On Tuesday we wrote about how Governor Deval Patrick's intellectually lazy casino job creation numbers gave ammunition to the skeptical of gambling Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. Yesterday, however, Patrick got some good news from the Chamber of Commerce, who released numbers much more helpful to his cause. The previous criticism was related to Patrick's projection that the three proposed casinos would create 30,000 new construction jobs, while a more balanced analysis in......

It seems that the Bruins' approach to the NHL trade deadline - to hold steady and remain as is - might just pay off. On Tuesday night, against an Ottawa Senators team that the Globe kindly referred to as "thoroughly disinterested" (read: someone's will to play didn't arrive at the TDBN Garden with the rest of the Senators' gear), the Bruins cruised along to a 4-0 win, extending the winning ways that began out on......

Be warned, Starbucks addicts and people who like free bathrooms: The coffee shop will be closed tonight between 5:30 and 9:00 for an emergency training of its employees, or "baristas," as they are known. In a city where the Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts battle rages, Dunkin' Donuts is staking its claim by cutting prices on its small drinks to 99 cents until 10:00 pm, WBZ reports. Dunkin' Donuts is declaring coffee war, and it's......

BootWatch: Tom Brady sprained his right ankle. It is a high ankle sprain viewed as minor, according to the local media types, and while it's a big enough deal to have rendered The Boot necessary in New York on Monday, it's not enough to keep QB Brady out of the Really, Really Big Game on February 3. We're going to go out on a limb here and state that we're not going to invest much......

All the local news outlets went nutty over Ben Affleck at the Boston premiere of Gone Baby Gone. They were especially tickled that Matt Damon showed up, too. Of course they both said they would sneak out so they wouldn't miss the Red Sox game. Affleck is on a real hearts-and-minds mission. On Tuesday, he went to City Hall and joined Mayor Menino to help the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) unionize hospital employees.......

Anyone who questions that old phrase "idle hands are the devil's tools" ought to take a look at what happens in sports cities when the games are in desperately short supply. When no one's playing, people get ansty. They start speculating. Guessing. Predicting. Complaining - and no good can come of that. We need sports action, people! Thank goodness the Bruins are set to answer the call tonight, when they face off on the ice......

Fans of the local Boston music scene always have an abundance of tunes to be able to check out, given the ever-deepening pool of area talent and multitude of venues. Usually, things work out in the listeners' favor: one can't miss band one night, another the next. But sometimes the fates align themselves and cackle a bit as a potential audience member realizes she can't be two places at once. A musical cagematch emerges, with......

--Melvin Heard was once an Assistant DA working for Dan Conley. Now he faces charges of beating his own fiancée. The charges have cost Heard his job. DA Dan Conley said in a statement: "On the morning of Monday, Aug. 20, immediately upon hearing of Melvin Heard’s arrest, I ordered him placed on unpaid leave. Our office undertook its own inquiry into the matter and four days later, on Aug. 24, he was terminated." Heard's......

No, silly! Not that kind of junk! Do you have a velvet Elvis that you don't think is getting enough attention? Or an especially vulgar Granny Fanny lawn ornament? Don't worry - the Brockton Rox wants to know about your so-called "weird junk" as part of a promotion it's running along with 1-800-GOT-JUNK. On Tuesday, August 14, the Rox will gather the finalists at Campanelli Stadium to "explain" their junk. (Bostonist assumes that any reproductions......

--A man has been sentenced to two years in jail for threatening a teenager with a hatchet after fighting over a pump position at a Revere gas station, according to a release from the DA's office. The message? Rein in your temper, especially if there's a sharp object nearby. That goes for hatchets and machetes. DA Daniel Conley said in a classic understatement, "The decision to keep a hatchet in one’s vehicle is bizarre, but......

This one couldn't be contained in the blotter … WBZ had the headline screaming "Dominatrix Mom Arrested on Prostitution Charge." And get this - she's from Gallows Hill. Wife, mother of two, and dominatrix Paula Webb was arrested on Wednesday night. A while back, her own husband, who was mad at her after a fight, showed police what Webb had in her dungeon: "There, the patrolmen got an eyeful - the room was set up......

On Tuesday, the American -ists will be celebrating democracy and hitting the polls, letting politicians know what they really think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? Londonist votes for better skincare, alternative spaces for art, cute little birds and the men who keep them, and concrete. Lots of concrete. Shanghaiist votes for one of the Bee Gees and Air Supply (it's a double-ticket),......