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BOSTON — Exit renumbering work on a long stretch of Interstate 495 will begin Sunday night, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The project is part of the state's effort to comply with Federal Highway Administration requirements to have exit numbers based on mile markers. Advertisement Massachusetts previously used a sequential exit numbering method, and if that method continued to be used, the state would lose federal funding. MassDOT's exit renumbering work on I-495 between Middleborough and Amesbury will begin at 8 p.m. Sunday. The sign installations will be broken up into four segments as follows:

An accused teenage rapper pleaded not guilty today to making a bomb threat on Facebook he warned would eclipse the horror of the Boston Marathon tragedy and make him “famous.” Methuen High student Cameron D’Ambrosio, 18, who calls his rapping alter ego “Cammy Dee” in crude, profane YouTube videos, was ordered held without bail by Lawrence District Court Judge Lynn Rooney pending a May 9 dangerousness hearing after waiving his right to a bail argument. “I’m not in reality, So when u see me (expletive) go insane and make the news, the paper, and the (expletive) federal house of horror...

LOWELL — A Methuen teen, who police said took off after she hit a 12-year-old boy in a Lowell crosswalk, leaving him for dead, then tried to cover up the accident, could face up to two years in jail. Police say Michelle P. Medeiros, 17, of 14 Bernard Lane, Methuen, never stopped after hitting the boy Wednesday afternoon. Instead, she drove to a Lawrence hair salon, got her hair done and then called police to report her blue Acura had been vandalized. "This is not a case of the operator having a consciousness of guilt and coming forward," Lowell police...

HOUSTON --A U.S. citizen accused of working alongside al-Qaida members pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization, authorities said. During a court hearing, Daniel Joseph Maldonado, 28, a Muslim convert who grew up in New Hampshire and was also known as Daniel Aljughaifi and Abu Mohammed, admitted to traveling in December to a terrorist camp in Somalia, where he was trained to use firearms and explosives in an effort to help the Islamic Courts Union topple the government and install an Islamic state. Members of al-Qaida were present at the camp.

(CBS4) METHUEN, MA-- Home repair giant Home Depot is getting hammered by the public over a dispute with a customer. The customer is a handyman from Lawrence. On Saturday, he was banished from all Home Depot stores, apparently over a pencil. Now, the store is releasing a statement to apologize for the incident. The used pencil wasn't even for sale. It was out at a register when Michael Panorelli borrowed it and put it in his pocket. Home Depot barred Panorelli from all its stores. It was a 41-cent carpenter's pencil, but the small piece of wood is causing one...

(CBS4) METHUEN-- A Lawrence man has been banned from all Home Depots for one year after accidentally walking out of the store with a sharpened pencil he used to write down some notes after buying over $100 worth of lumber. Michael Panorelli, 51, was with the owner of Salas Auto Repair, George Salas, when the incident occurred. The Eagle-Tribune is reporting that Panorelli and Salas were heading to the parking lot of the Methuen Home Depot when the store’s security guard stopped the two men. Apparently Panorelli put the pencil he used to take notes into his pocket and forgot...

One can only hope that the fourth grader attending a Methuen, Massachusetts’ elementary school as a girl before February vacation who has returned to school as a boy, is not just passing through that classic childhood phase known as "the tomboy". According to an Associated Press story, "The parents of the 9-year-old child said the youngster was born with the body of a girl, but the brain of a boy." The little girl, who must have made friends among fourth-graders in her class, came back from a brief break as a brand new person in the same classroom. Her parents...

A Methuen fourth-grader who was attending school as a girl before February break has come back to school as a boy. The parents of the 9-year-old said their child was born with the body of a girl but the brain of a boy and has struggled with identity from an early age. The unidentified parents are now asking school officials to instruct teachers and students to refer to the child as a boy and begin using a new name to address him. The student has been attending the elementary school since first grade. The sudden change in the child's sexual...

Parents: 4th-Grade Girl To Become Boy Mom Says Youngster Has Male Brain METHUEN, Mass. -- A fourth-grader who was attending a Methuen elementary school as a girl before February vacation has returned to school as a boy. The parents of the 9-year-old child said the youngster was born with the body of a girl, but the brain of a boy. They have asked that he be referred to and treated as a boy by teachers and other students, and school officials are accommodating the request. The parents have even changed the child's name. The child's mother told The Eagle-Tribune that...