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TA I L S of t he C I T Y
Rats, rats, everywhere, but inspectors are ready and showing no mercy

Programs face gap in casino payouts

Error in bill means a fraction of funding
By Andrea Estes
GLOBE STAFF

GEORGE RIZER/GLOBE STAFF

Complaints about the Norway rat, with its small ears, sharp claws, and long tail, have doubled in some areas of Boston over the past year.
NUMBER OF RAT-RELATED COMPLAINTS

By David Abel
GLOBE STAFF

Citywide 1,365
1,000

1,675 1,218

500

July 04- July 05June 05 June 06

July 06June 07

Back Bay/Beacon Hill 141 138

0

253

Allston-Brighton
0

66

87

190

North End/Chinatown 112 114 123

0

SOURCE: Boston Inspectional Services Department

DAIGO FUJIWARA/GLOBE STAFF

The plump little beasts enjoy gorging on garbage, which helps keep their teeth from growing 4 inches a year. But too much can frustrate their efforts to squeeze through quarter-sized holes or to scale sewage pipes and slink out of toilets. They also have a tendency to outsmart predators such as Chuck Trainito, who has been patrolling the streets in recent weeks with weapons of rodent destruction. The inimitable Norway rat a footlong rodent with small ears, sharp claws, and a long tail has become an increasingly familiar presence in Boston in recent years, from the alleys of the Back Bay to the basements of Dorchester. In scal 2007, city residents lodged 1,675 complaints about rats, 38 percent more than the year before and 23 percent above scal 2005, according to the citys Inspectional Services Department. In the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and AllstonBrighton, complaints about rats have doubled over the past scal year. Earlier this month, a report issued by a national rodent-control company rated Boston as the third most likely city in the country to confront a surge in the rat population over the next few months, as the creatures begin their breeding season.
RATS, Page B4

PHOTOS BY DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

Chris Stockbridge (top) of Inspectional Services looked for illegal dumping, while Brian Nguyen tried to chase a rat out of a pipe.

When Governor Deval Patrick unveiled his casino plan last month, he said three destination resort casinos would generate $100 million to help host communities and their neighbors ease trafc and ght crime, and to pay for public health programs like compulsive gambling treatment and prevention. But when the bill appeared last week, the amount of money earmarked for community mitigation and public health programs was only a fraction of what the governor promised: $27 million. Patrick aides said the discrepancy was a mistake, an error committed during long days of drafting and revising the 77-page, landmark bill. The administration said nothing publicly about the error, until it was asked to explain the differences yesterday by the Globe. We found a drafting error shortly after the legislation was Michael Widmer led, Patrick spokesMassachusetts Taxpayer man Kyle Sullivan said Foundation in a written statement, and we will be submitting corrective language that is consistent with our plan once the bill is referred to an appropriate committee. The governor has said repeatedly since he publicized the proposal last month that the community impact mitigation and public health trust funds would each receive 2.5 percent of the casinos gross revenue. It is a crucial political selling point for the governor, intended to ease worries about the negative effects of introducing legalized gambling in three regions of the state. The mitigation money would help local communities pay for any increase in the cost of police and re, transportation, water and sewer services, and criminal prosecutions. The public health fund would pay for gambling prevention and addiction services, domestic violence and child welfare programs. Using the governors original assumption that the three casinos would generate $2 billion in annual gross revenue, there would be $50 million available

We dont have enough money to do everything else they [the administration] promised.

CASINO, Page B4

Signs of confusion for Pikes U-turn

By Noah Bierman
GLOBE STAFF

2 teens arraigned after gun, list of names found

Leominster police say father turned in items
By David Abel and John C. Drake
GLOBE STAFF

Drivers are unclear on ramps limits

A tractor-trailer accident that shut down the new U-turn lane on the Massachusetts Turnpike yesterday has raised questions about whether signs near the ramp make it clear who can use it. The lane, at the Allston-Brighton tolls, was closed to trafc for more than four hours yesterday while workers repaired 50 feet of aluminum guardrail that was smashed when a tractor-trailer tried to use the U-turn lane just before midnight Monday. The $1.6 million ramp, which opened Saturday, is only open to taxicabs and commercial vehicles with three axles. But Eric Lamarque, a truck driver from Quebec, said through a translator that he believed he was following a detour and
U-TURN, Page B4

LEOMINSTER Two 16-year-old boys were arraigned yesterday on charges of possessing a handgun after one of their fathers turned in the weapon and a list of names the boys allegedly had drafted, police said. The father delivered the .357-caliber revolver to local police on Saturday and

the list of seven names, mainly of adults at Leominster High School, said Leominster Police Chief Peter Roddy. He did not call the names, which were handwritten on lined paper, a hit list. We havent gotten to that point, Roddy said. But we have interviewed all of the people on the list, and we want everyone to know that theres no risk at this time. Whether there was potential risk is still being investigated. The boys, whose names were not released, were arrested at home Saturday and arraigned in Fitchburg Juvenile

Court, each on a single count of unlicensed possession of a rearm. Roddy said the father later turned in his own .22-caliber hunting rie, as a precaution. He said the father found the handgun in his sons bedroom. If theres any bright side of this story, its that the parents took action, Roddy said. They have fully cooperated. I have to give them credit. He said the teenagers are cooperating with police. Tim Connolly, a spokesman for the Worcester district attorneys ofce, said

that the boys would remain in custody until their next court date and may face additional charges. He did not know yesterday what date they would next appear. Police informed school ofcials after obtaining the list. Nadine Binkley, superintendent of Leominster public schools, declined to comment on threats to teachers or other school ofcials. She also declined to say whether the school had previous problems with either student. All I can say is that there is a thorough
LEOMINSTER, Page B4

Talks honor key Boston role in black history

By April Simpson
GLOBE STAFF

T
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST

Woman is 2d crash victim

A second Brockton Hospital employee died yesterday, as Plymouth County investigators tried to reconstruct events that caused a Rockland woman to smash her car into the building on Monday. B3

1 dead, 1 hurt in shooting

A woman in her 30s was killed, and a man was seriously injured in a double shooting last night in Dorchester. The victims names were not released. It was the 56th homicide of the year in Boston. B2

In 1907, more than 800 people attended the Niagara Movement meeting in Boston. It was the rst meeting that allowed women to participate as voting delegates.

he gathering of prominent black leaders and activists at Faneuil Hall a century ago was a pivotal moment in the history of the AfricanAmerican civil rights movement and for Boston, but it has been largely forgotten. W.E.B. DuBois, Bostons William Monroe Trotter, and scores of other organizers of the Niagara Movement, a civil rights organization that spawned the NAACP, met in 1907 to discuss how best to oppose segregationist laws in the United States. Disagreements among the 800 civil rights leaders and activists from around the country widened a split between DuBois and Trotter, fractured the young Niagara Movement, and marked the start of Bostons decline as a national political and social hub for AfricanAmericans. Yesterday, local scholars and community leaders, including Governor Deval Patrick, launched four days of recognition and educational talks about the 1907 Boston meeting and its role in the citys history. Organizers at the NAACP, the William Monroe
NIAGARA MOVEMENT, Page B3

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City & Region B3

2d victim succumbs Talks honor Boston role in black history in hospital crash
NIAGARA MOVEMENT
Continued from Page B1

Investigators check car for malfunction

By John R. Ellement
GLOBE STAFF

A second Brockton Hospital employee died yesterday, as Plymouth County investigators tried to reconstruct the events that caused a 76-year-old Rockland woman to smash her car into the building on Monday. Susan M. Plante, a 20-year hospital employee who was working in the epicenter of the accident, died at Massachusetts General Hospital, authorities said. Plante was in the reception area of the radiology department around 1:30 p.m. when the car driven by Jane Berghold plowed into the hospital. Also killed in the crash was Dr. Mark A. Vasa, 58, of Norwell, a radiation oncologist and the hospitals chief of radiation therapy. Plante, 59, of East Bridgewater had been airlifted to MGH after the accident, according to Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruzs ofce. Plantes family released a statement through the hospital. Susan was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, the statement said. She offered friendship and love to everyone who came into her life, including the many patients she worked with every day. She enjoyed celebrations, and treated every day as a celebration of life. Plantes family also asked the media to respect their privacy while they mourned. Efforts to contact Vasas relatives were unsuccessful yesterday. In a telephone interview, Cruz said Brockton and State Police were examining the 1991 Oldsmobile Delta 88 to see if mechanical problems caused the crash. He also said investigators will try to determine if Berghold was

under the inuence of alcohol or drugs. Bergholds husband told the Globe his wife is a breast cancer patient. At Cruzs request, the Registry of Motor Vehicles indenitely revoked Bergholds drivers license on the grounds that she posed an immediate public danger. I thought that would be a good move to make, given that Berghold is a patient herself and was involved in a crash that killed two people, he said. Bergholds 51-year-old son, Peter, said in a telephone interview that his mother has been driving for more than 40 years without any problems. She is probably one of the most cautious drivers on the planet, he said. She is a very careful driver. She has always been a good driver. Berghold was cited for causing an accident in 1990, according to the RMV, but has no other citations or violations on her driving record. Our prayers are going out to these people, the victims, and their families of the victims, said Peter Berghold, who said his mother is devastated. Shes pretty well shook up about the whole thing. This is not an easy thing to go through for the relatives of the victims or my mother, for that matter. Peter Berghold said his mother described the crash to him. From her perspective, she was making a left hand turn to go park and stepped on the brake, he said. The events happened very quckly. The next thing she knew, she was inside the building, he said. There was broken glass everywhere. Peter Berghold also said his mother has not shown any loss of mental acuity. There are no mental issues that I am aware of, said the son, who lives in New Jersey. She is very alert, very with it. John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.

Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and other groups said they want to teach young people about black leaders who are often overlooked in American history classes. When our children are hard pressed to name their family three or four generations back, how can you expect them to know such a historic movement as the Niagara Movement or the inception of the NAACP? said the Rev. John M. Borders, pastor of Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan. Its a whole new reeducation. Its a rePAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF evaluation of who we are as a people that this could instigate, and Governor Deval Patrick delivered the opening remarks at the celebration marking the Niagara Movement yesterday. thats my hope. The story of Bostons black heritage is frequently eclipsed by the leader at the turn of the century Chicago, and Philadelphia, said Boston Tea Party and other events and was a large gure on the state Representative Byron of the American Revolution, said national stage. Rushing, who is a historian. Janie Ward, professor and chairThe Boston meeting was the Trotter was the last black leadwoman of the Africana studies largest of the Niagara Movement er of national stature in Boston, he department at Simmons College. sessions and the rst to include said. We in Boston women. Although This actually represented the need to be reminded the organization end of that period of Boston being of the richness of this met twice more, the involved in national activism in history, and we need session spelled the the civil rights movement, said to be reminded that movements end. Rushing. If you were going to black folks have been Tensions mounted become a national leader you had here for a very long between DuBois to be at a center of black activity. time, said Ward, and Trotter at the There wasnt a Boston Renaiswhose three-story Boston meeting re- sance, Rushing said. There was a Janie Ward, Africana garding the groups Harlem Renaissance. Cambridge house was studies department, leadership and paronce the home of a The celebration kicked off yesSimmons College ticularly whether it founder of the Niagterday with a ribbon-cutting cereara Movement. This should include mony at the State House, where is our city. whites in leadership Patrick, the states rst black govBlack leaders roles. ernor, signed autographs for mid- April Simpson can be reached at founded the Niagara Movement in DuBois joined liberal whites dle school students and reected asimpson@globe.com. 1905, nine years after the US Su- and helped found the NAACP in preme Court decision, Plessy v. 1909. Trotter, who broke off to Ferguson, permitted policies of ra- form the National Equal Rights cial segregation. League, and other black activists The Niagara Movement held its felt that the NAACP was too radirst meeting on the Canadian side cal and that it should not include of Niagara Falls and its second a whites in leadership roles. (New England Village, that is!) year later at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., They were out of touch with New England Village is a residential community of where abolitionist John Brown led the racial politics of the time, said extraordinary beauty and enriching opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities. Our newest home is adjacent a raid to free enslaved Africans Kerri Greenidge, who teaches in to our campus and offers the best of both worlds: community nearly 50 years earlier. the African-American studies based living and a vibrant campus life. We currently have Boston was chosen as the site department at Northeastern Uniseveral openings, so come see what our Village has to offer! for the third annual meeting the versity. following year, because of its With the black migration from abolitionist history and because it the South to the North and the beCall (781) 293-5461 x110 or email info@newenglandvillage.org was Trotters home base. Trotter, a ginning of an economic downturn to schedule a tour during open house week or request information. Harvard graduate, businessman, in New England, the black populaWe invite private and state-sponsored referrals. and newspaper publisher, was tion grew more slowly in Boston 664 School Street, Pembroke, MA 02359 Bostons most prominent black than in cities like New York,

We in Boston need to be reminded of the richness of this history.

on the Niagara Movement and Bostons civil rights past. People were talking about issues like lynching, how to deliver the full panoply of rights and responsibilities that go with citizenship to citizens who were black, Patrick said in his remarks. That work continues. This weeks meetings will include panels on the decade that produced Niagara and the NAACP, and African-American womens activism between the 1890s and World War I. US Representative James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina and House majority whip, was expected to speak last night at a private ceremony at UMass-Boston. Organizers said the event will prompt attendees to consider how blacks should respond to developments like this years Supreme Court decision that prohibits schools from making race-based assignments for students, and the Jena 6 case, in which six black teenagers in Jena, La., were arrested after a ght with a white student. Its shocking to receive still, in 2007, letters from people that have been discriminated against in public transportation, in accommodations on private bus lines . . . because of the color of their skin, said Karen L. Payne, president of the NAACPs Boston branch. Were ghting the same ght.

Come Home to New England

OPEN HOUSE WEEK 10/22-10/27

www.newenglandvillage.org

We cannot say this evidence undermines our condence in the jurys verdict or justies a nding that the district court abused its discretion in failing to vacate the judgment and order a new trial.
US appeals court ruling

Patrick plans trip to China to boost trade

By Lisa Wangsness
GLOBE STAFF

Appeals court rejects former FBI agents bid for a new trial
By Shelley Murphy
GLOBE STAFF

A federal appeals court rejected former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr.s bid for a new trial on federal racketeering charges yesterday, ruling that it was unimpressed by the quality of newly discovered evidence that defense lawyers had hoped would reopen the case. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit found there was insufcient evidence to support a Philadelphia mobsters assertion that one of the key witnesses at Connollys 2002 trial, former New England Maa boss Francis Cadillac Frank Salemme, conded to him while the two mobsters were in jail together that he had lied on the stand. Even if the mobsters version of Salemmes alleged recantation were true, the appeals court said it would not prove that Connolly was innocent or have any impact on testimony by other witnesses who identied Connolly as a corrupt agent who leaked information to longtime informants James Whitey Bulger and Stephen The Rieman Flemmi and took payoffs from them. The three-judge panel afrmed US District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauros rejection of a new trial for Connolly, writing, We cannot say this evidence undermines our condence in the jurys verdict or justies a nding that the district court abused its discretion in failing to vacate the judgment and order a new trial. The court also found that Connolly failed to back up his accusation of prosecutorial mis-

John J. Connolly is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

conduct. Connolly, 67, was sentenced to 10 years in prison following his conviction on charges of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and lying to an FBI agent about his dealings with Bulger and Flemmi. The former agent is in custody in Miami, where he is scheduled to stand trial in March on state murder charges that he helped Bulger and Flemmi orchestrate the 1982 gangland slaying of a Boston businessman with ties to Bulgers gang. Cambridge attorney E. Peter Mullane, one of several lawyers who represented Connolly in his federal appeal, said he will appeal the decision by the three-judge panel to the entire First Circuit court. There is no doubt in my mind that he was innocent, Mullane said.

Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that he will lead a sevenday trade mission to China in early December, taking a team of business executives, academic leaders, and senior government ofcials to Beijing and Shanghai. The delegation, scheduled to depart Nov. 30 and return Dec. 8, will focus on nding ways for Massachusetts leaders to collaborate with their Chinese counterparts on clean energy, life sciences, education, and transportation, the governors ofce said. In todays global economy, competition is worldwide, and so are the opportunities, Patrick said in a press release. Patricks ofce did not provide a full list of those who will attend the trade mission, but the administration said the group will include representatives from the legislative leadership, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and the Massachusetts Port Authority, as well as from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The trip could help develop more air and sea connections between China and Massachusetts; Massport has been in discussions with airlines about service to China. The giant countrys exploding economy also makes it an obvious place to look for new business relationships. Annie Johnson coexecutive director of the New England Clean Energy Council, which represents companies and organizations working on solar, wind, and other forms of clean energy said that she expects to go and that several of her groups members have also been invited. Joshua Boger, president and chief executive of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, said he also plans to attend. In my business experience, particularly for introductory meetings and getting to make contacts in business, theres no substitute for face-to-face business interactions, and this is a very efcient way to do that, he said.

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