The Globe reports that Modern Continental, the largest Big Dig contractor, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this morning. The filing comes amid news that the firm owes between $500 million and $1 billion to creditors. Additionally, the U.S. Attorney's office filed fraud charges against Modern Continental late Friday afternoon. Some Big Dig contractors thought money would just fall from the sky. Instead, they got ceiling tiles.......

--So NOW Sal DiMasi wants to strike a deal on gambling? Guess we've learned one thing during the recent DiMasi stories. What happens in the State House stays in the State House. [Boston Herald] --McCourt Construction Company has pled guilty to overbilling for the work of Big Dig employees. What they billed, though--$314,494--seems like small potatoes compared to the alleged spending shenanigans of other Big Dig contractors. [Bloomberg/Boston Globe] --Traffic is down a little......

--Have you heard the BPD is installing massive woofers to the front of patrol cars? You may hear and feel "The Rumbler" if you're pulled over. [Boston Globe] --A Chicago meat company is recalling potentially E. coli contaminated beef products with tasty titles such as "Boneless Clods," "Flat Rounds," "Gooseneck Rounds" and "Knuckle." Some was shipped to MA in industrial amounts, so carnivores only need to cross their fingers. [Chicagoist] --The Big Dig tunnels......

-- Police found a man shot to death this morning in Hyde Park. The body was found shortly after 7:00am, and there are few details to report. [BPDNews] -- A woman was sexually assaulted on her way home after last night's Red Sox game, authorities say. She had been walking down Winchester St. in Brookline, drunk, when a man approached her and started a conversation. Things became sinister when he pinned her to the front......

--Total commuter hell broke out today with a tractor rollover that blocked the Mass Pike, along with dodginess on the Blue Line that left, according to one individual, "hundreds of people" stranded at the Airport T stop. [WHDH, b0st0n LiveJournal] --Speaking of transportation, an engineering firm has recommended the installation of 900 support anchors in the Ted Williams Tunnel to make up for the fact that some parts of the ceiling can't be inspected.......

--People marched yesterday in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Steven Odom, a 13-year-old who was shot and killed in random gunfire. [Boston Globe] --Michael P. Lewis, former head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, was fired. He didn't retire. Yet he gets a pension of $72,578 a year. And people wonder why this state is broke? [Boston Globe] --Christopher McCowen, the man convicted for killing fashion writer Christa Worthington in Truro, will not......

--Bechtel, Parsons & Brinckerhoff still keeps this city on a tight leash. They received $5.3 million after the Big Dig was supposedly finished. [Boston Herald] --Local restaurants are going to stop selling bottled water and get people who want water to drink tap. This news leads to the following question--how do you feel about the local tap water? [WCVB] --The Boston City Council wants to move voting day to Saturday. Voter turnout is so......

MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas isn't the only one saying that we're broke. The entire state is broke and in even bigger trouble that you might think. Yes, we're talking "broke-ass." If you thought we were in a budget crisis, wait until you read today's paper. Matt Viser at the Globe reports on how Massachusetts' problems are being magnified by the nation's problems. The state is drowning in debt, and it's only going to get......

--A four-alarm fire broke out in Brookline overnight on Sewall Avenue. The building was vacant, but 120 people were evacuated, and three firefighters were injured. [WCVB] --Heist, heist baby. The Herald pulls out all the stops when anniversary the theft of priceless art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. [Boston Herald] --Whole Foods plus the South End sounds like a perfect storm for satire. [Boston Real Estate Blog] --The priceless line of......

--Massachusetts earned a C in state government from the Pew Center. Given the state of the Big Dig, is it any wonder? [Boston Herald] --The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA, which includes Calderwood Pavilion and the Cyclorama) is undergoing a sudden change in leadership. [Boston Globe] --Glenn Ordway, local sports radio host on WEEI, is taking some time off the air because his wife and daughter sustained injuries during childbirth. [Boston Herald] --In related......

We were in Detroit for the weekend, and the most frequently asked questions about Boston were "What happened in the Super Bowl?" and "Is that Big Dig thing finally finished?" The latter is easier to answer: No. The Globe reports today--months after the official ending--that there are some 2,000 tasks of varying importance that have yet to be completed by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's contractors. The MTA says that while the Big Dig is functional......

--Some of those who treated the Big Dig like one big, fat ATM are finally getting their just desserts. Yesterday, a Big Dig contractor was charged with trying to overcharge the government by $300,000. They've agreed to plead guilty. [Boston Globe] --Things are getting hotter for Superior Court Judge Richard T. Moses. The Herald is ticking off a list of sex offenders he set free who then went on to commit more crimes. [Boston......

Some truck driver decided to make like a college student on move-in day yesterday afternoon. He blithely ignored the height limits on the Big Dig and plowed his way through the I-90 connector. Noah Bierman at the Globe describes the ensuing chaos resulting from the alleged dumbassery: "The trucker had dodged a height restriction, almost, until his load met with the ceiling, causing sparks to fly." While this does not encourage faith in our fellow......

As more concerns rise about the Big Dig bolts, the Green Line goes on the fritz, and the fact that our tunnels don't have sprinklers, Amtrak is adding its own small voice to the mix. Amtrak must replace railroad ties made of concrete that is starting to crack. The company says that replacing the ties will cost "tens of millions of dollars." Here's the insulting part--Amtrak put the ties in during the 1990s. They should......

--Terry Francona will stay with the Red Sox through 2011. [Boston Globe Extra Bases] --The New York Times glad-games the Greenway, asking if it was worth the trouble given the issues of the Big Dig. [New York Times] --A student at Bentley College is being treated for bacterial meningitis. Last year, a Bentley freshman died from bacterial meningitis. [WCVB] --If you feel the need for speed, squelch it if you are passing through Marshfield,......

While we assume that not everyone who planned the Big Dig were drinking at the time they did it, the news that the design prevents inspection of the bolts makes us wonder. Casey Ross at the Herald (who is afire lately with the MBTA ride-hide story) reports that not enough crawl space exists around the bolts. Even if inspectors wanted to check the ceiling bolts, they couldn't fit: The tunnel’s design blocks access to 4,000......

--So there was this blizzard in 1978, and the blizzard was ridiculous. But a blizzard can't be that bad if you get trapped at the Garden with color TV, beer, and hot dogs. [Boston Globe] --The Globe found not one, not two, but five Republicans in Cambridge. That's hard. [Boston Globe] --A high-school athlete in Scituate died Saturday in a car accident. The young man was a passenger in a car driven by a friend,......

After much wrangling and justifiable concern, Boston has approved Harvard University's plans to build what the Allston-Brighton TAB calls a "$1 billion science complex." The complex was in doubt because the community wasn't happy with a benefits package that Harvard was going to give to the community. A massive science complex will bring plenty of change, not to mention traffic, and Allston wanted something in return. Here's what Harvard offered that met with the city's......

After much fanfare, Bechtel Parsons/Brinckerhoff has agreed to settle a lawsuit from the state and will pay $407 million. Smaller companies involved with the Big Dig will pay $51 million. $400 million seems small given the cost overruns of the Big Dig, but the state won't be turning that kind of money down. The AP report on WBZ notes that Bechtel Parsons/Brinckerhoff received $2 billion for consulting on the project, so this is a partial......

--A new bill that limits--but doesn't ban--skin-shock treatments at the Judge Rotenberg Center was under discussion yesterday at the State House. The bill would "allow shocks to stop students from hurting themselves or others, but would prohibit shocks for more "minor" acts such as swearing, shouting, or failing to complete a task." And maybe employees could be a little more questioning instead of serving shocks whenever anyone calls up and asks for one. [Boston......

The MetroWest Daily News shed some light on the Turnpike Authority Board yesterday. The following line says it all: Turnpike Authority Board members were surprised to discover yesterday the authority is paying $100,000 a year for two advisory boards. Even though the Turnpike Authority Board claims no knowledge of these advisory boards, they are required by the state Legislature. Newton's mayor is chair of one of the boards and says that the board is an......

Number of leaks considered "serious" in the Big Dig Tunnels: 237 Number of leaks total in the Big Dig Tunnels: 670 Estimated gallons of water entering the tunnel each month from leaks: 800,000 Number of years in which the tunnels might have a "serious breakdown": 25 Percentage of ceiling girders showing rust: 10 Number of engineers assigned to working on the leaks: 1 Fact that the Big Dig was considered "over" last month: Priceless All......

The Longfellow Bridge, which looks a little busted, is in terrible condition, the Herald's Casey Ross reports. Of course, anyone who has seen the bridge could have told you that. The state has already made $2 million in repairs. And it still seems a little busted. Here's the details on what's been done and what will be done: [Rick Sullivan of the Department of Conservation and Recreation] said DCR has spent $1.2 million since August......

--The recent toll hikes just keep on giving. Your cab ride from the airport into Boston just got more expensive. Now that the Big Dig no longer seems to be swallowing people (at least not at the moment), it is content with swallowing our money. [Boston Globe] --What the hell is up with trucks and Everett? First a truck tanker tips over, and now a dump truck plows into an overpass. [Boston Herald] --Investigators......

Good to know Bostonist isn't the only one who gets nervous driving under the Shaw's in Newton that appears to balance precariously over the Mass Pike. Oh, and through the Prudential Tunnel. And through pretty much any tunnel in this city. The Globe reports today that private businesses are responsible for maintenance of the piece of tunnel that passes under their building. The problem isn't with Shaw's or the private companies. Here's the problem:......

The Big Dig began in 1991. 14.8 billion dollars, hundreds of besmirched reputations, and one casualty later, the Big Dig is finally wrapped up. Well, at least officially. We'll be feeling the repercussions for a long time. To borrow a phrase from Rob Corddry's visit to Boston, we've earned our merit badge for corruption. The AP has provided a full timeline of the Big Dig. Bostonist was born in 2005, but we have our fair......

--New England Confectionery Co., aka NECCO, was sold to a company in Bethesda, Maryland. So, will the name be changed to Maryland Confectionary Company, or MACCO? We certainly hope not. [Boston Globe] --More reasons to give up your car. On New Year's Day, tolls at the Allston-Brighton and Route 128 plazas will go up from $1 to $1.25. The price jump is even higher for the Ted Williams Tunnel and the Sumner Tunnel: $3 to......

The Blotter and the Bite Size are merged today, given that everyone seems to be on break. Thank you for reading this if you're here! --Merry Christmas to the Del Valle family. Powers Fasteners has agreed to pay 6 million to the family of Milena Del Valle, the woman who died after a portion of the Big Dig fell on her as she and her husband were on the way to Logan Airport. [Boston......

--A new company, FlexPetz, will let you rent a dog for a few hours so you can enjoy canine companionship without getting up in the cold to walk the critter. Wouldn't it be great if you could just rent human companionship for a few hours? Oh, wait. That's illegal. Nevermind. [Boston Globe] --Wondering why there are so many kids running around today? Seventy drivers called in sick or took a personal day today, and about......

--The following falls more in the "Don't Panic" category instead of the "Blotter" category. If you stuck a TV set on top of a light pole at the corner of Main Street and Bishop Allen in Cambridge this morning, the Cambridge Police Department would like to have a word with you. You caused quite the freak-out. [Cambridge Chronicle] --The Christmas tree at the State House is covered blue light-emitting diodes," which conserve energy. However, the......