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Suffolk prosecutor back on the job; investigation finds no wrong-doing

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

A top prosecutor in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office has his job back after an independent investigation found he “did nothing improper” regarding a decades-old murder conviction.Mark Lee returns to office as assistant district attorney after being placed on paid leave last November amid allegations he withheld information in a case involving the 1992 second-degree murder conviction of Robert Foxworth.“Mark’s character, prosecutorial experience and dedication to the people of Suffolk County equip him well for this extremely important position,” District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement Thursday. “We welcome Mark back to the office and we look forward to his strong leadership of the homicide unit.”Foxworth spent nearly three decades in prison for a 1991 murder in Dorchester before being exonerated in December 2020.The months-long suspension came after Foxworth’s attorney filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Office of the Bar Counsel alleging Lee for withhold...

Sumner Tunnel closure: Commuters, travelers speak on navigating day one

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

At midnight Wednesday, the Sumner Tunnel started its two month-long, full-time closure, leaving an estimated 39,000 daily carloads of people seeking alternate routes.“This is definitely going to be a hassle,” said East Boston resident Garmia D, waiting on the Blue Line at State Street with a building mass of other riders Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t think this was the right time to close it.”With the nearly 90-year-old Sumner Tunnel closed for repair from July 5 to August 31, officials are persistently urging residents to “ditch the drive” and use public transportation.Several accommodations have been made to make alternate travel options more accessible, including free rides on the Blue Line, free and reduced rides on the East Boston ferry and newly launched Lynn ferry and reduced fares on the commuter rail.The first day was without major incident, though MassDOT officials said previously the real test will hit when holiday travelers retur...

Unexploded fireworks wash up on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts officials blame Central Maine Pyrotechnics

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

Unexploded commercial-grade fireworks shells washed up on Chappaquiddick Island after the Fourth of July, as public safety officials urge anyone who sees similar devices to call 911.Massachusetts fire officials are blaming Central Maine Pyrotechnics, accusing the fireworks company of improperly disposing the two dozen highly hazardous fireworks shells after a show.“The Office of the State Fire Marshal today issued immediate threat suspensions to Central Maine Pyrotechnics and the individual who conducted the display, prohibiting them from conducting fireworks displays pending a hearing on July 26,” the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services said in a statement on Thursday.But the head of Central Maine Pyrotechnics told the Herald that the allegations are “completely false,” saying the fireworks shells didn’t light like they were supposed to before falling into the ocean.“Nothing was disposed of improperly,” said Steven Marson, president a...

Massachusetts Ethics Commission: Former Methuen police chief violated conflict of interest

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

State ethics officials are continuing to press the former Methuen police chief who resigned in 2021 after a scathing report from the inspector general questioned his handling of contracts that would have sent ranking officers’ pay soaring.The state Ethics Commission on Thursday issued an order to show cause alleging Joseph Solomon violated the conflict of interest law by changing a draft collective bargaining agreement to increase his salary and providing unwarranted benefits to five intermittent officers.The commission’s Enforcement Division says Solomon had an opportunity to resolve the matter through a disposition agreement before it filed the order as it found “reasonable cause” regarding a conflict of interest.A hearing on the allegations against Solomon will be scheduled within 90 days.A bulk of the complaint accuses Solomon of never informing the mayor or any other Methuen official that he consulted with the leader of the superior officers’ union to add a contract provision t...

Emanuel Lopes trial: Jury continues to deliberate verdict in double-homicide case

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

Jury deliberations will continue for a sixth day in the case of Emanuel Lopes, the Weymouth man on trial for the 2018 murders of a cop and 77-year-old bystander.Lopes, 25, is accused of shooting Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna, 42, and bystander Vera Adams, 77, in the early hours of July 15, 2018, nearly five years ago. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges in Norfolk Superior Court, including two counts of murder.One juror was replaced on Wednesday, further complicating long-running deliberations.Through detailed testimony from officers and witnesses, the case laid out a brutal series of events that Saturday night into Sunday morning.Lopes was having a normal time swimming and socializing with his friend and their girlfriends, witnesses testified, before a heated call with his girlfriend’s former fling abruptly shifted the tone of the night.Eventually in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, according to testimony, the defendant was in a highly emotional state, crashing...

American Shad making a comeback on the Taunton River

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

American shad — fish that migrate from oceans to rivers every spring to spawn — are making a comeback in New England’s longest coastal river without dams.That’s the goal behind a new MassWidlife initiative which looks to stock about 2 million larval shad each year over the next five in the Taunton River, stretching 37 miles from Bridgewater to Fall River.“They were once abundant in large Massachusetts rivers like the Taunton, but now only a small portion of their historical population remains,” MassWildlife said in a release this week. “Special techniques are needed to restore these migratory fish so that they become connected to a certain freshwater location.”Shad are what wildlife biologists classify as diadromous, meaning they spend portions of their lives in both the ocean and freshwater rivers.Newly born shad, still attached to their egg sacks, are being stocked in the Taunton River, allowing them to gain an “imprint on the unique characteristics of the river,” Mass...

Dead seal with shark bites found on South Shore beach, sharks ‘having a feast’ off Nantucket

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

It seems like a bad time to be a seal in the Bay State.While most of the focus is on great white sharks hunting for seals along Cape Cod, another dead seal with shark bites was recently spotted on a South Shore beach.“Dead seal found on Humarock Beach (Scituate) with visible shark bites,” the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app posted with a photo of the seal on Wednesday.Meanwhile, a shark was spotted thrashing in the water off of Great Point Nantucket Island on the Fourth of July, as the apex predator devoured prey. Blood could be seen in the water.“Sharks having a feast,” a viewer from Nantucket posted on Facebook.Related ArticlesLocal News | Cape Cod shark sightings rise with more eyes on the water, seals with shark bites spotted Local News | ‘Sharks suffer from a bad reputation’: Researchers look at peoples’ perceptions of sharks in new study Local News | Great white sharks...

Biden administration says judge’s social media order could cause ‘grave harm’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

A Louisiana-based federal judge’s order broadly limiting executive branch communications with social media companies could cause “grave harm” by preventing the government from “engaging in a vast range of lawful and responsible conduct,” Biden administration attorneys said in a motion filed Thursday with a federal appeals court.The request to stay the order was the administration’s first substantive response to a July 4 ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe. Doughty, a conservative nominated to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump, issued an injunction Tuesday blocking multiple government agencies and administration officials from meeting with or contacting social media companies for the purpose of “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”The order also prohibits the agencies and officials from pressuring social media companies “in any ma...

Truck makers pledge to comply with new California rules phasing out gas-powered vehicles

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Some of the nation’s largest truck makers on Thursday pledged to stop selling new gas-powered vehicles in California by the middle of the next decade, part of an agreement with state regulators aimed at preventing lawsuits that threatened to delay or block the state’s emission standards.California is trying to rid itself of fossil fuels, passing new rules in recent years to phase out gas-powered cars, trucks, trains and lawn equipment in the nation’s most populous state.It will take years before all of those rules fully take effect. But already some industries are pushing back. Last month, the railroad industry sued the California Air Resources Board to block new rules that would ban older locomotives and require companies to purchase zero-emission equipment.Thursday’s announcement means lawsuits are less likely to delay similar rules for the trucking industry. The companies agreed to follow California’s rules, which include ba...

TTC receives ‘B’ grade for service and reliability, but how accurate is the ranking?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:42 GMT

The Toronto Region Board of Trade (TRBOT) recently gave the TTC a ‘B’ grade for service and reliability using various criteria, but how does the ranking line up with bus, streetcar and subway services on a typical summer day?In a report released on Wednesday looking at 11 transit organizations in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area, TRBOT staff gave the TTC an overall composite score of 69.21 per cent (0.11 per cent behind Mississauga, which was top).Toronto’s transit agency had just an on-time percentage of 57.98 (more than 20 percentage points below Mississauga), but scored much higher when it came to frequent service coverage for residents and where jobs are. The TTC also received extra marks for 24-hour service.CityNews embarked on a full-day tour of Toronto by travelling on seven bus routes, three streetcar routes and two subway lines to assess how trip times adhered to schedules, how full vehicles were, and other indicators of reliability.CityNews travelled...