Jim McCue Book Launch Party Comedy Connection Faneuil Hall (T: Government Center) Sunday, December 16, 8:00 pm, $15 Free for veterans and military personnel Official Jim McCue Site AnySoldier.com The troops could use a lot from us right now, whether it be body armor or sunblock. But one local performer is using his specific talents to make the lives of the troops a little bit better. Comedian Jim McCue, who is also co-founder of the......

After the Mooninite Menace and Star Simpson's light-up sweatshirt, we were starting to think that the entire city of Boston was afraid of its own shadow. But Toronto just made us feel better by having its own experience of homeland security gone awry in the face of art. Torontoist has an interview up with a gentleman who just scared the holy shit out of the city. And this is Canada, people, aka America's Hat. They're......

The Globe published a long piece about the mystery still surrounding Army specialist Ciara Durkin's death in Afghanistan in late September. Durkin, who was from Quincy, was shot in the head, although the Army called it a "non-combat-related incident." Her family is not satisfied with that explanation, and the Globe report provides evidence that someone on the base may have had it out for Durkin. In one event, Durkin wrote an e-mail saying, "Ok. so......

The Pentagon has announced that Army Specialist Christine M. Ndururi, 21, of Dracut, died on Tuesday. The military has stated the cause of death was an "unspecified illness." Her family wants to know what happened now because it was the first day of her first overseas mission. Her father told the Eagle-Tribune that she hadn't been sick: "I’m waiting for them to tell me what happened. She was not ill, unless she was ill after......

Army Private First Class Kenneth J. Iwasinski, age 22, of Belchertown, was killed on Sunday in Baghdad. Iwasinski, a member of the Second Infantry Division's Second Brigade Combat Team, was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED). It blew up near his Humvee. His father told the Globe that Iwasinski was a gunner. The Republican said that he was also nominated for soldier of the month three times.......

BulgerMania seems to have broken out in Italy because police are seeing Whitey Bulger and his girlfriend everywhere. Even if you don't look like Whitey Bulger but happen to be an old white guy, do not go to Italy. The FBI posted an image and video of a distinguished-looking white couple strolling through Italy. And, what do you know, distinguished-looking white guys who don't even look like Bulger are getting hassled. Earlier this month, poor......

The death of Ciara Durkin, Quincy resident and member of the National Guard in Afghanistan, is gaining widespread attention because of questions surrounding her death. After saying that Durkin died in combat, the Pentagon has said that she did not die in combat, but she was actually shot in the head while on a secure base. Her family announced yesterday that Army investigators met with them for four hours on Wednesday to reassure them that......

…maybe because he is your average elderly tourist! Back when the FBI was posting pictures of an old white guy on its website because they thought it was Whitey Bulger, Bostonist wrote, "The particular pair in the photo look like any other upper-class retired couple looking for a European wine-tasting. If it isn't Whitey Bulger, then the retired couple mistaken for Bulger and Grieg are in for quite a surprise." And guess what? An old......

A Quincy resident was killed in action in Afghanistan on Thursday. Specialist Ciara Durkin was in the National Guard and part of a finance unit. She was 30. Via the Patriot-Ledger, RTE of Ireland is reporting that she was shot in the head inside Bagram Air Base. Her sister told the Globe, "She was in a secure area of the compound, which, even though the investigation is not complete, leads the family to believe it......

Ari Brown-Weeks, 23, of Leyden in Western Mass, died in Iraq in a truck accident. Weeks was with the Army's 82d Airborne Division. He was one of seven paratroopers who died when their vehicle rolled over on Monday in Western Baghdad. The truck fell 30 feet from an elevated highway. The Recorder notes that he had been in Iraq for over a year and was scheduled to return in October.......

The Darfur/Darfur Exhibit will be at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Friday, September 7, in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater. The exhibit of photographs will run from 10 am to 3 pm and is free with regular admission. Tickets to the lecture and Yo-Yo Ma performance are already sold out, but you will be able to hear it outside the ICA. Sometimes "awareness-raising" only goes so far, especially when it comes to......

Yet another Massachusetts resident has died in Iraq. Jeremy Bouffard of Middlefield was one of the soldiers killed in Wednesday's Black Hawk helicopter crash in northern Iraq. Bouffard, 21, was married and had a son. He was in the 25th Infantry Division. The crash killed 14 soldiers in all. The military says that mechanical problems were the cause.......

This has been a terrible week for Massachusetts when it comes to the war in Iraq. The Pentagon has announced that a third resident of the state has died. Green Beret Robert Pirelli, of Franklin, was killed in Iraq. He was in the 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), based in Fort Carson, Colorado. He was 29. The Pentagon has released information that Pirelli died in small-arms fire in Diyala Province. Pirelli was supposed......

Update: Birchett's family has said that she was killed when the truck's brakes failed as she changed the tire. The Pentagon has announced that Army Staff Sergeant Alicia Birchett, 29, died last Thursday in Iraq. She was from Mashpee. One of Birchett's cousins said that she was changing a tire by the road in Baghdad and was somehow crushed. The Pentagon said that the incident is "under investigation." Birchett was with the 887th Engineer Company,......

Army sergeant Joan Duran, 24, of Roxbury, died in Iraq. A report on Fox 25 said that Duran was on his second tour of duty and was scheduled to get out in two months. He attended Boston Latin and joined the Army right after graduation. He was based out of Fort Bragg. Fox 25 interviewed his fiancee, Andrea Silva, who said he had plans to be a math teacher once he left the Army. The......

Do you have any spare toiletries? Books? Magazines? Anything to relieve the irritation and boredom that the troops in Iraq feel when they're not getting shot at? Bring 'em down to South Station today, then. A coalition of people, including the Commuter Rail Union, the Firefighters Union, the Teamsters, MBCR, and the MBTA are at the station. They have large bins decorated with American flags both inside and outside the station. The items must be......

First, the good news for Yaderlin Hiraldo Jimenez, the wife of missing American soldier and Lawrence resident Alex Jimenez - after all the sturm und drang und red tape, she got her green card! The Eagle Tribune, which has been running a series on Jimenez and his family spoke with her about how she's feeling. She said, " "I feel relieved and thankful for those who supported me." She also discussed the pain of not......

UPDATE: From the AP: "US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday his agency will seek to "terminate" the deportation case against the wife of a Massachusetts soldier missing in Iraq so she can stay in the country and apply for permanent resident status." Unless we're mistaken, that sounds like Yaderlin Jimenez will be able to get her green card. Yesterday, word spread all over the Web that Yaderlin Jimenez, wife of missing......

The US government is considering deporting the wife of Alex Jimenez, the soldier from Lawrence who has been missing in Iraq since May 12. Jimenez is a citizen of the United States. His wife, Yaderlin, is not. She came here illegally from the Dominican Republic, and they married. She was in the process of getting a green card, but, according to WBZ, an immigration judge stopped the process when Alex Jimenez went missing. Her lawyer......

"Baby you can drive my car. I got no car and it's breaking my heart, but I've found a driver and that's a start" The Vatican is trying to take all the fun out of driving. Today they issued a set of guidelines that hits home for Boston, a city full of Masshole drivers and Catholics – two groups which are often one in the same. The ten rules, or "commandments," for drivers hit the......

Troops found the ID cards of two of the missing men, including Sgt. Alex Jimenez of Lawrence. The cards were located in an "al-Qaeda safe house." Jimenez was captured on May 12. A group had claimed that Jimenez and another soldier who went missing on the same day were dead, but no bodies have been found. Three soldiers were taken in the original May 12 ambush. One of them was killed, and his body was......

The Associated Press is reporting that the Al-Qaida-linked insurgents who captured three U.S. soldiers in Iraq last month released a video that says that the men - including Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25 and of Lawrence - have been killed. "The Americans sent 4,000 soldiers looking for them," a voice on the video says, according to the AP. "They were alive and then dead." According to reports, the video includes footage of insurgents planning the......

American troops keep dying in Iraq, and that includes several troops from Massachusetts. A Lawrence family is left wondering if their son is dead or captured, and a well-known BU professor who spoke out against the war lost his son. Alex Jimenez of Lawrence is one of three soldiers who are missing after an ambush in Mahmoudiya that left four soldiers and a translator dead. One soldier who has died has not been identified, which......

..Running the Marathon on the International Space Station. Apparently you don't have to be in Boston on Patriots Day to run in the Marathon. For the last three years the Marathon has been run in Iraq with support from the Boston Athletic Association (or the BAA - the organization that runs the marathon). This year they'll be sending trophies and a finish line tape to Kosovo for a similar endeavor. The furthest competitor this year*......

Yesterday marked the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. 3,200 troops have died. The following are the soldiers from Massachusetts who lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as listed in the Washington Post: Sgt. Glenn R. Allison - Pittsfield / Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo - Randolph / Spec. David J. Babineau - Springfield / Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Bellavia - Wakefield / 2nd Lt. Joshua L.......

Ishmael Beah will read at the Brattle Theatre at 6:00 pm tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13. Tickets are $3. It's rare when you see Jon Stewart flummoxed. But author Ishmael Beah's life story almost left Stewart at a loss for words. He said the book "made his heart hurt." Just hearing about the book would "make your heart hurt." Ishmael Beah writes of his experiences fighting in Sierra Leone in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of......

Judging by the looks of it, the Bush Administration wishes that the nation would just forget that American soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq. But they haven't forgotten in Boston. After several years of war, yesterday's protest on Boston Common drew what the Globe estimated to be several hundred people. The Globe also reported that the "turnout at today's event was better than expected." The war has been hitting Massachusetts directly. Keith Callahan,......

The announcement came out around this time last year that MIT Media Lab Co-Founder and former Director Nicholas Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization were nearing a working prototype of a $100 laptop to get to more children around the world. The OLPC would help break down the digital divide by providing the poor with access to the tools of the digital age. Our post on the matter may have set the......

A United Airlines plane travelling from London to Washington D.C. was forced to land at Logan Airport this morning after a 60-year-old female passenger became agitated, claiming fear of claustrophobia on board. This U.S. citizen had to be restrained by passengers and was arrested by State Police once the plane landed at Terminal E. We much prefer when planes are diverted to less populated places, like Bangor. It's a little disconcerting that this DC-bound......

The Christian Science Monitor released part 1 of their ten part series on Jill Carroll's abduction and subsequent captivity in Iraq. Carroll, a UMass – Amherst graduate had been working for the paper for only a few months as an Iraq correspondent when she was taken captive in Iraq. She survived 82 days in captivity before being released. The numerous deadlines and threats from her captors, videos released of the journalist, and eventual return......