Dear Fenway Neighbors,

We would like to make you aware that on the evenings of September 13^th and 14^th there will be private events held at Fenway Park that will include amplified sound.   Please be assured that we will do everything possible to minimize any disruption to the neighborhood during these events.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thank you!

Beth

Beth Krudys | Boston Red Sox | Manager of Fenway Affairs | 4 Yawkey Way, Boston, MA 02215 | office / fax 617.226.6424 | bkrudys@redsox.com

Judge won’t lift limits on stem cell use
Washington Post / September 8, 2010

WASHINGTON — A federal judge yesterday denied a motion to lift an injunction he issued two weeks ago barring the government from funding research involving human embryonic stem cells.

US Chief District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected a request by the Obama administration to lift the temporary injunction he had issued pending an appeal of the decision. But Lamberth indicated that his injunction was less restrictive than had been interpreted by the administration.

“Defendants are incorrect about much of their ‘parade of horribles’ that will supposedly result from this court’s preliminary injunction,’’ Lamberth wrote. The ruling did not necessarily apply to research that had been funded under guidelines issued during the Bush administration or that had previously been “awarded and funded,’’ Lamberth wrote. He also indicated that he could make a final decision on the case soon.

[One of the plaintiffs in this case formerly taught at MIT, and was denied tenure. - ed]

Man caught with shrimp in his pants
By Herald staff – September 8, 2010

Security at Whole Foods Market near Fenway turned the catch of the day over to police.

Store officials told police that James Watson of Boston allegedly stuffed three bags of frozen Wild Key West Pink Shrimp down his pants and tried tailing it out of the store without paying Sunday afternoon, according to a police report.

Watson was arrested and charged with shoplifting and trespassing

Sovereign Bank and BU form alliance
By Yi Wu/BU Daily Free Press – September 8, 2010

Boston University is partnering up with Sovereign Bank to fund several school initiatives, according to a statement by the bank on Friday.

The new partnership will provide scholarships to students of BU’s School of Public Health and start an undergraduate program on Spanish language and culture, according to the statement.

The initiative also includes an outreach program that will give students the opportunity to share Spanish culture and language with the wider Boston community, the statement said.

“We are grateful to Sovereign Bank and Banco Santander for the generous support for two very promising initiatives – one in global health and one in language and literature,” BU President Robert Brown said in the statement. “They are making it possible for us to provide scholarship support for students in the School of Public Health who will do their field practice overseas. And this support is enabling our outreach to the Latino community in the greater Boston area through language and cultural programs. Through its Santander Universities consortium, Sovereign and Santander have made an extraordinary commitment to strengthening international higher education.”

Sovereign Bank, a subsidiary of the Spain-based company Banco Santander, intends to provide support to students through its “Santander Universities” program in order to show support of higher education throughout the world, the statement said.

Now THAT was a storm
By adamg/Universal Hub – 9/8/10 – 8:33 am
We got caught in it as we drove along the Fens: Frequent, vivid lightning flashes, rain coming down in sheets, people just walking slowly because they’d gotten to that point where they realized they were so soaked trying to rush was pointless.
And only 15 minutes earlier, we were busy enjoying a rainbow right over Faulkner Hospital.

Kept safe in US, Iraqi royal statue heads home – MassArt professor helped in recovery
By Farah Stockman – Globe Staff / September 7, 2010

WASHINGTON — It took four men to lift the wooden box in the lobby of the Iraqi Embassy. They carried it gingerly to the waiting truck, then loaded it into the belly of a commercial plane. Hours after President Obama announced the end of US combat operations in Iraq last week, one of that country’s most precious artifacts — the statue of an ancient king — began its journey home to Baghdad.

In a saga that reads like the plot of an Indiana Jones movie, the 4,400-year-old statue of King Entemena was stolen from Iraq’s national museum in 2003, during widespread looting in the early days of the US invasion. It then moved through an underworld of black-market art dealers until it was recovered in a 2006 US sting operation, with help from a professor of antiquities in Boston.

Then, for four more years, it sat in a glass case at Iraq’s embassy in Washington, waiting for Baghdad to be safe enough for its return. It is expected to arrive later this week, the final chapter in a tale of the anarchy of war and the fragile promise of peace.

“Now he’s going back where he belongs,’’ said John Russell, a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, who was hired by the State Department to help preserve Iraq’s ancient art. Russell verified Entemena’s authenticity for US officials.

Hey, students, here’s the lowdown on Beantown
By Tenley Woodman/Boston Herald – September 7, 2010

Attention, college students and other newcomers to the Hub – there’s more to understanding Boston than watching “The Departed” or “Good Will Hunting.”

Here, it’s tonic, not soda or pop. There are four seasons:Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics.

And the underground transit system isn’t the subway, it’s the T.

Visit Fenway Park: This is a must. Whether you like the Red Sox or not, Fenway is a piece of history and source of Boston pride. It’s the oldest Major League Baseball park still in use, and catching a game here is a rite of passage for locals. 4 Yawkey Way, Boston.

To take a tour, call 617-226-6666, or go to mlb.mlb.com/bos/ballpark/tour.jsp.
…snip…
Check out Avenue of the Arts: The intersection of Huntington and Massachusetts avenues starts what was once known as the Avenue of the Arts. This stretch of real estate is home to institutions such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Museum of Fine Arts.

HuffPost ranks BU as one of 11 strictest colleges
By Meaghan Beatley/BU Daily Free Press – Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Boston is known for having some of the most prestigious universities in the country, but according to The Huffington Post, it’s also home to one of strictest in Boston University.

BU was listed by the website as one of the 11 ‘strictest colleges’ in the United States in early July, citing its “zero tolerance policy for parties in residence halls” as the reason for its selection.

BU outlines its policies, ranging from drug and alcohol consumption to moped ownership, in the Lifebook located on the BU website.

According to the Lifebook, BU’s alcohol policy accords itself with state laws. However, “the University’s standards of personal conduct substantially exceed the minimum expectations of civil law and custom,” the website states.

Stem cell work in limbo awaiting court’s decision – Ruling on temporary stay may come today
By John A. Hawkinson/The Tech NEWS EDITOR – September 7, 2010

Many stem cell researchers have been left uncertain about their own future and the future of their field as they wait for a federal judge to decide whether to allow the NIH to fund human embryonic stem cell research, within and without of its walls.

A recent federal court injunction barred NIH labs from performing human embryonic stem cell research, and also stopped the NIH from funding grants that supported such research. The judge is currently considering an emergency stay which would temporarily allow the NIH to continue its research and to continue funding research.

The NIH has interpreted the court order to bar work with any human embryonic stem cell lines, but the plaintiffs in the case say they only meant to roll back the additional stem cell lines allowed by the Obama administration in 2009. Those plaintiffs, James L. Sherley and Theresa Deisher, said in a court filing Friday night that the Court’s ban does not apply to research approved under the Bush administration’s stem cell guidelines in 2001.

[James L. Sherley, a former MIT professor, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the NIH to halt federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.]

Wedding went swimmingly
By Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein – Globe Staff / September 7, 2010

North Shore-bred Olympian Jenny Thompson, who’s now an anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, got married over the weekend to Daniel Cumpelik, a co-owner of RadonSeal, his family’s business. The wedding took place at Hammond Castle in Gloucester. The couple will honeymoon in Zanzibar.
Tattoos on view
Illustrated bodies flocked to the Sheraton over the weekend for the Boston Tattoo Convention, an orgy of ink-related entertainment. Personalities of note at the festivities included Manny Ramirez, who stopped by to see the body art when his game was rained out on Friday, renowned tattoo artist Natan Alexander, and MTV personalities Evan Starkman and Kenny Santucci, who showed off their fashion line, Suck Yeah, with their partner Brett Nimphius. Hamilton’s own Emilee Fitzpatrick of “The Real World: Cancun’’ served as emcee during the weekend.

1533 – Elizabeth I is born in Greenwich, England.  More anniversaries.

I’m a total traditionalist when it comes to some holidays, and this is one of them.  Most of us think of it as the end of summer, or as the beginning of school – but it’s a day to celebrate American workers and the unions who made them strong.  Let’s hope that what’s in the past can come back into our future.  To help you celebrate and remember:

Union Maid

Solidarity Forever

Which Side Are You On, Boys?

Deportees

What’s your favorite union song, or song about workers/working?

Image:  Demonstrators surrounded by soldiers during the Lawrence textile strike in 1912.  From Wikimedia Commons.

Reignited ire buffets Muslim students  – Despite tensions, many hold to their belief in America
By Lisa Wangsness – Globe Staff / September 6, 2010

WELLESLEY — Laila Alawa fiddled with her cellphone, pretending she hadn’t heard what an apparently intoxicated man near her on the MBTA had said about “her people’’ wanting to build the “ground zero mosque.’’

Growing up in a large Muslim family in upstate New York and New Hampshire, Alawa had often drawn stares because of her headscarf, and sometimes endured harassment from neighborhood children. But this summer, as she shuttled between research jobs at Wellesley College and MIT, the looks and questions from strangers about where she was from seemed to come more often, and with a sharper edge.

“Every day I wake up, I just really want to put it out there — like, we’re not going to hurt you,’’ Alawa, a 19-year-old Wellesley student, said in an interview last week. “We are normal people, with fears and aspirations.’’

Seiji Ozawa’s Return to the Stage
By JAMES R. OESTREICH/NYT – September 5, 2010

MATSUMOTO, Japan — It was not exactly the return he had hoped for, but the conductor Seiji Ozawa scored a triumph of a limited sort here at the Saito Kinen Festival on Sunday afternoon as he returned to the public stage for the first time since surgery for esophageal cancer in January.

He opened a program of the festival orchestra (he was supposed to have led all of it), conducting the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. Then, because he was experiencing sciatic problems that recurred as a byproduct of the surgery, he stepped aside to let a younger conductor, Tatsuya Shimono, take over.

A progressive voter guide for JP and surrounding neighborhoods
By adamg / UniversalHub – 9/5/10 – 10:44 pm
The Jamaica Plain Progressives posts answers to questionnaires sent to candidates in the 2nd Suffolk state senate race (Sonia Chang-Diaz and Hassan Williams), the 15th Suffolk state rep’s race (Jeff Sanchez and Jeff Herman) and the 6th Suffolk state rep’s race (Russell Holmes and Divo Rodrigues Monteiro; other candidates did not reply).

Best brunch on Mission Hill
By adamg / UniversalHub – 9/5/10 – 10:31 am
Meesh says give it up for the Mission on Huntington Avenue.

1847 – Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.  More anniversaries.

BU junior, 19, falls to death at hotel
New England in brief – September 5, 2010
A Boston University junior died in a fall early yesterday morning at a city hotel, officials said. The school identified the victim as Adam Robert Engel, 19, of Old Bethpage, N.Y. Officer David Estrada, a Boston police spokesman, said officers responded to the Doubletree Guest Suites on Soldiers Field Road about 12:45 a.m., where the victim was being treated by rescue workers. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Estrada said, and there were no indications of foul play. He said the office of the chief medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Engel was a junior in the School of Management and was studying accounting, Kenneth Elmore, dean of students, said in a letter to the campus community. A woman who answered the phone at Engel’s home said the family will not comment while the investigation into his death is ongoing.

1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  More anniversaries.