--The Executive Director of the Turnpike Authority wants to CharlieCard everything so that you can use your card at the tolls. While we're all for not having to save spare change, automation might make it easier to miss fare hikes. [Boston Herald] --Massachusetts Bay Community College has been accused of spending money like a drunken sailor. While $450,000 may sound like peanuts in a city whose private schools roll in money, some staff aren't......

--Are you freaking out over the fact that the St. Patrick's Day parade falls on the same day as Palm Sunday, March 16? 'Cause the press sure seems to be making a fuss. [Boston Herald, Boston Globe] --The local papers are bombarding us with Foreclosure Doom. Foreclosures in Massachusetts are up 128% in January. Bus tours of foreclosed homes might reflect a corresponding increase. [Boston Globe] --A Globe blog post headlined "Suburbs, the future......

Democrat Niki Tsongas won today's race to replace Rep. Marty Meehan in the Fifth Congressional District. Tsongas, who was backed by some serious Democrat firepower, defeated Republican Jim Ogonowski. Ogonowski put up a fight when it came to percentages. Tsongas had 51 percent of the vote, while Ogonowski had 45 percent. Tsongas is the widow of the late Senator and one-time presidential candidate Paul Tsongas and a dean at Middlesex Community College. She is the......

Update: We spoke to a patient MBTA customer-service rep who said that she didn't know how long Park Street Station would be closed. She said that the decision to reopen it was entirely up to the fire department. Update to the Update: A tipper going from downtown to Cambridge let us know that a red line train actually made it through, and the doors opened at Park Street, so the T appears to be functional......

Friday at Back Bay station: it's hot, it's midnight, and the crowd on the platform is ever deepening. Low-level panic set in when the MBTA's dreaded Mr. Roboto Voice of Sorrow (as opposed to the Worf Voice of Normalcy) comes over the intercom and says, "Due to a trespasser on the right of way, Orange Line service between Haymarket and Wellington Station is being diverted to shuttle buses." Everyone knew that it was going......

Update: Good Blotter news! Thank you, tipsters, for spreading the word. Police found Starsha Tupper through bank records, and she is safe, according to the Gloucester Times. --If you're a robber, and you're looking for the big bucks, where are you gonna go? Isn't it obvious? The Yankee Candle store! Some robber dressed all in black held up the Yankee Candle at Quincy Market yesterday afternoon. Boy, he must be a thug – he wears......

Today the Globe ran a piece on Jackson Square. Void from the coverage was any mention of "cultural center," ample coverage was given to "crime stricken area." Jackson Square a precarious area between Roxbury and Jamaica Plain has been discussed as the anchor to the stretch of Centre Street to be renamed "Avenue de las Americas." Though we haven't heard much about the renaming initiative since it was first floated back in August. Avenue de......

The Boston Globe reports today on an initiative by some local Latin American groups that is gaining support among some city officials. The City is considering renaming a portion of Centre Street in Jamaica Plain "Avenue de las Americas. At-Large City Council member Felix Arroyo, and Boston's first Hispanic council member, was named in the report as a supporter of the proposal. The idea is to give recognition to the portion of Centre Street......

When Bostonist didn't get into Harvard Law School, we settled for another fine, albeit architecturally challenged, institution in the area (and married a Harvard grad student, which made us feel much better). But according to a story in today's New York Times, high school students rejected by Harvard College are increasingly doing bachelor's degrees at the Harvard Extension School, seeing it as the Harvard experience on the cheap. (Why not just go to community college,......

This past weekend Franklin Park again played host to the annual Puerto Rican Festival. Boston seems to have lost interest in the festival overall. The only imagery, besides our own, found in local media came in the form of a single picture run in black and white in the Boston Globe and in color in the Metro. The Boston Herald used some imagery from the parade to discuss the recent filing in U.S. District Court......