Blue jay carrying West Nile virus is found

BOSTON

For the first time this summer, a bird carrying West Nile virus has been found in Massachusetts, public health officials announced yesterday. The infected blue jay was detected in Marlborough and tested positive Thursday. No human cases of the mosquito-borne disease have been reported this year in the state. Last year, three people contracted the illness in Massachusetts; all survived.

Robert Coughlin, Governor Deval Patrick's undersecretary for business development, and state Senator Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat, are in the running for president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Statehouse News Service reported yesterday. The council is expected to decide within two weeks on a replacement for Thomas M. Finneran, the former president of the association who stepped down in January due to legal troubles.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Three Massachusetts scientists and a Cambridge company were honored yesterday when President Bush awarded 30 medals for breakthroughs in fields ranging from astrophysics to tissue engineering. Two MIT researchers, Daniel Kleppner and Robert S. Langer, received the National Science Foundation's 2006 Medal of Science. Kleppner was honored for his studies of the interaction of atoms and light, while Langer was honored for his discoveries in the areas of tissue engineering and synthesis. Charles M. Vest, former MIT president, received the Commerce Department's 2006 Medal of Technology for his leadership in advancing the partnership among academia, government and industry. Genzyme Corp. of Cambridge also received a 2005 Medal of Technology, which Bush was unable to present last year because of a scheduling conflict.

QUINCY

MBTA Transit Police arrested a 29-year-old Pembroke man yesterday who is accused of lurking near an ATM machine at Quincy Center Station and stealing money from people after they gained access to their bank accounts at the terminals. Scott Robert Bradbury was arrested at 9:30 a.m. on Canal Street. According to police, Bradbury would watch for people to leave the ATM before their session was complete and withdraw money himself. He pleaded not guilty to three counts of larceny in Quincy District Court and was held without bond because of a probation violation. Lieutenant Commander Joseph O'Connor said detectives are trying to determine whether Bradbury was responsible for three other larcenies at the ATM machine.

CAMBRIDGE

A Lowell man became the sixth defendant to admit a role in an insurance fraud ring when he pleaded guilty Thursday to staging a car accident and filing false insurance claims, the Middlesex district attorney's office said yesterday. Sithorn Tith, 30, pleaded guilty in Cambridge Superior Court to two counts of fraud, two counts of larceny over $250, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and four counts of conspiracy. Tith and other defendants were accused of staging an accident May 24, 2004, in Lowell. Tith is scheduled to return to court July 30 for sentencing.

WALTHAM

Two Brandeis University students suffered burns yesterday in a fire at a laboratory on the campus, said Dennis Nealon, a university spokesman. Emergency personnel were dispatched to the lab in the Edison-Lecks building a little after 11 a.m. According to a preliminary investigation, the two students, one male and one female, spilled ethanol in an experiment hood and were cleaning it up when it ignited. Both students were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital and were in stable condition, Nealon said.

PAWTUCKET, R.I.

Pawtucket police shot and killed a man yesterday while responding to a breaking-and-entering call, the mayor said. The suspect, who displayed a handgun, struggled with one of the officers and was shot several times by police, Mayor John Whiting said in a statement. The man, whose name was not released because relatives were being notified, was pronounced dead a short time later at Pawtucket Memorial Hospital. The mayor's statement did not identify the officers involved. (AP)