Outbreak of flu-like illness shutters school

A woman accused of leaving her newborn in a West Springfield motel room last weekend has been ordered held on $100,000 bail. Tara Anderson pleaded not guilty to charges of infant abandonment and reckless endangerment of a child at her arraignment yesterday in Springfield District Court. The baby girl, umbilical cord still attached, was discovered last weekend alone on a bed in a room littered with empty beer cans. Other motel guests told police they found the baby after hearing her weak cries. Anderson, 37, was arrested Thursday in Holyoke. (AP)

State Representative Karyn Polito filed a constitutional amendment yesterday that would place 12-year-term limits on Massachusetts legislators, a proposal that was a direct result of recent scandals on Beacon Hill. "If we really want to change the culture on Beacon Hill, end entrenched bad practices, and level the balance of power, we need a system that encourages fresh ideas and fresh perspectives," said Polito, a Republican from Shrewsbury. For the changes to be made, the state Constitution would have to be modified. It would need the approval of a majority during two consecutive sessions, and then voter ratification. If it is approved, state legislators would be allowed to serve in the House or Senate only for 12 years. The new law would apply to those elected or reelected after the amendment was ratified.

Critics of Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day filed new legislation yesterday in the state Senate in another attempt to eliminate the Suffolk County-only holidays. The bill, filed by Senator Richard R. Tisei, a Wakefield Republican, comes after similar measures narrowly failed in both houses of the Legislature. Thirty-four lawmakers have sponsored the new legislation, including 10 senators (five Republicans and five Democrats) and 24 representatives (16 Republicans and eight Democrats). Bunker Hill Day, on June 17, celebrates the battle in Charlestown in 1775 that almost crippled the British Army. Evacuation Day, which coincides with St. Patrick's Day on March 17, commemorates when the Continental Army hauled 50 cannons up Dorchester Heights in 1776 and forced the British out of Boston.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled that the state must weigh the entirety of a sex offender's life, including what role alcohol might have played in the original crime, when determining whether he or she must register as an offender indefinitely. The case involves a man convicted of assault with intent to rape in 1984 after leaving a Quincy bar. Since then, the man, not identified in court papers, has given up drinking and stayed out of trouble. The Sex Offender Registry Board argued that the man should continue to register as a Level One sex offender. The court ordered the board to reconsider its decision, taking into account the man's life since his arrest. (AP)

Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed legislation yesterday that would have abolished Connecticut's death penalty, saying the state cannot tolerate people who commit the most violent of murders. The bill, passed last month, would have replaced capital punishment with life in prison without a chance of parole. Leaders of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly have said they do not have enough votes for to override Rell, a Republican. (AP)