Today's Top Headlines

Friday, September 18

Good morning Wypierdalaj,

It's the last call before fall! We're tracking a split transition weekend. News we're following includes the latest in the upcoming murder trial of ex-Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell, plus Gov. Maura Healey's calls for stronger AI protections. I'm Kaitlin McKinley Becker, and these are your headlines.

This will be the final day of the summery warmth – perhaps not for the season, but certainly for the next 7-10 days.

Highs again reach near 80, with a steady northwest wind that will drive out the humidity by afternoon.

This will set up a clear, cool night that will drop temperatures into the 40s and 50s by Saturday morning.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is urging independent safety evaluations and stronger reporting requirements for the most power artificial intelligence models.

Healey’s recommendations build on her call earlier this week for stronger safeguards and independent oversight as increasingly powerful AI systems are developed and deployed.

In a letter to members of the ‘Mass Wins Act’ conference committee, the governor called for a framework that protects residents while still allowing Massachusetts researchers, entrepreneurs and businesses to lead in innovation.

A judge has ruled that some statements made by Sandra Birchmore can be used by prosecutors in the upcoming murder trial of ex-Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell.

The ruling, issued Thursday by Judge Denise Casper, allows the prosecution’s pretrial motion seeking to admit “certain out-of-court statements by victim Sandra Birchmore” to be used at trial, despite the defense’s opposition. The statements would include her electronic communications extracted from her cellphone, laptop and her social media accounts, her oral statements to testifying witnesses and excerpts of her handwritten journal entries.

The judge wrote in her order that hearsay statements can be admitted against someone who has wrongfully caused the person’s unavailability as a witness “and did so intending that result.”

An invasive insect is causing problems across the Northeast, and Massachusetts leaders are calling on the public to help curb its spread.

The spotted lanternfly is native to Asia, but cropped up in Pennsylvania 12 years ago and has since made its way to Massachusetts.

The western and central part of the state has been dealing with them for years, and now, so is the Boston area.

A woman was killed in Taunton, Massachusetts, and authorities have arrested her boyfriend on a murder charge.

Police responded to an Allcot Circle home shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said. Shannon Smith, a 37-year-old Bridgewater resident, was found unresponsive at the base of a staircase.

Smith was transported to Morton Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Police in Franklin, Massachusetts, are looking for a Tesla that sped past a stopped school bus as a student was crossing the road Tuesday morning, narrowly avoiding a tragic collision.

The department released video of the incident that occurred on Chestnut Street at Griffin Road. Shared with police by Holmes Busing and Franklin Public Schools, the video shows the Tesla driving into the buses lane to go around another car that was stopped in front of it, before returning to its lane and speeding off. Police say there was a student waiting at the end of a driveway there to walk across the street and get on the bus when the Tesla sped by.

“Apparently, the concept of stopping for a student and a school bus was a little too complicated for this driver,” Franklin police wrote on Facebook. “Unfortunately, the Tesla apparently had somewhere extremely important to be and decided that waiting a few seconds was simply not an option.”