EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Police: Man drove 90 mph while drunk with boy in car

A Massachusetts man police say was driving more than 90 miles an hour with an unrestrained 7-year-old in his vehicle has been charged with driving under the influence and reckless driving.

State police said Friday troopers responded to a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 195 westbound on Thursday. They say 42-year-old Luis Manuel Medeiros of Fall River was seen driving erratically and lost control and hit a tractor-trailer in Seekonk. He kept driving and later hit another vehicle in East Providence, causing it to crash into a third vehicle.

Authorities said Medeiros appeared intoxicated and was arrested after failing field sobriety tests. The boy was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The Massachusetts Department of Social Services took custody of him.

PROVINCETOWN, Mass.

Bowhead whale observed for just second time offshore

Researchers have identified a bowhead whale in Cape Cod Bay – the second time in recorded history the animal has been seen so far south in the Atlantic Ocean.

Workers for the Provincetown-based Center for Coastal Studies reported Friday the bowhead was identified during an aerial survey April 11 as it fed alongside right whales.

Bowheads typically inhabit the Arctic Ocean and northern reaches of the Atlantic and Pacific. The center said the whale was about 1,000 miles outside of its normal range. Even sightings in the colder waters off Maine or New Hampshire are unusual.

The first time a bowhead was spotted so far south was in 2012 off Orleans, Mass.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass.

Teacher cleared for failure to report chair-tossing teen

A Massachusetts teacher who was told she could lose her job for failing to report that a student threw a chair at her won’t be punished.

New Bedford Superintendent Pia Durkin said after a hearing Thursday that the “incident should have been reported in a more timely manner” but “was handled reasonably under the circumstances.”

An 18-year-old student threw a chair at high school teacher Joanne Maura last month after she confiscated his cellphone. The chair didn’t strike her.

The administration told her she could be fired because she failed to report it. Maura says she reported it almost immediately.

The student was expelled and faces criminal charges.

DEDHAM, Mass.

Mother settles lawsuit over restraint of mentally ill son

A Brookline mother who sued the state prisons department over what she called the illegal restraint of her son at a psychiatric facility has agreed to settle her lawsuit after the hospital said it would change how it treats her son.

Joanne Minich sued the state Correction Department, saying her son Peter’s mental health was declining because administrators and clinicians at Bridgewater State Hospital had isolated him in a small cell, at times fastened to a bed, for an unreasonable amount of time. Her 31-year-old son has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Under the agreement approved by a Norfolk Superior Court judge Thursday, hospital officials promised to house Peter Minich in the infirmary and use seclusion and restraints only as “a last resort.”

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Health inspector finds no link between virus, wedding food

An inspection by the Rhode Island Health Department found no link between a norovirus outbreak and the food served at a wedding.

The Providence Journal reported that about 74 people fell ill from norovirus at an April 5 wedding in West Warwick. The highly infectious virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhea.

The wedding took place at the West Valley Inn, but a food-safety inspection found no evidence that the virus originated in food.

Health Director Michael Fine said Thursday there is no evidence the outbreak was caused by anything the restaurant did.

— From news service reports