Medford

Police: Car that may have been in a drag race slammed into by car going wrong way on Rte. 16 in Medford

State Police are investigating a particularly violent car crash around 12:30 a.m. by the Wellington T stop that sent three people to the hospital with serious injuries:

Preliminary investigation indicates that one car was traveling westbound in the eastbound lane when it collided head-on with the second car, which may have been racing at the time of the crash. Preliminary investigation further indicates that a 2004 Honda Accord driven by a 30-year-old Somerville man was going the wrong way when it collided with a 2001 Honda Civic being driven by a 23-year-old Cambridge man and carrying a 25-year-old Cambridge man as a passenger. Both drivers and the passenger were transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where they remain this morning with serious injuries. The investigation into why the Accord’s driver was going west in the eastbound lane, and whether the Civic was involved in a race at the time of the crash, remains ongoing.

Shocker: The driver of the second car in the impromptu speed trials fled the area, State Police say.

Woman attacked near Tufts

Lanicita posts an alert from Tufts University Police that a student was knocked down and sexually assaulted around 1:15 a.m. at Stanley and College avenues in Medford. She managed to fight off her attacker.

The suspect is described as Hispanic, late teens, 5'5" to 5'7" tall, with a thin build, dark, short hair and wearing a dark hoodie.

On Thursday, another woman was similarly attacked on Holyoke Road in Porter Square in Somerville.

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

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.

Delays in Green Line extension mean fewer burritos for Medford

The Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance posts e-mail from Boloco honcho John Pepper about the Boston Avenue Boloco:

We opened our Medford restaurant 5 years ago in great part due to the knowledge that the Green Line was "coming" and would add vitality to Boston Ave. We heard it could be 4-5 years which sounded crazy at the time. Sadly, we’ve recently decided not to renew our lease and we'll be out November 30.

The state recently announced it could be 2020 before anybody can ride the Green Line north and west of Lechmere.

Via Davis Square LiveJournal.

Redistricting Olympics

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!

Tip: Next time a Boston team wins it all, drive to Lowell to get the train to the parade

Sure, the T proved Saturday it has lots of capacity on commuter rail, carrying almost twice as many people to and from the parade as it does on a normal workday. But that was of little solace to people waiting at "inner" stops closer to Boston, who watched full train after full train just whiz right by them without stopping. Among them: Charley on the MTA, who describes his experience at West Medford:

At 10am a train whizzed by, blowing its horn, didn't stop.

Another train whizzed by, blowing its horn, didn't stop.

The electronic message board said there was a train leaving north Billerica. We waited. Train #3 whizzed by, blowing its horn, didn't stop.

I called the MBTA: the person I talked to had no idea which trains would stop or when – indicating that there had been no communication between the conductor and customer service.

Finally at 10:45am, the message board said a train was leaving Winchester. At 11am, we were on the train, having had been there since 9:20.

The Orange Line is melting in the dark? Someone left the track out in the rain?

Orange Line melting in the dark? T says this is the heat kink near MaldenAn Orange Line problem Ray Davies would love. Photo by MBTA.

A "heat kink" in the tracks near Malden (above) is wreaking all sorts of havoc on the Orange Line this afternoon, forcing Oak Grove-bound riders onto buses at Wellington - which is also causing problems on the bus lines from which buses have been diverted to shuttle subway riders.

Red Line riders heading to Alewife are faring no better due to a dead train at Harvard.

From somewhere in the bowels of the Orange Line, OwenWilsonsNose at first tweeted:

Usually I'd be pissed, but B's won the cup last night, can't complain!

But that was before he actually tried getting on one of those shuttle buses:

Neve rmind, line for the bus is atrocious. I hate you, MBTA.

Dead RedDead Red. Photo by Tammytantrum.

Police: Man sexually assaults T worker trying to help him with his CharlieCard at Wellington

HuttMBTA Transit Police charge Michael Hutt of Medford lured a female T worker out of the customer-service booth at the Wellington Orange Line stop on the pretext of needing help adding value to his CharlieCard last night, then rubbed her back and grabbed her breast.

Hutt, 58, was charged with indecent assault and battery and assault and battery on a public employee following the 7 p.m. incident.

According to a police report, when the worker came out of the booth, Hutt handed her a CharlieCard and $2. As she walked over to the CharlieCard machines, police say, he began rubbing her back. She told him to stop that, added the $2 to his card, then handed him his card:

When the suspect walked through the gates, he stopped, reversed himself and physically grabbed the victim by the right breast, before continuing past the entry gates.

Last Thursday, another man was charged with open and gross lewdness after he allegedly exposed himself to two women at the station busway.

Innocent, etc.

Big and tall man charged with showing his beef at Wellington

MogbanaMBTA Transit Police report arresting a Chelsea man on charges he not only urinated in the Wellington busway as two women stood there, he kept staring at one of them - until they finally went to find a T inspector.

Ernest Mogbana, 57, was arrested around 6:30 p.m on a charge of open and gross lewdness at the Rte. 99 berth. Police said the women had little trouble pointing out the 6'6", 350-lb. Mogbana.

Innocent, etc.

Demet's does donuts deliciously

The Boston Foodie makes a road trip to Demet's, 199 Mystic Ave. in Medford:

Demet's is famous for their blueberry cake glazed doughnuts and, believe me, they did not disappoint. Excellent blueberry flavor. We would rate these as very good. Well worth the trip.