When Bobby Brown returns to Massachusetts, he always makes a splash. While cable-TV audiences can watch him sleeping and holding conversations with sandwiches, Brockton fans got to see him as he headed to Brockton District Court to address cocaine possession charges. Luckily for Brown, a court magistrate delayed the decision on whether or not to charge Brown for having cocaine in his SUV at a Holiday Inn parking lot. Laurel Sweet describes the scene and......

--Bostonist hasn't seen a "flagrant foul," or a sports-related blotter entry, in some time. The bad situation that was the Super Bowl loss just got worse for New England Patriots defensive back Willie Andrews, who was busted driving an unregistered car and having pot on him in Lowell. If it had happened to anyone one else, on any other day, no one would have cared. But the Herald points out that Andrews has a record.......

--While the BPD's attempt to round up the city's criminal element was noble, it didn't work. Someone shot two brothers, a 12-year-old and an 18-year-old, through the window of their own home last night in Roslindale. They are in critical condition but improving. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald] --Two female Boston University students were assaulted in their beds and in their own dorm rooms early Sunday morning. [WBZ] --In Lowell early yesterday morning, a man......

--A man died this morning after being stabbed in Savin Hill. [Boston Globe] --Another man was found dead of a gunshot wound early this morning on Stratton Street. [BPD News] --Also early this morning, in Brockton, a woman led police on a car chase and put a twist in the story by taking her baby along for the ride. A State Trooper pulled her over, but she took off. The car crashed, but no one......

Unlike the Top 10 Most Commented stories, the top 10 favorites represented a selection of all the fun, the playful, and just plain odd that this city has to offer. You loved sex scandals at the local schools, Vendetta Gunn, and the local productions On Broadway and "BU Tonight." But we were really surprised at how much you loved … Barbie. Yeah, Barbie. 10. Arlington School System Turns Into Peyton Place 9. Boston Blotter: Penis......

Update: WBZ has pictures of an SUV crashing into the bus. Another car plowed into the back of the car that hit the bus. The people involved were lucky--only three people on the bus and four in the SUV were hit. --A car hit an MBTA bus this afternoon while the bus was on American Legion Highway and Mount Hope Road. Three people on the bus went to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. [Boston......

--The Legislature is going to consider banning spanking tomorrow. That's spanking of children, not "please, sir, may I have another" frat-spanking or whatever role-playing you do with your significant other. [WCVB] --A man's SUV became stuck on train tracks in Beverly last night just as a commuter train was heading toward him. He escaped in the nick of time. His SUV got creamed. [Photo-WCVB] --The Roman Catholic Archdiocese plans to close at least two schools......

--Miguel Perez, 22, was shot around 1:00 am while standing in the rain outside the bar Gigi's Palace. Brian Ballou at the Globe writes that the owner of the bar didn't let Perez in because he thought Perez was "trouble" and may have been involved with a shooting that happened inside the bar two weeks ago. The owner, Andy Barros, can't be blamed for not wanting trouble--his cousin died outside Gigi's Palace last year, and......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did some research and found that Massachusetts bridges......

Jason Bailey may have been chasing the car that eventually crashed into a tree on Blue Hill Avenue and Callender Street yesterday morning. That crash killed a passenger, 18-year-old Porsche Hubbard, and injured the female driver, a 10-year-old girl, and a baby. The DA's office announced that 28-year-old Bailey, of Mattapan, was arrested and charged for the crime yesterday, and he is being held on $100,000 bail. That announcement says that Bailey was allegedly vicious......

--The shootings of five people, including a 9-year-old girl, that took place in two different places in Mattapan on Saturday night may be related. Commish Ed Davis, who has been especially busy lately, referenced possible gang activity. The 9-year-old got shot in the back. In sheer coincidence, one of the shootings interrupted yet another birthday party. We're not sure why birthday parties have gotten so dangerous, but some gun-toting, allegedly birthday-hating thug(s) popped off and......

--Why can't we just have a light day with the Bonbon Bandit instead of the carnage that has filled the Blotter as of late? Last night, a 9-year-old got shot in a house in Mattapan. Two teenagers were found shot outside. A party was going on at the time, which raises the question of what a 9-year-old was doing at the party and the even more important question of what guns were doing at the......

--We've been wondering why Luigi Epifania allegedly set that cat on fire. And it seems the reason is that the man is absolutely - allegedly - effin' nuts. DA Conley's office sent out a release about Epifania's arraignment. The cat-torching was part of what seems to be an outright crime spree: [Epifania] was arraigned Monday in East Boston court on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for a......

--Lowe's Home Improvement stores have been getting a heap of negative publicity. First, their banner on the Boston Globe website's home page obscured the big news that legislators voted down the gay marriage ban. (See Adam and Spatch's appropriate sarcasm regarding these obtrusive Internet ads.) But it gets worse. The Lowe's brass is probably cringing at the news that a shootout erupted at the Danvers Lowe's last night. Imagine, you're at Lowe's, you're picking up......

--Some student pranksters are in big trouble at Holliston High School because they broke into the principal's office – and the school's computer system. They may face criminal charges, but other students are calling for a boycott of the graduation ceremonies if the students aren't allowed to walk. They're honor students, which probably caused the punishment to be worse. WHDH quoted one graduate of the school as saying, "If you're that smart, you should know......

It's a wonderfully quiet holiday. But this Memorial Day weekend is typical in that auto accidents are populating the blotter. In Attleboro, a teenager died this morning after he lost control of his car and hit a guardrail on 95 South. The teen wasn't wearing his seatbelt. --A similar accident happened on Storrow Drive early this morning. A man driving without a seatbelt struck an SUV and rolled over. WBZ reports that the unidentified man......

Update: Reader Ron points to Davis Square Live Journal, which has numerous harrowing reports from local residents following the crash. Somerville News and WBZ are reporting that the man who died was in the taxi. His name was Paul Farris. He was only 23 and a recent graduate of Tufts. --The action isn't stopping in Somerville. After a bank robbery in which an employee was tied up and left in the basement, a wild early-morning......

No games last night of local interest. So let's take a spin around the country to see what's going on in the rest of the sporting world. We'll start in Arlington, Texas, where the Red Sox are about to begin a three-game set with the Rangers. Daisuke Matsuzaka goes tonight against Brandon McCarthy. Big D is still buzzing about this week's announcement that the Cowboys and their new stadium will host Super Bowl XLV in......

We're not quite sure why Attorney General Alberto Gonzales keeps trying to find love in Boston. He came up here once to try to distract people from the whole fired-prosecutors scandal with something about online predators, and then he showed up at his Harvard Law reunion. Only Harvard hecklers were ready for him, and they were already warmed up. They had FBI director Robert Mueller as an appetizer, and Gonzales was the main course. The......

Another sexual assault took place in early yesterday morning in Medford, prompting police to send out warnings to local residents. The victim of the second assault got lucky - the suspect grabbed her, but a car passed, and he ran off. Tufts sent out a notice saying that three attacks of that nature have happened before April 23. Here is the police's description of this individual: "The attacker is described as white, heavy set, in......

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......

-- One down! After the five-game pounding that the Red Sox took from the Yankees at Fenway last August, Friday's matchup was more than just a game. It was more than just the first rivalry game of the season. It was about avenging the embarrassment that continued to smart for Sox fans over the winter and into the early season. The game itself was a battle of the best kind: one in which we came......

A while back, we joined the Globe in recommending Winthrop Square Garage as a place to park if you are crazy or desperate enough to drive downtown. Thinking they were missing a potential source of revenue, the city has decided to raise the rates when it takes over on June 30. This past Saturday, the Globe published a piece on which garages seemed to justify their high rates. Normal people just want a place to......

--The Commish has talked tough before, but Ed Davis says that he will deploy more police to town "hot spots" (also known as places where people get shot), and the police will start tailing persons of interest. The "hot spots" are as follows: Bowdoin/Geneva, Franklin Field/Franklin Park, and Grove Hall in Dorchester. Egleston Square in Roxbury is also included. Davis didn't mention bringing gang members to the negotiating table, at least not as far as......

We really aren't sure where this came from. It seems like the stereotypes portrayed below have been applied to areas around St. Louis, Florida, Memphis, Detroit, among other US geographic locations. It came to us via email, un-attributed to the author (email us, we'll give you credit), and humorously rang true for some of the locations integrated into the list. Suggestions for the South Boston Barbie (both original model and Fort Point edition), Cantabrigian Barbie,......

Good Samaritans withstood major shrinkage yesterday when they rushed into the Charles to rescue a driver who plunged his SUV into the river. Bostonist's first reaction to images of the SUV's backside sticking up out of the Charles was, "How does someone get into that kind of mess?" At first, it seemed like a case of overzealous consumption of eggnog. However, the cause of the crash was far more serious. An unlucky driver had a......

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. LAist's sex advice column on......

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......

It's turned a little bit colder these last few days. Bostonist takes the easy way out of the cold and takes the commute to the underground. Riding the T a little bit more frequently and we've heard a couple things we just kind of giggled to ourselves when we heard them. As always, send us those crazy mutterances you’ve heard around the Hub and we'll include them the next time we bring you "Overheard".......