Sean Garballey, 23, a grad student at Suffolk, soundly defeated two opponents yesterday to gain a seat in the commonwealth's House of Representatives. Garballey will represent Arlington and part of Medford. Garballey is a recent graduate of UMass Lowell and has served on the Arlington School Committee. On his campaign website he exclaims, "Public Service is my life!" He credits a volunteer tour guide position at the State House when he was 16 with......

The following is a public service announcement: The next time you steal a Red Sox's castoffs, particularly their sweaty cups, eBay would rather you sell them elsewhere. The Track Girls are spreading the word that SportsWorld, in Saugus, tried to sell Jonathan Papelbon and Kevin Youkilis' used jocks on their eBay store. Judging from how many times the Track Girls have written about SportsWorld and its Red Sox underwear sale, SportsWorld has been trying......

Dave Schlafman won the Ecospot contest sponsored by CurrentTV and the Alliance for Climate Protection. For the contest, Schlafman had to animate a brief public service announcement about the climate crisis. Not only was his animation of elephants falling from the sky clever, but the theme of sustainability inspired his animation process. Schlafman told Bostonist, "I decided to draw and paint on recycled paper bags for the backgrounds...keeping with the spirit of the contest (and......

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 local college news has been depressing. One Globe editorial in particular sent Bostonist into a funk. While brainiacs with ordinary parents get denied at Harvard, the dumb but well-connected just waltz their way in, proving that the college admissions process is a skunky business. But Tufts offered a ray of light this week with the announcement that it will help students pay off their college loans if they take a job in public service.......

All in all, it's been a pretty good week for former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Mitt Romney. Aside from a minor seatbelt flap, Romney saw a considerable improvement in his chances at election. The Des Moines Register announced that Romney was backed by 30 percent of Iowa Republicans, which puts him ahead of McCain and Giuliani. What is making Romney so appealing to those who haven't had the dubious pleasure of being governed by......

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has a lot to worry about. His former chief of staff testified that Gonzales played a part in firing federal prosecutors because they leaned too hard on Republicans and weren't sufficiently supportive of President George W. Bush. We thought we lived in a democracy, not a kingdom where you have to lick the boots of the emperor to keep your job. But that's another matter entirely. While all this scandal was......

Why must NESN be so cruel? NESN [New England Sports Network] released a memo curtailing the use of Red Sox and Bruins highlights on local TV stations. Scott's Shots surveys the broader impact of this memo: "This is, in every way, shape and form, a HUGE powerplay that the Red Sox and NESN (and the Bruins, as if anyone cares) are about to undertake in an effort to lord over their content and ultimately become......

The sweet beater vehicle? The bitchin' soundtrack? The ridiculously large bag of blow? The now vintage pre-Charlie turnstiles? The proposition that MBTA police would go beyond the call of duty? If this is Episode One of Vendetta Gunn we can only imagine what's in store for the duo. Stay tuned. A public service announcement from Bostonist: monthly passes for February are now on sale (the eight day window around the first has been extended thanks......

MBTA employees are getting their surly on, perhaps because a handful of them got busted for having affairs and running side businesses on company time. It's fine if they're in a crabby mood, but it's not fine if their negligence causes someone to get hurt. Via Universal Hub, Jenny reports a disturbing incident on the Red Line that could have had a terrible ending were it not for some quick-thinking riders. She describes what happened......

God, we're so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this weeks' Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate on......

Living here in the Hub, we are faced with daily indignities, from the complications of an ill-administered public transportation system to the risk of completely random death in the most poorly planned and implemented public works project ever. But the struggle that unifies us more than any other must surely be that scourge of sidewalk strolling, the dreaded MassPirg canvassers. How heartless these innocent-looking youngsters are, accosting us in the midst of our important business......

Weeks of anticipation of Condoleezza Rice's address to the graduates of Boston College have left us wondering if she would or if she wouldn't. She did, and it worked out fine. There is difficulty in standing alone against a public figure – 50 Boston College seniors stood with their backs against Condi as she began the keynote address to the graduates. The rest of the class and much of the audience stood in a standing......

We were wondering what would be next on the list of complaints, now that the rain has passed. Apparently it's the fact that we're not the worst drivers in the nation. The recent survey, which was covered in the Herald yesterday, put Boston in the top five cities in Road Rage. Bostonist has our own theory about why we don't rank #1 – we're used to it. We were following an SUV this past weekend......

A peanut is neither a pea nor a nut; discuss. Today Bostonist encountered two versions of the story of the girlfriend who died after kissing her boyfriend (who’d eaten a peanut butter sandwich earlier) just over a year ago. The first instance came when we sat down to read the Health and Science section of the morning's Globe, the second when we tuned in to Day to Day on NPR. Regular Globe contributor Dr. Darshak......

Yes, the headlining phrase is really trademarked. Bostonist hopes that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration takes this as a public service and won’t rip on our use of their copyrighted phrase. Four years ago after losing a dear friend to a rip current in Central America Bostonist has been, well, shall we say, a little timid about even the undertow we feel in the chilly ocean waters. We really never knew it was an......

Yesterday, the Boston Globe reported on UMass President Jack Wilson getting heated about the state Board of Higher Education, New England School of Law and Suffolk Law School. UMass has proposed merging UMass-Dartmouth and Southern New England School of Law, the state board plans to vote on March 31. Wilson is irritated because the board has distributed negative reports about the proposal seemingly in cahoots with NESL and Suffolk. Suffolk University Law School and......