Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz identified the woman as Sheron Trowers, who was arriving home from a trip to Jamaica when she was shot and killed early Tuesday morning.

Trowers was taken to Good Samaritan Medical Center where she was pronounced dead of her injuries.

Authorities found the man, identified as Carlos Brown, dead inside the living room at the Ash Street home, with “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” Cruz later told reporters near the property.

“It appears that Ms. Trowers was just arriving home from a trip to Jamaica, her luggage was still in the driveway. It appears she was ambushed,” Cruz said.

“There is a past domestic violence history,” he added. “I would just say to anyone who potentially is in a life-threatening relationship, they should know there is help.”

Cruz did not disclose the extent of Trowers and Brown’s relationship, whether they were married or not, if there were any children present at the time of the early morning shooting and what the “past domestic violence history” entailed.

Brockton Police received two calls reporting the shooting at 524 Ash St., near Brockton High School, Brockton Fairgrounds and Campanelli Stadium, around 1 a.m. One came from inside the home of a report of an unresponsive male, and the second from a neighbor reporting gunshots, according to the DA’s office.

Cruz highlighted SafeLink, a statewide domestic violence hotline and resource for anyone affected by domestic or dating violence that can be accessed 24/7 at 877-785-2020.

“It’s a terrible situation,” Cruz said. “Domestic violence doesn’t have a zip code. It’s everywhere unfortunately, and hopefully, if people need help, they can get help and get out of struggling relationships if they exist.”

More than 20 migrant families have called Harborside Suites in South Yarmouth their home since last September, but the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals has declared the motel has violated a local bylaw that limits temporary stays to less than 30 days.

“We would move today if we could,” motel Attorney Mark Boudreau said during a meeting last week. “The migrants that are there, they are ready to move. A lot of them have work visas… They would like to get going so they can obtain work where they’re going to be.”

Building Commissioner Mark Grylls issued a violation notice to the motel – currently housing 27 families – last October, but he told the ZBA he had to have their blessing before he could start imposing fines.

Harborside Suites, on Route 28 in the popular summer vacation beach town, sought a reversal of the violation, pointing to state officials that had said that “emergency needs of migrant families supersede the occupancy requirements of local zoning.”

But ZBA Vice Chairman Sean Igoe countered that he’s not confident Gov. Maura Healey’s migrant state-of-emergency carries more weight than local ordinances.

In her declaration last August, Healey wrote: “To the cities and towns across the state, many of which have a rich history tied to waves of immigrants settling within their borders, I am encouraging their communities to keep welcoming those families who wish to resettle in all corners of Massachusetts.”

Igoe took exception to the governor’s wording before the ZBA voted to uphold Grylls’ violation notice. “She’s just urging the cities and towns, she’s not ordering us to do it,” he said.

The state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities did not immediately respond to a Herald request for comment on Saturday.

In January, the ZBA approved Harborside Suites maintaining the migrants as Boudreau had told members that the motel heard from the state that the families would be moved to a “larger facility in the Foxboro area” that would “provide better opportunities for food and room.”

Motels that housed migrants in Bourne and Wareham, which Boudreau represents, have been “completely evacuated,” the attorney said. The future shelter for the Yarmouth migrant families, he added, is “within a 20-mile radius of Foxboro.”

“Unfortunately, the property did not pass inspection and had some code violations so they have not moved,” Boudreau said last Thursday. “Everyone is aware in the motel that they will be moving as soon as the property is ready.”

The exact date when the families will be moving out is unclear, but in previous violations of the Yarmouth motel-stay ordinance, the ZBA has given 45 to 90 days depending on the situation, Grylls said.

“I don’t believe we’ve had circumstances like this,” he said.

Harborside Suites is the latest motel or hotel to be thrust into the spotlight of the Massachusetts migrant crisis.

A 26-year-old Haitian national, living at a Rockland motel housing migrants, was charged with aggravated rape of a 15-year-old girl who police described in a report as “disabled,” on March 14. A Hingham judge found Cory Alvarez dangerous a week later and ordered him held without bail.

Taunton officials in February sued the owners of the Clarion Hotel housing migrant families in that city for providing living quarters to nearly 450 people, more than 350-person capacity. The suit seeks over $100,000 in overdue civil fines.

House Speaker Ron Mariano has suggested that broad budget cuts could be on the table when lawmakers sit down next year to draft the fiscal year 2026 budget, fueled by the historically high cost of running the state-run shelters.

With an expected $932 million tab this fiscal year and $915 million in the next to maintain shelters, associated services, and keep municipal reimbursements on track, Mariano projected that a range of other programs could be on the chopping block and put the blame on the feds and their lack of action in solving the migrant crisis.

In his fight with the Yarmouth ZBA, Boudreau highlighted the state’s “great expense” while arguing that the emergency declaration and right-to-shelter law –  homeless families and pregnant women must be provided housing in the Bay State – took precedence over local ordinance.

“To the extent that there is a question of safety and a question of the adequacy of the rooms,” Boudreau said, “the Commonwealth has at great expense provided food, shelter, education, medicine and medical care. They’ve arrived legally, and my client is simply trying to cooperate with the town and the state in getting them moved.”

Since migrant families arrived at Harborside Suites last fall, Yarmouth firefighters responded to a flooding at the motel in January, and a 6-month-old baby was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital the day after they took up residence, according to the hyperlocal Hyannis News. The baby had  “phlegm coming from her mouth, with blood-tinged sputum, according to radio transmissions,” the hyperlocal Hyannis News reported.

Town leaders assured residents last December that there were no active cases of tuberculosis at the motel after a brief scare, the Cape Cod Times reported.

Yarmouth resident Cheryl Ball told the Herald Saturday she is “very pleased” with the ZBA’s decision and hopes it creates a precedent across the state.

“It’s draining our resources,” Ball said of the impact the migrant families have had on the town. “They’re a burden on our education system because we have to pay extra tax dollars to support them in our schools. We have emergency services that we are providing to the hotel that comes out of our tax money.”

Spencer, the golden retriever affectionately known as the Boston Marathon dog, is now immortalized along the route in Ashland, near where he and his owner Rich Powers, of Holliston, stood and cheered on runners over the years.

A large crowd of friends, family, community members, and of course, golden pooches and other friendly doggos, gathered Saturday for an unveiling of a bronze statue in honor of Spencer, across the street from the Ashland Community Center.

“There was definitely a need for this,” Powers said. “The statue isn’t for me, and I don’t want anyone to think an arrogant guy had a statue made of his dog. That’s not what we did.”

“This is for the world,” he added. “If you don’t know his story, I think the statue is going to mean something to you. For those who know Spencer, he was a sitting angel who just lived in our house — he was too good not to share.”

Spencer started to grow into an icon around the course’s third-mile mark in Ashland in 2015, his first marathon, as he held a Boston Strong flag and another flag of a heart. The 2022 race was especially memorable, with 20 runners waiting in line at one point to meet Spencer who sported an official race bib, and to take pictures with him.

Sadly, Spencer died from cancer in February 2023, and his sister Penny died eight days later from a tumor on her spleen and liver that caused internal bleeding.

Carrying the heart of a champion, Spencer overcame serious health challenges before he ultimately succumbed to his cancer.

In November 2020, a 3.5-pound benign tumor between Spencer’s liver and spleen caused him to bleed internally. Surgery helped save Spencer’s life, which Powers called a miracle.

Months later, a tumor formed on Spencer’s spleen and doctors diagnosed him with cancer.

But the golden pooch’s legacy has certainly lived on. Hundreds of golden retrievers showed up to the Boston Common the day before last Marathon Monday sporting yellow marathon bandanas in honor of Spencer.

And though the Ashland Select Board rejected a proposal last July to place a bronze statue of Spencer at the community center, nearby residents, Robin and Cynthia Hicks, quickly stood up and offered a portion of their 16-acre land as an alternate site.

A GoFundMe collected more than $39,000 from 487 donors for the statue to become reality, and there are plans to add a few sitting rocks and a bench for visitors.

“It’s here forever,” Robin Hicks told the Herald. “My plan is to keep this land as long as I can until I pass and give it to my children and see what they can do with it.”

“This is what it’s about,” he said while watching a crowd of supporters getting their first glance of the statue. “The feel good — that’s what Spencer was about.”

Spencer’s fame caught the attention of those not just in the Greater Boston area but also of those who live outside of the Bay State.

Maine resident Barbara A. Walsh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wrote “SPENCER: Boston’s Beloved Marathon Dog,” a book that chronicles the golden pooch’s life. She first learned about Spencer when she read his obituary in the New York Times and thought “Wow, a dog gets an obituary in the New York Times — got to be pretty special.”

“I hope it becomes a best-seller because it’s for all ages; it’s not just for kids, this is a story for adults,” Walsh said. “Courage, inspiration, kindness – we could use all of those, and Spencer certainly gave his heart to everybody.”

New Jersey resident Jessica Coyne Ritter and her mother stopped by the celebration on their way back home after taking a trip to Boston. Coyne Ritter ran the marathon last year through the Boston Bruins Foundation and said she felt Spencer’s presence even though it marked the first since his passing.

“Sometimes it can get rough, and you have to dig down deep,” she said of running the marathon, “but you don’t have to dig down deep with Spencer because he’s just there and you get to love him.”

“To be transparent, it is the smell of human waste so our school smells like poop,” said Steven Benjamin, a middle school reading specialist and special education teacher.

Benjamin and a pair of colleagues brought the odor, which one of them described as smelling like a “deceased animal,” to light during a School Committee meeting this week as they called on district leadership to step forward to make the miserable experience go away.

The teachers shared their stories the same night that the committee advanced the district’s $1.5 billion budget proposal for next fiscal year. The budget includes a controversial swath of staffing and programming cuts called out by parents and educators.

Dearborn opened to great fanfare in 2018, with the grade 6-12 early college academy marking the first new school construction project in 15 years at the time in the district. Officials hailed the 128,000-square-foot facility in Roxbury’s Nubian Square as a model for future projects.

But for Benjamin’s third-floor classroom to be usable, the door needs to be fully open at all times, an air purifier running with the ionizer on, and windows open which he said resembles the “COVID days.”

Recently, Benjamin said he left for lunch and closed the door, leaving the air purifier running – a step that was not enough to prevent the smell from getting out of hand.

“A half hour later,” he said, “I got back with my students and the smell had built back up and was so foul that they refused to stay in the room, and I couldn’t blame them because it just wasn’t habitable.”

Benjamin taught his students in the hallway before they relocated elsewhere as the smell traveled outside the classroom. It took about 45 minutes for the smell to dissipate, he said.

“To be clear, I am not complaining about my school-based custodial and leadership teams,” Benjamin said. “They’ve both been very supportive and responsive. They’ve tried onsite fixes, they’ve communicated to facilities through the proper channels.

“I totally understand that plumbing issues are probably really complicated, cannot be fixed right away,” he added, “but this issue has been present the whole year, and we don’t have a permanent fix yet.”

Officials highlighted the school, before its opening, as being outfitted with flexible indoor and outdoor learning classrooms, two fabrication labs, a dance studio, a gymnasium, 3D printers, a media center, and laser die cutters as tools.

The facility — with about $37 million of the cost reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority — was the culmination of six years of planning, design and construction, officials praised.

With open, spacious classrooms, the building resembles a college facility and was designed to support the learning that happens inside with its focus on computer science, engineering, health and life sciences and college readiness.

Dearborn features a STEM Tech Career Academy that enables high schoolers to earn associate’s degrees and credentials in a six-year program focusing on science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

As a tenth-grade science teacher, Julia Kiely said her experience with the stench is even more profound.

Kiely’s second-floor room has seven sinks and two floor drains underneath a safety shower. She said colleagues discovered the stench emanating from the drains and “recommended the flushing of the drains with water somewhat regularly since the great volume of drains and pipes in my room increase the likelihood of my room experiencing the smell.

“Unfortunately, this is a bigger task than anticipated,” Kiely added. “The smell is so bad that students say they cannot learn in my classroom, they refuse to enter, and they spray perfumes and Febreze constantly which can further irritate sensitive noses, and they’ll cough and wince throughout class.”

The odor smells the worst on Mondays and Tuesdays after the drains dry up over the weekend, Kiely said. For it to dissipate, she said she runs all seven sinks between 10 and 20 minutes while filling 1,000 milliliters of water and pouring them over the drains constantly.

“The smell is unacceptable for student learning and my teaching,” Kiely said. “It is so intense that students say they can taste it.”

School Committee Vice Chairman Michael O’Neill is calling for action to be taken as soon as possible, and the timeline in solving the issue to be expedited.

“I hope we’re going to get some very professional plumbers out to a (new) building – a matter of fact, let’s get the contractors who built the building out there – and find out what the heck is going on there,” he told Superintendent Mary Skipper, in her second year of running the nearly 46,000-student district.

Officials have created a project group that has begun looking into the issue, Skipper said, adding Dearborn staff were slated to be updated on the plan by the end of the week.

“We are working, and we have to do testing and when we do the testing it has to be when no one is in the building,” she said. “There is a full group that is on this issue and are aware of this issue.”

A district spokesperson did not provide the Herald further information on Friday, with schools closed in observance of Good Friday.

Low concentrations of “sewer gas,” or hydrogen sulfide, can cause irritated eyes, nose, throat, and respiratory system, while moderate concentrations may lead to headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, according to Omega, an environmental management and hazardous materials consulting firm.

High concentrations may cause shock, convulsions, inability to breathe, rapid unconsciousness, coma, and even death, the firm states.

Carolyn Sesser, a Dearborn high school health teacher, also deals with the smell, and in some cases, students refuse to walk down the hallway to get to her first-floor classroom. She said the scent is not constant but one that pops up multiple times a day a week, and the exact timing is unpredictable.

“We know that our administration and custodian teams have already looked into this problem and have done all they can,” Sesser said. “At this point, there needs to be something done at the district level to address it.”

Hundreds of community members – restaurant owners, employees and residents – from the neighborhood packed Saint Joseph’s Hall, hoping Mayor Michelle Wu and other elected officials would turn out, but they did not.

“We haven’t heard anything from the city,” said Carla Gomez, owner of Terramia and Antico Forno. “We just want a dialogue, communication, to talk about the issues. That’s all we want.”

The owners of the 21 neighborhood restaurants who filed a complaint in federal court in January against the city closed their businesses down for two hours Thursday afternoon as they continued to protest the restrictions.

Officials are banning on-street dining for the second straight year, limiting the al fresco option to “compliant sidewalk patios.” Out of Boston’s 23 neighborhoods, the North End is the only one to encounter restrictions against their will.

A mayor’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Herald request for comment Thursday, and City Councilor Gabriela Coletta, whose district includes the North End, declined to comment, citing hesitancy.

Resident Ann Bushnell said she’s supporting the restaurateurs because she believes they are pivotal community pillars as they assist the neighborhood library and schools. There has to be a point in time when the mayor or city officials will meet with the restaurateurs behind the lawsuit, she argued.

“I don’t think the mayor likes confrontation so this isn’t something she’s comfortable with,” Bushnell told the Herald, “but this is life and this is politics. You’re going to have people with different opinions, and you’ve got to learn to grow with the flow and shake their hands at the end of the day.”

In 2022, officials forced restaurateurs to pay a $7,500 fee for outdoor dining operations, funds that restaurateurs allege the city used to purchase an electric street sweeper that’s been seen in other neighborhoods.

Wu and other officials have said the restrictions were aimed at reducing quality of life burdens to residents, such as the increased noise, trash, traffic and loss of parking that came with outdoor dining there.

But restaurateurs have fought back against those claims, with data they’ve gathered through Freedom of Information requests showing that other neighborhoods are more congested and have fielded more 311 complaints regarding cleanliness.

“It is beyond my comprehension why we were able to successfully operate in ’21 and ’22 without any major issues by all accounts,” Tresca co-owner Bill Galatis told the Herald, “and all of a sudden we’re told we’re banned in 2023 and 2024. There’s a disconnect there.”

A task force of officials, North End restaurateurs, and residents examined “potential pathways forward” to providing on-street dining in the future raised concerns heard in the past, factoring into this year’s ban.

Possibilities include allowing the option only on weekends but the season would be shortened with limited hours; an annual lottery system for limited participation; and a program allowing smaller patios.

Some community members have wondered why Jorge Mendoza-Iturralde, co-owner of Vinoteca di Monica, a lead plaintiff, is accusing Wu of discriminatory treatment towards Italians since he immigrated here with his family from Argentina in 1984.

Mendoza-Iturralde told the Herald Thursday that his grandmother on his mother’s side is from Italy and that he and his family instantly “fell in love with the neighborhood.”

“I am in this battle for my people in the North End because of the other people who made my success possible,” he said. “We were adopted by the community. I have a great deal of gratitude towards the North End, and I’m going to continue to fight for what I think is right for the North End.”

The MBTA Board of Directors unanimously greenlighted the program during its monthly meeting Thursday, receiving loud applause from advocates who say the initiative will bring them major relief.

The program, set to launch later this spring or in the early summer, will provide half-priced tickets and passes to riders across the beleaguered network who are between the ages 26 and 64 and have an income under 200% of the federal poverty line.

The board also voted for a contract “reset” with Chinese firm CRRC that now calls for the final new Red and Orange Line trains to be delivered by the end of 2027.

Under the updated terms, the MBTA will pay as much as $148 million more to account for higher-than-expected costs linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions, swelling the total contract value to more than $1 billion.

The agency also agreed to forgive about $90 million in penalties that the manufacturer faces for delays so far. Another $37 million in damages would remain in place, but the updated contract would set incentives that could effectively dismiss those charges as well if CRRC meets new targets.

As for the discount fares, the cost to roll out the program, which will also apply to the RIDE paratransit service, is expected to be between $23–$26 million next fiscal year, an amount that is projected to grow to $52–$62 million by FY29.

MBTA Advisory Board Executive Director Brian Kane raised concerns around the implications of the program, tying it to the agency’s continued financial and transparency problems.

Kane, speaking to the board Thursday, echoed similar comments he made last month in a segment on WBZ’s Keller @ Large.

“There’s no funding source dedicated for it in the long term,” Kane said in late February. “Gov. Healey has put $45 million in her budget, just because it’s in the governor’s budget doesn’t mean it’s going to actually pass. The legislature has to do what they do. But there’s no money in year two, and the costs for this program rise to about $100 million after five years.”

Healey allocated $5 million for research on low-income fares in this fiscal year’s budget, with MBTA staff taking “significant steps toward program implementation,” according to officials. Those efforts include developing interagency partnerships with the state Registry of Motor Vehicles and Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

Steven Povich, senior director of fare policy and analytics, in January said he believes riders will be able to get through the enrollment process within five minutes. Officials are creating a tool that will check an applicant’s participation status in other low-income state programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, he said.

Discounts will apply to anyone making under 200% of the federal poverty limit, which translates to about $30,000 for a single-person household or $60,000 a year for a family of four. Officials estimate roughly 62,000 current T riders will meet the threshold.

The program’s implementation comes during a time when the agency’s budget gap could grow to $652 million in the next fiscal year, when pandemic relief funds that have been helping the agency offset its significant loss in fare revenue and high cost of federally mandated safety fixes run out.

State healthcare officials have received notifications in connection with the proposed sale of Stewardship Health Inc. and the contracting Steward Health Care Network to OptumCare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.

Stewardship Health Inc. is the parent of Stewardship Health Medical Group Inc., which employs primary care physicians and other clinicians across nine states, according to the state Health Policy Commission.

U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss raised immediate concerns with the proposal, which he called “alarming,” in a statement Wednesday morning after the development came to light Tuesday evening.

“Steward’s physician-led practices provide critical medical care to Greater Fall River & Greater Taunton and should continue to operate,” Auchincloss said. “But the prospect of UnitedHealth Group purchasing Stewardship Health is alarming. UnitedHealth, a Fortune 5 leviathan already under federal antitrust investigation, has spent five decades corporatizing healthcare to the detriment of patients and physicians.

“My constituents in southeastern Massachusetts should not be next in line,” he added.

Steward’s disastrous financial status, which came to the forefront earlier this year, continues to wreak havoc on Massachusetts hospitals and patients, some of whom live in the Bay State’s poorest communities.

The Dallas-based company which operates the third largest hospital system in Massachusetts admitted to being millions in debt in rent, with unpaid contracts and other expenses in January. Medical Properties Trust, Inc. owns the Steward facilities.

UnitedHealth faces its own trouble. The Wall Street Journal reported late last month that the country’s largest private health insurer is being sued by a California-based nonprofit group of hospitals and doctors over allegedly using its market power to try and force them to agree not to compete for primary care physicians.

The Department of Justice has launched an investigation of the healthcare conglomerate over antitrust concerns.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, hosting a news conference at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building Wednesday afternoon, highlighted how there could be “big consequences” if Steward’s sale to UnitedHealth goes through.

Markey will be leading a hearing that will “investigate” the role of for-profit companies in the country’s healthcare system next Wednesday in Boston.

The sale could lead to “an increase in costs, a reduction in services, but it could also mean that Optum, UnitedHealthcare, as it comes in to purchase these physician networks also bids away physicians who now work at community health centers, further hollowing out the healthcare services that are provided for the poorest in our state,” Markey said.

Before the sale can be completed, the Health Policy Commission must review the proposal.

The commission doesn’t have the authority to block a transaction but can refer findings to the state Attorney General’s office, the Department of Public Health, or other Massachusetts agencies for possible further action.

Documents filed with the state did not include a cost for the transaction. Under the deal, Optum would acquire a Steward affiliate that includes the company’s primary care doctors and other clinicians in nine states.

Transactions involving the sale of Steward’s eight Massachusetts hospitals would also require review by the agency, and review by the Determination of Need program at the Department of Public Health.

“This is a significant proposed change involving two large medical providers, both in Massachusetts and nationally, with important implications for the delivery and cost of health care across Massachusetts,” HPC Director David Seltz said.

Once all required information has been provided about the sale, the HPC will have 30 days to assess potential impacts of the transaction, according to the agency. If the sale is anticipated to have a significant impact on health care costs and market functioning, the HPC can initiate a full Cost and Market Impact Review, an option that it has often not pursued in the past.

House Speaker Ron Mariano believes the tentative sale could “significantly impact the competitiveness of the health care market” and “cause further disruption during a period of acute instability.”

“The HPC’s statutory authority to review the health care impacts of this transaction should not delay state and federal antitrust authorities from doing their own rigorous review as we all seek to protect patient access and affordability, communities, employees, and the overall health care system,” Mariano said in a statement.

Herald wire services contributed to this report

A Middlesex County grand jury has indicted Peter Simon, 54, of Woodsville, N.H., on a dozen charges, including two counts of motor vehicle homicide, in connection to the rampage just weeks before Christmas.

The indictment comes after Waltham judge Ellen Caulo sided with prosecutors in January that Simon, who had a lengthy criminal record prior to the Dec. 6 incident, was a “clear and convincing” danger to the community.

Simon continues to be held without bail and will be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court at a later date, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Waltham Police Chief Kevin O’Connell said in a joint statement Wednesday.

“He is a dangerous person. He shouldn’t be out on the street right now awaiting trial,” Waltham Police Chief Kevin O’Connell told reporters outside the courthouse after a dangerousness hearing in January.

Simon is accused of running down officer Paul Tracey, 58, a 28-year veteran of the Waltham police department and Roderick Jackson, 36, a National Grid worker from Cambridge.

After allegedly crashing into the officer and utility worker at a construction site on Totten Pond Road, Simon sped away in his older model gray Ford F-150 pickup truck, colliding into multiple other vehicles before fleeing on foot, officials said.

A responding officer spotted Simon in a nearby neighborhood allegedly saying, “Police are going to kill me,” according to the report. The suspect then pulled a knife on the officer before getting into the officer’s cruiser and taking off at a “high rate of speed,” the report details.

While fleeing, Simon is said to have struck two Waltham cruisers. A pursuit then proceeded before Simon crashed in the area of 225 Winter St., where he was taken into custody.

During the January dangerousness hearing, a prosecutor highlighted Simon’s lengthy criminal history that spans decades and includes criminal charges in at least nine states.

In August 2009, Simon crashed head on into a public transportation bus while fleeing from police in Keene, N.H. Simon was sentenced in 2011 to five years in a psychiatric unit in New Hampshire State Prison in Concord but was released early in November 2015. An attorney at the time said Simon suffered from a “dissociative disorder.”

Less than a year after his release, Simon was charged with criminal threatening, driving under the influence and disobeying an officer related to a 2016 case out of Franklin, N.H.

In connection to the killings of Tracey and Jackson last December, Simon has been indicted on two counts of second degree murder; two counts of motor vehicle homicide; armed robbery; armed carjacking; three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon; larceny of a motor vehicle; four counts of operating to endanger; three counts of leaving the scene causing property damage; leaving the scene causing death; failure to stop for police; two counts of wanton destruction of property; and resisting arrest.

“It was reassuring for everybody involved that we have a very safe system,” MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. “We have some very, very strong maritime professionals to ensure the waterways are safe, and again, Massachusetts bridges are worked on every single day by professionals.”

Gov. Maura Healey convened a meeting with officials from the Coast Guard, state Department of Transportation, Massport, Massachusetts Maritime and Boston Harbor Pilots Association, addressing safety in maritime traffic.

The gathering came hours after a massive cargo ship, the Dali, lost power exiting the Port of Baltimore and rammed into and dismantled the Francis Scott Key Bridge, destroying it in a matter of seconds and causing it to plunge it into the river in a terrifying collapse that could disrupt a vital shipping port for months.

Six people were missing and presumed dead.

The ship’s crew issued a mayday call moments before the crash took down the bridge, enabling authorities to limit vehicle traffic on the span, said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

The ship struck one of the bridge’s support piers, causing the structure to collapse like a toy. A section of the span came to rest on the bow of the vessel, which caught fire, sending thick, black smoke billowing out of it.

Gulliver highlighted how piers on a few of Massachusetts’ most essential structures – the Bourne and Sagamore carrying traffic to and from Cape Cod, and the Tobin, carrying traffic over the Mystic River between Boston and Chelsea  – are located outside of navigation channels, unlike the bridge in Baltimore.

Recreational ships mostly travel under the Bourne and Sagamore, owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulliver said.

“There’s very strict standards as to what you’re able to build in the water so that you are very mindful of the kind of the traffic that you’ll be getting both above and below the bridge,” he said.  “We put in fender systems where appropriate, and other systems that prevent the ships from coming in and striking those piers.”

The federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics ranked Boston as the 40th largest port in 2021, bringing in 13.3 million tons of cargo, much smaller compared to the 17th-ranked Port of Baltimore that saw 37.4 million tons come in that year.

Ships access the Conley Container Terminal and Flynn Cruisport – Boston’s main port locations – without having to pass under a bridge, but some tankers go underneath the Tobin on route to smaller facilities in East Boston, Revere, Everett and Chelsea, Massport spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan said.

The Port of Boston received a nearly $850 million investment in 2022, allowing it to expand through increased global connectivity.

Major improvements included a $350 million dredging of the Boston Harbor, spearheaded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which deepened the main ship channel; and the addition of a 50-foot-deep berth to accommodate the new cranes and larger cargo ships.

Gov. Maura Healey,  appearing on WGBH’s ‘Boston Public Radio’ Tuesday morning, said she had plans earlier Tuesday to meet with Maryland’s governor who had been slated to receive the Kennedy Institute’s Award for Inspired Leadership in Boston in the evening.

“He had to fly back in the middle of the night to attend to this,” Healey said. “I have been in touch with him, I have offered him our support as a state to Maryland and to Baltimore. My thoughts are with all of the victims and survivors, all those affected by this tragedy.”

Bridges across Massachusetts are regularly inspected and “up to date,” Healey said. The feds, however, found 450, or 8.5%, of the state’s 5,281 structures structurally deficient last year, meaning a crucial element is in poor or worse condition.  The Tobin Bridge received an assessment a “couple of months ago,” the governor added.

Baltimore’s early morning disaster, Healey said, further underscores the importance of recent funding developments for the structurally deficient Sagamore and Bourne bridges which are in need of replacement, according to inspection reports done by their owner, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The full cost of building them new is estimated north of $4.5 billion

Over the last four months the state’s congressional delegation has managed to get the feds to cough up $722 million toward replacement, $350 million of which was signed into law earlier this month by President Biden.

The state has committed at least $700 million toward rebuilding the aging spans. Replacing the Sagamore — a Healey priority — however, is estimated at $2.14 billion alone.

In a letter addressed to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg last week, the lawmakers urged approval of an outstanding Bridge Investment Program grant application for $1.072 billion.

A handful of Bay State fishermen advocacy groups are teaming with counterparts from across New England in criticizing the Biden administration’s plans to industrialize the area off the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management finalized the designation earlier this month, an action it says looks to support President Biden’s clean energy goals.

The area, which ranges from 23 to 92 miles off the coasts of the three states, has the potential to support generation of 32 gigawatts of clean energy, the bureau said. That amount of energy surpasses “current state goals for offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine: 10 GW for Massachusetts and 3 GW for Maine,” BOEM said.

Specifically, industrialization could lead to the deployment of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035, according to the feds.

Local, state and federal officials over the years have mandated fishermen to follow a growing number of protocols to preserve the endangered right whales — in some cases, barring them from taking to certain waters.

Fishermen, however, say the industrialization of the two-million-acre area is “flatly inconsistent with a policy of endangered species protection.”

“Fishermen are disheartened that the WEA designation favors foreign energy developers over marine mammal protection,” the Gulf of Maine Fishing Associations said in a statement last week. “This preferential treatment is in stark contrast to the federal government’s aggressive campaign to burden commercial fishing needlessly with crushing restrictions to protect whales.”

The Bay State group’s part of the coalition include the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance; Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association; Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership; Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association; and Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative.

Initially, the feds looked to industrialize a much larger zone in the Gulf of Maine, but feedback from local residents, fishermen and other stakeholders led to a 80% reduction in the final designation for possible leasing.

“The resulting (wind energy area) avoids important areas for lobster fishing, North Atlantic right whale habitat, and other important fishing areas and habitats,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management stated in a release.

Katie Sinding Daly, senior vice president of law and policy at the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, said she believes the feds “did a thorough job of listening to concerns about protecting marine life.”

“CLF will continue to work with BOEM to ensure all possible protections for vulnerable marine wildlife and important habitats are built into the process as it moves toward leasing and construction of these floating turbines,” Daly said in a statement.

The designation continues a years-long effort by environmentalists to make offshore wind turbines a major source of power, with initial efforts in Massachusetts focused on areas south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The newly designated zone lies to the east of the state.

Fishermen acknowledged the improvements in the final designation but concerns remain around whether the offshore wind development will directly imperil “commercial fishing, sensitive habitats, and maritime communities that depend on the fishing industry.”

The designation came a day after a federal judge ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service was not in the right when it added a 200-square-mile wedge between state and federal waters to an existing closure that stretches roughly 9,000 square miles off the Massachusetts coast.

The closure, in effect from February to the end of April, is viewed as a measure to protect right whales.

There are less than 360 right whales left in the ocean, including 70 reproductively active females.

Federal officials and scientific agencies say climate change is the biggest threat to the right whale contrary to a belief from opponents that offshore wind projects are to blame for a spate of whale deaths over the past year-plus on the East Coast.

Many have been struck by ships or become entangled in fishing gear, the leading causes of death, environmentalists say.

A female calf was found dead off of Martha’s Vineyard in late January, with officials reporting a rope was entangled around its tail. Weeks later, a New England Aquarium aerial survey team counted 31 right whales in shipping lanes east of Nantucket.

BOEM and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released final plans in January to protect the endangered species, including a strategy that would use artificial intelligence and passive acoustic monitoring to determine where the whales are at a given time and to monitor the impacts of wind development on the animals.

Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association urged the feds to proceed with caution in developing the Gulf of Maine designation based on how the construction and operation of the wind farms could further threaten the right whale.

“The noise and disruption caused by such developments are not fully understood, but they have the potential to affect the migration, feeding, and breeding patterns of these whales,” she wrote in a letter last November to BOEM. “The uncertainty surrounding these impacts calls for a cautious approach, considering the critical status of the right whale population.”

Boston Herald wire services, namely State House News Service and the Associated Press, contributed to this report.

The joint effort between the city and a group trying to bring a professional women’s soccer team to the stadium scored points in court Friday, with Justice Sarah Ellis declining a request from a group of residents and advocates for the project to be halted.

Ellis tossed out motions from The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, a nonprofit park advocacy group, and 21 city residents for a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and lis pendens, measures they desired to prevent additional steps from being taken in the massive $100-million undertaking.

Boston Unity Soccer Partners, an all-female ownership group, won an expansion bid last September to become the 15th team in the National Women’s Soccer League. The team is slated to take the pitch at the long-neglected venue at Franklin Park in 2026.

Gary Ronan, an attorney representing the city, highlighted during a hearing on the case earlier this month how a preliminary injunction had the potential to derail the project entirely. He called the dispute an “attack” on the effort, one that inaccurately painted what the public-private partnership with BUSP intends to accomplish.

“Plaintiffs assert irreparable harm will ensue absent a preliminary injunction because the demolition and renovation of White Stadium,” Ellis wrote in her decision, “and any lease and/or license agreements contracted between the City and BUSP, will negatively change the nature of White Stadium, limit the public’s enjoyment, and have an immediate detrimental impact on the neighborhoods abutting Franklin Park.”

“I am not persuaded,” the justice added.

Louis Elisa, one of the plaintiffs and a member of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association, compared Ellis’ decision to the 1857 Dred Scott case which upheld slavery in United States territories and denied the legality of black citizenship in America.

“I view the failure of the court to take the concerns of possible harm and displacement which would occur as being similar to the Dred Scott decision wherein our rights as black citizens are not worthy of serious consideration or respect,” Elisa said in a statement. “Nothing has changed in Boston.”

Renovations at the dilapidated park and stadium — where half of the grandstands were burned out from a fire decades ago— would triple the number of hours the stadium could be used, 90% of which would be dedicated to Boston Public School student-athletes and the community, project proponents have said.

Boston Unity is slated to contribute $50 million, with the city matching that investment.

“I’m thrilled to see the court’s clear ruling that this frivolous lawsuit from the Emerald Necklace Conservancy must not block our ongoing community engagement to deliver a generational investment in White Stadium and Franklin Park,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement Friday evening.

“For decades, Boston student-athletes and community members have watched plans for revitalizing this historic facility come and go without tangible progress,” she added. “Now, for the first time since the stadium’s opening, the City has a committed partnership to invest in and sustain the improvements that our students, park lovers, and neighbors deserve.”

In their lawsuit, hearing and supplemental responses, the plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the stadium’s proposed redevelopment because they believe the effort “privatizes public land.”

They also emphasized how the stadium would be reserved exclusively for the new professional women’s soccer team for 20 weekend days from April to November, roughly 77% of Saturdays during the warmer months. That could displace BPS football games from being played at the venue, they argued.

In filing the lawsuit, the plaintiffs were “asking the city to slow down and respect the public process,”  Emerald Necklace Conservancy president Karen Mauney-Brodek said on a press call last month.

“We support the renovation of White Stadium and Franklin Park, but we do not support the required involvement of a professional sports team that would displace the local community for the next 30 years while privatizing and profiting from this public resource,” Mauney-Brodek said. “This major redevelopment is being fast-tracked without adequate community input or proper environmental review.”

Ronan fought back during the March 6 hearing, saying Boston Unity will be limited to no more than 20 games a year and 20 practices and the team’s practice schedule will be worked around BPS students and athletics which he called “first priority.”

An assessment of the facility conducted last year found that the stadium needed to be improved and expanded, with suggestions including a bigger staff office, modernized press box, improved locker rooms and an eight-lane track.

BUSP expects its endeavor will have a wide range of economic benefits on the greater community. Construction would generate more than 500 jobs, and the workers would be employed onsite for two years. About 300 permanent jobs would then be created once the stadium is renovated, according to the proposal.

In her decision Friday, Ellis called the overall effort “a clear benefit to BPS and the residents of Boston.”

A survey released earlier this month by the Franklin Park Coalition, a community-based, park advocacy organization, showed that 56% of the more than 700 respondents supported the project. About 20% of park users said they’re “against it.”

The project has been under review by various public agencies and community stakeholders including the Boston Planning & Development Agency, Landmarks Commission, Parks Commission, among other entities.

Early site work is projected to begin in April and construction next January.

“We invite the Emerald Necklace Conservancy to participate with us and welcome the opportunity to collaborate,” BUSP said in a statement Friday evening. “We are proud to be a part of the project that honors the legacy of White Stadium so that it will continue to serve as a point of pride for generations to come.”

Boston Police posted on Friday that they are urging the public to come forward to help identify three suspects involved in the assault and battery that the department has pictures of, and a fourth not pictured.

The incident unfolded around 4 p.m., on Sunday, in the area of East 2nd and M streets, near Medal of Honor Park and the parade route.

Authorities say three of the suspects they’re looking for are Black males, but did not provide further details on their appearance. The fourth suspect is a white male with a thin build who was wearing a Celtics jersey.

The video that’s gone viral, with more than 2 million views on X, shows one of the Black males wearing a black vest, navy long-sleeved shirt and black hat and another a black vest and red hoodie with light-colored sweatpants. The third is seen wearing a black hoodie and sweatpants.

There are other Black males seen surrounding the victim.

What led up to the incident is being “actively” reviewed, according to authorities who are urging anyone with information to contact District C-6 Detectives at 617-343-4742.

While on the ground, the suspects rolled the victim over from the road onto a steep grassy hill, the video shows. The victim is then seen trying to get up before the suspect wearing a black vest, navy long-sleeved shirt and black hat runs over and kicks him from behind. That caused the victim to run and dive head first into a fence along a baseball field.

The suspect wearing a black vest and red hoodie with light-colored sweatpants is then seen running down the hill before throwing an unidentified object at the victim. A white male in close proximity to the havoc is seen pointing and apparently laughing at the victim.

“Community members wishing to assist this investigation anonymously can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1 (800) 494-TIPS or by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463),” authorities stated in a Friday release. “The Boston Police Department will stringently guard and protect the identities of all those who wish to help this investigation in an anonymous manner.

The investigation comes as City Councilor Ed Flynn, whose district includes Southie, is calling for “major changes” to the parade including possibly moving the route out of the neighborhood after the wave of drunkenness, destruction and violence. Not everyone is on board with the idea.

Pointing to the massive crowds seen this year, Flynn said earlier this week the city needs to take a “zero-tolerance” approach to debauchery at the popular parade, where drunken fights with police and other criminal activity resulted in at least 10 arrests that included gun, assault and battery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct charges.

Flynn, a former chief marshal of the parade who represents South Boston on the City Council, said Southie residents, many seniors and young families were “disgusted with the public intoxication and fights throughout the parade route.”

“With almost a million visitors to South Boston for the parade, we can’t sustain an ‘anything goes’ attitude any longer,” he added. “This neighborhood deserves to be treated with respect.”

Police officers assigned to Interpol Santo Domingo arrested Maria Fernanda Villasmil Manzanilla, 25, of Venezuela, on Tuesday in connection to the 2019 shooting of Big Papi, Dominican authorities stated Wednesday.

Ten people have been convicted for the ambush that took place outside a bar in a well-off neighborhood of Santo Domingo on June 9, 2019. Two men, including the alleged shooter Rolfi Ferreyra Cruz, were each sentenced to 30 years in prison by Santo Domingo’s First Collegiate Court in December 2022.

Eight others received prison sentences of between 5 and 20 years.

Among the crimes for which the 10 men were sentenced were criminal organization, use of illegal firearms, attempted murder, and complicity, the court wrote in a statement.

Authorities had been actively pursuing Villasmil Manzanilla since the attack with a red notification – a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrent, or similar legal action, according to Interpol.

Officers located Villasmil Manzanilla in the National District with a man and woman, both Venezuelans, before seizing her passport, two IPhones, bank cards, jewelry, cash and other belongings and putting her under the control of the Public Ministry.

Three defendants in the case have been acquitted due to insufficient evidence, including Víctor Hugo Gómez Vásquez, who was accused of planning the attack.

Ortiz, who has since entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, was seriously wounded in the shooting. Doctors in the Dominican Republic removed Ortiz’s gallbladder and part of his intestine after the shooting before the beloved Red Sox icon flew back to Boston in an air ambulance for additional procedures.

American private investigators hired by Ortiz said he was targeted by a Dominican drug trafficker who was jealous of him.

The findings by former Boston Police commissioner Ed Davis contradicted a previous theory by law enforcement in the Dominican Republic that the hitman was actually hired to shoot Ortiz’s cousin Sixto David Fernandez, who was sitting at the same table.

Dominican authorities said the hitmen confused Fernandez with Ortiz, one of the country’s most beloved ballplayers.

Jhoel Lopez Durán, a TV host in the Dominican Republic, was hit in the leg by the same bullet that struck Ortiz.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

The Pink House, as it’s called by locals and tourists, served as a popular subject in photography and paintings, especially at sunset, but its end is in sight, according to a plan issued by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Thursday.

“The property has become an attractive nuisance, requiring frequent law enforcement patrols and repairs due to vandalism. Maintenance staff time and funds are increasingly required to maintain structural stability and safety,” the agency said in its decision.

“The house has a permanently flooded basement, is within an active flood zone, and flooding has become more severe in recent months and years,” it added. “Removing the house is therefore in the best interest of public safety, taxpayer money, and the environmental health of the area.”

Though there’s strong community interest in preserving the structure that has fallen decrepit over the decades, doing so is a challenge. The nearly century-old home is owned by the federal government and is located in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, essentially locking the property from being sold.

Fish & Wildlife had teamed up with a nonprofit solely dedicated to the home, Support the Pink House Inc., to explore a land swap agreement since 2015, but efforts have failed to materialize. The agency’s intention to remove the house could be the final blow in a years-long fight, but advocates have vowed to continue their push to save the beloved landmark.

“In the past few months, we have brought them as many as 17 options that seemed to fit their criteria, several of which were seriously considered, but all ended up being rejected,” Support the Pink House said about its efforts in a statement on its website Thursday afternoon.

“As long as the Pink House is still standing, we’re still standing strong!,” the group added.

In its release highlighting its decision, Fish & Wildlife stated, “Despite an exhaustive search — including extensive outreach and media coverage since release of the draft EA nearly five months ago, and an additional 2-month extension — no viable exchange parcels were located.”

The development comes after the Daily News of Newburyport reported Wednesday that an official from Fish & Wildlife said he was reviewing a land swap proposal from Support the Pink House for an undisclosed property in Massachusetts and no decision had been made.

“I’m personally extremely disappointed, heartbroken, and I feel misled because in less than 24 hours, once again, the situation has changed,” nonprofit board member Sandy Tilton told the Herald Thursday evening. “We intend to continue to work toward a positive outcome because we represent the community, we represent the people.”

Removing the house, close to Plum Island, could help restore wildlife habitat and open a portion of the property to the public, Fish & Wildlife said in its release.

Federal officials also said the house is filled with “materials harmful to human health,” including asbestos, and the property is prone to routine flooding, already twice this year, a frequency that they anticipate to only grow further.

An assessment found that it’d take at least $50,000 to $90,000 to “abate contaminants, remove the structure, fill the foundation, and restore the habitat,” according to Fish & Wildlife.

Going forward, Fish & Wildlife is set to list the house at public auction for relocation or salvage, with the goal for the community to “continue drawing inspiration from it at another site or in another form.”

The feds are also looking to install benches and educational panels for public use at the restored site.

“I want to thank our community partners who worked so hard as we exhausted every option to find a solution to this complex issue,” Refuge Manager Matt Hillman said in a statement. “While we regret not reaching an outcome that satisfies all, we’re confident the decision aligns with our mission to protect and restore high-quality wildlife habitat and provide meaningful educational opportunities.”

Ed Davis and his consulting and crisis management firm – the Edward Davis Company – are examining ways to improve student behavior and performance at Massachusetts’ largest high school, according to officials.

Officials from the firm and the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education visited the school March 12 to conduct a day-long study with another scheduled in the coming weeks, Acting Superintendent James Cobbs said Tuesday. The final report must be completed by June 30, he said.

Gov. Maura Healey issued the state-funded audit after declining a request last month for the National Guard to be deployed to Brockton High School to address what four School Committee members described as a “disturbing increase in incidents related to violence, security concerns, and substance abuse.”

The heightened focus on creating a safe, secure learning environment is starting to lead to improvements, officials highlighted during Tuesday’s School Committee meeting.

“Reducing the violence is something that we are committed to, and it is beginning to happen. We still have a ways to go,” Principal Kevin McCaskill said. “We are working hard. We are seeing an increase in teacher attendance, but most importantly we are seeing the support that we need.”

The school’s police officers led its 12 security and safety specialists through a training last week, McCaskill said. Assistant principals have placed the specialists in specific locations across the sprawling building that houses more than 3,600 students to limit disruptions.

A key area has been around restrooms, McCaskill said.

Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez previously highlighted how the specialists “lacked adequate resources and training to keep the building secure,” the Brockton Enterprise reported.

“Due to shortages in staffing, we really did have some difficulties especially for our female students,” McCaskill said. “But the redeployment of folks, we’ve opened up the vast majority of restrooms which has slowed the traffic flow of most students in the building.”

Among planned safety reforms are the doubling of safety and security personnel from 12 employees to 24 next year, the hiring of a security director for the entire district and a staffer who’d solely focus on monitoring all cameras in the facility.

Officials are also working to change 1,400 locks on classroom doors, Cobbs said.

“Fights are still happening, but it seems to be trending downward,” school police officer Jason Mosely said. “We are handling the investigation of each incident and are determining whether charges should be taken out.”

The School Committee voted earlier this month to ban students from using cellphones during the school days as an additional step.

This is all coming as the district is grappling with a budget deficit that could grow as large as $25 million.

“What’s going on at the high school is not just Brockton High,” board member Joyce Asack said. “I don’t like how the news is putting it out there. We have students going to some top-notch schools. Our students are amazing whether it’s athletics, music, drama, arts. We just have to focus on the positive.”

The Norfolk County town of Wrentham – known for the popular Wrentham Village Premium Outlets – is pushing back against a state-mandated plan that at least 50 acres near its downtown be zoned for multifamily housing.

Select Board members sent a letter to Gov. Maura Healey late last month, urging her to lessen the burden as it believes the law “will lead to the destruction of the small-town New England charm we’ve come to love.”

On Tuesday, the board got down to the nitty-gritty of the law with Caroline “Chris” Kluchman, acting director of the state’s Division of Community Services. Kluchman tried to ease concerns by emphasizing that the law only requires zoning for multifamily housing and not the actual production of units.

“Adding a small amount of multifamily zoning should not change the character of your community just as adding the Outlets maybe did not change the character of your community,” Kluchman said.

It is a benefit to your community, I hope, for cash revenue purposes,” she added, “but I think the small amount of multifamily housing can be done in a way that will not disrupt the wonderful character of your town.”

The outlets account for 40% of Wrentham’s jobs and 25% of its businesses, and the 170-store shopping center chips in almost 10% of the town’s property tax revenue, according to its latest master plan, issued in 2022.

But the outlets are not entirely positive for Wrentham, a town of roughly 12,000 residents, Select Board member James Anderson told Kluchman.

“When you say that the mall does not change the character of our town, I can guarantee you it has,” he said. “Between the traffic and crime that’s increased, it has changed the rural character of the nice town of Wrentham. I respectfully disagree.”

The dispute, also being seen in a handful of other communities, comes as Attorney General Andrea Campbell and the town of Milton are set to go before the Supreme Judicial Court in the fall.

Campbell in February filed a lawsuit against Milton after residents voted down the MBTA Communities Act, also triggering a loss of $140,800 in state funding.

Wrentham has to zone at least 50 acres near its downtown for multi-family housing, with 15 units per acre and a minimum of 750 units in total.

The town is considered an “adjacent community,” meaning it doesn’t have a transit stop itself but abuts municipalities that do – Franklin, Foxboro and Norfolk. The designation requires housing stocks be increased by at least 10%

Added up, the state-mandated zoning plan could lead to a population increase of 13% in a town that officials say lacks municipal sewage and has an inadequate water supply, the Board of Selectmen wrote in its letter to Healey.

The state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has rebuked the notion that there’d be such a drastic population increase under the law, adding some of the zoning districts could be placed in areas where there’s already existing housing.

“Schools won’t necessarily be a one-time impact, it will be slow,” Kluchman said. “Most fiscal analysis that looks at multifamily housing is revenue positive for communities … more excise tax, more personal property tax, more real estate tax.”

There’ve been only seven reported incidents of catalytic converter thefts across the Bay State over the past 11 months since a collaboration between federal, state, and local law enforcement arrested the seven-member crew last April, according to court filings.

Carlos Fonseca, 33, of Springfield, became the sixth member to plead guilty to his role in the thefts when he appeared in federal court in Boston on Monday. He was arrested on charges of conspiracy to transport stolen property in interstate commerce and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Judge Leo T. Sorokin has scheduled Fonseca’s sentencing for June 21. The crew’s alleged leader Rafael Davila has pleaded not guilty and remains pending trial, according to the feds.

Before the operation was taken down April 12, 2023, there were “hundreds of thefts reported during the nine-month period prior,” the feds said in a release Tuesday.

The crew stole catalytic converters from at least 496 vehicles across Massachusetts and New Hampshire between 2022 and the time of their arrests, the culmination of “Operation Cut and Run,” a joint effort by federal law enforcement agencies, the Massachusetts State Police, and more than 70 local police departments in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut.

Fonseca, specifically, stole catalytic converters from 103 vehicles in 13 separate instances between Aug. 23, 2022 and Oct. 4, 2022, most of which targeted vehicles in multiple cities and towns in a single night.

“The thefts resulted in losses of approximately $5,000 per vehicle with certain trucks costing over $10,000 to repair,” prosecutors said. “This amounts to an approximate $2 million in losses suffered by more than 300 separate victims who were forced to deal with their vehicles being disabled for potentially weeks on end.”

While the Bruins and Celtics are still a month away from officially starting their championship runs, fans from all over will flock to the Garden next Thursday — Sunday for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, bringing an economic haul for the city.

The Garden last hosted the East Regional semifinals and championship in 2018 – years before the COVID-19 pandemic and soaring inflation rates – when officials estimated 8,000 to 10,000 fans would visit for the tournament and projected a $25 million impact for the city.

That predicted revenue stream jumped from an anticipated $7 million when the Hub first welcomed the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight to the Garden in 2009.

Officials from the Garden and Meet Boston, the region’s primary tourism bureau, told the Herald on Tuesday that they believe the city is lining up to take in at least another $25 million this tournament.

“It’s a big lift to host these national events, they take over the arena for a full week,” arena president Glen Thornborough said in a statement, “but it’s important to us to bring at least one national event to TD Garden every year because of the significant economic impact to the area and value to our fan base.

Based on the starting ticket prices listed on StubHub as of Tuesday afternoon, it’s fair to say the Hub is in for an economic haul. There are three options for admittance: entry to every game in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight or all games in either round.

For the Sweet 16, taking place next Thursday and Friday, the cheapest ticket is starting at $254 for the thirteenth row in the balcony slightly to the side of the basket. For the Elite Eight, next Saturday and Sunday, you can sit in the last row of the balcony behind the basket for $273.

For every game in both rounds, tickets are starting at $462 for the tenth row in the balcony behind the basket.

While no local school will be playing in the tournament, nearby Connecticut will be well represented at the Garden as top-seeded UConn looks to make a run to the National Championship barring any upsets this week in the Rounds of 64 and 32.

Speaking to the Herald in 2018, former TD Garden president Amy Latimer said despite a lack of local representation, the tournament brought a unique experience to the city and its basketball fans.

“For us, it’s exciting, and we feel like it’s part of our responsibility in the community to host these national events,” Latimer said. “I think it’s great for the city and all these people are going to be walking around with their jerseys and everything, and it’s good for us and our clients.”

The craziness that comes with March Madness will get underway at the Harpoon Beer Hall on Thursday at noon, with the brewery hosting a “hooky watch party” featuring “fun costume disguises, contests” and beverages.

Backers say the measure would address the city’s affordable housing “crisis,” but the idea is not sitting too well with residents. Some engaged in a shouting match with city councilors during a meeting last week.

Eighteen cities and towns across the Bay State are already waiting for action from the state Legislature on their own “real estate transfer fee” proposals, a concept aimed at spurring affordable housing production.

Medford could become the next municipality to join the group after the City Council requested a subcommittee to develop a home rule petition on the measure.

The city, of more than 60,000 residents, needs to build 671 more affordable housing units to meet a state requirement that at least 10% of its housing stock be affordable, said Matt Leming, a councilor behind the push.

Leming highlighted how the tax wouldn’t likely affect older residents and “average homeowners” as it would target “high-end real estate deals.” That generated boos and sighs from residents in attendance.

“We need more revenue streams in order to build up any sort of corpus of money that can be dedicated to affordable housing,” Leming said. “Residents are being priced out of the city, and we need to more actively engage in that.”

Nearby cities and towns that have passed legislation seeking to enact a real estate transfer fee include Arlington, Brookline, Cambridge, Boston, Concord and Somerville.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is trying to impose a 2% tax on real estate sales that exceed $2 million, with the seller incurring the fee and proceeds payable to the city.

Officials would then deposit the money into a neighborhood housing trust, for the purpose of furthering housing acquisition, affordability, creation and preservation, and senior-homeowner and low-income-renter stability.

Medford City Councilor George Scarpelli, calling the council’s exploration of a transfer fee “offensive,” said the city has dug itself in its hole by stopping multiple affordable housing projects under Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn’s administration.

Scarpelli added how his father worked “very hard” to build a two-family home on Paris Street that is now worth $1.2 million. “Why should a penny of those people’s hard-earned money go to any tax?” he said.

“These renters that live in these condos that are being moved out, we understand that,” Scarpelli said, “But unfortunately, that’s what happens when things prosper. This is what happens when you live near Boston.”

Gov. Maura Healey wants to add a real estate transaction fee of 0.5% to 2% on the portion of a property sale over $1 million, or the county median home sale price, with the revenue generated from the fee directed to affordable housing development.

The governor’s request is part of a $4 billion bond bill her administration released last October. The fee, projected to affect fewer than 14% of all residential sales, would be paid by the seller of real property.

If approved, a city or town’s housing board or legislative body could adopt the fee by a majority vote.

The Greater Boston Real Estate Board has shot back against Healey’s proposal, testifying last fall that “the real estate market is highly sensitive to economic downturns and is an unstable source of revenue.”

Tensions rose at the Medford City Council meeting when Councilor Emily Lazzaro highlighted how the cost-of-living in the region has increased the number of guests needing services at the Malden Warming Center, a seasonal homeless shelter where she works as an assistant director.

Residents started talking over Lazzaro, and President Isaac “Zac” Bears told them to “just show basic decency.”

Lazzaro became choked up while talking about how the city needs to find “diverse streams” for affordable housing, with one resident telling her to “be descript.” The councilor, in her first term, shouted at the crowd, “Sorry, you guys have been so horrible tonight. You’ve been so offensive to me. … I’m doing my best here to try to help poor people. I don’t understand.”

A shouting match ensued before Lazzaro left the meeting for a break, a resident yelling at her: “It comes with the territory. If you can’t take the heat, get out of here.”

Orange Lantern, which operated the Magic Lantern in Monson, outside of Springfield, is under fire for posting photos of the scantily clad women to promote their business before it turned into a cannabis dispensary earlier this year.

A total of 31 models filed a complaint against the Orange Lantern in federal court on Friday, seeking damages, injunctive relief and refunds for attorneys’ fees relating to the corporation’s “misappropriation and unauthorized publication and use” in posting their photos for financial gain.

“Moreover, in every case this misappropriation occurred without any Plaintiff’s knowledge, consent or authorization, at no point did any Plaintiff ever receive any remuneration for Orange Lantern’s improper and illegal use of their Images,” the suit states, “and Orange Lantern’s improper and illegal use of Plaintiffs’ Images have caused each Plaintiff to suffer substantial damages.”

Magic Lantern is the latest strip club in Massachusetts to face scrutiny for allegedly using photographs of models without their permission.

Six professional models in June 2021 filed a complaint in federal court alleging that a Stoughton adult entertainment establishment, Club Alex, used images of themselves scantily dressed in a series of Facebook posts to make it seem like they worked there.

A federal judge in Boston reached out to the Supreme Judicial Court last December to see whether the state’s discovery rule should apply to the question of the timeliness of tort claims, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly reported at the time.

That came after four models, two of whom are plaintiffs in the Orange Lantern case, filed a similar suit against clubs in Springfield, also in 2021, alleging the same actions.

The models filing suit against Orange Lantern are based in California, Arizona, Nevada, Germany, England, Hawaii, New York, United Kingdom, Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico.

Some of them include Andra Cheri Moreland, Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in October 2015; Arianny Celeste Lopez, a UFC octagon girl; and Jaime Edmonson-Longoria, Playboy’s January 2010 playmate and a participant in the competitive reality TV series “The Amazing Race 14.”

“Orange Lantern used Plaintiffs’ Images and created the false impression that they worked at or endorsed Magic Lantern to receive certain benefits therefrom,” the suit states, “including but not limited to: monetary payments; increased promotional, advertising, marketing, and other public relations benefits; notoriety; publicity; as well as an increase in business revenue, profits, proceeds, and income.”

The Boston Police Department has received 15 reported incidents of “scentless, colorless, and tasteless drugs” being placed in the drinks of “unsuspecting victims,” a number that officers hope doesn’t spike during the weekend’s Irish holiday festivities.

Last year, the department recorded 107 cases of spiked drinks, an issue that has come to the forefront at City Hall and the State House.

“While the BPD encourages everyone to look out for each other when gathered in social settings by creating a ‘buddy system’ to prevent getting separated, there are steps you can take on your own to help ensure your personal safety,” according to a community alert issued Friday.

Those steps include making sure your drink is being served directly by a bartender or server, watching your drink at all times, taking your drink with you to the restroom if needed and keeping a hand covered over a drink when not looking at it.

And if something appears off, test your drink with test strips or nail polish that light up a certain color if drugs are detected, the BPD recommends.

Rohypnol, also known as roofie, GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) and Ketamine are drugs primarily used in spiked drinks.

“These drugs and substances can cause disorientation, confusion, temporary paralysis, or unconsciousness, along with a host of other symptoms, leaving the potential victim vulnerable to the intentions of the suspect,” the BPD’s community alert states.

In response to an increasing number of drink spiking incidents in the city, police officers are continuing to “learn more and take action” by working with their licensing unit to track incidents, raise public awareness, and “offer an option to report drink spiking on police reports.”

At the State House, Sen. Paul Feeney, D-Foxboro, has filed legislation that would require hospitals to develop and implement a testing standard for patients who report they have been involuntarily drugged, regardless if sexual assault had occurred.

The bill has been reported favorably by the Joint Committee on Public Health and referred to the committee on Health Care Financing Joint Committee on Health Care Financing.

Feeney successfully passed an amendment last year that allocated $300,000 towards this year’s budget to prevent and raise awareness about the “ongoing drink spiking crisis” facing the Bay State.

Throughout the weekend, BPD will be increasing patrols, focusing on the parade route and calls for service and drinking establishments.

Package stores in Southie will be closing at 4 p.m. Sunday, hours after the parade kicks off at 1. Pouring establishments will stop admitting people after 6:30, with alcohol service ending at 7.

“Whether you are patronizing one of our businesses or attending Sunday’s parade we want everyone to enjoy themselves in a safe, respectful and lawful manner,” Police Commissioner Michael Cox said in a statement. “The parade – and many of this weekend’s events are family friendly and take place in the midst of our neighborhoods. There will be zero tolerance for public drinking, disorderly behavior.”

This is the first application to receive a greenlight from the Boston Planning & Development Agency under a pilot program aimed at converting vacant office space into residential use, primarily in and around downtown.

Work is slated to commence at the 1878 brick-and-sandstone mercantile building this spring. The developer, Boston Pinnacle Properties, will be converting underutilized office space into 15 apartments — 10 studios and 5 one-bedrooms — across five floors above Mediterranean Grill Boston and Dave’s Instant Shoe Repair at 281 Franklin St., in the Financial District.

“We are very excited about this program and what this building represents,” property owner Adam Burns told the BPDA board before receiving unanimous approval Thursday. “We do have a largely historic building here so we are doing our best not to touch of the exterior and doing so in respect of the architectural significance of the facade.”

Three of the units would be income restricted, meeting a key requirement in the program that at least 17% of units match what officials consider “inclusionary zoning.”

The total scope of the work is expected to cost nearly $1.6 million, attorney George Morancy wrote in the application, adding the project is “fully compliant with the requirements of the Boston Zoning Code.”

In total, the BPDA has received four applications since October that would create 170 housing units by converting eight high vacancy Class B and C office buildings, according to officials. Candidates range from small local property owners to larger real estate brokers and developers, they said.

The largest project seeks 98 residential units out of three interconnected office buildings on Devonshire and Washington streets. The two others are calling for 24 units at 2 and 5 Longfellow Place and 33 units at 1 and 10 Emerson Place.

Applicants must meet inclusionary zoning requirements, green energy standards and start construction by October 2025. Applications are open until June.

“I am just so excited for this,” BPDA Board Chairwoman Priscilla Rojas told Burns. “This is just a really great pilot so thanks for answering this call for action.”

The initiative, a key priority of the Wu administration, will offer a 75%, 29-year tax abatement to building owners who jump on the chance to convert. The discount is intended to offset the high cost associated with converting office space, which is designed and engineered differently, to residential uses.

Post-pandemic vacancies downtown are running about 20%, according to a study released in the fall of 2022, and the tax break “could provide a strong incentive to encourage conversion,” officials have said.

Projects will be facilitated by a public-private partnership between the city, the BPDA and the project proponent and would result in a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement for the property going ahead.

“This is very interesting. This is new to us and to the Boston area. We want to see you succeed and hope other people think about this as an alternative,” BPDA board member Raheem Shepard told Burns.

A Herald analysis into Newton’s payroll for the 2023 calendar year revealed that 21 of the 89 custodians employed in the district made at least $20,000 in overtime pay, a statistic one financial watchdog called “appalling.”

The review also found that 13 custodians used the extra pay to skyrocket their salaries to over $100,000 — with the highest raking in $75,347.12 to boost their $88,383.58 in regular earnings to $166,780.86.

There are 22 school buildings in the district — 15 elementary, four middle and two high schools and an integrated preschool program.

A fire captain and police lieutenant topped the list of overtime earners in the city of roughly 84,500 people, as they took in $81,446.5 and $77,147.26, respectively, the payroll shows.

This is the latest example that highlights the “rampant unchecked spending in local services,” causing property taxes to soar in Greater Boston, said Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“I have never heard of that before. It’s actually quite appalling,” Craney said of the staggering custodian overtime pay in Newton while speaking to the Herald on Friday. “It’s pretty obvious the people that are entrusted by the taxpayers to have oversight in that school district (don’t), and as a result, employees are gaming the system.”

Officials provided the Herald a copy of the payroll on the heels of the Newton Teachers Association and School Committee reaching a contract agreement after a 2-week strike, one of the longest actions in recent history across Massachusetts public schools.

The strike between Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 caused the union to rack up $625,000 in fines. Meanwhile the district, which enrolls nearly 12,000 students, incurred more than $1 million in costs related to compensatory services and court fees.

Students and families couldn’t take the traditional February break, and parents have filed lawsuits against the union.

Custodians are in a separate union from the teachers, one that has had to deal with their respective disputes with the School Committee over the years.

Custodial overtime is driven by three major factors, the district’s director of communications, Julie McDonough, told the Herald. Those include coverage for custodians who are on sick leave or paid time off; school programs and events that occur after school hours or on the weekends; and the rental of school buildings to outside organizations.

“We believe our figures to be accurate as overtime is submitted by custodial staff, reviewed by the facilities office, and then submitted to payroll, who does a final review,” McDonough said in an email.

The district pays overtime for work completed over 8 hours per day, or 40 hours per week, at a rate of 1.5 times the regular hourly rate Monday to Saturday, McDonough said. It pays twice the regular hourly rate for Sundays and holidays, she added.

“Custodial overtime pay is factored into the school budget each year,” she explained. “This pay is largely offset by our Use of School Buildings program, which generates revenue through the rental of our facilities to outside organizations. Current staffing allows for flexibility as events, rentals, and programming fluctuate year to year and limits longer term liabilities.”

The overtime figures have been relatively consistent over the past decade, McDonough said.

A Herald review of the 2022 payroll revealed that three custodians cracked the city’s top 10 highest overtime earners. The custodian with the second largest pool amongst the cleaning crew made $71,579.27 by clocking extra hours, but that number dropped to $51,858.87 in 2023.

In 2015, the district awarded a bid to New York-based business management consulting firm Core Management Services to conduct an independent evaluation of its custodial program.

The review, involving custodial quality inspections at 18 schools, found that the facilities were “not currently being cleaned to minimum acceptable quality standards for K-12 districts.” A recommendation included outsourcing services that could have led to savings “as high as $1,078,000 per year,” according to a report outlining the findings.

The School Committee turned the recommendation into a proposal which received fierce backlash from the Newton Custodians’ Association. The union filed more than 25 charges of unfair treatment against the committee, with the state Department of Labor Relations becoming involved as a third party, Newton North High School’s student newspaper, The Newtonite, reported in April 2017.

“It never (came to fruition), and it is not being considered now,” McDonough told the Herald.

“If I was a property taxpayer in Newton, I would be demanding some resignations,” Craney said. “The person in charge of oversight does not care. They’ve let this happen to the point where it’s being completely abused.”

To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort by highest to lowest. Send any tips or questions to joed@bostonherald.com.

The Salisbury Beach Citizens for Change neighborhood group raised roughly $565,000 that brought them 14,000 tons of sand over several weeks. The project finished just three days before strong winds and coastal flooding clobbered the popular North Shore beach town.

Tom Saab, the group’s president, is pressing Gov. Maura Healey and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation to provide $375,000 in immediate funding that would allow the group to redo parts of the dunes that washed away.

“All of these property owners are on this meeting call right now wanting to hear what can we do immediately to help the situation,” Saab said during a Wednesday meeting with neighbors and local and state officials. That’s what we can do – we can do that right now.”

Roughly 150 homeowners covered the “entire sand expense” in the full-scale effort that wrapped up just last Wednesday after the town received an emergency certification and beach access permit from DCR.

That paved the way for residents to replace sand on destroyed dunes around their beachfront properties which sustained damage during an early January storm.

“I’m sure (DCR Commissioner) Brian Arrigo can make an extra effort to find these funds for us after what we just did collectively, as property owners of Salisbury Beach,” Saab said.

The issues at Salisbury Beach are not self-contained nor new, with other coastal towns and cities experiencing an increasing number of damaging events in recent months and years.

State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, whose district includes Salisbury, called the beach an important natural resource for residents across the Bay State, not just for those who live along the beachfront.

Tarr and several members of Salisbury Beach Citizens for Change said they believe the restoration project “did its job” even with the destruction it sustained Sunday. Water levels reached a staggering 12.34 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

“It dissipated wave energy and it did prevent a lot of damage from happening,” Tarr told the Herald Wednesday evening. “But like most of the sand you put on a beach in this situation, it is sacrificial. Some of it was lost, some of it was redistributed to other places.”

A DCR spokeswoman told the Herald that the agency has closed two access points at the beach following the recent rainstorms. Staffers are also meeting with community representatives and town officials on a regular basis to monitor conditions.

Not all Salisbury residents are fully onboard with looking at strengthening dunes as a solution.

“We’re not coming up with the right answer. I feel like we’re being held in the dark about something or there’s more to the puzzle,” resident Larry Kady said. “The sand is not the only answer.”

Tarr is seeking a larger $1.5 million replenishment project that the state would pay for, elevating the dunes and resculpting them with a “more gradual slope” so they can be more resilient, he said.

The senator said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the immediate steps ahead, saying residents and local and elected officials have done all they can, and it’s up to the state to provide funding.

“It’s difficult because the state’s resources are not unlimited,” Tarr said, “and we are facing a situation of declining revenue collections and increased demand for a whole host of things that demand our attention. We have to make the case, I think we are making the case, and now it’s up to the folks that control the purse strings to respond.”

Time is of the essence, as one of the state permits obtained earlier this winter is still valid but will be expiring by the end of April, Saab said. And not much long after that, people from all over will be flocking to the beach to cool off from the summer heat.

“The citizens who are on the dunes themselves should not be the ones paying for the fight,” Salisbury Selectman Mike Colburn said. “The state of Massachusetts has a legal obligation and a moral obligation to start getting sand on this beach now.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Council President Ben Ewen-Campen and Councilor Willie Burnley, Jr., are set to bring forth a resolution highlighting the framework of their proposal to the rest of the council on Thursday. They say they already have support from city administrators and advocates.

“This is about reducing traffic congestion, lowering costs, and meeting climate goals,” Ewen-Campen said Monday in a post on X.

In 2019, the council approved a zoning law that set a maximum number of new parking spaces built in its transit-accessible neighborhoods. The new proposal looks to apply that regulation to “certain large commercial developments” in other parts of the city while doing away with so-called “parking minimums.”

“The elimination of parking minimums in Somerville’s transit-oriented development areas has resulted in a remarkable 62% decrease in the number of parking spaces being built compared to what was previously mandated,” part of the resolution states.

Requiring “large commercial developments” to provide at least a minimum number of parking spaces, Ewen-Campen and Burnley, Jr. say, leads to “increased traffic congestion,” hampers residents’ quality of life, and impedes the city’s climate goals.

In a statement to the Herald on Tuesday, the city said Mayor Katjana Ballantyne believes the proposal “merits serious consideration” as it aligns with Somerville’s transition to cleaner modes of transportation and promotes affordable housing.

The request has caught some pushback in the community after Ewen-Campen posted a document of the resolution on social media Monday.

“Removing spaces causes more congestion with people looking for parking,” someone commented on X. “It also hurts business because many people can not navigate public (transit), and will go elsewhere if they can not park. It will bring more Uber traffic too.”

The city told the Herald that “the administration recognizes many residents currently rely on access to parking.”

“With this in mind, the City is committed to dedicating resources to employing curb use and other strategies that make the best use of limited parking resources,” a spokesperson said, “rather than mandating the creation of new parking.”

Rough 30% of parking spaces in new apartment buildings across Greater Boston are unused, according to undisclosed studies that Ewen-Campen and Burnley, Jr., cited in the resolution.

Cambridge in October 2022 became the first city or town in Massachusetts to eliminate all minimum parking space requirements from a zoning code. In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu signed an amendment earlier that year eliminating parking minimums for affordable housing developments.”

The resolution order in Somerville highlights how “the creation of even a single parking space costs, on average, $50,000 with significantly higher costs in dense metropolitan areas.”

“It is often said that zoning is the most powerful tool that municipalities have in the fight for housing affordability,” Burnley Jr. said in a post on Instagram. “By eliminating parking minimums like Cambridge did years ago, we hope to spur further affordable housing development.”

Wilson, of Lynnfield, and his son, Johnny, have filed a complaint in Barnstable Superior Court alleging the entertainment company and its producers defamed them in “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal,” a documentary released in 2021.

Federal prosecutors alleged and convicted Wilson on a charge that he paid more than $1.2 million to secure his children’s admissions to elite universities — Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and Stanford University — as athletic recruits.

But the Wilsons and their lead attorney, William Charles Tanenbaum, say none of Netflix’s depictions of the family are accurate and that the company “rushed” the production of the documentary in early 2021, “poisoning public opinion and the jury pool months before Mr. Wilson’s trial even began.”

Wilson in February 2022 was sentenced in federal court in Boston to 15 months in prison — the largest penalty leveled in the case that swept up at least 50 defendants, including Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and former “Full House” star Lori Laughlin, charged with paying for their children to attend elite schools.

Last May, the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Wilson’s admissions scam conviction. Months later, the prison sentencing was replaced by a year of probation involving a single tax-related charge that Wilson faced.

Wilson’s legal team is alleged to have provided Netflix a 450-plus page “written warning”  before the documentary’s publication outlining the concerns the family had about the film, suggesting the company avoid “guilt-by-association or including any falsehoods.”

“Netflix willingly chose to group my highly qualified children and me into a scandal involving celebrities who, unlike me, pled guilty and acknowledged their roles in shameful actions like photoshopping images of fake athletes, cheating on tests and making bribe payments to coaches,” Wilson said in a statement.

“In the interest of justice and accountability, Netflix must pay for the deliberate and devastating harm that they’ve done to my family,” he added.

The lawsuit outlines how none of Wilson’s children were alleged to have cheated on their ACT exams and that his donations went to college foundations or IRS-approved charities, “not to any coach or college employee’s personal accounts, contrary to Netflix what depicted.”

Johnny Wilson participated on the University of Southern California’s water polo team in 2014, becoming “one of the fastest players” on the team.

“The Wilsons met with the USC coaches and development team, received receipts for their donations, and USC has kept their donations to this day – contrary to what Netflix depicted,” the complaint outlines.

Netflix has not updated the film “to indicate that Mr. Wilson was cleared of all the core charges against him, leaving viewers with the false impression that he committed fraud against USC and other colleges.”

“Given Netflix’s industry leadership position,” Tanenbaum said in a statement, “it is all the more shameful for them to have intentionally disregarded the truth about the Wilsons by perniciously depicting them as they did in their unfair, inaccurate, and mean-spirited narrative as it relates to the Wilsons.”

While details on when exactly the new policy — essentially a ban on cellphones — will go into effect still need to be ironed out, the School Committee wants it to begin as soon as possible.

Each student will be responsible for bringing their pouch to school every day and placing their phones, powered down, inside them before classes start. To unlock the pouches at the end of the day, students will need to tap them on a special device. Earbuds will also be required to be placed in the pouches.

If a student violates the policy, the pouch and phone will be sent to the school’s main office.

A majority of teachers provided favorable feedback, but officials received some concerns around enforcing consequences when students violate the policy, said Michele Conners, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.

The rollout still needs to be worked out, Conners told the School Committee last Tuesday, and implementation will be gradual instead of fully at once.

“Everything, everywhere, all at once is not going to work,” she said, “and you set up very adversarial conditions between adults and students. And we don’t want that so it needs to be very deliberate — you go slow to go fast.”

Massachusetts’ largest high school, which enrolls 3,586 students, has become the epicenter of student violence and substance abuse, with Brockton grappling with a massive budget deficit that could reach $25 million by the end of the year and has created a severe staffing shortage.

The chaos prompted four members of the School Committee to request the National Guard to be deployed to combat the chaos, but Mayor Robert Sullivan and Gov. Maura Healey both opposed the measure.

Acting Superintendent James Cobbs said the district will be receiving a $10 dollar discount per pouch from Yondr — a San Francisco-based company that creates the magnetic, lockable phone cases — putting the price at $30 per student.

The district will be buying 3,700 devices leading to a total of $99,680, he said.

Roughly 50 schools across the Bay State are using Yondr including Newton, Lowell, Salem, Lee, Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke.

“I look at it as we roll this out, we work out the kinks and see what happens with faculty and everyone,” School Committee Vice Chairwoman Kathleen Ehlers said. “If it’s working, great. If it’s not then we evolve and adjust again.”

The staggering development came to light Friday when officials released the findings of a third-party, independent review of the district’s budget the School Committee ordered last summer after discovering a $14.4 million deficit the previous fiscal year.

Open Architects, a Boston-based software company specializing in education data, completed the review in February, anticipating Brockton’s budget projected to exceed its $231.1 general budget this year by at least $19 million and at most $25 million.

Issues with transportation and special education spending and general budget oversight are the primary drivers behind the overspending, the third-party review found.

Mayor Robert Sullivan, in a release, called the report a “major step toward understanding the root causes of the school department budget deficit.”

“The issues identified in the report are unacceptable,” he said. “The city is taking action — with guidance and assistance from the Commonwealth — to address these issues in the short term and implement safeguards to ensure that nothing like this happens again.”

Transportation costs are soaring well past the budgeted $11.2 million, with final spending likely to be in the ballpark of $22.5 million. The district has insourced services in recent years, but officials “never created a proper budget to account for the full cost of services,” Open Architects said.

Additionally, the review found the district liable for $1 million in costs associated with the unmet needs of special education students, district officials highlighted in a release. Massachusetts districts are responsible for placing students in schools where their needs can be met.

Glaringly, the district “failed to properly use” a specific budget software that tracks spending, “including the failure to properly classify line items or update the system to reflect the true budgeted amounts of certain line items, including transportation,” officials wrote in the release on the report.

“This lack of oversight especially impacted the management and spending of grants, allowing for accounts dedicated to finite grant funding to be overdrawn,” they wrote.

“Like with any of the challenges facing our city and our schools, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution,” Acting Superintendent James Cobbs stated in the release. “However, this report provides us with critical insight into where we’ve gone wrong and a roadmap for improving our processes.”

Cobbs took over as the district’s top leader at the time the School Committee authorized the budget review, just days before this academic year began.

Superintendent Mike Thomas, who has been in the district for 30 years, informed the committee last fiscal August he’d be out on extended medical leave when they learned about the “unexpected” $14.4 million deficit that grew to $18.3 million in the previous fiscal year.

To close last fiscal year’s budget and set the tax rate, officials allocated $19 million to cover the deficit, using the entire $7.9 million stabilization fund that requires replenishment and an interest charge for its use, $2 million from free cash and $9.1 million in local receipts, the review states.

The forecast is not bright for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning in July, with the review finding that even after a projected $19 million increase in state funding, the district is likely to face at least a $7 million deficit.

This is all coming as Brockton High School has reached the national limelight for a “disturbing increase in incidents related to violence, security concerns, and substance abuse.”

The unruly student behavior prompted four School Committee members to request the National Guard to be deployed to Massachusetts’ largest high school to address the issues. But Sullivan and Gov. Maura Healey, who has sole authority over the Guard, opposed the measure.

School Committee member Tony Rodrigues appeared on Fox Business last month, highlighting how he believes the district’s massive budget deficit has played a large role in setting the stage for the disruptive scene at the high school.

At least 20 to 25 teachers are calling out of work a day on average, leading to 800 students roaming around the halls unsupervised, Rodrigues said on the Feb. 21 edition of The Bottom Line.

“We have to have the bodies inside the school,” he said. “Right now what you do is when you have a lot of educators not in the building, these kids are free to roam. And what do you think these teenagers are going to do? It’s free for all.”

Months before his leave, Superintendent Thomas announced that 130 certified staff positions would be eliminated due to an $18 million deficit in the 2023 fiscal year’s budget, citing how nearly 1,350 students had left the district since the start of the pandemic.

Thomas, who earned a gross pay of $271,132 in 2022, has taken “full blame” for the budget debacle, saying he did not embezzle money and that there are no missing dollars.

He told the district on Feb. 21 that he was “well enough to return to work” and that he rescinded his leave, but the School Committee instead voted to place him on paid administrative leave, the Brockton Enterprise reported.

“It’s unfortunate you pay me all this money to have me sitting out when you know I could make a difference,” Thomas told the School Committee on Feb. 27. “If Mike Thomas was here, this stuff at the high school you know would not be happening. Not a chance.”

Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt has found the ban to be consistent with a state law prohibiting tobacco sales to people under the age 21, “rationally related to a legitimate government interest” and in line with the Massachusetts Constitution’s equal protection provisions.

State lawmakers voted in 2018 to block the sale of tobacco products to people younger than 21 years old, raising the minimum age requirement from 18.

The so-called “Tobacco Act” preempts any “inconsistent, contrary or conflicting” local law related to the minimum age provision but allows cities and towns to limit and to ban the sale of tobacco products within their municipalities, Wendlandt highlighted in her ruling.

Brookline residents in 2020 approved a bylaw that places tobacco consumers into two groups: people born before 2000 and those born after.

Wendlandt’s ruling Friday came after several Brookline convenience store owners looked for the SJC to declare the ban undermined the state Constitution by dividing adults into two age groups and preempted by the Tobacco Act.

“The bylaw’s birthdate classification, starting in the year 2000, is rationally related to the town’s legitimate interest in mitigating tobacco use overall and in particular by minors,” Wendlandt wrote in her ruling.

“The bylaw also is a rational alternative to an immediate and outright ban on sales of all tobacco products, preserving intown sales to those in group one who may already suffer from addiction,” she added. “And it provides sellers time to adjust to revenue losses that stem from shrinking tobacco product sales.”

Convenience store owners and retailers are blasting the ruling as they say the ban will hurt their businesses while advocates and local officials are applauding the decision as it puts public health at the forefront.

The New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, a regional industry lobbying group, said it’s “disappointed but not surprised” by the development.

“The Brookline bylaw does not target youth tobacco usage,” the group posted on X late Friday night. “Instead, it bans a growing class of adults from legally purchasing any tobacco or nicotine product in the town. Our retailers will be negatively impacted when they lose customers to neighboring towns.”

Advocates and officials have long viewed Brookline as a leader in tobacco regulation.

The town of roughly 60,000 people, on the border of Boston, became the first municipality in the state to disallow people from smoking in bars and restaurants in 1994. More recently, it banned the sale of flavored tobacco and vapor products in 2019.

Brookline is the first city or town in the country to enact a bylaw that will gradually phase out tobacco use completely, the Boston Globe reported.

“By affirming a lower court’s dismissal of the tobacco industry’s challenge of the bylaw, the state’s highest court validated the town’s legitimate interest in mitigating tobacco use overall, and in particular the case of minors,” Town Counsel Joe Callanan said in a statement.

Tobacco remains the biggest cause of preventable death in the U.S. and the world, the Action on Smoking and Health stated in a release. It also costs the U.S. more than $300 billion annually in health care costs and lost productivity, according to the advocacy group.

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, slammed the upholding of the ban, saying it’s taking away freedom of choice from people and small businesses.

“What’s next? Cannabis, alcohol, meat, healthcare services? Local pols completely out of their lane on these issues,” Hurst said in a post on X early Saturday.

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a conservative fiscal group, added: “A local board of health telling some adults what they can or can’t do, which is legal for other adults. This is complete insanity.”

Brookline’s ban has sparked interest in other towns across the Bay State, with Melrose, Stoneham, Wakefield and Malden all looking to follow suit. Even officials in cities and towns as far away as California are following Brookline’s bylaw.

“This is a watershed moment, and I hope places in California and around the world will be inspired to put an end to the tobacco epidemic once and for all,” Beverly Hills city councilor John Mirisch said in a statement following the SJC decision Friday. Mirisch was mayor when his city ended all tobacco sales in 2021.