Massachusetts
Mass State Police hire firm to independently review fatal 2023 cruiser crash
The Massachusetts State Police hired an outside firm to review how the agency handled a fatal cruiser crash involving an allegedly drunk officer more than two years after the incident occurred.
State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley is accused of having a blood alcohol level above the legal limit when he crashed his cruiser head-on into a wheelchair van in Dec. 2023, causing injuries to one of its occupants, Angelo Schettino, who later died.
The allegations came to light in a wrongful death suit that Schettino’s family originally filed in Essex County against the van company that now includes the Mass State Police.
The revelation has sent ripples through the state, pausing the Lowell murder trial of brothers Billy, Channa, and Billoeum Phan earlier this month. Quigley had been a key investigator in the case when he was embedded with the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.
Middlesex DA Marian Ryan had asked the State Police to initiate the independent investigation after learning about the fatality in the crash and Quigley’s alleged blood alcohol level in January, more than two years after the incident.
“In the interest of transparency and in order to promote public confidence — and to ensure justice for any potential victims — I am requesting that you immediately appoint an independent investigator to conduct a full and fair inquiry into why no notification was made to this office,” she wrote in a Feb 4 letter to State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble.
In Nobel’s reply, dated Feb. 20, he wrote that investigators from the national firm 21CP Solutions will conduct the review, “focused on the handling of this incident and the internal policies and controls that should have ensured timely awareness and notification.”
The independent investigators will examine how the MSP currently handles serious on-duty incidents, including their notification process, supervisor response, and documentation policies.
“A serious incident resulting in the loss of life demands timely notification, rigorous oversight and complete accountability,” Noble wrote. “Any deviation from these expectations is unacceptable, falls short of public expectations and risks undermining confidence in the justice system.”
At the end of the review, the investigators will recommend changes to training, policy, and procedure.
The review will run parallel to a Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office investigation into Quigley, examining whether the officer will face criminal charges linked to the crash.
In addition to the independent review, Noble noted that MSP also initiated “internal affairs investigations involving specific individuals.”
“We have also launched refresher training on serious-injury and fatal-crash protocols, escalation responsibilities, and documentation and recording standards,” the colonel wrote, “and strengthened conflict-of-interest screening for incidents involving MSP personnel with cross-agency assignments or relationships.”
BOSTON (WWLP) – The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) announced Wednesday that it is distributing 5,063 internet-enabled devices to 45 organizations across the state.
The statewide effort, administered through the Connected and Online program, aims to expand economic opportunity by increasing digital access. This program is a $31.6 million initiative funded through the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund that provides Massachusetts-based organizations with laptops, tablets, and desktop computers to help residents access the internet.
Equipment provided through the program also includes supportive items, such as braille keyboards, intended to assist vulnerable populations.
Both Gateway Cities and rural communities are supported by the Connected and Online program, as residents are provided with direct access to devices through lending programs or resources at publicly accessible locations.
“The Connected and Online program opens doors for communities to access critical services and build relationships with their neighbors,” said Governor Maura Healey. “By partnering with trusted local organizations, we’re helping more people get online, access essential services, and connect to new educational and economic opportunities.”
To date, the program has provided nearly 32,000 devices and more than 13,000 pieces of supportive equipment. These devices have been distributed to hospitals, municipalities, nonprofits, public libraries, elder and youth aid groups, and workforce training organizations across the Commonwealth.
This latest award announcement follows a prior distribution launched by MBI on April 2, which included nearly 27,000 devices to over 200 organizations across the state.
“MBI is leveraging strong relationships with local and regional organizations to deliver digital devices for Massachusetts residents,” said MBI Program Executive Jody Jones. “The Connected and Online program is a statewide effort to expand access, increase digital skills training, and, at its core, expand the ability to connect to the internet.”
For a full list of awardees, visit broadband.mass.tech.org.
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If you want to help people in poverty, don’t drive the wealthy out of state.
That might be something the state senators in the Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities should keep in mind after they advanced a sweeping bill going full bore at reducing the state’s poverty rate.
Sen. Sal DiDomenico told the State House News his proposal (S 3095) “is a compilation of many bills that have already been filed.” According to his office, the bill, as originally filed, included provisions that would increase the Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children cash benefits for pregnant people, families and caregivers; increase Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children cash benefits; codify related benefits and allowances; and bar the government from taking any amount of child support payments from low-income parents.
His office also said the bill would direct the state to replace Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cash benefits “stolen by criminal rings through skimming or phishing”; ensure access to free menstrual products in public schools, homeless shelters, prisons and county jails; raise farmworker wages to at least the state’s minimum wage; establish a “baby bonds program”; and “enhance” the attorney general’s ability to “ensure companies pay their employees the wages they deserve and hold employers accountable when they steal workers’ wages.”
It’s a tall order, and an impressive one. But the hurdle isn’t just getting it on the Senate’s agenda before the July 31 deadline, it’s how to pay for it.
The idea of front-loading assistance appears sound: helping people escape poverty means they won’t need to rely on social services down the line. But it will still take a sustainable revenue source to keep it all going.
And Massachusetts has been shooting itself in the foot when it comes to keeping revenue inside state borders.
According to Moneywise, Massachusetts millionaires took $4.2 billion in income out of the state in 2023, new Internal Revenue Service data revealed.
As reported by Bloomberg, that’s an 8% increase from the year before, and it comes just as the state began enforcing a new 4% surtax on incomes above $1 million. Higher-income households are now accounting for a larger share of total departures from the state. In 2023, top earners accounted for roughly 70% of total income outflow. That doubles their share from just a few years earlier.
We need to keep them, and their tax payments, here.
But that won’t happen if efforts to lower taxes are met with derision, and the notion that tax breaks only benefit the very rich. The deep-pocketed set that’s heading to tax-friendlier states are gifting their new home turf with a cumulative windfall, even if the individual tax amount is lower than the Bay State.
The same goes for companies who see better opportunities elsewhere.
The senators working on anti-poverty measures have some great ideas, and they should have a budget to implement them. Lifting people up from poverty uplifts the state.
But we can’t pay the bill if we keep driving out high-earning taxpayers. To help the poor, we must keep the rich.
Trombetta’s Farm, at 655 Farm Rd., is listed as a Central Massachusetts stop on the Massachusetts Ice Cream Trail, a state-backed guide launched in 2024 to promote ice cream shops, farm stands, and dairy farms that use Massachusetts dairy products, according to GBH.
The trail features more than 100 destinations across Massachusetts and is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. The map includes dairy farms with ice cream stands, farms selling packaged ice cream, and shops selling Massachusetts ice cream products, according to the tourism office.
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