--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......

Looks like the airlines aren't the only ones having "bad air days" (credit for the pun goes to the Herald's brilliant copyeditors). One of the pilots involved in the Vermont Air National Guard's Opening Day flyover over Fenway is in trouble for performing what is being called an "'unusual' maneuver." From the AP: "The F-16 pilot weaved under and above three other F-16s about 1,200 feet over Fenway Park Tuesday because he was going too......

--Everyone needs money, so it's not a surprise that Mayor Menino wants to increase fines for illegal parking in the city: "The largest increase will be for parking in a fire lane, which would rise from $40 to $100 under the mayor’s plan. Parking in front of a handicapped ramp would go from $50 to $100, while parking in front of a hydrant would rise from $75 to $100." [Boston Herald] --Former House speaker......

Well, Bostonist was thinking Bon Jovi, but Fenway Park delivered something quite different, smooth crooner Neil Diamond. Of course people will be thrilled to see Mr. Diamond on August 23 since his song "Sweet Caroline" is the icing on the cake at every Red Sox game. So good, so good ... Diamond even unveiled the news in a taped announcement at the home opener. But what is going to happen when he sings something other......

--Mayor Menino has a hotline, but there's no system to track the complaints. [Boston Globe] --Then again, do we really need to track messages such as one from February 4, 2008: "Would like the Mayor to know that he is "LOVING LIFE" this morning as he is a "DIE HARD GIANTS FAN"!!!!" [Boston Globe] --The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is scheduled to expand. [Boston Herald] --Local bloggers react to a New York Times trend......

Considering that two of the Red Sox' division rivals are named after birds, it's a wonder the avian kingdom hasn't struck at us more often. Small consolation to a middle-school girl from Connecticut, who was on a Fenway tour today and got attacked by a red-tailed hawk (similar to the one pictured). Everything turned out fine. The girl was treated and released, and the hawk and its nest are being sent away, presumably to Pawtucket......

--Some environmental activists took April Fool's seriously and punked the Bank of America on Boylston. [WCVB] --It's a bird! It's a plane! It's concrete falling from an overpass! This incident happened in Attleboro, whereas the last concrete incident was in Newton. [AP/Boston Globe] --Those plumes of smoke you may have seen in Milton this morning came from a mansion on fire. The fire chief said that the mansion had been neglected and had "clutter......

...Bon Jovi: "Wanted Dead or Alive" (or cash or check...) In a Billboard interview this week, '80s hair-metal holdover Jon Bon Jovi says in regards to his summer tour plans, I've got two choices. We've got the Giants, Soldiers, Fenways [sic] (stadiums) on hold or we stay in Europe because of the state of the economy. All these (arena) shows are sold out, but the July dates, I'm not sure where the economy's going......

It's a day that happens only in Boston, as far as we know. Maybe they do it in Milwaukee and Kansas City, but we doubt it; only Red Sox fans are maniacal enough to go out on a cold morning to watch some boxes be loaded in a truck. That's right, it's Truck Day - the day when the Sox equipment heads south for Fort Myers and Spring Training. It's the day when dozens of......

--Somebody left an Aqua Teen memento at Fenway. Mayor Menino is not amused. [WCVB] --Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so it's six more weeks of winter. [AP/Boston Globe] --As the Super Bowl approaches, people in Arizona are looking for creative ways to make money, such as renting their home on Super Bowl weekend and throwing some strippers into the bargain. [Eye on Foxborough] --Speaking of the Super Bowl, we're plugging our fingers in our......

A New England Patriots fan told Joe Fitzgerald at the Herald that some overzealous Pats fans beat up him, his friend, and his cousins, who happened to be Jaguars fans and who were wearing Jaguar gear, after the Pats-Jaguars game. Brian Wormstead recounts the appalling pummeling he received in the parking lot after a brief exchange with the Pats fans: "I just know I’ve got a punctured eardrum and lumps all over me; Chris has......

There are plenty of reasons to like Doc Rivers right now. Twenty-eight reasons, actually. But we wish we could kindly remind Rivers and the Celtics that you have to focus on winning the little games in order for the big games to mean anything. The Celts welcomed Memphis onto the TD Banknorth Garden floor on Friday night and nearly opened the door for the Grizzlies to win. Ray Allen struggled (two points overall) and, while......

Red Sox fans have it good when it comes to the hometown team, but it's not always easy. On one hand, the team has delivered two World Series titles in four seasons, and we're looking awfully good as we prepare for the 2008 season. But on the other, tickets to see the Sox play at Fenway Park are the hardest in MLB to acquire and they come with the biggest price tags. And while......

--A fire happened at Fenway Park this morning while construction workers were removing a temporary luxury suite. The fire was quickly put out, and no one was hurt. [WBZ] --A cousin of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley died Friday night in a fire in her Hyannis home. [Boston Globe] --The Air Force has found that Cape Wind wouldn't impact one of its radar stations. In an impressive NIMBY effort, Representative William Delahunt wanted to......

--State Senate President Therese Murray ruled that a nonbinding referendum on Governor Deval Patrick's plan to allow three casino licenses in the state could not be added to the March primary ballot. [Boston Globe] --Meanwhile, the state Senate voted 35 to 5 to pass a measure that would move next year's Massachusetts presidential primary from March 4 to February 5. [WBZ] --In an appalling case, a former Somerville police officer was found guilty yesterday......

How can you not love John Williams? He has given us some of the most memorable, mesmerizing film scores in cinematic history. Superman, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark! Films that are forever captured in multiple generations' minds and memories - and Bostonians can proudly puff out our chests and note that, given his longstanding ties to the Boston Pops, he is totally ours. So we wouldn't be surprised to know that there was a......

We did our best to spread the word on Sunday that Boston Police would be cracking down on debauchery outside Fenway Park during Game 7 of the ALCS, but let's face it: we're naturally curious. We wanted to see with our own eyes what the scene was like down by the ballpark, given the likelihood of stories running wild about who was going to take it too far: the crowd or the police. Police had......

Bostonist presents a public service announcement … Mayor Tom Menino and Police Commissioner Ed Davis held a press conference today to let the city know that the party police would be out in force for Game 7 in the ALCS. Whether the Red Sox win or lose (and they're gonna win, right?), the BPD will be ready. But, if you didn't get a ticket and you're planning on swarming upon Fenway Park, The Boston Police......

Sox fans, the request has been made of you: dig out your reddest of red and wear it proud today. The Sox brass hit the television news airwaves on Friday and asked you to show the Red Sox that you're behind them - and show the Indians that in order to get to the World Series, Cleveland is going to have to get past our team AND our fans on our turf. Fans have added......

First, the really great news: Josh Beckett managed to make C.C. Sabathia look like a Little League pitcher (no offense to some of those who are the future of America's pastime) on Friday night at Fenway Park, ably leading the Red Sox defense in what turned into a 10-3 routing in Game 1 of the ALCS. Seriously, we were a little worried about what hinted at a pitching fan's dream matchup - two great aces......

OK, we're as excited as anyone about the first game of the Boston-Anaheim ALDS. We'll get to that in a second. But let's begin by trying to imagine how thick the tension must have been within a conference room in the catacombs of Fenway Park recently, when Theo Epstein allowed Dan Shaughnessy to sit down and talk baseball. Seriously! After the columns and the gorilla suit, the jabs and the barbs, this was a matchup......

Congratulations, Sox fans! You made it through approximately three minutes of the Red Sox Rally Monday festivities at City Hall Plaza before the first chants of "Yankees Suck" filled the air. New record! Well done! A few thousand fans descended upon the plaza early Monday afternoon to cheer on their hometown baseball team (and decry the arch rivals) for the Boston version of the shindigs going on across the country. Rally Monday was a tradition......

Update: Our Ist-a-Verse family called the individual in this story a "Boston Idiot." We would like to clarify; hence, the photo. Yet another hoser ran across the Fenway Park field yesterday during the Red Sox-Yankees game. In the seventh inning, the guy 20-year-old Charles Gendron, of Maine, ran across the field and grabbed the cap off the head of Robinson Cano, the Yankees' second baseman. NESN cut away from the action, but Bostonist saw......

It was all going beautifully, in a manner that would make any Sox fan proud: Yankees roll into town for a late-season showdown. The Sox, boosted by a division lead and recent series of dramatic wins at Fenway Park, seemingly plunge their bats into the heart of New York baseball by taking a decisive lead in front of a riotous baseball crowd. After seven innings, Boston is five runs ahead and sitting pretty after a......

--Instead of saving up their allowance, pulling out some teeth for the Tooth Fairy, or asking Santa, three kids allegedly plotted a Nintendo Wii heist. The kids broke into a house on Chandler Street, but the owner came home and saw a 12-year-old girl in medias res, with the Wii in her hands. The owner grabbed the girl while her so-called friends, a 12-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy, tried to escape. The BPD was......

With rare exception, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays is a different team when Scott Kazmir is on the mound. But on Tuesday night, the Red Sox was also a different sort of team - one that came back for only the second time in 43 games from a deficit heading into the eighth inning. Yeah, that's right. The Sox were down late in the game and they actually came back to win, 2-1. The game......

If you believe the worst of the rumors, the members of the Police spend most of their downtime on the tour bus smashing bottles and going after one another with the jagged glass. But whatever happens offstage, it doesn't seem to affect the show. The Police reunion tour hit Fenway Park Saturday for the first of two nights, and they've hardly lost a step. The best part of a reunion that nobody thought would ever......

Local hero and movie star Matt Damon got his own star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on Wednesday. The event didn't have much to do with Boston, except for an ad in Variety that gave Defamer pause: One unexpected tribute, however, is the quarter-pager taken out by Damon's beloved Red Sox; presumably, should less frequently employed creative partner and Fenway Park ubiquity Ben Affleck ever receive his own star, the team will spring for a......

The Red Sox will be a long way from home tonight when they kick off their four-game series against the Cleveland Indians, but there's one player in particular that deserves to know that he has the folks back home standing in front of their television, applauding his image on the screen. We'd like to imagine that Jon Lester will be able to hear a faint roar of Boston cheers, sound that has traveled the 638.22......

Perhaps the blue shirts calling the shots at Fenway Park on Friday night were just bitter that they couldn't hang out in Harvard/Hogwart's Square with several thousands of their closest Harry Potter fans. Maybe they were concerned that J.D. Drew would further aggravate his hamstring by running all the way around the bases. We'd even like to think that they were just curious about whether Terry Francona would get himself thrown out of a game......