The mayor's office and the BAA announced the fastest man, woman and non-binary runners in today's Marathon: Miles Batty, an MGH orthopedic surgery resident from West Roxbury who finished in 2:25, Ariana Maida, a Dana-Farber physician's assistant from Jamaica Plain, who completed the course in 2:48:50 and Nonie Anderson, a BC Law School student from Brighton, whose time was 3:44:18. Read more.
Update: Haverhill Police report 911 is back up.
Reports are coming in from police and fire departments across the state that the 911 system that connects you to your local first responders isn't working, so if you're having an emergency and 911 doesn't work, you'll have to look up your city's or town's direct numbers.
Earlier this week, City Councilor Erin Murphy (at large) introduced a resolution calling for a hiring freeze at city agencies due to potentially choppy fiscal waters about to hit the city, but withdrew it before it could come up for a discussion or vote at yesterday's weekly council meeting. Read more.
Boston is holding one of its periodic waste-collection events on Saturday, this time at the DPW facility on Dana Avenue in Hyde Park, between 8:30 a.m. and noon. Read more.
Councilor Fernandes Anderson decrying death and destruction in Gaza.
The City Council yesterday formally recognized Eid Al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim sacred month of Ramadan - after Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson (Roxbury), who is Muslim, gave an impassioned plea on behalf of the people of Gaza. Read more.
Councilor Coletta presents proclamation to Charlestown Coach Hugh Colman
The Boston City Council today officially honored the city's four state-championship teams with proclamations - and pizza: Charlestown High School, whose boys basketball team won the Division 3 state championship, New Mission High School, whose boys basketball team won the Division 5 championship, the Josiah Quincy Upper School's girls wrestling team brought home medals in Division 2 and Boston Latin School, whose hockey team won the Division 2 championship. Read more.
One day after the family of Jeanica Julce of Somerville sued the owner of the boat she was on just before she drowned - and the owner of another boat - both the boat owner and the federal government asked a federal government to reinstate her ban on lawsuits over the crash in state court, which she had lifted just last month. Read more.
The eclipse over Roslindale around 3.08 p.m. (so about 21 minutes from as close as we got to totality). Read more.
From the Hagley Library.
Seems Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee declared a state of emergency in advance of today's eclipse - and it runs through Wednesday, because who knows what demons the eclipse will unleash, no doubt with claps of thunder and the fiery odor of brimstone? Read more.
The Boston City Council this week formally accepted a $500,000 grant from the state Department of Education to develop a lesson plan for teaching students how to use open data sources - with a focus on the city's own Analyze Boston collection of public data sets on everything from crime reports and restaurant inspections to listings of city streetlights and data on where people are using parking meters. Read more.
See if you can spot when the quake hit. From BC's Weston Observatory.
The US Geological Survey reported a magnitude 4.8 earthquake in Lebanon, NJ at 10:23 a.m. and not long after, people across the Boston area began reporting a bit of shaking. Read more.
So no snow (so what else is new?), but the National Weather Service has a high-wind warning in place between 8 p.m. and 2 p.m., Thursday, with possible gusts of up to 60 m.p.h. here in the Greater French Toast Region: Read more.
City councilors today agreed with a move by Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) to look at doing way more to keep pedstrians alive - the day after a man in a wheelchair died under the wheels of a concrete truck on Frontage Road and the week after a 4-year-old girl died under the wheels of a pickup behind the Children's Museum. Read more.
Art Outdoors surveys the painted utility boxes in Boston and adjacent communities.
Earlier:
JP's stickleback box.
Allston group wants to beautify neighborhood rat traps.
Via PomPoison.
Politico reports (scroll way down for "Yahd Signs and Bumpah Stickahs") that current City Councilor Erin Murphy on Saturday announced endorsements by nine labor unions for her bid to get elected clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County - in a press release that showed the logos of 49 labor unions and groups, at least one of which says, no, it's not endorsing her this time around. Read more.
I have a pair of crouching monkey candles wearing red fezzes. One of the monkeys fell off a 6 foot drop and had its neck broken. Read more.
Mayor Wu said today she will seek state legislation that would let the city tax owners of commercial and industrial property at a higher rate for four years, should official assessments being conducted this year show a precipitous drop in the assessed value of downtown office space in particular due to work shifts caused by the pandemic. Read more.
The Boston City Council today approved a measure to set up a planning department as the first major step towards abolishing the BPDA and giving the mayor and the council - and residents more of a direct say in how Boston grows. Read more.
Giselle Byrd, executive director of Theater Offensive, addresses councilors.
City councilors voted unanimously today to support the trans community in Boston and across the country on Sunday's Transgender Day of Visibility. Read more.
Lawyers for Civil Rights and the law firm of Fick & Marx today announced a $4.7 million settlement of the civil-rights lawsuit they had filed on behalf of Hope Coleman, who called 911 to request an ambulance to transport her son to a hospital to get treatment for his mental illness, but who was instead fatally show by Boston Police officers outside his home on Oct. 30, 2016. Read more.
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