A pedestrian was killed after being hit by a car in Boston early Wednesday morning, according to authorities.
The crash occurred just after 4:30 a.m. at Hampden Street and Melnea Cass Boulevard, Boston police said, causing the area to shut down.
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Massachusetts
Rain, strong winds Wednesday followed by big temperature drop
After a record-warm afternoon Tuesday in central Massachusetts, Wednesday will be a wet one. On-and-off rain, heavy at times, will persist throughout the day.
While a break in the rain is possible from late morning to early afternoon, another round…
Embattled Brockton superintendent unretires, is put on leave at fiery school committee meeting
At a wild meeting Tuesday night to discuss high school violence in Brockton, Massachusetts, chaos in the district’s leadership was on full display.
Superintendent Michael Thomas went out on medical leave a short time before last summer’s announcement of a $14 million budget shortfall at Brockton Public Schools. According to NBC affiliate WJAR, he had planned to retire next month.
At Tuesday’s emergency school committee meeting, as community members discussed what’s next for Brockton High School after Gov. Maura Healey quashed a proposal to bring in the National Guard to curb student violence, Thomas said he was rescinding his retirement notice.
“If Mike Thomas was here, this stuff at the high school, you know, would not be happening,” Thomas said.
The Brockton School Committee did not accept Thomas’ move to return, voting at the same meeting to place him on paid administrative leave.
Mayor Robert Sullivan announced on Aug. 31, 2023, that Brockton Public Schools’ budget was short $14 million for the fiscal year.
In an interview with NBC10 Boston days after the deficit came to light, Thomas said it was “Nothing criminal, nothing inappropriate.”
“It’s just, you know, things go quickly in a school district,” he said in September. “Staffing. Extra staff. We had safety and security concerns. We had transportation costs for a lot of different reasons. So there’s a lot of different things that went into it.”
At one point Tuesday, Sullivan shouted that he didn’t have prior knowledge of the shortfall.
“I was not made aware of a Fiscal ’23 deficit until the date of Aug. 8, and that’s a fact,” the mayor yelled.
Like Healey, Sullivan objected to the idea of a National Guard presence at Brockton High School, proposed by four school committee members.
“I do oppose it, I don’t think it’s the right endeavor, but what I didn’t oppose is sending it to the governor,” he said Monday. “Out of respect for the elected officials, just like I am, I sent it up there.”
Parents, teachers and other community members shared their thoughts on making the school safe at Tuesday’s meeting.
“In looking at the school safety issues, I found the school district’s most current security plan is approximately 10 years old,” Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez said.
She highlighted ways to bolster security, including tightening classroom security, controlling access to the school and training personnel.
Some teachers say that’s not enough.
“This is the first year I’ve ever thought that I could be hurt,” said math teacher Julie Fairfield. “You have that few who are really bad, and they’re so bad.”
New immigration court in Chelmsford aims to ease Mass. case backlog
A new federal immigration court will soon open in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
Migrants are continuing to arrive each day, with most awaiting court dates for judges to hear their cases.
As the situation continues to burden the court system, the U.S. Department of Justice plans to open the new Lowell Immigration Court on Chelmsford’s Apollo Drive.
“I hope it provides immediate relief to many, many families who are waiting in this backlog,” said Sarah Sherman-Stokes, associate director of the immigrants’ rights and human trafficking program at the Boston University School of Law.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, says the new facility is opening up in an effort to help combat Massachusetts’ immigration court backlog, currently the seventh-largest in the nation.
But Sherman-Stokes says this is the wrong response.
“We don’t have to continue building jails. We don’t have to continue building courts,” she said. “We could make different decisions on the front end about who we arrest at the border, who we place in deportation proceedings.”
The Executive Office for Immigration Review says its highest priority is reducing the backlog. It says it is encouraging the use of pre-hearing conferences to resolve matters that don’t require valuable court docket time, as well as allowing lawyers to assist noncitizens with proceedings without requiring them to commit to full cases.
The court is expected to open in early April.
More on Massachusetts’ migrant crisis
Healey continues to knock major health provider
BOSTON — Steward Health Care, which teeters on a financial crisis that could put multiple Massachusetts hospitals in jeopardy, is a “house of cards and a charade,” Gov. Maura Healey said on Monday, continuing to lash out at the for-profit health care system that is one of the state’s largest employers.
Pedestrian hit by vehicle in Roslindale
A pedestrian was hospitalized after being hit by a vehicle Tuesday in Boston’s Roslindale neighborhood.
The crash happened around 6:45 p.m. on Washington Street, Boston police said. Aerial footage showed the major thoroughfare blocked off nea…
