--Another storm is on the way starting tonight and running through Sunday evening. [WBZ] --One person died in a terrifying 8-alarm fire in downtown Gloucester last night. The fire also destroyed an apartment building and a synagogue. [Boston Globe, WCVB] --Regarding fires, b0st0n LiveJournal posted some fire safety tips. A lot of it is common sense (you really don't want to put the space heater by the curtains, ok?), but the reminders are useful. [b0st0n......

The MBTA has renewed its contract with the MBCR. Statistics confirmed what everyone knew—that commuter rail in Massachusetts needs a major overhaul, yet the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail Company will get three more years to do whatever it is that they do. So, when you're stuck on the train or waiting for the train, you know who to thank. For some background, Bostonist Noah Bierman's Globe piece on the history between the MBTA and MBCR.......

You know that former Massachusetts governor presidential aspirant Mitt Romney is rich. But did you know just how rich he is? He has spent a total of $10.2 million on TV ads--$85,000 a day, according to CNN. Ponder that a second. $85,000 a day--much of it his own money. He's donated $17.5 million of his own money to the campaign so far. To give a little perspective, Team Romney can drop $85,000 a day,......

Authorial Intent spotlights readings throughout the area. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Michelle Wildgen, You're Not You, Wednesday, October 3, 7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith. In Wildgen's debut novel, which is enjoying glowing reviews, Bec, a drifting college student, takes care of Kate, an older, sophisticated woman dying from ALS. The two grow close, and soon Bec is taking care of business for Kate - such as carrying out a clever little way to......

Who will be the next Boston Rob? Who cracked us up as much as "Mr. Boston" did when he wooed Tiffany "New York" Patterson? A new season of reality television has started, and Massachusetts residents are on many of the shows, so we'll take a tour of how they're doing each week. --Kid Nation: A child from Upton is participating in Kid Nation, the reality show that has stirred up all manner of controversy regarding......

Governor Deval Patrick is mulling over an idea that would lease bridges and roads to corporations. Casey Ross at the Herald has the details: If approved, a deal to privatize could mean leasing the Massachusetts Turnpike, Tobin Bridge or Big Dig tunnels to for-profit companies that would pay billions of dollars for the right to collect tolls from motorists for their use. Under such arrangements, the company leasing the road or bridge is responsible for......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

The results of today's primary for Marty Meehan's vacant seat in the 5th Congressional district have been announced. Niki Tsongas has beat out the Democrats in a crowded field, while Jim Ogonowski, who has been surprising constituents with telephone calls, won for the Republicans. The race between Niki Tsongas, widow of Paul Tsongas, and Eileen Donoghue, Lowell city councilor and former mayor of Lowell, was tight, as expected. According to the latest numbers, Tsongas edged......

--Authorities are asking women in East Boston to be careful. A creep armed with a screwdriver attacked three women near the Airport T stop yesterday morning. All three victims were able to fight him off. Here is a description of the attacker: Light skinned, Hispanic male with dark colored eyes, and high cheek bones, about, 5’7”-5’8”, 140 lbs, 18-25 years old, approximately 140lbs, last seen wearing tan pants, dark colored/black t-shirt with re lettering and......

As easy as it is to forget in the bustle of going back to school, going back to work, and Labor Day hangovers, the 5th district primary election is going on today. Five democrats and two republicans are battling it out to see who will fill the empty space that Marty "Daddy Warbucks" Meehan left when he became chancellor at UMass-Lowell. The 5th Congressional district covers Lowell, Methuen, and Lawrence. The Democrats who are running......

It's like Punxsutawney Phil at Groundhog Day. It's not really fall until a student plows his or her U-Haul into an overpass on Storrow Drive. This particular incident happened on Saturday afternoon, and the driver didn't stop until he or she took the roof clean off the U-Haul! The pictures on WBZ show the roof of the U-Haul dangling from the overpass, like a rumpled bedsheet. Of course, the incident clogged Labor Day weekend traffic.......

--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......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

A beautiful Friday sunset to wish you a great Labor Day weekend. The neat thing about this shot is that Flickr star innusa shows us the 180 degree view, as well as how the sky progressed a few seconds later. Have a great holiday weekend everyone! Stay tuned for a September Photo contest when you get back..........

Aye Caramba! Just in time for what promises to the most caliente Labor Day weekend in Boston history: if you mix up a mojito, do not rim the glass with flavored salt. No joke. The FDA says that the Stirrings, Inc., makers of Rimmer® Brand Mojito Cocktail Garnish have voluntarily recalled their green, minty salt-sugar mix nationwide because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Rimmer® is sold everywhere in the U.S.,......

Can you believe it's almost September? As an ode to the waning summer we have this excellent macro quahog shot from famed Cape Cod photog Chris Seufert. I love the perspective and detail in this, and give props to Chris for the effort it took to get this shot, he had to have gotten a bit wet in the process! Anyone else have any last-gasp of summer shots they'd like to share? Perhaps from......

A phalanx of U-Haul vans driven by college students has descended upon the city. Eventually, one of these vans will get stuck under an overpass on Storrow Drive. That's when you know fall is here. So Bostonist's writers have compiled a list of tips so both students and year-round residents can learn to coexist. 1. If you plan on attending the Sox game on Labor Day weekend, brace yourself. Some nitwit set up the schedule......

Google is looking at property in the Boston area for a new hub in the Hub. The Herald reported earlier this week that Google was looking for 100,000 to 200,000 square feet of office space in either Boston or Cambridge to launch a new operations center on the East Coast. The rumors of the Google invasion have come to Bostonist via emails and our tipline – while we can't substantiate any of them the job......

Martin Amis will read from House of Meetings at 6:00 pm at the Brattle Theater, courtesy of Harvard Book Store. By the way, tonight's reading with Paul Auster is sold out. Martin Amis has been trying to get Stalin out of his system for a while. It's not working. Amis' House of Meetings can be considered a fictional take on life - or what was left of it - under Stalin, a topic Amis covered......

Rumors have been blowing around in the windy Back Bay streets by their corporate headquarters for weeks. In 2002 the company was purchased for about $1.7 by three private equity firms, two of Boston, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, and the Blackstone Group of London and New York from the then French owners, Vivendi Universal. The publisher came back to the Boston roots they put down in the mid-eighteen hundreds. Today a deal......

Since Labor Day the Roomba creators at iRobot in Burlington have been hard at work. They’ve released two new versions of the popular vacuuming robot in as many weeks. The first release was a vacuum specifically designed for dealing with pets. Specifically their hair. The second Roomba was released today to HSN shoppers and will be available in the iRobot store starting tomorrow. The DirtDog is a shop-vac, that isn't even really a vac. They've......

Trilogy, the construction project in the Fenway that's seemed to take forever, is slowly wrapping up the construction phase. The small road connecting Kilmarnock Rd to Brookline Ave (the small intersection with Fullerton St. near the Art Store) was paved and opened about a month ago. The construction chain link was also removed. The Trilogy project is finally progressing on the road to a functioning building. West Elm, Ikea with more color and a higher......

With everything that's gone on with the Big Dig since the project started it isn't surprising that yet another delay was announced by the Turnpike Authority in reopening connector tunnels. They announced that because of engineering flaws in steel brackets that hold up concrete panels aren't actually strong enough to keep them up. Due skepticism was given when it was discovered that the glue holding the bolts in place wasn't doing the trick – but......

While many argue about the discrimination in this city, this ideology is also affecting the vermin in the city sewers as well. As many shocked restaurant patrons came to find out last Thursday, rats do not add to the ambience when inhaling a filet mignon on Newbury Street. Louis J. Antonellis, a local labor union guy for Electrical Workers Local 103, decided he had had enough with the Capital Grille after fighting with them for......

The not-so-secret secret that a ride around the lagoon on a swan boat on a steaming New England afternoon is a great way for a tourist to feel comfortable or a Bostonian to feel nostalgic for childhood when they first climbed aboard the bike pedal style powered boats. The Swan Boats launch every May and are taken out of the water and stored at Labor Day – USA today reports, via the AP, that the......

Memorial Day has come and gone, and despite the torrential rains, in a few weeks it will be officially summer. This naturally implies two things: It’s safe to start adding white back into your palette of wardrobe colors… and If you’ve ever been (even affectionately) referred to as “butter fingers” – it may be time to shelve the red wine for a few months (at least till Labor Day) and save the stains on your......

While some parts of the country saw massive marches and demonstrations during yesterday's "Day Without Immigrants," Boston's turnout was relatively modest. (The Hi-Spot Deli downtown was totally closed, though.) Nevertheless, the Bostonist team diligently snapped a few photos of events downtown, in Harvard Yard, and at Cambridge City Hall (yeah, we know we have too many pictures of Middlesex County. We're working on it.), and here they are. You can see links to more pictures......

Today is May Day, which in the old days, when labor had some clout in this country, meant unruly socialist rallies and general anarchy in the streets. In this more civilized time, we have learned to peg our obligatory working man's holiday to a long weekend, guaranteeing that most wage slaves will be home grilling rather than out seeking to overthrow their duly elected government. Perhaps conscious of the date's history, many of the same......

Maybe you were walking by City Hall Plaza today and noticed a strange encampment of sign- and flyer-bearing, Spanish-speaking protesters on the traffic island where State Street meets Tremont. Perhaps you said to yourself, "What gives? I thought yesterday was the big day for immigrant protests!" Maybe you even took a flyer (see right). Still, you would likely have been left wondering, "Why are these people making such a fuss about UNICCO, the Mass.-based cleaning......

The way things work here at Bostonist headquarters, when one of our beloved readers has an important observation about something we've written and posts it in the form of a clever comment, Moveable Type quickly sends a copy of that missive to the e-mail account of the person who wrote the post. Sadly, there are those selfish individuals roaming the wide open spaces of the internet who take advantage of this simple system to get......