State to review teacher test disparities

MALDEN
The state Department of Education said yesterday it will investigate why members of minority groups performed significantly worse than whites in the teacher license exams. According to results of the 2005-06 Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure, which was given several times during that period, 77 percent of white teacher candidates passed the writing exam, compared with 48 percent of Hispanic and 46 percent of black test-takers. On the reading exam, 86 percent of white candidates passed, compared with 62 percent of black test-takers and 61 percent of Hispanic candidates. (AP)

BOSTON

Six hospitals that treat the bulk of shooting and stabbing victims in Massachusetts will receive $600,000 in grants for trauma training and to hire violence-intervention advocates to work with victims, the state Department of Public Health said yesterday. The money is part of the Patrick administration's anticrime initiative. The hospitals that will receive grants are: UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Lawrence General Hospital, Bay State Medical Center in Springfield, Brockton Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

DEDHAM

A once-prominent doctor convicted of killing his wife after she discovered his secret sex life is seeking a new trial based on inaccurate testimony about a footprint found near the woman's body. Lawyers for Dr. Dirk Greineder filed an amended motion for a new trial yesterday in Norfolk Superior Court. They also filed an affidavit from a lieutenant from the State Police crime lab who concedes she made a mistake when she identified a footprint as matching the heel of Dirk Greineder's left sneaker next to a drag mark near Mabel Greineder's body. Lieutenant Deborah Rebeiro said that there was no heel mark and that the footprint was actually the toe of Greineder's right sneaker. Prosecutors had cited the footprint as evidence to support their argument that Greineder dragged his wife after he beat her with a hammer and slashed her throat. Greineder, a prominent allergist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, was convicted of murder in 2001 in the 1999 slaying of his wife in a park near their Wellesley home. Greineder testified that his wife was killed by an unknown assailant after the couple separated for 10 minutes during their daily walk. Last year, a judge rejected Greineder's bid for a new trial based on his contention that the jury had performed an improper experiment on evidence during deliberations. (AP)

BOSTON

US District Court officials yesterday said the town of Billerica will pay a $250,000 fine as part of a settlement in alleged violations of state and federal clean water regulations and government-issued permits that damaged the habitat of a nearby river. A complaint filed by the Environmental Protection Agency alleged that a water treatment facility in the town discharged pollutants into the Concord River and a tributary. EPA officials said these discharges exceeded the limit for emissions of phosphorus, fecal coliform bacteria, and ammonia nitrogen specified in the town's discharge permit. As part of the settlement, Billerica is required to initiate two water-purification projects costing $50,000 each.

BURLINGTON

An underground electrical explosion injured a worker yesterday at a construction site and briefly knocked out power to 2,600 residences, authorities said. The worker was taken to a local hospital with electrical burns, according to police, who did not release the man's identity. Power was restored in four minutes, said NStar spokesman Michael Durand. The worker was in a trench near the intersection of South Bedford Street and Wayside Road when he apparently came in contact with live electrical equipment, Durand said.

CANTON

A 19-year-old man in a wheelchair went missing for seven hours from the state-run facility for disabled people where he lives and injured his knee before he was found, officials say. The man was found near the edge of a reservoir late Monday night at the Massachusetts Hospital School, a 90-patient facility in Canton that provides care and education to disabled children and young adults. Two staff members at the school have been suspended pending an investigation, officials said. (AP)