Suffolk County, Boston | featured news

Kali Flanagan started out as a figure skater at the age of 4 but got her first taste of defeat two years later, when she placed third to her younger sister’s first-place win at a figure-skating competition in Acton.That upset could have been the end of her fledgling career on ice. But one day not long afterward, her father, Bill Flanagan, a hockey coach and former Division 1 player, came home and found her in the basement, knee-deep in his hockey gear, swallowed by his old jersey.

Marijuana growers, consumers and entrepreneurs from far and wide will flock to the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center this weekend to take part in the fourth annual New England Cannabis Convention, where attendees can explore the latest trends in the booming recreational pot industry.The convention, branded as one of the largest and most influential events of its kind in the U.S., featuring more than 200 vendors, is expected to draw 6,000 people to Hynes before it wraps up this evening, according to NECANN co-founder and President Marc Shepard.

When a gunman armed with an assault weapon opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last month, 17-year-old Leonor Munoz was among the students who hid in a classroom, worried that she would be among the 17 people who lost their lives that day. In the days and weeks that followed, Munoz mourned the friends she lost, and struggled to come to terms with the unspeakable tragedy that unfolded before her eyes.

Waving American and Gadsden flags, dozens of gun-rights activists surrounded by police held a counterprotest on Boston Common yesterday as tens of thousands of area residents participated in the March For Our Lives, a demonstration advocating for stricter gun regulations that they say infringe on the Second Amendment.

T.J. McDonald, a 17-year-old junior at Blue Hills Regional Technical High School in Canton, said she decided to join dozens of pro-gun-rights activists on the Common yesterday to show that not all high school students support stricter gun laws and to preserve her right to own a gun.

Tens of thousands students, parents, teachers and concerned residents followed a group local teenagers and survivors of a horrific school shooting in Florida in a march to Boston Common yesterday, where they called for stricter gun regulations and an end to gun violence.

BOSTON — Massachusetts homeowners who want to replace older, inefficient woodstoves with cleaner, EPA-certified wood and pellet stove models may be able to get help from the state.Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has announced $450,000 in funding for the 2018 Commonwealth Woodstove Change-out Program.Baker said the program helps homeowners install new wood stove models that use less fuel, reduce energy costs, and improve air quality in homes.

PALMER, Mass. — Investigators say smoking caused a fatal fire at a Palmer apartment building this week.Authorities on Friday said the cause of the blaze reported at about 2 a.m. Thursday was the "improper disposal of smoking materials."The fire claimed the life of a man believed to be 66 years old. His name was not released pending proper identification and notification of family.

AYER, Mass. — An explosion at a Massachusetts manufacturing facility has killed one worker and injured another.Officials say the man was an employee at Advanced Vacuum Systems in Ayer, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Boston.The Middlesex District Attorney's office says its investigation suggests the explosion was the result of a pressure vessel malfunction.The workers have not been identified.Two firefighters also sustained minor injuries.

BOSTON — Jill Biden and Colin Powell will be visiting Boston to speak at a national conference for teachers and school officials.They're among a slate of figures lined up to talk at the annual gathering of the nonprofit Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.Biden, the wife of former Vice President Joe Biden, is scheduled to speak Saturday at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.She previously taught at a public high school and a community college in Delaware before becoming second lady.