Green Up Ashland will hold its 11th annual Earth Day event on Saturday, May 4, from 9 a.m. to noon; residents are invited to “adopt” a street or clean up litter in a public park or along a riverbank.

Residents can fill the bags with rubbish and roadside litter and leave them on the curbside for pickup by the Ashland Department of Public Works following the event, according to a press release.

Residents should bring their own work gloves and water and wear sturdy shoes and bright clothing for safety. Registration and trash bags will be available at the Stone Park Pavilion, on the corner of Cherry and Summer streets, and at additional locations throughout town.

The three satellite locations around town where residents can register and pick up trash bags are:

• Montenegro Square, across from the Ashland Library, on Front Street
• Sears Hardware parking lot on Rt. 126, and
• Ashland Community Center on Rt. 135.

This year’s event sponsors are Honey Dew Donuts on Rt. 135 and the Ashland Lions Club.

Volunteers registering at or visiting the Stone Park Pavilion will be treated to free coffee, donuts, and t-shirts while they last and may view displays by local “green” community and town groups, which feature many exciting, new activities in town.

Visitors to the Stone Park Pavilion will learn about the new Ashland Bike Club, founded by Joel Arbeitman, and opportunities to build bike paths throughout Ashland. The club will also host a community bike ride open to members and non-members immediately following the Green Up Ashland activities.

Other groups exhibiting will be Ashland Community Gardens, Ashland Farmers Market, the Ashland Department of Public Works, Ashland’s Open Space Committee, Transition Ashland, and the Ashland High School Environmental Club.

Among the groups working on the day of the event will be the four Workmen’s Circle condo associations – Village of a Thousand Pines, Starlight Village, Village at Westerly and Half Moon Village – which will join together for their annual clean-up along the portions of Cedar and Pond streets that abut their properties. The group has been picking up trash on these streets for the past several years, and they anticipate filling up many yellow bags again this year.

Green Up Ashland works to promote a litter-free environment and encourages stewardship of our lands and waterways and pride in the community.

By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff

Even outside the communities on official lockdown, some colleges and universities are closed today as authorities search for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Regis College, Mass Bay Community College, and Wellesley College have all closed their doors.

A Wellesley College spokeswoman sent the following statement by email:

"At this point, there is no direct threat to the town of Wellesley or Wellesley College, but due to the continually changing nature of events that are unfolding today, the College made the decision to close," said Sofiya Cabalquinto in the email.

The Regis College website this morning advised those already on campus in Weston to stay on campus, which is in lockdown, and instructed those who have not already come in to stay away.

Mass Bay closed its three campuses in Ashland, Framingham, and Wellesley. The school’s service area covers 27 cities and towns, including most of those on lockdown, said Jeremy Solomon, spokesman for MassBay.

“In the interest of public safety for our campus community, we felt it would be best to close all three campuses at this time,” he said by phone.

Other schools outside the lockdown communities remained open but advised students who live in the lockdown area to stay put.

Such was the case with Babson College and Framingham State University.

Framingham State sent out an alert by phone or text message to students telling those who live in the locked down communities to stay where they are, according to Dan Magazu, university spokesman.

The Globe reported earlier that the following schools are closed: MIT, Harvard, Brandeis, BU, BC, Boston Conservatory, Bentley, Suffolk, Northeastern, Simmons, Berklee, Wheelock, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Tufts, Emmanuel, and Emerson have canceled classes today.

By Laura Gomez, Globe Correspondent

The MBTA’s new Worcester/Framingham line commuter rail schedule includes the addition of two express trains, Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail announced Thursday. The changes will take effect April 29.

One train will be added inbound to South Station and another outbound to Worcester, according to a press release.

The inbound express train departs Worcester at 6:20 a.m., makes one stop
in Framingham at 7 a.m., continues to Back Bay, and arrives at South Station at 7:43 a.m.

The outbound express train departs South Station at 5:35 p.m., makes stops at Back Bay (5:41 p.m.) and Framingham (6:13 p.m.), and arrives in Worcester at 6:43 p.m.

Other schedule updates include: Outbound train departure from South Station will change from 7:38 a.m. to 7:45 a.m., and from 5:35 p.m. to 5:40 p.m.

Pocket schedules will be available at South Station by Wednesday, April 24th.

For more information, as well as updated online schedules for the Framingham/Worcester line, visit www.MBCR.net and www.mbta.com.

By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff

On Monday morning, Hopkinton bustled with anticipation as the starting point for the 117th Boston Marathon. Twenty-four hours later, the picturesque town tried to comprehend the horrific bombings that killed and maimed people at the finish line.

“We’re the start of the marathon,” said David Phillips, owner of Hopkinton Gourmet, a short walk from the starting line. “It will never be the same again.”

All along the 26.2-mile route -- through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and into Boston -- people reacted with a mix of shock, sadness, and defiance.

“My feeling is this is making everybody feel more bonded together,” said Brielle Chabot, general manager of Heartbreak Hill Running Company in Newton. “I think a lot of the reactions is, ‘We’re still going to run. This isn’t going to stop us from running the Boston Marathon.’”

In Hopkinton, Phillips was serving up bagels and coffee Tuesday to a mix of runners and residents. He had music playing on the television rather than the usual news because, he said, he thought people needed a break.

But the tragedy wasn't far from the minds of Jackie and Greg Pavek, who were having coffee near a window looking out onto Main Street. Both were wrestling with what they experienced at the finish line in Boston when the explosions occurred.

When the bombings took place Monday afternoon, Greg Pavek, 65, had cleared mile 26 and was running the final stretch of his sixth Boston Marathon, and his wife Jackie was sitting in the VIP stands cheering him on.

The couple, who drove from Wisconsin for the event, couldn’t find each other in the chaos, and each knew the other was in harm’s way.

“We’ve been married 44 years. I thought this is not going to be it,” said Jackie Pavek, eyes filling with tears as she talked about the uncertainty of her husband’s fate.

When he should have been crossing the finish line, Pavek was instead witnessing devastating injuries: a woman with a severed leg and people’s bodies splayed on the ground at odd angles like “rag dolls,” he said. He never got to the finish line.

Pavek was stationed at Fort Devens in 1968, when the couple got married, so the marathon has always been a nice way to reminisce, he said, but that’s changed now. He’s not sure he will come back and his wife said she didn’t think she could.

“I have a different feeling right now about the marathon,” he said.

Just down the street, old friends Judy Murphy and Pat Grass, who both grew up in Hopkinton, sat on a bench in front of the town’s library.

“I think there will definitely be some changes here, but it will go on as it always has,” said Murphy, who watched runners go by from the top of her street on Monday and had her usual cookout and house full of people.

She said she wouldn’t change anything for next year.

“We’ll just continue to do what we do and celebrate the race,” said Murphy.

Beyond extra security, she thinks the race will go on as it always has in town.

“I think we’ll all be a little more vigilant,” said Murphy. “I think there will probably be tighter security, but I think it will function as it always has -- I hope.”

Chabot, who watched the race from her store in Newton, said the day started off on a high note.

Heartbreak Hill Running Company store was open and many spectators gathered on the corner, near the infamous set of hills that challenge already tired runners.

Chabot, who is 25, grew up in Wellesley and watched the race every year with her family.

“That was something I looked forward to,” she said. “We had a spot where we always watched. We would make a big day out of it.”

Chabot said she doesn’t see the explosions deterring people but rather reminding them what the marathon stands for.

“I think it has the opposite effect of what was intended,” she said. “I feel like Boston’s stronger in a way.”

Lisa Kocian can be reached at lkocian@globe.com.

By David Nyhan, Globe Staff

The late Globe columnist David Nyhan wrote the following column in 1987. Since then, it has been reprinted in the newspaper and online many times around this time of year. Nyhan died in January 2005.

THE REJECTIONS arrive this time of year in thin, cheap envelopes, some with a crummy window for name and address, as if it were a bill, and none with the thick packet you'd hoped for.

''Dear So-and-so:

''The admissions committee gave full consideration . . . but I regret to inform you we will be unable to offer you a place in the Class of 2012." Lots of applicants, limited number of spaces, blah blah blah, good luck with your undergraduate career. Very truly yours, Assistant Dean Blowhard, rejection writer, Old Overshoe U.

This is the season of college acceptance letters. So it's also the time of rejection. You're in or you're out. Today is the day you learn how life is not like high school. To the Ins, who got where they wanted to go: Congrats, great, good luck, have a nice life, see you later. The rest of this is for the Outs.

You sort of felt it was coming. Your SAT scores weren't the greatest. Your transcript had some holes in it. You wondered what your teachers' recommendations would really say, or imply. And you can't help thinking about that essay you finished at 2 o'clock in the morning of the day you absolutely had to mail in your application, that essay which was, well, a little weird.

Maybe you could have pulled that C in sociology up to a B-minus. Maybe you shouldn't have quit soccer to get a job to pay for your gas. Maybe it was that down period during sophomore year when you had mono and didn't talk to your teachers for three months while you vegged out. What difference does it make what it was? It still hurts.

It hurts where you feel pain most: inside. It's not like the usual heartache that kids have, the kind other people can't see. An alcoholic parent, a secret shame, a gaping wound in the family fabric, these are things one can carry to school and mask with a grin, a wisecrack, a scowl, a just-don't-mess-with-me-today attitude.

But everybody knows where you got in and where you didn't. Sure, the letter comes to the house. But eventually you've still got to face your friends. ''Any mail for me?" is like asking for a knuckle sandwich. Thanks a lot for the kick in the teeth. What a bummer.

How do you tell kids at school? That's the hard part. The squeals in the corridor from the kids who got in someplace desirable. The supercilious puss on the ones who got early acceptance or the girl whose old man has an in at Old Ivy.

There's the class doofus who suddenly becomes the first nerd accepted at Princeton, the 125-pound wrestling jock who, surprise, surprise, got into MIT. But what about you?

You've heard about special treatment for this category or that category, alumni kids on a legacy ticket or affirmative action luckouts or rebounders or oboe players. Maybe they were trying to fill certain slots. But you're not a slot. You're you. They can look at your grades and weigh your scores and see how many years you were in French Club. But they can't look into your head, or into your heart. They can't check out the guts department.

This is the important thing: They didn't reject you. They rejected your resume. They gave some other kid the benefit of the doubt. Maybe that kid deserved a break. Don't you deserve a break? Sure. You'll get one. Maybe this is the reality check you needed. Maybe the school that does take you will be good. Maybe this is the day you start to grow up.

Look at some people who've accomplished a lot and see where they started. Ronald Reagan? Eureka College. Jesse Jackson? They wouldn't let him play quarterback in the Big Ten, so he quit Illinois for North Carolina A & T. Do you know that the recently retired chairmen and CEOs of both General Motors and General Electric graduated from UMass? Bob Dole? He went to Washburn Municipal University.

The former minority leader of the United States Senate, Tom Daschle, went to South Dakota State. The former speaker of the US House of Representatives, J. Dennis Hastert, went to Northern Illinois University. Dick Armey, the former House majority leader, took a bachelor's degree from Jamestown College. Winston Churchill? He was so slow a learner that they used to write to his mother to come take this boy off our hands.

I know what you think: Spare me the sympathy. It still hurts. But let's keep this in perspective. What did Magic Johnson say to the little boy who also tested HIV positive? ''You've got to have a positive attitude." What happens when you don't keep a positive attitude? Don't ask.

This college thing? What happened is that you rubbed up against the reality of big-time, maybe big-name, institutions. Some they pick, some they don't. You lost. It'll happen again, but let's hope it won't have the awful kick. You'll get tossed by a girlfriend or boyfriend. You won't get the job or the promotion you think you deserve. Some disease may pluck you from life's fast lane and pin you to a bed, a wheelchair, a coffin. That happens.

Bad habits you can change; bad luck is nothing you can do anything about.

Does it mean you're not a good person? People like you, if not your resume. There's no one else that can be you. Plenty of people think you're special now, or will think that, once they get to know you. Because you are.

And the admissions department that said no? Screw them. You've got a life to lead.

By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff

Scott Rohmer, the embattled police chief in Ashland, was placed on paid administrative leave today by the new Town Manager Anthony Schiavi.

“We’re going to start with a bottom up review of the entire department,” said Schiavi, in a press conference after he made the announcement to the entire police department.

Rohmer’s contract expires in June and will not be renewed, he said.

The decision to move forward without Rohmer is the first step of many needed to turn the department around, said Schiavi, a retiring Air Force colonel.

“The first step in any recovery is admitting there’s a problem,” said Schiavi. “The community needs to believe in us again and trust us again.”

Four Ashland police officers have filed legal complaints in recent months against Rohmer, the town, and other officers.

Rohmer has denied the allegations and said today he is disappointed in Schiavi’s decision.

“I think the new town manager doesn’t have a full understanding of what’s going on,” said Rohmer, reached at his home after the announcement. “I’ve been a faithful servant of this community for 28 years as a police professional. I think the police department needs me there.”

He said he has been working hard to address the false allegations riddling the police department, many of them lobbed against him.

Two of the three legal complaints pending against Rohmer and others were filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, each by a female officer alleging gender discrimination and describing the department as an abusive and sexually hostile workplace.

The third complaint was filed jointly by Sergeant Robert MacQuarrie and Lieutenant Richard Briggs in Norfolk Superior Court in September. They allege Rohmer retaliated against them after they signed a complaint against the chief. Other allegations against Rohmer in their lawsuit include unethical spending of town money, covering up for a friend accused of a hate crime, and misusing department resources to investigate his wife.

The allegations in the lawsuit were investigated last year by Edward C. Doocey, a Quincy lawyer, hired by the town to specifically review the charges against Rohmer.

The most significant finding in Doocey’s report was that Rohmer had directed an Ashland officer to conduct a forensic search of his wife’s laptop computer and cellphone. Doocey rejected Rohmer’s claim that he had his wife’s permission to conduct the search.

Doocey wrote that he found no evidence to support most of the allegations, including the charge that Rohmer had covered up a hate crime committed by a friend. The person in question was charged with a hate crime, and reached a plea agreement, according to Doocey’s finding.

Doocey said there was no evidence that Rohmer had misappropriated department funds, although he did call the purchase of $13,000 worth of insignia jackets, some of which Rohmer acknowledged giving to family and friends, an “ill-conceived expenditure.”

By Jaclyn Reiss, Town Correspondent

The Framingham chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution has announced this year's winners of the Good Citizens Award, a nationwide program that gives recognition to local high school seniors and provides them the opportunity to apply for a college scholarship.

Now in its 80th year, the program aims to recognize and reward the qualities of good citizenship among senior high school students. The award is granted to one senior in each community within the local DAR’s district.

Candidates chosen have demonstrated outstanding character and citizenship - defined by the DAR as dependability, service, leadership and patriotism - to their school, community, and country, according to the organization.

Each "Good Citizen" was selected by the respective faculty, staff, and student government.

The following high school seniors have been selected for the award:

• Ashland: John Joyce
• Bellingham: Shane Cardinal
• Holliston: Amber Ahronian
• Hopedale: Kelsi McDougle
• Hopkinton: Brian James Doyle
• Milford: Carolyn Chaplin

Framingham did not participate in the award this year.

For more information about the Framingham DAR chapter, visit the organization's website.

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Jaclyn Reiss can be reached at jaclyn.reiss@globe.com

By Rajashree Ghosh, Guest Columnist

Conversations sometimes take a turn for the ugly and it comes at moments that leave you quite dumbfounded. A comment about drivers from South Asia by someone I know and think of as intellectually evolved, was by far alarming. What played in my mind was how an intelligent discerning individual can be so determined about labeling and profiling with alacrity and impunity in a sense. But maybe intellect has nothing to do with it. Intellectuals and the lesser achieved all share the same world view –everyone knows what “their” world is all about and how different it is from “our” world. The separation between “us” and “them” takes several forms and stereotyping is one way of reinstating and perpetuating the gap. No wonder being pulled over for “driving while Asian” (DWA) elicits multiple reactions but mostly chuckles and laughter, unfortunately so.

I am quite aware that stereotyping of any community and definitely of South Asians in the United States is common. South Asians are caricatured through convenience store owner Apu in the cartoon series The Simpsons, feted for acing Spelling Bee contests and success in Information Technology, and courted for their wealth given their status as the ethnic group with the highest per capita income in U.S. Sometimes they are also chastised for not being part of the American mainstream. Many of you might be found answering questions about homes in slums because “Slumdog Millionaire” allegedly informed audiences that every Indian habitat is a slum; or if the language you spoke is Hindu (which it couldn’t be because Hinduism is a religion) and the confusing and multitude of media infused images of cows, poverty, Mother Teresa and then there is Kamasutra! Negative images about other cultures that main-stream North Americans are inevitably exposed to inevitably color everyone's personal socialization experience.

As Indians, we always referred to ourselves as Asians from the continent of Asia. Geographical location determined where one belonged. But in the United States, the country we live now in presents the world in different segmented ways. Asians are restricted to people from Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Korea and I am very reluctant to say that race has nothing to do with defining this category. Now we are saddled with the “South” Asian category, which by the way is a 1990s classification designed by the Washington bureaucrats. I along with many from that region who may belong to one of the several countries (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal) feel that we were given this “ours” and whatever it entails. It is by no means a homogeneous group. It may not even be possible to consider the diverse group of people who lived on a large continent and moved to the United States as a coherent unit of “South Asian-Americans” that can be stereotyped as a homogeneous group. But stereotyping still happens.

A demographic snapshot of South Asians in the United States crunched out from the 2010 U.S Census by an NGO group shows the Indian-American population in the U.S (including multiple ethnicities) grew 68 per cent over the 2000-2010 decade from 1.9 million to 3.19 million. Counting single ethnicity (discounting mixed race), the population grew from 1.67 million to 2.84 million in the same period. That made Indian-Americans the third largest Asian-American group in the U.S after Chinese-Americans (3.79 million) and Filipino-Americans (3.42 million), but with a much faster growth rate. People who identified themselves as Indian origin comprise the largest segment of the 3.4 million-strong. Such census data reflect that demographics of ethnic groups and nationalities can be important for stakeholders to undertake advocacy with government entities and make funding requests. State and federal lawmakers can also use the data to deepen engagement with the communities and reflect their concerns in policymaking.

While strength in numbers is a criteria and may also be a reason to be non-judging of a community, the fact is that the awareness of the "other" is limited and even discouraged. I look to India and see if this is specific to the US and it is not. Women from the west are branded as morally loose and sexually promiscuous. Who has not watched Pretty Woman and Basic Instinct! The other is defined as wild, less regulated and dramatically at the opposite end of the permissible behavior among “us.” Within the country looking inward, dark-skinned people are deemed as undesirable and less economically advanced and civilized. Fairness creams are endorsed by popular film actors who have large fan followings. Matrimonial ads ask for fairness as a prerequisite for brides (not necessarily for grooms).

I wonder if education needs to be more global that helps everyone understand the changes going on around them. It is probably not doing a whole lot to meet the requirements of a new world. By developing a prejudiced, short-sighted focus on the world – whatever the boundaries of that world, it is not creating informed citizens who are proud of their role in a pluralistic society because they remain less informed and that colors their perspective.

Rajashree Ghosh is a resident scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University in Waltham.

By Jaclyn Reiss, Town Correspondent

State Senator Karen Spilka will hold district office hours in Natick and Ashland next week to discuss developing news and events, and address any questions or concerns residents may have, according to the senator's office.

On Friday, Feb. 22, Spilka and one of her staff members will be in Ashland at the Sunnyside Cafe at 24 Front St., from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., and in Natick at Zaftigs Delicatessen at 1298 Worcester Rd. from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Any resident unable to attend or looking to schedule an appointment should contact Senator Spilka's office at (617) 722-1640.

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Jaclyn Reiss can be reached at jaclyn.reiss@globe.com

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

The election hasn’t even been scheduled, and may never happen.

But in an indication of the suddenly shifting terrain of Massachusetts politics, Democratic candidates are lining up to run for Edward J. Markey’s House seat, should the veteran Malden represenative win the special election for US Senate.

The early rush could be for naught: If Markey loses his Senate race, he will return to the House seat he has held for more than 36 years, and no election will be held.

But the dash is on among those who have their eyes on a rare shot at a Congressional seat in Massachusetts.

State Representative Carl Sciortino of Somerville said last week -- in the midst of the blizzard -- that he has launched a campaign for Markey’s seat.

First elected to the state House in 2004, Sciortino has been a leading supporter of gay rights, and coauthored a transgender rights bill that was signed into law last year.

State Senator Katherine Clark of Melrose is planning to launch her own campaign for Markey’s seat on Friday, according to people who have spoken to her. First elected to the Legislature in 2008, Clark is a former school committee member and prosecutor.

State Senator William Brownsberger of Belmont is campaigning for the seat as well. A former prosecutor and defense attorney, he said he launched his federal campaign committee last week.

“I love being in the Senate, and I’m enjoying my job, but this is an opportunity that only comes around once in my political lifetime,” Brownsberger said. “I’m 100 percent in the race, on the assumption Ed Markey wins.”

Brownsberger said an election could be scheduled this fall, if Markey wins.

Other Democrats who have been mentioned as possible candidates include State Senator Karen Spilka of Ashland, Peter Koutoujian, the Middlesex sheriff, and state Representative David Linsky of Natick.

A long list of Democrats are also said to be looking at US Representative Stephen F. Lynch’s seat, though none have officially declared. Lynch, of South Boston, is challenging Markey for the Democratic Senate nomination. The primary is April 30.

The potential candidates for his seat include state Representative Martin Walsh of Dorchester, City Councilor Rob Consalvo of Hyde Park, former City Councilor Michael Flaherty of South Boston, State Senator John Keenan of Quincy, Mayors Thomas Koch of Quincy, Joseph Sullivan of Braintree, and Susan Kay of Weymouth, as well as former mayor Jack Yunits of Brockton.

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mlevenson.