Massachusetts, Norfolk County | featured news

There was heavy police presence Friday afternoon at the Willard Street rotary in West Quincy after officers stopped at least one person suspected of a shoplifting crime in Randolph.

A Quincy fire sprinkler company will have to pay more than $96,000 in restitution and fines for not paying employees prevailing wage and for failing to provide records for inspection, the state Attorney General’s office has ordered.

Senate President Therese Murray told Democratic senators during a private caucus meeting on Thursday that she intends to finish her term and remain in the Senate at least through the end of 2014, according to multiple Senate Democrats in attendance.

A Japanese soldier who fought for 30 years after World War II ended died today at age 91. Hiroo Onoda was stationed on an island of the Philippines, and until the 1970s, he hid in the jungle, still fighting the war. People told him the war had ended and Japan had lost, but he refused to believe it. He finally came out of the jungle and went back to Japan after his commanding officer visited him in the jungle and told him the war was over and he was released from his duties.

Sure, New England’s football team making a push in the NFL playoffs is nothing new, but local residents still know how to get in the spirit before a big game. And that’s the case heading into Sunday’s AFC Championship between the Patriots and Denver Broncos.

Denver resident Laura Kemp is a long way from her childhood home in Rockland, but she hasn’t abandoned her hometown allegiances. Kemp, 26, plans to dress head-to-toe in Patriots gear, recruit other transplants from the Boston area and gather outside the Denver Broncos’ stadium on Sunday.

South Shore Hospital and Partners HealthCare are pushing back against a report by a state commission that harshly criticized their proposal to merge, saying the commission ignored ways the deal would cut costs and improve patient care and asking it to strike major sections from its final report.

It's amazing the things that turn up when you clean the office. Take our sports page from Dec. 12, 2000, kicking off a series on the sad state of pro sports in Boston. At the time, the city had gone 14 years without a world championship. Now as the underdog Patriots face the Broncos in Sunday's AFC championship, think back 13 years to a time when heartache was all we knew.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that the Republican-controlled House won’t take up legislation aimed at delaying implementation of a 2012 overhaul of the federal flood insurance program that is hitting homeowners with big premium hikes.

A flood of donations for two Canton children whose parents both died in the past three months overloaded a fundraising website on Thursday and pushed the family’s fund past $120,000 as of early this morning.