Massachusetts

In the state's first decision involving juries and social media, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has called on judges to better police jurors' use of the Internet to make sure they do not discuss cases online, and thus risk a mistrial. The court said judges need to do more to explain to jurors that refraining from conversations about a case also means not posting anything about it on Facebook or Twitter, common practice in today's technology-driven world. "Jurors must separate and insulate their jury service from their digital lives," the court said in a ruling involving a Plymouth Superior Court...

A Chinese employee of a Massachusetts company has been charged in federal court with smuggling into China $6.5 million worth of equipment that can be used to enrich and produce weapons-grade uranium. Qiang ‘‘Johnson" Hu, a representative from Andover-based MKS Instruments Inc.'s sales office in Shanghai, was ordered held without bail at an appearance in US District Court in Boston on Tuesday. A detention hearing is scheduled for May 31 on a charge of conspiring to violate export administration regulations.

What does National Geographic consider the best island in the world? Tahiti? Capri, Italy? Lord Howe Island, Australia? Nope. According to its recent book, "The 10 Best of Everything," it's actually Nantucket, which takes the coveted spot in the ten best islands category.  Nantucket? No disrespect to the Massachusetts hotspot, but it seems a bit of an odd choice on a list that doesn't even include Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, or the Bahamas. Travel writer Leslie Thomas came up with the list for National Geographic and had the following to say about...

The fortunes of former convicts seeking employment have changed little since the passage of a 2010 law that overhauled the state's criminal records system, according to a report scheduled to be released Thursday by two Boston nonprofits. The report, written by the Boston Foundation and the Crime and Justice Institute at Community Resources for Justice, compiled the experiences of 28 employers, advocates, criminal records officials, landlords, and legislators. It gives a first look at the real-world effects of changes to the Criminal Offender Record Information system,...

After years of suffering from chronically inflamed and infected sinuses, I finally decided I'd had enough. I chose to do what 500,000 other Americans do every year - have sinus surgery. It wasn't an easy decision. I had to balance my need for a fix against my fear of surgery and research that raised questions about the procedure. I was miserable. My sinuses, those supposedly hollow spaces around the nose, had become clogged by scar tissue and the build-up of thickened mucus from decades of infections and inflammation.

PRICES WERE out of control at the end of third-century Rome, and the Emperor Diocletian was determined to rein them in. In AD 301 he issued his famous Edict on Prices , a complex piece of legislation that banned speculation and established price ceilings for a wide range of goods and services. But the ambitious law failed. Though violators could be punished with death, inflation and speculation persisted. Goods were hoarded, or sold on the black market. The economic crisis worsened.

As a child, Steve Thompson displayed outsized reactions to ordinary events and intense mood swings. By age 12, doctors diagnosed him with bipolar disorder. The idea that he had a chronic mental illness - one typically marked in adulthood by manic periods followed by depression - frightened him. "It's something you think you'll have your entire life," said Thompson, a 23-year-old student at Massasoit Community College in Brockton. But over the past year, with the help of his longtime psychiatrist, he has weaned himself off mood-altering medication.

With the school year winding down, Tufts University administrators met recently with students planning to study abroad, outlining what they should do before they leave and what to expect when they arrive. Above all, they stressed the risks - and ways to minimize them. But with an audience of young adults eager to see the world and seize adventure, it was hard to know whether the warnings truly hit home. "I think the message gets through," said Sheila Bayne, who directs the university's study-abroad program.

Days after state environmental officials found unacceptable noise levels from wind turbines in Falmouth, they are considering new regulations that would require the state to review potential noise issues before wind turbines are built in Massachusetts. The state might also conduct sound studies in other communities, such as Fairhaven and Kingston, where residents, as in Falmouth, have complained about newly installed turbines, officials said. A panel of independent scientists and doctors, convened by the state to look at the effects of wind turbines on the health of nearby residents,...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will bring the Wrecking Ball Tour to Massachusetts, including his second performance at the world's oldest baseball park in Boston. Springsteen made history on Sept. 3, 2003, when he headlined the first ever rock concert at Fenway Park. He will celebrate the ballpark's 100th anniversary with another performance at the home of the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 14. Springsteen will then head to Foxborough for an Aug. 18 performance at the home of the New England Patriots.

Last week , the Supreme Judicial Court called loud attention to a loophole in the state's drunken driving law when it overturned a license suspension of a driver who had refused to take a breath test despite admitting to "sufficient facts" of drunken driving. The court said such admissions — an option commonly given to first-time offenders — don't amount to convictions for the purposes of suspending the offender's license. Now, the Legislature needs to protect pedestrians and motorists by closing the dangerous loophole before other drunken drivers elude justice.

The number of Massachusetts supporters contributing the maximum to President Obama's campaign fund has plunged nearly 50 percent compared with his 2008 fledgling run, reflecting a sharp drop in enthusiasm since the president took office. The decline has forced Democrats to make up the difference with bigger contributions from fewer donors. Cash from an elite corps of Massachusetts backers has gushed into the Democratic National Committee, which has much higher contribution limits than the Obama campaign.

Massachusetts scored decently among states for injury prevention, in a national ranking released Wednesday by the non-profit groups Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The state has the third lowest rate of injury-related deaths, with 41.1 per 100,000 people dying from fatal injuries every year, compared with a national rate of 57.9 per 100,000. The report included a checklist of 10 research-based injury prevention policies, such as seat belt laws, drunk driving laws, and policies to prevent domestic violence.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, expanding a seven-year-old partnership with United HealthCare Services Inc., will use the national health insurer's network to offer Harvard Pilgrim health coverage to employers with offices outside Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Under the joint program, called Access America, multistate businesses based in the three New England states where Harvard Pilgrim does business will be able to offer their workers at plants, sales offices, or satellite sites across the country the same Harvard Pilgrim insurance products that employees in their home...

Now would be a good time for Rhode Island to cut its losses with Curt Schilling and his video game company, 38 Studios. Two years ago, the former Red Sox ace received $75 million in loan guarantees from that state as an incentive to move his fledgling firm from Massachusetts; on Thursday afternoon, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee's office disclosed, the company had tried to pay an overdue $1.1 million payment with a bad check. The company's woes validate Massachusetts economic development officials' decision not to get into a bidding war for Schilling, the often outspoken hero of...

The Globe's May 6 editorial urged that the Boston Museum be designated as the developer for Parcel 9 on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and claimed that " Boston lacks a place to tell its story . " Far from lacking a place to tell its story, Boston has an abundance of historic sites and museums, open to the public, through which the story of Boston and Massachusetts is already being told, including the Old State House Museum, the...

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe would make approximately $33 million in upfront payments to Taunton as part of a deal reached with the city's mayor to allow the tribe to build a resort casino in the southeastern Massachusetts community. The agreement announced Thursday by tribal chairman Cedric Cromwell and Mayor Thomas Hoye also calls for minimum annual payments of about $13 million to the city. The tribe has proposed a $500 million casino on 146 acres of land at the junction of Routes 24 and 140. The complex, to be built in stages over a five-year period, also would include three...

If hypocrisy had a face, a look, a certain familiar strut, it would be that of old favorite Curt Schilling as he pushed his way through a swirling collection of reporters and photographers in Providence this week with absolutely nothing of consequence to say. Curt Schilling, mute, the one time he actually owed an explanation. Perfect. But that's a minor point, really. There's a larger hypocrisy in his failing video game venture, the one that Rhode Island state officials giddily backed to the tune of $75 million in loan guarantees, which seems to be a fancy financial term for...

A Massachusetts alternative energy start-up will announce Monday that it has finalized a $1.25 billion deal to build a plant in Western China to convert coal into synthetic natural gas, an agreement that underscores China's growing hunger for power and the state's position as a global center for energy technology. The deal, one of the biggest yet for the state's alternative energy industry, creates a partnership between GreatPoint Energy, a seven-year-old Cambridge company with just 30 employees, and China Wanxiang Holdings, an industrial conglomerate.

The average price for gas in Massachusetts is $3.659 a gallon in the latest weekly AAA survey, down 6 cents from the previous week's average, AAA Southern New England said Monday. It is the fifth straight week of decreases, AAA Southern New England said. The current national average price is $3.68 a gallon. A year ago at this time, the Massachusetts average price was $3.88, AAA Southern New England said. AAA weekly surveys focus on self-serve, regular unleaded gas. Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.