed in Canton highway crash

By Globe Staff

One man is dead and one is facing a motor vehicle homicide charge after a crash early this morning on Interstate 93 southbound in Canton.

State Police say a 1994 Toyota pickup truck was struck by a 2001 Hyundai hatchback at about 1 a.m. at the Exit 2A offramp to Route 138.

The Toyota rolled over, and its driver, 71-year-old Alphonso Anderson of Brockton, was ejected. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The operator of the Hyundai sustained minor injuries and was taken to Norwood Hospital. Ryan M. Shaughnessy, 23, of Wrentham, was then taken to the State Police barracks in Framingham. He faces charges of drunken driving and motor vehicle homicide, police said in a statement.

Because of the accident, the highway was closed down for about four hours this morning, police said.

Posted by mfinucane at 8:17 AM | Comments (0)

November 7, 2007

Boston police find missing 9-year-old girl

(Boston Police photo)

Neishalys Gonzalez smiled brightly in a recent picture.

By Globe Staff

Boston police called off a search tonight for a 9-year-old girl from Jamaica Plain after she returned home.

The girl's mother reported Neishalys Gonzalez missing about 1 p.m. today. She returned home about 7:30 p.m., after going to a sporting event without permission, police said.

A police spokesman said authorities had been checking all possible locations and activated emergency deployment units in the Centre Street area.

He said the units met in the Stop and Shop parking lot and fanned out through the neighborhood.

The mother told police the girl never showed up for school this morning.

Before she was found, police described the girl as 4-foot-11, 65 pounds, with black curly hair and brown eyes. They said she was wearing a gray jacket, blue jeans, and black shoes.

Police say she had last been spotted walking by her school, the John F. Kennedy School in Jamaica Plain this morning, but she never went inside. She was last seen walking with two other girls.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:37 PM | Comments (0)

Mysterious grave robbery puzzles New Hampshire town

(Gilman Shattuck photo)

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

After she died in 1824 at the age of 30, Sarah Symonds rested in an out-of-the-way cemetery in the small town of Hillsborough, N.H., for nearly 200 years.

But sometime around Halloween her sleep was disturbed. Someone dug up her coffin and her remains, leaving behind only a few shards of wood, a meticulously dug hole -- and a mystery for the local police.

"It was dug in a very strange manner. It's perfect," said Hillsborough Police Chief Brian Brown. "You'd have to see it. The sides are all squared. The bottom's level."

"We just don't have any answers right now," he said.

Brown said the grave robbers had hit the Bible Hill Cemetery sometime between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2. He said police were considering a number of possible theories in the case, including the possibility that the body was dug up by members of a satanic cult.

Gilman Shattuck, 80, a resident who is active in the local historical society, said he had researched Symonds since the incident had hit the news and learned she was born on March 29, 1794. Her headstone listed June 18, 1824 as her date of death. She was never married.

He said the small cemetery was in an isolated area of town with a stone wall around it and with probably 40 graves in it. The oldest grave goes back to the late 18th century. Most are from the first or second decade of the 19th century, and a few are from the late 19th century.

Chief Brown said grave robbers simply looking for valuables or a body wouldn't have had any reason to dig so neatly and would likely try to fill up the grave to avoid detection.

"You're not going to waste time to square the corners," he said. "Why leave it open? Why dig it so meticulously? ... Somebody obviously wanted us to find it at some point."

The chief said police were hoping someone from the public would step forward to shed some light on the case.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:55 PM | Comments (0)

Winthrop approves more liquor licenses

Winthrop Town Council president Thomas E. Reilly bested challenger Brian Perrin by 57 votes in Tuesday’s election, according to results from the Town Clerk’s Office.

The Town Council president’s seat was the only contested race this year, but the 31 percent of registered voters who turned out still made things interesting, giving preliminary approval to a liquor license referendum question by only four votes.

The referendum would lower the number of seats required for restaurant owners to be granted a liquor license from 99 to 25. It passed by a vote of 1,480 to 1,476. Before becoming law, the referendum question must also be approved in the 2009 municipal election.

Posted by ddahl at 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

Body found in Hamilton pond

By Caitlin Castello, Globe Correspondent

The body of a 57-year-old Danvers man was pulled from the water this morning at Round Pound in Hamilton.

Scott Esty's body was recovered from the pond off Chebacco Road by a Beverly Fire Department dive team shortly before 10 a.m.

Police began to investigate after a patrolman observed a pickup truck parked next to a canoe launch ramp at about 9:22 p.m. Tuesday.The patrolman had a hunch that something was not right, said Hamilton Police Detective Kenneth Nagy.

Police requested the fire department's help in searching for the vehicle's operator. A capsized canoe was found on the far southeast area of the pond about 25 yards from shore.

The search expanded as it continued into today, involving several local fire departments as well as State Police and Essex County prosecutors.

Esty's body was found about 80 yards from the canoe. Police said the case is under investigation.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:42 PM | Comments (0)

Effort to revive 4-year-old victim recalled

By Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

An emergency room nurse from Caritas Carney Hospital today described the frantic attempt to resuscitate 4-year-old Dontel Jeffers in February 2005 and his conversations with the foster mother, who is now being tried on second-degree murder charges in the boy's death.

Jeffers's limp body was brought into a trauma room where nurses and a doctor inserted a breathing tube down his throat, started an intravenous drip of medicines intended to restart his heart, and pushed on the boy's chest for more than 20 minutes while performing CPR, David Lincoln, a registered nurse who helped work on Jeffers, testified in Suffolk Superior Court.

Lincoln said he had two conversations with Corinne Stephen that day, one when she brought the boy into the hospital, and another after Jeffers was declared dead.

As Jeffers's body lay on a stretcher after resuscitation efforts stopped, Stephen walked into the room, patted the boy's brow with her hand, and "she said she loved him, and she said 'Why?' a few times," Lincoln told the jury.

Prosecutors in opening statements Tuesday did not allege that Stephen beat Jeffers. But they said Stephen was Jeffers's "sole caretaker" in the 10 days before his death and she should be held responsible for his death.

Stephen's attorney described Stephen as a career foster mother who had safely cared for other children. He said Stephen did not batter the child and was not responsible for his death.

After Jeffers died on March 6, 2005, former DSS commissioner Harry Spence personally apologized to the Jeffers family for the mistakes made, including the failure to tell them that the boy had been transferred from an emergency shelter for children into Stephen's care.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:50 PM | Comments (0)

3 workers die after steam blast at Salem power plant

(Robert Spencer for The Boston Globe)

A Salem police officer stood guard at the gate of the Salem Harbor Power Station Tuesday after a boiler tube ruptured.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The boiler pipe that released a scalding blast of steam and killed three workers at the Salem Harbor Power Plant ruptured without warning as the men were repairing a fan some 20 feet below, a power company official said this afternoon at a press conference.

The three men -- two operators and a mechanic -- were working on the ground floor when a tube burst on the 10-story coal-fired generator, burning their faces, hands, and necks. They all died overnight at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"We have been able to look at the control room at the sequence of events," said Gary Courts, managing director of Dominion Virginia Power, which took over the plant in 2005. "There was nothing to indicate there was a problem up until the actual rupture."

"Incredible sadness is the only way I can describe it," Courts said.

Salem police identified the victims as Matthew Indeglia, 20, who has addresses in Lawrence and Townsend; Mark Mansfield, 41, of Peabody; and Phillip Robinson, 56, of Beverly.

The boiler -- part of one of four generators at the plant -- was built in 1958 and had passed its annual inspection in April, Courts said. The massive boiler consists of “miles and miles” of metal tubing 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick. Boiler tubes contain high-pressure water and steam that turn turbine generators, which spin to produce electricity. Investigators are still trying to determine exactly which pipe ruptured. The plant remains closed.

"We will not bring the units back until they have all undergone further safety inspections and tests," Courts said.

Some asbestos was detected in the air inside the generator building shortly after the steam blast. Tests taken again today came back negative, Courts said.

"These gentlemen that were sadly killed yesterday in this accident were some of the best trained power plant workers that I have ever had the pleasure of representing and working for," said James Simpson, the business manager for the local electrical workers union, who was employed at the Salem plant for 25 years. "I've been in this industry a long time. I've seen a lot of power plants that are not run this well."

Simpson said he knew two of the men personally. Mansfield came to his wedding. He left three daughters. Simpson said he worked for 20 years with Robinson, who was also a father. The union official said he did not know Indeglia, whom he described as a new employee.

Police and fire crews rushed to the brick power plant on Fort Avenue at 8:50 a.m. Tuesday. Police at the scene said two of the victims were in serious condition. Rescuers wanted to fly one of the victims to a Boston hospital but were unable to get a medical aircraft because of the weather, police said.

The power plant is well fortified and surrounded by barbed wire. On Tuesday, there was no evidence of smoke or fire from outside. Nearby residents did not report hearing an explosion.

The 65-acre facility employs 145 people and generates enough electricity to power about 740,000 homes, according to Dominion. In addition to the coal-fired generators, the plant also has a generator that is fueled by oil. All nonessential employees were evacuated from the plant.

Posted by aryan at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

Cadaver exhibit in Framingham draws criticism

(Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)

The exhibit opened this week on Route 30.

By Erica Noonan, Globe Staff

An unusual traveling exhibit featuring dead bodies is creating a stir in Framingham, where it has moved into a former computer store on Route 30.

"BODIES ... The Exhibition" opened to the public this week. The Framingham show features the body parts of about two dozen people preserved with silicone.

One critic has been picketing outside. Aaron Ginsburg, 57, of Sharon says the exhibit is "an affront to the dead and to the living."

But the exhibit owner, Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions, defends the BODIES exhibit as an innovative experience exploring "the wonder of the human form," saying it is currently enjoying successful runs in New York City; San Diego, Calif.; and Tampa, Fla., among other cities.

BODIES arrives in Boston's suburbs less than a year after the Museum of Science in Boston mounted the rival exhibition "Body Worlds," the original cadaver display show. About 550,000 guests viewed the display by the time it closed in January, a museum spokeswoman said.

Read more about the BODIES exhibit in tomorrow's Globe West.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:02 PM | Comments (0)

Hundreds of chickens and ducks removed from Mendon farm

By Globe Staff

Hundreds of chickens and ducks were removed from a Mendon farm after an inspection found they were being raised in an unhealthy environment, police and animal welfare officials said.

Approximately 700 chickens and ducks were removed from the farm from Tuesday evening to early this morning, said Brian Adams, a spokesman for the MSPCA. Another 100 chickens and ducks were found dead on the property, he said.

"Basically, the chickens and ducks were either covered in, or standing in, mud and feces," he said. In some cases, they were standing on the carcasses of animals that had died.

The town's animal inspector noticed the conditions at the farm Monday and gave the farmer 24 hours to rectify them. When the inspector and a police officer returned to the farm Tuesday, they observed the problems had not been addressed, police said Tuesday night in a statement. The MSPCA was then called in.

Adams said the MSPCA was investigating and would decide later whether to move forward with animal cruelty charges. He said officials believed the farm's owner was raising the animals for sale to Boston-area markets and restaurants.

Police Chief Ernest Horn balked at calling the site on Providence Street a "farm."

"I really don't call this a farm. This was just a couple of barns where somebody tried to make a lot of money doing everything the wrong way. ... Nothing about it reminded me of a farm," he said.

The rescued animals were taken to an MSPCA facility in Methuen, Adams said, with the last load arriving at around 2 a.m.

Adams said officials didn't think the deaths of the birds were caused by any disease, but the state Bureau of Animal Health has been asked to test them.

Michael Ferrucci of Milford, owner of the property, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

Devaney, the embattled Watertown councilor, falls 5 votes short

(State House News)

Marilyn Devaney, shown in a file photograph in April, lost her seat Tuesday on the Watertown Town Council. Her trial on felony assault and battery charges for allegedly throwing a bag containing a curling iron at a Waltham beauty supply store clerk is slated to start Dec. 13.

By Christina Pazzanese, Globe Correspondent

The 26-year run for embattled Watertown Town Councilor Marilyn Petitto Devaney appears to be over after she fell five votes shy Tuesday of being reelected.

John Flynn, the town clerk, said today that Devaney garnered 1,816 votes for one of the town's four at-large council seats up for grabs. Her closest competitor, incumbent John Donohue, finished with 1,821 votes. All the ballots have been counted, Flynn said.

Devaney, 69, was first elected to the council in 1981 and is currently its longest-serving member. In the last decade, she has consistently been the town's top vote-getter. Devaney is also in her fifth-term on the Governor's Council, representing District 3, which covers parts of Boston and Cambridge, Brookline, most of Middlesex County, and parts of Norfolk and Worcester counties.

Devaney could not be immediately reached for comment. She gained widespread notoriety earlier this year after police charged her with felony assault and battery for allegedly throwing a bag containing a curling iron at a Waltham beauty supply store clerk. The pair got into a dispute over Devaney's attempts to pay for her purchases without providing a driver’s license as identification. Devaney pleaded not guilty. Her trial is slated to begin on Dec. 13 in Waltham District Court.

Devaney has until Nov. 16 to petition for a recount, which would require the signatures of 10 or more registered voters in each precinct that she might want reviewed. If there is a recount, it would likely take place before month’s end, Flynn said.

The town uses two varieties of optical vote tallying machines, and Flynn said it was unlikely a recount would dramatically change the result. The last recount in Watertown was in the 2005 District A council race, which confirmed a three-vote margin of victory by challenger Angeline Kounelis over longtime incumbent Salvatore Ciccarelli.

Posted by aryan at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)

Three incumbents ousted in Newton

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff

Two incumbents on the Newton Board of Aldermen and one veteran school committee member lost their seats in Tuesday's election.

Ward 3 at-large incumbent Leslie Burg was narrowly ousted, with 3,865 votes to Greer Tan Swiston's 3,952. The race was Swiston's second run for the seat. In the local Ward 5 alderman's race, newcomer William F. Brandel defeated incumbent Christine Snow Samuelson, 1,139 to 482.

Ward 3 at-large incumbent Ted Hess-Mahan was the election's top vote-getter, with 4,231 votes.

In the Ward 1 School Committee race, newcomer Geoffrey Epstein defeated school committeewoman Gail Glick, 4,092 to 3,015.

In other races, Ward 7 voters returned longtime at-large alderman Verne Vance to office (2,960 votes) as well as Sydra Schnipper (3,886 votes). They defeated challenger Jeffrey Seideman (2,960 votes).

An incumbent and a political newcomer won two at-large seats in Ward 8, filling an opening left by the departure of Richard Lipof. John D. Freedman received 3,491 votes; incumbent Mitchell Fischman received 3,324. The two defeated Myra Tattenbaum (2,934 votes) and Thomas Sheff (1,885 votes).

In the Ward 1 at-large alderman's race, incumbent Carleton P. Merrill was reelected with 3,296 votes. Newcomer Allan Ciccone Jr. received 3,158 votes, filling a seat vacated by Ben Weisbuch. The two defeated challengers Janet Sterman (2,851 votes) and Al Cecchinelli (1,943 votes).

According to city election officials, 17 percent of registered voters turned out, or 8,899 of 51,719 registered voters.

Posted by ddahl at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)

Statement from Dominion Virginia Power on death of 3 workers in Salem

SALEM, Mass. -- Three Dominion employees were fatally injured by a boiler tube rupture Tuesday at Salem Harbor Power Station.

The three employees -- two operators and a mechanic -- were working on the ground floor near the Unit 3 boiler when a tube ruptured, blowing steam onto them 20 feet below. The three were taken first to local hospitals, then to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where they died Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

"All of Dominion is greatly saddened at the deaths of these men," said Thomas F. Farrell II, Dominion chairman, president and chief executive officer. "They were valuable members of our Salem Harbor family. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families."

Dominion is not releasing the names of the employees at the request of the families.

Dominion voluntarily shut down all four units at Salem Harbor so that the station can focus on the needs of its employees and a full safety review can occur. Units 1 and 2, which were operating but not involved in the accident, were shut down late Tuesday. Unit 4 was not operating Tuesday. The units will remain shut down for an indeterminate period of time.

The cause and exact location of the boiler tube rupture is not known. Boiler tubes contain high-pressure water and steam that turn the turbine-generator, which spins to produce electricity. Station personnel said the first indication of a problem with Unit 3 was when the rupture occurred at about 9 a.m.

For more information about Dominion (NYSE: D), visit the company's Web site at Dominion is not releasing the names of the employees at the request of the families.

Dominion voluntarily shut down all four units at Salem Harbor so that the station can focus on the needs of its employees and a full safety review can occur. Units 1 and 2, which were operating but not involved in the accident, were shut down late Tuesday. Unit 4 was not operating Tuesday. The units will remain shut down for an indeterminate period of time.

The cause and exact location of the boiler tube rupture is not known. Boiler tubes contain high-pressure water and steam that turn the turbine-generator, which spins to produce electricity. Station personnel said the first indication of a problem with Unit 3 was when the rupture occurred at about 9 a.m.

For more information about Dominion (NYSE: D), visit the company's Web site at http://www.dom.com

Posted by aryan at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

November 6, 2007

Minority candidates make presence felt but gain little ground

By Eric Moskowitz and Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff

A year after the state elected its first African-American governor, minority candidates on some local ballots stirred hope of greater diversity Tuesday.

When the votes were counted, they came up short of their goals in Brockton, Lawrence, and Quincy, but in Fitchburg an Asian-American mayoral candidate clobbered her more experienced opponent with 75 percent of the vote. Worcester appeared to have elected a woman mayor for the first time.

Lisa Wong, a 28-year-old political newcomer and the daughter of Chinese immigrants, defeated a four-term city councilor to become the first minority mayor in Fitchburg’s 243-year history.

In Brockton, Jass A. Stewart earned 47 percent of the vote, failing in his bid to become the state’s first popularly elected mayor who is African-American and gay. Mayor James E. Harrington, the incumbent, won 52 percent, according to unofficial results.

In Lawrence, where Latinos are a majority of a city’s registered voters for the first time in Massachusetts, five Latino candidates were on the ballot for the nine City Council seats. They tied the city’s past minority high-water mark by electing four Latino councilors.

In Fitchburg, the 5-foot-2 Wong stood on a chair at Cafe Destare and told a crowd of about 100 that her election represented a call for transformation in a city of shuttered mills and boarded-up Victorian houses. She envisions technology firms, young professionals, restored mansions, and recreation on the Nashua River.

"The voters of Fitchburg voted for change," said Wong, who received 5,863 votes, to 1,948 for opponent Thomas Donnelly. "The citizens of Fitchburg voted for energized leadership."

Wong also noted the significance of her win, in a city in which Latino students and other minorities now comprise more than half the public school population. Fitchburg was overdue for a minority mayor, Wong said.

"It’s about time. Fitchburg has always been a diverse city," she said, encouraging other potential leaders to come forward, regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity.

In Lawrence, where about three-quarters of the city’s population of 72,000 speaks a language other than English at home, Latino voters make up an estimated 53 percent of the registered voters, according to city officials. With Mayor Michael Sullivan in the middle of a four-year term, the election for other city positions drew about 18 percent of the 35,700 registered voters, according to preliminary returns.

Four Latino candidates won election to the City Council: incumbents Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez, Grisel Silva, and Jorge Gonzalez, along with Frank Moran — and Alvarez-Rodriguez was Lawrence’s top vote-getter, claiming almost 3,000 votes in the at large council race.

Dozens of people gathered at City Hall to cheer those results. But Gonzalez said his joy was tempered by the failure to elect a Latino majority to the City Council.

Gonzalez, a school bus driver, said white city councilors are not as attuned to Latino issues as Latino councilors.

"It’s the same; we don’t have a majority," a disappointed Gonzalez said. "If we don’t have a majority, we’re not going anywhere."

In Quincy, where a growing Asian voting bloc represents 9 percent of the city’s electorate, two Asian candidates on the ballot for City Council each lost.

In Worcester, the state’s second-largest city, Konstantina B. Lukes appeared to win by a 105-vote margin, which would make her the first woman elected mayor in the city’s history.

Lukes, who earned the second-most votes in Worcester’s last election, has served as mayor since January, when then-Mayor Tim Murray became lieutenant governor. "We’ve made history," she said last night, after an unofficial count gave her 7,432 votes to 7,327 for Frederick P. Rushton in a race that also included two other candidates.

Posted by gwitherspoon at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)

Dracut soldier dies in Kuwait

By Globe Staff

A 21-year-old soldier from Dracut died today in a Kuwait from a non-combat-related illness, the Defense Department said in a statement.

Army Specialist Christine Ndururi died at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, where she was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

She was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, at Fort Hood, Texas. The department said her death was under investigation.

Posted by mfinucane at 7:30 PM | Comments (0)

State announces Southeast Expressway overhaul

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

State officials today announced a $12.8 million rehab project on the Southeast Expressway, saying the work would be done at night to minimize the impact on traffic.

The project will reconstruct and resurface 6.5 miles of Interstate 93 from Braintree to Savin Hill. The highway is a major artery into Boston that is clogged with cars during the morning and evening commutes.

Most of the heavy construction is scheduled to begin in the spring. Lanes will sometimes be closed during non-commuting hours but at least two lanes will be open in each direction at all times.

"The work will be done in a staged fashion at night time to minimize impact on traffic," the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction said in a statement.

"We're working around people's commutes," said Erik Abell, a spokesman for the state.

Posted by mfinucane at 5:37 PM | Comments (0)

Cold rain dampens voter turnout

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

A voter braves the rain to cast a ballot in Boston's North End.

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

A cold, driving rain appeared to be deterring people from voting today in Boston. Only 23,833 voters had showed up by 3 p.m. at city polling places, a measly 7 percent of those registered.

"There's a lot of lonely poll workers out there. It's very, very sad," Boston Election Commissioner Geraldine Cuddyer said. "I think everyone is hoping that the rain stops and voters will come out."

The rain also caused problems for some of those who did vote. Wet ballots jammed a few scanning machines, and one machine in Roslindale failed to start properly. But officials said the problems were quickly fixed.

In Boston, there are races for four at-large seats on the City Council, as well as four district seats.

Voters in 53 other cities and towns across the state are heading to the polls today, with mayoral elections in 35 communities.

In Chicopee, Pittsfield, and Worcester, voters also will get their say on nonbinding questions on gambling and casinos, though none of those communities has been identified as a potential site by developers.

Secretary of State William Galvin said the rain was suppressing voter turnout in Boston and across the state, but in some places, such as Quincy, Brockton, and Fall River, where there were hard-fought contests, it wasn’t having as big an effect.

"Clearly, it was a deterrent to voters. On the other hand, people who were involved in intense campaigns did come out," he said.

Posted by mfinucane at 3:18 PM | Comments (0)

Trial begins of Boston police officer accused of drug trafficking

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A veteran Boston police officer was eager to protect truckloads of cocaine that came to Boston in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash and told an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer that he looked forward to "a long relationship," a federal prosecutor said today.

In his opening statement to the jury, Assistant US Attorney George W. Vien said Roberto Pulido let his garage in Jamaica Plain be used for the transfer of 40 kilograms of cocaine to undercover agents in April 2006. Two months later, Pulido arranged for two other officers to help him escort a truck carrying 100 kilograms of cocaine from Western Massachusetts to Boston, the prosecutor said.

"Pulido didn't hesitate," Vien told the 16 jurors as the drug trafficking trial of the former motorcycle policeman began in the federal courthouse in Boston. "He was in. He was ready, willing, and able to play a role in the conspiracy."

But Pulido's lawyer, Rudolph F. Miller, denied that his client was a drug dealer and said he was entrapped by FBI agents who were working with a scheming informant with a long criminal record.

"This case isn't about a corrupt Boston police officer,'' Miller said as Pulido sat erectly at the defense table in a dark suit, rose-colored dress shirt, and bright red tie. "This case is about a crime that has been completely ... manufactured by the government ... We believe the evidence will show that Mr. Pulido was enticed, Mr. Pulido was lured, all at the direction of the government."

Posted by aryan at 3:18 PM | Comments (0)

Teen faces manslaughter charge in June death

By Globe Staff

A 15-year-old is facing a manslaughter charge in the June death of a 41-year-old man on Monson Street in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, law enforcement officials said today.

The youth, who was 14 at the time, allegedly assaulted Michael Hansbury at about 11:23 p.m. on June 5. Witnesses told police they saw Hansbury fall to the ground, hitting his head on the sidewalk.

Hansbury was treated at Boston Medical Center but succumbed to his injuries on June 13. An autopsy found that he died from a brain injury caused by blunt trauma to his head.

The youth, whose name was withheld because he is a juvenile, was identified during the course of a grand jury investigation, Boston police and Suffolk prosecutors said in a joint statement.

He was arrested today and was to be arraigned this afternoon in a juvenile session of Dorchester District Court.

Posted by mfinucane at 2:42 PM | Comments (0)

Convict who remained free for 16 years won't have to go back to prison

By Globe Staff

A convicted rapist from Lowell who remained free for 16 years after he should have begun serving his sentence in the early 1990s will not have to return to prison, the state's highest court ruled today.

"We conclude that requiring the defendant to serve his sentences, at this point in time and on these facts, would violate the concept of fundamental fairness that is at the core of due process," the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in the case of Vith Ly, who was apparently able to stay free because of a bureaucratic snafu.

Ly was convicted by a Middlesex Superior Court jury in 1990 on charges that included kidnapping, indecent assault and battery, assault with intent to rape, and rape. He spent two months incarcerated, but he was released pending an appeal to the state appeals court.

In 1991, the appeals court vacated one of his indecent assault and battery convictions but let the others stand. That was the point where the system apparently broke down. Ly should have been returned to prison, but he was never ordered to do so.

The court said the district attorney's office "did nothing for sixteen years" to return Ly to prison, even though Ly was arrested in 1999 and 2001 on other charges.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said his office believed Ly should complete his sentence.

"Our position in this case remains – the clock should not run out on a convicted rapist's debt to society and to the victim. While the District Attorney's office, the court, and the defendant all shared some responsibility for the failures in this case, the priority here should be achieving justice for the victim," Leone said in a statement.

Ly, a Cambodian immigrant, continued to live in the Lowell area, working steadily as a machine operator or personal computer board manufacturer for local companies, raising three sons, the court said.

Ly knew almost no English at the time the case began and nothing about the state's legal system, according to statements submitted by Ly and his lawyer that were cited by the court. During his 16 years of freedom, Ly believed the case was over, the court said.

The court said it was just too late for Ly to serve his sentence.

"It is a basic principle that a defendant sentenced to incarceration has a due process right to serve the sentence promptly and continuously, rather than in 'installments,'" the court said in a six-page opinion written by Justice Judith Cowin.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:04 PM | Comments (0)

Trial begins of Dorchester foster mom accused of killing boy, 4

By John Ellement, Globe Staff

After 10 days in a foster home in Dorchester, Dontel Jeffers, 4, arrived at Caritas Carney Hospital on March 6, 2005, with bruises under his left eye, adult scratch marks on his forehead, and ligature marks around his wrists and one ankle from a telephone cord, a prosecutor said today during opening statements in a second-degree murder trial in Suffolk Superior Court.

The boy had bruises inside his throat consistent with someone trying to cut off his breath and a ruptured intestine that was leaking human waste into his abdomen, causing a treatable but extremely painful infection, said David Deakin, a Suffolk assistant district attorney. After doctors spent 45 minutes trying to revive him, Dontel was pronounced dead.

Deakin told the jury that Dontel's foster mother, Corinne N. Stephen, was responsible for his death. Before moving into her home on Ballou Avenue, Dontel was a healthy, smiling, energetic boy, he said.

"Ten days later, the defendant brought the bruised and apparently lifeless body to the emergency department at the Carney Hospital," Deakin said.

In Stephen's trial on second-degree murder charges, Deakin told the jury that he will not present evidence that Stephen beat Dontel or inflicted his injuries. Instead, the prosecution will try to prove that she caused his death by failing to obtain medical attention when his life was clearly in jeopardy.

"She was the sole caretaker," Deakin said. "She allowed him to suffer bruises. She called no one. Not a doctor. Not a hospital. Not 911. Not anyone until it was far too late to save him."

Defense attorney John Palmer described Stephen in his opening statement as a career foster mother who had taken care of other children. She had a good reputation at Mentor Network Inc., the private child welfare agency where she worked, he said. The graduate of Madison Park Technical Vocational High School had attended nursing classes at Salem State College and had been fully screened before being hired by the Mentor Network.

Palmer urged the jury to "keep an open mind throughout this entire case" and said she was not responsible for Dontel's injuries or his death.

Dontel had been cared for most of his life by his father, Elary Jeffers. In October 2004, Elary Jeffers was deported to his native Caribbean island, Nevis, after an outstanding immigration order surfaced when he was charged with domestic violence against his girlfriend.

With Dontel's father gone, a judge awarded custody to his mother, Christal Claiborne. Within months, Dontel was pulled from her home because the state Department of Social Services alleged that she was neglecting him and abusing drugs.

After a stay at a residential center for abused and neglected children, Dontel was placed with Stephen in a foster home on Ballou Avenue in Dorchester on Feb. 24, 2005. Ten days later, he was rushed to the hospital, where he went into cardiac arrest and died.

Posted by aryan at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

Family of slain Needham grandfather breaks silence

(Moore family photograph)

By Globe Staff

The family of Robert Moore Sr. described him in a statement today as "a smart, great-hearted, funny, sentimental, and incredibly generous human being" whose "loss is beyond telling."

It was the first public comment the family has made since the Needham grandfather was beaten to death with a baseball bat Friday in his basement. On Monday, William B. Dunn, 41, was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty to first-degree murder in Dedham District Court.

The Moores read the statement to the media today at the family home in Needham. Here is the entire statement:

On behalf of our mother and ourselves, the children of Robert Moore Sr. would like to make the following statement:

We want to express our thanks to the members of the Needham Police and Emergency Services Departments, the Massachusetts State Police, the Boston Medical Examiner’s Office, and all of the many other dedicated professionals involved in the response to the attacks at our parents’ home last Friday; without exception they have been effective, responsible, and kind. Along with the Lanigan family, we thank the staff at Beth Israel Deaconess for caring for our Beba as if she were their own.

Our father has been described in some reports as an elderly man; in truth he was a great old guy, very much alive in his very rich life. He was a smart, great-hearted, funny, sentimental, and incredibly generous human being. And his loss is beyond telling. A moment’s encounter with a terrible darkness may have ended his life, but it touched nothing essential about him: he remains a radiant light.

Regarding the person who did this, there is only this to say: our hearts ache for the grief and horror of his family, and we wish them healing and peace.

Finally, we request that the members of the media respect our privacy. We are deeply appreciative of the thoughts and prayers of the larger community that shares our shock and sorrow, but we are private people, and we are heartbroken. Our father would thank you for turning from the door, and leaving us to the long work ahead.

Posted by aryan at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

3 injured after steam blast at Salem power plant

(Dominion Virginia Power/file photo)

By Globe Staff

SALEM -- Three people were injured this morning when a boiler released a blast of high-pressure steam at the Salem Harbor Power Plant, according to a Fire Department official and a power company spokesman.

Police and fire crews rushed to the brick power plant on Fort Avenue at 8:50 a.m. There was a "release of high-pressure steam" in one of three coal-fired generators at the power plant, said David Botkins, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, an energy company based in Richmond which operates the plant. The three victims were rushed to North Shore Medical Center.

Police at the scene said two of the victims were in serious condition. Rescuers wanted to fly one of the victims to a Boston hospital but were unable to get a medical aircraft because of the weather, police said.

The power plant is well fortified and surrounded by barbed wire. There was no evidence of smoke or fire from outside. Nearby residents did not report hearing an explosion.

The 65-acre facility employs 145 people and generates enough electricity to power about 740,000 homes, according to Dominion. In addition to the coal-fired generators, the plant also has a generator that is fueled by oil. All nonessential employees have been evacuated from the plant, Botkins said.

Posted by aryan at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

November 5, 2007

5 crewmembers get sick on plane that landed at Logan

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

The two pilots flying a US Airways plane today were among five crewmembers who reported feeling light-headed during a flight after an odor was detected in the cockpit and had to be hospitalized upon landing at Logan International Airport, according to an airline spokeswoman.

After taking off from Ronald Reagan-Washington National Airport, the crewmembers aboard Flight 2022 smelled an odor in the cockpit and returned to the airport to change planes. While flying the second plane, the crewmembers felt light-headed and had paramedics meet them when they landed at Logan, said Valerie Wunder, a spokeswoman for US Airways.

None of the 81 passengers aboard the shuttle flight reported feeling ill, Wunder said.

WBZ radio reported that the crew was treated for "moderate levels of carbon monoxide" after a "bothersome odor."

"I can't confirm or deny that," Wunder said of the report of carbon monoxide. "We are looking into it."

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas.

Wunder declined to release the condition of the crewmembers, saying that medical information about employees was confidential.

Posted by aryan at 4:22 PM | Comments (0)

Ex-turnpike chairman charged by ethics panel

(Janet Knott/Globe Staff)

Matthew J. Amorello, shown in an August 2006 photo, was accused today of violating state ethics law.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The state Ethics Commission today charged former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello with violating the law when he approved a change to the authority's sick-time policy that made him eligible to collect an additional $75,000 in cash and insurance payments.

The policy change, which Amorello approved on July 26, 2006 -- after Governor Mitt Romney had scheduled his termination hearing for the next day -- also made seven of the authority's senior staffers eligible for sizable sick-time payouts.

Amorello's chief of staff, Marie Hayman, received $58,746 for her sick time when she retired -- an increase of more than $22,000 under the new policy. Keith Shirley, Amorello's deputy chief of staff, received $12,567 for his sick time when he resigned. Under the former policy, Shirley would have received nothing.

Amorello's director of communications, Mariellen Burns, also stood to get nothing for her sick time under the old policy. Instead, she was paid $4,312 for her sick time because of the change made by her boss, the Ethics Commission alleged.

"Matt Amorello received not a dime as a part of this policy change," Amorello's lawyer, Thomas Kiley, said today by telephone.

According to Kiley, Amorello actually reduced the sick-time payout and did not benefit from the policy because his compensation was negotiated separately as part of a severance package. Amorello was out of the country and could not be reached for comment, Kiley said.

According to the Ethics Commission, Amorello asked the turnpike's human resources director, Norman Chalupka, in early 2006 to examine the possibility of increasing the sick-time buyback benefit for non-union employees. Since 1996, the policy had mirrored that of the state, which was a 20 percent buyback upon retirement. Employees who resigned or were terminated received nothing.

On July 5, 2006, the turnpike changed its policy so non-union employees would be paid for 100 percent of its sick-time if they leave the authority for any reason. On July 26, Chalupka told Amorello that the sick-time buyback had been increased to 100 percent. Amorello changed the policy, reducing the cash payout to 50 percent and reserving the remaining 50 percent to pay health insurance premiums upon retirement, according to the Ethics Commission.

Amorello said "that's excessive," Kiley said today. “His only involvement in this matter was to reduce the theoretical benefit to him.”

The Ethics Commission could fine Amorello up to $6,000 and impose other penalties. He is accused of participating in financial matters in which he had an interest and using his position to secure benefits for his senior staff.

When Amorello agreed to leave the turnpike authority on July 27, 2006, he had amassed $75,000 worth of sick time, according to the Ethics Commission. Under the old policy, Amorello would have received 20 percent of that amount as a payout when he retired from the turnpike.

Under the policy change he approved the day before he was fired, Amorello stood to receive a 50 percent payout if he left the authority for any reason. In addition, the policy change also made Amorello eligible to use the remaining 50 percent -- $37,500 -- to pay his insurance premium when he retires.

The commission will schedule a public hearing within the next 90 days.

Posted by aryan at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

Ethics complaint against Matthew Amorello

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
STATE ETHICS COMMISSION

SUFFOLK, COMMISSION ADJUDICATORY
DOCKET NO. 07-0032

IN THE MATTER OF MATTHEW AMORELLO

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE

1. The State Ethics Commission ("Commission") is authorized by G.L. c. 268B to enforce G.L. c. 268A, the state conflict of interest law, and in that regard, to initiate and conduct adjudicatory proceedings.

2. On April 25, 2007, the Commission: (a) found reasonable cause to believe that Matthew Amorello violated G.L. c. 268A, 6, 23(b)(2) and (3), and (b) authorized the initiation of adjudicatory proceedings.

FACTS

3. Amorello was during the relevant time the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority ("MTA") Board chair and chief executive officer. As such, he was a state employee as that term is defined in G.L. c. 268A, 1.

4. The MTA board members and chair are appointed by the governor. The chair serves as the chief executive officer. Amorello's term ran until July 2007.

5. For many years until 1996, the MTA sick leave policy provided that employees would receive 50% of the cash value of their accrued sick time upon retirement and only upon retirement (not resignation or termination). The MTA changed the policy in 1996 for non-union employees to mirror the state’s policy of a 20% sick time buyback, again only upon retirement.

6. Sometime in early 2006, at Amorello’s direction, MTA Human Resources Director Norman Chalupka began looking into the possibility of increasing the sick time buyback benefit for non-union employees.

7. On or about July 5, 2006, the MTA sick time buyback policy for non-union employees was changed from 20% cash value upon retirement to 100% cash value upon leaving the MTA for any reason.

8. As of July 26, 2006, Amorello knew that there was a matter pending before the Supreme Judicial Court in which Governor Romney was seeking a ruling that he could conduct a hearing, scheduled for 9 a.m. on July 27, 2006, to remove Amorello as the MTA chair/executive director. Amorello knew that there was a significant chance that the Supreme Judicial Court would rule in the governor’s favor, which ruling would almost certainly result in the governor removing Amorello from his positions. In turn, Amorello knew that certain senior members of his staff would then likely resign or be terminated.

9. On July 26, 2006, Chalupka informed first the MTA chief of staff, and then shortly thereafter, Amorello, that the sick time buyback policy had been raised to 100% as described above. Both Amorello and the chief of staff told Chalupka that the change was excessive and had to be revisited. Amorello instructed Chalupka to make the policy similar to that of other authorities like the MTA.

10. Early in the afternoon of July 26, 2006, Governor Romney received a favorable ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court to the effect that he could proceed to have a hearing regarding removing Amorello as the MTA chair.

11. Thereafter, on July 26, 2006, Chalupka came back to Amorello and his chief of staff and said he was changing the policy to “50%.” Amorello knew that the new policy would provide a 50% cash value sick time buy back for employees who left the MTA for whatever reason. Amorello approved the new policy.

12. The revised policy provided a 50% cash value payout of sick time accrued as of the date one left the MTA, regardless of the reason for leaving, and further provided that the remaining 50% of the accrued sick time cash value could be used to pay medical insurance premiums once the MTA employee retired.

13. The above policy changes applied to all so-called unaffiliated classified and executive employees, including Amorello. By originally discussing with Chalupka that the 20% policy needed to be revisited and then rejecting the 100% policy but approving the “50%” policy, Amorello raised the sick time buyback benefit from 20% upon retirement only to the 50% cash value payout upon leaving for any reason and the 50% of the accrued sick time cash value that could be used upon retirement to pay medical insurance premiums.

14. On July 27, 2006, Amorello signed a termination agreement with the MTA by which he would relinquish his positions effective August 15, 2005. The agreement, however, kept him on the payroll with the salary he had on July 26, 2006, until February 15, 2007. The termination agreement also provided him with all benefits that were in effect as of July 26, 2006.

15. On July 27, 2006, Amorello publicly announced his agreement to step down.

16. On August 17, 2006, the MTA changed the 50%-50% policy back to 20% on retirement only.

17. Amorello’s sick time buyback benefit value based on the July 26th 50%-50% policy is approximately $75,000 based on the 600 hours of sick time he had accrued as of July 26, 2006, and the additional sick time he accrued between July 26, 2006, and February 15, 2007. Having completed his last day of MTA service as of February 15, 2007, Amorello was and is eligible to take immediately 50% of the $75,000; and, when he retires, he can use the other 50% of his accrued sick t ime benefit towards paying his health insurance premiums.

18. Seven senior MTA employees took advantage of the 50%-50% sick time buyback policy by resigning or retiring on or after July 26, 2006, and before the policy was changed back to 20% on retirement only on August 17, 2006. Three of these people were Amorello’s close senior staff:
(1) Marie Heyman, Chief of Staff, retired and received $58,746 in sick time
(2) Keith Shirley, Deputy Chief of Staff resigned and received $12,567 in sick time;
(3) Mariellen Burns, Director of Communications, resigned and received $4,312 in sick time;

Law Section 6

19. Except as otherwise permitted, § 6 of G.L. c. 268A, in relevant, part prohibits a state employee from participating as such an employee in a particular matter in which, to his knowledge, he has a financial interest. None of the exemptions applies here.

20. The July 26, 2006 decisions to reject the change of the sick time buy back benefit from 20% to 100%, but then to approve the “50%” recommendation were particular matters.

21. Amorello participated in each of those particular matters as MTA chair/CEO by as described above rejecting the first change and then approving the recommended second change.

22. Amorello knew at the time he participated in them that he had a financial interest in these particular matters because they affected the monetary value to him of his accrued sick time benefits. For example, he would be able to take advantage of the provision that would provide him with a 50% cash payout as to his accrued sick time regardless of why he left the MTA.

23. Accordingly, by participating in these particular matters as described above, Amorello violated § 6.
Section 23(b)(2)

24. Section 23(b)(2) prohibits a public employee from, knowingly or with reason to know, using or attempting to use his official position to secure for himself or others an unwarranted privilege or exemption of substantial value not properly available to similarly situated individuals.

25. By on July 26, 2006, using his position to approve the 50%-50% buyback policy change, Amorello knowingly or with reason to know used or attempted to use his official position to secure for himself and his senior staff an unwarranted privilege of substantial value not properly available to similarly situated individuals. Therefore, Amorello violated § 23(b)(2).
Section 23(b)(3)

26. Section 23(b)(3) prohibits a public employee from, knowingly or with reason to know, acting in a manner which would cause a reasonable person, knowing all of the facts, to conclude that anyone can improperly influence or unduly enjoy that person’s favor in the performance of his official duties or that he is likely to act or fail to act as a result of kinship, rank, position or undue influence of any party or person.

27. By approving the change in the buyback policy from, in effect, 20% upon retirement only to 50% cash buy back upon leaving the MTA for any reason and 50% upon retirement to be applied to medical insurance premiums, Amorello knowingly or with reason to know acted in a manner that would cause a reasonable person knowing all of the facts to conclude that his close senior staff could unduly enjoy his favor in the performance of his official duties or that he was likely to act or fail to act as the result of the rank, position or undue influence of his close senior staff.

WHEREFORE, Petitioner asks that the Commission:

1. find that Amorello violated § 6 in July 2006 by participating as the MTA chairman/chief executive officer in decisions regarding sick leave benefits in which to his knowledge he had a financial interest;

2. find that Amorello violated § 23(b)(2) in July 2006 by making changes to the MTA’s sick-time buyback policies that resulted in unwarranted financial benefit to himself and his senior staff, thereby knowingly or with reason to know using or attempting to use his official position to secure for himself and/or his senior staff an unwarranted privilege or exemption of substantial value not properly available to similarly situated individuals;

3. find reasonable cause to believe that Amorello violated § 23(b)(3) in July 2006 by making changes to the MTA’s sick-time buyback policies that resulted in unwarranted financial benefit to his senior staff, thereby knowingly or with reason to know acting in a manner that would cause a reasonable person having knowledge of these circumstances to conclude that Amorello’s senior staff can improperly influence or unduly enjoy his favor in the performance of his official duties, or that he was likely to act or fail to act as a result of the position and/or undue influence of one of more members of his senior staff; and

4. levy such fines, issue such orders and grant such other relief as may be appropriate.

Respectfully submitted,
Petitioner State Ethics Commission
By its attorneys,

Date: November 5, 2007

Karen Beth Gray
State Ethics Commission
One Ashburton Place, Room 619
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 727-0060

Date: November 5, 2007
Stephen P. Fauteux
Enforcement Division Chief
State Ethics Commission
One Ashburton Place, Room 619
Boston, MA 02108

Posted by aryan at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

2d Boston police officer pleads guilty to drug trafficking

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A second Boston police officer pleaded guilty today to federal charges for participating in a drug-trafficking scheme that has rocked the department, just as he and the alleged ringleader were about to go to trial.

Nelson Carrasquillo, 36, a decorated officer who was suspended after his arrest in the summer of 2006, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine and two counts of attempting to aid and abet before District Judge William G. Young, his lawyer said. He faces 10 years to life imprisonment when sentenced on Feb. 5.

On Sept. 10, another officer charged in the case, Carlos A. Pizarro, also pleaded guilty. The trial of the alleged ringleader, Roberto "Kiko" Pulido, began today with jury selection.

Carrasquillo's wife, Sandra Marrero, said after federal marshals took him into custody that he is not cooperating with prosecutors in the case against Pulido but pleaded guilty because he wanted to avoid putting his family through the strain of a trial.

"He said it was the right thing to do," Marrero said. "I'm as proud of him today as I was the day he graduated from the [police] academy."

Posted by aryan at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)

Bat used as weapon in Needham slaying, prosecutors say

(Robert E. Klein for The Boston Globe)

William B. Dunn was arraigned today in Dedham District Court.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Prosecutors confirmed today in court that a baseball bat was the weapon used in an attack Friday in a Needham basement that killed a 78-year-old man and sent his daughter-in-law to the hospital with severe head trauma.

Dressed in a blue prison jumpsuit, William B. Dunn, 41, kept his head bowed during his brief arraignment in Dedham District Court. Norfolk assistant district attorney Michele Armour told the court that Dunn had been installing a lawn sprinkler system at the home of Robert J. Moore Sr. when there was a confrontation. Dunn grabbed a baseball bat, Armour said, and beat Moore and his daughter-in-law, Nancy Moore. Armour did not say what sparked the alleged attack.

Dunn pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, armed assault with intent to murder, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was ordered held without bail, and is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 13.

Dunn's attorney, Robert Griffin, spoke briefly with reporters outside court and rebuffed questions about an insanity defense, saying only, "I'm not ruling anything out."

The Globe reported Sunday that Dunn was voluntarily committed to the psychiatric ward of Norwood Caritas Carney Hospital in August after making paranoid statements to his wife, according to a missing person report his wife filed with Norwood police.

Griffin said today that to his knowledge Dunn did not have a prior history of violence. He added that his client’s family was devastated.

Judge Patricia Kurtin sealed the court file so no other details came to light about the slaying that upended Needham, a quiet town in Boston's western suburbs that had not had a homicide since 1989. A manhunt for Dunn was complicated Friday when employees of a pizzeria in Needham Square reported that a jittery man who may be armed had entered the restaurant. That report led town and State Police to essentially shut down the town center and deploy SWAT teams to rooftops.

Police arrested Hillel Neuer at gunpoint and charged him with disorderly conduct. Neuer is the executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch and was in Boston to deliver a speech.

In another courtroom this morning, Clerk Magistrate Salvatore Paterna dismissed the charges against Neuer, saying he reviewed police reports and found no probable cause.

After charges were dropped, attorney David G. Eisenstadt read a statement to reporters that said Neuer was "victimized" and "traumatized" by his arrest and that his reputation had been tarnished.

Posted by aryan at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 3, 2007

Thousands lose power in hard-hitting storm

(Reader photo)

The wind blew a tree onto a car in Braintree.

By Matt Viser and Milton Valencia, Globe Staff

Tens of thousands of residents reported power outages by late this afternoon, as the remnants of Tropical Storm Noel whipped southern New England with high winds and heavy rains.

About 33,000 NStar customers on Cape Cod and the South Shore reported outages. Additional crews were dispatched to the hardest hit areas, the utility reported.

Outages also occurred throughout New Bedford and greater Boston, NStar reported on its website. On Nantucket, a brief outage impacted 2,600 National Grid customers, but it was quickly fixed, the utility said.

The storm produced winds on the Cape and the islands that were so strong that the National Weather Service said residents should consider it a hurricane. The experts warned people not to try to travel in the tempest.

The weather service warned of moderate coastal flooding on the Cape and Nantucket and minor flooding in other areas of the coast.

The good news from weather experts is that winds are expected to begin diminishing at around 10 p.m. And wind speeds have been much slower away from the Cape and islands. The rain will exit by midnight. And lots of sunshine is forecast for tomorrow.

Storm buffs crowded along the coast this morning at parking lots, sitting in cars and taking snapshots of the gathering tempest.

"We don't see this very often," said Bob Moore, 83, of South Yarmouth, whose hat flew off as he was taking a picture in Chatham.

"I've never seen it boarded up before," said his wife, Eileen, motioning toward the Coast Guard's Chatham lighthouse. "It's like Florida."

Hurricane Noel, the deadliest storm this year in the Atlantic, slammed the Caribbean earlier this week with heavy rains that caused flooding and mudslides, killing 118 people, according to the Associated Press.

Posted by mfinucane at 8:00 PM | Comments (0)

November 2, 2007

Pizza shop owner who chased robber dies

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A Dorchester pizza shop owner who was shot while chasing an armed robber died this evening at Boston Medical Center, Boston police said.

Mimin Manavoglu, 45, was behind the counter of his Norfolk Street shop at around 9:30 a.m. Thursday when Gary Johnson of Dorchester walked in and allegedly robbed the Turkish immigrant at gunpoint.

Johnson fled the store with $60 but was pursued by Manavoglu. Johnson shot at the pursuing Manavoglu, striking him in the head, authorities said.

A Brockton resident and the father of three small children, the owner of the Stalex Pizza shop was pronounced dead at 6 p.m. today, police said.

Prosecutors said Johnson would be charged with murder.

"I think this is a tragedy on many different levels," said Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley. "Every report we have is that this victim was a hard-working family man. This is just outrageous."

Johnson, who allegedly shed his clothing and tossed away his weapon as he ran, was arrested shortly after the shooting when police found him hiding behind a tool shed on Woodrow Avenue.

Johnson was arraigned in Dorchester Municipal Court today.

He pleaded not guilty to armed assault with intent to murder, armed robbery while masked and other charges and was ordered held on $250,000 cash bail.

Conley said the charges would be upgraded now that Manavoglu has died.

Johnson's attorney, identified by prosecutors as Arnie Lucinda Stewart, could not be reached for comment tonight.

Posted by mfinucane at 9:48 PM | Comments (0)

ADL takes no action on Armenian genocide

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff

NEW YORK -- The national Anti-Defamation League tonight rejected calls from within its own ranks to unequivocally acknowledge the Armenian genocide, after its top official insisted his remarks calling the World War I era massacre "tantamount to genocide'' were misinterpreted.

In a statement issued tonight, the National Commission of the Anti-Defamation League said it had "decided to take no further action on the issue of the Armenian genocide.''

Massachusetts-based members of the ADL and local Armenian-Americans had urged the national group to acknowledge the genocide, after ADL head Abraham Foxman had described the deaths as "tantamount to genocide'' earlier this year.

Foxman said tonight that he told the ADL gathering that his remarks were misinterpreted. The ADL met behind closed doors for more than three hours Friday afternoon to discuss the matter.

Despite their earlier calls for a clearer statement, Massachusetts representatives said tonight they were pleased with the outcome of the meeting.

Posted by ddahl at 7:08 PM | Comments (0)

Massive search in Needham after man, woman beaten in home

Police orchestrated a stand-off in Needham center today after the killing of an elderly man nearby. They apprehended a suspect, but the Norfolk district attorney said afterwards he was not related to the case. (Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)

By Ralph Ranalli and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

NEEDHAM -- An elderly man was killed and his daughter-in-law is in critical condition this afternoon after they were allegedly attacked by an irrigation worker at their Needham home with a bat-like object, police and prosecutors said.

After a massive search, a police dog led officers to William Dunn, 41, who was apprehended just before 4 p.m. in a wooded area near Route 128, said Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating. He will appear Monday in Dedham District Court.

Dunn is accused of killing Robert Moore, 78, and attacking his daughter-in-law, who was rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

"We are pleased to report that all indications are that she will be fully recovered from this attack," Keating said at a press conference today at Needham Police Headquarters.

Authorities said the suspect is a contractor who was hired to install a sprinkler system at the victim’s home on Elmwood Road. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the search said there was a confrontation and the contractor allegedly attacked the victims. The victim's grandson, Jamie Moore, called 911 at 12:49 p.m. to report the attack.

In an unrelated incident in Needham center, police responded to a report of a man with a gun in a restaurant. Officers had their guns drawn outside a CVS drugstore in Needham center across the street from Town Hall. The officers took cover behind a white minivan and other cars and kept their guns pointed at the doors of Stone Hearth Pizza on the corner of Great Plain Avenue.

All traffic was stopped in Needham center. At least three police cruisers parked in the middle of Great Plain Avenue, and several more officers ducked behind the vehicles with their guns drawn. Nearby about 15 more officers were at alert with handguns, automatic rifles, and shotguns.

Police took one man into custody but did not release additional details. Needham schools were locked down during the standoff.

Posted by aryan at 5:35 PM | Comments (0)

One dead, one hospitalized after Revere stabbing

By Globe Staff

One man is dead and another was hospitalized early this morning after a stabbing in Revere, according to a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

The survivor was rushed to a local hospital and is in stable condition, according to spokesman Jake Wark. Authorities have released few other details about the slaying, which occurred on Nahant Street.

No arrests have been made, Wark said. Nahant Street has been blocked off while investigators search for evidence.

Posted by aryan at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

Hurricane Noel may pass close to Cape Cod

(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Hurricane Noel is churning up the East Coast today and is expected to pummel Cape Cod and the islands Saturday with hurricane-force wind gusts, up to 3 inches of rain, and 30-foot seas.

Forecasters expect the storm, which is currently 425 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., to pass 150 miles east of the Cape sometime in the late morning or early afternoon Saturday. Mariners are bracing for high seas and are scrambling to secure boats.

The fast-moving storm is expected to weaken as it moves over colder water, but will be re-energized as it collides with the jet stream near New England.

"It will be almost like a very large winter storm, like a nor'easter," said Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "It is then going to continue to intensify and grow as it moves north."

On outer Cape Cod and Nantucket, forecasters expect 3 inches of rain and sustained winds of 50 miles per hour, with gusts in the low 70s. Boston will be doused by 1 to 2 inches of rain and sustained winds of 45 miles per hour.

The storm is expected to hit at low tide, which would minimize flooding, Sampson said. Unlike most winter storms, not all trees have shed leaves, and forecasters fear that the high winds could cause major power outages.

Hurricane Noel, the deadliest storm this year in the Atlantic, slammed the Caribbean earlier this week with heavy rains that caused flooding and mudslides, killing 118 people, according to the Associated Press. Earlier today, the Category 1 hurricane drenched the Bahamas and Cuba.

In New England, the Coast Guard is flying jets over the ocean to broadcast warnings and weather information to commercial fishing boats off the coast. In the Gulf of Maine, seas are expected to top 37 feet.

"There is a storm coming -- if you can afford to be back in port, this is a good weekend to do that," said Petty Officer Luke Pinneo of Coast Guard public affairs.

(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Posted by aryan at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

Infant, 5 adults rescued from Lynn fire

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

As an early morning blaze tore through an apartment house in Lynn, firefighters scaled ladders and saved six people trapped by flames on the third floor, including an infant and an adult who was unconscious.

Firefighters arrived on Orchard Street at about 4:30 a.m. and found flames billowing out of the building and people screaming from the third floor.

"Someone was holding the infant out the window just looking to drop him to someone three stories below," Deputy Chief James Carritte said of the Lynn Fire Department. "But we got our ground ladder up there in time."

Firefighter Scott Barnard rushed up the ladder and saved the baby, Carritte said. Firefighters brought a woman down the ladder next. She was followed by three men, one of whom lost his grip and almost fell before a firefighter "grabbed his arm," Carritte said.

With five people safely on the ground, firefighters heard that one more person was inside. They rushed back up the ladder and searched the third floor apartment.

"One of the members heard a moan," Carritte said, and found a victim unconscious. They dragged the person to a window, lifted them over the sill, and carried them down the ladder. The victim reportedly regained consciousness at a local hospital, Carritte said.

The names and ages of the victims were not immediately available. It took firefighters almost two hours to completely extinguish the blaze.

WCVB Channel 5 reported on its website that residents said it appeared the fire started in an electrical outlet under a baby's crib on the second floor. In an interview with the Globe, Carritte said that the cause of the fire had not yet been determined but that there were no immediate signs of arson.

"There really were dramatic rescues," Carritte said.

Posted by aryan at 8:45 AM | Comments (0)

November 1, 2007

Suspect in murder is shot along with mother

By Maria Cramer and John Ellement, Globe Staff

A Dorchester man on trial for being an accessory to murder was shot along with his mother Thursday afternoon on a neighborhood street, police said.

Darnell Ricks Jr., 20, was shot in the arm as he was leaving the Social Security Administration building on Freeport Street, a witness and his lawyer said.

Ricks and his mother, who appeared to have been grazed in the face by a bullet, were taken to Boston Medical Center and are expected to survive, police said.

"Darnell is in stable condition," said his lawyer, Eduardo Masferrer. "He'll do fine. He's done nothing to cause the attack that happened to him, and I'm sure that police will investigate it."

Police released few details, including Ricks's mother's name, but said they were looking for three black males who appeared to be in their late teens and about 5 feet 8 inches tall. One wore a dark hood and was riding a bike. Another had short black hair and wore a black hood and blue jeans. The third man wore blue jeans and a black hood, and had long hair tied back in a ponytail under a baseball cap he wore backward, police said.

A witness who declined to give his name said the victims were shot as they sat in a Dodge sedan. After the shootings, the car sped southeast toward the corner of Freeport Street and Morrissey Boulevard, then stopped in front of a Shell gas station.

Thursday evening, police collected shell casings in front of the Social Security building, while the Dodge sat in the gas station parking lot on Morrissey Boulevard, its driver’s and passenger’s side windows shattered.

Ricks was on trial for charges of being an accessory to murder after the fact for allegedly helping 20-year-old William Badgett get away after Badgett fatally shot 25-year-old Louis DoSouto following a party on Hamilton Street in Dorchester last year.

Prosecutors have said that police saw Badgett running from the scene, holding a gun, with Ricks ahead of him, yelling at him to toss it.

Masferrer said his client maintains his innocence. "He had nothing to do with the shooting that occurred in Dorchester last year," Masferrer said.

The trial reached its seventh day Thursday, with the prosecution still presenting its case when Ricks was shot. Badgett and Ricks are being tried together.

Police did not release a motive in Thursday’s shooting. A law enforcement official said Ricks had not been cooperating with prosecutors in DoSouto’s shooting.

Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said Ricks’s inability to come to court because of his medical condition could affect whether the trial continues.

John Drake of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

Posted by gwitherspoon at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)

Fans catch treat from Red Sox captain

By Andrew Ryan, GLOBE STAFF

NEWTON -- This Halloween, Jason Varitek gave trick-or-treaters something infinitely more valuable than a king-sized Snickers bar. The Red Sox captain sat in a lawn chair at the top on his driveway and handed out autographs, signing baseballs, hats, shirts, pillow cases stuffed with candy, and a green alien glove from a youngster's costume.

Christopher Roberts, 10, dressed up as the catcher -- a white number 33 Red Sox jersey, baseball pants, and red colored socks pulled up past his calves -- only to find himself standing face-to-face with his hero.

"He signed my shirt, right on the first three," Roberts said.

Two police cruisers came to direct traffic and control the crowd, which swelled to some 50 youngsters and parents on a leafy block in the tony village of Waban, in Newton.

"Varitek looked really tired," said Chris O'Connell, 45, who brought his sons Joshua, (dressed as a Japanese ninja), 9, and Zeke, (Darth Vader), 7, to get autographs. "It was great -- for him to be sitting out there after 9 o'clock on Halloween says a lot about the guy."

It was another example of a Red Sox player transcending his superstardom to reach out to fans, much like the time two players delivered Mexican food to a crowd waiting for playoff tickets on Lansdowne Street last month.

At the local commuter station a few blocks from Varitek’s home, the village’s affection for the Sox catcher is articulated on handwritten signs hung on a fence — "Waban Loves V-Tek!" and "Tek is the best" — that he passes on his route to Fenway Park.

"Waban has been good to us and respected our privacy," Varitek said in an interview at his home. "It was a good opportunity for me to say thanks."

The Variteks had a small Halloween gathering at their home that included the families of two other Red Sox players — third baseman Mike Lowell and catcher Doug Mirabelli. After the guests left, Varitek’s oldest daughter, Aly, 7, had an idea: Dad should go out and sign autographs while she handed out Butterfinger candy bars.

"I couldn’t really tell you how many there were, but it was a lot," Varitek said with a heavy sigh. "But it ended up being a good thing."

For trick-or-treaters, it was better than good. It was better than Christmas.

Dressed in an all-black demon biker costume, Maxx Teitleman, 9, had to think fast to find something for a signature. He handed Varitek the blue pillow case he had taken from his bed to collect candy. "I’m not going to use that pillow case again anytime soon," Teitleman said.

At the O’Connell house, Joshua woke up the morning after Halloween in disbelief. He spotted the baseball signed by the catcher of the 2007 World Series champions, but still ran downstairs with a question. "I asked mom if it was a dream," he said.

Posted by gwitherspoon at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

Metal object found in trick-or-treater's candy in Leicester

(Leicester Police photo)

The candy bar and the metal piece found in it. Chief Jim Hurley said the metal piece was akin to a small piece of a paper clip or a necklace clasp.

By Globe Staff

Police in the central Massachusetts town of Leicester are investigating after a piece of metal was found in a candy bar collected by a fourth-grade girl during trick-or-treating.

The small piece of metal was found inside a 100 Grand bar received by a student at the town's Memorial School, said Police Chief Jim Hurley.

A hole in the wrapper indicated that the item was placed in the candy after it was wrapped, Hurley said.

"We're treating it as a criminal case until we learn otherwise," he said.

School officials informed police that they had been contacted by parents of two other children who found metal in their candy. But Hurley said this evening that police hadn't yet spoken to those parents.

The selectmen and police are offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever put the metal in the candy.

The chief asked local parents to check their children's candy and, if they have any concerns, discard it. He urged anyone who finds a foreign item in their children's candy to contact police.

Posted by mfinucane at 6:15 PM | Comments (0)

'Worthless' stock gift turns into $13.9M for Pittsfield Boys and Girls Club

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Officials at the Boys and Girls Club of Pittsfield say that when they received a gift of worthless stock a couple of years ago they briefly considered refusing it.

It's a good thing they didn't: The stock's value skyrocketed, eventually yielding the club nearly $14 million.

The club received the stock from a donor about two years ago, said club president John Donna. He said the club planned to make itself "bigger and better" with the money.

"We're all happy. This is a problem in a sense, but it's a nice problem to have," he said.

"It was worthless when we got it. ... The donor knew it had no value. We knew it had no value. But we obviously knew that it had potential," said Peter Bell, the club's executive director.

The club reaped $13.9 million when it eventually sold the stock.

Club officials aren't revealing the name of the benefactor, who asked for anonymity. They also say they're legally bound not to reveal the name of the private company whose stock they sold.

But Donna said the donor is "ecstatic about this ... very happy and pleased that it worked out that way."

Bell said the club, which has 5,200 members and 3,000 to 4,000 visitors a day, had a $4 million endowment before the gift. It now has an endowment of $18 million to $19 million.

The club sold the stock last December but didn't announce the sale until this week. Donna said club officials wanted to invest the money before announcing the club's good luck.

"We wanted to position this and get it invested around the community," he said. "These things take time."

Donna said the club, founded in 1900, is going to review its mission, talk to the community, and then announce growth plans sometime in the first half of next year.

Posted by mfinucane at 4:02 PM | Comments (0)

Dorchester pizza shop owner shot in head while chasing robber

By Globe Staff

A 45-year-old pizza shop owner was shot this morning in Dorchester when he chased someone who had just robbed his store, police said.

The victim was shot in the head at 9:30 a.m. near the corner of Norfolk Street and Woodrow Avenue, police said. The victim was rushed to Boston Medical Center in critical condition and is undergoing surgery. The injury appeared to be life-threatening, police said.

Police have arrested an 18-year-old Dorchester man on a charge of attempted murder. Investigators have blocked off several streets while they search for evidence.

Neither the victim's name nor the defendant's name have been released by police.

Posted by aryan at 1:29 PM | Comments (0)

Party ended with a fight -- and a fatal gunshot

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Shawndel Mitchell was having a good time with friends when Siraaj Abdulnur ended the party by punching Mitchell -- and then ended Mitchell's life with a gun, a prosecutor said today in West Roxbury Municipal Court.

Abdulnur, 18, is charged with first-degree murder fin the fatal shooting of Mitchell 22. The homicide happened in the early morning hours of Oct. 7 in the Mission Park apartment complex on New Whitney Street in the city's Roxbury neighborhood.

Abdulnur pleaded not guilty through his attorney, James C. Rudser. Judge Anthony Sullivan ordered him held without bail. Abdulnur was kept out of the courtroom during his arraignment because the case against him relies on eyewitness identification, Rudser told the judge.

About 20 of Mitchell's relatives, including his mother and grandfather, were in court. His mother, Heavenly Ray-Mitchell, was too grief-stricken to speak.

His grandfather, Willie Mitchell, said his daughter's heart had been broken. "There's nothing I can say, there is nothing I can do, to take her pain away from her," he said.

Prosecutor Masai King told the judge that Mitchell, who lived in the Roslindale neighborhood, and Abdulnur, who lived in the complex, did not know each other

King said Mitchell had spent the evening with friends at the complex. As the party wound down, Abdulnur suddenly appeared, walked up to Mitchell, and punched him. Mitchell defended himself. As the two fought, Abdulnur pulled a pistol and shot Mitchell once in the chest.

The prosecutor did not offer a motive for the alleged attack.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:18 PM | Comments (0)

Wild, wet weather expected on Saturday

(NOAA photo)

A satellite picture of Tropical Storm Noel, swirling in the Caribbean.

By Globe Staff

Brace yourself for some wild weather on Saturday. The remnants of Tropical Storm Noel, which battered islands in the Caribbean, might sideswipe the region with high winds and torrential rain.

The National Weather Service this afternoon issued a high wind watch for Saturday in Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts, saying that Noel would turn into a strong coastal storm as it passes southeast of Nantucket.

The weather service said damaging winds were possible, especially Saturday afternoon, with sustained winds of 40 to 50 miles per hour and gusts up to 70 miles per hour on the Cape and the islands.

Farther inland, winds could be weaker, but there could still be damage to trees and power lines, the weather service said.

Bill Simpson, a meteorologist in the weather service's Taunton office, said the storm could bring wind-driven rain, torrential downpours, and potential coastal flooding.

He said earlier predictions had placed the storm a couple of hundred miles east of Cape Cod, but now forecasters believe it will track more to the west.

"It's going to be offshore, but it could still be significant enough for a major northeaster," he said.

The weather service noted in its advisory this afternoon, "Keep in mind there is uncertainty as to the track of this storm." It said the the severity of the winds would depend on how close to land the storm travels.

Noel, the 14th named storm of the season, dumped rain on the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba. The storm is blamed for at least 91 deaths.

Posted by mfinucane at 1:09 PM | Comments (0)

Salem police: stabbings and shooting unrelated to Halloween festivities

By Globe Staff

Salem police say Halloween night in their community was marred by two stabbings and a shooting. But they say the incidents weren't connected to the spooky celebration the town hosts in its downtown area.

"It wasn't related at all to the Halloween festivities. ... It's just unfortunate that we have these incidents happening on the outskirts that kind of put a black eye on the event," said Lieutenant Conrad Prosniewski, Salem police spokesman.

Prosniewski said two people were stabbed after an altercation broke out over a loud party at a house about a half-mile from the downtown area. In a second incident, a teen-ager was shot in the stomach about a mile from the downtown area. Police are probing whether the shooting was gang-related.

He said the estimated crowd of 75,000 people that attended the downtown festivities was "better behaved this year than they were in past years."

Fourteen people were arrested, mostly for disorderly conduct and drinking in public, compared with about 30 last year, he said.

Posted by mfinucane at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)

Lawrence teen charged in fatal shooting

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

An 18-year-old Lawrence man is scheduled to be arraigned today on a first-degree murder charge after prosecutors said he fatally shot another teenager.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's office said today that Rudy Cruz shot and killed Daniel Bautista, 18, at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the corner of Farnham and Phillips streets. Bautista was taken to Lawrence General Hospital and pronounced dead.

Police arrested Cruz today at his mother's house in Lawrence at 2 a.m.

Posted by aryan at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

Two dead after Worcester shooting

By Globe Staff

Two men in their 20s were killed Wednesday night in a shooting inside an apartment in Worcester, police said.

Police responded to an apartment on North Ashland Street at 9:45 p.m. and found the men -- Luis Acevedo, 24, and Andrew Robinson, 29 -- with gunshot wounds. The men were taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

Police have not reported making any arrests, but they said the incident was not believed to have been random and that the victims and suspects may have known each other. The deaths were the fourth and fifth homicides in Worcester this year.

Posted by aryan at 8:21 AM | Comments (0)