Newton

Wicked Local Newton reports the Newton PD is hunting for whoever stole two automatic toilet-flush sensors from the men's room at the Chestnut Hill Star Market. Apparently, the thief didn't leave a paper trail.

Franco Garcia was last seen Tuesday night at Mary Ann's in Cleveland Circle. He made a phone call around 1:15 a.m., possibly on his way back to the BC campus, but he hasn't been heard from since - and his car is still parked at the school.

If you've seen him since then, or know anything at all about what's happened to him, contact Newton Police detectives at 617-796-2104.

read more at bluemassgroup

Hello U-hubbers,

Create a Cook is a cooking school for kids and adults in Newton Highlands... and on Jan 28th, this Saturday, we are hosting an Open House with WBOS radio. It's free, and it will be a lot of fun for all, we promise. We will have a make your own pasta room with all kinds of great toppings. Sushi, Pad Thai and Dumpling demos (and you get to eat them). Natalie from Atlas Liquors will be on hand talking about food and wine pairing. Our resident Cake Boss, Linda Brudz, will be on hand demonstrating cake decorating techniques, fondant, frosting, piping and all kinds of skill. WBOS will have lift and concert ticket giveaways. The kitchens are really easy to find, near the Newton Center T-stop. If you plan on coming (and we hope you do) we are looking for RSVPs so we can plan on food purchases. Visit our website and click "special events" to RSVP. Or call us at 617-795-2223.

WBUR reports Barney Frank is getting married.

5:15 a.m. today at Walnut and Comm. Ave., Newton Patch reports.

According to an ad in the Globe (the actual paper edition), there's an auction at 2 p.m. today at the Newton Marriott of some of convicted mamzer Bernie Madoff's ill-gotten stuff, including works by Picasso, Chagall, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Peter Max and Warhol, Bulgari and Rolex watches, all sorts of diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and rubies in all sorts of settings and a guitar signed by Bruce Springsteen.

Via Facebook.David Ettlinger, a teacher at the Underwood School in Newton who lives in Allston, was arraigned today on charges of possession of child pornography - and faces another arraignment tomorrow on charges involving photos of a 12-year-old girl, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Ettlinger was arrested this morning at his 1415 Comm. Ave. apartment, where investigators found "multiple image files depicting children under 18 in sexualized contexts," on a computer, the DA's office reports.

A Brighton District Court judge set bail at $10,000, he also ordered Ettlinger held without bail on a related charge out of West Roxbury District Court. Tomorrow, Ettlinger will be arraigned in West Roxbury on charges related to some of the images, which allegedly show a 12-year-old girl and family friend.

Innocent, etc.

State Police report a trooper who'd stopped at the CVS at Rte. 9 and Eliot Street for a bottle of water this morning walked right into an armed holdup by a guy with a box cutter.

Trooper [John] McKinnon placed the suspect under arrest. Further investigation revealed that the suspect used a Toyota Venza that had been reported stolen a short time earlier.

The Boston Business Journal reports on the latest refugees from the increasingly empty Rte. 9 mall.

The Herald reports that, yes, Joe Kennedy III is running for Barney Frank's 4th District seat.

Village 14 is a collaboration between longtime local blogger Sean Roche and Greg Reibman, who is also a longtime blogger and who was, until recently, publisher of the regional chain that owns the Newton Tab. Reibman, however, writes the site is not a strike back at GateHouse. The duo aren't looking for ads, to start. It's just a couple of Newtonites who are really interested in the place and who love to blog, he says.

H/t Ian Lamont.

Wicked Local Newton reports that Chelsea Ingalls, arrested on charges she stole two purses at a Pops concert earlier this month, now faces armed robbery charges in Newton and Wellesley and a charge of attempted armed robbery in Framingham.

Wicked Local reports that in Newton, she is charged with pulling a large knife on a gas-station attendant on Christmas, five days after she was charged with coming down from the balcony at Symphony Hall and stealing two purses from the more expensive floor seats.

Innocent, etc.

What? Too soon? Tell that to the Auburndale Shaw's, where Loriane DiSabato snapped this photo on the 23rd:

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Trains in both directions came to a halt this evening as police ordered power to the third rails shut off while they got the guy off the tracks.

Meanwhile, three hours earlier in Newton, police were dispatched to Metacomet Road on a report of "a naked man doing pushups." Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, he completed his reps and left before police arrived.

Wicked Local Newton reports.

Newton Police report the attack happened around 10:30 a.m.:

The victim was on the T platform when she was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground. The victim's cell phone was stolen during the attack.

Police report, however, five arrests were made.

Wicked Local Newton reports Wegman's plans to open a store in the new mall being built on Rte. 9 where Omni Foods used to be.

The Globe reports Frank won't be seeking re-election next year.

Daisy Razor reports on some attempted flirting on the Riverside Line today.

Patty Neal reports it was more than just disconcerting to hear Christmas music today at the Mall at Chestnut Hill:

Too soon!

The mall heard Patty and responded not long after:

Sorry, someone must have put it in too soon! It's supposed to start playing just before Black Friday.

Lily took this photo around 9:40 p.m. in Newton, not long after George Sargeant reported thundersnow in Chestnut Hill.

Earliest, latest and mean first snowfall in Boston, 1920-1996.

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.

Falls off one of the radio towers off Needham Street.

In addition to evacuating the trolley station, police also got people out of the parking lot of the office building next to the station.

UPDATE: Carl Stevens at WBZ tweets:

Riverside MBTA stop closed because of a coffee maker.