News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

Steven Rakes, whose body was found in Lincoln on July 17, may have been poisoned, according to a report by Fox-25 News in Boston.

[Read more…] about Rakes may have been poisoned; how body got to Lincoln still unknown

The  MBTA commuter rail Lincoln stop, which was expected to be closed on weekends through November, will now be available until September 7.

The weekend service suspension between Fitchburg and South Acton that  began in June will  continue through August 24, with full Saturday/Sunday service over the Labor Day weekend.. However, new efficiencies in the construction  schedule will allow for weekend service  to be maintained between North Station and South Acton through Labor Day Weekend.

Starting on September 7, the work will extend to Brandeis/Roberts, which means the South Acton, West Concord, Concord, Lincoln, and Kendal Green stations will be closed from September 7 to November 17. Trains between Brandeis/Roberts and North Station will operate on the normal weekend schedule. Weekday service is not affected.

For more information, see the MBTA project website, email FitchburgProject@MBTA.com, or call the MBTA Fitchburg Project Hotline at 617-721-7506.

By Alice Waugh

Waving and smiling at passersby in front of a poster depicting President Obama with a Hitler-style mustache, two supporters of Lyndon Larouche’s policies  set up at kiosk at the side of the road next to the Lincoln mall this morning hoping to win support.

Ian Brinkley, 23, and Alan Demers, 27, both of Quincy, set up signs on Lincoln Road calling for Obama’s impeachment and advocating re-passage of the Glass-Steagall Act. They’ve done this in Lincoln before, as well as other area towns. “We go all over the place,” Brinkley said.

The two men were hoping to win support for LaRouchePAC.com, a group headed by eight-time presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche. Among other positions, the group decries Wall Street as “fascist” and is pushing for reintroduction of the Glass-Steagall Act, a 1933 law that limited affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms. Major provisions of the law were repealed in 1999, a fact which some critics blame for the financial crisis in the late 2000s, but there are now bills pending in the House and Senate to restore those laws.

One of the flyers he handed out alleged that JP Morgan was behind an unsuccessful armed coup in 1934. Another flyer about the Glass-Steagall Act claims that the British monarchy is trying to control the world’s political economy and wants to reduce the population of the planet from seven billion to one billion.

The LaRouche movement is a fan of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “who always put the people before the bankers,” Brinkley said.

Asked what he objected to about Obama, Brinkley decried the current “police state” where “every single phone call, email and text message is monitored by the NSA, which is not exactly in line with our Constitution.” He also criticized bailouts “from Detroit to Cyprus” and said Obama is guilty of treason for allegedly arming Al Quaeda in Saudi Arabia and “covering up” the role of the Saudis in 9/11. Asked if he believed Al Quaeda was behind the 9/11 attacks, Brinkley said, “That’s kind of like asking if Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible for the assassination of JFK… it’s not an easy answer.”

Brinkley, who said his group does not support any particular political candidate for office, said people in Lincoln have been “receptive.” Reactions in town “have ranged from ‘I love what you’re doing, you guys are my heroes’ to ‘get out of here’ and rose,” he said.

“Do you want to help get rid of Obama today?” he cheerfully asked a passerby.

“Absolutely not,” the man replied.

“Not even a tiny bit?”

“He’s the best thing we’ve had,” the man said as walked away.

The MBTA’s commuter rail weekend service through Lincoln has been suspended until November 24 for a major overhaul to the Fitchburg line that includes an extension from the current Fitchburg terminus, upgrades to the South Acton station, and other fixes.

According to an MBTA website, “ridership levels on the Fitchburg commuter rail line have been adversely affected by poor reliability, infrequent service, and long travel times, the longest in fact on the MBTA commuter rail network.” The line has has one of the worst on-time performance records in the commuter rail system but also  the oldest infrastructure, according to the website.

The project  includes replacement and realignment of the track structure, replacement or repair of eight bridge structures, upgrades to the signal and communication systems, and resolution of freight-passenger rail conflicts. The result will be modernized allowing 80 mph travel speeds and service reliability increase from the 83 percent to over 95 percent on-time performance.

When it’s completed, the new end of the line will be Wachusett, located at the intersection of Routes 2 and 31 in Fitchburg. The MBTA hopes this will encourage car commuters who use Route 2 to switch to the commuter rail.

Click here for a current train schedule.

 

By Alice Waugh

Update, July 19 at 1 p.m: Lincoln Police say that an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death was conducted late Thursday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and no signs of trauma were found. The autopsy results are pending toxicology, which generally take several weeks to complete

The Boston Globe reported this morning that, while the cause of Stephen Rakes’ death is still undertermined, “authorities believe that he may have died elsewhere and that his body was dumped near a popular walking trail off Mill Street, where it was found, say several people familiar with the investigation.”

“Investigators were trying to determine Thursday how Rakes, who was not carrying a wallet, ended up in Lincoln, say those familiar with the investigation,” the Globe reported. His body was found by a jogger Wednesday afternoon on Mill Street near the entrance to a walking trail and gated access road to the Cambridge Reservoir.

Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Mooney said on Friday that the body was found 15 feet from the road. Lincoln police are involved in the ongoing investigation along with state police detectives in a joint effort under the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.

In another piece in today’s Boston Globe, columnist Kevin Cullen reported that “cops say the death is suspicious, probably because they don’t believe the body ended up there by accident.”

Rakes was expecting to testify against James “Whitey” Bulger in the alleged mobster’s trial now going on in Boston. Rakes had said that in 1984, Bulger threatened him with a gun in front of his children if he didn’t sell his liquor store. However, prosecutors recently decided not to call Rakes as a witness.

By Alice Waugh

Lincoln police have confirmed that the body of Stephen Rakes, 59, of Quincy was found off Mill Street in Lincoln at about 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon. Rakes had hoped to testify against mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, claiming that Bulger forced him under threat of death to sell his recently opened South Boston liquor store in 1984, according to a 2001 Boston Globe article.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death, though there were no obvious signs of trauma, according to a press release from the Middlesex District Attorney press office.

The Boston Globe reported today that Steve Davis, the brother of alleged Bulger murder victim Debra Davis and a close friend of Rakes, said Rakes had talked about buying property in Lincoln and suggested that Rakes may have been in the town to look at property. The Globe also reported that Boston attorney Anthony Cardinale, who represented Rakes’s ex-wife, Julie Dammers, said he doubted that Rakes’ death had anything to do with the the Bulger prosecution. According to the New York Times, Rakes recently learned that we would not be called as a witness in Bulger’s trial.

When asked on Thursday by the Lincoln Squirrel precisely where on Mill Street the body was found and by whom, Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Mooney referred all questions to the DA press office, which declined to answer further questions. The incident remains under investigation by Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the Lincoln Police Department.