By Globe Staff

Nearly four out of 10 Massachusetts prison inmates released in 2002 returned to prison within three years, according to new research by the Urban Institute and the state Department of Correction.

Thirty-nine percent of the 1,786 inmates released that year returned, compared with the national average of 53 percent.

Interviews with 178 of those who returned showed that substance use and employment instability were among their greatest challenges when they were back in the community, the Urban Institute said in a statement.

While they were incarcerated, 96 percent of those interviewed had participated in a prison program and 76 percent had received help preparing to return to society. But when they returned to the community, few used any local programs or services, researchers found.

(Editor's note: The gas outage in downtown Boston doesn't just affect businesses and restaurants. Here's a resident's take on a life put on hold.).

By Paula Nelson, Globe Staff

So, it's Day 5 without a hot shower in my own apartment. No gas service. No clear end in sight.
And no one to tell me just when I might be able to turn that shower spigot back on, to wash and dry my laundry, or to cook some of the $200 worth of groceries I bought last Friday night.

But thankfully as The Globe said today, Mayor Thomas Menino is "satisfied with the pace of the service restoration."

I spent the first night in my apartment in the Financial District hoping for the best. The second and third nights at the Doubletree at $150 a night. That was a "special" rate. No one can seem to tell me if I'll get that money back.

I spent the fourth night in my apartment, wanting to try to correct the crick in my neck from the too-soft hotel mattress, then going to a friend's apartment for a hot shower before work this morning.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Robert C. Holub, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee, is poised to become the next chancellor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Jack M. Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts, announced this afternoon he will recommend Holub over three other finalists to become head of the university's flagship campus at a special board of trustees meeting Monday. The 22-member board is expected to approve Holub decisively.

"Robert Holub is a distinguished scholar, a proven administrator and is driven by a desire to make UMass Amherst one of the premiere public universities in the nation," Wilson said in a statement. "Excellence has been the hallmark of Dr. Holub’s academic career and will be his watchword and goal at UMass Amherst."

Police would like to know if anyone sees Lucas Whalen, Michael Whalen, or Danielle Boyle.

By Globe Staff

Authorities have issued an Amber Alert, seeking a baby who was taken by his parents even though they had lost custody of him.

Michael Whalen, 42, and Danielle Boyle, 24, were supposed to turn 6-month-old Lucas Whalen over to a temporary custodian yesterday but failed to do so, said Sergeant Robert Bousquet, a State Police spokesman. Arlington police are looking for the trio.

Because of statements and threats made by Michael Whalen, there’s reason to believe that Lucas is in danger, police said.

Michael Whalen is a white male, 5-foot-9, 180 pounds, with dirty blonde hair and tattoos. Danielle Boyle is a white female, 5-foot-4, 135 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Lucas weighs 25 to 30 pounds and has hazel eyes, police said.

The couple are believed to be driving a dark gray 2007 Ford 500 with Massachusetts license number 49RF83, Bousquet said.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A lawyer for a Massachusetts company insisted today that his client owns the rights to 10 hours of documentary footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono filmed in 1970 and hopes to win a federal court battle with Lennon's widow so the world can see it.

"I'm sure there will be a substantial audience for it," Joseph T. Doyle Jr., a lawyer for World Wide Video of Lawrence, told reporters after a five-minute scheduling conference in US District Court in Boston. "We're the lawful owners, and she isn't."

US District Judge Rya W. Zobel has asked lawyers for World Wide Video and for Yoko Ono to make arguments on May 21 on a motion by Ono to dismiss the company's copyright infringement lawsuit against her.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

The entangled truck.

By Globe Staff

It used to work for Wile E. Coyote when he wanted to build up some speed. But getting caught in utility wires was no laughing matter this morning for the driver of a moving van in West Roxbury.

The van was snared and tipped slightly by low-hanging utility wires on Tarleton Road as it turned off Temple Street.

Police at the scene said it appeared that digging on a nearby house lot had affected one of the poles supporting the wires, causing the wires to droop.

By Globe Staff

A former Middlesex Retirement Board member has admitted violating the state's conflict of interest law by improperly awarding a friend a building renovation contract for the board's headquarters, the State Ethics Commission said today.

Lawrence P. Driscoll also violated the law while on the board by voting to hire his friend as the Billerica headquarters facilities manager and submitting reimbursement requests for conferences he did not attend and personal expenses, the commission said.

Driscoll agreed to pay a $10,000 civil penalty and a civil forfeiture of $2,683, the commission said in a statement. He also repaid $2,437 of the $5,120 in expenses for which he requested reimbursement.

By Globe Staff

Saying that being bullied can leave a mark on a child for life, state public health officials today released a comprehensive guide to prevent bullying in the state's schools.

"Our kids deserve to grow up in an environment that is free from harassment and violence," Department of Public Health Commissioner Jon Auerbach said in a statement. "Bullying is not an inevitable part of growing up and we need to do more to stop it."

In 2005, nearly one in four Massachusetts middle or high school students surveyed reported being bullied, health officials said. The officials cited research indicating that children who are bullied are more likely to become depressed, more likely to have considered suicide, and less likely to succeed academically. They also noted that research suggests that bullies are more likely to commit crimes as they grow up.

The guide includes chapters on what teachers can do to prevent bullying, what school personnel can do after bullying has already occurred, and what strategies students can use themselves to address bullying.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Kai Leigh Harriott, a smiley 7-year-old with her hair in pig tails, watched the video screen from her wheelchair today as the man who shot her said thank you.

Anthony Warren thanked Kai for publicly forgiving him for accidentally shooting her as a 3-year-old as she sat on her porch in the summer of 2003. He said that act of reconciliation has given him strength to improve himself at the Old Colony Correctional Center, where he is serving a 13 to 15 year sentence.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

State transportation officials said today they had considered a host of proposals for providing passenger rail service connecting Boston with Fall River and New Bedford and whittled them down to a handful that will now undergo further review.

Four of the alternatives on the short list call for providing passenger service from the two cities that would link up with existing commuter rail lines. The linkup would happen either in Attleboro; in Middleborough; in both Attleboro and Middleborough; or in Stoughton.

A fifth, non-rail alternative calls for providing express bus service in a dedicated lane up Route 24 to 128 and the Southeast Expressway. The state will also study what would happen if it did not take any steps to improve transportation links at all.

The state has sought public input on the South Coast Rail project after Governor Deval Patrick said last year that he believed connecting Boston and the two cities would stimulate economic growth -- and he hoped to see it happen by 2016. Kristina Egan, South Coast Rail manager, said 65 alternatives were weighed before the list was whittled down.

By Globe Staff

The blue flames are coming back on, gradually, in the North End and Financial District.

National Grid says it has restored natural gas service to more than half of the 410 customers who lost service after a weekend water main break that broke a gas line and sent torrents of water streaming into the company's distribution network.

The company said in a statement this morning that "virtually all" of the North End customers were back on line.

The company also said it had introduced gas back into 98 percent of the 13 miles of affected gas mains and the next task is the "tedious operation" of pumping water out of customers' pipes.

Hundreds of residents and dozens of businesses coped with a fourth day without gas Tuesday.

By Globe Staff

A 21-year-old Chelsea man who had been asked by his mother and her boyfriend to leave his home allegedly forced his way back in Tuesday and stabbed the boyfriend to death.

Eugene Teixeira is facing arraignment today in Chelsea District Court on a charge of home invasion and murder in the death of Shadeed Wiggins, 25, who sustained eight stab wounds and defensive stab wounds to his hands in the alleged attack at a Chester Avenue home.

(Dominic Chavez)

The king is greeted warmly by shelter director Reilly.

By Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

A homeless shelter for women in Boston had an unusual visitor today: an African king.

King Kpoto-Zounme Hakpon III of the Republic of Benin is nearing the end of a two-week trip to the United States, the first ever for a king from his country.

As he stepped out of the rain and into the basement of the Women's Lunch Place on Newbury Street, about 60 women gathered around him and applauded.

Hakpon was resplendent in a flowing, full-length leopard-print robe and gold accoutrements, including his cane-like "staff of office," which was handed to him when he became king in 1997.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

Former New England Mafia captain Vincent M. Ferrara was among 13 people indicted today on gambling charges by a Norfolk County grand jury.

Ferrara, 59, of Boston's North End faces one count of conspiring to use a telephone for gambling purposes, based on calls that he allegedly made to bookmakers last year that were tapped by the Massachusetts State Police.

The misdemeanor charge carries a sentence of up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. But Ferrara, who has been on probation since his release from federal prison nearly three years ago, could be sent back to prison for up to three years if he violated a requirement that he not commit any new crimes.

Boston attorney Martin G. Weinberg, who helped win Ferrara’s freedom in the federal case, said, ‘‘Innocent people get charged with offenses they did not commit. Mr. Ferrara intends to vigorously defend himself against this misdemeanor allegation.’’

Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said in a statement that the indictment has "brought a substantial illegal gaming racket operating on the South Shore and in and around Boston to an end.''

He credited the State Police Special Services Section, which targets organized crime, with uncovering gambling offenses allegedly committed by members of the gambling ring between June and October of last year.

State Police Colonel Mark Delaney said, "The Massachusetts State Police are committed to disrupting criminal organizations wherever and whenever they occur. These indictments and the invstigation that led to them should make that eminently clear.''

(Globe file photo)

Prosecutors said this still picture showed Ortiz collecting a debt for drug dealers.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A former Boston police officer pleaded guilty today to federal charges that he conspired to extort $265,000 on behalf of drug dealers while in uniform and threatened to kill the man who supposedly owed them the cash.

Jose A. "Flaco" Ortiz, 45, formerly of Salem, also admitted in US District Court in Boston that he participated in a related scheme to distribute cocaine he obtained from the victim. In brief and barely audible remarks in court, he denied personally threatening the victim but said he relayed warnings from Colombian drug dealers that the victim "might be in some kind of danger" if the man did not pay the debt.

Ortiz, who spent 21 years on the force before his firing last May, is the fifth officer to plead guilty to federal charges since September. All the cases, including one involving three officers, revolved around drugs.

He could spend the rest of his life in prison if US District Judge Rya W. Zobel issues the harshest possible sentence. But federal prosecutors are recommending a prison term of 11 to 14 years because Ortiz has admitted his guilt and waived his right to appeal, if he receives the lighter sentence.

By Megan Woolhouse and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A sea of several hundred chanting firefighters dressed in red T-shirts marched on the State House today to defend their reputations after what union officials described as months of attacks and “bogus stories” planted in the press by City Hall.

(Bill Greene/ Globe Staff)

"We do what needs to be done," said Robert B. McCarthy, president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts. "We ask one thing in return: respect."

The crowd of firefighters chanted: “What do we want? Respect! When do we want it? Now!”

The rally came on an annual lobbying day by firefighters for better benefits and staffing, pleas that were mixed with the criticism of the media. It was organized by the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, an umbrella union that represents 12,000, and drew firefighters from Somerville, Brockton, New Bedford, and beyond. Union officials said that roughly 30 Boston firefighters attended.

By Taryn Plumb, Globe Correspondent

It was perhaps the first interhemispheric bout of its kind -- but the 10-second dodgeball game still wasn't enough to gain Guinness Book of World Records fame.

The record-keeping authority has informed a group of Bryant University students that a dodgeball game they staged across the equator in Ecuador will not be accepted as a world record. Representatives did not specify a reason in an email.

Five students played the game on Jan. 12 during a trip to Latin America sponsored by the Rhode Island university. They sent their claim to Guinness in February.

Playing two on two -- with one referee -- the students pitted northern hemisphere against southern hemisphere, using the red-painted marker of the equator as the center line. In the end, the northerners came out victorious, 2-0.

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Beautiful but deadly -- to plants -- frost etched across a window.

By Globe Staff

Last week we had fire. Tonight we could have ice.

Frost, to be exact. The National Weather Service has issued an advisory warning of "a touch of frost" in the early morning hours Wednesday in parts of coastal Massachusetts north and south of Boston as well as southeaster Massachusetts and Martha's Vineyard.

The forecasters warned farmers and gardeners to protect vegetation and to cover or bring indoors potted plants.

Don't turn the heat off tomorrow morning, either. The forecasters expect more frost early Thursday morning, with temperatures dropping near 30.

By Globe Staff

Jobanny Matias, the 11-year-old from Leominster, who was one of two boys overcome by carbon monoxide in an idling car last week in Lunenburg, has recovered enough to be released from the hospital, the Worcester County district attorney's office said today.

The other boy who was in the car, Alejandro Thomasian, 9, of Fitchburg, died Sunday of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The boys were four-wheeling with their fathers and another man in a wooded area Friday when one of their three vehicles became stuck in muddy water that had collected on a low point in the road, officials have said. The boys were overcome by the carbon monoxide as they sat in the back seat of the idling Jeep, keeping warm while the men worked to free the vehicle.

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has asked National Grid and the Boston Water and Sewer Commission to give the city a joint assessment of how a 12-inch water main break Saturday led to a loss of natural gas service for more than 400 residents and businesses in the Financial District and North End.

At a noon press conference, Menino said he was satisfied with the pace with which National Grid is restoring gas service to customers, a process expected to continue through Thursday.

"I think they’re doing the best job they can," Menino said.

Since the break, natural gas service has been restored to roughly 85 customers, the bulk of which are in the North End, according to a release issued today by National Grid. Boston’s chief of environment and energy, James Hunt, said at the news conference that about 100 more customers "are being lit as we speak."

National Grid said it has sucked 60,000 gallons of water – the rough equivalent volume of an Olympic-size swimming pool – from 13 miles of natural gas pipes in the area, which covers 30 streets.

(Michael Layhe Sr. for The Boston Globe)

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A woman was seriously injured today when a tanker truck carrying gasoline collided with her car at an Everett traffic rotary. It was the second time in recent months a tanker had crashed in the area.

Darcy DeSouza of Lynn was driving on Route 16 at Sweetser Circle at about 10:17 a.m. when she cut off a truck driven by Walter Nutting of Brockton. The truck struck DeSouza's 2001 Hyundai Elantra, causing it to roll over, said Trooper Thomas Murphy, a State Police spokesman.

DeSouza was in serious condition at Massachusetts General Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said. Nutting was not injured, Murphy said.

There were no significant traffic delays. State police are investigating the crash, he said.

The accident happened near the scene of a crash in December, in which gasoline spilled and ignited two triple-deckers and 21 cars, while miraculously sparing residents from injury or death.

By Globe Staff

A veteran federal prosecutor who was part of the team that pursued a conviction against shoe bomber terrorist Richard Reid has been nominated to be a state Superior Court judge.

Timothy Q. Feeley, 58, of Marblehead, has served more than 17 years in the US Attorney's Office, rising to chief of the office's Major Crimes Unit.

Feeley also worked for nine years on complex civil litigation at the former Boston law firm of Gaston & Snow, where he was a partner, the governor's office said, announcing the nomination today.

“Tim Feeley brings to the trial bench humility and an understanding of the human condition that will ensure fair and thoughtful administration of justice,” Governor Deval Patrick said in a statement.

By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff

Eighty workers died in Massachusetts last year on the job or from work-related causes, the highest number since 2003, according to a report released today. The findings triggered calls for the federal government to impose tougher penalties on companies that put workers at risk.

Construction remained the most dangerous industry, with 20 worker deaths last year. They included a 28-year-old carpenter who plunged 48 feet down an elevator shaft in Woburn that had been covered with an unmarked board. In other high-risk cases, nine firefighters died across the state, most from illness, and a 53-year-old Verizon employee died in Plymouth when his bucket collided with high-voltage wires.

A day after the death of a 9-year-old boy who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while four-wheeling with his father and friends in Lunenburg, a second boy injured in the tragedy is showing signs of improvement, according to police.

Eleven-year-old Jobanny Matias of Leominster was upgraded from critical to stable condition today at Massachusetts General Hospital, according to Lunenburg Police Chief Daniel Bourgeois.

"We have just been notified that the second boy's condition is now stable,'' said Bourgeois. He said the investigation into what appears to have been a tragic accident is continuing.

Nine-year-old Alejandro Thomasian of Fitchburg died yesterday. An autopsy conducted today by the state medical examiner's office confirmed carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause of death.

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

Richard Fucillo, an assistant football coach at Winthrop High School who was accused of nearly biting off the ear of his wife's boyfriend in a jealous rage last March, was found not guilty of the assault in Suffolk Superior Court today.

A jury deliberated for less than two hours before delivering the verdict to Fucillo and the jubilant members of his family, who had been in courtroom every day during the six-day trial, said Fucillo's lawyer, Thomas Brant.

"It's been a nightmare," said Fucillo of the last year as he stood in the courthouse. "It has been a living nightmare."

Fucillo, who was charged with mayhem, aggravated assault and battery and violating a restraining order, would have faced up to 20 years in prison if he had been found guilty, Brant said.

(David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

Greg Mosman, the city's tree warden, replanted one of the trees today at the Clifford Playground.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Vandals tore up 18 new trees that had been planted last week in a playground in an industrial corner of Roxbury.

A dog walker found the red maples and white swamp oaks this morning lying on the ground at the Clifford Playground. The 4- to 8-foot tall saplings were in a grove of 50 trees planted Wednesday by volunteers from the Home Depot Foundation. It was part of the city’s effort to plant 100,000 new trees in Boston by 2020.

“It’s disappointing and frustrating,” said city tree inspector Leif Fixen, who returned to the park today to replant the trees in a cold rain. “You try very hard to make a difference in a neighborhood and somebody comes and rips them out.”

By Michael Naughton, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Motorists are being urged to avoid the Financial District today because Congress Street will be reduced to one lane as work crews repair a water main break that knocked out natural gas services to some 400 customers, which included scores of restaurants and bars.

Gas was reconnected this morning to some businesses and residents in the North End, and service to the neighborhood should be completely restored by the end of the day, said Jackie Barry, a spokeswoman for National Grid.

Crews have divided the Financial District into five sections that are being isolated so water can be removed from the pipes. The bulk of customers in the neighborhood should have gas service back sometime today, Barry said. The hope is that all customers will be back online by Tuesday morning, Barry said.

"We are doing everything we possibly can to minimize the impact on traffic and restore service to our customers as quickly as possible," Barry said.

Nearly two dozen National Grid trucks were scattered throughout the Financial District overseeing pump trucks that collected more than 35,000 gallons of water from an area that covers 30 streets and includes 13 miles of gas lines. The break early Saturday poured into the pipes, rupturing them and causing problems for businesses and residents for most of the weekend.

Water continues to cause problems in isolated sections of the Financial District, and crews are working to remedy the problem with 12 specialized drip trucks, some of which can suck up to 2,000 gallons of liquid out of the pipes.

“It is critical to remove as much water as possible from the system in order to achieve the correct pressure levels to be able to reintroduce gas,” said William Akley, senior vice president of Gas Operations for National Grid, in a statement. “If there is too much water in the system when gas is introduced, this could cause further delays, and that’s the last thing we, or our customers, want.”

Even after service is restored, the water may continue to cause problems in the gas system for some time, Akley said. The flood may have also damaged some customers’ gas-fired equipment. [Call National Grid at 1-800-732-3400 with questions.]

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

A signal and switch problem is causing Amtrak delays this evening between New York City and Boston, officials said.

Traffic was halted during an investigation into the problem that stopped Acela Train 2168 around New Rochelle, N.Y., just before 6 p.m. today, according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

Wildfires continued to burn throughout the state today, with 73 blazes measuring a quarter-acre or more, according to the state Bureau of Forest Fire Control.

David Celino, chief fire warden for the bureau, said the blazes have raged this week because of low humidity and lack of rainfall recently.

Higher humidity levels are expected this weekend, with chances of rain Sunday and Monday, he said.

An elderly homeowner in Wendell was critically injured earlier this week when he was overwhelmed by burning brush on his property, Celino said, but there have been no wildfire fatalities.

(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

With no worries about water quality, kayakers paddled their way back to Charles River Canoe & Kayak in Newton yesterday.

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

The water is still murky and its shores are still home to the occasional beef jerky wrapper, plastic bag or empty bottle, but federal environmental officials said today that the Charles River is the cleanest it has been since they began monitoring water quality in 1995.

The river scored a "B++" this year, meeting boating standards 100 percent of the time and swimming standards 63 percent of the time, slightly better than last year when the river was given a "B+" for meeting boating standards 90 percent of the time and for swimming 62 percent.

"We can all be very proud that our hard work to reduce bacteria levels in the Charles River is paying off," Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England office, said in a statement.

By Globe Staff

A 20-year-old Fitchburg man is facing a murder charge for allegedly shooting a .22-caliber rifle into his ex-girlfriend's living room Thursday night, killing her current boyfriend.

Andrew Jacob was ordered held without bail after pleading innocent at his arraignment today in Fitchburg District Court in the slaying of 18-year-old Gabriel Cintron, also of Fitchburg. Jacob is facing charges that include murder and resisting arrest, said Worcester district attorney's spokesman Tim Connolly.

Cintron was shot through the window as he stood in the living room of the home on Normandy Road in Fitchburg at about 10:22 p.m. Prosecutors said that Jacob had fathered a child with Cintron's girlfriend and had recently had an altercation with her.

Cintron, who was shot once in the chest, was taken to Leominster Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Connolly said.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

A carpet of dandelions stood out this afternoon on Stoughton Street in Dorchester.

By Globe Staff

State Police are investigating a crash early yesterday on Interstate 195 in Dartmouth that killed a 20-year-old Fall River man.

Alex M. Santos of died after his 2000 Chevy Blazer went out of control at about 6:10 a.m., careening into the median and rolling over. Santos was ejected from the vehicle, which then burst into flames, State Police said in a statement.

Santos was taken to St. Luke's Hospital and later to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Firefighters wearing air tanks waited outside the facility this morning.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

Fire crews responded in force this morning when a drum of improperly mixed chemicals caused a hazardous materials situation in an East Boston boatbuilding facility, officials said.

Crews working to build pleasure boats at Boston Boat Works called for help when they noticed smoke and an unusual smell in the supermarket-sized facility, said Steve MacDonald, a Boston Fire Department spokesman. They called for help just before 8 this morning.

The hazmat situation was declared a 2-alarm incident because more manpower is needed in decontamination efforts, MacDonald said.

“This was a place that uses different kinds of chemicals in the boatbuilding process – lacquers, adhesives, bonders, epoxies, things like that,” MacDonald said. “A lot of them are meant to be mixed together."

No one was injured, but hazmat crews hosed down employees as they left the building and gave them white jumpsuits to wear as their clothes were cleaned to remove potentially hazardous particles.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Mayor Thomas M. Menino issued a strong rebuke today to the city’s Department of Public Works after an investigation found that employees routinely left early and managers failed to ensure that basic tasks were completed.

(Patricia McDonnell/Globe Staff/file)

Six to eight workers will face disciplinary hearings next week and dozens more could face similar measures as the investigation continues. To implement reforms, Elmo Baldassari was promoted to deputy commissioner of public works and will oversee the highway, sanitation and recycling divisions.

The four-month investigation of maintenance yards included undercover surveillance by a private investigator hired by the city. It was completed more than a year after the Boston Finance Commission, a city watchdog agency, found that West Roxbury public works employees assigned to fill potholes, sweep streets, and pick up trash often arrived late, left early, and performed "very little work" while on the job.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Boston police today asked for the public's help in locating a 28-year-old Dorchester man who allegedly participated in one of the most brutal crimes in the city in 2007, the stabbing murder of a 16-year-old on a Dorchester street.

(Boston Police photo)

Five other men have been charged in the case. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office says Jacobs was attacked as the outgrowth of a "simmering dispute'' between groups in the neighborhood.

Anyone with information about Ortiz is asked to contact Crimestoppers at 1-800-494-TIPS or they can text the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463).

(Defense Department)

The crew of the B-24D Liberator included Second Lieutenant Kenneth L. Cassidy of Worcester, who is in the back row, second from the left. Second Lieutenant Ronald F. Ward of Cambridge is not pictured, although he was aboard the plane when it was lost on Dec. 3, 1943.

By Globe Staff

The remains of two Massachusetts soldiers who disappeared in a 1942 bombing run over the Bismarck Sea have been identified and will be returned to their families, according to a release issued today by the Defense Department.

The airmen -- Second Lieutenant Ronald F. Ward of Cambridge and Second Lieutenant Kenneth L. Cassidy of Worcester -- were two of 11 soldiers whose remains were identified. The crew of the B-24D Liberator were lost Dec. 3, 1943 after taking off from Dobodura, New Guinea.

According to the Defense Department, the men were on an armed reconnaissance mission over New Hanover Island in the Bismarck Sea. The crew reported dropping their bombs on target but never returned to Dobodura despite several radio contacts with their base.

By Globe Staff

If you think gas prices are getting high at your local service station, just look across the water to the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where the prices have edged over $4 per gallon.

At the airport service station, manager Jennifer Medeiros, 32, said prices for unleaded gas had edged over the $4 mark a few days ago and were now at $4.12.

“Nobody’s happy about it, but we’re trying to make the best of it. We’re trying to keep the prices down as low as we possibly can,” she said.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

Volunteers Leasia Ward(left), Luis Sota (center), and Mike Nonni planted a tree Thursday in Harambee Park.

By Globe Staff

Oak by oak, maple by maple, and honey locust by honey locust, 1,000 trees have been planted in Boston in the month of April. With each birch, linden, and tulip tree, the city has inched closer to growing 100,000 new trees by 2020, a goal unveiled with great fanfare on Arbor Day in 2007.

A year later, officials have surged past their initial benchmark by putting 2,327 saplings in the ground, a mark well above the first-year goal of 2,000. To mark Arbor Day and the anniversary of Grow Boston Greener, Mayor Thomas M. Menino was scheduled today to plant the 1,000th tree in April at Franklin Field in Dorchester.

Ali Noorani, the executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, leaves today to run the National Immigration Forum in Washington D.C. For the past four years, he has been a leading advocate for immigrants in Massachusetts.

(Globe file photo/2005)

What is the top immigration issue in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts has the opportunity to integrate a new generation of immigrants and refugees in a way that serves the entire Commonwealth. To do this, we need to serve the needs and aspirations of immigrants and refugees just like we serve the needs and aspirations of any other person.

(Dina Rudick/Globe Staff/file)

The campus of Harvard University.

By Globe Staff

Harvard University announced today that it received $100 million from David Rockefeller, the largest gift from an alumnus in the school’s history.

The money will be used to increase international learning opportunities for Harvard undergraduates and build three new study centers at Fogg Art Museum, where students will come face-to-face with original works of art.

"Harvard opened my eyes and my mind to the world," Rockefeller said in a statement issued by the school. "It was because of Harvard's language requirement that I spent the summer of 1933 in Germany and saw firsthand the ominous rise of fascism. And it was at Harvard that I first studied art history. Harvard provided me with an intellectual framework to understand what I was seeing and experiencing that has stayed with me for my entire life.”

By J.M. Lawrence, Globe Correspondent

C. Hale Champion, who in half a century of public service held senior positions in local, state and federal government and in academia, died Wednesday at Mount Auburn Hospital of complications from prostate cancer. He was 85.

In Massachusetts, one of Mr. Champion's highest-profile posts was serving as chief of staff for Governor Michael Dukakis while Dukakis was running for president. Mr. Champion had been the first executive dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for eight years when Dukakis beckoned in 1987, asking Mr. Champion to leave the ivory tower.

“I needed somebody I could absolutely count on,” Dukakis said today, “and he was a rock. You had absolute confidence in him.”

Mr. Champion, who also served as head of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, was remembered by friends and former colleagues as a shrewd behind-the-scenes player with a strong intellect and a gift for cutting to the heart of complex matters.

“He would take a problem and boil it down to its essential elements,” said former Massport director David W. Davis, whose friendship with Champion spanned 40 years. “He was always fully engaged in the work.”

(Evan Richman/Globe Staff)

Pre-flight inspection: Albahar checks out the soon-to-be-flying baby grand.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A cookout this afternoon at an MIT dormitory was typical for students at the science mecca: grilled chicken, veggie burgers, and hot dogs. Fruit punch and lemonade. And a piano was hurled off a seven-story roof onto another piano.

It was the revived annual piano drop at the Baker House, an event that could only take place on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"It didn't go as well as we expected," said organizer Abdulaziz Albahar, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering who is president of Baker House. "We expected the pianos to shatter into a lot of different pieces. But the one that we dropped off the roof was really, really, really strong."

Like a true engineer, he figured that you'd have to take the sturdy baby grand up 15 stories to get it to shatter.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

State fire officials, grappling with a rash of explosive, wind-driven brush fires that have raged from the Berkshires to Nantucket, are hoping that rain this weekend will soak the state and prevent even more fearsome blazes.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a quarter-inch of rain for the state on Saturday night and Sunday morning, which firefighters hope will be enough to douse the twigs, leaves and parched fields that have provided perfect kindling for scores of brush fires over the last two weeks.

In Boston, only 1.45 inches of rain have fallen this month, about an inch less than normal for April, said Rebecca Gould, meteorologist at the Weather Service’s Taunton office. The last rainfall was April 13, she said. In addition, humidity levels have been very low and the weather warm and sunny, which has allowed even seemingly minor backyard leaf fires to rage out of control.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

Firefighters battled a two-alarm blaze in Weymouth this afternoon that displaced the residents of a single-family home.

The fire department received a report of the fire at 1:39 p.m. While en route, firefighters were informed that an elderly woman was trapped inside, said Gabe Araujo, a fire dispatcher. When firefighters arrived, the woman was safely out of the home.

Almost two hours later, just before 3:30 p.m., the fire was extinguished. The fire department did not have an estimate of the extent of the damange.

By Globe Staff

A real estate company that manages a Maynard building has agreed to settle claims of environmental violations by paying $15,000 to the state to put high-tech solar hydrogen generators on the roof, state environmental regulators said today.

Wellesley Rosewood Maynard Mills LP will help fund equipment components that will be used by Nanoptek Corp., one of the building's tenants, to put the generators on the roof, the Department of Environmental Protection said in a statement.

Nanoptek has developed a device that produces hydrogen and oxygen, using only water, sunlight, and a photocatalyst. The hydrogen will be captured and used to generate power to the building complex and to fuel a shuttle bus that will transport workers and visitors from the South Acton train station to the building, the DEP said.

(Bill Brett for The Boston Globe)

Firefighters battling the blaze.

By Katheleen Conti, Globe Staff

Four firefighters and two residents were injured in a fire in a triple-decker on Central Street in Saugus this afternoon.

A fire captain was in the worst shape after barging into the building to rescue a disabled woman on the second floor. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. The other firefighters and the woman and her husband were taken to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, said Fire Chief James L. Blanchard.

The woman and her husband were in good condition. There was no further information available on the condition of the firefighters.

Blanchard said firefighters from five other communities had raced to the four-alarm fire to assist Saugus.

With schoolchildren on vacation, the street was packed in the midafternoon with both adults and children, watching the spectacle, some of them shooting pictures with their cellphones.

By Globe Staff

A Beverly police officer who found drugs in a woman's purse was justified in the search because he was trying to help EMTs who believed she might be suffering from an overdose, the state appeals court ruled today.

Linda A. McCarthy, 54, was found "thrashing" on the floor of a Beverly restaurant in May 2006. A police officer called for EMTs, who told him they believed she had overdosed and asked whether he knew what she had taken.

By Globe Staff

A former clerk with the state Registry of Motor Vehicles pleaded guilty today to using her position to steal about $76,000 from the Registry.

Diana Coroniti, 36, of Walpole was convicted of larceny over $250 by continuous scheme. She was sentenced to five years in prison, the first year of which will be spent under house arrest, the attorney general’s office said.

Worcester Superior Court Judge Peter Agnes also ordered Coroniti to pay $25,000 restitution to the Commonwealth, perform 500 hours of community service, and undergo counseling for a gambling addiction.

Coroniti began work as a clerk at the Registry branch in Framingham in January 2001. In June 2004, she was she was transferred to the Milford branch.

At the Milford branch, prosecutors said, Coroniti stole $76,000 in cash between January 2005 and June 2005.

(Simmons College)

Helen Drinan (left) will be an interim replacement for Simmons College president Susan C. Scrimshaw.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Simmons College president Susan C. Scrimshaw will step down at the end of the academic year, the Fenway college's trustees announced today, and will be replaced by trustee chairwoman Helen Drinan, a top healthcare executive.

Scrimshaw, a well-known public health scholar, will depart after less than two years as the head of the small, women's college to return to the health-care field.

Drinan, senior vice president of Caritas Christi Health Care System and a graduate of Simmons School of Management, will assume the post on an interim basis but has pledged to serve at least two years, college officials said. She will announce her departure from Caritas today and will begin working at Simmons next month before officially taking over in July.

(Courtesy WCVB-TV)

By Globe Staff

Don Gillis, Boston's first TV sports anchorman, died Wednesday night at the age of 85 in Falmouth. He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease in recent years.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our former colleague, the dean of Boston television sports, Don Gillis, and extend ourheartfelt sympathies to his family," WCVB-TV (Channel 5), his former station, said in a statement.

In October 1962, Mr. Gillis became the city's first nightly TV sports anchor on the old Channel 5 (WHDH-TV).

Mr. Gillis, who got his start in radio in New Bedford, was well-known as both a sports anchor and host of the "Candlepins" program. After the old Channel 5 went off the air, he served as sports director at WCVB-TV from 1972 to 1983 and hosted the bowling program until 1995.

(Globe Photo / Wiqan Ang/file 2007)

By Globe Staff

Randi Goldklank, the general manager of WHDH-TV, is "deeply regretful" about an incident Sunday night at Logan International Airport in which she allegedly scuffled with police officers, the president of the station's parent company, Sunbeam Television Corp., said today.

"The unfortunate events of last Sunday night were unanticipated," Ed Ansin said in a statement. Goldklank is undergoing medical treatment and has been placed on administrative leave, Ansin said.

"We wish her a speedy recovery as do her many friends in Boston and throughout the broadcasting industry," said Ansin, who described Goldklank as "an outstanding broadcast executive with a record of great success."

In the meantime, Mike Carson, the previous general manager of WHDH-TV and its sister station, WLVI-TV, who has been working as a consultant to the stations, will temporarily resume his duties as general manager beginning next week, Ansin said.

(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff/file)

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick has gone from "failure to act" to "budget hero" in a year, according to a national education advocacy group, which is hailing his decision to increase funding for pre-kindergarten programs.

Last April, Pre-K Now sharply criticized Patrick for failing to live up to his campaign pledge to increase funding for pre-kindergarten education and called his decision to level-fund the program "an opportunity sorely missed." This year the group has singled him out for praise for proposing to triple the funding. The $15 million boost, if approved by the Legislature, will provide access to pre-K programs for 11,000 more three- and four-year-olds.

"In times of crisis, we can clearly see what a governor's priorities are," Libby Doggett, executive director of Pre-K Now, said in a statement. "Governor Patrick's commitment to funding increases for Pre-K shows true leadership that will bring long-term returns to children and to the state."

(Frances Roberts/AP)

Frank Gramarossa, project executive for the new Yankee Stadium, removed the jersey from the floor of a service corridor 10 days ago.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

It's not much of a shirt, it's true. It's torn. It's dirty. Being buried in the concrete under a stadium construction project and then being drilled out by jackhammers will do that to you.

But the David Ortiz jersey that a construction worker buried under the site of the new Yankee Stadium is a quirky piece of baseball history -- and it sold this afternoon for $175,100 on eBay.

The bid from Kevin Meehan, the owner of Imperialcars.com in Mendon, was the highest of 282 for the battered No. 34 David Ortiz jersey.

"I actually thought it was going to sell for more money," said Meehan, who bid only in the final moments of the weeklong eBay auction that ended at 12:30 p.m. "I have three young boys that I take to the games and they would have killed me if I didn't buy the shirt."

The Yankees, despite being the targets of the would-be curse, donated the jersey to the Red Sox' official charity, the Jimmy Fund, which auctioned it off to raise funds for cancer care and research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Mike Andrews, The Jimmy Fund chairman and former Red Sox second baseman, said the charity was "absolutely thrilled."

"We are grateful for the generous bid, and extend our deep gratitude to the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for coming together again in the fight against cancer," he said in a statement.

Meehan said he was eager to give to the Jimmy Fund because his father died of cancer and his stepfather has the disease.

"It's personal," he said. "It's a lot deeper than just the shirt."

Meehan plans to eventually display the jersey from his favorite Red Sox player in one of his car dealerships. He said he has no intention of selling it.

"It was just a win-win all the way around," said Meehan, who also will receive a new Ortiz jersey, a Yankees T-shirt and two tickets to a Red Sox game where he will be presented with the unusual piece of sports memorabilia.

Construction worker Gino Castignoli, a Red Sox fan from the Bronx, dropped the jersey into two feet of wet concrete during construction of the new stadium, hoping to hex the Yankees. The team found the jersey after receiving information from anonymous tipsters and had it jackhammered out.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

(Globe file photo)

Tickets similar to those shown above were allegedly given to a plumbing inspector by P.J. Riley & Co.

By Globe Staff

A Big Dig contractor is accused of improperly rewarding a state inspector with a pair of $80 Red Sox tickets for issuing plumbing permits and performing inspections on several projects, according to the State Ethics Commission.

A vice president of P.J. Riley & Co. allegedly gave inspector Taylor Roth two tickets to several games from 2004 to 2006 in violation of the state’s conflict of interest law, according to the Ethics Commission. Roth is a senior inspector at the State Board of Examiners of Plumbers and Gasfitters.

“Roth received the Red Sox tickets as a reward for permits he had issued and/or inspections that he had performed of P.J. Riley’s work as a senior inspector and/or to influence such official acts that he would perform as a senior inspector,” according to a complaint issued by the Ethics Commission.

To read copies of the Ethics Commission complaints in Microsoft Word, click here for Taylor, here for Thomas Riley, or here for P.J. Riley & Co.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Service on the Red Line has resumed this morning after a small trash fire on the Longfellow Bridge halted trains for 21 minutes, according to a spokesman for the MBTA.

Boston firefighters responded to extinguish the small blaze, which required that power be shut off on the third rail at 10 a.m., according to spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

By Globe Staff

A 7-year-old boy was killed in a car crash in Oxford Tuesday when a 79-year-old driver lost control on Interstate 395 and hit several trees, State Police said.

The boy was wearing a seat belt when the 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass veered off the interstate just north of Exit 5 at 6:30 p.m., according to a press release. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name was not released because of his age.

The driver, Jose Rivera of Worcester, suffered serious injuries and was taken to UMass Medical Center.

By Globe Staff

Don’t worry, it is only a drill. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority says that commuters can expect to see more people getting their bags searched this morning.

It is a dry run for the authority’s new program of stepping up searches of riders’ bags when the mass transportation security threat level rises to orange. (Right now, it’s yellow, one level below.)

The MBTA Transit Police will get help with the stepped-up searches from workers from the US Transportation Security Administration, said Deputy Transit Police Chief John Martino.

(Courtesy of the Lemelson-MIT Program.)

Martin Fisher demonstrates one of the pumps.

By Globe Staff

A San Francisco man who is credited with changing the lives of thousands of farmers in Africa with his irrigation pumps has won the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability.

Martin Fisher is co-founder and chief executive of the San Francisco-based non-profit KickStart, which has developed and marketed low-cost, human-powered pumps that allow farmers to boost the productivity of their land -- and increase their earnings.

Rather than simply giving the pumps away, KickStart has worked with wholesalers and retailers to market the pumps, with the idea of someday creating a self-sustaining market for them.

“Our goal is to ensure that local farmers can buy moneymaking irrigation pumps on the local market," said Fisher.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

The parents of Jeffrey Curley, the 10-year-old Cambridge boy raped and smothered by two men who lured him into a car, have dropped their federal lawsuit against a group that advocates sex between men and boys, which the parents claimed had incited their son's 1997 murder.

Jeffrey Curley (File Photo)

"That was the only link we were counting on,'' said Curley, a 51-year-old mechanic in the Cambridge Fire Department. "When they ruled that out, that was the end of the line.''

Sarah R. Wunsch, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberities Union of Massachusetts, which defended NAMBLA and most of the defendants in the civil suit, said the case never had any merit.

(Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

Firefighters douse a brush fire on Reservation Road in Boston's Hyde Park section over the weekend.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Brush fires have been breaking out all around the state in recent days. But fortunately, there has been little wind to fan the flames.

On Thursday that will change. Winds of 20 mph gusting to 25 mph are expected and, with low humidity and the woods as dry as a tinderbox, that could spell trouble, said David Celino, chief warden for the state Bureau of Forest Fire Control.

The National Weather Service has issued a Fire Weather Watch from Thursday morning through Thursday afternoon that covers northern Connecticut, southwest New Hampshire, and most of the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

A surveillance camera picture of the man who robbed the Eastern Bank in South Boston on Dec. 22, the first robbery in the spree.

By Globe Staff

The FBI says a bank robber has been hard at work in the area, hitting 13 banks in the past four months.

The robber has hit banks in Boston, Watertown, Quincy, Belmont, Natick, and Arlington, passing a teller in each case a note demanding money. In at least one of the robberies, he threatened that he had a gun, said FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz.

The first robbery in the spree was Dec. 22. The last was on Tuesday at the Leader Bank on Pleasant Street in Belmont.

“Experience has shown that he’s going to continue robbing banks until he’s caught,” said Marcinkiewicz.

The suspect is described as a white male, 30 to 40 years old, 5-foot-10 to 6-foot-0, with a medium to heavy build. In at least two of the robberies, he wore a Boston Water & Sewer work jacket.

Anyone with information is urged to call the FBI at 617-742-5533.

(Tom Herde for The Boston Globe)

The glorious 80-degree weather today drew bathers to Nantasket Beach.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Forsythia bushes have bloomed, exploding in bursts of yellow. Green buds are wiggling out of the tips of long-dormant branches. And Commonwealth Avenue is awash in the creamy pink blossoms of magnolia trees.

Here is one more telltale sign of spring: The temperature surged into the 80s today in Boston for the first time since Oct. 22. While weather in New England can be famously fickle, it may finally be time to say goodbye to one loathsome winter chore.

"I’d say the odds are good you can put away the snow shovels,” said Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.

(Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

Sunbathers on the seawall in Winthrop last summer, where houses and the ocean are separated by only a few dozen yards.

By Katheleen Conti, Globe Staff

The US Army Corps of Engineers announced today that it has denied the state a permit to dredge 500,000 cubic yards of sand from the ocean bottom to bolster 37 acres of the eroded Winthrop Beach shoreline, dashing the hopes of residents who blame erosion for flooding problems in the area.

In a written statement, Brigadier General Todd T. Semonite, the North Atlantic Division commander of the Corps, said that the decision was made "due to public interest factors and the availability of less environmentally damaging alternatives."

The proposal called for dredging up sand 8 miles offshore and hauling it by barge to the shore because it would have taken years to truck the sand through the town's narrow residential streets.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

ABINGTON -- Residents on a quiet side street in this town made repeated 911 calls to police Tuesday night when bursts of gunfire erupted at the home of John and Barbara Tassinari.

Barbara Tassinari’s brother, Frank Scolano, lives next door to the couple on Pilgrim Street and heard the blasts. Scolano grabbed his .32-caliber silver pistol and ran outside to try to help his sister, according to a police report.

Scolano met John Tassinari, who said his wife had been unfaithful, according to the report. Twenty-nine-year-old Barbara lay dead on the driveway with apparent gunshot wounds to her head, police said.

"I'm gonna to kill you," Scolano yelled, according to the report. "You killed my sister, you shot my sister."

Scolano took John Tassinari to the ground, according to report, and pressed the silver pistol to the back of his head. At that moment, Officer Ronald Sweeney pulled up in his police cruiser, drew his firearm, and ordered Scolano to put down his gun, the report states.

John Tassinari, 29, was arrested at the scene. He was arraigned in Brockton District Court today on one count of murder and held without bail.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The bright burst of pink magnolia blossoms on Commonwealth Avenue has become one of Boston’s rites of spring. The annual canopy of flowers makes the stately brownstones and ornate street lamps of Back Bay seem almost new.

The trees are the legacy of Laura Dwight, a Detroit native who lived in an apartment on Commonwealth Avenue and died 25 years ago at age 84. In 1963, Dwight was upset by the decline of her once-elegant neighborhood and fought back by planting magnolia trees, which cost $8 to $20 apiece. She enlisted the help of volunteers from an MIT fraternity.

Here are excepts from a story published in the Globe in March 1995 that recounted Dwight’s story:

Every spring, April on Commonwealth Avenue brings magnolia blossoms, cream and raspberry against the brownstones lining the sunny side of the street.

It seems like a tradition as old as Back Bay, but it isn't. The avenue has been a magnolia display place for only three decades, thanks to a woman named Laura Dwight, who spearheaded the drive to plant the elegant Magnolia x soulangiana, saucer magnolias, back in 1963.

By Globe staff

An 88-year-old woman was attacked in her Hyde Park apartment early this morning, Boston police said.

The victim was physically assaulted inside her room in a housing complex on Summer Street about 4 a.m., police said. Authorities took the woman to a local hospital for treatment after she was found severely beaten. She is expected to survive.

Police spokesman Eddy Crispin said there were no apparent signs of forced entry and it was unclear whether anything was taken from the woman's apartment.

He said police are canvassing the area looking for clues and any evidence.

Crispin said the suspect is described as a black male, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, with a slight build wearing a black stocking cap.

The Boston Police Sexual Assault Unit is also investigating the attack.

By Milton Valencia, Globe Staff

BROCKTON – Graffiti artists went on a spree Monday night and early Tuesday, scrawling their "tags" in several locations -- including a mobile command post parked in the police station lot.

Police arrested four people for vandalizing the van, and are investigating whether they are responsible for other graffiti throughout the city that could cost thousands of dollars to clean up.

“It’s destruction of property,” Police Chief William Conlon said. “It’s disheartening to residents and business owners and government leaders – anybody who’s got to look at it.”

Facing charges of vandalism and vandalism by tagging were: James Cook, 17; Duane Bailey, 20; Kent Coffey, 20; and Steven Gavazzi, 23.

Conlon said a passerby called police just before 3 a.m. Tuesday after seeing people painting the van, and officers who canvassed the area saw the four walking not far away.

One of the group had paint on his hand, and police searching them found spray paint cans of the same colors used in the graffiti, Conlon said. He said the four later confessed.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Three people have been arrested for the slaying Monday of a Westborough man in Worcester, according to a press release.

Lance Savage, 37, of Worcester was the first arrested last night for the murder of Jack A. McGuire, 35. Worcester police found McGuire dead in the driver’s seat of a 2003 BMW sedan on Florence Street in Worcester early Monday with a stab wound to his upper left leg.

April Marlborough, 26, of Wales was arrested at 2 a.m. today and Rick Lopez, also known as Janleer Povez, 28, of Worcester was arrested at 5 a.m. All three are being charged with one count of murder. Marlborough is also facing charges from several outstanding warrants and Savage is charged with one count of trespassing.

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said this afternoon that a spate of shootings in Dorchester Monday night that left four men injured was the result of ongoing feud between two neighborhood gangs.

The attacks in Dorchester capped a violent day in Boston that included the non-fatal shooting of a 13-year-old boy in the South End and the slaying of a 20-year-old man in Jamaica Plain.

"The incidents that occurred in the last 24 hours are troubling," said Davis, who spoke to reporters outside a luncheon at the Boston Wharf Hotel.

The city has seen a 40 percent drop in non-fatal shootings compared with last year, Davis said, which is a good overall trend.

"We have to stay out there in the street," Davis said. "We have to push forward with our initiatives to make sure that this city is the safest city in America. That's our goal."

The violence Monday started early in the morning when the 13-year-old boy was shot on Washington Street a few feet away from his home. Later in the afternoon, 20-year-old Luis Troncoso, a father of two infant girls, was fatally shot in the head at Southwest Corridor Park in Jamaica Plain.

(Globe Photo / Wiqan Ang/file 2007)

By John R. Ellement, Michael Levenson, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The general manager of WHDH Channel 7 was arrested after an allegedly drunken, obscenity-laced tirade at Logan International Airport in which she threatened to call a news crew and put a state trooper "on TV and ruin [his] life," according to a police report.

Randi Goldklank flailed her arms and screamed at State Police when they took her into custody after her Delta flight landed Sunday night, according to the report. She had to be helped off the plane by two crew members, according to the report, and struck a trooper in the chest, breaking the prescription glasses in his pocket.

"I'm a big shot in Boston and I'll have your [expletive] jobs," Goldklank told the troopers, according to the report. "You think you're a [expletive] tough guy, just you watch and see what the [expletive] happens to you when I get out of here."

[The first page of the police report can be found here. The second page is here. The Globe redacted the obscenities and Goldklank’s personal information, including her address, date of birth, and Social Security number.]

Goldklank, 40, was scheduled to be arraigned today in East Boston Municipal Court on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and assault and battery on a police officer. Her lawyer, David Eisenstadt, appeared on her behalf this morning and argued successfully to have her arraignment postponed until May 19. Eisenstadt declined to discuss the allegations today, saying he did not believe in trying a case in the media.

“I’m very confident that my client will be well served by the judicial system,” Eisenstadt said.

Goldklank defended her behavior to the Boston Herald Monday night and told the paper she was inappropriately touched by a male passenger seated beside her. There was no mention of the male passenger in the State Police report. Trooper Eric Benson, a department spokesman, said this morning that “there has been no complaint made to the State Police alleging any such improper contact.”

A spokesman for Delta Air Lines did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment about the allegation of inappropriate touching on the plane.

Channel 7 also did not immediately return several phone messages seeking comment. The station posted a story on its website that said Goldklank had been placed on administrative leave.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A Lynn police officer shot a man Monday night after a car chase and a series of collisions, police said.

The 36-year-old man was shot in the upper torso and taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is currently in stable condition, according to a Lynn Police Department news release. Police did not release the man’s name or the name of the officer who fired the gun.

At 10:30 p.m., officers responded to a report that the driver of a 2001 Lincoln Town Car hit a telephone pole on Maple Street and drove off, according to the news release. The driver fled on Euclid Avenue, crashed into a stone wall near Flax Pond, and kept driving, police said.

By Steven Rosenberg, Globe Staff

GLOUCESTER -- The woman accused of driving drunk and plowing into a sport utility vehicle carrying movie star Sandra Bullock told authorities that she had “two glasses of wine,” according to a police report filed today in court.

The arresting officer, however, wrote in his report that Lucile P. Gatchell, 64, appeared "dazed and confused.”

“I immediately detected the strong odor of liquor from her person as she sat inside the damaged motor vehicle,” wrote police officer Kevin Mackey, who responded to the accident on East Main Street at 9:50 p.m. Friday. “Her eyes were blood shot and glassy. Her speech was extremely slurred as she spoke.”

Bullock is in the area shooting the romantic comedy "The Proposal" and had finished filming for the day in Rockport. She and her husband, Jessie James, and their driver were not injured in the head-on collision.

Gatchell was silent and reserved and wore sunglasses during her arraignment this morning in Gloucester District Court. She declined to address three newspaper reporters and six television cameras covering her brief court appearance. One of the cameras was from Inside Edition, a celebrity focused television tabloid.

A 20-year-old man has died after being shot in the head in a Jamaica Plain park this afternoon, according to Boston Police and the Suffolk District Attorney's office.

Authorities said the man was shot around 4 p.m. near the corner of Boylston and Lamartine Streets near the Stony Brook MBTA station.

He was rushed to Brigham and Woman's Hospital, where he later died, authorities said.

Police are combing the scene for evidence. No arrests have been made.

(John Blanding/ Globe Staff)

Cat Beck (left) and Ana Hoyos (center) screamed for runners near the top of Heartbreak Hill.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

NEWTON -- For hardcore marathon fans, Heartbreak Hill is the only place to watch.

Spectators camped out here today on the edge of Commonwealth Avenue with tents, beach chairs, coolers, and grills in what has become an annual ritual. They clap, cheer, and ring cow bells just past the race's 20-mile mark, inspired by runners fighting through exhaustion and breaking through the wall.

"It's awe-inspiring," said Ken Bresler, a 50-year-old from Newton watching the race with his daughter. "It sends chills up my spine."

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Worcester homicide detectives said today that drugs were the probable motive in the fatal stabbing of a 35-year-old man found dead this morning in a parked car.

Jack A. McGuire apparently died from a stab wound in his upper left leg, a Worcester Police Department news release said. McGuire’s body was found slumped in the driver’s seat of a 2003 BMW sedan.

Officers responded to a call at 4:18 a.m. to Florence Street, where the car was partially obstructing a driveway. McGuire, a Westborough resident, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The release did not say why detectives believed drugs motivated the slaying.

(Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff)

Ian Graves, a 16-year-old high school junior from Chelmsford, played a Red Coat today who bayoneted a Minute Man on Lexington Green. "It's more fun" to be on the British side, Graves said.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The Red Coats are berated by the crowds as bloody backs and lobsters, booed and hissed, and told year after year to just "go home." They are the sinister villains, the occupying army, the losers that were defeated in the Revolutionary War by a rag-tag collection of militia and Minute Men.

Depicting a British soldier on Patriots Day may seem like an odd hobby. But that did not stop some 80 dentists, high school teachers, and attorneys today on Lexington Green from donning breeches, tricorn hats, muskets, and those madder red colored coats.

"Someone has to play the bad guys," smiled John Kahler, 51, a banker from Norwalk, Conn., who has been dressing as a Red Coat at re-enactments since 1982. "People are smiling when they heckle you, so they are not that serious. And we heckle them back."

The ranks of Revolutionary War reenactors who play British soldiers are dominated by Anglophiles, born contrarians, and history buffs who value the complexities and nuisances left out of most text books.

"Not everybody plays a British soldier on Patriots Day," said Paul O'Shaughnessy, commanding officer of His Majesty's Tenth Regiment of Foot, one of four groups that portrayed the British in today.

By Globe Staff

A 13-year-old boy was shot twice early this morning in the South End but is expected to survive, police said.

The boy was shot shortly after 1 a.m. on Washington Street, police said. When officers arrived, he was found inside an apartment with two gunshot wounds in his groin.

The boy was rushed to Boston Medical Center, where he is in stable condition, police said. His name was not released.

Police have not reported making any arrests.

(Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff)

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

LEXINGTON -- Hundreds gathered at hallowed Lexington Green early this morning for the annual Patriots Day reenactment of the historic battle of Lexington, kicking off a full slate of ceremonies marking the start of the Revolutionary War.

In a youth parade through the flag-lined center of town, boy scouts wearing tricorn hats marched in mock high step to the rat-a-tat-tat of a middle school band. Girl scouts, their merit badges on full display, struggled to hold American flags much taller than they. Parents waved from the sidewalk at their children or ran along side with camcorders to preserve the moment. Families dined at the First Baptist Church's pancake breakfast, then gathered at the green for a ceremony honoring the 233d anniversary of the battle that started the war for independence.

At 8 a.m. musket fire punctuated the end of the National Anthem and the American flag was raised high above the green as young children, who were celebrating a week off from school, played on hay bales that lined the green. Watching the ceremony from a park bench, Barbara Bell, 63, of Stow, said she was taking in as much of the weekend's historical offerings as she could. On Saturday, she woke up early to watch the reenactment at Concord's Old North Bridge and this morning she was back for more.

Shepherd One is now airborne, taking Pope Benedict XVI on a 7 1/2 hour flight back to the Vatican.

About 3,000 people, many of them immigrants from around the world, gathered at JFK Aiport in New York to see the pope off.

Vice President Dick Cheney paid tribute to the pope and American Catholics.

"Pope Benedict XVI has stepped into the history of our country in a special way,'' Cheney said.

The pope, in his remarks, reflected on the highlights of his trip, and wished America well.

"These days that I have spent in the United States have been blessed with many memorable experiences of American hospitality, and I wish to express my deep appreciation to all of you for your kind welcome,'' he said. "It has been a joy for me to witness the faith and devotion of the Catholic community here.''

This will be the final dispatch of this pope-visit blog. Thank you for reading, and feel free to send comments to Michael Paulson, the Globe's religion writer. And you can find all of our coverage, including video, here.

Pasted below is the full text of the pope's remarks at the JFK Airport farewell ceremony. Click on "full entry" to read the remarks.

In Pope Benedict XVI's final homily of this six-day trip to the US, he paid tribute to the 67-million member Catholic Church in the US, which, for all its troubles, remains one of the most vibrant and important in the world.

"Our celebration today is also a sign of the impressive growth which God has given to the church in your country in the past two hundred years,'' Benedict said, while celebrating Mass for 57,000 at Yankee Stadium. "From a small flock like that described in the first reading, the church in America has been built up in fidelity to the twin commandment of love of God and love of neighbor. In this land of freedom and opportunity, the church has united a widely diverse flock in the profession of the faith and, through her many educational, charitable and social works, has also contributed significantly to the growth of American society as a whole."

Benedict repeatedly acknowledged the bicentennials of five American archdioceses, including Boston, during the Mass, and Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston concelebrated the Mass in recognition of the anniversary.

"Today we recall the bicentennial of a watershed in the history of the church in the United States: its first great chapter of growth,'' Benedict said. "In these two hundred years, the face of the Catholic community in your country has changed greatly. We think of the successive waves of immigrants whose traditions have so enriched the church in America. We think of the strong faith which built up the network of churches, educational, healthcare and social institutions which have long been the hallmark of the church in this land. We think also of those countless fathers and mothers who passed on the faith to their children, the steady ministry of the many priests who devoted their lives to the care of souls, and the incalculable contribution made by so many men and women religious, who not only taught generations of children how to read and write, but also inspired in them a lifelong desire to know God, to love him and to serve him."

Although the day had been heavily overcast, the sun broke through during the Mass, and the boisterous crowd was silent throughout the homily, which was interrupted only by the rumble of passing subways.

The pope twice alluded to the church's opposition to abortion, placing it in the context of its charitable works, saying "the Catholic community in this nation has been outstanding in its prophetic witness in the defense of life, in the education of the young, in care for the poor, the sick and the stranger in your midst.'' And then, talking about the importance of "unchanging truths" of Christian faith, he said, "they are the truths which alone can guarantee respect for the inalienable dignity and rights of each man, woman and child in our world -- including the most defenseless of all human beings, the unborn child in the mother's womb." The first time the homily was interrupted by applause was when the pope mentioned "the unborn child.''

When the pope finished the homily, the crowd shouted "Viva!" and "Benedetto!" He responded by waving before turning to the profession of faith and the remainder of the Mass. The prayers of the faithful were said in English, Italian, Polish, French, Tagalog, Croation and Igbo, and the pope read several paragraphs of his homily in Spanish, in recognition of the diversity of the Catholic population in this country.

The Mass was the last major event of the pope's six-day trip to the US. From Yankee Stadium, he is to return to Manhattan and then travel to JFK Airport, where a crowd of 3,250, many of them immigrants, are gathering to see him off on his 8:30 p.m. return flight to Rome.

by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

All blog posts on the pope's visit are here.

The full text of the pope's homily is below; click on "full entry.''

Globe reporter Tania deLuzuriaga is embedded with the Boston pilgrims at Yankee Stadium; she was barred from bringing a laptop inside but banged out this dispatch on her BlackBerry:

Mass is about to start here in Yankee Stadium and there's an aura of anticipation in the air.

The bishops are filing in and most everyone is seated.

We arrived just before noon, after waiting in the security line for 40 minutes. Chaos ensued as people looking for their seats converged with those looking for the bathroom or a snack. Yes, while it was prohibited to bring food, among other things, into the stadium, the concessions are in full operation, a prospect that may enable some to celebrate their first Mass while eating popcorn.

The seats for the Archdiocese of Boston are located in an upper tier of the park, but right behind home plate.

"They're great seats," said Tim Higgins of Easton, who is attending the Mass with his wife and two children. "The archdiocese really took care of us."

The crowd is tremendously diverse. Knights of Columbus in feathered chapeaus and satin capes wander by girls in tight jeans and flip flops. And senior citizens in their Sunday best rub elbows with priests in black cassocks and men in Yankees windbreakers.

"It's all different people, and all different languages," said Philomene Pean, a Haitian immigrant who lives in Everett. "It's amazing."

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

To read all of our dispatches about the papal trip, click here.

For the third time in history, a pope today will celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium, and the crowd is huge and exuberant.

The crowd of 57,000, many of whom have been here since 9 a.m., was entertained by Stephanie Mills, singing songs from "The Wiz" as well as Supremes covers, and Harry Connick Jr., who said that now, when he's asked whether he's a practicing Catholic, he can say, "I can't practice any better than this -- I'm playing for the pope!" After the singing, the perimeter of the field was surrounded by young men and women clad in white, holding aloft giant, fluttering, paper birds. There are also a variety of high school bands and several choirs performing as priests process onto the infield.

The stage set for the liturgy is spectacular -- a diamond of white, yellow, and purple constructed over the infield, with yellow and white ribbons billowing inward toward the pitcher's mound, above which the papal crest is suspended. The flower-bedecked sanctuary rises just above second base; the gold and red seal of Pope Benedict XVI is hanging over a throne from which the pope will preside. The outfield is being unused. It's overcast and in the high 50s here.

Most of the worshipers in the stands got tickets through parishes in New York and four other archdioceses that are marking bicentennials this year, Baltimore, Boston, Louisville, and Philadelphia. The crests of those dioceses are hanging in the stadium, and their archbishops, including Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, will concelebrate the Mass. Those dioceses also got extra allocations of tickets for the Mass, and there are 3,000 Bostonians here.

The stadium is surrounded by security. I came in on a press bus from Manhattan, and as we were escorted by police through the perimeter, we could see that the streets around the stadium are barricaded with orange dumptrucks weighed down with sand. There are heavily armed security personnel outside and inside the stadium. Security closed off the stadium at 1 p.m., and said they wouldn't allow anyone in starting 90 minutes before the Mass.

The crowd is shouting, waving, and screaming as the pope prepares to enter the field in his popemobile, and the Mass will begin shortly.

This is the third papal Mass at Yankee Stadium -- which the Yankees say is a record for any US venue. Pope Paul VI said Mass here in 1965, and Pope John Paul II in 1979 (that was also the year he visited Boston).

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

To read all of our dispatches about the papal trip, click here.

Greetings from Yankee Stadium. Your intrepid correspondent was welcomed to the press box by a Yankees official who, upon hearing I worked for the Boston Globe, immediately blurted out, "I'm sorry.'' And then (and I am not making this up) the Yankees press staff handed me a statement on the pope from George Steinbrenner.

Just to show how objective I can be, here's what The Boss has to say: "The visit by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is wonderful for New York, our nation, and indeed the world. His message of brotherhood rings loud and clear. We welcome him to Yankee Stadium with respect, reverence and enthusiasm.''

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

To read all of our dispatches about the papal trip, click here.

NEW YORK -- Eighty feet below street level, surrounded by cranes, backhoes, pipes, and jagged rock, Pope Benedict XVI clasped the hands of survivors and relatives of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, and asked God to "bring peace to our violent world."

Commemorating the dead where the World Trade Center once stood, the 81-year-old pontiff said not a word, save for his prayer for peace. The 30-minute ceremony was as brief as it was stark.

As a thick, cold fog shrouded lower Manhattan, the pope’s bullet-proof Mercedes descended to ground zero, down a ramp lined with the flags of the Vatican, New York City, New York State, New Jersey, and the Port Authority. At the base of the pit, a small crowd was assembled, including 16 relatives of the dead as well as a handful of city and Port Authority police officers and firefighters who had responded to the attacks.

Emerging from his vehicle wearing a white overcoat to stave off the cold, the pope walked into the center of the crowd. Silently, he knelt and prayed at a gold and white kneeler set before a pool of water and gravel. Then he lit a candle emblazoned with the papal seal and spoke his prayer aloud.

"God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world, peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the earth," he said, in part. "Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred."

After the prayer, the pope sprinkled holy water in four directions, blessing the site. Then Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York introduced the guests to the pope, one by one. They were men and women, with the officers in dress blues. Many knelt and kissed the pope’s ring or clasped his hands and spoke.

"Today was an incredible experience to get to actually talk to the pope and ask him to bless the ground that we’re on, because we lost so many beautiful people that day," said Salvatore Cassano, a New York City firefighter who is now chief of department and was incident commander on Sept. 11.

Casssano, who is 63 and a 39-year veteran of the department, said he kissed the pope’s ring and the pope told him: "God bless you and God bless the department."

"That was really important for us," he said in an interview afterward. "We suffered so many heavy losses, it was nice to get the personal blessing from the pope, directly, for the people that we lost and the people that are still helping to protect the city."

Desiree Gerasimovich of New Jersey, whose sister, Pamela Boyce, was working on the 92d floor of Tower One and was killed in the attack, also met the pope and kissed his ring. She called it a "wonderful moment, a surreal moment."

"I don’t know if you ever find closure, but days like this make it a little bit better," she said afterward. "A lot of people are trying to embrace this new pope, because everybody just knows John Paul, and him coming to this site and being here in New York shows how close he is to the people."

The Archdiocese of New York gave each of the 24 people who met the pope a rough-hewn cross made from steel salvaged from the towers and a white candle emblazoned with a papal seal.

"It was very moving in many ways," said Carter Brey, the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, who played Bach suites as the pope entered ground zero. "It was moving to be down there. It was moving to be near the families of the victims. It was a little bit surreal, as well, to be in such close proximity to the pope. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

In addition to the relatives and survivors, cardinal and politicans witnessed the blessing. They included Governors Jon Corzine of New Jersey and David A. Paterson of New York and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York. All seemed moved.

"This was a very important moment for all New Yorkers," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said afterward. "This is sacred ground for New York and of course to have the pope visit it was very, very special for all of us, not just the people of the Catholic faith."

-- by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff.

We'll be blogging all day right here.

To read the full text of the pope's blessing at ground zero, click on "full entry."

Globe reporter Tania deLuzuriaga is embedded with a busload of about 40 pilgrims who left Boston early this morning to attend this afternoon's papal Mass at Yankee Stadium. Here's her first dispatch:

HEADING SOUTHWEST ON I-84 -- Some are dozing, others are reading, and the girls from St. Ann parish in Dorchester are singing along with the Von Trapp family “Doe -- a deer, a female deer…” as "The Sound of Music" plays aboard our bus headed for the Bronx.

Two buses chartered by the Catholic Foundation left Boston College High School at 6:30 this morning, loaded down with weary travelers and seemingly enough food to feed most of Yankee Stadium. Before departing, the Rev. Thomas S. Foley, the pastor at St. Ann’s, led the group in a prayer for a safe journey. “May it be a wonderful experience in faith,” he said. Foley, who did not make the trip, left the bus with a shout of “Vive el Papa!”

A congenial atmosphere took root as soon as we boarded the bus, with strangers swapping stories and sharing snacks. The girls from St. Ann’s, many of whom spent the night together at a sleepover, are a bit sleep-deprived and giddy about their big day, which may explain why they spontaneously broke out in the song, “Our God is an Awesome God” complete with the corresponding sign language, about a half-hour into the trip.

“I slept five hours last night,” said Rae-Anna Muise, 13, of Dorchester, who was lying across two seats flipping through a Seventeen magazine with her friend Michelle Olson, 14, sitting on top of her.

While the girls' giggles and singing dominate the back of the bus, it’s much quieter up front where most people are dozing or reading. Clara Garcia has been knitting most of the trip. The 60-year-old Guatemalan immigrant said she’s excited about the prospect of her first papal Mass.

“I didn’t think I had any chance of getting tickets,” said Garcia, who attends St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Jamaica Plain.

But while the mood on the bus is somewhat subdued, many expect that to change once we arrive.

“I think once we get there it’s going to be a different thing,” Garcia said. “I think I’ll feel something very heavy inside that’s going to make me a better person.”

We'll be blogging all day right here.

NEW YORK -- Rusted metal pipes. Backhoes. Cranes. Construction trailers. Buckets of concrete. Very little has been done to dress up ground zero in preparation for Pope Benedict XVI, who is due to arrive here at 9:30 a.m. for a stark and somber prayer service.

A thick, cool fog is hanging over lower Manhattan, shrouding the tops of the skyscrapers. Ground zero is a construction site -- an approximately four-story-deep pit of jumbled rock and concrete, dark, grey puddles, and backhoes. To one side, a small area has been marked with orange cones. A tarp there is covering, for now, a pool of water and raw earth where the pope plans to kneel and pray. He then plans to light a candle and sprinkle holy water on the site.

A group of 20 -- survivors and relatives of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as well as police and firefighters who responded to the attacks -- will then light candles from the pope’s candle and receive his blessing. No remarks are planned and the staging will bring the pope face to face with the rawness of the tragedy.

This event is the first of two major public events today, the sixth and final day of Pope Benedict XVI's trip the United States. The pope will also say Mass for nearly 60,000 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Benedict then departs for Rome tonight after a departure ceremony at John F. Kennedy International airport.

The Globe has four journalists covering the pope today. Michael Levenson is at ground zero, Michael Paulson is at Yankee Stadium. And we've embedded reporter Tania deLuzuriaga and photographer Dominic Chavez on a bus with some of the 3,000 pilgrims from Boston heading to the stadium Mass; Tania is going to attempt our first Blackberry blogging, since it sounds like she's going to be barred from carrying a laptop into the stadium. This item was written by Levenson. We'll be blogging all day right here.

Good morning.

Pope Benedict XVI has wrapped up a boisterous rally with 25,000 seminarians and young people at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, and is now heading back into New York City, where he will spend the night at the Upper East Side residence of his ambassador to the UN.

On Sunday, the final day of his six-day trip to the US, he is planning to pray at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, and then to celebrate Mass for 57,000, including 3,000 Bostonians, at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston will be a concelebrant of the Mass, in recognition of the fact that this year marks the bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Boston.

And then, at about 8 p.m., before a crowd of about 3,000, Benedict is to board Shepherd One at JFK airport for the long flight back to Rome.

Below is the full text of the pope's address at Dunwoodie, as the seminary is often called because of the section of Yonkers in which it is located. To read the text, click on "full entry.''

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley grew emotional today as he recounted to reporters the dramatic and unprecedented meeting earlier this week between Pope Benedict XVI and five people from Boston who had been sexually abused by priests.

Asked how difficult the meeting was for him personally, O’Malley paused for a long moment and appeared to tear up.

“Just seeing the book makes a great impact,” he said, referring to a handmade book he gave the pontiff listing the names of nearly 1,500 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston. As the pope slowly turned the pages, the cardinal mentioned that some of the victims died from suicide or drug abuse.

“I know the Holy Father was touched by it as well,” he said, speaking at a news conference at Boston College’s Silvio O. Conte Forum where the Boston Catholic Men’s Conference was held today.

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

Pope Benedict XVI is now out at St. Joseph's Seminary, in the Dunwoodie section of Yonkers, where he is attending a rally with thousands of seminarians and young people. Globe reporter Michael Levenson is there, too, and sends this report:

From a distance, the rally resembled a rock concert -- tens of thousands of youth gathered in a sun-splashed field. They were packed in elbow-to-elbow in many places. There were concession stands selling chicken fingers and French fries and bottled water. The teens were splayed out on towels and beach blankets. They wore T-shirts emblazoned with messages such as "JC Rules" and "Christ Our Hope."

They all faced a giant concert-style stage set. The stage was framed by two Jumbotron-style screens, two giant white flags printed with the Vatican seal. And the stage was backed by a giant portrait of Christ ascending, giving off rays of light.

The teens danced and sang as musical acts performed. They included the Rev. Stan Fortuna, a Fransciscan friar who played electric guitar, sang Catholic-themed pop songs and led the exuberant crowd in chants of "Benedetto! Benedetto!" and "Christ Our Lord! Christ Our Lord!" The MC was the comedian Mo Rocca, who had audience members cheer when he called out their countries -- Czech Republic! El Salvador! The biggest star was American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, who performed her hits as well a spiritual number called "Up To The Mountain."

"It's really empowering to see youth -- especially from across the nation come together for a cause," said Sarah Doyle, 18, of Worcester, Mass., who was one of 45 Boston University students who made the pilgrimage to the event in matching red T-shirts. "Especially as a freshman, it's very encouraging."

"It's such a blessing to see that our church is this strong," said Leo Gameng, 21, a BU junior from Chicago. "All the young people here are showing we believe in our God and our Heavenly Father."

"It's packed for the right reason," said Veronica Checo, 18, of Brooklyn, who was with a group of Brooklyn youth all wearing T-shirts that read "Too Blessed to Be Stressed." Her friend, Tito Gary, nodded and chimed in, "Packed for Christ,"

"It's amazing. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience right now. It's so many people joining together. It's wonderful," said Jen Churik, 17, of Long Island.

As the crowd waited for Benedict, the Jumbotron screens showed an educational video about Catholic teachings on marriage.

At 5:15 p.m, the pope arrived, ferried in the popemobile around the perimeter of the field. As organ music filled the air, the youngsters cheered and waved yellow and white kerchiefs -- the Vatican colors. The pope smiled and waved at the youth, many of whom ran to the edge of the field to get close to the popemobile.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

(Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

Battling the blaze on Reservation Road.

By John Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

Boston firefighters were busy this afternoon when a brush fire in Hyde Park went to four alarms.

The fire broke out around 1:45 p.m.in a hilly, wooded area near Reservation Road and took the fire department several hours to knock down.

The lack of fire hydrants in the area meant more units were required to provide hose so firefighters could get to the flames.

"The chief hit four alarms on it because we needed manpower to get water to the fire," said Steve MacDonald, a fire department spokesman. "We had to drop several thousand feet of hose to have enough water supply to put out the fire."

Here is the statement released today by Lauren Chang's family:

Lauren was an energetic, spirited, tenacious, intelligent and beautiful young woman with an infectious smile. She brought these same qualities into all aspects of her life; her family and friends, her work, and her education. She approached all aspects of her life with enthusiasm and energy that spread to those who surrounded her. We were the fortunate recipients of her love and friendship.

We are heartbroken that her life was tragically cut short; she will be in our hearts forever.

(Photo by Energized Athletics)

By Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff

Lauren Chang's siblings called today for more regulation and increased safety practices to protect cheerleaders like their "energetic, spirited, tenacious" sister, who died following a competiton last weekend.

"We hope her death will shed light on the inherent risks of cheerleading," sister Nancy Chang said, reading a statement through tears at a news conference outside Newton North High School.

Lauren Chang died Monday, a day after she collapsed during a performance at the Minuteman Cheerleading Championships in Worcester. It appears that her lungs collapsed following a kick to the chest, authorities have said.

The scene at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 51st Street: Overhead, a hovering helicopter. On every rooftop, a battery of snipers. Along the streets, metal barricades, and an amazing array of law enforcement with bullhorns, dogs, earpieces, and a variety of weaponry. No cars on one of the busiest arteries in Manhattan. Just a sea of people, many of them waiting for hours and hours, hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of Pope Benedict XVI.

That's what I encountered when I emerged at midday from the Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral -- a sort of eerie anticipatory calm, with no traffic, no kiosks, just a long stretch of Catholics waiting to wave their Vatican flags and their pre-printed signs, "Welcome Benedict XVI.''

I watched the popemobile from the cathedral steps, alongside a group of priests and nuns who had attended the Mass inside, and although the pope-parade was brief, there was no missing it. First there was the huge roar of 30 motorcycles. Then there was the scream of people who realized the pope must be coming. Then some youngsters started chanting his Italian nickname, "Benedetto! Benedetto!" A 20-year-old woman standing in front of me, Sisan Walker of Miami, started repeating, "Oh my God! There he is! Oh my God!" She was so excited she couldn't hold up the piece of pink cardboard on which she had scrawled, "We (heart) Benedict XVI'' in magic marker - instead she handed it to a nearby priest who started waving it in the air. Walker and her friend, Doriana Vega, 22, of Mexico, had travelled to New York just to glimpse the pope from a sidewalk -- they had no tickets to the Mass today or tomorrow -- so they had arrived at 5:30 a.m. and waited 8 hours to watch him drive by.

The motorcycles were followed by a few police cruisers. And then came the white popemobile, surrounded by a huge number of police, Secret Service, and who knows what other kinds of law enforcement, some on foot and some in black limos, black SUVs and black vans. The popemobile, manufactured by Mercedes-Benz, looks kind of like a pick-up truck with a giant, bulletproof, rectangular glass bubble sitting on the truckbed.

Inside the glass was the pope, Benedict XVI, smiling and waving, as well as his ever-present personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, who has become a bit of a heartthrob in the Catholic blogosphere, and the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward M. Egan.

The popemobile drove slowly past the Banana Republic and Faconnable stores that are across from the cathedral in Rockefeller Center, and then, the glass-enclosed pontiff passed the H&M on the next block, receded from sight, his movement followed by a sea of human arms, holding cameras and cellphones in the air, tracing the arc of the pope's path uptown.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

One observation from this morning's Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral: Rudy Giuliani, the twice-divorced former mayor of New York, took Communion. HIs reception of the consecrated host was clearly visible to me and all the other reporters in the cathedral because it was captured on television cameras broadcasting the Mass to the press seats to the side of the altar. After the Mass, Giuliani, who is a Republican, confirmed his decision to take Communion, despite being married outside the church, to Reuters Vatican correspondent Phil Pullella.

Giuliani's action follows the declaration earlier in the week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, that she intended to take Communion during the papal Mass at Nationals Park on Thursday.

The decisions by Giuliani and Pelosi, of course, are hardly unusual -- large numbers of Catholics who have remarried without an annulment or who support abortion rights routinely take Communion, despite church rules prohibiting that. But the question of whether politicians who publicly violate or oppose church teachings should take Communion became an issue during the 2004 presidential campaign, when an abortion-rights-supporting Catholic, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, was the Democratic nominee, and the issue continues to resurface from time to time. The church's actual position on the denial of Communion remains somewhat unsettled -- a handful of bishops have suggested they would deny Communion to abortion-rights-supporting politicians, but most, including Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, have said they do not wish to politicize the Eucharist in that way.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

(AP File Photo)

Sandra Bullock smiled at a 2005 news conference.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

GLOUCESTER -- Movie star Sandra Bullock and her husband were hit in a head-on collision by a drunk driver last night on East Main Street in this seaside town.

No one was injured, but both cars were towed. Lucille P. Gatchell, 64, of Gloucester was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and failure to stay in marked lanes, a police report said.

Gatchell's blood alcohol level was .20, more than twice the legal limit, the report said.

Bullock and her husband, Jesse James, were in a rented black 2008 Chevy SUV, which was being driven by Mark Hussey, 55, of Londonderry, N.H. Hussey told police he was driving down the road at 15 to 20 miles per hour when Gatchell's Subaru Forester veered into his lane.

Police responded to the accident at 9:50 p.m. The accident occurred outside the East Gloucester Laundromat.

By John Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

One man died after a crash on Route 24 north in Bridgewater early this morning.

State police said the driver of a 2003 GMC Sierra pickup truck lost control and rolled over off the right side of the road at around 5:45 a.m.

The driver was not wearing his seat belt. He was flown to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton where he later died.

His name is being withheld pending family notification. The state police are investigating the cause of the crash. The right lane of the highway was closed for two and a half hours after the crash.

One striking feature of this morning's homily at St. Patrick's Cathedral: Pope Benedict XVI made a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne, the acclaimed 19th century American novelist from Salem, Mass.

Who knew? Benedict is obviously widely read -- he is an accomplished theologian and a prolific writer -- but any fondness for American literature is news to me. But Rachel Zoll, the talented religion writer for the Associated Press and a proud native of Salem, spotted the Hawthorne reference in the homily immediately, and kindly called it to my attention.

Benedict was using the architecture of the cathedral as a metaphor, for reflections on the vocations of the clergy and nuns who make up the congregation today, and, when he turned to the windows, said, "many writers – here in America we can think of Nathaniel Hawthorne – have used the image of stained glass to illustrate the mystery of the church herself."

After the Mass, I promise to go grab a copy of "The Marble Faun" to see what he's talking about.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

The pope has just finished delivering his homily here at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, in which he addressed himself to 3,000 rapt clergy and nuns gathered in the grand Gothic cathedral on Fifth Avenue.

"The spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral are dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the Manhattan skyline, yet in the heart of this busy metropolis, they are a vivid reminder of the constant yearning of the human spirit to rise to God,'' Benedict said.

He devoted a few sentences to the sexual abuse abuse crisis, which, among its many impacts, has seriously damaged the morale of many priests around the country.

“Within the context of our need for the perspective given by faith, and for unity and cooperation in the work of building up the church, I would like say a word about the sexual abuse that has caused so much suffering,’’ Benedict said. “I have already had occasion to speak of this, and of the resulting damage to the community of the faithful. Here I simply wish to assure you, dear priests and religious, of my spiritual closeness as you strive to respond with Christian hope to the continuing challenges that this situation presents."

Then the pope alluded to comments that his predecessor, John Paul II, made in 2002. At that time, John Paul II said, “we must be confident that this time of trial will bring a purification of the entire Catholic community, a purification that is urgently needed if the church is to preach more effectively the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its liberating force.’’

This morning, at St. Patrick’s, Benedict echoed that language, saying, “I join you in praying that this will be a time of purification for each and every particular church and religious community, and a time for healing. I also encourage you to cooperate with your bishops who continue to work effectively to resolve this issue. May our Lord Jesus Christ grant the church in America a renewed sense of unity and purpose, as all – bishops, clergy, religious and laity – move forward in hope, in love for the truth and for one another.”

In addition to the abuse issue, Benedict in his homily mentioned the divisions within the Catholic Church.

“For all of us, I think, one of the great disappointments which followed the Second Vatican Council, with its call for a greater engagement in the church’s mission to the world, has been the experience of division between different groups, different generations, different members of the same religious family,’’ he said. “We can only move forward if we turn our gaze together to Christ! In the light of faith, we will then discover the wisdom and strength needed to open ourselves to points of view which may not necessarily conform to our own ideas or assumptions. Thus we can value the perspectives of others, be they younger or older than ourselves, and ultimately hear 'what the Spirit is saying' to us and to the church. In this way, we will move together towards that true spiritual renewal desired by the Council, a renewal which can only strengthen the church in that holiness and unity indispensable for the effective proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world.’’

I've posted the full text of the homily below (click on "full entry").

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

Pope Benedict XVI is getting a rapturous welcome here at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. He was greeted on the cathedral steps by Cardinal Edward M. Egan and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and repeatedly turned to stretch his arms out toward the crowds on the streets outside.

The cathedral is swarming with security -- there are men in black suits with earpieces everywhere. Outside, I saw fire and police apparatus for blocks surrounding the cathedral. There are metal barricades lining the streets, and vehicle traffic is largely barred.

After the pope, wearing a rich white mozzetta, walked through the cathedral and its sanctuary, he prayed before the blessed sacrament in a chapel, and then descended into the cathedral's lower level to vest for the Mass in white and gold. As he processed again through the cathedral, the congregation repeatedly rose in applause.

Egan, delivering an official welcome to the pope at the start of the Mass, described St. Patrick's, which is on Fifth Avenue and is a favorite stop for many tourists, as "a beloved house of prayer for not only Catholics across the nation but also for visitors of all faiths, races and cultures from every corner of the globe.'' He referred to the pope as "our supreme shepherd,'' asked Benedict to "confirm us in our faith,'' and said, speaking for the clergy and nuns gathered here, "we pledge to you our loyalty and our love.'' That generated another round of cheers, in response to which Benedict smiled, nodded, and stretched his arms out toward the congregation.

The Mass has begun.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York -- born in Boston and raised in Medford -- has just greeted the congregation here at St. Patrick's Cathedral and welcomed the pope to the nation's largest city.

"It says everything about America that a small-town, middle-class kid named Bloomberg could grow up and be asked to welcome the pope,'' Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg began his brief remarks by thanking the Catholic clergy and parishes for their role in the city. "So many New Yorkers look to you for wisdom and guidance,'' he said.

Bloomberg is Jewish, and the city has a large Jewish population, which the mayor alluded to in his brief remarks, mentioning that tonight is the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

"New York is buzzing, and Pope Benedict couldn't have picked a better time to come,'' he said. "A beautiful spring weekend, the 200th anniversary of the archdiocese of New York, and, to top it all off, it's Passover.''

Bloomberg noted that the pope has been greeted everywhere by sunshine, and said, "I don't know if the pope is responsible for the fantastic weather we have, but, as Cardinal Egan (of New York) told me, there are no accidents.''

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

In today's Globe, Tania deLuzuriaga wrote about the thousands of Catholics in the region who plan to descend on New York to see the pope this weekend.

Below, we have video profiles of several young Catholics making the trip. Click play below to see what they have to say about the pope, their faith, and what they hope to learn from the experience.

Today is the penultimate day of Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the US, and, after a day focused on geopolitics and interfaith relations, he's turning his attention back to internal church audiences. Today is also the third anniversary of Benedict's election as pope.

I'm blogging from a chapel to St. Therese of Lisieux on the left side of the altar in the grand St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. There are about 3,000 people gathering here for a 9 a.m. Mass that the pope is going to say for priests, deacons, and nuns; he's expected to touch on the impact of the abuse crisis on clergy. The Cathedral of Saint Patrick Choir is singing a Bach composition, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,'' as the congregation works its way through security and takes its seats.

Among those who just walked by: Rudy Giuliani. And in the press box: the writer Peggy Noonan.

"It's a tremendous blessing, to just walk from the West Side over, to see all the people on Fifth Avenue waiting to see the pope, and to see the people, music playing, praying, banners for the pope,'' said Deacon Don Gray of Holy Family parish in New Rochelle, N.Y., who is vested, like the other clergy here, in a white alb with a stole representing the Archdiocese of New York. "It kind of spurs you on in your faith, to see so many people that follow the Lord. It's an unbelievable experience.''

After the Mass, the pope is to take his one spin through Manhattan in the popemobile, along Fifth Avenue, and big crowds are already lining the route. And then this afternoon, the pope heads out to Dunwoodie, a neighborhood of Yonkers, where the New York archdiocesan seminary is located. There he is to bless a group of about 50 youth with disabilities, and their caregivers. And then he is to attend a "rally" with seminarians and young people, also at the seminary; among the crowd are expected to be about 150 from Boston, many of them from either St. John's Seminary in Brighton or Blessed John XXIII Seminary in Weston.

More later.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

(Bill Brett for The Boston Globe)

Worker Charles McCarthy of Accent Banner putting up the new signs today at a lightpole on Causeway Street near the TD BankNorth Center.

By Globe Staff

The Celtics are back in the playoffs -- and if you're walking in some parts of downtown Boston, you 'll be reminded of it for the next few weeks.

Curt Dietrich, president of Accent Banner of Medford, said his crews are in the process of placing vinyl playoff banners 2 1/2 feet wide and 5 feet long on 186 light poles in the area near the TD Banknorth Garden and on Cambridge Street.

A 20-foot-by-35-foot banner is hanging at the Statehouse and a slightly smaller one is hanging at City Hall.

Dietrich said he’s a Celtics fan and happy with the way their season has gone. “I turn them on all the time," he said.

By Globe Staff

Former Boston Mayor Kevin White, who was injured in a fall in late March, was released from the hospital today and is at home resting comfortably, a spokesman said.

The 76-year-old White, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, broke his ribs and injured his back when he fell at his winter home in Jupiter, Fla. on March 25.

He was hospitalized at first in Florida, then airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital, which released him today, said George Regan. White is now back at his Beacon Hill home.

"MGH has done a miraculous job," Regan said. He also said White's wife, Kathryn, wanted to thank people for the outpouring of support since White's accident.

By Globe Staff

A 28-year-old Boston man has been sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison for killing his girlfriend's 23-month-old baby in 2006.

Daniel Santana pleaded guilty today to involuntary manslaughter for fatally beating Jaziel Ponce on June 26, 2006, at the Harbor Point Community Apartments in Dorchester, the Suffolk district attorney's office said.

Santana also pleaded guilty before Judge Margaret Hinkle to drug charges for having heroin and cocaine in his dresser drawer at the time of the offense, prosecutors said.

In an impact statement provided to the court, the child's father, Miguel Ponce, wrote, "I will never be the man I used to be. I have no life without my son."

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A Quincy woman jumped from the roof of her home today to escape a fire.

Julianne Princiotto climbed from a second-floor window to a lower roof of her Arnold Road residence while flames were billowing out the windows. She then jumped eight to 10 feet down after coaxing from a Quincy police officer, said Quincy Deputy Fire Chief Jeffrey Starr.

“She could have very easily died there,” Starr said. “If she didn’t get out the window, it would’ve been difficult to get her out.”

By Globe Staff

One person has been transported to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and another person is in custody after a stabbing this afternoon, Boston police said.

The stabbing, which appeared to be the result of a domestic incident, happened at about 2:51 p.m. on Amory Street in the city’s Jamaica Plain section, said Officer Eddy Chrispin, a police spokesman.

No further details were immediately available.

(Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Drivers beeping horns and screaming neighbors alerted residents of a Dorchester three-decker today that a fire had erupted in the basement and was quickly flowing up the exterior of the house.

"Everybody outside [was] shouting, ‘Fire! Fire!’” said first-floor resident Dorothy Belcarris. “People were out there honking horns.’’

Belcarris and her son, Orlando, realized the building was on fire after hearing the noise and seeing smoke flowing into their apartment.

“People are good,” said Belcarris, how escaped out the front door. “I didn’t have time to do anything. I just got out and left.’’

No one was injured in the blaze on Milton Avenue. At least four residents had to run out of the building when the fire started.

Deputy Chief Joseph Fleming, who directed firefighting efforts, said that the flames started in the basement, extended into the walls, and spread onto the exterior of the red-shingled apartment house. The cause of the 9 a.m. fire remains under investigation.

By John Dyer, Globe Correspondent

Southborough Town Meeting members approved a warrant article last night that restricted where registered sex offenders could live in town.

The new bylaw would prohibit sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, day care centers, parks, and other recreational facilities.

Serious offenders classified as so-called Level 2 or Level 3 offenders were also barred from living within1,000 feet of any elderly housing.

Registered sex offenders who already lived in town were exempt from the bylaw.

By Globe Staff

A day after the release of a study that found that nearly 1 in 5 veterans is suffering from depression or stress disorders, the Patrick administration announced that it had created the Commission to Study the Hidden Wounds of War on Returning Massachusetts Service Members.

“We cannot allow the brave men and women who serve our country to struggle with treatable mental health problems,” Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray said in a statement. “This administration is committed to ensuring that our veterans are cared for completely.”

A Rand Corp. study estimated that about 300,000 veterans among the nearly 1.7 million who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have mental health problems. And more than half are slipping through the cracks, not getting necessary treatment, the study said.

When the Massachusetts bill was proposed last May, a legislative committee said that 28,000 service members had returned to the state and about 25 percent of them had faced “serious mental health challenges.” Governor Deval Patrick signed the bill two weeks ago.

The Bourne Police released a sketch of the suspect.

By Globe Staff

Police in a Cape Cod town are looking for a man who pretended to be a police officer and stopped a teenage girl’s car late last month, then asked her if she would kiss him and go for a ride.

The 17-year-old high school student was driving on Route 28A in Bourne at about 5:15 p.m. on March 31 when the car, which displayed red and blue lights, stopped her, said Bourne Police Chief Earl Baldwin.

The girl gave the man her license and registration. Then he said that she could avoid the ticket if she kissed him and went for a ride with him, Baldwin said.

By Globe Staff

The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that a person can be charged with enticing a minor simply by sending online messages.

Lawyers for a man appealing his conviction on a child enticement charge argued that he never engaged in anything more than “sending words” over the Internet. They argued that the law required the man to do something more, such as travel to an agreed rendezvous location.

Ruling in the case of Commonwealth v. Richard Disler, the SJC disagreed, saying that a person can be charged with enticement, if, with criminal intent, they “employ words, gestures, or other means” to induce a minor to enter or stay in a vehicle, building, or outdoor space.

“There is nothing in the language [of the law] that supports the defendant’s contention that, in addition, there must be an overt act in order for the crime of child enticement to occur,” the court said.

Disler was convicted after exchanging a series of instant messages with undercover police officers who were posing as a 14-year-old girl.

An image on a postcard of what the Paul Revere House looked like shortly after it opened as a museum on April 18, 1908.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

It will cost 25 cents today to hear third-graders recite poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, tap a toe to a vaudeville-style banjo player named Uncle Shoe, and eat a cake decorated to look like the olive-colored clapboard house once home to Paul Revere.

That’s because the museum where Boston’s most famous silversmith lived is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The Paul Revere House has rolled back the admission price to when it first opened on April 18, 1908.

(Reuters/Jason Reed)

Several readers have e-mailed to ask about a flag with stars and bars that they saw in a picture on Boston.com from the White House welcoming ceremony for Pope Benedict XVI. The readers thought it was a Confederate flag and were concerned. I double-checked with the White House this morning, and it turns out it's the state flag of Mississippi. If you're curious what the confusion is about, I've posted images in our Q&A section, which is here.

If you have a question, feel free to e-mail.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A Rehoboth teenager was killed early this morning when her car collided with a tractor-trailer truck in Middleborough, police said.

Maria L. Franey, 19, was driving a 2007 Hyundai at 2:30 a.m. when it collided with the tractor-trailer at the intersection of Route 44 and Old Center Street, said Middleborough Police Lieutenant Bruce Gates.

Franey and her passenger, Colleen Brown, 20, had to be cut out of the car, Gates said. Franey was pronounced dead at the scene. Brown suffered serious injuries and was taken to Morton Hospital and later transported to Boston Medical Center.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The tie goes to the runner in baseball. The same is not true for the drinker in Tisbury.

Voters reached a 690-to-690 stalemate on a referendum this week that would have allowed beer and wine sales in the Martha’s Vineyard town, which has been dry since at least before Prohibition began in 1920. The measure fell one vote short of the majority it needed to pass.

It was clear that the proposal had divided Tisbury, said Town Clerk Marion Mudge, but no one was prepared for a dead tie. It was Mudge and two other election officials who retrieved the totals Tuesday night from the automated ballot box at Town Hall.

“After we picked our jaws up, we looked at each other and said ‘Wow,’ ” Mudge said. “Then we announced the results, and everybody went ‘Wow.’ ”

A group led by local restaurant owners has already filed a petition for a hand recount, which could be scheduled at a meeting next week. The machine recorded 21 ballots that left the referendum question blank, which has buoyed hopes that there may have been a malfunction and that a recount may break the tie.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Two young men were shot in the Mary Ellen McCormack housing development in South Boston this morning and suffered what police described as non-life threatening injuries.

The men, 18 and 23 years old, were shot at 4 a.m. in a building on the 300 block of Old Colony Avenue, police said. Several neighborhood residents said one of the men was shot in a courtyard while the other was shot inside one of the apartment buildings.

The residents, who were afraid to give their names, said they heard several gunshots. They said they looked in the hallway and saw a man lying on a first-floor landing with a woman kneeling over him, begging him to stay awake. The victims were taken to Boston Medical Center.

It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack. No arrests have been reported.

Detectives have been on the scene much of the morning. Residents said they saw police recover several shell casings and a firearm.

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, shown above a White House news conference Thursday, will speak today to Boston.

By Globe Staff

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is slated to speak today at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Brown, who is no stranger to the area because he has summered in the past on the Cape, will be delivering a major foreign policy address, Kennedy Library and British consulate officials have said.

Governor Deval Patrick is expected to be among the dignitaries attending.

The two videos below offer some reaction to the meeting Pope Benedict XVI held with Boston victims of the clergy abuse scandal yesterday.

NECN's Jim Braude gets analysis on the pope's meeting.

Pope Benedict XVI this morning is on the move to New York City, having wrapped up his three-day visit to Washington, D.C., with his historic meeting with clergy sexual abuse victims yesterday afternoon and then a speech to educators and an interfaith gathering.

This morning is the speech that drew the pope to these shores in the first place: an address to the United Nations. This is a big moment for a pope -- John Paul II spoke at the UN twice, in 1979 and 1995, and Paul VI spoke at the UN in 1965. (Sorry, but the Vatican has posted the older speeches only in Italian.)

Benedict talked about his expectations for the speech during his remarks at the White House Wednesday morning, where he said, "On Friday, God willing, I will have the honor of addressing the United Nations Organization, where I hope to encourage the efforts under way to make that institution an ever more effective voice for the legitimate aspirations of all the world’s peoples. On this, the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity – as brothers and sisters dwelling in the same house and around that table which God’s bounty has set for all his children."

New York, of course, is greeting the pope with tabloid headlines. The Daily News splashes this morning with "The Pope of Hope," while the New York Post goes for a rebus, featuring the letters NY, an image of a heart with the papal seal inside, and a picture of the pope, along with the words, "Pope's Big Apple Weekend.'' Of course, inside, the Post gives the pontiff the tabloid treatment, featuring stories with the headlines "Papal audience for perv-priest victims" and "Cathedral cab bursts into fiery inferno.''

In New York I'll be joined by my colleague Michael Levenson, who took a look around yesterday while I was wrapping up in DC; if you missed his look at preparations, here it is.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

Reaction to the pope's meeting with abuse victims from Boston is starting to come in. Here are some samples:

"This is a small, long-overdue step forward on a very long road. We're confident the meeting was meaningful for the participants and we're grateful that these victims have had the courage to come forward and speak up. But fundamentally it won't change things. Kids need action. Catholics deserve action. Action produces reform and reform, real reform, is sorely needed in the church hierarchy. Some talk is OK. A meeting is better. Decisive reform is crucial. We do vulnerable children a severe disservice if we set extraordinarily low expectations for a brilliant, experienced, powerful global leader like the pope. In the Gospel of Luke, we're told 'To whom much is given, much is expected.' The pope has been given the reins of a vast, wealthy, powerful global monarchy. He must use those reins to safeguard the vulnerable." Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, southwestern regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

“This is a welcome first step. We hope that all the bishops will make themselves available to survivors in their diocese, listen to their stories and treat them with the respect and compassion they deserve. We need to bring closure. Meeting with a victim is a transformative experience and we hope that the pope is transformed by it and now takes the additional steps needed to attain closure. First, hold accountable the bishops who knowingly transferred abusive priests and demand their resignations. Second, insist that survivors be treated with justice and kindness rather than as litigants. Finally, address the underlying issues that caused the sexual abuse crisis in the first place: the culture of clerical secrecy and the lack of meaningful lay involvement in decision making.” Dan Bartley, president, Voice of the Faithful

"I was not a victim but very much affected by the crisis. This goes a very long way to make up for Cardinal Law. Kudos to Cardinal O’Malley for his efforts." Carolyn E. Stys, a former Milton resident now living in Virginia

"The pope has been hiding this abuse issue for 20 + years as it was his job to do so before he became pope. The only reason he is meeting with a few hand picked victims is because Catholics are sick and tired and have stopped giving to the church. Please don't fool yourself into thinking this is anymore than a PR move as that is all that it is! This is by far not over in my eyes. I hope I'm wrong." Paul Livingston, San Diego

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff

The town of Clinton has turned down a proposal from Nestle Waters North America Inc. that would have allowed the company to pump 240,000 gallons of water daily out of underground aquifers for bottling.

"The risk/reward trade-off wasn’t worth doing a deal like that," said Joseph Notaro, a selectman.

By Globe Staff

A 61-year-old Quincy man is facing a life sentence for killing his elderly mother in 2006 by choking her with the cord of the Lifeline emergency communication device she wore around her neck.

Hugh Crawford was convicted this afternoon in Superior Court of second-degree murder in the death of 92-year-old Mary Crawford, the Norfolk County district attorney's office said in a statement.

"Elder abuse is often among the most invisible forms of domestic violence, and this case shows how serious and tragic it can be," said District Attorney William Keating.

By Matthew Collette, Globe Correspondent

A Dorchester woman is facing charges after she allegedly assaulted another woman in the parking lot of a Dorchester doughnut shop, Boston police said.

Just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, a 34-year-old woman was pulling up to the drive-through window of the Dunkin' Donuts on Morrissey Boulevard. The woman saw 27-year-old Kerry Gates backing up and honked, fearful that Gates would bump into her.

When the woman pulled away from the drive-through window, she found that Gates had blocked the exit. Gates then pulled the woman out of her car, threw her to the ground, and assaulted her, police said today.

By Globe Staff

Boston public health officials are warning West Roxbury residents to stay away from wild animals after two rabid animals were found in the neighborhood.

The two animals, one a stray cat and the other a skunk, were found between March 20 and April 2. During the same period, a domestic cat in another neighborhood was found to have rabies, the Boston Public Health Commission said in a statement released yesterday.

The commission said the spike in cases was unusual. Only five cases were reported in the whole city last year.

(AP File Photo)

Frankie Roche at a 2005 appearance in state court.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

It may sound like the plot from a movie: A New York mob family becomes dissatisfied with the money flowing into it from a "crew" in a smaller New England city. And members hatch a scheme to kill the man who heads the crew.

But prosecutors say the story that unfolded in Springfield was all too real.

Frankie A. Roche, 35, of Westfield pleaded guilty today in federal court to murdering Adolfo Bruno, the alleged head of the mob crew in Springfield. In a statement of charges filed today with the plea agreement, prosecutors alleged that Roche and other members of the crew acted to "usurp control" of the crew in order to increase the income from racketeering both for themselves and the Genovese crime family in New York.

Roche, who was paid $10,000 to commit the 2003 slaying, could have faced the death penalty. But in exchange for his plea to a charge of murder in aid of racketeering, prosecutors will recommend that he receive a life sentence, the plea agreement said.

Roche has also agreed to cooperate fully with law enforcement, and if he provides them "substantial assistance," his sentence could be reduced further, according to the court documents.

Warren T. Bamford, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said La Cosa Nostra, more commonly known as the Mafia, is still a major concern throughout Massachusetts and the FBI will continue to target it.

"I still think sometimes there is a misconception that the LCN has gone away, but that's incorrect, both in western Massachusetts and eastern Massachusetts,'' Bamford said. "There are still organizations in existence, crews, groups that are still active and thriving...and it's important for us to go after them.''

Bamford said that the turmoil and power struggle in the Genovese family is not uncommon within the Mafia. "It kind of represents how they do business, how they act and how they settle differences,'' Bamford said.

(Dominic Chavez/Globe Staff)

The David Ortiz jersey that had been secretly buried at the new Yankee Stadium was shown today to Jerry House (right) and 8-year-old Ryan Reardon, both of whom are cancer patients. Michael Andrews (center) is chairman of development at The Jimmy Fund, which is auctioning the jersey to raise money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

It was meant to be a curse on the New York Yankees, but it may turn out to be a blessing for people with cancer.

The Red Sox jersey that caused a big splash in the media when a construction worker revealed he had placed it in the concrete under the new Yankee Stadium was unveiled for the first time today in Boston at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The Yankees donated the tattered David Ortiz jersey to the Jimmy Fund, which raises funds for cancer care and research at Dana-Farber.

The fund is auctioning the jersey on eBay, where bidding started at $500. By late afternoon, a bid of $30,101 was shown on the auction website.

It's not the first time Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and his family have donated to the fund.

"As much as they’re the evil empire (for Boston sports fans), they’ve been quite generous to the Jimmy Fund," said Bill Schaller, a Dana-Farber spokesman.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

NEW YORK -- An organist played through the entire scale, filling the vast nave of the Cathedral of Saint Patrick with the shrillest high notes and the biggest, deepest basses, as he tuned up the 78-year-old, 9,000-pipe organ that will serenade Pope Benedict XVI. Outside, workers on their hands and knees scrubbed the stone steps, while a newly hoisted Vatican flag fluttered in the breeze.

In New York, there was a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation today as the city geared up for the pope’s visit. Workers went into cleaning and decorating mode, wheeling ficus trees into the cathedral and washing away the last remnants of grit as they prepared for the pope to arrive Saturday morning to celebrate Mass for priests, deacons, and members of religious orders.

"You can see a lot more activity and excitement -- maybe the word is more of an awakening," said Chuck Leonard, a 65-year-old investment banker and regular parishioner at the cathedral who stopped by to say a prayer to St. Jude. "When he comes, it’s almost like a lightning bolt. It’s a very positive effect."

Margie and David Acker were among 33 pilgrims who had come from the Diocese of Savannah, Ga., to see the pope celebrate Mass on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. "We’re going to see our Papa!" Margie Acker exulted during a visit to the cathedral. "I love him. What a gift to us. He’s a shepherd for all of us -- for all denominations."

Their friend and fellow pilgrim from Georgia, Betsy Lindsay, reached into her pocketbook and produced a large ticket to the Mass, printed in gold ink and stamped with an image of the pope. "We feel like Willy Wonka," Lindsay said. "We’ve got the golden ticket."

By Michael Paulson
Globe Staff

WASHINGTON _ Pope Benedict XVI, in a dramatic move likely to alter forever the image of his pontificate, met this afternoon with five victims of clergy sexual abuse from Boston.

The private meeting, which was first reported by the Globe this afternoon and has since been confirmed by the Vatican, was brokered by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston.

The meeting took place at the papal nunciature, which is the home of the pope's ambassador to the United States. The meeting did not appear on the pope's schedule, but took place during the window between a Mass this morning at Nationals Park and a talk that he is to deliver later this afternoon to Catholic educators gathered at Catholic University of America.

A papal spokesman told the Associated Press that O'Malley presented the pontiff with a notebook listing the names of more than one thousand abuse victims from the Boston archdiocese.

The meeting between a pope and abuse victims is a huge development in the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church since 2002, when the Globe started publishing a series of stories about abuse by priests. The pope at the time, John Paul II, did not visit the United States after the crisis broke -- he traveled to Canada and Mexico but flew over the United States without stopping in 2002 -- and neither he nor Benedict is known to have met with abuse survivors prior to today, despite repeated requests from victims.

O’Malley facilitated the visit with victims after the pope declined his repeated entreaties to visit Boston. O’Malley had argued that the pope could best directly address the abuse issue in Boston, viewed by many as the epicenter of the crisis, but the Vatican cited the pope’s age and health in deciding to limit his travels to New York, which is the home of the United Nations, and Washington, which is the seat of the US government.

In an interview with the Globe last Friday, O’Malley said a papal visit with victims “is really his call.’’

“I am convinced that he is very aware of the needs of our country and certainly wants to be helpful to the church in the United States by his visit,’’ O’Malley said.

Asked again last night about the prospects for a papal visit with victims, O’Malley said, cryptically, “nothing has been announced.’’

But in the Friday interview, O’Malley said he has found meeting with victims to be very helpful.

“I think it has been very positive, in helping to understand the serious damage that is occasioned by child abuse,’’ he said. “I think in the past, people were not aware of the long-range effects. And, certainly, if you have the opportunity to meet with survivors, it becomes very apparent that this kind of tragic activity in their childhood often marks a person for life and is a source of great distress.’’

O’Malley also said meetings with victims can help some reconnect with their Catholic faith.

“It also, I think, has given me an opportunity to try and reach out to survivors and to help them to realize that in the Catholic Church we have a great sorrow for what happened to them,’’ he said. “And many of the survivors themselves, in my experience, are looking for a way to reconnect with the church. Some have walked away from the church, but others have a real desire to have a relationship with the church.”

The victims – including men and women, all of them abused as minors by priests in the Boston area – met with the 81-year-old pontiff at the papal nunciature, which is the Vatican’s Embassy here, for about a half hour. They were accompanied by O’Malley.

None of the participants could immediately be reached for comment.

But David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a telephone interview, "It’s a very long-overdue small step forward, especially if it leads to reform. Talk can produce change or complicity. We hope it's the former. But the cold, hard reality is no child is safer tomorrow than they are today.''

Others were more sanguine. Carolyn E. Stys, a lay Catholic who grew up in Milton but now lives in Virginia, e-mailed after reading about the meeting to say how delighted she was. "I was not a victim but very much affected by the crisis,'' she said. "This goes a very long way to make up for Cardinal Law. Kudos to Cardinal O’Malley for his efforts."

The scale of the abuse is still the subject of some controversy, but the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which did a study for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, found that 4,392 priests had been accused of abusing 10,667 individuals between 1950 and 2002. The crisis led in December 2002 to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston, who was criticized for failing to remove abusive priests from ministry; John Paul II named Law to oversee a prominent basilica in Rome, and appointed O'Malley to replace him as archbishop of Boston.

Today’s meeting caps a remarkable start to Benedict’s first papal trip to the United States, in which the 81-year-old pontiff has repeatedly discussed the abuse crisis. His comments have been criticized by victim advocates, who want him to go further by disciplining bishops who failed to remove abusive priests, but the remarks have nonetheless been striking for their detail and frequency.

"This is a huge step forward,'' said the Rev. Keith F. Pecklers, a professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. "We basically were told before he arrived that he would probably address this topic at one event, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and now we've had three references, plus this meeting, which is hugely significant. It means he is trying to communicate that he's taking this very seriously, and that it's the fundamental issue in the US church right now in terms of trying to move forward. He wants to give a clear signal to America that he gets it.''

In his most recent comments, in a homily delivered at a Mass at Nationals Park this morning, Benedict told 46,000 worshipers “to assist those who have been hurt.’’

“I acknowledge the pain which the church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors,’’ he said. “No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse.’’

His remarks this morning followed a lengthy discussion of the abuse crisis last night in a speech to the 350 American bishops, who gathered to meet with the pope at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in northeast Washington.

“Among the countersigns to the Gospel of life found in America and elsewhere is one that causes deep shame: the sexual abuse of minors,’’ he said after vespers in the basilica crypt. “Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior.’’

Most strikingly, Benedict echoed a comment made by Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, saying, “responding to this situation has not been easy and, as the president of your Episcopal Conference has indicated, it was ‘sometimes very badly handled’.” He urged the bishops to work on prevention measures, but also said that most clergy “do outstanding work.’’

Benedict, who was previously not known for his concern about this issue, made clear that the issue is of concern to him on Tuesday, when he chose to take, as the first of four pre-submitted questions from reporters, a query about the abuse crisis.

“It is a great suffering for the church in the United States, for the church in general, and for me personally that this could happen,’’ he said on the plane, dubbed Shepherd One. “If I read the histories of these victims, it’s difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing and to give the love of God to these children.

We are deeply ashamed, and we will do all that is possible that this cannot happen in the future.’’

Benedict has a long and complex history with the abuse crisis. He also has a deep familiarity with the crisis, because in his previous post as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, he was in charge of the office that oversaw the abuse cases that were referred to Rome by dioceses around the world. Early in the crisis, when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he appeared to minimize the scope and seriousness of the crisis. But just before he was elected pope, he referred to abusive behavior as “filth.’’ And, after being elected pope, he removed from ministry a prominent Mexican priest, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who was repeatedly accused of sexual abuse but was not disciplined by Pope John Paul II.

Michael Paulson can be reached by e-mail at mpaulson@globe.com.

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A Suffolk Superior Court judge declared a mistrial today in a brutal murder case after two weeks of unsuccessful deliberations in which the lone holdout was accused of sexually harassing female jurors.

The panel sent a note to Judge Patrick Brady Wednesday saying that the eight women on the jury were being sexual harassed to the point that one broke down in tears. The man accused of the abuse was the only person voting to acquit two men of the 2004 murder of Betsy Tripp, who was tied up, tortured, and had her throat slashed.

The judge rejected the accusations and accused the jurors of using the harassment allegations as a tactic to rid themselves of the lone holdout. Brady did however grant a mistrial this afternoon when jurors still failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Ferry rides to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are going up 50 cents to $2 because of higher fuel costs.

The Steamship Authority voted Tuesday on fare hikes that will take effect May 1. Hy-Line Cruises, their private competitor, added a $2 one-way fuel surcharge that began April 1.

The Steamship Authority's treasurer, Robert Davis, said fuel this year would cost at least $1.5 million more than the authority budgeted, according to minutes of the meeting.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For the third day in a row, Pope Benedict XVI this morning directly addressed the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church in the United States.

In the homily he has just delivered at a sun-drenched open-air Mass in the brand new Nationals Park stadium in Washington, Benedict told about 46,000 worshipers that he understands the suffering the crisis has caused.

"I acknowledge the pain which the church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors,'' he said, his voice low, somber, and measured as he read his comments about the abuse crisis in heavily accented English. "No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse.''

Benedict is rapidly making it clear that he views the abuse crisis as a major issue in the United States; the first statement he made on the plane here Tuesday was about the abuse issue, and then he addressed it again in detail when speaking to the bishops last night.

This morning, he addressed his concerns about the crisis to laypeople.

"Yesterday I spoke with your bishops about this,'' he said. "Today, I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt. Also, I ask you to love your priests, and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do. And above all, pray that the Holy Spirit will pour out his gifts upon the church, the gifts that lead to conversion, forgiveness, and growth in holiness."

As he has done in his previous remarks on this issue, Benedict urged "loving pastoral attention" for victims, as well as measures to prevent future abuse.

"Nor can I adequately describe the damage that has occurred within the community of the church,'' he said. "Great efforts have already been made to deal honestly and fairly with this tragic situation, and to ensure that children -- whom our Lord loves so deeply, and who are our greatest treasure -- can grow up in a safe environment. These efforts to protect children must continue."

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

The full text of the pope's homily is below.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Pupils at St. Patrick School in Roxbury may not have been able to take a field trip today to Nationals Park in Washington D.C., where Pope Benedict XVI is celebrating Mass with more than 45,000 people. But 45 students were still part of the crowd.

The first- and eighth-grade classes at the Catholic grammar school are watching the Mass on television in their classrooms to share in the papal visit, said principal Mary Lanata.

“It’s getting caught up in the excitement and being a part of the [45,000] people in the baseball stadium,” Lanata said. “This is living history."

It's another stunningly beautiful day in Washington -- sunny, with a projected high of 76 -- and the brand new Nationals Park, which opened last month, is the setting for Pope Benedict XVI's first public Mass in the US. I'm in a press box on the sixth floor level here -- from my seat I can see the domes of the Capitol and the Library of Congress, and to my right and left are stadium seats packed with an estimated 46,000 people.

On the field are 14 cardinals and 250 bishops and 1,300 priests and some very lucky laypeople. Of course, there's sacred ground, and then there's sacred ground -- the infield has been fenced off to protect the grass for baseball, so the seating is only in the outfield and the stands. The altar, in the outfield, was designed by students at the Catholic University of America here in Washington.

Around the stadium, people lined up to buy $20 Benedict T-shirts and other souvenirs. In the stands I met Ann Johnson, 49, of Bel Air, Maryland, who came to the Mass with her daughter and her sister.

"I saw Pope John Paul II in Baltimore, and it was the most wonderful feeling in the world when he came out in the popemobile -- I can't describe it to you because I feel like I'm going to cry,'' she said. "The pope does so much good for the world. This pope is so new, everyone is curious to see the kind of relationship he'll have with folks here. I'm looking forward to seeing him.''

Janae Zarate, 21, of Fresno, said she flew out with a group from the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic movement, because "I wanted to hear the word of the Lord.'' Zarate said she saw Benedict once before, at World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005. "He gives a sign of hope that there's something else out there, beyond what we see every day in our life,'' she said.

Vern Heeren, 65, and his wife, Carole, 62, told me they converted to Catholicism five years ago, drawn in by the magnetism of John Paul II. The Lincoln, Calif., couple said they got tickets to the Mass from their parish. "It just seemed like a wonderful opportunity,'' Vern Heeren said. "We didn't think there was any possibility we could do something like this.''

Benedict arrived around 9:30, and took a brief spin around the perimeter of the field in his popemobile. There are four choirs performing, with a total of about 500 singers.

The pope is now seated in his throne, and the crowd is cheering. The Mass is about to begin.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

Good morning from Nationals Park, where the pope is scheduled to say Mass for about 45,000 people starting at 10 a.m.

For those of you who want to watch from home, Boston Catholic Television is airing the Mass, and the US bishops conference is streaming it here. Last night, I watched the pope's vespers service at the National Shrine on streaming video, and, while it wasn't exactly hi-def TV, it was pretty great -- it seemed like they had a camera in every corner of the shrine -- and the commentary, not surprisingly, was quite detailed and filled with insider-y observations.

I also got an e-mail from Comcast, saying that, if you want to watch the Mass on your own schedule, digital cable customers can watch the Masses (the one here this morning and the one Sunday at Yankee Stadium) for free through April 27. Here are the details, sent along for the from Comcast's Marc Goodman:

The pope's speech tonight to the bishops was a blockbuster -- 6,000 words delivered over an hour, about half devoted to answering three pre-submitted questions from bishops -- and a reminder of what his former students are always talking about -- it was rich and wide-ranging and frank and provided a lot of fodder for further discussion.

After the speech, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston phoned to give me his reaction -- he was seated up front with the other cardinals. Here's what he said:

"It touched on every theme imaginable, which I’m sure that he will continue to unpack during the rest of his trip here. It was quite an address. I think that there weren’t any surprises, but the fact that he was so thorough -- that's his way -- and that he included so many different themes and tied them all together. It was so artful. He is a born teacher.''

I asked the cardinal what message he took from the speech, and he said, "Certainly the call to rededicate ourselves to the values of the Gospel, and to evangelize, to help our people to rediscover the riches of the Gospel. I think it was a pretty hopeful address, at the same time recognizing the many challenges that the church faces in our country and in the world.''

As for the pope's lengthy discussion of the abuse crisis, O'Malley said, "I was not at all surprised. I expected him to address that. He was certainly very aware of how focused we have been on the problem in the US, and how much people have suffered. He also recognized the efforts that have been made to create safe environments for our people.''

I'll have a story in tomorrow's paper, but for those of you who just want to read the pope's words, I'm posting the (very) full text below:

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

Police are investigating a one-car crash on Interstate 195 east in Marion today that killed the car’s driver.

The man, whose name was not released pending notification of his family, crashed head-on into the bridge abutment at the Route 105 overpass after losing control of his 1998 GMC Jimmy SUV, State Police said in a statement.

State Police responded at 3:15 p.m. to the accident. The victim was declared dead at the scene, the statement said.

By William McGuinness, Globe Correspondent

Students, faculty, and staff from across the Massachusetts higher education system rallied outside the State House today to press leaders for more support for public colleges and universities.

With megaphones and cheers, hundreds of members of the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts urged officials to make funding a higher priority. Later, they delivered thousands of postcards to their state representatives asking them to support Governor Deval Patrick's $2 billion capital bond bill to finance infrastructure improvements at the 29 public institutions, to fund the basic operating budgets of the schools, and to add an additional $17 million in MASSGrant, the state's basic financial aid program.

UMass-Amherst professor Max Page, a founding member of the group -- known as Phenom -- said the day’s events were centered on pressuring representatives to fix, fund, and make the state’s higher education system more affordable. He said that if the Legislature passes the bond bill, major repairs can begin on eroding public university buildings.

(John Bohn/Globe Staff)

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Six firefighters were hurt this afternoon in Brookline battling intense flames in a three-alarm blaze on Harrison Street.

The firefighters were taken to nearby hospitals. The extent of their injuries was not immediately clear. Fire Chief Michael O'Reilly said the injuries included shoulder injuries and minor burns.

The blaze broke out shortly after 2:30 p.m. in a 2 1/2-story wood frame home off Brookline Avenue. Flames shot through the second floor and into the attic.

(Globe file photo)

Shawn Drumgold accused two Boston police detectives of violating his civil rights after he was wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A judge declared a mistrial this afternoon after a federal jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked over the sole surviving claim against Boston police by a man wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years for the murder of a 12-year-old girl.

US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner had urged the jurors today to persevere and try to reach a decision in the case of Shawn Drumgold, who sued two Boston Police detectives for allegedly violating his civil rights in the investigation of the 1988 fatal shooting of Darlene Tiffany Moore.

“If you cannot agree, it's your right to fail to agree,” Gertner said. “So we’ll ask you to go back and try one more time.”

After resuming deliberations this afternoon, the jury told the judge they were "hopelessly hung," and she declared a mistrial.

A week ago the same jury all but cleared the two retired detectives of violating Drumgold’s civil rights, rejecting 10 of his 11 claims. It rejected all allegations against retired detective Timothy Walsh. The judge allowed the case to continue, however, on one claim against Detective Timothy Callahan.

By Globe Staff

A Lowell Police officer this morning shot a son who was allegedly wielding a meat cleaver and threatening his mother, police said.

Officers responded to the apartment on Moody Street at about 6:45 a.m. after receiving a 911 call, according to Police Superintendent Ken Lavallee.

Lavallee said he didn't know the suspect's exact age but believed he was a teenager. Neighbors said he was 14 years old.

Lavallee said the suspect ignored numerous orders to drop the cleaver, raising it over his head in a threatening manner. Officers determined the mother's life was in danger.

US Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, has just issued a statement about the papal visit. Kennedy, of course, is one of the most prominent Catholic politicians in the world, and his brother, the late President Kennedy, was the only Catholic ever elected president. Ted Kennedy differs with church teachings on a variety of matters, but still has praise for the pope. Here's his statement:

“Pope Benedict’s visit to the United States is a remarkable opportunity for Catholics and for all Americans to reflect on how we can come together to bring healing to the entire world and to all people of every faith. It’s a very difficult time for our country and the world, and I’m hopeful that the power of faith and unity will be a lasting legacy of our role in the Pope’s visit.”

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

By Globe Staff

A plumber's torch was the cause of a three-alarm fire last week that heavily damaged a six-story apartment building in Framingham, state and local fire officials said today.

The fire Friday afternoon at the Jefferson Village apartments caused about $3 million in damage, with as many as 72 apartments affected, Framingham Fire Chief Ollie Gadson said in a statement issued jointly with the state fire marshal's office.

Investigators determined that the fire started when a torch used by a plumber accidentally touched the lining of the chase, or space for pipes, in a second-floor bathroom. That "caused a smoldering fire that eventually erupted into open flames," the statement said.

(Family photo via Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

Chelsea Frazier and her son, Alijah.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The Southbridge man who allegedly schemed to kill his ex-girlfriend during a trip to New York is being held without bail today at the city’s Rikers Island jail, prosecutors said.

Carlos Cruz, 36, was arraigned in the early morning hours in Bronx Criminal Court, along with his cousin, Devon Miller, 25, who allegedly was the triggerman in the slaying of 18-year-old Chelsea Frazier. Both face charges of first- and second-degree murder, along with weapons charges.

The two men pleaded not guilty before Judge Judith Lieb, said Melvin Hernandez, an assistant spokesman in the Bronx district attorney’s office. A pretrial hearing in the case is slated for Friday.

“They pleaded not guilty. Obviously, they deny the charges. It’s a tragedy all around, for everyone involved,” said attorney John Sandleitner, the defense attorney for the two men.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

The House this afternoon released a $28 billion budget that includes new taxes, budget cuts, and more than a third of the spending increases sought by Governor Deval Patrick.

The House proposal funds about $80 million of the $213 million in spending increases that were in Patrick's fiscal 2009 budget for a variety of programs including education, police, and social programs.

Patrick, for example, proposed spending $15 million more to fund an additional 892 prekindergarten classrooms, but House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi is only backing $3 million. Patrick also wanted to double for the second year in a row the amount spent on extended school day programs, to $26 million, but DiMasi is backing only $2.5 million.

"Hopefully better times are ahead, but if not this budget prepares us well," said Robert DeLeo, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.

The House budget also includes $109 million in direct budget cuts, which are spread throughout the budget to limit the impact.

The governor has identified $344 million in cost-saving plans, including $124 million through a mixture of "constrained growth in agency and program spending" and cuts to legislative earmarks.

I just got off the phone with my colleague Farah Stockman, who works in the Globe's Washington bureau, and she covered the pope's first popemobile ride in the US, which whisked Benedict XVI from the White House to the nunciature, where he is now having a birthday lunch with the American cardinals (except for Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the archbishop emeritus of Boston, who stayed in Rome...)

Farah watched from the corner of 17th and Pennsylvania, just by the White House, and said it was quite a scene. She describes a mix of devout Catholics, anti-Catholic protesters, and curious tourists, all thronged side-by-side trying to get a lunch hour glimpse of the man of the hour.

Some folks had gathered as early as 7 a.m. to get a good spot, while others just stopped by to see what the fuss was about. A group of Baptists held "Trust Jesus" signs as a young man shouted anti-Catholic vitriol through a megaphone; he eventually was encircled by members of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic group that likes to sing and managed to drown him out. At a nearby park, encircled by police tape, were members of the ever-present Westboro Baptist Church, best-known for their anti-gay slogans and their protests at military funerals, but apparently also hostile to Catholics; they were surrounded by counter-protesters. And Farah's corner also featured a group of anti-celibacy protesters. Welcome to Washington!

At one point, a scream went up from the crowd, but it turned out just to be a group of bicycle cops; when the fleet of motorcycles started whizzing by, though, the crowd knew the moment was at hand. The popemobile, a white, bulletproof glass enclosed Mercedes-Benz, moved by at a good clip, but Benedict was clearly visible, smiling and waving. People in the crowd gasped and shouted; some hoisted kids into the air or stood on chairs at the nearby Au Bon Pain.

And then, as fast as he arrived, the pope was gone.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

The White House has now also released a transcript of the remarks by the president and the pope made on the South Lawn. Here you go:

"PRESIDENT BUSH: Holy Father, Laura and I are privileged to have you here at the White House. We welcome you with the ancient words commended by Saint Augustine: "Pax Tecum." Peace be with you.

You've chosen to visit America on your birthday. Well, birthdays are traditionally spent with close friends, so our entire nation is moved and honored that you've decided to share this special day with us. We wish you much health and happiness -- today and for many years to come. (Applause.)

As the pope left the White House a little while ago, the two leaders (President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI) issued a joint statement about their meeting. Here it is:

"JOINT STATEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND HOLY SEE

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and President George W. Bush met today in the Oval Office of the White House.

President Bush, on behalf of all Americans, welcomed the Holy Father, wished him a happy birthday, and thanked him for the spiritual and moral guidance, which he offers to the whole human family. The President wished the Pope every success in his Apostolic Journey and in his address at the United Nations, and expressed appreciation for the Pope’s upcoming visit to “Ground Zero” in New York.

During their meeting, the Holy Father and the President discussed a number of topics of common interest to the Holy See and the United States of America, including moral and religious considerations to which both parties are committed: the respect of the dignity of the human person; the defense and promotion of life, matrimony and the family; the education of future generations; human rights and religious freedom; sustainable development and the struggle against poverty and pandemics, especially in Africa. In regard to the latter, the Holy Father welcomed the United States’ substantial financial contributions in this area. The two reaffirmed their total rejection of terrorism as well as the manipulation of religion to justify immoral and violent acts against innocents. They further touched on the need to confront terrorism with appropriate means that respect the human person and his or her rights.

The Holy Father and the President devoted considerable time in their discussions to the Middle East, in particular resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict in line with the vision of two states living side-by-side in peace and security, their mutual support for the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon, and their common concern for the situation in Iraq and particularly the precarious state of Christian communities there and elsewhere in the region. The Holy Father and the President expressed hope for an end to violence and for a prompt and comprehensive solution to the crises which afflict the region.

The Holy Father and the President also considered the situation in Latin America with reference, among other matters, to immigrants, and the need for a coordinated policy regarding immigration, especially their humane treatment and the well being of their families."

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

Greetings from the White House's South Lawn, where the crowd of thousands is now dispersing after an elaborate welcoming ceremony. The president and the pope have gone into the Oval Office to meet, and next time we see the pontiff he'll be taking a ride on his popemobile through the streets of the capital.

The day is picture-perfect here in Washington, sunny and clear and in the high 60s -- a little too warm, apparently, for some in the crowd -- three girl scouts standing in front of me fainted over the course of the welcoming ceremony, and one by one they were carried off or escorted to medical help by nearby Marines.

Security was unbelievably tight -- at one point I thought I saw the orchestra walk by with big violin cases on their backs -- a reporter who apparently spends more time in the big city than me informed me that those were not violins, but guns.

I saw the ceremony from a penned in area packed with press; most of the visiting Catholics were similarly penned in to various sections of the lawn, and some watched from bleachers. As is common for these visits, many held pairs of Vatican and US flags; I did see some cute little girls with handmade signs reading "We love you Pope Hope!"

Karen Hawk, a 59-year-old Holyoke native who now lives in Centreville, Virg., told me she came to the White House today because she viewed this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the pope. "It's fabulous,'' she said. "In my lifetime this is the only time I will get this close to the pope. And I'm from a long line of Irish Catholics." Like many in the crowd craning to see, she had one regret "I'm just a little too short.'' Her son, 37-year-old Charles Hawk, said he also thought Red Sox nation needed to show a little gratitude, given its successes. "We figured as Red Sox fans we should pay homage,'' Charles Hawk said.

Jaime and Zoraida Fonalledas told me they flew up here from their home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, just for a chance to see the pope. They're active in the Knights of Malta, and they saw John Paul II during his stop in Puerto Rico in 1986; here they're also planning to go to Mass with the pope at Nationals Park tomorrow. "We wanted to hear his words of peace and unity and love,'' Zoraida said. "And people here are so happy.''

I'm being evicted from the lawn (not just me -- everyone -- the event is over). More later.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

By Globe Staff

A Plymouth County probate and family court judge who was accused of breaking the rules of conduct for judges by operating a real estate business has agreed to resolve the charges against him by retiring, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct said today.

"I sincerely regret having created, in my private life, an appearance of impropriety, which although I never intended, violated my obligation to conform even my off-the-bench conduct to the code that governs all judges," Judge Michael J. Livingstone said in a public apology issued as part of his agreement settling the case.

Livingstone said in the letter that he took "full responsibility" for his conduct and he hoped that his voluntary resignation would preserve public confidence in the judiciary.

So I'm sitting on a driveway in front of the press briefing room, next to the West Wing, where you see all those televised press conferences. Next to me on the asphalt are Tim Russert and Matt Lauer. A parade of visitors is streaming by, including the Knights of Columbus with their plumes, a troop of boy scouts, a sea of bishops, Catholic school students, and various religious leaders, including Greek Orthodox Archbishop Demetrios. Other reporters claim they just saw Barney, or some Bush family dog (Miss Beazley?), but I'm staring at my screen (blogging for you, dear readers) and missed the story (well, at least the Scottish terrier angle). Lots of local color -- I saw Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston entering the White House gates, and Imam Talal Eid of Boston just walked by; at the pressroom I ran into various folks from home, including John Norton, of the Catholic publication Our Sunday Visitor, who hails from Shrewsbury, and a producer, Patti Hanley, who shoots for Religion and Ethics Newsweekly (a PBS program -- check your local listings) who is an Adams native and confesses she has a Red Sox tattoo, although she won't say where.

The only news so far is that the White House has released the menu for the dinner tonight that the pope is skipping. Here's what His Holiness will miss: Morel-encrusted Diver Scallops, Ramp Spatzle, Angel Hair Asparagus Bisque, Duo of Veal, White Truffle-Potato Dumplings, Baby Carrots and Boletus Mushrooms, Heirloom Lettuces and Candied Pumpkin Seeds, Spring Squash Carpaccio, Styrian Pumpkin Oil Vinaigrette, Raspberry Crisp and Mint Coulis.

Even though the pope won't be there, all the Catholics on the Supreme Court will, including Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Alito, and Thomas. And the big name tonight will be Tommy Lasorda, the former Dodgers manager.

Good news! I just saw the terrier.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

Today, Pope Benedict XVI’s first full day in the United States, is also the pontiff’s 81st birthday, and the day will feature a mix of pomp and substance.

The primary birthday celebration will be a lunch with the American cardinals – including Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston – at the nunciature, which is the Embassy Row manse of the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States. No word yet as to what will be on the menu.

But the two weightiest events of the day are a morning visit to the White House, at which the pope will meet privately for about 45 minutes in the Oval Office with President Bush, and an afternoon session with all the American bishops, at which the pope will deliver an address.

At the White House, a welcoming party of as many as 9,000 people are expected to gather on the South Lawn for what presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino described as “one of the largest arrival ceremonies ever held at the White House.’’ All the bells and whistles the White House can muster will be on display, including a 21-gun salute, a Marine band playing the national anthems of the Holy See and the United States, trumpets and flowers and, of course, dignitaries galore, including Vice President Dick Cheney, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, the Harvard law professor Bush chose to be his representative to the Holy See. The American soprano Kathleen Battle, who has had a long professional association with Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine, will sing "The Lord's Prayer" -- a song choice that Perino yesterday explained by saying "many people across America and across the world say that prayer in order to provide themselves comfort and confidence in getting their day started. And so we think it's perfectly appropriate."

Perino had quite a bit to say about expectations for the visit yesterday, and you can read more about that here.

The day promises to be picture perfect – the forecast for Washington today is sunny with a high of 69.

After the White House meeting, Benedict will take his first spin through town in his white Mercedes-Benz popemobile.

This evening, Benedict will lead a vespers service with the US bishops at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where he will also deliver a speech to the bishops.

The White House is holding a dinner in honor of the pope's visit, but he's not attending. Instead, at about 7:30 tonight, it's back to the nunciature for sleep.

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

By Globe Staff

A Harvard institute has included six Massachusetts programs on its list of the top 50 innovative government programs in America.

The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation singled out:

-- The town of Barnstable's efforts to deal with residential growth;
-- A Boston program designed to prevent foreclosures;
-- A Boston schools program designed to prepare excellent teachers;
-- A Suffolk County program designed to prevent teen prostitution;
-- A state program to simplify the paperwork for affordable housing developments; and
-- A state program under which state facilities agree to reduce their electrical demand when the electrical grid is under stress.

"We commend the innovative initiatives of these Top 50 Programs," Gowher Rizvi, director of the institute at the Harvard Kennedy School, said in a statement. "In their path to finding new ways for doing the public's business better, these programs are paving the way for nationwide -- and even global -- reform strategies."

(Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

Brown strides toward his plane at Heathrow Airport as he begins his trip to the United States, which will include a speech in Boston.

By Globe Staff

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston this Friday and deliver a foreign policy speech, a library spokesman said today.

"We're thrilled, absolutely," said spokesman Brent Carney, who offered no further details.

Brown will visit the United States for several days, making stops in New York, Washington, and Boston, said Joseph Pickerill, an official at the British consulate in Boston.

He said Brown, who has never given a speech before in the United States as prime minister, would give a major foreign policy address directed at an international audience.

Pope Benedict XVI touched down here at Andrews Air Force Base at about 3:50 p.m., and is now en route to the nunciature, the home of his ambassador to Washington, where he will spend the night.

He was greeted under a cloudless sky by a crowd of about 1,000 folks, many of them Air Force employees and their families, but also a lot of kids from a local Catholic high school, Archbishop McNamara, who had spent the day waiting on several reviewing stands set up along the tarmac.

The Alitalia plane dubbed Shepherd One, adorned with US and Vatican flags on its nose, taxied along a runway and pulled up in front of the reviewing stands precisely at 4 p.m., as scheduled. An honor guard and a variety of prelates and other dignitaries lined a red carpet rolled up to the plane's forward door. The pope, dressed in white robes and clutching his skullcap in his hand lest it blow away, waved and smiled. President and Mrs. Bush, joined by their daughter Jenna, greeted him as he descended. As he neared the crowd, he wiggled his fingers as he waved, but he did not approach the reviewing stands, and he made no public remarks.

The crowd was enthusiastic, waving flags and cheering. "It was amazing,'' said Vincent Harrington, a 16-year-old high school junior who was taking photos of the pope on his cellphone. "I got so many good pictures.''

The pope has no public events tonight. Tomorrow, his 81st birthday, he is to meet with President Bush at the White House, where as many as 12,000 people are to gather on the lawn to greet him -- the largest crowd at the White House during the Bush administration. The pope then is to take his first popemobile ride in the United States, to the nunciature, where he will have a birthday lunch; tomorrow late afternoon he is to meet with the US bishops.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all blog entries on the papal visit, go here.

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

A grand jury investigation has begun into the South Boston fire earlier this month that killed two young sisters, prosecutors said.

Acia Johnson, 14, and Sophia Johnson, 2, died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries in the April 6 fire that destroyed their home on West Sixth Street, police said today. Their deaths were ruled homicides.

"We'll be presenting evidence to that grand jury," said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

"We hope to get at the truth and determine who is responsible for the deaths of these two young innocent children."

The grand jury convened yesterday, Conley said. He declined to identify any suspects in the case.

(Tom Herde/Globe Staff/file 1997)

Patti Melchin, a postal worker, collected a tax return in 1997 from a motorist outside Fort Point Station. The same scene will play out tonight until midnight outside the 24-hour post office as procrastinators rush to make the tax deadline.

By Globe Staff

The increasing popularity of e-filing has eliminated one tax day tradition: post offices no longer have extended hours on April 15.

But that does not mean the United States Postal Service will not be working hard tonight to help procrastinators get their returns in the mail by midnight, said post office spokesman Bob Cannon.

Large post offices already stay open a little late in Woburn (6:30 p.m.); Worcester (6 p.m.); and Lowell and Lawrence (5:30 p.m.). At South Station in Boston, postal employees will be stamping mail in the lobby during the evening rush.

And for those that really push deadlines, there is Fort Point Station, the only post office in New England staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To help accommodate tonight’s rush, postal workers will be out at the intersection of Dorchester Avenue and Summer Street collecting returns from drivers.

(Craig Ruttle/AP)

New York City detectives led Carlos Cruz away from the 43d precinct in the Bronx today after he was arrested and charged in connection with the shooting death of Chelsea Frazier.

By Globe Staff

A Massachusetts man has been arrested in the killing of his girlfriend over the weekend in New York.

Carlos Cruz, 36, of Southbridge is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of Chelsea Frazier, 18, also of Southbridge. Cruz's cousin, Devon Miller, 25, of New York, is also charged with murder.

Frazier was found shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday in the driver's seat of her car in the Bronx with two gunshot wounds in her torso. She was shot while her 1-year-old son was in the back seat.

Police are not looking for any suspects other than Cruz and Miller, said a spokesman in the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information.

Cruz was the father of Frazier's child. He suffered a minor gunshot wound to the leg in the incident. He allegedly recruited his cousin to kill Frazier in a staged robbery of the couple, The New York Times reported today on its website.

(Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

The aftermath of the chase and crash.

By Globe Staff

A 46-year-old Quincy man remains hospitalized after leading police on a chase yesterday that began when he ran a stop sign in Quincy and ended with a crash on Interstate 93 in Boston.

John Sloane is being treated at Boston Medical Center so he could not be arraigned today in Quincy District Court on charges that include assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest, said Quincy Police Captain Michael Miller.

Sloane is undergoing a series of tests and cannot be arraigned until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest, said David Traub, spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney.

The rush-hour crash also injured two Quincy police officers. Miller said they were treated and released from the hospital.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Thousands of Massachusetts public high school graduates are failing placement tests in math and English when they arrive at college, forcing them to take noncredit, remedial classes and casting doubt on the MCAS exams as a measure of college readiness, according to a new state report.

The report, released jointly today by the departments of Elementary and Secondary Education and Higher Education, showed that the problem crossed socioeconomic lines, with large numbers of graduates from both urban and suburban districts unprepared for introductory college classes.

The media -- several hundred of us -- have now arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, just outside of Washington, to wait for the pope. There is a high school band warming up, and a few sun-drenched reviewing stands filling up mostly with Air Force employees and their families. Many of the kids are holding the yellow flags of the Holy See, as well as the stars and stripes, to wave when they see the president and the pope.

I managed to find two women from Massachusetts, both of them serving in the Air Force, both of them excited to see the pope, but also to see the president. "I've been in the Air Force for 22 years, and I have not been this close to my boss before,'' said Master Sergeant Barbara Poirier, 41, of North Attleborough. I wasn't sure whether she was referring to the pope or President Bush, but it turns out she meant the president, who is coming to Andrews to greet the pope. This will be the first time the president has gone to the airport to welcome a visitor (I mean in an official capacity, obviously). Poirier was seated next to Tech Sergeant Jennifer Taylor, 29, of New Bedford, who called this afternoon "a once in a lifetime experience, to see the pope and the president,'' Taylor said she had visited the Vatican as a tourist, but had missed seeing the pope.

A helpful Air Force official, noting that I was combing through the crowd of several hundred looking for New Englanders, kindly pointed out a guy in the back row wearing a Red Sox cap. That turned out to be Don DeSaulniers, 56, a retired civilian Air Force employee originally from Bellingham, but now living in Lusby, Md. Don was relatively taciturn, noting obliquely that his cap was causing him a lot of trouble, but his wife, Barbara, said the couple had considered going to see the pope at Nationals Park, but that the chance to watch from the tarmac meant they'd get a better view.

I also found an Arlington native in the crowd, Joyce Kearney, now of Laurel, Md., who told me she considered it "a blessing" to be able to be here. "I've lived to be 68, and I'm finally getting to see a pope,'' she said.

To read all the pope visit blog posts, check out this site.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

(Shawsheen School)

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

The mountain of 5,657 stuffed animals in the gymnasium at Andover’s Shawsheen School was more than twice the height of a second grader: A 10-foot mound of Beanie Babies, teddy bears, smiley alligators, and puffy dogs. There was a child-sized Winnie the Pooh, a 4-foot penguin, a 5-foot Bugs Bunny, and a stuffed gorilla the size of, well, a gorilla.

No, this was not some type of cathartic group therapy to help purge the tots of their attachment to stuffed toys. The elementary school collected the animals for charity and hoped in the process to set a new Guinness World Record. (The “largest gathering of plush toys” is a real category tracked by the London-based chronicler of all that is inane.)

For 12 years the magnet school has run a stuffed animal drive with its pre-kindergarten through second graders. The toys are given to a program that pairs tutors from Phillips Academy and Andover High School with middle school students from Lawrence. The bounty of stuffed bears and mice is also shared with children in northern Belize at hospitals, libraries, and orphanages.

By Globe Staff

State public health officials, noting that two people have already fallen ill, are asking people to take a look at their cereals to make sure they're not eating brands that could make them sick because those brands are contaminated with the salmonella bacteria.

The Food and Drug Administration announced earlier this month that Malt-O-Meal was voluntarily recalling its unsweetened puffed rice and puffed wheat cereals with "best if used by" dates ranging from April 2008 to March 2009 because of potential salmonella contamination.

The product was distributed nationally, both under the Malt-O-Meal brand and under other brand names, including Acme, America's Choice, Food Club, Giant, Hannaford, Jewel, Laura Lynn, Pathmark, Shaw's, Shoprite, Tops, and Weis Quality.

State public health officials said they found the products selling at Massachusetts retail stores, including under the Shaw's and Hannaford brand names.

By Globe Staff

A worker in a sewage tunnel being built in South Boston was hospitalized after reporting chest pains this morning and elevated levels of carbon monoxide were found in his blood, a Massachusetts Water Resources Authority spokeswoman said this afternoon.

But air monitors in the tunnel continued to show safe readings after the incident, which occurred about 11:15 a.m., and others on the crew of about 30 are continuing to work, said Ria Convery.

The man affected was the driver of the small locomotive that transports workers along the 2-mile tunnel, which is about halfway complete, Convery said.

Convery said the man’s job puts him “in pretty close contact” with the exhaust from the locomotive.

“They’ll examine the locomotive to see if anything’s wrong with it,” she said.

By Anna Badkhen, Globe Staff

Massachusetts victims of sexual abuse by priests reacted angrily to the statements Pope Benedict XVI made about the scandal, calling his comments “hollow” and not genuine.

“These words don’t mean anything,” said one victim, David Carney. “If you want to fix a problem, do something about it.”

Benedict called the abuse “a great suffering for the church in the United States and for the Church in general and for me personally.”

Greetings from Maryland, where I'll be blogging about the pope's visit today. The pope, Benedict XVI, is en route now from Rome Fiumicino, aboard a chartered Alitalia Boeing 777 dubbed, for the moment, Shepherd One. This is the pope's eighth trip during his three years in office, and his first to the US.

I'm on board a bus packed with reporters, driving from the Westin City Centre, which is the official media hotel, out to Andrews Air Force Base. Security is so tight that we had to gather on the sidewalk six hours before the pope is scheduled to arrive; happily, the Secret Service German shepherds did not eat the Wheat Thins I put in my messenger bag to help me get through the afternoon. There are multiple buses of media, and we're being escorted by a small motorcade of police -- which makes the trip much faster. Once we arrive at the tarmac, we'll be allowed to interview members of the Bishop McNamara High School band, from Maryland, which is going to play while the pope alights, and any dignitaries that are here to greet the pontiff. But we've been instructed not to cross the carpet on which the pope and President and Mrs. Bush will walk.

There are more than 5,000 reporters and other media folks credentialled to cover this trip, from all over the world. The other day, I was interviewed by the Dutch evening news. In the security line this morning I saw a reporter with a Vatican flag coming out of his green baseball cap. There are a lot of Catholic outlets represented, as well as the secular folks, and a lot of new media pioneers -- photographers wielding video cameras and reporters with blogging duties and so on. There are also a lot of interest groups critical of the pope who have gathered in Washington to call attention to their concerns; I ran into Barbara Blaine and Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests on an Amtrak train yesterday; today they're having a vigil at a parish where an abusive priest was stationed.

The pope is already making news -- in his traditional in-flight remarks to reporters, he used the most personal, and arguably the strongest, language yet used by a pontiff in reference to the abuse crisis, saying he is "deeply ashamed" by the abusive behavior of priests. Survivors are already reacting -- in Boston, attorney Mitchell Garabedian gathered some of his clients to comment, and Peter Isely, a SNAP official, immediately issued a statement calling for action rather than words, saying, "Benedict has done essentially what John Paul II did - make a few vague, brief remarks about the continuing crisis, and nothing more."

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

To read all the posts on the papal visit, go here.

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick paid homage to an annual rite of spring today by helping 700 little fish find their way in a big new pond.

No, he was not showing freshman legislators around the marble halls of Beacon Hill. Patrick was on the muddy bank of Jamaica Pond releasing hatchery-raised trout in their new home.

The photo op with schoolchildren and environmental officials was meant to highlight the annual effort to stock about 500 Massachusetts lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and streams with fish raised at hatcheries operated by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

(Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

Mayor Thomas Menino (center) and Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (right) listened today at a summit on illegal guns to
Joe Samaha, the father of Reema Samaha, who was shot and killed at Virginia Tech.

By Globe Staff

Mayor Thomas M. Menino told a congressional task force this morning that Boston police have recovered 202 guns this year that have been used to commit crimes despite the city’s strict firearms laws.

The majority of those guns were illegal and as many as 60 percent came from other states with weaker laws, he said.

“Illegal guns know no borders,” Menino said, according to prepared remarks provided by his staff. “This only reinforces the need for common sense federal action to help close these gaps and protect our police, our residents and our community.”

By David Abel
Globe Staff

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has denounced Harvard University for photographing protesters at a political rally last month near Harvard Square during which university police arrested two protesters.

Officials at the ACLU also want Harvard to explain why an undercover officer was taking photographs at the rally, what the university intends to do with the photos, and whether it is sharing information with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces, as have universities around the country.

“The concern we have is that Harvard police were gathering intelligence about a lawful political protest on public property,” said John Reinstein, the ACLU’s legal director. “A university is a place where we would expect there’s room for political discussion, where appropriate protests would be allowed, as part of academic freedom. We want to find out the scope of the university’s activities.”

In a statement, Joe Wrinn, a Harvard spokesman, said the university is not participating with the Joint Terrorism Task Forces and that it does not have a political intelligence unit or an undercover unit.

By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff

Sculptor and painter, inventor and writer, Kahlil Gibran nourished creativity since he was old enough to mold clay with his hands, sometimes selling for pennies the tiny animals he fashioned while sitting on a curb in the South End when he was only 4.

"I believe talent is a grace," he told the Globe in 1967. "You don't deny it, you don't affirm it. But if you don't work at it, you can lose it. The only sin is in squandering talent."

Internationally honored for his work, Mr. Gibran was at home in many disciplines. From Copley Square to the South End and Jamaica Plain, his outdoor sculptures trace a map of Boston's neighborhoods. A tripod he designed is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. His paintings, drawings, and sculptures are in galleries, museums, and private collections across the country. And with his wife he penned a biography of his cousin, the poet Kahlil Gibran, who wrote "The Prophet" and for whom Mr. Gibran was named.

Robust and active until his final hours, Mr. Gibran died early Sunday in Massachusetts General Hospital of heart failure, not long after going to the emergency room because he was feeling ill. He was 85 and had lived in the South End most of his life.

(AP Photo/FBI/file 1995)

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

Former New England Mafia boss Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme pleaded guilty today to lying and obstruction of justice as part of a deal that may allow him to be released from prison by the end of January.

Salemme wore a charcoal-colored suit and a blue tie in US District Court this afternoon and took no chances as he formally entered his plea. He had mistakenly told Judge Richard Stearns that he was already 75 years old, and made it clear he did not want to be accused again of making a false statement.

“I want to make one correction,” Salemme said. “I won’t be 75 until Aug. 18th. Anything can happen, your honor.”

Stearns scheduled sentencing for July 15. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have both recommended that he serve five years in prison. With credit for the time he has served since his arrest on the charges in November 2004, plus earned good time, Salemme could be released by the end of January, prosecutors said.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Shawn Drumgold told a federal jury today that prison inmates and correction officers repeatedly beat him and called him a "child killer" during the more than 14 years he spent in prison in the killing of 12-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore.

With the number 5,182 displayed on courtroom computer screens to underscore the number of days he was wrongfully imprisoned after the 1989 conviction, Drumgold said his time behind bars was an ordeal for himself and his family.

"I was terrified when I first got to Walpole,'' said Drumgold, 42, referring to MCI-Cedar Junction, where he was brought on Friday the 13th in October, immediately after a Suffolk County jury convicted him. "It was probably one of the most scariest moments of my life. I was 24 years old.''

Drumgold, subdued and occasionally tearful, described the sound of clanging prison doors, the attacks one can provoke by accidentally taking an inmate's seat without permission at the chow hall, the repeated head counts correction officers make each day, and the desperation he said he felt knowing his daughter was growing up without him.

Drumgold testified for about 45 minutes as his legal team sought to persuade a jury in US District Court in Boston that a retired Boston police detective, Timothy Callahan, was responsible for his wrongful conviction and that the former inmate should receive damages. Drumgold was released after a judge concluded in 2003 that he was wrongfully convicted.

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

An engineering firm hired to inspect the Big Dig tunnels following the July 2006 fatal ceiling collapse recommended today that the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority install about 900 new support anchors in the Ted Williams Tunnel.

The anchors would be a backup in 250-foot sections near the tunnel entrances that are impossible to inspect because they were designed without a crawl space. The new supports would fortify epoxy bolts, which were blamed for the fatal ceiling collapse in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel.

"We think this is a viable alternative, cost-wise," said Gary Klein, an engineering consultant from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, which was hired to review all of the authority's roads, tunnels, and bridges.

By Noah Bierman and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority recognized a sunny milestone today at its monthly meeting, a typically drab gathering in a boardroom that tackles subjects as exciting as implementation consulting verification.

The recipient of the good news was the smiley Janet Athens, a 50-year-old mother of six from Lexington. Athens was lucky enough to buy the one millionth Fast Lane transponder sold by the Pike since 1998, when it launched its automatic toll collection system.

“No balloons. No confetti. No trip to Disney World,” Athens said by telephone after the meeting. “But I got a turnpike hat and a turnpike coffee mug.”

The souvenirs, which include the roadway’s signature pilgrim hat, were given as part of an effort to increase the use of Fast Lane. When Athens stepped forward to receive the accolades, Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen could not resist a cliché.

“Welcome to the Fast Lane,” Cohen said.

Athens smiled. “This is fun,” she said.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A disoriented firefighter made a mayday call this morning when he became trapped in a Dorchester basement brimming with heavy smoke and flames as crews battled a four-alarm blaze near Codman Square.

"There were some anxious moments," said spokesman Steve MacDonald of the Boston Fire Department.

Officials immediately stopped fighting the blaze on Colonial Avenue and ordered crews out of the six-family apartment house. The firefighter trapped in the basement was able to find his way outside and everyone was accounted for, MacDonald said.

Smoke detectors alerted residents to the fire, which appeared to be emanating from the basement. The exact origin and cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

(Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)

By Globe Staff

The new advertisements on the T offer plays on words that are not intended to be funny.

"Rub against me and I'll expose you," says one poster that shows a young woman squeezed between faceless bodies on a train. Another has a picture of a surveillance camera and the warning: “Flash someone and you’ll be exposed.”

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority launched a new public service campaign today to increase awareness of sexual harassment on public transit, and to encourage victims to report such events.

The campaign comes after a 16-year-old Boston Latin School student snapped a cellphone picture in December of a man who had allegedly been exposing himself to riders on the Green Line. Police arrested a Newton man, whom neighbors identified after police publicized the picture.

A Globe story on Sunday found that many riders praised the ads.

Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

A woman was injured when a car jumped the curb at a Chelmsford convenience store this morning and smashed into the building.

Police do not know what caused the driver, a Chelmsford man, to crash into the Boston Road building at 11:22, said Lieutenant Edward Smith of the Chelmsford Police.

The woman who was injured was taken to Lahey Clinic in Burlington for treatment. Police said the crash was under investigation.

No further information was available this evening, Smith said.

By Jamie Vaznis, Globe Staff

The kids may balk. But don’t throw away those booster seats yet.

Children will have to ride in baby seats or booster seats until they turn 8 years old, under a new law signed today by Governor Deval Patrick. (Though some will be able to avoid the requirement, if they are at least four feet nine inches tall.)

"This is a common sense piece of legislation that will go a long way in ensuring more children will be protected on the road," said Cyndi Roy, a governor's spokeswoman.

The purpose of the booster seat, which is used as children get larger, is to position the safety belt across the child’s shoulder rather than the neck.

Under the previous law, children were only required to be in child seats until they turned 5 or weighed more than 40 pounds.

Firefighters battle a blaze at the Jefferson Village apartments in Framingham earlier today.
(Globe staff photo by Suzanne Kreiter)

By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff

Thick, inky smoke flooding the hallways of a Framingham apartment building forced firefighters to pluck residents off balconies with ladder trucks and sent six people to the hospital during a three-alarm fire this afternoon, public safety officials said.

Three residents of the Jefferson Village apartments and three firefighters were transported to local hospitals, but none of their injuries were considered serious, Framingham Police Lt. Paul Shastany said. A fourth firefighter was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation but returned to duty.

Shastany said the intense smoke caused a "nightmare" scenario for firefighters by making it tough to find the source of the blaze and slowing efforts to evacuate residents, many of them elderly.

"I have never seen a fire scene in my 32 years where they (firefighters) used up so many air packs," he said. The firefighters who were injured had used up their air."

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

The search for a new chancellor for the University of Massachusetts’ flagship campus in Amherst was narrowed this afternoon to four finalists, including one from an overseas university.

The finalists are:
-- Martin Hall, deputy vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town in South Africa;
-- Robert C. Holub, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee;
-- Harris Pastides, vice president for research and health sciences at the University of South Carolina and executive director of the University of South Carolina Research Foundation; and
-- Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Jack M. Wilson, president of UMass, said an interview he expects to choose a candidate for the job in about two weeks, after each of the finalists visits the Amherst campus and meets with various stakeholders, including faculty and students. Wilson’s pick will have to be confirmed by the UMass Board of Trustees.

By Globe Staff

Only about four out of 10 Massachusetts residents approve of the job Governor Deval Patrick is doing, according to a poll conducted for a Boston television station.

The poll conducted by SurveyUSA for WBZ-TV found that 41 percent of those contacted approved, while 49 percent disapproved, of Patrick’s performance. Another 9 percent were not sure.

Jon Keller, the station’s political analyst, said recent stories about the governor shopping a book proposal in New York while his casino proposal was defeated at the State House didn’t help his popularity.

But he also pointed out that the survey found that only 3 percent of those surveyed felt the state’s economy was strong. He suggested that Patrick might be taking some of the blame for the “economic anxiety” being felt by the populace.

(AP Photo/Brendan Hoffman)

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Few would call Mayor Thomas Menino a bright-eyed, fresh faced politico. The Democrat has held office for the last 24 years in Boston, including a four-term run in the corner office at City Hall.

That did not stop a Washington think tank from bestowing the mayor with a curious honor: “New Democrat of the Week.”

Menino earned the distinction from the Democratic Leadership Council after he testified before a Congressional committee Thursday on the mortgage and foreclosure crisis. He was advocating a bill that would provide $10 billion in loans and grants to help communities buy abandoned homes.

By Globe Staff

About 45,000 residences and businesses lost power briefly this afternoon in the Lowell area.

The outage happened at about 1:30 p.m. All the customers had their power restored by 3 p.m., said Debbie Drew, a spokeswoman for National Grid.

Drew said a transmission line that serves the area had broken down. Parts of Lowell, Pelham, N.H., Tewksbury, Chelmsford, Dracut, Tyngsborough, and Concord were affected.

“This was a relatively short outage and we were able to bring most of those customers back very quickly,” she said. She said officials were looking into the cause of the power failure.

By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff

The state's highest court granted a victory to developers in a pair of decisions released today involving the controversial Chapter 40B statute, which was designed to promote construction of affordable housing around the state.

The law allows affordable housing developers to bypass most local zoning rules and pursue a streamlined approval process in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing is affordable.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in two cases in which developers who had applied to build 40B developments were told by towns, while their proposals were pending, that the town had reached the 10 percent level -- and thus zoning rules were back in force.

Developers argued that the rules should not be changed on them in mid-stream.

The SJC upheld a state regulation that said if the 10 percent level had not been reached by the time the local zoning board ruled on the project, the Chapter 40B provisions would apply -- and could not be revoked.

"There was fear in the industry that towns that were particularly unhappy with a particular project would actually go and help another developer get to the finish line sooner so they could safely deny the one they didn't like," said Paul D. Wilson, a Boston attorney who has represented developers for over 20 years.

(Jim Sears/Springfield Republican)

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A second child died today from burns suffered in a small apartment fire in Holyoke, a blaze that investigators believe was ignited by her 6-year-old brother who was playing with a lighter.

Nine-month-old Emily Aguire died at 1:30 p.m. in the intensive care unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, said Holyoke Fire Chief David LaFond. Her 4-year-old brother, Daniel Cruz, was also killed in the blaze Thursday night in a second-floor apartment on Beech Street.

Investigators believe that the fire was lit by Angel Cruz, 6, who used the lighter to ignite tissues on a nightstand in a bedroom where he was playing with his siblings, LaFond said. The flames spread to the nightstand and jumped to a bed, where 9-month-old Emily lay.

Angel Cruz ran to tell his 16-year-old baby-sitter about the flames, but it was too late to save Daniel, who died Thursday night at Bay State Medical Center after inhaling the noxious smoke, LaFond said. Emily was flown with severe burns to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she died today. Angel Cruz was in good condition this morning at Bay State Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

By Globe Staff

Anti-smoking activists are hailing a $175 million cigarette tax increase passed last night by the Massachusetts House. They say it could save thousands of lives.

"Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in Massachusetts and the data is irrefutable: increasing the price of tobacco products decreases tobacco use, particularly among young people," Marc Hymovitz, director of government relations for the American Cancer Society, said in a statement.

The society also applauded the dedication of the revenues to pay for healthcare costs, which have soared under the state's new healthcare reform law, saying the House had struck "successive blows against cancer in the Commonwealth."

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

New Bedford students on a missionary trip to Haiti will likely be allowed to fly home as scheduled Saturday because violent protests have abated on the impoverished island.

The 16-member team from Nazarene Christian Academy had been locked in a missionary compound outside from Port-au-Prince while Haitians rioted over rising food prices. The group includes five high school seniors who were in the country for a "work and witness" trip.

“We have been informed … that the riots have been subsiding,” Principal Susan Helm said today when reached by phone in New Bedford. “The embassy will be releasing the Haiti team on time tomorrow.”

Helm’s husband, the Rev. Jon Helm, is part of the group. She said today that Charles DeTellis, a representative of the New Missions program in Haiti, informed school officials that the group would be allowed to leave on time. They were calling family members this afternoon to share the news.

By Globe Staff

The state Legislature has sent a bill to the desk of Governor Deval Patrick that would allow town meetings in June, which supporters say would give towns more time to mull their budgets -- and better information on which to base their decisions.

“We heard more and more from selectboards and finance committees that they needed a little extra time,” said State Senator Benjamin Downing, a Pittsfield Democrat.

Downing said he represented a number of towns that belonged to regional school districts and assembling and agreeing upon budgets in those towns is a difficult, complex task.

By Globe Staff

Two utility workers suffered minor burns early this morning during a flash fire in a manhole near Downtown Crossing.

Firefighters responded to Summer and Otis streets at 2:28 a.m., said fire spokesman Steve MacDonald. The two NStar workers were treated for minor burns, said NStar spokesman Michael Durand.

News accounts describing the fire as an explosion were inaccurate, Durand said.

“This was more of an electrical flash,” Durand said. “We are still investigating but it appears that it was a faulty cable.”

In September a steam pipe burst in a manhole near the intersection of Summer and Otis streets and spewed asbestos-laden debris into the air. The site of this morning's flash fire was a completely different manhole, Durand said.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts House tonight approved $392 million in tax increases for smokers and the state’s largest corporations, giving Governor Deval Patrick a major political victory while drawing fire from business leaders.

The legislators’ 131-23 vote capped a long crusade by Patrick and his allies in the Legislature, who convinced House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi to back away from a more business-friendly plan and approve the state’s most momentous tax hike since 2002.

It also ended two days of furious lobbying by banks and business groups and marked a legislative victory by the governor, who has been trying to improve his fortunes after the defeat of his plan to license resort casinos.

‘‘We appreciate the House’s willingness to move closer to the governor’s proposal,’’ said Doug Rubin, the governor’s chief of staff. ‘‘For us to see that enacted is a good example of everybody working together.’’

The proposals would tighten corporate tax laws and prohibit several practices the governor called ‘‘loopholes,’’ bringing in $217 million next year. It would also raise $175 million by increasing the state’s cigarette tax by $1 per pack, to $2.51.

By John Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

Police are asking for the public’s help in finding an 81-year-old Waltham woman who has been missing since April 3.

Marguerite Jean took a taxi to Boston and was scheduled to take a bus to New York, but hasn’t been seen since, a Waltham Police dispatcher said.

Jean is black, stands 5 feet 4, and weighs 180 pounds. Her pocketbook was found on Beacon Street recently, but there has been no other sign of her.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call Waltham Police at 781-314-3600.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Amherst College has extended its need-blind admission policy to international students, an unusual step designed to attract strong applicants from around the world.

Beginning with next year's admission cycle, the liberal arts college will now evaluate foreign applicants without regard to their ability to pay. Amherst already agrees to meet the financial need of all admitted students.

Many top-tier schools have need-blind policies for American students. But just seven others have adopted such policies for international students, Amherst officials said. Foreign students are also ineligible for federal grants.

(Essdras M Suarez/Boston Globe)

Northeastern University students Jeff Eaton and Ariana Vito climbed a tree today in Fens along Park Drive.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

It had been 165 consecutive days since the temperature last hit 70 degrees in Boston, a stretch of more than five bleak months of dreary snow, rain, sleet, and cold. It was Oct. 27, the Red Sox were preparing to play the third game of the World Series in Colorado, and a long winter lay ahead.

That gloomy, psychological barrier was broken today at 1:31 p.m., when the dazzling warmth crested at 71 degrees at Logan International Airport. Forget flower buds, chirping birds, and March 20. The first 70-degree day signifies the true coming of spring.

Boston Common was flooded by Frisbee players and workers in business suits eating sack lunches on park benches and sitting on the grass. A busker played guitar outside near Park Street Station. Children wore shorts and T-shirts. Drivers rolled down car windows.

At the Needham Garden Center, a surge of customers came looking for fertilizer and a place to get lawnmowers tuned up.

“It’s 70 degrees,” said Garrett Graham, owner of the Garden Center. “A perfect day.”

(Peter Kramer/AP)

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Stephen King, the master of horror novels, has weighed in against a proposal pending in the Massachusetts Legislature to ban violent video games.

King, in a column appearing in the April 11 issue of Entertainment Weekly titled "Videogame Lunacy," said it's up to parents to monitor their kids.

"Parents need to have the guts to forbid material they find objectionable ... and then explain why it's being forbidden," he said. "They also need to monitor their children's lives in the pop culture -- which means a lot more than seeing what games they're renting down the street."

He noted comments by Rep. Christine Canavan, D-Brockton, one of the bill's co-sponsors, that she didn't want a constant barrage of violence on young minds.

"It's a good point ... except that it seems to me that the games only reflect a violence that already exists in society," wrote King, who is the magazine's pop culture columnist.

"Who am I to argue with the king of horror?" said Canavan. "But seriously, I still feel that when someone with a developing mind and a developing sense of self is barraged with a particular thing, such as violence, that it would rub off the wrong way."

By Globe Staff

A robbery suspect being pursued by police late last night ducked into Boston’s Public Garden and tried to elude officers by diving headfirst into the pond used by the swan boats.

The suspect perched on a small rocky island in the Lagoon, while police surrounded him. He eventually left the pond -- where pedal-powered boats have charmed tourists for more than 120 years -- and surrendered, said Officer James Kenneally, a police spokesman.

Timothy Flaherty, 51, of Lawrence allegedly robbed a woman at about 11:33 p.m. Wednesday on Beacon Hill, then was pursued by police onto Boston Common and into the adjacent Public Garden.

He faces charges that include unarmed robbery, assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest, Kenneally said.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Shawn Drumgold's civil rights lawsuit against the Boston Police is still alive, but barely.

The day after a federal jury all but cleared two former city detectives who were sued for allegedly violating Drumgold's right to a fair trial in an infamous 1988 murder, US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner today allowed the case to continue on the only one of 11 claims in which jurors sided with Drumgold.

The jury found that one of the detectives, Timothy Callahan, violated Drumgold's civil rights by concealing that Callahan gave a crucial prosecution witness cash before the witness testified at the 1989 murder trial.

Drumgold was convicted of murdering 12-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore and served 15 years before several witnesses recanted in 2003 and a state judge, concluding he was wrongfully convicted, threw out the verdict.

Callahan's lawyer, Mary Jo Harris, argued this morning that the detective admitted in the federal lawsuit that he gave Ricky Evans, a homeless teenager, $20. Evans later testified that he saw Drumgold near the scene where Moore was felled by two stray bullets in an apparent gang shooting

But Harris urged the judge to throw out the sole verdict in Drumgold's favor because, she said, such a small sum could not have tipped the case against Drumgold.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

A state judge has granted a mistrial in a case against a man who is accused of poisoning his wife by lacing her Gatorade with antifreeze because a medical expert for the defense underwent emergency surgery.

A new trial date for James Keown has been set for June 9.

Jurors had been selected and sworn in last week and were slated to hear opening arguments in Middlesex Superior Court on Monday. After two days of delays, Judge Geraldine Hines declared a mistrial on Wednesday. Defense lawyers told the judge that a medical expert critical to their case underwent emergency surgery in Indianapolis over the weekend and couldn't make the trip to Massachusetts to testify.

Keown, 33, a former radio talk show host in Missouri, is accused of killing his 31-year-old wife, Julie, on Sept. 8, 2004, while the couple was living in Waltham by repeatedly giving her Gatorade and other drinks and food that had been laced with antifreeze.

By Globe Staff

A Milford man is facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence after his conviction yesterday in federal court of harboring and employing illegal aliens, federal law enforcement officials said.

Daniel Tacuri, 32, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of harboring illegal aliens and 18 counts of employing illegal aliens.

He faces a possible sentence of 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release on the harboring charge, as well as six months in prison for each employment charge. He could also be subject to thousands of dollars in fines.

Documents found during the investigation indicated that Tacuri, an Ecuadoran national who owned a roofing business, employed a number of illegal aliens and they lived either at his home or at other locations provided by him, authorities said.

Judge F. Dennis Saylor set sentencing for July 11, the US Attorney's Office and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a joint statement.

By Globe Staff

The state’s highest court has rejected a challenge to the state’s open and gross lewdness law that was brought by attorneys for a woman who was charged with the crime for dancing nude in a protest in Harvard Square.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that the law is a “legitimate content neutral restriction on expressive activity.”

The woman was arrested during an anti-Christmas protest, which takes place every year on June 25. A District Court Judge allowed her motion to dismiss the case after finding that the state’s open and gross lewdness law was an unconstitutional “blanket prohibition against public nudity.”

(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

Frank McDonough recently fielded a hot line call. Mayor Menino earlier this week appointed a special assistant to oversee the handling of complaints.

By Globe Staff

Boston city councilors will hold a City Hall hearing today to discuss the mayor's citizen complaint hot line.

Councilor Sam Yoon, chairman of the Post Audit and Oversight Committee, began preparing the hearing in February. But it is especially timely after a Boston Sunday Globe article detailing the frustrations of some callers, his office said.

"I called this hearing to make sure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely, and to create a more open, responsive, and better city government," Yoon said in a statement.

Mayor Thomas Menino's office on Monday announced the appointment of Pat Harrington, a special assistant to the mayor, to oversee the handling of complaints.

The Globe reported that citizen complaints -- about everything from burned-out street lights to missed trash pickups -- have fallen by the wayside as the city works to implement a new system to track caller complaints.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

A fire department hazardous materials team is investigating a chemical spill this morning in the basement of the Science Center at Harvard University, a school spokesman said.

The spill occurred near the building’s heating and cooling system and did not involve any substances from a science laboratory, said spokesman Joe Wrinn.

No injuries have been reported. The Science Center was evacuated and the fire department has closed portions of Kirkland and Oxford streets while they investigate.

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

A 21-year-old Plymouth man was sentenced today in federal court to 13 years in prison and three years of probation for setting fire to a Plymouth church, federal prosecutors said.

Caleb Uriah Lussier must also pay $116,407 to the New Testament Church of Cedarville, the nondenominational Plymouth church that he torched, US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan's office said in a statement.

Lussier, formerly a student at a New York Bible school, pleaded guilty to charges of using fire to damage religious property, a federal felony.

Lussier doused the building's carpets with gasoline and ignited a fire at about 2 a.m., Dec. 28, 2005.

Lussier had stacked the Bibles from the church outside. Tucked into one of the books was a note of apology. "I am sorry this had to happen, but you brought it upon yourself," Lussier wrote, according to prosecutors.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Island Airlines, which ferries passengers and freight between Hyannis and Nantucket, delayed or canceled three flights today as it discussed with the Federal Aviation Administration whether it needed to upgrade the transponders on five of its seven planes.

W. Scott LaForge, the airline's president and chief executive, said the airline grounded the five planes, but received permission from the FAA in the mid-afternoon to keep flying the whole fleet. Upgraded equipment was installed in one of the grounded planes. He said the airline is waiting for a definitive ruling from the FAA on what it must do about the remaining four.

He argued that the next-generation equipment is unnecessary on the route flown by his planes -- and expensive. But FAA New England spokeswoman Arlene Salac said the agency, "looking to the future," wants the equipment installed.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

As Catholics anticipate the arrival next week of Pope Benedict XVI on his first papal trip to the US, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley today sought to lower expectations for the 80-year-old pontiff, declaring in an open letter to area Catholics, "the Holy Father is not a celebrity or a rock star."

"He is a Shepherd and represents Christ, the Good Shepherd, who commanded Peter: 'Feed my Sheep','' wrote O'Malley, who is the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston. "Pope Benedict is coming to feed us in our hunger for God and for truth."

O'Malley is planning to travel to Washington and New York to be with the pope, who is scheduled to visit those cities next week. And another 3,000 Boston Catholics are planning to travel to New York on April 20 for a Mass celebrated by Benedict XVI at Yankee Stadium.

"I write this letter to ask you to pray for the spiritual success of the Holy Father’s visit,'' O'Malley said. "At the same time, I urge all my fellow Catholics to listen attentively to the message that the Pope will address to us."

To see all pope visit blog entries, visit this site.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Staff

His remarks on the economy are closely watched by investors. But Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, will give a different kind of speech in June, dispensing wisdom to students about to graduate at Harvard College Class Day.

Class Day, a less-formal graduation celebration that traditionally takes place the day before the school's commencement ceremony, will be June 4 at 2 p.m. in the school's Tercentenary Theatre.

Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1975.

A police photo of the grenade and detonator after it had been removed.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

An 8-year-old boy in Dennis came to school with an inert World War II-era grenade in his backpack this morning, causing consternation and leading to the evacuation of the school for about half an hour.

The device found at the Ezra H. Baker Elementary School at about 9:20 a.m. was an Mk2 "pineapple" grenade. Its explosive charge had been removed, Dennis police said in a statement this afternoon.

Dennis police said they took the device into custody and then turned it over to the State Police bomb squad for disposal.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A federal jury today all but cleared two Boston Police detectives who were sued for allegedly violating the civil rights of Shawn Drumgold in the investigation of the 1988 fatal shooting of 12-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore, one of the city's most notorious murders in the past quarter century.

On the fourth day of deliberations, the jury in US District Court in Boston found that Timothy Callahan and Richard Walsh, who have since retired from the force, did not violate Drumgold's right to a fair trial in 10 separate instances by allegedly manipulating evidence, withholding information that could have cleared him, or conspiring against him.

Drumgold served 15 years in prison for the murder until several witnesses recanted in 2003 and a state judge threw out the verdict.

The federal jury did, however, find that Callahan violated Drumgold's civil rights in one remaining instance by concealing from him that the detective gave a crucial prosecution witness what the verdict slip called "a substantial amount of money'' before he testified at trial. Callahan testified at the federal trial that he gave $20 to Ricky Evans, a homeless teenager who implicated Drumgold; Evans testified it was more.

Callahan's city-hired lawyer, Mary Jo Harris, immediately asked US District Judge Nancy Gertner to set aside the verdict concerning that allegation. She said the amount of money that Evans allegedly received could not have been sufficient to result in his wrongful conviction.

Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

A Catholic elementary school in Lowell was closed today after a flu outbreak kept 58 of the school’s 465 students out of school yesterday. Eight teachers were also out sick from St. Louis Elementary School.

“Out of an abundance of caution and because the school was concerned about having an appropriate number of staff, they made the decision to close for today,” Terrence C. Donilon, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, said in an e-mail today. “We fully expect the school to reopen tomorrow.”

The school’s maintenance team will provide additional cleaning to minimize chances of a future outbreak and the archdiocese’s Catholic Schools Office has been informed of the school closing and will coordinate any additional support needed, Donilon said.

The Globe's religion writer, Michael Paulson, is fielding questions about the pope and his visit to the US. If you have a question, please send it along.

Two questions on a similar topic about the welcoming ceremony at the White House:

Q. What’s with the confederate flag?? Who’s flying it and why is it allowed at the white house lawn?? Esp. in a pic with the pres and the pope.. So distasteful. -- C.M., Boston
Q. I'm curious about the decision of the Pope and Mr. Bush to appear jointly in front of a Confederate flag yesterday while speaking at the White House. I'm also surprised at the media's lack of coverage of this curious and, in my opinion, disgraceful act, and any explanation of what possible meaning we should take from it. -- D.S., Weymouth

A.These questions were triggered by the following photo, which ran on Boston.com:

I figured this must be a state flag, but I e-mailed the White House to check; it turns out the image is from the state flag of Mississippi, which resembles the stars and bars. Here's an explanatory photo that the White House was kind enough to send along.

Q: I have heard a rumor that the disgraced former Cardinal of Boston, Bernard Law, may be accompanying Pope Benedict on his visit to the USA, April 15 - 20. Have you heard anything to that effect? Just wondering -- 'cause if it is true, that would explain why the Pope did not agree to visit Boston while on this trip -- he's afraid of violent protests. Could you check into that -- and give Boston Globe readers a 'heads up' if there is any truth to this rumor?
-- DO, Stoneham

A: I checked this out, and I'm told that Cardinal Law, who now lives and works in Rome overseeing a basilica there, is not accompanying the pope to the US.

For full coverage of the papal visit, check out boston.com/pope.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff/file)

Robert Turner, shown above at his 2006 arraignment, pleaded guilty today in Suffolk Superior Court.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Robert Turner admitted today he was inside a Dorchester basement recording studio and saw a close friend kill four young men in one of the bloodiest crimes in recent Boston history.

Speaking in Suffolk Superior Court, Turner apologized to relatives of the four men for not stopping Calvin Carnes Jr., the man accused of methodically shooting the victims 15 times from behind with a 9mm handgun.

"I was raised to be strong and to stand up for what's right," Turner said before he was sentenced to serve 13 years behind bars. "My actions were wrong.”

The 21-year-old from Boston pleaded guilty to four counts of being an accessory after the fact of murder and possession of three illegal firearms: a 9mm Glock semiautomatic handgun, a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, and an AK-47 assault rifle. Carnes, a 21-year-old from Dorchester who is awaiting trial for armed robbery and four counts of murder, is due back in court in May.

Turner's apology today came after the mother of one of his victims, Edwin Duncan, 21, tried to describe the pain she and her family have endured since the killings in her Bourneside Street home on Dec. 13, 2005.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

A $550,000 initiative to increase Boston’s solar energy output fiftyfold by 2015 was unveiled today by top city and federal officials at Fenway Park, where a solar heating system will be installed in May.

The effort -- funded by a mix of city, state, and federal money -- will include mapping the city to identify ideal rooftops for photovoltaic panels. Dubbed “Solar Boston,” the initiative will also work to market and obtain solar energy systems across the city.

“I congratulate the City of Boston and its partners for their efforts to truly integrate solar energy into their planning processes and into the daily life of the people who live and work in the city,” said US Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, who joined Mayor Thomas Menino at the announcement. “Together we can make clean, abundant, and affordable solar energy the norm, and no longer an ‘alternative’ source of energy.”

At Fenway Park the solar panels that will be installed in May will heat 37 percent of the hot water needed at the stadium, reducing the annual carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 18 tons, according to National Grid.

(AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- Governor Deval Patrick tried to calm fears of a looming recession with a speech today that highlighted the strengths of the Massachusetts economy and outlined his $3.8 billion bond proposal to put people to work by repairing 411 deteriorating bridges.

While emphasizing restrained spending and budget cuts, Patrick also warned that government must take action that will move the state's economy forward.

“By acting now, we can cut that deficient bridges backlog in half in eight years, avoid construction inflation, and create thousands of jobs,” Patrick said. “Our plan to address deficient bridges will have shovels in the ground and people at work in 90 days.”

The address at MIT's Sloan School of Management was the first economic outline Patrick has presented since the Legislature defeated his plan to create tens of thousands of jobs by licensing three casinos around the state. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray attended the speech, giving at least symbolic support to the governor’s plan.

Patrick also announced the creation of 16 regional districts throughout the state where his administration will help streamline new developments, a plan based on the redevelopment of Fort Devens in Ayer.

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

The surprise in the envelope may be worse than you think.

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Drivers would be slapped with tickets as high as $100 for violating the city's parking rules in a series of steep increases in fines that would generate an additional $13 million in revenue, under the mayor's proposed budget for the new fiscal year that begins in July.

Mayor Thomas M, Menino's $2.42 billion fiscal 2009 budget hikes city spending by 5.1 percent and keeps funding for basic services largely untouched while sprinkling new cash into several community initiatives. The budget -- and new fines -- must be approved by the City Council.

Menino said the increases for parking violations, such as doubling the penalty for parking in a handicapped ramp from $50 to $100, are overdue.

"This budget shows stability at a time of real uncertainty," Menino said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "We have got to raise some new revenues to maintain that stability. Some of these fines haven't been raised in over a decade."

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

A Brandeis University alumnus has pledged $15 million to the university, the largest gift from a graduate in the school’s history, the university announced today.

Donald Soffer, a real estate developer and founder of Turnberry Associates in Florida, gave the gift, which officials said would help fund the continuing construction of the Carl J. Shapiro Science Center at the university’s Waltham campus.

The school will name for Soffer the atrium of the 175,000-square-foot science center, which is the centerpiece of the The Campaign for Brandeis’s science initiative, officials said.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

A 15-year-old Kingston girl was seriously injured when she was hit by a pickup truck this morning, police said.

The Kingston police and fire departments responded around 7 a.m. to the accident in the area near Wilder Road, Sergeant Zachary Potrykus said.

The girl was still underneath the 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup truck driven by Ryan Lynch, 17, also of Kingston, when rescuers arrived, he said.

Lynch is facing charges, but they have not been determined yet, according to Potrykus. The victim was taken by helicopter to Boston Medical Center, according to the Fire Department, but her condition was not available last night.

Witnesses told police the girl was struck while trying to cross a street.

By Keith O'Brien, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Municipal Association severed ties today with the Anti-Defamation League’s embattled No Place For Hate program, reigniting a debate that had gone quiet recently over the ADL’s position on the World War I-era Armenian genocide.

In a unanimous vote, the board of directors at the association, a nonprofit advocacy group for Massachusetts cities and towns, expressed “strong disapproval” of the ADL for failing to unequivocally acknowledge the Armenian genocide at a national meeting last November, according to a statement released yesterday.

"Unequivocal recognition," the association’s board of directors said, “is both a matter of basic justice to its victims as well as essential to the efforts to prevent future genocides.”

“We think this is an issue on which there can be no equivocation,” said Jonathan Hecht, a Watertown town councilor and member of the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s board of directors. “My personal view,” he added, “is that No Place For Hate is not credible as long as the ADL is unable to unequivocally recognize the genocide.”

Jesus Reynoso, the alleged ringleader, in a booking photo.

By David Abel, Globe Staff

Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials executed more than two dozen search warrants at locations in Boston and around the state, breaking up what they described as an organized gambling syndicate that earned more than $1 million a year.

The 15-month investigation called "Operation Barber Shop" today also resulted in the arrest of 32 people. More than $70,000 was seized, along with 33 laptop computers, which officials said was the largest seizure of electronic evidence in state history. The operation allowed people to illegally gamble on lottery numbers and sports games.

"Make no mistake. This was not a harmless neighborhood lottery or sports book," said Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley. "It was a gambling enterprise where the game was rigged in favor of the ring, and it was fraught with violence and corruption."

Conley said the ringleader was Jesus Reynoso, also known as "Marcos," 44, of Roslindale. Reynoso's alleged enforcer was Victor Rosado, also known as "Moreno," 39, of Mattapan. Both were arrested by State Police today after troopers followed them using GPS tracking devices on their cars.

Each of the men faces up to 15 years in prison, Conley said.

By Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

In response to concerns raised by the American Civil Liberties Union, the undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security said today that he knows of no case of civil rights violations by authorities working in the dozens of fusion centers across America.

The centers are staffed by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, with a primary function of gathering intelligence to combat domestic and international terrorism.

"I know of no single issue of any fusion center doing anything to abuse the rights of any individual,'' said Undersecretary Charles Allen, during an interview after his keynote speech to about 600 law enforcement officials, gathered at the Park Plaza Hotel for the Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts and Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit Annual Training Seminar.

There are 56 high-tech Fusion Centers across the country, including the Massachusetts center in Maynard. The centers grew out of the nation's response to the 9/11 attacks and the 9/11 Commission report, which exposed a lack of information sharing between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

By Michael Naughton, Globe Correspondent

A young woman from Cambridge who was going to college in Ohio was killled over the weekend when the driver of the car she was riding in ran a stop sign.

Maria Toledano, 19, was riding in a 2003 Toyota Corolla when the driver, Marcus Eagan, 18, of Detroit, failed to stop at a stop sign at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday at Route 314 and Updike Road in Knox County, according to the Ohio State Police.

After running the stop sign, the Corolla was hit on its passenger side by a 2007 Ford F-250.

Toledano was pronounced dead at the scene, and Eagan was flown to Ohio State University Medical Center where he was in critical condition last night, State Police said. The driver of the Ford was uninjured.

Toledano and Eagan were students at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, according to The Advocate of Newark, Ohio.

All three victims were wearing their seat belts. State police said the crash is being investigated, but no charges have been filed and alcohol does not appear to be a factor.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

The white powder found on the dashboard of an MBTA bus that caused a scare this morning in Haymarket Square was identified as common chalk.

The substance was analyzed at the State Police laboratory, said Joe Pesaturo, an MBTA spokesman. The driver was treated and released at Boston Medical Center for eye irritation and light-headedness.

"This substance is likely not responsible for the symptoms reported by the bus operator," Pesaturo said in an email this afternoon.

(Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

By Tania deLuzuriaga and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The deafening roar for Bill Buckner at Fenway Park this afternoon lasted for two solid minutes, as the once-maligned first baseman wiped tears from his eyes and slowly walked from left field to the pitcher’s mound.

Buckner stood on the dirt ready to throw the first pitch while the prolonged ovation persisted, raising his hands and nodding his head to acknowledge the crowd. The fans, it seems, have finally gotten over the slow grounder he botched in the 1986 World Series.

“It’s wonderful,” said Brendan Kennedy, a season ticket holder along the first base line for 30 years. “The curse is over. I think it’s over.”

Though he was moved by the gesture, the New Britain, Conn. resident couldn’t help making one innocent quip.

"Just don’t throw the ball back to him,” said Kennedy, a 61-year-old with gray hair poking out from his Red Sox hat.

It was a day of rebirth at Fenway Park as fans celebrated the dawn of a new home season. The sweet smell of sausage and the sizzling sound of peppers and onions filled Lansdowne Street. A four-piece jazz band played outside the Cask’n Flagon with men in red windbreakers playing a banjo, clarinet, trumpet, and trombone. People shared pitchers of beer at tables outside bars. Hawkers sold programs, peanuts, and popcorn.

A billboard on Brookline Avenue may have best described the scene: “Here we celebrate New Year's in April.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi this afternoon postponed a much-anticipated debate on Beacon Hill over whether to approve the state’s biggest tax increase since 2002 amid criticism from all sides of the issue.

The House was expected to begin debate this afternoon on legislation that would allow about $356 million in tax increases for smokers and the state’s largest corporations.

But about 20 to 30 Democratic legislators were challenging DiMasi’s plan for not being aggressive enough. Business leaders and Republicans also offered a pre-emptive strike in the debate around noon, charging that the plan would hurt businesses amid a looming recession.

“We have a fundamental problem with the timing, scope, and nature of the bill,” said House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, a North Reading Republican. “This tax package will be nothing but the death knell for the state’s economy.”

Debate on the proposals is now expected to take place on Thursday.

Crews from a number of state and local agencies worked through last night and into early today to remove an enormous quantity of fireworks from what authorities said was a Plymouth home turned manufacturing factory. The raid was the result of an ongoing investigation, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal said.

Between 9 last night and 5 this morning, officials removed enough fireworks to fill a 16-foot-long cargo box truck as well as six 30 to 55 gallon drums of raw materials, said Plymouth Battalion Chief Kevin Murphy. Officials found a combination of prepackaged retail fireworks as well as raw materials, presumably to manufacture fireworks, Murphy said. Officials also found six improvised explosive devices, according to a statement from the state fire marshal.

Most of the fireworks and raw materials were concentrated in the basement of the one-story home, though materials were also located on the ground floor of the house.

“It certainly could have destroyed the whole house,” as well as caused damage to nearby homes, said Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the fire marshal. A state hazardous materials team was on duty to assure materials were safely removed from the house.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A Yarmouth police officer ran into a flaming home early this morning and rescued a woman who had passed out in the smoke.

Officer Marc Thibeault was the first to arrive at the home on Bradford Road in West Yarmouth at 12:40 a.m., according to a police department press release. Thibeault, a K9 patrol officer, rushed into the smoke and flames to find the woman.

"He removed her under some horrible conditions," said Yarmouth Fire Chief Randall Sherman in a telephone interview. "He did an amazing job."

After Thibeault carried the woman outside, two other officers arrived on the scene. The woman did not have a pulse, and the officers gave her CPR until firefighters arrived, Sherman said.

The woman was revived in an ambulance as she was being taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Sherman said. Once she stabilized, doctors flew her to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where she was in life threatening condition from extensive burns, according to the release.

By Globe Staff

Opening day at Fenway Park will bring street closures and parking restrictions near the ballpark.

Streets closed for most of the day:
*Van Ness Street from Ipswich Street to Kilmarnock Street
*Yawkey Way from Boylston Street to Brookline Avenue.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By George Rizer and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The Red Sox World Series rings arrived at Fenway Park today at dawn, a delivery made in a carefully scripted ceremony on the dirt warning track in the shadow of the Green Monster.

Four bright yellow DHL truck carried the rings packed into brown boxes. One of the trucks drove onto the warning track where Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner was waiting with four honorary couriers and a gaggle of television cameras and still photographers. The couriers were children who each represented one of the team’s charitable organizations: The Jimmy Fund, Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury, Red Sox Scholars, and youth baseball programs.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino took two of the rings out of the boxes. Menino slipped one ring onto his middle finger, and another onto his pointer finger.

One of the honorary couriers, 12-year-old LaJuan Allen, leaned in close to the mayor's hand and watched the diamonds sparkle in the glare of the flashing cameras

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

Camping out at Fenway Park on the eve of Opening Day is a one-of-a-kind experience, according to the die-hard fans who braved near-freezing temperatures to wait for tickets for the momentous game.

Among the dozens of excited souls lined up outside the ball park, a few, including Jennifer Magnan, were attempting to sleep early this morning, despite the belted-out “Sweet Caroline” coming from a group of college students down the line.

Still, the scene can’t be beat, the 33-year-old Magnan said in a telephone interview.

“It’s been pretty exciting. If I get any sleep, I might think it’s even more fun,” Magnan, a Fall River resident who was participating in the campout for the first time, said. “It’s definitely an experience I think everyone should have at least once in a lifetime.”

By John Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

Town Meeting voters in Sudbury approved a budget Monday night that could require significant cuts in both the Sudbury and Lincoln-Sudbury school systems.

As many as 31 full-time faculty and staff positions could be lost in the two systems as well as several sports and other student activities, officials said. Fees for busing, sports, and clubs will rise across the board in an attempt to offset some of the cutbacks.

At last week's town elections, voters defeated both a $1.8 million and a $2.8 million property tax override increase.

Town officials said Monday night that they planned to divert $225,000 in ambulance revenues and increased state aid to the Sudbury school system to offset some of the reductions.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

A 16-year-old girl was charged today with stabbing a woman outside a party early Sunday morning in Jamaica Plain, Boston Police said.

The Roxbury teen turned herself in to police just before 7 p.m. and was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, said Officer James Kenneally, a Boston police spokesman.

She is slated to be arraigned in West Roxbury District Court tomorrow, Kenneally said.

Police believe she stabbed an 18-year-old Roslindale woman eight times, wounding the woman in the face and upper torso, outside a party on Gay Head Street in Jamaica Plain about 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

A man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was shot this evening in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, Boston police said.

The shooting occurred around 6 p.m. at a public housing development at Lattimore Court. Police described the man as black and in his forties.

No further information was available; police were still at the scene investigating.

Earlier in the evening, police could be seen searching through a parking lot between two red brick buildings, using flashlights to look under cars. Neighbors stayed inside.

(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

Frank McDonough recently fielded a hot line call. Mayor Menino says he's appointed a special assistant to oversee the handling of complaints.

By Michael Naughton, Globe Correspondent

A day after the Globe reported on the frustrations faced by people calling the city's citizens' complaint hot line, the mayor's office has announced the appointment of a special assistant to oversee the handling of complaints.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino appointed Pat Harrington to the post, the mayor's office said this evening in a statement.

Harrington will head efforts to "oversee better internal communication and delivery of city services" through the mayor's 24-hour hot line, the statement said.

Harrington's responsibilities will include holding weekly meetings with top officials in the parks, public works, and transportation departments.

The Globe reported Sunday that citizen complaints - about everything from burned-out street lights to missed trash pickups - have fallen by the wayside as the city works to implement a new system to track caller complaints.

An informal Globe survey of 50 residents who called City Hall this year found that more than half said their complaints or requests were addressed only after making multiple calls -- or hadn't been addressed yet.

Menino told the Globe that he was "angry" when he learned about the lack of responses.

Looking like bags of flour, The cocaine, worth $8.4 million, was stacked on a table for display by law enforcement officials

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

Six people pleaded not guilty today in Lynn District Court to charges of trafficking cocaine, in a case in which the authorities said they had seized more than 180 pounds of the drug.

Sergio Valdovinos and Rafael M. Mercedes of Boston; Modesto M. Castillo of Chicago; Raul H. Cortinas of Mission, Tex.; Adam Alcala of Benton, Ark.; and Guille Garcia of Mexico; all face charges of trafficking over 200 grams of cocaine, the Essex District Attorney's office said in a statement.

Judge James L. LaMothe Jr. set bail at $1 million for the 42-year-old Valdovinos and the 41-year-old Castillo. LaMothe set bail for two other defendants at $500,000; the others had lower bails, the statement said.

By Michael Naughton, Globe Correspondent

The half-brother of an 8-year-old Dorchester boy who was fatally shot in his mother's apartment in June was ordered held on high bail during his arraignment today.

Prosecutors alleged that Jayquan McConnico, 16, brought the gun that was used in the killing of his half-brother, Liquarry Jefferson, into the apartment. He pleaded not guilty in Boston Juvenile Court to charges of involuntary manslaughter, improper storage of a firearm, and misleading a police officer, according to the Suffolk district attorney's office.

Judge Paul Lewis ordered McConnico held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

An accused rapist who escaped from custody two weeks ago while being treated at a New Bedford hospital was captured today by Massachusetts State Police and deputy US marshals as he walked along Route 6 in Westport, authorities said.

Anthony Flye, 38, was arrested about 2:15 p.m. under the Route 88 overpass by members of the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section, who were conducting surveillance in the area after learning he might be there, said David Procopio, a spokesman for the State Police.

"It was a quick and well executed arrest,'' Procopio said.

By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff

Immigrants and their advocates testified before a national commission at the State House today that federal agents are treating detainees inhumanely and violating their constitutional rights, prompting swift denials from the federal government.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A federal jury today ordered American Airlines to reimburse nine skycaps at Logan International Airport more than $325,000 for tips they lost when the airline began charging passengers a $2-per-bag fee for curbside check-in service in late 2005.

In what a lawyer for the plaintiffs called the first legal challenge to baggage fees imposed by several airlines in recent years, the jury in US District Court in Boston concluded that American Airlines violated the state's tips law by keeping the $2 fees and by making it harder for the plaintiffs -- who rely heavily on gratuities -- to make a living.

"We're very pleased that the jury saw what American Airlines is doing here, which is digging into the pockets of some of its lowest-paid workers to boost its own profits,'" said Shannon Liss-Riordan, who represented the skycaps.

(Susan Chalifoux/Globe Staff)

By Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

Mark Feeney, an arts writer and photography reviewer for The Boston Globe, today was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for criticism.

It is the 20th time the Globe has won the Pulitzer, which is considered the most prestigious award in journalism, and the second time in the past seven years that the newspaper has won the award for criticism.

Feeney, 50, won for 10 essays on visual culture that ranged from photography to painting and film. A self-described Globe "lifer'' who began working at the newspaper shortly after he graduated from Harvard in 1979, Feeney noted today that the Globe has long made arts criticism a cornerstone of its identity.

"More than anything else, it's about the paper,'' he said of the Pulitzer. "There are so many people who are deserving who don't get it. It's a crapshoot. I'm just amazed, overwhelmed, and really, really pleased that the dice came up for me this time. But it's not just for me. It's for the paper.''

The awards were announced this afternoon at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. Beth Daley, an environmental reporter for the Globe, was one of three finalists in the explanatory reporting category for her series on global warming. The prize was given to Amy Harmon of The New York Times, who wrote a series on DNA.

Globe business writer Binyamin Appelbaum was a finalist in the public service category for his work as a part of a team at The Charlotte Observer that examined the mortgage and housing crisis. The public service medal was given to The Washington Post for its expose revealing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital.

Feeney won the Pulitzer for 10 critical essays that suggest the fluency and brio of his writing style, and the range of interests on which he brings that style to bear.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff/file)

By Globe Staff

The MBTA is stacking its lineup Tuesday afternoon to help baseball fans root for the home team at opening day at Fenway Park.

According to a release from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority:

*There will be extra service on the Green Line before and after the game.

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

MALDEN -- A longtime custodian and basketball coach from Everett pleaded not guilty today to child rape after he was accused of a repeatedly abusing a 12-year-old boy.

Robert Shea, a 57-year-old with graying hair, stood stoically in Malden District Court, where he was ordered held on $15,000 cash bail.

Defense attorney Mark Griffith said that his client was shocked by the allegations and denied all the charges. He said Shea has worked for Everett schools for 25 years, which included 14 years as the head junior varsity basketball coach at Everett High School. Shea went beyond the requirements of his job, Griffith said, and won a Golden Apple award for his extra effort.

(Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff)

By Donovan Slack and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Investigators believe that a woman hurled a Molotov cocktail at a South Boston house early Sunday morning and triggered a fast-moving blaze that killed two children, according to a public safety official briefed on the arson probe.

Police have not said whether they have been in contact with the woman, whose name was not released. No arrests have been reported in connection with the fire on West Sixth Street.

Homicide detectives with accelerant-sniffing dogs searched an apartment on West Seventh Street this morning a block away from the site of the fire that killed a teenager and her toddler sister. Police spent much of the morning at the third-floor apartment near Linskey-Barry Court and emerged shortly after noon carrying paper bags that are used to collect evidence.

The entire block of West Sixth Street remained cordoned off today by wooden blue police horses and yellow crime scene tape. Fire and police officials have not confirmed the victims' identities. The dead victims were identified, however, by one city official and neighbors as Acia "C.C." Johnson, 14, and Sophia Johnson, 2. The spellings and ages could not all be confirmed.

Two other residents were taken to Boston Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries. They were identified as the children’s mother, Anna Reisopoulos, 34, and Acia's twin brother, Raymond Johnson Jr., 14.

A brother and sister who said they knew the family spoke today about the shock and sorrow. Edgar Esturban, 11, said he played manhunt with C.C. on Saturday night before the fire.

“I can’t believe she died at an early age,” Edgar said.

“Everybody knows it’s like they say,” interrupted Edgar’s sister, Seiry Esturban, 16, “the good die young.”

(Globe file photos)

James Keown is accused of slowly poisoning his wife, Julie Keown, by lacing her Gatorade with antifreeze.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- A medical emergency for a defense witness delayed the start of the trial today of James Keown, a former Waltham man accused of slowly poisoning his wife with antifreeze-laced Gatorade.

A Middlesex Superior Court judge granted a one-day continuance after the defense said that their medical expert had to undergo emergency surgery. The lawyers will return to court Tuesday to determine how long the trial will be delayed. Opening statements had been scheduled this morning.

Keown has pleaded not guilty to killing his wife, Julie Keown, a 31-year-old registered nurse. She died in September 2004 after struggling for at least four months with mysterious symptoms, including vomiting, slurred speech, and deteriorating kidneys.

Prosecutors allege that Keown amassed a debt of at least $34,000 and killed his wife to collect a $250,000 insurance policy. A Middlesex grand jury handed up an indictment Nov. 3 after a 14-month investigation by Massachusetts detectives and the state Medical Examiner's Office.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Staff

A man who failed to register as a Level 3 sex offender in Massachusetts was apprehended in Las Vegas Thursday, State Police said.

Daniel J. Moody, 46, was located by the State Police and arrested in a parking lot by U.S. Marshals and Las Vegas officers.

Moody was wanted by the Framingham Police for four counts of failing to register as a sex offender there.

After authorities determined he might have left the state, Middlesex District Attorney Gerald Leone approved a nationwide warrant for Moody, who had been convicted of rape in 1991 and escape in 1994, both in Massachusetts, as well as several other crimes elsewhere, police said.

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

Seven Scituate homes were left with damaged appliances Thursday after an incorrectly installed transformer caused a power surge, National Grid said.

National Grid is promising to replace or repair the appliances. Company representatives visited the affected Fieldstone Road residences to estimate the costs, said David Graves, a spokesman for the energy supply company.

The surge occurred at about 1:15 p.m. Thursday afternoon, a Scituate fire department dispatcher said.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

A man who did not want to go to jail fled Malden District Court, seriously injuring a court officer before he was captured just outside the building, State Police said.

George M. McNelley, 49, of Everett was in the courthouse facing a slew of charges from Everett Police, including assault and battery, larceny of less than $250 and receiving stolen property less than $250, Everett Police Lt. John Balfe said.

Around 1:25 p.m., McNelley stood up and said he was not going to go back to jail, said Lieutenant Eric Anderson, a State Police spokesman.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Staff

A man arrested today for a slaying last year was the fourth person to be charged with murder this week in Boston, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and Boston Police Department announced.

Larry Nelson, 50, of Boston's Roxbury neighborhood pleaded not guilty in Roxbury District Court to murdering Richard Stroman, 64, in the man’s Elm Hill Avenue apartment.

Prosecutors allege that around Oct. 7, Nelson stabbed Stroman 22 times in the face, neck, chest and back. A DNA sample Nelson voluntarily provided matched blood found in the apartment, prosecutors said. Stroman's body was found several days later.

Authorities earlier this week announced three arrests in two other slayings.

By Caitlin Castello, Globe Correspondent

A four-alarm fire raged through a building in Brockton today, damaging the roof but taking no lives.

The Brockton Fire Department received a report at around 6:30 a.m. of a fire at 47 West Elm Street.

The building, which is 90 to 100 years old, was unoccupied at the time, said Deputy Fire Chief Michael Williams. A few firefighters sustained minor injuries, he said.

(Globe file photos)

Steven P. Odom was remembered today in a ceremony that also marked the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

By James Vaznis. Globe Staff

As a steady rain pelted a sidewalk memorial of teddy bears, candles, and a basketball for a 13-year-old boy who was fatally shot on the spot six months ago, the crowd of about 150 people shut their umbrellas and put down their hoods.

"Let God cry on us and feel it in your hair," said Clementina Chery, accent aigu over e in Chery, a community activist. "You can blow dry your hair tomorrow."

And then the umbrellas snapped open, the hoods went up, and they marched down Evans Street in Dorchester in honor of Steven P. Odom's dream of peace.

The walk, which began with a prayer, culminated with a community meeting several blocks away at the Mildred Avenue Middle School and drew Police Commissioner Ed Davis, Mayor Tom Menino, and Governor Deval Patrick, among other notables.

"It's no longer a choice between violence or non-violence, it's either non-violence or non-existence," the slain teen's father, Ron Odom, said in a speech to a packed auditorium. Odom and his wife, Kim, were among the organizers of the "Recommitting Ourselves to Family" event, which also marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

(Globe file photo)

A judge rejected a bid for a new trial by Christopher M. McCowen, who is shown above at his conviction in November 2006.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A trash collector convicted of a notorious Cape Cod murder does not deserve a new trial even though a white juror referred to the defendant as a "big black man'' during deliberations, spurring a confrontation in the jury room, a state judge ruled today.

Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary A. Nickerson said that the juror, Marlo George, used the term innocently while deliberating in November 2006 to describe Christopher M. McCowen, who was convicted of raping and fatally stabbing a white fashion writer, Christa Worthington, in her Truro house in 2002.

"Set in this context, the words 'big black man' are descriptive, identifying who inflicted the injuries and the size of the assailant,''' Nickerson, the trial judge, wrote in his 40-page decision, adding that the phrase "did not constitute racial bias.''

Nickerson, who held an extraordinary two-day public hearing in January during which he interviewed a dozen jurors about several allegations of racial bias, said he did believe the other claims. He said three jurors who complained of bias after the verdict had faulty memory or hidden agendas and might have been swayed by widespread news reports about the case.

(Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

By David Abel, Globe Staff

Nine months after taking over, Martin T. Meehan was inaugurated today as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

The week-long inauguration festivities, which included encomiums today by US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Governor Deval Patrick, raised more than $1 million for student scholarships, university officials said.

“Our new vision involves taking a strong research university to the next level toward wider opportunities for our students, increased engagement with our community, and heightened excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship,” Meehan said.

Meehan, who became chancellor on July 1, said he plans to increase student enrollment by 2.5 percent a year, have at least half of all students live on campus, increase the diversity of the student body as well as the number of female students studying math and science, and ensure all new and renovated buildings meet the highest environmental standards.

(Vincent DeWitt for the Boston Globe)

The suspects in a firebombing at a Hyannis home appeared today in Barnstable District Court. From left: Joshua Debonaise, 19, of Hyannis; Andrew Nickerson, 19, of Mashpee; Victor Mason, 20, of East Boston; and Jose Reyes, 22, of Fitchburg.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

HYANNIS -- Four men accused of tossing a Molotov cocktail into a bedroom where three children were sleeping had spent much of the evening drinking in the home, police and prosecutors said today.

Dennis Edwards threw the four men out of his apartment on Hiramar Road at 11 p.m. Wednesday after getting in an argument with Jose Reyes. The 22-year-old from Boston left with his three friends in a Pontiac Grand Prix. They picked up a 20-year-old woman, Tiffany Mason, who was videotaped by a surveillance camera as she bought $1 worth of gasoline at a service station, said Tara Miltimore, a Cape and Islands assistant district attorney.

The carload of five suspects -- who pleaded not guilty today -- returned to Hiramar Road at 2:40 a.m. and allegedly threw a flaming 40-ounce bottle of gasoline through a bedroom window where the children were sleeping. Although much of the gasoline spilled outside the home when the bottle hit a screen, the room still burst into flames. All the occupants of the house escaped unharmed.

“The fact that you are not writing about some homicide or somebody with burns over 80 percent of her body is just amazing,” Sergeant Sean Sweeney told a Globe reporter this morning.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A 20-year-old student died at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst early this morning after he apparently jumped out the 17th-floor window of a dormitory, school officials said in a statement.

UMass Amherst police responded to a report at 3:30 a.m. of someone jumping from the John Quincy Adams residence hall. Police found Liam O’Donnelly dead. He was a second-year student from Hingham.

"This is a difficult time for the campus community," said spokesman Ed Blaguszewski. "Our sincere condolences go out to Liam’s family and friends.”

The case is under investigation by State Police. School officials said there are no indications of foul play.

No additional information was released.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A free-standing ATM might seem like an easy target for a desperate thief, a box of cash sitting on the street, unprotected by a building or a bank lobby.

But transit police say that two teenagers with a 24-inch steel crowbar learned the hard way this morning that the cash machines aren’t a source of easy money.

The teenagers -- Lance C. Devaughn, 18, and Chan V. So, 17 -- dressed all in black and went to the JFK/UMass T Station at 2:30 a.m. carrying a backpack, said Lieutenant Joseph O’Connor of MBTA Police Department. When the teens tried to pry open the ATM, an alarm notified transit police, who were on the scene within two minute, O’Connor said.

“They were not able to get into the safe ... they are very well secured,” O’Connor said.

(Robert E. Klein for the Boston Globe)

By Globe Staff

Dozens of firefighters are battling a four-alarm fire this morning in a red brick office building in downtown Brockton that sent a column of thick gray smoke high into the sky.

The four-story building was largely vacant when the blaze was reported about 6:30 a.m, a fire official said. Next door guests at the Elm Court Hotel were evacuated as a precaution. No injuries have been reported.

Firefighters from Brockton and six other cities and towns are working to extinguish the blaze on West Elm Street. A portion of the roof collapsed, a fire official said.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

Five people were arrested Thursday after a Molotov cocktail was thrown through a bedroom window in Hyannis, setting fire to a room where several young children were sleeping, police and fire officials said.

The fire consumed the building, but nobody was hurt.

As flames closed in, the children were taken from the room by three adults, all of whom escaped along with another child, after the house was fire-bombed at about 2:40 a.m., said Barnstable police Sergeant Kevin Tynan.

State Police arrested Andrew Nickerson, 19, of Mashpee; Joshua Debonise, 19, of Mashpee; Tiffeny Mason, 20, of Hyannis; Victor Mason, 20, of East Boston; and Jose Reyes, 22, of Boston.

They are facing charges of attempted murder, arson of a dwelling, and possessing a bomb or explosive, said Trooper Eric Benson, a State Police spokesman.

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

A 53-year-old man who fell off a subway platform Wednesday morning during an apparent seizure was rescued by a fast-acting MBTA employee and two riders, authorities said.

Bobby Bainey of Boston fell into the train pit near the third rail at the North Quincy Red Line station. He was pulled to safety by Bob Moran, a Red Line inspector, and the riders at about 9 a.m., MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in a statement.

Moran radioed the MBTA operations center to stop all trains after he heard passengers yelling that a man had fallen, then jumped into the pit to assist the two riders, Pesaturo said.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A certain New York Yankee slugger should beware: A student taking a tour of Fenway Park today was attacked by a red-tailed hawk that swooped off its nest, drawing blood from the girl’s scalp.

Her name: Alexa Rodriguez. Her age: 13, the same jersey number the Yankee third baseman wears.

“She’s fine, a little shaken, but OK,” said Vince Jennetta, a teacher who chaperoned Rodriguez's class trip from Memorial Boulevard Middle School in Bristol, Conn.

The eighth-grader was taken by ambulance to a local hospital and treated for the small scratch on her scalp.

By Khristopher Flack, Globe Correspondent

The choir director at a Worcester charter school has been charged with raping a teenager.

Tyrone Forbes, who led the choir at the Seven Hills Charter School, was arraigned in Worcester District Court today on seven counts of rape, Worcester County district attorney's spokesman Tim Connolly said.

Forbes, 49, allegedly raped a 15-year-old boy, whose name was withheld. The student is not a student at the charter school, said Sergeant John Lewis, supervisor of the Worcester Police Department's Special Crimes Division.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Two people died and a third person was injured in a three-vehicle crash in Bourne this afternoon that forced the closure of a heavily traveled road for hours.

Local and state police were called at about 4:30 p.m. to the crash, which was just east of the Gallo Ice Arena on Route 6A, also known as Sandwich Road, said Trooper Eric Benson, a State Police spokesman.

The driver of a 2004 white box truck was pronounced dead at the scene, while a passenger was sent to nearby Tobey Hospital in Wareham with serious injuries, Benson said.

Also pronounced dead at the scene was the driver of a 1989 Ford Bronco, Benson said. The driver of the third vehicle, a 2006 Subaru Tribeca sport utility vehicle, was uninjured.

By David Abel, Globe Staff

A former Children's Hospital Boston pediatrician and best-selling author accused of sexually abusing boys in his care has stopped seeing patients at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where he has taught for more than 20 years, university officials said today.

Dr. Melvin D. Levine, 68, Children's former chief of ambulatory pediatrics, has been accused of abusing at least seven boys who came to him for treatment, according to a civil lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court this week by an unnamed plaintiff who was 8 years old when the abuse allegedly occurred between 1980 and 1985.

"Dr. Levine has volunteered to stop seeing patients at UNC, at least until the lawsuits are resolved," said Tom Hughes, a spokesman for the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Hughes said the university has not received any complaints about Levine, who was a professor in the Department of Pediatrics there between 1987 and 2006. Since then, Hughes said he has held an unpaid appointment as an adjunct professor at the university, where he continued to see patients twice a month.

At a press conference in his Boston office today, attorney Carmen L. Durso, who is representing five of the alleged victims, said he has received 21 calls since Monday from people who described themselves as victims or relatives of victims of Levine.

"I got a number of calls from mothers," Durso said. "Those mothers said to me, 'My son told me he didn't want to go back to see Dr. Levine, because he put his hands in my genitals area. ... Some said they were broken-hearted, because they didn't listen to their sons."

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

The giant Coke bottles have been taken away, seats have been added, and a new stairway constructed, but fans entering the turnstiles Tuesday aren’t likely to be blown away by many of Fenway Park’s most recent changes. And that’s just how the Red Sox management wants it.

“Our goal is for fans to come in here and breathe a sigh of relief that it doesn’t look different,” said Janet Marie Smith, the Red Sox senior vice president of planning and development who has overseen the park’s renovations.

“Fans are still in their grandfathers’ ball park, it just happens to be more comfortable and convenient,” she said.

Smith, along with Sox chief executive Larry Lucchino, led Mayor Thomas M. Menino and a gaggle of media around the park yesterday to highlight the most recent off-season additions to the 96-year-old ballpark, including 875 new seats and additional standing room.

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

Massachusetts eighth-graders ranked third in a 2007 national writing assessment, but almost twice as many girls as boys scored at or above proficient levels in the state, according to a report released today.

While the state's top educators expressed satisfaction with the Commonwealth's overall results, they voiced concern about the widening gender gap, an issue that has been given much focus in recent years as studies reveal that girls have been outpacing boys in other areas of academics.

"I'm happy to see that once again Massachusetts is at the head of the pack, but the performance gaps reflected in this report are of deep concern,'' said Paul Reville, chairman of the state's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

(Globe file photo)

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

High gas prices may be sending more commuters to public transportation, with an 8.3 percent spike in MBTA trips in January and February compared with a year ago.

Almost every category – commuter rail, subway, bus – saw big increases this year in the number of riders, according to statistics released by the MBTA. Commuter boat traffic was the exception as some riders probably fled to the new Greenbush commuter rail line.

The T can use the money. The agency has a heavy debt load and plans to dip into its reserves to cover operating expenses beginning in July. The T last hiked fares in January 2007.

Did you switch to the T because of high gas prices? Tell the Globe, and be sure to include your phone number.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Investigators are trying to determine whether a suspicious fire this morning in a children’s bedroom in Hyannis was ignited by a Molotov cocktail thrown through a window.

Lieutenant Eric Hubler of Hyannis Fire Department said this morning that a Molotov cocktail is one of the possible causes under investigation, saying it was “in the mix.”

Dennis Edwards, a resident of the duplex on Hiramar Road, told the Cape Code Times in an article on its website that someone hurled a 40-ounce bottle of gasoline through his 3-year-old son’s bedroom window.

By Jillian Jorgensen and Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondents

A truck crashed into a building in Lawrence Wednesday night, severing a gas line and causing a brief power outage to the neighborhood, officials said.

The truck hit the Essex Street building shortly before 10 p.m., Fire Department dispatchers said.

Don DiNunno, spokesman for Bay State Gas, said he believed the building was a bakery, and that the truck severed a gas line connected to the cooking equipment, causing a gas leak. Crews from the company responded and shut off the gas, DiNunno said. He said it appeared just one person lived in the building, on the second floor.

Power was cut to the area after Bay State Gas contacted National Grid about the leak, said National Grid spokeswoman Amy Atwood. About 400 customers were without power for about 15 minutes, and service was restored by 10:20 p.m., she said.

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

A New Bedford man was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after being shot in the abdomen during an attempted robbery at his home Wednesday afternoon, city police said.

The suspects, who were wearing masks, fled the scene empty-handed after breaking into a second-floor apartment on Emma Street and shooting its resident at about 5:30 p.m., said Lieutenant Jeffrey Silva in a statement.

The victim, whose name was not released, was transported to a Boston-area trauma center, Silva said. No further information was immediately available.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

It took a prosecutor just six words today to describe a plan hatched last fall by two men with a gun roaming a housing project in Roxbury.

"Shoot the first individuals they saw," said Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Lundgren.

The alleged gunman -- Shawn "Shanks" Daughtry, 27, and Demetrius "Demeet" Wardsworth, 19 -- found their random victims "simply sitting on a front porch enjoying the fall evening," Lundgren said.

The gunmen opened fire and killed 29-year-old Urel Duncan and injured another man, who survived the assault on Sept. 20 at the New Academy Estates housing development. The two victims had no known connections to drugs, gangs, or crime, Lundgren said. In fact, they had never even met their attackers.

(AP Photo/Metro Boston, Nathan Fried-Lipski)

A firefighter helped an injured man who escaped with tattered clothes today after an electrical flash on the 12th floor of an office high rise downtown. The injured man’s name was not released.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A flash electrical fire on the 12th floor of a downtown office building this afternoon sent two maintenance workers to the hospital, including one who suffered severe burns, a fire official said.

Firefighters responded to a call at 1 Beacon St. at 12:04 p.m. for what was described as fire in a high voltage box on a mechanical floor.

“What we had was an electrical flashover,” Stephen MacDonald, a fire department, spokesman. “We had two workers in the room at the time.”

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Pee wee soccer and college football may occasionally have to compete with a new Saturday pastime if Boston City Councilor John Tobin has his way.

Tobin wants to move city elections to Saturday in an attempt to boost anemic voter turnout.

"You have this enormous attention to the presidential race and the governor's race, and it doesn't seem to translate down to the municipal level," Tobin said.

The City Council is scheduled to consider the proposal today at a hearing.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

Lakeisha Gadson, with tears streaming down her face, spoke only twice during her arraignment this morning, saying first that she was not guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting of her 8-year-old son, Liquarry Jefferson.

Gadson, who wore a black pinstriped suit with a short-sleeve jacket, spoke a second time when court officers led her away in handcuffs.

"I'm sorry," she said as she sobbed.

Clerk Magistrate Gary D. Wilson ordered Gadson held on $10,000 cash bail, rejecting her lawyer’s argument that she was not a flight risk because she has lived her entire life in Boston.

By Globe Staff

The three left lanes of southbound Interstate 93 have reopened this morning after the road was closed for almost an hour after a tanker truck crashed in Woburn, State Police said.

The tanker truck hit the center median at 8 a.m. and came to a rest blocking all lanes of traffic near the Montvale Avenue exit, said Trooper Thomas Murphy, a State Police spokesman. The truck did not leak or catch on fire, Murphy said. The right lane and breakdown lane remain closed.

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

A Mansfield High School junior is facing charges after an assault that occurred in the school’s cafeteria last Wednesday and was viewed more than 1,000 times as an online video, police said.

The video showed the 16-year-old assailant, whose name was not released, dumping a trash can’s contents onto the victim, then striking the victim with the trash can, Mansfield Police said in a statement.

Police responded to the incident at 11 a.m. March 26. The video appeared on the YouTube website two days later, police said.

The defendant, who was arrested Monday and released to a parent during investigation, faces charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and intimidation of a witness. He also faces charges of disturbance of a school assembly and disorderly conduct, the statement said.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Local television sportscasting legend Bob Lobel is leaving WBZ-TV (Channel 4) as part of a workforce reduction announced earlier this week at the station.

Veteran entertainment reporter Joyce Kulhawik and newsman Scott Wahle will be leaving, too, said Ro Dooley Webster, a station spokeswoman, in an interview early this morning. She declined to discuss specifics of their departures.

She did, however, say that she doesn't expect any other high-profile talent to leave.

The station, like other media outlets across the country, is facing increasing pressure to cut costs as it grapples with declining ad revenues and viewership. On Monday, the station announced plans to reduce by 10 percent its overall workforce of 220.

By Globe staff

A woman has been arrested in connection with a bank robbery in Cambridge this afternoon and another female suspect is at large.

Police said the Cambridge Savings Bank at 1387 Cambridge Street was robbed after 1 p.m. today.

One woman was arrested near the bank. The other suspect fled the scene and a search is underway in the area.

Cambridge Police and the Bank Robbery Task Force are investigating the incident and combing the area for evidence. Details are still sketchy and more information is expected to be released later.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A state judge should be suspended without pay for 30 days, fined $25,000 and publicly censured for sending two letters to the publisher of the Boston Herald in 2005 demanding that the newspaper drop its appeal of a libel verdict and hand him a check for $3.26 million, the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended today.

The commission said that Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy's actions, which included sending the letters to publisher Patrick J. Purcell on court stationery, reflected ``willful misconduct'' that had damaged the reputation of the judiciary. The recommendations now go to the state Supreme Judicial Court, which can accept or reject them.

The commission, whose ruling marks the latest twist in a war between the Herald and Murphy dating back five years, concluded that Murphy's letters were improperly intimidating and threatening and sought to coerce Purcell into settling the libel suit rather than pursuing an appeal.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

What links a U-shaped bicycle lock, the neck of a red-headed young woman, and the glass front door of a branch of Bank of America in Copley Square?

Coal, apparently.

The young woman chained her neck to the bank’s entrance as part of a demonstration against global warming. Pamphlets handed out by the 30 or some protesters said that Bank of America has financed “billion of dollars” supporting dozens of new coal-fired power plants.

Dubbing it an “April Fools” protest, the demonstrators described the energy companies funded by Bank of America as the worst contributors to climate change. They handed out pamphlets with information from the Rainforest Action Network.

"The Rainforest Action Network is unfortunately ignoring important economic realities, including that economic reality that as a country, more than 50 percent of our energy comes from coal,” said Ernesto Anguilla, a spokesman for the bank.
“ “We all face the challenge, including the Rainforest Action Network, of developing and using renewable energies.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

RANDOLPH -- A gunman killed himself this morning after police said he burst into the Randolph steel fabricating company where he worked and shot a co-worker.

The man opened fire at Alloy Fabricators of New England on York Avenue at about 7 a.m. without uttering a word, Randolph Police Chief Paul Porter said at a press conference.

Jean Dure, 52, was shot in the left arm and abdomen and was taken to Caritas Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, where he underwent surgery. His condition was not immediately available.

The gunman was identified as Howard Trang, 48, of Dorchester. He was found dead on Walsh Street in Randolph at 8:35 a.m. in his red Toyota Rav4, police said. Trang used a silver, .45-caliber automatic handgun to shoot Dure before turning the weapon on himself, police said.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent, and George Rizer, Globe Staff

MILTON -- A four-alarm fire tore through a mansion this morning on Brush Hill Road in Milton, police and fire officials said.

One woman lives in the rambling, dilapidated Victorian, and she ran to a neighbor’s to call for help when she spotted flames, said Deputy Chief Paul Nolan of the Milton Police Department. The woman had been smoking, but it was not immediately clear whether that caused the fire, Nolan said.

“I believe it’s a total loss,” Nolan said of the two-story mansion, which is set about 150 yards off the street and hidden by trees.

Firefighters responded at 5:49 a.m. and quickly activated more alarms because the house was engulfed in flames. Firefighters from Boston, Canton, and Randolph helped battle the blaze.

By Globe Staff

A man has been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old in Allston last weekend, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.

Thomas Manning will be arraigned today in Brighton District Court, according to spokesman Jake Wark. Manning’s age was not immediately available.