Winthrop

Oh, dear: Dozen ducklings drop down drain

adamg — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:31:41 +0000

Fortunately, there was a happy ending. Kristin MacDougall at the MWRA reports a woman walking her dog at Deer Island called the MWRA when she noticed mama and poppa duck quacking for help at a storm drain yesterday.

Winthrop Animal Control responded, fished the ducklings out with a net, and then, as the parents followed anxiously behind, walked the babies down to the harbor, where the family was reunited and paddled off.

Winthrop man to face charge for allegedly beaming laser at his daughter's hockey opponents

adamg — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:17:07 +0000

Joseph Cordes, 42, will be summonsed into East Boston District Court for disturbing the peace at a Winthrop hockey match on Feb. 29, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office and Winthrop Police announced.

According to police and the DA's office, Cordes, sitting "all alone in the upper bleachers" pointed a green laser toward the helmet of the goalie on the Medway girl's team in the third period of a game at Larsen Rink, "disrupting the game play and eliciting a highly emotional reaction from players and parents alike." Cordes was ejected from the game.

Innocent, etc.

What's wrong with Winthrop?

adamg — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:00:32 +0000

Last fall, a columnist for the local paper was charged with trying to run down the Town Council president and his kids. Now, Channel 4 reports, a Winthrop parent was booted from a high-school hockey game for aiming a laser pointer into the eyes of an opposing goalie.

A rotary windmill

adamg — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 02:21:47 +0000

But the Mazda goes hmm ... Deer Island also has two "normal" windmills.

Ed. note: I have been schooled on wind things. This is a "cowled turbine," not a rotary windmill - no Dutch people in wooden clogs were harmed in the making of this interesting structure.

Deer Island is a fascinating place to walk around. Look outward as you walk along the path, and there are great views of the water, from Boston Harbor to the open ocean.

Scott Brown, ahead 2-1 in cash-on-hand and $13M in the bank, hilariously plays “underdog” card

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:27:17 +0000

New Yorkers start the new year with a lecture from Bob DeLeo on how wonderful the Massachusetts legislature is

adamg — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:07:50 +0000

The New York Daily News gives Mistah Speakah some space.

Via Dana Reichman Gitell.

You think Boston politics are rough? Try Winthrop

adamg — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:08:36 +0000

A Winthrop man is charged with aiming his SUV at a campaigning Town Council candidate and his children yesterday afternoon.

James Lederman, 68, was arraigned today on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, leaving the scene of an accident, and operating a motor vehicle to endanger for an incident on the Winthrop Bridge, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

According to the DA's office:

The Friends of Eddie Coyle, stage adaptation of classic Boston crime novel, opens Dec. 8 at Oberon

Eddie Coyle — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:25:39 +0000

Cambridge, Mass. — Tickets are on sale now for George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Stickball Productions’ world premiere stage adaptation of the quintessential Boston crime novel. The production runs Dec. 8–Jan. 15 at Oberon in Harvard Square, for tickets, visit www.thefriendsofeddiecoyle.com

It is the winter of ‘69 in Boston and Eddie Coyle is a bottom of the barrel hood attempting to stay alive and out of jail among his “friends” – cops, bartenders, radical hippies, bank robbers, hit men and informants. Weeks away from a prison sentence for trucking stolen booze, Eddie’s making a few bucks supplying the guns for a rash of brazen bank heists, while looking to tip someone in for a kind word to the judge.

George V. Higgins’ classic novel has been called the “best crime novel ever written” by Elmore Leonard, and literary scholars have compared his unforgiving and realistic depiction of Boston’s underworld with the works of Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Balzac. Through dialogue quintessentially Bostonian, and the most poignant homage to Bobby Orr and the ’69-’70 Boston Bruins in literature, The Friends of Eddie Coyle has set the bar for Boston crime stories for nearly 40 years.

Court: Being related to mobsters not good enough reason to be given a pass on testifying in fraud case

adamg — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:01:53 +0000

The Supreme Judicial Court today rejected a plea from two women who pleaded guilty to their role in an auto-repair scheme that they not be forced to testify against the two men allegedly at the center of the case.

Hazmat situation at Deer Island sewage plant

adamg — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:45:13 +0000

The Boston Fire Department reports it sent hazmat crews to the MWRA's Deer Island treatment plant tonight when up to 200 gallons of toxic sulfuric acid spilled around 7:45 p.m.

BFD says the acid "overflowed from a holding tank to a containment area made for overflows" outdoors. The acid, used to help break down sewage, caused no injuries and posed no threats to the public, the department says.

BFD declared the situation under control around 9 p.m.; some fire crews remained on scene to monitor the cleanup by a company called Haz Mat Techs.

Winthrop resident charged with fatally stabbing homeless man, stuffing body under porch

adamg — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:18:17 +0000

John Lacoy of 429 Winthrop St. was arrested today on charges he fatally stabbed a homeless man in the chest, then stuffed his body under the building's porch, where it decomposed until police arrived earlier this week to investigate a strong odor, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office

Lacoy, 47, was arrested following questioning at the Winthrop police station, the DA's office says. Lacoy is scheduled for arraignment tomorrow in East Boston District Court.

The DA's office says investigators are now confident they know the victim's name, but that it will not be released until additional testing is done to confirm that. He had no fixed address when he was killed.

Innocent, etc.

'Strong odor' leads police to body in Winthrop

adamg — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:23:46 +0000

Winthrop police officers investigating "a strong odor" outside 429 Winthrop St. around 2:30 this afternoon discovered human remains, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

The remains appear to be those of an adult, but the decedent's age, gender, ethnicity, and cause of death were not immediately apparent because of decomposition. Additional examination by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is expected to reveal some of those details after an autopsy, which will likely begin tomorrow.

Redistricting Olympics

creightt — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:42:03 +0000

Common Cause Massachusetts is hosting a Redistricting Olympics this summer. We will be taking citizen drawn Congressional, State House, and State Senate maps all summer, evaluating them, declaring a winner, giving out prizes and submitting the winning maps to the MA Legislative Redistricting Committee for consideration.

The purpose of the redistricting Olympics is threefold: to educate the public about the steps in the redistricting process, to initiate public participation in the political arena, and to pressure the legislature to draw the districts so that the citizens are appropriately represented.

Help show the legislature that redistricting is about our interests, not theirs. By participating in our redistricting Olympics and learning how to draw your own fair districts, you can acquire the tools you need to expose attempts by public officials to politicize the state’s new legislative maps.

For more information check out and/or email us at .

Participate in our democracy!

Alleged perv ordered locked up without bail on charges he exposed himself to little girls at Winthrop library

adamg — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:25:15 +0000

A man already facing charges of groping himself in front of two girls on the way to school was arrested on charges he masturbated in front of two girls at the Winthrop library on Tuesday while urging them to come over and help him, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Before the sewage treatment plant

adamg — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:35:49 +0000

The good burghers of Boston have been using Deer Island for stuff they didn't really want near them since colonial days. In 1849, Boston built its alms house there. The image is from the Library of Congress's prints and photographs collection.