News: May 2009 Archives

Jay Leno presented viewers of the Tonight Show with a clear definition of class as he hosted for the final time on Friday. Leno repeatedly tried to defer the focus from himself throughout the show even when he could have made it all about him. Conan O'Brien was the guest as Leno went out of his way to pass the torch and showcase the next guy. Leno praised James Taylor's logistical gymnastics that enabled Taylor to appear with Leno. Leno closed the show by assembling the children born to Tonight Show staffers during his tenure. It was surprising and satisfying.

-- A man was stabbed this afternoon at St. Francis House homeless shelter in downtown Boston. The victim suffered multiple wounds, and police were able to subdue and arrest a knife-wielding suspect. [Globe]

The MBTA unveiled a new budget for 2010 this morning that cuts wages by $130 million, effectively eliminating 1,200 of its 6,000 jobs, reports WBUR. (No estimate was given regarding the percentage of bad drivers who would be among the layoffs.)

Middlebrow and profligate, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has never been described as "subtle" or "tactful." Now, his big mouth has inadvertently given the Boston Newspaper Guild a reason to vote against the contracts that the Times is shoving down the throats of its employees at the Globe.

-- A man was stabbed in front of a house on Howland Street in Dorchester this morning shortly before 10 a.m. Toddlers in the building may have seen the violence. [Herald]

-- Deanna Watkins, a 29-year-old mother, was shot to death Thursday night in front of her children at their home in Mattapan. Watkins had a troubled history, having drifted in and out of homeless shelters, and police believe that she was targeted by the masked gunman who killed her. [Herald; BPDNews]

The state Senate has long waffled on banning texting while driving. However, in the aftermath of a texting-caused Green Line crash that injured 49 people, the Senate supports a bill prohibiting reading or writing text messages while driving. The MBTA has already banned cell phones for its drivers; soon they may taboo on the road as well, at least for texting purposes. Having terrified many a passenger in her car by texting extensively while driving, this Bostonist can see the need for such a ban, but is pleased to still be able to text while riding the T—in stations that have cell service, at least.

Tom Brady owns two Super Bowl MVP trophies from the three Super Bowls won by the New England Patriots. Could he soon have as many children as he does Super Bowl MVP? The Internets have confirmed Gisele Bundchen may or may not possibly be slightly pregnant. Both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald credit something called RadarOnline.com with scooping, well, everyone on the conception.

• You knew whales were big, but have you ever seen a tongue like this? [WBZ]
• Coast Guard Beach in Eastham is a top 10 beach according to some list. Except when it's full of whale tongues. [WBZ]
• A New Edition songwriter is a suspect in the recent murder in a Harvard dorm. [WCVB]

--Police in Cambridge continue to unravel Monday's shooting of a 21-year old man at Harvard University's Kirkland House residence hall. Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr said the killing occured after an alleged drug deal gone bad. Jabrai Jordan Copney, 20, turned himself in and will be arraigned today in Cambridge District Court. [Boston Herald, Boston Globe]

In a sensible move, the city council has finally voted to unregulate things that don't really need regulating, okaying sidewalk dining year-round (though why anyone would want to be outside in Boston for the cold half of the year remains uncertain). Next thing you know, maybe there will be beer in 7-Eleven! Or items sold without price stickers! It's almost unthinkable! Anyway, to accompany the announcement of the new outdoor dining anarchy, the Globe assembled a gallery of outdoor dining spots, which actually does a decent job of pointing out places not on Newbury. What it doesn't do, however, is show a knowledge of how to spell Wisconsin, thus earning the gallery a place in the typo of the week hall of fame/shame/spellcheck.

• The Somerville Journal accuses the Somerville News of plagiarism. It's MoDo/TPM all over again! [Somerville Journal]
• New traffic tools may help you avoid an awful weekend of driving this Memorial Day. [Commonwealth Conversations]
• An MGH employee left patient records on the T; now the hospital is being sued. [Globe]

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies has announced its finalists for 2009 awards (winners are named on June 26). Boston got one sad nomination, not even related to quality content: The Dig was nominated for Cover Design circulation under 50,000 for I Want to Ride My Flycycle, Spring Dining Guide, and Abs of Wood covers by the staff. The Portland Phoenix did get a nod its for Election 2008 Coverage by staff and freelancers. The word "Phoenix" makes several more appearances in the list, but they all relate to the Phoenix New Times. Blast!

Governor/First BFF Deval Patrick is in Washington, D.C. today as President Barack Obama rolls out new fuel and emission standards. Obama plans for these new standards, which include requiring cars and light trucks to get 35 miles per gallon, to be in practice by 2016. Of course, there is a big bunch of media speculation that Patrick is really there to discuss the looming Supreme Court opening that the President will have to fill.

-- Authorities say that a "college aged" man was shot in the gut outside Harvard's Kirkland House dorm around five o'clock this afternoon. Harvard administrators quickly claimed that no Kirkland House resident was involved in the shooting, but they have yet to rule out whether the victim or the shooter were Harvard students. The victim is in stable condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and no arrests have been announced. Critics of Harvard's proposed reduction in late night shuttle service were quick to link the incident to their complaints, but, presumably, a late night shuttle can do little to keep you from being shot in the gut in broad daylight. [Harvard Crimson, Cambridge Chronicle, IvyGate]

Effective May 18, 2009 (that's tomorrow), MBTA drivers cannot use a cellular phone or electronic device while on duty. If caught doing so, they will receive a 30-day suspension with recommendation for discharge (not white or lumpy, we hope). Just carrying a phone can result in a 10-day suspension on the first offense and a 30-day suspension with the requisite discharge recommendation on the second offense. The new policy is in part the result of a texting-caused crash that injured 49 people and resulted in the culpable driver being fired. The MBTA drivers' union is displeased with the new policy and has filed a protest. For now, T drivers, be warned: electronics are not part of your uniform. As though they once were?

--For some reason, 32-year-old Keni Garcia of Haverhill allegedly wanted 85,000 bullets. The ATF, ICE and state and local authorities seem to think this was a bad idea. Who knew? Essex County prosecutors are charging Garcia, who was scheduled to become an American citizen today, with illegal possession of ammunition, three counts of possession of a high-capacity firearm, and illegal storage of a firearm. Investigators found 10,000 rounds in his car, 20,000 rounds at his house. He allegedly tried to buy 55,000 more rounds in New Hampshire.[Boston Globe, Boston Herald]

• Governor Deval Patrick has called out MBTA "driver" Aiden Quinn and says he should talk to investigators about last week's crash he allegedly caused. [Boston Herald]

It's almost graduation: you know, that time when the city is flooded with parents, graduates, and moving trucks as everyone prepares to move to their new job and city—or, in this economy, back in with the 'rents. What happened over the past year at the big (and small) schools around town? Bostonist looks back at some news stories, from Harvard's billion-dollar losses to Emerson's Holocaust insensitivity, and provides graduation information as well, including commencement speakers, in which category Berklee blows everybody away. Did we miss an important story? Let us know in the comments!

-- Cambridge police are alarmed by a recent outbreak of violent crime. In the past week, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed in the face and chest on Churchill Avenue, and a 22-year-old man was shot in the face at Jackson Circle. Two suspects were nabbed in the stabbing, but the shooting remains unsolved. [Cambridge Chronicle]

You don't need a Harvard degree to marvel at lassitude. Mollycoddle students living in Harvard's Quad issued a plaintive wail when they learned that late night shuttle bus service from their remote redoubt to Harvard Yard would become a casualty of Harvard's endowment collapse. Without the shuttle buses, the so-called "quadlings" will have to walk a staggering distance of less than a mile to get to the university's main campus.

-- 17-year-old Kiara Santiago of Roxbury pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that she and accomplices invaded the home a 60-year-old Quincy man, robbed him, stripped him naked, and left him bound and gagged. The victim, Robert Noons, was a friend of Santiago's family, police say, and was relieved of $18,000, cash. The police report quotes Santiago as admitting that she and her four alleged accomplices planned to "rob Noons of all his drugs and his money," an interesting twist that might explain why the man had $18,000 in cash, but police have made no allegations that Noons possessed drugs. [Herald]

-- An armed robbery last night in Mattapan turned into a wild chase, complete with flying slugs, courtesy of a pair of plainsclothes policemen who were "fearing for their safety." Nobody was injured during the shooting, and cops eventually caught up with two of the three suspects, who now face multiple charges. [Herald]

Word has just arrived from the NHL that Carolina Hurricanes wing Scott Walker will be fined $2,500 for rearranging Aaron Ward's face at the end of last night's game, but he will not be suspended. The punishment is the second of a one-two sucker punch—a more accurate metaphor might be a sucker punch team-up—because the NHL rules prescribe an automatic suspension for any player who receives a fight instigator penalty during the last five minutes of the game. Walker's instigator penalty came with just under 3 minutes left to play.

After Friday night's texting-caused crash and yesterday's investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Green Line is back in business at Government Center. As of this morning, trains were running as normal through the station.

      

So, you bought that Mother's Day gift yet? The big day's tomorrow, you know. And of course you haven't bought anything yet, you ungrateful child. Fortunately, Brookline is defying its shut-storefronts trend with a new solution to your mom-present worries: Melt, a new store selling good-smelling handmade bath products of the type that (some) moms (and some dads!) love. Located right next door to the Kabloom flower shop—how convenient for those seeking a gift—in Coolidge Corner, the soothingly arranged Melt also provides a more pleasant shopping alternative to the stark and oddly lit Body Shop down the street.

--A man from Marblehead was arrested in connection with Wednesday's killing of 21-year-old Wesleyan University student Johanna Justin-Jinich. Stephen P. Morgan was taken into custody outside a convenience store in south Meriden without incident after asking a store clerk to call police. Morgan was reportedly targeting Jewish people. [WCVB]

-- A 15-year-old boy was shot at point blank range in the head on his way to school in Roxbury this morning. He is not expected to live. Police say that the gunman had been lying in wait for the boy. Security cameras show a man in his late teens wearing a black jacket crossing the street to assault the victim. Police have not identified the victim's school or advanced a motive for the killing. [Herald]

Manny Ramirez has released a statement through the MLB Players' Association, and, as expected, he has attributed his failed drug test to a prescribed and proscribed medication:

Bostonist has spent the early afternoon reeling over the news that Manny Ramirez tested positive for steroids. (Does that mean that 2004 and 2007 are as tainted as Roger Clemens's World Series victory in 2000? And, if Manny used steroids while he played for the Sox, whom did he share them with?)

-- Boston police arrested three suspects in connection with last Tuesday's non-fatal shooting on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. The shooting was apparently drug-related, and the three suspects, aged 26 to 30, were charged with guns and drugs charges but not assault. Police tracked them down by using eyewitness accounts of the getaway van. [BPDNews]

People love celebrity gossip. Admit it, you want to know if Tom Brady's sperm struck again. Apparently, cops in the Bay State are no different. According to state Auditor Joseph DeNucci, law enforcement personnel in Massachusetts often access the state's criminal records systems for personal information, including driving histories, car ownership and Social Security numbers, on famous people. Brady's personal records in the Criminal Offender Record Information system (CORI) were searched 968 times. Other celebrities, including Matt Damon, James Taylor, Paul Pierce and Red Sox owner John Henry, have been searched, too.

Is the Globe a walking corpse, a lumbering zombie intent on devouring its readers' fragile brains? Or is it more like a vampire with a soul, the undead that still has some good left in it?

-- A 17-year-old boy was shot to death in broad daylight outside a home at 70 Tonawanda St. in Dorchester. A neighbor said that the shooter fled in a silver SUV, but no arrests have been made and no motives have been advanced in the killing. [BPDNews, Herald]

• Wellesley goes all H1N1. [Wellesley Townsman]
• As does Somerville.. [Somerville Journal]
• And the Public Garden goes swan (flu-free... we hope). [Globe]

Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Tom Menino held a joint press conference this afternoon pledging more than $100 million in federal highway stimulus money toward improving bus rapid transit (BRT) in Boston. The money will be used to expand the Silver Line from Dudley Square to South Station while bypassing the "Little Big Dig," the billion dollar tunnel that was to have been built underneath the Boston Common. BRT will also be expanded during the next three years to improve Silver Line travel times and to expand service from Ruggles Station to Mattapan. Opponents of BRT, including State Representatives Byron Rushing and Gloria Fox, see the project as a mixed blessing that does not address the rapid transit needs of Roxbury residents. [UHub, Mass.gov]

--For the third time in recent weeks, Quincy police have arrested people on drug charges who allegedly brought their children to apparent drug deals. On Thursday, a 21-year old Hyde Park woman brought her 4-week-old baby boy with her while making an alleged heroin delivery. Police allege the suspect admitted to having heroin hidden in her underwear when officers confronted her. The woman and a man who accompanied her were both charged with heroin trafficking. The baby was taken to Quincy Medical Center and police notified the state Department of Families and Children. Men allegedly selling cocaine, in March, and OxyContin, in April, brought young children with them. [Patriot Ledger]

• Four new cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Mass.; as many as nine Harvard students may have H1N1. [Globe]
• Some kind of horse race tomorrow. [NYT]
• A flight from Munich to Washington was diverted to Boston due to a passenger's flu symptoms. The passenger was deplaned and taken to MGH; the plane continued on to DC. [WBZ]