Elderly couple found dead in home

Springfield is honoring the memory of two city police officers killed in the line of duty 24 years ago. The Police Department held a 24-hour memorial yesterday in front of headquarters that consists of a cruiser parked on the sidewalk with the overhead lights flashing with portraits of Officers Alain Beauregard and Michael Schiavina posted on the windshield. Beauregard and Schiavina were shot during a traffic stop on Nov. 12, 1985. The shooter committed suicide. His brother was also in the car and was convicted of second-degree murder. (AP)

Governor Deval Patrick signed into law yesterday a measure intended to protect people from extended power outages associated with major storms. “Last year, I saw firsthand Unitil’s disappointing response to December’s storm and the hardship and suffering that it caused,’’ Patrick said in a statement. Under the law, the governor can authorize state regulators, in emergencies, to order utilities to spend money and deploy resources to restore service.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino was transferred from Brigham and Women’s Hospital yesterday to a rehabilitation facility where he is receiving intensive physical therapy for his injured knee. Dot Joyce, Menino’s spokeswoman, said the mayor is expected to stay at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital for a few days until doctors are confident in his ability to get around with a splint and crutches.

An utterance favored by “The Muppet Show’s’’ bungling lab assistant, Beaker, has been banned at Danvers High School after students allegedly repeated it to interrupt school. Principal Thomas Murray said the word, “meep,’’ was also part of a planned disruption using the Facebook social networking site. (AP)

Three men are facing charges after they allegedly shot two people in Stoughton and led police on a high-speed chase into Brockton. Police arrested Eduardo Fontes, 22, of Plymouth; John Silva, 19, of Brockton; and Vanderlee Fernandes, 23, of Brockton after their vehicle crashed into a tree, said William Conlon, Brockton police chief. Police responding to Park Street in Stoughton at 8:39 p.m. Wednesday found a 29-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the leg, said Thomas Murphy, Stoughton’s police chief. The victim told police a 23-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen and had been driven or drove himself to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton. Murphy said they were in stable condition. The suspects pleaded not guilty yesterday in Stoughton District Court to charges including armed robbery, assault, and conspiracy.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis said Archbishop Robert Carlson used $10,000 in discretionary funds to support the successful effort to prevent the legalization of gay marriage in Maine. Maine voters repealed a state law earlier this month that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry. (AP)