Smith aiming to cut $30m from budget

Faced with a plummeting endowment, Smith College is seeking to slash up to $30 million from its budget. Among the steps under consideration, college president Carol T. Christ wrote in an e-mail to the Smith community Monday, are freezing salaries, closing some buildings, and eliminating academic areas. Smith's endowment, which was $1.3 billion in June, declined more than 18 percent by November, she said. The endowment funds nearly one-third of the college's operating budget.

Barnstable police say one of Cape Cod's largest dealers of prescription pills was arrested after a two-year investigation. Barnstable, Dennis, and Yarmouth police arrested Valerie Campos, 42, Tuesday in a Yarmouth hotel where she had been staying. Lieutenant Sean Balcom told the Cape Cod Times that Campos, who allegedly traveled from Cape Cod to Las Vegas frequently to obtain prescription pills to sell on the street, had 1,000 oxycodone pills and 100 Xanax tablets at the time of her arrest. Campos was held on $25,000 bail at her arraignment Wednesday in Barnstable District Court. Police estimate that, in the past two years, Campos and her associates have obtained and sold about 25,000 prescription pills with a street value of $500,000. (AP)

A former toll taker for the Massachusetts Turnpike has pleaded guilty to larceny and other charges for pocketing $225 as he collected money from drivers. Steven Lorina, 53, pleaded guilty Dec. 30 to one count of larceny under $250 and two counts of making a false report as a public employee. Boston Municipal Court Judge Eleanor Coe Sinnott ordered him to repay the $225 and serve two years of probation. Lorina had resigned in May 2008, before he was charged with the crimes. He was one of 10 toll takers arrested in June and accused of skimming as much as $7,500 while they worked booths at the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels.

MBTA bus riders will get some help stepping from the door to the curb because of a new law signed by Governor Deval Patrick this week. The law raises tickets to $100 for parking at bus stops. Under the previous policy, each city set its own fine. Boston's is $55. MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas called the signing of the bill, which was approved by the Legislature last week, "great news. One of the biggest problems we have is people not taking bus stops seriously," he said. He said the increased fine, which will apply both to the MBTA's more than 8,000 bus stops and to bus stops for regional transit authorities statewide, was necessary to get people's attention.

A college student from Attleboro who turned over a pocketbook he found to police, then was accused of stealing $1,000 from it, has been cleared of a larceny charge. The arrest put Endri Cenolli's career plans at risk. He is a criminal justice major at Curry College who wants to go into law enforcement. Those plans are on track after a judge found him not guilty Wednesday. The pocketbook, containing more than $1,000, credit cards, and foreign currency, was stolen in December 2007 from a van. The thief apparently took the money and dumped the pocketbook in Cenolli's building. Cenolli was arrested when he turned it over because police thought he was acting suspiciously. (AP)

Three men suing over frozen chicken they ate while in prison are getting their day in court. Christopher Butts, of Dayville, Conn., says he bit into a piece of Banquet Crispy Chicken that contained pus and entrails after buying it in a prison store in 2005. He says he spit it out and got sick, lost weight, and can no longer eat chicken. Two other men - a former and current inmate at the same prison - are seeking emotional damages, but acknowledged during the trial yesterday in US District Court that they didn't get sick from the chicken. A lawyer for defendant ConAgra Foods asked a judge to throw out the suit. (AP)