SPRINGFIELD — A Connecticut man charged with ramming two Massachusetts police cruisers and injuring two Springfield officers while trying to escape a traffic stop has been held on $25,000 bail.
George Dobitsky was back in court Tuesday a day after pleading not guilty to seven charges, including four counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Prosecutors say he repeatedly rammed the cruisers. One officer’s leg was pinned between two vehicles and a second suffered back and neck injuries. Both are out of the hospital.
AGAWAM — A lawyer representing three Agawam police officers who were fired after city officials determined they used excessive force in subduing a struggling man says two of the officers have been reinstated with back pay by the city.
Attorney John Connor said Tuesday that Sgt. Anthony Grasso and Edward Connor will resume their duties “effective immediately.” The two officers and Officer John Moccio were fired in October. They appealed their firings to the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission and testified at a Tuesday hearing.
Police Chief Eric Gillis said he stands by the decision to fire the officers.
As they prepare to take up an override of Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of controversial legislative pay raises, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert DeLeo met privately Wednesday afternoon, but the issue of pay raises apparently did not come up.
“We were talking about the weather and what we had for lunch and a few other matters,” Rosenberg said as he left DeLeo’s office just before 3 p.m. Asked whether the leaders discussed the override votes scheduled for Thursday, Rosenberg said, “Actually, we didn’t.”
The House and Senate are expected to override Baker’s veto of a controversial package of pay raises worth $18 million for lawmakers, judges and constitutional officers on Thursday.
Almost 50 years after giving the commencement address as a graduating senior, Hillary Clinton will return to her alma mater Wellesley College this spring to again deliver the commencement address at the women’s liberal arts school.
News of Clinton’s selection was reported Wednesday by the independent, student-run Wellesley News, and confirmed by Clinton aides on Twitter. The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Clinton graduated from Wellesley with high honors in 1969 and was selected by her classmates to be the school’s first ever student commencement speaker, according to the college.
Wellesley’s commencement ceremony is schedule for 10:30 a.m. on Friday, May 26 on the school’s campus in Wellesley.
PLYMOUTH — Federal regulators who found 10 safety issues at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth say the state’s only nuclear plant will be allowed to stay open under intense scrutiny.
Members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told more than 200 people at a public meeting Tuesday that despite the safety issues, they are confident plant staff can handle an emergency and the plant will be allowed to refuel as scheduled this year.
The meeting was held after an internal NRC memo was released that said Pilgrim staff was “overwhelmed.”
Many of the people who attended the meeting want the plant, one of the worst performing nuclear power stations in the country, shut down early. Entergy Corp., which owns the plant, says it will close the station for good in 2019.
From Associated Press and State House News Service