Suffolk County, Boston | featured news

The state’s highest court has agreed to consider the controversial texting suicide case of Michelle Carter, in a landmark move that will decide whether words alone are enough to convict someone of involuntary manslaughter.The Supreme Judicial Court yesterday afternoon notified Carter’s new high-powered defense team and Bristol prosecutors that it will hear her appeal – a decision that will require the court to delve into the murky intersection of modern technology, constitutional rights and homicide.

LYNN  — A Massachusetts woman has been found guilty of a charge related to the death of her 4-month-old son who prosecutors say was left "largely unattended" in a homeless shelter.The Essex County District Attorney's Office says 24-year-old Laci Kirk, of Lynn, was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail Wednesday after being found guilty of wonton or reckless child endangerment. Kirk already served eight and a half months of the sentence, and the remainder will be suspended if she complies with court-ordered sanctions.

The U.K. and U.S. are pressuring Russia to fess up to its alleged role in the near deadly use of a nerve agent on a former spy in southern England, warning that the undeterred use of internationally banned chemical weapons could lead to an increase in their use.U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Russia must come clean about its chemical weapons program and needs to fully cooperate in the U.K.’s investigation into the March 4 attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia.

For the third time in four years, the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade through South Boston will be cut short because of snow.“Yesterday’s snowfall makes it more difficult to manage this weekend’s parade in South Boston and it has created a situation where we do not feel that it is safe enough for children and families to watch the parade, especially on side streets, which are already difficult to navigate after a storm,” police Commissioner William B. Evans said yesterday in a statement.

CAMBRIDGE, Vt. — An avalanche hit six Army soldiers undergoing mountain-warfare training near Vermont’s highest peak yesterday, sending five to the hospital.Rescuers worked to evacuate the six soldiers training at Smugglers Notch, a narrow pass at the northern edge of Mount Mansfield. The base of the notch is surrounded by steep cliffs on both sides.Five soldiers were taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. None of the injuries was considered to be life-threatening. The sixth soldier returned to duty.

Hundreds of outraged Bay State students — saying they’re tired of active-shooter drills and mass-killing headlines — jammed the State House yesterday to demand stronger gun control, joining the national student walkout movement on their snow day.Throngs of students from at least 50 schools — including those in Somerville, Boston, Medford, Cambridge, Wellesley and Arlington — shouted “enough is enough” and wielded signs reading “fear has no place in our schools” and “protect our kids, not your guns.”

The recurring scenes of storm-battered power grid and utility crews racing to restore electricity for thousands of people is raising questions about whether upgrades are needed to keep the lights on when severe weather hits.Tens of thousands on the Cape remained in the dark last night in the wake of Tuesday’s nor’easter — the third in the past two weeks to slam New England and trigger mass power outages.

Notorious killer James “Whitey” Bulger’s prison badge is up for auction and had fetched a bid approaching $1,000 as of last night.Lelands.com is auctioning off the South Boston mobster’s Federal Bureau of Prisons badge. The top bid, as of early last night, was $861. The auctioning of the badge opened yesterday and bidding closes at 10 p.m. on March 23.The badge shows a faded mug shot of Bulger, lists him at 5-feet, 9-inches tall with blue eyes. His prison number is: 02182-748.

State troopers who claim they were ordered to scrub embarrassing information from a police report detailing the arrest a state judge’s daughter will today fight to keep their federal lawsuit against their former superiors alive.Troopers Ryan Sceviour and Ali Rei are suing former Col. Richard McKeon and retired Major Susan Anderson and claim that they were ordered under threat of discipline to edit from their reports statements that Alli Bibaud, the daughter of Judge Timothy Bibaud, allegedly made about trading sex for drugs and offering sex in exchange for leniency.

Recreational pot shops and weed grow houses need to be a half-mile apart, city planners are arguing, to prevent neighborhoods from being “overrun” with the smoke outlets.Boston’s zoning code already requires a half-mile buffer zone between medicinal marijuana dispensaries, but that was approved in early 2016 before the passage of the ballot question legalizing recreational pot and mandating store openings by July 1.