Bay Village

Join Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders at our annual Summer Party held outside in the heart of Provincetown, MA on Saturday, July 27 from 4:00-7:00PM. Enjoy the view of the harbor, mingle with other GLAD supporters and learn more about our ground-breaking cases.

Tickets are $75 online | $85 on site | $30 student
Purchase at www.glad.org/events.

Don't miss our amazing auction and celebrity auctioneer Kate Clinton. You don't have to be present to win. Travel packages, restaurants, massages, and much more - something for everyone!

Children are welcome to attend (at no charge) and will enjoy a range of fun activities.

Delicious summer fare and refreshing cocktails provided.

More information, tickets and sponsorships are available at www.glad.org/events.

From the BPL's Cocoanut Grove photo collection. Used under this license.

Boston Police announce that with the help of the BPL, they've made public three volumes of witness statements on the nation's deadliest nightclub fire, which killed 492 on Nov. 28, 1942. Some of the interviews were done immediately following the fires in the hospitals to which survivors had been taken.

You can read the transcripts online, from which this excerpt of a police interview of Roland Sousa, 45, of Salem was taken:

BPD brass, managers of the Wang Theater, the Charles Playhouse and the W Hotel and elderly residents of a Tremont Street building turned out en masse at a licensing hearing this morning to oppose Royale's request to increase its capacity from 770 to 1220, saying the area has enough trouble already with the club goers it has now.

Royale argues the increase would actually make the neighborhood safer because the concerts the new capacity would allow would get out an hour earlier than the current 2 a.m. closing time.

The Boston Business Journal reports on the end of Darryl Settles' plans for a hotel.

Boston Police report that as of 4:15 a.m., NStar had restored power to Bay Village, Chinatown and the area east of Clarendon Street.

Police also provide a tip for motorists who find themselves at an intersection with no functioning traffic lights and no police to direct traffic, and no, it's not to re-create that scene from Gremlins:

Motorists are asked and instructed to treat the signal as a stop sign. As such, motorists should yield to traffic to their right before safely proceeding through the intersection.

The T reports the Prudential and Symphony stops on the Green Line remain closed.

The Citgo sign remains off, as does power in the rest of Kenmore Square.

Berklee, right between both the Dalton Street and TC's Lounge fires, has cancelled classes today.

read more at bluemassgroup

BostonCityWalk stopped on a walk to snap the new Liberty Mutual headquarters going up on Columbus Avenue.

Copyright BostonCityWalk. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

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.

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!

Leslee took in the rehersal performance at the Hatch Shell.

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

A concerned citizen complains:

Since the movie crews were here on Friday (6/24), all the streetlights on Chandler and the side streets have been on 24/7. Seems like the timers have been turned off and I know the city is keen to save money. Thank you.

Press Pass Tv is a nonprofit organization that engages youth in advocacy journalism to tell the stories of communities working for change. Jean Grae performed at the 3rd Eye open 11th Hip Hop Festival. Press PassTv was able to catch Jean before her performance. She discussed her record sales and her old school flavor. Jean described how she maintained her own identity and how we all have a responsibilty to ourselves to follow our bliss. Jean advises young and up coming artists to not "worry about what the industry or society thinks or dictates, be yourself and stick to it and it will pay off in the end." Click here to watch the video Press Pass TV Interview with Jean Grae

Boston Police are investigating the 8:10 a.m. collision that left a 74-year-old man dead.

UPDATED with correct age.

UPDATE: The Herald identifies the officer in question as Daniel Keeler, a former homicide detective with an interesting past.

Darrin Morda, who co-owns Rise, says the stanchions and barriers in place outside his club New Year's Eve were there at the request of the Boston Fire Department, which asked for them about two months ago.

It's one of numerous issues Morda has with an official police account of the way the club was shut down at 11:40 p.m. on Dec. 31. Morda said a BPD sergeant, unfamiliar with the private club's status - or a Superior Court injunction that he says bars police from entry except in emergencies - basically shut the place down in a rage.

District chief at fire scene. By Courtney Sacco.

A fire that broke out shortly before 11 a.m. at 34 Church St. quickly spread to all four floors and the basement and went to four alarms before it was brought under control about a half-hour later. The home's occupants were not home at the time, the Boston Fire Department reports.

The department estimates the fire caused $750,000 in damage and says it sent two firefighters to the hospital, one with a back and shoulder injury, the other with a cut leg. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Photo copyright Courtney Sacco. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Did you resolve to “do more good” in the world? Join Socializing for Justice and make your New Year’s resolution count this year!

Meet like-minded progressives at Connecting for Justice on January 27 from 6-9PM at Lir Irish Pub and get connected to great social justice organizations in Boston. Have you been lurking on SoJust? It’s time to meet the friendly faces of the group that’s grown to almost 1600 members, hosted 85+ events and fostered hundreds of connections since our founding 4 years ago.

Join us if you are ready to go BEYOND ALLIES and build a CROSS-ISSUE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT.

RSVP at www.sojust.org (our main website) and view Member Profiles, Message Board and Calendar of Progressive Events. Newcomers always welcomed!

Cost: $2-$10 collected at the door

This is not a meeting - it's a fun networking social!
No Program. No Speaker. Just Us. For Justice.

Boston Fireman reports that he and some other folks placed flowers today on the plaque commemorating the 492 people who died in the Cocoanut Grove fire 68 years ago tonight.

The BRA informs us of the official ceremony at the site of the $300-million complex at Berkeley Street and Columbus Avenue.

To preview your primary ballot for tomorrow, click on the link from the Secretary of State's website:

then enter your address and select a political party. It will show you what choices you'll have on tomorrow's primary ballot.

Lynch plays his cards close to the vest in what seems like a defensive style of politics. It certainly is not leadership-driven.

Take his process on the health care bill debate last summer. From March through August we heard Rep.Lynch say he didn't know how he'd vote on the bill. At the same time, he did not take a leadership role in shaping it. In August at Curry, Rep. Lynch held a town hall meeting and said he had read the bill but still didn't know how he was going to vote. Once again, his constituents could not get a bead on where he stood.

Perhaps even more stunningly at that town hall meeting, Rep. Lynch was given the chance to answer a question about death panels (after all he had read the bill) and refudiate (sic) ;-) the meme that right wing Republican liars and Fox News had made popular. Lynch equivocated! He would not take a stand!

The BRA reports that developers have filed their detailed project notification form for the proposed conversion of the Boston Renaissance Charter School into roughly 128 rental units.

The school is selling the 13-story building at Arlington and Stuart streets to finance the conversion of an old factory on Hyde Park Avenue in Hyde Park into a new school - expected to open this fall.

Developers say the new residential building will have no parking for residents, but that they have negotiated to make 200 spaces at the 200 Stuart St. garage made available to residents. They add they will work with the city to encourage residents to take advantage of the nearby Back Bay and Arlington subway stops or to get around by walking and bicycling.

Peter Gelzinis reports on Henry Vara's effort to extend Jacques Cabaret's closing time from midnight to 2 a.m.

John Keith reports that 52 Piedmont St., which is now a single-family home, but which used to be the Napoleon Club, is up for sale. Yours for just $1.95 million.

OK, I'll bite: Why is there a bust of Napoleon on a tiny garage in the parking lot across from the BCAE on Arlington Street in Bay Village?

Aaron Michlewitz won the Democratic primary today to replace Sal DiMasi, according to city election results.

Michlewitz got 2,116, compared to 1,945 for Susan Passoni, 103 for Lucy Rivera and 44 for Brian Ross. He will now face Republican David Trumbull and independent John Keith in a special election next month.