Outage affects Green Line for 2 hours

An unidentified male stabbed another in the neck in a Mattapan apartment and fled last night, Boston police said. The victim was taken to Boston Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening, said police spokesman Eddy Chrispin. Police went to the apartment on Cummins Highway after receiving a 911 call at 8:26 p.m., Chrispin said, adding that the victim asked the caller to notify the police. No arrests have been made, Chrispin said.

An immigrant advocacy group is collecting signatures to change the voting system in Lowell to help more minority candidates get elected. Under the group’s proposal, voters would elect candidates for City Council and the School Committee by proportional voting - a system that would allow each voter to give a set number of votes to candidates instead of one vote to one candidate. Lowell currently uses an at-large voting system. More than a third of the city’s residents are minorities but all elected officials are white. Victoria Fahlberg of One Lowell said the group has collected 1,200 signatures to get a proposal on the ballot in November. The group needs 4,200 by early August. (AP)

A new program aims to add curb appeal to houses in Springfield. Homeowners along the State Street corridor can apply for grants of up to $5,000 toward exterior improvements - including roofing, siding, fencing, or landscaping. The program, administered by Springfield Neighborhood Housing Services, is funded by a $150,000 grant from MassMutual Financial Group. To apply for the grants, homeowners must meet income guidelines, live in the property, and agree to maintain the improvements for at least five years. (AP)

Police at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are preparing for the possibility of a school shooting with weeks of training exercises. Officers are using the hallways, classrooms, and closets of Butterfield Residence Hall and Dickinson Hall to help simulate an event in which a shooter opens fire. Police will use training rounds that sound like real bullets, but have crayon-like material to show where the rounds hit. The exercises began last weekend and continue on Saturdays and Sundays the next three weeks. Universities have been improving safety and security on campus since a Virginia Tech student killed 32 people and himself in 2007. (AP)

The owner of a pirate museum on a Provincetown pier is hoping to sell the building and move to a roomier space. Barry Clifford has put the Whydah Museum building and the upstairs apartment he’s lived in for 20 years on the market at $5.5 million. Clifford is looking for a larger, more permanent home for the museum, which includes 300-year-old pirate weapons, tools, and treasure. He said recovery from the Whydah wreck has picked up because of new equipment, so more space could be needed. Clifford, 64, told the Cape Cod Times he feels isolated at the end of the pier, adding “it’s a long, cold winter here.’’ (AP)

The sole survivor of the deadly 2007 home invasion in Cheshire, Conn., asked a judge to block representatives for the two suspects from contacting him or his family members. The state victim advocate’s office filed a motion this week on behalf of Dr. William Petit seeking a no-contact order against suspects Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, their lawyers, and any representatives. (AP)