Columbia Gas will need to rein-

spect 700 of 4,900 service

linesthat the company aban-

doned and replaced after ex-

plosions a year ago in the Mer-

rimack Valley.B1.

The former president of the

Massachusetts State Police

union was indictedon a host of

federal charges, including rack-

eteering and conspiracy.B1.

The Massachusetts Gaming

Commission refused to recon-

sider its 2016 denialof a pro-

posed casino in Brockton, leav-

ing no project with a clear path

to approval for the state’s final

resort casino license.B6.

VOL. 296, NO. 75

*

Suggested retail price

$3.

Friday: Cooler, sunny.

High: 64-69. Low: 52-57.

Saturday: Breezy, warmer.

High: 72-77. Low: 63-68.

Sunrise: 6:21 Sunset: 6:

Comics and Weather,G8-9.

Obituaries,C9.

Cool’s paradise

abcde

Friday, September 13, 2019

By Deyscha Smith

BOSTON.COM STAFF

T

errence Clarke is already

breaking a sweat.

It’s July 9 and Clarke is on

the court at the Sudbury

Fieldhouse, knocking down

jump shots. In the morning, his AAU

team, Expressions Elite (Boston), will

leave for Nike’s Peach Jam champion-

ship in South Carolina. Practice hasn’t

started, and the muggy gym is mostly

quiet as players trickle in. Others sit in

the bleachers, lacing up their sneakers.

Clarke, 18, is focused on every shot,

watching each bounce off the rim as if

staring hard enough could will the ball

through the net. He allows himself a

small smile when a perfect swish has the

ball rolling right back to him.

Soon, Clarke challenges his coach,

Kenneth “Boobie” Jackson, to their reg-

ular game of one-on-one before practice.

Clarke shouts, “Coach, you can’t guard

me!” and players look up from their

iPhones, watching as the two meet at

the top of the key.

It’s not long before the 6-foot-6-inch

Clarke is baiting his coach with a cross-

over, between-the-legs dribble. When

Clarke gets a step on him, he glides full

speed to the basket and finishes with a

finger roll. It’s not much of a game after

that.

“I don’t like to lose,” Clarke says after

practice. “You could ask any of these

people here. I hate losing.”

CLARKE, Page C

How a Boston teen became one of the

top basketball prospects in the country

Hehatestolose,loves

toplay,andisready

tochoosehiscollege

MATTHEW J. LEE/GLOBE STAFF

Terrence Clarke played with his brother Gavin, 2, at the Vine Street

Community Center, where he found a haven in his youth.

By David Abel

GLOBE STAFF

STOW — The water foun-

tains have been turned off,

wrapped in plastic, or fitted

with a device to prevent stu-

dents from using them. Much

of the food preparation has

moved off campus, and a water

jug sits in the kitchen sink, re-

placing the faucet. The bath-

rooms are covered with signs

that warn students in bold, red

letters: “DO NOT DRINK

FROM THE SINK.”

Just before school started

last month, district officials

here alerted parents and staff

about a “water situation” at the

Center School, and the nearby

Hale Middle School. A new, tar-

geted testing program by the

state Department of Environ-

mental Protection had found

that the water at both schools

contained significant amounts

of per- and polyfluoroalkyl

chemicals known as PFAS,

which have been linked to kid-

ney cancer, low infant birth

weights, and a range of other

diseases.

The Nashoba Regional

School District was the first

public water system to be tested

under the new program, sug-

WATER, Page A

By Zoe Greenberg

and Deirdre Fernandes

GLOBE STAFF

MIT president L. Rafael Reif

acknowledged Thursday that

he signed a 2012 letter to dis-

graced financier Jeffrey Ep-

stein, thanking him for a dona-

tion to a professor at the school,

and that senior members of his

administration approved Ep-

stein’s gifts to the MIT Media

Lab even after Epstein had

been convicted of a sex offense

and served time in jail.

Reif’s statement, posted on

the university website, includ-

ed the university’s first public

acknowledgment that the prac-

tice of recording Epstein’s con-

tributions as anonymous,

thereby shielding them from

public scrutiny, was not a rogue

coverup of a satellite develop-

ment office, but instead was

done at the direction of top

MITofficials.

And in a sign that the reck-

oning over Epstein’s entangle-

ments with elite institutions is

far from over, Harvard on

Thursday separately an-

nounced that it had received

$2.4 million more from Epstein

than previously disclosed,

bringing the total amount that

university received from 1998

to 2007 to $9 million.

Epstein was convicted of so-

liciting a minor for prostitution

in 2008.

“To date, we have uncovered

no gifts received from Epstein

or his foundation following his

guilty plea,” Harvard president

Larry Bacow wrote in a letter to

the community. “Moreover, we

specifically rejected a gift from

Epstein following his convic-

MIT, Page A

ROBYN BECK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The three candidates making up the top tier battled Thursday night over the direction of the Democratic Party.

By Jonathan Martin

and Alexander Burns

NEW YORK TIMES

HOUSTON — The leading Demo-

cratic presidential candidates split

sharply over the issue of health care in

a debate Thursday night, exposing the

gulf between former vice president Joe

Biden’s careful moderate politics and

the transformational liberal ambitions

of Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massa-

chusetts and Bernie Sanders of Ver-

mont.

Biden, facing all of his closest com-

petitors for the first time in a debate,

quickly took the initiative to challenge

Warren and Sanders for supporting a

“Medicare for All”-style health care sys-

tem that would displace the existing

forms of private insurance. Cloaking

himself in the accomplishments of the

Obama administration, Biden branded

Warren as seeking to upend the prog-

ress of the Affordable Care Act.

“I know the senator says she’s with

Bernie — well, I’m for Barack,” Biden

jabbed, attacking the cost of a single-

payer program: “How are we going to

pay for it?”

Warren and Sanders, flanking Biden

onstage, pushed back in tandem, dis-

missing Biden’s criticism and promis-

ing that a government-managed health

insurance system would ultimately be

less expensive for consumers than the

private insurance they currently buy.

Warren credited former President Ba-

rack Obama with having “fundamen-

tally transformed health care in Ameri-

ca” but said the country needed to go

further.

“The richest individuals and the big-

gest corporations are going to pay

more, and middle-class families are go-

ing to pay less,” she said.

But asked twice by a moderator

whether she would acknowledge that

DEBATE, Page A

By Jess Bidgood

GLOBE STAFF

If the first debate meeting between former vice president

Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren was supposed to be

a dramatic showdown Thursday night, it didn’t materialize.

But Warren still might have come out

ahead.

Biden entered the presidential debate in

Houston as the front-runner in the Democratic primary,

with Warren rising in the polls to become one of his more

fearsome rivals. In the opening moments, Biden took a shot

at pumping up his Obama-era centrism at the expense of her

lefty liberalism, seeking to contrast her support for Medicare

for All — a plan devised by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders

— with his own proposal to expand the Affordable Care Act

with a public option.

“The senator says she’s for Bernie, well I’m for Barack,”

Biden said, before accusing Warren of failing to explain how

she would pay for the massive expansion of government fi-

nancing for health care.

ANALYSIS, Page A

MIT,Harvard

revealmore

Epsteinties

Newdisclosuresincludethankyou

notetodisgracedfinancier,moregifts

‘Foreverchemicals’

stirwaterworries

PFASdetectedat

2schools;testing

isn’twidespread

DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

A student carried her own

water at the Center School,

where fountains are shut off.

Together on stage, sharply divided

BidensquaresoffwithWarrenandSandersoverhealthcare

A night for Warren to choose her battles

DAVID J. PHILLIP/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Senator Elizabeth Warren clashed with her rivals at

times but sought to stay above the fray.

ANALYSIS

Ex-cityofficial

pleadsguilty

inbriberycase

John M. Lynch admitted to

accepting a $50,000 bribe
from a Boston real estate

developer to lobby a mem-
ber of the Zoning Board of

Appeal in May 2017 to
help get a condo project in

South Boston approved.B1.

ºObama-era clean water

regulation repealed. A2.