Everett

Dennis Murphy was driving his Route 110 bus down Elm Street around 6 a.m. yesterday when he noticed a building on fire.

According to Sean Mills, his supervisor at the Charlestown bus yard:

He immediately called dispatch and secured the bus. He then went over to the house on fire and rang all the doorbells to wake everyone inside up. These people did not know the house was on fire. His actions may have saved their lives.

Mills adds he gave Murphy a commendation, but that Murphy declined to have a picture taken of him accepting it "because he says this is stuff we should just do naturally."

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that a chain of arts and craft stores violated a state consumer-privacy law when it used a woman's Zip code on her credit-card transaction to figure out where she lived and start bombarding her with circulars.

The opinion, however, does not mean Melissa Tyler gets anything, because her suit against Michaels is in federal court and the state's highest court was merely providing answers about state consumer-laws to a federal judge hearing her case - where the ultimate decision will come.

Hey, kids, meet your new principal, Erik Naumann, a.k.a. the Naumannator.

Some people are not amused.

The US Attorney's office in Boston reports state Rep. Steve Smith today admitted to voter fraud - he filled out absentee ballots with his name checked off.

Smith served on the legislature's Joint Committee on Election Laws.

Smith won't serve any prison time on the federal misdemeanor charges, but will give up his seat - which should give him more time to deal with his tenements in Revere.

The Globe reports Steve Wynn, who couldn't convince Foxboro to let him and Robert Kraft build a casino there, is now looking at a parcel in Everett. Of course, given the way the state's casino law is written, he'd first have to have a Thunderdome-like death match with the people behind the Suffolk Downs proposal.

Channel 5 reports that National Grid will be cleaning a natural-gas pipeline by the Mystic River tomorrow by burning off the gas, starting around 6 a.m.:

The flare resulting from the natural gas purge could last up to eight hours and be seen throughout Greater Boston, the company said.

Also will result in "a large blowing noise."

Somerville Police report they are looking for a "well organized" that is managing to steal money from local convenience stores owned by people of Indian origin through a complicated, multi-part ruse:

The owner of a school-van service was arraigned yesterday on charges he sexually assaulted a young girl in one of his vans on the way home from school on Tuesday.

Sergio Lara, 53, was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail at his arraignment in Chelsea District Court on charges of rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child, Revere Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said.

Lara owns Maya Transportation, which brings children to and from schools in Revere, Chelsea and East Boston. According to a statement from the DA's office:

One of his passengers, a five-year-old Everett girl, told her mother on Tuesday that Lara had sexually assaulted her on the way home from school. The girl’s parents took her to an area hospital the same evening and notified police. Lara was identified and arrested the next day.

The van in question. Photo from Suffolk County DA's office.

Innocent, etc.

A federal grand jury has indicted Josimar Ferreira, 36, on 16 counts of violating federal pesticide laws, the US Attorney's office announced today.

According to the indictiment, Ferreira and his TVF Pest Control routinely used malathion, licensed only for outdoor use, to combat bedbug infestations in area homes. In one case, he even sprayed it on a baby's crib - and then lied about the chemical to state investigators, the feds charge.

Also, neither Ferreira nor any of seven workers he hired were able to pass the state licensing exam.

Innocent, etc.

Jarrod Cohen and AlertNewEngland report the fire erupted around 9 a.m. at 172 Main St.

The fire's on lower Broadway. The 104, 105 and 109 bus routes have major delays because of the fire.

Photo from Channel 7 viewer.

An inspector for the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission was arraigned today on charges he offered to help a convicted felon get a liquor license in Everett - for a fee - the Middlesex County District Attorney's office reports.

Arthur Hitchman, 39, of Melrose, was arraigned in Malden District Court on charges of attempted extortion, bribery, and two counts of improper storage of a firearm. Wicked Local Melrose reports Hitchman is also a former Melrose alderman.

According to the DA's office, Hitchman heard the man was looking to open a restaurant under a female relative's name to get around the state law that prohibits convicted felons from obtaining liquor licenses and offered to help for $3,000 in cash. In May, an undercover state trooper gave the money to Hitchman - who then offered to help him get illegal video poker machines - the DA's office says. The DA's office adds the ABCC cooperated with the investigation.

Innocent, etc.

Yemeni tanker plied the harbor this morning while you slept.

Coast Guard escorting an LNG tanker last summer.

Dan Hill, who lives near Boston Harbor and is running for state senate in a district that includes Chelsea and Everett, says the state should do everything it can to try to keep LNG tankers out of Boston Harbor - especially Yemeni ones - and phase out the Distrigas natural-gas terminal in Everett in favor of a new facility in Naragansett Bay:

Hill noted that for new LNG ports the Coast Guard requires "security zones" restricting movement within 1,000 yards on either side of an LNG tanker, a standard that could not possibly be met in Boston Harbor. "I find it disturbing that safety requirements for new facilities apparently do not need to be met for existing facilities."

Adam Balsam says Tom Menino and Sal LaMattina should stop their posturing, listen to the Coast Guard and admit giant LNG tankers are safe.

Matt Conti, who lives in the North End, acknowledges the risk of a neighborhood-consuming fireball is low, but notes all the precautions the Coast Guard takes and says Boston shouldn't have to be the only city in the US where giant LNG tankers are allowed in a densely populated area.

Bizarre Foods guy Andrew Zimmern endorses Michael Albano in the special state-senate election:

My childhood pal Michael Albano is running for State Senator in Massachusetts, and in heady times like these I think it is crucial that we support progressive democrats like Michael. ...

Via Wicked Local Cambridge.

Cambridge News Weekly (yeah, that's a new one for me, too) reports that progressive Democrat and small shopowner Michael Albano is now running for the seat left vacant when Anthony Galluccio resigned on account of being in jail.

Other candidates include attorney Dan Hill of Charlestown, Galluccio's former chief of staff Sal DiDomenico, Cambridge City Councilor Marjorie Decker and attorney and Charlie Flaherty son Tim Flaherty. They're competing in April 13 primary to get into a May 11 final election just in time to start all over again for the regular primary and election this fall.

The Chelsea Record introduces us to Tim Flaherty, reprising his 2007 run for the seat held by Anthony Galluccio, only this time without Galluccio.

Wicked Local Somerville reports the state has set April 13 for primaries and May 11 for the final election to replace year-in-jail former state Sen. Anthony Galluccio.

Channel 4 reports.

So this guy who's really fascinated with buses thought it would be cool to follow an old T bus to the end of the line - to the plant in Everett where they're shredded and put on a barge on the Mystic River. He missed the No Trespassing sign:

... "Yeah Sarge,he is a busnut...I looked at the photos on his camera,nothing but buses"

He said also "Don't be surprised if the Department of Home land Security checks you out" ...

Angela reports watching one of Everett's squadron of Rascal riders getting plowed into by a small box truck at a Rte. 16 intersection yesterday:

... All of a sudden, my boyfriend screams, "Oh shit!" and I instantaneously hear a loud bang. I look to my left and, I kid you not, see a very large man in one of those Rascal scooters being hurled into the air after getting hit by a truck. ...

Luckily, she adds, there was an ambulance right behind the truck and the guy seemed more dazed than anything else.

In thousands of households in Revere, Everett, Malden, Medford and Melrose, alarm clocks lost their minds and started blinking "12:00," Channel 4 reports.

You'd call the police, right? But what if it's the police who are blocking you?

Union members followed the MWRA crew to their next job on Fenno Street in Revere, where a city police captain refused to allow the crew to do their work.

"Your plan is faulty and we're not going to allow you to work,” Revere Capt. James Guido told MWRA Chief Operating Officer Mike Hornbrook, who accompanied another worker today.