The Latest
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Jury begins deliberating in trial of Alabama man accused of murdering 11-year-old girl in 1988
A jury on Monday begun deliberating in the case of an Alabama man accused of the beating and stabbing death of an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl more than 35 years ago. Prosecutors and the defense attorney for Marvin “Skip” McClendon Jr. made their closing arguments Monday in a case that hinges in part on whether the jury believes DNA found...
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Jury awards family $5M, says RI football coach's actions caused son's suicide
The family of a teenager who died by suicide was awarded $5.4 million this week after a Rhode Island jury found his football coach and several school administrators were negligent in the way they responded before the 15-year-old’s death. Nathan Bruno killed himself in 2018 after his family alleges Portsmouth High School’s then-football coach Ryan Moniz pressured the boy to…
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Mass. snowmobiler who crashed into parked Black Hawk helicopter awarded $3.3M
The lawsuit filed by Jeff Smith against the government follows a 2019 crash in which Smith’s snowmobile clipped the helicopter that was parked on a Massachusetts trail.
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Karen Read says in interview that murder case left her in ‘purgatory'
Karen Read’s monthslong murder case left her in “purgatory” and “stressed every day,” she said in an interview set to air Friday night. Read, 44, is accused of ramming into her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a January 2022 snowstorm. Her two-month trial ended in July when jurors declared they…
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Senate in Massachusetts passes bill curtailing use of plastics including bags, straws
The state Senate in Massachusetts has passed a wide-ranging bill curtailing the use of plastics, including barring the purchase of single-use plastic bottles by state agencies. The bill, approved Thursday, also bans carry-out plastic bags at retailers statewide and require stores to charge 10 cents for recycled paper bags. It also requires straws and plasticware to be available only by…
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Survivors of NH motorcycle crash that killed 7 urge a judge to keep trucker off the road
Relatives and friends of seven motorcyclists who died in a 2019 crash urged New Hampshire officials Wednesday not to allow the trucker back on the state’s roadways. A jury in 2022 found Volodymyr Zhukovskyy not guilty of multiple manslaughter and negligent homicide counts stemming from the June 21, 2019, collision in Randolph that killed seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle…
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MIT students walk out of commencement in support of Palestinians
More than 100 graduates walked out of commencement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Thursday, the latest campus stress related to the Israel-Hamas war. An outdoor commencement ceremony at MIT in Cambridge was disrupted for 10 to 15 minutes when some graduates walked out. Wearing keffiyehs, the checkered scarves that represent Palestinian solidarity, over their caps and gowns, they…
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Mass. teen died from eating a spicy chip as part of social media challenge, autopsy report concludes
A Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge on social media died from ingesting a substance containing a high amount of the chili pepper extract capsaicin, according to autopsy results. Harris Wolobah, a 14-year-old sophomore at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester, died on Sept. 1, 2023, after eating the chip manufactured by Paqui, a Texas-based subsidiary…
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Harvard students end protest as university agrees to discuss Middle East conflict
Protesters against the war between Israel and Hamas were voluntarily taking down their tents in Harvard Yard on Tuesday after university officials agreed to discuss their questions about the endowment, bringing a peaceful end to the kinds of demonstrations that were broken up by police on other campuses. The student protest group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine said in a…
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Maine woman who victims say claimed to be a psychic, Irish heiress faces extradition to UK
A woman accused by scam victims of criscrossing the U.S. claiming to be an Irish heiress is expected to learn next month whether she will be extradited to the United Kingdom. Marianne Smyth, a 54-year-old American, appeared Wednesday in federal court in Maine for a hearing related to allegations that she stole more than $170,000 from at least five victims…
