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Slated for closure in June, Burdett Birth Center in Troy will remain open with new state funding

Massachusetts Pulls Violent Games from Rest Stops

Massachusetts has removed violent video games from four highway rest stops after a family traveling for the holidays saw a young boy playing one days after the Connecticut school shooting.

Andrew and Tracey Hyams of Newton, and their son, Josh, 12, stopped at a service plaza on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Charlton on Christmas Eve and saw another boy firing a replica machine gun at a screen. The rest stop is about an hour from Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults were killed Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Andrew Hyams suggested in an email to the state Transportation Department the games be removed. The state agreed. Nine games at plazas in Charlton, Ludlow, Lee and Beverly were removed.

Transportation Secretary Richard Davey tells The Boston Globe the move made sense.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Lucas Willard is a news reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011. He produces and hosts The Best of Our Knowledge and WAMC Listening Party.