Baker Signs Bill Ending 'Lunch Shaming' In MA Schools: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, October 15. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Police are trying to negotiate a peaceful end to a standoff with a person who is reportedly armed and barricaded in a Braintree apartment.
• A Woburn man busted for going nearly 100 miles per hour on the highway in Burlington is suing the state for what he is saying is an illegal 55-m.p.h. speed limit on Route 3.
• A hiker found a 5-year-old boy who was missing in a Lincoln forest for about two hours Thursday night.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story: Schools Can No Longer 'Lunch Shame'

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new state law Thursday that focuses on students' access to school meals, with provisions around free breakfast and lunch as well as unpaid meal debt.

The new law also takes aim at a practice known as "lunch shaming," prohibiting schools from publicly identifying or taking punitive action against students who have unresolved debt for school meals.

"The new law is both timely and critical because it boosts federal nutrition dollars to schools across Massachusetts, and keeps children out of what should be an 'adult only' conversation on school meal debt," said Patricia Baker, a senior policy analyst at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. "But we know that more work needs to be done, at both the state and federal level, to ensure that no child is food insecure."

Read the full story.

Developing Story: Armed Standoff In Braintree

Police are trying to negotiate a peaceful end to a standoff with a person who is reportedly armed and barricaded in a Braintree apartment. A SWAT team has been called in, and police evacuated the rest of the apartment building located near South Braintree Square. Police believe the suspect is armed and say he threatened another apartment complex resident with a gun. Mental health professionals and crisis negotiators are trying to communicate with the suspect.

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Friday's Other Top Stories

Speed demon sues to raise speed limit: A Woburn man busted for going nearly 100 miles per hour on the highway in Burlington is suing the state for what he is saying is an illegal 55-m.p.h. speed limit on Route 3. Mikhail El-Bayeh has been entrenched in legal battles for over three years after getting ticketed for going 96 m.p.h. in 2018 and, more recently, 72 m.p.h. earlier this year.

Missing five-year-old found safe: A hiker found a 5-year-old boy who was missing in a Lincoln forest for about two hours Thursday night, according to police and fire officials. The boy was reported missing near a private school along Bedford Road around 4:30 p.m. just south of Route 2. Firefighters and state and local police joined the search of a large wooded area called Sandy Pond East. After the hiker located the boy, they discovered that he had hid from authorities because he was scared of them.

Halloween, and lots of visitors, back in Salem: The next three weekends will almost certainly be the most crowded in downtown Salem in at least the past two years. With the coronavirus crisis keeping most visitors away from Halloween's unofficial hometown last year, there is an abundance of extra interest in the spooky city with many restrictions relaxed for 2021. We have a rundown of everything you need to know if you're planning to visit the With City this month.

'Serial scammer' sentenced: A 69-year-old Melrose man who has already spent decades in and out of prison was sentenced to seven more years behind bars after pleading guilty to bilking the state out of unemployment insurance money by making fraudulent claims under the names of others. Alan Neal Scott pleaded guilty in July to four counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and five counts of aggravated identity theft. He also must pay nearly $350,000 in restitution.

Picture This: Updates on movies filmed in Massachusetts

"The Tender Bar" trailer (above) dropped Thursday, and while the internet is focused on a sage Ben Affleck dispensing life lessons, Massachusetts residents are seeing what local nuggets they can eyeball. The Amazon Prime Video picture is directed by George Clooney and stars Affleck, Lily Rabe, Tye Sheridan and Christopher Lloyd. It's an adaption of the J.R. Moehringer memoir of the same name. The film is set in New York, but was largely filmed in the Boston area, including Beverly, Wakefield and Watertown.

And in Arlington, film crews working on an upcoming biopic about pop icon Whitney Houston were spotted outside a house on Randolph Street and at Saint Camillus Parish, according to a post on the Arlington List Facebook page.

In Case You Missed It

Positive coronavirus test rates rise again: The positive coronavirus test rate rose back above 2 percent Thursday, despite continued declines in other statewide virus metrics. The average daily case count remained below 1,000 and the hospitalization and death rates continued to fall, the Department of Public Health reported. At the town level, roughly half of communities reported falling positive test rates, according to town-by-town data released Thursday. Twenty Massachusetts communities didn't report a single positive test over the last two weeks, up four from the last report.

By The Numbers

9: The number of bat species found in Massachusetts. Between Saturday and Halloween, MassWildlife will celebrate "Bat Week" in Massachusetts as a way to raise awareness about the importance — and relative harmlessness — of the furry critters.