Medford

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

adamg — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:14:29 +0000

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

adamg — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:03:28 +0000

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

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.

Delays in Green Line extension mean fewer burritos for Medford

adamg — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:33:41 +0000

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

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!

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

adamg — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:54:52 +0000

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?

adamg — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:38:45 +0000

An 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 Red. Photo by Tammytantrum.

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

adamg — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:36:42 +0000

MBTA 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

adamg — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:55:38 +0000

MBTA 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

adamg — Wed, 11 May 2011 10:36:00 +0000

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.

Why the T needs to get cracking on the Green Line extension: $760 million in federal funds could be at stake

adamg — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:56:32 +0000

Paul McMorrow explains the rock and the hard place: On the one hand, the T is legally required to extend the Green Line to Somerville and Medford, at a cost now approaching $1 billion. On the other hand, shaky finances and any construction delays could jeopardize $760 million in federal funding for the project, leaving the state to figure out how to make up the difference.

Medford councilor takes bold stand against computering

adamg — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:25:05 +0000

Medford Patch reports on a city-council debate over texting while legislating. One city councilor verbed against those newfangled "texting machines:"

I have the brain that God gave me. No one is going to computer me to tell me what to say or do, or advise me.

Medford man admits he threatened to burn down black churches, NAACP offices

adamg — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:36:23 +0000

Jeffrey Smith, 46, of Medford, pleaded guilty today to charges he sent threatening letters to 7 churches and 4 NAACP offices under the name of a work supervisor he didn't like, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

Smith faces up to ten years in federal prison on each of the 11 counts when sentenced in July for his written hate campaign, which started with letters to the St. Paul American Methodist Episcopal Church in Cambridge and the NAACP chapter in Roxbury, threatening to burn them down as revenge for Barack Obama's election.

The former security guard was arrested last April.

Indictment against Smith

Man with bushy ponytail goes on armed-robbery spree across area

adamg — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:46:53 +0000

4/4/11 - 2:38 am

Police in both Boston and Medford are hunting a guy they say is holding up gas stations and convenience stores at gunpoint.

The man, described as Hispanic, in his 20s, with a bushy ponytail and thin goatee, stuck up the 7-Eleven at 722 Huntington Ave. around 2:15 yesterday morning and then, barely 20 minutes later, the CVS on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester, Boston Police report.

Boston Police say he also held up the Adams Corner General Store, 772 Adams St., in Dorchester, around 5:30 a.m. on April 2; the Shell station at 302 W. Broadway in South Boston around 9:40 pm. on March 29; Premier Petrol, 82 River St., in Mattapan, around 6:30 a.m. on March 21; the 7-Eleven at 735 Morrissey Blvd. in Dorchester on March 20; and the Hess station at 710 Gallivan Blvd. in Dorchester on March 3.

Medford Police report he held up a Sunoco station there on March 29 and that he may have fled in "a 2006 to 2009 Dodge Charger gray or silver in color with a second Hispanic or black male."

The long arm of the law reaches for the light switch

adamg — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:01:07 +0000

Tufts Daily reports on a dorm-room standoff over whether a light should be kept on around 3 a.m. on March 16:

Following the intervention of two TUPD officers, the roommate agreed to turn the light off.