Mayor Menino announced the new program - in which iPads will come "preloaded with bestselling books and apps to connect them with job searching, social media, and language-learning tools" - in a speech today before the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

Menino also pledged to have 30,000 new housing units built in Boston by 2020 - and that not all of them would be luxury apartments in downtown high rises.

The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board last week ordered the city of Boston to pay back some $2.4 million in property taxes levied against the company that leases parts of South Station for retail and office use, because state law forbids property tax assessments on any MBTA property, even if it's used for commercial concerns.

The payments cover taxes the company paid in 2009 and 2010.

At 7:54 p.m., Matt Karolian tweeted:

Did anyone in #boston just see whatever the heck that was streaking through the sky?

Reports began flooding in not long after: A flash in the sky; Karolian reports it was "green and heading from north to south."

At 8:17 p.m., the Weather Channel reported:

Twitter search reveals meteor sighted [at least] as far south as Richmond, VA and as far north as Boston, MA.

Seems they took offense at a Murphy drop kicking a guy giving a Nazi salute in New York last weekend.

Of course, that would take some money.

Because I apparently had my camera with me today, I took this shot in front of St. Cecilia's, a church on Belvidere Street in the Back Bay. There were about a dozen Boston Department of Public Works workers shoveling and plowing snow from the sidewalks and street around the church.

I stopped to watch. I asked one of the drivers what he was doing and he replied, "Plowing out the church." I asked him if the city did it for all churches, to which he replied, "I guess the ones that have pull?"

One of the constants of Universal Hub Twitter feed is that people regularly send me updates on the whereabouts of Sob Story Guy and Sob Story Girl (actually, should be plural, since there's more than than one of each).

People really, really hate being confined to a metal tube underground (or just sitting in a restaurant or theater) while an angry or seemingly distraught person demands money to see her kid in Portsmouth or his parole officer in Worcester - especially if story tellers are heading the wrong direction from the train station you'd take to get to those places or if they're repeating the same tear-laden spiels veteran Bostonians have heard for years.

But are these story tellers people with mental disabilities who shouldn't be pointed out and mocked in a public medium? Here's an exchange on Twitter yesterday:

Boston Police are looking for a man who robbed the Mt. Washington Bank branch at 501 Southampton St. around 4 p.m.

The suspect, described as black and wearing a maroon hoodie under a black North Face jacket, ran down Boston Street.

UPDATE, 8:42 p.m.: Our phone rang and the kidlet picked it up. As soon as she began jumping and yelling, I knew: School is canceled in Boston tomorrow. Barring any more snow days, this means Boston Public Schools will get out for the year on June 28. All Boston Centers for Youth and Families sites will be open tomorrow, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.