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Tuesday, August 13, 2019

By Matt Stout

GLOBE STAFF

and Maria Lovato

GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

MBTA officials said Monday they are concerned

about keeping the $2.3 billion Green Line extension

project on schedule after being told a key piece of it

has fallen months behind.

John Dalton, who is overseeing the 4.7 mile ex-

tension, told the Massachusetts Bay Transportation

Authority’s board that the overall project remains

on time and that work crews can catch up before

service on the route is scheduled to begin in late

2021.

“The fact that we are two years away from being

done with this project

means there is time to

recover,” Dalton told re-

porters after the meet-

ing.

But pressure is be-

ginning to build. Work

to relocate a set of exist-

ing commuter rail

tracks that the new line

will run alongside is

now expected to creep

into November — two

months after it was orig-

inally scheduled, Dalton

said. With winter ap-

proaching and construc-

tion spending expected

to swell significantly

over the next year, the

details left board mem-

bers uneasy.

“Count us as very worried,” said Joseph Aiello,

chair of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Con-

trol Board. He later told Dalton: “Throw everything

you’ve got at it. I can’t tell you how important it is to

get this project on schedule, under whatever means

and methods you can.”

The development was just one of several dis-

MBTA, Page A

By Deanna Pan
GLOBE STAFF
LAWRENCE — Carlos “Mago” Rivera,
the 47-year-old man who dropped off an
unconscious 13-year-old girl at Lawrence
General Hospital shortly before she died
this spring, may have committed sex- and
drug-related crimes against “more than a
dozen” other potential victims, including

minors, according to a spokeswoman from

the Essex district attorney’s office.

Court documents obtained by The Bos-

ton Globe, which include descriptions of in-

terviews and other evidence collected by in-

vestigators, reveal how he allegedly lured

teenage girls to his apartment, offering

them drugs, alcohol, and money in return

for sex acts.

A search of Rivera’s phone by investiga-

tors on May 25 revealed more than 7,

photographs of girls “estimated to be in

their teenage years,” according to an affida-

vit, and numerous pornographic web

searches, some which were done in the ear-

ly hours of May 20, the day of 13-year-old

RIVERA, Page A

By Robert Weisman

GLOBE STAFF

Six-year-old Cameron Williams bounded

down the steep steps of the outdoor bleach-

ers at Boston’s English High School on a

sweltering evening. He paused, wide-eyed,

to watch an adult kickboxing class on his

way to a youth track and field program.

“Be careful, it’s hot,” called his attentive

grandmother, Gail Williams, 68, of Roxbury.

“Don’t go over there, Cam.... Hey, young

man, your program’s about to start.”

A retired school guidance counselor, Wil-

liams was perched in the bleachers sur-

rounded by parents a generation younger,

chattering about their kids, the heat, and

summer plans. She’s one of about 35,

grandparents in Massachusetts who are

raising grandchildren — a contingent that’s

swelled across the nation over the past two

decades amid a spike in drug addiction and

a hornet’s nest of other ills that have side-

lined their own children.

Williams watched Cam, a baseball cap

shielding his face from the late-day sun, dart

off to join a clutch of children close to his

age on the grass near the high school track.

Soon the coaches were putting them

through their paces, running in circles with

batons. “This is good,” Williams said. “By

the time I get him home, I just get him in

the shower and put him to bed.”

Caregivers like Williams have been

thrust back into a parenting role at a time

when their empty-nester friends are travel-

ing, pursuing hobbies, or relaxing at the

beach. They’ve become reacquainted with

GRANDPARENTS, Page A

Green Line

extension

falls behind

ButTofficialoverseeing

$2.3bprojectsaysthere’s

timetogetbackontrack

A harrowing portrait of a lair of lechery

Courtdocumentsallege

Lawrencemanlured

teengirlswithdrugs,

thenusedthemforsex

Growingoldandback

inthe‘bouncyhouse’

Fillinginforagenerationravagedbysocialills,

moreseniorsareraisingtheirgrandchildren

By David Abel

GLOBE STAFF

In its latest effort to overhaul the nation’s envi-

ronmental laws, the Trump administration on

Monday disclosed sweeping changes to the Endan-

gered Species Act, a landmark conservation law

that over five decades has allowed the federal gov-

ernment to protect imperiled species such as the

bald eagle, humpback whale, and whooping crane.

The changes,

for the first time,

would allow fed-

eral officials to as-

sess the economic

costs of saving a species, although the law still does

not allow costs to be a factor in determining

whether to grant a species protection. The new

rules also prohibit consideration of the impact of

climate change on whether to list a species as en-

dangered. They’re also likely to reduce the number

of animal habitats, which are threatened through-

out the country by development, critics say.

The move was widely criticized by conservation

groups and drew a swift response from Massachu-

setts Attorney General Maura Healey, who joined

her counterpart in California in announcing that

they intended to challenge the rules in court.

In a conference call with reporters, Healey and

others denounced the new rules as “illegal, arbi-

trary, and capricious.”

In a statement, officials from the Department of

Interior said the changes to the 45-year-old law

would increase its “transparency and effective-

ness” and “bring the administration of the act into

the 2 1stcentury.”

“The best way to uphold the Endangered Spe-

cies Act is to do everything we can to ensure it re-

ENDANGERED, Page A

Rules that

help save

species

weakened

Costsnowpartofcalculus;

advocatesdenounceshift

JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 2019

Carlos “Mago” Rivera faces charges after

delivering to a hospital a girl who later died.

VOL. 296, NO. 44

*

Suggested retail price

$3.

Tuesday:Rainy,storms.

High80-85,low63-68.

Wednesday:Sunreturns.

High72-77,low62-67.

Comicsandweather,C9.

Splatandhappy

CRAIG F. WALKER/GLOBE STAFF

Cameron Williams, 6, entertained himself while his grandmother Gail Williams made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

for lunch at their home in Roxbury. Gail has cared for Cameron since he was born.

By Janelle Nanos

GLOBE STAFF

CAMBRIDGE — On a recent afternoon, Sarah

Levy picked up an empty pickle jar from a shelf in

her storefront, sniffed it, and then suggested a cus-

tomer fill it with soap. There’s a take-a-jar, leave-a-

jar policy at Cleenland, Levy’s new “low-waste, no-

shame” store that lets shoppers stock up on clean-

ing supplies using their own bottles. And as an

early adopter of an emerging shift in American

consumption habits, she has become adept at get-

ting the gherkin smell out of glass.

“This is not a trend; it’s a resurgence of interest

in re-using instead of recycling,” said Levy, who

opened Cleenland in Central Square in June. After

weighing her customers’ jars, she commiser-

ates with them over global environmental chal-

lenges.

“We’re not going to recycle our way out of this

problem,” said Ksenija Broks, a teacher from

WASTE, Page C

LOWWASTEFORCONSUMERS,

HIGHHOPESFORENTREPRENEURS

SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

Glass jars lined the shelves at Cleenland, a new

Cambridge store that specializes in reusable

supplies.

‘Someremarkablegrowthandrecoveryhappensinthesesituations.’

DR. HEATHER FORKEY,clinical director of the foster children evaluation service at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester

‘Throw

everything

you’vegotat

it.Ican’ttell

youhow

importantit

istogetthis

projecton

schedule.’

JOSEPH AIELLO

“Ineedtogotojail,”aBoston
manreportedlysaid,afterhis
wifewasdiscoveredwithfatal
stabwounds.B1.

ResidentsofChinatowncalled
plansforanofficehigh-risea
badfitfortheirneighborhood.
C1.

ºAdministration makes it

harder for struggling immi-

grants to get green cards. A2.