Veterans get free ride at Suffolk University

The controversial Boston University research laboratory built to study the world’s deadliest germs will open its doors to scientists in a few months for training exercises, the university announced yesterday. When researchers enter the South End facility late in the summer or early in the fall, they will not use any bacteria or viruses. Instead, university officials said, the exercises are being conducted to “test safety, health, and operational procedures.’’ Later, emergency response teams, including police officers and firefighters, will engage in emergency response drills. The exercises are expected to last six to eight months. A court-ordered environmental review of the project is not expected to be completed until next year.

State Police are investigating the alleged rape of a woman at Suffolk Downs racetrack, spokesman David Procopio said yesterday. The attack occurred early on June 14, in the back of the East Boston racetrack, Procopio said, declining comment on the suspects and the victim. “No arrests have been made, and warrants have not been issued,’’ he said. Evidence has been presented to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office, but spokesman Jake Wark declined comment. “As soon as our security department was made aware of the incident, it alerted the onsite State Police unit of the Massachusetts State Racing Commission, and we have been working cooperatively with that unit and local law enforcement since then,’’ Suffolk Downs chairman Bill Mulrow said in a statement.

Two Saugus teenagers were charged yesterday by a Lynn District Court clerk in connection with a post-prom car accident in which a mother walking her dog was struck and killed in Saugus last month. Christopher Baldwin, 19, and Daniel Vokey, 19, were charged with providing alcohol to a minor, according to a statement from the Essex district attorney’s office. The May 16 crash killed Carol Marean, 67, and injured her daughter, Charlotte Marean, 41, who accompanied her. The driver, Jonathan Caruso, 18, of Saugus, was allegedly driving home drunk with Baldwin and another teenager at 7:30 a.m. when the car struck the women.

The owners of Gloucester’s fish auction have challenged the federal government’s plans to close the auction for 10 days for allegedly keeping a false record about illegally caught cod. The auction asked a federal judge yesterday for a preliminary injunction barring the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from imposing the shutdown. The sanction by the NOAA was related to a 2000 charge that the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction bought nearly 21,000 pounds of illegal cod, then falsified 35 records to cover it up. (AP)

Attorneys for a Massachusetts gun club and a former police chief say their clients shouldn’t be charged with supplying guns at a show where a boy accidentally killed himself. Christopher Bizilj, 8, of Ashford, Conn., lost control of a submachine gun and shot himself at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club. The club and former Pelham police chief Edward Fleury, the show’s promoter, have been charged with furnishing weapons to minors. Their lawyers argued at a hearing Tuesday that they didn’t provide the guns to the participants. (AP)