FBI agents have nabbed an Oklahoma man accused of throwing a pipe bomb onto the porch of the Satanic Temple in Salem. Sean Patrick Palmer, 49, has been charged with using an explosive to cause damage to a building used in interstate or foreign commerce. Palmer was arrested on Wednesday, and will make an initial appearance in the Western District of Oklahoma. He will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date. According to the feds, cameras outside the Satanic Temple on April 8 showed a man walking toward the building wearing black pants, a black jacket, a black face covering, a tan-colo ..read more

Seven more jurors have been added for the murder trial of Mansfield’s Karen Read, with the Norfolk Superior Court clerk’s office revealing the juror questionnaire asks if the media coverage and police involvement would taint their opinions. Wednesday was the second day of jury selection in the case, with the total number of jurors now at 11 of the 16 required to begin. While the day began with defense attorney David Yannetti asking to speak on an “important” matter, Judge Beverly Cannone said she had no motions in front of her for him to argue and called the attorneys to a lengthy sidebar. Fol ..read more

Firefighters across Massachusetts are facing the “nearly impossible” task of extinguishing lithium-ion battery fires much more often, according to new state data showing that such blazes have spiked sharply in the past half-year. The state Department of Fire Service created a checklist last October for local departments to use to track the number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries, which power large devices like electric vehicles and smaller items like smartphones and e-cigarettes. So far, the form has helped 38 cities and towns identify 50 lithium-ion battery fires in the past six month ..read more

The Massachusetts State Police have added their suspect in a Christmas Eve 2023 murder at a Lawrence nightclub to the agency’s Most Wanted list. State Police and Lawrence Police are searching for Franklin Laras, 27, who they believe was the shooter in the murder of 29-year-old Edward Javier-Perez at the Energy Lounge nightclub in Lawrence. Lawrence Police responded to the Energy Lounge at 459 Broadway at around 12:20 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2023, and found Javier-Perez “suffering from an apparent gunshot wound,” the department wrote the day of the shooting. He was treated on scene and rushed to Lawre ..read more

A Boston IRS agent was indicted on charges that she committed personal tax fraud for years. Ndeye Amy Thioub, 67, of Swampscott, has served as a Boston-based Internal Revenue Service agent out of the IRS’ Large Business and International Division since 2006 and has been a licensed certified public accountant in Massachusetts since 2010, according to an affidavit filed in support of her criminal charges by a fellow IRS agent. On Tuesday, Thioub was indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in Boston on three counts each of filing false tax returns and filing false tax returns as an employee of t ..read more

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A police officer in Albany, New York, was “ambushed” by a driver following an attempted traffic stop early Wednesday and was shot in the leg before returning fire, killing the man, the city’s police chief said. The officer was hospitalized at Albany Medical Center and was alert and conscious, Police Chief Eric Hawkins said at a news conference outside the hospital. “We just experienced one of an officer’s worst nightmares, and that is being ambushed performing a routine part of their duties,” he said. The officer had seen a speeding vehicle about 12:30 a.m. and there was a ..read more

The Bay State housing market remains red hot before the spring breeze even begins to warm up sales. The median price of a single-family home in Greater Boston pushed up to $900,000 last month, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. The median single-family sale price for all of Massachusetts increased 7.4% on a year-over-year basis to $580,000 – also a new all-time high for the month of March, The Warren Group reports. “Not surprisingly, Massachusetts median single-family home prices continued to set records in March,” said Cassidy Norton, associate publisher and media relati ..read more

A child was hit by a vehicle on South Point Dr. in Dorchester on Tuesday morning, Boston Police said. At 10:41 a.m., officers responded to reports of a child struck by a car at 22 South Point Dr., said Boston Police spokesperson John Boyle. The child reportedly suffered “very minor injuries,” Boyle said. BPD did not immediately give further information on how the child was struck and whether the driver is facing any charges Tuesday afternoon. Related Articles Local News | Massachusetts woman crashes SUV into pot shop, injuries reported Local News | Brockton car crash leaves man, 50, with ‘p ..read more

Disgraced former U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, forced to resign under an ethics cloud, has won her law license back. Rollins made a “request for reinstatement” with the Suffolk Superior Court, and her appeal was granted and approved by the state Board of Bar Overseers, according to a copy of the order signed by Clerk Maura Doyle. “It is hereby ORDERED that the suspension of RACHAEL SPLAINE ROLLINS is terminated forthwith,” the court document states. The decision was entered into the official docket Tuesday, the notice adds. Rollins did not respond to a message left by the Herald Tuesday. As t ..read more

The body of O.J. Simpson is expected to be cremated in Las Vegas Tuesday, with his family giving a “hard no” to requests from scientists who want to study his brain to see if the former football great and accused double-murderer suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) — as he himself suspected. Several years before his death last week of cancer, Simpson, 76, spoke about his concerns that he had developed CTE, a degenerative brain disease, because of multiple concussions he suffered during his lauded NFL career. “I get concerned,” Simpson said in a 2018 interview with the Buffalo N ..read more