Solomente is the only cat left from a group of 51 exotic cats the MSPCA received last May. Solomente, one of the few non exotic breed cats brought in with the group, will soon be available for adoption.

LAWRENCE — The bodies of two U.S. soldiers, including Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez of Lawrence, missing in Iraq since being ambushed more than a year ago, have been recovered.
Military officials told Jimenez family members in Lawrence and New York yesterday evening that their son's remains, along with those of Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., were identified on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede tonight that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president.

METHUEN — Mayor William Manzi fired police Chief Joseph Solomon today.
Solomon has been accused of a litany of charges, including mismanaging grant money and conflicts of interest. The 22-year veteran of the police department fought for his job during a seven-day discipline hearing, which started in February and ended April 14.

Do you think you could finish the Boston Marathon?

A timeline of historic moments of the Boston Marathon.

Newburyport resident NANCY McCARTHY, 61, ran her first Boston Marathon at 36 year old in 1983. The 2008 Boston Marathon marks the 26th marathon she's completed in the past 26 years, 10 of which were on the Boston course. The fitness instructor now helps others train for marathons, always reminding them about the importance of stretching.

North Andover runner JULIE MOORE, 42, completed her first of 17 Boston Marathons in 1988. She has run a total of 35 marathon since that year, preparing differently for each one. Weight training, however, is always a staple in her training.

Lawrence resident CAROL BLANCHARD, 52, ran her first Boston Marathon at 40 years old in 1996. The 2008 race is her 10th Boston Marathon, as well as her 21st completed marathon. She's perfected her training schedule over the years, and now routinely runs with a pal instead of alone.

BOSTON (AP) — The engineering firm about to complete the Big Dig's stem-to-stern safety review said yesterday the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority should implement a few more repairs to ensure all the tunnels are safe to the traveling public.

Below the ocean surface, there's a small mountain of sand waiting to be dredged.
That sand — 130,000 to 150,000 cubic yards — would come from the navigation channel at the mouth of the Merrimack River that the Army Corps of Engineers has been digging out every few years.

We are happy to introduce commenting as the newest feature on our Web site. At the end of every story is an area for you to leave your thoughts and opinions.

SALISBURY BEACH — Sand, more so than even than the salty waves that lap the shore, is the mother's milk of oceanfront resort communities.
Without it, children don't splash by the water's edge and families don't build sand castles. Frolicking by the seaside simply isn't possible.

PLUM ISLAND — A lawyer representing a group of Plum Island residents has warned state and local officials that they could be breaking the law if they attempt to implement an agreement that would allow dredged sand to be deposited off Salisbury Beach.

PLUM ISLAND — Mother Nature plays her part, of course.
But those who have seen Plum Island's beaches and dunes morph for decades say it isn't just the winds of nor'easters, the waves of the Atlantic Ocean and the natural characteristics of a barrier island that account for the erosion seen in recent years.

PLUM ISLAND — Against the humbling power of nature, there's not a lot man can do to stop the ocean from destroying and reshaping the beach.
But just about every major manmade anti-erosion technology and technique to slow the process is employed at the mouth of the Merrimack River and along Plum Island. Even with those pieces in place, there are problems.

They are three spots along Plum Island beach, separated by only 2 miles. But they each tell something of the island's endless and unpredictable battle with the sea.
On the island's northern tip stands a gazebo, built a couple of years ago by the nonprofit Plum Island Taxpayers Association. It's a pleasant spot set back far from the water — the Merrimack River ebbs and flows by 150 yards to the north, and on the opposite shore in the distance is Salisbury Beach. As your eyes swing east toward the sea, you can see waves break on the beach 300 yards away. To the south, across a long stretch of dunes, are dozens of houses clustered tightly together.

1827 — The Army Corps of Engineers draws its first map of the Merrimack River entrance. It is located more than a half mile south of its 2008 position.
around 1827 — A jetty system is built near the mouth of the Merrimack River to control the route of the river mouth. It is a failure. Its ruins can still be seen today near Woodbridge Island.

The night started like any other for members of Beatle Juice.
John "Muzz" Muzzy, Dave Mitchell, Steve Baker and Joe Holaday gathered at Johnny D's Uptown Restaurant and Music Club in Somerville around 4 p.m. for a sound check before a show.

Washington lobbyist Howard Marlowe's clients seem to feel that his fees are money well spent.
A Daily News survey of administrators in five of the 34 cities and towns that retain the services of Marlowe & Co. showed unanimous satisfaction with the results obtained by the lobbying firm in various projects — including beach replenishment. (Marlowe also lists 18 other clients, either counties or nonprofit entities.)

PLUM ISLAND — Vincent Russo has owned a house on Northern Boulevard for 35 years. Two or three times a week, he walks a 2- to 3-mile stretch of the beach — from the south jetty to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.

Venice, Fla., is a community of about 20,000 people located on the Gulf of Mexico, a few miles south of Sarasota. It is a vacation destination, with a quaint shopping district of small shops and boutiques and a broad, graceful main boulevard that leads to its beach. Among its major attractions is its more than 5 miles of beachfront.

John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney prepared to tell conservatives.

Sen. John McCain seized command of the race for the Republican presidential nomination early Wednesday, winning delegate-rich primaries from the East Coast to California. Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama traded victories in an epic struggle with no end in sight.

Follow the 2008 presidential primary election

GLENDALE, ARIZ. | The crowd roared as Patriots quarterback Tom Brady ran onto the field before the game.
All of the fans hadn't even found their seats at that point, but they still made enough noise to fill the University of Phoenix Stadium | the site of today's Super Bowl matchup between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.

Beginning Feb. 1, all local news coverage published in The Gloucester Daily Times will be free and available to the public at www.gloucestertimes.com. Readers will no longer need to log on to the online Plus Edition to receive complete access to the local news that appears in our print editions.

MANCHESTER - The Manchester Essex Regional School Committee will consider cutting more than $26,000 from school libraries' budget at its meeting Tuesday, which would eliminate one position and leave a single librarian splitting time between two buildings.

BOSTON - As repairs to hundreds of bridges across the state are delayed for lack of money, state Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen, is calling for the state to focus on bridge maintenance rather than new transportation projects.

ROCKPORT - Friends and "family" of the late Robert Taylor will gather Saturday morning in Rockport to remember their friend, who died in the Dec. 15 fire that nearly wiped out a central city block in downtown Gloucester.

A year-long probe into the sinking of the Newburyport-based Lady Luck and death of its two crewmen reveals that it sank so rapidly after capsizing that the two men aboard had no time to put on their lifesaving equipment, a U.S. Coast Guard report released yesterday said.

The top of City Hall's 126-foot bell tower is tilting a little bit less every day now.

PHOENIX - Patriots owner Bob Kraft mingled with about 200 raucous fans at a bar that has become Patriots central here during Super Bowl week.

Mayor Carolyn Kirk has begun discussions with Essex aimed at settling an allegation that the city has been improperly inflating the town's sewer bill before the matter goes to court.

President Bush delivered the seventh and final State of the Union address of his presidency Monday night, during which he addressed issues concerning the economy, education, the war in Iraq, Social Security and foreign trade.

MIAMI | Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary last night, seizing the upper hand in the Republican presidential race ahead of next week's coast-to-coast contests and lining up a quick endorsement from soon-to-be dropout Rudy Giuliani. "It shows one thing: I'm the conservative leader who can unite the party," McCain told The Associated Press after easing past former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for his first-ever triumph in a primary open only to Republicans.

When J.J. Nicastro was in intensive care, suffering from a fast-moving virus that attacked his heart, the community reached out. Children sold refreshments at lemonade stands, hundreds turned up for vigils and a benefit concert was held in his honor.

A number of councilors and senior appointees yesterday expressed skepticism that Mayor Carolyn Kirk's plan to replace the small, fixed-cost legal department with contract services will strengthen the city or save it money.

GLENDALE, ARIZ. - It's like a city within a city, a place where you can take in a concert, dine on cuisine prepared by top chefs and immerse yourself in a chocolate festival.

The brawl on the ice toward the end of Saturday night's high school hockey game against Danvers was echoed outside Dorothy Talbot Rink as spectators flowed to their cars. Two Gloucester teenagers were arrested.

A visitor to The Silent Seed can open the door with a loud squeak and slam it behind them. A few feet away, hunched over his indoor flower bed, owner Jude Platteborze will never look up.

ROCKPORT - The final usable lot on Haven Avenue will be auctioned off by the town for a second time in less than a year, town officials said this week.

For the combination of star power and Cape Ann scenery, it would be difficult to match the sight of George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg motoring fishing boats and walking the wharves along Gloucester Harbor.

American Legion members and city officials have begun working closely together to figure out a way to keep the veterans' organization in the Legion Memorial Building, from which it has operated for 87 years.

What a group of homeowners in an all-but-invisible East Gloucester enclave has been living through for nearly a decade now is commonly, but incorrectly, called "sewer limbo."

The approximate 400,000 pounds of American pollock offloaded in Gloucester during January's second week got buyers', catchers' and lumpers' adrenaline flowing the way big landings once did here during this port's better fishing days.

With the help of an $85,000 grant from the state attorney general's office, Gloucester is beginning a three-pronged attack on addiction to opiates such as heroin and prescription painkillers that authorities said has been creeping into a younger age group in the city in recent years.

BOSTON - In the wake of devastating fires in Gloucester and Lawrence, Gov. Deval Patrick wants the Legislature to give him emergency spending authority in the event of a disaster.

BOSTON - Legislation that would ban drivers from using hand-held cell phones and other electronic devices will have a hard time getting through the state Senate if state Sen. Steven Baddour has his way.

BRENTWOOD, N.H. - A sniffling, red-faced William Flynn begged forgiveness yesterday for killing Pamela Smart's husband.

A sniffling, red-faced William Flynn begged forgiveness yesterday for killing Pamela Smart’s husband. The sentence-reduction hearing capped a surprising chapter in one of New Hampshire’s most notorious murders.

Text of Gov. Deval Patrick's State of the State address on Thursday, as prepared for delivery.

ROCKPORT - Children's author and Newbery Award-winning illustrator Timothy Basil Ering delighted Rockport Elementary School students yesterday, spending the entire day at the school talking to them about his life, career and what inspires his work.

ROCKPORT - Three finalists for school superintendent have been named by the superintendent search committee.

Gloucester's arts coalition has received a stamp of approval, with the award of a $35,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, presented in person by its top officials.

HAMILTON - A Hamilton mother who let her daughter and other teens drink in her home and perform stunts like the ones from the movie "Jackass" will spend the next six months under house arrest, the result of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors.

SALEM - A new report card suggests some patients at Beverly and Salem hospitals are much more likely to get bed sores than they would elsewhere. However, the hospitals say the apparent problems are the result of bad paperwork and practices they've already begun to tweak.

Gloucester artist Lynn Holoway's acrylic paintings tend to be looser in detail than her work in watercolor. But regardless of the medium she chooses, she always starts in the same spot of her subject's face: the eyes.

A 64-year-old woman who had been living in the Cape Ann area was found dead in a motel room yesterday. The woman had a "history of depression" and was believed to have committed suicide, police said.

MARSHFIELD, Maine -.A 41-year-old former Gloucester man was shot to death early yesterday morning while trying to help a friend rebuff an old boyfriend, according to family members.

The School Committee's long-awaited decision on whether middle-schoolers will move to Fuller School or stay at O'Maley Middle School was postponed last night until a public hearing is held on the topic, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday at City Hall.

The Gloucester Fund received a $23,000 donation from representatives of Temple Ahavat Achim yesterday that will be distributed to the victims of the Middle Street fire.

Contractors who worked on the long-troubled Big Dig highway project have agreed to pay more than $450 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the state over a fatal tunnel ceiling collapse and to cover the costs of leaks and design flaws.

Former parishioners and local historians looked on with sadness yesterday as St. Joseph Chapel, once a central gathering place for the Magnolia Catholic community, was torn down.

ROCKPORT - Local musicians and instructors have described composer Lydia Brindamour as "the real deal," an "enormous talent" and "unbelievable."

Attorney Leonard Kopelman, whose 60-member Boston-based municipal-law firm has been nominated to replace City Solicitor Linda Lowe, conceded that, by himself, "I don't know that I could do a better job."

After making a purchase over the phone with his credit card one afternoon, Peter Jenner received a call from his credit-card provider reporting suspicious charges apparently made with his card. It was clear to Jenner that he had become a victim of identity theft.

The huge outpouring of community assistance that followed the Middle Street fire last month will be heaped upon the victims of the Lawrence fire that burned down a city block early Monday morning.

LAWRENCE - It was 2:30 a.m., and police Officer Robert Moody was patrolling on Parker Street. A call from two emergency medical technicians alerted him to a building on fire just up the street from where he was.

There's a new phone number to call during storms or disasters in Massachusetts. It's 2-1-1.

A Vermont man changed his plea to guilty Tuesday for helping a New Hampshire couple who refused to pay their income taxes and holed up for months in their secluded home last year.

ROCKPORT - On a cold January morning - when many might have chosen to remain snuggled beneath blankets, sleeping in - about 50 Cape Ann residents instead gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Society to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a march and a rally.

The Thurston Point Road home in which Dr. Stanley Schwartz lived looks simple from the outside - a steep driveway leading down to a small house with weathered wooden shingles, perched on the Annisquam River.

Little did perky, peppy and pretty Julie Warner realize all those crisp, autumn football seasons ago, when she was leading the cheers for Gloucester High School, she'd someday be performing before 73,000 fans and millions more on TV - in the NFL, and, in two weeks, at the Super Bowl .

Rick Williams, a 43-year-old housepainter from Essex has always said, "You never know where life is going to take you."

ROCKPORT - Former Rockport Selectman Nicola Barletta has spent months trying to resurrect support for a bypass road that would connect Nugent Stretch in Rockport to Blackburn Circle in Gloucester.