Coast Guard rescues injured fisherman

Massachusetts lawmakers unanimously passed a bill yesterday intended to end pension abuses that have tarnished Beacon Hill's image and provoked anger among state residents. In separate votes, the House and Senate voted to eliminate sweetheart provisions and tighten rules. "Today we begin a series of reforms . . . that I believe will begin to restore the public's faith and trust in their government," said Representative Robert Spellane, the Worcester Democrat who chairs the Public Service Committee. Governor Deval Patrick has vowed to sign the bill.

The jury weighing the fate of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller was sent home yesterday after the fourth day of deliberations without reaching a verdict. Rockefeller, who prosecutors say is a German con man whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, is facing parental kidnapping and assault charges, as well as a charge of giving police a false name. He was arrested last summer after leaving the state with his 7-year-old daughter following a bitter divorce. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury's apparent struggle to reach a verdict led reporters yesterday to ask one of the defendant's lawyers, Jeffrey Denner, whether he anticipated a hung jury. "Am I concerned about a hung jury? No," Denner said.

Two more Boston public schools will be temporarily shuttered because of swine flu fears, bringing the total closed during recent weeks to 15, school officials said yesterday. Carter Development Center in the South End and Louis Agassiz Elementary School in Jamaica Plain will be closed for a week because of significant flu-like illness. The schools will be closed today and will reopen June 19. The Agassiz Community Center next to the school also will be closed during this period. Of the 533 students at the Agassiz, 104 were absent yesterday. At the Carter, which serves medically fragile, severely disabled students, nine of 23 students were absent, school officials said.

A Boston man has been sentenced to up to eight years in prison after admitting he lied on the stand during the trial of a man accused of killing a 14-year-old. Kyrice Grady was sentenced Wednesday to six to eight years behind bars and three years of probation after pleading guilty to lying under oath during the 2007 trial of 21-year-old Charon Ray. Ray was convicted of killing Da-Keem Galloway in Roxbury in June 2004. Grady's conviction occurred on the fifth anniversary of Galloway's death. Authorities said Grady, 23, knew of an ongoing dispute between Ray and Galloway, yet refused to testify truthfully because prosecutors had refused to negotiate a deal with him on a gun charge he faced. (AP)

A Longfellow Bridge sidewalk that was closed for a year will reopen today and be open to spectators watching the Fourth of July fireworks, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation announced yesterday. Federal inspectors visited the Longfellow this week and agreed with the state decision to reopen the sidewalk, which runs beside the Cambridge-to-Boston traffic lanes. The sidewalk was closed last June after inspectors found a support beam needed immediate repair and questioned whether it could support large crowds. Since August 2007, DCR has spent more than $12.5 million on repairs and inspections of the Longfellow.