Beacon Hill

In advance of a visit by the Brazilian president today, the Secret Service no less ordered Occupy MBTA evicted from the State House steps last night. State Police provided some trucks so the protesters could move their stuff; they'll be allowed back today after the departure of Dilma Rousseff, her eyes protected from the sight of Americans clinging to the quaint idea they have a right to peacefully assemble.

AmberPaw reports from the scene.

Suspect. Photo via BPD.

Updated, 6 p.m.

Boston Police report a man who robbed the CVS at Charles Circle this morning handed workers a note that said there were bombs both there and at the nearby West End branch of the BPL and to give the man all their good drugs.

Bombs were not found at either location, police say:

The note further stated that someone would be watching the store in the event police were called. Provided police weren't called, in 2 1/2 hours time, bombs would be deactivated in the pharmacy and the library. After receiving an undisclosed amount of prescription drugs, the suspect fled the store on foot.

Patrick Cannon yesterday acknowledged in court he was the guy clad in a white graduation gown and a ski mask who held up the Cambridge Trust branch at Beacon and Charles last Aug. 17, the US Attorney's Office in Boston reports.

MassBike reports MassDOT has picked a design for the renovation of the Longfellow that features just one vehicle lane outbound and wider lanes for bicyclists and pedestrians in both directions.

Rob Stanhope captured an early St. Patrick's Day celebration in the Public Garden.

State Police report arresting Ryan Parrott, 24, this morning, following a chase across O'Brien Highway that involved a helicopter and a police dog.

Museum security guards called the nearby State Police barracks shortly before 11 a.m. to report they were chasing a suspect, according to a State Police statement:

read more at bluemassgroup

The Globe and the Herald report on a plan for the Esplandade that calls for better access across Storrow Drive, a cafe next to the Hatch Shell, doing more with the Charles River dam and the Muddy River and just generally sprucing up the existing facilities after decades of neglect. Another idea would be a 100-foot-tall Ferris wheel by the Museum of Science. Of course, this would take some money.

Channel 25 reports one of its Lowell watchers spotted the wee pet, dognapped from outside the Beacon Hill Whole Foods the other night:

He called to "Pebbles" and the dog came to him while the two women ran away, reports the Lowell Police.

UPDATE: Dog found safe in Lowell.

Pebbles, a 4-year-old yorkie/chihuahua mix was stolen by two women around 6:30 p.m. at the Cambridge Street Whole Foods as her owner dashed inside to buy some dinner.

Her owner is offering a $1,000 reward for her return, no questions asked. If you spot a little dog with one ear up and one down, send info to bringpebbleshome@gmail.com.

More from Channel 25.

Photographynatalia took this photo of the shadows at the Red Line stop the other day.

Copyright Photographynatalia. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Staffers at the Suffolk Journal this week learned one of the most important rules of print journalism: If you put in a joke headline, you're going to forget to take it out and it will run and boy are you going to regret it.

In today's issue of The Journal, we published an inappropriate sub-headline in the article "SLI Involvement Fair a success." We want to apologize profusely for the mistake and make it clear that we in no way harbor ill feelings towards the Student Leadership and Involvement Office, nor any of the students and staff that work there. The sub-head was put in as a joke, by editors, that unfortunately slipped through our editing process later in the night. We want to make it clear that the reporter who wrote the article had no idea or anything to do with the subhead.

And just what did they write? See for yourself.

H/t, Dan.

Mike the Mad Biologist riffs on Bostonography's population density maps and ponders how much of Beacon Hill, the Back Bay and the North End approach Manhattan levels of density without anything approaching Manhattan-style building heights:

Boston has two things going for it that most other cities don't have: narrow streets and sidewalks. Not a lot of space is wasted in residential areas. Sidewalks at most are about nine to ten feet wide, and skinnier in other places (e.g., Beacon Hill). The streets typically are very narrow–about ten Mad Biologist paces (my pace length is about average)–if you factor in parked cars, add about four paces. Not only does this making walking around easier, but the real estate is used to house people, not air or cars. That allows much higher densities (although it makes drivers crazy at times) without skyscrapers.

Ed question: Would that also apply in Somerville, still one of the most densely packed cities in America?

New England Philharmonic member wants her $10,000 flute back.

Ross Levanto explains the growing outrage on Beacon Hill over Capital One's plans to turn the Charles Street Market into Yet Another Bank:

One neighbor noted how the market is the only place on the street she can visit late at night when she feels threatened. Another talked about the over saturation of banks on Charles Street.

Capital One goes before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Feb. 28 for permission to financialize the corner market.

On Saturday, the city will give away 3,600 tickets to skate on the field on Jan. 1 and Jan. 16.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports the Boston city councilor is considering moving back to Newton, where he grew up, to run for Barney Frank's seat.

Open-night skating festivities scheduled for Nov. 18 have been indefinitely postponed due to warm weather.

Virgil Aiello said today DeLuca's on Charles Street could be back in the wine business within a month after receiving Inspectional Services approval - which his lawyer said could be any day now.

A concerned citizen reports rats are undermining the very brick sidewalks that help give Beacon Hill its charm, with a photo of their dirty work on Hancock Street:

Large hole in sidewalk. Made by rats. Very dangerous.

Ed. Question: Say, you don't think there's a warren of them living under the Big Dig, do you?

Cambridge, Mass. — Tickets are on sale now for George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Stickball Productions’ world premiere stage adaptation of the quintessential Boston crime novel. The production runs Dec. 8–Jan. 15 at Oberon in Harvard Square, for tickets, visit www.thefriendsofeddiecoyle.com

It is the winter of ‘69 in Boston and Eddie Coyle is a bottom of the barrel hood attempting to stay alive and out of jail among his “friends” – cops, bartenders, radical hippies, bank robbers, hit men and informants. Weeks away from a prison sentence for trucking stolen booze, Eddie’s making a few bucks supplying the guns for a rash of brazen bank heists, while looking to tip someone in for a kind word to the judge.

George V. Higgins’ classic novel has been called the “best crime novel ever written” by Elmore Leonard, and literary scholars have compared his unforgiving and realistic depiction of Boston’s underworld with the works of Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Balzac. Through dialogue quintessentially Bostonian, and the most poignant homage to Bobby Orr and the ’69-’70 Boston Bruins in literature, The Friends of Eddie Coyle has set the bar for Boston crime stories for nearly 40 years.

Boston Police report a woman sitting on a bench in the Common yesterday afternoon was punched and kicked when she refused to give up her purse to three women who spotted her handing some money to a friend.

Unsuccessful in their robbery attempt, police say, the three fled - two of them pursued by passersby who hailed a state trooper standing at Bowdoin and Beacon streets. He nabbed the pair and held them until Boston Police officers arrived soon after from the park.

Omaila Medina, 19, of Fall River and Jasmin Vega, 27, of Dorchester were charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon (shod foot), assault and battery and attempted unarmed robbery.

Innocent, etc.

Sign on Chestnut Street on Beacon Hill this week.

Malden Patch reports foreclosure protesters gathered up trash from a foreclosed Malden house they say Bank of America has let go to hell, then took it over to the Beacon Hill home of the president of the bank's Massachusetts division and dumped it there.

Yesterday, as recorded by jojo23jojo23, playing David Gonzalez's guitar. His son goes to BC, and we all know what yesterday was.