Results tagged “firefighters”

• Thirteen communities Massachusetts are getting $8.1 million in federal stimulus cash to rehire 127 firefighters. [Boston Herald]

• While Martha Coakley has some favorable polling data, Alan Khazei has something Coakley probably won't get: the endorsement of a Kennedy, in this case, RFK's son Max Kennedy. [Boston Globe]

Update: It pains us to write this, because the whole event seemed so hilarious—another reason to love our Jakes—but, apparently, the fire drill was not the doing of the Boston Fire Department. Our usually more level-headed friends at Universal Hub, where we got the story in the first place, have issued a retraction, and we'll do the same. Apparently, the fire drill was scheduled by the building management, not the BFD. So, sorry, Jakes!

The Suffolk County D.A.'s office has just announced the arrest of Paul Bradley, Jr., a Boston firefighter, and his father, Paul Bradley, Sr., on fugitive justice charges. The two men are wanted in the State of Maine for allegedly operating a marijuana grow house, which included 22 marijuana plants. Bradley isn't the first Boston Jake to find himself the target of a drug investigation. Firefighter Sean Berte had his Maine home raided in May, when police allegedly turned up 131 marijuana plants, which means that Bradley had some alleged catching up to do. And last November, Texas police busted a disabled Boston firefighter allegedly rolling through the state with 41 pounds of weed.

Sunday's slow pace followed an action-packed July 4 for this Bostonist. That left free time for some idle thoughts on some pressing, or not depending on your perspective, issues:

The city of Boston and the men who fill the ranks of the Boston Fire Department simply can't get along. Contract disputes have long since gone nuclear and now any controversy turns into a five-alarm blaze of rhetoric and posturing perfectly designed for the city's competitive media outlets.

It's a time-honored tradition: when laws get tough, people scramble to avoid them. The latest instance of this phenomenon comes with Boston firefighters, who are hurrying to cash in their pensions before a new law goes into effect that would reduce the size of said pensions. Firefighters who were injured on the job while filling in for a (higher-paid) supervisor used to be able to get additional pension money when filing for disability, due to their temporarily elevated status. About 100 firefighters had filed for such benefits over the past six years, but the change in the law has prompted 29 former flame-battlers to try to get in on the hot action this week (perhaps before beginning their bodybuilding careers). The new law bases pension for disabled firefighters on the firefighters' own average salary, not that of supervisors.

• A fire truck crashed into a building in Mission Hill. One firefighter was killed, three firefighters were hurt, and some children that had been in the building suffered minor injuries as well. The truck's brakes may have failed. [Globe]
• Salmonella strikes Mass. [Herald]
• Gary Wilson, originally assigned to investigate DiMasi accountant Richard Vitale, has been removed from the case for donating to DiMasi's campaign. [Globe]

...including, possibly, cover-ups. The Globe reports that the medical files of three Boston jakes who had claimed career-ending injuries cannot be found by FBI agents investigating improper disability claims. Samuel Tyler, president of Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded watchdog group put it drolly, "The suspicious disappearance of the files would seem to reaffirm suspicions that some of the injuries being investigated by the US attorney may not have been legitimate."

Professional bodybuilders are no longer entitled to disability pay.

The Boston Fire Department thought they had problems with Mayor Tom Menino when they were resistant to random drug testing. Now the federal government has reason to investigate them. It appears that some firefighters have been making disability claims at higher rates by claiming that they were filling in for a supervisor, hence making more money and getting more in their pensions.

--Divers are looking for the body of a man who somehow went from the Mass Pike into Sudbury River last night. [Boston Globe]

--Another snowstorm is on its way and is expected to have its greatest impact tonight. [WCVB] --Speaking of snow, Bostonist has the temperature and weather-condition icons at the top left of the home page. If you click on that icon, you'll get all the latest weather news. --People got cold in order to protest the heat of global warming during yesterday's Polar Bear Plunge in Concord. [AP/Globe] --Patriots owner Robert Kraft is partnering with...

--The State House is pretty on the outside and a festering mess on the inside. Senate President Therese Murray thinks private donations might help. [Boston Globe] --Remember Marilyn Devaney, the Watertown town councilor who is facing charges of attacking a beauty-supply clerk with a curling iron box? She got voted out, but a recount is under way, and the story is far from over. Even if you don't know who Marilyn Devaney is, we...