As it becomes more likely that the use of handheld gadgets while driving will be banned, the Globe tossed out a thought worth debating--if drivers are still allowed to use headsets, will they drive better? Or is the mere act of talking the problem? Noah Bierman talked to an MIT engineer who said, "Conversations are the problem, not the phone." A Virginia Tech researcher added that the act of trying to dial was also distracting.......

--An MBTA employee and a friend were charged with larceny for using fake refund tickets to squeeze $465 from the T. The employee worked in the Revenue Audit Department and allegedly gave his friend the fake tickets, which she would then cash in. An MBTA employee cashing in the tickets brought the incident to light. Now, the duo will appear on next year's crime report. [MBTA press release] --A fight between two men resulted in......

Ric Kahn did a piece in the Globe about places in the city that are fighting the good fight against rude behavior, such as public cussing and talking on the cell phone while ordering coffee. Hearing the F-bomb in public doesn't give Bostonist the vapors. This is a city, and what would a city be like without F-bombs? But someone talking on a cell phone while ordering coffee or a sandwich deserves to have her......

Bostonist is looking back on the year in weird, silly, or just plain creative crimes. Yesterday, you met some pugnacious bowlers, but you haven't seen anything until you meet a certain postal employee, overeager college students, and an exceptionally creative gravedigger. 7. Going Postal. A postal worker didn’t honor her profession when she nearly hit a detail officer. Police realized why. She was driving while on the cell phone and "with a cigarette in one......

It's official. You can now put Charlie in your cell phone or on your computer. The T has a big, fat announcement on its home page, featuring an image of a gleeful woman. She's happy now, but she hasn't seen the charges that will result from all her text messages. Anyway, Bostonist has signed up. You can choose the "mode of service" you prefer: commuter rail, subway, bus, silver line, and boat. (Thank goodness......

The next time the MBTA shuts down due to a trash fire, riders might get some advance warning of a problem through the brand-spanking-new MBTA alert text messaging service. The Metro is reporting that a pilot program will start this week. After the widely rejected "innovation" of T Radio, it seems that the MBTA brass has gotten the message and is rolling out something that is useful for its customers. Alerts will be sent out......

--Did carrying around a bunch of mail-order catalogs and dodging dogs all day make an East Boston postal worker snap? Noelle Lacorte, 26, of Revere, was driving her mail truck yesterday morning when she almost ran over a police officer working a detail. The police took offense, and she took off. Here's what happened next, according to the Herald: “The officer observed the operator on her cell phone with a cigarette in one hand and......

--Yarelis Cruz, 26, of Lawrence, is a mom who allegedly grew pot in her house, and she got caught when the teacher of her 11-year-old son found pot pictures on the boy's cell phone. The teacher confiscated the cell phone when Cruz' son was taking pictures in the school when he wasn't supposed to, and she spotted pot plants on the screen. The teacher did the math, the police investigated, and they found a plant......

--Since Red Sox fans have a reason to party this year, Mayor Thomas Menino is already stepping in to settle them down. He met with bar and restaurant owners to discuss when to cut off the sloppy drunks. He also said he doesn't want any live cameras in bars. No live cameras? What would a nationally televised game be without a cutaway to the fans who couldn't afford tickets but who still want to celebrate?......

Last Thursday, Noah Goldman closed the visor on his steel helmet and straightened his body for the blow he was about to receive from his teacher's sword. It was the first practice of the season for the Boston-area Schola Saint George Western martial arts study group, and Goldman needed to christen his new headgear. Group Leader Charles Deily pulled the wooden sword back and slammed it into Goldman's head. The crash reverberated through the empty,......

--Preliminaries: Tuesday, October 9, Comedy Connection, Faneuil Hall, 7:00 and 9:00 pm --Preliminaries: Wednesday, October 10, Comedy Connection, Faneuil Hall, 7:00 and 9:00 pm --Urban Comedy Showcase: Wednesday, October 10, Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall, 8:00 pm --Semi-Finals: Thursday, October 11, Nick's Comedy Stop (Upstairs), 8:30 pm --Semi-Finals: Friday, October 12, Nick's Comedy Stop (Upstairs), 8:30 pm Now that we've warmed up, we'll get right to last night's results. For more on how......

--In Centerville, Kelsey Pratt, 19, of Osterville, allegedly drove drunk into the side of a house. That in itself doesn't seem Blotter-Worthy, but WBZ has the video, and Pratt didn't just tap that house. She plowed into that sucker like it was a garage. No one got hurt. WHDH says this is Pratt's second OUI offense. --But wait, there's more drivers plowing into houses! In Saugus early this morning, an unidentified driver struck two cars,......

--Don't mess with the elderly in this city. They are not easy targets. A guy found that out when he tried to steal an old woman's purse at the Downtown Crossing T stop. On Wednesday night, Christopher Linehan, 29, of Dorchester, tried to snatch the purse of the unidentified 79-year-old woman. Neither party would let go of the purse, so Linehan tried dragging the woman to one of the black turnstiles. Good Samaritans started blocking......

--Everyone's got an opinion about Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan. Dan Kennedy at Media Nation, who also cross-posts at Blue Mass Group, has been taking the anti-casino view and offers an interesting post about how the new revenue Patrick has been discussing is just "rearranged money." --Britney Spears still will not go away. Onward Charles has discovered video trance remixes of that weird "Leave Britney Alone!" guy. Where does he she* find this stuff? It's......

State legislators are debating whether or not to ban the use of cell phones while driving. Last Tuesday, the Transportation Committee discussed a bill that would ban the use of all handheld phones in cars while permitting hands-free phones for grownups. Anyone under 18 caught with a cell phone, handheld or otherwise, would have his or her permit or license suspended for a year. State Senator Steven Baddour opposes the ban for adults, but he......

--The BPD had an easy time rounding up a cell-phone robber last night because the guy had quite a sense of fashion. A woman reported that a guy wearing "plaid shorts, a black puffy vest, and a black hat" snatched her cell phone while she was on Washington Street. He sounds like a member of Parliament gone bad. That's the kind of meaty description an officer of the law remembers, and they caught him on......

To the left is a picture of what was facing Chicago at about 4:00 Eastern (3 Central) yesterday, and as you might expect, the wave of massive thunderstorms and punishing wind meant that the Sox/Sox game at Comiskey* would be definitely cancelled delayed for three hours, then cancelled. So they'll try to play two today, but conditions in the Windy City are scheduled to still be a little windy. Josh Beckett will now face Jon......

A foot fetishist may be on the loose in Cambridge. He seems mostly harmless and is more interested in taking pictures of toe cleavage, so don't be alarmed if you see him sniffing around your sexy open-toed summer shoes. At first, this story seemed more like 10 o'clock news material, so we were surprised to see the Globe getting in on the foot fetish action. They focus on a yoga instructor who unknowingly showed the......

--After the death of a prominent high-school athlete, the cycle of violence continues in Brockton. A teenager was shot on the street last night, and a 7-year-old was also injured in the scuffle. A witness told the Globe that the unidentified teenager was shot four times at close range. WBZ reports that he is in critical condition and that it is believed the child got hit with a bullet fragment. --A woman who is four......

We thought Jay Garrity, Mitt Romney's former pretend police officer and factotum, was creepy. But Garrity loses to another Mitt Minion - Will Ritter. Casey Ross at the Herald had the best journalism job ever when he got to write about Ritter's self-described shenanigans. On MySpace, Ritter claimed he was in "special ops" yet he still had time to party it up in a hot tub. If he's so important, why does he have so......

-- A man was walking home on Normandy Street in Dorchester late Thursday morning when a young black male, one of a group of three, reportedly walked up to him and asked to see his iPod. When the victim declined the opportunity to show off his piece of gadgetry, one of the men drew a gun and placed it against the victim's temple and told another to take the iPod. They then walked away. Police......

"Baby you can drive my car. I got no car and it's breaking my heart, but I've found a driver and that's a start" The Vatican is trying to take all the fun out of driving. Today they issued a set of guidelines that hits home for Boston, a city full of Masshole drivers and Catholics – two groups which are often one in the same. The ten rules, or "commandments," for drivers hit the......

--Last night, Bostonist attended the Red Sox-Giants game. As you know by now, the Red Sox pounded Barry Bonds and Company into pulp. Since the game was so lopsided, what was happening in the stands was far more exciting than what was happening in the field. Hatred of Barry Bonds and his alleged steroid use triggered a series of fights among Giants and Red Sox fans. Security was busy all night taking mouthy fans......

--Lowe's Home Improvement stores have been getting a heap of negative publicity. First, their banner on the Boston Globe website's home page obscured the big news that legislators voted down the gay marriage ban. (See Adam and Spatch's appropriate sarcasm regarding these obtrusive Internet ads.) But it gets worse. The Lowe's brass is probably cringing at the news that a shootout erupted at the Danvers Lowe's last night. Imagine, you're at Lowe's, you're picking up......

Bostonist would much rather sit in an obstructed view right field seat behind a sign-wielding fan gabbing on his cell phone than trade in Fenway Park for a newer model. Whenever Tim Wakefield takes the mound in a domed facility, however, we can't help but wish that there was a canopy or something that the Fenway crew could erect over the ballpark every five days. The typically fluttery knuckleball becomes even screwier, allowing Wakefield to......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

Boston College lets us know that women's ice hockey is actually rather hot. Tom Mutch, the women's ice hockey coach resigned yesterday following allegations of sexual misconduct." This is quite a change for Mutch, who helped bring the Eagles to this year's Frozen Four. The Heights describes the misconduct of which Mutch is accused: "Allegations have surfaced suggesting that the former coach, 39, was involved in an inappropriate sexual relationship with Eagles Rookie of the......

Text messages aren't just our favorite way to vote Sanjaya off of American Idol, they're also the quickest way to get in touch, no matter where we are. The mobile is always close at hand (and usually in the pocket) if we're at a concert, in class, or even in the cube toiling away on our TPS reports a text message won't likely go ignored for long. A number of US colleges and universities have......

Last month Chris Marstall founder of Tourfilter headlined the first ever Tourfilter DJ Night at River Gods in Cambridge. He played a set from the Tourfilter mixtape, all from bands that were hitting the Hub in the near future. He packed the house and they asked him back. Thursday, April 19 he crams himself back up into the DJ station at River Gods to bring the second ever Tourfilter DJ Night, this time he's......

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version......