The Dorchester man who was driving the van filed with special-needs adults that crashed into a Waste Management Services truck in Newton yesterday will be charged with driving under the influence of drugs. Addis Gabriel Woldeguiorguis, 51, reportedly took oxycodone before driving the van. Woldeguiorguis also has an extensive list of violations - drug possession and speeding, and others - in his RMV record over the past decade in New York and only got a Massachusetts driver’s license on July 26. Van drivers must undergo a CORI check every year. All 12 passengers were hospitalized, nine at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and three at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Two remain at Beth Israel and one at Newton-Wellesley. Media reports placed bail at $5,000 or $15,000. Woldeguiorguis drove for AART Transportation of Chestnut Hill. The adults were from The Price Center in Newton. [Globe], [Herald]
Results tagged “supremejudicialcourt”
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed state gun regulations that restrict ownership based on a person's age. Aaron Powell was convicted of resisting arrest and various firearms charges in January 2009 and subsequently challenged age limits on legal gun ownership.
Ronald P. McGinn, Jr., a guard at MCI-Norfolk was arrested for allegedly selling heroin to inmates. He faces 20 years in jail and a $1,000,000 fine if convicted of possession of heroin with intent to distribute. The US Attorney's office said McGinn was recorded discussing his plans to smuggle drugs into the prison with an undercover agent. There are also text messages detailing the plans as well. McGinn is from Bridgewater and had about 28 grams of heroin on him when he was arrested. [Globe]
Police arrested an Everett man who was running naked through a Dorchester neighborhood on Monday. The suspect was involved in a traffic stop and fled with a gun. As he ran, he removed his clothes and was caught on Whitman Street. He was charged with resisting arrest and weapons charges. [WCVB]
Cleve Killingsworth received almost $8.6 million in severance and pay in 2010 after resigning as CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts last March. Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday, March 13th at 2 a.m. We lose an hour of sleep that night. Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Heavy rains expected for Friday prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood watch for much of the Bay State. Melisa Orosco finally returned home after she suffered a broken neck and a traumatic brain injury in a January hit-and-run. Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Attorney General Martha Coakley is investigating the Massachusetts Probation Department hiring and promotions scandal detailed in a report by independent counsel Paul F. Ware Jr. Coakley has contacted US Attorney Carmen Ortiz about the report. The Supreme Judicial Court ordered and reviewed the report.
Independent counsel Paul Ware found "systemic abuse and corruption" in the Probation Department, according to a report ordered by the Supreme Judicial Court.
You can have a website and not have a website and have it again if you are the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC site http://massreports.com/ was closed down because its domain name was not renewed before it expired last Monday. Bostonist just checked and the site appears to be back and the "massreports.com expired on 11/08/2010 and is pending renewal or deletion" message is gone. Massreports.com provides free opinions from the SJC and the Appeals Court. [Globe]
- Massachusetts is the second most energy-efficient state behind California. That's even including a record-setting demand for energy this summer. [Boston Globe]
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson wants Beacon Hill lawmakers to pass legislation to require inmates to "pay-to-stay" in Bay State jails. Despite a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision yesterday that Hodgson can't charge inmates fees for rent or personal care like haircuts, food or health care, Hodgson plans to lobby Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo via letters to give sheriffs the ability to impose such fees. Bostonist wants to know if Hodgson is billing us for his letters or is paying his own postage. The Herald also polled readers, and, Herald readers want to charge inmates for, well, everything.
-- Bostonist knows the young people will use fake IDs. We hope they don't. An 18 year-old from West Roxbury tried to buy alcohol with a fake ID at Richard’s Wine & Spirits in Wolcott Square. The suspect produced the ID during the transaction and was unable to spell the last name on the card when a clerk asked he do it. He fled but was later identified by Boston Police using his actual license that was left at the scene. [BPDNews.com]
- Should doctors get paid by pharmaceutical corporations like Eli Lilly & Co. for speaking on behlf of drugs they make and doctors prescribe to us? No, but 60 Bay State physicians have done it this year anyway and were paid a total of $500,000 to do it. [Boston Globe]
- For two "change" candidates, Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty seem to be pretty familiar with brokering purely political deals. [Boston Herald]
-- A man from Weymouth allegedly stole a truck and used it to steal a lawn mower from Sears. While trying to escape, he drove the wrong way on I-495, and eventually hit a tree. [Metro West Daily News]
-- A 23-year old man from Georgia was arrested on Tuesday for possession of an illegal firearm. The suspect was stopped on Meridian Street with a broken brake light an officers determined he had an invalid driver’s license and illegally attached plates. [BPDNews.com]
The leading news story of the day is the death of Eunice Kennedy Shriver at the age of 88. Earlier today, Shriver's body was moved to the Kennedy's Hyannis Port compound where a family wake will take place. Funeral plans are not yet known. Reaction to her death and remembrances of her extraordinary life are continuing all day. Her brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, issued a touching statement in her honor, as did her son-in-law California Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggerand Cardinal O'Malley. The JFK Library posted two condolence books today.
- It's been 40 years since Anthony Martignetti became the Prince Spaghetti boy. [Boston Globe]
- The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled police sobriety checkpoints to be constitutional. [Boston Globe]
--"Clark Rockefeller" was sentenced to 4-5 years in prison just two hours after his conviction on kidnapping and assault charges. Judge Frank Gaziano's sentence matched what prosecutors recommended. [Globe]
-- 23-year-old Daniel Harris, one of four injured during last week's shooting on Dorchester's Elder Street was held without bail today in the murder of Alexandra Gomes. Gomes' and Harris' families co-own a moving company. Harris was injured after one of his alleged victims returned fire. Prosecutors have not advanced a motive in the killing. [Herald]
--Bye-bye, Filene. The legendary store saw some "major destruction" today. [More photos at On Common Ground]
--A former Marshfield High School student who was arrested in 2004 for planning a Columbine-like attack was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and could face 20 years in prison. He was, however, acquitted on a deadly weapons charge and on "promotion of anarchy." [Boston Globe]
--The State Supreme Judicial Court just overturned the conviction of a Methuen ex-police officer accused of raping a woman in 2000. The case hinged on whether or not lawyers could prove the woman was "too intoxicated to consent, not that she was merely high and drunk." However, the SJC felt that the trial judge didn't give proper instructions to the jurors. The ex-officer will get a new trial. [Boston Globe]
South End residents who are bracing for the opening of the BU Biolab, where scary germs like ebola will be studied, have a reprieve. The "National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories" was supposed to open in the fall, but the National Institutes of Health has declared that its review won't be finished until "on or before" April 2009, the Globe reports.
Mark A. Flomenbaum, the former Chief Medical Examiner who was dismissed after the office of the Chief Medical Examiner was revealed to be an unsanitary hellhole, is suing because he feels "Governor Deval Patrick lacked grounds to dismiss him."
--Fires ran rampant yesterday. A mother and her son were injured last night in a fire in Somerville. One firefighter was treated and released at the hospital. [Boston Globe] --Another fire broke out in Haverhill last night, and people were injured jumping out of the windows. No one died in the blaze, but 24 people have lost their homes. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald] --The state Supreme Judicial Court is letting Heidi Erickson, who kept...
Neither Sophie Currier nor the National Board of Medical Examiners are going to back down. Even though Currier won an appeal to get extra time to take a medical exam so she could pump breast milk, the Board appealed the appeal.
In Rhode Island you can't get married as a same sex couple. You can't get divorced as a same sex couple either. Well, at least not yet. According to the Providence Journal, the Rhode Island State Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments and give an answer to the question: "May the Family Court properly recognize, for the purpose of entertaining a divorce petition, the marriage of two persons of the same sex who...
The Supreme Judicial Court gave Mitt Romney and his conservative cohorts a mild smacking today when the justices ruled that they cannot force legislators to vote on whether or not a proposal to ban gay marriage should be on the 2008 ballot. This ruling is the latest in a set of complex legal wranglings, which Bostonist has explained here and here, that started when the Legislature recessed before voting on the proposed ballot measure. Romney...
Living in the Bay State we remember when we had a brand-new ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court legalizing same-sex marriage. It seemed to be one of those high court rulings that didn't really make it legal (because, you know, it's the judicial branch, not the legislative) but rather defined was something was or wasn’t. Last week the Worcester Superior Court ruled on something not quite as groundbreaking and offered up a definition. A burrito is not a sandwich.
(OK, not really.) If you live and work in Boston proper, or in Cambridge, or really anywhere other than Somerville, the ongoing saga of the development of Assembly Square feels like a distant local squabble. But for Somervillionaires, it's a big, exciting question: Will mayor (and assistant football coach at Somerville High) Joseph Curtatone be able to deliver on one of his major campaign promises and turn Assembly Square from a down-at-the-heels, semi-industrial wasteland to a prosperous, Ikea-having, retail and residential Shangri-La by the tranquil banks of the Mystic River?