Weeklong ban lifted on outdoor water use

Police say a man stole a skull, jaw, and other bones after breaking into several 19th-century burial vaults at two cemeteries. Police arrested 26-year-old Leonard Caira on Friday after officers found human bones at his home. Authorities had not determined a possible motive for the alleged crimes at Wadsworth and Mount Pleasant cemeteries. Caira was charged with wanton destruction of property, wanton or malicious defacement of a tomb, and violating interment. Caira did not enter a plea at his arraignment on Friday at Framingham District Court. He was released without bail, but ordered to stay away from all human remains, burglar’s tools, and cemeteries. A pretrial conference was scheduled for Oct. 7. (AP)

A Federal Bureau of Investigation probe has forced a change of locks at Lowell City Hall, and agents have taken over the second-floor offices of the city’s Inspectional Services Department. Police Superintendent Ken Lavallee said Friday that his force has joined the state inspector general and the FBI in a investigation, but declined to give details. The investigation comes after the city’s former chief plumbing and gas-fitting inspector, Ernest “Sandy’’ Ames, was fired by City Manager Bernie Lynch for dereliction of duty. An investigation into Ames’s activities was launched after a photograph, in which Ames appears to be sleeping on the loading dock of a business owned by City Councilor Alan Kazanjian, was sent anonymously to Lynch and The Lowell Sun. (AP)

A former Springfield-area entrepreneur has come under fire from a federal judge for failing to secure his $500,000 bail bond as he awaits trial on bank fraud and tax evasion charges. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Neiman says millionaire Michael Armitage has not paid anything toward his bond, and The Republican of Springfield reports the judge ordered him to court this Thursday to answer why. Armitage, 55, is the former owner of Berkshire Power in Agawam. He also owned a city block in Springfield that once housed popular bars and restaurants. He is accused of fraudulently obtaining loans between 2001 and 2003 by concealing tax debt and $1 million in funds he embezzled from his company. Armitage, who used to live in Pittsfield, now lives in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP)

The New Hampshire Bureau of Trails says 12,000 acres of forest in the Ossipee Mountains region has been closed to the public due to irresponsible trail users. The owners of the Chocorua Forestlands have closed their land to hiking, bicycling, walking, hunting and fishing. The land is north of the Lakes Region Conservation Trust’s Castle in the Clouds property and south and west of Routes 25 and 16. The closure includes hiking trails to the summits of Mount Shaw and Bayle Mountain. (AP)

This is the last weekend the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is offering a $100 discount on cat adoptions. The animal welfare organization is charging a $50 fee for cats older than a year adopted from its facilities in Boston, Brockton, Barnstable, Methuen, and Nantucket until today. The normal fee is $150. The fee reduction has helped find homes for more than 100 adult cats. (AP)

An Episcopal church in Providence is closing its doors. The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, which began as a mission parish in 1868, will have its final service today. The mission church had once claimed 700 parishioners but has seen its membership decline. The Rev. Karen Fraioli, the vicar, said everyone hoped for a much different outcome. But after working for three years with the Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services and Community Works of Rhode Island, they saw those plans melt away when the economy soured. (AP)