Massachusetts
Construction company to pay $11M in illegal dumping case
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s top legal chief announced Wednesday that a Massachusetts construction company has agreed to pay $11 million to settle criminal charges that it illegally dumped thousands of tons of contaminated fill in the Ocean State’s Capitol city during a highway construction project.
According to Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office, Barletta Heavy Division Inc. of Canton not only violated state law when it disposed the contaminated fill in Rhode Island but also “deceived state regulators” when pressed about the source of the fill.
Neronha filed state criminal charges against Barletta in early 2023 after the company agreed to pay $1.5 million in a settlement with the federal government over the same construction fill.
“When the federal case against Barletta was resolved some time ago, I strongly believed that Rhode Islanders deserved a better outcome, and so we proceeded with our state case,” Neronha said in a statement. “I am pleased that now, because of our demonstrated willingness to take this case to trial, Barletta has paid an unprecedented monetary amount of $11 million dollars to resolve our case.”
Barletta oversaw a $247 million project, that started in 2018, to rebuild the Route 6/10 interchange. The charges involved construction-fill disposal that took place in 2020, where investigators say the company transported backfill from other projects to the Route 6/10 site. The project has since been completed.
“With today’s settlement agreement and the dismissal with prejudice of all criminal and civil charges in this case, Barletta is pleased to put this matter behind us and looks forward to continuing our long history of successfully and responsibly delivering world class public infrastructure projects,” said Shannon Reilly, an attorney representing Barletta.
When the state criminal charges were filed, the company said the soil was “urban fill “ — commonly found in city settings throughout the U.S. The attorney general’s office maintained that the fill contained hazardous materials and the company disposed more than 4,500 tons in Rhode Island.
“Whether Barletta learns from this experience remains to be seen. But they have paid a heavy price for their unlawful, irresponsible, and deceptive behavior, and deservedly so,” Neronha said.
Proceeds of the $11 million settlement will be used to fund dental care services for Providence city youth, Neronha added.
Louisiana
Lawmaker arrested on DWI and child endangerment charges after single-car crash
A Louisiana lawmaker is facing criminal charges after striking a concrete barrier while allegedly driving impaired with his three children in the vehicle, state police said on Wednesday.
Rep. Kyle M. Green Jr., a Democrat who represents a portion of south Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish, has been charged with a first-offense of driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor punishable by fines, jail time or a license suspension in the event of a conviction.
He also was charged with three counts of child endangerment and traffic violations.
Louisiana State Police said officers responded to a crash around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday after Green allegedly “ran off the roadway” and struck a concrete barrier in the sprawling suburban parish outside New Orleans. Green and his children were not injured, the police statement said.
While interacting with the lawmaker, officers said they noticed signs of impairment, according to the statement. Following a field sobriety test, Green was arrested. Green refused to submit to a breathalyzer test.
The lawmaker did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from The Associated Press.
The second-term lawmaker was first elected in 2019 and is currently in the midst of Louisiana’s 2025 Legislative Session.
Under Louisiana law, legislators are “privileged” from arrest under certain circumstances during their session, including if they are driving to or from committee meetings.
Louisiana
New Orleans Archdiocese agrees to pay nearly $180M to victims of clergy sexual abuse
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed to pay nearly $180 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse under a settlement announced Wednesday, the latest in a string of settlements by the Catholic Church.
The archdiocese, its parishes and several insurers will pay $179.2 million into a trust to benefit survivors, according to a statement by the committee that negotiated the agreement. The money will be distributed after the church emerges from bankruptcy, it said.
But many of the survivors were not on board, their lawyers said.
“This proposed settlement was made in a secret backroom deal that the Archdiocese, the creditors committees and the mediators knew the overwhelming majority of victim-survivors would never agree to and will undoubtedly vote down,” attorneys Soren Gisleson, Johnny Denenea and Richard Trahant said in a statement to The Associated Press. “It makes no sense and is a continuation of the lifetime of abuse the Archdiocese has inflicted on these folks.”
The agreement, which would settle a lawsuit filed in 2020, requires approval from the survivors as well as the bankruptcy court and other Archdiocese creditors.
Aaron Hebert, who says he was abused by a priest in the 1960s as an eighth grader, called the deal “an insult and a slap to the face.”
“The Archdiocese of New Orleans and Archbishop (Gregory) Aymond are throwing this offer out to prevent victims and survivors from taking their claims to state court,” Hebert said.
The committee’s statement said the deal also includes what it called “unprecedented” provisions and procedures to safeguard against future abuse and provide services to survivors, including a survivors’ bill of rights and changes to the Archdiocese’s process for handling abuse claims.
The suit involves more than 500 people who say they were abused by clergy. The case produced a trove of church records said to document years of abuse claims and a pattern of leaders transferring clergy without reporting their alleged crimes to law enforcement.
In 2018 the archdiocese released a list identifying more than 50 clergy members who were removed from the ministry over the years due to “credible accusations” of sexual abuse.
Pennsylvania
Ex-Harvard Medical School morgue manager admits his role in the theft of human remains
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has admitted his role in the theft and sale of human body parts — including hands, feet and heads.
Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Pennsylvania to interstate transport of stolen human remains, federal prosecutors said. He could face up to 10 years in prison.
The thefts from the morgue in Boston occurred from 2018 through at least March 2020, prosecutors said. Authorities have said Lodge, his wife and others were part of a nationwide network of people who bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard and a mortuary in Arkansas.
Denise Lodge and several other defendants have pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from the scheme. Prosecutors have said she negotiated online sales of several items, including two dozen hands, two feet, nine spines, portions of skulls, five dissected human faces and two dissected heads.
Authorities have said the dissected portions of cadavers donated to the school were taken without the school’s knowledge or permission.
Bodies donated to Harvard Medical School are used for education, teaching or research purposes. Once they are no longer needed, the cadavers are usually cremated and the ashes are returned to the donor’s family or buried in a cemetery.
Washington
Judge blocks Trump’s orders to dismantle the Education Department and fire employees
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. The administration said it would challenge the ruling.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to shut down the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president’s campaign promises.
The ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump’s plan amounted to an illegal closure of the Education Department.
One suit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other education groups. The other suit was filed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general.
The suits argued that layoffs left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.
In his order, Joun said the plaintiffs painted a “stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations.”
Layoffs of that scale, he added, “will likely cripple the Department. The idea that Defendants’ actions are merely a ‘reorganization’ is plainly not true.”
The department pledged to challenge his order.
“Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people,” spokesperson Madi Biedermann said in a statement.
Joun ordered the Education Department to reinstate federal workers who were terminated as part of the March 11 layoff announcement.
That announcement led to the firing of about 1,300 people. Some Education Department employees have left through buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees, which combined with the layoffs have reduced the staff to roughly half the 4,100 the department had when Trump took office.
“Today’s order means that the Trump administration’s disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represents plaintiffs in the Somerville case.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the decision “a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity.”
The administration has said the layoffs are aimed at efficiency, not a department shutdown. Trump has called for the closure of the agency but recognizes it must be carried out by Congress, the government said.
The administration said restructuring the agency “may impact certain services until the reorganization is finished” but it’s committed to fulfilling its statutory requirements.
Construction company to pay $11M in illegal dumping case
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s top legal chief announced Wednesday that a Massachusetts construction company has agreed to pay $11 million to settle criminal charges that it illegally dumped thousands of tons of contaminated fill in the Ocean State’s Capitol city during a highway construction project.
According to Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office, Barletta Heavy Division Inc. of Canton not only violated state law when it disposed the contaminated fill in Rhode Island but also “deceived state regulators” when pressed about the source of the fill.
Neronha filed state criminal charges against Barletta in early 2023 after the company agreed to pay $1.5 million in a settlement with the federal government over the same construction fill.
“When the federal case against Barletta was resolved some time ago, I strongly believed that Rhode Islanders deserved a better outcome, and so we proceeded with our state case,” Neronha said in a statement. “I am pleased that now, because of our demonstrated willingness to take this case to trial, Barletta has paid an unprecedented monetary amount of $11 million dollars to resolve our case.”
Barletta oversaw a $247 million project, that started in 2018, to rebuild the Route 6/10 interchange. The charges involved construction-fill disposal that took place in 2020, where investigators say the company transported backfill from other projects to the Route 6/10 site. The project has since been completed.
“With today’s settlement agreement and the dismissal with prejudice of all criminal and civil charges in this case, Barletta is pleased to put this matter behind us and looks forward to continuing our long history of successfully and responsibly delivering world class public infrastructure projects,” said Shannon Reilly, an attorney representing Barletta.
When the state criminal charges were filed, the company said the soil was “urban fill “ — commonly found in city settings throughout the U.S. The attorney general’s office maintained that the fill contained hazardous materials and the company disposed more than 4,500 tons in Rhode Island.
“Whether Barletta learns from this experience remains to be seen. But they have paid a heavy price for their unlawful, irresponsible, and deceptive behavior, and deservedly so,” Neronha said.
Proceeds of the $11 million settlement will be used to fund dental care services for Providence city youth, Neronha added.
Louisiana
Lawmaker arrested on DWI and child endangerment charges after single-car crash
A Louisiana lawmaker is facing criminal charges after striking a concrete barrier while allegedly driving impaired with his three children in the vehicle, state police said on Wednesday.
Rep. Kyle M. Green Jr., a Democrat who represents a portion of south Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish, has been charged with a first-offense of driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor punishable by fines, jail time or a license suspension in the event of a conviction.
He also was charged with three counts of child endangerment and traffic violations.
Louisiana State Police said officers responded to a crash around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday after Green allegedly “ran off the roadway” and struck a concrete barrier in the sprawling suburban parish outside New Orleans. Green and his children were not injured, the police statement said.
While interacting with the lawmaker, officers said they noticed signs of impairment, according to the statement. Following a field sobriety test, Green was arrested. Green refused to submit to a breathalyzer test.
The lawmaker did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from The Associated Press.
The second-term lawmaker was first elected in 2019 and is currently in the midst of Louisiana’s 2025 Legislative Session.
Under Louisiana law, legislators are “privileged” from arrest under certain circumstances during their session, including if they are driving to or from committee meetings.
Louisiana
New Orleans Archdiocese agrees to pay nearly $180M to victims of clergy sexual abuse
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed to pay nearly $180 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse under a settlement announced Wednesday, the latest in a string of settlements by the Catholic Church.
The archdiocese, its parishes and several insurers will pay $179.2 million into a trust to benefit survivors, according to a statement by the committee that negotiated the agreement. The money will be distributed after the church emerges from bankruptcy, it said.
But many of the survivors were not on board, their lawyers said.
“This proposed settlement was made in a secret backroom deal that the Archdiocese, the creditors committees and the mediators knew the overwhelming majority of victim-survivors would never agree to and will undoubtedly vote down,” attorneys Soren Gisleson, Johnny Denenea and Richard Trahant said in a statement to The Associated Press. “It makes no sense and is a continuation of the lifetime of abuse the Archdiocese has inflicted on these folks.”
The agreement, which would settle a lawsuit filed in 2020, requires approval from the survivors as well as the bankruptcy court and other Archdiocese creditors.
Aaron Hebert, who says he was abused by a priest in the 1960s as an eighth grader, called the deal “an insult and a slap to the face.”
“The Archdiocese of New Orleans and Archbishop (Gregory) Aymond are throwing this offer out to prevent victims and survivors from taking their claims to state court,” Hebert said.
The committee’s statement said the deal also includes what it called “unprecedented” provisions and procedures to safeguard against future abuse and provide services to survivors, including a survivors’ bill of rights and changes to the Archdiocese’s process for handling abuse claims.
The suit involves more than 500 people who say they were abused by clergy. The case produced a trove of church records said to document years of abuse claims and a pattern of leaders transferring clergy without reporting their alleged crimes to law enforcement.
In 2018 the archdiocese released a list identifying more than 50 clergy members who were removed from the ministry over the years due to “credible accusations” of sexual abuse.
Pennsylvania
Ex-Harvard Medical School morgue manager admits his role in the theft of human remains
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has admitted his role in the theft and sale of human body parts — including hands, feet and heads.
Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Pennsylvania to interstate transport of stolen human remains, federal prosecutors said. He could face up to 10 years in prison.
The thefts from the morgue in Boston occurred from 2018 through at least March 2020, prosecutors said. Authorities have said Lodge, his wife and others were part of a nationwide network of people who bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard and a mortuary in Arkansas.
Denise Lodge and several other defendants have pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from the scheme. Prosecutors have said she negotiated online sales of several items, including two dozen hands, two feet, nine spines, portions of skulls, five dissected human faces and two dissected heads.
Authorities have said the dissected portions of cadavers donated to the school were taken without the school’s knowledge or permission.
Bodies donated to Harvard Medical School are used for education, teaching or research purposes. Once they are no longer needed, the cadavers are usually cremated and the ashes are returned to the donor’s family or buried in a cemetery.
Washington
Judge blocks Trump’s orders to dismantle the Education Department and fire employees
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. The administration said it would challenge the ruling.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to shut down the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president’s campaign promises.
The ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump’s plan amounted to an illegal closure of the Education Department.
One suit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other education groups. The other suit was filed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general.
The suits argued that layoffs left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.
In his order, Joun said the plaintiffs painted a “stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations.”
Layoffs of that scale, he added, “will likely cripple the Department. The idea that Defendants’ actions are merely a ‘reorganization’ is plainly not true.”
The department pledged to challenge his order.
“Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people,” spokesperson Madi Biedermann said in a statement.
Joun ordered the Education Department to reinstate federal workers who were terminated as part of the March 11 layoff announcement.
That announcement led to the firing of about 1,300 people. Some Education Department employees have left through buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees, which combined with the layoffs have reduced the staff to roughly half the 4,100 the department had when Trump took office.
“Today’s order means that the Trump administration’s disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represents plaintiffs in the Somerville case.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the decision “a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity.”
The administration has said the layoffs are aimed at efficiency, not a department shutdown. Trump has called for the closure of the agency but recognizes it must be carried out by Congress, the government said.
The administration said restructuring the agency “may impact certain services until the reorganization is finished” but it’s committed to fulfilling its statutory requirements.
