Metro

The state Senate voted 36 to 3 Thursday night to approve a $33.99 billion budget for fiscal 2014, adding $68.4 million in spending to the plan over two days of debate. 

Middlesex County Sheriff ­Peter J. Koutoujian said Thursday that he will run to succeed US Representative Edward J. Markey if the Malden Democrat defeats Republican Gabriel E. Gomez in the US Senate race. 

Edward J. Markey has not cast a vote in Congress since May 9, missing the last 40 votes before the chamber. 

Neil M.M. Morrison was fined for his role as chief political adviser for Timothy Cahill. 

A Toronto woman has pleaded guilty to trespassing near last week’s celebrity polo match and fund-raiser held by Britain’s Prince Harry in Greenwich. Police said Wen Qi, 36, was on a list of potential trespassers. The Stamford Advocate reported that Qi told authorities she was a freelance journalist after being caught on private property near the Greenwich Polo Club. 

A bill requiring police officers to record additional details of their traffic stops in an effort to avoid racial profiling is moving to the Connecticut governor’s desk. The legislation, which the House of Representatives passed Thursday, 130 to 0, stems from recommendations from the Racial Profiling Prohibition Project Advisory Board. 

Three men facing murder charges in connection with a triple slaying in Berkshire County will go on trial in January, a judge has ruled. Adam Lee Hall, David Chalue, and Caius Veiovis appeared together in court on Wednesday for the first time since their arraignment 18 months ago amid heavy security. 

A woman was killed while trying to cross Cranberry Highway in Wareham Wednesday evening, Wareham police said. Officers responded to a car accident involving a pedestrian near the Liquor Locker on Route 6/Route 28 about 8:30 p.m. and found the woman’s body. She was struck by a Jeep Cherokee driven by a 22-year-old Wareham man, police said Wednesday night. 

Councilor at Large Felix G. Arroyo became the fourth mayoral candidate to qualify for the ballot Thursday when Boston election officials verified that he had submitted signatures from at least 3,000 registered voters. The Election Commission must still certify the final count.“We thank the hundreds of volunteers and the close to 8,500 people that signed the papers,” Arroyo’s campaign manager, Clare Kelly, said in an e-mail.Sixteen people submitted a substantial number of nomination papers to run in the Sept. 24 preliminary election. Three other candidates have had enough signatures tallied by election officials to make the ballot: state Representative Martin J. Walsh, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, and Councilor at Large John R. Connolly. 

The Newport City Council has endorsed scaled-back plans by the state for repairs to the Cliff Walk and also approved a contract for new permanent restrooms near one entrance to the walk. The Newport Daily News reported that the vote Wednesday means that the state will now take the repair plan to Rhode Island’s Coastal Resource Management Council. 

A Medway doctor is facing charges that he wrote fraudulent narcotics prescriptions, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said. Prosecutors say Nicholas Pacella, 50, wrote seven oxycodone prescriptions for a woman who was not his patient between June 2007 and June 2008. The woman then filled the prescriptions using her private health insurance, and the two allegedly shared the drugs. 

A Foxborough man has been sentenced to five years in prison for what prosecutors said was his 15th drunken driving conviction. But a lawyer for Kenneth Norman, 65, said in court Wednesday that his client has a heart condition and that the five-year sentence is as good as a death sentence. He pointed out that Norman had never hurt anyone. 

A 24-year-old Lowell man has been charged with shooting at an undercover Lowell police detective at least five times Wednesday night, officials said. A not-guilty plea was entered on behalf of Ccshron Arthur Brown at his arraignment Thursday in Middlesex District Court on charge of armed assault with intent to murder and multiple gun charges, said MaryBeth Long, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex district attorney’s office. 

Maine’shighest court dismissed Thursday Ralph Nader’s lawsuit against Democrats he had accused of trying to keep him off ballots in Maine and other states during his failed presidential run in 2004. 

Hoping to turn an academic and economic corner, Roxbury Community College has tapped a career college administrator from Illinois to move the school beyond the scandals and investigations that have roiled the campus.The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education announced Thursday that it has approved the college trustees’ unanimous selection of Valerie R. Roberson as the school’s 15th president.RCC officials singled out her ability to raise funds and her emphasis on putting students first as evidence she has the skills to correct and improve critical lapses at RCC.“I’m certainly aware of the challenges, and I’m aware of the potential that is there,’’ Roberson said, noting her long career. “I am confident that I will get the institution past those challenges.” 

On June 30, 1961, the departure of Boston’s first Hyannis-bound train in 24 years was met with glee by the 176 passengers on its maiden voyage, with one train operator declaring, “It’s good to be back on this run.”On the last Friday of June 1984, Governor Michael S. Dukakis smashed a bottle of champagne on another train, the first to depart Boston bound for Cape Cod in nearly two decades, and declared it “the Spirit of Massachusetts.”And on Friday afternoon, Cape Cod rail service will make a comeback once again, with passengers set to climb aboard the 5:12 p.m. CapeFlyer at South Station as it departs for Hyannis, the latest iteration in an on-again-off-again history of Boston-Cape train service that has spanned more than a century. 

CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire could soon join 18 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing seriously ill people to use marijuana in their medical treatment.The state Senate voted 18 to 6 Thursday to pass a bill legalizing marijuana use and possession by patients with cancer and conditions such as Crohn’s disease. The bill now goes back to the House, which is expected to ask to negotiate a compromise.Senators bowed to Governor Maggie Hassan’s wishes and eliminated the option for patients to grow the drug at home, as well as to obtain it at a dispensary. The House bill provides both options. Supporters of the home-grow option say that it is crucial to ensure immediate access for terminally ill patients. 

In a packed theater on Huntington Avenue, high school students, teachers, and spectators gathered to cheer each other on and compete for the first place prize in the “Louder than a Bomb” poetry slam competition.While the majority of the poems had nothing to do with the tragic events that happened over a month ago at the Boston Marathon and instead focused on youth identity staples like looking for a seat at the lunch table, one of the opening acts featured four young women from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School who stood at the front of the stage wearing matching blue and black shirts. 

A state transportation board member who interrupted a presentation Wednesday with a call to postpone a vote on a $500 million megadevelopment said in an interview Thursday that she is now ready to approve an agreement allowing Fenway Center construction to begin.The startling postponement, which temporarily cast doubt on the future of the landmark project over the Massachusetts Turnpike, apparently resulted from miscommunication — documents that existed but went unread or unshared — between Patrick administration staff and some members of the volunteer board charged with overseeing the state’s sprawling, complex transportation system.The sigh of relief among proponents of the Fenway Center — vying to be the first development on “air rights” over the Pike since Copley Place a generation ago — came after a meeting that exposed the occasional tension between the unpaid governing board, still in its infancy, and the administrators who manage the Department of Transportation on a daily basis. 

The triple homicide was assumed to be a drug deal gone bad, but now authorities say bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have helped kill the men. 

The Boston Public Schools has rated 92 percent of all teachers as proficient or exemplary under a new evaluation system. 

Seven-year-old Sophie Orange organized a pajama day at her all-girls school in England to raise money for victims of the Boston bombings. 

For the first time in more than a decade, a new company will operate the MBTA’s commuter ferry service between Boston and Quincy and Hull, officials said.The state Transportation Department board on Wednesday awarded Nolan Associates LLC, doing business as Boston Harbor Cruises, a three-year, nine-month contract for submitting the lowest bid of $15,793,105, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. The contract begins July 1.The current holder of the contract, Water Transportation Alternatives Inc., doing business as Boston’s Best Cruises, lost after submitting a bid that was $793,444 higher, Pesaturo said. The company has held the contract with a subsidy since 2002, when the service became MBTA-owned, he said.The website for Boston’s Best Cruises says the company has operated the ferry routes since 1996. 

In its toughest sanction yet on pay-to play-schemes, the Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered Neil M.M. Morrison, a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and ex-top state treasury aide to Timothy P. Cahill, to pay a $100,000 civil penalty for his role a chief political adviser and fund-raiser for Cahill.The agency’s order also bars Morrison from working in the securities industry for five years as part of the negotiated settlement that brings to an end a two-and-a-half-year investigation into his activities as campaign fund-raiser and chief adviser to Cahill’s campaign for governor in 2010.The fine and the five-year disbarment, announced Thursday, is the most severe penalty that the SEC has imposed in the enforcement of its pay-to-play scheme regulations, according to Elaine C. Greenberg, the chief of the agency’s municipal securities and public pension unit. 

Fifty-five Boston police recruits will be deployed to walk the streets and interact with residents in hot spots across the city this summer, one of many components of the city’s sweeping strategy to prevent violence during the months when it typically spikes.“I’ve directed my summer safety team to do more this year, to be more proactive, more visible, and more available to the public than ever before,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said during a press conference at City Hall to announce his comprehensive plan to combat violent crime in the upcoming months.The recruits will be “highly visible” on bike and on foot in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan, with the goal of patrolling 45,000 beats by the end of August, said Police Commissioner Edward F.Davis. 

The Rev. Joseph F. Byrne has been reinstated to the ministry after the Archdiocese of Boston cleared the 69-year-old priest of sexual abuse allegations, the archdiocese said Thursday.Byrne was placed on administrative leave in May 2012 after someone contacted the archdiocese with an allegation that he had sexually abused a child in the 1970s. The allegation was found to be unsubstantiated, the archdiocese said.According to Byrne’s assignment history, he served at St. Matthew’s parish in Dorchester from 1969 to 1975, then moved to St. John the Baptist Church in Quincy.As a result of the findings, Byrne is no longer on administrative leave and has been assigned the status of senior priest, the archdiocese said. 

Federal prosecutors demanded Bulger’s defense lawyers stop engaging in “media grandstanding’’ and spreading “false facts” about the case. 

Runners who were unable to cross the finish line in April will have a chance to cover the final mile, and Boston’s Run to Remember will pay tribute to slain MIT officer Sean Collier. 

How could I allow my son to participate in an organization that would discriminate against our gay and lesbian family members and friends? 

A police spokesman confirmed that a male and a female were shot at about 4:20 p.m. and said that at least one of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries. 

The family of Martin Richard, who was killed in the blasts, said his sister, Jane, is “in good spirits and looking forward to beginning the next phase of her recovery.” 

The plan includes expanded recreational and job programming, such as a door-to-door campaign to educate youth about city-sponsored summer activities, and more police beats. 

The administration said it made progress in making sure benefits only go to those eligible to receive them. 

The sister of an accused murderer was arraigned Wednesday on two counts of witness intimidation and one count of making harassing phone calls. 

Gary Alan Irving spent 34 years on run and was captured by Massachusetts State Police earlier this year in Maine. 

A Medway doctor is facing charges that he allegedly wrote fraudulent narcotics prescriptions, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said. Authorities allege Nicholas Pacella, 50, wrote seven oxycodone prescriptions for a woman who was not his patient between June 2007 and June 2008, prosecutors said. The woman then filed the prescriptions using her private health insurance — and the two allegedly shared the drugs.  

Edward Markey had been pressed by the media for the past week about whether he would open his tax returns to scrutiny, and when. 

The wife and best friend of the Chechen man killed by an FBI agent in Orlando Wednesday say he was not questioned about the unsolved murders.  

William J. Maloney, 56, was arraigned in Lawrence District Court Thursday after he allegedly forced another car off the road and onto the porch of a house. 

Ccshron Arthur Brown is to be arraigned today at Middlesex District Court for firing at Detective Nathan Bowler. 

Another day, another shot at severe weather. Showers are possible all day, with chances for storms increasing as the day goes on, National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Foley said. This afternoon, showers and thunderstorms bringing strong winds and heavy downpours are expected to pop up across the state until roughly midnight, the weather service said in a hazardous weather outlook issued this morning. 

A woman was killed while trying to cross Cranberry Highway in Wareham Wednesday evening, Wareham police said. Officers responded to a car accident involving a pedestrian near the Liquor Locker on Route 6/Route 28 around 8:30 p.m., and found the woman’s body. She was struck by an eastbound 2002 Jeep Cherokee driven by a 22-year-old Wareham man, police said in a statement issued last night. The driver was not injured. 

Ibragim Todashev, slain by an agent, considered skipping the session, a friend said. 

Two tornado warnings were issued late Wednesday afternoon for Franklin and Worcester counties in Western and Central Massachusetts, as strong storms rumbled through, but there were no confirmed reports of a funnel cloud touching down, said Matthew Belk, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Taunton. 

The Boston School Committee offered the interim superintendent post Wednesday to John McDonough, the School Department’s chief financial officer. 

A coal-fired power plant frequently listed as one of the most polluting in the state has sharply reduced mercury emissions.  

A second suspect was arrested and charged with murder Wednesday in the shooting of a man in Brockton on May 14, said the office of Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz.  

Roxbury Community College has a new chairman of its board of trustees. Governor Deval Patrick appointed Gerald ­Chertavian Wednesday to the post, said the Executive Office of Education. 

The Massachusetts House unanimously passed a bill Wednesday that would move 17-year-old offenders into the ­juvenile justice system, ending the practice of routinely incarcerating them in adult correctional facilities. 

A lawyer fcr James “Whitey” Bulger urged a judge Wednesday to order prosecutors to identify a confidential informant who claimed that two of the gangster’s former associates boasted that they would protect their criminal friends while cooperating with the government against Bulger.Attorney Henry Brennan argued that the defense should be able to question the informant who told FBI agents that after Kevin Weeks and John Martorano struck deals with the government for leniency for their own crimes, the pair assured some of their underworld cohorts that they would not implicate them in any wrongdoing. 

The state official who oversees Lawrence’s ­finances has launched a review of operations of the city’s parking garages and lots after the Globe reported that the FBI is investigating a mysterious drop in parking revenues in recent months. 

Former state representative Stephen W. Doran was ordered held on $10,000 bail Wednesday, after he was charged with drug trafficking in allegedly receiving a package containing more than 400 grams of methamphetamine at a Jamaica Plain charter school where he worked as a tutor, authorities said.The package was mailed to Doran, 57, at the Match Charter Public Middle School, said the Suffolk district attorney’s office. Around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, State Police pulled over the vehicle Doran was driving after he left the school. They found two baggies containing 480 grams of what was believed to be methamphetamine, authorities said.Authorities said they found another 38 grams of the same substance, about $10,000 in cash, and a digital scale inside his Dorchester home. 

Twelve-year-old Sathwik Karnik won by naming the peak that is farthest from the center of the Earth, Chimborazo. 

Ms. Clift Jones, 72, offered insights to medical students and raised funds to support research into finding biomarkers for the disease. 

Rhode Island’s minimum wage would go up 25 cents to $8 per hour next year under legislation approved in the state Senate. The Senate voted in favor of the wage increase Wednesday. The bill now moves to the House for consideration. The minimum hourly wage is now $7.75 in Rhode Island. The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour. 

Executives from the Connecticut aerospace, biotech, and pharmaceutical industries are joining federal and state officials on an eight-day trade mission to China. Secretary of the State Denise Merrill is leading the trip, which aims to attract Chinese investment in Connecticut and increase the number of exports to China from Connecticut companies. Merrill said the trade mission that left Monday builds on momentum created by Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s trip to China in 2012. 

A 15-year-old girl found dead in woods north of Bangor knew the man charged with killing her, her best friend said, contrary to early reports that before her disappearance she had headed outside her Glenburn home to see someone she had only recently met on Facebook. Kyle Dube, 20, of Orono, had been friends with the victim, Nichole Cable, for a couple of months, and they had made plans to see each other the weekend that she disappeared, said Tyler-Ann Harris, 16, who described herself as Nichole’s best friend. 

The Maine Legislature has said no to a move to bar enforcement of the national health care law. The Senate agreed Tuesday with the House and voted to kill a bill that labeled the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 a violation of the US Constitution and null and void in Maine. 

An investigation has concluded that a Vermont state trooper was justified in the use of deadly force when he shot a man in a Danville school bus last year. William Mahoney of St. Johnsbury was shot by the trooper Sept. 18 after he allegedly stole a vehicle and then hid in the bus and broadcast threats on a school radio. 

Governor Paul LePage has vetoed a bill that would have banned smoking at all public university and college campuses in Maine. The Republican governor said in a veto message to the Legislature that ‘‘Maine people can make their own decisions’’ regarding tobacco. He suggested that people opposed to smoking bring forward a bill that bans tobacco altogether, rather than ‘‘a patchwork’’ of laws and regulations that dictates where tobacco can be used. 

The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority is installing an electronic toll system on the new Sakonnet River Bridge that authority chairman David Darlington said will probably be in place by the weekend, but will take about six weeks to wire and test, the Newport Daily News reported. The toll is set at 75 cents per trip for Rhode Islanders with an E-ZPass transponder. 

A sound study indicates that two industrial-sized turbines in Fairhaven are violating Massachusetts noise regulations. Testing by the Department of Environmental Protection was done to determine if the turbine noise is more than 10 decibels higher than ambient noise at homes where residents have complained about the turbines. 

Retired police officer Robert Cappucci said he has gathered more than 4,000 signatures in his bid for mayor of Boston, making him the 16th potential candidate.  

A Boston man said he was involved in a frightening altercation with Ibragim Todashev in February 2011.  

A veteran Democratic state representative from Worcester resigned Wednesday just as a House panel was poised to recommend that he be disciplined as part of an ethics investigation. 

A woman who was allegedly raped and shot five times testified in the trial of Keith Luke.  

A woman who was allegedly raped and shot five times testified in the trial of Keith Luke.  

Ibragim Todashev was involved in altercations in Florida and Mass., public records show.  

Edward J. MacKenzie, 54, was indicted on charges of racketeering, extortion, bribery, and money laundering. 

Stephen Doran allegedly received methamphetamine at a Jamaica Plain charter school where he tutors.  

Tad Devine, who worked on the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry, has joined the mayoral campaign of City Councilor Rob Consalvo.  

Severe storms could whip up damaging winds and drop large hail, forecasters say. 

A man with ties to Marathon bomb suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed while being questioned about a 2011 unsolved triple murder in Waltham.  

Watertown Police Chief Ed Deveau is seeking state and federal aid to help cover the costs related to the Marathon bombing response. 

A three-alarm fire completely destroyed the church, which was built in 1895. 

Santilli Circle would be replaced with a flyover from Route 16 as part of a multimillion-dollar traffic plan being developed for “Wynn Everett.”  

A look at the schools participating in the program. 

Revenue has dropped at a city-owned parking garage run by manager Justo Garcia, an ally of Mayor William Lantigua who is now the focus of an FBI investigation.  

Charter schools in the city show strong performances on standardized tests but fall short on four-year graduation rates, researchers found.  

Newton police secretary Jeanne Sweeney Mooney was found not guilty Tuesday of stealing from the department.