• Confessed Boston hitman says he and Bulger were ‘up to our necks in murder’

    Marice Cohn Band / AP file

    In this Sept. 17, 2008 file photo, John Martorano is questioned about his plea agreement in exchange for testifying against former FBI agent John Connolly, in the Miami Courthouse.

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Retired Boston hitman John "The Executioner" Martorano testified on Tuesday that he and James “Whitey” Bulger were “up to our necks in murder” by the time he committed what he described as his last killing at Bulger’s behest, more than three decades ago.

    The former underworld killer also described his one-time boss as having a direct hand in a murder, saying Tuesday that Bulger gunned down a Boston bar owner for bragging about his ties to Bulger's "Winter Hill Gang."

    "They took him out in the phone booth," Martorano said of the 1975 murder of Edward Connors, Reuters reported.

    "I heard the shots. They came back and said, 'He's gone.'"

    Martorano, 72, spent a second day on the witness stand in the famed mobster's racketeering trial. A one-time altar boy who notched 20 murders on his belt working as an enforcer for Bulger, he’s now a star prosecution witness intent on sending his former boss to prison.

    Short-spoken and with a prickly sense of honor, Martorano said he was best friends and confidantes with accused Winter Hill Gang leader Bulger and his partner Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi.

    Martorano has been free since 2007, having served just 12 years in prison after striking a plea deal that centered on his testimony.

    Monday, Martorano tied the 83-year-old Bulger to a murder for the first time in the trial, saying that Bulger watched from a car as the hitman rubbed out another victim, Alfred Notarangeli, on his orders in 1974.

    In a matter-of-fact monotone, Martorano has told his bloody tales many times – how he disguised himself in a butcher’s coat, construction hard hat, and false beard before shooting one victim at a Medford, Mass., restaurant in 1973, for example.

    Or a triple-murder Martorano carried out five years earlier, when two teenagers caught bullets intended for a man who had slighted Flemmi.

    Martorano himself committed perhaps his most sensational murder when he gunned down Roger Wheeler, the chairman of Telex Corp., in 1981 at a Tulsa, Okla., golf club. Bulger was at the center of that murder, too, Martorano has said.

    Then Martorano says he killed his friend John Callahan to cover up Wheeler’s murder, again at the prompting of Bulger and Flemmi, he said Tuesday, according to the Boston Herald.

    “They were my partners, and we were up to our necks in murder already,” Martorano said of what he’s described as his last slaying.

    He liked guns to carry out his handiwork, telling CBS in a 2008 interview: “It’s the easiest way, I think.”

    “I think I stabbed one guy,” he said.

    Whatever his body count, Martorano says he’s not a hitman because he didn’t get paid to end lives. His services came free for friends, he said, out of a sense of loyalty.

    “A hitman is a, that sounds to me like somebody’s getting paid, a paid contract. You could never pay me to kill anybody,” Martorano said. “I might be a vigilante but not a serial killer.”

    If there’s one trespass the confessed murderer says he will not forgive, it’s the way Bulger double-crossed him. Prosecutors contend Bulger and Flemmi were informants for the FBI.

    “After I heard that they were informants, it sort of broke my heart,” Martorano said. “They broke all trust that we had, all loyalties, and I was just beside myself with it.

    “I’ll go along with a lot of things, but not no Judas, not no informant. I never informed or ratted on nobody, and if I could have killed him I would have killed him, but I wasn’t there, and that’s what I think he deserves,” Martorano told CBS.

    He’ll exact his vengeance on Bulger on the witness stand, he’s said, but that doesn’t make him a snitch.

    “One’s got the courage to stand on the stand, the other one’s doing it behind your back and dropping dimes,” Martorano said in the interview. “How can I be ratting on a guy who’s been the rat for 30 years? I’m trying to stop him from ratting anymore.”

    Martorano got $20,000 in walking money from the Drug Enforcement Administration when he was released from prison, the Boston Globe reported, and more in royalties from a book about his life.

    “In some ways he did get away with murder,” U.S. Attorney Donald Stern told CBS in 2008. “The only thing worse than this deal was not doing this deal. Because if we didn’t do this deal no one would have received any punishment for these murders. Corrupt law enforcement arrangements would not have been uncovered and prosecuted, and the cancer in law enforcement that existed in Boston for a number of years would have remained there.”

    Stephen Davis, brother of an alleged Bulger victim, told NBC News affiliate WHDH on Monday after Martorano's testimony, “I’m glad to see them cutting each others’ throats, you know what I mean.

    “That’s what kind of guys they were.” 

    Related:

    This story was originally published on Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:52 AM EDT

  • Shark sighting shuts down Cape Cod beach as summer heats up

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Maybe this shark was just looking for some chums.

    A Massachusetts beach was shut down for an hour over the weekend after the dorsal fin of a great white shark was reported off the Cape Cod shore -- an early reminder that the tourist haven is becoming a feeding ground for the sea's most fearsome predator.

    A lifeguard on Nauset Beach spotted the shark’s tell-tale fin about 150 yards from shore on Sunday, said Harbormaster Dawson Farber of Orleans, Mass.

    “The shape and color of the fin led him to believe that it was in fact a white shark,” Orleans Harbormaster Dawson Farber told local paper the Cape Cod Times.

    The shark is thought to have been as much as 12 to 13 feet long, Farber told the paper, and looked to be headed toward Chatham, Mass.

    Swimmers were allowed back into the water an hour after the sighting when no further sign of the shark was seen.

    This is the first shark sighting of the year off Massachusetts, the Cape Cod Times reported, and follows last summer's shark activity there. In July, a man was bitten by a great white shark off Truro, marking the first confirmed shark attack on a human on Cape Cod since 1936.

    Experts say federal protection has led to an explosion in the gray seal population has attracted the sharks.

    Most beachgoers didn’t seem too concerned about the threat of a shark attack ruining their trip to the shore this summer.

    “I’m anticipating that it will be a draw for people,” Farber told the Boston Globe. “We recognize the fact that there are sharks in the area, and we really feel the need to raise the education level of the people who come down here so they’re reminded that there is an inherent risk any time you go in the Atlantic Ocean.”

    Related:

  • Boston fire chief quits amid criticism following marathon bombing

    City of Boston

    Steve Abraira, the Boston Fire Department's first Latino chief, was also the first to be appointed from outside the department's ranks.

    By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

    Boston Fire Chief Steve Abraira resigned Monday after 13 deputy chiefs accused him of mishandling the Boston Marathon bombings.

    In a letter to Mayor Thomas Menino and Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser, Abraira — the fire department's first Latino chief and its first to have been hired from outside its union — blamed a "vocal and aggressive minority" for consistently resisting his efforts to reform the department since he was appointed in 2011.

    The final straw was a letter of no confidence that the deputies — all of whom came up through the ranks and are members of the union — sent to Menino on April 26, which complained that Abraira ceded control of the investigation of the marathon bombings to federal authorities.

    "At a time when the City of Boston needed every first responder to take decisive action, Chief Abraira failed to get involved in operational decision-making or show any leadership," the letter said.

    The City Council had scheduled a meeting later this month to discuss the letter, which called Abraira a "ghost fire chief" who regularly stepped back from fire scenes to "shield himself from immediate accountability while setting the stage for under­mining the confidence and authority of his command staff."

    Abraira's letter Monday said Fraser's "selection of me as Chief never had the support of a number of members of the Department who preferred that the Chief be selected from within the ranks of the Department itself."

    Fraser's and Menino's offices, which have stoutly defended Abraira, referred calls for comment to the fire department, which said in a two-sentence statement that Fraser had appointed Deputy Chief John Hasson — a 40-year veteran of the department who signed the letter of no confidence — as acting chief.


    "We thank the chief for his service to the people of Boston," a spokesman said.

    Speaking separately to the Boston Herald, Fraser said: "I like Chief Abraira and am sorry to see him go. I wish him luck in whatever his next chapter may be."

    Communicating mainly through public letters, Abraira and his deputies have fought a bitter feud since the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured 264 others on April 15.

    "At a time when the City of Boston needed every first responder to take decisive action, Chief Abraira failed to get involved in operational decision-making or show any leadership," the deputies' letter, which was first reported by the Herald. "You can unequivocally consider this letter a vote of no confidence in Chief Abraira."

    (The Herald's original story is available here behind a paid firewall.)

    Abraira told The Boston Globe last month that he had acted appropriately, saying his command staff had control of the scene. 

    "When I got there, I was comfortable with what was going on," he said. "The nationally accepted practice is that you only take command if there's something going wrong or if you can strengthen the command position or if it's overwhelming for the incident commander, and none of those things were in fact happening."

    Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

    Abraira's attorney responded more sharply, threatening to sue the deputies in a letter he sent them last month.

    "Your conduct is nothing more than a transparent effort to hide the inadequacies of your own performance and to interfere with my client's efforts to improve the Boston Fire Department," that letter said. 

    Noting that the deputies acted just 11 days after the bombing, Abraira's attorney called their revolt "a misplaced and frankly outrageous attack intended to strengthen your ability to reject and obstruct Chief Abraira's efforts to bring the BFD in line with modern fire fighting practices."

    Abraira's resignation will take effect Friday.

    Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

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  • Dream realized: Slain MIT officer named to Somerville force

    MIT via Getty Images

    MIT campus police officer Sean Collier, 27, in an undated photo.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Sean Collier, the college police officer allegedly killed by the two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon, was posthumously appointed to his local police department on Tuesday – realizing his dream of joining the force, officials said.

    Collier, 27, was shot multiple times on April 18 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology following an altercation with the suspected attackers as an intensive manhunt for the brothers ramped up.

    Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation naming Collier to the Somerville Police Department, where he had worked as a civilian employee. He also lived in Somerville, a suburb just north of Boston.

    “Officer Collier was a true hero and this deserving designation is a small token to honor his memory and his sacrifices,” Patrick said in a statement.

    State Sen. Patricia Jehlen, who co-sponsored the bill, said the appointment was a “well-deserved recognition of a brave man who loved his community and humbly strived to live a life of service.”

    “There is no debating that Sean Collier is, was and always will be in our hearts, a brave member of the police force,” she continued in the statement.

    An email and a phone call seeking comment from a family spokesman, Corey Welford of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, were not immediately returned.

    Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone thanked lawmakers who “helped make Sean’s dream a reality.”

    “It seems fitting that this Home Rule Petition be passed this week, as Sean would have been sworn in just next week,” he said in the statement. “He gave so much of himself and his time to our department these last six years, and I’m honored to bestow this honor upon him.”

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a firefight with authorities, but his younger brother, Dzhokhar,19, was arrested late April 19 in Watertown, Mass. He faces federal terrorism charges.

    Some 275 people were injured and three killed in the April 15 bombings. 

     

  • Infrared police chopper images show Boston Marathon suspect hiding in boat

    Updated with video:

    The Massachusetts State Police has released this video showing aerial footage of the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lay hidden during last night's standoff with police.

    Massachusetts State Police

    Massachusetts State Police

    Above: Infrared images released by the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing appear to show Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Friday, April 19, hiding in a Watertown, Mass., resident's boat in the resident's backyard. Below: A police vehicle uses a boom to inspect the boat.

    Related story: Secret weapon? How thermal imaging helped catch bomb suspect

    Massachusetts State Police

    Massachusetts State Police

    Slideshow: Search for suspects in Boston Marathon bombings

    Jared Wickerham / Getty Images

    Cheers filled the streets after a Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured alive but wounded Friday night — following a daylong manhunt that shut down the city.

    Launch slideshow

     

  • Timeline of terror hunt: From release of suspect photos to rolling shootout to capture

    Watch how events unfolded during the Boston manhunt for the marathon bombers from the initial blast to the suspects' capture.

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The search for two brothers accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings evolved rapidly between Thursday night and Friday evening throughout the locked-down city of Boston and its surrounding suburbs. A firefight between police and the suspects early Friday morning left one of the brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, dead. Younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, was captured in Watertown, Mass., on Friday night after an intense manhunt and has been hospitalized.

    The blanket of fear on this community was lifted when it was confirmed that 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was no longer a threat. NBC's Kerry Sanders recounts how the events unfolded

    Below is a timeline of how the events transpired:

    Thursday, April 18, 5 p.m. (all times ET and approximate) – The FBI releases photos and a surveillance video that show two men, one wearing a white baseball cap and the second wearing a black cap. Each man was carrying a backpack in the footage. The FBI said they should be considered “armed and extremely dangerous.”

    7 p.m. – Names start pouring into the FBI in response to their release of photos.

    10:20 p.m. – Gunshots are heard on the MIT campus. 

    Around 10:30 p.m. – MIT police officer Sean Collier, 26, is found shot in his vehicle. He is taken to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced dead. Shortly after the shooting, the suspects allegedly carjack a Mercedes SUV in a separate section of Cambridge. The suspects held the carjacking victim at gunpoint for a half hour before releasing him unharmed at a gas station, according to the Middlesex District Attorney.

    11:20 p.m. – Authorities tell the public to stay indoors. Around this time, the suspects try to use a debit card stolen from the man whose car they jacked to withdraw money from three ATMs. The first attempt was unsuccessful, but they allegedly withdrew $800 on the second attempt. At the third ATM, the withdrawal attempt was denied for exceeding the man’s daily limit.

    Shortly after, police pursue the suspects into Watertown, west of Cambridge, in the carjacked vehicle. The suspects toss explosive devices from the SUV, according to the district attorney, seriously injuring a public transit police officer, Richard Donohue. One of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is critically injured, and later pronounced dead in the early hours of Friday morning.

    Adam Andrew and Megan Marrer are currently under lockdown in their home in Watertown, Mass., where police engaged in a shootout with the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing last night.

    Friday, April 19, about 1:15 a.m. – A massive police presence, including state troopers and police cruisers with lights and sirens blaring, fill the Boston suburb of Watertown. Several ambulances were also on the scene.

    1:31 a.m. – MIT advises people on campus to remain indoors. “Police have NOT determined that the campus is safe.”

    1:57 a.m. – “Police have determined that the suspect in this evening’s shooting is no longer on campus,” MIT tweets. “It is now safe to resume normal activities.”

    2 a.m. – The FBI releases four new photos of the two men, one in a white hat and one in a black hat, at the Boston Marathon.

    2:20 a.m. – The suspects, hiding behind the black Mercedes SUV in Watertown, engage in a shootout with a large number of police officers. The men, about 200 feet apart, exchanged constant gunfire, and the two shooters lit an explosive that lands in the space between themselves and the police, then exploded. One of the two men then ran toward police and was tackled, an eyewitness says.

    While it is known that one suspect is down in Watertown, it is still not clear at this point whether the shooting at MIT and the firefight in Watertown are related to the Boston Marathon bombings.

    4:16 a.m. – Law enforcement sources confirm that the suspect pictured in the black hat is dead, and the suspect in the white hat is at-large and considered armed and dangerous. The officials say the shootings at MIT and in Watertown are directly related to the marathon bombings.

    MSNBC's Willie Geist,  Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle talk about the "unprecedented events" which led to the entire city of Boston being placed on lockdown.

    4:19 a.m. – Officials in Watertown ask all residents to shelter in place.

    4:35 a.m. – Watertown police officers continue to search the neighborhood on foot and in patrol cars.

    5:01 a.m. – The suspects have international ties and may have military experience, officials reveal. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the dead suspect, had an improvised explosive device strapped to him, officials say.

    5:20 a.m.-6:30 a.m. – Local universities and colleges including Harvard, Boston University, Emerson College, Boston College, and MIT cancel classes and tell students to remain in place. Boston Public Schools suspended all activities.

    5:45 a.m. – Boston cancels all MBTA public transportation service throughout the city.

    6:30 a.m. – Amtrak service into and out of Boston South Station is delayed by police activity. Amtrak officials temporarily suspend train service between Boston and Providence, R.I.

    7 a.m. – More than 400,000 people shelter in place in the neighborhoods of Cambridge, Newton, Waltham, Brighton, Watertown, and Allston-Brighton. Authorities say the two suspects are brothers.

    About 7:30 a.m. – The two suspects are identified for the first time publicly. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was identified as the suspect in the white hat who was still at large. He was born in Kyrgyzstan. His brother, Tamerlan Tzarnaev, 26, was born in Russia, authorities said. He was the deceased suspect.

    8 a.m. – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick urges all residents in Boston and the surrounding area to remain indoors as authorities engage in a “massive manhunt.” Officials extend the shelter-in-place order across the city.

    About 10 a.m. – Officials identify the deceased MIT police officer publicly for the first time as Sean Collier, 26, of Somerville.  A former civilian IT employee of the Somerville Police Department, he had served at MIT since January 2012.

    12:30 p.m. – Authorities request that residents remain in their homes, saying that about 60 percent of the area they want to search in Watertown had been covered without an apprehension.

    Slideshow: Search for suspects in Boston Marathon bombings

    A tense night of police activity that left a university officer dead on campus just days after the Boston Marathon bombings amid a hunt for two suspects caused officers to converge on a neighborhood outside Boston, where residents heard gunfire and explosions.

    Launch slideshow

    6 p.m. -- Authorities lift the order for people stay in their homes and reopen Boston transit. Gov. Deval Patrick says people must remain vigilant because “there is still a very, very dangerous individual at large.” Col. Timothy Alben of Massachusetts State Police says the suspect has not been apprehended but vows that he will be.

    7 p.m. -- A barrage of gunfire is fired in a Watertown neighborhood.

    7:35 p.m. -- Authorities say that after resident saw blood leading to a boat in the backyard of a Watertown home and discovered a person hiding inside, they used thermal imaging that showed a person still there.

    8:05 p.m. -- Police move in on the boat and believe the suspect is hiding there.

    8:45 p.m. -- Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is captured alive, police say.

    Upon hearing that the second suspect has been caught, residents in the neighborhood break out in spontaneous applause as a week of terror concludes. 

    Tsarnaev, bleeding and in serious condition, is taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, according to a Massachusetts State Police spokesman.

    He will be questioned by a federal team once he is well enough to be interrogated, but under a special legal exception designed to protect public safety, he will not get a Miranda warning or be offered a lawyer for up to 48 hours.

     

    NBC News’ Pete Williams, Ron Allen, Tom Winter, Michael Isikoff, Erin McClam, John Bailey, Richard Esposito and Elizabeth Chuck contributed to this report.

    Related: 

    This story was originally published on Fri Apr 19, 2013 9:19 AM EDT

  • Parents outraged that Mass. middle-schoolers were denied lunch

    By The Associated Press

    ATTLEBORO, Mass. — As many as 25 students at a Massachusetts school were denied lunch this week because they either could not pay or their pre-paid accounts were short on funds, schools officials and parents said.

    Outraged parents say some students at Coelho Middle School in Attleboro cried when they were told by a worker for the district's food service provider they could not eat on Tuesday.

    The on-site director for the company, Whitsons Culinary Group of Islandia, N.Y., was placed on administrative leave by Superintendent Pia Durkin, who has also scheduled a meeting with company officials and ordered cafeteria workers not to deny any child food.

    "There is no way any child in my school district will ever go hungry," Durkin told The Sun Chronicle. "Children need to eat."


    Students who cannot pay or whose accounts are empty are supposed to be given a cheese sandwich and milk, but that procedure was not followed at Coelho, Durkin said.

    "We agree that this situation was not handled correctly," Whitsons spokeswoman Holly Von Seggern said. "We really want to apologize to the parents of the children who were affected."

    Fifth-grader Victoria Greaves, 11, said she and other students who had already been served their lunch were told to throw it in the trash when they reached the checkout. The school has students in fifth through eighth grades.

    Her father, John, said he was incensed that while "there are people in prison who are getting meals, my daughter, an honor student, is going hungry."

    Jen Ingemi, parent of a fifth-grader, said the girl behind her son in line began crying when she was told to throw out her lunch. He said her son offered to share his.

    Durkin said she was informed by Whitsons management that the total amount of outstanding credit on all students' accounts in the district comes to about $1,800.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Convicted Massachusetts rapist found in Maine after 34-year manhunt

    Cumberland County Sheriff's Office

    This undated photo released by the Cumberland County, Maine, Sheriff's Office shows Gary Irving, who was convicted of rape in Massachusetts and who had been on the run for 35 years.

    By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A 34-year search for one of Massachusetts' most wanted fugitives came to an end Wednesday when police arrested a convicted rapist who fled to Maine after facing a possible life sentence. 


    Police from Massachusetts and Maine teamed up to find 52-year-old Gary Allen Irving at his home in Gorham, Maine, where he had been living since 2002. Authorities believe that for decades he had been in the area, making a life for himself and keeping a low profile.

    In 1978, Irving was convicted of three counts of rape in Norfolk County, Mass. But when a judge granted him a short stay to get his affairs in order before his sentencing, he took off.

    Massachusetts State Police say Irving had changed his name to Gregg Irving and changed his date of birth to throw police off his scent. Authorities would not say what evidence led them to Irving, only that information developed in recent days.

    State police from Massachusetts and Maine, along with local police and the FBI, also found numerous handguns and rifles — which Irving faces federal charges for illegally owning.

    Police told NBC affiliate WCSH that Irving was found in the home with his wife, who was in shock during the arrest. Neighbors described him as pleasant and a normal resident.

    Though he bore little resemblance to his mug shot photo snapped more than 30 years earlier, scars on Irving's chest and back helped police identify the fugitive, officials said. 

    Irving was found guilty of multiple rapes during the 1970s and convicted of rape with force, kidnapping and unnatural acts. 

    In one instance he was accused of knocking a victim off her bike and forcing her to a secluded area, where he repeatedly raped her, according to Massachusetts State Police.

    In another, he forced a woman walking alone into his car and threatened her with a knife if she resisted.

    Irving is being held in Portland, Maine, and will appear in the Cumberland County Courthouse on Friday.

  • Northeast walloped by up to 16 inches of spring snow

    The last day of winter leaves with a wallop as New England wrestles with heavy snow, and storms bring heavy rain, winds and power outages to parts of the South. Chris Clackum reports.

    By Jay Lindsay, The Associated Press

    BOSTON -- New Englanders were preparing for another messy day of snow as they welcomed spring's unseasonable arrival.

    Forecasts called for as much as 16 inches of snow in parts of northern New England through Wednesday morning, bringing slippery road conditions. Snow was expected to taper off in other locations.

    "It's the real deal — the heavy, wet snow," said National Weather Service forecaster John Cannon in Gray, Maine. "Travel will be treacherous into the early morning hours."

    Snow and sleet blasted the Northeast on Tuesday, where some places received over a foot of snow. Classes were canceled in some districts in Massachusetts, Connecticut and upstate New York, adding a few more snow days to the calendar.

    Snow also socked other parts of the northern U.S., with as much as 2 feet forecast in parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

    Icy roads caused numerous auto accidents. In Marlborough, Mass., the Harlem Globetrotters' bus collided with a car on Interstate 290, but no one was hurt and the bus was able to drive away, the state police said. No citations were issued.

    The first day of spring may be right around the corner, but a big snow storm has brought a wintery chill to the Northeast. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    There was nothing unusual about a snowstorm in the Northeast this late in the season, when it can still get plenty cold.

    "They don't happen all the time, but it's not, you know, unheard of," said Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass.

    Nina Walker, of Woburn in suburban Boston, said she had to shovel about 8 inches of snow off her driveway before driving to Boston's South Station to take a train to New York. As a lifelong New Englander, she takes the snow in stride, but draws the line at storms after March 31.

    "Once I hear the word 'April,' I am really offended when I hear the word 'snow,'" she said. "So this is OK today, but a couple of weeks from now, it had better not happen."

    Related:

    Full coverage from weather.com

    Severe storms, large hail cause extensive damage in South

    This story was originally published on Wed Mar 20, 2013 5:13 AM EDT

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Teen skier, missing for two days, built snow cave to keep warm

    Maine Warden Service via AP

    This undated photo released by the Maine Warden Service shows Nicholas Joy, 17, of Medford, Mass.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A teenage skier who went missing two days ago on Maine's Sugarloaf Mountain sheltered himself from the elements by building a snow cave, authorities said. He was found Tuesday morning by a snowmobiling firefighter, cold and wet, but otherwise in good condition.

    Nicholas Joy, a 17-year-old from Medford, Mass., was reported missing by his father at about 1 p.m. Sunday after the two became separated while skiing at Sugarloaf ski resort, said John McDonald, a public information officer with the Maine Warden Service.

    Temperatures in the area have been in the low- to mid-30s the past two days, with a wind chill in the 20s. At one point during the search for Joy, visibility on the mountain went down to zero, authorities said. 

    A Massachusetts firefighter who had heard that the teen was missing decided to search for him by snowmobile, NBC affiliate WHDH.com reported. The firefighter, who is familiar with the area, came across Joy on the Caribou Pond Road ski trail, about four miles away from the resort.


    In a news conference Tuesday, Lt. Kevin Adam with the Maine Warden Service described how Joy instinctively went into survival mode once he realized he was lost on Sunday, building the snow cave as night fell.

    "The next day, which would have been Monday, he did some going away from the snow cave, trying to find his way around," Adam said. Joy heard snowmobiles far off in the distance -- which Adam said were searchers looking for him -- but instead of attempting to venture that far in the cold weather, he retreated to his snow cave for another night.

    "Then this morning, [he] was going in the direction of the snowmobile trails when he actually came across the snowshoe trails from the people who were looking for him. He followed those out to the snowmobile trail, started walking down that about a mile and a half before he was picked up by the snowmobiler," Adam said.

    Joy kept hydrated over the past two days by drinking water from a nearby stream. Authorities still need to talk to him more to figure out how he got lost in the first place while skiing.

    "Obviously, he made some errors getting off the trail, but he used his head and he made some very good decisions in building a snow cave. Even staying with the snow cave was a good decision," Adam said. 

    The high school senior was reunited with his family in the ambulance, which he hopped into with only a little assistance from emergency personnel as news cameras rolled.

    "He's in good condition," McDonald said. "He has been taken to the hospital just to be evaluated for possible hypothermia."

    Eating a granola bar and drinking a bottle of water handed to him by one of the members of the rescue team before he got into the ambulance, Joy told WHDH.com, "I'm OK. I got lost."

    This story was originally published on Tue Mar 5, 2013 10:24 AM EST

  • Police dog searching for handgun accidentally pulls trigger

    Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

     

    By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A police dog searching for a handgun in a Massachusetts snowbank early Saturday accidentally pulled the trigger with his paw, discharging the weapon into a nearby house, authorities said.

    Fortunately, no one was injured.


    "I've been policing for 43 years and I've never seen or heard anything like this," Lawrence Police Chief John Romero told NBC News. "It's amazing."

    Romero said Jeffrey Hart, a Lawrence police officer on patrol, heard three loud gunshots shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday. When Hart went to investigate, he saw a sedan barreling down the road at a high speed.

    As he followed the car, he saw one of the passengers get out of the car and a bury a pistol in a mound of snow on the road's shoulder, Romero said.

    Hart eventually pulled over the grey Honda Accord and found a 9mm shell casing inside -- and that's when officers from the Essex County Sheriff's Office were brought in to help locate the missing weapon. Officials with the sheriff's K-9 unit arrived at the scene with their 3-year-old black German Shepherd, Ivan, in tow. 

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    As Ivan started digging in the snowbank for the buried pistol, he accidentally pulled the weapon's trigger, firing one shot into a nearby residence, Romero said.

    "The officers were sure the dog was hit," Romero said. "But luckily, he wasn't. He was just startled."

    Police were unable to locate the bullet, but they woke up the residents of the house to confirm no one was wounded.

    The three men Hart found in the vehicle — Jose Calderon, 28; Alexander Gonzalez, 21; and Jorge Henriquez, 26 — were taken into police custody and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, receiving a firearm with a defaced serial number, and receiving stolen property, according to authorities.

  • Snow, freezing rain to lash New England through Sunday

    The Weather Channel's Kim Cunningham has the latest on a storm that's headed to New England and a second storm that's coming out of the Rockies.

    By Craig Giammona, Writer, NBC News

    Parts of New England braced for snow on Saturday, with Boston prepared for a mix of snow and freezing rain in the third storm to rake the area in three weekends. The mix will likely make a messy end for a powerful storm system that headed eastward after slamming much of the Midwest with snow earlier this week, meteorologists said.


    As many as 1 to 3 inches of snow could fall in Boston, with the heaviest snowfall expected between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

    “I’m not thrilled that we’ve got more snow coming this weekend. I’ve had enough of winter,” Boston area resident John Bonnanzio, 54, told Reuters.

    But other residents were ready to make the most of the coming storm.

    “I’m excited,” Jesse Beecher, 29, told Reuters. “I went out skiing in the streets during the last one, and I’ll do the same thing again.”

    A winter weather advisory was set to go into effect for much of the region starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

    The storm system, which left much of the Midwest buried under snow, has the potential to cause flooding in the southeastern United States and was expected to bring precipitation to much of the east coast, including New York City and north into Massachusetts. The Weather Channel said parts of southern Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and northern and central Massachusetts could see up to 6 to 9 inches of snow over the weekend.

    The massive storm system resulted in 570 flight cancellations on Friday, including 127 at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, Reuters said.

    Meanwhile, a storm in the Pacific Northwest was expected to dump 2 to 3 feet of snow on the Cascade Mountains through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. The weather service issued winter storm warnings for parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Utah on Friday.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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