8 Charged In Merrimack Valley Drug Investigation: Patch PM

TEWKSBURY, MA — It's Wednesday, Oct. 6. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Eight people were arrested and charged in connection with running a major fentanyl trafficking operation in Lawrence.
• A Saugus woman pleaded guilty to her role in a North Shore drug ring that distributed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl-laced pills purported to be Percocet.
• Brookline town meeting members approved an $11 million settlement with a Black firefighter who accused the department of racism and retaliation.
• A teen bolting from police led to a crash and power outage in Needham.
• Salem elementary school teacher Marta Garcia is the 2022 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year.
  
• A Melrose man's disdain for the designated hitter made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Red Sox legends Luis Tiant and Bill "Spaceman" Lee to appear at Cape Cod film festival.

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

Today's Top Story

Eight people were arrested and charged in connection with running a major fentanyl trafficking operation in Lawrence, officials said Monday.

Eight Lowell and Lawrence residents were arrested following a joint federal, state and local investigation led by Attorney General Maura Healey's New England Fentanyl Strike Force.
More than two kilograms of fentanyl were seized, Healey said.

Authorities executed search warrants at six Lawrence locations last week and found roughly $150,000 in cash and 700 grams of fentanyl and cocaine, according to the news release. Authorities had previously seized 1,800 grams of fentanyl and 500 pressed fentanyl pills.

Read the full story here.

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Wednesday's Other Top Stories

100K fake pills: A Saugus woman pleaded guilty to her role in a North Shore drug ring that distributed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl-laced pills purported to be Percocet. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the defendants possessed a pill press capable of generating up to 15,000 pills per hour, which they purported to be Percocet, but which instead contained fentanyl. A single counterfeit fentanyl pill allegedly retails between $10-$20, thereby generating millions of dollars in retails sales.

Massachusetts Teacher of the Year: A Salem elementary school teacher was named the 2022 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year on Wednesday. Marta Garcia was honored as the state's teacher "who best exemplifies the dedication, commitment and positive contributions of educators statewide."

Brookline approves $11 million racism settlement: The Brookline Town Meeting voted Tuesday to approve an $11 million settlement with Gerald Alston, the Black firefighter the town fired after he reported racism and subsequent retaliation in the workplace, representing the end of an 11-year case.

Film festival to highlight Cape Cod movies: The Hyannis Film Festival is bringing some movies to Main Street this month, and all the movies were either made on Cape Cod or have stories of special interest to the area. Former Red Sox pitchers Luis Tiant and Bill "Spaceman" Lee are set to appear at the festival for the showing of producer Kris Meyer's documentary "The Lost Son of Havana" about Tiant's return to Cuba after 46 years.

Teen evading police causes Needham power outage: A 15-year-old from Lawrence crashed a car into a utility pole and a garage door in Needham just before 2 a.m. Wednesday night — leading to a power outage for more than 150 residents. Police say an officer was attempting to pull the car over for a motor vehicle violation. When the officer got out of his cruiser, police say the teen driver sped off.

Man dies at East Boston construction site: A man died Wednesday at a construction site in East Boston, police said. Construction crew members were working on a multi-story building near Maverick Square.

The 2021 Boston Marathon is Oct. 11. Read the latest on Patch's 2021 Boston Marathon hub.

They Said It

"I know it's heresy to talk about that here in Boston, where David Ortiz was such a big part of three championships."

• Melrose resident Howie Newman, whose "Dump the DH" campaign is part of a designated hitter exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Boston Marathon Notebook

The Boston Marathon is Monday, and Patch reporters have been profiling local runners who have been waiting more than two years to step up to the starting line. In addition to the stories below, you can find more information on Patch's 2021 Boston Marathon Hub.

• As thousands of runners head to Hopkinton for the start of the 125th Boston Marathon Monday morning, Amanda Crowe will be resting up in her Beverly home after completing her own 26.2-mile trek through her hometown as a "virtual" runner for Boston's Children's Hospital two days earlier.
• Mansfield resident Kim Foley will run the 125th Boston Marathon on a 26.2-mile route from Hopkinton to Boston as a member of Team Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Foley was a head coach for the Mansfeld High School junior varsity lacrosse team and played four years of varsity lacrosse at Framingham State University, including serving as captain.
• Noah Koretz has the Christina VanderPlyum and her team at Boston Children's Hospital to thank for helping keep his niece alive as she awaited a heart transplant in the first months of her life. Now that his niece is recovered and thriving in her Salem home as the family looks forward to her second birthday and her beginning nursery school, Koretz is getting ready to run the Boston Marathon to raise money for the Ventricular Assist Device Program that bridged the period between when her heart failed her as an infant and when she received a new one.
• Wayland's Kate Taunton-Rigby, Framingham's Thomas Noah, Milford's Nathaniel McMahan and Wayland's Larry Krakauer share their stories with Patch about why they are running in the 125th Boston Marathon on Monday.
• East Providence resident Maurice Lowman will run the 125th Boston Marathon on a 26.2-mile route from Hopkinton to Boston to benefit research and awareness efforts for Rett Syndrome. And he's doing it while wearing a full suit, blazer and dress pants to stand out for the cause even more.

Should Kids Under 12 Get The Coronavirus Vaccine? Take Our Survey

Federal regulators could approve coronavirus vaccines for kids between the ages of 5 and 11 as early as this month.

That approval will set off another rush by parents to get their kids vaccinated, as they did in May when COVID-19 vaccines were approved for use in children between the ages of 12 and 15. But it will also set off another round of debates over whether parents should get their kids vaccinated.

As we did in May, when vaccines were approved for older kids, Patch is asking readers where they stand on children being vaccinated against the coronavirus. We'll close the survey below at noon on Thursday and report the results this weekend.

The survey is not meant to be a scientific poll, with random sampling and margins of error, but is meant only to gauge the sentiments of our readers in an informal way.