The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 19

CuyRnji.mHl'5.8 1-Mtrry B2 New tngldiiil NVw liricf B3 a Comic Weather ii f. II 8 (i i. r. r. i a it a 2 ii '2 0 0 Democrats vie to succeed Finneran Debate death penalty, gay marriage, elections By David Abel unm A field of five IX'inocuU debated Ut night In tlte race to luceerd former ll-m? speaker Thomas M.

Finneran, with liorchcter lawyer Eric IVmovan trying to break out portraying himself a a Ld conservative in a crowd of largely liberal rival. The 3Vyrar -old spoke vignrausly against same-sex niarrtagr, public financing of state for the hole House, because he vu the captain of tlie ship, I'm going to I just asstraigfitf'irward," Ahmt 2iw prt'ple filled nearly every scat in an auditorium at the Mildred Avenue Community Center In Mattaan, where tlie five candidate sat on stage for the first of two debates sponsored by MassVOTK. nonpartisan voting right group. With no Republican challenger, the primary on March 15 will deckle who succeed I'iime-ran, who last SeptcmlxT announced his retirement after years of dominating state politic. Voters from tlie 12lh Suffolk House district first elected him in 1978.

llirnr of the five candidate are Haitian Americans, in a district whetr ainnit 70 per cent of more than 34,000 residents are memU rs of minority group, Tlie distnet Includes pans of Miiton, Mattapan, and IfcifilieHtiT, In a special rlevtkm. where most of the candidates maintain little diffcrener in their pnitkrw and turnout may not tie heavy, tins camliitatet sought to distinguish themselves by citing their rrirnoe. Krrby RhUtuhi, 47, a lawyer from Milton said lie has spent years serving tlie public as a science teac her and at counsel to 01 Alt rlrvtMis, and Mine-day voter rrgi itratum ami ikc in favor of tlie death penalty. By cii)tr4At. alt Imt one of ttie otitrr fmir candidates spoke HI support of Mine sei marriage or avoided tlie and all the uthm rant? wit strongly against tlie di-ath penalty and for same-day wiier registration, Whi ked to compare their pmitknu to those of the former speaker, they all found kind word to tay altit tlie conservative IVntocrat whose shadow hung over much of tlie two-hour debate.

"I'm nst similar to him on the gay marriage issue." Ixiiiovan said, "lie had the courage of his convk-tMi. I le took the heat Academy details sex case to parents By Donovan Slack The head of Milton Academy rnt a U'tut parent ysuriUy, offering new detail about what happened the night whitul offi-t Ut say five vanity key playm received oral from a I.Vyrar. old tophomore girl in a chl lu-r room, triggering a police in votigation. The rpUode lasted ahout 15 minutes, according to the letter, signed by Milton Academy s' head of school, Robin Robertson. After dinner and before study hall on Jan.

24. the player, age 18 to 18, headed to the private academy' athletic center, where they used a fr paAscode to enter a boy' locker room reserved for team during practices and games. 1 EEE2 LA J.V.'v The girl joined them and subsequently fulfilled a request that she perform oral sex on the boy, one by one. In a shower area, the letter says. Toward the end, two male students who were not involved happened to walk into the shower area from an adjoining locker room.

The first six students dispersed. The school notified police, expelled the hockey players and put the girl on leave Friday, saving the 5-to-l ratio represented coercion, whether implicit or explicit. "Milton Academy cannot tolerate situations in which any individual, regardless of gender, is pressured, consciously or unconsciously, to perform sexual MILTON, Pag B4 Plan to take woman off life support is halted Above, Eric Wilson of Maine worked on a hearing exercise during the winter gathering of Karme Choling, a Shambhala Buddhist center in Bamet, Vt. Below, Ella Reznikova's hands hovered around Dcbbe Scirpo as the women performed a space awareness exercise. Green mountains, good karma Buddhist communities thrive in rural Vermont, drawing new residents and visitors By Liz Kowalczyk G10BE STAFF Doctors at Massachusetts Gen eral Hospital canceled plans to withdraw life support today from an elderly woman they believe "is suffering significantly and need lessly," until a judge considers ob By Sarah Schweitzer GLOBE STAFF BARNET, Vt.

In this decidedly New England village, where the Congregational Church spire towers over all else, karma bubbles all around. Seekers of enlightenment have settled here, in the river valleys and the town center, bringing talk of dharma and the toll of gongs to the Green Mountain State. Buddhism has taken root with astonishing vigor in Vermont. California may have the nation's largest number of Buddhists, but Vermont, where Asian-Americans are significant Buddhist population. Exact numbers are hard to pinpoint, but Boston University researchers say that about 15.5 percent of Caledonia County residents who practice religion describe themselves as adherents of an Eastern religion and that Buddhism is the dominant religion practiced within that subset.

The number of Buddhist followers in Vermont is far above "what's normal for New England or the United States," said Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University who has analyzed the numbers. In the rest of the country, 1.5 percent of believers jections from the woman's daughter. For at least two years, the hospital has wanted to turn off the breathing machine for Barbara Howe, who suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease and has been hospitalized at MGH for more than five years. But Howe's daughter, Carol Carvitt, who as her mother's health care proxy is legally authorized to make medical decisions on her behalf, has fought the hospital, saying her mother wanted to be kept alive as long as she could appreciate her family. "I am very relieved to learn that my mother is not going to have her life taken away" today, Howe said in a statement read by her attorney, Gary Zalkin.

"I am glad that the hospital has decided to go back LIFE SUPPORT, Page B5 follows an Eastern religion. Specialists say this number could rise as interest grows in Zen and the Dalai Lama. "People are figuring out that being a Buddhist is not all that weird," said Bill Brauer, executive director of Karme Choling, a Shambhala Buddhist meditation center, the locus of Caledonia County's flourishing Buddhist community. "It's not people who have fled the materialistic world. It's people who work in offices, go to concerts, have barbecues They believe you have to engage the world and can't run to a mountaintop and have a little enlightened circle." The Buddhist boom has transformed Barnet, where the KarmS Choling com- BUDDHISTS, Page B4 barely 1 percent of the state's population of 621,394, has what surveys suggest is the highest concentration of Caucasian Buddhists.

What began largely as a flirtation with alternative beliefs during the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s has evolved in Vermont into a mainstream Buddhists here are a white-collar bunch: lawyers, software developers, and teachers devoted to spiritual enlightenment, a pursuit that they say reaches deeper than the current fascination with Buddhist-influenced yoga and meditation. The trend is evident in the state. Buddhism is thriving in such cities as Burlington and Montpelier, but also in remote pockets such as Barnet, 58 miles south of the Canadian border, in Caledonia County, which is home to the state's most Officials say arson to blame in destruction of Cape eatery warn til 1 i I 1 1 I fell ii rwniw Duxbury pastor urges forgiveness The pastor of the church where a Duxbury man has been charged with setting a wooden cross ablaze over the weekend said Gregory Cerne seemed remorseful Monsi-gnor William Glynn, pastor of Holy Family Church, calls for forgiveness for Cerne. B2 Supreme Court reverses 2 cases The Supreme Court reversed the outcome of two Boston cases, delivering rulings that may mean greater compensation for an injured Big Dig worker and fewer years in prison for another man. B3 case though, those connected with the investigation and the restaurant said the arson determination has deepened the mystery surrounding the demise of The Bridge.

Coan yesterday issued an urgent public plea for information that might help solve the case. "Attention from the public is many times a key element in solving these things," said Coan, who urged anyone with information to call the arson hotline at 800-682-9229. The fire occurred during a crucial time for the restaurant, which was known for staples such as Yankee pot roast and shrimp scampi and was one of the first Cape Cod restaurants to serve liquor after the repeal of Prohibition. When the fire broke out at 5 a.m. on Jan.

4, The Bridge was undergoing renovations THE BRIDGE, Pag B4 By Ralph Ranalli GLOBE STAFF Edward Prete, whose family owned The Bridge restaurant in Bourne for half a century before it burned to the ground last month, was floored by the news yesterday that investigators believe that the fire was set deliberately. "I have no concept of who would want to hurt The Bridge," the 58-year-old Prete said sadly of his family's landmark eatery on the Cranberry Highway. "It really bothers me to think that there is an enemy of the restaurant out there somewhere." State Fire Marshall Stephen D. Coan said yesterday that investigators now believe that the powerful fire that reduced the 71-year-old restaurant to charred timbers and debris was started by an arsonist in a cellar below the bar area. Far from solving the GLOBE STAFF FILE PHOTOJOHN I LUMACKI Eileen McNamara is not writing today.

An investigator from the state fire marshal's office examined the ruins of The Bridge Restaurant in Bourne hours after it was destroyed in a fire Jan. 4..