Peabody/Lynnfield Weekly News

Photo by John Castelluccio James Festa and Kristen Mavroules, surrounded by family, are sworn in as police patrolmen last Thursday.

by John Castelluccio

PEABODY – Now that a promotional dispute within the Police Department has been resolved with the Civil Service Commission, city officials went ahead with four promotions last week, filling two lieutenant vacancies and adding two patrolmen.

Courtesy photo Lynnfield’s John Caruso is flanked by Boston Bruins Tyler Seguin (left) and Joe Colborne. Caruso, 12, got the opportunity to skate with both players at the Bruins developmental camp.

By Bob Albright

Only 12-years-old, but also a grizzled veteran of the Lynnfield Pee Wee youth hockey system, John Caruso has already seen his share of hockey practices. That being said, one practice in July at the Burlington Ice Palace will always stick out above the rest.

Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a series of profiles of individuals who are seeking state elective office. The state primary is Sept. 14.

by Jeff Shmase

Donald H. Wong is running for state representative for the 9th Essex District to help communities get state money they were promised to fund vital services such as public safety, education and elder services.

The two-term Board of Selectman chairman from Saugus likens what the state has done to communities such as Saugus to a parent/child relationship.

“I look at the state as a parent that promised to give money to their children (the town) and then took it away,” said Wong, whose family has operated the Kowloon restaurant in Saugus for 60 years. “That’s not right. How can you balance a town budget if you don’t know what you will be getting from the state.”

by Karen Kapsourakis

PEABODY – “I made my plea. It is what it is. I just want to grow as a man,” said 22-year-old Timothy Michael Tate Burke of Peabody, as he confessed to a string of attacks on his former girlfriend, dating back to 2007.

Burke was sentenced to serve between five and seven years in state prison, followed by five years of probation, after pleading guilty to 16 charges against him in Salem Superior Court last week.

by Bill Smith

LEE, N.H. – When the call came in Sunday evening for a plane down in a hayfield in this rural suburb of Concord, N.H., Lee Fire and Rescue Lt. Jim Davis didn’t know what to think.

“A plane crash is always important,” Davis said, noting that Lee is in the flight path for the Manchester-Boston International airport and its skies are also busy with military and civilian aircraft from the Pease Air National Guard Base in Portsmouth, N.H.

by Jeff Shmase

Their friendship evolved from a combined passion for exercising and this weekend the friends of the late Darius Dilmaghani will ride bicycles 192 miles to honor his memory.

The eight-member Team Darius will participate in the 31st Annual Pan Mass Challenge, a bike-a-thon that since 1980 has raised $270 million for cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.