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The man accused of stabbing a woman to death inside the Winchester Public Library a week ago today has been sent to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital, officials said.Jeffrey Yao was transferred to Bridgewater State Hospital after the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office told a judge he was too mentally ill to remain in jail.Yao has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of 22-year-old Deane Kenny Stryker. Authorities say he stabbed Stryker 20 times with a hunting knife at the library in what prosecutors have called an unprovoked attack.

A falling tree struck and seriously injured a woman walking to pick up her child from school in Woburn during today's fierce storm, a top fire official said.The woman was taken to a local hospital with what Woburn Fire Chief Stephen Adgate called a “significant leg injury” after a large oak tree apparently uprooted and fell on her amid the high winds that have been whipping eastern Massachusetts in today's nor'easter.

Homes have been evacuated in Wenham after an underground gas line caught fire and sent a 30-foot fireball into the air.Police and fire officials report seeing a plume of fire rising from Cherry Street. Police said: "A preliminary investigation indicates that a utility pole was damaged during the storm, and a live electrical wire arced and ignited an underground gas line."The road was shut down and homes evacuated as crews shut off the gas line.No injuries were reported. Developing ... 

The new high-powered defense team representing Michelle Carter argue that "words alone" can't kill in their pitch to the state’s highest court - an appeal claiming that her involuntary manslaughter conviction is unconstitutional and violates both state and federal law.“(T)his appeal presents novel questions of constitutional and criminal law,” Carter’s attorneys wrote in an appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court, filed on Feb. 5. “It will set precedent for who may be prosecuted for encouraging suicide with words alone.”

The state trooper who fired a rifle during last weekend's I-93 melee has been suspended indefinitely without pay as officials determine whether he, in fact, wrote a string of offensive online posts in recent years.Trooper Matthew Sheehan is the focus of an Internal Affairs probe, where officials say they are determining whether Sheehan authored posts under the screen name Big Irish, targeting minorities and discussing use of force on the job.

BOSTON — The fierce nor'easter battering the Northeast is causing havoc with rail travel.Amtrak announced Friday that all services along the Northeast Corridor "are temporarily suspended due to multiple weather related issues."Service between New York City and Boston was suspended earlier due to flooding and multiple downed trees.Amtrak also announced that one track on the Washington-Maryland corridor was out service for repairs due to weather damage. That forced trains to reduce speeds for safety.

A powerful nor'easter is beginning to bear down on the Massachusetts costs, bringing down trees, cutting power from tens of thousands of households and flooding parts of downtown Boston in the early stages of what forecasters have warned may be the most dangerous storm in decades.

More than 34,123 customers were dealing with power outages as of 11:45 a.m...
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HATFIELD  — Authorities say human remains found in a remote wooded area of western Massachusetts this week are those of a woman missing for a year.Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless said Thursday the skeletal remains found Tuesday in Hatfield are 39-year-old Joanne Ringer.Ringer, who lived in Clarksburg, had been missing since March 2, 2017, when she failed to show up for her first shift as a taxi driver in Easthampton. Her car was found abandoned in Easthampton on March 6.

BOSTON — Massachusetts prison officials say a transgender inmate should remain at a men's facility because transfer to a women's prison may cause problems with other prisoners.The transgender woman has filed a federal lawsuit seeking a transfer. It says she was told she could not be sent to a women's prison unless she has gender reassignment surgery.

BOSTON — A Massachusetts' tax agency already facing criticism for a data breach that exposed private information from about 39,000 business taxpayers now says it has failed to deliver timely child support payments.The Boston Globe reports the state Department of Revenue said Thursday it has failed to deliver timely payments to about 1,500 parents since the start of the year.Department officials say the problem is due to a faulty computer system. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker's administration says the issue should be fixed by the weekend.