Massachusetts

Former sheriff’s deputy federally charged with threatening to burn down Massachusetts courthouse – The Boston Globe

Published

1 year ago

August 30, 2023

Former sheriff’s deputy federally charged with threatening to burn down Massachusetts courthouse – The Boston Globe

A former Middlesex County sheriff’s deputy who was angry about an upcoming court appearance made an array of threats, including burning down a Plymouth courthouse, and asked other police officers to attack with him, according to federal charges filed Wednesday.

Joshua Ford, 42, of Kingston, is charged with three counts of interstate transmission of a threatening communication, according to court filings.

Acting US Attorney Joshua Levy’s office said in a press release that Ford, who was a Middlesex sheriff’s deputy from 2009 through 2017, sent 12 emails on March 13 to various law enforcement officers around the state, saying he was “calling on all able bodied officers my brothers in blue to suit up for a fight.”

In the emails, Ford asked the 140 recipients who were mostly police officers to arm themselves and bring explosives and gasoline to fight with him because there “is no more justice system anymore just WAR,” authorities say.

He told the people he emailed that he “will see you there” at 8:30 a.m. on March 14, which is when he was due in court in a case in which he was charged with strangulation and assault and battery on a household member in 2020, according to court documents.

He also posted an 11-minute long video on YouTube and the British hosting website BitChute titled “War Has Been Declared (expletive) Them All” in which he spoke into the camera, reiterating his call and saying he’s coming to the courthouse to kill the people inside, according to the charging documents.

“Tomorrow we burn down the Plymouth County Court house to the ground,” Ford said in the video, according to court documents. He also allegedly said he was planning “to get” current Middlesex County sheriff’s officers, and unleashed an expletive-laden stream of threats about killing officers and using their skulls as a “fruit bowl.”

But Marshfield police arrested him at work around 11:30 a.m. on the day he sent the emails, according to documents filed in local court after the arrest.

He was charged in Plymouth District Court at the time, and now the US attorney’s office has indicted him on the federal charges. Each new count provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

Ford is in state custody and will be arraigned on the new charges at a later date, according to the US attorney’s office. Ford’s lawyer for the local charges declined to comment on his behalf, and no attorney was listed for the federal case.

In a statement, Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian’s office called Ford’s alleged threats “alarming and deeply disturbing.”

“We are grateful to our local law enforcement partners who acted swiftly to take Mr. Ford into custody, as well as to the FBI and US Attorney’s Office who have now secured this federal indictment,” the statement said.

Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com.Follow him @cotterreporter.

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Massachusetts

Local startups recovering from the burst tech funding bubble – The Boston Globe

Published

3 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Local startups recovering from the burst tech funding bubble – The Boston Globe

Tech startups based in Massachusetts finished 2024 with a buzz of activity in venture capital fundraising.

In the fourth quarter, 191 startups raised a total of $4.1 billion, 20 percent more than startups raised in the same period a year earlier, according to a report from research firm Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. For the full year, local startups raised $15.7 billion, about the same as in 2023.

The stability ended two years of sharp declines from the peak of startup fundraising in 2021. Slowing e-commerce sales, volatility in tech stock prices, and higher interest rates combined to slam the brakes on startup VC activity over the past three years. The 2024 total is less half the $34.7 billion Massachusetts startups raised in 2021.

But local startup investors have expressed optimism that VC backing will continue to pick up in 2025.

The fourth quarter’s activity was led by battery maker Form Energy’s $455 million deal and biotech obesity drugmaker Kailera Therapeutics’ $400 million deal, both in October, and MIT spinoff Liquid AI’s $250 million deal last month. Two more biotech VC deals in October rounded out the top five. Seaport Therapeutics, working on new antidepressants, raised $226 million and Alpha-9 Oncology, developing new treatments for cancer patients, raised $175 million.

Massachusetts ranked third in the country in VC activity in the quarter. Startups based in California raised $49.9 billion and New York-based companies raised $5.3 billion.

Venture capital firms, however, had an even harder time raising money in 2024 compared to earlier years. Massachusetts firms raised $5.9 billion, down 7 percent from 2023 and the lowest total since 2018. That mirrored the national trend, as VC firms across the country raised $76.1 billion, down 22 percent from 2023 and the lowest since 2019.

Only one Massachusetts-based VC firm raised more than $1 billion in 2024, a more common occurrence in prior years, according to the report: Flagship Pioneering in Cambridge raised $2.6 billion in July for its eighth investment fund plus another $1 billion for smaller funds. The firm, founded by biotech entrepreneur Noubar Afeyan, helps develop scientific research for startups in addition to providing funding.

The next largest deals were Cambridge-based Atlas Ventures’ $450 million biotech-focused fund announced last month and Engine Ventures $400 million fund investing in climate tech startups announced in June.

The decline comes as VC firms have had trouble getting a return on their investments, because so few startups have been able to go public. Just six biotech companies based in Massachusetts and no tech companies went public last year.

Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.

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Massachusetts

Mass. gives noncompliant towns more time to meet MBTA zoning regulations

Published

12 hours ago

January 15, 2025

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Mass. gives noncompliant towns more time to meet MBTA zoning regulations

The Healey administration filed emergency regulations late Tuesday afternoon to implement the controversial law meant to spur greater housing production, after Massachusetts’ highest court struck down the last pass at drafting those rules.

The Supreme Judicial Court upheld the MBTA Communities Act as a constitutional law last week, but said it was “ineffective” until the governor’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities promulgated new guidelines. The court said EOHLC did not follow state law when creating the regulations the first time around, rendering them “presently unenforceable.”

The emergency regulations filed Tuesday are in effect for 90 days. Over the next three months, EOHLC intends to adopt permanent guidelines following a public comment period, before the expiration of the temporary procedures, a release from the office said.

“The emergency regulations do not substantively change the law’s zoning requirements and do not affect any determinations of compliance that have been already issued by EOHLC. The regulations do provide additional time for MBTA communities that failed to meet prior deadlines to come into compliance with the law,” the press release said.

Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state’s attorney general has the power to enforce the MBTA Communities Law, which requires communities near MBTA services to zone for more multifamily housing, but it also ruled that existing guidelines aren’t enforceable.

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The MBTA Communities Act requires 177 municipalities that host or are adjacent to MBTA service to zone for multifamily housing by right in at least one district.

Cities and towns are classified in one of four categories, and there were different compliance deadlines in the original regulations promulgated by EOHLC: host to rapid transit service (deadline of Dec. 31, 2023), host to commuter rail service (deadline of Dec. 31, 2024), adjacent community (deadline of Dec. 31, 2024) and adjacent small town (deadline of Dec. 31, 2025).

Under the emergency regulations, communities that did not meet prior deadlines must submit a new action plan to the state with a plan to comply with the law by 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 13, 2025. These communities will then have until July 14, 2025, to submit a district compliance application to the state.

Communities designated as adjacent small towns still face the Dec. 31, 2025 deadline to adopt compliant zoning.

The town of Needham voted Tuesday on a special referendum over whether to re-zone the town for 3,000 more units of housing under Massachusetts’ MBTA Communities law.

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Like the old version of the guidelines, the new emergency regulations gives EOHLC the right to determine whether a city or town’s zoning provisions to allow for multi-family housing as of right are consistent with certain affordability requirements, and to determine what is a “reasonable size” for the multi-family zoning district.

The filing of emergency regulations comes six days after the SJC decision — though later than the governor’s office originally projected. Healey originally said her team would move to craft new regulations by the end of last week to plug the gap opened up by the ruling.

“These regulations will allow us to continue moving forward with implementation of the MBTA Communities Law, which will increase housing production and lower costs across the state,” Healey said in a statement Tuesday. “These regulations allow communities more time to come into compliance with the law, and we are committed to working with them to advance zoning plans that fit their unique needs.”

A total of 116 communities out of the 177 subject to the law have already adopted multi-family zoning districts to comply with the MBTA Communities Act, according to EOHLC.

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Massachusetts

Revere city councilor slams Massachusetts officials for being ‘woke’ after migrant shelter bust

Published

20 hours ago

January 14, 2025

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Revere city councilor slams Massachusetts officials for being ‘woke’ after migrant shelter bust

A Revere city councilor says the state’s right-to-shelter law is a “perfect example” of how “woke” ideologies are harmful, as he addressed the arrest of a migrant who allegedly had an AR-15 and 10 pounds of fentanyl at a local hotel.

Originally Published: January 14, 2025 at 6:24 PM EST

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