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Massachusetts at 8 p.m.
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Updates HILLARY CLINTON
Adds SUPREME COURT-AFFIRMATIVE ACTION-PATRICK; for sports FBN--NFL PLAYERS-HARVARD; as briefs HOMELESSNESS-MASSACHUSETTS, URI-AMERICAN ACADEMY, FAKE DOCTOR-PAINKILLER, UMASS BOSTON-BOMB THREATS, BOSTON HARBOR-BODY, SLEDGEHAMMER DEATH
TOP STORIES:
MASSACHUSETTS GAMBLING-SUFFOLK DOWNS
BOSTON — Suffolk Downs, New England's only thoroughbred facility, warned on Wednesday that the 2014 racing season would likely be the last one at the 79-year-old track unless Mohegan Sun is awarded the sole eastern Massachusetts resort casino license. Suffolk Downs has promised to continue racing for at least the next 15 years if the Massachusetts Gaming Commission gives the license to Connecticut-based Mohegan Sun, which has proposed a $1.3 billion casino on land Suffolk Downs owns in Revere. But track officials have cited the difficulty of sustaining racing without income and crossover business generated by a gambling resort. By Bob Salsberg. SENT: 500 words.
SUPREME COURT-AFFIRMATIVE ACTION-PATRICK
BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick called the Supreme Court's ruling allowing voters to outlaw the use of race as a factor in college admissions "very troubling" Wednesday and said his administration is looking to see whether there are any implications for Massachusetts. In their ruling, the court voted 6-2 Tuesday to uphold a voter-approved change to the Michigan Constitution that forbids the state's public colleges to take race into account in deciding which students to accept. By Steve LeBlanc. SENT: 450 words.
HILLARY CLINTON
BOSTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton is daring women to compete, but not saying whether she will herself in 2016. The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state addressed a women's leadership conference in Boston on Wednesday, an event set just 30 miles from the New Hampshire state line as she weighs another presidential campaign. By Steve Peoples. SENT:480 words, photos. Will be updated from Connecticut appearance.
With:
— MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR-CLINTON — BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is heaping praise on Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying she would "make a great president." SENT: 130 words.
MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR
BOSTON — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley has turned in more than 13,000 certified nomination signatures to earn a spot on the September primary ballot. The attorney general and members of her campaign staff submitted boxes of signatures to the Secretary of State on Wednesday, making her the first candidate hoping to succeed Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to do so. By Bob Salsberg. SENT: 430 words.
ALSO:
NEW PAINKILLER RESTRICTIONS
BOSTON — The San Diego company that makes a powerful new prescription painkiller called Zohydro says it's disappointed with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's decision to impose new restrictions on the drug after a federal judge ruled that his attempt to ban the drug outright was unconstitutional. SENT: 300 words.
FOOTBALL PLAYERS-ASSAULT
BOSTON — Two former college football players have been charged with beating a Boston homeless man unconscious. Craig Parsons is a Boston College senior from Newton, and Anthony Varrichione is from Medway and graduated from Marist College in New York after playing quarterback there. SENT: 290 words.
BUSINESS:
HOUSING SALES-MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON — Massachusetts homeowners still appear reluctant to put their houses on the market, driving sales volume down and prices up last month, two organizations that track the real estate market said Wednesday. SENT: 300 words.
PRIMARK-US
Primark — a popular European clothing and accessories retailer — is coming to the US. The retailer's parent company Associated British Foods plc said Wednesday that Primark plans to open an unspecified number of stores in the Northeast. The company plans to open its first Primark shop in Boston in 2015 in the space previously occupied by Filene's Department Store. SENT: 100 words.
IN BRIEF:
HOMELESSNESS-MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON — Massachusetts housing officials say the number of homeless families living in motels is beginning to decline. Massachusetts Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development Aaron Gornstein said Wednesday that the number has dropped by about 20 percent since a peak in December where there were about 2,000 families finding temporary housing in dozens of hotels and motels with approximately an equal number in family shelters.
URI-AMERICAN ACADEMY
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The University of Rhode Island oceanography professor best known for discovering the wreck of the Titanic has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
FAKE DOCTOR-PAINKILLER
WILLISTON, Vt. — Police in Vermont say a South Burlington man called pharmacies here and in New Hampshire and identified himself as a Massachusetts doctor to get prescriptions filled for a pain reliever.
UMASS BOSTON-BOMB THREATS
BOSTON — A University of Massachusetts Boston student has pleaded not guilty to making two recent bomb threats to the same campus building. Twenty-nine-year-old senior Dean Beckford of Somerville was arraigned Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court and ordered held on $20,000 cash bail.
BOSTON HARBOR-BODY
BOSTON — A Boston fire department spokesman says a man's body has been removed from Boston Harbor after witnesses reported seeing it off Long Wharf.
SLEDGEHAMMER DEATH
NASHUA, N.H. — A New Hampshire man who had recently moved from Massachusetts has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and been sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison for bludgeoning his roommate to death with a sledgehammer.
FATAL HIT-AND-RUN
WORCESTER — A Leicester woman charged in connection with a hit-and-run in Worcester that took the life of an 83-year-old man has been released on $2,500 bail.
COLLEGE PRESIDENT-LAWSUIT
BOSTON — The Massachusetts attorney general's office has sued the former president of a small Cape Cod college in an effort to get him to repay the millions he collected from his allegedly excessive salary and perks, including luxury cars and homes.
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
BOSTON — A 67-year-old Beverly man who lived across the street from a middle school has been sentenced to five years in prison on child pornography charges. Stanton Hager was also sentenced in federal court to five years of probation.
TOASTER-GIRL BURNED
LOWELL — An 11-year-old Lowell girl was taken to a hospital after her hair got caught in a toaster and she suffered serious burns to her forehead.
CHILD ENTICEMENT CHARGE
ATTLEBORO — A 30-year-old Medford man has been charged with offering a 12-year-old girl cash, gifts and concert tickets in exchange for nude photos of herself.
WOMEN'S JAIL-LAWSUIT
SPRINGFIELD — A federal judge has heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by 178 former and current inmates at a women's jail in western Massachusetts who say their constitutional rights are being violated because male guards are videotaping strip searches.
SPORTS:
BBA--YANKEES-RED SOX
BOSTON — The New York Yankees go for their eighth win in 10 games when they send Michael Pineda (2-1) to the mound against John Lackey (2-2) and the Boston Red Sox. By Howard Ulman. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos. Game starts at 7:05 p.m.
— With: Hometown lead.
HKN--BRUINS-RED WINGS
DETROIT — The Boston Bruins have held the Detroit Red Wings to historically poor offensive production. With two goals through three games, the Red Wings are off to their worst three-game start in any playoff series since getting shut out in the first three games of the 1945 Stanley Cup finals. By Larry Lage. SENT: 630 words, photos.
FBN--NFL PLAYERS-HARVARD
CAMBRIDGE — Richard Sherman was called all kinds of names after his raging rant at the end of the NFC championship game. It was worth it, the Seattle cornerback said, because it gave him a chance to talk about the perception of black athletes to a wider audience. First, at the Super Bowl. By Jimmy Golen. SENT: 790 words, photos.
BKW--BOSTON U-GREENBERG RESIGNATION
BOSTON — Boston University women's basketball coach Kelly Greenberg resigned Wednesday about a month after several former players complained that she was so verbally and emotionally abusive that she drove them off the team. The university assembled a three-member panel to investigate the allegations of abuse that four former scholarship players say prompted them to quit last season. SENT: 250 words.
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