Boston | featured news

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — The state is owed more than $15 million by out-of-state drivers who used the Massachusetts Turnpike without E-ZPass transponders, and much of it will likely never be collected.The state Transportation Department tells MassLive.com that since the cashless system replaced toll booths in October 2016, about $54 million has been collected from about 2 million out-of-state drivers who traveled Interstate 90 without transponders.

WORCESTER, Mass. — A group of University of Massachusetts Medical School students have taken part in a nationwide student "die-in" in their medical school's lobby.

A state police payroll director is being charged with allegedly stealing over $23,000 in travel and reimbursement funds from the department.Denise Ezekiel, 49 of Holbrook has been charged with one count of larceny over $250 in connection with allegedly misappropriating over $23,000 in travel and reimbursement funds through her role as Payroll Director at the Massachusetts State Police, according to a statement from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office.  

YARMOUTH, Mass. — A Massachusetts police officer killed in the line of duty was remembered at his funeral service on Wednesday for his faith, professionalism and engaging personality.Hundreds of family, friends and colleagues packed St. Pius X Roman Catholic church for the funeral Mass of Sean Gannon, a K-9 officer with the Yarmouth Police Department. Thousands of officers from around the country stood at attention outside.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A payroll director for the Massachusetts State Police has been on unpaid leave for several months for allegedly stealing money from the department.MassLive.com reports Denise Ezekiel was placed on leave in November according to a list of suspensions obtained by the newspaper in a public records request.State police spokesman David Procopio confirms the investigation, and says prosecutors will decide whether to bring criminal charges against Ezekiel. He says her leave is indefinite.

The heartbroken and disbelieving family of a Vermont native killed in a freak accident aboard a Southwest Airlines flight yesterday are grateful for Jennifer Riordan’s fellow passengers and the jetliner’s heroic pilot for giving her loved ones closure.“Thank you. Thank you that she didn’t go flying out the window and we wouldn’t have her. She was much more than a statistic,” Marianne Riordan, the Wells Fargo executive’s sister-in-law, told the Herald today from her home in Williston, Vt.

FITCHBURG -- Appearing together in court for the first time, the parents of a 6-year-old girl who died last week under "suspicious" circumstances each agreed to post a $250,000 cash bail before being released on charges related to the girl's death and her 9-year-old brother's alleged physical abuse during a Fitchburg District Court hearing this morning.Neither had posted bail yet and have not been released.

YARMOUTH — Thousands of police officers from hundreds of departments have marched to a church where the funeral for a Massachusetts officer killed in the line of duty is being held.A long ribbon of uniformed and white-gloved officers marched from the local high school to St. Pius X Roman Catholic church in Yarmouth on...

BOSTON — The killing of a Massachusetts police officer has some Republicans calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty for the murder of law enforcement officers.Recent attempts to restore capital punishment in the state have faltered, most recently after the killing of another police officer two years ago and in 2013, after the Boston Marathon bombing.The death of Sean Gannon, a Yarmouth K-9 officer who was fatally shot in the head while serving an arrest warrant last Thursday, has again raised the issue. Gannon's funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.

LOWELL, Mass. — The lawyer for a 71-year-old Marine Corps veteran charged with pulling a gun during a road rage confrontation in Massachusetts says the man only showed a weapon because he felt threatened.The Lowell Sun reports that an attorney for Roger Buonanno said his client felt threatened when he approached three men in a driveway in Billerica, one of whom was also armed.Prosecutors say Buonanno, of Tewksbury, had followed the men when he was cut off by their vehicle Saturday.