Guess there's a ballot question in California about online gambling and somebody's dragging us, or at least, actors' portrayals of us, into it (really, would a true Bostonian want to be videoed making a point in front of Cheers?). Read more.
Massachusetts yesterday sued a driver from upstate New York for the $1.85 million in damage it says he caused when the boom of the excavator he was hauling on a flatbed slammed into a turnpike overpass and then, 30 miles down the road, slammed into another overpass, after which the excavator fell off the flatbed and took out a stretch of guardrail. Read more.
A California man who threatened to blow up the offices of Merriam-Webster in Springfield because he didn't like its definitions of a number of gender-related words, including "girl," has pleaded guilty to that and to making similar threats against the president of the University of North Texas, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports. Read more.
A federal judge on Friday not only dismissed a Worcester man's latest lawsuit against two police departments for arresting him for driving without a license, he warned that if he tries to sue them again, he could face sanctions and even fines. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that state law requires police to get an OUI suspect's permission to have his blood tested before they can hand over the results to prosecutors. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that a western-Massachusetts man who says he was raped repeatedly in the 1960s by various Catholic Church clergy, including the then bishop of Springfield, can make his case to a jury that he is owed damages not only for that but for the way the church handled his case after he came forward in 2014. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that there's far more to painting stripes to mark off parking-lot spaces than you might think, enough to make it "bespoke," even, which means a man who striped 21 spaces in a Gardner restaurant's lot does not have to pay any damages to a motorcyclist who alleged the layout of the spaces led to a crash in which he lost his leg. Read more.
GBH reports Mohammed Bone Saw's favorite golf tournament is coming to some course in Bolton - after a round at a Trump-owned course - but because nobody outside of Massachusetts has ever heard of Bolton, they're calling it the LIV Golf Invitational Boston. Would be a real shame if people showed up on Ballville Road in Bolton holding large photos of Jamal Khashoggi.
Gillespie using a police shield to batter his way into Capitol, from FBI affidavit.
Update: Released on $10,000 bail, has until Wednesday to get all the guns out of his house. Next court hearing is Thursday.
An Athol man was charged today with using a shield to ram police officers as he screamed "traitor!" and "treason!" at them during the failed coup at the Capitol last Jan. 6, the US Attorney's office reports. Read more.
NBC Boston reports a sheep at a Bolton farm killed a volunteer by ramming her repeatedly.
WBZ reports UMass Memorial terminated the employees on Dec. 1 after they missed a Nov. 1 deadline to get fully vaccinated against Covid-19. UMass Memorial has some 15,000 total workers.
Kokou Kuakumensah, 31, of Worcester, was sentenced to five years in federal prison today after admitting he programmed blank credit cards with other people's digits and then used them at ticket kiosks at MBTA stations to buy monthly passes he'd then sell through Craigslist and at the Grafton station on the Worcester line, the US Attorney's office reports. Read more.
1st District Rep. Richard Neal has rewarded his insurance corporation sponsors by proposing an alternative to Biden's Paid Family Leave plan that would benefit those corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens.
A Springfield minister whose son is a senior majoring in architecture at UMass Amherst has posted a copy of a racist email sent to Black students on campus. Read more.
Update, 8:07 p.m.: He's made it to Philadelphia and discovers that "SEPTA is evil."
Jules Wang set out early this morning to see just how far south he could get strictly on public transit (not including Amtrak). Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today said a man on involuntary commitment to Bridgewater State Hospital has to be transferred to a less restrictive state mental hospital and that the state Department of Corrections can't simply disregard a judge's order to do so. Read more.
ProPublica and WBUR investigated the Civil Asset Forfeiture practices of Worcester County DA Joseph D. Early Jr.
Massachusetts is an outlier among states when it comes to civil forfeiture laws. Prosecutors in the commonwealth are able to keep seized assets using a lower legal bar than in any other state.
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