MA City Reconsiders Statue Of Hatchet-Wielding Colonist: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, April 30. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Cape Cod health officials are hunting down people to get vaccinated, marking a 180-degree shift from when residents had to spend hours online to secure an appointment.
• A Massachusetts man was sentenced this week in Boston federal court in connection with selling a pesticide-coated lanyard that falsely claimed to protect against COVID-19 and other viruses.
• After bear sightings this week in suburban neighborhoods in Ashland and Framingham, wildlife officials are warning Massachusetts residents to be cautious during "bear season."

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

A pair of fierce monuments honor an English colonist who, legend has it, slaughtered her Native American captors after the gruesome killing of her baby.

But historians and Native Americans say the monuments to Hannah Duston obscure a grim truth: most of the Indigenous people she killed and scalped likely weren't warriors who killed her baby, but instead were children.

The statues — one in Haverhill where Duston grips a hatchet and another in New Hampshire where she clutches a bundle of scalps — are being reconsidered amid the nationwide reckoning on racism and controversial public monuments.

Historians, Native Americans and even some of Duston's descendants argue Duston's 17th century tale became propaganda for European colonists as they decimated New England's Indigenous population.

Read the full story.

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Friday's Other Top Stories

Polyamorous partnerships approved in Arlington: A domestic partnership bylaw adopted by Arlington Town Meeting recognizes polyamorous partnerships. The amendment, which allows domestic partnerships of "two or more" people, was adopted by a vote of 192-37. It will next be sent to Attorney General Maura Healey, who determines if the bylaw conflicts with state law.

Brookline police morale hits an all-time low: In a survey of 103 police department staff between Feb. 22 and March 6, 88 respondents described the morale in the department as poor, 10 said it was okay, and just three said it was good or excellent. "I've never seen morale this bad. I believe it's the constant negative messaging coming from our [Select Board] and the defunding movement," one officer wrote in the anonymous survey.

More doses than patients at Cape Cod vaccination clinics: Cape Cod health officials are hunting down people to get vaccinated, marking a 180-degree shift from when residents had to spend hours online to secure an appointment. Every vaccination clinic run by the Cape Cod Regional Vaccine Consortium has open slots this week, Mary Jo Brogna, the director of nursing for Harbor Health Services in Hyannis, said.

Probation for fake coronavirus cure purveyor: A Massachusetts man was sentenced Tuesday in Boston federal court in connection with selling a pesticide-coated lanyard that falsely claimed to protect against COVID-19 and other viruses. Beginning in March 2020, Jiule Lin, 38, of Quincy, listed an unregistered pesticide "Toamit Virus Shut Out," on eBay. The pesticide took the form of a card to be worn as a lanyard and claimed that the device would repel bacteria, germs, and viruses such as COVID-19 through the use of chlorine dioxide.

Learn more about getting a COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts at Patch's information hub.

Picture This

Goat on the lam: A four-year-old Nigerian Dwarf goat who went missing from his Concord home on April 22 was spotted in Lincoln Wednesday. Spencer is described as shy, weighs 60 pounds and is black, brown, white and tan.

They Said It

"It's far too important that we continue to slow the spread of COVID."

• Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll on the city's decision to not have fireworks on the Fourth of July for a second straight year. The city is hoping to have the fireworks in August, after the date the state is expected to end restrictions on the size of outdoor gatherings.

In Case You Missed It

Dream stint on Jeopardy! turning into nightmare for MA man: More than 550 former "Jeopardy!" contestants have signed a letter asking the program's producers to explain the use of a what appeared to be a white supremacist hand gesture by a contestant from Massachusetts. In a since-deleted Facebook post, Kelly Donahue, 35, of Winthrop, said he was simply trying to signal the show that aired Tuesday was his third day on "Jeopardy!

Hospital safety grades: Massachusetts was one of five states with the highest percentages of "A" hospitals in the Leapfrog Group's annual spring safety grades released Thursday. In Massachusetts, 28 of 58 hospitals graded received A's. No Massachusetts hospital received a grade of "D" or "F."

By The Numbers

4,500: The estimated black bear population in Massachusetts. After bear sightings this week in suburban neighborhoods in Ashland and Framingham, wildlife officials are warning Massachusetts residents to be cautious during "bear season" and are offering tips on what to do when you see a bear.

This Is Wicked Interesting: Only In Massachusetts

Only In Massachusetts is an occasional series where Patch tries to find answers to questions about life in Massachusetts. Have a question about the Bay State that needs answering? Send it to dave.copeland@patch.com.

The natural follow-up for a column on "Why do Bostonians drop their R's?" is"Why do people in eastern Massachusetts and other parts of New England use the word 'wicked' as a synonym for 'very'?"

As in "It's wicked rainy and kind of cold as I write this, but, in another month or two, it will be wicked hot."

But to get to the answer, you first need to dispel a couple of myths.

Read the full story.