Matt Conti of the North End, where gasoline trucks are a big deal, reports on a hearing in Waltham on Boston's proposal to ban through trucking of hazardous materials and re-route trucks not making local deliveries onto 128:

Only politicians and those fulfilling a job function (ex: trucking lobby) testified against the proposal to have the trucks on Rt. 128. There were no homeowners or abutters to Rt. 128, nor community groups in attendance. A North End resident who testified in favor of the proposal was the only person who was NOT a politician or paid representative.

Earlier:
There's no safer place for large gasoline tankers than the narrow, congested streets of downtown Boston, truckers claim.

Jimmie Foxx of the Red Sox stands in a Fenway dugout with Yankees Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey in this 1937 photo by Leslie Jones, in the BPL's Boston baseball collection.

Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Kim Janey provides the photographic proof - although Bernie Reeder suggests the mess looks more like the work of scavangers pawing through the leftovers.

Ed. note: On our way back from Allston Christmas festivities today, we swung through Mission Hill. Notable sight: A garbage truck, staffed by eight or nine guys in Northeastern shirts, who were just tossing chairs and couches into the beast's gaping maw.

Compiled by Dave Blank.