Today's Top Headlines

Saturday, August 15

Good morning Wypierdalaj,

Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña was arrested yesterday by the FBI on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, but he's no stranger to turmoil during his time in office. Other news we're following this morning includes the latest after a large fire in Salisbury sent two people to the hospital, and three people who are believed to have got caught in a rip current off a Cape Cod beach. Plus, our weather is looking beautiful this weekend! I'm Kaitlin McKinley Becker, and these are your headlines.

Federal charges of pandemic loan fraud and money laundering are the most serious scandal facing the mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts, but Brian DePeña has been no stranger to turmoil during his time in office.

Two of the mayor’s choices for his chief of staff position have left those jobs in legal trouble.

One had his credentials stripped by the state’s law enforcement oversight agency. The other is currently serving time in federal prison.

Two people were taken to an area hospital after a fire broke out Friday at a multifamily building in Salisbury, Massachusetts.

The blaze began shortly before 7 p.m., the Salisbury Fire Department said. Flames could be seen shooting through the roof of the home on Atlantic Avenue.

Videos shared online also showed smoke towering over the area.

Three people were recovered, one in critical condition, after being caught in what’s believed to be a rip current off a Cape Cod beach on Friday afternoon, officials said.

The three people in distress were recovered through a large-scale search conducted by local, state and federal officials at Herring Cove, according to the town of Provincetown.

The incident was reported about 3 p.m., and all three people were eventually recovered. The person in critical condition was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital, officials said.

Few weekends – or even days long stretches – are this nice in summer: low humidity, plentiful sun, gentle breezes, and comfy (somewhat cool) mornings.

We’ll be treated to this through Sunday, with highs in the upper 70s at the coast/Capes/Islands and low 80s elsewhere.

The clouds move in on Sunday and a batch of showers is heading in for Monday. This doesn’t look like a drenching rain event, but we could see a period of steady rain for a couple of hours in the morning.

Massachusetts Higher Education Commissioner Noe Ortega will step down this September, after about four years on the job.

Ortega’s departure will further shift the state’s education leadership, following turnover within the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler stepping down earlier this year. Tutwiler was replaced by new Secretary Stephen Zrike Jr., and Commissioner Pedro Martinez began leading DESE last July.

The Board of Higher Education will meet later this month to consider an interim commissioner, and start the process to secure a permanent replacement for Ortega.

Doc Rivers needed some time to write the speech that he’ll give when formally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The storytelling, that part was easy. He’s a natural at that.

But what Rivers wound up learning during the trial-and-error process of speechwriting was that the words he’ll say from a stage in Springfield, Massachusetts, aren’t going to be about him. They’re going to be about everyone else who played a role in him getting to that moment.