VOL. 296, NO. 62
*
Suggested retail price
$3.Saturday:Niceandsunny.
High:77-82.Low:60-65.
Sunday:Sunny,cooler.
Comics and Weather
in Sports, 11-12.
Obituaries in Sports, 9-10.A fine line
Saturday
AUGUST 31, 2019Store shelves were empty and houses boarded up as
Hurricane Dorian, now a Category 4 storm, bore
down on the state of Florida.Nation, 6.Ex-prime minister John Major said he’d try to join
an effort to stop a suspension of Britain’s parliament
just weeks before the Brexit deadline.World, 7.She scored guffaws, stole hearts, and busted taboos as
Rhoda Morgenstern.Obituaries, in Sports, 10.PREPARING FOR DORIAN
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGESBREXIT INTERVENTION
VALERIE HARPER DIES
By Milton J. Valencia
GLOBE STAFF
A former city official was charged Friday in
federal court with accepting a $50,000 bribe
from a Boston real estate developer, in a corrup-
tion case that implicates the zoning board that
approves thousands of small and medium-size
developments around the city.
John M. Lynch, 66, a longtime city employee
who until recently was the assistant director of
real estate at the Economic Development Indus-
trial Corporation, has agreed to plead guilty to
accepting the bribe.
He was accused of getting a member of the
city’s influential Zoning Board of Appeal to sup-
port a change that helped a developer capture a
profit of more than a half million dollars, accord-
ing to documents filed by the US attorney in Bos-
ton.
The court records do not identify the member
of the Zoning Board of Appeal, nor the developer
or property in question. However, Lynch reached
LYNCH, Page 11By Michael Levenson
GLOBE STAFF
Anyone who watches football knows that
NFL players — particularly running backs, line-
backers, and defensive linemen — are going to
absorb some punishing hits to the head.
But a new study shows just how devastating
that toll can be on brain functioning and men-
tal health, even 20 years after a player took his
last hit on the field.
Harvard researchers surveyed 3,500 former
NFL players and found that they were six times
more likely than the general public to report se-rious cognitive problems such as confusion and
memory loss.
The study found that the longer their profes-
sional careers, the more likely the players were
to experience cognitive difficulties as well as
signs of depression and anxiety.
Running backs, linebackers, and defensive
linemen were most likely to report serious cog-
nitive problems. Those problems include hav-
ing to read something several times to under-
stand it, trouble keeping track of what they’re
doing when interrupted, and difficulty remem-
bering new information like simple instruc-
tions.
Depression, anxiety, and cognitive impair-
ments persisted in players even 20 years after
CTE, Page 10SOURCE: Harvard Medical School H.HOPP-BRUCE/GLOBE STAFF1 2-4 5-6 7-9 10+
seasons played1 2-4 5-6 7-9 10+
seasons played1 2-4 5-6 7-9 10+
seasons played
Kickers
Punters
QuarterbacksWide receivers
Defensive backs
Linemen
Tight endsRunning backs
Linebackers
Special teamsPercentage of players who reported
serious cognitive problems
16%14%12%10%8%6%4%2%By Dugan Arnett
GLOBE STAFF
BRADFORD, Vt. — Up here in the bountiful
forests of the Green Mountain state, things are
starting to get strange.
The locals have begun to whisper. TV news
folks have been sniffing around, trying to get to
the bottom of things. And as word of a possible
high-profile visitor quickly spread this week, of-
ficials in this sleepy town of 2,800 nestled along
the Connecticut River have suddenly found
themselves facing difficult questions.
“Are you calling about the Sasquatch?” asked
the woman who answered the phone at the
Town Clerk’s office one afternoon this week.
“We’ve had a few of those today.”
Until recently, Bradford’s primary claim to
fame has been its status as the first American
city to manufacture globes. But as word of a pos-
sible Sasquatch — or Sasquatches— has gener-
ated considerable buzz, this little spit of Upper
Valley countryside might’ve inadvertently stum-
bled into a new kind of notoriety.
It began last week, with a mysterious flier at
the local post office.
BRADFORD, Page 10A
MHERST — The calendar dis-
putes it, but summer is over.
How can you tell?
Check out all those U-Haul
trucks barreling down the Mass. Pike. Scan
the anxious faces of kids cramming boxes
into the backs of minivans.
If you look closely, for every dad doingthe empty-nest touchdown dance, you can
spot another discreetly blinking back tears
as he hauls the minifridge up the steps and
into his daughter’s dormitory.
In college towns across New England,
and around the country, it’s a Labor Day
weekend moment of pride and poignancy.
It’s what people like Dawn Bond call
showtime.
“We take care of your students when
they’re here with us and thank you fortrusting us to do that, because it’s a serious
thing,’’ Bond told me the other day over
lunch at a dining hall at the University of
Massachusetts, where she is director of resi-
dential life operations. “I love the parents. I
call them mom and dad.’’
For anyone who has packed that mini-
van. For the students whose stomachs swirl
with a mix of fear and excitement as they
approach the campus quad. For parents
FARRAGHER, Page 11SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF
Dawn Bond (right) found a spare key for Honors College student Deanna Cook (center) and helped her move in.Ex-NFL players 6 times as
likely to note cognitive issues
Longercareersmeanmore
problems,researcherssay
Tears, hugs, and then
they’re freshmen
AtUMassAmherst,andaroundthecountry,newcollegestudentssettlein
Thomas Farragher
Hey, was that Sasquatch? Well, maybe.
Anonymousnotehas
Vt.townonthelookout
By Danny McDonald
GLOBE STAFF
and Jordan Frias
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
CAMBRIDGE — Citing a potential for gang vi-
olence after bloodshed last week at a Caribbean
festival in Boston, the Cambridge Carnival will
be canceled this year, breaking a 26-year tradi-
tion, organizers said Friday.
Police made the decision to cancel the festival
based on “reliable intelligence” that a gang was
“planning to use our event as a venue to stage a
retaliatory act of gun violence, potentially put-
ting thousands of residents in the crossfire,” said
Nicola Williams, a carnival organizer, at a news
conference.
“I hate that the carnival was canceled this
year,” Williams said. “I am outraged that some-
one would try to use the carnival to divide and
harm our residents, to tear at the social fabric of
what makes this city a home.”
CAMBRIDGE, Page 11Former city
official will
plead guilty
to bribery
$50,000paymentwas
madetoinfluencezoning
voteondevelopment
Gala canceled
due to fears
of violence
CambridgeCarnivaldropped
afterpolicelearnoflikely
renewalofBostongunplay
‘Areyoucalling
abouttheSasquatch?
We’vehadafew
ofthosetoday.’
Woman who answered the phone at the
Town Clerk’s office in Bradford, Vt.