Man sought in fatal stabbing is arrested

An East Boston elementary school has been temporarily closed because of swine flu fears, the ninth closing of a Boston public school due to the disease, school officials said yesterday. James Otis Elementary School will be closed beginning today and will not reopen until June 11 because of unusually high levels of flulike illness, School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson said in a statement. "We continue to work closely with the Boston Public Health Commission to monitor attendance and illness rates in every one of our 143 schools," she said. Nine schools have been closed, but some have reopened after their one-week shutdowns.

Red tide is forcing the shutdown of more shellfishing beds in Massachusetts, this time in towns south of Boston. The state Division of Marine Fisheries shut down shellfishing yesterday in Hull, Cohasset, and Scituate because of high levels of the toxic algae. Late last month, red tide shut down shellfishing areas north of Boston to New Hampshire, including parts of Cape Ann. But the state later reopened some of the areas to the harvesting of soft shell and razor clams. Eating shellfish with high levels of red tide can cause potentially fatal paralytic shellfish poisoning. (AP)

In a rare tie vote, the House chose to preserve Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day last night after a spirited debate over whether the holidays, observed only in Suffolk County, should be scrapped in the name of increased productivity in tough times or saved to honor Boston's role in the Revolutionary War. The Boston delegation, with the exception of Representative Martha Walz, also backed the holidays. They piled up just enough votes to reject the plan, with a 78-to-78 tally. Speaker Robert A. DeLeo voted to save the holidays. The plan to eliminate the holidays, which state and municipal employees within the county receive as days off, was pushed by Republican House members. A similar push in the Senate failed on a 17-to-22 vote last month. (State House News Service)

Governor Deval Patrick attended a meeting at the White House yesterday to discuss the Obama administration's $8 billion high-speed rail plan, and state officials said Massachusetts was planning to submit at least two applications for upgrades to the Amtrak route between Boston and Portland, Maine. That route passes through Haverhill and Exeter, N.H. Massachusetts will also join with Vermont to seek funds to purchase a run-down stretch of privately owned track along the Connecticut River that would then be overhauled to speed up passenger rail service between Springfield and Vermont. The rail program, which the Obama administration hopes will spur development of a national high-speed network, was approved as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package.

More than $10,000 worth of signs were discovered stolen from Revere City Yard early yesterday morning. According to Revere police, a city worker returned to work at 321 Charger St. at around 8:30 a.m. after a weeklong absence and found that the signs and other equipment were missing. Police estimate that between 1,000 and 1,500 signs were stolen and are unsure how someone gained entry to the building or whether any alarms had been triggered.