SuperMark reports that when his cab driver told him after an $18 ride that his cab's credit-card reader was broken, he told the guy he only had $8 on him and that he was breaking the law by driving around with a busted reader. Miraculously, the cab driver managed to get the reader to work.

They're breaking the law. Channel 4 reports that under city regulations, cabbies with broken credit-card readers aren't supposed to be driving around at all.

A federal judge has overruled Boston - and his ten-year-old grandson - and said federal law prohibits the city from forcing cab owners to buy hybrid vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Herald reports cabbies are largely ignoring a city ordinance that bans them from using cell phones while driving.

WBZ reports.

The Hack reports that foreign riders are the worst but that everybody seems to be tipping less these days:

... I recently had one guy who had a $6.25 fare, handed me a $100 bill and then got ticked off that I didn't have the coin on hand so he could leave me a fifty-cent tip. Instead, I got bupkus.

It's what cabbies do at 2:30 a.m. and it's what paramedics do at Logan Airport.

Johnathan King reports that on a trip back from Logan yesterday, he rode in a cab that was actually equipped with a credit-card machine (whadaya know, city regulations actually work). Only when he got to the end of his ride, the driver told him the reader, which spent the entire trip displaying pretty pictures and information from Boston Police, "isn't actually up and running yet."

The sad saga of Cab 1021:

... "Cab Ten-Twenty-One, do you know where you are? The customer is waiting!"

This must be 1021's first night on the job. After getting hired, all newbies are supposed to ride around with an experienced driver for a couple nights in order to learn the ropes. But it seems 1021 either lied, telling the owner he already had experience, or that somehow he fell through the cracks and was inadvertently sent out onto the streets cold. That or he is just a really, really slow learner.

"Cab Ten-Twenty-One, do you have a GPS?... Yes? Well, USE IT!" ...

Now cab drivers are pissed that the mean city is going to make them accept credit cards. Next up: Cabbies complain about the new regulation that makes them wear clean clothes.

The Globe reports at-large Councilor Stephen Murphy wants a six-month moratorium on medallion transfers while and the rest of the council consider the city's new tax regs, which require cabs to be hybrids by 2015 and which require cab owners to ensure their vehicles - and drivers - are actually clean.

The more cynical might assume the councilor is acting now because he sees a rare chance to get his name in the paper. But maybe acting seven months after Tom Menino and Police Commissioner Ed Davis announced the new requirements is speedy in council time.

Yesterday:
Cab owners say Boston effort to clean the air violates federal clean-air laws.