--Bechtel, Parsons & Brinckerhoff still keeps this city on a tight leash. They received $5.3 million after the Big Dig was supposedly finished. [Boston Herald] --Local restaurants are going to stop selling bottled water and get people who want water to drink tap. This news leads to the following question--how do you feel about the local tap water? [WCVB] --The Boston City Council wants to move voting day to Saturday. Voter turnout is so......

After much fanfare, Bechtel Parsons/Brinckerhoff has agreed to settle a lawsuit from the state and will pay $407 million. Smaller companies involved with the Big Dig will pay $51 million. $400 million seems small given the cost overruns of the Big Dig, but the state won't be turning that kind of money down. The AP report on WBZ notes that Bechtel Parsons/Brinckerhoff received $2 billion for consulting on the project, so this is a partial......

--A new bill that limits--but doesn't ban--skin-shock treatments at the Judge Rotenberg Center was under discussion yesterday at the State House. The bill would "allow shocks to stop students from hurting themselves or others, but would prohibit shocks for more "minor" acts such as swearing, shouting, or failing to complete a task." And maybe employees could be a little more questioning instead of serving shocks whenever anyone calls up and asks for one. [Boston......

--Paul F. Ware Jr., the special prosecutor looking into the Big Dig has cost the state $1 million so far. Maybe, if the AG's office actually gets around to getting some money out of Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, they can foot the bill. [Boston Globe] --More gratuitous limos and tour buses in New Hampshire! Oprah's coming to town to campaign for Obama! She'll be in Manchester, NH, on December 9. [WBZ] --The Worcester Telegram & Gazette gets......

After the Middleborough Mess that just served to show how divided this state is over casinos, Governor Deval Patrick has decided to make a move. He's declaring himself pro-casino and presented plans to build three casinos in Massachusetts. The three casinos will be placed to distribute the resulting wealth - if it arrives - throughout the state. Those who want to open a casino will have to bid for possession of the three licenses. That......

Breaking news out of the tunnels today is that the inevitable legal action is now official. The family of Milena Del Valle, the Jamaica Plain resident killed when ceiling tiles in the I-90 connector tunnel crushed her in July, are suing in a wrongful death case. The legal action names the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, and eight other companies who worked on the project as responsible for the death of Del Valle. There was......

Just in case the prospect of death and destruction at the airport weren't enough, there's more news today in the ongoing saga of the route to the airport here in Boston. Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the contractor overseeing the Big Dig, has now announced that the bolts holding up ceiling panels in the Ted Williams tunnel - the ones that haven't already given out and caused a fatal ceiling collapse - may not be good for the......

Two days after the I-90 connector tragedy, answers are starting to surface. Unfortunately, none of them are what you’d want to hear. Given the history of mismanagement surrounding the Big Dig project, it should come as no surprise that problems were discovered as early as 1999, when at least five bolts in the connector failed routine testing. It may be worth mentioning that these bolts, which anchored the tie rods holding 3-ton panels, were fastened......