U.S. denies asylum to gay Brazilian man

Prosecutors say two former Wentworth Institute of Technology police officers have pleaded guilty to stealing global positioning and surveying equipment worth about $40,000 while patrolling the Boston campus at night. The Suffolk district attorney’s office said Jonathan Carroll Jr., 28, and Jay Cunha, 27, were sentenced yesterday to 30 days of probation after investigators used serial numbers to track the items on the online auction site eBay. Carroll and Cunha each pleaded guilty to one count of larceny of over $250. All items were returned. Prosecutors said a witness who had bought a GPS unit confirmed he had bought it from Carroll and gave police serial numbers for other items stolen from the campus last August. (AP)

Workers laid off by nine Massachusetts companies will receive $3.3 million in support from a federal emergency grant, Senators Paul Kirk and John F. Kerry announced yesterday. Under the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the state Department of Workforce Development will receive $1.9 million of the grant immediately, to aid the families of employees in Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Worcester counties, according to the senators. Workers covered under the grant were laid off between November 2008 and October 2009 from Altus Pharmaceuticals, Bose, Staples, shipping company DHL, information technology supplier EMC Corp., and four other companies.

Three children from the Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center were hospitalized for minor injuries yesterday after a 32-year-old woman crashed her car into a fence in front of the school shortly before 2 p.m. Deputy Police Chief Paul Upton said in an e-mail that the woman, whose name was not released because she had not been arrested or summoned, hit a table and chair set up in the playground. Neither speed nor alcohol played a role in the crash, Upton said.

Two men were arrested yesterday in the stabbing of a 16-year old boy in front of Somerville High School. Police responded to a report of a fight in front of the school shortly after 2 p.m. Officers found a 16-year-old boy at the scene suffering from an apparent stab wound to the chest. The boy was transferred to an area hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. The police arrested Niall Vallega, 19, of Somerville, on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and armed assault with intent to murder. Alieu Joof, 19, was arrested as an accessory after the fact. The two are scheduled to be arraigned in Somerville District Court this morning, and police are seeking a third suspect.

A Boxford high school student was cited yesterday with motor vehicle homicide after the car he was driving went off the road and crashed into trees Sunday night, killing his passenger, said Steve O’Connell, a spokesman for the Essex district attorney. Evan Wiendczak, 18, a student at Masconomet Regional High School in Boxford, was also cited for speeding in the death of Michael Doherty, 18, also a student at the high school, O’Connell said. Doherty died Sunday at Lawrence General Hospital.