Tom Menino

Joseph Gillespie, president of the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation, charges he's been passed over for promotion several times now because he threatened to lead a boycott of the 2004 Democratic National Convention and because he convinced his union to support Michael Flaherty in the 2009 election for mayor.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston, Gillespie charges he's now stuck as a lieutenant even though he tied for seventh on a civil-service exam for captain in 2008 - and had risen to first on the list by 2010. Gillespie alleges the city is now letting captains' positions go unfilled rather than promote him.

• Complete complaint

The Herald seems to have captured Menino saying the Hole can stay a hole until those goddamn New Yorkers learn Boston means business. Or something:

People say to me: 'Oh, you've got a hole there - so what! The hole is going to be there until those folks from New York understand we in Boston know how to do development. And just because they can't get development done, that's not my fault.

Robert Ambrogi reports a Globe reporter who wrote about a performer upset over restrictions on his performance space at Faneuil Hall can't be forced to testify in his lawsuit against the city.

Bruce Peck, who performed as one of those painted mime-ish people, sued Boston in federal court in 2009 after Tom Menino ordered restrictions to ease the noise he said he heard way up in his fifth-floor City Hall office.

Peck wanted to compel reporter Donovan Slack, who wrote about the issue, to testify, but Judge Beryl A. Howell's ruled that reporters and their notes enjoy certain privileges, even for stories that don't involve confidential information, such as this one.

The Ferdinand building. Photo copyright Paul Keleher.

Mayor Tom Menino today proposed moving Boston Public Schools headquarters from Court Street downtown to the long closed Ferdinand building in Dudley Square, as part of an effort to revitalize the square and consolidate city offices (he's also proposing moving some other city agencies to Court Street and the Boston Fire Department to existing city offices at 1010 Mass. Ave.). Menino would issue bonds to pay for the estimated $115-million cost of renovating the Ferdinand building, which the city has owned for several years now.

The Herald reports on Menino's opening public salvo in negotiations with Wal-Mart over opening stores within city limits.

Compare to New York, where the megachain has launched a marketing campaign against the city council, which opposes it.

Channel 4 reports.

It was a busy day today at the Mayor's Hotline office in City Hall - more than 2,700 calls by 2 p.m. I spent some time there, will have a report later, but for now, here's an image showing how they measure snow at City Hall.

The Metro reports on a request from Mayor Menino to the state legislature to increase fines for red-running bicyclists from $20 to $150.

Boston Biker says fine, but only if the city does the same for pedestrians:

If you passed a law giving police the ability to write $150 j-walking tickets, you could go downtown on any given weekday and solve the state budget problem. Not only would this make pedestrians more likely to follow the law, but it would make everyone safer (not the least of which the pedestrians themselves). I can't count the number of times I have almost been knocked off my bike by a pedestrians walking out from between parked cars.

Meanwhile, the Boston Cyclists Union is urging Menino to file another home-rule petition, to cut the speed limit on all local roads to 20 or 25 m.p.h., in the wake of Monday's fatal crash involving a bicyclist. Union Director Pete Stidman says:

Ray Flynn, who used to ride snow plows when he wasn't busy confronting pit bulls or running into burning buildings, thinks plowing has just gone all to hell under Menino; claims City Hall never got a single complaint about snow plowing under his watch.

Tom Menino used a speech before business leaders this morning to call for a new teacher contract that would let the city tie teacher pay to student performance, extend the school day and give principals more flexibility in assigning teachers. Also, the city needs to finally re-district its elementary-school assignment zones so it can spend more on education and less on busing, he said, adding he fully supports a proposal to cut costs by shutting and merging a number of schools. The School Committee votes on that tomorrow night.

Mayor's speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Marjorie Arons-Barron has more on what she called one of the best speeches of his political career.

Channel 4 reports.

Chuck Turner has forfeited his right to serve, mayor says.

Sabutai makes the case.

Bob Houser, whose house exploded yesterday, asked Mayor Tom Menino for help tonight.

An NStar official told 100 Readville residents tonight that workers for the contractor who managed to blow up a house yesterday nicked another gas line nearby two days ago. Bill McCabe, director of gas distribution for NStar, which services the Danny Road area, said at the time, a company inspector did not think the damage to the plastic line, done with a hand shovel, was troublesome, but as a precaution had several feet of the pipe replaced.

Boston yesterday launched a pilot program to give public-school students a single ID card that will also get them on the T and into community centers and let them take books out of the library.

""This card will help make the assets of our city more accessible and remind each student everyday that there are community centers and libraries for them to explore throughout Boston," Mayor Tom Menino said in a statement of the new BostONECards, initially handed out just to students at the Josiah Quincy Upper School in Chinatown.

Civil-liberties types, of course, are concerned about the implications of a single card tracking big parts of a student's day.

Ed question: What about a MightyMightyBosstonesCard?

It's part of the new JewishBoston.com's video contest.

WBZ talked to Tom Menino about his comments last week that he'd like to slowly torture the people responsible for killing the hard-working Hyde Park man - whose daughters had both worked in the mayor's office. Three people were arrested for Nova's murder as he delivered a pizza to what turned out to be an abandoned house on Hyde Park Avenue.

Developer Don Chiofaro says 48 stories is as low as he can go with his proposed $1 billion project in front of the Aquarium and that dramatic changes mean the city should just let him move forward.

"Frankly, I think this is an opportunity for the mayor to step forward as a leader and do something that could be really terrific for the city," he told Emily Rooney on "Greater Boston" tonight (watch).

Mayor Menino has appointed state Rep. Byron Rushing to the Boston Public Library board of trustees.

As the Dorchester Reporter notes, earlier this year Rushing told library trustees he could not recall a group that has had a worse relationship with lawmakers than BPL trustees.

The Globe covers the dedication of the city's new free-range chicken farm on Long Island, in a story that has the greatest paragraph the paper will run this year:

"Bawk," Menino said. "Bawk, bawk, bawk."

The Herald reports that Mayor Menino rejected an idea from developer John Hynes to rebuild Filene's Basement - and add a parking garage - on the crater off Washington Street, but that Menino said that wasn't good enough.

As the Herald almost comes out and says, Hynes's scaled-back plan was half-baked - it assumed the state would kick in $25 million - but Menino wants a tax-generating tower there, not just a discount store and a garage.

The state Attorney General's office said today no charges are warranted against mayoral aide Michael Kineavy for deleting e-mail because he was just doing what he and other City Hall employees were told to do: Purge their inboxes every day because messages would be stored on a back up server - which turned out not to be the case.

The AG's office says Kineavy did nothing intentionally wrong and it's not his fault the City Hall e-mail system didn't work the way IS told employees it did. Investigators found no evidence that Kineavy "double deleted" e-mail in a deliberate attempt to purge messages from what turned out to be a non-existent server.

Investigators found that while the city did have backup systems, they were intended only for recovery of key records after a disaster - which meant that when a worker deleted a message from his or her inbox, it quickly disappeared into the ether, rather than being saved.

See the comments below for a statement from the AG's office. Full report.

Mike Ball reports on the mayor's continuing knee issues.

Last-minute "administrative efficiencies" means the city will be able to keep 42 school custodians originally slated for being laid off and offering 200 more summer youth jobs, the mayor's office says in a press release.

The mayor's latest budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 also adds $650,000 to keep four slated-for-closure libraries open through the winter, so that the BPL can work with affected neighborhoods to find new uses for the buildings. The City Council tomorrow is scheduled to discuss ways to find another $1 million to keep them open for the entire year; however, the council cannot actually add money to any department budgets.

Also planned for next year as capital projects: Six new school playgrounds, new labs at the O'Bryant School, renovations for several school media labs and libraries, initial planning for a new East Boston library, 20 new miles of bike lanes and the acquisition of two ladder trucks, three pumpers and a rescue unit for the Fire Department.

The entire press release.

Mike Durant rounds up the coverage of the contract signed late Tuesday.