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Bomb technician breathed a xylorelief when he opened a suspicious briefcase in Cambridge

Cambridge Police report a bomb technician, an explosives-sniffing dog and firefighters rushed to Antrim Street and Broadway around 7:30 p.m. Monday on a report of an unattended briefcase on a park bench.

A bomb technician and K-9 cleared the briefcase and discovered that it contained a xylophone belonging to the band of a nearby school.

H/t Chris Devers for the headline.


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Woman slices man with box cutter in Central Square, police say

Cambridge Police report arresting a woman they say sliced an acquaintance with a box cutter during an argument on Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square around 1:15 a.m. on Monday.

Lucilia Armado, 46, of Cambridge, was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, police say, adding she was also wanted on warrants in Salem for larceny over $1,200.

Innocnt, etc.


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Woman thrown against wall and groped in Harvard Square

The Crimson reports on an incident on Plympton Street around 12:45 a.m. The woman screamed and escaped.


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A pimp by any other name is still a criminal, court rules

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today a man convicted of deriving support from prostitution should have quit when he was behind and accepted his punishment, because he was caught pimping out two women and the law is pretty clear on that, even if it doesn't actually use the word "pimp."

Jonathan E. Brown was arrested at a Saugus hotel in 2012 by law-enforcement officers responding to Internet ads for prostitutes there who found him with the $250 - in one of his shoes - that an undercover officer had earlier handed over to one of the women for a tryst later in the evening.

Brown's appeal is based in part on the argument that because the law does not specifically use the words "pimp" or "pimping" to discuss people who "derive support" from prositution, it is so vague it could theoretically be used to arrest children accepting sandwiches from mothers who happen to double as prostitutes or store owners who sell the women the fixings for those sandwiches.

In its ruling, the state's highest court all but tossed Brown a dictionary with a sticky note on the page with the definition for "pimp" and essentially said: Please, even if the law doesn't specifically mention "pimping," you know, we know, in fact, everybody knows it's pretty obvious what the law's writers were referring to, and it was not children wolfing down sandwiches:

We conclude that G. L. c. 272, § 7, is constitutional, as we construe it to target those who, with the intent to profit from prostitution, live or derive support or maintenance from, or share in the earnings or proceeds of, the known prostitution of others. We reach this conclusion from reading the statutory language in the context of common understanding and ordinary usage, as well as the statute's legislative history and severe penalty provisions, all of which demonstrate with sufficient clarity that G. L. c. 272, § 7, is directed at so-called "pimping." Because a pimp knowingly and intentionally profits from the prostitution of another, he or she differs from the child of a sex worker, a local merchant who sells food to a known sex worker, or a medical professional who provides a sex worker with counselling services; the literal language of the statute may reach all of these individuals, but, unlike a pimp, they lack the intention to profit from the prostitution of another.

Here, the evidence was sufficient for the jury to conclude that the defendant -- who accompanied a woman to a prearranged prostitution transaction and was caught, immediately after leaving the scene with that woman, with the entire proceeds of the transaction hidden in his shoe -- knowingly and intentionally profited from the prostitution of another, and therefore engaged in pimping within the meaning of G. L. c. 272, § 7. While we prospectively clarify the jury instructions to avoid any possible confusion that this statute might apply to those who lack such an intent, we discern no prejudicial or other reversible error in the instant case.

The court added:

Unlike the hypothetical prosecutions the defendant imagines, the conduct of the defendant fits within the core concern of the statute. In short, the defendant can only challenge the constitutionality of the statute as applied to him, and consistent with our judicial construction of the statute to target those who intend to profit from the prostitution of another, we hold that G. L. c. 272, § 7, is not unconstitutional as applied to this defendant.


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Student hospitalized after pepper spray goes off in Dorchester classroom

WCVB reports a sixth-grader was packing pepper spray when it accidentally went off in a classroom at UP Academy today.


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Three-car crash takes out light pole, blocks Rte. 9 easbound

The Newton Fire Department reports a three-car crash on Rte. 9 eastbound made a mess, blocked that side of the road and brought a hazmat crew running to determine whether the transformer on the pole was leaking.


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Infant remains in critical condition after Revere crash

UPDATED.

NBC Boston reports the two-month old injured in the crash that killed her five-year-old sister remains in the hospital (the station had earlier reported she died).


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There is something you should know: Red Line still like Waiting for Godot

Red Line train scared of South Station, so it just sits there, frozen. Photo by Celtkicks.

The MBTA reports that delays on the Red Line due to signal issues near Kendall are persisting into the afternoon.

Art Transform is beginning to wonder why the T insists on saying the delays are no more than 15 minutes:

15 mins? @MBTA I’ve been on this train from JFK going on 57 mins. Signal problems? Traffic? Disabled train? Let’s keep pretending this has nothing to do with today’s headline.

Hailey Fuqua reports:

It took me over an hour this morning. 9:50 got on at Porter, 10:55 arrived at Broadway. It's insane.


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Boston barflies behaving badly: Tales from the front

A patron at Top Mix Bar and Kitchen on Norfolk Avenue in Roxbury left her clutch outside, went back out to retrieve it and found it but with $360 missing, then got punched in the face by the man who'd been captured on surveillance video lifting the money, police and the bar's owner told the Boston Licensing Board today.

The incident was one of several involving people acting out at local watering holes for which the board held hearings today. The board decides Thursday if any of the bars could have prevented the activity and, if so, if they warrant any sort of penalty.

Top Mix owner Joseph Correia and Lt. Det. Stephen Meade told the bar that shortly before closing on Sept. 21, a woman left the bar for a smoke. She put her clutch on a car windshield, finished her cigarette, then went inside - where she promptly realized she'd left her bag outside.

When she went out to get it, she discovered $360 - all the money she'd withdrawn from an ATM - missing. She asked Correia if he had any video pointing outside. When he said he did, the two took a look - and spotted a guy they both knew, in fact, the woman considered him a friend, rifling through her clutch, taking out the money, counting it and then packing it away before he, too, entered the bar.

Correia said that as the bar closed, he pulled the man aside and, with the woman present, asked him to return her money. He denied taking it. Correia said he showed him the video. He still denied it. The woman pleaded with him and told him she needed the money for her kids. But then, Meade said, the man punched the woman in the face and ran away. Correia said he has not been back to the bar since.

Board members told him he probably should have called police once the woman reported the theft. "I thought, since they knew each other, I assumed he would probably be a little embarrassed and give the money back," he replied.

A punch to the face also figured in a hearing over an incident at Storyville, 90 Exeter St. in the Back Bay, around 1:20 a.m. on Sept. 29. According to the bar's manager and police, one guy said another guy knocked over his drink and asked him to be careful. The other guy denied knocking over the drink. The two began yelling and the alleged spiller decided to bring the evening to an end by punching the alleged drink owner in the face. When police arrived, he acknowledged throwing the punch but said it was in self defense.

The board also held a hearing on an incident on Sept. 30 at Abe and Louie's, 793 Boylston St., in the Back Bay, in which a couple repaid the restaurant's efforts to find and wake one of them up after she'd fallen asleep in the lady's room by become very antagonistic and verbally abusive.

The bartender said a couple came in that night, sat at the bar and each ordered a glass of wine. The woman got up, half her wine untouched. About 20 minutes later, the bartender said, he asked the man where his partner was. Out for a smoke, he replied. About ten minutes later, though, the restaurant manager came up and told the bartender there was an unconscious woman in the lady's room and asked if there was anybody at the bar missing somebody.

It turned out the woman had fallen asleep in a stall. A restaurant hostess grew worried when, on her second check of the lady's room, she noticed the same pair of shoes under one stall door. A nurse who happened to be using the restroom said she needed to get her out - she could be ODing. The hostess snaked her way under the door and unlocked it, and the woman inside "came to just like a light switch," the manager said.

Meanwhile, at the bar, the man had gone from being friendly to angrily demanding to know why the manager was asking him questions. Police and EMTs arrived, after the manager called 911. Both the man and the woman were escorted out, cursing restaurant staffers, police and each other.


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MBTA gets new general manager

Luis Ramirez is out as T general manager and Steve Poftak is in, WBZ reports. Unlike Ramirez, from Texas and Beverly Scott, from Atlanta, Poftak is local - he's currently executive director of Harvard University’s Rappaport Institute. He's also currently vice chairman of the Fiscal Management and Control Board that oversees the T.


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