Top Stories - October 26, 2006

Cops eyed in drug thefts: Stolen evidence may taint future cases

(Photo and article from Boston Herald.)

The Boston police anti-corruption unit is investigating whether cops stole the drugs that are missing from a Hyde Park evidence warehouse - jeopardizing ongoing criminal cases in the latest embarrassing blow to a department already rocked by scandal.
Earlier this month, the Herald reported drugs had gone missing as police moved mountains of seized cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other drugs from one section of the warehouse to another.
While some of those drugs were later found, acting police commissioner Al Goslin said at the time an audit was under way to determine whether more drugs had been stolen or were misplaced.
Late yesterday, Boston police acknowledged that drugs are in fact missing.
“As a result of the audit that had been ordered by the commissioner, anti-corruption is investigating and the audit continues,” said police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll.

Running unopposed on crime

Barring the onset of the apocalypse, Gerry Leone will be the next district attorney of Middlesex County.
The Franklin native, who now lives in Hopkinton, and who served as the former Massachusetts anti-terrorism coordinator, is unopposed for the office, which will be vacated by current DA Martha Coakley, who is running for the state’s attorney general position.
But being the lone candidate hasn’t changed Leone’s approach to his campaign.
In the weeks before the election, Leone, a Democrat, is beginning to familiarize himself with each of the 55 cities and towns that make Middlesex the largest county in the state. He’s also preparing to take the office that he has been working toward his entire career, he said.
Leone’s resume is stacked with credentials - from seven years spent as deputy first assistant to former district attorney Tom Reilly in the early 1990s, to a two-year stint as chief of the statewide Criminal Bureau. But even such a career couldn’t prepare him for the cost and work involved in running for public office, he said.

SC supports sealing personnel evaluations

WAKEFIELD — A motion from a statewide association of school committees suggests that most committees are in favor of sealing personnel evaluations from the public record.
Six out of the seven Wakefield School Committee members voted to support Motion Two during Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting at the Wakefield High School’s Volpe Library. Committee Chairwoman Carmen Urbonas cast the only dissenting vote.
The School Committee also discussed and voted on five resolutions made by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, which is a group of all the school committees from Massachusetts.
The Motion Two resolution was created by the Wayland School Committee. It said that individual performance evaluations on school administrators (i.e. the superintendent) should be kept confidential.
In a phone interview Wednesday morning, Urbonas explained that this issue has been confusing to Wakefield School Committee members since last year.

Hundreds of Bay State marines come home from Iraq

DEVENS, Mass. --Hundreds of Marines from Massachusetts were welcomed home Thursday morning after several months in Iraq by thousands of happy, teary and relieved relatives.
"I'm so happy he's home. So relieved," Julie A. Wenck of Milford, who was there to greet her nephew, Lance Cpl. Brian Shepard, told The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester.
The Marines, members of the 1st Battalion, 25th Infantry, marched onto the field in formation at Devens Reserve Force Training and remaining straight-faced before both sides rushed toward each other.

(Other articles from Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Observer, Boston Globe.)

On a final note, I attended Fright Night 2006. I've written reviews of every film shown, which will appear in the Spin. I won't post them here; if you want to see them, wait for the Spin (sometime next week) or e-mail me.