Harm caused to the Big Dig by two concrete-company executives who ordered workers to deliver substandard concrete was nowhere near as bad as prosecutors charged, a federal appeals court said today in upholding a judge sentencing them only to probation and community service.

Under federal guidelines for the fraud charges on which they were convicted, Robert Prosperi and Gregory Stevenson, executives at Aggregate Industries, should have gotten a minimum of 7 1/4 years in federal prison. The judge in their case, however, sentenced them to six months' probation and 1,000 hours of community service.

Federal prosecutors appealed. In its ruling today, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston agreed the deviation from sentencing standards gave it pause, but said the judge in the case adequately explained why the two did not deserve time in prison:

To start, the value of the concrete - in which workers layered a small amount of good concrete atop batches of substandard material and prepared fake certificates on the makeup of the material - was less than the government charged, in part because contractors were paid by each foot of the tunnel constructed, rather than by the number of loads of concrete delivered.

But also, state officials said that even with the adulteration, post-construction tests showed the bad batches still met state specifications, it was unfair to blame these two men for a culture of corporate corruption of the sort exemplified by Robert Madoff. Also, neither man personally benefited from the fraud. Both men were also caring for very sick family members and apologized before sentencing.

• Complete ruling

Romney has serious street shred.

A roving UHub photographer annoyedly snapped this photo of a shredder truck illegally parked in a no-parking zone outside Mitt Romney's national headquarters (again), which is still inexplicably located on Commercial Street in the heart of one of the cities least likely to vote for him:

It parks there all the time despite constant media stories wondering what he's hiding & the fact that it's a TOW ZONE. Illegally parked despite half-empty parking lot which they assiduously guard.

Oh, yeah, gotta keep that parking lot free of little kids.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that if you're facing criminal charges and want a court-appointed lawyer, you're going to have to prove you really are indigent - and that if you live at home, your parents or even significant others will have to chip in.

The state's highest court made its rulings in two separate cases today.

In one case, a woman facing 93 charges of not paying her workers pleaded indigency even though she and her husband owned three properties and had income of around $65,000 a year. Although the woman told a judge she could not sell the properties because of existing tax liens and a poor real-estate market, she offered no written proof of these issues.

The state's highest court ruled that if you want the state to help pay for your representation, you're going to have to do better than that - and submit some pretty detailed proof of why you can't find money for your own lawyer.

In a separate case, the court ruled a man living at home with his mother and girlfriend could not plead he was indigent when his mother was bringing home $85,000 a year and his girlfriend - with whom he was basically living as a spouse - brought in additional money.

The man had argued asking them to contribute to his legal defense would be unconstitutionally asking third parties to pay for his legal costs.

The court cited one state law that creates "a presumption that a parent who substantially supports his or her child over the age of sixteen will also contribute to the cost of the child's legal counsel" and said that the manner in which the man and his girlfriend were cohabiting was sufficient to create the equivalence of a marriage - under which partners are expected to help pay for legal costs.

This particular case was actually moot, since the man eventually did obtain his own lawyer, but the court said it decided to rule on it anyway, because of the issues it raised.

• Commonwealth vs. Diane E. Porter and another
• Commonwealth vs. Joseph Fico and another

1. Boston and Chelsea firefighters testing pipes on the Tobin Bridge intended to carry water in the event of a fire.

The Boston Fire Department reports crews this morning are testing the standpipes that bring water to the roadways - they are supposed to withstand 200 lbs. of pressure for two hours.

The first test this morning was stopped as a valve did not hold and water started flowing out. That is being fixed.