Berto reports on a stare-down between a Revere diner cook and a bird.
John Greiner-Ferris explains why you need to keep it down while on your cell phone on the T.
UPDATE: Divers recovered his body.
Turnpike traffic was all bollixed up near the Rte. 9 exit this afternoon rush hour as State and Framingham police went looking for something in the Foss Reservoir.
The MetroWest Daily News reports divers were looking for somebody who may have dived off the train tracks that cross the reservoir near the road.
As I got by around 5:45 p.m., several cruisers were parked in the breakdown lane on the eastbound side, with several troopers and plainclothes investigators peering into the reservoir below. More police congregated on the nearby train bridge that is a popular hangout for teens during hot weather. There was a boat in the water. Two news copters hovered above (with a third heading in from 128).
A jury today began deliberating the fate of Rodrick Taylor, accused of murdering a 19-year-old former Milton cheerleader during a violent struggle, stuffing her body in a closet for several days, then dragging her body to Franklin Park, dousing it with gasoline and setting it on fire.
Prosecutors charge Taylor, staying in Dominique Samuels's Roxbury apartment as a guest of a roommate in April, 2006, turned on her radio to make it sound like she was home after he'd killed her and before he decided what to do with her body.
Deliberations come after six weeks of testimony in the case in Suffolk Superior Court - where another jury is also considering the case of Terry Gray, charged with killing his stepfather and his aunt's boyfriend in Jamaica Plain, several years after he was released from jail for stabbing a teenager to death.
Train Rider relays a report from a suffering commuter on this morning's P508 Worcester train, whose riders got into Boston three hours after they left Worcester:
... Apparently, the MBTA has known for weeks that the P508 train has "flat wheels." Flat wheels can cause the train to de-rail. The maximum "Wear and tear" that's allowed by law is 1 1/2 inches. Some of the wheels on this train had flat spots of OVER three inches. So, they forced everyone off in Framingham and made us switch trains. I got into the office at 10 AM. ...
State Rep. Byron Rushing holds up a 1922 newspaper. Photo by Third Decade.
Third Decade reports on what was inside a 1922 time capsule opened today at the Ferdinand building in Dudley Square:
... The Mayor and Rep. Rushing pulled out copies of the Boston Evening Transcript and the Boston Post, furniture advertisements from Ferdinand's Blue Store, and a list of employees from Ferdinand's Blue Store. ...
Next up: Figuring out what to put in a new time capsule.
To repair all the damage done to its offices by rampaging drunks after last week's Celtics win, Lori Magno reports.
Tom Menino sure pulled a good one on him, slipping $2 million into the city budget to study moving City Hall to South Boston, which Flaherty managed to vote for even though he opposes the move, because, well, it was on page 342 of the budget:
In an interview after the hearing, he said that he did not realize he had already voted to approve the funding for the studies.
As a reporter, I once covered a similar issue in Natick - when one selectman realized he'd been similarly, if not quite so back-of-the-bookishly, bamboozled, he said "If I'd realized what I was voting for, I would have voted against myself."
No offense to Natick, but shouldn't we expect more from Boston councilors, who, after all, get paid full-time wages? Surely a man who would be mayor of Boston would realize he has to be on guard when it comes to the man who is mayor of Boston - even if he does have a point about spending $2 million on a study like that in times like these.
Herald editor camped out at the Entwistle trial complains because when deliberations were over for the day, he had to drive home during the hailstorm:
Try sitting in a cramped court all day then driving away into traffic and some summer fury. This assignment ain't no picnic. ...
Ryan Barrett agrees you can find all types of people from all sorts of ethnic and racial groups in the South End, but says the longer she lives there, the more she realizes the different groups aren't really mixing:
... I often wonder whether the South End set-up is an optimal first step towards a more diverse Boston. Perhaps the answer is yes. After all, how can we learn more about each other without co-existing? But I also fear that smashing groups of people together who share no common lifestyle threads might create and/or deepen racial stereotypes, prejudices and anger. Like the "I wish those Project kids would quit it with the freaking firecrackers!" or "Why do these Chinese people always cut the bus line!" anger, which has sneaked up on me from time to time. ...
On my drive home today I was puzzled by all the emergency vehicles, including a Transit Police car, racing towards Colbert Street in West Roxbury.
The Bulletin reports Mo Vaughn and a partner are buying two apartment complexes, in Roslindale and Jamaica Plain. The company plans to keep Forestvale Apartments in Jamaica Plain and Florence Apartments in Roslindale as affordable-housing projects for 40 years.
Joe Shaw took this awesome photo - the sort you'd normally only expect to see in the Midwest - out his window as the storm rolled over Cambridge.
Ten current and former toll collectors at the Ted Williams and Callahan tunnels were charged today with stealing toll money from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which owns the tunnels.
Suffolk County DA Dan Conley says the most common scheme involved taking advantage of the different tolls charged to commercial vehicles and ordinary passenger cars:
As vehicles pass through the tolls, the collector is supposed to hit a switch indicating the type of vehicle passing through and collect the appropriate fare. In most of these instances we've charged, toll collectors would classify some of the taxi cabs or other commercial vehicles as ordinary vehicles, but charge the drivers the higher toll rate and pocket the difference.
Another scheme involved toll collectors manipulating the timing switch used to count cars so that two vehicles would be counted as one. Again, the toll was collected from the uncounted vehicle but pocketed by the toll collector. The dollars stolen from the Turnpike by misclassifying or miscounting vehicles could range anywhere from $20 to $150 per toll collector, per shift, and amount to thousands of dollars.
State Police began their investigation last October. The ten were issued summons to appear in Boston Municipal Court to answer the charges.
OK, I admit I'm posting this mainly to run a headline that says "Mothball-sized hail!" because, really, when's the last time you saw a headline like that? Let alone actual mothball-sized hail, as reported by a woman in Seekonk?
As I type this, it is pouring here in Southborough, although it's nowhere near as bad as yesterday, when we couldn't see to the other side of the reservoir along Rte. 9.
UPDATE: Apparently mothballs are a common unit of hail measurement. Go figure.
If Boston cab-fleet owners want fare increases, they should be forced to clean up their acts, City Council President Maureen Feeney says in a letter to Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who oversees taxi fares in Boston.
The taxicab industry has been described as "sharecropping on wheels" with drivers forced to pay thousands of dollars in fees before they can earn any salary. This system penalizes both drivers and passengers. It is time for a comprehensive look at our taxi cab system in Boston. I ask you to strongly consider establishing a commission to review the taxi cab industry in Boston and recommend reforms to address the serious concerns raised both by passengers and by drivers.
My office has received several reports of illegal and out-of-town cabs operating in Boston, and of illegal kickbacks from hotel doormen to livery services. Taxi cab drivers face serious challenges and, in addition to your hearing today, I hope you will continue to work with them to address these issues. ...
Globe: Taxi drivers push for fare increases.
Earlier:
Unfare?
Boston to Brookline cabbies: Butt out.
Boston Police could use some help in catching gunmen who held up convenience stores in Hyde Park and JP last week.
On June 18, around 2:20 p.m., police responded to a panic alarm at the River Street Mini-Mart, 991 River St., where employees were robbed at gunpoint by four black men wearing black shirts and black face masks - and carrying silver-colored handguns. One employee was ordered to lie on the floor while the other was ordered to open the cash register.
They got away with about $3,460 in cash, lottery tickets and cigarettes.
The next day, around 9 p.m., the J.P. Convenience Store, 162 South St. in JP, was held up by three black men, also in black masks and brandishing a silver-colored handgun and who also ordered the clerk to the floor. The thieves made off with about $2,000 in cash.
Based on the store's video system, one suspect is about 6' tall and about 165 lbs., another was 5'9", about 165 lbs. while the third was 5'9" and weighing in at 180 lbs.
Have info? Call the CrimeStoppers tip line at 1-800-494-TIPS (8477) or text the word 'TIP' to CRIME (27463). Be as anonymous as you want to be.
This is the sort of thing that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in trolley drivers:
Several people, including a Boston magazine staffer, witnessed a T driver repeatedly drifting off to sleep between Hynes and Coolidge Corner shortly after 6 p.m on June 17.
Nobody was hurt, but the story gets even better when that staffer attempts to report the incident to the T.
The MBTA is equipping 11 ferry boats with WiFi.
French Toast Alert Level: High. Explanation.
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