Jamaica Plain

Transit Police report arresting an itinerant hot-dog vendor who tried opening up one of the food stands inside the Orange Line station this morning without a permit - but with several outstanding warrants.

Police say a T worker called police around 5 a.m. when he realized something wasn't kosher, because the guy setting up the carts was not one of its usual workers.

Officers managed to ketchup with and grill Dana Reis, 56, of Medford; in fact, he was still at the cart when they arrived:

Stephen Doran, who served Lexington as a state representative for 14 years, was arraigned today on a charge of trafficking in methamphetamine.

Doran, first elected to the House when he was just 23, in 1980, was arrested yesterday after leaving for the day from the Match Middle School, where he was a tutor and where State Police charge he accepted delivery of a package containing 480 grams of "a crystalline substance believed to be methamphetamine," the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports:

Around 5 p.m. yesterday. Driver was headed outbound on the Jamaicaway, mother and baby were in the crosswalk. Mother and baby taken to local hospital for observation.

Parents at the Curley School hold a fundraiser on Saturday afternoon to try to raise $200,000 to convert an old asphalt "field" at the school into a three-season, multi-use playing field. The original goal was $250,000, but somebody recently and anonymously donated $50,000 toward the goal.

It's Lilac Sunday over at the Arnold Arboretum.

Food trucks, Roxy's Gourmet Grilled Cheese, Batch Ice Cream, Clover Food Truck, Cupcakory and Slush King are also there.

Take mom over for a treat on her day!

Photo: Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA

In an editorial, the Jamaica Plain Gazette rhapsodizes about how Roslindale completes JP, in part because Roslindale hosts all the trailer-trash kind of chain stores that would otherwise try to muscle their non-local way into the pristine Elysian fields of Jamaica Plain:

It has been easier for local-business-minded JP to fend off the likes of Family Dollar when we all know we can go to the one already in Roslindale Village. And while a big-box store coming to JP would face protests, many of us have popped into the Rozzie Staples, which is not much farther from central JP than Jackson Square is.

Roslindale ed. note: Maybe it's time for a field trip to the JP Whole Foods to see what a real local, non-big-box store is like, one that managed to get built without any protests, let alone arrests. Well, no more than three, anyway. And it's not much farther from Rozzie Square than Grew Hill is.

Vickie Henry and Claire Humphrey yesterday sued the IRS, alleging rules that prohibit them from filing tax returns as a married couple unconstitutionally taxes them at a higher rate than other married people.

The pair, who filed their suit in US District Court in Boston, say they have filed amended returns listing them as married for 2007 and 2009 and want a refund on their taxes for those years, based on the lower rate charged a married couple versus two single people.

A year ago, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which the IRS uses to define "married" was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is currently considering the law.

Henry and Humphrey married in 2004, a few months after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled same-sex couples have the right to marry. Among their arguments for a refund:

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today Suffolk County prosecutors could use heroin seized from a Forest Hills home as evidence against three men charged with selling it, even though a BPD detective's request for a search warrant for the home wasn't really as detailed as it should have been.

This newly researched and opinionated history of the Casey Overpass in Jamaica Plain may serve as useful background information for a community grappling with how and why we got here - and where we're going.

http://fivehundredmonkeys.blogspot.com/2013/05/something-different-casey-overpass.html

It was a perfect day for Jamaica Plain's annual Wake Up the Earth parade and festival along the Southwest Corridor Park by Stony Brook station.

Feeling green. Photo copyright Charlie Rosenberg.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury today found Hector Soto of Roslindale guilty of second-degree murder for the stabbing death of Kenneth Soto - no relation - in October, 2011, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

As he did after the Newtown shootings, Carlos Arredondo has helped turn the Soldier's Monument into a memorial this time to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings - one of whom he helped keep alive.

The Times reports on the story behind the grisly photo from yesterday.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports residents who want to see the Casey Overpass replaced with another overpass instead of surface roads are considering suing to stop the work:

"No one prefers to go that route if there's a reasonable solution,” he told the Gazette this week. "But all our arrows are in our quiver."

At particular issue: The proposed new location of the exit from the Forest Hills busway near Asticou Road.

The FBI Bank Robbery Task Force has released three photos of the guy they say robbed the Mt. Washington Bank branch at 515 Centre St. on Wednesday.

In addition to wearing a "Pink Floyd 1972" T-shirt (which appears to feature a pyramid similar to the ones featured on a poster included in the original "Dark Side of the Moon" album, which came out in 1973), he's about 6 feet tall with a medium build. If you know a gun-toting prog-rocker who seems to have come into some new money, contact the task force at 617-692-0369.

Alex Jones reports the Mt. Washington Bank branch at 515 Centre St. was held up shortly after 3 p.m. by a gun-toting white man, about 6 feet tall, in his 30s, wearing a green jacket and sunglasses.

The branch was last robbed April 1, by a man who unwisely chose to rob it just as the neighboring Curley School was letting out for the day, which meant somebody picking up a kid there could tackle him until police could arrive.

McDepression hurts. Photo by Kate Ingalls.

Seems those ads promising help for people suffering from the Big Mac withdrawal symptoms were put on the T by McDonald's local ad agency without the hamburger chain's approval.

In a statement, Arnold President Pam Hamlin says:

Arnold apologizes for its mistake to McDonald's and to anyone who was offended by the ad. McDonald's did not approve the ad, and it's release was our unintended error. We've addressed the issue and have improved our approval process to ensure this does not happen in the future.

McDonald's and Arnold asked the T to pull the ads down (see the other ads).

Fun for a rainy day: Directions for making a beetle ring out of black construction paper, white paint and some pipe cleaners. Looks cool and introduces you to the bug that has forced the feds to chop down thousands upon thousands of trees from Worcester to Jamaica Plain.

Kids can use their ALB ring to teach others about this invasive insect. They can tell others what an ALB looks like, use their hands to make the ALB look as if it is walking on a tree, or tell others how the ALB antennae help them find each other.

Brought to you by the folks at the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Project.

Police are at Heath and Lawn streets, where a person was found shot in the leg shortly before midnight. He is expected to survive.

A car seen fleeing the scene with two or three occupants was spotted around 20 minutes later in the area of Harold and Homestead streets, in the territory of the H Block gang; a gun was located on Hutchings Street nearby.

Last month, a Braintree man with alleged ties to the Heath Street gang was arrested on charges he shot a man on Holworthy Street in the heart of H Block territory.

Jed Hresko photographed the remains of the wrapping on that new Jackson Square building this morning - the second time in the past few months it's proven no match for local winds.

City Councilor Matt O'Malley says BPD officers will attend his previously scheduled neighborhood meeting tonight to discuss last night's fatal shooting on Minden Street. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m at the Connolly library, 433 Centre St.

UPDATE: Boston Police identify the victim as Edward Villalona, 25, of Jamaica Plain.

Updated 11:55 p.m.

Brian D'Amico reports a man was shot around 8:30 p.m. at 104 Minden St. He was brought to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where the Globe reports he died.

Police are looking for a light-skinned black man, about 5'8" and wearing a black T-shirt, who raced away in a dark Ford Flex with a white roof.

Boston murders in 2013.

A concerned citizen complains:

Can someone PLEASE do something about all the unleashed dogs in the Arboretum? I should be able to take my kids there without being accosted multiple times by dogs bigger than them running full bore at them. Nobody to enforce?

The Herald reports BPD is now investigating the incident, which happened as tensions are rising between dog owners who keep their pets leashed in the park and those who don't.

Transit Police shut the Green Street stop on the Orange Line tonight and brought in the Boston Fire hazmat unit after discovering a white powder there. Police reopened the station around 8:20 p.m. after determining the powder was cornstarch.