-- Early this morning, police found a man shot to death at the corner of Circuit Street and Walnut Ave., in Roxbury, near Washington Park. The victim was 20-years-old. No arrests have been made, and no motive has been advanced. He was Boston's third homicide in the past 24 hours and the 33rd of the year. [BPDNews] -- A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed yesterday during a cookout in Hyde Park. He was shot......

Needham 4th of July parade, photo by Pappatom Fireworks lit up the skies of Greater Boston last night. From our perch on the Mass. Ave. bridge, we saw four fireworks displays, including the grandest of them all, the Boston Pops extravaganza. (The other three appeared to be in Newton, Somerville(?), and South Boston.) Contributors to the Bostonist photo pool have captured the festivities for those of you who were homebound or out-of-town. Shooting from......

-- Two of four men suspected of robbing convenience stores in Jamaica Plain and Hyde Park two weeks ago were apprehended by police. [BPDNews] -- Rodrick J. Taylor was convicted this morning of the 2006 strangling murder of Dominique Samuels, whose charred body was found in Franklin Park. Taylor will be sentenced on Monday. [Globe] -- Police have joined with community groups in an effort to quash the gang beef that has been dropping bodies......

-- Two people were found shot early this morning in Mattapan. One of the victims, a 27-year-old male who had been shot in the arm, drove the other, a 28-year-old woman, to Carney Hospital, where she died. No arrests have been made in connection with the incidents. [BPDNews] -- James Keown was convicted today of the 2004 murder by antifreeze of his wife. He received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. [Globe]......

The Globe reports that a former MIT chemist caused an all-out evacuation of her Temple Street brownstone by conducting some freelance science experiments. The woman, who has not been identified by name, had mixed a cocktail of chemicals on the floor of her apartment, directly behind the State House. "Any time you have someone who knows what they're doing with chemicals, it can be a bad situation," Deputy Fire Chief Robert Calobrisi said. No word......

-- A 7-year-old boy was shot last night amid the crossfire between warring youths. The child had been playing kickball near Smith Street on the Mission Hill end of Roxbury when he was apparently struck by ricocheting bullets. He remains hospitalized with multiple injuries. The shooting started when a man on a bicycle allegedly fired at two men in a Honda SUV, hitting the driver, who was later hospitalized at Brigham and Women's. The passenger,......

-- Neil Entwistle was convicted on two counts of first degree murder today. He shot his wife and 9-month-old daughter. The defense, and Entwistle's surviving family, maintain that he is innocent. The minimum sentence in Massachusetts for first degree murder is life imprisonment without parole. Luckily for the Herald and Globe, who can't seem to find any other juicy crime story, Entwistle's case will undergo an automatic review by the Supreme Judicial Court. [Globe] --......

-- Boston police are looking for a trio of bandits who pulled off a pair robberies in southwest Boston last week. The group knocked over a Hyde Park convenience store with a fourth man on Wednesday in broad daylight and took down a Jamaica Plain bodega on Thursday night. They threatened clerks with silver handguns and netted nearly $6000 from the two stick-ups. [BPDNews] -- The notorious goatee bandit was thwarted by an off-duty Cambridge......

-- A man was shot and killed in Mattapan last Thursday night. Police say that Victor Torres, 21, was killed by a single gunshot wound. Torres was not known to police, who are still trying to determine whether he was the intended victim of the gunman. No arrests have been made. The shooting took place blocks away from the residence where five month-year-old Alianna Peguero was shot in an apparently gang-related incident. Universal Hub has......

-- A 16-year-old boy was shot dead in Roxbury last night. Neighbors have identified him as Quamaine Williams. He is Boston's 27th homicide this year. No suspect has been named in the case. [Globe] -- A Gloucester couple pleaded guilty to charges that they photographed their 8-year-old daughter having sex and posted the images online. [Globe] -- A New Hampshire man faces charges that he raped five prostitutes in Brockton. [Herald] -- A convicted sex......

Last Friday, Boston postpunk band Mission of Burma closed out a two-night engagement at the Paradise Rock Club by playing its 1981 album Vs. in its entirety. It was a potentially risky move for a band that has released new material as recently as 2006. Mission of Burma could have come across as antiquarian, its members curators of themselves. Instead, they tore the roof off the Paradise. Vs., the only full-length studio album the......

-- Fears that gang violence is on the rise in Boston's southern neighborhoods seemed justified as police revealed that Monday's shooting of a five-month-old baby in Mattapan may have been part of a cycle of retaliatory killings between rival Jamaica Plain gangs. Police believe that the shooting, which left Alianna Peguero in the hospital, may have been a retaliation for the April killing of Luis Troncoso on a basketball court in JP. The Troncoso killing,......

Anonymous, the group of internet pranksters and hackers that has become a common sight in major North American cities, launched its latest protest against the Church of Scientology on Sunday in Boston. The event was Operation Sea Arrrgh, a protest against Scientology's elite Sea Organization, which Anonymous characterized as a "private navy." Huddled together in their Guy Fawkes masks -- courtesy of the movie V for Vendetta -- Anonymous members are easy to spot.......

DBomb Photography too shows her Celtic pride. Let's wrap it up this weekend boys; this city needs another Championship.......

Bostonist loves stories that prove that the internet is useful for more than virtual poker and porn, and this one's a doozy. When legendary local band Boston lost their frontman, Brad Delp, to suicide last year, lifelong Boston fan Tommy DeCarlo wanted to pay tribute to how much the band's music meant to him. So his daughter created a MySpace page of him singing karaoke to a few of the band's hits. Somehow, through......

When Bostonist spoke with Louden Noxious, Kaiju Big Battel's live announcer, we developed an inkling of what was in store for us at the New and Improved Boston Massacre May 10, at the Roxy. But the spectacle itself happily exceeded our expectations. Kaiju Big Battel, which began eleven years ago in Boston, is a wrestling league with twist. Combatants enter the ring dressed as monsters and heroes. ("Kaiju," which means "monster," is the generic name......

-- The story of Haleigh Poutre, the 14-year-old girl who, in 2005, was brought by her parents to a Westfield hospital in a vegetative state could not be more crushing. The girl has finally emerged from her coma, defying predictions that she would never reawake. (The Massachusetts Department of Social Services, for one, wanted to shut off her feeding tube.) Police interviewed her from her pediatric unit bed yesterday and have revealed a story of......

Last Thursday, the soft light of dusk lingered in the theatre at the Institute for Contemporary Arts, where floor-to-ceiling windows let you see the Boston Harbor from two sides. Yachts, Harbor Cruisers, and sailboats passed in the distance, backgrounded by the Logan airport control tower on one side and the Custom House clock tower on the other. In the middle of the room, on an oriental rug spread across the hardwood floor, a set of......

The recent spate of shootings in Boston has citizens nervous about safety, and none has shaken the community like the daylight killing of Luis Troncoso, a 20-year-old Dorchester father of two who was shot in the head while playing basketball in a quiet Jamaica Plain park. Yesterday, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis toured JP's Centre Street in an effort to reassure business owners and citizens that increased police foot patrols will curb the violence. "We......

Boston isn't the best place in the country to celebrate Earth Day, the pedagogical holiday started in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson to teach people about environmental issues. Our own spring holiday involves more redcoats and Red Sox than anything that's green. But, if Earth Day is your bag, there are a few things around town for you to do today. Boston Children's Museum, which promotes itself as Boston's "first green museum," hosts a special......

Jamaica Plain commuters were greeted by a grisly sight this afternoon. A man was shot dead in the section of Southwest Corridor Park just across Boylston Street from the Stony Brook MBTA station. The shooting took place around 4:00pm, and, by 4:30pm, Boston and State police had cordoned off the park. Witnesses on the scene described the killing as a drive-by shooting. Police have not released the name of the 20 year old victim......

If the crocuses and unexpected sunshine haven't clued you in, robbery suspect Timothy Flaherty, 51 of Lawrence, has provided further evidence that spring is upon us. Last night, after allegedly robbing a victim on Beacon Hill, Flaherty led police on a wild chase through the Common and the Public Garden before diving into the Frog Pond Lagoon to elude capture. (We assume that it looks much bigger in the dark.) Police surrounded the pond......

The world is filled with unfunny people. You live with them, work for them, you’re probably dating one. But it’s different when they’re sucking on a small scale. It’s when they suddenly get a wild hair up their ass and decide to take their act on the road with dreams in becoming the next Pryor. The sad thing is, it’s usually the people void of any talent that go further than the ones who......

Update: The body of Roc Sanon, who was declared missing over the weekend, was found near Route 98 and Interstate 93. The BPD says, "The death does not appear to be suspicious." [BPD News] -- A man was shot in Roxbury last night. The man, whom police did not identify, was in his 40s, and suffered life threatening injuries. [Globe] -- Boston police are bracing for a violent summer after last week's seasonal Wednesday brought......

-- A Worcester pastor was arrested this morning for the rape of a 15-year-old boy. Tyrone Forbes, 49, faces charges that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with the child since last November. In addition to serving as pastor at Mount Sinai Church of God in Christ, Forbes also teaches music to children at the Seven Hills Charter School. The alleged victim was not Forbes's student. [Herald; WCVB] -- The subprime crisis is beginning......

If the state is broke-ass, then we need to start saving some money, and the governor and legislators are looking at the always-controversial police details. Those new to Massachusetts might wonder why police officers are often at construction sites instead of the usual flagman or flagwoman. Well, police must be at those sites, and officers make a lot of money on the job. However, flagmen or flagwomen are a lot cheaper, and a new bill......

Recently Bostonist wondered: how do hometown-loving fashionistas show their Boston pride without resorting to tacky Cheers t-shirts or the ubiquitous Red Sox hat? So we made a visit to our favorite source of unique, handmade merchandise, Etsy, and searched "Boston." To say we were delighted with the results does not do justice to the amount of squealing that occurred. Amy J. Designs offers a necklace (pictured) and cuff links made with now-sadly-defunct T tokens.......

On Tuesday we wrote about how Governor Deval Patrick's intellectually lazy casino job creation numbers gave ammunition to the skeptical of gambling Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. Yesterday, however, Patrick got some good news from the Chamber of Commerce, who released numbers much more helpful to his cause. The previous criticism was related to Patrick's projection that the three proposed casinos would create 30,000 new construction jobs, while a more balanced analysis in......

Music Hometown keytar heroes Freezepop have returned from touring the world (okay, Florida, and the Rust Belt) to once again rock Cambridge, with the help of the The Information, The Main Drag, and Michael Hensley. Middle East Downstairs, 8 pm, 18+, $14. Beer Harpoon will hold its St. Patrick's Festival at the brewery on 306 Northern Avenue. Wear galoshes because the floor may well be slick with beer. Harpoon Brewery, 5:30 to 11:00 pm,......

Update: The DA's Office just sent out confirmation. They say both stabbings happened on the outbound platform and that the stabbing victims are expected to survive. Roxbury Crossing was shut down at about 6:00 pm tonight due to a double stabbing. From the Globe: One victim was stabbed on the train platform; the other was stabbed in the station's parking lot. The incident happened at around 5:45, said MBTA spokeswoman Lydia Rivera. One victim......