Veggiest Quick Hits -- Happy Valentine's Day! For us being vegan is all about the love. We love our bodies and want to keep them healthy and strong and free of animal products. We love the environment and want to protect it from the extremely destructive practices of factory farming. We love animals and don't want to see them mistreated. You'll most certainly be doing your heart a favor. Heart disease is still one......

-- When the homeless meet gentrification, the homeless get treated like shit. Shocker. [Boston Globe] -- Not to worry, though. Governor Deval Patrick plans to eliminate homelessness in Massachusetts within five years. And he has a whopping $10 million set aside in his budget to do it. [Globe] -- The Herald, always eager to battle sensationalism in the media, reports that the new strain of staph, elsewhere described as "the new AIDS," is anything but.......

Update: Greenpeace sent out a statement regarding Cape Wind. Greenpeace approves, with a caveat: "While the review is positive, it does point out that Cape Wind needs to minimize the impacts to avian species. We, along with others alarmed by the climate crisis, look forward to participating in the public feedback process of this review and doing all we can to bring this important global warming solution to Massachusetts." The US Minerals Management Service released......

The owners of Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square are on a mission. It’s pretty hard to miss… in fact, it’s conveniently spelled out on a poster behind the counter. They sell fair trade, shade grown, organic coffee and organic food “with an underlying agenda of social responsibility and environmental stewardship.” The counters are made of bamboo or crushed beer bottles; the ceiling tiles are made of 100% recycled material; the shop is illuminated......

We're sad to report that the NFL has determined there's no fire to go with the smoke. As sure as people were, and as hopeful as we were that it was true, the league has said there's no evidence that the Colts were piping in artificial crowd noise Sunday against the Patriots. CBS blames faulty equipment in the truck to explain why, at one point during the game, it sounded like a CD skipped, then......

Animator Dave Schlafman, of Boston, is in the finals of Current TV's Current and the Alliance Ecospot Contest to find the best PSA about the environment. The goal of the contest is to get people to look at the climate crisis in new ways. The masses can vote for the winning spot. All it takes is registering on current.com, and you can vote for the best PSA. Schlafman's is titled "The Sky is Falling,"......

Now that a partially dissolved piece of sodium metal has been deemed the culprit in the burning of several Charles River cleanup volunteers, the local news is playing up the MIT ritual known as the "sodium drop." MIT students like to drop stuff. Sometimes they drop pianos. In this case, at the start of each school year, students get the sodium from somewhere on campus, tote it to the Longfellow Bridge, and drop it bit......

The Boston City Council wants to follow San Francisco's footsteps and ban plastic bags from the city. Robert Consalvo (Hyde Park / Roslindale / Mattapan) is pushing the measure, and nine of twelve city councilors have offered their support. We're all for protecting the environment, but the way Robert Consalvo describes those bags, you'd think we were being attacked by plastic bags: "They blow in trees, they're floating in Boston Harbor . . . They're......

UPDATE: The venue has been changed for the Kerry reading. John Kerry and Theresa Heinz Kerry will read at the First Parish Church in Cambridge tomorrow, Saturday, April 21, at 12 noon. Theresa Heinz Kerry, coauthor of This Moment on Earth, sounded furious when she and Senator John Kerry dialed into a conference call with a batch of bloggers. And she has reason to be mad because of the research she's assembled about how toxins......

John Kerry and Theresa Heinz Kerry will read from This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future at Memorial Church in Harvard Yard Saturday, April 21, at 12:00 pm. Tickets are on sale starting today. They're $5, and you can use the ticket cost as a coupon for a purchase from Harvard Book Store. Plus, if you buy the book at Harvard Book Store, you get two free tickets to......

We were thinking about how clever presidential candidate Barack Obama must have been to find parking in Cambridge, tickets be dammed. And then we saw the latest in ridiculous rates in this city. The Globe reports, "At least seven garages are charging for parking in 20-minute rather than 30-minute increments, and many of them are collecting their all-day rates for periods of less than two hours." Many places are charging $6 for 20 minutes or......

The chatter is swelling this week about St. Patrick's Day. On a sunny day with temperatures nearing 70 around Boston it is a wonderful day to think about the parade in South Boston on Saturday. Unfortunately the weather isn't looking so hot for the end of this week – so we've got to plan on how we're going to wear our green (if it's going to be a rain slicker or winter parka - the......

A new café reminiscent of one of those you'd find tucked away off a small stone street in Barecelona’s Zona Antigua, artistic, unique, relaxed, has just opened. The afro-cuban music in the background is at a volume that allows easy conversation; as a gallery, the walls are covered with vibrant art. It has recently opened in the North End, architecturally, the most European neighborhood. “Flamepoeira” serves first-rate espresso drinks, delicious Euro/Asian-flavored dishes, and wonderful desserts.......

Bostonist has been a fan of the Dresden Dolls for some time now, so we were quite excited when we learned of their collaboration with the ART for a play of sorts called "The Onion Cellar." We finally had a chance to see the performance this week. The first thing you'll notice on entering the theatre is that it feels much more like attending a night club or a concert than you'd expect from the......

Hey, remember way back when, last week, when we told you how you could get an "I Hate MassPirg" t-shirt? Well, the creator of NoMassPirg.com, Andy Lin (not pictured at right), had the good graces to respond to our e-mail questions. Now, without further commentary and in the interest of giving you the full story while simultaneously doing very little work, we offer you our questions and his answers: Bostonist: Who are you? Where are......

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......

Bostonist was on hand for last night's return of Pedro Martinez to the mound. To say that the environment was electric is a colossal understatement. There was one thing the people who showed up were there to see - and that's Pedro. People wanted to cheer him on the way to the bullpen to warm up, on his way back to the dugout, on his way to the mound for the bottom half of......

When Bostonist thinks about Somerville (as we so often do), the first two-word phrase that comes to mind is "hip hop." OK, not really. We know of plenty of MCs from Boston and environs, but none from the Cambridge of Medford. Nevertheless, Union Square will play host this Saturday to the Hip Hop History Jam, sponsored by the Library of Vinyl Experience and the Somerville Arts Council as part of its ArtsUnion project. From......

In our college days, Bostonist was constantly assaulted in the student union by back-to-the-land types, begging us to please, please help them save the environment in some way or another. We were willing to sign petitions or even click our mouse a few times, but we drew the line when the president of our college's environmental organization asked us to help dredge the campus pond. Don't get us wrong--we return our empties to the packie......

A conversation about baseball these days will undoubtedly involve something about this "juicing" scandal, and Bostonist ain't talkin' about these guys or this dude (he's a whole different story). Between the Balco scandal, Barry Bonds crushing home-run records, the leaked statements by Jason Giambi admitting he took steroids, and now Canseco's book it was inevitable that somewhere along the line the government would become involved. Yes, there's been much in the news, for months,......

The first blogger was admitted into the White House's briefing room with an official press pass today; Garrett Graff, a 23 year-old blogger on mediabistro.com's new blog, Fishbowl D.C., had attempted for the past week to grab a daily press pass of his own and finally his pleading paid off. Graff was not truly impressed with the environment of the room, describing it as "dilapitated" and "cramped," adding insult to injury by calling the whole......