View Larger Map Although the state of Massachusetts is nowhere near the state of Florida in earning its own Fark tag, we moved a little closer today when a story from the Herald reached the Fark front page with the tag "DUMBASS" and the following comment: Boston can't even build a sidewalk without three government agencies suing and fining each other. Alas, it is true, and it's even worse than the summary suggests. The sidewalk......

-- Police arrested the Dorchester man responsible for the February 27th lunch brawl at West Roxbury High School. Edwin Reyes, 39, surrendered to police yesterday. Police say that Reyes led a posse of four adults, including his two brothers and an unidentified woman, to assault a West Roxbury student who had allegedly beat up Reyes's son. Reyes stands accused of punching a West Roxbury student and driving his car into a school police officer while......

Last year, at his annual State of the City address, Mayor Thomas Menino sought to prove the thesis of the recently released Nas album entitled "Hip Hop is Dead" by declaring that the rap community had given him the name "T-Mizzy." He might need some credibility and political capital with minority Bostonians after unveiling at last night's speech that he wants to save on school transportation costs by dismantling part of the city's busing......

Mayor Thomas Menino will deliver his State of the City address tonight at the Strand Theater in Dorchester. However, the spotlight won't be solely on him--the Firefighters' Union has declared they will protest the event. Firefighters have been working without a contract, and they are arguing with the mayor over whether or not to have random drug and alcohol testing. The dispute arose after two firefighters died in the Tai Ho restaurant fire, and toxicology......

The Mayor's Office announced today that there are more homeless families in Boston. Mayor Thomas Menino and company held their annual Homeless Census and got the bad news. The number of homeless families shot up by 22%, from 2,535 to 3,084 this year.* This rise is alarming. The press office notes, "The number for families is higher for the third year in a row, meaning that children continue to be our fastest growing homeless population."......

Mayor Thomas Menino probably won't be happy with today's Boston Herald. The lead story paints a picture of Menino as a master player of the blame game. The article seems to be the result of Menino's rage after the snowstorm mess. Jessica Van Sack writes that people noticed Menino didn't step up and admit that any of those problems were his fault. It's old-school "you smelt it, you dealt it" politics. The piece suggests that......

Just when we got our hopes up that Mayor Thomas Menino had forgotten about his plans to move City Hall to South Boston, he declared yesterday that the move is still very much on his mind. Jay Fitzgerald reported that Menino spoke at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast yesterday, and he said that he'd like to sell the current City Hall space at Government Center and then use the money to move.......

--Handheld red laser beams can be a lot of fun, but a guy from Medford with a laser beam caused a ruckus on Saturday night when he pointed his beam at a State Police helicopter. The State Police swiftly summoned themselves, the Coast Guard, the Medford Police Department, and the Somerville Police Department to find the person. The feds are investigating. --The man who is accused of being the "Green Line Groper" has pled not......

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he's on Brockton's side when it comes to where the World Boxing Council should put a statue of Rocky Marciano--and it worked. The World Boxing Council (WBC) announced that it will erect a statue of Marciano in Marciano's hometown of Brockton after initially announcing it would be in Boston--much to Brockton's chagrin. The Globe reported that Mayor Menino and Brockton mayor James E. Harrington got in touch with WBC president......

--Since Red Sox fans have a reason to party this year, Mayor Thomas Menino is already stepping in to settle them down. He met with bar and restaurant owners to discuss when to cut off the sloppy drunks. He also said he doesn't want any live cameras in bars. No live cameras? What would a nationally televised game be without a cutaway to the fans who couldn't afford tickets but who still want to celebrate?......

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Mitt Romney's name translated in Chinese might mean "Sticky Rice." State Secretary William Galvin says the federal guv'mint wants the names of presidential candidates to be printed in Chinese characters on ballots in areas where the primary language is Chinese. That sounds like such a good idea that it probably should have been done a long time ago. But translating an American name into Chinese characters isn't exactly easy......

-- Red Sox fans got their first real regular-season glimpse of their $147 million team on Wednesday night, as Boston handed Kansas City a 7-1 loss at Kauffman Stadium. Jason Varitek got his first hit of the regular season with a single in the fourth, JD Drew's stepping up, Kevin Youkilis hit the team's first home run in the seventh and Josh Beckett (five innings, two hits, five strikeouts, four walks) put in a decent......

Do they have to keep picking on us? Wired published a story today about new wave advertising. The lead paragraph made mention of the January 31 boondoggle by the Boston Police"These types of marketing tactics will not and should not be tolerated," vowed Boston Mayor Thomas Menino after the now-infamous blinking LED ads for the Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force were discovered on bridges and underpasses, leading to a bomb scare that shut down......

Mayor Thomas Menino gave his "State of the City" address at the Strand Theater in Dorchester Tuesday night. And public safety was high on the agenda. Menino tried to warm up the audience by referencing the nickname he earned at last summer's hip-hop festival - "T-Mizzy." (So does that make Travaglini "T-Vag"? If so, we vow that we're going to use that nickname for the state senate president from now on!) After some awkward......

Some might say that the downturn came when they dumped "The Nutcracker" in favor of "Radio City Christmas Spectacular", while others could counter it has more to do with the dumbing of America, but today may mark the darkest day yet in the history of Boston's performing arts culture. They're renaming the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. Although we don't like to admit it, inside every Bostoninan lurks a 12-year old boy who stifles......

Don't let the threat of snow cause you to hibernate this weekend, here are some events to get you off the internerd and away from the TiVo. Tonight in Somerville at the Independent, the Mash Ave party goes off on its regularly scheduled night. For those who don't know, a mash up is DJ Dangermouse's remix of Jay-Z's "99 Problems" with the Beatles "Helter Skelter" on the Grey Album. Next Friday, Solcofn from DC......