Salem Rapid Coronavirus Tests Show Encouraging Trend: Patch PM

SALEM, MA — It's Monday, Oct. 25. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Downtown rapid Salem coronavirus testing has shown an encouraging trend on the North Shore throughout October with positive cases dropping each week.
• A Bridgewater attorney was found guilty of smuggling drugs into prison for her clients.
• Boston city officials began removing the tents lining both sides of a street near the "Methadone Mile" Monday morning as part of acting Mayor Kim Janey's effort to address homelessness and substance abuse as a public health issue.
• Most parts of the state will see rainfall totals up to six inches and wind gusts could top out at 60 MPH from the Nor'Easter making a beeline towards Massachusetts.
• While much of the on-field attention was on Tom Brady in Tampa Bay's 38-3 beatdown of Chicago on — the former Patriots quarterback became the first in NFL history to throw 600 touchdowns — it was a special postgame moment that people are talking about Monday.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top North Shore Story

Rapid coronavirus testing at the downtown Salem site on Essex Street detected only three positive cases out of 872 tests administered from Oct. 20 to Oct. 23.

The 0.3 positive rate was the lowest for any four-day stretch at the site since it opened on Sept. 30.

The city reported 10 positive cases found last week — making it 38 since the test site at the Peabody Essex Museum's Connect Building opened — with the positive test rate falling from 2.65 percent in the first three days to 0.9 percent in tests from Oct. 13 to Oct. 16 and then 0.3 percent this past week.

Read the full story here.

Today's Top Statewide Story

A Bridgewater woman was sentenced to six months in prison after a Plymouth County jury found her guilty Friday of smuggling Suboxone strips into the Plymouth County House of Corrections.

Prosecutors had asked for Elana Gordon, 45, of Bridgewater, to be sentenced to three- to five years in prison. The sentence was handed down after a five-day trial.

Massachusetts State Police began a "months-long" investigation of Gordon in 2018. Gordon, according to court documents, used her position as an attorney to conspire with a relative who was an inmate at the jail to smuggle the drugs into the facility.

Read the full story.

Like this article? Sign up for our newsletter and get it delivered every weekday. It's free!

Monday's Other Top Stories

'Methadone Mile' cleanup begins: Boston city officials began removing the tents lining both sides of a street near the "Methadone Mile" Monday morning, according to a flyer posted in the area of the weekend. Notices in the area of Theodore Glynn Way - a side street off of the intersection between Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard read that "all items must be removed from the space by Monday at 7 a.m., for the City of Boston is conducting a 'general cleanup' of the area." The flyers say the organized cleanup is due to health, environmental, and sanitary concerns.

Brockton High School adds metal detectors: Starting Monday morning, Brockton high schoolers must walk through a metal detector before entering the building. The metal detectors are part of a new safety plan implemented by both the school system and police after a nearly two-hour stay-in-place order was initiated Friday when a video of a student with a magazine clipped to his pants surfaced on the social network Snapchat.

Bruins honor injured player: The Bruins set Milton Academy hockey player Jake Thibeault and his family up in box seats so they could watch the team beat the San Jose Sharks Sunday night. After suffering from a spinal cord injury on the ice, the 18-year-old Fitchburg native and hockey enthusiast became paralyzed in early September.

Heading to Salem to celebrate Halloween this month? Read Patch's visitors guide.

Picture This: GOAT is also a nice guy

A boy named Noah Reeb was captured on camera during Sunday's Tampa Bay Buccaneers game holding a sign that read "Tom Brady Helped Me Beat Brain Cancer." After the game Brady approached Reeb hanging over the stands and gave him a Buccaneers hat, shaking his hand and sending the boy — and likely most of North America — into tears.

In Case You Missed It

School system pulls plug on Halloween: Halloween is going the way of Columbus and the Red Raider in Melrose Public Schools. In a letter Friday to the school community, Superintendent Julie Kukenberger confirmed the rumors that had been bubbling like witch's brew: The district will no longer be celebrating Halloween. "Over the past several years, MPS has worked to deemphasize Halloween and shift our focus toward community building through fall celebrations," Kukenberger wrote. "This is in line with our mission, vision, values and district priorities."

Bob Neumeier dead at 70: Neumeier, commonly referred to as "Neumy" by local fans and colleagues, was a constant for decades on TV and radio. A Weymouth native and Syracuse graduate, he was best known for his 20-year as a WBZ sports anchor on WBZ. Neumeier could also be seen on NBC Sports Boston and heard on WEEI as part of the "Dale & Neumy Show."

By The Numbers

20 feet: The forecasted height of waves coming with a Nor'easter hitting Massachusetts this week. Most parts of the state will see rainfall totals up to six inches and wind gusts could top out at 60 MPH.