Well, City Councilor John Tobin has a solution for low voter turnout, and it's not a MoFee Style Public Kvetch-Fest. If Mayor Tom Menino thought he didn't like the idea of Kvetch-Fest 2008, he must have blown his stack when he heard what Councilor Tobin proposed. Tobin wants to limit mayoral and city council terms to 12 years. Menino, who is an institution along the lines of the Old South Meeting House, has already served......

There may be no institution in the city as diverse as the Boston Public Library, whose resources entice students, intellectuals, high culture types, the elderly, foreign language speakers, the homeless, and bookworms of all persuasions. Recently, though, the BPL has also been attracting some unwanted attention from Mayor Tom Menino. Menino's administration has taken greater control over how the BPL uses money that has been donated to it by benefactors. According to the Globe, the......

Despite costing us the Super Bowl, Boston is Mayor Tom Menino's city to lose. Given relative peace and prosperity, and the incredible challenge of defeating an incumbent, Menino will likely decide when and how his tenure as mayor comes to an end. Still, a rival politician can dream. The Globe today details three people who are weighing a run for mayor in 2009: --City Councilor at Large Michael Flaherty, 38, who's been having low-key......

Massachusetts' legendary senior Senator and national liberal icon, Ted Kennedy. Massachusetts' junior Senator and the 2004 Democratic nominee, John Kerry. Massachusetts' precedent-shattering Governor, Deval Patrick. None of the endorsements were enough for Barack Obama to win the Massachusetts primary. While we gave a lot of attention yesterday to Senator Obama's epic Boston rally, Seth Gitell was reminding people that--press attention and celebrity status aside--the two strongest political machines in the state belong to Boston's......

Super Bowl Media Day is the professional football equivalent of the annual family reunion. A bunch of people get together, often traveling long distances, for the purpose of catching up. There's little that they have in common, but since they sort of fall under the same name, everyone has to make nice. The hijinks on display makes for a hilarious time for those not directly involved. People make nice and dumb down the stories of......

--Just because you're a Harvard student doesn't mean you're smart. The Crimson reports that a junior was arrested for "hitting and kicking a police officer and breaking the window of a patrol car." What could have irritated him so much? His friends said that he was "intoxicated at the time." That's an understatement. --Anarchist wannabes have been torching a few American flags in Western Mass, police say. On Friday night, a large flag hanging in......

The Transportation Department and Mayor Tom Menino want you to know that, if you get a parking ticket, you can pay for your ticket if you donate a toy "of equal or greater value than the fine on the ticket." As Amy Derjue at Boston Daily points out, "some lame toy from Family Dollar" will not do. If you have a parking ticket that you've been putting off paying, the offer doesn't apply to you.......

--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......

While he was holding on to the 2004 World Series trophy and stepping off a stage, Mayor Tom Menino got a little too excited and fell. He injured his knee just before today's Rolling Rally. His spokeswoman told the Globe that Menino "hyperextended his knee" but heroically sacrificed himself: "He saved the trophy. He was more concerned about the trophy than himself." It could have been worse. The tips of the flags on that trophy......

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......

The story of the drugs and alcohol found in the toxicology results for the bodies of firefighters Warren Payne and Paul Cahill has three threads--the freedom of the press, public safety, and the memory of the firefighters themselves. As noted earlier, all news outlets except WHDH reported yesterday and today about the toxicology results. WHDH couldn't report because Suffolk Superior Court Judge Merita Hopkins silenced them at the request of the firefighters' union. WHDH appealed,......

Mayor Tom Menino is steamed because people are being injured by steam coming from manholes. He wants the private energy company Trigen-Boston to get it together, do its job, and fix the pipes, some of which haven't been updated since the 1950s. Beyond injuries, Dave Wedge at the Herald notes that one especially steamy manhole led to a "rush-hour shutdown on Congress Street." He also said that Menino was ready to "blow his top." Maybe......

Some people might wind up on the blotter starting tomorrow. Police are getting ready for an onslaught of protesters for Bio 2007, the gigantic biotech conference that starts on Sunday. We think that making such a fuss about it makes protesters look like a bunch of peasants armed with pitchforks, and anyone working in biotech should already be prepared for people to have a lot of questions. It's probably going to be a lot of......

Just wondering. Someone had to fall on the sword, and Mayor Tom Menino sure did seem happy when the head of Cartoon Network, Jim Samples, took the plunge and resigned from his post after the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Incident. Mayor Menino told the Globe, "Somebody had to pay…. He's the one who made all the decisions, and he didn't do anything to react to the concerns. The resignation should really serve as a message......

It seems the U.S. Navy is a little short-handed these days for viable training grounds to simulate Iraq-like combat. According to a report in today's Herald, the Pentagon is considering the South Boston waterfront as an arena for war-game exercises later this summer. Apparently the narrow street and proximity to water makes Southie the ideal location to prepare for real danger in Fallujah or Baghdad: The Navy hopes to take over Drydock and Kennedy avenues......

In his 12 years of service to the people of Boston, Mayor Tom Menino has made technological advancement a cornerstone of his administration. Under his leadership Boston became the first U.S. city to completely wire every public classroom, and was one of the first to introduce free internet access in public libraries. On May 19th, Menino and City Councilor John Tobin are leading a public summit to: ...discuss how the City of Boston could use......

Seemingly annoyed with constantly having to live in the shadow of their bigger sibling, Boston, Mayor Joe Curtatone of Somerville and Mayor Mike Sullivan of Cambridge have teamed up to bring Boston Mayor Tom Menino to his knees. Joining forces with Mitch Kates, former Professional Wrestler and current aide to Boston Mayoral-challenger Maura Hennigan, the two north-of-the-Charles Mayor's have issued a strong challenge to Menino. Taking clues from Kates' recent appearance at Boston University, Curtatone......