--Some environmental activists took April Fool's seriously and punked the Bank of America on Boylston. [WCVB] --It's a bird! It's a plane! It's concrete falling from an overpass! This incident happened in Attleboro, whereas the last concrete incident was in Newton. [AP/Boston Globe] --Those plumes of smoke you may have seen in Milton this morning came from a mansion on fire. The fire chief said that the mansion had been neglected and had "clutter......

--Coverage of yesterday's rally on the Common protesting Chinese repression in Tibet. [BU Daily Free Press, Boston Globe] --In protests of a more frivolous nature, it seems that someone has been publicly stating a problem with the Phoenix's Adult section. At first, we assumed the protest at Gary's Liquors in West Roxbury was that the section wasn't titillating enough, but we were wrong. [Universal Hub] --The National Transportation Safety Board says it won't probe commuter......

It was Guy Fawkes versus L. Rob Hubbard yesterday on Beacon Street. More than 100 people were outside Boston’s branch of The Church of Scientology yesterday, protesting the practices of the church, Boston NOW reported. Led by the Anti-Scientologist internet group Anonymous, word was spread about numerous protests worldwide through You Tube, message boards, and e-mail. Anonymous had previously announced that February 10th would be a day of mass protest of all Scientology churches......

Boston Tea Party Sunday, December 16--Today Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington, 5:30 pm $5, free if you're dressed up Old South Meeting House site One lump or two? Two hundred and thirty-four years ago, Bostonians rebelled against the British by gathering at a massive protest and dumping tea into the harbor. Re-enactors will be at the Old South Meeting House to perform the debate that led up to the tea party. You'll see......

--Another snowstorm is on its way and is expected to have its greatest impact tonight. [WCVB] --Speaking of snow, Bostonist has the temperature and weather-condition icons at the top left of the home page. If you click on that icon, you'll get all the latest weather news. --People got cold in order to protest the heat of global warming during yesterday's Polar Bear Plunge in Concord. [AP/Globe] --Patriots owner Robert Kraft is partnering with......

--Boston Daily has been following the story of Bernard Margolis, the Boston Public Library president who got fired by Mayor Menino. And Margolis has plenty to say about it. [Boston Daily] --The South End Is Over isn't over. And the incoming yuppies South End Is Over doesn't like better watch out: "If the Eagle ever closes, which I hope it will not, if only to annoy the pretentious Atelier dwelling yups across the street, I......

Last Saturday, a group of wallflowers, mostly in their twenties, lined the auditorium of Allston's International Community Church (ICC). The event had all the markings of an awkward youth group mixer, from the empty checkerboard floor to the folk singer on stage. But the attendees weren't there to pray. They were there to eat. It was the Launch Party for the Boston Vegan Association (BVA), and tables sat covered with food donations from members and......

If you see incredibly offensive signs or spot a ruckus breaking out at Boston churches tomorrow, don't be surprised. Bostonist wants to warn you that Fred Phelps, the poor excuse for a human being who has picketed funerals of American soldiers with signs that say "GOD HATES FAGS," will be in town this weekend. Sam Baltrusis at EDGE Boston writes, Rev. Fred Phelps and his vitriolic, anti-gay group of supporters will be in Massachusetts on......

Young Turks Two Art Exhibit Nave Gallery 155 Powder House Blvd, Somerville Through November 4 Hours: Friday 5:00-8:00 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 1:00-5:00 p.m. (Also featuring Alasdair Roberts, Charalambides, and Heather Leigh Murray Friday from 8:00-10:00 p.m.) Look in your wallet. How many credit cards do you have in there? How many pieces of plastic that identify you, confirm your existence, enable your participation in our corporate economy? How many of these actually reveal......

Boston University is willing to spend big bucks--$1.8 billion, to be exact--to be an academic powerhouse. Linda Wertheimer at the Globe reported Thursday that BU wants to "add 150 professors, dramatically lower the school's student-faculty ratio, and pour money into salaries to allow BU to vie for the nation's top professors." Not bad. You go, BU. President Robert Brown has visions of US News & World Report college rankings dancing in his head. However, if......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

Four years ago today, Josh Beckett threw a shutout. In the LCS. Good tidings? Last time Josh faced the Indians, he gave up one run and four hits in a hard-luck 1-0 loss to Fausto Carmona. Last time Cleveland starter C.C. Sabathia pitched against the Red Sox, he gave up one run and five hits in a hard-luck 1-0 loss to Daisuke Matsuzaka. You'd have to believe both pitchers are determined not to give up......

MIT has gotten a bad rap in the press lately after sodium that may have come from the school burned volunteers cleaning up the Charles. It only got worse when MIT student Star Simpson spaced out, forgot to take off a sweatshirt with a circuit board on it, and freaked out Logan Airport staff. Right after Simpson was arrested and hauled to court, the MIT brass put out a statement calling Simpson's actions "reckless." That......

Two towns have joined Watertown in protest against the Anti-Defamation League, which sponsors the "No Place for Hate" anti-hate crime program. Belmont's Board of Selectmen voted on Monday to withdraw from the program. Yesterday, Newton mayor David Cohen issued a statement saying: "The recognition of the Armenian Genocide is an important step along the path of freedom and justice, and crucial in combating other genocides now and in the future." The Anti-Defamation League is so......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

So yelled Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones when he stopped a kid from flying a kite on a Cape beach. Jones' investigation into the protest against Cape Wind, the project to build wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, revealed exactly why so many powerful people want to stop the project. The powerful people could have talked to him, but he and author Wendy Williams discovered that not just anyone can get close to the Kennedy Compound,......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

What, was WRKO just begging for trouble? Fallen politician Tom Finneran's ratings are sagging, which makes since since he's not exactly Boston's favorite man in the world. So they decided to stir up some muck by auditioning Bernard McGuirk as a cohost. If they wanted trouble, they got it. McGuirk was Don Imus' producer who was involved with Imus's ridiculous insults of the Rutgers women's basketball team - and he got fired along with Imus.......

--A group of female students at Framingham State College stole 1,000 copies of the student newspaper. What prompted them to do such a thing? They were angry at an editorial? They had passionate feelings about a major issue and were engaged in some kind of protest? No. They thought that a front-page image made them look fat. They painted letters on their stomachs and showed them at a lacrosse game. It wasn't as if......

We saw headlines that the protests of Bio 2007 were "modest." And then we saw the headline that police had to don their riot gear for a protest at Faneuil Hall last night. The Herald also noted the presence of a police helicopter above the hall. The Herald described the police-protester clash: "In a tense encounter, 50 protesters made their way to State Street near Fanueil Hall last night at 9, yelling expletives at a......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Surely he knew it would come to this. Surely Tom Brady knew when he donned the cap of the enemy that the Track Girls would crawl all over him, and the Herald would make him front-page news. Wearing that hat is the equivalent of taking a big dump in front of the State House. And he had to know it. Of course, he has taken a lot of hits on the gridiron and might not......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay......

--Just as another person was shot and killed on Blue Hill Avenue yesterday, Governor Deval Patrick weighed in on the city's violence. Some of his comments were memorable, such as "But every once in a while, when [an] adult says, 'You know what? You're not supposed to come to work with your pants down there,' ... even when that kid rolls their eyes, they hear you. It gets through." While it's easy to indulge our......

Today a tremendous crowd* turned out in Boston to protest the Iraq War, to support our troops who are risking their lives, and to express their anger at the Bush administration for starting it. Many of those in attendance didn't stop with Bush, Cheney, & Co. - they also railed at the Democrat-controlled legislature, whom they feel aren't working enough to stop the war. At first, it seemed as if the rally would be......

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.......

Tuesday was a difficult day for the city of Boston. How frequently do you find yourself having to choose between the Clipse and This American Life? More importantly, how do you choose? Pusha or Dan Savage? Malice or Kori Gardner? The Reupgang or Ira's Gang? The Middle East tried to mitigate these concerns by adding a Monday Clipse show several weeks out, but it was too little, too late for those who'd already bought......

The intended hunger strike was announced at the end of the year last year, and executed in the early days of this month. It's over now. On February 16, 2007, professor James Sherley ended his hunger strike and protest outside of the offices of the MIT president and provost. According to the statement he issued I am ending this part of my struggle. Starting today, I will in fact break my fast, in celebration of......