A man who claims he was only answering a Craigslist ad from somebody seeking to arrange delivery of a package to his son at Harvard was arrested today on federal charges of aiding and abetting an extortion attempt and conspiracy for an incident that shut down part of the Harvard campus last month after police discovered a bag containing a box full of Roman candles, bottle rockets and wires, following a series of threatening extortion phone calls that day. Read more.

Roving UHub photographer Raymond A. snapped the newest falling-equipment zone, at Harvard Square station, where a utility box disassociated from the column it was attached to yesterday, hitting a woman who had to be taken to a local hospital for observation, a couple months after a ceiling tile almost beaned another rider at the station.

WCVB reports she was taken to a local hospital for observation. Photo of the aftermath.

It comes after another rider was almost beaned by a falling ceiling tile at the station in March.

See that blue checkmark at the top of that tweet? Twitter now charges $8 a month for that ($1,000 a month for organizations), and removed them last week from most of the previously checkmarked people and groups who got them for free by proving they were somehow notable. Read more.

Cambridge, state and federal authorities say the six-alarm fire that destroyed the Faith Lutheran Church, 311 Broadway, is now being investigated as arson. Read more.

MIT News reports researchers may have figured out how to keep algae from growing on glass surfaces: Coat the glass with "a material that can hold an electrostatic charge, and then applying a very small voltage to that layer," which in turn repels the algae, which have a negative charge on their cell surfaces. Read more.

The Cambridge Fire Department reports Cambridge firefighters responded to Faith Lutheran Church on Broadway at 5:29 p.m. for what turned into a six-alarm fire. Around 8:15 p.m., fire was shooting through the steeple, on the verge of collapse. The department reports no injuries.

StreetsblogMass reports on yesterday's announcement by DCR that, despite a plea from the Cambridge City Council, this year it will only shut Memorial Drive to cars on Sundays, rather than for the entire weekend as it did back in the days when everybody cared about Covid-19 and fresh air and stuff.

Transit Police report arresting a Belmont man they say bit an officer hard enough to break his skin in a failed attempt to escape arrest on charges he was harassing and exposing himself to other passengers at the Harvard Square Red Line station around 3 p.m. yesterday. Read more.