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A deadly batch of opiates has claimed the lives of four people in less than a day in Lowell, the city's fire department said today.Authorities suspect the "overdoses were a mix of heroin/fentanyl and cocaine/fentanyl," Lowell Fire Chief Jeffrey Winward said in a statement.The overdoses occurred over 12 hours. Authorities urge people to abstain from using opiates, but if addicts must, they ask them to do so in groups.

A Quincy woman is under arrest and expected to appear in district court this afternoon on charges she assaulted an 11-month-old baby girl last month. The child has since died.“This investigation is not yet complete, but working with Quincy police we have developed sufficient evidence for this charge to be brought and arraigned today,” Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said in a statement. “The investigation continues.”Authorities did not immediately say what, if any, relationship Shu Feng Hsu, 27, had to Chloe Chen.

It took 30 minutes for a homeless man to pilfer pills and two bottles of shampoo from the pockets and bags of a fellow vagrant who had dropped dead at the Downtown Crossing T station early yesterday morning.Police later collared Anthony Stimson, 30, blocks away with a bottle of 22 Gabapentin pills bearing the prescribed name of Willie Williams, the 52-year-old homeless man pronounced dead at 5:13 a.m. on the southbound platform for the Orange Line.

An early morning fire in the Three Rivers neighborhood of Palmer has claimed the life of an adult, the state Department of Fire Services reports.The blaze broke out at 2 a.m. in a multi-unit apartment building at 15 Springfield St., according to Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for state Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey.“We are working with the Three Rivers Fire Department, Palmer police and the Hampden District Attorney’s Office to determine where and how the fire started,” Mieth said.

SPRINGFIELD  — The trial of a Connecticut man police say was driving an SUV that crashed in Massachusetts, killing four passengers, has been delayed because he has a new lawyer.The Republican newspaper reports that 19-year-old Aaron Thorne was granted a new lawyer last week, pushing back the start of his trial. Thorne said his previous attorney didn't have a "positive attitude."

PALMER — One person has died in an early morning apartment building fire in Massachusetts.The fire in the Three Rivers section of Palmer was reported at about 2 a.m. Thursday and firefighters arrived to find heavy flames on a third-floor rear porch.Police tell westernmassnews.com that one person died. No name was immediately released.Authorities say 11 people lived in the brock building with six units.Fire departments from several surrounding communities helped battle the flames.The cause is under investigation.

NORTHAMPTON — A man who robbed the same Massachusetts bank twice in a year while armed with a large knife has been sentenced to up to eight years in prison.The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports that 43-year-old Mike Bedford, of Pittsfield, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to multiple counts of armed and masked robbery.Police say he robbed the Berkshire Bank branch in South Hadley in January and December of 2016. In both robberies, he wore a hood, gloves and a mask and wielded a large knife. He got away with more than $11,000 cash combined.

BOSTON — Longtime Boston television personality and entertainer Frank Avruch, who was the star of the popular children's TV program "Bozo the Clown," has died. He was 89.Avruch died Tuesday at his Boston home from heart disease, his family said in a statement to WCVB-TV .Avruch played Bozo the Clown from 1959 to 1970, a clown character particularly popular in the U.S. in the 1960s because of widespread franchising in television. Avruch became the first nationally-syndicated Bozo the Clown.

Two construction workers at an Allston job site fell 18 feet onto scaffolding and were stranded there yesterday afternoon until firefighters arrived to help, fire officials said.The two men were working on new construction on Western Avenue when, for reasons still under investigation, they plummeted onto exterior staging set up on the fifth floor.

A landmark East Boston diner’s owner has been charged with cheating the state out of $60,000 in taxes on $861,000 worth of eggs, pancakes and coffee orders.Donna Marquardo, 58, of Lynn, owner of Donna’s Restaurant at Saratoga and Bennington streets in Orient Heights, was due to be arraigned yesterday in East Boston District Court — but her case was pushed off to April 18 when Judge John E. McDonald Jr. recused himself after disclosing the two have a familial connection.Neither Marquardo nor her attorney William Lovett could be reached for comment.