Boston | featured news

SPRINGFIELD — A Massachusetts man who was left partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair when he was shot by police as he charged at an officer with a knife has been sentenced to five years of probation.The Republican newspaper reports that 60-year-old Clifford Ahern, of East Longmeadow, was sentenced Tuesday, several weeks after he was found guilty during a bench trial of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was cleared of an attempted murder charge.

BOSTON — Boston police are investigating a fatal stabbing that took place outside a federal building and not far from the TD Garden sports arena just as a concert was letting out.Police say a man in his 50s was stabbed at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday in the area of 10 Causeway Street, which is the Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Federal Building.The man was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.The victim's name was not released and police did not announce an arrest.

HUDSON — The Middlesex District Attorney's office is investigating the death of an infant in Hudson.Hudson police department officers responded to a 911 call reporting an unresponsive infant on Church Street.The baby was pronounced dead at an area hospital. The Office of The Chief Medical Examiner is determining the cause and manner of the infant's death.State police and the district attorney's office are investigating.

BOSTON — Federal fishing regulators are allowing fishermen to harvest more skates, which are caught on both coasts for use as food and bait.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it's increasing the per-trip possession limit for skate wing from 500 pounds to 4,100 pounds until April 30. The change went into effect on April 9.

REVERE — A Florida woman really loves Necco Wafers, the colorful candies made by a Revere-based company that is currently as at risk of shutting down.The Boston Globe reports 23-year-old Katie Samuels reached out to candy wholesaler Candystore.com to offer her 2003 Honda Accord for all of their stock.Samuels has childhood memories of pretending the candies were communion at her grandmother's home.

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — A wastewater treatment firm agreed Tuesday to pay $1.6 million to settle a lawsuit with Massachusetts for a spill in which more than 10 million gallons of raw sewage flowed into state-owned woodlands in Plymouth and Plymouth Harbor.The settlement by Veolia Water North America Northeast is believed to be the largest ever paid for violations of the state's Clean Waters Act, officials said.

A would-be duck boat competitor is waging amphibious warfare against Boston police, firing a salvo of two lawsuits claiming that cops have unconstitutionally thwarted its fleet from taking the plunge.

Police are probing the suspicious death of a 6-year-old girl and an injury to a boy who were both found in a Fitchburg home yesterday, Worcester District Attorney Jos­eph D. Early said.Early told reporters the girl was found “unresponsive” and a 9-year-old boy was found injured at a home on Stoneybrook Road.The girl was later pronounced dead at a hospital, authorities said.The children were found at the home about noon, authorities said.

A Boston University grad and the former MIT athlete who sexually assaulted her came face-to-face one last time in court yesterday — with the guilty 22-year-old forced to apologize for what he did two years ago in a dorm room.“I would like to apologize to (the victim) and her family that are here today for my inexcusable behavior that night,” Samson Donick, who played guard for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Engineers basketball team, told Suffolk Superior Judge Janet L. Sanders’ packed downtown courtroom.

Massachusetts firefighters are more than twice as likely to kill themselves as civilians due to untreated depression and PTSD stemming from repeated exposure to death and destruction, according to a new report on mental illness and suicide among first responders.The study by the Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation, which advocates for people with disabilities, estimates that the suicide rate for Bay State firefighters is 20 per 100,000 people, compared to 9 per 100,000 for civilians.