Timothy Grover’s firm was hired by city and state government to provide security services, but he was the one who raised the alarm Monday when he slipped into Lowell High School and went on a tear – menacing people with threats of violence.

Today, a judge in Lowell is scheduled to determine whether Grover is too dangerous to let out of custody. Another reckoning remains for the business arrangements of his Lowell security firm, Madison Security Group.

The Lowell Sun’s Elizabeth Dobbins reports that Lowell Public Schools told the company it would no longer use its services and City Manager Eileen Donoghue has instructed her legal department to review a three-year $2.4 million contract for Madison to secure five Lowell parking garages.

Reporters haven’t been able to get a peep out of Madison so far. Megan’s House Foundation, a substance abuse treatment home for women that Grover established after the tragic 2014 overdose death of his daughter, was more proactive about distancing itself from the man. The organization said Grover “has not been involved with any aspect of our operations” since a year and a half ago.

A glance at CTHRU, the state’s online spending ledger, reveals that Madison has done business recently with state government, including the Department of Public Health and the Department of Mental Health. The website also identifies the city of Providence as a Madison client.

Ironically in retrospect, Madison had been hired by Lowell schools to respond to nighttime alarms and vandalism, providing up to $5,000 per year in security services for the schools.

Grover’s alleged rampage through the downtown school occurred the day before the start of classes.

Bill Shields, a reporter for CBS Boston, summed it up in a piece after Grover’s arrest, saying “This is really a strange one. No good explanation for it.”

After a “couple of drinks at lunch,” the 55-year-old Dracut man remembers going into the school, but claimed to police that his memory thereafter went blank, according to a thorough account by Boston.com. Security footage caught him entering a side door that had been propped open by workers, and once inside, a woman claims, an intoxicated Grover threatened her while she was preparing a classroom.

Grover allegedly told her to call the police “because someone is going to rape you.” When she asked who, he said, “I am” and then tried to block her exit as she ran out of the room, according to the woman’s report to police.

During a separate incident inside the school, Grover approached students in an auditorium who were participating in club activities, and allegedly grabbed a boy by the collar, insisting, “You have a gun on you.” Grover allegedly pushed a female teacher out of the way as the boy and other students left the auditorium. According to police statements, he chased the boy down a hallway and took a swing at him, but missed, and caught a punch in return from the fleeing student.

A custodian then removed Grover from the building, and National Park Rangers found him nearby. Grover was described as belligerent in police custody and allegedly told police, “I can’t wait to kill you.”

Despite the claim of a significant memory impairment, Grover’s lawyer, Daniel Thompson, told reporters, “He’s going to fight these charges, and he denies them in their entirety.”

It all calls to mind another strange incident of a well-known, successful, middle-aged man suddenly behaving erratically in downtown Lowell. Nine years ago, Jim Marzilli, then a 50-year-old state senator from Arlington, accosted women on the street, and then fled until he was apprehended, coincidentally in light of this week’s news, at one of the city’s parking garages.

ANDY METZGER

BEACON HILL

Tara Gregory is suing the state Department of Early Education and Care for barring her from child care work because of a conviction she received as a juvenile more than 20 years ago. (MassLive)

Auditors from the Inspector General’s office are taking a close look at the way Cape Cod Child Development ran a Head Start program that ended up being taken over by a Denver-based agency this summer. The program plans to shutter after 50 years. (Cape Cod Times) 

State Auditor Suzanne Bump says the MassHealth program made nearly $1 million in improper payments for medication over a two-year period ending in 2017. (Boston Globe)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Airbnb settled its lawsuit against Boston, clearing the way for new regulations on the home sharing site. (Boston Globe)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

China arrested several prominent leaders of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as tensions mount in the once autonomous territory. (Washington Post)

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s once high flying presidential campaign is being brought down to earth by ongoing questions about his management of the city’s police department. (New York Times)

ELECTIONS

CommonWealth’s Michael Jonas explores whether Joseph Kennedy III needs a strong issue-based rationale to run strong against Sen. Ed Markey. (Spoiler alert: probably not.) A quickie online survey taken over the weekend indicates Kennedy has a big lead on Markey in a would-be primary match-up. (CommonWealth)

Former congressional candidate Beej Das was a no-show in his former campaign manager Brennan Spencer’s small claims case for $7,000 in bills, and now a civil arrest warrant has been issued against Das. (Lowell Sun)

Joe Biden told a moving war story to a crowd in New Hampshire, but almost every detail of it was incorrect. (Washington Post)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

At least 24 drivers of Republic Services, a waste management company, went on strike over pay and benefits. The workers handle contracted trash services in Marshfield, Rockland and Abington. (Patriot Ledger) 

EDUCATION

North Reading Transportation has apologized to Haverhill residents for the faulty rollout of new school bus routes. (Eagle-Tribune)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

After more than a decade of helping teens and young adults with substance use issues, High Point Treatment Center’s CASTLE program in Brockton has closed due to low participation and ongoing financial losses. (Brockton Enterprise) 

The city of Fall River will likely benefit from a national opioid settlement in a lawsuit it joined in 2018 against the country’s major manufacturer of the drugs, Purdue Pharma. (Herald News)

The maternity unit at Tobey Hospital in Wareham will close on December 31 as Southcoast Health expands maternity services at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, the nonprofit hospital corporation announced Thursday. (Standard-Times) 

ARTS/CULTURE

After a string of shootings in Boston last weekend just hours before the Boston Carnival Parade, Cambridge officials have canceled this year’s Caribbean fest because of public safety concerns. (WBUR)

TRANSPORTATION 

Three of the four main commuter rails running out of North Station were hit with delays on Thursday in another day of mishaps for the MBTA. (Boston Globe)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

In an interview with WGBH, neurologist Bill Lytton recalls the shocking and painful experience one year ago when a shark tore into his leg during a swim at a beach in Truro.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Renée Loth chronicles the national trend of lower crime accompanied by lower incarceration rates, a combination that might have been unthinkable to some leaders in the lock ‘em up mindset prevalent a generation ago. (Boston Globe)

Larry Edelman ponders how the State Police can repair their tarnished image. (Boston Globe) This is not why that image has taken such a hit, but the Herald reports that the State Police picked up the tab for booze to get people drunk so that recruits at the agency’s training academy in New Braintree can learn how to conduct field sobriety checks.

After Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera and the city council butted heads over the $4 million price tag for repairs to a city parking garage, a judge ruled the city must keep the garage open for Museum Square residents. (Eagle-Tribune)