West of 495
Some people spent today at Castle Island, or on the Common or just going for a walk. We drove to Worcester. It's just how we roll, plus, the kidlet had never been to the Big W. So we wondered why Lake Quinsigamond isn't a river, pondered the part of Rte. 9 where Boston TV stations always send rookie reporters to stand in the snow, marveled at Union Station, then parked near Worcester City Hall and walked around. Even in wintertime, there's a lot of green there, such as the display at Sonja's Wig Salon on Franklin Street and the statues that make up the Civil War monument:
The alley next to the abandoned Paris Cinema: Read more
Well, at least when it comes to rail transportation. The T&G reports today that as CSX winds down operations in its Beacon Park yard in Allston, it's planning to shift its operations to the west. And according to Transportation Secretary Jeff Mullan, the new set-up promises to "make Worcester the freight rail hub for all six New England states with east-west and north-south rail connections with access to highways." Read more
The sky was clear over Leominster Saturday night, so Jody LaFerriere could shoot the full moon, or wolf moon, the largest of the year.
$41.5 million in emergency funding to fight Asian Longhorned Beetles.
The money will go to increased tree surveys to find potentially infected trees and to tear them down and grind them up in an attempt to stop the bug from spreading beyond the Worcester area.
Maija: In Allston Read more
Mass. High Tech reports what an Evergreen Solar executive told investors last week.
Jody reports some "serious thunder" west of 495.
Yes, Virginia, those living outside of 495 may well be having a home day for the whole family. Quite a lot of schools and the like closed out where it's really snowing.
- http://www1.whdh.com/stormforce/index.php
- http://wbztv.com/schoolclosings
The Supreme Judicial Court today reversed an attempted-rape conviction for a man who agreed to pay an undercover Worcester cop $200 for sex with her supposed foster child, because police arrested him before he could get near the girl.
The court upheld Kerry van Bell's conviction on a charge of soliciting sex for a fee, because he agreed to hand over the money to the cop. But the court said it could not uphold his conviction on a charge of attempted rape of a child because the legal definition of "attempted" means police would have had to stop him in the moments just before he actually raped a child: Read more
Spatch is tweeting the Worcester warehouse fire, using Worcester Fire Department records.
After falling far behind other areas during the boom years, Boston has been making up lost ground during the Great Recession. That, at least, according to a new study from the Milken Institute that ranks metropolitan areas by their success at creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth, with a heavy emphasis on technology. Read more
The man, identified in his suit only as John Doe, claims that in 2006, a "Cops" camera crew accompanying some Worcester officers illegally broke into his house and filmed the cops arresting him as he lay in his bed, naked and cowering in fear. Read more
The Worcester PD really, really didn't like a story in the Worcester Telegram about possibly bogus master's degrees held by members of the local constabulary. Daily Worcesteria reprints a police statement, which not only says the department will give first dibs on news to local TV and radio stations but adds:
... Unfortunately, the dark, dirty, and poorly lit newsroom is affecting their neutrality, professionalism, and integrity. Because of this, the media policy of the Worcester Police Department must use all relevant media to get the message out to the community and remain transparent as an organization. ...
If you have followed the decline in the standards at the T & G you recognize their new standard operating procedure. This adopted SOP is based on a dysfunctional hat-trick: hyperbole, fiction, and innuendo. ...
Front page material, even.
It's something I noticed in April of 2008, and wrote again about in March of 2009.
Interesting that new details are coming out, like the fact that a third of their workforce are temporary. I wonder how many of them are "independent contractors"...
The Globe also completely fails to mention that after securing money from the state and letting Patrick brag about the new jobs it was bringing in, Evergreen Solar built a $55M plant in Michigan which they claim will have 100 employees. Evergreen Solar received 2 million dollars from Michigan in tax credits last year.
A state trooper found Carlos Montalvo, 25, and Amanda Montalvo, 24, sitting in their blue Honda sedan in the breakdown lane and stopped to assist.
Come for the Big E, stay for the bank roll.
Right in the story about the crashed plane on 495:
I just want to say that while I'm very grateful that the pilot and passenger are all right, I'm tired of all these pilots acting as though they don't have to obey the rules of the road! Swerving between traffic, ignoring red lights, landing on highways -- it's going to cause a tragedy one of these days!
In conclusion, I hope that everyone will support the creation of more airplane lanes on our streets.
Julie Powell went to Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is the Julie in the pair Julie & Julia, the author of the book by that title, and the person Amy Adams plays in the movie by Nora Ephron.
Powell is the young woman who cooked all of the recipes in Julia Child's French Cookbook, one recipe every evening after work at her dead-end office job, and blogged about it. Then she re-wrote the blog into a best selling book.
Powell still keeps a blog. Last week she wrote about the movie premiere in LA, a "screening" she modestly calls it, in a post titled Tales from The Red Carpet. Many of the comments on her blog are readers of her book who took inspiration from it.
Powell also recently wrote this article for The Atlantic's food blog, Being Julie, Not "Julie". Read more
It must be true. Forbes wouldn't get that wrong, would it? Who doesn't recognize that Worcester has better culture than Cambridge (or, for that matter, that Baltimore is a better place to live than Boston)?
Via Maureen Rogers, who admits: My first thought was: what were the criteria?
Clearly, availability of interesting places to shop; number of steep hills impossible to drive on during icy weather; and percentage of high school seniors who agree with the statement "I don't care where I go to college, as long as it's somewhere other than Worcester" weren't part of the statistical mix that went into this pick.
Unlike at the Globe, the New York Times isn't telling unions at the Worcester Telegram they need to consider their imminent death, the Boston Business Journal reports. In fact, the Worcester paper seems to be doing pretty well when compared to its big-city cousins down the 'Pike, the Journal says.
Meanwhile, the Journal also reports that the Boston Foundation is holding a conclave today to try to figure out how to save the Globe.
Daily Worcesteria explains why this day is different from all other days: Some alleged dolt apparently facing speeding charges at the old Worcester courthouse got so upset today he knocked over the 147-year-old statue of Moses, damaging it, quite possibly irreparably.
Grafton Times went live today.
Last call would remain 2 a.m., but the tipsy could sit around for another hour to get ready for the ride home.
The NBA store is selling a "St. Patrick's Day" collection with the entire league represented. This may be your only chance to own a green Lakers cap with a shamrock on the back.
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Victory is sweet.
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