BOSTON — Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker says he supports banning the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to people under 21.
Dozens of cities and towns, including Boston, have already approved such bans. The state Senate is scheduled to debate a bill next week that would hike the statewide minimum age for purchasing tobacco from 18 to 21.
Baker said Friday that he supports the idea, but would need to see the bill’s final language before deciding whether to sign it.
Supporters hope to discourage more young people from taking up smoking.
The bill would allow anyone who turns 18 before Jan. 1, 2017, to continue buying tobacco. The bill would include new regulations for e-cigarettes and ban tobacco sales at health care institutions.
LONGMEADOW — A man who jumped from a moving car onto a highway in Massachusetts is now facing assault charges.
Massachusetts State Police tell WWLP-TV that the 22-year-old Webster resident was in a car on Interstate 91 returning from the Six Flags amusement park with three other people Thursday night.
Police say someone in the car called 911 to complain he was drunk and assaulting a 16-year-old girl sitting next to him in the back seat. The person then told police the man jumped out.
Police later found him on the side of the breakdown lane in Longmeadow.
The man was taken to Baystate Medical Center with minor injuries.
His name was not released.
SOMERSET — A Massachusetts girl has died after choking on a marshmallow at a birthday party.
Police and a school official say that 11-year-old Azriel Estabrooks died at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence on Friday morning.
She had been there since she was found unconscious at a friend’s birthday party on Saturday.
Her mother, Iris Estabrooks, has said that about an hour after she dropped her daughter off, she got a call from the hosts saying Azriel had passed out.
She says no one found her until she was passed out on the floor, and no one realized she was choking.
When rescuers arrived, they found a marshmallow lodged in the girl’s throat.
Police have not identified the hosts.
Officer hurt in marathon shootout welcomes son
CAMBRIDGE — A former transit police officer who was critically injured during the shootout with the Boston Marathon bombers has welcomed a son three years to the day after he awoke from a coma.
Dic Donohue’s wife, Kim Donohue, gave birth Friday to son Connor at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. That’s the hospital that treated Donohue after the April 19, 2013, shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers in neighboring Watertown.
Donohue announced the birth on Twitter.
The bullet that struck Donohue severed a major artery. He lost most of his blood and suffered nerve damage. He returned to work with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority police in May 2015, but retired in February, citing the lingering effects of his injuries.
Connor’s big brother was born before the bombing.
A taste to die for
CHICOPEE Mass. (AP) — The owner of a new western Massachusetts ice cream shop says his delicious dishes are “a taste to die for.”
That’s because Petros Mirisis is opening his ice cream parlor in a former funeral home in Chicopee.
Mirisis, who already owns a restaurant in town, tells westernmassnews.com he loves taking his three daughters out for ice cream, but it’s always been hard to find a place. He drove past the old funeral home every day on his way to work and always thought it was a great place for a business, in the heart of the city and across the street from the library.
His catchphrase came to him in a moment of inspiration. Petros Ice Cream is expected to open soon.