Huntington Avenue

Huntington and Gainsborough during shutdown. Photo by Keith Foley.

Police shut down the intersection of Huntington Avenue and Gainsborough Street and evacuated the New England Conservatory after a suspicious package was reported around 9 a.m. The bomb squad determined the item in question was an empty bucket and police began packing up and leaving around 9:40 a.m.

Meanwhile, in Brighton, a resident reported a suspicious black backpack on Everett Street around the same time. Arriving officers, however, talked to other residents, who showed police it was, in fact, just part of a collection of black trash bags.

Around 5 p.m. outside 320 Huntington Avenue, where somebody stopped by police floored it, at least until he hit the open door of a Boston cruiser. A couple of guys bailed, ran into the Northeastern campus and appeared to ditch something along the way, Bosfiddle reports. Both were arrested.

The Metro tweets the collision along Huntington Avenue by Longwood Avenue around 10 a.m. was "minor" and left nobody injured. However, it did shut down the E line.

Photo. Another photo.

Dumb or dumber?

The UHub Sky Eye Action News Unit reports two trucks showed up at this bus shelter on Huntington Avenue at Longwood just in time for the afternoon rush to do some work. Naturally, they completely blocked one of the lanes:

Backs up traffic for a mile on Huntington. Been blocked for an hour now. This is ambulance central...what a mess, what a great idea.

Collision scene. Photo by Michelle Murray.

A trolley collision in Brigham Circle around 4 p.m. sent three people - one of them a T worker - to nearby hospitals with neck and back injuries, Rob Grover reports. One train came off the tracks due to what the T called human error related to a switch. Traffic on Huntington Avenue was at a standstill; the road was set to be shut outbound well into the night as the T works to right the trolleys and fix track damage.

The view from the air.

The Boston Fire Department reports fire flared up a manhole behind 359 Huntington Ave. this morning when some "penetrating spray" being used by a worker to loosen a bolt on an underground transformer hit a "small torch" and flashed over.

The transformer itself had already been shut down for repairs, the department says. The fire went out by itself and there were no injuries, the department says.

Boston College today identified the woman killed in a Huntington Avenue incident late Friday as Kelsey Rennebohm, a graduate student in the Lynch School of Education:

Rennebohm was a gifted student and an experienced teacher who worked to provide high-quality instruction and support services for all children. A 2006 honors graduate of Barnard College, Rennebohm was enrolled full-time in the Lynch School's counseling psychology program. Prior to attending BC, she had worked for two years as a teacher in New York City.

BC said funeral arrangements were not yet available. Among her survivors is her father, Max, a United Church of Christ minister in Seattle.

Channel 5 reports the police investigation into her death, which involved an MBTA bus, continues.

UPDATE: Bicyclist identified as BC grad student.

A woman in her late 20s died Friday night after a collision on Huntington Avenue at Forsyth Street around 10:30 p.m. Boston Police report an MBTA bus was apparently involved but that investigators have yet to determine a cause.

Boston and MBTA police initially had some trouble locating the bus that might have been involved; by early morning, however, detectives were going over the bus at the Forest Hills bus yard.

Triginta novem on Huntington Avenue this afternoon. Photo by Kyle.

Scientists believe the behavior is an innate reaction to the presence of predators.

City Councilor Mike Ross says riders on the E line between Brigham Circle and Heath Street shouldn't have to worry about getting flattened by crazed Massholes who ignore the "STOP" painted on the sides of open trolley doors.

Ross, who lives on Mission Hill, is seeking legislation to let the T install cameras on trolleys that share the road with motorists in that stretch to catch and ticket drivers ignoring stopped trolleys.

Under Ross's proposal (see attached), images from the cameras, along with date stamps and locations, would be forwarded to an MBTA police officer trained in traffic enforcement, who would then write out tickets.

The proposal gets a hearing before the council's Committee on Government Operations at 10 a.m. on May 29 at City Hall. If the committee and then the full council approve, the measure would then go to the state Legislature as a home-rule petition.

A Mission Hill man walking out of a Green Line tunnel around 4:30 a.m. today aroused the suspicions of a passing Northeastern University police officer, who started an investigation that ended with the man under arrest for allegedly using spray paint to profess his love for hot sauce inside the tunnel.

Alex Wan, 23, was charged with malicious destruction of property and standing, walking, or riding vehicle on railroad property, according to an MBTA Transit Police report.

According to police, a Northeastern sergeant driving inbound on Huntington stopped Wan when he spotted him walking out of the Green Line portal just past Mass. Ave. Police did not buy his story that he'd gotten off at Symphony and was just using the tunnel as a shortcut home. Wan allegedly told the sergeant he "wrote only one thing" in the tunnel. The report says arriving transit officers noted white paint on his hands and then took their own walk into the tunnel:

A concerned citizen grows weary of obnoxious drivers blaring horns at pedestrians crossing with the light at Belvedire and Huntington by the Pru:

Crash aftermath. Photo by Brian D'Amico. See more photos.

Local 718 reports two injuries in the crash around 10:50 p.m. near the firehouse at 560 Huntington Ave.

D'Amico reports it looks like the SUV driver attempted to make a left turn in front of the trolley.

E Line service is, of course, suspended until after the victims are extricated and the investigation completed.

Columbus Avenue slobs.

It's as if we've been hit by a hurricane of slobbery. Citizens Connect this morning is just filled with reports of mounds of filth and vermin, including:

The move clears the way for the YMCA and Northeastern to build a 17-story dorm and comes after Y residents sought to block the move by asking the city Landmarks Commission the building with the blinking logo a landmark, the Huntington News reports.

The Boston Fire Department reports contractors were doing roof work at a Mass. College of Art and Design building at 621 Huntington Ave. when the building's rubber roof caught on fire. The building was evacuated and Huntington Avenue was shut down; no injuries reported.

The department says investigators are still looking at the exact cause of the fire.

Night Owl City took this photo of a derailed inbound E trolley at South Huntington and Huntington around 9:30 a.m. AlertNewEngland reports no injuries. Expect, as they say, delays.

Absolutely, we shouldn't be encouraging rapscallions to whip out their Sharpies and mark up the T, but you have to almost admire the effort, or at the very least, the amount of time, that went into this defacement of a blank sign on the E line. One wonders if a judge would sentence him based on the number of letters if he gets caught and convicted.

Via Boston Reddit.

The MBTA will expand the number of three-car trolleys on the Green Line on Monday - and will start running them on the E branch for the first time, which also means the return of triple-trolley service to Lechmere.

The T restored some three-car service on non-E lines last year. The expansion means the number of tripled-up trains will increase from 13 to 32 on weekdays.

In a statement, T General Manager Richard Davey said:

As I've talked with Green Line customers over the past year, train capacity is an issue that is frequently raised. We have received that message loud and clear, and the MBTA is responding.

Our Eye in the Sky shows us a Honda CR-V being towed off the Green Line at Longwood and Huntington about 1:30 this morning (and no, there was not an even larger tow truck to the right pulling the tow truck that was pulling the tow truck that was pulling the car).

Channel 4 reports those skulls that turned up in a Huntington Avenue basement the other day were a) real and b) "likely used for medical research."

UPDATE, 7 p.m.: Boston Police identify the victim as Simin Arad, 50, say the bus had a green light, that she walked in front of the bus and that the driver tried to stop.

UPDATE: Channel 5 reports the victim, a woman in her 30s, has died.

Not looking good: The intersection is shut as both the homicide and the fatal-accident reconstruction units investigate.

The Huntington News reports:

The manager of Symphony Market reported a student urinated on the shelves in the rear of the store then made a purchase with his credit card.

Our Longwood Medical Area correspondent files the following dispatch to go with his photo:

Because, as Stephanie reports, it just ran out of fuel. How does that happen?