Suffolk County, Boston | featured news

BOSTON — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is exploring hate speech and the First Amendment at an event in Boston.Breyer is scheduled to have a public discussion on Thursday with the president of the National Constitution Center, a nonprofit history museum in Philadelphia.It's being held at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a Boston museum and education group.

WASHINGTON — President Trump fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin yesterday in the wake of a bruising ethics scandal and a mounting rebellion within the agency, and nominated White House doctor Ronny Jackson to lead the agency.

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador’s government said yesterday it has cut off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s internet connection at the nation’s London embassy after his recent activity on social media decrying the arrest of a Catalan separatist politician.In a statement, officials said Assange’s recent posts “put at risk” the good relations Ecuador maintains with nations throughout Europe and had decided as of Tuesday to suspend his internet access “in order to prevent any potential harm.”

At least nine top Boston Public School administration jobs have been posted with deadlines to apply by April 20 — with current jobholders required to reapply — as Superintendent Tommy Chang reorganizes.The reshuffling comes after Chang and the district have been lambasted by parents, families, teachers and civil rights groups for a botched rollout of proposed new bell times and a lack of family engagement. The district is also debating major overhauls such as a new grade configuration and the Build BPS plan to renovate the 125 schools.

An Uber driver testified yesterday about the snowy morning in South Boston when an allegedly intoxicated off-duty cop attacked him from the back seat, clawing at his face, pummeling him in the ribs — even threatening to kill him, Luis Blanco claimed.

Women who say they’ve faced constant sexual harassment and abuse while working in restaurants are set to rally at the State House today against a #MeToo environment they say makes them choose between dignity and tips.“We need the legislators to know that time’s up. Time’s up, and the industry needs to change,” said Saru Jayaraman, president of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a food-service workers’ advocacy group leading the 1:15 p.m. assembly.

A Dorchester husband and wife are accused of defrauding the state’s Medicaid program out of $18,000 by using a relative’s treatment as a cover to file false claims — even after she died, Attorney General Maura Healey announced yesterday.Theodore Gilbert, 54, and his wife, Madeline Garcia Gilbert, 51, were indicted Monday by a Suffolk grand jury on one count each of Medicaid false claims and larceny over $250, Healey said in a statement.The couple is expected to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on April 23.

City Hall officials say Boston has “robust” security in place to prevent cyberattacks like the ones that recently disrupted operations in Atlanta and Baltimore — including 911 dispatch — but experts said cities need to have backups in place for when hackers break in.

An artist says pornographers who rented her Martha’s Vineyard home used “nearly every room” to make smutty videos — unbeknownst to her — violating the lease agreement, according to a federal lawsuit she filed this week.After buying a DVD from the production, the homeowner, Leah Bassett, compiled a list of the places where the company filmed: “Her bedrooms, her living room, her family room sofas, her stairway, atop her dining room table, her bathroom, her basement, atop her laundry room appliances, etc.,” the complaint states.

Marie Billiel, 28, works as a restaurant manager in Boston. She’s been in the local food service industry for more than a decade, working her way up washing dishes and waiting tables. At age 18, she worked as a server at a Massachusetts diner that she called a “hotbed” of harassment and abuse. Here’s her #MeToo story as told to the Herald’s Meghan Ottolini:I was working at this diner, it was really just a total cliched hotbed of sexual harassment. It was from all sides.