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Stop the presses: Downtown Crossing getting a Taco Bell

Impending Taco Bell.

Cybah reports the culinary hole left by the closing of the Summer Street Subway is being filled by a Taco Bell.

Boston currently has just one Taco Bell, even if barely: On VFW Parkway in West Roxbury, just up from the Dedham line (it shares space with Boston's only Long John Silver's).


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Judge says senatorial debate can go on without independent candidate

A federal judge ruled today that organizers of a Senate debate this Sunday can exclude independent candidate Shiva Ayyadurai because published polls show him garnering less than 10% of the vote.

US District Court Judge Richard Stearns said that making poll standing a criterion for participation in a debate is "viewpoint neutral," rather than being based on Ayyadurai's views on the issues, and so allowable under a 1998 Supreme Court ruling. Because Ayyadurai polled under 10%, lead organizer WCVB barred him from the debate with incumbent Elizabeth Warren and Republican Geoff Diehl.

That Ayyadurai was able to get this far in the legal process was because the University of Massachusetts is also involved in the debate's planning, which Stearns said raised First Amendment issues, because it is a public institution. Along with WCVB and UMass, the Globe and the Western Massachusetts Media Consortium are sponsoring the debate, which will be aired at 7 p.m. from a Springfield TV studio.

But Stearns continued that the criteria debate organizers used were not biased towards any particular viewpoints, and the fact that of the three candidates this year, only Ayyadurai was blocked from participation does not negate that:

Dr. Ayyadurai advances the non sequitur that because the eligibility criteria, however neutral they may appear on their face, operate to exclude only him from the debate, it follows that they are not viewpoint neutral. Why it so follows is never explained. His political and social views, whatever they may be, are no doubt personal and idiosyncratic to him, and may differ in many material respects from those of the major party candidates. But he offers no evidence that animus towards a particular opinion or opinions that he holds motivated the debate sponsors in setting the 10% polling eligibility threshold.

Stearns then dismissed Ayyadurai's suit with prejudice, so that Ayyadurai could immediately appeal the decision.


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For second time in two weeks, federal judge tells owner of derelict Dorchester three decker to go away

Yet another federal judge has told the owner of the remains of a three decker at 97 Mt. Ida Rd. to leave the federal courts out of his dispute over the state sanitary code, under which the city has been trying to have the building fixed or razed since it was heavily damaged in a 2011 fire.

In an order last week, US District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton rejected James Dickey's request for a temporary restraining order to stop a receiver - appointed by state housing court - to clean up the property so he can determine whether it can be repaired or saved. Gorton's order came two weeks after another federal judge, William Young, denied Dickey's request for temporary restraining order because there was no emergency that needed immediate attention. Gorton did tell Dickey he could come back to federal court - but only after he has exhausted all of his options in state court.

Federal judges have told Dickey several times in recent years they are not going to get involved in a dispute over state health regulations - but Dickey keeps filing lawsuits and motions in federal court.

Dickey, who lives in Sudbury, now alleges city officials and state housing-court judges are conspiring against blacks by condemning property in minority neighborhoods and selling it off. City officials, and now the receiver appointed by housing court, retort that's not true, but that even if it were, Dickey could not sue over it because he is white.

On Oct. 12, a judge in Eastern Housing Court in Boston rejected Dickey's demand to fire the receiver and denied his request to argue on behalf of the LLC he set up to own the property, against which the city has brought its actions, because state law requires LLCs to be represented in court by actual lawyers, and Dickey, who is not a lawyer, has always represented himself.

The receiver has borrowed $20,000 to clean up the property and take other actions to get it ready for sale at auction. If the receiver does sell the property, he would subtract his costs from the auction price.

However, the whole case could now be headed to the Supreme Judicial Court, acording to the court docket.


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Shots fired near Codman Square

On Darlington Street, off Southern Avenue, around 12:10 p.m.

Mon, 10/22/2018 - 12:09
Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 
Free tagging: 


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Boston space oddity

On March 23, 1963, Arthur Fiedler and his wife Ellen visited with Werner von Braun at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.

Von Braun had briefly lived near Fiedler, although the Pops conductor didn't know it at the time. In September 1945, the military shipped von Braun and some other Nazi rocket scientists to an Army fort on Long Island, as part of a secret program to learn the secrets of the V2 by basically ignoring the Nazi stuff and letting the scientists get American citizenship.

Also not that far away at the time: Tom Lehrer, getting his BA in mathematics at Harvard. Lehrer later wrote and performed a ditty about von Braun:


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Hyde Park could get late-night wings

Wingz and Tingz, 10 Fairmount Ave., goes before the Boston Licensing Board on Wednesday for permission to extend its closing time from midnight to 3:30 a.m.

The board's hearings begin at 10 a.m. in Room 809 in City Hall.


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How a $1 purchase will keep a South End arts center going for a long time

David Bates discusses the implications of the Boston Center for the Arts purchase of the Calderwood Pavilion from the BPDA, which had formerly leased it to the center.


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Needham Line isn't fine

Kerry O'Brien is on a Needham Line train with no heat, no light and no open seats. On the bright side, it is moving.


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On the first really cold fall day, the T can't keep dead trains at bay

At 8:36 a.m., Phil R. reported:

Currently on an inbound Riverside train that's "standing by until further notice" just outside Beaconsfield "due to two disabled trains ahead".

That comes after the T reported delays due to a trolley with a "power problem" at North Station, which comes after the T reported delays due to a trolley with "a mechanical problem" at Kenmore.

Recalcitrant trains on the Orange and Blue lines also caused delays on those lines.


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Civic association has some advice on dealing with coyotes that involves soda cans filled with pennies

The Brighton Allston Improvement Association report a coyote was spotted this evening at the EF property on Lake Street. It provides some tips on "hazing" coyotes that do not involve maneuvering their TNT-filled cabins onto railroad tracks, including:

Shake or throw a “coyote shaker” - a soda can filled with pennies or pebbles and sealed with duct tape.


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