Overnight in West Roxbury, some drag racers got out of control and hit a 45-year-old woman at a crosswalk on Hyde Park Avenue and Eldridge. A 17-year-old was arrested, while the driver of a green Honda Accord or Civic is still at large. The victim sustained serious injuries and is in the hospital. WBZ reported she might lose a leg. One woman in the neighborhood said that some drag racers in the area had taken......

--A three-alarm fire broke out at a West Roxbury apartment building. One woman went to the hospital, 25 people are homeless, and someone will have to pay $1 million in damages. Part of the problem was "plastic sprinkler piping that melted before it could douse the fire." What is the point of having sprinkler piping that melts? [Boston Herald] --A man died in West Roxbury last night when his car drove into a utility......

-- Police arrested the Dorchester man responsible for the February 27th lunch brawl at West Roxbury High School. Edwin Reyes, 39, surrendered to police yesterday. Police say that Reyes led a posse of four adults, including his two brothers and an unidentified woman, to assault a West Roxbury student who had allegedly beat up Reyes's son. Reyes stands accused of punching a West Roxbury student and driving his car into a school police officer while......

What's going on here? Not only are students afraid to ride the bus to school, but they also might be afraid to eat lunch. On February 27, four adults--the father of a student, two uncles, and a woman--went into the Urban Science Academy of West Roxbury High and beat on a kid who allegedly attacked the father's son. From the Herald: The adults surrounded the victim, who was repeatedly punched by the student. “The adult......

Snow emergencies have been declared in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. Here's the dirt on parking and getting around: --T alerts: This should come as no surprise, but all T lines are experiencing delays of 30 minutes or more. The MBTA website has been blinking in and out, but we did get an alert that the Silver Line Routes 742 (SL2) and 743 (SL3) are being diverted and that all buses are "omitting 88 Black......

Google Street View has been available in several cities but has now made its debut in Boston, according to the Globe. The process allows you to take a 360 view of an address. If you want to use it, just go to Google Maps, type in a Boston address, and click on the little yellow man that pops up at the address. A new window will appear with a street-level image of the area. You......

--Where have all the gay bars gone? Robert David Sullivan writes that we should be concerned about their disappearance: "In the Boston area, many of Harvard Square's bookstores, Kenmore Square's student eateries, and myriad other places that guaranteed a diverse urban experience have closed their doors, replaced by a far more uniform lineup of bank branches, chain stores, and upscale restaurants." A must-read. [Boston Globe] --If you haven't noticed with the cold temperatures and long......

Manny Ramirez sure loves his cars. When he went on Leno, he seemed to want to talk about cars even more than the World Series. Putting car enthusiasts Manny Ramirez and Jay Leno together was risky because they might not have talked about the World Series at all. Fans got lucky, and the talk turned to baseball, but it might be safe to assume that Ramirez holds hot rods and baseball in similarly high......

--Police Commissioner Edward Davis has reacted to the information that corruption in the Boston Police Department might have extended beyond former officer Roberto Pulido and his sketchy crew. He even put a video on YouTube declaring that he will investigate the allegations. He said, "I will continue to press for the strictest sanctions against police corruption so that the excellent police work that I see every day from our officers will not be tarnished."......

View Larger Map During today's "Rolling Rally," be sure to thank Jacoby Ellsbury for stealing a base and earning everyone in the nation a free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco. If you are looking for a taco after the rally, your best bets are the Taco Bells on Comm Ave, at Cambridgeside Galleria, and in West Roxbury. Even if the promotion is somewhat absurd, at least according to the transcript of Royce Clayton and Coco Crisp......

--Mike Mennonno writes a wonderful post about the power of the Polaroid. Photo of the Day fans, take note: "It's hard to say whether the fleshiness of polaroids is an illusion of their application or inherent in the process, but Warhol's polaroids capture that same sinuous, sensuous seediness polaroids seem made for. You don't get that with digital, with its sharp focus and white light." --Newton Streets & Sidewalks had another encounter with a turkey.......

--Walter Tyler, 27, disappeared on Monday while riding a ferry between New Bedford and Martha's Vineyard. Tyler is a Navy vet, and his family says that a) he's a good swimmer and b) he didn't seem like the type to jump off the ferry. --In Plymouth, a man and a woman were taken to hospitals last night after the Jeep Grand Cherokee they were in drove off a boat ramp and into Plymouth Harbor. They......

--Police found where cars go to die. Or at least stolen cars, anyway. Police discovered cars sleeping with the fishes in the Merrimack River. Police have found 15 cars in the river near Dracut. Some of the cars are from the 70s. --The BPD encountered some old-school white-collar crime lately. Police took in Michael Luckett at Eastern Bank on Franklin Street for putting up a website offering high-yield CDs through a "transnational fund." The crime......

The city is still reeling from the deaths of firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne in West Roxbury on Wednesday night. Residents expressed their thanks to Cahill, Payne, and the other injured firefighters by bringing flowers and cards to the West Roxbury fire station. Cahill and Payne were, by all accounts, men who were devoted to their jobs. Cahill discovered his life's passion when he became a firefighter at age 40. Payne had EMT......

Boston firefighters Paul Cahill, of Scituate, and Warren Payne, of Canton, died last night in a fire at the Tai Ho Mandarin and Cantonese Restaurant in West Roxbury. At least 10 firefighters were injured, two critically. The West Roxbury Transcript reported that the critically injured firefighters are on life support. The fire began at 9:00 pm, and 100 firefighters responded. The fire was so strong that, according to reports, flames at least 15 feet high......

-- Two people were arrested early this morning after they reportedly stole a dog from in front of a Walgreen's in East Boston. Stole a dog. Police responded to a call from a "hysterical victim" who explained that she had secured Bella, a brown and black boxer, to a pole in front of the store and came back out to find Bella gone. Police found the pup after witnesses pointed them in the direction of......

--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......

--The last thing we need, especially with a presidential election coming up, is for someone to add fuel to the flag-burning debate. On Thursday, someone in Natick destroyed a solar-powered trash container by stuffing it with American flags and setting them on fire. The person who did it must be trying to offend as many people as possible - the left by wrecking an environmental device, and the right by burning flags. We are all......

West Roxbury is all aflutter after spotting a coyote family. The family is vanishing one at a time, however. One was caught and another was hit by a car Wednesday morning. But the mother is probably extremely angry right now, and only professionals should attempt to engage her. And, if you come across one of the critters, remember what the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife said: "Go out and run and yell and scream and......

Six men, including two men from Boston, have been indicted for prostituting teenage girls. The charges include "conspiracy to transport minors across state lines for prostitution." These people placed ads in the paper or kidnapped teenagers off the street and put them to work. And these alleged scumbags fancied themselves pimps and gave themselves big pimpin' names, such as "Young Stallion," "Syncere," "Ruby Black," "Young Indian," and "Breeze." The last guy, from Portland, Maine, is......

There are a couple of spring events we've gotten used to. Free iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts or a scoop from Ben and Jerry's make their appearance in March and April, respectively, about a month apart. This year JP Licks joins the crew of freebie days. May 17, 2007 will be the first free coffee day at all 7 of their locations. They're hoping to prove how awesome their coffee is by giving it away......

--A bank robbery happened in West Roxbury yesterday, followed by a wild police chase in Dedham. A woman in her 20s did the usual routine of handing a note to a teller and getting some cash. But that's not the exciting part. As she left the Hyde Park Savings Bank, she hopped into a red mini-van (a mini-van as a getaway car?). A bold off-duty police office followed in hot pursuit. The officer got off......

--Universal Hub spotted a few brief lines in the Transcript's police and fire log: "A West Roxbury woman reported to police that her neighbor, who accused her dog of soiling his lawn, threw dog feces on her lawn. A harassment report was filed." One can only imagine the years of simmering resentment as poop appeared on the neighbor's yard. Whether or not this woman's dog was the source of the poop, it's easy to see......

Finally, the city has some good news about crime. While a steady stream of shootings have taken place, statistics are out showing that nonfatal shootings are down by 33 percent compared to last year. The Globe lists many possible reasons for why shootings are down - more patrols, cold temperatures, gang truces, better moods. What's important is that the shootings are down, and we hope it stays that way. The Globe also had a nifty......

Maureen Feeney (Dorchester) has been elected the first female Boston City Council president in 30 years. She gained more support from other councilors than incumbent and longtime president Michael Flaherty (at large) and John Tobin (JP, West Roxbury). Aside from the great news that a woman is in charge after way too long, the other news is the fallout from Flaherty's defeat. The Globe repeats that he's still aiming for the mayor's office. Joe......

A story hit the wire today highlighting work not done, but paid, for the Boston Police Department. Menino's office has launched an investigation into the situation that allowed Christine Meegan to collect full time pay even after she had moved out of state. There's been talk recently about a citizen oversight panel for the Boston Police Department. The City refused oversight, but today questions arise as the report is made public that Meegan was able......

It’s been a bad run for Boston lately. The tunnel collapse, the botched detours, the political infighting and the ever-increasing number of bad bolts, all this bum news can really get a person down. Unless, like 76-year old Mark Smith (former owner of Finagle-A-Bagel), you're kept up! up! up! by a $200/day coke habit. Although his addiction reportedly decimated his profits from the sale of his company, he used some of the remaining funds to......

We're obviously suckers for the hilarity that is a headline pun. Perhaps the most literal, yet still hilarious, headline printed in a while related to the recent unarmed robbery of a Rozzie bank. The Parkway Blog, a new blog by the Town Online paper subset from West Roxbury and Roslindale Transcript, recounts the incident where a 14 year-old walked into a bank, passed a note, and received an undisclosed amount of US currency (we're waiting......

Call Bostonist crazy, but WTF?! The Boston City Council has taken up the cause of making parking lot operators refund money to Sox fans who park and then leave because of rain delays. Naturally, we can see the political capital in this move, what with the way that lot operators jack up prices when demand is high (stupid capitalism!), but will someone at City Hall start getting serious about encouraging fans to take the T......

Boston, the Hub of the Universe. Though claims are made by Goldsboro, Md. to be the Hub they’ve been rebuffed by local netters. Wired ran a story yesterday letting us know all about the GoogleCenter of America. Google sets the default not in the Hub but in the middle of a corn field in Coffeyville, Kan. Gothamaist and Chicagoist subsequently found out where the centers of their cities were, Bostonist is also curious where......