East Boston

The FBI reports this is a photo of a guy in the process of robbing the Eastern Bank branch inside the Shaw's on Border Street in East Boston Saturday afternoon.

If this crystal-clear photo jogs your memory, call Special Agent Jeff Rolands at 617-742-5533.

State Police report arresting Carlos Velazquez, 18, on charges he plunged a knife into the chest of another teen with a folding knife in the Bremen Street Park last Monday.

State Police say Velazquez and a pal chased two other teens near the YMCA Monday afternoon. When they caught up with them, Velazquez stabbed one of the two, then fled. The victim was taken to Mass. General for treatment.

State Police say that when troopers went to Velazquez's home at 85 Brooks St., today:

[T]he Troopers were told by the defendant’s mother that Velasquez was not there – a claim that immediately proved false when Trooper Hubbard saw the defendant climb out of the apartment’s kitchen window.

Innocent, etc.

Channel 5 reports a man told TSA agents at the Southwest terminal at Logan that he had an AK-47 and hand grenades in his luggage. He didn't, but that was still good enough for a free trip to the nearest State Police barracks.

The Boston Licensing Board this week voted to suspend Durgin-Park's liquor license for two days because of an incident in which a now ex-oyster shucker kept groping a waitress even after she told him to stop and punched him.

He might be composing a little ditty about a brawl at an East Boston restaurant last month that left one man with a slash wound across his face, another man with bruises all over and a third man with half of his ear bitten off.

Last week, Boston hosted the American Public Transportation Association's annual rail conference. A highlight of the conference is always the rail rodeo, in which teams from subway systems across the continent compete in both train maintenance and operation.

Turns out some Blue Line riders had to take a shuttle bus instead of trains to let the teams do some competition - and get some training - on real subway tracks. On Friday, the T substituted buses for trains between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. between Orient Heights (where the Blue Line maintenance facilities are) and Wonderland, then repeated the bustitution on Saturday from early in the morning until 3 p.m.

T spokesman Joe Pesturo says the outage also let T maintenance workers "address and rectify some defective lighting systems at Orient Heights and Wonderland Stations."

Railroad.net discussion on the topic.

David Chau was in the right place and time to capture a lightning bolt hitting the East Boston waterfront during yesterday afternoon's storm.

More lightning over Boston.

The Boston Licensing Board agreed with Cafe Meridian today that tequilla mixed with liqueurs and vodka infused with anise is no longer hard liquor and that the restaurant has the right to sell the stuff.

At 6:58 a.m., Rodney Brown tweeted:

Might be late this a.m. Sparks showering down from overhead catenary wires where they meet the front of the Blue Line car I'm in.

At 7:11 a.m., Jennifer Montfort tweeted:

Delays on the Blue line inbound, fire problem at Wood Island. At Orient Heights waiting for the bus.

Boston Police, who seized 61 bottles of aguardiente, vodka, tequila and whiskey from Cafe Meridian on Meridian Street should give the booze back, because it's not really hard liquor of the sort the cafe isn't allowed to sell but the softer cordials it is, the restaurant's lawyer argued today.

At a hearing today, Michael Ford attempted to convince a clearly skeptical Licensing Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer and member Suzanne Ianella that tequila isn't really tequila if it's mixed with cream and that infusing vodka with ginger or anise transforms it into a liqueur.

A global cocaine ring, the Globe reports.

Abigail Matzeder took a photo of the mammatus clouds over the Back Bay this evening. Dan Kissam took photos of the same clouds over Allston.

Channel 5 reported debris from Monson fell in Upton, 50 miles away. Stephanie Bradner reported from Dedham:

Debris was falling in Dedham MA from 6-630 PM - leaves, branches and other items falling from much higher than treetops.

Jenn Martinelli said, if nothing else, East Boston got an interesting sunset out of the storm:

The city's sending notes to cabdrivers this week reminding them to knock it off when it comes to trying to get East Boston residents and visitors the cost of the tolls on the way back, because that's illegal.

Via Jim Correale, who reports:

I rarely use taxis in Boston, but the last time I took one to come home, the driver attempted to tack on a few bucks for the toll. He didn't argue with me when I told him that doing so was illegal, but he would have got me if I didn't know better. The City asks that people report if cabbies attempt to charge the extra fee.

The state reminds us motorists will need to seek alternate routes through December as workers tear down the old bridge between East Boston and Chelsea and finish work on the new one.

The Bruins advance to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in more than 20 years. They're setting off fireworks in East Boston and Woburn.

Brendan Campbell, 17, was ordered held in lieu of $25,000 bail today on charges he snuck into East Boston High School yesterday afternoon with a loaded .25 caliber semiautomatic Raven Arms handgun, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Boston Police tweet somebody was stabbed this evening at 319 Meridian St.

Marco Tulio Flores ended a fight with an older friend late Sunday by knocking him out, binding and gagging him with duct tape and then suffocating him, a Suffolk County prosecutor charged today. At Flores's arraignment in East Boston District Court, Asssistant DA Ian Polumbaum said Flores doused the longtime acquaintance's body with a flammable liquid.

Boston Police tweet the arrest of Marco Tulio Flores, 17, for yesterday's fire on Saratoga Street that killed Jaime Galdamez. He'll be arraigned today in East Boston District Court.

Innocent, etc.

UPDATE: Teen arrested, charged with murder.

The Boston Fire Department reports a basement fire at 877 Saratoga St. claimed a life around 8 a.m. and sent a firefighter to the hospital with a back injury.

Boston fire inspectors and police homicide detectives are now on the scene of the fire, a two-story home.

Boston's last fatal fire was also in East Boston, on May 29, 2010, when two people died in a fire started by an extension cord shorting out.

Boston Police report officers responding to a call for a fight at Brooks and Saratoga streets in East Boston around 3:45 this morning found:

A man with his hands up attempting to cover his head while another man dressed up as a woman was swinging a handbag hitting him.

Some East Boston residents are reporting hearing a loud and mysterious ship's horn blasting periodically over the past couple of days. Bryan P. allows as how, yes, it's been foggy, and yes, we have these things called foghorns, but adds:

Would think fog, but I've been here two years and never heard one go off.

The Boston Fire Department reports firefighters had to climb eight feet down a ladder in an elevator shaft around 4 a.m. to help free 13 people stuck in an elevator at 500 Border St.

A big problem with this rescue was the 13 people trapped were loud, boisterous and uncooperative. Early in the incident, a person called the fire dispatch and claimed there was a pregnant woman about to give birth on the elevator. This dangerous claim was an attempt to get rescued quicker. It was only when firefighters reached the elevator roof that this proved false.

The department says the elevator got stuck between the third and fifth floors - the building has no door on the fourth floor. Firefighters on the fifth floor lowered a ladder and one firefighter in a safety harness climbed down and opened the roof hatch. Firefighters then lowered another ladder into the elevator and had the trapped people climb up to the fifth floor on that.

Snellman and GrisoliaAn MBTA inspector who saw a Watertown man mug a woman about to get on the train at Maverick last night didn't let the guy leave the station, MBTA Transit Police say.

According to a police report, Inspector Ira Lawrence was in the customer-service booth at the Blue Line station around 11:20 p.m. when he noticed Sean Snellman hand a guitar and bag to Brittney Grisolia, then run toward a woman and grab one of the two purses she was carrying:

The Boston Licensing Board today rolled back the legal closing time of Canton Eatery, 339 Meridian St. for selling and delivering food after it was legally required to be closed.