News in brief

 Cops cleared in Tierney slaying
BOSTON. The Bristol County District Attorney’s office has declared that two police offers who shot and killed 45-year old Gerard Tierney in May were acting out of necessity. Gerard allegedly refused to drop two kitchen knives as he approached the officers, at which point he was shot and killed — a circumstance that has been deemed a justifiable homicide after a thorough investigation by the district attorney’s office. METRO/CB

Pot trafficking bust
BOSTON. Jeremy Barnes of Providence, R.I., plead not guilty to federal charges of drug trafficking at his arraignment Monday in Boston. The man allegedly brought amounts of marijuana totaling millions of dollars and 4.5 tons into New England from violent Mexican drug cartels. METRO/CB

House chair calls for ban on trans-fats
BOSTON. The Department of Public Health is exploring whether it has the legal authority to ban trans-fats in Massachusetts restaurants.

DPH Commissioner Jon Auerbach told the News Service yesterday he has asked agency lawyers to pursue the request of House Public Health Committee Chairman Peter Koutoujian that DPH issue regulations prohibiting trans-fats.

In a letter to DPH, Koutoujian said he hopes the agency will do what the Legislature wouldn’t.

“Enacting a statewide ban would not only save lives, it would save resources,” he wrote, citing a Harvard study that found that as many as one in four heart attacks would be prevented and 1,400 lives in Massachusetts saved with the abolishment of trans-fats. Opponents have argued that the legislation would be too burdensome to restaurants already eliminating trans-fats.           SHNS

Time capsule found in Quincy
BOSTON. A masonry reconstruction team discovered a time capsule on Tuesday while doing routine work on the Abigail Adams Cairn, a Revolutionary War monument in Quincy. The metal box, thought to be over 100 years old, was buried alongside an 1889 U.S. penny and a commemorative medal, and has been given to the members of the historical society at the Adams Academy to determine proper ways for opening the box.
METRO/CB

N.H. man denies killing wife’s lover
BOSTON. A New Hampshire man has told a Middlesex Superior Court jury that he did not take part in the slaying of his ex-lover’s husband and another man at a Wakefield concrete plant in March of 2006. Sean Fitzpatrick, who admitted to having an affair with Michelle Zammitti, said he was at home asleep the night of her husband’s murder.
METRO/CB