Boston
Primary election set for right after Labor Day
The 2018 statewide primary elections will be held Tuesday, Sept. 4, the day after Labor Day, and Secretary of State William Galvin has asked legislative leaders to fund a five-day early voting period leading up to the primaries. The date of the state primary is usually settled without much discussion or public attention, but this year Galvin was required by law to move the primary to an earlier date in September due to a conflict with a Jewish religious holiday. His choice, Sept. 4, is the earliest possible date Galvin could have set for the elections. Galvin’s office said his determination came after consultation with House Speaker Robert DeLeo and acting Senate President Harriette Chandler. (State House News)
Warren
Police say daughter stole safe during funeral
A woman is facing charges that she broke into her dead mother’s Warren home with her boyfriend during the mother’s funeral and stole a safe filled with about $90,000 worth of valuables, according to court documents. Thomas Balliet reported the theft last Friday, after he returned from the funeral of his fiancee, Audra Johnson. The daughter, Alyce Davenport, had recently been kicked out of the home because of her problems with drugs, according to a police report. Balliet told police he believed Davenport, along with her boyfriend, Diron Conyers, broke in and stole the safe. Davenport, Balliet told police, did not attend her mother’s funeral and did not answer phone calls from relatives during and after the funeral. The duo were arrested Saturday at a motel in Sturbridge. Davenport and Conyers were arraigned Monday in East Brookfield District Court on a slew of charges, including breaking into a depository, larceny over $250, larceny from a building, malicious destruction of property, and stealing a will. Davenport was held on $15,000 bail. Conyers was held without bail, due to a warrant in a separate case, Worcester prosecutors said.
Concord, N.H.
Legislators take step on legalizing marijuana
State lawmakers moved toward legalizing the recreational use of marijuana on Tuesday even though a commission studying the issue is months away from finishing its work. The House gave preliminary approval to a bill that would allow adults to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and to cultivate it in limited quantities. Provisions that would have created a regulatory system for selling and taxing the drug were dropped from the bill, which advanced to the House Ways and Means Committee on a vote of 207-139. Opponents argued the bill is premature because a commission created to study the issue won’t make its recommendations until November. (AP)
Hartford
Governor proposes ban on gun bump stocks
Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy has proposed a statewide ban on bump stocks, the devices designed to make semi-automatic rifles mimic the firing action of fully automatic weapons. The Democratic governor announced the legislation Tuesday, citing the October mass shooting in Las Vegas in which the shooter used a bump stock to kill 58 people, including Rhonda LeRocque, 42, of Tewksbury, and injure hundreds more. Possession and sale of bump stocks and other rate-of-fire enchancers would be felonies carrying up to five years in prison. (AP)
