-- A criminal assault and battery charge will be filed against an Arlington Catholic High School football player after he allegedly headbutted a player from Abington High School in a game in September. There is no arraignment date set yet. The victim's lawyer said the Arlington Catholic player "took his helmet off and headbutted him." The suspect's lawyer, Ronald A. Martignetti, said Arlington Catholic suspended his client for two games. [Herald]
Scott Lehigh at the Globe penned a wonderful summary of Boston voter Zeitgeist, "Diary of an undecided voter" that describes the "whiplash" of watching a mayoral contest that doesn't have any immediately appealing candidate. "Good, better? Hmm. Bad, worse, maybe," he quips. If you're like him—and us—your last chance to check in on Menino and Flaherty will be this afternoon at 1 p.m. on Radio Boston. It will be live at 1 p.m. on 90.9 F.M. or a trusty webstream.
-- A 26-year old female Harvard employee was attacked yesterday night in Harvard Square by a man who tried to strangle her with a rope. The quick-thinking victim was able to crouch, push her male assailant away, and escape with little harm having come to her. No arrests have been made. [Herald]
We've had scallion pancakes, but never kimchi donuts. Serious Eats brings a tale (and a picture) of kimchi donuts (technically croquettes) at a Dunkin in South Korea. Dunkin apparently also has yogurt- and soy-filled treats abroad. Have you seen any weird Dunkin items in your travels?
-- Boston police report arresting a 21-year-old Roxbury man last night after he allegedly beat and tried to rob a patron of the thoughfuly named Boston Chinese Restaurant on Washington Street. Two other suspects remain at large. [BPDNews]
City Year founder and former Americorps CEO Alan Khazei is running for Ted Kennedy's senate seat, and has been endorsed by Max Kennedy. Now, Khazei's asking you to pick his campaign video. We kinda like the "I rhyme with Jay-Z platform," but others may be more partial to this somewhat amazing take on the Cheers song.
John Kerry apparently wanted to be Secretary of State for President Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton got the job, and Kerry had to settle for being chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Nine months into Obama's term, Kerry is acting like the country's top diplomat anyway. He dashed off to Afghanistan to talk policy and elections with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The new John Kerry, with an even higher profile, has earned the scrutiny of the funny newspeople like Jon Stewart. Last night, Stewart said Kerry met with Karzai in order to use "water boring" to get him into agree to a run-off election. Kerry is seen discussing Karzai in his usually glacial speaking style.
Boston Dynamics is developing a new anthropomorphic robot, PETMAN, for the purpose of testing chemical protection clothing for the Army. To fulfill its duty completely, the human-size robot will be capable of "a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics," including heel-toe walking, crawling, and even sweating. Boston Dynamics expects to deliver the robot in 2011, and is partnering with Midwest Research Institute (MRI), Measurement Technology Northwest, Smith Carter CUH2A (SCC) and HHI Corporation on the project.
-- Boston's hospitals are dangerous places these days. A psychiatric patient at the Massachusetts General Hospital Bipolar Treatment Center was shot dead by an off-duty security guard this afternoon after the patient allegedly stabbed his doctor. The doctor, who was shuttled bleeding from her clinic and is listed in stable condition. [Herald]
Two Native American tribes from Massachusetts are objecting to the Cape Wind wind-turbine project, citing the potential damage to "spiritual sun greetings and submerged ancestral burying grounds." According to the Globe, the Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag tribes want to add Nantucket Sound to the National Register of Historic Places. The Globe also reported that the tribes' opposition to the project could delay, but not necessarily stop, the entire project. People seem to like the idea of Cape Wind unless they like to sail there. Bostonist has a suggestion to solve the newest dispute: Attach a floating casino to the Cape Wind project.
Two months ago, six Harvard Medical School researchers, who work with mice to determine how diseases interact with the immune system, became ill after drinking from a coffee machine in the New Research Building at the Longwood Medical area. It was determined that all of them had ingested sodium azide, a poisonous substance. Today, the Herald finds a source to assert that the incident couldn't have been an accident, even wondering whether it could have been attempted murder. Harvard appears to be keeping the investigation hush-hush, but the Herald reported that OSHA and the Boston Public Health Commission are involved.
-- A Level Three sex offender allegedly assaulted a woman in a Massachusetts General Hospital bathroom on Thursday. David C. Flavell was charged with assault with intent to rape and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and held without bail until a psychiatric evaluation next Tuesday. Flavell's court-appointed attorney Neil Madden said Flavell takes Prozac and was drinking Captain Morgan rum Thursday. Madden said his client "doesn't remember entering Massachusetts General Hospital. He remembers being with a friend and he remembers ending up in jail.’’ The victim is a Mass. General employee. Suffolk Assistant District Attorney David Deakin said Flavell has prior sex crimes convictions. [Globe, Herald]
President Barack Obama is in Boston today to tour MIT and to appear at a fund-raiser for Governor Deval Patrick at Westin Copley Place. (Expect traffic snarls on Huntington Avenue and elsewhere in the Back Bay.) He will be speaking to a select group of MIT faculty, students, and staff at 12:30 in MIT's Kresge Auditorium. We'd suggest shanking a student to get a ticket for the talk, but you probably won't be allowed past the doors with a shank or a stranger's blood on you. [Globe]
-- A Somerville man was stabbed repeatedly outside of the CVS on JFK Street in Harvard Square early Saturday morning before taking a cab to the emergency room. The man described three suspects to police, who have released little information about the incident. [Cambridge Chronicle]
Have you ever wanted to call Glenn Beck "the butt" repeatedly in a public forum where it really matters? Gloucester attorney Marc J. Randazza got the chance.
Federal agents arrested Tarek Mehanna, 27, in Sudbury today on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Mehanna is an American-born citizen who attended the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy on Longwood Avenue in Boston, where his father is currently a faculty member. Mehanna allegedly conspired to attack a mall in order to "randomly shoot people," but he was unable to buy the weapons to carry out the attack.
Almost three weeks ago, Bostonist read about Ted Williams' head's starring role in the Alcor T-Ball Invitational. Still not over that. The Kid is in the news again, sort of, in a story that, while still negative, lacks that utter depravity of a man's severed head being hit with a wrench. A Canadian baseball card collector says a rare 1954 Ted Williams card was taken from his room in a New York hotel in October. The unidentified collector reportedly paid $5,500 for the card, which was one of a series of 20 issued by the Wilson Franks hot dog company. With the baseball card industry quickly vanishing, it's noteworthy that somehow would even try to steal one.
Tom Brady is big in Canton, Massachusetts, and is already being discussed by some interested folks in Canton, Ohio. Canton, North Carolina? Not so much. The Amazing Grace Baptist Church of Canton, North Carolina believes Tom Terrific is leading us to eternal damnation, which earned him a spot on the Church's list of ungodly athletes.
Tonight, Massachusetts Senate candidate Mike Capuano will have an "Open Mike" event at Amrhein's Restaurant (80 W. Broadway, South Boston) from 6 to 7 pm (you might want to scoot out early to catch the mayoral debate at 7). The event will primarily be a platform for folks like you to ask questions. No word on whether Capuano will buy everyone a beer. RSVP at the Facebook event page (login required).
The Phoenix has raised a bit of a flap over a Globe poll that suggests overall satisfaction with Mayor Tom Menino's performance and a greater affection for Menino than for mayoral election rival Michael Flaherty. 52% are likely to vote for Menino; 32% for Flaherty.
The woman Barney Frank famously compared to a dining room table at a health care forum in Dartmouth over the summer is back in circulation and she brought her Lyndon LaRouche loving, President Obama hating, health care reform opposition with her. The woman, apparently named Rachel Brown, appeared at the North Attleboro Post Office on Friday with another person and a picture of President Obama with an Adolf Hitler type of moustache. Brown and her cohort reportedly asked people "What do you think of his moustache?, " as they walked by.
Maybe Shepard Fairey, beleaguered street artist, has now admitted to lying about his use of AP photos in creating the iconic "hope" poster featuring Barack Obama. His lawyers have withdrawn now that the lies have come to light (lawyers withdrawing from lies? that's a new one). It's unclear whether Fairey's countersuit against the AP will continue under other legal guidance, but it seems unlikely.
-- After pleading guilty to charges of assault and battery, disorderly conduct and threats to commit a crime Thursday at Wareham District Court, Derek Lindsay, 36, of Taunton, has 72 criminal convictions on his record since 1990. Thursday's conviction stems from a June 4 incident, in which Lindsay spit at a woman in Middleboro. He faces a six-month sentence. Lindsay already faces charges in two other incidents. He's charged with assault and battery after an alleged incident at a Middleboro tattoo parlor. He's already in jail without bail on drug and weapons charges from another incident. He has scheduled court dates on October 27, November 3 and December 17. [WCVB, Bockton Enterprise]
A $600 million budget gap could lead to trimming 2,000 state jobs, not to mention other cost-cutting measures. [Boston Globe]...The Mass. unemployment rate jumped to 9.2% in September, which might mean the Bay State is still in a recession. [Boston Herald]...Potential amendments to the state's transportation reform bill could eliminate some of the saving that was the purpose of the reforms. [Boston Herald]
Jonah, an-eight-month-old Chihuahua abandoned at a local store in September, had successful brain surgery on Thursday. Doctors at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston drained excess fluid from his brain into his abdomen. WCVB has pictures of the surgery.
The Massachusetts Air National Guard's 104th Fighter Wing joined the New Hampshire Civil Air Patrol for training exercises over Concord, New Hampshire today. Jared Scott, an Air Force public affairs officer for NORAD, or North American Aerospace Defense Command, described the exercises by saying: "We're going to send fliers up and they'll be able to train using their intercept procedures and do all that fun intercept stuff."
The phrase "I Swastika Obama" that was carved into the 18th green at the Lakeville Country Club on Monday may have been covered from view by a cardboard heart, however, the incident has the attention of the Secret Service and the FBI, not to mention the media. Club officials estimate repairing the damage at $1,000. No suspect is known yet. Gawker.com explains how the vandals may be both ignorant and stupid. AOL Fanhouse brought the hateful story to sportsfans everywhere. New York Magazine reviewed a few recent incidents, including one featuring Massachusetts Congressmen Barney Frank, involving Nazi imagery, and suggested the reaction was relatively muted.
Mass. fishermen are fighting the dogfish, a small shark that has a seemingly endless appetite. Fishermen are involved in a dispute with regulators over how much they can fish the federally-protected dogfish, whose population dropped to critically low levels in the 1990's. There are more dogfish now, and they're behaving badly, or normally depending on who you ask. "It's a (expletive) plague of locusts is what it is. We just need to kill them," said Cape Cod fisherman Peter Taylor. This is just another example of marine life having lost its mind in Massachusetts in 2009. Our year in aquatics has featured triggerfish goodness, zebra mussels and great white sharks.
The power drunk wafflers at the New York Times Company have changed their minds again about the Boston Globe. Turns out, it isn't a huge gaping money suck anymore, and Sulzberger and friends no longer want to sell it. We have yet to confirm that the Times Co. front office has done any real number crunching on Dan Shaughnessy's expense report. [Globe]
-- 40-year-old Bernard Piscopo was sentenced to six years in jail today after being convicted in the brutal 2007 slaying of Adam Rich. Piscopo, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, swore that he did not kill Rich during a ballroom brawl in South Boston's Six House bar. The court decided differently. Rich died from seven stab wounds, including an 8-inch-deep stab through the heart. [Herald]
Mayor Menino may have been busy ribbon-cutting, but Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon have been recruiting "senior advisers" for their joint campaign. Former mayor Ray Flynn (Mumbles' predecessor) and social activist Mel King (a vocal BRA opponent), who once ran against each other for mayor, will announce their support of the Flaherty-Yoon ticket tomorrow morning at City Hall. Flynn and King ("Fling"?) join a campaign that embraces "new solutions to our city's old problems," emphasizes education and city planning, and provides for "Boston residents of every race and gender" according to the announcement. It's an interesting move that aligns some longstanding Boston figures with the promise of change.
The Silver Line now runs from Dudley Station to South Station. The bus is called Silver Line 4, SL4 on the maps, and it went into operation today. Bostonist joined a throng of real reporters and state and local politicians on the first SL4 to South Station, which left Dudley a little after 1 p.m. and arrived a little after 1:30 p.m.
A rough economy and rainy summer have conspired to make it particularly difficult for many people to provide for their animals this year. The MSPCA received twice as many kittens as usual in August (more than 300), and the organization is currently hosting a record number of horses (59 surrendered so far this year) as well. Because of their size and status as livestock animals (despite how much people may try to make them “pets”), horses need more involved care than most animals, including space to roam, shelter, and feed that you can't get at the grocery store. As a result, there are far fewer eligible homes for horses in need than for kittens in crises.
A new biography of Michael Bloomberg apparently paints Medford as an anti-Semitic small town too dull to handle the fiery spirit of the future mayor of New York (who was born in Brighton). The book also describes how Bloomberg's family had to enlist an Irish middleman to buy a home in Medford when the seller wouldn't deal with Jewish people. Bloomberg buddy Paul Theroux piles on the hate, calling Medford "a place you want to leave, to escape from." Does Medford deserve these harsh words? Based on our inability to find anything interesting to do there thus far, perhaps. But at least it doesn't have as many strollers as Brookline... or if it does, they just stay inside the SUVs. And much of Medford even knows how to use doors.
Harvard is, apparently, the best university in the world, despite lack of cookies. The school has plenty of kooks, though, or at the very least a very major one: conservative columnist Peggy Noonan, who has parlayed her avoidance of poor people into heading a study group at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Good call, Peggy: Harvard doesn't dig the poor, either!
We wouldn't be in this mess. In another case of "deleted" emails, a former Bear Sterns worker deleted his Google account, potentially to cover up emails that would reveal information about his alleged role in hedge fund fraud. Fortunately (and not surprisingly), Google has way better backups than the paper-happy mayor's office, and was able to turn in searchable information on CD-ROM to the government. Wow: companies cooperating with the government in a situation where government won't cooperate with itself. Maybe we should just turn everything over to Google. Or would that just lead to evil?
-- The killing of a 100-year old nursing home resident may have become even more shocking with the revelation that investigators may be considering Elizabeth Barrow's roommate as a possible suspect. Barrow's son said the two didn't get along well. Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter described her death as "asphixia by manual strangulation." [WCVB]
Apparently 8 billion didn't do it, but a bit more did. The New York Times reports that Harvard is cutting cookies out of the budget for faculty meetings, leaving Skip and co to fret for lack of chocolate chips, raisins, and maybe even peanut butter. Hot breakfasts, Widener pastries, and track suits are also off the ledger, as are shuttle rides, as we noted some time ago. MIT dropped sports teams and Emerson College denied employees bagels and coffee at meetings starting earlier this year. What will be next on the list of collegiate cuts?
So, StoneTurn, the Boston-based computer forensics, has had a pass at Michael Kineavy's second computer, and the results, which were posted on the city of Boston's website were less than revealing. Approximately 740 new e-mails were made public, but most of them were essentially blank, retaining only the e-mail header. The newest release of e-mails reportedly did not contain e-mails submitted to federal investigators in connection with the Dianne Wilkerson corruption investigation.
The MIT Communication Forum presents a discussion about "Race, Politics and American Media" from 5 to 7 tonight at the Bartos Theatre (20 Ames Street, Cambridge). The talk will focus on media coverage of race and politics, touching on Gatesgate, the decline of traditional media, and other locally relevant events. Participants include Juan Williams (NPR, Fox News), Phillip Thompson (associate professor of urban politics in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning), and David Thorburn (professor of literature and director of the Communications Forum at MIT). The forum is free and open to the public.
Universal Hub reports on a class action lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Boston by an Illinois man who claims that Zipcar's fees are illegal under Massachusetts law. Among the practices mentioned in the complaint are allegedly excessive late fees, fees for retrieving lost articles, fees for speaking to a live representative, and automatic debits from deposits on accounts that are "inactive." [UHub]
-- 25 year-old Joseph Cousin was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after being convicted of killing Trina Persad in 2002. At his sentencing hearing, Cousin maintained his innocence, claiming "I can look at Trina’s picture every single day and know that I am not the one who took her life." [Herald]
The Boston Globe profiled one of its potential new owners, California-based buyout firm Platinum Equity and its CEO and founder Tom Gores. There is something familiar about the photo of Gores in the Globe piece. Universal Hub notes that Dan Kennedy compared him to Tony Manero. Bostonist thinks he has a blatant Wayne Newton vibe. He might just be trying to sell us a used car. You decide.
The Globe reports that attorney general Martha Coakley has finally gotten involved in the Kineavy email scandal. The U.S. Senate candidate said that her office was now "inovlved" in the effort "to determine whether there have been any violations of the public records law by [Boston] City officials.
Seems the ol' second computer trick didn't quite do it. Pressed by the Secretary of State to turn over email records, Mayor Tom Menino's chief of policy, Michael Kineavy, is taking a leave until the mystery of the "missing" (er, deleted) emails can be solved. Resignations always look suspiciously like admissions of guilt, but Menino claims his staffers are being "forthright" and cooperative on the issue; we can only assume that by "forthright" he means "bumbling and incompetent." At this point, though, the issue is not about cooperation--it's about whether Kineavy broke the law. This may be a lame comparison, but you can still get a ticket for speeding even if you didn't realize how fast you were going.
The Commonwealth got its first shipment of H1N1 vaccine yesterday, according to this blog post. That's ahead of schedule, according to the state. Don't run out all at once to get your shots, though:
Remember when the Secretary of State ordered Menino aide Michael Kineavy's computer seized so that a computer forensic expert could pore over his hard drive and recover his supposedly deleted emails? And then the city released 5018 "lost" emails and claimed that it couldn't provide any emails Kineavy sent to people outside of City Hall because recovering them would be too expensive?
Do you wonder if there is a place in Boston where mid-century attitudes about black people still abound unfettered? Perhaps you have not read the Globe's piece about the tenure process at Emerson. It turns out that the college has only given tenure to three black people in its 129-year history. That's a lot of discrimination, even for Boston!
Attention: Boston Globe. The crucial issues in the 2009 Senate election to replace Ted Kennedy do not include show tunes and men's clothing. Saturday's piece on Michael Capuano paints him as a Kennedy type of liberal. He says he is the financial underdog among the four Democratic candidates. Oh, he's also switching to long-sleeve shirts. The Globe's Andrea Estes said he looked "uncomfortable" in his suit. On Friday, Matt Viser reported that Martha Coakley referenced the Rodgers and Hammerstein song "I Enjoy Being A Girl" in an answer to a question about the role of gender in the campaign. After analyzing some of the lyrics, he concluded "Coakley seems unlikely to use it as a campaign theme song." Journalism!
-- A 26-year old strip club dancer from Everett was found dead outside her apartment in what the Globe described as a "grisly" scene. Police believe she was killed between 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. after leaving work at Alex's in Stoughton. Middlesex District Attorney Gerald T. Leone Jr. didn't speculate on a motive, or how the victim died. [Globe]
A pregnant Boston Police officer sought to extend a restraining order against a fellow cop who she alleges repeatedly raped her. On Thursday, both officers were placed on leave and had to surrender their weapons. Both officers are in the BPD Special Operations Unit. The female officer alleged the accused officer threatened her husband by saying "He could shoot my husband in the head from 500 yards away and no one would know.". The Boston Police Department has launced an internal investigation. The male officer denies the allegations. [WCVB] All charges alleged until proven under law.
Finding the right putter is crucial to your short game, but having about 47 of them to choose from is excessive. A Charlestown couple were arrested in connection with 13 alleged golf course break-ins in the past six months and were suspected by police in Arlington, Cambridge, Belmont, and Lexington for robberies at pro shops in their towns. The Winchester Country Club in Arlington reported 47 putters worth a total $5,000 were missing after a break-in on September 11. The Country Club in Brookline was hit on September 22.
-- Danielle Bremner, who writes graffiti as "UTAH," was sentenced to six months in prison by Boston Municipal Court after she pleaded guilty to tagging buildings in the Back Bay and trains in an MBTA yard in East Boston. Bremner, who lives in New York, had been a fugitive from prosecution for more than a year when she was arrested in Chicago in August 2008. She has also been convicted of vandalism charges in New York. [Herald]
Don't miss tonight's mayoral debate between Thomas Menino and Michael Flaherty. It starts at 7 p.m. on WCVB-TV (Channel 5), and it will be the first debate between the two candidates since the primary. The next debate will take place on October 19.
Today, we discovered an email that Marc Randazza sent to Glenn Beck's attorneys wondering, in lawyer talk, why Glenn Beck hates America.
It's time for cyclists and pedestrians to take back the streets.
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