By Shelley Murphy and Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis vowed this afternoon that there would be a thorough and transparent investigation of the arrest of David Woodman on last month, but said an initial review found that officers acted appropriately.
The 22-year-old man stopped breathing while in custody during the June 18 celebration of the Boston Celtics NBA championship and died on Sunday.

David Woodman

Investigators are building a timeline to try to determine what occurred early that morning to David Woodman, a former Emmanuel College student who was living in Brookline. Davis said it is unclear when officers noticed the student's medical distress and began CPR. It was sometime between 12:47 a.m. when police first called for an ambulance for an intoxicated reveler, and 12:53 a.m. when officers called EMS a second time because Woodman had stopped breathing.

"We're rebuilding the incident from the officers' statements as well as witnesses statements," Davis said. "That's as specific as I can be right now."

There was a struggle with Woodman that ultimately involved eight police officers and one supervisor, all of whom were treated at a hospital for stress, which is common, Davis said. The commissioner extended his condolences to the family of Woodman.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino called earlier today for a expedited investigation because it is "best for the family and Boston police that we have all the facts known as quickly as possible."

Howard Friedman, a Boston lawyer who represents the Woodmans, said this afternoon that he has asked the US Attorney's office to have the FBI investigate. The family has scheduled a press conference later this afternoon.

Woodman's parents told the Globe that their son did not receive prompt medical attention while lying unconscious, face down on Brookline Avenue with his hands cuffed behind his back. They also accused police of failing to give them a full account of what happened.

In a story published in today's Globe, Boston police said they immediately administered cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, flagged an ambulance after noticing Woodman was in distress, and did everything they could to help him before he was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. But Jeffrey and Cathy Woodman of Southwick say their son must have been deprived of oxygen for at least four minutes because he suffered significant brain damage.

(Dominic Chavez/Globe Staff)

"I would like to first take this opportunity to extend my sympathy to David Woodman’s family and friends, the officers involved, and all the emergency personnel who responded to this most unfortunate incident. As a father, I can’t imagine the grief his family is suffering and express my deepest sympathy to them.

"The Boston Police Homicide Unit in conjunction with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office will conduct a thorough and exhaustive investigation into David’s death. The Boston Police Internal Affairs Division is also conducting an investigation.

"I am committed to an impartial and transparent review of this incident.

"At this time, investigators are awaiting Mr. Woodman’s autopsy results to determine the cause and manner of his death.

By John R. Ellement, Globe staff

A teacher’s aide at a Winchester middle school is facing criminal charges of child enticement for allegedly trying to convince a 13-year-old student to have sex with him, using online conversations as the way to deliver his message, authorities said today.

Christopher M. French

“Christopher French is employed as a special education teaching assistant at the McCall Middle School in Winchester,’’ said MacDonnell. “And his employment is connected to this investigation.’’

French’s attorney, David Mortenson, said in a brief telephone conversation that he has instructed French not to discuss the case with anyone and that he expects to see the 28-year-old Winchester resident exonerated.

“As far as we are aware, he has not done anything wrong,’’ Mortenson said of French. “We expect to investigate (the allegations) and prove that eventually.’’

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Former Sox general manager Daniel Duquette was raked over the coals by Red Sox fans for failing to get the team to the World Series. Now he is embroiled in a state ethics controversy for allegedly selling Pittsfield Mayor James M. Ruberto two face-value tickets to the 2004 World Series at a time when seats were fetching as much as $2,000 apiece.

Duquette told investigators that he sold Ruberto the two tickets for $190 each because he wanted his minor league team, the Berkshire Dukes, to play at a city park, according to a statement made public today by the State Ethics Commission.

The commission alleges that the transaction violated the state’s conflict of interest law because face-value tickets were not available at the time to the general public. Tickets were selling on the Internet for $600 to $2,000 per ticket, according to the statement from the ethics commission's enforcement division.

“By selling the World Series tickets to Ruberto at face value, where the general public could only obtain such tickets at prices more than $50 over face value, Duquette provided something of substantial value to Ruberto for or because of official acts to be performed by Ruberto as mayor,” the statement says.

Public hearings on the issue will be scheduled within 90 days. The hearing process will work similar to judicial proceedings, in which each side will exchange evidence and witness lists in advance of the hearings.

(Jim Davis/Globe Staff/file/February 2008)

Mike Lowell (left) and Alex Cora recorded public address announcements that will begin playing today on the T.

By Globe Staff

The voices of Red Sox players will be echoing in the ears of T riders though October, even if the reigning champions do not make a return trip to the World Series.

The T began playing audio announcements recorded by players today in all 70 of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's subway stations.

"As a major leaguer, my teammates count on me to hit the fastball," says third baseman Mike Lowell in one of the public address announcements. "That's why I recommend taking the T to Fenway. It's the fastest way to get to the game."

An announcement recorded in Spanish by utility infield Alex Cora reminds riders heading to Fenway that CharlieCards can be refilled inside Fenway Park at kiosks at gates A, C, and E.

Similar public address announcements on the T have been recorded by Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference and Celtics center Kendrick Perkins. The Red Sox announcements will run through October.

By John Ellement, Globe Staff

A Florida man wanted in that state for allegedly raping a 6-year-old girl is heading to court today after State Police found him hiding in a Revere apartment building this weekend.

Faustino Santiago allegedly raped the girl, who is the daughter of his former girlfriend, when all three were living in Orlando, Fla., in April. After her child was allegedly abused by the 34-year-old Santiago, the woman moved to Revere, and apparently was followed here by Santiago, according to State Police.

(Joe Tabacca for The Boston Globe)

Chris Haddix (left) of FlexPetz talked to Farng-Yang Foo in December in the company's New York City office before Foo rented "Sandman," an 18-inch-long Pomeranian.

By Globe Staff

An effort to prohibit a dog rental service from opening in Boston will be discussed this afternoon by a City Council committee.

California-based FlexPetz already offers dog rentals in Los Angeles and New York City and hopes to expand to Boston by "mid-2008," according to its website. The City Council's Government Operations Committee will discuss a proposed ban on pet rentals at a public meeting at 1 p.m. at City Hall.

Globe staff writer Sarah Schweitzer wrote about FlexPetz in December:

First came Netflix and Zipcar. Now comes a company that plans to rent dogs to Bostonians willing to pay steep fees for a canine friend without worry of commitment.

FlexPetz, a California-based company, will open a Boston branch of its dog rental service this spring with a fleet of 10 dogs available for romps on the Common or weekend sleepovers. The company bills itself as an "unique alternative to full-time pet ownership" that will even drop off a dog when you're ready for it and pick it up when you've had enough. It is drawing howls of condemnation from local animal rights groups and animal behaviorists.

"This promotes dogs as disposable items," said Bryn Conklin, an animal protection specialist at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

By Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondent

The discovery of a body in a Lynn parking lot early this morning is being investigated as a homicide, according to a police spokesman, who did not say how the man died.

The body was found in a parking lot at 4:30 a.m. by workers at Mi Guatemala Bakery on Union Street, said Fred Rodriguez, who owns the bakery. The man, who has not been identified, was found behind the bakery, near a truck.

Police are waiting for autopsy results before releasing the cause of death, said Lieutenant Ted Blake, a Lynn police spokesman.

(Corporal Tyler Hill/Marine Corps)

By Kasey Wickman, Globe Correspondent

A southern New Hampshire man was moved last week when he saw a picture of his son, Gary Grant, 23, a corporal in the Marine Corps, consoling a small Iraqi child about the age of his own son back at home, 18-month-old Vincent.

“I know my son, and I know he was thinking about his son when he was trying to comfort that boy,” said Gary Grant Sr.

The father said that he has since spoken with his son about the photo, which was published on a military Internet site. He said his son remembered the day and seeing the little boy while he and his company were on patrol in northern Anbar Province.

“He saw the little boy looking at him and he was trembling, so Gary decided to leave formation and go over there and console him. He told me, 'Dad, he was so scared.' … He stayed with him for a minute and tried to comfort him and told him, ‘Everything’s gonna be OK, buddy,’ ” said the father.

By Globe Staff

Batten down the hatches! The thunderstorms are back in town.

Thunderstorms with gusty winds and hail rumbled through western Massachusetts this afternoon, prompting the National Weather Service to issue an alert in one case. But police in several towns said that there were no reports of damage or injuries.

The severe thunderstorm warning for north central Franklin County expired at 6:15 p.m.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are predicted throughout the evening around the state. The thunderstorms are most likely to hit the western and north central portions, said Matthew Belk, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff

Thomas I. Atkins, a driven, intellectually fierce champion of racial equality, rose from rural Indiana to become Boston's first African-American city councilor and a local and national NAACP leader. The Harvard Law School graduate knew that access to education had enabled his rise, and he fought to provide opportunities for others, first through the court-ordered desegregation of Boston's public schools and then in similar cases across the country.

Thomas I. Atkins

Mr. Atkins, who died Friday night at 69 a decade and a half after being diagnosed with the degenerative muscular disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, was a humanist, but he was also a man with a steely resolve.

As a central figure in the city during a turbulent era, he received regular death threats and fortified his Roxbury home to protect his family, running chicken wire over the windows to block Molotov cocktails and installing spigots throughout the seven-bedroom house to connect hoses for fighting fires, said his son, Thomas Atkins Jr.

"He was pretty instrumental in what became a pretty tumultuous time in Boston," said the son, who spent the last eight years living with his father in Brooklyn and aiding him as the disease eroded his body and his speech but not his mind.

(Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

Nelson Rodriguez, the soldier's father, Moraima Ramirez, his wife, and Diana Ramirez, his mother, during the burial service at Woodlawn Cemetery today.

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

Hundreds of people, including Governor Deval Patrick and other elected officials, gathered today in Revere at the funeral for Sergeant Nelson Rodriguez Ramirez, a soldier who was killed in Afghanistan a week ago.

"Words cannot express the pain we feel today," said the Reverend Carlos Flor, who led the Mass at the Immaculate Conception Parish. "We thank God for Nelson's sacrifice and for your sacrifice, the sacrifice of his whole family."

A specialist with the New York Army National Guard, Rodriguez Ramirez, who spent his teenage years in Revere, was killed along with three others on June 21 when the truck they were riding in struck a roadside bomb.

By Globe Staff

When the storm hit this afternoon, Marissa Piette went to a window in her office in the Back Bay, pointed her camera at the Prudential Center, pushed the button on it halfway down -- and waited.

"I'm from the Midwest so I've seen my fair share of big storms. I've tried to catch lightning on film before, but I've never been able to," said the 21-year-old University of Nebraska student, who is interning at a public relations firm.

This time it worked. She said she thinks lightning hit the Prudential three times, and she caught it twice on her Olympus Stylus 710.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

Federal highway officials -- dissatisfied with the state's oversight of truck restrictions on the deteriorating Longfellow Bridge -- shut down two lanes of the bridge effective Saturday, narrowing a major thoroughfare between Boston and Cambridge.

The Federal Highway Administration also asked the state to ban large trucks from the bridge completely -- rather than restricting them only from the inner lanes. As of Saturday, the Longfellow can no longer be used by 18-wheelers and large trucks, though pickup trucks, Duck Boats, and delivery vans could still cross it.

The restrictions will remain in effect until repairs to the bridge are complete, hopefully in the fall.

(Essdras Suarez/Globe Staff)

Mark Parsons of Newton talks to a neighbor today after a tree fell on top of his house off Albemarle Road.

By Kate Augusto and Matt Collette, Globe Correspondents, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A series of thunderstorms rolled across the state this afternoon, including a violent cloudburst that dumped about two-thirds of an inch of rain in 20 minutes in metropolitan Boston, causing flash floods, pelting pedestrians with pea-sized hail, and uprooting trees with wind gusts near 50 miles per hour.

Lightning strikes started at least two fires, including a bolt that sounded "like an enormous whip" when it crashed into a seven-story building on the 200 block of Beacon Street in Back Bay, according to resident Sergio Coelho, 46.

Four firefighters were taken to hospitals -- two for minor burns, two for heat exhaustion -- after battling the two-alarm blaze, which broke out at about 2:50 p.m. The penthouse unit was on fire when firefighters arrived on the scene.

Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the fire resulted in $5 million in damage.

Lightning also ignited a smoky blaze on Pearl Street in Cambridge, where Liz Lapuh lives on the first floor of a three-family home. "It was just a very loud crash … very loud and very bright," Lapuh said. Officials said the two-alarm fire caused roughly $250,000 in damage.

The Coast Guard, Environmental Police, Massport, and the State Police dispatched boats when eight sailboats with 57 people aboard from the Piers Park Sailing Center signaled that they were in distress during the storm, said Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

No one was injured, though some people had to be transferred to the State Police boat and taken to shore, Jorgensen said.

Two sailboats, part of a fleet of campers returning from an end-of-the week trip to Spectacle Island, were blown off course towards Logan Airport and capsized, said Mat Rosa, executive director of the sailing center.

“They all did great. Everybody did exactly as they’re supposed to," Rosa said. "As the kids were getting off the boats, meeting their parents, they were smiling and said they had a lot of fun.”

There were reports of downed trees hitting cars on Columbia Road in Boston and in Watertown. On Albemarle Street in Newton, the wind toppled part of a 60- to 70-foot tree that crashed onto power lines, said resident Joe Smiroldo, who lives nearby.

"It was thunder and lightning and heavy rain like I haven’t seen, and I’ve lived in Newton for 50 years," Smiroldo said.

By Globe Staff

A group of environmental organizations say they are going to sue the city of Brockton and state and federal environmental agencies for mismanaging water resources in southeastern Massachusetts.

The group, which includes the Jones River Watershed Association and the Massachusetts Audubon Society, announced today that it had filed a notice of intent to sue Brockton, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Pine duBois, executive director of the Jones River Watershed Association, said Brockton takes its water from Silver Lake, 20 miles east of the city, and it's damaging the lake and other waterways in the area by withdrawing too much.

(Courtesy Photo)

Nelson Rodriguez Ramirez

By Jonnelle Marte, Globe Correspondent

REVERE -- Standing in front of a fire station on Broadway under a flag waving at half-mast, about 10 Revere firefighters snapped to attention this afternoon as they watched the body of Nelson Rodriguez Ramirez return home.

The 22-year-old father of two was killed in Afghanistan Saturday, along with three other soldiers, when the truck he was riding in struck a roadside bomb. Today, under a gray sky, his body was returned to the community where he spent his teenage years.

"He was a young man in the service of his country. He gave his life," said Fire Captain David Rossetti. "It's a small way to honor him."

Others also took a moment from their everyday tasks to pay their respects as police escorted the hearse carrying the flag-draped casket from Logan International Airport through the city to the Vazza Funeral home.

George Copello, 26, of East Boston.stood a few yards from the firefighters with his two toddlers, his black baseball cap in his hands. "They're over there fighting for us. They're brave men and women," said Copello. "I don't think I have the courage, especially now that I have a family. He was too young to die like that."

Ramirez's father told the Globe earlier this week that Ramirez's faith in his service had been renewed by the barefoot children he had met in the war, whose faces lit up when he gave them something as simple as a pen or a snack.

"He didn't like war, but it was in his heart to be there and protect those kids," said Nelson Rodriguez.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent

WOBURN -- The only sibling of a man killed in a murder-for-hire scheme chided the "obsessively jealous" Waltham man today who paid a hitman $10,000 to shoot Edward Schiller in a Newton parking garage.

“Many people tell us how sorry they are for our loss, but the thing is we didn’t just lose Ed, he was stolen from us by the selfish, cowardly acts of James Brescia,” said Carl Schiller, who gave a victim impact statement in Middlesex Superior Court on behalf of his brother.

“Unfortunately we now have to live with your choice,” said Schiller, looking directly at a handcuffed James Brescia, 46. “It gives us little relief to know you will also have to live with your choices in this life and forever more.”

Brescia was stone faced as Judge Wendie Gershengorn handed down his mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the Jan. 13, 2006, killing of the boyfriend of his estranged wife. Schiller, 39, was found with a single bullet in his head in the garage next to his office at Aronson Insurance Agency in Newton. The jury deliberated just five hours after a three-week trial.

By Ryan Kost, Globe Correspondent

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today kicked off a new campaign to convince Boston-area residents to get reacquainted with their city.

"With gas prices and food prices, everything seems to cost a little more these days," Menino said in a news conference at the Frog Pond on the Boston Common. "We are reminding families they can vacation right here in the city."

Outsized red metal push pins have been scattered throughout the city at key locations that officials think residents should revisit. One stood tall, for example, outside the Boston Common visitor center where people can join guided tours of the Freedom Trail.

Clare Deery of South Boston sat in the grass at the Frog Pond with her one-year-old son on her lap.

"I think it's brilliant," she said. "I'll stay here; there's a lot going on."

(Carver Police Photo)

The entrance to the bunker where police say they found a marijuana-growing operation.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Police discovered a 10-foot-deep underground bunker Thursday afternoon in Carver that was allegedly used by a man for an extensive marijuana-growing operation.

William Nickologianes

The woman had a restraining order against her live-in boyfriend, William Nickologianes. He was away from the house at the Plymouth County jail because he had been arrested earlier that day for assault and battery and illegal possession of a handgun. While at the house, police saw a shopping bag full of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, the statement said.

When Nickologianes returned home, he admitted to officers that he had narcotics in the house, police said. After obtaining a search warrant, police found marijuana in varying amounts throughout the house, along with starter trays containing small plants and a bucket of marijuana stems and buds.

While searching the backyard, police discovered a 10-foot-deep pit emitting a strong marijuana smell. A door in the side of the pit led to a 20-foot-by-40-foot room.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Ten toll collectors appeared in court today in suits and business clothes to face charges that they skimmed $7,500 in quarters and dollars from their Massachusetts Turnpike Authority booths.

Nine of the 10 toll-takers were released without bail by Boston Municipal Court Judge Thomas Horgan after being arraigned on charges of larceny and fraudulent record keeping. Two of the accused toll-takers were still waiting to appear before the judge.

A lawyer for one of the accused men blasted prosecutors after they misspelled the names of three of the defendants. Attorney Stephen D'Angelo objected when an assistant district attorney asked for $1,000 cash bail because he said his client, Justin W. Ruggiero, 27, had spent 60 days in prison for driving with a suspended license. D'Angelo pointed out that prosecutors had misspelled his client's name and was describing the criminal history of the wrong man.

Ruggiero had no criminal record and was released without bail.

"What kind of evidence can they have if they can't get the correct spelling of the people's names?" D'Angelo asked outside court.

A spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley responded. "Defense counsel can focus on clerical errors," said spokesman Jake Wark. "We're focused on evidence developed during three month of surveillance and four months of forensic accounting."

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A prisoner who escaped from shackles outside Salem Superior Court earlier this week is expected to be arraigned today on new charges after he spent almost two days on the lam.

Police captured Miguel Angel Caraballo Thursday night at a home in Dracut after investigators tracked his whereabouts by interviewing witnesses and listening to recordings of phone calls he made while behind bars. Two women -- Joanna Aguire and Yessina Silva -- will also be arraigned today on charges of aiding and abetting Caraballo's escape, said Paul Fleming, a spokesman for the Essex County sheriff's office. Fleming did not describe specifically what Aguire and Silva allegedly did to help Caraballo.

By Ryan Kost, Globe Correspondent

A Middlesex County corrections officer was arrested today in a sting operation at a Winthrop doughnut shop on charges that he ferried drugs from dealers to inmates at the jail where he worked, State Police said.

The sting came at the end of an eight-month investigation into Scott Sears, 36, of Winthrop, said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman. In October, State Police and the Middlesex Sheriff's Office heard from informants that Sears was allegedly smuggling drugs into the Billerica jail.

Sears, who had worked for the sheriff's office for two years, would allegedly meet with drug dealers, collect marijuana and heroin on behalf of the inmates, and then bring it into the jail for a fee.

Michael Hartigan, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said he couldn’t say how long the purported scheme had operated or estimate the amount of drugs Sears had allegedly brought into the facility. “Any amount is detrimental to safety,” he said. Hartigan said that, as far as he knew, no other corrections officers were implicated in the investigation.

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

A Lowell police officer was indicted today on charges he gambled illegally on sports and used his law enforcement powers to dig up dirt on his Westford bookie to get out of paying back his debts.

David Annis, 33, faces gambling, extortion, and charges that he illegally obtained criminal record information to intimidate the bookmaker from collecting his $5,000 tab.

“We allege that David Annis violated the trust and authority bestowed on him as a police officer to commit these crimes,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a statement. Leone thanked the Lowell police for their cooperation in discovering the alleged crime and reporting it to his office.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- Neil Entwistle sat stone-faced and impassive this morning as his mother-in-law calmly excoriated him for shooting to death his young wife and infant daughter.

"Our dreams as a parent and grandparent have been shattered by the shameful, selfish act of one person, Neil Entwistle," said Priscilla Matterazzo, who remained composed as she read a brief victim impact statement. "For him to have tried to hide behind an accusation of murder-suicide of this beautiful woman and perfect mother is low and despicable."

Matterazzo continued: "Suffering does not begin to describe what we have been enduring without our beloved Rachel and Lillian, who gave our lives such purpose and meaning. I have lost two generations of my family. I would ask the court to impose two consecutive life sentences in the United States, acknowledging the lives of both Rachel and Lillian."

Judge Diane Kottmyer acknowledged the symbolic significance of imposing two consecutive life sentences -- one for Rachel, 27, and one for their 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose -- but she said she feared it would give people unfamiliar with Massachusetts law the wrong impression. The mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole means that Entwistle will never be released from prison unless he is pardoned by the governor.

"These crimes are incomprehensible," Kottmyer said, handing down a sentence of two concurrent life terms. "They defy comprehension because they involve the planned and deliberate murders of the defendant's wife and 9-month-old child in violation of bonds that we recognize as central to our identity as human beings, those of husband and wife and parent and child."

The judge stipulated that the 29-year-old Briton could not "profit in any way from the sale of his story either by way of book or otherwise to any media outlet." He will begin serving his sentence at MCI Cedar Junction in South Walpole.

Entwistle did not exercise his option to address the court. He did not testify during the 12-day trial and has not spoken publicly since the killings.

The jury of six women and six men took just 11 hours to convict him on Wednesday of two counts of first-degree murder. The conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole and requires an automatic review by the Supreme Judicial Court.

Those in court Wednesday, including families of the defendant and the victims, remained almost completely silent at the close of the trial that garnered attention on both sides of the Atlantic with its emotional and at times graphic testimony and evidence.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

Tracey Taddeo calls the orange tabby “Miracle.”

Wednesday morning, two men who work at Structural Wood Systems on Lake Street in Bellingham saw what they thought was simply a discarded lettuce box in the woods at the edge of the parking lot. Instead, they found a cat, probably 6 or 7 years old, inside. Its paws were taped together and its tail was taped to the inside of the box.

“If those guys didn’t find her ... she wouldn’t have made it,” said Taddeo, an animal control officer in Bellingham.

The cat spent the night at Tufts Veterinary Emergency Treatment and Specialties in Walpole. Today she is back at Bellingham Animal Control.

“She’s coming around,” said Taddeo, who said the veterinarian told her the cat probably had not been fed in a few days and had suffered an injury near her eye, but fortunately had no broken bones.

The Animal Rescue League is investigating the case and is offering a $2,500 reward for information regarding the case. Anyone with information is urged to call the criminal investigation division at 617-426-9170, ext. 110.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The head of a Massachusetts advocacy group for gun owners said he thinks today's Supreme Court ruling on guns could bring changes to the law over time in Massachusetts, but a gun control activist said it would have no impact at all.

James L. Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners' Action League, said the law in Massachusetts has been built on the premise that there is no right for an individual to keep and bear arms.

Now, he said, "The court has ruled extraordinarily clearly that it is an individual right. ... Any laws and court decisions in the future will have to be done under the premise that there is an individual right and that will change 30 years of legal history in Massachusetts."

But John Rosenthal, founder and chairman of Boston-Based Stop Handgun Violence, had a different view of the ruling. He said it would have "no bearing whatsoever on Massachusetts gun laws."

"The ruling says you can have reasonable restrictions," he said. "With rights come responsibilities and restrictions, reasonable restrictions."

He said that Massachusetts has the most comprehensive gun laws in the nation and the second-lowest firearm fatality rate in the nation.

The Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision that Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense, its first-ever pronouncement on the meaning of gun rights under the Second Amendment.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Two people were injured in a shooting at about 1:50 this afternoon on Harvard Street in Mattapan, police said.

A 21-year-old man drove himself to Carney Hospital, where he is in fair condition. A 15-year-old boy was transported by rescue workers to Boston Medical with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, police said.

No further information was immediately available.

By Globe Staff

Authorities are searching an area near Route 1 and Essex Street in Saugus for a suspect believed to have been involved in a bank robbery in Peabody, State Police said.

After the robbery, three suspects fled south on Route 1, then turned around and drove north on the highway into Saugus, police said. Two suspects have been captured, but the third fled on foot and is being pursued by state and local police, said State Police spokesman David Procopio.

The State Police have brought in K-9 units and a helicopter to help in the search, Procopio said.

A Peabody police dispatcher said no information was available on the bank robbery.

(Lindsay M. Harnack)

By Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondent

A thousand feet above the Atlantic, John Klatt decides he's going to test how tight my harness is.

Maddie Hanna

"You OK?" Klatt asks over the intercom.

As I drove to the Air National Guard base in North Kingstown, R.I., I wasn't nervous about flying along with Klatt, a pilot with 23 years of National Guard and air show experience, but I was nervous when I got there.

"Are you a thrill seeker?" Klatt asked, grinning.

I was nervous when Ryan Dulas, Klatt's mechanic, outfitted me in a straitjacket-like parachute harness. He finished without explaining how to use it.

"Which thing do I pull?" I asked.

"It's easy," he said, mimicking the motion, yanking his hand across his chest. "What's hard is jumping."

I was most nervous when Klatt told me I would be flying the plane, too.

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

Fireworks featured in flashy advertisements in catalogs and on the Internet may catch the eye, but they can also cause serious injuries, officials reminded the public today.

With the Fourth of July -- a time when many people feel the urge to set off fireworks -- a little more than a week away, officials demonstrated the power of even the smallest firecrackers at a press conference at Houghton's Pond in Milton. Several styrofoam dummies were charred, dismembered -- and in one case, completely destroyed -- by the explosions.

Stephen D. Coan, the state fire marshal, said there was no such thing as a “safe or sane” firework. Fireworks are illegal in Massachusetts without a license.

“If people order fireworks in catalogs or on the Internet, there is no legal way to receive them in the state,” he said.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A mathematics professor from Wayland was identified today as the person struck and killed by an MBTA commuter rail train in Concord Wednesday night.

Arthur M. Chou, 53, has taught since 1982 at Clark University in Worcester, where he was on the staff of the mathematics and computer science department, according to his resume posted on the school’s website.

"We are all deeply saddened to learn of the sudden and tragic loss of our colleague," David Angel, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said in a statement issued by the college. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family."

A woman who identified herself as Chou’s wife declined to comment today.

Chou was in Concord near Walden Pond and was trespassing on T property when he was hit by a train from the Fitchburg line around 8:20 p.m. Wednesday, according to the MBTA.

About 12 hours after Chou’s death, a woman was struck and killed at the Sullivan Square Orange Line station.

Authorities in Middlesex and Suffolk counties said the deaths remain under investigation, but that they do not suspect foul play in either case. The woman’s identity was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Transit Police Lieutenant Salvatore Venturelli said today that the victim was a black woman believed to be in her 30s who did not have any identification with her at the time of her death. He said she died instantly.

Venturelli and Boston Fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald both said authorities were notified around 9:10 am that a woman had become trapped under a six-car train on the northbound side of the subway line. MacDonald said firefighters needed an hour to extricate the woman from beneath the train.

Venturelli said transit police located a single eyewitness to the event and that person was being interviewed by detectives. He declined to say what information the person had supplied to investigators. He also said the operator of the train was being tested for drug or alcohol use, which is standard procedure for a transit employee involved with a fatality.

On Tuesday, 15-year-old Nicholas Scaringello was struck and killed by a commuter train in Roslindale. Transit police have said the teen and a 15-year-old friend were walking along the tracks when they were surprised by an eastbound express train near the Bellevue Station in Roslindale. The other teen was uninjured.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

The incident early last year in which lit-up devices depicting strange-looking cartoon characters were placed around the city caused consternation and a massive security response. Now it will also help send a promising young Boston public school student to college.

Connie Chan of South Boston, a recent Boston Latin Academy graduate, received a $2,500 scholarship Wednesday night from Mayor Thomas M. Menino to pursue an education and career in communications. Chan was the recipient of the first City of Boston/Turner Broadcasting System Inc. Scholarship.

Jonathan Palumbo, a spokesman for the Boston schools, said the annual scholarship comes out of a partnership with Turner that started after the January 2007 incident where lit-up devices were placed around the city in a promotion for Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a show on the Cartoon Network, which is owned by Turner Broadcasting.

Police treated the signs as potentially dangerous because they were concerned they had been planted by terrorists.

“The mayor was very gracious and suggested that they [Turner] strike up a partnership with Boston public schools so we’ve been working with Turner since,” Palumbo said.

By Globe Staff

Lawrence City Councilor Grisel Silva was arrested Wednesday night for allegedly ramming her car into her estranged husband’s car, Lawrence Police said.

Silva’s husband, Nelson, called police shortly after 6 p.m. to report the incident at the intersection of Avon and Jackson Streets. Nelson Silva told police that his wife intentionally rammed into his 2006 Ford Escape SUV with her 2001 Ford Focus as he was driving his girlfriend, said Mike Garrihy, assistant to the Lawrence police chief.

Nelson Silva told police that before his wife hit him, she was following him in her car while sending him angry text messages.

Grisel Silva told police that she had hit her husband’s car unintentionally, only after he stopped short in front of her. Her car had heavy front-end damage; her husband’s car was also damaged. But there were no injuries.

Grisel Silva was charged with assault, assault with intent to commit a felony, malicious destruction of personal property over $250, and operating to endanger. She was arrested in her home last night and is being arraigned in Lawrence District Court today.

Garrihy said Grisel is well-known in the community but to not to police. “I think people were surprised,” he said.

Priscilla Matterazzo, Rachel Entwistle's mother

Our dreams as a parent and grandparent have been shattered by the shameful, selfish act of one person, Neil Entwistle. For him to have tried to hide behind an accusation of murder-suicide of this beautiful woman and perfect mother is low and despicable.

Joe and I, our families, and Rachel's friends, students here and in England, were sentenced without the luxury of a trial by jury and now must go on with the eternity of emptiness. Suffering does not begin to describe what we have been enduring without our beloved Rachel and Lillian, who gave our lives such purpose and meaning.

I have lost two generations of my family. I would ask the court to impose two consecutive life sentences in the United States, acknowledging the lives of both Rachel and Lillian.

Following the Entwistle sentencing, Chris Dearborn of Suffolk Law School spoke on NECN about Entwistle's appeal chances and the possibility of the death penalty being reinstated in Massachusetts. Click play below to watch the interview.

By Globe Staff

The parents of Neil Entwistle issued a written statement to their hometown newspaper in England, handing the message to a reporter from the Worksop Guardian.

The 145-word statement from Clifford and Yvonne Entwistle maintained their son's innocence and expressed their gratitude for the support they have received, according to a story on the paper's website.

The entire statement follows:

"We write this in the wake of the verdict of our innocent son Neil, and we are devastated by the outcome.

(Courtesy Photo)

Rodriguez Ramirez with the kids who inspired him.

By Jonnelle Marte, Globe Correspondent

REVERE -- Resting his arms on his thighs, his eyes tired from grief, Nelson Rodriguez sat at a relative's home today and recalled how his son had found another purpose in Afghanistan.

Nelson Rodriguez Ramirez

On Saturday, Rodriguez Ramirez was riding in a truck when it struck an improvised explosive device, killing him and three others. The 22-year-old father of two -- who had been home for his second daughter's birth in January -- had plans to visit his family in Revere for his 23rd birthday on August 13. His wife, Moraima, and 5-month-old daughter Kiara were going to come from their home in Rochester, N.Y. for the bash.

He would have been home for good in January, when he was going to take steps to join the Coast Guard and study to be a pilot, said his father, who lives in Revere.

"That all fell through when this happened," he said. According to the Department of Defense, Rodriguez Ramirez is among 527 servicemen and women who have been killed in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, said Lt. Col. Les' A. Melnyk.

When he was killed, Rodriguez Ramirez was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry (Reconnaissance, Surveillancy and Target Acquistion), New York Army National Guard, based in Geneva, N.Y. He was posthumously promoted from specialist to sergeant, said Eric Durr, a spokesman for the New York Army National Guard.

Rodriguez Ramirez and two of the three others who were killed in Saturday's attack -- Sergeant Andrew Seabrooks, of South Ozone Park, Queens, N.Y.; and Sergeant Anthony Mangano, of Greenlawn, N.Y. were posthumously awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross by New York Governor David Paterson, Durr said.

While he was away, not a day went by that Rodriguez Ramirez didn't call his family.

"Even though he was so far away, he was so close to me," said his mother, Diana Ramirez of Chelsea, who said that there were no secrets between her and her second oldest child. "He didn't give me a chance to miss him a lot."

Rodriguez Ramirez was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Boston when he was 8 years old. A few years later, his family settled in Revere, where he attended Revere High School for a few years before dropping out, relatives said.

"He was rebelling, like most teenagers do," said his aunt, Raquel Rodriguez, huddled with family yesterday at her house in Revere. "But we refused to let him go down the wrong road."

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Jeffrey A. Denner knows all too well the challenges of defending someone accused of a monstrous crime. Just last Friday, a New Hampshire jury rejected his claim that a woman he was defending was insane when she kiiled her two boyfriends because she believed she was an angel sent by God to punish pedophiles.

So the Boston criminal defense lawyer was hardly surprised when a Middlesex County jury convicted Neil Entwistle yesterday of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his wife, Rachel, and 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose, after deliberating less than two days.

"In all cases, you're dealt a certain hand, and you're stuck with those cards," he said. "This was a case where, when you were looking at the cards [Entwistle's lawyers] were holding, it wasn't a particularly good hand. As a matter of fact, it was about as bad a hand as you can get. You have a high-profile case, a wildly unpopular defendant, and an absolutely horrendous crime."

Over and over today, members of Boston's tight-knit defense bar said the overwhelming circumstantial evidence against Entwistle made it highly unlikely that his lawyers, Elliot Weinstein and Stephanie Page, could win an acquittal.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education today unanimously approved a turnaround plan for the Randolph schools, in a move that will avert a state takeover of the beleaguered system.

Mitchell D. Chester, Commissioner of Secondary and Elementary Education, recommended approval of the two-year turnaround plan, which was crafted by Randolph over the past few months. In a memorandum to the board, Chester said he liked the plan's emphasis on implementing a standards-based curricula, especially in mathematics, improving performance of special education students, and raising the community's confidence in the schools.

Chester also said that town voter approval in April of a nearly $5.5 million property tax increase to support the schools showed the community was willing to take responsibility for improving the system.

"I am convinced that Randolph leaders have taken initial positive steps to craft a new, more collaborative working relationship with a shared focus on improving the quality of public education in the Randolph schools," Chester wrote.

A partnership, rather than a state takeover, is the approach the board has favored with other troubled districts.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

A 13-year-old girl who was rescued from the water in South Boston Tuesday remains in critical condition today at Boston Medical Center.

The girl was not breathing when she was pulled from the waters just south of Carson Beach, shortly after 5 p.m.

She had been swimming with two other girls when she ran into trouble near Mothers’ Rest, a fishing pier, and clung onto pilings for a while before disappearing. She was discovered more than a half hour after rescuers received a 911 call.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

Fourteen people were arrested on prostitution charges in a recent sweep led by the Boston field office of the FBI, and one child was rescued from being exploited as a prostitute, said Gail Marcinkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the FBI office.

“The FBI isn’t investigating prostitutes and pimps, we’re investigating [the abuse of] children,” Marcinkiewicz said.

The arrests were part of Operation Cross Country, a nationwide effort to stop child prostitution and trafficking. The operation resulted in the recovery of 21 children in 16 cities.

Eight people were arrested Thursday in Braintree; five were arrested in Boston Friday; and one was arrested in Boston Saturday. Marcinkiewicz would not give specific information about how the operation was conducted.

The FBI worked on the operation with the Massachusetts State Police, the Boston, Braintree, and Quincy police, the Norfolk County sheriff's department, and the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council.

By Globe Staff

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone:

"A just verdict has been returned and Neil Entwistle will spend the rest of his life in jail, which is where he belongs. ... I condemn Neil Entwistle for his unspeakable, unforgivable acts."

Joe Flaherty, attorney for Rachel Entwistle's family:

"We may never know why this happened, but we do know that Rachel and Lillian Rose loved and trusted Neil Entwistle. Neil Entwistle's actions on Jan. 20, 2006 betrayed that love and trust. Neil Entwistle will now live with his evil deeds for the rest of his natural life, only to be judged again. Rachel and Lillian left us too soon in life. But they will rest in peace together, forever in each other's arms, and we will seem them again someday. Their spirit will give us the strength to carry on."

Clifford Entwistle, defendant's father:

"We will continue to fight for our innocent son with the hope that one day justice will prevail, and our little granddaughter Lilly may rest in peace."

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- A jury took less than two days to convict Neil Entwistle of murdering his wife and infant daughter, rejecting the defense's theory that the young mother shot her 9-month-old before committing suicide.

Rachel Entwistle, 27, and Lillian Rose

"A just verdict has been returned and Neil Entwistle will spend the rest of his life in jail, which is where he belongs," Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said at a news conference this afternoon.

Leone said Lillian Rose, the slain baby, "should be here walking, talking and playing with her mom Rachel doting over her. ... But we all now know that's not going to happen because of the reprehensible acts of Neil Entwistle."

Entwistle will be formally sentenced Thursday at 10 a.m. First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole and requires an automatic review by the Supreme Judicial Court.

Entwistle's parents lashed out after the conviction, saying that Rachel Entwistle had "murdered" their granddaughter.

"We know that our son, Neil, is innocent, and we are devastated to learn that the evidence points to Rachel murdering our grandchild and then committing suicide," his mother, Yvonne Entwistle, told reporters outside the courthouse. "I knew Rachel was depressed. Our son will now go to jail for loving, honoring, and protecting his wife’s memory."

The verdict in Middlesex Superior Court came after a 12-day trial in which the prosecution meticulously relied on testimony from more than 30 witnesses. It culminated with the recordings of two phone conversations Entwistle had with Massachusetts State Police shortly after the crime. The two hours and 45 minutes of audio allowed the jury to hear the tone of the Briton's voice as he tried to explain why he fled to England without alerting authorities, leaving his slain wife and child in their Hopkinton home.

The defense did not call a single witness to testify and instead tried to exploit what it called missteps by police and pick apart the prosecution's case, which was built largely on circumstantial evidence.

"We disagree with the result the jury reached. We disagree with their view of the evidence," Elliot Weinstein, the lead defense attorney, said after the verdict.

"Under a different environment," a jury would have reached a different result, said Weinstein, who had pushed hard to move the trial out of Middlesex County. The defense attorney said "very significant issues of constitutional law" would be presented on appeal and he was confident that the case "will meet a successful review in the Supreme Court."

During the news conference held by prosecutors and Rachel Entwistle's family, Leone praised the work of investigators and prosecutors, saying they were "a focused and determined team that did not get distracted during the course of this trial."

Joe Flaherty, an attorney representing Rachel Entwistle's family, said, "We may never know why this happened, but we do know that Rachel and Lillian Rose loved and trusted Neil Entwistle. Neil Entwistle's actions on Jan. 20, 2006 betrayed that love and trust. Neil Entwistle will now live with his evil deeds for the rest of his natural life, only to be judged again."

The jury's decision ended a sensational case that has drawn international attention since the bodies of Rachel, 27, and Lillian Rose were discovered in their Hopkinton home on Jan. 22, 2006. Shortly after the crime, the smiling faces of the young family were splashed on the cover of People magazine under the headline: "Who killed Rachel and her baby?"

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

The Boston City Council approved a $2.4 billion budget this afternoon, making only minor changes to the spending plan introduced two months ago by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

The 11-to-2 vote came after a group of youths stood up in the council's chambers and symbolically turned their backs on the elected officials to protest what they said was inadequate funding for street workers to combat violence.

Councilor Charles Yancey voted against the budget because of the funding level for the street workers program. It marked the third year young people have criticized the council and Menino over the issue.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN - Jurors have reached a verdict in the case of Neil Entwistle, the British man accused of murdering his wife and infant daughter. The verdict will be announced shortly in Middlesex Superior Court.

The jury of six men and six women deliberated for a little more than 11 hours before notifying a judge that they had reached a decision. They began their deliberations on Tuesday at 9:15 a.m.

On Tuesday afternoon, the jury requested one exhibit detailing Entwistle's computer activity on the day of the killings.

By Globe Staff

MBTA Transit Police have identified the boy who was struck and killed by a Needham Line commuter train Tuesday night as 15-year-old Nicholas Scaringello of West Roxbury.

Lieutenant Detective Mark Gillespie said it appears, based on a preliminary investigation, that the boy and a 15-year-old friend, who was uninjured, were walking along the tracks, when they were surprised by an eastbound train near the Bellevue Station in Roslindale.

"It does not appear to be operator error at this point. It's just a tragic accident where the young boys were in an area that's an extreme hazard," he said.

He said the boys may have had a false sense of security because a westbound train had just passed on the single track. They also may not have heard the train's engine because it was in the rear pushing the train as it came around a bend, and because a storm had just passed by, leaving the leaves on trees heavy with moisture, he said.

He said the boys appeared to have been running for the platform when one of them was hit.

The engineer was going "well below" the posted speed limit of 60 mph in the area, he said.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Most Massachusetts public colleges and universities do not use security cameras, do not have gun-carrying police forces, and do not train faculty and staff to recognize troubled students and employees, according to a critical report that calls for aggressive changes across the state system to prevent campus violence.

The report, presented to the state Board of Higher Education today, also found that few schools have conducted a vulnerability assessment of their campus and one-third of them do not have a mutual-aid agreement with local law enforcement to respond to emergencies.

The 114-page study, undertaken in the wake of last year's Virginia Tech massacre, said the colleges have not done enough to address security concerns. It urged all 29 Massachusetts public colleges and universities to adopt a range of recommendations, including: creating emergency-response plans and notification systems; establishing a multi-disciplinary team to respond to threats and dangerous behaviors; and training faculty, staff, and students to recognize signs of mental illness. The number of college students across the country with severe mental illness has steadily increased in recent years.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Mayor Thomas M. Menino (center) examined the contents of an 86-year-old time capsule today with Representative Byron Rushing and State Senator Dianne Wilkerson.

By Chris Baxter, Globe Correspondent

A time capsule nestled in the cornerstone of what was once Roxbury's largest and most notable furniture store gave residents a glimpse today of Boston in 1922.

Secreted inside the foot-long rectangular copper box were two yellowed newspapers -- The Boston Evening Transcript and The Boston Post -- and a proof of a furniture advertisement touting a new wooden living room set for $150.

The time capsule was unearthed by construction workers in the former Ferdinand furniture store, known for decades as the "Blue Store" because of its bright blue façade. The Dudley Square institution opened in 1899 and anchored Roxbury's thriving center of retail stores, movie theaters, and food shops. The dilapidated building is being demolished, but the blue façade will be preserved and incorporated in a new municipal office building under construction by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The time capsule was buried in 1922 during a ceremony dedicating an addition to the original eight-story Ferdinand building.

The copper box opened today also contained a written copy of a speech given at the ceremony 86 years ago by legendary Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, who told an assembled crowd of Frank Ferdinand's success as a businessman. The festivities that day included a band playing for 10 minutes and the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "My Country, Tis of Thee."

By Globe Staff

A woman who was injured when she was trapped in the wreckage of a Green Line trolley crash last month in Newton has filed a lawsuit against the MBTA, her attorneys said today.

Min Perry, 37, of Wellesley, "has undergone surgery, extensive hospitalization, and now faces a long period of rehabilitation," Perry's lawyer, Ronald E. Gluck of Boston, said in a statement. "She will live with the consequences of this crash, physically and emotionally, for years to come."

The statement said that Perry had "suffered fractures of her leg and multiple other injuries."

An MBTA spokeswoman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Perry was sitting behind the operator of the trolley that rear-ended another trolley on the D branch of the line during rush hour on May 28. Ter'rese Edmonds, the operator, was killed in the crash.

The story of how Perry was comforted by a young good Samaritan while waiting for rescuers to arrive -- and later thanked him from her hospital bed -- was featured by local news outlets.

By Globe Staff

A man facing home invasion and kidnapping charges escaped from sheriff's deputies this morning while being taken to a Salem court, fleeing with a woman who appeared to be waiting for him in a stolen car, police said.

Miguel Angel Caraballo

State and local police are searching for Caraballo, who was wearing an orange jacket. The incident is being investigated by the Essex County Sheriff's Office. Shaffaval urged anyone with information about Caraballo to call the sheriff's office at 1-888-863-1477, Ext. 3300.

Paul Fleming, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said Caraballo was being guarded by a transportation team of two officers when he escaped, still in his restraints. "He was able to get away from the people who were watching him and he shuffled into a car that was being driven by an unknown visitor," Fleming said. The car was recovered about an hour later on Kimball Court, about a half-mile away from the courthouse.

Fleming would not comment on whether authorities knew the driver's identity and said it was unknown if more people were involved in Caraballo's escape plot.

"All leads are being investigated," he said, including a review of the people who visited Caraballo while he was in custody.

Fleming would not say where authorities are searching for Caraballo or how many people are involved in the manhunt.

The charges against Caraballo stem from an alleged home invasion in Haverhill in Dec. 21, according to an article published in April by the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. Caraballo allegedly pistol-whipped a man with a .45-caliber handgun during the break-in.

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

Saying that "today is a new day," Governor Deval Patrick unveiled his sweeping education reform initiative today, a 55-point action plan he hopes will act as a blueprint for legislative and administrative action for the next decade.

With proposals that touch on everything from early-childhood education to the state’s university system, the 44-page report makes the case that Massachusetts’ education system must change dramatically in order to prepare all children for a global economy.

"Today is the day to ask ourselves what we are prepared to do to bring a system designed for the 20th century into the 21st," Patrick said.

Many of the governor’s proposals, such as those aimed at closing achievement gaps, better preparing teachers, and reducing the number of school districts in the state, have been unveiled over the past two days. Patrick has talked a lot this week about his ideas for pre-kindergarten to Grade 12.

However, the report issued this morning provides fresh details and outlines a few initiatives that had yet to be unveiled.

(Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff)

Neil Entwistle looked at the jury this morning as they left the courtroom to begin their second day of deliberations in his double-murder trial.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- Neil and Rachel Entwistle had argued about their finances while living with their in-laws, and investigators found evidence that the husband accused of killing his wife and infant daughter gambled online and did Internet research on bankruptcy, according to court documents made public this morning.

The couple's financial picture was so dire that Neil Entwistle had received numerous letters from collection agencies in late 2005 and early 2006, and their 9-month-old daughter, Lillian, had an insurance card from MassHealth, which provides insurance for low-income families. That is in stark contradiction to the life the Entwistles were living, which included a large Colonial-style rented home in Hopkinton and a leased BMW sport utility vehicle.

"Subpoenaed bank records showed that the defendant had money going out but not a lot going in," according to documents released this morning at Middlesex Superior Court.

The financial information was included in 150 pages of motions made public this morning that detailed evidence that was not presented to the jury during the 12 days of testimony. Judge Diane Kottmyer barred the prosecution from presenting much of the information to the Middlesex Superior Court jury, which is in its second day of deliberations in the double-murder trial. The evidence contradicts the testimony of witnesses at trial who described the Entwistles as a happy couple who showed no outward signs of discord. Neil Entwistle described their relationship as "perfect" in a phone conversation he had with State Police.

By Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondent

An unidentified male died after being struck by a train this evening on the Needham commuter rail line east of Bellevue Station in Roslindale, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.

Pesaturo said the victim and another person were walking along the tracks when one of the pair was struck by the train shortly before 6:30 p.m. today. The second person was uninjured, Pesaturo said.

The Needham line was shut down and a bus shuttle was operating. No additional information was immediately available.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

A 13-year-old girl who was submerged in the water at a South Boston beach for several minutes this afternoon was pulled to shore by emergency workers.

The girl was not breathing when rescuers found her. Emergency workers attempted to resuscitate her as they transported her by ambulance to Boston Medical Center. Her injuries were life-threatening, police said.

The girl had been swimming with two other girls sometime after 4 p.m. near a pier located at Mothers' Rest, just south of Carson Beach, not far from a State Police barracks. Authorities are not sure exactly what happened.

"The girl was holding onto the piling," Boston District Fire Chief John Evans said in an interview at the beach. "I guess she was hanging on for a while and then disappeared."

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

MARBLEHEAD – Stephanie Scogland's eyes opened wide today as she described how people reacted to more than 1,000 angry honey bees that took over her neighborhood after escaping from a local beekeeper's hive.

“We saw all my neighbors around here acting kind of crazy,’’ she said as she pantomimed people running down Rockaway Avenue while furiously swatting at bees gathering around their heads Sunday morning. "We definitely could not be outside at all.’’

Around the corner from Scogland’s house, beekeeper Paul Price stood on his front lawn, patiently explaining how the expensive hobby of his retirement years suddenly went awry. Price said he has kept two hives in his Warren Road backyard for a decade without incident until last weekend.

Several people and pets were stung by the angry bees, which Price estimated numbered at least 1,000, and residents had to stay inside until nightfall when the bees finally gathered at Price's home. He captured the flying creatures and destroyed them in his basement, he said.

"There were bees flying everywhere,'' Price said. "There was real pandemonium.''

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Ten toll-takers at the Ted Williams and Sumner Tunnels have been charged with larceny after an investigation by State Police and prosecutors found that they were routinely skimming up to $150 per shift.

Under one scheme, prosecutors said, they would collect a higher toll from taxis but count them as regular cars and then pocket the difference. Under another scheme, they would collect tolls from two cars, but only count them as one.

The toll-takers were videotaped for three months.Over that period, the Suffolk District Attorney's office said, they took in a total of $5,000 to $10,000. It is unclear how long the scam had been going on.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

A Globe photographer caught a picture of Dichio shopping during work hours in 2004.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A federal jury in Boston today awarded $150,000 to an assistant US marshal after concluding that Anthony Dichio, the former marshal for Massachusetts, retaliated against her at work because she filed a sex discrimination complaint against him.

The verdict in US District Court in Boston was the latest embarrassment for Dichio, who was fired by the Bush administration in 2005 from his $130,000-a-year job after the the Globe documented his lax work habits and use of his government-owned vehicle for personal errands.

After about four hours of deliberations, the jury concluded that Dichio retaliated against Cynthia Bohn after she complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity office of the Marshals Service in January 2003 about being denied choice assignments and positions with investigative duties.

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick unveiled a host of initiatives today aimed at improving the quality of teaching in classrooms around the state.

Saying that teachers are the keys to great schools, Patrick announced plans to provide financial rewards to schools that improve academically; institute higher pay for teachers in hard-to-staff schools and disciplines, such as math and science; and simplify the teacher certification process, which has long been criticized for being too complicated.

He also outlined what are likely to be two of the more controversial parts of his sweeping plan: urging some of the state's 391 school districts to consolidate and implementing a statewide teachers' contract.

Though some of the proposals are not in line with long-standing teachers' union positions, Patrick said he doesn't anticipate widespread union opposition.

"They've been at the table," while the proposals were developed, he said.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent

WOBURN -- Jurors in Neil Entwistle's double-murder trial deliberated for seven hours today without reaching a verdict. They'll get back to work at Middlesex Superior Court tomorrow.

The only clue to what the jury might be discussing came this afternoon when jurors asked for a printout of the user and login information from the Briton's laptop computer for Jan. 20, 2006, the day his wife and daughter were killed.

Judge Diane Kottmyer instructed lawyers to make the 14-page printout available to the jury.

Defense attorney Elliot Weinstein said outside the courtroom, "login activity showed that computer user Neil accessed his job user information and e-mails related to jobs … and that's all."

Prosecutors presented evidence at trial that showed that Entwistle, 29, surfed the Internet searching for sexual relationships and female escorts around the time his wife, Rachel, 27, and 9-month old daughter were killed. Weinstein said today that the computer records sought by the jury did not include any sexual material or searches.

A jury began deliberating Entwistle's fate this morning after his defense team did not call a single witness and instead offered a stunning, controversial new assertion furthering its theory that Rachel Entwistle killed her daughter and herself.

Rachel Entwistle, 27, and Lillian Rose

"Neil saw the .22 and knew instantly what had happened, and in those moments, he knew what he had to do and what he couldn't do," Weinstein said. "He had to get the .22 back to Carver, and he couldn't call the police because he couldn't tell them what Rachel did. He wouldn't tell them because he wouldn't tarnish Rachel's memory.

"Was he thinking rationally, clearly, or correctly? Of course not. How could he? Neil drove to Carver and returned the .22."

During the trial, the defense posed the theory that Rachel, 27, shot the couple's baby, 9-month-old Lillian Rose, and then herself.

By Erica Noonan, Globe Staff

Police are investigating a homicide that happened around noon today in a residential neighborhood near Framingham Center.

The Middlesex County district attorney's office says 38-year-old Jeffrey Weaver was fatally stabbed outside a home on Gordon Street, a yellow multi-family Colonial across from a playground.

Investigators set up tents on the gravel driveway this afternoon, looking for clues. An overturned green wire chair was marked as evidence.

The district attorney's office says the slaying is under investigation. No suspects are yet in custody. No further details were immediately available.

By Globe Staff

WOBURN -- A jury convicted a Waltham man this afternoon of hiring a hit man to kill his estranged wife's boyfriend in a Newton parking garage in 2006.

James Brescia was accused of hiring ex-convict Scott Foxworth to murder his wife's boyfriend, Edward Schiller, of Framingham. Prosecutors said that Brescia paid Foxworth $10,000 to kill Schiller. The insurance agent was found with a fatal gunshot wound to his head on Jan. 13, 2006, in a parking garage next to the Aronson Insurance Agency, where he worked.

Brescia was convicted this afternoon in Middlesex Superior Court of conspiracy and murder. Foxworth is charged with pulling the trigger and will be tried in October.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent

WOBURN -- The verdict watch in Neil Entwistle's double-murder trial occurs outside Courtroom 430 on wood benches, where a dozen reporters and courthouse regulars are sprawled out with laptops, newspapers, library books, and takeout salads in plastic bowls.

It takes place sitting on freshly laid carpet on the fourth floor of this sterile office building that is the temporary home of Middlesex Superior Court. Or crammed elbow-to-keyboard-to-elbow in the overflow media room downstairs, where news organizations from the BBC to ABC to the Associated Press are fighting for space. The waiting is done outside in the shade of two temporary metal and canvas tents in the parking lot where 11 television cameras stand set for live shots once word spreads.

A vacant courtroom on the seventh floor is ready for the prosecution press conference. An empty podium adorned with the seal of Middlesex District Attorney Gerald T. Leone Jr. waits in front of six empty camera tripods and a microphone boom, leaning against a bench.

All that is needed is a verdict. The prosecution spent 12 meticulous days building a case that relied on testimony from more than 40 witnesses. The defense did not call a single witness to the stand but used its closing argument to try to convince the jury that Rachel Entwistle, 27, shot her 9-month-old daughter Lillian Rose and then turned the gun on herself. The jury of six women and six men began deliberating at 9:15 this morning.

By Jonelle Marte, Globe Correspondent

Saying they have been painfully squeezed by increases in tolls and gas prices, a stream of taxi drivers testified today at a hearing in Boston that they need an increase in fares.

The rate hearing at Roxbury Community College, chaired by a police department hearing officer, focused on a proposal to increase per-mile fares by 50 percent and hike the starting fare by 50 cents.

The proposed increase would make a cab ride in Boston one of the most expensive in the nation. It must be approved by the police department, which regulates taxi fares.

Taxi driver Pierre Duchemin, who said he has been driving a taxi on and off for more than 25 years, supported the increase.

He said he has four kids and added, "I am not even making enough to provide for them."

He said drivers have watched with dismay as gas and toll -- and food -- prices have gone up. "Everything went up with us but the meter," he said at the hearing, which drew a crowd of about 200 people.

George Bachrach, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, said his group agreed with the drivers, but also wanted them to transition to more energy-efficient vehicles.

Captain Robert Ciccolo, the hearing officer who listened to testimony today, told the crowd he'd be willing to listen to more tomorrow. After the hearing ends, written testimony can be submitted for two weeks. After that, Ciccolo will submit a recommendation to the police commissioner.

(Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)

Passengers had plenty of elbow room on the boat from Hingham to Boston in November.

By Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondent

Free wireless Internet service is now available on the 11 MBTA commuter boats that ply the waters between Boston, Hingham, Hull, Quincy, and Logan Airport, the authority announced this morning.

Adding wireless access, a move that comes several months after the MBTA started a pilot WiFi program on its Worcester-Framingham commuter line, is an effort to retain current riders and lure new ones, said MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas.

"It's natural. There's tables, people can sit, they're here for 30, 45 minutes," Grabauskas said after a morning press conference at Long Wharf.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- A defense attorney told a jury today that Neil Entwistle's wife shot their daughter and then killed herself in their Hopkinton home in 2006, arguing at the conclusion of his trial that the Briton was not guilty of murder.

Attorney Elliot Weinstein said that Entwistle discovered the bodies of Rachel, 27, and 9-month-old Lillian Rose, and never told police about the .22-caliber gun he found on the bed. In order to defend his wife's honor and prevent her memory from being tarnished, Neil Entwistle then drove to Rachel's parents' home in Carver and returned the firearm to her father-in-law's gun collection. He did not want her family to know she had stolen the weapon and committed suicide, Weinstein said.

"Do not misunderstand us. No one is blaming Rachel," Weinstein said in Middlesex Superior Court. "Neil found Rachel and Lillian dead."

It was a swift conclusion to the double-murder trial in which the defense rested without calling any witnesses to rebut the 12 days of evidence and testimony presented by prosecutors. Instead, Entwistle's attorneys tried to explain his actions after the killings as those of a distraught and devastated husband. He flew back to his parents' home in England without calling 911 or notifying police of the bodies because "human emotions are unpredictable" and can cause people to act irrationally, Weinstein said.

Prosecutors rejected the defense's theory because he said it "makes no sense."

"It is unimaginable, ladies and gentlemen," said prosecutor Michael Fabbri. "You see fresh bubbles [of blood from your daughter who was shot] and you don't call 911 and call help for them? Unimaginable."

Rachel Entwistle had recently moved back to the United States with her husband so that her newborn baby could be near her family and was by all accounts happy.

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Schoolchildren and reporters listened today at the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester as Governor Deval Patrick outlined his education reforms.

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick has appointed a special commission to come up with ways to fund the 50-plus initiatives in his sweeping education reform package.

Governor Deval Patrick

With costs of energy, special education, and labor rapidly rising, Massachusetts school districts are increasingly under financial pressure and more frequently turning to voters for permission to raise property taxes. Districts across the state now spend on average 18 percent more than the foundation budgets set by the state funding formula, Patrick said at a news conference at the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester today. Communities must fund the difference between the state's foundation budget and what their school districts need.

"Everything is on the table," Patrick said, responding to a question about whether his proposals could mean new taxes. "Our future is at stake."

The commission will issue its recommendations by Nov. 15, Patrick said. A story in today's Globe outlined the plan.

(Associated Press photos/Lisa Poole)

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

GLOUCESTER -- Mayor Carolyn Kirk said today there is "no evidence" to support the high school principal's contention that teenage girls made a pact to get pregnant, trying to forcefully rebut a Time magazine report that sparked a national media uproar.

At a crowded news conference after a closed-door meeting with school officials, Kirk said the principal, Joseph Sullivan, could not provide specifics when asked about a pregnancy pact he described in the June 18 issue of Time.

"He was foggy in his memory … when pressed, his memory failed," Kirk said, speaking to a crowd that included eight television cameras and numerous print and radio reporters. "Any planned, blood-oath bond to become pregnant, there is absolutely no evidence of."

Speaking in an auditorium at City Hall, Kirk was joined by the schools superintendent and the chairman of the school committee. Kirk said that she "did not feel comfortable" having Sullivan join her at the news conference because she has been unable to verify his account in Time magazine.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Mayor Thomas M. Menino greeted attendees at the Black Philanthropy Conference this morning at John Hancock Hall. To the right of Meinino is George Russell Jr., president of the State Street Foundation.

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

Mayor Thomas M. Menino urged black community leaders this morning to consolidate their organizations and put more money towards education for Boston’s youngest minority children.

“We don’t invest enough resources in education,” Menino said at the Black Philanthropy "Building Stronger Communities" Conference at John Hancock Hall. “We have got to be smarter about how we invest in kids.”

Menino told a small gathering of grant makers, philanthropists, and business leaders that children under age 14 are being led astray – specifically citing violent television programming – and that more should be done to create a better image of minority success in the city.

The mayor also said that organizations that focus on similar neighborhood issues, such as healthcare or crime, should combine administrative staffs to save money and put more funding into neighborhoods.

“It can happen, but we have to be able to check egos at the door,” Menino said.

(Photo by Annie Tritt for The New York Times)

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

A dump truck struck a parked Fung Wah bus in New York this morning, creating a chain of collisions that left one pedestrian dead and six others injured, police said.

At 7:49 a.m., the Boston-bound Fung Wah bus was in the process of loading passengers in Chinatown, its driver stationed by the front door.

A private dump truck driver, Alejandro Fallo, 54, lost control of his vehicle, said New York Police Department Detective Mindy Diaz. When the truck hit the bus, it propelled the bus onto the sidewalk, where it hit a fire hydrant, and careened into the front of a bank on the corner of Canal Street and Bowery.

Meanwhile, the dump truck sputtered into three more parked vans before finally stopping.

Lai Ho, 57 of Brooklyn, was among several people waiting to cross the street. A sign attached to a light pole fell on her, Diaz said. She was taken to Beekman Hospital, where she was pronounced dead from a heart attack, Diaz said.

Five others, including two police officers, were treated for minor injuries and released, she said. Fallo, who drives for the CPQ Freight Systems out of New Jersey, was in the hospital in critical but stable condition. Diaz said he tested negative for alcohol. Police are now looking into whether his brakes were working correctly.

“They’re trying to determine if there’s going to be any criminal charges pending," she said. "But so far, it doesn’t look that way.”

The Fung Wah bus was almost empty, with two people boarding at the time of the crash, she said. The company -- which offers low fare tickets between Boston and New York -- has received negative publicity for its safety record in recent years. But in this case, there was nothing the driver could have done, Diaz said.

“They were minding their own business,” she said.

Workers who answered the phone at Fung Wah's offices had no comment.

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

The United States is a nation of believers: Most Americans say they believe in God, they pray, and they attend worship services regularly; they also believe in angels and demons, in heaven and hell, and in miracles.

By Jonathan Saltzman and Sean Murphy, Globe Staff

Modern Continental Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today, the first business day after federal prosecutors brought 49 charges against the Big Dig's largest contractor, including allegations that it knew about bolts coming loose in the ceiling of the Interstate 90 tunnel years before a 2006 collapse killed a motorist.

Modern Continental said in a petition to the US Bankruptcy Court in Boston that it had debts of $500 million to $1 billion and assets of only $100 million to $500 million. The company estimated that it had 200 to 999 creditors, including one it owed nearly $9.9 million.

The board of directors of Modern Continental voted June 11 to seek protection from its creditors, according to court documents.

The company was expected to issue a statement today, according to Harold B. Murphy, who helped prepare the bankruptcy petition.

Late Friday, the US Attorney's Office in Boston brought a slew of federal highway fraud and wire fraud charges against Modern Continental. Prosecutors alleged that the company made false statements on construction documents certifying the quality of its work and systematically cheated on the bills for labor and materials it submitted.

US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said his office brought the charges after plea negotiations with the company broke down. Modern Continental denied the allegations in a lengthy statement, calling them ``completely unfounded and without merit.''

Modern Continental teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in 2004, but to avoid a default and the resulting chaos it would inflict on the Big Dig project, the state helped arrange for another large Big Dig contractor, Jay Cashman Inc., to supervise the company's remaining contracts.

The deal had the strong backing of Modern Continental's insurance carriers, which had guaranteed the completion of the company's work on the project. However, the deal also meant that Modern Continental was essentially a shell corporation, with no real independence

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- Attorneys for Neil Entwistle will not call any witnesses to testify in their client's defense, opting instead to rest their case this morning after prosecutors presented their final piece of evidence.

The decision not to call any witnesses means that the British man will not take the stand to defend himself against charges that he murdered his wife and infant daughter in their Hopkinton home in 2006. Lawyers are preparing to give their closing arguments today to the jury in Middlesex Superior Court.

The prosecution concluded its case by playing a second audiotape of a phone conversation that Entwistle had from England with Massachusetts State Police shortly after the killings. It came on the 12th day of testimony in a case that has heard testimony from nearly 50 witnesses.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

A three-alarm fire destroyed a Roslindale home early today and left a family and a neighborhood wondering how the fire started.

“We don’t know why,’’ said Barbara Nova, whose two-family home in the 4000 block of Washington street in Roslindale was gutted by the intense fire. “We don’t know how.’’

Boston fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the department’s fire investigation unit is searching for arson, among other possible causes, for the 3:45 a.m. fire. An accelerant sniffing dog investigated the front porch area and investigators collected charred remains from the same place. But MacDonald stressed that no conclusion has been reached on how, when or where, the fire started.

“Nothing’s been ruled in and nothing’s been ruled out,’’ he said, adding it might be several days before investigators reach a conclusion on the cause and origin of the fire.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Scores of food services workers marched today in front of Boston's two main convention centers and went on strike to protest what they consider unfair labor practices. The strike, which began this morning and will last through Monday, encourages weekend convention-goers to go without their mainstays: coffee, sandwiches, and snacks.

About 75 unionized workers of the concession giant Aramark Corp. started picketing this morning outside the Hynes Convention Center as thousands went to the Health and Fitness Expo, a two-day conference offering health screenings, fitness advice, and healthy cooking instructions. Dozens of other workers stood outside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, which tomorrow will host the 44th annual meeting of the Drug Information Association.

A union spokesman said they were not asking convention-goers not to cross picket lines, but were instead asking them to boycott Aramark services inside.

(Globe file photo)

Bennie Swain (left) and K.C. Jones were rookies the same year.

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

Bennie Swain, who played one memorable season with the Boston Celtics, winning a championship in the 1958-59 season, died of cancer Thursday in Houston. He was 78.

A knee injury prematurely ended the 6-foot-8 player's career. He went on to teach science and coach high school basketball for almost 30 years in Houston, his family said.

Mr. Swain was an early first-round pick in the 1958 NBA draft after leading the nation in scoring at Texas Southern University in the 1957-58 season. After his injury, he played semipro basketball before returning to Houston.

“Everybody who knew Swain loved him. He loved to teach students and he liked to steer them in the right direction,” said Jerry Gather of Houston, a close friend and former teaching colleague of Mr. Swain’s. “He knew they were there to learn, and he wanted to get the best out of them.”

Mr. Swain’s family said he had no regrets about his career.

“Bennie wasn’t the type of person to stay back with regrets. No, he’d just move on. He didn’t worry about the past,” said his wife, Tommie Swain. “He just moved on with whatever comes next in his life. That’s what he did.”

In addition to his wife, Mr. Swain leaves behind four children, 11 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Globe Correspondent Marc Robins contributed to this report. John Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com

By Globe Staff

The tainted tomatoes have arrived. State public health officials said today that 12 recent cases of salmonella reported in the state have been linked to a nationwide outbreak.

Friend or foe?

The Massachusetts cases were reported in Middlesex, Worcester, Plymouth, Norfolk, and Suffolk Counties. Victims ranged in age from 5 to 39 years old.

The FDA has asked consumers to avoid certain raw red plum, raw red Roma, raw red round tomatoes and products containing those tomatoes. Consumers are not advised to try cooking the tomatoes.

What's safe to eat? Cherry, grape, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, and homegrown fruits. Tomatoes grown in Massachusetts are also considered safe.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Brookline Police have determined that speed was a factor in a multi-car crash in Coolidge Corner Thursday afternoon that killed one driver and injured seven other people, including five children.

“Speeding is a factor, but we don’t know if it was the only factor,” said Police Captain John O’Leary, noting the investigation is not yet complete.

O'Leary also said police have determined that Theodore Green, a 79-year-old Newton resident, was responsible for the accident, which happend at about 5 p.m. at Harvard and Babcock Streets. Green was pronounced dead several hours later at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

A man who answered the phone at the Green household this evening declined to comment.

Only one of the seven injured remains hospitalized. Lisa Zizzi, 52, of Wellesley is in serious condition tonight at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a spokeswoman said.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Staff

The alleged pregnancy pact between several girls at Gloucester High School drew national and even international attention this week.

The Globe's Tania deLuzuriaga filed a report earlier this month that Gloucester officials were mystified by the 17 pregnancies at the school this year and alarmed by the fact that some seemed intentional. Time magazine reported this week that some of the teens had entered a pact, planning to get pregnant and raise their babies together. The story spread like wildfire.

NBC's "Today Show" offered an interview today with Christen Callahan, 18, of Gloucester, who has a three-year-old daughter. She said having a baby means "losing everything," including friends and the ability to "go out." ABC News interviewed several teen mothers, including Alycia Mazzeo, 16, of Gloucester who called her pregnancy an "unplanned blessing." On CBS's "Early Show," anchors and a psychologist discussed whether the teens had been influenced by celebrity culture and the much-publicized pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears, as well as movies such as "Juno" and "Knocked Up."

The story also made headlines overseas, with reports in the The Guardian and The Daily Mail in England. Hundreds of other papers and websites carried wire service reports about the pregnancies. Items about the pact were featured in news sources ranging from The New York Times to MTV News.

By Globe Staff

Modern Continental Corp., the largest construction contractor on the Big Dig project, is facing charges that it lied about the quality of the construction work it performed and engaged in a scheme of overbilling the project, federal officials said this afternoon.

The Cambridge-based company "knowingly executed documents" stating that two portions of the project had been built according to specifications when the company was, in fact, aware that they were not, officials from the U.S Attorney's office, the Department of Transportation, the FBI, and the Department of Labor said in a statement.

The statement pointed to two major mishaps in the project. One was a Sept. 15, 2004 blowout in a wall of the Tip O'Neill Tunnel that resulted in extensive traffic delays. Another was the July 10, 2006 collapse of a concrete ceiling panel in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel that killed Milena DelValle, a passing motorist.

"In both instances, MCC was aware at, or near, the time it constructed the slurry walls and installed the tunnel ceiling that it was not adhering to the contract documents," the statement said. But in both cases, the company still knowingly signed "certifications" that the project was built in accordance with the contract.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

Five construction workers were injured this morning when a concrete ceiling fell, striking two men on a lift and another three on the ground, Burlington fire officials said.

"There was some type of failure of the concrete from the elevated section," said Fire Lieutenant James Sorenson.

After the incident, which happened at about 11:20, the workers were transported by ambulance to Lahey Clinic in Burlington with non-life-threatening injuries. One man had what appeared to be a broken arm and the others complained of back and neck injuries, Sorenson said.

Work on the Wall Street site was stopped for the day and officials from OSHA will investigate the accident, he said.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Massachusetts officials emerged upbeat today after a high-stakes meeting with federal regulators involving hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid money the state receives every year.

The meeting followed a major push Thursday by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who amid treatment in his battle with brain cancer placed a flurry of phone calls to top Bush administration officials to ensure that the money is protected.

Governor Deval Patrick led the Massachusetts delegation in the meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, which also included aides for Kennedy and Senator John F. Kerry.

"Senator Kennedy is very pleased with how well today’s meeting went, and looks forward very much to finishing the work on the waiver renewal over the course of the next few weeks," spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said in a statement. "He's very impressed with how the negotiations are progressing and is hopeful that the waiver renewal will be completed very soon."

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Everett Police are looking for two men who stole a Peabody man's car this morning, then hit him with it when he tried to stop them from getting away.

Lieutenant Paul Landry said the men hit 41-year-old Walter Thompson with the stolen 1985 Buick on Third Street.

Thompson was transported by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital where he is in stable condition.

A witness remained at the scene of the accident until police arrived, which Landry said is helpful in any investigation.

“We can’t do police work alone. Policing requires the community to assist,” Landry said.

(Associated Press photos/Ken McGagh, pool)

Sergeant Robert Manning of the State Police held an audio recording of a two-hour phone conversation he had with Neil Entwistle.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe staff

WOBURN -- A plodding, two-hour phone conversation that Neil Entwistle had with police shortly after the killings was rambling and repetitive as he struggled to explain why he left his slain wife and baby in their Hopkinton home without calling police and flew back to England.

Neil Entwistle

"The state that I'm in at the moment, I don't feel like I've done the right thing," said Entwistle, who was speaking with a Massachusetts state trooper from his parents home in Worksop, England. "By not being the one to call and say what happened. I just couldn't get it clear in my head to do it."

The unnerving audio recording was the final piece of evidence that will be offered by the prosecution in a case that has spanned 11 days and included testimony from more than 30 witnesses. It was the first time that the jury in the double-murder trial has heard the voice of Entwistle, who was speaking by phone with Sergeant Robert Manning 12 hours after arriving at his parents' home two hours north of London.

By Globe Staff

Neil Entwistle denied killing his wife and infant daughter during a two-hour telephone conversation on Jan. 23, 2006 with Sergeant Robert Manning of the State Police. A recording of the call was played today during Entwistle's double-murder trial in Middlesex Superior Court.

The following is a partial transcript that picks up after Entwistle described finding the bodies of his wife, Rachel, 27, and 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose:

Manning: "Was there any kind of situation that took place at the house that caused you to immediately instead of calling the police want to kill yourself?"

Entwistle: "God, No. No."

Manning: "You sure?"

Entwistle: "I mean. I would--"

Manning: "I'm not saying you did anything. I'm just asking. I'm just trying to rule out all possibilities of what could have taken place there. I'm not saying you did anything. I'm asking you --"

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

With the help of an anonymous voice on the phone, police quickly arrested three people allegedly involved in the armed robbery of a Dorchester convenience store.

Just before 5 p.m. Thursday, two men wearing bandanas over their faces walked into Adams Market in Dorchester, said Officer Eddy Chrispin, a Boston Police spokesman. One demanded the money from the cash register and placed a silver revolver on the counter. The clerk handed over the money, which the suspects put in a black bag.

The robbers then told the clerk to empty his pockets and give them cigarettes. The clerk handed over loose change and six packs of Newports.

Police responded to the store and were investigating when an anonymous caller called police, saying that he had seen two men run out of the store, enter a gold or silver Toyota Camry, and drive away. The tipster provided the car’s license plate number and the direction it was headed.

(Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe/file)

An American Airlines skycap checked baggage at Logan International Airport in December.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Eight current and former American Airlines skycaps who were awarded $283,114 for tips they lost when the airline implemented curbside baggage fees may have to return to court again to battle for the money.

US District Judge William G. Young on Thursday ordered a new trial in the lawsuit brought by the eight skycaps, who were employed by the airline's Texas-based subcontractor, G2 Secure Staff. A federal jury awarded them the money on April 7 after the airline allegedly violated the state's tips law.

Young said he erroneously accepted a broad interpretation of the law by the skycaps and should have posed an additional question on the jury slip.

In a retrial, the jury would be asked to determine whether passengers who paid $2 fees to check in bags at the curbside beginning in September 2005 expected the money to go to the G2 skycaps. If the jury found that was the expectation, the previous award would stand.

By Globe Staff

Red Line service will be disrupted this weekend so workers can replace rail ties on the Longfellow Bridge, the MBTA has announced.

No trains will run between Park Street and Kendall/MIT from the beginning of service on Saturday through the end of service Sunday night, T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in a statement.

The T will offer bus service instead between Park and Kendall. Trains will continue to run along the rest of the line.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Relatives of four young men slain in a basement recording studio in Dorchester in 2005 broke into applause today when a judge sentenced the man who murdered them to four life terms in state prison.

Calvin Carnes, 21, was convicted Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court of shooting Jason Bachiller, 20, Jihad Chankhour, 22, Edwin Duncan, 21, and Christopher Vieira, 19, a total of 15 times in the basement of a home on Bourneside Street. Carnes was a friend of the four men, three of whom had formed a rap group.

Before sentencing, relatives of each of the men delivered statements, speaking to Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle and to Carnes, who entered the courtroom carrying a Koran and who remained outwardly calm even as he was called "evil.''

"How dare you take the kids away just for a spark of adrenaline?'' Elizabeth Perez Barani, Vieira's mother, said. "You are truly the spark of evil.''

Guillermo Bachiller, Jason's uncle, who had raised him as his own son, reminded Carnes that his surname in Spanish means meat. "It is appalling how you have reduced Jason and his three friends to pieces of meat,'' he said, adding that Carnes attacked people who considered him a friend. "You were a wolf in a lamb's clothing.''

Carnes took the stand in his own defense during the trial and insisted he was not the killer. His attorney, Shannon Frison, told the judge that Carnes had no prior criminal convictions.

Hinkle asked Carnes if he wished to speak. Wearing a charcoal gray suit, a black shirt and a black-and-gold tie, Carnes rose to his feet, while holding his shackled hands in front of him.

"No,'' he said. "No, Your Honor.''

(Jon Chase for The Boston Globe)

Governor Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, surveyed the pool at the aquatic facility this morning.

By Ryan Kost, Globe Staff

Exactly 20 years ago, Governor Michael S. Dukakis was at the peak of his political career, running for president. But time marches on. And today he found himself attending a ceremony in Southborough in which a building was named after him.

Dukakis said he was honored, but also a little nervous. “When they start naming buildings after you, you know you’re on your way out," he quipped.

The New England Center for Children, a Southborough-based school for children with autism, Asperger's syndrome, and pervasive development disorder held the ceremony this morning to officially dedicate the Michael S. Dukakis Aquatic Center. It was the first building in the state to be named after the governor, who was a political powerhouse in the state in the 1970s and 1980s.

Dukakis, his wife, Kitty, Senator John Kerry, Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, and 200 friends and supporters attended the early-morning event. As co-chairman of the center’s steering committee, Dukakis helped raise the $5.5 million to build the facility.

(TuBoston.com / El Planeta)

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Eight people were injured today in a fiery crash in Brookline. The injured included five children, ranging in age from six months to 10 years old, and three adults, two of whom were in critical condition, police said.

The accident happened at about 5 p.m. at Babcock and Harvard Streets in the Coolidge Corner area, said Police Captain John O'Leary. Based on a preliminary investigation, O'Leary said, police believe that three cars in motion were involved, along with one or two parked cars.

O'Leary said local residents and store employees raced to help the injured in the moments after the accident.

At least one car burst into flames and an elderly woman had to be removed from it by the Jaws of Life as the fire burned. She was one of the two critically injured adults. The third adult and the children received non-life-threatening injuries.

Rowena Delrosario, a teller at the Citizens Bank at the corner, said she saw the crash. "I heard a big, loud noise like a big bomb," she said. "I was really shocked. I couldn't move."

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

The Tobin Bridge will be outfitted with wireless sensors that will provide information about stresses and loads on the bridge, making it the first "smart" bridge in the state, Massport officials said today.

Thomas Kinton, executive director of the Massachusetts Port Authority, said the system would add to the current schedule of two- and four-year bridge inspections.

"This new smart bridge technology will supplement those inspections and take our stewardship of the bridge to the next level," he said in a statement.

Joe Staub, deputy director of the bridge, said the system had the "potential to be an early detection system enabling us to address conditions as they develop and before they become potential problems."

(Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)

Spectators viewed the ruins of the building today.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Five Natick businesses were destroyed early today in a four-alarm fire that the state fire marshal said was caused by faulty electrical wiring.

The fire on Pond Street was discovered by a Natick police officer around 1:13 a.m. and was under control around 5 a.m. No injuries were reported, but the blaze caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage.

State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said investigators determined that the origin of the fire was overheated electric wiring between the basement ceiling and the floor of a laundry. “The only heat source in the area of origin was electricity,’’ Coan said in a statement.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Gravel and dirt spilled out of the overturned truck, covering the highway.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

The driver of the tractor-trailer that flipped on its side Tuesday, shutting down the southbound Southeast Expressway for hours, said today he had one goal in mind once he clambered out of his damaged truck.

"All I wanted to do was to get my hands on the guy that cut in front of me,'' said John C. Michael, 55, of Brockton. ”That was the dumbest thing he had to do. ... It's like wanting to commit suicide just about, pulling in front of a truck just like that. That was so stupid.''

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff, and Ryan Kost and Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondents

The Boston Celtics were hailed by a sea of green-clad fans today as their rolling rally wound its way through the city in a jubilant celebration of the team's NBA championship victory.

Players brandished trophies, smoked cigars in homage to Red Auerbach, and waved from a procession of amphibious duck boats rumbling through city streets from the TD Banknorth Garden, the Celtics' home court, past Boston Common, to Copley Square. Fans lined the route, cheering their hearts out.

"It's been a long wait, but a great one," said Patti Nunley, 48, of Melrose, who came to the parade with her daughters Siobhan, 10, and Adrianna, 7. "It was absolutely worth it."

It took a little more than an hour for the procession to reach an ecstatic crowd gathered at Copley Square. From there, the duck boats slipped into Cambridge and made their way back to the Garden.

Police said they had no estimate of the crowd size. Officers had arrested 21 people by mid-afternoon, most of them for drinking in public and disorderly conduct, said Officer Eddy Chrispin, a police spokesman.

The Celtics trounced the Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA title Tuesday, ending a 22-year championship drought. It was the 17th championship for the storied team, which saw a stunning turnaround from the previous losing season after veteran stars Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett joined Paul Pierce on the team.

Today's event was the city's sixth championship celebration in seven years, following similar celebrations for the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox.

(Wiqan Ang/Globe Staff)

Back from the war, Gayle Nowak embraced her daughter Maria Nowak, 9, while her mother, Joan Viner, and family friend Kara Pranaitis, 13, looked on.

By Chris Baxter, Globe Correspondent

BEDFORD -- A group of New England soldiers who were stationed at hospitals in Iraq returned home today, reuniting with their families after stepping off a plane at Hanscom Air Force Base.

The 73 Army reservists, who have been in Iraq since June 2007, arrived from Fort McCoy, Wis., on a chartered AirTran 737 plane. The contingent treated everything from gunshot wounds to the common cold.

Captain Gayle Nowak, a nurse from Worcester, said it was a relief to be home.

“All I want is a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee,” she said, hugging her 8-year-old daughter, Maria. Nowak said she planned to spend the afternoon swimming and celebrating the Celtics’ championship.

(AP Photos/CJ Gunther, pool)

Defense attorney Stephanie Page today cross examined Dr. William Zane, a state medical examiner.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent

WOBURN -- A defense attorney at the Neil Entwistle murder trial suggested today that Entwistle's wife, Rachel, may have committed suicide instead of being shot to death by her husband.

Neil Entwistle

Rachel Entwistle, 27, died instantly after a bullet pierced the center of her head above her hairline and lodged in her brain, Zane testified. Her baby, 9-month-old Lillian Rose, was shot in the chest with a bullet that exited into Entwistle’s left breast. Prosecutors have alleged that Neil Entwistle, 29, killed the pair in the master bedroom of the couple’s rented Hopkinton home on Jan. 20, 2006, between 9 and 11 a.m.

Today is the 10th day of testimony in Entwistle's Middlesex Superior Court trial, which has made headlines both in the United States and in Entwistle's native England.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

The state’s highest court ruled today that a court can order child support payments from an unmarried father even after his death.

Justice John M. Greaney

(Matthew J. Lee/ Globe Staff)

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Some signs and T-shirts were machine printed and simple: "Sweet 17" and "Have a cigar." Others updated a famous cheer ("We beat L.A."), repurposed a cliché ("Green with envy"), lashed out ("I hate L.A.), or boasted ("Got rings?")

Then there were the fans who flocked to today's rolling Celtics rally and took the message writing into their own hands. Robert Hall, 28, used a flattened Cheerios box from a store near his home in East Boston. With a black marker, he wrote: "On Top of the World! KG"

People grinned as he walked through the crowd on Tremont Street, and he noted the approving nods as passersby read his sign.

"There's a reaction, right there -- a thumbs up!" Hall said.

Early drinkers held a handwritten sign out the window of the Harp bar on Causeway Street: "Hey Jack Nicholson, who can handle the truthnow?"

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

White-haired Nancy Hill stood against a metal barrier on the parade route this morning with her grandson, an ear-to-ear smile stretched across her face as she basked in a lifetime of Celtics memories.

"I'm a basketball junkie, my husband used to say," recalled Hill, 77, who was wearing the jersey of her first Celtics hero, Bill Russell.

Rubbing her 9-year-old grandson's head, Hill clarified what she just said: "I'm a Celtics junkie. And I'm thrilled, thrilled, thrilled."

(Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

Staking out parade territory this morning outside the TD Banknorth Garden were Bob Messina, David Jimenez, and Marcial Quinonez.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The Green wave on Causeway Street was already four and five deep, with anxious fans waiting outside the TD Banknorth Garden for their Celtics.
Standing along steel barriers was a sea of green T-shirts, green Starter jackets, green baseball hats, green golf shirts, and white-and-green wigs.

Cigar smoke wafted above the street, and teenagers hammed it up for television cameras, doing their best impressions of Celtic greats. "Anything is possible!" screamed one young man, mimicking Kevin Garnett.

Nine-year-old Shawn Michael Kelly of Quincy stood on his tiptoes, craning to look through the crowd for a glimpse of the man whose green jersey he was wearing: Paul Pierce. Kelly had dyed his hair Celtics green and painted a green shamrock on one cheek. The other cheek bore the number 17, a tally of Celtics NBA championships. His father, Kevin Kelly, 35, looked down at his giddy son and smiled.

"I figured he ought to see what I saw 22 years ago," said Kelly, who was 13 years old when he cheered at City Hall Plaza at the last Celtics victory rally in 1986. "He's seen plenty of other championships with the Red Sox and Patriots, but this is his first Celtics."

Subway trains heading to the route of the rolling rally were awash in more green than South Boston during the St. Patrick's Day parade. Green button-down-shirts, green hair-ties, green shorts, and green sunglasses. A young boy clutched a green marker and wrote on a poster board: KG, #5.

By Globe Staff

A teenager is dead and a woman is in serious condition after two shootings in Boston overnight.

The 16-year-old was shot at 10.25 p.m. on St. James Street in Roxbury on Wednesday. He was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center at 10:40 p.m., Boston Police said.

The victim was identified by neighbors as Quamaine Williams.

After midnight, a woman in her 20s was found with a gunshot wound to her side in a doorway of a home on Fayston Street in Dorchester. She was transported to Boston Medical Center where her condition is not known.

Williams is the 27th homicide this year, compared with 29 last year at this time.

Police said no arrests have been made in either shooting.

(Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The weather forecast at parade time is expected to be as perfect as a Ray Allen jump shot. Highs are expected to be in the low 70s, with a gentle sea breeze to help the green-clad masses stay cool.

Ray Allen

"It's a perfect day for it," said Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Fourteen years ago, Henry K. Boateng was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a Worcester jury convicted him of beating his 5-week-old son to death and viciously attacking the baby's mother.

Now, Boateng -- who changed his name to Daniel Yeboah-Sefah and identifies himself as a Buddhist -- has won a significant legal victory: A federal judge found that the state prison system violated his civil rights by denying him a vegan diet.

US Chief District Judge Mark L. Wolf, in a judgment entered Tuesday, concluded that the system violated a 2000 federal statute that protects religious freedom inside prisons. He ordered the head of the system to provide the inmate at Old Colony Correctional Center at Bridgewater with a vegan diet that hews to his religious beliefs beginning Friday.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

A 49-year-old Medford man was charged in federal court today with shining a powerful green laser beam at a State Police helicopter escorting an LNG tanker through Boston Harbor in December.

Gerard Sasso was charged in a complaint with interfering with the operation of an aircraft with reckless disregard for safety, and with making false statements about his activities, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement.

Sasso was released on personal recognizance after an appearance in court today and will return to court in 20 days for a probable cause hearing, said William D. Weinreb, the prosecutor in the case.

The helicopter crew flying on the night of Dec. 8 identified Sasso’s third-floor studio apartment as the source of the beam and neighbors corroborated that location with police, the complaint alleged. The pilots were forced to take evasive action to avoid harm or distraction from the laser, prosecutors said.

(Vincent DeWitt for The Boston Globe)

Emergency workers at the crash site this morning.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

A pilot was killed this morning when his cargo plane crashed during takeoff from Barnstable Municipal Airport.

Mark Conway, 43, of Barnstable, who had started working for Wiggins Airways of Manchester, N.H. in December, was the plane's pilot, said Jim Thomforde, president and chief operating officer of Wiggins.

The DeHavilland-6 cargo plane was about 500 feet down the runway when it crashed at 10:03 a.m., said FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac. Eyewitnesses said the plane had taken off, then rolled to the left before hitting the ground, airport manager Quincy Mosby said.

(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

After the painting was stolen, all that Charles H. Marks had left was an image stored on his computer.

By Milton Valencia, Globe Staff

SHARON -- A Sharon man is facing charges that he stole a painting that his neighbor’s family had brought out of Germany at the onset of the Holocaust and had kept for decades as an heirloom, prosecutors said.

Steven Zaharoff, 57, is to be arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham Thursday, the Norfolk district attorney's office said in a statement. Zaharoff faces charges of entering a dwelling for a felony by false pretenses; larceny from a person over age 65; and larceny of property valued at under $250. He didn't return a telephone message seeking comment today.

Police have not yet recovered the painting. They said the case remained under investigation.

The painting was allegedly stolen from Charles H. Marks, who was 87 last fall when he moved from his Sharon home into a retirement community. During the move, Marks’s family realized the painting was missing.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

The order came with about 4 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and sent RC Silk into a whirl: Start printing the official Celtics championship T-shirts.

The silkscreen company in South Boston worked through the night, churning out up to 20,000 locker room-style shirts certified with the flashy hologram that designates official NBA merchandise. The 20 employees stopped only once this morning for a quick snack, a brief nap, and a shower.

The company prints the garments for Adidas and is the only official manufacturer in the Boston area, said President and CEO Maurice Chalonec. They have produced as many as 50,000 T-shirts during the finals.

By Globe Staff

A 22-year-old western Massachusetts man is in critical but stable condition today at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after he struggled with officers who were attempting to handcuff him during street celebrations after the Celtics victory last night, Boston Police said.

Police said David Woodman, 22, of Southwick was among a group crossing a street in the Fenway area at about 12:47 a.m. who were drinking from an open container of what was believed to be alcohol.

Police attempted to talk to Woodman. He tried to flee. Officers subdued him and he then "began struggling with officers as they attempted to handcuff him," police said in a statement.

"At that time, officers realized he was in medical distress," police said. Officers performed CPR and called for an ambulance, which took him to the hospital.

(David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

Boston police arrested 23 people early this morning when some celebrations turned rowdy after the Celtics routed the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

(David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

The alleged rowdies were being arraigned today at Boston Municipal Court.

A crowd traveled from the Garden to Faneuil Hall, with some revelers tearing apart park benches, flipping over flower pots, trash barrels, and newspaper boxes, and trying to light fires with the garbage. A group smashed a window in a building on Canal Street.

Keith Nashawaty, general counsel for Vantage Deluxe World Travel, which owns a building at 90 Canal, estimated that broken windows and other damage by the revelers would cost the company $50,000.

"There's always a benefit to being near the Garden, but it bites you on a night like last night," he said.

After the Celtics' 131-92 victory, police dressed in black tactical gear patrolled across the city on bike and on foot, wielding batons.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Carnes at his 2006 arraignment.

By Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondent

A 21-year-old man was convicted today of four counts of first-degree murder in the December 2005 shooting deaths of four young men in a Dorchester basement.

A jury found Calvin Carnes Jr. of Dorchester guilty of shooting Jason Bachiller, 20, Jihad Chankhour, 22, Edwin Duncan, 21, and Christopher Vieira, 19, a total of 15 times at 43 Bourneside St., where he went to steal guns on Dec. 13, 2005.

Carnes also was convicted on armed robbery, larceny, and firearms charges, said Suffolk District Attorney's spokesman Jake Wark. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle set sentencing in the case for Friday. The first-degree murder convictions carry a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

By Globe Staff

Gary Zerola, a former prosecutor who was acquitted of rape charges, pleaded not guilty today in Boston Municipal Court to assault and battery on a police officer and other charges, after an incident downtown during Celtics victory celebrations last night.

Gary Zerola

Zerola, 36, ran but was quickly arrested on charges that also included disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. Judge Tom Horgan released Zerola on personal recognizance and scheduled a pretrial conference for Aug. 7.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

The MBTA will increase subway service Thursday and reroute some bus lines for the Celtics' victory parade.

Daniel A. Grabauskas, the general manager, is expecting big crowds, including many riders who do not use the T on a regular basis. He pledged to keep employees on overtime shifts to help direct riders and keep lines moving.

"I think we're all looking forward to a crowd, but I think it's going to be a happy and celebratory crowd," Grabauskas said.

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino called on Celtics fans across the region to get their green on and show the NBA champions some love Thursday during a victory parade through the streets of Boston.

It will be the fifth sports championship parade in the past five years, and the mayor today could not help bragging.

"We're a city of champions," he said at a City Hall press conference. "We are 'Title Town.'"

Menino outlined plans for the victory parade, which will begin at 11 a.m. Thursday at the TD Banknorth Garden and wind its way to Copley Square in the Back Bay. Streets around the route will be closed to traffic beginning at 9:30 a.m.

The parade will consist of some 16 duck boats carrying Celtics owners, staff and players, and two flatbed trucks with Celtics dancers, former Celtics greats and NBA championship trophies from past years.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- Four days before allegedly shooting his wife and infant daughter, Neil Entwistle searched the Internet for instructions on "how to kill with a knife," clicking on one website that included a diagram of a human body that highlighted arteries and blood flow.

"So you may be thinking of going for the aorta. Why not the heart?" read the diagram's caption, according to Lawrence James, a computer specialist who testified today in Middlesex Superior Court. "If you ever get a clear shot at the torso, best to stab them in it below the rib cage."

The author noted on the website that the diagram was meant to be informative and entertaining, according to James, a Medford police detective.

Entwistle also searched that afternoon of Jan. 16, 2006, for "half-priced escorts" and he checked his account on Adult Friend Finder, a website where users search for sexual partners and arrange liaisons, James said. It was the second day of testimony from the Medford detective in the trial of Entwisle, who is accused of killing his wife, Rachel, 27, and 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- Prosecutors won a victory in Neil Entwistle's double-murder trial today when a judge ruled they can present computer evidence to the jury that they say shows a pattern of Internet use that included trolling for sex sites and searches about how to kill with a knife.

Neil Entwistle

Prosecutors have presented evidence that Rachel Entwistle, 27, and 9-month-old Lillian Rose were shot and killed in their Hopkinton home between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Jan. 20, 2006. Some time after 11 a.m., Bennett said, Neil Entwistle went on the Internet and visited Adult Friend Finder, a website used to search for sexual partners.

When testimony resumed this morning, a State Police chemist told the jury that investigators found Entwistle's DNA on the grip of the .22-caliber revolver that the prosecution alleges was used to shoot the victims. Laura Bryant said investigators matched DNA on the grip to genetic material taken from the mouth of a water bottle found in Entwistle's white BMW, which was left parked at Logan International Airport. The probability that the DNA belonged to another Caucasian male was one in 1.52 trillion, Bryant said.

The gun belonged to Joseph Matterazzo, Entwistle's father-in-law, who handled the weapon the day after the killings, before the bodies were discovered, the prosecutor said. Matterazzo's DNA was found on the trigger, Bryant said. The prosecution alleges that Entwistle stole the gun from Matterazzo's home in Carver and returned it after committing the crime. The defense has pointed out that Entwistle went target shooting with Matterazzo twice in the months before the killings and used his guns.

Bryant also testified that sperm found on the body of Rachel Entwistle belong to her husband, an indication that the couple had sex some time before she was killed.

By Adam Sell, Globe Correspondent

Students at the New England Center for Children will soon swim laps in what the school is billing as the first building in the state named for former governor Michael S. Dukakis.

The Southborough-based school for children with autism, Asperger's syndrome, and pervasive development disorder will hold a ceremony Friday morning to officially dedicate the Michael S. Dukakis Aquatic Center.

Dukakis, his wife Kitty, lieutenant governor Tim Murray, and 200 friends and supporters will be present, the school said today.

Joe Ziska, director of donor relations at the school, said Dukakis spearheaded efforts that raised $5.5 million to build the facility.

“It’s truly a milestone for the New England Center for Children to have raised $5.5 million, and it’s a milestone for Massachusetts to have this facility named after the former governor,” Ziska said.

(Globe file photo/2000)

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

Supporters of a statewide ban on greyhound racing say they have enough signatures to put the issue before voters on November's ballot, but a lawsuit to block the measure is still pending in the Supreme Judicial Court.

The Committee to Protect Dogs submitted 45,000 signatures today to be certified by local election officials. The umbrella group of dog advocacy organizations said it gathered far more than the 11,099 needed to get the measure on the ballot this fall.

"We are very optimistic that voters will have an opportunity to end the cruelty of greyhound racing in November," said Christine Dorchak, a committee cochairwoman. "We're very encouraged by the response we've received while collecting signatures."

The measure would ban dog racing in Massachusetts as of Jan. 1, 2010, putting an end to racing at Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park and at Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere.

The backers of two other initiatives also said today that they had gathered enough signatures to get their referendums on the ballot. One measure would abolish the state income tax, and the other would ease laws prohibiting marijuana use.

By Globe Staff

Tonight's Celtics game could be exciting for fans. But police are warning people not to overdo it.

The police reminded the public in a statement today that public drinking will not be tolerated and asked people to obey their instructions, if asked to leave an area.

"It is the City’s primary focus to deliver a peaceful and safe event. We are prepared to take any means necessary to ensure this," the police said in a statement, adding,"Go Celtics! Beat LA!"

Police are determined not to let things turn rowdy after two cases in recent years in which people died during sports celebrations.

Police said their command center would be up and running during the game.

(Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)

Principal George Paul of the Louise Davy Trahan School in Tewksbury shaved his head today to raise $3,000 for Children's Hospital, where one of the school's students is being treated for Leukemia.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Since kindergarten, Tewksbury second-grader Leah Difronzo has spent much of her time at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital battling leukemia. Today, her school principal is going to get a buzzcut to celebrate the end of a fundraiser in her honor.

George Paul, principal at the Louise Davy Trahan Elementary School, said he’s glad to do it for Difronzo.

“She’s a tough kid. She’s bounced back many times,” he said.

For about two weeks at the beginning of this month, the Parents Advisory Club challenged students at the school to raise $3,000 for the arts and crafts floor of Children’s Hospital, where Difronzo has spent most of her time since October. As an incentive, Paul agreed to have his hair shorn off today in two phases -- first at a lunch for kindergartners through second-graders, then for third- and fourth-graders.

“I don’t think Mr. Paul thought they would raise the $3,000, but they surpassed,” said Maryellen Sullivan, a school secretary.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

A man was struck and killed by a commuter train this morning on the Newburyport line.

The train hit the man near Topsfield Road in Ipswich at around 8:50 a.m., said Lydia Rivera, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The man was declared dead at the scene.

The man’s identity hasn't yet been determined. Rivera said MBTA officials believe he may have been a homeless person who was trespassing. MBTA Transit Police are investigating.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

Boston police detectives took fingerprints today on a balcony on Fairlawn Avenue where an infant was shot Monday while in her father's arms.

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

Five-month-old Alianna Peguero remains in critical condition today at Boston Medical Center after being shot while in her father's arms Monday night at a Mattapan apartment, and doctors have told the family the infant's liver was destroyed, a relative said.

The bullet, fired from outside the building on Fairlawn Avenue, pierced the baby's abdomen and hit the liver, said Indira Castillo, the 27-year-old former stepdaughter of Alianna's father, Alinson Peguero.

Peguero, 46, who was shot in the hand as he held his daughter, is inconsolable, said Castillo.

"He can't even talk right now," said Castillo. "The surgeons are telling us to take it one day at a time."

She said she believes the baby's shooting is connected to the fatal shooting of her half-brother, Alan Peguero, who was killed Sept. 4 at the family's convenience store in Dorchester. Police have not arrested a suspect yet, which has frustrated the family, Castillo said.

"They're useless," Castillo said.

Elaine Driscoll, spokeswoman for the Boston police, declined to comment on Castillo's remark, but said the investigations into both shootings are active. She said the family has provided little information.

"This terrible, terrible situation is a result of an ongoing gang dispute," Driscoll said. "Sadly, we're receiving limited cooperation from her family."

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

All lanes and the HOV lane will be operating on the Southeast Expressway southbound this afternoon, just hours after a tractor trailer hauling clay slurry crashed, forcing the closure of the main artery for about three hours, state officials said.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

"The HOV lane is going to be open for the afternoon commute,'' said Adam Hurtubise, spokesman for the state Executive Office of Transportation.

Police have accused a Boston man of cutting off a tractor trailer this morning on the Southeast Expressway in Dorchester, triggering a five-vehicle crash that caused the truck to dump tons of the slurry on the road.

The highway was shut down from 7:30 a.m. until shortly after 11 a.m., when crews cleaned the mess. Traffic backed up for miles and some motorists were stuck in the same spot for hours.

Four drivers suffered minor injuries, including two who were taken by ambulance to Caritas Carney Hospital, said Lieutenant Eric Anderson, a State Police spokesman.

The driver accused of causing the crash, 41-year-old David E. Baxter of Boston, will be cited for making an unsafe lane change and failure to use care in stopping, Anderson said.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Ryan Ferrara of Somerville arrived at the TD Banknorth Garden just after midnight and grabbed the first spot in a line for Celtics tickets for Tuesday night's game

By Maddy Hanna and Matt Collette, Globe Correspondents

The line had grown slowly, starting after last night’s loss at Staples Center. This morning, it stretched out further, as fans in Celtics jerseys skipped work hoping for the chance to watch their team clinch the championship.

Tickets for games 6 and 7 went on sale today at 11 a.m. and sold out within 15 minutes, said Tricia McCorkle, spokeswoman for TD Banknorth Garden. Each person in line was given a numbered wristband -- 840 in total. A lottery then determined who would get the first chance to buy tickets, which McCorkle called “the fairest way for the average fan to get tickets.”

A limited number of tickets were available, said McCorkle, who said the TD BankNorth Garden staff did not have specific information. Most tickets for the final two games will go to the NBA and season ticket holders, she said.

Michael A. Perry (State police photo.)

By Globe Staff

A convicted rapist and a Level 3 sex offender who refused to register with the state is back in custody after the State police fugitive squad captured him in Medford Saturday where he had gone to meet his mother.

Michael A. Perry, 38, was convicted of aggravated rape in Middlesex Superior Court in 1993, served time in state prison and was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in 2005 in Lynn District Court, State police said.

Perry was given a 2.5 year suspended sentence for the Lynn conviction, but has continually failed to register and is scheduled to be returned to the Lynn courthouse where he might be sent back to prison as a probation violator, police said. Perry was one of the State police Most Wanted Sex Offenders until Saturday.

By Globe Staff

A cold front rumbling east may bring violent thunderstorms to metropolitan Boston early this evening, creating the potential for large hail and winds that could reach 25 to 35 miles per hour.

A hazardous weather outlook is in effect for all of Southern New England, with the greatest likelihood for thunderstorms in Western and Central Massachusetts. There is the potential that some intense, scattered storms may produce large hail and down tree limbs after 4 p.m. in Lawrence, Fall River, and Boston. However, the low clouds and fog over the coast may take some of the bite out of the storm, reducing the threat of thunder and lighting to simple rain.

"The rest of the week we are going to have this unsettled, showery kind of pattern," said Charlie Foley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.

The long-term forecast shows a chance of rain and thunderstorms every day this week.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, once expected to play a prominent role in building parkland over the Big Dig, cut more than half of its staff last week, a spokesman said today.

The cuts, announced to society members Friday, will reduce the number of paid staff at the non-profit organization from 30 to 12, said spokesman Joe Ganley. The society’s executive director also resigned his post May 14, following a board inquiry into his candor regarding financial difficulties in his previous business career, Ganley said.

In explaining the staff cuts, board chairman William McDonough cited “ongoing financial challenges,” in a statement released to the Globe. He declined to be interviewed. Ganley would not say how much money would be saved by trimming staff or detail the latest problems.

“I don’t think they want to discuss the nature of the financial difficulties, other than to say it’s a difficult time right now for all nonprofit organizations,” Ganley said.

The society has long been plagued by financial and management problems. In 2002, budget problems forced it to sell a $5.45 million rare-books collection.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- A gasp rippled across the courtroom this morning as a prosecution witness held up the white and pink button-down pajamas that had been stained brown with dried blood. A 1/4-inch hole rimmed with black gunpowder could be seen in the left upper chest.

There was a similar hole in the white onesie that 9-month-old Lillian Rose had been wearing underneath her pajamas. Forensic scientist Deanna Dygan held up the onesie for the Middlesex Superior Court jury, and it looked as if it had been dipped in blood, with almost the entire back stained a deep brown.

"I concluded that it was a contact shot," said Dygan, who works for the State Police Crime Lab. "A contact shot is a shot from the firearm when the firearm is pressed directly against the target."

Yvonne Entwistle sobbed at the sight of her granddaughter's pajamas, burying her head in her husband's chest, who gently told her to "shhh." Their son -- defendant Neil Entwistle -- wiped tears from his eyes with a tissue. The Matterazzo family and others there on behalf of the victims were visibly uncomfortable and looked down.

The gruesome evidence and matter-of-fact testimony came this morning in the trial of Entwistle, the man accused of killing his wife, Rachel, 27, and infant daughter in January 2006 and fleeing to his native England. Dygan also testified today that sperm was found on Rachel Entwistle's underwear and body, an indication that she had sex some time before she was killed. Dygan did not say how recently she may have had intercourse or with whom.

Judge Diane Kottmyer has not yet ruled whether the prosecution will be allowed to present evidence that they say shows Neil Entwistle was sexually dissatisfied with his marriage. A forensic analysis of Entwistle's computer found that he spent time on a pornographic website and appeared to be looking for local escorts, according to documents filed in court. When he was arrested in England, Entwistle was carrying a page torn from a local tabloid containing hundreds of ads for "escorts and sexual services" and a note indicating he was trying to make contact with a former girlfriend, according to the documents.

The prosecution maintains Rachel Entwistle was shot in the head and Lilly once in the chest sometime between 9 and 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 20, 2006. Dygan held up the pajamas Rachel was wearing when she was killed, including a lime-green shirt that was marred by brown stains. The bodies of mother and daughter were discovered tucked beneath a fluffy white comforter in the master bedroom of the home the family had just rented in Hopkinton.

By Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick touted his $1 billion biotech initiative today before a national audience, appearing on MSNBC hours before signing a bill that he said will build on the Commonwealth's "tradition of innovation that goes back centuries."

"This really is about what we do in Massachusetts," Patrick said, appearing on the show "Morning Joe" in a video feed from Boston. "We discovered this."

The governor signed the legislation this morning at the Joslin Diabetes Center, where he was joined by House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, Nobel Prize winner Craig Mello, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who has funded medical research. Patrick used the opportunity to shower praise on DiMasi and other legislative leaders.

"Sometimes in this business of ours, people keep score in purely political terms," Patrick said. "And there's no denying the fact that signing this bill today makes a clear and important political point: that the Legislature and the administration can work together on big and complex initiatives when we set our mind to it."

(Mike Groll/AP)

The shape of things to come? A driver pumps gas today at a station in Albany, N.Y.

By Globe Staff

Rush hour traffic jams are not only annoying. They're costing you money, particularly with gas prices rising past $4 per gallon.

But help may be on the way. Governor Deval Patrick's office said today that the state highway department is working with other agencies, including the State Police, to improve coordination after crash-related road closures.

State officials, who estimate that congestion results in 62 million gallons of wasted fuel each year, said they want to develop new techniques to reopen the closed roads more quickly -- a "Quick Clearance Policy" that will reduce congestion and improve safety.

Highlighting efforts by the state to help consumers, the governor's office also said that the number of routes would be increased for the state's highway assistance vans; that improvements are planned for the state's 511 traveler information line; and that the state has launched a new website, www.mass.gov/gastips, intended to help drivers cut gas costs.

(Pool Photo)

Entwistle appeared displeased by testimony from one prosecution witness today.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- A State Police expert told a jury today that forensic evidence suggests that 27-year-old Rachel Entwistle and 9-month-old Lillian Rose Entwistle were shot at close range -- from 18 inches away or less.

Defense attorney Elliot Weinstein

Neil Entwistle, 29, is on trial in Middlesex Superior Court for murder for allegedly shooting his wife and daughter on Jan. 20, 2006, with a gun stolen from his father-in-law. Prosecutors allege that he left their bodies tucked beneath a fluffy white comforter in the master bedroom of the home. Rachel Entwistle was shot in the head, while the baby was shot once in the upper left side of her chest. Entwistle fled to his native England, but was arrested there in February 2006.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

Two Marshfield men were convicted today of charges that they schemed to steal money from the state while working as Big Dig subcontractors, the attorney general's office said.

James Roderick Sr., the 62-year-old owner of the now-defunct Y2Krush Corp., and his 38-year-old son James Roderick Jr., owner of Durod Ltd., both pleaded guilty to two charges of larceny over $250 by continuous scheme, fraud in procurement, presentation of false claims, and three counts of conspiracy.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball sentenced Roderick Sr. to two-and-a-half years in prison, with six months under house arrest and the rest of the sentence suspended for a five-year probation period. Roderick Jr. was sentenced to five years of probation. The amount of money stolen by the men will be determined at a restitution hearing later, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said an investigation that began in 2006 found that the Rodericks, through their companies, schemed to defraud the state between October 2004 and February 2007, after the companies were hired by a contractor working on the Central Artery/Tunnel project to haul construction debris from work sites.

(Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

Lifeguard Louis Barnes and patrons Natacha Alexandre and Jhonneris Mendez receive their awards from the mayor.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino today hailed a lifeguard and three citizens for their roles in saving a 12-year-old boy from drowning Thursday at the Flaherty Pool in Roslindale.

In a ceremony at the pool, the mayor praised lifeguard Louis Barnes, along with pool patrons Jhonneris Mendez, 17, Alex Jesus, 13, and Natasha Alexandre, 37.

Jesus spotted the boy at the bottom of the pool's deep end. Mendez pulled him to the surface. And Barnes and Alexandre worked to resuscitate him, averting a tragedy, Menino said.

"I want to thank them individually. They are heroes," he said.

The boy was released from Children's Hospital today.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

A 39-year-old woman died this morning on Route 24 South in Taunton after her car went out of control, striking the guardrail in the median and rolling over.

Lisa M. Wedge of Lakeville lost control of her 2005 Nissan Altima at about 6:55 a.m., State Police said in a statement.

The car struck the guardrail on the left shoulder of the roadway, then veered to the right and rolled over before stopping in the breakdown lane.

Wedge, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle and declared dead at the scene.

The right lane of the highway was closed for approximately three hours this morning as police cleared the scene and investigated the crash.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

Students from the Charles Sumner Elementary School waved their flags as they took part in the annual Flag Day cdelebration in Adams Park in Roslindale Square.

By Casey Ramsdell, Globe Correspondent

Roslindale elementary schools today celebrated the American flag, giving away 2,000 free flags to students on the day before Flag Day, which this year marks the 231st birthday of Old Glory.

The flags were provided by business owners and professionals on the Roslindale Board of Trade. It has been a tradition to give flags to students since 1926. Each school held its own celebration in the morning, then all of the students came together for a 10:30 a.m. community ceremony.

At the ceremony, students, their families, and other community members delivered speeches, recited poems, and sang songs.

Laurie Carr, acting principal of John D. Philbrick Elementary School, said that the ceremony gives students the opportunity to see what the flag represents.

"The kids are excited; they sing their hearts out," Carr said. "I think their voices could be heard up and down the streets of Roslindale."

The Continental Congress adopted the first American flag on June 14, 1777.

By Globe Staff

Boston attorneys who are representing men being held at Guantanamo Bay hailed the US Supreme Court decision Thursday allowing the prisoners there to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

"It's a great day to be a lawyer," said Robert Kirsch, an attorney at WilmerHale, the large national firm with offices in Boston. "It's an excellent decision."

Kirsch, whose firm brought the case on which the high court ruled, said the court "didn't make new law. It simply pointed out the law that was there."

Michael E. Mone Jr., a lawyer at the small firm of Esdaile Barrett and Esdaile, who is also among the cadre of local lawyers representing prisoners pro bono, said, "I'm ecstatic and I'm very proud of the Supreme Court. It's a decision that's been a long time coming."

By Globe Staff

For the Boston Celtics, one more win could give the team its first championship in 22 years. For Boston police, it would be the sixth major sports crown since 2002, but that does not mean they are taking it lightly.

Police held a press conference this afternoon to discuss security precautions if the Green win their next game on Sunday in Los Angeles. Commanders met to discuss logistics and formulate a game plan for public safety and crowd control.

Police warned revelers that public drinking laws would be enforced. Bars will be instructed to close their blinds if they have televisions facing windows that look out onto the street so passersby are not incited by the game.

William T. Foye (Kinston, NC Public Safety Department photo.)

By Globe Staff

A man wanted for allegedly shooting his half-brother to death in North Carolina this April was arrested by Boston police and will soon be returning south to face murder charges, officials said today.

William T. Foye waived extradition at his arraignment as a fugitive from justice in Roxbury Municipal Court today, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office.

Foye identified himself as Fonte Wynn when he was arrested by Thursday by members of the Boston Police Youth Violence Strike Force in Roxbury. But when he was being booked, his true identity and the warrant for his arrest were discovered when he was fingerprinted, officials said.

Kinston, N.C., Police Commander Greg Thompson said today his department has been looking for Foye since shortly before 5 p.m. on April 24. At that time, Thompson said, officers in the city of 28,000 rushed to Caswell Street to investigate a shooting.

They found Foye’s 28-year-old half-brother, George Gooding, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Gooding was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Thompson said numerous eyewitnesses identified Foye as the shooter. He said the two had a verbal disagreement that suddenly escalated into the shooting.

(Globe Photo / Wiqan Ang/file 2007)

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

The general manager of Channel 7 announced her resignation this morning after she admitted in court that she went on an alcohol- and prescription drug-fueled tirade at Logan International Airport in April.

Randi Goldklank did not speak to reporters during her brief appearance in East Boston Municipal Court, where she personally apologized to state troopers and agreed to refrain from abusing alcohol or drugs for a year. Her lawyer, David Eisenstadt, read a three-sentence statement on behalf of his client.

"I've decided to resign my position at WHDH and WLVI to continue focusing on getting help," Eisenstadt said, reading from the statement. "I appreciate the support I have received from [Channel 7 owner] Ed Ansin and my friends and colleagues at WHDH and WLVI. I look forward to returning to work in the broadcasting industry in the near future."

Ansin, president of the Sunbeam Television Corporation, issued a statement: "This has been an unfortunate circumstance. Randi Goldklank is a talented executive. We wish her great success.''

As part of a plea deal, the cases against Goldklank were continued without a finding. If she stays out of trouble for a year, the charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest will be dismissed. A third charge -- assault and battery on a police officer -- was dropped today.

Goldklank wore a gray business suit and sunglasses and walked away from reporters as they asked her questions. Channel 7 had placed her on paid administrative leave after her April 20 arrest 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. She flailed her arms and screamed at State Police when they took her into custody after her Delta flight landed that 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.

Read the story here and see photographs here.

(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

By Globe Staff

It's a striking sculpture with a terrible story. An artifact of happier times for two people who would end up entangled in tragedy.

Luis Marquez made this artwork in Terri Werner's class at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, a school spokeswoman said today. The sculpture was displayed in a show at the Mall at Chestnut Hill in 2001. A Globe photographer took a picture of it for a story on the show.

Marquez, 26, was charged this week with murdering Werner, 56, of Middleborough when she visited his home in Brighton. It was a shocking end to a yearslong friendship between the two, the Globe reported today.

The piece provokes questions. What did the student and teacher talk about when it was made? Did she think he had talent? Is it a cast of Marquez's face? Who added the bold, warpaint-like stripes?

Meanwhile, the overarching question remains: What went wrong?

"He loved Terri dearly," Werner's mother, Marilyn, 83, said in an interview Wednesday from her home in Washington state. "Something must have snapped. He wouldn't hurt anything."

(Evan Richman/Globe Staff)

Jhonneris Mendez, 17, and Alex Jesus, 13, were hoping for the recovery of the boy pulled from the pool -- and happy that they could help.

By John R. Ellement and James Vaznis, Globe Staff

A 12-year-old boy is being treated at the hospital today after being rescued from a Roslindale pool, Boston Police said.

The incident occurred about 3:11 p.m. at Flaherty Pool at the Roslindale Community Center on Florence Street, said Officer Eddy Chrispin, a police spokesman. The boy was taken to Children's Hospital.

"The child is awake, talking and alert with family ... and we wish him a speedy recovery," Daphne Griffin, executive director of the Boston Centers for Youth and Families, said in a statement this evening.

"We are very thankful for our trained lifeguards at the Flaherty and to the patrons of the pool that assisted with the rescue," she said.

Jhonneris Mendez, 17, and Alex Jesus, 13, both of Roslindale, said they were in the deep end when Jesus noticed the boy lying on the bottom of the pool. Mendez said he didn't consider himself a strong swimmer, but he dove in and pulled the victim by the pants to the surface.

"It was, like, reaction. After, I was scared," he said.

Mendez is a pitcher on the Boston English High School baseball team. He was on the mound late last month when the team won its third consecutive Boston City championship.

"I feel good doing something good," he said.

By Globe Staff

A 29-year-old Chelsea man who was trained as a sharpshooter in the Army has been convicted of shooting to death an unarmed man in front of a bar in Boston's Fenway area in 2004, prosecutors said this afternoon.

Yat Fung Ng was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder in the slaying of Karriem Brown, 33, of Boston's Roxbury section. During an altercation on Beacon Street in the early-morning hours of May 23, 2004, Ng shot Brown with a .45-caliber handgun from 15 to 20 feet away, hitting him above the left eyebrow.

"It's deplorable that a man trained by the United States armed forces to take pride in discipline and courage would commit such a craven act," said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

City officials are encouraging Boston drivers to consider taking public transportation this weekend because of heavy traffic expected during Gay Pride festivities scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and the Bunker Hill Day Parade and Road Race scheduled for Sunday.

Boston Transportation Commissioner Thomas J. Tinlin advised drivers that traffic delays and parking restrictions would be in place.

Traffic will be delayed Friday night for the Boston Dyke March, starting at 7 p.m. An estimated 800 people will march near Boston Common. Midday Saturday, streets between the South End and City Hall Plaza will be closed for the annual Gay Pride Parade, in which an estimated 35,000 will participate. On Sunday, other events are scheduled, including block parties on Stuart Street downtown and in Jamaica Plain.

In Charlestown Sunday, two morning road races and an afternoon parade commemorating Bunker Hill Day will cause road closures and impact traffic, city officials said.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

The MBTA, hoping to capitalize on high gas prices, announced a new ad campaign Thursday that targets drivers.

T ridership has grown 6.2 percent since January. The new billboards, radio ads, and Internet promotions will begin next week. The T will also wrap an ad around a commuter rail train with a picture of a gas pump handle and the words “No. Brainer.”

The idea of the campaign is to position the MBTA as a smart commuting choice, the MBTA said.

"We hope to capture a brand new audience unaware of the cost savings available by taking the T," said General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas.

Massachusetts gasoline prices surpassed the $4-a-gallon mark for the first time Monday, after nine weeks of increases.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

The body of a 44-year-old Chelsea man was found this morning on the grounds of a Charlestown concrete company. For reasons that are not yet clear, the man apparently abandoned his car on the ramp connecting the Tobin Bridge to the Zakim Bridge Wednesday night and disappeared over the ramp’s edge, law enforcement officials said.

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office is investigating. “The probe, at this time, is a death investigation with no preliminary indication of foul play,’’ said district attorney's spokesman Jake Wark. Authorities are withholding the man's name pending notification of next of kin.

Mac Daniel, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, said the agency was notified shortly before 10:30 p.m. that a car had been left on the ramp.

The man's body was found this morning on the grounds of the Boston Sand & Gravel Co., which owns the property below the ramp.

(Courtesy photo)

The champ inspects the carpet in front of his Guinness certificate.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Plenty of hopping? Just a nibble of the finest lettuce? Clean living? Whatever he's been doing, it's working. George, a rabbit living with a Tewksbury family, has been declared the oldest rabbit in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records.

George, who is 14, was awarded the “The Oldest Living Rabbit” honors by Guinness after several vets confirmed his age.

The life expectancy for rabbits is 6 to 8 years, making George nearly double the average, or about 160 years old in human terms.

By Globe Staff

A bill designed to spur development in the state's life sciences industry has been approved by the state Senate and is now headed to the governor's desk.

The $1 billion bill was enacted by the Senate this afternoon by a vote of 31 to 7. The bill, a cornerstone of Governor Deval Patrick's agenda, had been enacted Wednesday by the House.

The governor expects to sign the bill Monday, said his spokeswoman, Becky Deusser. Lawmakers are hoping to trumpet the legislation at an international biotechnology conference next week in San Diego.

At left, a sketch of the suspect released by police in January. At right, a sketch of the suspect released Wednesday.

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

Boston police say that a sexual assault on a woman in the North End early Wednesday may be related to similar assaults in the area over the past year.

The attack occurred about 3:15 a.m. as the woman was walking near the intersection of Richmond and Fulton streets.

The woman told police she was attacked from behind by a man who appeared to be in his 20s. Police said the suspect was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, had dirty blond hair, and had a thin to medium build.

He was last seen wearing a navy blue or black baseball hat with an unknown logo, a white ribbed tank top, dark shorts that hung down to his knees, and dark footwear.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Boston police CrimeStoppers at 1-800-494-TIPS or text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- Neil Entwistle's face turned scarlet red and he covered his mouth with his hand, looking down to avert his eyes from the video played today in court that showed the bodies of his wife and infant daughter, found shot to death in bed and frozen in an embrace.

Entwistle trembled and for the first time since his 2006 arrest began to cry publicly, tears running down the cheeks of his quivering jaw. As the 20-minute video played for the Middlesex Superior Court jury, he turned his eyes back at the screen and watched, his hand covering his gaping mouth.

The prosecution played the video taken by State Police investigators as part of the case against Entwistle, who is accused of killing his wife, Rachel, and 9-month-old daughter, Lillian, in Hopkinton on Jan. 20, 2006, then fleeing to his native England. Rachel Entwistle's family and spectators crowding the courtroom could not see the video screen, but it appeared to have a profound impact on the defendant and his family, who were seated on the opposite side of the room.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees this morning revoked an honorary degree awarded to President Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe dictator whose brutal crackdown against political opponents and systematic human rights abuses have made him an international pariah.

Robert Mugabe

"Rescinding an honorary degree is a step to be taken in only the rarest and most grievous of circumstances,” said Robert J. Manning, chairman of the UMass Board of Trustees, which met this morning at UMass-Lowell. "After studying this issue for more than a year, the University of Massachusetts trustees have decided that Robert Mugabe’s performance and policies in Zimbabwe are so egregious as to warrant this ultimate expression of disapproval."

“We have decided to break the link between Robert Mugabe’s name and this university’s own good name,” Manning added.

(Marilyn Humphries photo courtesy of Bay Windows)

Katherine Patrick and her father.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick's 18-year-old daughter announced this morning that she is a lesbian, calling it a source of pride that she is ready to share with Massachusetts.

"As private of an issue as it is, we've sort of had to come to terms with the fact that we are a public family and there you give a part of yourself away," Katherine Patrick told the gay newspaper Bay Windows in an article published today. "And we also ... wanted people to know that it's not only something that we accept, but it's something that we’re very proud of. It's a great aspect of our lives and there's nothing about it that is shameful or that we would want to hide."

Katherine, who attended St. Andrew's School in Delaware and is planning to attend Smith College in the fall, told the paper that she came out to her parents on July 3, 2007, as the family prepared for a picnic by the pool at their home in the Berkshires.

She recounted walking into the kitchen, asking her parents to stop what they were doing, and asked her aunt to leave the room.

When her parents turned to her, she said, "I’m a lesbian."

"And I'll always remember the first thing my dad did," Katherine said. He "wrapped me in a bear hug and said, 'Well, we love you no matter what.'"

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Senate President Therese Murray said this morning that she was “deeply disappointed” by the outcome of the Democratic presidential primary.

The state's first female Senate president was one of Senator Hillary Clinton’s most forceful supporters in Massachusetts, at one point ridiculing what she called a pattern of prominent male Democrats abandoning Clinton for her primary rival, Senator Barack Obama.

“We thought that certainly in my generation that glass ceiling would have been able to break by now,” Murray said this morning at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “And it looks like certainly in my lifetime I will not see a woman president, and that is not lost on me or many other women of my age group.”

Without mentioning Obama by name, she said she would support him in November.

“I’m disappointed,” she said. “But I’m a Democrat.”

In her 35-minute address, Murray also came out strongly against a November ballot question proposing to eliminate the income tax, saying it “would have devastating consequences across the board, and no city or town would be spared.”

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Staff

An explosion inside an Ames Street laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge injured a student working on a project there early this evening, officials said.

The student was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with a non-life-threatening injury to the hand, according to Frank Pasquarello, spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department. There did not appear to be any damage to the rest of the building, which an MIT spokeswoman identified as Building 16, and there was not significant damage inside the room where the explosion occurred.

It was not clear early this evening what exploded, Pasquarello said.

By Globe Staff

A new poll shows that Democrat Barack Obama holds a substantial lead over Republican John McCain in Massachusetts, but still has work to do among supporters of Hillary Clinton.

The 7News/Suffolk University survey released this afternoon shows Obama with a 53 percent to 30 percent lead in the Bay State, a usually-reliable Democratic state in presidential elections.

But his lead would be even bigger if he could corral Clinton backers. In the survey, 26 percent of her supporters said they were undecided and 20 percent said they would vote for McCain.

"While November is still five months off, with only 54 percent of of Massachusetts Clinton voters saying they'll vote for Obama, it portends unity problems in swing states where the margin is much closer," David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk's political research center, said in a statement.

The 54 percent of Clinton loyalists who would support McCain would jump to 80 percent, however, if Obama picked her as his running mate. But a majority of Obama supporters don't want him to choose her.

Also, the poll found that a plurality of Republican voters in Massachusetts don't believe that McCain will pick former Bay State governor Mitt Romney as his running mate.

The survey was conducted Sunday through Tuesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

By Maria Cramer and James Vaznis, Globe Staff

A 26-year-old blind man from Brighton pleaded not guilty today to a murder charge in the slaying of a woman who once taught him at a school for the blind.

Luis Marquez

Werner was an art teacher at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown. Marquez had been her student, sources said. Marquez was now working at the school fixing Braille machines, his brother, Jose, said.

Prosecutor Jennifer Hickman said that when officers were summoned to his apartment on Nonantum Street Tuesday, Marquez told them, "I killed somebody."

Hickman did not elaborate on their relationship or why Marquez allegedly attacked her. Marquez was ordered held without bail.

Earlier, Jose Marquez, who is Luis Marquez's twin, told the Globe that his sibling had recently stopped taking his medication for depression and bipolar disorder.

Jose Marquez said he and his brother were both born blind in one eye because of complications during birth. Luis Marquez had gone completely blind but remained independent, Jose Marquez said.

Jose Marquez did not say why his brother stopped taking his medication. He said his brother became anxious when off his drugs, but had never been violent.

"Either he was going to do something to himself or he was going to do something to someone else," Jose Marquez said.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

A day after the fire, workers checked the pollution containment boom set up around the destroyed business.

By Globe Staff

Boston Fire Department investigators have determined that an electrical or mechanical problem was the most probable cause of the fire that destroyed the James Hook & Co. lobster business, a landmark on the Boston waterfront.

The origin of the fire, which caused an estimated loss of $5 million, was the center of the building, which was totally consumed by fire, making a final determination unlikely, the fire department said today in a statement.

The investigators have ruled out arson as a cause in the seven-alarm blaze on May 30, the statement said.

Investigators, who were assisted by Boston Police and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, based their findings on interviews with firefighters who were first on the scene, on physical evidence, burn patterns, interviews with company owners and employees, and other factors, the statement said.

By Globe Staff

A bill designed to spur development in the state's life sciences industry has been approved by the state House of Representatives.

The $1 billion bill was enacted by the House by a vote of 142-15. A cornerstone of Governor Deval Patrick's agenda, the bill had emerged from a conference committee yesterday.

"It's a bill that, I think, helps to move us forward in our economic development efforts in a tremendous way," Representative Dan Bosley, a North Adams Democrat, told his fellow members. "We need to stay ahead of the curve. ... We need to grow our life sciences industry."

The bill is expected to go to the Senate Thursday.

Lawmakers are hoping to trumpet the legislation at an international biotechnology conference next week in San Diego.

(Stan Grossfeld/Globe Staff)

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

David Ortiz is a legendary slugger whose swing has made him an iconic part of the national pastime. But it was not until today that the Dominican-born designated hitter could call himself a US citizen.

Ortiz was one of 227 immigrants who raised their right hands and took the Oath of Citizenship at the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester. The cast he has worn since partially tearing a tendon in his left hand did not stop him from clutching a small American flag as he spoke to a crush of reporters after the ceremony.

"My whole family, kids, and everyone have been born here," Ortiz said. "It's a great country, proud to be here, now proud to be a part of it."

Ortiz's wife, Tiffany, added: "It's a big deal for him. It's really important and I'm really proud of him."

When pressed by reporters, Ortiz did not discuss the finer points of citizenship. He did not endorse a presidential candidate or give an indication for whom he would be casting his ballot. "We haven't really talked about the whole voting thing," Tiffany Ortiz said.

By Globe Staff

An MIT professor has won the world's largest prize for technology innovation, the $1.2 million Millennium Technology Prize, the university announced today.

Robert Langer, who has pioneered new ways to administer drugs to cancer patients, received the award today from Tarja Halonen, president of Finland, at a ceremony in Helsinki.

"It's such a great honor -- particularly given the quality of people who have won it before as well as the quality of the innovations and people considered this year," Langer said in a statement.

The award is given every other year by Technology Academy Finland.

Langer also received the highest US honor for math and science, a Medal of Science, last year.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Police and firefighters rushed into a burning apartment building in Roxbury this afternoon and rescued a bedridden quadriplegic who was trapped while his apartment filled with acrid black smoke.

Eliezer Oritz, 29, has been paralyzed from his chest down since he was shot during an armed robbery six years ago, according to his family. This morning an electrical fire started in the basement of the three-story apartment building where he lives on Deckard Street, across from Boston Latin Academy.

Boston police and a school resource officer, working at school police headquarters inside the school, heard shouts from neighbors and smelled smoke. They rushed to the building around 11:45 a.m. and ran through it alerting residents of the smoky basement fire.

In his first floor bedroom, Oritz stayed calm and explained to his rescuers that they had to move him gingerly or he could be seriously injured. As smoke filled the bedroom, police and two Boston firefighters worked together and carried Ortiz to safety.

"If it wasn't for them, I don't know what would have happened," said his sister, Wanda Ortiz, 30, who stayed with her younger brother until the last moment.

By Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick is out sick today, suffering from flu-like symptoms, and his public appearances have been canceled, his office said.

The office has arranged for stand-ins for the governor for two events this afternoon. Housing and Economic Development Secretary Dan O’Connell will take Patrick's place this afternoon at the New England Women in Real Estate annual meeting in Boston, while Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray will appear at a news conference on economic development in Fitchburg.

A spokeswoman for the governor, Becky Deusser, said she wasn't sure whether Patrick would be back at work tomorrow.

By Franci R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The second time Sergeant Michael Sutton entered Neil and Rachel Entwistle's home in Hopkinton to look for the missing family, he detected an odor.

Rachel Entwistle, 27, and Lillian Rose

"I first observed a small baby's face," Sutton said in Middlesex Superior Court. "I was looking down at the top of the forehead -- eyes, nose … I looked to the right of the baby's face and saw a woman's face."

Sutton had found the bodies of Rachel Entwistle, 27, and her 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose, who had been missing for two days. His testimony came on direct examination by the prosecution this morning in the trial of Neil Entwistle, who is accused of killing his wife and daughter Jan. 20, 2006, and fleeing to his native England.

State Police crime scene investigators testified that Rachel Entwistle was wearing pajamas, lying on her left side, her feet curled up toward her body. Her right arm was across Lillian's chest and she faced her baby, who was flat on her back. Lillian's face had been covered by a pillow and her sleeper sack had been burned slightly by the gunshot in her upper left chest. Blood stained her onesie.

By Kate O’Neill Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Winds gusting to 68 miles an hour caused about 14,000 National Grid customers in Central Massachusetts to lose power overnight, and 12,000 remain without it, weather and utility company officials said today.

Fallen trees and branches from the wind caused most of the outages, with many of the power losses occurring in Spencer, Auburn, and East and West Brookfield, said David Graves, a spokesman for National Grid. Customers in Sheffield and Great Barrington also were hit hard.

Graves said that most customers can expect to have power back by tonight, but some will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Though winds gusted to 40 miles an hour in Greater Boston overnight, there were only scattered outages, said Caroline Allen, a spokeswoman for NStar. There were outages in the Framingham area, but only 200 customers remained without power early today.

By Globe Staff

Attleboro jewelry maker EA Dion Inc. and police are searching for an estimated $2 million in precious metals and jewelry, including some Super Bowl rings for the New York Giants, stolen from the company this weekend, according to police and a published report.

Giants defensive end Michael Strahan showed off his Super Bowl ring. (AP)

Police said in a statement that thieves broke into the family-owned company sometime over the weekend and stole jewelry and a safe from the building "which contained precious metal used during the manufacturing process.''

Police told The Sun-Chronicle in Attleboro that about $2 million worth of jewelry and metals were stolen, which included Super Bowl rings for the Giants. Police discovered the robbery around 5 p.m. Sunday and said the dollar loss was expected to be “substantial.’’

The family-owned company, located on Franklin McKay Drive, is celebrating its 40th year in business this year, according to the company’s website.

The Massachusetts State Police and the FBI are assisting in the investigation, according to Attleboro police. No one has been arrested, police said.

(Globe file photo)

An undated photo shows clam shacks along Water Street in Newburyport.

By Globe Staff

The last remaining Newburyport clam shack can be transformed into a single-family home after a 4-1 vote Tuesday night by the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The vote granted a special permit for the wood-shingled building overlooking the Merrimack River's Joppa Flats. It came after a year-long campaign by the structure's owner, Mark Roland.

Once the board files its decision with the city clerk, there will be a 20-day period during which the special permit can be appealed. Without an appeal, Roland will be able to apply for a building permit and start construction.

Globe staff writer Tania Deluzuriaga wrote about the clam shack controversy in April:

NEWBURYPORT - To some, Mark Roland is a crusader, trying to preserve the remnants of a bygone era when a man's livelihood could be dug out of the mud at low tide. To others, he is a scofflaw and a gambler who has flouted zoning rules in order to turn the city's last clam shack into a yuppie cottage.

For nearly a year, Roland has been petitioning the Zoning Board in this historic seaside town to grant him the variances that would allow him to make the wood-shingled building perched on a sliver of land overlooking the Merrimack River's Joppa Flats into a single-family house.
"I have one small abode that I'm trying to occupy," he said at a zoning board meeting last week. "That's what I'm asking."

But his plan has been met with resistance from those who say the proposal is illegal. Some have even accused the longtime resident of ruining a historic landmark painted and photographed so often that locals joke it's the North Shore's Motif No. 2, a close cousin to a vacant red fisherman's shack in Rockport dubbed Motif No. 1.

By Katheleen Conti, Globe Staff

REVERE -- A 19-year-old man was arrested this afternoon after allegedly attacking and injuring a Revere city councilor who was taking pictures of his Beach Street home.

Andrew Alves was charged with assault and battery on a person over the age of 60 after allegedly punching Ward 2 Councilor Ira Novoselsky, 61, said Revere Police Captain Michael Murphy.

Murphy said that Alves had told responding officers, "Some old man was taking pictures of my house, got in my face, so I hit him." Around the corner, the officers came across Novoselsky, who was conscious but struggling to stand and "bleeding badly from an open head wound," Murphy said.

By Globe Staff

Boston Police are investigating a homicide in the Brighton neighborhood.

The body of a woman in her 50s was found today at about 2:30 p.m. with multiple stab wounds.

A man who is apparently in his 40s and is blind has been arrested and will be charged with the murder, said police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll.

Driscoll said the man, who was not immediately identified because he is still being booked, lived at the Nonantum Street residence where the body was found. The victim, however, did not live there, she said.

"It is still unclear what their relationship is," Driscoll said.

(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)
Sonia White, 12, and neighbor Isabella Shelton, 3, of Melrose cooled off at Nahant Beach today.

By Kate Augusto and Matt Collette, Globe Correspondents

Temperatures soared into the 90s again today, breaking records in Worcester and Providence and forcing some school districts to cancel classes because of concerns about students' health.

The temperature in Worcester reached 94 by mid-afternoon, breaking the previous record of 91 set in 1984, while the temperature in Providence climbed to 96, breaking the previous record of 94 in 1974, said National Weather Service meteorologist Alan Dunham.

In Taunton, all 8,000 students were dismissed, something Superintendent Arthur Stellar said hasn't been done in 20-odd years. In Fall River, Superintendent Nicholas Fischer said, elementary and middle school students were dismissed at 10:30 this morning. And in Arlington, Superintendent Nate Levenson told parents that school attendance was optional.

The mercury rose to the mid-90s in the interior, as the state endured its fourth day of blast-furnace temperatures. For most of the day, Logan International Airport was in the 80s, but between 5 and 6 this afternoon, the sea breeze apparently lapsed and the thermometer jumped to 94, nearing the record high of 96.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

A wintry scene on Washington Street.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

It's a blistering hot day, but a gas station on the Boston-Dedham line looks like a winter wonderland after the system used to extinguish fires accidentally discharged white powder over the entire property.

"The place looks like it was snowing out. The ground is completely in white and all the cars have white dust over them, and the people who were at the pumps got covered also," said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald.

The incident took place at King Petroleum. It was not immediately clear why the system, which is governed by a temperature gauge, dispensed the powder, which is chemically similar to baking soda.

The nine people who got covered were cleaned off. Three of them were taken to an area hospital to get checked out, MacDonald said.

(Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)

An aerial view of the May 28 crash.

By Globe Staff

There is no evidence that the operator in the recent fatal Green Line trolley crash was using her cellphone in the moments leading up to the accident, the Middlesex district attorney said today.

District Attorney Gerry Leone said that Ter'rese Edmonds's phone was recovered at the scene, and investigators looked at records of her phone, text message, and Internet usage. Investigators also spoke to witnesses who had observed Edmonds during the moments before the crash.

"Based on that investigation, there is no evidence that she was in communication with anyone on her cellphone -- whether through phone calls, text messages, or e-mail -- in the time immediately leading up to the crash," Leone said in a statement. "There is also no evidence that she was in the process of using the Internet on her cellphone at the time of the crash."

Edmonds, 24, was killed in the crash on the D branch of the Green Line in Newton on May 28, and at least seven people were sent to the hospital with injuries.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- A longtime friend of Rachel Entwistle described an agonizing search for the young mother and her family after they went missing in January 2006, testifying today about keeping vigil all night in a cold car outside their Hopkinton home.

Joanna Gately and her sister, Maureen, had driven to Hopkinton for a dinner party, but no one answered the door and the Entwistle home was mostly dark. The sisters drove around Hopkinton looking for the Entwistles' white BMW sport utility vehicle but found no sign of it and Rachel, Neil Entwistle, and their 9-month-old daughter, Lillian Rose. Accompanied by two Hopkinton police officers, the sisters ventured inside the rented home on Cubs Lane and discovered Sally, the family basset hound, barking in her crate in the living room, Joanna Gately testified.

They found no signs of the Entwistle family and the police left. The Gately sisters stayed all night in their car.

"I stayed up watching," Gately said during her methodical and often meticulous testimony, "waiting for the white BMW to pull in the driveway."

But that BMW never arrived. It would be another full day of driving and searching before Joanna Gately learned what happened. Police searched the home a second time and found Rachel and Lillian Rose shot to death in the master bedroom, their bodies tucked under a comforter.

Neil Entwistle is accused of killing his wife and child on Jan. 20 and flying the next day to his native England. Earlier today, Entwistle's mother welled up with tears this morning and had to be escorted out of her son's double-murder trial.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

Taunton firefighters saluted the hearse that carried the remains of Sergeant Shane Duffy as it proceeded down Broadway.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The family of Shane Duffy, a soldier who was killed in Iraq last week, picked up his body this morning at Logan International Airport and carried it back to his hometown, Taunton, where the procession, which included police motorcycles and a fire engine, was greeted by people young and old who wanted to pay their respects, the city's mayor said.

"He is a hero for the ages," said Mayor Charles Crowley, who has known Duffy's father since grade school. "We gave him the reception he deserved as he was brought home by the family."

Duffy, 24, an Army sergeant, was killed just after returning to duty from a visit home. He was the first soldier from the community to die in combat in the war. His father, Keavin, is a veteran firefighter in the community.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

The governor is going to Hollywood.

Governor Deval Patrick is planning to meet with film studio executives next week to discuss plans that could bring them to Massachusetts.

“I hope … that we’ll be able to spend a few hours [next] Thursday morning up in L.A. talking with some studios who are interested in investing in Massachusetts,” Patrick told reporters this afternoon. “It’s all about growing jobs.”

Patrick said the details were still being worked out, but he hoped to meet with three sound studios that have expressed an interest in building in the Bay State, where film tax breaks have led some to start calling Massachusetts, "Hollywood East."

(Bill Byrne, MassWildlife)

MassWildlife technician Scott Kemp released a 108-pound bear in secluded woods after it had been tranquilized in Worcester.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

This was no kitten stuck in a tree. Residents on Idalla Avenue discovered a 108-pound black bear clinging to branches on a leafy block north of downtown Worcester.

After being spotted in the tree Monday, the 15-month-old bear was shot with a tranquilizer dart by environmental officials. They removed the conscious but immobilized bear and brought him to woods in northern Worcester County. That is a far happier outcome than the last time a bear was spotted in the city, a 200-pounder that environmental officials shot and killed May 30 when it ran toward rush hour traffic on Interstate 290.

Biologist Marion Larson of the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife said that adolescent male bears such as the one found in the tree are often driven out of their homes by their mothers and can wander long distances looking for new territory.

“They follow waterways and wooded areas, sometimes not realizing where they are in the morning," Larson said.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

A 16-year-old girl out swimming with friends drowned today in Saugus, the second person to die in the state since Saturday in what appear to be water-related accidents, officials said.

Shanequa McKennzie, of Hanover Circle in Lynn, drowned at the Breakheart Reservation, according to Karen Dawley, a spokeswoman for the Essex District Attorney’s Office.

McKennzie, a student at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, drowned about 12:30 p.m., said Dawley, who did not have immediate details on how the girl drowned, what part of the park she drowned in, or if lifeguards were present. Park rangers were there, she said.

McKennzie was pulled from the water and taken to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, where she was pronounced dead about 2:50 p.m., Dawley said.

“It appears to be a swimming accident, an accidental drowning,” Dawley said.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

After near record-breaking temperatures and shirt-sticking humidity, the wind shifted dramatically in Boston this afternoon and washed the city in a salty sea breeze that dropped the temperature 20 degrees in 20 minutes.

The mercury had reached 93 degrees at Logan International Airport at 1 p.m., with a sultry northwest wind blowing muggy air off land withering in the year's first heat wave. At 1:40 p.m. the wind shifted and began blowing cool air off Massachusetts Bay, which sent the temperature into freefall, according to the National Weather Service in Taunton.

The relief only extends a few miles inland, creating a line separating hot and cold that runs through Roslindale, Brookline, Allston, and west Cambridge.

"The west side of the line is baking. The east side of that line is air-conditioned," said William Babcock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "It's one of the neat things about Boston weather, the effect of the water. It all depends on that wind."

By Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondent

The Cambridge police and fire departments are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the capture of a fugitive, wanted on murder charges in New Jersey, who they believe started a fire in a Cambridge high-rise on May 8.

Tormu Prall, 35, of Trenton, was in police custody in Boston for two days in mid-May, but released before fingerprint analysis revealed him to be the man charged with starting a fire that killed his brother in Trenton, N.J. Boston police later blamed a computer glitch for the mistake.

Prall, who has used several aliases, told Boston police his name was Denzel Willington. Cambridge police officials said they knew him as Reginald Sanders. Lieutenant Brian Higgins of the Cambridge Fire Department called the case "very frustrating" today at a news conference.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

The mercury hit 93 degrees at Logan International Airport at 1 p.m. and kept climbing as New England withered in a spring heat wave with near record-breaking temperatures and shirt-sticking humidity.

The unseasonable heat has sent people scurrying for air conditioning and ice cream knowing that they must endure at least one more day for relief. A cold front is not expected until Wednesday, when drier air will push the temperatures into the mid-80s. For now, weather forecasters can only offer this comfort: It was supposed to be worse. A sultry northwest breeze has helped to slightly temper the humidity and may preserve the 96-degree record for June 9, which was set in 1984.

"It's still hot, but it is not as oppressive as it was this morning," said Joe Dellicarpini, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- Neil Entwistle called his father-in-law several times from England after his wife and infant daughter were killed in 2006 in their Hopkinton home, his voice quivering and whimpering.

Neil Entwistle

"He said, 'Hi, Joe, I don't know how things got like this,' " Matterazzo said. "He said he couldn't face me. He was kind of repeating himself a little bit."

Over the next few days they spoke several times. As they discussed funeral arrangements for Rachel and Lillian Rose, Entwistle made a key verbal slip, Matterazzo said.

"He asked me if Rachel and Lillian could be buried together," Matterazzo said. "He said, "That's the way I left them -- I mean that's the way I found them.' That's exactly what he said."

Matterazzo continued: "I asked him, 'Neil, did you do this, or do you know who did this?' He said, 'No, I did not.' "

(Vincent DeWitt for The Boston Globe)

By Vincent DeWitt, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

HYANNIS -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy flew back home to Hyannis Port this morning after spending a week at Duke University Medical Center, where he underwent what was described by doctors as a successful surgery for a malignant brain tumor.

Kennedy landed at about 11:30 a.m. at Barnstable Municipal Airport after a 90-minute flight from North Carolina in a private twin-jet Cessna. Kennedy climbed into a waiting Chevy Yukon, which drove him to Hyannis Port. The senator wore a wide-brim green canvas hat as he sat in the front passenger seat and told photographers that he was glad to be home.

Kennedy's office released a statement this morning that said, "His doctors are pleased with his progress since surgery a week ago, and he will continue to recuperate at home before starting the next phase of his treatment."

Kennedy moved quickly to pursue the most aggressive form of treatment for his tumor and he flew to North Carolina last Monday to undergo surgery by a hand-picked neurosurgeon. The three-hour operation was performed by Dr. Allan H. Friedman, Duke's chief of neurosurgery, who is known for tackling surgeries that his colleagues consider risky because of a tumor's proximity to critical areas of the nervous system.

"Senator Edward Kennedy is making an excellent recovery from his brain surgery. He will continue his recuperation at home in Massachusetts under the supervision of the very capable doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with them and with the entire Kennedy team, particularly Dr. Larry Horowitz.

"The Senator and his wife Vicki are wonderful people, and I hope you will join me in wishing them the best as they continue their difficult journey to fight this disease. Their courageous and positive attitude is a lesson for us all."

"Senator Kennedy is returning to his home in Hyannis Port today. His doctors are pleased with his progress since surgery a week ago, and he will continue to recuperate at home before starting the next phase of his treatment. He is thankful for the extraordinary care of the doctors and nurses at Duke, and also for the continued prayers and well wishes from the people of Massachusetts and all over the country. In the interest of family privacy, there will not be regular updates regarding the Senator’s daily schedule or treatment plans moving forward."

(Wilmington Police Department)

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

Police released a sketch of a man who is wanted because he allegedly tried to abduct a 10-year-old girl as she walked home from school Friday in Wilmington.

The light-skinned man has short cropped hair, a mustache, and is between 30 and 40 years old. He was driving an older two-door van that was dark in color and may have had chipping paint, according to Lieutenant Joe Desmond of the Wilmington Police Department.

By Globe Staff

Red Line trains are running again in both directions this morning after a small electrical fire at the Porter Square station knocked out service for less than an hour.

Passengers had to be bused between stations at Harvard Square and Alewife while the fire was quickly extinguished, according to Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the MBTA.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority reported the fire on its website at 8:01 a.m.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Staff

Three youths and two adults were taken to the hospital with serious injuries, and traffic was stopped for a half hour this morning, after a two-car collision on 495 South, according to state police.

Just before 7:30 this morning, state police responded to the two-vehicle crash on 495 South, just before Route 85. A preliminary investigation found that an adult female driving a 2000 Honda Odyssey in the left lane lost control and struck a 2007 Toyota Sequoia traveling in the center lane. The Honda then rolled to its right several times, resting in the breakdown lane, while the Toyota spun out and came to rest in the right travel lane

The operator of the Honda and another adult female in the front passenger seat, both of whom were wearing seatbelts, were extricated by Fire and Emergency Medical personnel. Those two, along with a juvenile who was ejected from the car, were taken by helicopter to UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester with serious injuries. Two other youths were removed from the Honda by motorists and transported by ambulance to Milford Hospital with serious injuries.

It is unclear whether the juveniles were wearing seatbelts, said State police trooper Eric Benson. Cristen K. Beard, the 36-year-old operator of the Toyota, was not injured.

The southbound lanes of 495 were closed for a half-hour to provide a safe landing area for the medical helicopters. The right lane of 495 South was also closed for 3 hours.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

LOWELL – Gloucester attorney Ed O’Reilly got enough support from party officials today to ensure that he will give US Senator John F. Kerry his first Democratic primary challenge in 24 years.

At the state Democratic Party convention at the Paul E. Tsongas Arena, O’Reilly got 22.5 percent of the 2,574 ballots cast, more than the 15 percent he needed to secure a spot on the primary ballot. Kerry got the majority of votes, which means he'll get the party's endorsement.

"Party officials said this campaign is a nuisance. And it is. It’s a total nuisance," O’Reilly said to the convention floor. "Democracy is a nuisance. People said the American Revolution was a nuisance -- and it was!"

Kerry, in his fourth six-year term, last had a serious challenge in 1996, from Governor William F. Weld, a Republican. He hasn't had a primary opponent since 1984, when Kerry and three other Democrats ran for a seat vacated by Paul Tsongas.

Few predict the sitting senator will be vulnerable in a primary race. But it could mean more campaigning this summer – and marks an embarrassment that a former presidential candidate was unable to thwart the challenge from O’Reilly.

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

Hazy. Hot. Humid.

In what could be a full-fledged heat wave, Boston could see 90 degrees this afternoon. The region will face near record-breaking heat Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday with the heat index expected to break 100 degrees on Monday before a “cold front” brings 80 degree days toward the end of the week, forecasters say.

Hartford and Springfield will be hottest, with temperatures of 98-99 degrees on Monday and a heat index of up to 104 for a short time.

"Beginning tomorrow [Sunday], we’re looking at highs in the 90s," says Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Taunton.

The worst (or best, depending on your outlook) of it will come on Monday, when Boston’s record of 96 degrees set in 1984 could be in danger, Buttrick says.

(Evan Richman/Globe Staff)

Clinton models his City Year jacket for Corey Wiechmann, Alexandra Hernandez, and City Year CEO Michael Brown.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Former President Bill Clinton extolled the virtues of community service and warned against the dangers of global warming Friday night at a 20th anniversary celebration of City Year.

Hundreds of City Year youth workers -- decked out in red jackets, khaki pants, and workboots --packed the historic Citi Performing Arts Center, formerly the Wang.

Officials of City Year, a Boston-based youth community service program that now has international chapters, presented Clinton with a leadership award and a special 20th anniversary version of the group's trademark red jacket. More than a decade ago, City Year inspired Clinton to create AmeriCorps, a national community service program.

"There is more money and opportunity for citizen service to do public good than ever before," said Clinton, noting there are a million foundations in the US, half of which were established in the last decade.

"It must be comforting to know that you are part of an organization that was doing this work before it was fashionable, making a difference, and this still feels like the preciousest, newest most honored and most exciting place in the world to be."

Clinton made no mention of the presidential campaign of his wife, Hillary, which she is expected to officially end tomorrow.

Caitlin Castello and Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondents

Summer has not yet officially begun, but Massachusetts residents can expect a blistering heat wave to begin today that will bring temperatures as high as 101 degrees to some areas, forecasters said.

Temperatures in Boston will be in the 90s this weekend, and the city will be hottest on Monday at 97 degrees, according to Rebecca Gould, a forecaster at the National Weather Service.

The mercury will climb even higher Monday in the Springfield and Connecticut River Valley areas of western Massachusetts, reaching 100. In the Lowell area, temperatures could reach 101, Gould said.

In Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino has issued a heat advisory. Elderly people and young children are urged to take extra precautions when enjoying the summer weather.

The Boston Centers for Youth & Families will be opening cooling centers to provide people an escape from the heat.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Staff

Boston Police and the Boston Celtics have a warning for fans heading to the Garden: don’t buy your tickets on the street. They also have a warning to would-be scammers who want to sell fake tickets: try it, and you'll be arrested.

At Game 1 of the NBA Championship between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics Thursday night, 38 people at the TD Banknorth Garden presented tickets that turned out to be counterfeit, Boston Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said.

“Sadly, they end up getting turned away,” she said.

Driscoll said it can be difficult to identity the subtle differences in color and the style of lamination between fake and real tickets, so people should always buy tickets from authorized sellers.

“The fact is, the difference in the tickets in minimal,” she said. “The best defense against getting scammed is to not purchase a ticket at the street level.”

Four people were arrested Thursday for selling counterfeit tickets on the street, police said.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

State officials indefinitely closed one of the Longfellow Bridge's sidewalks today and announced they would block spectators from the entire span on the Fourth of July, eliminating a fireworks viewing spot for thousands of pedestrians and elevating already steep concerns about the integrity of the bridge.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation, which manages the bridge, announced the closure of the sidewalk on the side of the bridge that carries cars from Cambridge into Boston after an inspection late Thursday night showed a support beam below it needs immediate repair.

Pedestrians will be detoured to the opposite sidewalk, which will remain open to normal foot traffic but closed to large crowds, such as the Fourth of July audience.

An estimated 400,000 spectators flock to the area of the Charles River Esplanade to watch the Fourth of July fireworks along the Charles River and the Boston Pops concert at the Hatch Shell. Roughly 10,000 to 30,000 of them watch from the Longfellow Bridge, DCR officials said.

"At the end of the day, DCR certainly recognizes this is a huge event for the city of Boston but it's also a national event," DCR Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said in an interview. "First and foremost, we are concerned with public safety and making that a safe event. "

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

Pop quiz: How long do you think it takes to line up a mile-long string of pennies?

The 85 students in Brian Angell’s seventh-grade math classes lined up 84,480 pennies in a row today in a bid to break the Guinness World Record for penny-laying speed.

The students at Point Webster Middle School in Quincy starting placing the pennies just after 10 a.m. with a goal of smashing the previous record set by Rickmansworth Park JMI Primary School in England, which completed the feat in 2 hours, 24 minutes, and 15 seconds.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

A student at H.T. Wing School in Sandwich showed an inert grenade today during show-and-tell, prompting officials to tell all the students to evacuate the grammar school.

Sandwich and State Police quickly rushed to the scene at about 9:15 a.m. and determined that the device was not dangerous. Officials would not identify the student or say what grade he attended at the kindergarten through eighth grade public school. The grenade had been given to him by a family member a few years ago, they said.

“Unfortunately, it was a poor choice” to bring it to show-and-tell, said Principal Matt Bridges.

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

It's been less than a week since R. Keith Houston found out his modest South End community center had scored a major Celtics makeover. First the wood floors arrived, then the tables and the green, cushy chairs. Then came the computers, the mini basketball court and the giant Celtics murals. And finally came the players.

"We needed so much, and they brought everything we didn't have," said 10-year-old Elizabeth Barahona, checking out the 15 new laptops today at the Blackstone Community Center's new Reading & Learning Center.

"Beat L.A., beat L.A.," the children chanted as Mayor Thomas M. Menino thanked the NBA Cares program for funding the renovated center. It was officially selected last Friday night after the Celtics dispatched the Detroit Pistons, though NBA officials toured the building early last week. The NBA chose one site in Boston and Los Angeles to renovate, based in part on the number of children that can be served and the needs of the organization, said Josh Wachs, vice president of community relations for the NBA. Between 150 and 200 kids will take advantage of the Boston center each day, said Houston, administrative coordinator.

On hand to celebrate with her classmates from nearby Blackstone Elementary School were several Celtics legends, including Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Satch Sanders. Even a host of current players made an appearance, including guard Rajon Rondo and forward Glen Davis.

"It's euphoric, it's exciting," Houston said. "People have left here with tears in their eyes. For years, we've worked on doing something with this space. I had no idea it would be this much. I would have been happy with just new floors."

Chelsea Contreras, 10, painted "Go Celtics," in green and "Beat L.A." in red with one of the computers. In the room next door, 10-year-old Wilbert Rivas had the Celtics' Davis trapped in a game of Connect Four. "Oh man, I lost," Davis yelled. "I can't believe it. He beat me."

Houston said he grew up going to the center, and the new look will keep children busy and safe for years to come.

(Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- Priscilla Matterazzo broke her 2 1/2-year silence today about the slaying of her daughter and granddaughter, speaking publicly for the first time as a witness against her son-in-law, Neil Entwistle.

Matterazzo gave clear and measured testimony as she described the couple's courtship, her eyes red but her voice steady and unemotional. She only appeared to tear up once, when asked about the location of the master bedroom where the bodies were found.

The couple met when Rachel Entwistle spent a year studying abroad in England her junior year at the College of the Holy Cross, Matterazzo said. The long-distance relationship survived when her daughter returned home, and it blossomed when Rachel returned to England to earn her teaching certificate.

"They seemed to get along very well," Matterazzo said in a matter-of-fact tone. "They seemed to have a friendship, and seemed to love and respect each other."

By Globe staff

One week after an early morning fire destroyed the landmark James Hook & Co. lobster business in downtown Boston, investigators were back at the site today, still searching for where the fire started and how the ferocious blaze began.

The ramshackle building trimmed with razor wire at the corners of Northern and Atlantic avenues was ruined by the early morning fire, which also destroyed an estimated 60,000 pounds of lobsters warehoused at the facility as the family-owned company was preparing to ship to its retail and wholesale customers.

By Franci R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- The prosecution began its case against a British man accused of shooting his wife and daughter to death in 2006 with a simple refrain: "These are the words of Neil Entwistle that you will hear."

Neil Entwistle

"It was obvious what had happened, I could see the hole in Lillian," Fabbri said, quoting the defendant's statement to police after his arrest. "I didn't even call 911 or call for help."

"I didn't even think about funeral arrangements for them."

Instead, Entwistle drove to Logan International Airport without even bothering to tell his in-laws, Joseph and Priscilla Matterazzo. "I hadn't even told Priscilla and Joe before I left for England."

Fabbri repeated: "These are the words of Neil Entwistle that you will hear."

Rachel Entwistle, 27, and Lillian Rose

"Neil loved his wife, and Neil loved his daughter," Weinstein said. "On Jan. 20, he lost them both."

By Michael Levenson, Brian Ballou, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

State Senator J. James Marzilli Jr. checked into a psychiatric hospital today for treatment of an undisclosed illness and announced he would not seek reelection this September as he faces charges that he tried to grope one woman and harass another on busy streets this week in downtown Lowell.

State Senator James Marzilli

Marzilli had issued a brief statement earlier in the day announcing his decision not to seek reelection and thanking his supporters and asking them for their "continued good wishes and support during this very difficult time."

Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said law enforcement officers are also investigating a report of an assault by Marzilli in Arlington last year, one in Brighton two years ago, and additional reports in Lowell Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, the veteran lawmaker fled police who tried to question him, causing cars to swerve out of his way and pedestrians to scramble as he darted through city streets. Marzilli was arrested in a parking garage, where he was cut off by police cruisers chasing him. After officers threatened him with pepper spray to make him submit to handcuffs, according to a police report, he broke into tears and cried that his "life was over."

Friends and political allies were shocked at the apparent unraveling of a career that had taken Marzilli from the trenches of political organizing in the 1980s to the state House in the '90s and the Senate last year. A self-described ultraliberal, Marzilli has been a darling of unions, environmental groups, and social service organizations whose causes he championed.

Rowling also received an honorary doctorate from the university.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- Author J.K. Rowling, who weaved literary magic with the Harry Potter series, told graduates and faculty -- and, not surprisingly, many children there as guests -- at Harvard's commencement today that the imagination is important for more than just fantasizing about a world of wizards.

Rowling said the ability to imagine what other people are experiencing is uniquely human and such empathy plays a key societal role.

Recalling working in her early 20s at the London headquarters of Amnesty International and hearing of the experiences of political prisoners in totalitarian regimes, she said she learned that "the power of human empathy leading to collective action saves lives and frees prisoners."

"Those who choose not to empathize," she said, "enable real monsters."

By Franci Richardson, Globe Correspondent

Opening statements are slated for Friday morning in the highly publicized trial of Neil Entwistle, the British man accused of shooting to death his wife and daughter in 2006 in their Hopkinton home.

Rachel Entwistle, 27, and Lillian Rose

By 3 p.m. today, eight men and eight women had been picked -- for a jury of 12 with four alternates -- to decide the fate of Entwistle, 29, in a trial that is supposed to last three weeks, ending just before July 4.

“We believe now this jury will do its best and they will find that the Commonwealth’s theory will not be supported and that, in the end, Neil Entwistle will be found not guilty,” said defense attorney Elliot Weinstein in a brief press conference outside the courthouse.

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

Alarmed by a sharp increase in domestic violence-related deaths, Governor Deval Patrick today unveiled plans to bolster police training and ordered a statewide review of the data to try to determine the reasons for the rise.

"We have a public health emergency on our hands," he said.

Domestic violence-related deaths have nearly tripled in Massachusetts during the past three years, from 19 in 2005 to 55 last year, according to the nonprofit Jane Doe Inc., which advocates against domestic violence and sexual assault. There have been 24 deaths this year.

State officials plan to update guidelines for officers responding to domestic violence incidents, as well as to enhance training for both recruits and veterans.

By Franci Richardson, Globe Correspondent

WOBURN -- The tension of a simmering love triangle boiled over into murder because James Brescia was an "obsessively jealous" husband who paid someone to kill the man his estranged wife was dating, prosecutors said today during opening statements at Brescia’s trial.

James Brescia

Prosecutor Adrienne Lynch said the scheme evolved from a plan of merely "beating up Edward Schiller to send him a message to stay away into a conspiracy to kill Edward Schiller in order to eliminate him altogether."

Lynch said her investigators have pieced together a portrait of the jealous husband who could not let his wife go, even after she filed for divorce in 2005. Prosecutors will try to build their case with cell phone records that show calls between Foxworth and Brescia; bank records; and testimony from witnesses, including Nancy Campbell, one of the defendant's former co-workers who will tell the jury that Brescia told her of the plan to harm Schiller.

Defense attorney J.W. Carney disputed the prosecution's account, saying that their theories are not supported by evidence. Carney said police badgered Campbell until the single mother promised to testify against Brescia.

(Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

Students from the Harvard Kennedy School tossed miniature versions of the world they hope to change.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- In a ceremony marked by tradition and jubilant student celebrations, Harvard University awarded nearly 7,000 diplomas at this morning's commencement exercises.

Harvard Yard was thronged for the graduation, which featured a lengthy address in Latin and marshals dressed in coats and tails and black top hats. The campus, lined with crimson flags, was filled with dark-robed students from Harvard College and the graduate schools.

To heavy applause, senior speaker Thomas Alan Dichter said Harvard students were thrilled to receive their diplomas from the college's first female president, Drew Faust.

"Today is a day to remember and celebrate," he said, his voice rising.

Faust recognized Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who had been slated to receive an honorary degree at the ceremony. Faust praised Kennedy, who is recuperating from brain surgery at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., as an "extraordinary person" who is "admired by colleagues on both sides of the aisle as one of the nation’s most able, energetic, and influential lawmakers."

Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

One man was involved in four separate car crashes this morning on highways south of Boston, leaving the scene each time. He was finally stopped by police and may face charges.

State police received reports of three crashes on Route 24, in Middleborough, Avon, and Randolph, and one crash on Route 128 North in Canton, all involving a large pickup truck, said Lieutenant Eric Anderson, a state police spokesman.

Police stopped the red Ford F-350 truck at about 9:30 a.m. on Interstate 95 South in Canton. The driver, a 36-year-old man whose name is being withheld until more details are known, was transported to Caritas Norwood Hospital for medical evaluation.

It appears that no one was seriously injured. The driver may face charges, Anderson said.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

That once glorious sunshine will scorch, burn, and become unbearable. The sweet smell of blooming flowers will be lost in breezes that are soupy and stifling. Air conditioners will be lugged out of basements even though snow shoveling is still a fresh memory.

Spring is expected to come to an abrupt end this weekend as temperatures top 90 degrees in Boston on Saturday, igniting what may be the year’s first three-day heat wave. In Western Massachusetts the mercury may creep up near triple digits.

"Normally we don't see these temperatures until late July or early August," said Charlie Foley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "We will be just a touch away from real tropical, sultry, New Orleans-style weather."

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

University of New Hampshire alumnus Peter T. Paul has donated $25 million to the college for a new business school, UNH President Mark W. Huddleston announced this morning. It is the largest single gift in the history of the Durham institution.

“Peter has been a true partner with the university, and his gift of $25 million will have a profound impact on generations of students seeking a world-class business education,” Huddleston said in a statement.

"This is to inform my supporters and constituents that I will not be seeking re-election in September as Senator for the 4th Middlesex District. My state house staff will continue to respond to the needs of constituents within the district until the end of my term.

"Susan and I thank the many of you who have reached out with your love and kindness in the past few days and we ask for your continued good wishes and support during this very difficult time."

By Globe Staff

Kendrick Perkins is a man of few words, letting his rebounding and defensive tenacity do his talking as a 6-foot, 10-inch force in the low post for the Celtics.

NBAE/Getty Images/file photo

"As a center for the Boston Celtics, I've got to be fast," Perkins says in the announcement. "That's why I like the CharlieCard."

Perkins concludes: "So when it comes to taking the T, it's a slam dunk. Use the CharlieCard."

The announcement will air through the NBA Finals, which begin tonight. Extra MBTA service will be added for the series against the Los Angeles Lakers. Subway service will be extended if games end late, and the last commuter rail trains out of North Station will be held until the game ends, departing 15 minutes after the final buzzer.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

HomeLogic, a company that offers high-end home control systems, wired their Marblehead offices with the same technology they offer their customers to demonstrate how the system can operate everything from your heat to your sound system to surveillance cameras.

Early Monday, though there were no customers in the store, the system put on quite a demonstration: it caught an alleged criminal.

“This guy decides to pick the only building in New England or North America that’s wired with this technology, so that’s the Darwin part,” said Joe Lautner, vice president of marketing and sales for the company.

Employees arrived Monday to find the glass front doors of the offices had been kicked in. They checked the surveillance video and found the break-in on tape at 3:09 a.m.

“There was a guy walking up, pressing his face up to the glass, looking around and then ... [he] starts kicking on the door and the door pops open,” Lautner said.

It was dark in the office, but the video was clear enough to show police what the burglar had touched so they could dust for fingerprints. It also gave them a general description of who they were looking for, Lautner said.

(Paul Sakuma/AP)

The lighthouse, which was built in Cape Cod, now stands watch over a different coast, in Point Montara, Calif.

By Jonnelle Marte, Globe Correspondent

For decades, local historians believed the 30-foot iron lighthouse that once shone over Wellfleet Harbor was destroyed.

Then a family of lighthouse fanatics set the record straight -- the beacon long thought to be lost forever is actually intact 3,000 miles away.

Colleen MacNeney told the tale of how the Mayo Beach lighthouse was moved to Point Montara, Calif. in 1925 in this month's edition of Lighthouse Digest, released on Monday.

"When you uncover a story like this, this is like finding gold at the end of the rainbow," said Tim Harrison, editor of Lighthouse Digest.

By Shelley Murphy and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A 35-year-old Saugus man pleaded not guilty today in federal court to drug distribution charges after authorities allegedly caught him in a sting operation with help from a New England Patriots player who is facing a drug charge himself.

Daniel Ekasala faces three counts of possession of oxycodone with intent to distribute.

Daniel Ekasala

"He's very upset, he's nervous,'' said Ekasala's defense attorney, Bernard Grossberg.

Ekasala was charged after a sting operation in which New England Patriots offensive lineman Nicholas Kaczur participated, the Globe reported this morning. Kaczur agreed to participate after his own arrest in April on a charge of illegal possession of prescription painkillers, sources told the newspaper.

Kaczur, 28, wore a hidden recording device during three different alleged drug transactions in May at gas stations in Foxborough and North Attleborough and a supermarket parking lot in Sharon.

An affidavit filed by a federal agent describes the drug buys, making constant reference to an unnamed "cooperating witness."

"I'd be very interested to see what kind of deal Kaczur has gotten in the course of cooperating and what deal he has," Grossberg said after the hearing.

"What is the quid pro quo and what was Kaczur facing in order for him to feel it was in the best interest of him to cooperate? You would think there was more to this than a traffic stop mentioned in the Globe article," Grossberg said. "What is he getting as a result of his cooperation?''

Grossberg said at some point in the proceedings the government will be required to disclose what benefits Kaczur is receiving in exchange for his cooperation.

Kaczur was stopped for speeding on the New York State Thruway in Whitestown on April 27 and police discovered a small amount of oxycodone in his car, authorities said. The charge he faces is a misdemeanor.

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

Governor Deval Patrick, one of the earliest supporters of presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, told a group of reporters at the State House today he’s counting on party leaders – including Senator Hillary Clinton – to make the November campaign a success.

“This is a contest of ideas and ideals between ourselves on the Democratic side and those on the Republican side,” Patrick said. “And I think our ideals and our ideas are unified and offer real opportunity for new direction in this country.”

The governor complimented Clinton on the tenacity of her campaign, calling her an extraordinary leader with tremendous support. Patrick said he would await the senator’s next move.

“I hope she will come in and be an active part of the campaign and encourage her supporters to be a part of the campaign and to heal,” he said.

(Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

Faust speaking at a ROTC commissioning ceremony in Harvard Yard this morning.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- Harvard University President Drew Faust took issue with the military's ban against openly gay and lesbian members in a ROTC commissioning ceremony in Harvard Yard this morning as she commended newly minted military officers for choosing to serve their country.

"The freedoms we enjoy depend vitally on the service you and your forebears have undertaken in our behalf," Faust told an audience of about 200 who saw five Harvard seniors recognized for their training and three officially receive their military appointments. "Indeed, I wish that there were more of you. I believe that every Harvard student should have the opportunity to serve in the military, as you do, and as those honored in the past have done."

Harvard has banned the Reserve Officers' Training Corps from campus since the Vietnam era, a restriction that forces students to train at MIT and that critics contend reflects a broader hostility to the military at the Ivy League institution.

By Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent

A $3 billion bond plan to fix up crumbling bridges around the state would ensure public safety and be a boon to the economy, Governor Deval Patrick told a legislative committee today.

"Consider the costs to our economy when businesses fail to expand because infrastructure is inadequate," Patrick told the Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets.

The project would fund rehabilitation and prevention projects at about 250 bridges rated as “structurally deficient” by the federal government. The project would run for the next eight years. An estimated 450 structurally deficient bridges would still remain after the project, according to the Executive Office of Transportation.

Patrick said the state could save $1.5 billion if it moved swiftly on the bill and avoided construction cost inflation and more expensive repairs that might be needed if the bridges deteriorate further.

“If we act quickly, we can take advantage of this construction season, and capture all the potential savings we have proposed,” Patrick said in his testimony. He also said the bill, if passed, would create thousands of jobs.

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

A man serving prison time for felony assault for stabbing a man in Weymouth in 2001 is now facing a new charge in the case -- murder -- because the victim, who was paralyzed, died last year.

Nicholas M. Cirignano, 27, was indicted today by a Norfolk County grand jury, the Norfolk District Attorney's office said.

Prosecutors said that on July 3, 2001, Cirignano stabbed Matthew R. Nagle, who was 22 at the time, in the neck, severing the man’s spinal cord and paralyzing him. In 2005, Cirignano was convicted of assault with intent to kill and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and sentenced by Judge Judith Fabricant to nine to 10 years in prison.

Nagle died July 23, 2007.

Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said in a statement that charging someone with murder when the victim has lived for several years after the attack -- in this case, six years -- is unusual but not unprecedented. He said the injuries inflicted during the assault eventually caused Nagle’s death.

No arraignment date has been set.

By Franci Richardson, Globe Correspondent

A woman who was in the jury pool at the murder trial of Neil Entwistle told a judge today that she had heard other potential jurors say that the jury should "fry him and send him away."

Defense attorney Elliott Weinstein immediately asked Judge Diane Kottmyer to change the venue or dismiss the case, arguing that the comments bolstered his contention that his client cannot get a fair trial because the case has drawn so much publicity. But Kottmyer denied the motion.

The Medford woman made the comments when the judge asked her -- during routine questioning in Middlesex Superior Court as part of the jury selection process -- if she had heard or read anything about the case.

The woman said she had heard the comments while standing in line with other jurors. She said in an interview outside the courthouse that she was not surprised to hear them.

"People make judgments about these things all the time," said the woman, who did not identify herself. "Unless you're living under a rock, it's hard not to hear."

By Brian R. Ballou, Michael Levenson, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

LOWELL -- Senator J. James Marzilli Jr. used the name of a fellow lawmaker when he was arrested Tuesday for allegedly trying to grope a woman on a park bench, telling police he was Martin Walsh, who is a state representative from Dorchester, a prosecutor said today in court.

State Senator James Marzilli

"The defendant began to cry," Mucci said, reading from the police report. "He said they could not arrest him, that his life was over."

Marzilli appeared stoic and said nothing when he was arraigned today in Lowell District Court on charges of attempting to commit an indecent assault, simple assault and battery, resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, and disorderly conduct. Marzilli was released Tuesday night on $1,500 cash bail. His lawyer, Terrence W. Kennedy of Everett, said after the arrest that his client "completely and totally denies" the allegations, which he called ridiculous.

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/file 2007)

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Tired of circling the block and tempted to park illegally in Boston? You might want to think twice.

The Boston City Council today raised fines for parking scofflaws, hiking some tickets to $100. With little discussion, the council voted 11-2 to approve Mayor Thomas M. Menino's plan.

Councilors accepted the mayor's contention that since many of the fines had not been increased in more than 10 years, it was appropriate to raise them now.

Drivers who park in front of fire hydrants and in fire lanes will receive $100 fines, up from $75 and $40 respectively. The fire hydrant fine was last increased in 2000, while the fire lane penalty has been unchanged since 1991. Parking in a crosswalk would generate a fine of $85, up from $40.

The increases apply only to main thoroughfares of the city and the downtown area, city officials said. Except for a few small increases, fines on residential streets would be unaffected.

The mayor's office has estimated the increases will generate $13 million in additional revenue next year.

By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

The final lesson learned by the senior class president at Brockton High School may be the hardest: Do not mouth off to police while being punished for vandalizing the cafeteria with ketchup, mustard, and silly string.

Aisha Chenae Brown, 18, will get to think about that while the rest of her class walks across a stage and receives diplomas on Saturday. Brown, who has been barred from the ceremony, was arraigned today on charges of disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. She and 10 classmates – including the quarterback of the football team -- were performing community service as punishment for the “senior prank” a week ago in the cafeteria, school officials said.

Brown was apparently unhappy about her punishment and began yelling, slamming tables and using profanity, said Brockton Chief of Detectives John Crowley.

"She didn't have the best attitude," Crowley said.

By Globe Staff

The commissioner of the state Department of Social Services reiterated today that the department is looking at changes in the way it works with children's court-appointed guardians, in the wake of a South Boston fire that killed two children in April.

Angelo McClain said on the WBUR-FM "On Point" radio program that the department was looking to see if it could "provide more stipulations" on guardians, to see if it can strengthen the training for guardians, and to see if services offered after children are placed in guardianships are sufficient.

A Globe report Sunday chronicled the life of 14-year-old Acia Johnson, who was killed with her 3-year-old sister, Sophia, in a fire April 6 at their parents' home, where they were living. Acia was supposed to be living at the time with her court-appointed guardian, her grandmother.

McClain said he was disappointed that the grandmother had allowed Acia to move back with her mother.

"We're contemplating changes to make it real clear to folks that there are certain parameters," McClain said.

"Despite a lot of help that was available, it wasn't enough," said McClain. "For a lot of children who are in similar situations, the help that is available is enough. In this situation, it wasn't enough."

The Globe reports today that the department is planning to threaten guardians with charges of perjury if they lie to state officials. The changes would affect the more than 500 new guardianship cases handled each year. The story also reports that some lawmakers and child protection advocates question whether the agency is going far enough.

By Jonnelle Marte, Globe Correspondent

State lawmakers pressed oil executives and state agencies today to do more to ease the pain of rising energy costs for struggling families.

The Senate committee hearing between legislators, poverty advocates and state agency representatives took place as the price for regular gas surpassed $4 around the state -- soaring as high as $5.09 today for premium on Nantucket -- and some cash-strapped families are forced to choose between paying for food or fuel.

At the hearing of the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, senators repeatedly suggested that fuel companies should be required to dedicate a certain portion of their revenues to developing renewable energy sources.

(David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

Firefighters poured water on the blaze this afternoon.

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Four firefighters were injured today as they battled a five-alarm fire in a mansion on Dane Street in Jamaica Plain.

The blaze broke out just after 3 p.m. Several buildings in the area were evacuated because of the heavy smoke. Firefighters were ordered out of the building because of the heavy fire conditions and are still dousing the building.

Two