The Prudential Center Tower at 800 Boylston Street is being evacuated due to a water leak, which has knocked out elevator service to the building.

A second alarm has been struck to bring in extra manpower to assist with the evacuation. Belvedere Street has been shut down, and several streets in the area are congested with equipment and evacuees.

Matthew I. captured a lightning bolt hitting the Pru early Sunday (looks even more dramatic on a black background).

Copyright Matthew I. Posted in the Universal Hub Flickr pool.

Because this being a big city and all, apparently people were eating the leaves off the deadly nightshade oleander the Pru had planted because, well, the plants are pretty, Channel 4 reports.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today the Boston Police Department had the right to fire a patrolman who teamed up with his brother and a couple of pals to beat up a guy in a 2003 parking-garage dispute.

The court ruled that while, technically, Noel Docanto had not been convicted of the off-duty attack, it was only because he had admitted to sufficient facts and that that plea did not lessen the nature of his "felonious conduct."

The court described the incident:

ED NOTE: Rescheduled to Friday due to strong winds today.

Devra First reports that Jack and the Bean Bowl, a vegetarian food cart selling bean-and-rice bowls by the farmers' market site is giving away all its food starting around noon Friday, to introduce its food.

Meanwhile, Penny Cherubino reports on progress at the new Thursday farmer's market at the Prudential Center:

The new farmers' market at the Prudential Center will make Thursdays in the Back Bay like market days in Provence, if David Gilson's dream is realized.

Did anyone else notice the Prudential Center Tower lights were turned off last night? I was on Boylston Street around 11 last night, and noticed the lights had been turned off. Don't know what that's about. I hope its not a budget issue.

Penny Cherubino gets the scoop on plans for a Thursday farmers' market, which would be in addition to the existing Tuesday and Friday markets down the street in Copley Square.

Amy Kane reports on a day of shopping at the Prudential Center Mall, which included lunch, of course:

Lunch at Legal Sea Foods, where we were entertained by brown-eyed Chloe, age 3, sitting at the table next to us, who ate all her chowder and then stood up on her seat and danced.

That's the proper way to celebrate a good chowder.

A Prudential Center resident who sells t-shirts celebrating drug use and drug kingpins was arrested today on charges he ran a full-scale drug distribution center out of his apartment.

Taghi Tajgardoun, 28, pleaded innocent today in Boston Municipal Court to charges of trafficking in cocaine, possession of a Class B substance with intent to distribute, possession of a Class D substance with intent to distribute, possession of Class B and C substances and three counts of violating the state's drug laws within 1000 feet of a school, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. He was ordered held in jail in lieu of $1 million bail - and ordered to give up his passport.

Tajgardoun was arrested at a downtown UPS store where he'd gone to pick up 10 pounds of pot that authorities had earlier intercepted, DA Dan Conley said.

Conley said that at Tajgardoun's apartment at 790 Boylston St., investigators found more than 800 grams of cocaine, two bags holding crystal meth, several containers of prescription painkillers, five more pounds of marijuana, digital scales, equipment for sealing plastic bags, cutting agents, more than $25,000 in cash and three Iranian passports in his name.

"Judging solely by the evidence, we're looking at a sophisticated drug distribution point," Conley said of Tajgardoun's apartment. "Investigators seized cocaine in trafficking quantities, suggesting that he was moving it to low-level dealers."

Tajgardoun is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 7.

Tajgardoun runs an online shop selling t-shirts with slogans such as Smoke Me - I'm dope and with collages of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. He also co-owns a South Boston real-estate concern.

Innocent, etc.

Greg MacKay, who took this photo, explains it was to help mark National Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

More.