Suffolk County, Boston | featured news

The Department of Justice seized the servers of online sex marketplace Backpage.com in part of an enforcement action involving the FBI, other federal agencies and attorneys general from Texas and California.The notorious website reads: “Backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized.”The downfall of the online nerve center for sex trafficking prompted celebrations from victim advocates.

An officer injured in a SWAT training exercise Wednesday is home from the hospital after sustaining serious injuries to his left hand.Authorities said the officer was using a 37 mm projectile launcher loaded with training rounds to aid in training in Bridgewater when the device exploded in his hands, according to a preliminary investigation.The unidentified officer was treated at the scene and transported by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital.Authorities said he sustained severe lacerations and permanent partial amputation of a fingertip on his left hand.

A federal judge yesterday dismissed the Gun Owners’ Action League’s challenge to the state’s copycat assault weapons ban, providing a big win for Attorney General Maura Healey, who targeted the weapons after the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., and drawing immediate criticism from the NRA.U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young in Boston upheld the state ban, stating the Second Amendment does not cover copycats of assault-style weapons, such as the Colt AR-15, or large capacity magazines, which were also regulated in the ban.

A 40-year-old Wareham man charged with attacking a woman, dousing her with fluid and lighting her home on fire was ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office.Mondel Johnson, of 18 Barker Road, East Wareham, was arrested Thursday in Fall River in connection with the arson that destroyed a home on Restful Lane in Wareham on March 29.According to Wareham police, Johnson attacked a woman inside the home, doused her with a fluid and set the home on fire.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren yesterday called on Congress to allocate $100 billion over the next 10 years to combat the opioid epidemic.At a press conference and panel discussion at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, the Massachusetts Democrat said she and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) plan to introduce legislation next week that would funnel the most money to communities with the highest drug overdose rates and those with the highest raw number of overdoses.

Mount Ida College is closing at the end of the spring term and handing over its prime 74-acre Newton campus to the University of Massachusetts in exchange for the system taking on the small private college’s debt.Mount Ida’s 280 faculty and staff will be laid off after the commencement in mid-May, the school said.The private liberal arts college’s 1,450 students will be automatically accepted for fall enrollment at UMass Dartmouth — more than 50 miles away — and given a path to finish their degrees there.

Fast-acting rescuers pulled two people, one in a wheelchair, from a van teetering 18 feet above the ground after an crash with a taxi sent them careening through a construction barrier in the Fenway.“Rescue Company 2 did a great job,” said Boston fire spokesman Marc Sanders. “The vehicle was placed in a very difficult area. They were able to rapidly secure the vehicle with chock blocks very quickly and safely. They did an excellent job.”

Officials at Mount Ida College have announced the acquisition of its campus and students by the University of Massachusetts Amherst this afternoon on the school's website.A statement from the Board of Trustees says that it reached a definitive agreement with UMass earlier today and that students in good academic standing will be offered automatic acceptance to UMass Dartmouth as part of the agreement.

A 27-year-old man from Boston is dead after a rollover accident early this morning on I-95 in Rhode Island.Rhode Island state police said Kearns Louis-Jean of Hyde Park was driving an SUV north of Exit 7 in East Greenwich when he lost control of his vehicle. The crash happened at approximately 5:30 a.m.The SUV went off the road and rolled over several times, state police said. Louis-Jean was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle.He was transported to Kent County Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang was touted in a long list of possible candidates for the L.A. school chief’s job, but he insists he’s staying put.The Los Angeles Times cited Chang, a former L.A. school administrator who oversaw more than 130 underperforming schools before coming to Boston in 2015, near the bottom of a list of more than a dozen people who potentially could be considered to lead the nation’s second largest school system.