Today's Top Headlines

Friday, May 2

Happy Friday, everyone. We're tracking rain and storms for the weekend. But first, testimony resumes today in the Karen Read retrial, and we're following an incident in Newmarket, New Hampshire, that resulted in a shelter in place being issued overnight. Here's our top headlines this morning.

Jurors in Karen Read‘s murder trial will be back in the courtroom Friday after a day off, and they will see a familiar back back on the stand as key witness Jennifer McCabe returns for a third day of testimony to outline what she claims happened on the night Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe died.

Read’s defense has really drilled into McCabe’s testimony, pointing out inconsistencies in what she has previously said.

She claims she heard Read admit to hitting O’Keefe with her SUV, and that before his body was even found, Read told her that her taillight was broken.

Local and state police said they were responding overnight to an incident in downtown Newmarket, New Hampshire, and anyone in that area was asked to temporarily shelter in place.

Main Street in downtown Newmarket was reportedly shut down sometime around 11 p.m. Thursday, and the situation remained active as of 2 a.m. Friday.

Newmarket police posted an update on Facebook just before 3 a.m. saying they were “currently responding to an incident in the Main St area” and asking anyone in the area to shelter in place and report any suspicious behavior to police at 603-659-6636.

We’re in the warmup phase of the forecast. Today and tomorrow feature highs in the 70s to near 80 for many, with cooler 60s on the Cape and Islands.

That’s the easy part of the forecast.

Rain is harder to pin down hour-by-hour, but we’re seeing the greatest threat for storms late Saturday afternoon.

The next class at the Massachusetts State Police Academy will be split in two, part of a slate of reforms announced Thursday as it continues its push for high safety standards in the wake of the death of a recruit during training last year.

A new commandant of the academy was announced, 20-year department veteran David Pinkham, and the role was elevated from detective lieutenant to captain, police said. Staff at the academy have conducted a detailed review of what recruits go through at the academy to ensure they’re getting enough recovery amid their training, and an outside group has been commissioned to give their own assessment of a wide swath of what goes on at the academy, which could lead to more reform.

“We are committed to ensuring our training environment fosters professionalism and excellence while prioritizing the health and well-being of our recruits,” Col. Geoffrey Noble said in a statement.

Senior members of Harvard University‘s faculty are pledging to donate a portion of their pay to the school as it opposes the demands of the Trump administration.

The announcement comes after the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University. The school filed a lawsuit in response.

In a letter posted online, organizers asked senior faculty to commit 10% of their paycheck for the period of a year or until the funding situation is resolved.

A new chapter in the classic rivalry between Boston and New York will be written over the next two weeks when the Celtics and Knicks clash in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Celtics are the defending champions and eliminated the Orlando Magic in five games in the first round. The Knicks dispatched the Detroit Pistons in six games.

This is the first Celtics-Knicks playoff series since 2013, and it’s the first time they’ve met in the postseason after the first round since 1984, when the Celtics defeated the Knicks in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. Boston is 4-3 all-time in playoff series versus the Knicks.