News Briefs

T fare hike takes effect

Traveling into Boston became more expensive when the latest subway fare hike took effect January 9.

In preparation for the change, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) barred purchases of more than $100 to discourage stockpiling the old fares. Annual passes, however, will continue to be sold at the old prices for the next month.

The price of a subway token was raised from $1 to $1.25.

MBTA said the fare increase was necessary to close a $4 billion budget gap for the year 2004. T fare previously increased from 85 cents to the dollar in 2000.



Big Dig moves forward

With the opening of the southbound tunnel and the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge on I-93, the completion of the Big Dig moved one step closer to reality.

On Dec. 20, cars rolled across both lanes of the bridge for the first time, ten months after the bridge opened for northbound traffic.

Workers hope to have the Central Artery, the section of I-93 that has been moved underground, removed by August. Demolition has been complicated as traffic continues to move through the area and a large portion of the freeway is near buildings.

Officials hope to have the area around the FleetCenter cleared by the Democratic National Convention in July.

The removal is estimated at $62 million. Part of the cost is being offset by reusing steel and concrete in area construction projects.



First death penalty case in twenty years

Gary Sampson was sentenced to die on December 22, the first capital conviction in Massachusetts in 1973.

Sampson was found guilty of the murders of Philip McCloskey, 69, and Jonathan Rizzo, 19 in late July 2001. Both men were murdered after they were carjacked by Sampson, who was hitchhiking.

The case was tried in federal court under a 1994 law which placed certain kinds of fatal carjacking under national jurisdiction. The death penalty has been outlawed in Massachusetts since 1984.

Sampson pleaded guilty to both murders, making the jury responsible only for sentencing. The Prosecution argued that Sampson preyed on good Samaritans, and that his crimes were committed in an "especially depraved or cruel manner" and that it involved aggravating factors including torture.

In their defense, lawyers for Sampson pointed to his "troubled" childhood and actions he made before the murders. Sampson allegedly tried to turn himself in the week before the killings but the call was accidentally disconnected by a FBI clerk.

Sampson plans to appeal the ruling.

Compiled from Associated Press, Boston Globe reports