Boston Police report detectives rushed to a Franklin Park playground off Walnut Avenue yesterday morning when somebody playing with several young children noticed a gun just lying at the base of a tree.
The Smith & Wesson .41 Magnum revolver ... was fully loaded and the hammer was cocked. The firearm was rendered safe and recovered by detectives.
The Real Lenny reports spotting a parakeet in his backyard near Faulkner Hospital this afternoon.
Tillie Jupiter reports he proved a friendly guy, so they were able to capture him and take him inside while they called Boston animal control - which now has him at its Roslindale shelter. If you're missing a parakeet, with a tag that reads something like HC355, now you know where to get him.
Bird inside:
Jamaica Plain News reports on the demise of Ghazal on Centre Street.
UPDATE: Headline changed because, as Chris Helms at Jamaica Plain News reminded me, there's now Tikki Masala in Forest Hills.
Transit Police report arresting a 14-year-old from Everett early this morning on charges he swiped a phone right out of the hands of a woman sitting on an inbound Orange Line train next to a door open after the train pulled into Stony Brook.
The kid, too young to have his name released, didn't get far, police say: Other passengers chased him and a T worker "was able to prevent the male from escaping."
Clay Harper wonders what group plastered this pineapple finial resistance message on the Casey Overpass yesterday - and what they want.
Massport's Flavio Leo discusses runways and planes.
A City Council hearing today on resident complaints about low-flying jets from Roxbury to Hyde Park and Milton was sort of moot, because the Massport officials who did attend stressed they have nothing to do with deciding which planes fly where or how.
At-large City Councilor Steve Murphy, who lives on Fairmount Hill in Hyde Park had a simple answer: "From this point forward think of us as plaintiffs," he told the Massport officials.
The Boston Licensing Board this week hears a request from the owner of the failed Tonic bar in Forest Hills to sell his all-alcohol license to the owners of the Envoy Hotel, scheduled to open this summer across from the Barking Crab and the Moakley Courthouse in South Boston.
The hotel is planning two bars: A ground-level watering hole called the Outlook and a rooftop bar called the Lookout. Also planned: A 50-seat sidewalk patio.
The City Council today agreed to let Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester) hold a series of hearings at which state and city officials can explain how replacing the Casey Overpass with a series of surface roads won't give residents cancer or block ambulances from getting heart-attack and stroke victims to the medical area - but not demand the work be stopped altogether.
Or, at least, that's what Yancey professed today.
"This is not [a motion] to cease and desist the demolition of the Casey Overpass," Yancey told fellow councilors.
City Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester) wonders if the project to replace the Casey Overpass with surface roads will cause problems for people heading to lifesaving medical treatment in the Longwood Medical Area or to soul-saving worship services at area churches, so he's seeking "a series of hearings" on the demolition plans - three years after state officials announced the plans.
The Ward 19 Democratic Committee will meet at 7:00 PM, Monday April 5, at the Farnsworth House in JP. The Committee welcomes any voters registered as Democrats in Ward 19 who are interested in participating in Committee events, and contributing to our mission, to attend our meetings. Check to see if you live in Ward 19 here.
The Farnsworth House is located at 90 South Street in Jamaica Plain, and is accessible by the #39 bus. On-street parking is available.
Fried Amtrak electrical equipment coated with fire-suppressing foam. Photo by Keolis.
Mother Nature just doesn't like trains, it seems. Keolis reports that yesterday's two-alarm fire in an Amtrak signaling vault at Forest Hills was caused by lightning.
And since Amtrak and commuter rail share the Northeastern Corridor, that meant problems for both rail systems - and will likely cause problems during tomorrow morning's inbound commute:
Inbound passengers on the Franklin and Providence/Stoughton lines should expect 20-30 minute delays coming into Boston tomorrow. Needham Line rider should see some delays, too.
A concerned citizen reports on the constant squeaking on Chestnut Avenue in Jamaica Plain:
The neighbors have an extremely loud weather vane on top of their house. It squeaks all day and night. I'm not sure where to put this request as I've talked to some tenants and they can't go up on the roof and get it down. This is a weird request but it's noise pollution and it's so loud.
The Boston Fire Department reports a fire that erupted in an electrical vault by the side of the Northeast Corridor tracks in Forest Hills around 6:44 a.m. went to two alarms as firefighters poured bottle after bottle of dry chemical extinguisher on it.
The fire halted commuter rail and Amtrak service along the nation's busiest passenger rail corridor. Orange Line service, briefly halted, has now resumed.
From the road, Jamaica Pond still looks very much like a giant field of ice. But get out of the car and walk around and you'll see water around the edges - along with ducks, geese and even the odd fisherman enjoying the new liquid.
On the north side of the pond, a drainage pipe pouring into the pond has created a sort of river that has split the ice from one side of the pond to the other:
Today we learn why it's not a good idea to go up to somebody in a convenience store at 2:20 a.m., tell him you're an undercover cop and demand to know why he blew your cover if you're not really an undercover cop.
A guy who did that inside the Tedeschi store at 684 Centre St., early this morning found himself confronted with a newly angry man who, it turns out, had a knife - and a soda - Boston Police report:
April 26 at the Midway Cafe, along with the Space Lady, Absolute Paradise and Duck That.
Via Ethan Long.
Transit Police report that an MBTA worker who tried to wake a sleeping Orange Line passenger after the train arrived at Forest Hills last night found herself under attack.
Police say Dion Stickter, 45, "struck the female employee with a closed fist multiple times about her torso area" during the attack around 9:40 p.m.
Responding officers found him no easier to deal with, police say:
He became hostile and began to use racial epithets and refused to comply with the officers requests.
Around 10:30 p.m. The robber put a knife to her back as she was on her phone, took the phone and fled. He's described as Hispanic, about 5'6" and 170 lbs with a chinstrap beard. He wore a black and yellow Bruins winter cap with a pom-pom on top, a white track suit and sneakers with pink laces. He may have fled on an inbound Orange Line train.
The blizzards may have slowed the work, but there's no mistaking the Casey Overpass is coming down: Trees all around it have been chopped down, there's a new road and sidewalk on the bus-depot side and construction equipment is everywhere.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
