News: November 2009 Archives

Bostonist was there for the taping of the debate between Democratic primary candidates competing for the chance to get Teddy Kennedy's senate seat in the upcoming January special election. Here's our record of what happened, in case you didn't get to watch for yourself. We weren't supposed to post before the thing actually aired. This is unedited, uncut, so forgive errors--will correct as soon as possible! And to be clear, this is by no means an exact transcript--there's lots of paraphrase, and a little snide commentary. (Full program if you missed it.)

Tomorrow, two debates will take place that might help you make a decision in the special election race to fill Ted Kennedy's senate seat. First, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce sponsors a debate between the Republican candidates Scott Brown and Jack E. Robinson tomorrow at 8am. It's too late to register (aka pay through the nose) to attend, sadly, but we'll try to round up some reactions for you.

Bostonist woke up a little late for Cyberposium 15 yesterday, but still managed to attend a number of informative sessions about “Navigating the Digital Storm.” This year’s theme, inspired by the escalating (but potentially halted) economic crisis, was designed to explore ways for technology companies to get through this tough time. Cyberposium is organized entirely by Harvard Business School students, and while their presence was strong at the conference, some normal folk (though many of them HBS alumni or MIT Sloan students) made their way in as well. Not many women were among the presenters—we saw absolutely none on the panels we attended, and there were only a handful involved in the conference overall. More heartening was the presence of female students in the audience; we hope that in a few years some of these women will be answering, not asking, the questions. Diversity was also lacking in panels but more prevalent in the audience, suggesting a more varied future for technology.

-- A 17-year old from Methuen was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after running over a 12-year old in Lowell on Wednesday. Her license was revoked. [WCVB]

• Massachusetts lost out on $147 million in federal stimulus grant money available for public transportation upgrades along Blue Hill Avenue due to bickering between the Patrick administration and residents of Roxbury and Mattapan. [Boston Globe]

• Republican Senate candidate Jack E. Robinson supports free public transportation. [Boston Herald]

Haven't picked your horse in the Massachusetts Senate special election yet? Not swayed by rhymes? Never fear, a new test is here: map-drawing.

-- A shooting that Boston police called gang-related inside of a Dorchester elementary school has brought massive police and streetworker patrols to the neighborhood. The 22-year-old victim was shot while playing basketball Tuesday at the John Marshall Elementary School. Police say that it was the second time the victim had been shot since leaving prison in May. [Herald; BPDNews]

• Mass. Maritime 2, Pirates 0. [Boston Globe]

• While Governor Deval Patrick and Speaker Robert A. DeLeo bicker, the fate of an education bill, not to mention $250 million in federal stimulus funds, is up in the air. [Boston Herald]

• According to the University of Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, corporate use of social media - Twitter, Facebook, etc. - has increased greatly in the past three years. []

Boston native Russell Ferguson competed in the Top 14 on reality show So You Think You Can Dance last night, performing a suave foxtrot with partner Noelle. Bostonist caught up with Russell yesterday in between rehearsals and costume fittings to talk about his experience on the show so far.

   

If you haven't been on the Blue Line in a while, you might not have noticed the spiffy new improvements to Maverick Station, which used to be a boarded-up post-apocalyptic stinkhole, or that the only cars running on the line are brand new. Take a look at the pictures above to see the differences. Maverick Station is now a cheerful,riot of brushed metal, and the last of the rotting, vintage 1980 Hawker Siddeley cars has been retired. The Blue Line is now serviced by a fleet of 94 new cars, built by Siemens, which run in 6-car trains every 4-to-8 minutes, depending on the time of day.

• Mass. lawmakers are debating establishing preferred parking zones for low emission vehicles. [Boston Herald]

• Ted Kennedy Jr. has no plans to actively support any candidate in the Massachusetts Senate race.[Boston Globe]

• Michael Capuano told Fox25 that he is good and his opponents are really really bad. [MyFoxBoston.com]

-- A Roxbury man was arrested disorderly conduct and assault and battery on a police officer after refusing to leave a Cambridge bar. An offier on paid detail reported the suspect allegedly challenged him to a fight saying "What, you want some? Let’s go." [Cambridge Chronicle]

• Senior citizens spoke out against increased restrictions on elderly drivers. That spooked State lawmakers into delaying this legislation. [Boston Herald]

• Some 90 Massachusetts Turnpike Authority workers got raises while thousands of state employees possibly face job cuts. [WCVB]

• A study by the Massachusetts Advocates for Children says 90% of autistic children in this state have been bullied. [Boston Herald]

-- A man was found shot dead this morning on Clifford Street in Roxbury. [BPDNews]

• Massachusetts honored Bay State veterans at a State House ceremony today. [Boston Globe]

• The wife of late Marine Capt. Kyle Van De Giesen of North Attleboro gave birth to their second child, Colin Joseph, on Tuesday. Van De Giesen, 29, was killed October 26 in Afghanistan. leaves a legacy with the birth of his son Tuesday. [Attleboro Sun Chronicle]

• Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill today to expand veterans benefits to include cash payments for deployments and access to employment. [Boston Herald]

• With the Patrick administration considering expanding gambling in Massachusetts, the Governor is proposing budget cuts to helping gambling addicts. [Boston Herald]

• Governor Deval Patrick's administration plans to cut funding for special treatment units for prisoners with mental illness. The cut could restart a suit by the Disability Law Center against the Department of Correction that was headed for an out of court settlement. [Boston Globe]

Despite Deval Patrick's criticism, it looks like former United Freedom Front member Ray Luc Levasseur will speak on campus at UMass Amherst during this Thursday's Colloquium on Social Change. The United Freedom Front, described as a terrorist organization, was responsible for a number of bombings in the Northeast in the late 1970s and early 1980s, perhaps most notably the 1976 Suffolk County Courthouse bombing in Boston that injured 22 individuals, even costing one courthouse employee his leg. The UFF used bombings and robberies as tactics to fight political conditions they disapproved of, including apartheid in South Africa and U.S. policy in Central America. Levasseur is scheduled to speak at UMass regarding his 1989 trial in Springfield for seditious conspiracy. This, the longest criminal trial in Massachusetts history, eventually found Levasseur and his co-defendants not guilty. Thursday's appearance, if it goes on, would be Levasseur's first public appearance in the area since his imprisonment.

The name of the heroic MBTA operator who stopped a train in time to save a woman's life on the Orange Line this weekend has been released. Charice Lewis, we thank you for your quick response in this scary situation, and wish all MBTA operators were so attentive. A word of appreciation also goes out to the bystanders at North Station who brought the fallen woman to Lewis's attention. In the future, we hope that all MBTA operators, staff, and passengers will remember these upstanding individuals as model citizens and follow their lead in looking out for others in all situations, not just the most dire.

     

The Orange Line operator and inspector who managed to stop an Orange Line train just inches away from killing a passenger who had fallen on the tracks were honored today at the MBTA board meeting. The operator, whose name was not released, had been hospitalized for stress following the incident, according to the Herald, but has reportedly returned to work.

Last night, leaving the Celtics game, we saw a woman come an inch away from death. It was on the inbound Orange Line platform at North Station. We had missed a train and had to wait an interminable 15 minutes before the next train arrived, so we were relieved when the Worflike voice of the T announced "The next Orange Line train to Forest Hills is now approaching." The lights of the oncoming train shined through the tunnel.

-- Boston Police arrested a man with a gun on Thursday after chasing him on foot. The suspect was driving "erratically" near Egelston Square and attempted to park in front of a hydrant. Police determined the owner of the car was unlicensed, prompting officers to try to stop the car. The operator of the car exited the car and fled. Officers pursued the suspect, observed he was armed. After refusing to drop the weapon, police took it away during a physical struggle. The suspect faces various assault and weapons charges. [BPDNews.com]

• Marine Capt. Kyle Van De Giesen's funeral was held today in North Attleboro. He was killed in Afghanistan on October 26. [WCVB]

• A Plainville man is stationed at Fort Hood, where an Army major allegedly killed 13 people on Thursday in a shooting spree. [Attleboro Sun Chronicle]

Bostonist is so glad the New York Times and Co. didn't nuke the Boston Globe back in the spring, because then we would never have had the sublime pleasure of reading the interviews with 2009's "25 Most Stylish Bostonians" (so named because, we presume, the "25 Most Stylish Bostonians Who Have More Money and/or Cooler Jobs Than You" was too long). We were especially taken with João Ribas, whose outstandingly obnoxious quotes like, "I have an abhorrence of both consumer culture and infantilism, which is why I don’t own a pair of jeans" make him sound like a character out of a Decemberists song.

-- Public health officials released a report today calling heroin and OxyContin addiction an "epidemic" in Massachusetts. The report calls for a public health campaign on the scale of the fight against H1N1 to combat the problem. The report estimates that 3,265 Massachusetts residents died from opiate overdose between 2002 and 2007. [Globe]

-- Some Dorchester voters had more on their minds yesterday than the Boston mayoral contest. A 23-year-old man was shot and killed yesterday morning in front of the John Marshall Elementary School, which serves Dorchester as a polling place. Voting was briefly disrupted, and classes were dismissed early as a result of the violence. [Herald]

While Boston voted for Mayor Tom Menino again, cities and towns around Massachusetts voted incumbents out and elected a diverse array of new leaders. [Boston Globe] With thousands of auxiliary ballots left to count, City Council and School Committee candidates in Cambridge won't have official results until at least the end of the day Wednesday. [Cambridge Chronicle] A Georgetown woman wants the Bay State to require insurers to cover children’s hearing aids. [Boston Herald]

Okay, we might be exaggerating a little, but this sentence from the independent review of the MBTA that was released yesterday caught our attention:

-- T police arrested two men on unrelated counts of indecent assault and battery yesterday. William Carlyle, a 52-year-old Boston man, was nabbed at Copley Station after allegedly grabbing a woman's buttocks on the Green Line platform at Park Station. And William James was picked up for allegedly grabbing a woman's buttocks on a Red Line platform at Quincy Center Station last June. [MBTA Spokesman Joe Pesaturo]

• The early voter turnout in Boston was heavy in places as the choice between Menino and Flaherty was finally made. [Boston Herald, Boston Globe]

-- A 21-year-old woman was shot outside of her own Halloween party in Dorchester early Sunday, and was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition. No arrests have been made. [BPDNews, Globe]

Above The Law reports on Brian Schroeder, a man who has attended not one but two of the world's douchiest colleges, and who has mounted his bid for Douchebag of the Year by allegedly trying to burn down a chapel that holds the remains of unidentified 9/11 victims. Schroeder, a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School, reportedly set fire to he chapel at Memorial Park on 30th Street in New York City at 9 a.m. yesterday because of a drunken dare. He was one of those law grads who was being paid by a Biglaw firm to do pro bono work until the economy picked up. Presumably, this particular act anti bono has also torched Schroeder's nascent law career.