Results tagged “corrections”

Ever "Written to the Top" to complain to the MBTA that a bus or train you expected never arrived? And maybe, just maybe, they wrote back in apology?

--MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas has received plenty of angry e-mails in his time, and should be able to take some serious heat. But he is furious about an e-mail from a Department of Corrections employee that got way too personal. Grabauskas is gay, and the e-mailer used anti-gay slurs about Grabauskas when describing MBTA service. Now Grabauskas is upset with Deval Patrick and his administration for not doing something about it sooner. The employee has been suspended. [Boston Herald]

--The Mattapan teenager who was shot in the jaw yesterday has not been named but was a student and basketball player at Charlestown High. Also yesterday, a man was stabbed last night on Cambridge Street, and he is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. --An armed robbery happened at the Au Bon Pain at Harvard Square the night of November 19. Matt Dunning Erin Smith at the Cambridge Chronicle reports that three masked robbers "tied...

The wife of Marquis Barker, the corrections officer who stole a police cruiser and was shot by police Wednesday, wants to know what happened. She said to reporters, "Eighteen years in law enforcement, and this is what he gets? Shot in the head?… Taser the man. Handcuff him, and put him down on the ground. Get him to a medical facility." Evidence discussed so far indicates that Barker's behavior that night is baffling. He had...

-- Police shot and killed a corrections officer last night. Marquis Barker, 38, an officer at Nashua Street Jail, was gunned down after stealing a police cruiser and leading officers on a chase through Dorchester and Mattapan. Police responding to calls found Barker out of control outside his Dorchester home, wielding what appeared to be a handgun. Barker begged police to shoot and kill him before escaping in the police cruiser. After crashing the cruiser...

The Phoenix posted the tenth annual Muzzle Awards. The listing, compiled by Media Nation blogger Dan Kennedy, showcases the offenses against free speech by local individuals and organizations. An apropos way to celebrate liberty for the Fourth of July. He gets the Muzzle this year by stifling the free speech of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami by refusing to provide state-police protection to the visiting former head of state. Boston Police stepped up to provide...

--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...

Since November the Boston Police Department has been bringing a little bit of the blotter to the blogosphere. Reports of daily incidents, updates on publicly reported crime, announcements, and media corrections have been available on the BPDNews.com website. As usual Hollywood, well, LA, is getting all the attention. The AP picked up a story last week emanating from the LA Times and the Times of London about the Los Angeles Police Departments new blog. Apparently the research monkeys in the trenches had one of two problems: they didn't look hard enough or they don't think that Boston is a major city. Boston's finest don't come right out and say it – but the post today indicates that they're playing blog politics and playing nice, "still first in the nation." Perhaps the most surprising about this all is the usually police-force-friendly Boston Herald neglected an edit to the AP story before they ran it in order to mention the BPDNews.com site, and the bloggers at BPD politely pointed that out.

The papers report today that an inmate in a Massachusetts state prison, doing a life term for the murder of his wife, is suing the Department of Corrections to force it to provide a sex change operation as part of his medical care. Naturally, this is not the first case of this kind to reach the federal courts. Nevertheless, there seems to be no sure answer as to whether the inmate, Robert/Michelle Kosilek, will prevail.

Bostonist loves a good book and we find extra comfort when that good book is written by a local Boston author. To help celebrate Picador Publishing's 10th anniversary in the literary world, they have offered up some free books to you readers out there. Who is this oh-so-generous publishing house, you might ask? Well, Picador is an imprint of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, and has published some of Bostonist's favorite novels (The Corrections, Running With Scissors, The Hours, etc.). To mark their big birthday, they have been traveling the country with a tour showcasing their books written by local authors. Picador's latest stop is at the Boston Athenaeum on Beacon Street tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. The event features two authors, Atul Gawande and James Wood, who will both be reading from their Picador novels. Gawande, chief resident in surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, authored Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, which focuses on the true stories of life in the medical world. Forget those plot lines on E.R.; these are stories that show the real world of medicine. This is Gawande's first novel and for those who think medical writing can't be enjoyable, the Globe thought otherwise: "descriptive without being condescending or mechanical. He's insightful, compassionate, and gently funny."

When Jenn Abelson called Bostonist last week, we told her the same thing we’re about to tell you, dear reader. Bostonist adheres to the Gothamist Family policy on tit-for-tat, quid pro quo, and pay-for-post entries in our little corner of the internet. Abelson’s article, "For a fee, some blogs boost firms: Concerns raised on disclosure," has caused a little bit of a stir in the local blogosphere. With the experience outlined by Susan Kaup on her post about the article, Bostonist might just be glad that the Globe didn’t decide to misrepresent our facts. Adam Gaffin deserves recognition for his standard newspaper disclosure, which he runs with every post at Universal Hub that is worthy of such disclosure.