A court hearing is set Tuesday for Norfolk County murder defendants’ attempt to get evidence materials related to former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor‘s phones used in the Karen Read trial.
The Read trial evidence was given to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office on condition that it would only be used in the Read trial and then destroyed. But attorneys for Brian Walshe and others have been trying to get them to see if there is any exculpatory evidence in their cases.
Proctor investigated cases in the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
At a recent hearing, prosecutors told a judge that they believe they have a potential way of providing the materials, but still needed at least a couple more weeks to finalize the plan with the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Lawyers for Walshe and other murder defendants have been waiting months for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office to release critical evidence, including between 3,000 to 5,000 pieces of communication stored in Proctor’s cloud account. Similar evidence led to Proctor being fired for misconduct in the high-profile murder case of Read, who in June was found not guilty on the most serious charges she faced and guilty of the lowest form of a drunken driving charge.
Rosemary Scapicchio, the defense attorney representing 25-year-old Myles King, raised concerns at a previous hearing that the date when the evidence can be destroyed is drawing closer. King is accused of fatally shooting Marquis Simmons in Milton back in July 2021.
“I’m concerned that if at some point this court needs to make an order, we want to make sure we’re giving them enough time,” she said. “We can’t do what happened initially where the day before where we’re making phone calls and this stuff is getting destroyed tomorrow.”
The judge disagreed, however, saying he thought that a lot of progress had been made over the previous 25 days.
That brief hearing was continued until Tuesday, and the judge said that the hearing might not even be necessary, as the information might be able to be shared via letter. If the hearing is necessary, he said at the time that it would be used to determine next steps.
Walshe, 48, of Cohasset, faces first-degree murder, misleading a police investigation and other charges in the death of his wife, whose body has never been recovered. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Ana Walshe, who is originally from Serbia, was last seen early on Jan. 1, 2023 following a New Year’s Eve dinner at her Massachusetts home with her husband and a family friend, prosecutors said.
Brian Walshe said she was called back to Washington, D.C., on New Year’s Day for a work emergency. He didn’t contact her employer until Jan. 4. The company — the first to notify police that Ana Walshe was missing — said there was no emergency, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors have said that starting Jan. 1 and for several days after, Brian Walshe made multiple online searches for “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember.”
Prosecutors have also said that Ana Walshe had taken out $2.7 million in life insurance naming her husband as the sole beneficiary.
This is the strongest tornado to touch down in the United States since the Moore, Okla. twister on May 20, 2013.
What You Need To Know
A reevaluation of the June 20, 2025 tornado gave the rating EF5
This is the strongest tornado to touch down in the United States since 2013
Estimated winds in the twister exceeded 210 mph
June 20, 2025, was an active day of severe weather in the Plains. Meteorologist Carl Jones, with NWS Grand Forks, explained that 22 tornadoes touched down that day in North Dakota.
He added, “This is also a preliminary number that may yet change as we continue to scour satellite imagery and sift through damage reports (still!) and assess whether it was tornadic or not – much further complicated by the fact that large area within the state experience significant damage from the derecho in the same areas that saw tornadoes.”
The tornado south of Enderlin, N.D., was a strong tornado. “The initial storm damage survey team found severe damage consistent with an EF3 or greater tornado with a preliminary estimated peak wind speed of 160 mph.”
However, Jones says that wasn’t the end of it. “A Quick Response Team (QRT), a team of wind damage experts, was assembled and agreed that given the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale damage indicators available, there were points consistent with high-end EF3, if not greater.”
Meaning additional investigation was needed, and the tornado could end up being rated higher. A train derailment south of Enderlin, ND during the time of one twister was a big prompt for the reevaluation. Collaborating with structural damage experts, namely the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University’s Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory, they were able to model object trajectories and the force/wind required to move such objects.
This was important and Jones says, “Allowed for the capability to assess the train derailment of 33 train cars, including several full grain cars that were tilted over and tanker cars that were lofted off the track, that yielded the EF5 intensity rating.”
Here is video of some of the damage indicators referenced in the Enderlin, ND EF5 tornado upgrade. At :39 in…the tree damage referenced along the Maple River east of Enderlin. Also check out around 1:15 look at how wide the area is that the tornado pulled up/tilled those corn… pic.twitter.com/Q7jGga7heR
Additionally, other indicators for the reevaluation included high-end tree damage near the Maple River, east of Enderlin, as well as a foundation to a farmstead that was swept clean with debris scattered downwind.
Check out the tornado track on the interactive map below, and click on the icons for damage reports and photos. While several tornadoes touched down in North Dakota that day, the EF5-rated twister was located south of I-94, just north of Lisbon, N.D.
The tornado was on the ground for just under 20 minutes and traveled just over 12 miles. It reached 1 mile in width. While no injuries were reported from this twister, three deaths occurred.
May 20, 2013 EF5 tornado Moore, Okla.
What makes this newly revised classification of the twister so impressive is that this is the first EF5 tornado in more than twelve years. The last time a tornado this strong touched down in the United States was on May 20, 2013, in Moore, Okla.
A tornado outbreak occurred in the afternoon and evening of May 20, 2013. Several supercell thunderstorms developed during the early afternoon in central Oklahoma. One of these storms rapidly intensified, producing a tornado that touched down on the west side of Newcastle, Okla. The tornado became violent and then tracked across the city of Moore and parts of south Oklahoma City. It was on the ground for approximately 40 minutes before finally dissipating.
This photo was taken around 3:00 pm CDT on May 20, 2013 from Carrington Lane in the Carrington Place addition in northwest Norman, which is located between 36th Ave NW and 48th Ave NW, and south of Franklin Road. The view is looking northwest towards the corner of Franklin Road and 48th Ave NW. This photo was provided courtesy of Jenny Hamar via NWS.
The tornado caused catastrophic damage in these areas and was given a maximum rating of EF5. The tornado claimed 24 lives, injured scores of people, and caused billions of dollars in damage.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
This is the strongest tornado to touch down in the United States since the Moore, Okla. twister on May 20, 2013.
What You Need To Know
A reevaluation of the June 20, 2025 tornado gave the rating EF5
This is the strongest tornado to touch down in the United States since 2013
Estimated winds in the twister exceeded 210 mph
June 20, 2025, was an active day of severe weather in the Plains. Meteorologist Carl Jones, with NWS Grand Forks, explained that 22 tornadoes touched down that day in North Dakota.
He added, “This is also a preliminary number that may yet change as we continue to scour satellite imagery and sift through damage reports (still!) and assess whether it was tornadic or not – much further complicated by the fact that large area within the state experience significant damage from the derecho in the same areas that saw tornadoes.”
The tornado south of Enderlin, N.D., was a strong tornado. “The initial storm damage survey team found severe damage consistent with an EF3 or greater tornado with a preliminary estimated peak wind speed of 160 mph.”
However, Jones says that wasn’t the end of it. “A Quick Response Team (QRT), a team of wind damage experts, was assembled and agreed that given the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale damage indicators available, there were points consistent with high-end EF3, if not greater.”
Meaning additional investigation was needed, and the tornado could end up being rated higher. A train derailment south of Enderlin, ND during the time of one twister was a big prompt for the reevaluation. Collaborating with structural damage experts, namely the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University’s Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory, they were able to model object trajectories and the force/wind required to move such objects.
This was important and Jones says, “Allowed for the capability to assess the train derailment of 33 train cars, including several full grain cars that were tilted over and tanker cars that were lofted off the track, that yielded the EF5 intensity rating.”
Here is video of some of the damage indicators referenced in the Enderlin, ND EF5 tornado upgrade. At :39 in…the tree damage referenced along the Maple River east of Enderlin. Also check out around 1:15 look at how wide the area is that the tornado pulled up/tilled those corn… pic.twitter.com/Q7jGga7heR
Additionally, other indicators for the reevaluation included high-end tree damage near the Maple River, east of Enderlin, as well as a foundation to a farmstead that was swept clean with debris scattered downwind.
Check out the tornado track on the interactive map below, and click on the icons for damage reports and photos. While several tornadoes touched down in North Dakota that day, the EF5-rated twister was located south of I-94, just north of Lisbon, N.D.
The tornado was on the ground for just under 20 minutes and traveled just over 12 miles. It reached 1 mile in width. While no injuries were reported from this twister, three deaths occurred.
May 20, 2013 EF5 tornado Moore, Okla.
What makes this newly revised classification of the twister so impressive is that this is the first EF5 tornado in more than twelve years. The last time a tornado this strong touched down in the United States was on May 20, 2013, in Moore, Okla.
A tornado outbreak occurred in the afternoon and evening of May 20, 2013. Several supercell thunderstorms developed during the early afternoon in central Oklahoma. One of these storms rapidly intensified, producing a tornado that touched down on the west side of Newcastle, Okla. The tornado became violent and then tracked across the city of Moore and parts of south Oklahoma City. It was on the ground for approximately 40 minutes before finally dissipating.
This photo was taken around 3:00 pm CDT on May 20, 2013 from Carrington Lane in the Carrington Place addition in northwest Norman, which is located between 36th Ave NW and 48th Ave NW, and south of Franklin Road. The view is looking northwest towards the corner of Franklin Road and 48th Ave NW. This photo was provided courtesy of Jenny Hamar via NWS.
The tornado caused catastrophic damage in these areas and was given a maximum rating of EF5. The tornado claimed 24 lives, injured scores of people, and caused billions of dollars in damage.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
This is the strongest tornado to touch down in the United States since the Moore, Okla. twister on May 20, 2013.
What You Need To Know
A reevaluation of the June 20, 2025 tornado gave the rating EF5
This is the strongest tornado to touch down in the United States since 2013
Estimated winds in the twister exceeded 210 mph
June 20, 2025, was an active day of severe weather in the Plains. Meteorologist Carl Jones, with NWS Grand Forks, explained that 22 tornadoes touched down that day in North Dakota.
He added, “This is also a preliminary number that may yet change as we continue to scour satellite imagery and sift through damage reports (still!) and assess whether it was tornadic or not – much further complicated by the fact that large area within the state experience significant damage from the derecho in the same areas that saw tornadoes.”
The tornado south of Enderlin, N.D., was a strong tornado. “The initial storm damage survey team found severe damage consistent with an EF3 or greater tornado with a preliminary estimated peak wind speed of 160 mph.”
However, Jones says that wasn’t the end of it. “A Quick Response Team (QRT), a team of wind damage experts, was assembled and agreed that given the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale damage indicators available, there were points consistent with high-end EF3, if not greater.”
Meaning additional investigation was needed, and the tornado could end up being rated higher. A train derailment south of Enderlin, ND during the time of one twister was a big prompt for the reevaluation. Collaborating with structural damage experts, namely the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University’s Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory, they were able to model object trajectories and the force/wind required to move such objects.
This was important and Jones says, “Allowed for the capability to assess the train derailment of 33 train cars, including several full grain cars that were tilted over and tanker cars that were lofted off the track, that yielded the EF5 intensity rating.”
Here is video of some of the damage indicators referenced in the Enderlin, ND EF5 tornado upgrade. At :39 in…the tree damage referenced along the Maple River east of Enderlin. Also check out around 1:15 look at how wide the area is that the tornado pulled up/tilled those corn… pic.twitter.com/Q7jGga7heR
Additionally, other indicators for the reevaluation included high-end tree damage near the Maple River, east of Enderlin, as well as a foundation to a farmstead that was swept clean with debris scattered downwind.
Check out the tornado track on the interactive map below, and click on the icons for damage reports and photos. While several tornadoes touched down in North Dakota that day, the EF5-rated twister was located south of I-94, just north of Lisbon, N.D.
The tornado was on the ground for just under 20 minutes and traveled just over 12 miles. It reached 1 mile in width. While no injuries were reported from this twister, three deaths occurred.
May 20, 2013 EF5 tornado Moore, Okla.
What makes this newly revised classification of the twister so impressive is that this is the first EF5 tornado in more than twelve years. The last time a tornado this strong touched down in the United States was on May 20, 2013, in Moore, Okla.
A tornado outbreak occurred in the afternoon and evening of May 20, 2013. Several supercell thunderstorms developed during the early afternoon in central Oklahoma. One of these storms rapidly intensified, producing a tornado that touched down on the west side of Newcastle, Okla. The tornado became violent and then tracked across the city of Moore and parts of south Oklahoma City. It was on the ground for approximately 40 minutes before finally dissipating.
This photo was taken around 3:00 pm CDT on May 20, 2013 from Carrington Lane in the Carrington Place addition in northwest Norman, which is located between 36th Ave NW and 48th Ave NW, and south of Franklin Road. The view is looking northwest towards the corner of Franklin Road and 48th Ave NW. This photo was provided courtesy of Jenny Hamar via NWS.
The tornado caused catastrophic damage in these areas and was given a maximum rating of EF5. The tornado claimed 24 lives, injured scores of people, and caused billions of dollars in damage.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
Academy Award winner Matt Damon, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, traded the big screen for the kitchen in Boston Monday night.
He and Iron Chef Ming Tsai teamed up for “Cooking Live Boston” to help families fight cancer.
Damon joined Tsai and other world-class chefs across Boston to raise money for Family Reach, a national nonprofit that helps families stay afloat when cancer treatment costs push them to the brink.
“Your financial position in this world will determine if you actually can survive cancer,” Tsai said. “That’s obviously a broken system, which we can’t fix, but Family Reach, back then, was kind of the Band-Aid, sending checks directly to the mortgage, to the car payments, to everything.”
“We went through our own cancer battle in our family, with my dad,” Damon said. “I thought often about this organization, because we were one of the lucky families that had the resources to handle all of that other stuff, and I can’t imagine, with the level of fear and trauma that kind of accompanies that journey.”
The movie star is cooking up more than just gourmet meals, also serving hope to families facing cancer.
Families like Raquel and her son, Mikalo — who was just 18 months old when he was diagnosed with leukemia — know that burden all too well.
“We were in a very desperate situation where we were indefinitely in the hospital until he got his bone marrow transplant,” Raquel said. “During that time, I had lost our home. It was, again, very difficult financially, and it took a huge toll … Family Reach kind of stepped in and helped subsidize a rent for us for an entire year.”
“The amount of medicine I needed to take, too,” Mikalo recalled. “It was really hard, and I don’t like reflecting on it, but it’s alright, because other people need to hear this, for sure.”
Now 18 and cancer-free, Mikalo and his mom are giving back, helping raise awareness for families still fighting.
“There is a direct correlation to financial need and relapse,” Raquel said. “Choosing between medication or putting food on your table.”
For Tsai, success isn’t measured in stars or awards, but in impact.
“The definition of success is actually this: That you can make a difference in someone’s life that impactfully,” he said.
Tsai has already raised more than $13 million for Family Reach, helping families across the country focus on healing, not bills. And for many families, that kind of hope is the best ingredient of all.
(Reuters) -Harvard University can be sued by families alleging it mishandled the bodies of loved ones donated to its medical school and whose parts were then sold on the black market by the former manager of its morgue, Massachusetts’ top court ruled on Monday.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that a trial court judge wrongly dismissed lawsuits seeking to hold Harvard responsible for ex-morgue manager Cedric Lodge’s “macabre scheme” to dissect, steal and sell parts of cadavers used by the medical school for research.
Justice Scott Kafker, writing for a unanimous four-member panel, said the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that Harvard failed to act in good faith in handling the bodies, whose “horrific and undignified treatment continued for years.”
“It had a legal obligation to provide for the dignified treatment and disposal of the donated human remains, and failed miserably in this regard, as Harvard itself recognized,” Kafker wrote.
The court also revived claims against the managing director of Harvard’s anatomical gift program. Harvard and the plaintiffs’ lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
Lodge is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in May to transporting stolen goods across state lines.
Prosecutors said he began his scheme in 2018, stealing parts from cadavers including heads, brains, skin and organs and transporting them from Harvard’s morgue in Boston to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife sold them.
In 12 lawsuits, 47 relatives of individuals whose bodies had been donated to Harvard accused the school of negligence, contending it turned a blind eye to Lodge’s years-long misconduct until he was indicted in 2023.
A judge last year concluded Harvard enjoyed broad immunity from liability so long as it attempted in good faith to comply with the state’s Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which governs the donation of human bodies for research and education.
But Kafker said the lawsuits adequately alleged Harvard did not comply with the law, citing a failure to put systems in place that could have prevented Lodge from dismembering donated bodies; bringing people into the morgue to buy body parts; and taking out cadaver parts.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Richard Chang)
Our next full moon, and the first one of the astronomical fall, will rise above the horizon late Monday night.
What You Need To Know
October’s full moon is a supermoon and will appear about 30% brighter and 14% larger
It is called the Harvest Moon
Unobstructed views of the horizon allow for best sightings
This full moon is called the Harvest Moon because it is the full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox (Sept. 22). What makes this so unique is that between 1970 and 2050, there are only 18 years when the Harvest Moon occurs in October. The last time was in 2020, and the next time will be in 2028.
Historically, it’s called the full Harvest Moon because it provides bright light for several evenings in a row to help farmers gather their crops.
Supermoon
October’s full moon is a supermoon, and according to NASA, it will appear approximately 30% brighter than normal and 14% larger than normal. This is because of the moon’s proximity to Earth. During a supermoon, the full moon is at “perigee,” which means it is at its closest location to Earth all month.
The moon will officially be full at 11:48 p.m. EDT Monday, so you’ll have to stay up late to catch it at its peak. Here’s the forecasted cloud cover.
Cloud cover across the United States expected at midnight on Oct. 7, 2025.
Other names of the moon
There is some discrepancy about the nomenclature of the October full moon. Naming conventions date back to the Native Americans of the northern and eastern United States, who kept track of the seasons.
Here are some other names given to the full October moon:
Hunter’s Moon: This is the traditional time to hunt
Falling Leaves Moon: Name given to express the changing and falling leaves, signaling the onset of fall
Dying Grass Moon: A Gaelic name that signifies the end of the growing season
Drying Rice Moon: A Dakota name given for when rice is harvested and dried
Freezing Moon: A time of the year when the first frost occurs
The best viewing will be after sunset on Monday and early morning on Tuesday. To find the best time to view in your area, check out the moonrise calculator. Be sure to find a place with unobstructed horizon views for the best sights.
The next full moon will be the Beaver Moon, which occurs on Nov. 5, 2025.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
Our next full moon, and the first one of the astronomical fall, will rise above the horizon late tonight.
What You Need To Know
October’s full moon is a supermoon and will appear about 30% brighter and 14% larger
It is called the Harvest Moon
Unobstructed views of the horizon allow for best sightings
This full moon is called the Harvest Moon because it is the full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox (Sept. 22). What makes this so unique is that between 1970 and 2050, there are only 18 years when the Harvest Moon occurs in October. The last time was in 2020, and the next time will be in 2028.
Historically, it’s called the full Harvest Moon because it provides bright light for several evenings in a row to help farmers gather their crops.
Supermoon
October’s full moon is a supermoon, and according to NASA, it will appear approximately 30% brighter than normal and 14% larger than normal. This is because of the moon’s proximity to Earth. During a supermoon, the full moon is at “perigee,” which means it is at its closest location to Earth all month.
The moon will officially be full at 11:48 p.m. EDT Monday, so you’ll have to stay up late to catch it at its peak. Here’s the forecasted cloud cover.
Cloud cover across the United States expected at midnight on Oct. 7, 2025.
Other names of the moon
There is some discrepancy about the nomenclature of the October full moon. Naming conventions date back to the Native Americans of the northern and eastern United States, who kept track of the seasons.
Here are some other names given to the full October moon:
Hunter’s Moon: This is the traditional time to hunt
Falling Leaves Moon: Name given to express the changing and falling leaves, signaling the onset of fall
Dying Grass Moon: A Gaelic name that signifies the end of the growing season
Drying Rice Moon: A Dakota name given for when rice is harvested and dried
Freezing Moon: A time of the year when the first frost occurs
The best viewing will be after sunset on Monday and early morning on Tuesday. To find the best time to view in your area, check out the moonrise calculator. Be sure to find a place with unobstructed horizon views for the best sights.
The next full moon will be the Beaver Moon, which occurs on Nov. 5, 2025.
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
TEWKSBURY — Officials from the Energy Facilities Siting Board will be at the Tewksbury Memorial High School auditorium Thursday for a public hearing for a large lithium-ion battery storage project on Hillman Street that has seen some protest.
The hybrid meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. as officials seek direct public input for the energy storage project, which was filed with the board by Hillman Energy Center LLC on April 1.
The project design features 125 megawatts of battery storage, a new electrical substation and other related infrastructure on 4.3 acres of industrial land, along with a 1,200-foot transmission interconnection across three parcels of nearby land owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and National Grid.
The project website for Hillman Energy Company, a subsidiary of the Virginia-based East Point Energy, claims the 125 MW of storage is enough to power nearly 125,000 homes for four hours, and that the project will generate more than $1 million in local property taxes each year. The company also looks forward to “partnering with the town on a community benefits agreement to further demonstrate our commitment to being a quality long-term community member.”
The battery cells will be held in enclosures with interior climate control, and the project will be surrounded by security fencing, with a sound fence on the south and east side to limit noise pollution from the site. The location, the company says on its website, was chosen for its proximity to existing electrical infrastructure, the fact that it is a previously developed industrial zone and because it is expected to have “minimum environmental impacts” there.
The battery project has not been without pushback, with a series of small weekend protests having been held throughout the year by residents of the nearby Emerald Court neighborhood, who have expressed concerns over traffic, safety at the site and the potential impacts to the surrounding area if any of the batteries caught fire. The residents of that neighborhood have held some small protests on weekends near Town Hall after the project became known to the public earlier this year.
“They’ve been known to explode and go on fire, and when they do you can’t put the fire out,” said one Emerald Court resident, Mary Ann Buczak, during a protest on April 26.
Though consideration for the project is not under the purview of the Select Board, project proponents attended board meetings earlier this year to talk publicly about the details, and to try to ease safety concerns. In the Select Board’s March 9 meeting where the project was formally presented to the town for the first time, East Point Energy Project Developer Tyler Rynne touted how highly regulated the battery storage industry is, and said first responders in Tewksbury and other nearby towns would be trained to handle the facility before it is online.
“This project will have a custom emergency response plan that [Energy Safety Response Group] is helping us develop in coordination with the Tewksbury Fire Department,” said Rynne to the Select Board in March.
The hybrid public hearing for the project is Thursday, but the deadline for written public comment is on Oct. 24.
Alex Noel, of Abington, Connecticut, smashed the Topsfield Fair record with his green-orange gourd weighing in at 2,507 pounds. Noel broke the previous record of 2,480 that was set in 2022.
This is Noel’s third time winning the contest, according to the Boston Globe, but this win was different from the others, as Noel and his wife just welcomed their first child on Thursday.
Noel held up a photo of his wife, Liz, and newborn daughter, Nova, following his big win, telling the Globe he wanted it to be a family moment even though Liz and Nova are still in the hospital.
According to the Globe, Noel started growing pumpkins at 8 years old and first attended the Topsfield Fair in 2001.
“I saw the giant pumpkins, I got some seeds, and I couldn’t get enough of it,” he said.
There were 33 participants in the contest in Topsfield, Massachusetts, this year, the Globe reports.
Second place went to Daniel Kruszyna, of Cheshire, Mass., whose pumpkin weighed 2,234 pounds. And Thomas Keenan, of Swampscott, Mass., came in third with a pumpkin weighing 2,000 pounds, the fair said on its website.
The Topsfield Fair runs Oct. 3 -13 at 207 Boston Street in Topsfield.
Topsfield Fair General Manager James O’Brien spoke to NBC10 Boston on Friday ahead of the giant pumpkin weigh-off, telling us they were expecting to see some gigantic gourds this year.
“It was a dry summer but a dry summer is great for the pumpkin people. Because they want to control the water going to their pumpkins,” O’Brien said. “When it rains it grows much faster. And when it grows faster it has a tendency to crack, so we’re gonna see some real big ones tonight.”
The Topsfield Fair, which opened Friday, runs through Oct. 13. After it concludes, the giant pumpkins will be sold to various local display sites, and then they’ll go toward animal feed once the season is over, Noel told the Globe.
DRACUT — Superintendent of Schools Steven Stone intends to sue Town Manager Kate Hodges and Board of Selectmen Chair Josh Taylor, alleging defamation of character and abuse of power.
The news was disclosed at a special meeting of the School Committee in which committee member Rebecca Duda was removed from all subcommittee assignments because of several documents she posted on social media.
The documents were related to a purported overpayment of retirement benefits to Andrew Graham, who worked for the School Department as a post-retirement employee.
Notice of Stone’s suit was delivered to Hodges and Taylor on Thursday night. The first public hint of the superintendent’s action came Friday morning when Shannon Rowe, executive assistant to the Board of Selectmen, posted the agenda for a selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
The email announced an executive session, rather than a regular session, “to discuss strategy with respect to threatened litigation in the matter of the School Superintendent vs. the Chair of the Selectmen and Town Manager as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the public body’s litigating position.”
The School Committee held its own special, but public, meeting on Friday afternoon to review the department’s payroll process, committee roles and the School Department, the board’s code of ethics and governance norms, and the committee response to criticism and claims.
The meeting was called after nearly six weeks of arguments conducted primarily over Facebook, beginning in August with a description of the Parker Avenue School lease to Community Teamwork Inc.
During that six-week interval, some school board members, a selectman and others posted a daily blizzard of criticism of each other in less-than-respectful terms. In one post, School Committee Chair Renee Young called on selectmen to remove Taylor as chairman of that board.
Neither the town manager nor the superintendent directly participated in the Facebook fight, although their names came up frequently.
School Committee member Linda Trouville may have spoken for many who have witnessed the social media exchanges when she said, “I’ve been taken aback by the slander I’ve seen.”
In the course of the school board meeting, School Committee member Allison Volpe made the motion to remove Duda from all her committee assignments because she posted several public records documents on Facebook regarding Graham.
“I respect you but I can’t trust you,” Volpe told Duda.
In a long introductory section, Duda said, “For approximately the past month and a half, I have been researching post retiree earnings with the Dracut Public Schools and our internal processes as it relates to these employees.”
That and similar statements may be what led to allegations of violations of School Committee norms. One of those norms reads, “The School Committee will lead by example and work to build trust. We agree to avoid words and actions that create a negative impression of an individual, the School Committee, or the district. While we encourage debate and differing points of view, we will speak with care and respect.”
A new statewide poll of likely Massachusetts voters shows Congressman Seth Moulton could claim an early advantage over U.S. Sen. Ed Markey in a hypothetical 2026 U.S. Senate Democratic primary, while a solid majority of voters voiced support for cutting the state income tax rate to 4%.
The poll, conducted Sept. 24–25 by Advantage, Inc. for the Fiscal Alliance Foundation, surveyed 750 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
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EXPLAINS. WE’VE COLLECTED BLOOD SAMPLES, URINE SAMPLES, TOENAIL SAMPLES, AND WE’VE COLLECTED MANY OF THESE SAMPLES REPEATEDLY OVER TIME. THE NUMBER CATALOGED HERE IS IN THE MILLIONS SINCE 1976, MORE THAN 280,000 NURSES OF DIFFERENT AGES AND BACKGROUNDS DONATING THEIR OWN BIOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. THEN RECORDING DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR HEALTH, LIFESTYLE AND MEDICATIONS FOR RESEARCHERS LIKE DOCTOR WALTER WILLETT. WE HAVE DOZENS OF BIG NITROGEN FREEZERS THAT ALMOST AS TALL AS I AM, LOADED WITH THOUSANDS OF SAMPLES, AND THAT TAKES ACTUALLY ABOUT $300,000 A YEAR JUST TO PROVIDE THE LIQUID NITROGEN TO KEEP THOSE SAMPLES COLD. BUT THEN LAST SPRING, THE FUNDING STOPPED. ESSENTIALLY, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, TRUMP DECIDED TO ATTACK HARVARD BASICALLY ON THE BASIS OF BEING ANTI-SEMITIC, TERMINATED ALL RESEARCH, ALL FUNDING TO HARVARD. AND THAT INCLUDED OUR STUDIES. SINCE THEN, THIS SMALL TEAM HAS BEEN SCRAMBLING FOR NEW SOURCES OF SUPPORT JUST TO KEEP THESE FREEZERS FROZEN. REALLY? REMARKABLY, A NUMBER OF OUR PARTICIPANTS THEMSELVES HAVE SENT CHECKS. I THINK THEY UNDERSTAND THIS IS A GENERATIONAL TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION THAT CAN HELP THEIR KIDS, THEIR GRANDCHILDREN, AND EVERYBODY AROUND THE WORLD. IN THE PAST YEAR ALONE, RESEARCHERS HAVE USED THIS DATA TO TEST THEORIES ABOUT PARKINSON’S DISEASE, TYPE TWO DIABETES, BREAST CANCER, AND DEMENTIA. SOON, IT WILL BE HOW PEOPLE CAN LIVE TO 100 WITH GOOD PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH. PARTICIPANTS ARE REACHING THAT PERIOD OF THEIR LIFE AND WILL HAVE THE BEST INFORMATION ANYWHERE ON THAT, BECAUSE WE KNOW WHAT THEY’VE BEEN EATING, WHAT THEY’VE BEEN DOING AND WHAT MEDICINES THEY’VE BEEN TAKING OVER THE LAST 50 YEARS. REPORTER BUT FOR NOW, THE ONLY QUESTION THAT RESEARCHERS WANT ANSWERED CAN THIS COLLECTION STAY COLD AND ACCESSIBLE FOR ANOTHER 50 YEARS? I REGARD MYSELF AS SORT OF A CUSTODIAN. I THINK THE DATA THAT WE’RE PROVIDING REALLY DOES HELP EVERYBODY, WHETHER YOU’RE LIVING IN A RED STATE OR A BLUE STATE, BUT ALL OF A SUDDEN IT’S BECOME DIVISIVE. FOR NOW, THE LAB IS OPTIMISTIC IT CAN KEEP THE FREEZERS ON THROUGH THE END OF THE YEAR. IT’S ALSO CURRENTLY RECRUITING A THIRD COHORT OF NURSES TO JOIN THE STUDY. BUT IF FEDERAL FUNDING IS NOT RESTORED OR THERE’S NO NEW SOURCE OF MONEY, THE LAB AND ALL OF ITS DATA WILL LIKELY DISA
After funding halt, Harvard nurses health study scrambles to save 50 years of samples
The key to living a long and happy life hasn’t been found yet.But some researchers believe it could be hiding inside the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.See the story in the video aboveThat’s where nearly 50 years of data from the Nurses’ Health Study is stored.”We’ve collected blood samples, urine samples, toenail samples,” said Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition. “And we’ve collected many of these samples repeatedly over time.”The number catalogued at the school’s biorepository is in the millions.Since 1976, more than 280,000 nurses of different ages and backgrounds have donated their own biological specimens and provided detailed information about their health, lifestyle, and medications for researchers like Willett to study.”We have dozens of big nitrogen freezers that are almost as tall as I am,” Willett said. “It takes about $300,000 a year just to provide liquid nitrogen to keep those samples cold.”But then last spring, the funding stopped.”Essentially, the federal government — Trump — decided to attack Harvard,” Willett said. “And basically, on the basis of being antisemitic, (it) terminated all research, all funding to Harvard, and that included our studies.”Since then, a small team has been scrambling for new sources of support, just to keep these freezers frozen.”Really remarkably, a number of our participants themselves have sent checks,” Willett said. “I think they understand this is a generational transfer of knowledge and information that can help their kids, their grandchildren, and everybody around the world.”In the past year alone, researchers have used the collection to test theories about Parkinson’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and dementia.Soon, they hope to discover how to live to 100 with good physical and mental health.”We’re just at a point where some of our participants are reaching that period of their life,” Willett said. “We’ll have the best information anywhere on that because we know what they’ve been eating, what they’ve been doing, and what medicines they’ve been taking over the last 50 years.”But for now, the only question that researchers want answered is whether this collection can stay cold — and accessible — for another 50 years.”I regard myself as sort of a custodian,” Willett said. “The data that we’re providing really does help everybody, whether you’re living in a red state or a blue state, but all of a sudden, it’s become divisive.”
The key to living a long and happy life hasn’t been found yet.
But some researchers believe it could be hiding inside the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.
“We’ve collected blood samples, urine samples, toenail samples,” said Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition. “And we’ve collected many of these samples repeatedly over time.”
The number catalogued at the school’s biorepository is in the millions.
Since 1976, more than 280,000 nurses of different ages and backgrounds have donated their own biological specimens and provided detailed information about their health, lifestyle, and medications for researchers like Willett to study.
“We have dozens of big nitrogen freezers that are almost as tall as I am,” Willett said. “It takes about $300,000 a year just to provide liquid nitrogen to keep those samples cold.” But then last spring, the funding stopped.
“Essentially, the federal government — Trump — decided to attack Harvard,” Willett said. “And basically, on the basis of being antisemitic, (it) terminated all research, all funding to Harvard, and that included our studies.”
Since then, a small team has been scrambling for new sources of support, just to keep these freezers frozen.
“Really remarkably, a number of our participants themselves have sent checks,” Willett said. “I think they understand this is a generational transfer of knowledge and information that can help their kids, their grandchildren, and everybody around the world.”
In the past year alone, researchers have used the collection to test theories about Parkinson’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and dementia.
Soon, they hope to discover how to live to 100 with good physical and mental health.
“We’re just at a point where some of our participants are reaching that period of their life,” Willett said. “We’ll have the best information anywhere on that because we know what they’ve been eating, what they’ve been doing, and what medicines they’ve been taking over the last 50 years.”
But for now, the only question that researchers want answered is whether this collection can stay cold — and accessible — for another 50 years.
“I regard myself as sort of a custodian,” Willett said. “The data that we’re providing really does help everybody, whether you’re living in a red state or a blue state, but all of a sudden, it’s become divisive.”
Two people were killed in an early-morning fire Saturday in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
“This is a very sad day for our community and especially for the two families who lost loved ones,” Chelmsford Fire Chief Gary Ryan said in a statement. “On behalf of the Chelmsford Fire Department, I want to extend our heartfelt condolences.”
A neighbor reported the fire at 53 Mobile Avenue just after 4:40 a.m. Saturday. A Chelmsford Fire Department engine company was close by on an unrelated call and arrived on scene moments later to find smoke and flames at the front and rear of the building. A ladder company arrived a short time later.
Firefighters immediately made entry to locate occupants and attack the fire. They removed two men, both in their 50s, who were both pronounced dead at the scene.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of their deaths.
Firefighters brought the fire under control in about half an hour, with no extension to surrounding properties.
The origin and cause of the fire are under investigation by the Chelmsford Fire Department, Chelmsford Police Department, and state police. Preliminarily, the fire does not appear suspicious.
BOSTON — State education officials and advocates are calling for a renewed focus on academic performance in the public school system after the latest MCAS test results showed most students are still lagging behind prepandemic levels.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the results of 2025 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams on Monday, showing that students across the state are still trailing prepandemic achievement levels.
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The MBTA has responded to the Trump administration’s demand for information on how it’s working to make travel safer in the Boston area.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter last month to MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng, giving the agency until Thursday to explain how it is keeping passengers and workers safe and how it is paying for those efforts.
Duffy said the federal government may redirect or withhold funding from the MBTA if it did not respond to the request.
The Trump administration said funding could be on the line as it requested details on the MBTA’s plans to reduce crime, vagrancy and fair evasion by Oct. 2.
In a letter to Duffy, dated Thursday, Eng pointed to progress the MBTA has made in recent years.
“We share your commitment to the safety of our employees and the public we serve. All riders must be safe — and feel safe — while using any part of our network,” he wrote. “In partnership with FTA Region 1 and with support from the Administration, we have made significant strides in rebuilding our workforce and improving our infrastructure, making the MBTA safer and more reliable … However, I want to emphasize that this is only the beginning of our aggressive approach to accelerate the delivery of projects and service improvements for the riders, communities, and businesses we serve.”
Eng noted that he joined the MBTA in April of 2023, the year after the Federal Transit Administration placed it under a Safety Management Inspection for staffing and maintenance concerns. He said the goal of making 1,000 new hires in a year was exceeded.
The federal government is calling on the MBTA “to reduce crime, vagrancy and fare evasion,” threatening to pull funds from the transit system.
The MBTA Transit Police Department now has 228 sworn officers, compared to 195 in Fiscal Year 2022, Eng added.
The MBTA also pointed out that since 2012, it had built more than $512 million worth of security infrastructure.
“The MBTA responded in line with the request from the USDOT, we submitted our response yesterday, and now we await any response back,” MBTA Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan told NBC10 Boston Friday. “We continue to work with our federal partners, our state partners, to make sure that we continue to capitalize in delivering safe, reliable service.”
“Year to date, between January 1, 2025, and September 24, 2025, we have observed a 16% reduction in recorded crime across the system (632 recorded crimes in 2024 vs. 528 recorded crimes in 2025) or 2.63 crimes per million trips,” Eng wrote.
BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in Boston ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily, adding to the mounting legal setbacks for the president’s birthright order.
A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the fifth federal court since June to either issue or uphold orders blocking the president’s birthright order. The court concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims that the children described in the order are entitled to birthright citizenship under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The panel upheld lower courts’ preliminary injunctions, which blocked the birthright order while lawsuits challenging it moved ahead. The order, signed the day the president took office in January, would halt automatic citizenship for babies born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.
“The ‘lessons of history’ thus give us every reason to be wary of now blessing this most recent effort to break with our established tradition of recognizing birthright citizenship and to make citizenship depend on the actions of one’s parents rather than — in all but the rarest of circumstances — the simple fact of being born in the United States,” the court wrote.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state was one of nearly 20 that were part of the lawsuit challenging the order, welcomed the ruling.
“The First Circuit reaffirmed what we already knew to be true: The President’s attack on birthright citizenship flagrantly defies the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a nationwide injunction is the only reasonable way to protect against its catastrophic implications,” Bonta said in a statement. “We are glad that the courts have continued to protect Americans’ fundamental rights.”
In July, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide after a key Supreme Court decision in June. Less than two weeks later, a federal judge in Maryland also issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the order. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.
The justices ruled in June that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.
A federal judge in New Hampshire later issued a ruling prohibiting Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action suit, and a San Francisco-based appeals court affirmed a different lower court’s nationwide injunction in a lawsuit that included state plaintiffs.
“The court is misinterpreting the 14th Amendment. We look forward to being vindicated by the Supreme Court,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
At the heart of the lawsuits challenging the birthright order is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens.
Plaintiffs in the Boston case — one of the cases the 1st Circuit considered — told Sorokin that the principle of birthright citizenship is “enshrined in the Constitution,” and that Trump does not have the authority to issue the order, which they called a “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands of American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”
Justice Department attorneys argued the phrase “subject to United States jurisdiction” in the amendment means that citizenship isn’t automatically conferred to children based on their birth location alone.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler, a native of Walpole, Massachusetts, is the toast of Major League Baseball after his dominant performance knocked the Boston Red Sox out of the postseason.
The former Walpole Rebel ended Boston’s season with 12 strikeouts and no walks over eight scoreless innings.
“I think Cam turned a lot of guys to Yankee fans last night with his performance, cause as that game progressed, my phone just kept blowing up, and blowing up, and blowing up, with guys just saying, ‘He’s incredible tonight,’” said Chris Costello, Schlittler’s high school coach.
While the 24-year-old pitcher grew up rooting for the Boston Red Sox, he will try to end their season Thursday.
The 24-year-old right-hander started learning his craft at Walpole High School, where there’s a now message congratulating him on his historic win.
“Lots of divide,” said Cole Blakley, a senior and captain on the school’s baseball team. “People are obviously very happy for Cam, but also, everyone here is Sox fans, so you want to see him win, but it’s tough.”
Landon Lipsett is another team captain. He recalled when Schlittler participated in a baseball program to help younger players.
In a do-or-die Game 3, it was New York that advanced out of the Wild Card Series.
“It’s just really cool to see, like, you’re sitting on a bench next to that kid, like six or seven years ago — now, you’re watching him on TV pitch for the Yankees,” Lipsett said.
New York’s newest pitching sensation isn’t Walpole’s only contribution to Major League Baseball. Joe Morgan played for several teams in the late 50s and early 60s before serving as the Red Sox’ manager in the late 80s and early 90s.
“He’d come to practice once in a while, and he’d bring a bucket of balls for us, cause that was when the Green Monster was the Green Monster, and we’d have practice balls,” said Bill Tompkins, a longtime Walpole coach.
All it took was 17 months and six marathons for a Boston native to set a world record.
At just 20 years old, James Redding, who’s from the city’s Brighton neighborhood, has become the youngest male to complete all six Abbott World Marathon Majors.
The Boston College junior crossed the finish line in Berlin in September, earning him a Six-Star Medal.
Redding says the Boston Marathon was his favorite, but he actually ran his fastest time in Chicago.
The Boston Athletic Association is bringing big changes to the 2026 race.
He credits all of his supporters along the way who helped him cross every finish line.
“It’s just going to be something I can look back on, and remember that the hard work does pay off, and that I am 100% capable of getting through times that may get tough,” Redding said.
He now has his sights set on the Sydney Marathon, which just joined the Abbott World Marathon Majors. He hopes to earn his Nine-Star Medal when Cape Town and Shanghai are officially added to the series.