Booking photoA Roxbury man is charged with trying to burglarize the Engine 42/Rescue 2 firehouse at 1870 Columbus Ave. last night while its firefighters were out fighting a three-alarm fire on Harrishof Street.

Desi Halsell, 40, was ordered held in lieu of $2,000 bail on charges of breaking and entering at night with the intent to commit a felony, larceny over $250, and possession of burglarious tools, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

Assistant District Attorney Sulynn Walton told a Roxbury District Court judge that firefighters returning from the fire around 10 p.m. found Halsell in the station with a black hockey bag over his shoulder and a firefighter's Apple laptop in his hands.

Officials say Halsell may have entered the station through an unlocked rear door.

In addition to the bag, police found a hammer in his rear pocket, Walton said.

Innocent, etc.

The federal Court of Appeals for the First Circuit today upbraided a local hair-salon chain for trying to keep a similarly named rival out of New England.

The court said Great Cuts scalped itself in 1989, when it signed an agreement with Minnesota-based Great Clips that let each company continue to use their respective names. Great Cuts flipped when it learned Great Clips was moving into New England and banged out a lawsuit that argued the 1989 settlement only granted Great Clips the right to register its name, not to actually use it.

The appellate judges, however, brushed aside that argument, ruling that, at the root of the issue, there's little point to letting somebody register a name if they can't use it. In a layered ruling, the judges acknowledged they needed a sharp razor to separate the two parties, each of which submitted motions with confllicting dictionary definitions of terms such as "application" and "registration."

The suit is now somewhat moot because Great Cuts has changed its name to Hair Cuttery.

Complete ruling.

Boston Police last month cited C.F. Donovan's, 112 Savin Hill Ave., for not serving liquor, and now the Boston Licensing Board has started proceedings that could end with bar owner Arthur Donovan losing his valuable liquor license.

Donovan is already close to losing another liquor license he's held for nearly three years for a Hyde Park restaurant that has never opened. The city closed his popular Dorchester location in November for failing to make payments on $300,000 in city loans used to get the Hyde Park location open.

Donovan failed to appear at a licensing-board hearing this morning. Board members meet Thursday to consider what to do about that. Board Chairman Daniel Pokaski said the board won't strip him of the Savin Hill license then, but could set a six-month time limit for him to either sell the license or re-start the business.

Because Boston has only a set number of liquor licenses, they are valuable commodities - and license holders are required to either use them, sell them or give them up. In the time the Hyde Park restaurant has not opened, at least two operating West Roxbury restaurants have been denied licenses because the city has none left to dole out.

Boston Police Det. Kevin McGill told the licensing board this morning he drove by the Savin Hill location around 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 5 and found it closed, with paper on the inside of the windows. A follow-up location showed the restaurant remained shut and he issued a citation for failure to comply with city license regulations.