Historic Boston: Things to Do on the 4th
Four on the Fourth: Be Safe Tonight
OddBlotter: Ain't That America
Bite Size News, July 3: Cars and Crashes Edition
Sports Redux: Bottoms Up For Seattle
Independence Day celebrates our independence from Britain. As we're constantly reminded, many people fought—many of them in the vicinity of Boston—to give us this independence and the associated freedom. Just as this freedom came with (the bill of) rights, so too did it come with responsibilities. While you celebrate the anniversary of our independence this weekend, keep in mind that we should respect the rights of others even as we rejoice in having our own. Four accidents have occurred and eight people have died already today, perhaps due to excessive and irresponsible celebration of this important anniversary. We encourage you to make this Independence Day joyful, not tragic: keep your wits about you as much as you can, don't drink too much, don't drink at all if you're driving, buckle up, and try not to be—or cause—another tragedy today.
News: July 2009 Archives
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- An 83-year old Natick woman crashed into a liquor store on Friday morning. Recently, Massachusetts lawmakers proposed stricter rules for older drivers. [Boston Globe]
- A car accident closed the Sagamore Bridge this afternoon in both directions, which is the last thing anyone planning to drive Cape Cod wants to hear. [Boston Globe]
With apologies to John Mellencamp, nothing is more American that batshit criminals. Bostonist found a couple of alleged criminals with a hint of patriotic flair.
--Police officers, like everyone else, sometimes behave badly. Eight officers were suspended after a three-year investigation into steroid use by the BPD, FBI and the U.S Attorney. Four other cops were suspended for visiting the "Boom Boom Room", a Hyde Park brothel. The steroid-related suspensions range from 5-80 days. The Herald said Commissioner Ed Davis confirmed a grand jury is investigating the "Boom Boom Room". Extensive details on both matters are available at BPDNews.com. [Boston Herald]
According to the Boston Globe, the Boston Police Department traced a 60% drop in gun violence to the Hub's recent rash of rainy weather. Shootings dropped from 38 in June 2008 to 15 in June of 2009. Just one fatal shooting was reported last month when there were 22 rainy days, the Globe said. Commissioner Ed Davis said "When the weather turns bad, and people are inside, there’s less violence." Prior to June, violent gun crimes were up in 2009, which prompted cops to meet with gangs to try to prevent continued violence in the summer months.
The Boston police Twitter feed warns that a SWAT team has set up at 2 Dudley Terrace, off the 700 block of Dudley Street, in Dorchester, to manage a "barricaded suspect."
So, hundreds of Pike employees and retirees get free Fast Lane transponders. Bostonist wants one. State cops rightly get most of the "nonrevenue transponders," as they are called. According to the Herald, 849 of 1,300 Pike salary-takers also get the coveted freebies. Not a typo. Aside from being an extravagant perk, as taxes surge and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is eliminated, could excessive transponder use cause tollbooth backups?
Four months from tomorrow, Bostonians will vote in a mayoral election. Do you know who you'll be casting your vote for? Bostonist will be checking out some of the candidates over the next few months. Today, Michael Flaherty.
The city of Boston and the men who fill the ranks of the Boston Fire Department simply can't get along. Contract disputes have long since gone nuclear and now any controversy turns into a five-alarm blaze of rhetoric and posturing perfectly designed for the city's competitive media outlets.
-- Boston police captured a man allegedly breaking into a second floor Jamaica Plain apartment while his pants were waiting for him in the backyard. [BPDNews]
- Massachusetts has the second-lowest obesity rate in the nation at 21.2%, which still seems too high. [WCVB]
- Boston firefighters are defying Boston Fire Department orders to volunteer to staff three stations. [Boston Herald]
Because the man's predictably racist, transphobic, and otherwise thoughtless. Jacoby's column today suggests that the recent Waxman-Markey environmental protection act is a bad idea, because there is some doubt that global warming is as influenced by man's actions as it would seem. Climate change may not be a crisis of the proportions that some have suggested. But we clearly have a finite supply of many energy-creating natural resources, and there's nothing wrong with using these conservatively, rather than liberally (as ironic as that terminology may be), and with exploring renewable energy options. We've been an industrialized world for barely 100 year: what happens in the next 100 years, when we may use more fuel than in the past 10? Many developing countries, China and India in particular, are industrializing rapidly, and creating pollution and depleting resources in the process. Obama's prudent approach is smarter than Jacoby's bitter, reactionary rhetoric, and taking steps to better understand and mitigate our impact on the environment is better than denying it altogether. Jacoby consistently persists in exactly the types of gross generalizations for which he criticizes others, making him a hypocrite at worst and a sensationalist at best. This is not the type of "reporting" that will save the Globe.
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