--It doesn't get much worse than this. A 26-year-old New Bedford man, who has already served four years for a similar crime, is accused of raping a six-year-old in a library just steps from where the child's mother was using a computer. The suspect was released from jail in 2006 "despite objections from prosecutors and three psychologists." [Boston Herald] --Che Sosa, who was already serving 55 years on multiple rape counts and for infamously......

--A Woburn college student was cleared of rape charges after prosecutors could not provide enough evidence that an attack had taken place in a bathroom at Felt nightclub in Boston. The man, 21, continually proclaimed his innocence, and said that any acts were consensual. The prosecution had alleged that the woman was unconscious, but didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial. [Boston Herald] --Police had surrounded a rape suspect's home in......

A Woburn man was arrested and went to court today for allegedly raping an unconscious woman in a bathroom at Felt late Friday night. 21-year-old Nicholas Chiaraluce pled not guilty to a count of aggravated rape. The details of the case, provided by the DA's Office, are beyond disturbing: Club employees told responding Boston Police that a patron had seen Chiaraluce having sex with an unconscious woman when he went to use the establishment’s second-floor......

A 25-year-old woman was nearly raped after leaving a Green Line train from the Brookline Village stop early this morning. She told police that the man followed her from Government Center to Brookline Village and attacked her on Cypress Street. When he attacked, she managed to get away and run home. Brookline police have released a description of the man. From the Globe: A Hispanic man, possibly of Mexican descent, who is about 5 feet......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of local readings. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Wednesday, November 28 Helen Vendler, Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and the Lyric Form, Sacker Museum (via Harvard Book Store), 6:00 pm. More info. Vendler, the closest reader of all close readers, so says the New York Times, shines her spotlight on William Butler Yeats. Thursday, November 29 David Hosp, Innocence, 7:30 pm, Charlestown Branch Library Hosp will be reading from......

-- Dorchester suffered another bloody night last night. One man is on life support after being shot multiple times in his own apartment. He suffered wounds to his head and chest and is not expected to survive. In a separate incident, a man in his 20s died this morning on Geneva Avenue from multiple stab wounds. No arrests have been made in either crime. -- A gymnastics coach turned himself in this morning after being......

"Authorial Intent" is Bostonist's roundup of reading events in the area. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Thursday, November 1 Alice Medrich, 7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith Not in the mood for candy corn but still craving something sweet? Alice Medrich, aka the "Queen of Chocolate," will inspire your palate in a discussion of her book Pure Dessert: True Flavors, Inspiring Ingredients, and Simple Recipes. Friday, November 2 Paula Kamen, 3:00 pm, Harvard Book Store.......

Last night, Bostonist was on hand for J. Cannibal's screening of The Evil Dead at Brookline's Coolidge Corner Theater, and it was terrible. We expected the film to be bad, but our fellow patrons were even worse. One group drowned out the film's soundtrack with an eighty-five minute long running commentary that was so violent and misogynist that one female patron felt unsafe exiting the theater. Now, Bostonist understands the value of yelling at......

--Yesterday afternoon, a person was shot in the chest and side in Roxbury on Langdon Street. The Globe noted that the incident was a block away from a playground. That's bad enough, but the Herald connected more dots and noted that the shooting was in front of the same house where a standoff between Cape Verdean gang members and police took place. --A homeless man died in an accident yesterday at the Pine Street Inn.......

A hot-pink color scheme. A dead ringer for Kate Bosworth on the cover. A first chapter that opens with lyrics from Loverboy's "Workin' for the Weekend." No kidding. Restless Virgins, a book on the Milton Academy sex scandal, just screams, "Bourgeois sex! Bourgeois sex! Yippee skippy!" The sex scandal in question didn't involve teachers (Exhibit A: Arlington's school system) but a 2005 incident in which one girl was - ahem - orally satisfying the sexual......

Glenn Marshall, Mashpee Wampanoag tribe leader and major force behind bringing casinos to Massachusetts, is leaving his position as chairman of the tribe council. He was caught lying about his military past and of hiding the fact that he was convicted of rape and cocaine possession. Peter Kenney at Cape Cod Today first smelled something funny about Marshall's military service. The Cape Cod Times reported that Marshall did not participate in the battle of Khe......

When we first heard that one of Boston's city councilors proposed putting protective plastic cocktail covers on cocktail lids. We thought, "Oh, no. This is just too embarrassing. This is late-night talk-show-host fodder." Councilor Stephen J. Murphy has good intentions - he thinks the lids would discourage perverts from slipping date-rape drugs into the beverages of women who may leave their glasses unattended. That sounds like a nice gesture, although not all women are helpless......

Today it seems like anyone can get an honorary degree. Even Pats owner Robert Kraft got one at this year's UMass-Boston graduation. But some honorary degrees get sticky. For example, twenty years ago, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe received an honorary degree at UMass. Today, UMass trustees are reconsidering their decision today. According to the Globe, "the Undergraduate Student Senate at UMass-Boston unanimously passed a request to retract the degree." And for good reason. Although he......

The state supreme court ruled against the Herald Monday, upholding a $2 million verdict saying that the paper is guilty of libel against a Superior Court judge. Reporter David Wedge accused Judge Ernest Murphy of saying a 14-year-old rape victim should "get over it" in 2002. Murphy declared that he said no such thing and said the statement destroyed his reputation, so he sued. A jury found Wedge guilty in 2005, and the Herald appealed.......

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......

"The art of war" usually refers to Sun Tzu's military treatise from the 6th century BC, sometimes refers to Machiavelli's book, a fim starring Wesley Snipes released in 2000, or even a Bone Thugs albubm. The MFA isn't using the recognizable term (and obvious pun) for the exhibition that opened today, they're taking a little different approach to the art they're presenting and the title it has been given: War and Discontent. The new installation......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal......

One of Bostonist's least favorite law enforcement tools, the sex offender registry, jumped unpleasantly into the news this weekend, as some crazy Canadian picked two random people on Maine's list and killed them, then boarded a bus to Boston before eventually killing himself when confronted by police at South Station. Since one of the men killed was on the registry for the not-so-scandalous crime of having had sex with his almost-16-year-old girlfriend when he was......

The sex scandal at Milton Academy, in which several male hockey players received oral sex from a 15-year-old student, ended with a plea bargain yesterday. While following the story, Bostonist has been of two minds: On the one hand, we have always thought statutory rape laws were a little questionable, especially when the conduct occurs between consenting teenagers who are close in age. On the other hand, we understand that youths can be especially......