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A state police trooper under investigation for firing his rifle — possibly striking an ATV rider during a highway melee last weekend — is under new scrutiny for allegedly making racist and violent remarks online.If confirmed, the statements could constitute a fireable offense, Gov. Charlie Baker said.“I read some of the stuff that was posted. ... The fact that those posts and the vulgarity of them date back five, six, seven years — this is not an isolated incident,” Baker said yesterday.

Citing retaliation-wary staff, the House is weighing an overhaul of how it handles sexual harassment by creating a new office to investigate accusations, while leaving most decisions of disciplining lawmakers to an ad hoc group of fellow members.The proposal, drafted by House legal counsel and a group of outside attorneys, is intended to combat what they call an “imbedded power dynamic ... which discourages staff from reporting incidents or harassment due to the fear of retaliation.

Officials are on high alert and pleading with residents to flee flood zones as a potentially life-threatening storm prepares to wallop Boston and other coastal communities today and tomorrow, soaking the coast with 15-foot tides while battering it with 80 mph winds.“This could be very dangerous. There could be casualties if people aren’t smart and don’t heed officials,” said Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Taunton office. “If there’s a voluntary evacuation, do it.”

Local gun shops are so far not following retail giants Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart in their move this week to raise the age to buy guns, with one firearm outfitter saying the large corporations are just making a public relations move in the wake of the Parkland school shooting.Yesterday Kroger joined Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart to introduce new restrictions on gun sales.

Today’s storm is similar to one that rocked Boston and other coastal areas earlier this year, but will cause even more damage as strong winds, heavy rains and high tides create a dangerous mix, a weather expert said.The nasty nor’easter is expected to dump both snow and rain, along with 60 mph wind gusts, throughout the area, according to the National Weather Service. Like January’s storm, it is expected to hit during an astronomical high tide — but while that earlier storm only lasted for one high tide, this one will likely last for three.

An all-star defense team — including a former federal judge and an attorney who defended Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — are representing Michelle Carter in her pitch to have the state’s highest court throw out her unprecedented involuntary manslaughter conviction.Carter was given a 2 1⁄2-year jail sentence, with only 15 months to serve, last summer after Judge Lawrence Moniz found that she was responsible for Conrad Roy III’s suicide in July 2014.

Aaron Hernandez gushed about his child, struggled to visualize horses running free and promised “to do my best to stay out of trouble” in a touching letter he penned from prison a year before his suicide that is now up for auction.“Thanks for doing the locket for Avi for Valentine’s day. And whatever you want to do for my Shay is Perfect! Flowers would be more than perfect!” the fallen superstar tight end for the New England Patriots wrote to a woman on Jan. 25, 2016, referencing his toddler daughter Avielle and fiancee Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez.

Daniel Frisiello’s Facebook posts made no secret of his politics. The self-described Democrat and Catholic Charities worker was pro-gun control and anti-President Trump.But when FBI agents showed up early yesterday at the Hathaway Avenue home where he lives with his parents on a quiet cul-de-sac in Beverly, neighbors were stunned when they found out why.

An overflow crowd — including medical students dressed in traditional white jackets — gathered yesterday in Winchester to remember Deane Kenny Stryker.To keep her memory alive, friends and family vowed to work hard, be happy and be together.“Her sister said it best — the two pillars of her life were to work hard and be happy,” said the Rev. Heather Janules after Stryker’s funeral ceremony. “She was motivated to help people. It’s not an accident she was training to be a doctor.”

WEST BROOKFIELD — The bodies of a woman and three children were found yesterday in a home on Old Warren Road in West Brookfield, where homicide detectives and the state fire marshal’s office are investigating.Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said last night police were called to the home at 3:30 p.m. yesterday for a “well-being check” where they found the four bodies in an upstairs bedroom. A woman and a girl, 7, and two boys, ages 5 and 2, were found, he said.The deaths are being called “suspicious,” Early added.