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The trial of Boston Bruins star Milan Lucic is expected to start on Friday.

The hockey forward was arrested in November of 2023 for assault and battery on an intimate partner after an incident at his Boston apartment and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment several days later.

Lucic has been on an indefinite leave of absence from the team since that time and remains free on personal recognizance bail. He also entered the NHL players assistance program.

His trial is set to begin at 9 a.m. Friday.

At a pretrial hearing on Jan. 19, Lucic’s attorney requested a bench trial, waiving his client’s right to a jury trial. He appeared remotely at hearing via a Zoom call and didn’t speak other than to test his microphone for courtroom officials.

According to a police report provided to NBC10 Boston by sources, officers responded to Lucic’s residence in the early morning hours of Nov. 18 after a woman called 911 saying her husband had attempted to choke her.

Police said the woman later identified her husband as Lucic.

According to the police report, Lucic was upset over a cellphone and at one point, he allegedly grabbed his wife’s hair and pulled her back, telling her she wasn’t going anywhere.

Lucic’s wife told police that during the night, her husband couldn’t locate his phone after returning to the apartment after a night out. She said he began yelling at her, demanding his phone back, believing she had hidden it. She told him she didn’t have his phone and didn’t know where it was. That’s when the assault occurred.

When asked by police if Lucic had strangled her, she reportedly said no.

Officers said Lucic appeared intoxicated, telling them “nothing had happened” but refusing to explain any further. He was then arrested.

Police said they saw a broken lamp on one of the nightstands inside the apartment and what appeared to be a small amount of broken glass on the floor.

 The maximum penalty Lucic faces is 2.5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Lucic is a veteran of over 1,300 NHL games with the Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. He won the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 and is back with the team after signing a one-year free agent contract last summer worth $1 million with $500,000 in possible additional incentives.

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A fire broke out in a two-story home in Canton, Massachusetts, Thursday night, fire officials said.

The fire occurred just before 9:30 p.m. on Linden Glen Road, according to the Canton Fire Department.

When firefighters arrived, they saw flames coming from the second floor. The fire was quickly knocked down, the department said.

The home is currently unoccupied, fire officials said. No injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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A fresh coating to 2 inches of snow fell overnight. Roads are actually fine Friday morning with temperatures around 32 and the rock salt on the pavement did the job.

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A manhunt is underway Friday to find a man wanted in a stabbing in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

The incident happened at about 7 p.m. Thursday at Tewksbury Hospital, which is a state-run mental health facility.

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Violence has been a continuing problem among high school students in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Cellphone video shared with NBC10 Boston Friday shows students fighting on a stairwell in Brockton High School, the latest example of what staff members have said is an increasingly toxic environment.

Over the last few weeks, there have been several school committee meetings, with teachers saying there is a safety risk for staff and students.

One parent told NBC10 Boston Friday that school administrators that need to make immediate changes.

“It seems to be an ongoing issue that’s not getting resolved, and I think it’s in direct correlation with a lack of leadership and genuine care for what these students are going through,” the woman said. “Post-COVID, it’s been very difficult for a lot of members of this community, and I think the focus was kind of getting things done and not how we’re getting them done, and I feel like a lot of the student body has been neglected.”

In December 2022, a teacher’s arm was broken when trying to break up a fight. This year, administrators are still trying to find ways to curtail violence.

The next school committee meeting is at 7 p.m. on March 5.

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The latest power failure on the MBTA comes as the T tries to get back on track. But slowdowns, outages and shutdowns for repairs have left MBTA riders packing their patience once again after years of safety concerns on the rails.

As the MBTA continues to put out fires across the aging infrastructure, the work comes with a bit of sticker shock along the way. The NBC10 Boston Investigators followed the money and found hundreds of millions of dollars in overtime, year after year.

Taxpayers doled out $510 million in overtime in 2022 and $553 million in 2023.

Stefan Wuensch, who co-chairs the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee, said there’s no lack of places where that money could be spent.

“The concern is always, ‘Would that money be better used to improve safety in a more tangible way? Could it be spent better? Could it be better used by low-income fares?’ Which is now on the table, thankfully,” said Wuensch.

While many riders struggle to afford public transit, some MBTA employees are cashing in.

The MBTA shelled out more than $3.5 million in overtime for 25 foreperson-wirepersons in two years. The top earner almost tripled his pay to $413,192 in 2022, thanks to almost $262,000 in overtime.

“Overtime is a key part of our toolbox,” General Manager Phillip Eng told the NBC10 Boston Investigators. “At the same time, the T can be more efficient.”

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Eng says to get the MBTA back up to speed, it needs more of these workers who oversee and maintain the power systemwide.

“Our system needs some TLC, and the power system is one that 76% of it is not in a state of good repair,” said Eng.

That age was on display last month, when a decades-old power cable caught fire, bringing Orange Line and Red line service to a halt. The MBTA believes the wire that failed was 40 years old or older.

The foreperson-wireperson positions are jobs where safety is key, but records obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators show some of those workers are clocking in long days, seven days a week.

During a two-week period in March, that highest earner worked 233.5 hours, including 154 in overtime — averaging almost 17 hours a day. Those hours, unless approved, are far beyond the 24 hours of OT allowed per week, according to the employee handbook.

It comes at a time when safety is in the spotlight, with the Federal Transit Administration demanding improvement.

“The FTA wants the safety to be systemic,” said Wuensch.

When asked why the overtime is needed and about safety concerns, Eng said, “We are managing it from the perspective of making sure that our employees are able to perform work safely, but we also know that moving forward, as we better schedule work and as we repair our system, we will better control overtime.”

Eng also emphasized that the foreperson-wirepersons perform critical work and said the MBTA is trying to figure out how many more it needs to hire. Until then, wellness checks are being done on employees working long hours to make sure everyone is safe.