By Jenara Gardner, Globe Staff

An Italian cruise ship brought a bit of la dolce vita to Boston today.

“In this economy, it is good to see this ship, a symbol of the Italian republic, in Boston, especially two days before we celebrate one of Italy’s best sailors, Columbus,” said Liborio Stellino, the Italian consul in Boston, who came to greet the ship.

By Christopher Girard, Globe Correspondent

The Coast Guard combed the ocean off Provincetown today for the owner of a capsized sailboat, but then suspended the search after finding no signs of a person in distress.

It is unknown if anyone was aboard the 15-foot boat when it capsized. The boat was found two miles west of Race Point and was reported to the Coast Guard around 10:30 a.m, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The search was called off at 2:30 p.m. The Coast Guard had, at that point, scrutinized the area with a boat and a helicopter, and park rangers had completed a shoreline search, said Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

A rescue swimmer dropped into the water near the boat could not find registration numbers or a name on the boat, the statement said.

Essdras M. Suarez/Globe Staff

Lavallee pondering the work ahead before the contest began.

By Jeannie Nuss, Globe Correspondent

It wasn’t quite Coney Island.

But for ketchup-stained Robert Lavallee and seven other contestants with a hankering for hot dogs, the last weekend of the season on Boston’s Spectacle Island had a touch of amusement park flair.

Lavallee, an 18-year-old who likes his dogs with steak sauce, Dijon mustard, and relish, sprinted and stretched before devouring seven wieners and a big bite to win the 10-minute competition.

“I had fun and I got something out of it. Two things actually: being full and a gift certificate,” said the buzz-cut teen after calling his mom about the contest.

By Hannah McBride, Globe Staff

Planning to drive around Boston tomorrow? Better think twice.

Traffic will be restricted in various areas of the Hub as the city prepares for the noon Red Sox playoff game, the Boston Half-Marathon, and holiday parades and festivals.

John Blanding/Globe Staff

Addison Smith, 6, had the Halloween spirit today as she explored Essex Street in Salem.

The Smith family from Chattanooga, Tenn. was enjoying Haunted Happenings, a celebration that runs through Nov. 1 in the Witch City, which includes performances and street vendors.

Road closures and other transportation advisories for the week of Oct. 11:

Two to three lanes of Interstate 93 South will be closed approaching and through downtown Monday through Friday from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The Storrow Drive onramp to I-93 South will be closed Tuesday from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The Haymarket onramp to I-93 South and the Callahan Tunnel will be closed Wednesday through Friday from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.

By Hannah McBride, Globe Correspondent

A two-alarm fire destroyed a multi-family home on a dead end street in Marlborough after the blaze burned for about five hours, fire officials said.

The residents of 13 Lincoln Court escaped safely, but one firefighter was injured battling the blaze, according to a report from fire officials. He was taken to Marlborough Hospital for evaluation. Fire officials had no information this morning on his condition.

The fire, which started at 9:51 p.m., was quickly upgraded to two alarms. The two-and-a-half-story wood-frame home sits close to neighboring buildings, making firefighting more difficult, said Deputy Fire Chief Ron Ayotte.

Often these trips are less about America's role in the world and more about getting a nice perk on the taxpayers' dime

Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common sense, a Washington budget watchdog group

If we learned anything from the [Bush] presidency, it is that political leaders must have foreign policy knowledge. That knowledge is enhanced by meeting with foreign dignitaries and the people of other nations.

US Representative Michael Capuano, who is running for the Senate

Evan Richman/The Boston Globe/File 2002

Ready for a closeup?

By Globe Staff

Look out, Hollywood! Here comes the Zakim Bridge.

The bland press release issued by the state advises that "Drivers should expect intermittent delays on I-93 North and South on the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge between 3 pm and 5 pm on Sunday, October 11, 2009."

But the Globe's Names column reports that the reality is much more interesting: Producers of the big-budget film starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz that has been filming in the area are planning to land a helicopter on the bridge.

Drivers traversing the city on the major artery might grumble. But look on the bright side, the column says, the original plan was to overturn an 18-wheeler on the bridge.

By Globe Staff

Powerball, the multi-state lottery game, looks like it will be coming next year to Massachusetts.

The state treasurer's office announced today that it had reached an agreement in principle to join the game. The state already participates in the multi-state Mega Millions game.

Treasurer Timothy Cahill, who chairs the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, said in a statement that the ability to sell both the games would "enable us to raise millions more in needed revenue for our 351 cities and towns."

By Hannah McBride, Globe Correspondent

Two men were shot in what police say were unrelated incidents in downtown Springfield early this morning.

A 33-year-old man was shot five times at the intersection of Dwight and Hillman Streets at 1:03 a.m.

Three hours later and a mile away, a 21-year-old man was shot in the legs at the intersection of Saratoga and Dwight Street Extension, said Springfield Police Captain John Lynch.

Both victims were sent to Bay State Hospital, Lynch said. Lynch said he didn't know their condition.

By Emma Rose Johnson, Globe Correspondent

Two Boston University students were robbed at knifepoint in front of a university dorm early this morning, university police said.

The two 18-year-old female victims told police a white male in his 20s approached them at around 4:15 a.m. outside of 277 Babcock St., also known as Rich Hall. The perpetrator threatened them with a knife and stole $50 and a pack of cigarettes. Neither student was injured.

By Jennara Gardner, Globe Correspondent

Seven people were left homeless early this morning after the roof of their four-story building in Boston's North End caught fire, the Boston Fire Department said.

Firefighters were called to the building on Hanover Street at about 4:49 a.m., said department spokesman Steve MacDonald.

The Bricco restaurant, located on the first floor and the residential apartments on the top three floors suffered water and smoke damage in the two-alarm blaze, forcing residents to seek accommodations with family and friends.

By Globe Staff

By now in the fall semester, college students are settling into a routine, attending classes, adjusting to new roommates, and making new friends. But for many living away from home for the first time, homesickness creeps in during these first months. MetroDesk's Roy Greene caught up with Harlan Cohen, author of the best-seller "The Naked Roommate, and 107 Other Issues You Might Run into in College" (Sourcebooks), for advice on dealing with homesickness.

By L.E. Crowley, Globe Correspondent

The mother of a Hingham teenager who died just after he arrived at college in Ohio is calling that state's health officials' pronouncement that her son did not die of the swine flu, "irresponsible."

Ohio health officials said this week that Matthew Healey, 18, who fell ill shortly after starting school at Miami University in Ohio, did not test positive for the H1N1, or swine flu, virus. But Healey’s mother insists her son did have swine flu, and the family wants to set the record straight.

“This is an incredibly painful thing we have gone through and what they’re saying is erroneous and irresponsible,” Elizabeth Healey said in an interview on Friday. “As far as we were concerned, it was a private, particularly painful family tragedy, and somewhere along the line our privacy was violated.’’

Essdras M. Suarez/Globe Staff

Members of the Banda Roncati of Bologna, Italy played at City Hall Plaza today as part of the HONK! Festival, a street band extravaganza that is bringing 30 bands from around the world to Boston, Somerville, and Cambridge this weekend.

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A 38-year-old man has been arrested on a murder charge for allegedly stabbing a 26-year-old exotic dancer to death in Everett last week because she was rejecting his attempts to rekindle their relationship, the Middlesex district attorney said this afternoon.

Sheila Santos (hi5.com)

"At this time, all of the evidence we've obtained and developed points to this defendant as the murderer," Leone said.

Dos Santos was slain outside her Main Street apartment building shortly after she finished work at a club in Stoughton at around 1:15 a.m. last Friday.

Her body was found stabbed 33 times on the stairs leading to the rear door of her apartment building, just steps away from her car, according to neighbors and police.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

An attorney for Dirk Greineder, who was a renowned Wellesley allergist when he was accused of his wife's 1999 murder, argued today in the state's highest court that his client's trial was riddled with errors and his conviction should be overturned.

Greineder at his 2001 trial

But Varsha Kukafka, the attorney representing the Norfolk County district attorney's office, asked the court to affirm Greineder's 2001 conviction.

A jury found Greineder guilty of murdering his wife, Mabel, by beating her with a hammer and slitting her throat at a Wellesley pond on Halloween Day 1999. Prosecutors had argued that the defendant killed his wife of 32 years to conceal his secret sex life. The jury rejected Greineder's claims that his wife had been slain by an unknown killer.

By Hannah McBride, Globe Correspondent

A sheriff's van carrying prisoners collided with two cars at Causeway and North Washington Street in Boston around 5 p.m., sending six people to area hospitals with minor injuries.

Two patients were sent to Tufts Medical Center, and four were sent to Massachusetts General Hospital, said Jennifer Mehigan, spokeswoman for Boston EMS.

Three of the injured were prisoners, two were sheriff's deputies, and one injured person was from one of the other cars, she said.

(Michael Levenson/Globe Staff)

The man, dressed in a dirty blue jacket and camouflage shorts, had been sitting on the edge of a publicly accessible balcony with his back up against the edge.

By Michael Levenson and Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

Boston police and firefighters pulled a distraught man off of an eighth-floor ledge at City Hall after a 15-minute standoff this afternoon during which the man screamed repeatedly in Spanish that he wanted to see Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

(Michael Levenson/Globe Staff)

Sirens wailed as a dozen police and firefighters stood near the man, trying to calm him down. City employees watched the drama unfold on the outdoor patio that is across a hallway from a popular City Hall sandwich shop.

"Yo quiero ver a Menino!" the man yelled, saying over and over in Spanish, "I want to see Menino!"

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

A grand jury could convene as early as next week in the case of four teenagers accused of killing a 42-year-old woman in Mont Vernon, N.H., and seriously injuring her 11-year-old daughter, according to the prosecutor in the case.

Senior Assistant Attorney General N. William Delker said that the grand jury would listen to witness testimony and weigh whether to bring additional charges.

Asked if there could be more suspects arrested, Delker said "the grand jury will consider all of the evidence and make a decision about what charges should be made ... We'll evaluate whether anyone else had culpability and should be charged."

Photo/Animal Instincts

Robert Schenck, owner of Animal Instincts, with the 5-foot-long, 15-pound boa.

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent

A Fall River landlord has finally evicted his most unwelcome tenant.

After five days of rooftop sunbathing, a 5-foot-long, 15-pound boa constrictor was trapped Thursday night in an attic of a six-family dwelling. It was unclear who owned the snake or whether it escaped or was abandoned.

AP photo

Martha Coakley flanked by other attorneys general, Andrew Cuomo of New York (left) and Roy Cooper of North Carolina at the White House today.

By Matt Viser and Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Attorney General Martha Coakley is meeting with President Obama this afternoon in Washington, a key meeting that, while unrelated to her US Senate candidacy, could showcase her as a national player.

The president asked her to come to discuss financial regulatory reforms that Obama is pursuing. She is joined by three other attorneys general, Andrew Cuomo of New York; Lisa Madigan of Illinois; and Roy Cooper of North Carolina.

The meeting will also include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers.

Coakley is the perceived front-running in the Democratic primary for US Senate, where she is up against US Representative Michael Capuano, City Year cofounder Alan Khazei, and Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca.

"It's clear we're being invited as AGs," Coakley said in a telephone interview after arriving in Washington. "We're in the lead in Massachusetts, with suits like Freemont and our settlement with Goldman Sachs. Other states who are aggressive on this look to Massachusetts on this."

State Senator Scott Brown may be known, in some quarters, for his pretty-boy looks. But he’s not exactly known for having a choir-boy vocabulary.

In 2007, when talking to a group of high school sophomores at King Philip Regional High School in his home town of Wrentham, he reportedly used the F-word twice.

Brown drew rebukes from school officials but defended his use of profanity, saying he was simply repeating hateful statements that had been posted on Facebook about him and his family.

"I was merely reading the things that they had written about me," Brown told the Globe at the time. "What's the issue, exactly? I don't quite know what the big deal is."

Perhaps he learned a lesson.

It did not go unnoticed this week when Brown, now a Republican candidate for US Senate, posted the following warning on one of his campaign's social networking sites: “Don't Use Obscenities: If you can't articulate your thoughts without swearing, you will be tossed from the Brown Brigade.”

-- MATT VISER

An on-line chat about swine flu scheduled for 1 p.m. with Dr. Lauren Smith, medical director of the state Department of Public Health, has been postponed. Look for further updates about the H1N1 virus and the vaccine to stop it on boston.com.

In a story in today's Globe, Stephen Smith finds that many are wary about the vaccine even though clinical trials have not turned up any serious side effects.

FOXBOROUGH -- John Riley leaned on the trusty bumper of his 1956 Oldsmobile 88 on Thursday at the Mass Cruiser classic car show at the Patriot Place.

(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

Ted Gartland, a dayside photo editor at the Globe, has been taking pictures in Greater Boston since 1971. Each weekday, he highlights an outtake that did not appear in the morning paper. To view the work of more Globe photographers, click here. To watch Gartland's weekly segment on NECN, click here.

By Globe Staff

A tow truck driver was killed in a wreck Thursday night on Interstate 495 in Wareham after being ejected from the truck, State Police said.

The driver apparently was not wearing a seat belt when he lost control of the tow truck, hit a vehicle stopped in the breakdown lane, rolled over, and rammed a bridge, State Police said. The driver of the stopped vehicle was taken to Tobey Hospital for what State Police described as precautionary reasons.

The crash occurred at 10:15 p.m. on southbound I-495 near the intersection with Route 25. The flatbed tow truck had been hauling another vehicle at the time.

State Police did not release the names of the people involved because their families had not yet been notified. The crash remains under investigation.

By Michaela Stanelun, Globe Correspondent

The woman lived in a first floor apartment, where the flames apparently started, according to New Bedford Fire Captain Scott Kruger. Firefighters responded to the blaze at 363 Coggeshall St. at 9:47 p.m. and faced several challenges.

"There was a large fire up the entire front of the building, the home next door was a few feet away, and there was a report that there was someone inside the building," Kruger said. "All of those things, you have to take care of within a couple of minutes."

Firefighters found the woman on the first floor and she was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford, where she was pronounced dead. Her name and age are being withheld pending notification of her next of kin.

The blaze caused extensive damage the triple-decker, leaving eight people homeless. The Red Cross came to the aid of the displaced families. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Kruger said.

David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Karen Gaffney (center) gets a helping hand coming out of the water at the L Street Bathhouse.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Karen Gaffney, a tiny woman -- 4 feet 9 inches, 95 pounds – who limps and can't use her left leg at all when she swims, nevertheless churned five miles through the frigid, choppy waters of Boston Harbor today.

"I did this swim to show people what people like me can do," Gaffney, 31, of Portland, Ore., said as she warmed up after the swim at a celebration attended by friends, supporters and advocates at the L Street Bathhouse.

By Michele Morgan Bolton, Globe Correspondent

FOXBOROUGH -- School officials are planning to battle underage drinking here by not only allowing the use of Breathalyzers at dances and extracurricular events, but by deploying them in school buildings during the regular school day, if there is a suspicion of alcohol use.

Chaperones and teachers spend too much time trying to discern if students are drinking, said Foxborough High School Principal Jeffrey Theodoss. "A Breathalyzer just becomes a clean way of following through. And if we're wrong? We will apologize," he said.

By Billy Baker, Globe Corresponent

For unicyclists, there are two types of people in this world. Those who are really impressed with them when they ride by, and those who go to great lengths to ignore them because they think they’re trying to show off. Most people seem to fall into the latter group.

And then there’s the constant joke, which is kinda funny and mostly annoying but is interesting because everyone who utters it thinks they came up with it on the spot.

“Where’s the other wheel?”

By Globe Staff

The City of Boston today posted on its website scans of approximately 5,000 e-mails sent to and from mayoral aide Michael J. Kineavy. The e-mails are at the heart of a burgeoning controversy over the city's handling of public records. The controversy led to Kineavy's decision earlier this week to take an unpaid leave of absence from the mayor's office.

Mayoral aide Michael Kineavy

After the city received the records requests, city officials revealed that Kineavy had been double-deleting all of his e-mails every day, despite a state law requiring preservation of public records for two years.

The 5,000 e-mails posted today are from computers of other city employees who exchanged e-mail with Kineavy. The city has said it would be expensive to retrieve much of the deleted e-mail, which would be available only by recovering data from the two hard drives Kineavy used over the last two years, but that it will retrieve "everything possible,'' turn it over to investigators, and make it public. Also, the city says it has now turned over to Secretary of State William F. Galvin a hard drive containing copies of Kineavy's two hard drives.

The city has posted an explanation of its handling of the requests for the e-mails here and the texts of the Kineavy e-mails here.

The Globe's coverage of the e-mails is here, including a story reviewing the contents of the 5,000 e-mails here.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

City Year cofounder Alan Khazei this afternoon was endorsed in the US Senate race by Max Kennedy, the nephew of the man who held the seat for 47 years, and then launched a tour of several colleges in Massachusetts.

Max Kennedy

"In Massachusetts, and in this country, we need to change education, we need to change health care, we need to give real opportunity for jobs, and we need leaders in the Senate who are unafraid to take on the interests that have controlled those areas for 30 years and force real change," Kennedy, a son of the late Robert Kennedy, said in the Kennedy Room at downtown Boston’s Parker House hotel.

In the Democratic primary, Khazei is running against two well-established politicians, Attorney General Martha Coakley and US Representative Michael E. Capuano, as well as Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca.

Khazei hammered away at several issues, including his pledge not to accept campaign contributions from political action committees or registered lobbyists.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A lawyer for the state office that oversees lawyers argued today in the Supreme Judicial Court that former House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran should be disbarred for his conviction of obstruction of justice, but Finneran's lawyer argued that he should receive a license suspension instead.

(File Photo)

Justices noted that the usual penalty when a lawyer is convicted of such a crime is disbarment.

But attorney Arnold R. Rosenfeld, who represented Finneran, urged the court to consider what he called the special circumstances of the case.

(Scott Barrow)

Elizabeth Barrow on her 100th birthday on Aug. 12.

By John R. Ellement, David Abel, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

FALL RIVER --Authorities vowed today to conduct a thorough investigation of the strangulation of a 100-year-old woman in a Dartmouth nursing home, but released few new details about the crime at a press conference.

Elizabeth Barrow was strangled and suffocated with a plastic bag, according to her death certificate on file at the Dartmouth Town Hall. At the press conference outside Fall River's downtown courthouse, Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter downplayed questions about whether the attack last month may have been random, but he would not say if investigators had identified a suspect or a possible motive.

"It's shocking. It's inhumane. And it’s a terrible tragedy, as are all homicides," said Sutter, noting that he was unaware of any other homicide with a 100-year-old victim. "Is there some acuteness because of her age? I would say yes. This is an extremely unusual case."

Oh to have been present (and hungry) at those Smith College gatherings where the menus were shaped by alumnae famous for their cooking.

Gloria Negri's obituary this week of Charlotte Turgeon, the acclaimed cooking educator and writer who died at 97, recalled how Turgeon and her friend, the late Julia Child (both in Smith's class of 1934) would make meals and even entertain at the events. They both shared a passion for French cuisine.

Charlotte Turgeon (right) with Julia Child. (Smith College photo)

When Smith inaugurated president Carol T. Christ in 2002, Child and Turgeon were joined by another famous foodie, Joyce Goldstein (class of '56 and author of "The Mediterranean Kitchen"). According to Food Management magazine, Turgeon consulted on the special tea events; Goldstein helped select recipes for some 4,000 lunches; and Child worked on the gala inaugural dinner.

Attendees dined, among other dishes, on a salad with warm goat cheese, roasted rack of lamb, and a dessert of Child's apple tarte tatin with Calvados creme fraiche.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

State Senator Scott Brown, the most prominent Republican in the race for US Senate, is attempting to strongly differentiate himself from the Democratic candidates by declaring himself a supporter of the death penalty.

Brown, a Wrentham Republican, has released a Web video saying that those who commit “crimes that are so horrific that they shock our conscience” deserve to be executed.

All four candidates running in the Democratic primary oppose the death penalty, although earlier this week US Representative Michael Capuano seized on Attorney General Martha Coakley’s past support for the death penalty in limited cases.

MONT VERNON, N.H. -- A candlelight vigil at a firehouse here Wednesday evening honored Kimberly Cates and her 11-year-old daughter. Four local teens have been accused of breaking into the Cates' home early Sunday and killing the 42-year-old mother and maiming the daughter.

(Essdras Suarez/Globe Staff)

Ted Gartland, a dayside photo editor at the Globe, has been taking pictures in Greater Boston since 1971. Each weekday, he highlights an outtake that did not appear in the morning paper. To view the work of more Globe photographers, click here. To watch Gartland's weekly segment on NECN, click here.

By Globe Staff

A Northeastern University student was allegedly robbed early today by a suspect the student had signed in as a visitor as a university residence hall, the college said.

The robbery elicited a response from a Boston police SWAT team, police said. The suspect was said to be armed and the crime apparently was part of drug deal gone awry, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case.

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent

Ariel Shaker began riding horses when she was 8. Thirteen years later, the Harvard University senior had dreams of one day running her own stable.

Ariel Shaker

The accident occurred after Shaker had traveled with two teammates to Ipswich to exercise horses for Harvard’s polo team. She had made the team a month earlier.

But something quickly went wrong during a ride. The horse Shaker was riding bucked and fell, landing on her.

By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff

Irving Penn, whose photographs made high art out of high fashion, and whose mastery of the medium extended to portraits, still lifes, and nudes, died today at his Manhattan home. He was 92.

His death was announced by his photo assistant Roger Krueger and his brother, film director Arthur Penn. The cause was not given.

The work Mr. Penn did for Vogue in the 1940s and early ’50s transformed fashion photography. Earlier photographers, such as Baron de Meyer and George Platt Lynes, placed couture in an overstuffed, unreal world. Their fashion photography was as much about decor as design. Mr. Penn’s great contemporary, and sole peer, Richard Avedon, opened up fashion, placing it in natural settings far removed from the studio.

Mr. Penn placed it in a stripped-down world of his own making, almost abstract in its rigorous simplicity.

Susan Hunt Stevens

The wind toppled this tree on Crescent Street in Newton.

By Michaela Stanelun and Abbie Ruzicka, Globe Correspondents

It was a day to hold onto your hat. Strong winds swept through the Boston area this afternoon and evening, downing scores of trees and power lines.

The winds, clocked at 45 miles per hour, also overturned sailboats on the Charles River.

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

Investigators are analyzing hundreds of items of evidence in the case of a former Boston University Medical School student charged with killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist, but have yet to determine that any of those items contain DNA that might be matched to the defendant.

During a pretrial hearing in Suffolk Superior Court, Judge Christine McEvoy asked Philip Markoff's attorney, John Salsberg, whether he intends to submit a sample of his client's DNA to the prosecution, as Edmond Zabin, the Suffolk County prosecutor handling the case, had asked him to do in a recent out-of-court meeting.

Salsberg said he would hold off on deciding on the matter until prosecutors complete the testing of all the evidence. He added, "I'll have to speak to my client about these things.''

Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, authorities announced today that Markoff had been indicted by a grand jury on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and assault with intent to commit robbery for allegedly attacking a prostitute at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Warwick on April 16.

The Rhode Island attack came just two days after Markoff, who has been dubbed the "Craigslist killer," allegedly killed masseuse Julissa Brisman at the Boston Marriott Copley Place hotel.

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

HOLLIS, N.H. -- In the parking lot of Hollis-Brookline High School, students had decorated their VW Bugs, Hondas, and Saturns by painting HB Class of 2010 across the windows.

Spader

"He was totally normal," Jenna Christensen, a 17-year-old senior who has known Spader since middle school, said in the school parking lot. "He was friendly, he was fun, he made jokes."

She recalled how he shaved his head clean to play the part of Daddy Warbucks in the school play "Annie" in middle school.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

With fiscal times tough, the Registry of Motor Vehicles decided to stop sending out letters informing people that their licenses were about to expire. But technology has stepped in to save the day, officials said today.

Registrar Rachel Kaprielian

“We saved nearly $800,000 a year by eliminating paper courtesy mailings to our customers,” Registrar Rachel Kaprielian said in a statement. “But we found a way to restore this customer convenience at no cost to taxpayers."

By David Abel, Globe Staff

Every legislative session for the past 15 years, state lawmakers have proposed bills to expand the bottle law, the 5-cent deposit fee for carbonated sodas, beer, and malt beverages. But the bills have died each time before ever getting a committee vote.

This year may be different.

Advocates say the Patrick administration’s increasingly vocal support, pressure from municipalities, and plummeting state revenues all make it more likely that the 28-year-old law will finally win approval to include bottled water, juices, and sports drinks, which now account for about one-third of beverages sold in Massachusetts. The administration estimates the state would raise about $58 million by allowing the redemption of an additional 1.5 billion containers a year, or about $20 million more than the state earns from the current law, and that municipalities would save as much as $7 million in disposal costs.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The predawn attack and killing of Kimberly Cates in her isolated home in Mont Vernon, N.H., may have been premeditated and particularly brutal, but the crime does not appear to meet the state's specific criteria that would warrant the death penalty, according to the prosecutor in charge of the case and a legal expert.

The New Hampshire death penalty statute enumerates six conditions for a capital murder charge, including a paid assassination, a killing that involves kidnapping, and a homicide that entails sexual assault. Assistant Attorney General N. William Delker said in a telephone interview today that while investigators continue to search Cates's home and the bedroom where she was killed, no evidence has been discovered of a sexual assault or other aggravating factor that would merit the death penalty.

“We don’t see that any of those categories fit the facts of this case,’’ Delker said. “We don’t have any evidence of that at this point.’’

TITLE LXII
CRIMINAL CODE
CHAPTER 630
HOMICIDE
Section 630:1
630:1 Capital Murder. –

I. A person is guilty of capital murder if he knowingly causes the death of:

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A hundred police officers fanned out this morning to arrest seven people with ties to a Boston narcotics distribution ring that often engaged in acts of street violence, authorities said this afternoon.

"These individuals have been targeted because they are the most prolific shooters that we have in the city of Boston," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. "This case is going to make the city safer because bad guys are being taken off the street and we're picking up firearms."

The arrests came after a grand jury indicted 15 people on Monday who were "impact players" and other associates of the Magnolia Steelers gang. The other eight defendants in the case were already in custody, said Attorney General Martha Coakley, who appeared at a news conference with Davis and State Police Major James Hannafin.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Attorney General Martha Coakley says her office is now involved in a review by the secretary of state's office that is looking to recover missing e-mails sent by a top aide to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Martha Coakley

"We are now involved in that review," Coakley said.

She said her office would continue to work with Galvin's office going forward in the effort to find mayoral aide Michael Kineavy's e-mails and "we remain prepared to conduct a full investigation and take all necessary steps to guarantee the preservation of evidence and full compliance with the law."

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Max Kennedy is endorsing City Year co-founder Alan Khazei in the US Senate race to fill the seat long held by Kennedy’s late uncle, Edward M. Kennedy, a significant endorsement for a candidate trying to quickly build his name recognition with Massachusetts voters.

Alan Khazei

Khazei, in an interview today, made clear that the endorsement, while significant coming from a Kennedy, was more about his connection to Max Kennedy than a signal that he had the family's backing. Max Kennedy’s wife, Vicki, was a volunteer at City Year, and Max is close friends with Khazei’s brother.

“This is a personal endorsement. It’s not a Kennedy endorsement,” Khazei said. “He’s going out on a limb. It’s a big deal to decide to get involved in this election, and I really, deeply appreciate it.”

By Michael Levenson and Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

A spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino said today that chief aide Michael J. Kineavy would be welcome to work on Menino's reelection campaign during his unpaid leave from City Hall because of the ongoing investigation of deleted e-mails.

Mayoral aide Michael Kineavy

Martin made the assertion just minutes after the mayoral campaign of Councilor Michael F. Flaherty blasted the mayor’s willingness to allow Kineavy to work on the campaign, for which he has been a longtime political strategist.

“It seems … disingenuous for the mayor’s top political operative to take an unpaid leave to go and be the mayor’s top political operative and to run his campaign,” said Councilor Sam Yoon who held a press conference with Flaherty this morning on City Hall Plaza. Yoon is campaigning for Flaherty and has been promised the position of deputy mayor, if Flaherty is elected.

AP file photos

James Parker (left) and Robert Tulloch, convicted in the murders of two Dartmouth professors who welcomed the teens into their home.

The arrest of four teenagers in the weekend slaying in Mont Vernon, N.H., brought an eerie reminder of the 2001 murders of Half and Susanne Zantop, two Dartmouth College professors killed in their home by two high school students. MetroDesk asked Mitchell Zuckoff and Dick Lehr, authors of "Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders," to assess some of the parallels in the two cases.

Q. Just as they did in the 2001 Zantop slayings, prosecutors said Tuesday that the alleged attackers in the recent murder chose their victims at random and may have killed for the sheer thrill of it. Did your research reveal any clues on the psychology behind such urges among young people?

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca released his third commercial in the race for the US Senate today, a feel-good spot with upbeat rock guitar chiming in the background, aerial shots of Boston and the Bay State coastline, a vintage shot of the Kennedy brothers, and footage of Celtics star Paul Pierce hoisting the NBA championship trophy.

"I'm proud I played a small part in turning the Celtics around – and even prouder to lead organizations that help turn around families and fight for kids who have been left behind," Pagliuca says in the spot.

Pagliuca, who is emphasizing his business experience in the race, also says, "I've helped struggling people and companies get back on their feet and back in the game."

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent

A single-car crash killed a man and seriously injured a woman this morning on Interstate 495 in Norton, State Police said.

Just before 8 a.m., State Police found a 1991 Ford Explorer in the wooded median of I-495. A man who had been ejected was found dead near the sport utility vehicle. The woman with serious injuries remained inside the SUV, said Sergeant Matthew Murphy, a State Police spokesman. She was taken by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

The SUV appeared to have been traveling northbound on the interstate when it veered into the median and struck trees, Murphy said.

The victims' identities were withheld until families are notified.

By Michaela Stanelun, Globe Correspondent

An overnight hydrogen leak at a Boston University research building prompted a response early this morning from a fire department hazmat team.

Firefighters responded at 3 a.m. to a hydrogen alarm to the BU photonics research building at 8 Saint Mary's St., according Steve MacDonald, spokesman for the Boston Fire Department.

"The building only uses hydrogen in one lab on the fifth floor, so firefighters shut down the tanks and vented the place to dissipate hydrogen in the atmosphere," MacDonald said.

One individual was in the building at the time, and that person was not injured, MacDonald said. Firefighters responded last week to the same building for another problem.

"We think this hydrogen leak might be related to the initial problem we responded to a week ago," MacDonald said. "We said they have to keep the hydrogen system down until technicians check it out."

Leaf peepers, stay put. Fall foliage can be found right here in Boston, as demonstrated by the fire-red leaves on this tree on Mayhew Street in Dorchester.

(John Tlumacki/ Globe Staff)

Ted Gartland, a dayside photo editor at the Globe, has been taking pictures in Greater Boston since 1971. Each weekday, he highlights an outtake that did not appear in the morning paper. To view the work of more Globe photographers, click here. To watch Gartland's weekly segment on NECN, click here.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

The aide at the center of an investigation into thousands of deleted e-mails at Boston City Hall said this evening that he is taking a leave from Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office.

Mayoral aide Michael Kineavy

The unpaid leave by a trusted aide in the throes of the mayor's most contested reelection campaign marks a dramatic and unexpected twist for Menino, who has been dogged by questions over Kineavy’s deletion of city emails and the city’s response to it.

Kineavy, the mayor’s Cabinet chief of policy and planning, is intimately involved in nearly every decision at City Hall, and has been a key political strategist on the mayor’s campaigns since Menino first took office in 1993.

Kineavy’s leave came as the investigation into his deleted emails continued to explode in the mayor's race. Earlier today, Menino's challenger, City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty Jr., renewed his call for an independent investigation, saying he sees a "cover-up and/or obstruction of justice."

Mark Wilson for The Boston Globe

A section of Trow Road was closed as police investigated the slaying of Kimberly Cates.

By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff

MONT VERNON, N.H. -- In so many ways, Mont Vernon suited Kimberly Cates.

Its miles of dirt roads with stunning vistas of rolling hills and open fields made for paradisaical running. Her stone-walled yard always needed mending of one sort or another. Neighbors were neighborly, baking cookies for one another on Christmas and sharing gifts on Halloween.

Yet Cates harbored a reservation about Mont Vernon. After living in more densely packed parts of the county, the isolation of her neighborhood, heavily forested with white pine and hemlock and nary a street light to ward off the deep black of moonless nights, could make her feel vulnerable. She confessed this to her next-door neighbor Yuki Chorney, and the two made a pact They would keep an eye out for each other.

"We always thought that if anything happened, we'd hear it because we're right next door," said Chorney.

But Chorney did not hear. At home on the night of the murder, Chorney slept 50 feet away without hearing a sound, not even when Cates's 11-year-old daughter apparently ran from the house toward hers.

"She was trying to come and get us. Why couldn't I have helped her?"

Jim Cole/AP

Quinn Glover, 17, Christopher Gribble, 19, Steven Spader, 17, and William Marks, 18, were arraigned today in connection with a Mont Vernon home break-in and the killing a 42-year-old mother.

By John R. Ellement, Peter Schworm, Andrew Ryan, and Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

MONT VERNON, N.H. -- The four teenagers accused of breaking into a home here and using a machete and a knife to butcher a mother and her 11-year-old daughter allegedly chose their victims by chance.

Kim Cates (Earle Rich photo)

The violent whim allegedly took the teens to the home of Kim Cates, who lived in one of four houses on a quiet dirt road in this bucolic town about 13 miles north of the Massachusetts border. At 4 a.m. on Sunday, they are accused of breaking into the ranch-style home and killing Cates, 42, and severely injuring her daughter.

Prosecutors allege that Steven Spader, 17, drove that night and carried a machete, a detail that elicited a gasp of horror from the gallery when the crime was described in court. The lanky teen with buzzed hair wore baggy powder-blue basketball shorts and handcuffs as he faced charges that included murder and attempted murder. Like his three codefendants who were arraigned separately, Spader stood expressionless.

The second teen charged with murder and attempted murder is Christopher Gribble, who prosecutors say used a knife. The muscular 19-year-old wore a sleeveless shirt and camouflage pants when he appeared in court.

Spader and Gribble live near each other in Brookline, N.H., a small town about 11 miles south. Both teens are accused of attacking both victims and were ordered held without bail. Kim Cates was stabbed to death in her bed. An autopsy determined that she died from multiple sharp injuries to the head, torso, left arm, and left leg, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Attorney General's office.

By Abbie Ruzicka, Globe Correspondent

The director of the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton has been fined by the state’s Division of Professional Licensure for allowing 14 unlicensed clinicians at the school to use the title ‘‘psychologist,’’ the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Psychologists announced today.

Dr. Matthew Israel was fined $29,600 and a reprimand was placed on his license, according to the board. Israel has been licensed to practice psychology in Massachusetts since 1974, according to state records.

The Rotenberg center ceased using the title of ‘‘psychologist’’ in 2006 after the Board of Registration of Psychologists first brought forth its concern over the misuse of the title, and changed their titles to ‘‘clinicians,’’ Rotenberg spokesman Ernie Corrigan said.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

A 69-year-old convicted murderer who spent 20 years on the lam after escaping from jail pleaded for freedom today before the state parole board, but received a skeptical reception.

Norman A. Porter barely mentioned the two murders he committed in the early 1960s, omitting the names of his victims altogether, as he began rattling off his accomplishments in prison.

Parole Board chairman Mark Conrad quickly interrupted, setting the tone for a three-hour hearing in which the four-member panel chastised Porter for being deceptive and arrogant and implying that he was the victim.

"You were involved in two murders,'' Conrad said. "You didn't mention the names of the two people who were victimized.''

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Students and staff are shocked and saddened in the New Hampshire school district where two of the alleged assailants in the Mont Vernon attacks went to school -- along with the 11-year-old girl who was seriously injured when her mother was slain early Sunday morning, the school superintendent said this afternoon.

"People are just stunned, first with the news of one victim, and to understand that this was allegedly caused in part by two of the students from one of our schools," said Mary Jennings, superintendent of schools for SAU 39.

SAU 39 includes both Souhegan High School in Amherst, where William Marks and Quinn Glover, two of the four teenagers charged in the case, were seniors and the Village School in Mont Vernon, where the 11-year-old girl went to school.

Jennings, who went to the Village School Monday and talked to students and staff, said that the girl, whose name has not been released, was known as a "very strong, happy young lady," who had just been at a school dance the night before.

"She was very engaged in school and very happy with her friends," she said. Jennings said the girl was "greatly missed by her classmates." She remains in stable condition with very serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital in Boston, a prosecutor said today.

By Globe Staff

A former executive at a Cambridge biotech company has been sentenced to three years in prison for falsely telling a federal judge he was gravely ill with colon cancer in order to derail a government lawsuit against him over an experimental synthetic blood product.

The sentence late Monday for Howard Richman, 57, of Pearland, Texas, who was formerly senior vice president of regulatory affairs for Biopure Corp., also included three years of supervised release and a $50,000 fine.

At a hearing in March, Richman had pleaded guilty in US District Court in Boston to a count of obstruction of justice, averting a criminal trial. He admitted he forged a letter and an affidavit from a doctor saying he had cancer and went so far as to pretend to be his treating physician in a phone conversation with his attorneys.

By Martin Finucane and Matt Viser, Globe Staff

State Senator Anthony Galluccio today admitted leaving the scene of a car accident and said he deeply regretted his actions, apologizing to the driver of the other car and to his constituents for his "serious error in judgment."

Senator Anthony Galluccio

Galluccio said he realized his error in judgment and reported the accident the next morning to the Cambridge police. He also said he would take care of any damages resulting from the accident.

"Clearly, there is an extra burden on me, because of my driving history and because of my position as an elected official, to be careful behind the wheel. It was an accident, followed by an error in judgment, and I offer my sincerest apologies to the driver of the other car and his passengers, and to my constituents," he said.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan , Globe Staff

AMHERST, N.H. -- James Marks emitted a distinct whistle today as police escorted his handcuffed son out of Milford District Court, a call the father once used to get his boy's attention on the T-ball diamond. The slight 18-year-old recognized the whistle as he was being led away, and William Marks turned back to look at his father.

William Marks, 18. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

"He told me my son was being really cooperative," the father said. "And he told me he was really ashamed of what happened."

In an interview near his home today in Amherst, James Marks spoke in stark, matter-of-fact terms about past struggles with his son's behavior. The out-of-work pressman described grounding his son from using the car when he rebelled and their battles over curfew. He worried that his son was a follower who had fallen under the spell of Steven Spader, 17, the teen accused of driving the car to the victim's home Sunday and using a machete. Spader acted as if he was the leader of a gang, James Marks said, and his son followed.

"I know Stevie," he said. "And I rue the day that I ever met Stevie."

Spader's parents live in a well-to-do subdivision in Brookline, N.H., and told a reporter who knocked on their door to get off their property. Spader and Christopher Gribble, 19, have been charged with murder and attempted murder.

William Marks and Quinn Glover, 17, are both accused of taking part in the break-in at the isolated ranch-style home, but they have not been charged with taking part in the killing. James Marks tried today to describe the heartache and sympathy he felt for the family of the victim, 42-year-old Kim Cates.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

City councilor and mayoral candidate Michael F. Flaherty Jr. said today that the discovery at City Hall of a second computer used by chief mayoral aide Michael J. Kineavy, which may contain the bulk of the e-mail subpoenaed by federal authorities, has “a real flavor here that speaks to a cover-up and/or obstruction of justice of an ongoing federal probe.”

City Councilor Michael Flaherty

“Quite frankly, who doesn’t notice when they get a new computer?” Flaherty said, speaking to reporters after attending a luncheon for senior citizens in the North End. “It’s common sense here that if they had nothing to hide, they wouldn’t be acting this way.”

Councilor Sam Yoon who is campaigning for Flaherty, and has been promised a post as deputy mayor if Flaherty is elected, went a step further. “It’s just a lie,” Yoon said of the assertion that Kineavy did not remember getting a new computer. “What we’re facing is corruption in City Hall. The city should be outraged.”

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, speaking after he attended the same luncheon in the North End, bluntly dismissed the call for a new investigation and defended Kineavy, his chief of policy and planning and key political strategist.

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent

Firefighters extinguished a heavy fire this morning in the attic of the Hyde Park YMCA, which has been closed for renovations since July, officials said.

“A small loft on the third floor, like an attic, was fully engulfed in flames,” said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald. “The ceiling is completely black, and all the wood around it is completely charred.”

Firefighters put the blaze out just before 6 a.m., about 15 minutes after they arrived. No one was inside the building, and despite several hazards encountered by firefighters no one was injured.

John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Bernadette Fernandes, mother of the slain girl, spoke to reporters after the hearing.

By Brian R. Ballou and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Joseph Cousin stood defiantly today at his sentencing for murder and turned to look the victim's mother in the eye, insisting in a raised voice that he did not kill 11-year-old Trina Persad with a shotgun blast in a Roxbury park in 2002.

Persad

Cousin had told Suffolk Superior Court moments earlier: "I'm a human being. I am a father myself and a son. As a human being, I feel sympathy for the child and her family. But it's hard for me to have guilt. Yes, I was a member of a gang. Yes, I committed crimes before, but my story has never changed for seven years."

But Cousin's plea seemed to fall on deaf ears. Judge Nancy Staffier Holtz handed him a sentence that will keep him in prison for at least 19 more years before he is eligible for parole.

Boston University theater students were invited to partake in a "clown college master class" recently, a seriocomic affair led by two seasoned Ringling Bros. clowns who swung from slapstick low comedy to philosophical observations on their craft.

Leo Acton and Mike Richter are an advance clown team, arriving weeks before the actual circus comes to town to spread goodwill and share generations-old clown knowledge and gags. Acton is a graduate of Ringling Bros.' Clown College (a real-ish institute of higher learning), which he describes as a sort of comedy boot camp, "with really big boots."

Richter, a New Hampshire native, says the secret to clowning is to "say yes" and follow any leads your improvisational partners offer. The two emphasized that clowning (and improvisational acting in general) isn't necessarily about you getting the laugh; it's about getting the biggest laugh possible for a gag as a whole. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to the TD Garden Oct. 14-18.

-- Scott LaPierre

Ted Gartland, a dayside photo editor at the Globe, has been taking pictures in Greater Boston since 1971. Each weekday, he highlights an outtake that did not appear in the morning paper. To view the work of more Globe photographers, click here.

(Andrew Ryan/Globe Staff)

More than 200 hikers on the summit of Mount Monadnock earlier this fall.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

JAFFREY, N.H. -- The legend that echoes incessantly in this southwest corner of New Hampshire always struck me as dubious: The rounded hill named Mount Monadnock is the most-climbed mountain in the world.

The distinction seemed more apt for a loftier, better known peak, such as Japan's Mount Fuji, Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, or Oregon's Mount Hood. Even Mount Washington in the northern corner of the Granite State is more of a household name. At 3,165 feet, Mount Monadnock seemed to me to be more of a knoll than a mountain, a stubby mound that appears prominent because it stands alone.

But on drives from Boston to my visit in-laws in a village north of Keene, as Mount Monadnock looms out the car window, my wife has been known to repeat that legend she learned as a child: "Most-climbed mountain in the world," she says with the same New Hampshire pride that claims Keene has the widest Main Street in America.

The truth about the mountain is a little more complicated.

"I know it's a point of pride for a lot of people in the region with Monadnock's distinction as being one of the most climbed," said Patrick Hummel, the manager of Monadnock State Park, adding, "Henry David Thoreau complained about the crowds on the mountain. That was 150 years ago."

Paul Stanley (left) and Gene Simmons of the band KISS rocked the TD Bank Garden on Monday night.

(Matthew Lee/Globe Staff)

Ted Gartland, a dayside photo editor at the Globe, has been taking pictures in Greater Boston since 1971. Each weekday, he highlights an outtake that did not appear in the morning paper. To view the work of more Globe photographers, click here. To watch Gartland's weekly segment on NECN, click here.

Attorney General Michael A. Delaney, Colonel Frederick Booth of the New Hampshire State Police, and Mont Vernon Police Chief Kyle Aspinwall announce arrests in connection with that homicide of Kimberly Cates and related crimes that occurred on October 4, 2009, at 4 Trow Road in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire.

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

State Senator Anthony Galluccio was cited Monday for leaving the scene of an accident after he allegedly collided with a vehicle carrying three people on Sunday afternoon in Cambridge and then fled.

Galluccio, a Cambridge Democrat, collided with the other vehicle at about 5:30 p.m. as he was driving around Garden and Linnaean streets, said officer Frank Pasquarello, spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department.

Additional details of the accident were not immediately known late last night.

Galluccio, a former city councilor and mayor of Cambridge, could not be reached for comment late Monday night.

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

A Dorchester District Court judge today vacated a restraining order that a Boston police officer had filed against one of her colleagues, accusing him of raping her, then threatening her life, and the life of her husband.

Judge David Weingarten denied extending the restraining order against the officer after his accuser took the stand and withstood about two hours of withering cross-examination from the male officer's lawyer, Thomas Drechsler. Weingarten made his decision based on technical reasons, not the merits of the case.

The names of both officers are being withheld by the Globe. The newspaper does not name people who allege sexual assault, unless they agree to be identified. The name of the accused officer is being withheld because he has not been charged formally with a crime. The Boston Police Department is investigating the allegations.

During the cross-examination, the alleged victim acknowledged that she used her cell phone to call or text the other officer more than 100 times after the alleged assault took place. The female officer has accused her colleague of raping her twice the night of Aug. 25, then several times in the following weeks. She said she was coerced into the unwanted sexual relationship by the officer's threats. A sniper in the department's elite Special Operations unit, the officer allegedly said he could shoot her husband from 500 yards away and get away with it, the female officer has testified.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

US Representative Michael Capuano, trying to differentiate himself from Attorney General Martha Coakley in the Senate race, is appealing to Democratic primary voters by seizing on Coakley's past support of the death penalty in limited circumstances.

Coakley, until seven or eight years ago, supported capital punishment in two instances, including for those convicted of killing police officers. She said she shifted her position after becoming concerned about wrongful convictions, and now opposes it in all cases.

But in a Democratic primary contest in which liberal voters could make a difference, Capuano appears to be calculating that her shifted stance could draw voters his way.

“This is one of the few issues she has a record on and I have a record on, and there are differences," Capuano said today in an interview. “I have opposed the death penalty my whole life.”

The Somerville lawmaker has drawn the distinction in campaign literature that was sent to supporters on Sept. 18. In the two-page letter, Capuano touted himself as “the only candidate who is against the death penalty.”

That claim is both misleading and, now, outdated. Two other major Democratic candidates have since gotten into the race -- Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and City Year co-founder Alan Khazei -- and both say they oppose the death penalty.

In Coakley's case, Capuano is wrong, because his literature does not reflect her current position.

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent

The Boston Police Department bomb squad safely detonated a hoax pipe bomb this morning in a vacant North End apartment, police said.

“They weren’t sure exactly what it was, so to be on the safe side, they detonated it,” said officer Jill Flynn, a Boston police spokeswoman.

Police said they found a device that appeared to be a pipe bomb in a vacant unit at 57 Fulton St. Police are “familiar” with the apartment’s former tenant, said officer Joe Zanoli, a Boston police spokesman.

“We’ve had contact with that individual in the past,” he said.

Zanoli said the bomb squad conducted a “controlled detonation” at about 10:30 a.m., approximately 90 minutes after they responded to the scene.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

They knocked over the weathered headstones of Andrew Thissell, who was 3 years and 8 days old when he died in 1837, and of Adeline Bradley, who died at just three weeks. They uprooted the mottled granite marker of George J. Fox, who died in Virginia during the Civil War, skewing the American flag honoring his sacrifice.

They toppled entire rows of tombstones, sending them face down among the scattered leaves in the grassy graveyard. They broke others in two, leaving an exposed, ragged edge.

In all, the vandals who desecrated Hildreth Cemetery in Lowell over the weekend damaged more than 80 headstones, many more than two centuries old. Some timeworn memorials, softer stones that had weakened over the years, were destroyed altogether.

The scope of the damage, estimated at more than $10,000, stunned and outraged residents, officials, and local historians, who said they could not recall such wanton destruction.

"It's sacred ground, if you will, and it's also historic ground," said Deputy Superintendent Deborah Friedl of the Lowell Police Department. "It causes a lot of public outcry."

By Globe Staff

A 44-year-old Middleborough man pleaded not guilty today to first-degree murder charges in a Brockton courtroom for allegedly stabbing a man to death with a screwdriver and then setting the victim’s remains on fire in his own pickup truck in 2003.

Darren S. Caswell was arrested last Friday after a Plymouth County grand jury handed up an indictment charging him with killing Matthew S. Cote in a dispute over the illegal sale of prescription drugs.

The dispute involved a third man, identified by Plymouth prosecutors as Russell Freitas, a now-deceased quadriplegic who allegedly sold prescription painkillers to Cote but became angered when he suspected Cote has robbed him of some pills.

Caswell is a retired correction officer for the state Department of Correction who retired in January. At the time, he was assigned to Bridgewater State Hospital in Bridgewater, a DOC spokeswoman said. A Globe database of state payrolls showed that Caswell earned $80,000 in 20008.

By David Abel and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A jury convicted a young man this afternoon of second-degree murder for the fatal 2002 shooting of a 10-year-old girl sprayed with a shotgun blast intended for rival gang members in a Roxbury park.

Persad

Cousin was 18 years old that warm, summer evening and belonged to M.I.C. gang, prosecutors said during the trial. Cousin fired a sawed-off shotgun from the back seat of a car, aiming at members of Big Head Boyz gang. Instead he hit Persad, who died days later.

"It was an abomination that a 10-year-old girl playing in a playground would be shot down," said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, adding that the mistrial five years ago compounded the pain for the family. "This verdict is very satisfying, for us and the family."

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Three people are now facing criminal charges after they allegedly stole hundreds of Verizon Blackberrys and sold them over the Internet, earning themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit profits, Middlesex prosecutors alleged today.

Wayne Deleveaux, 22, of Everett is the alleged ringleader who relied on the assistance of Shartieya Lambert, 23, also of Everett, to obtain the Blackberrys by using fictitious names and, in some cases, invoking the names of legitimate companies.

The three then allegedly sold the telecommunication devices to a third person, Nihat Ozdemir, who is accused of re-selling them on e-Bay, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said in a statement today.

“This was an extensive scheme,’’ Leone said in the statement announcing the indictments. “We thank Verizon for first discovering this scheme and then contacting authorities immediately…’’

By Michaela Stanelun, Globe Correspondent

A Western Massachusetts conservatory has released more than 200 monarch butterflies, in time for the majestic insects to participate in the annual migration south in search of warmer weather.

By Globe Staff

A disbarred attorney from Southbridge who fleeced his own mother leads this year’s list from the Client Security Board of lawyers who stole from clients and then saw some of the money returned to their victims.

The Client Security Board uses fees from lawyers, not tax dollars, to repay victims of thieving attorneys. In its fiscal year 2009, $1.3 million was paid out to 83 clients who had insurance payments diverted, trust funds drained, or never got the check in the mail they were supposed to from their attorney, the board said.

The misdeeds of Adrian Gaucher Jr. earned top dishonor. “In short, he fleeced his mother out of almost everything she had,’’ a bankruptcy court judge said of Gaucher, according to the board.

New England Patriot Randy Moss celebrated with teammate Benjamin Watson on Sunday after a 14-yard touchdown reception that gave them a win over the Baltimore Ravens. The pink cleats and gloves are part of an effort throughout the National Football League in October to raise awareness about breast cancer and the need for annual screenings, especially for women over the age of 40.

(Matthew Lee/ Globe Staff)

Ted Gartland, a dayside photo editor at the Globe, has been taking pictures in Greater Boston since 1971. Each weekday, he highlights an outtake that did not appear in the morning paper. To view the work of more Globe photographers, click here. To watch Gartland's weekly segment on NECN, click here.

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

If festivals were made on enthusiasm and effort, the “Try Something New” event on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway was destined to be a success this weekend.

Yet a day after powerful rainstorms forced the postponement of the festival to a much barer bones version today, what constituted success had to be ratcheted down. Instead of the 10,000 people organizers had anticipated, estimates were in the low thousands.

“We are all drying out….but we are still thrilled so many people spontaneously came today,’’ said Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Greenway Conservancy, which put on the event with a suite of partners. “This is in the natural order of things when you have a one day event in rain, sun or even monsoon.”

The non-profit conservancy took over control of the 15-acre park constructed atop the Big Dig in February and has been struggling to deal with shrinking private donations and the disappearance of $1 million in state funding because of the recession. The Try Something New event was designed to introduce the park to thousands while also help conservancy organizers mold what the park’s use would look like long term.

By Globe Staff

Members of the Chinese community and supporters in the area rallied at Boston Common this afternoon to encourage members of the Chinese Communist Party -- including those living in Boston -- to publicly resign.

About 70 people attended the event, led by The Boston Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, which included speeches, musical performances, posters, and signs all encouraging card-carrying Chinese communists to leave the party. The center has been active since 2005, months after the Epoch Times, a New York-based news publication which releases a Chinese-language edition, published a series of editorials about the history of the Chinese Communist Party.

Sixty million people have since resigned, according to Michael Tsang, who organized the Boston event. Tsang said many Chinese immigrants to the United States remain active members of the party. His group is targeting those who have settled in the Boston area. “We’re making small steps and roads to bringing awareness to the American people,” he said.

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Oh Ilya the sea cow, is that you?

Ever since a wrinkled-muzzle manatee was spotted off Cape Cod last month, scientists and environmentalists have hoped the adventurous Floridian would turn around before succumbing to plummeting water temperatures.

A manatee died of hypothermia last year as scientists were carrying it to Florida after they had plucked it from Cape Cod waters. Mindful of that tragedy, scientists were crafting a rescue plan for Ilya in hopes of getting to him before the cold.

But the gentle mammal, a relative of the elephant, may be swimming home on its own.
A few days after Ilya's last sightings in Dennis and Orleans around September 15, a fisherman reported a manatee heading south in the Cape Cod Canal. Then, a manatee was spotted off Connecticut, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare based on the Cape.

No one is sure it is Ilya. But it is probably a good guess: Manatees hardly ever come this far north. And Ilya was the only sea cow spotted in New England this year, possibly lured by extraordinarily warm coastal waters.

If Ilya makes it back, it is likely to be one the longest documented summer sojourns by a manatee. Only about 4,000 manatees remain around Florida.

Here's hoping it's you Ilya. Godspeed.