Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign I'm Joe Catalano with an AM Quincy news update for Monday, October 6th. A trial date has now been set for former Quincy Elder Services Director Tom Clasby on embezzlement charges.
[00:00:30] Class be scheduled to appear in US District Court in Boston on February 23rd. However, his attorney says Class B still wants to settle the case out of court. Clasby is charged with stealing over $120,000 in goods and cash from 2019 until he was fired in April of last year. Classbe allegedly charged the city for items including a music studio recording, a self portrait, a Toyota Prius and Bourbon steak tips. Officials also say Class B arranged for the city to pay $38,000 to his friend's New York consulting company, then had the friend give him the cash at a Framingham rest stop, a ferry terminal in Connecticut and the friend's apartment. Classby also allegedly stole cash from the Kennedy Center's programs. Class B is disputing the amount that he stole but still wants to arrange for a plea deal. He was director of elder Services from 1999 to 2024.
[00:01:35] Construction is underway on 16 new affordable homes in Quincy. Officials gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony Friday on Mariners Cove. The Quincy Housing Authority is overseeing the project on Bicknell street in Germantown rather than right at the entrance to o' Brien Towers. The Housing Authority has created the New Quincy Housing Development Corporation. It is also pursuing affordable housing developments including on Clay street in Wollaston, on Bower Road in Quincy Point Northfield Avenue in Germantown and a new emergency trailer to provide housing relief for families facing hardships after floods, fires or other disasters.
[00:02:21] NeighborWorks Housing Services of Quincy has been awarded $5.46 million from the Healy Driscoll Administration to redevelop 150 to 156 Quincy street into 24 fully accessible, energy efficient studio apartments for individuals transitioning out of homelessness in partnership with father bills and mainspring. The project will provide on site case management, counseling and support services to help residents achieve long term stability. Construction is expected to begin in the spring and be completed by spring of 2027.
[00:03:03] Eight promotions on the Quincy Fire Department On Friday, a ceremony was held in the Great hall at Quincy City hall for the promotions for Captain Douglas Trude and Lieutenants Andrew McAllister, Joseph Welby, Mark Gilbody, Christopher Collins, Stephen Kelly, Michael Turan and Brendan Gibbons. The promotions come after 10 new firefighter recruits were recently sworn in to the department.
[00:03:32] Police are investigating after a crowd of over 100 people targeted marked police cruisers during an incident in in Randolph happened Sunday at about 1:30am Police officers responded to the intersection of North Main and Oak streets on a report of a large scale vehicle takeover. When police arrived, a group of over 100 people began to strike the marked police cruisers with their fists and other objects, as well as sit on the hoods of the cruisers while officers were trying to drive.
[00:04:07] Police said the suspects were masked and recording themselves during the incident. Suspects also lit and set off fireworks while sitting on the cruisers. The incident is similar to another early Sunday morning incident where fireworks and other objects were thrown at a Boston police cruiser in the South End. The Boston scene happened about 45 minutes after the events in Randolph. Two men, both from Rhode island, were arrested in that incident, State police confirmed. They were also investigating a similar vehicle takeover incident in Middleboro. State Police said about 50 cars, some with stolen license plates, participated in that gathering. In a parking lot near Route 105 and Route 28, a white Dodge Charger attempted to strike an officer at that scene. Police began a pursuit of the Charger and another car, which continued from 495 south to 195 toward Rhode Island. That pursuit ended when the cars crossed the state line and Rhode island troopers lost sight of the vehicles. Randolph police are still investigating their incident. Anybody with information is asked to call police.
[00:05:21] A teenager was arrested in connection with dozens of car break ins in Hingham. 17 year old suspect from Holbrook will be called into Hingham Juvenile Court at a later date to face charges of breaking into a motor vehicle, disturbing the peace and conspiracy.
[00:05:41] Officers responding to a report of two males breaking into cars on Pilgrim Road in Hingham's Liberty Pole neighborhood just before 1am on Friday deployed a drone, ultimately locating and arresting one of the suspects. A neighborhood resident told police they saw two people breaking into cars. The second suspect remains on the run. A subsequent investigation revealed that about 60 unlocked cars had been broken into. Some items that were taken at the break ins include a laptop, house keys, car fob keys, coins and cash, and an electric scooter was also taken from a driveway. Police didn't name the teenager facing charges due to his age. He was released to his parents and an investigation remains ongoing.
[00:06:32] The MBTA has responded to the Trump administration's demand for information on how it's working to make travel safer in the Boston area. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter last month to MBTA General Manager Phil Eng, giving the agency until this Thursday to explain how it's keeping passengers and workers safe and how it's paying for those efforts. Duffy said the federal government may redirect or withhold funding from the T if it didn't respond to the request. Ang noted that he joined the T in April of 2023, the year after the Federal Transit Administration placed it under a safety management inspection for staffing and maintenance concerns. He said the goal of making 1,000 new hires in a year was exceeded T police now have 228 sworn officers, compared to 195 in fiscal year 2022. The T also pointed out that since 2012 it had built more than $512 million worth of security infrastructure. In making its request for information, the U.S. department of Transportation said cited an elderly woman who was pushed off a bus in Boston and injured earlier this month, as well as a belt attack on a bus in Cambridge in August. Year to date between January and September, the T says they have observed a 16% reduction in recorded crime across this system 632 recorded crimes last year versus 528 this year, or 2.63 crimes per million trips.
[00:08:19] Check of business news this morning. Stocks are mixed. The dow is up 238 points. The NASDAQ dropped 63. The S& P is up just a fraction.
[00:08:29] Japan's index jumping nearly 5% today, the yen weakening after its ruling party chose an ultra conservative as its leader and likely first woman prime minister.
[00:08:42] Other Asian markets were higher. The dollar rose. The euro was down. Oil at $61 a barrel.
[00:08:50] Sports Patriots beating the Bills 23 to 20.
[00:08:55] Forecast from the National Weather Service today, partly sunny and warm, high of 84 for tonight, cloudy, low 56. Tomorrow partly cloudy and still mild. High of 83.
[00:09:06] Rain on Wednesday, cooler, the high of 67.
[00:09:10] And Thursday, sunny and cool, high of 57.
[00:09:14] Out on the water, waves 1 to 2ft. Southwest winds 5 to 10 knots. High tide 11:09am Sunrise 6:46 sets at 6:16.
[00:09:24] Traffic note 4 River Bridge scheduled to open at 9am this morning, 7am on Tuesday.
[00:09:33] I'm Joe Catalano with an AM Quincy news update for Monday, October 6th.
