--A three-alarm fire broke out at an apartment complex in Framingham yesterday afternoon. Three firefighters and three residents of the complex went to the hospital for minor injuries. [Boston Globe] --Two children died in a tragic fire in Holyoke on Thursday. Allegedly, a 6-year-old boy was playing with a lighter in his home, starting a fire that killed his 4-year-old brother and 9-month-old sister. [Boston Globe] --The pilot who was grounded after breaking away from......

-- Breaking: Police have arrested a suspect in the March 6 double stabbing at the Roxbury Crossing Orange Line station. MBTA police apprehended an 18 year-old Roxbury man on the platform of the Jackson Square station this afternoon. Authorities say the arrest follows five days of close cooperation between Transit, Boston, and State Police. -- It was a painful case for two alleged South Boston drug runners. Last night, a Boston Neighborhood Drug Unit raided......

-- Update on the stabbing in Revere. Police have identified the suspect. 23 year-old Cory Roche, of Lynn, allegedly stabbed his mother to death in her home yesterday. Police responding to the incident shot Roche in the torso after he allegedly refused to drop a knife. Roche has a long criminal history and probably suffers from mental illness, according to court papers. A 2004 mental evaluation noted that he claims to hear voices. No motive......

--Someone kept the President's Day spirit going a little too long, allegedly robbing a Bridgewater bank yesterday while wearing an Abraham Lincoln mask. Police have apprehended a suspect who they think actually robbed the same bank once before (though not donning the Honest Abe facade for that caper.) [Boston Globe] --A Haverhill woman was convicted of drug trafficking and given 15 years after she was tied to 51 kilograms of cocaine, with a street......

--Maybe Fung Wah isn't so bad after all. The local press picked up on a b0st0n LiveJournal story that a Peter Pan bus driver felt that his passengers on a trip to Boston should be punished and forced to stay on the bus in Framingham because one of them called the company about his poor driving. The driver's sorry ass is about to get fired. [WBZ, Globe, b0st0n Live Journal] --Female parking enforcement officers......

--Yesterday evening, a woman was caught driving in East Boston Memorial Park--on a pedestrian path. The BPD Blotter writer, obviously thrilled to be back on the job after the recent technical difficulties, adds, "As the name of the path suggests, it is designed and designated for pedestrian traffic only." Yes, she was allegedly drunk. And in a Big Lebowski move, she showed officers a Liquor ID card when asked for license and registration. She was......

--An off-duty firefighter was stabbed early this morning in East Boston, possibly for racist reasons. According to WBZ, a firefighter was at Chivas Restaurant last night when he said a group of Hispanic men "they did not want any 'Gringos' at the restaurant and he should leave." Later on, the same men followed him as he drove to the Saratoga Street fire station, and they stabbed him in the chest. His injuries are non-life-threatening. The......

--John Edwards, the Harvard sophomore whose body was found yesterday at Harvard Medical School, committed suicide. People who knew him, such as a professor and his roommate are mystified. Eva Wolchover lists Edwards' many accomplishments. He was a top science student (and that's saying something around here), a stem cell researcher, and a guitar player. A Facebook group named "In Memory of John Edwards" has already been established. --Michele McPhee reports that a State Trooper......

--Police are warning the public after the discovery of bad drugs on Cape Cod. Two people died yesterday in Falmouth after taking heroin that might be cut with something even worse than the heroin itself. --The mother of Shawn Dow, the college student who died during a party in Allston over the weekend, is saying she doesn't think he died from falling from the top of a building. She believes he died as a result......

--The DA's office announced earlier this week that it will expand its "Gun Court," which speeds up prosecution of gun-related crimes. Only cases from Dorchester, Roxbury, the South End, and parts of downtown were accelerated to gun court, but now cases from South Boston, East Boston, and Charlestown will go there as well. The DA's office press release touted its success rate: "Gun Court prosecutors have secured convictions in 85.1% of the viable cases handled......

--A Boston judge sentenced three cocaine dealers yesterday and then told them that, after they serve their time, they will not be allowed to move back to the city for 12 years. According to the Herald, 19-year-old Amos Carasquillo of Mattapan, 26-year-old Nathan Garrasteguy of Roxbury, and 21-year-old Louis Garcia Jr. of Roxbury have 60 arrests among them. Besides those guys, eleven gang members have been rounded up in the past few weeks. --Last night,......

Remember the crooked BPD cops who finally got snared by the FBI when they offered to protect a shipment of cocaine? It was clear they weren't nice guys, but one of them is so crooked and so flagrant about it that it's like he came straight out of a clichéd cop television show. And not a good cop show, either. The Herald had a field day once its writers got their mitts on taped phone......

--Don't eat the yellow pills: "Mixing cough syrup, Vicodin or Lipitor with cat litter is the new advice on getting rid of unused medications. Preferably used cat litter." [WCVB] --Another BPD (pardon us, ex-BPD) officer has pled guilty to protecting shipments of cocaine. Unfortunately for him, the people shipping the cocaine were undercover FBI. [Boston Globe] --A boiler explosion in Salem sends three people to the hospital. [WCVB] --A huge sinkhole in the middle of......

--In a shooting last night on Talbot Street, one woman died and a man is in serious condition at Brigham and Women's. According to reports, three people, including one woman, approached the victims before the shooting started. The woman, who has not yet been identified, is Boston's 56th homicide this year. --The family of the late Liquarry Jefferson, the 8-year-old shot by his own 7-year-old cousin earlier this year, is back in the spotlight. His......

The story of the drugs and alcohol found in the toxicology results for the bodies of firefighters Warren Payne and Paul Cahill has three threads--the freedom of the press, public safety, and the memory of the firefighters themselves. As noted earlier, all news outlets except WHDH reported yesterday and today about the toxicology results. WHDH couldn't report because Suffolk Superior Court Judge Merita Hopkins silenced them at the request of the firefighters' union. WHDH appealed,......

Last night, word broke out that firefighters Warren Payne and Paul Cahill, who perished in a blaze at the Tai Ho Restaurant, had drugs and/or alcohol in their system. This morning, many citizens are expressing outrage at the smear on their memories on the local news. Several outlets are reporting that Warren Payne had cocaine in his system, and Paul Cahill was legally intoxicated. However, the report comes from, in the Globe's words, "A......

--The DA's office is facing outrage from a source other than the BPD. The mother of Joseph A. Wilson, who was stabbed to death at a party in 2005, is speaking out because jurors acquitted 19-year-old Etanis Cumba in the trial. The prosecutors accused Cumba of going to a party, getting in a fight that involved Wilson, and stabbing him. The person who stabbed Wilson was wearing a bandana across his face. After Cumba was......

--Hi-Fi Pizza is usually known as a hangout for drunken concertgoers and college students looking for some absorbency. But a drunken, one-sided domestic dispute went down in front of the Hi-Fi in Central Square early Sunday morning. Isaac Evans McClamy was multitasking by riding his bicycle and arguing with a woman who may have been his girlfriend, all while drunk. He engaged with the Cambridge PD, hitting one officer with his bike tire and causing......

Glenn Marshall, Mashpee Wampanoag tribe leader and major force behind bringing casinos to Massachusetts, is leaving his position as chairman of the tribe council. He was caught lying about his military past and of hiding the fact that he was convicted of rape and cocaine possession. Peter Kenney at Cape Cod Today first smelled something funny about Marshall's military service. The Cape Cod Times reported that Marshall did not participate in the battle of Khe......

Given the sports-crime incidents of the week, here's Bostonist's answer to Matt Taibbi's Sports Blotter - the Flagrant Foul column! Part two will appear in a few hours. Jose Offerman isn't the only sports figure cruising his way toward Matt Taibbi's Sports Blotter. A former Boston College linebacker has his eye on that Blotter. A former Boston College linebacker didn't make the NFL cut when he went to the Washington Redskins training camp, so he......

--After a lengthy undercover operation called "Operation Roadkill," the feds took down 15 alleged members of the Outlaws, a biker gang based in Taunton. In the raid, they picked up large quantities of drugs and, as Boston NOW gleefully noted, a stripper pole. We're not sure how the feds took the stripper pole from the house without leaving significant damage behind, but, by golly, the feds were going to take that stripper pole as evidence!......

--It's pathetic, totally pathetic, when people can't have a birthday party that doesn't end with shots fired and two dead bodies. Yesterday in Dorchester, a birthday cookout was winding down. Two men were in a car leaving the cookout when a fight erupted and someone used guns to win. These deaths mark the 35th and 36th murders of the year. So, what about those increased foot patrols? --The Birthday Cookout Murders story doesn't end there.......

-- The Roxbury man found shot in Mattapan on July 4 died from his injuries on Tuesday. Michael Wiggins was 22 years old and found near Arbutus and Ashton streets before he was rushed to Boston Medical Center. Police have upgraded the investigation to a murder investigation as a result. -- Banks are becoming the new candy shoppes: The Bank of America on Cambridge Street was robbed at gunpoint at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, the......

-- The Boston Police Department's news brief headline summed this one up perfectly with "With Friends Like These...Who Needs Enemies": East Boston guy goes out with his friend on Monday afternoon. Friend goes back to guy's house, breaks through the window and steals some of the guy's toys (iPod, digital camera, PlayStation). When guy confronts friend about the theft, friend smashes guy's digital camera right in front of him. Bostonist says guy needs new friends.......

Curt Schilling got a hit! After bunting into a strikeout in the second, Schill hit a bleeder in the fourth that rolled right past second base into center field for a single. Maybe we should focus on that, since Curt's pitching was...well...bad. Two starts after his Flirt with Destiny, Schilling got rocked again, by Atlanta's bats, giving up six runs on ten hits in less than five innings. His fastball doesn't seem to be fast......

--The last thing the Boston brass wants to hear is someone comparing Dorchester to Iraq. But that's exactly what a guy told the Globe after a man got shot several times in the head yesterday afternoon. The victim must be made of steel. He was able to run to a friend's house after getting hit, and he is in "critical but stable condition." As for the Iraq comparison, a neighbor said, "There's something always going......

This time, it's personal. Sean Linehan, the son of brand-new City Council member Bill Linehan, has told police he was the victim of random violence. He said that, after a late-night meal at Teriyaki House following his dad's victory party, he "accidentally walked into a brawl on the sidewalk." He was stabbed in the upper back, which "pierced his lung and broke a rib." And his father is starting his City Council term royally pissed......

--Sean Stevens and Peter Berdvosky can breathe a sigh of relief now that they are officially off the blotter with a slap on the wrist. The artists who were hired by the Cartoon Network and Interference, Inc., to hang the Mooninites throughout Boston will do community service. Instead of offering the public another '70s hair comedy routine, the two had more substantial things to say this time around. The Herald quoted Stevens as saying, "I......

--Next time you think about getting a free pizza by holding up your delivery guy, think again. On Sunday night, the BPD followed a Domino's Pizza guy from South Boston to a Dorchester address that was known for robbing pizza guys. Upon delivery, a man emerged to get his pizza and pulled a firearm from his waistband. Police sprang out and caught the pizza-nabber and his accomplice. We send propers to Universal Hub for an......

--More details have emerged about the Mattapan man who was stabbed to death yesterday. Sylvester Mitchell was 38 years old and may have been stabbed as part of a domestic dispute because his wife was questioned by police. He was murdered on his birthday. --Overnight, another stabbing happened, this time in Dorchester, and the victim is in stable condition. Less lucky is a pedestrian who was hit in Brighton at Cambridge and Harvard Avenues. The......