Entries from Bostonist tagged with 'thenational'
February 5, 2008
People, so many people, mostly young people, people everywhere. There were so many people waiting in line for Senator Barack Obama's rally at the Seaport World Trade Center last night that the campaign turned the queue into a phone bank, handing out lists of voters and asking people to use their cell phones to plead for support. There were so many people waiting in the cold that a nearby Dunkin' Donuts had to prematurely......
Continue Reading "Barack Obama Comes to the Bay State--Long Lines Ensue"January 28, 2008
In a sense, it's comforting. The Celtics went to battle against one of the other good Eastern teams without Kevin Garnett, and almost beat 'em. On the day of the C's' long-awaited return to national afternoon TV, the script ran eerily similar to the first game in Orlando; the Magic jumped out to a big lead, the Celtics clawed their way back, but ran out of gas at the end. Orlando's the only team to......
Continue Reading "Sports Redux: Didn't We Almost Have It All"January 21, 2008
--A massive fire that started in an abandoned nightclub and eventually destroyed 14 buildings in downtown Lawrence broke into the national news. In a miracle given the size of the fire, no one was hurt. However, 30 families were displaced. Authorities think the fire is suspicious. The owner, who was in the process of turning the spot into a restaurant, says he has no insurance and that someone "jealous of his success" started it.......
Continue Reading "Bite Size News"January 9, 2008
It seems that Bostonist's call for submissions inspired you. Say hello to Gerard Sloan, who is already working the political beat! And we hope you'll meet more writers in the next week. Interested in joining the team? Read our call for columnists and e-mail jobs@bostonist.com. Despite polls showing large leads for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary, the Granite State used its moment in the national spotlight yesterday to give Hillary Clinton a narrow victory......
Continue Reading "DevalWatch: Clinton Upsets Obama, Patrick Upsets Old Employer?"December 13, 2007
People are taking the incoming snow seriously. Bostonist heard word that state employees are leaving work early, at 1:00 pm, because of the weather. Adam's French Toast Alert is on high. And he's selling T shirts. The weather guy on NECN said several times that he wasn't messing around and that people should stay off the roads. The National Weather Service advises: "It is recommended that if possible all travel be completed by 1:00 pm......
Continue Reading "Snow Daze"November 30, 2007
--The National Research Council says that the federal review of the BU Biolab flunked. Future neighbors of the lab, you might want to join an opposition group or invest in a gas mask. [Boston Globe] --BU officials don't particularly care about the report. [The BU Daily Free Press] --The state appeals court overturned a 2005 reckless driving conviction for a man who drove recklessly because he had just been shot and was driving himself to......
Continue Reading "Bite Size News"November 18, 2007
No Christmas shopping today. No Thanksgiving shopping, either. Get your remote control warmed up and tell the family they're on their own for dinner, because there's a lot of sports to be watchin' today. The fun starts at 2:00, when the Revolution try to get from "happy to be in the championship game", which is old hat, to actually winning the thing. They're matched up against Houston for all the marbles again; goalie Matt Reis......
Continue Reading "Sports Redux: Today's The Day To Stay In"October 18, 2007
This one's fresh from Deadspin: The Cleveland Indians have pulled out all the stops to excel in the ALCS. Now that they have a shot and winning the series against the Red Sox, they have basically decided to deliver a low blow to the Sox and to tonight's starting pitcher Josh Beckett in particular. How? By trotting out Josh Beckett's ex-girlfriend, country singer Danielle Peck, to sing the national anthem. That's cold. That's just plain......
Continue Reading "The Cleveland Indians Might Have a Secret Weapon, and It Isn't Kenny Lofton"September 29, 2007
A breast-feeding Harvard Medical School student won an appeal to get extra time to take an exam because she said she might have problems if she doesn't have enough time to pump her breast milk. Sophie Currier has been at the center of debates over whether or not she is getting special treatment since she is already taking the 9-hour test over two days because she has dyslexia and ADHD. The National Board of Medical......
Continue Reading "The Breast-Feeding Medical Student Test-Taking Debate"September 28, 2007
Put the champagne back in the fridge. Josh Beckett couldn't deliver win #21, and the Red Sox couldn't beat the Twins, so we're going to have to go through this all over again until they finally clinch the East...or don't. "It's nice to have your [butt] whipped every once in a while. It'll bring you back down," says Josh, which we'll take his word for. Michael Cuddyer and Garrett Jones homered for Minnesota, and Ortiz......
Continue Reading "Sports Redux: The Waiting Is The Hardest Part"August 21, 2007
Update: Andrew Tarsy, the New England regional director of the ADL who was fired for recognizing the Armenian genocide, has been rehired. The action of the citizens of Watertown has had a tremendous ripple effect. After releasing a statement refusing to recognize the Armenian genocide and firing its New England director, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, released a statement today in which he recognizes the Armenian genocide. Here is what he......
Continue Reading "Breaking: ADL Now Recognizing the Armenian Genocide"August 18, 2007
Only a few days ago, Andrew Tarsy, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, backer of the "No Place for Hate" program, tried to defend the ADL's stance on the Armenian Genocide at the Watertown City Council meeting. The ADL refused to recognize the genocide, Watertown residents - including a large Armenian population - was furious, and Watertown kicked the ADL out of its borders. Then, presumably influenced by Watertown's decision to remove hate from......
Continue Reading "ADL's Regional Director Says ADL Should Acknowledge Armenian Genocide; ADL Fires Him"August 12, 2007
Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......
Continue Reading "Across the Ist-a-Verse"August 2, 2007
We Bostonians are experts on tunnel crappiness. The horrible collapse in Minnesota got us wondering about the safety of bridges across our proud, crumbly nation. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation 2006 report to Congress, Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions and Performance: In 2006, 1,135, or 8.67%, of Minnesota's total inventory of 13,008 bridges were categorized as Structurally Deficient [SD]*. For comparison: In Massachusetts: 5,059 bridges were inventoried; 586......
Continue Reading "Update: Bridges. Ugh."June 17, 2007
Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......
Continue Reading "Across the Ist-a-Verse"June 10, 2007
Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......
Continue Reading "This Week in -Ist"June 9, 2007
Well, when it comes to accidents, we sure are careful! Don't be fooled by the Blotter! Our rate of accidental deaths is low compared to the rest of the nation. Yeah, it surprised us, too, especially since the ink maker and paint maker behind the November Danvers explosion just got cited with 23 health and safety violations. But good for us! The National Safety Council says "Massachusetts had the lowest accidental death rate at 20.6......
Continue Reading "Safety First: Massachusetts Enjoys Lowest Accidental Death Rate"June 3, 2007
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......
Continue Reading "Around the Ist-a-verse"February 23, 2007
Botched in Boston seems on the fast track to a new defining statement of our city. Kerry started it with his botched joke that got tremendous play nationally. The Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare brought it back as a botched marketing campaign, or at least a botched reaction to a marketing campaign. Dr Pepper has now ended their Hunt for More promotion – labeling it botched – and revealed the location of a......
Continue Reading "Dr Pepper Almost Defaces Graves"February 13, 2007
At first it seemed like it was just a ploy for sweeps. Deemed the first big snow storm of the season initial reports had upwards of eight inches falling on Boston. Local TV news stations have fired up the severe weather graphics, pulled in their storm teams, and gone to almost all weather all the time. The National Weather Service even issued a winter storm warning for the next 24 hours:... Winter Storm Warning......
Continue Reading "National Weather Service in Bed with Boston School Administration"January 29, 2007
Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy gave the kind of speech that makes people want to stand up and cheer. He's always been a smooth talker, but he threw a little bit of Howard Dean's barbaric yawp into the mix, and the result was explosive. Here's Teddy railing against the Republicans tacking on more and more amendments, which are slowing down the passage of an increase in the minimum wage: At about three minutes into the video,......
Continue Reading "Teddy's Mad As Hell, and … You Get the Idea"January 23, 2007
It's not fuzzy math, it's just expensive. The Commonwealth's new universal health insurance law passed last year was touted as a great chance for Massachusetts to become a leader in the nation in universal health care. At the time the talk was about a $200 per month premium. The legislation (let's call it Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 for fun) mandates that all adults in Massachusetts who make $29,412, three times the poverty......
Continue Reading "$380 a Month is not $200 a Month. "January 7, 2007
Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......
Continue Reading "Around the World in Ist"January 3, 2007
Today is Willard "Mitt" Romney's last day as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts – well, for now, he could come back to haunt later. The Globe ran a story in this morning's edition to let us know that he actually left a little stink in the statehouse by making a slew of 11th hour appointments to state offices. Though he's attempted to exit the Governors office stage right (which is really to the left......
Continue Reading "Romney to Take Lone Walk, First Files Papers"August 8, 2006
Today is primary day in our sister state of Connecticut, and the Democratic nation turns its lonely eyes to Joe Lieberman, the incumbent Senator. Lieberman, as you've likely heard or read, since the national media are in an absolute frenzy over this race, is trailing but getting closer in the polls to the smarmily named super-rich anti-war challenger, Ned Lamont, because voters are fed up with Lieberman's being such a, you know, Republican. Lieberman has......
Continue Reading "Connecticut Primary Almost Exciting; Lieberman Still Boring"June 29, 2006
In a world where there's nothing to do but watch movies. In a city full of theaters, museums, and libraries. One moviegoer who can be in three places at once. Thursday 6/29 Wordplay Patrick Creadon's debut feature-length documentary follows the career of puzzling luminary Will Shortz and the national crossword tournament he founded. Celebrity interviews include Daily Show host Jon Stewart and celebrated Daily Show guests Bob Dole and Bill Clinton. Kendall Square Cinema See......
Continue Reading "Weekly Film Agenda: War/Games Edition"June 28, 2006
The Globe ran a piece in today's edition about tensions in Framingham with some of the locals and their ire towards all the Brazilians making Framingham the spot for those immigrating from Samba-land. These days the Brazilians as a whole are much more conspicuous around Boston thanks to the World Cup. Green and yellow can be seen everywhere as the people from Brazil celebrate their Seleção in hopes that they bring home their record......
Continue Reading "Brazilians in Boston - Celebrate With Them or Debate Legality?"June 12, 2006
Well, it's bringing (this) Bostonist to a standstill, anyway. If you're wondering why we managed only a paltry number of posts today, and you're not content with the real answer (laziness important, work-related business), consider this: The World Cup (or "FIFA World Cup," as they keep calling it on TV, in case you tuned in looking for that other world cup) is in full swing, and the U.S. had its first match today, against our......
Continue Reading "World Cup Brings Boston to a Standstill"June 8, 2006
Seth McFarlane, creator of Family Guy and voice of Griffins - Stewey, Brian (the dog), and patriarch Peter as well as Quagmire, spoke at Harvard's Class Day yesterday. Today the Exercises of Commencement clog most of Cambridge and hoard the sheriff of Middlesex County. There's a choice of what to watch: Larry Summers' final charge to graduates at the helm of Harvard University, Jim Lehrer of News Hour on PBS, or the Family Guy. Academics......
Continue Reading "Just do the Voices"June 4, 2006
DCist is screwed in the event of an oil crisis. Not that we're not all screwed in the event of an oil crisis, just D.C. is more screwed. Don't sell your car yet, District resident, a cabbie can kick you to the curb if he doesn't like your address. Not even Metro can save you now. Londonist experiences the London of the future through the wonders of 3D modeling, but while the 3D guys are......
Continue Reading "Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse"