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A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of six Steward Health Care hospitals Wednesday to three different buyers for $343 million, multiple outlets reported.
Judge Christopher Lopez approved the sale of St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton to Lifespan Health System for $175 million, The Boston Globe reported.
“We’ve got multiple declarations showing that the debtors just don’t have the funding, the cash, to continue to fund operations here,” Lopez said at a hearing Wednesday, the Boston Herald reported. “There are real people in these hospitals right now.”
Plans are in the works for Boston Medical Center to purchase St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, the state announced last week. Lawrence General Hospital will acquire Holy Family Hospital’s Methuen and Haverhill locations.
The Herald said BMC might pay as much as $140 million, while Lawrence will pay $28 million.
Healey announced last week that the administration is beginning the process to take St. Elizabeth’s through eminent domain to help transition it to BMC.
“We’ve said from the start that our focus was on protecting access to care, jobs and the stability of our health care system – and getting Steward out of Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement.
Steward filed for bankruptcy protection in May. The hospital group said they planned to sell all of their hospitals while promising to keep the group’s eight Massachusetts hospitals up and running. Dallas-based Steward operates more than 30 hospitals across the country.
Since then, the hospital giant closed Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer last week as Steward scrambled to find buyers for its hospitals and physician group.
Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre is refusing to testify before a Senate committee investigating the company’s bankruptcy due to a federal order prohibiting any discussions amid ongoing reorganization. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren said Thursday he’s skirting accountability.
“He is in hiding because he does not want to answer to the American people or Congress or the patients and workers of Massachusetts for what he has done,” said Markey, speaking at a press conference Thursday. “He wants to hide from the accountability of what the last five months have exposed.”
Tim Foley, the executive vice president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers, thanked Healey in a statement for “preserving these six hospitals.”
“With Steward finally on its way out of Massachusetts, the critical work of transitioning the hospitals to their new owners can begin,” Foley said. “Healthcare workers are the heart and soul of our hospitals, and Steward workers stuck around through months of uncertainty because of our strong commitment to our patients.”
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Cambridge Police are investigating a fatal shooting near the intersection of Broadway and Norfolk Street early Saturday morning.
Around 5:30 a.m., Cambridge Emergency Communications received a call for a person laying on the ground near the intersection of Broadway and Norfolk Street. Officers were dispatched to the area, and Paramedics from the Cambridge Fire department declared the person dead on scene. The victim had an apparent gunshot wound, according to Cambridge police.
There were not many details initially released, but an active investigation is underway by the Cambridge police, Middlesex District Attorney’s office and Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.
Additional information will be shared when it becomes available.
Police are asking anyone with information surrounding this incident to contact the Cambridge police department at (617) 349-3300.
One day before the Fourth of July, police in Yarmouth, Massachusetts say American flags were “ripped down” from a highway overpass that’s named after a two-time Purple Heart recipient.
Yarmouth police said an officer noticed the vandalism Friday on the Lance Corporal William Joseph Donovan Jr. Memorial Bridge over Route 6.
“The officer found American flags forcefully ripped from the fencing,” police said. “Their grommets had been torn out, and flags were ripped apart at the seams left hanging.”
Lance Cpl. William Joseph Donovan Jr., a Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School graduate, was awarded the Purple Heart twice for injuries sustained in Operation Enduring Freedom. After returning home, he died in a motorcycle crash at 27 years old.
Yarmouth police are investigating the incident and urge anyone with information to contact them.
This isn’t the first time that flags on the bridge were damaged. Last summer, they were similarly torn down before being replaced in a rededication ceremony.
The community has already stepped up to restore the patriotic display that was vandalized on Friday.
State Rep. Steve Xiarhos of Barnstable, who lost his son Marine Cpl. Nick Xiarhos to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, said “Cape Cod sent a message tonight.”
“You can tear down flags, but you cannot tear down the spirit of this community. If anything, you made people stronger,” Xiarhos posted to Facebook. “You brought people together from all over Cape Cod, united by love of country and respect for those who have served.”
Lifeguards rescued a swimmer from the water at Houghton’s Pond in Milton, Massachusetts on Friday.
Massachusetts State Police confirmed they were called to the pond at 1 p.m. When they arrived, they found that lifeguards had pulled a swimmer from the water. The victim, who was conscious and alert, was taken to the hospital for further treatment.
This is the same place an 18-year-old swimmer died after he was pulled from the water last month.
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