Suffolk County, Boston | featured news

ATTLEBORO — A woman who allegedly shot at a Massachusetts state trooper in 2015 has been found competent to stand trial.The Sun Chronicle reports that 49-year-old Julie Rabinowitz was found competent Wednesday after a state forensic psychologist examined her and reviewed previous assessments.Authorities say shot at the trooper as he drove in Mansfield in 2015. The trooper wasn't injured and the shooter fled, but investigators found a rifle and a hat at the scene.

Listen live today as ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone join's the Rundown on Boston Herald Radio.Listen in the player above, click here for the Herald radio player. -- Online: http://www.bostonherald.com/radioplayer/

WORCESTER  — A Massachusetts man charged with robbing and fatally beating his neighbor has been held without bail.The Telegram & Gazette reports that 33-year-old Matthew Vanier, of Gardner, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges this week in Worcester Superior Court in the December death of Randy Vallaincourt.Vanier did not speak other than entering his pleas and his lawyer did not contest the bail or discuss the case.

More than 300,000 Bay Staters are without power this morning as a nor'easter continues to pound winter-weary Massachusetts.National Grid reports it has 277,524 customers without power; Eversource, 56,668.Snowfall totals vary wildly across the state, from 2 inches in Weymouth, to 7 inches in South Boston, to 17 inches in Worcester County, according to the National Weather Service.A winter storm warning will remain in effect until 1 p.m.

BROOKLINE  — A best-selling author and medical director of a renowned trauma center in Massachusetts has been fired from his job amid accusations of employee mistreatment.The Boston Globe reports Dr. Bessel van der Kolk was removed from his position at the Brookline Trauma Center in January, which he founded 35 years ago.Andy Pond, president of the nonprofit organization Justice Resource Institute, says van der Kolk created a hostile work environment and made employees feel denigrated and uncomfortable.

BOURNE — A member of a Massachusetts town's governing board charged with attacking his girlfriend and threatening her with a baseball bat has resigned.In a letter read during the Bourne Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday, member Michael Blanton said his resignation is effective immediately. The 49-year-old says he cannot represent the people of Bourne in the way he envisioned or the way the people deserve.Blanton is accused of attacking the woman Nov. 4 and Feb. 25. He was arraigned Monday and ordered held as a danger.

Call her ... Jane Dough.The mystery woman who won the nearly $560 million Powerball jackpot in New Hampshire two months ago accepted the massive prize through her attorneys yesterday. Her lawyers also announced several big donations to charity — including $150,000 to Girls Inc. and $33,000 each to three New Hampshire chapters of End 68 Hours of Hunger.

A Fall River man facing larceny charges for allegedly swiping his ex-girlfriend’s weed stash out of her lockbox as she slept says he’s been wrongly accused.“The whole story ... I don’t even smoke marijuana,” Michael Wahl, 27, told the Herald yesterday, hours after Fall River police issued a press release detailing his arrest Tuesday for allegedly stealing marijuana and cash out of his ex-girlfriend’s safe.“I left her house. I didn’t even touch her safe,” Wahl said. “I don’t know the password.”

U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, one of the labor movement’s staunchest advocates in Congress, is pushing back against proposed tariffs on aluminum and steel, saying the move by the Trump administration will hurt U.S. manufacturing.

A Boston IRS agent accused of sexually assaulting a handcuffed college student at gunpoint inside his government-owned car last summer was indicted on rape charges yesterday, prompting one Bay State congressman to vow to launch an inquiry into the agency’s handling of the incident.James Clarke, 44, an IRS agent based out of the agency’s Boston office, was charged with aggravated rape, rape, indecent assault and battery, strangulation and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office.