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.

Eleven more mosquito pools in Boston have tested positive for West Nile Virus (WNV), the Boston Public Health Commission reported today. Two of the positive pools were in North Dorchester and two in West Roxbury, both neighborhoods in which infected mosquitoes were previously detected. Joining the list of neighborhoods are East Boston, with two positive mosquito pools; Fenway, with three; Roslindale, with one; and South Dorchester, also with one. Infected mosquitoes have also been found in Hyde Park.

Multiple positive mosquito pools indicate that WNV is present throughout the city and residents are urged to take precautions to limit their exposure to mosquitoes. There has been one human case of WNV in Boston: a 46-year-old woman whose case was confirmed Aug. 27. She has since recovered.

Since June, larvicide has been placed into city catch basins designed to reduce the number of mosquitoes in the city. Spraying has been done for mosquito nuisance control in parts of some neighborhoods, but there are currently no plans to expand spraying throughout the city.

WNV is most commonly transmitted to humans by the bite of a mosquito infected with the virus, said Dr. Anita Barry, director of the Infectious Disease Bureau at the Public Health Commission.  She said it is very important for people to take precautions to reduce the risk of being bitten by an infected mosquito.  She urges that they take a few simple steps that include:

• Use insect repellant when outdoors, especially from dusk to dawn when mosquitoes are more likely to be biting and, when possible, wear clothing with long sleeves and pants.
• Mosquito-proof your home by making sure that window and door screens are in good repair to prevent mosquitoes from getting into your house.
• Prevent mosquitoes from breeding by turning over unused flower pots, buckets, wheelbarrows, and garbage cans; removing leaves and other debris that can clog gutters and trap water; disposing of or covering old tires; and covering swimming pools and kiddie pools when not in use.

For more information on WNV, call the Boston Public Health Commission at 617-534-5611 begin_of_the_skype_highlig or visit www.bphc.org.

Fenway’s transformation going strong, more on the way – Hitting home runs
By Brendan Lynch/Boston Herald – September 2, 2010

The Fenway-Kenmore area’s transformation from gritty to upscale has continued unabated through both the economic downturn of the early 2000s and the current recession, even as developments in other parts of Boston have stalled.

Meredith Management President John Rosenthal has been working on Fenway Center, a mixed-use development to be built over the Massachusetts Turnpike, for more than 10 years. He said he likely would’ve proceeded with the project even if he knew the recession was coming, because the neighborhood’s assets – the Longwood Medical Area, Fenway Park [map], more than 100,000 college students within a mile, and proximity to the Pike, commuter rail and the Green Line – are attractive even in a downturn.

Rosenthal, also a noted gun-control activist, bought a garage abutting the Pike 15 years ago and has used it to display a series of gun-control billboards since.

“Kenmore Square is a completely different place than when I bought the Lansdowne Garage and put up the gun billboard in 1995,” he said.

See also:  Fenway, Roxbury projects signaling retail resurgence
By Jenn Abelson – Globe Staff / May 25, 2010

AG urges Beth Israel to rethink CEO’s fitness – Swift action found lacking on Levy
By Liz Kowalczyk – Globe Staff / September 2, 2010

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday that the board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center should do “some soul-searching’’ about chief executive Paul Levy’s ability to continue leading the hospital, after her office concluded that his longtime personal relationship with a female employee “clearly endangered the reputation of the institution and its management.’’

Coakley’s remarks, made in an interview with the Globe, came as she released results of her office’s four-month investigation into the board’s handling of Levy’s relationship with the woman, who left the organization last fall.

The board’s chairman, Stephen Kay, said the board continually evaluates its chief execu tive, but he rejected any suggestion that Levy’s actions may make him unfit for the job. “The best thing for the Beth Israel is to have Paul Levy lead the institution,’’ Kay said.

The attorney general’s staff found no evidence the hospital misused charitable funds in paying the employee’s salary, travel expenses, or severance — the primary focus of the investigation.

See also:  NOW, union blast Levy, Beth Israel board
By Christine McConville/Boston Herald – September 2, 2010

On Big Moving Day, Boston Battles a Pest
By KATIE ZEZIMA/New York Times – September 1, 2010

BOSTON — As if all the double-parked moving vans, anxious parents and mountains of discarded furniture and trash are not enough to fray nerves on the day when thousands of college students move into their apartments here, city officials on Wednesday were up against a tiny problem that poses a huge threat.

Bedbugs.

The first of September is traditionally when leases start or expire for off-campus housing here, and students moving in often claim the couches, beds and other material left behind. But city officials would prefer they buy their own furniture.

“The problem that you have, some old furniture that has bedbugs in them and they get passed around to other apartments,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who took a tour of a student building with multiple code violations Wednesday. “We’re discouraging the use of secondhand furniture.”

Iggy and the Stooges bring ‘Raw Power’ to the people
By Scott McLennan – Globe Correspondent / September 2, 2010

Iggy and the Stooges is as good a pairing of frontman and band as you can get, judging from the group’s joyously chaotic yet deeply musical performance Tuesday at the House of Blues.

The Iggy in question is, of course, Iggy Pop, the 63-year-old sinewy and shirtless ball of energy responsible for belting out the tunes. And the Stooges these days consist of guitarist James Williamson, drummer Scott Asheton, bass player Mike Watt and sax player Steve Mackay.

This lineup is notable for bringing Williamson back into the fold roughly 35 years after he and Pop parted ways, though not before collaborating on the landmark 1973 album “Raw Power.’’

The 85-minute concert hit upon all of “Raw Power,’’ plus other songs from that era of Stooges, such as the harrowing “Open Up and Bleed’’ and caterwauling “I Got a Right.’’

See also:  10 ways to spend the night in the Fenway/Kenmore area

A rousing Ninth brings Tanglewood season to a close
By Jeremy Eichler – Globe Staff / August 31, 2010

LENOX — Every year in late August, like ripe local tomatoes, cool New England nights, or spontaneous bouts of anticipatory dread, the ringing sounds of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Tanglewood signal what everyone knows, but is still hoping might not quite yet be the case: Summer has run its course.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra concluded its Tanglewood season on Sunday with a performance of the Ninth, as it does every year. Some summers, the ritual can feel tired, so much so that I’ve often wondered whether audiences, the orchestra, and the music itself would stand to benefit if the Ninth were given a sabbatical, a vacation from marking the end of vacation. Surely there are other high-impact ways to end a season.

But then other summers, a performance of the kind that took place on Sunday makes you feel like this ritual may be one of the more sensible things that happens at Tanglewood, and maybe the Ninth, in all of its accrued symbolism and actual depths, its teeming surfaces and its wild heart, may be one of those works that can stand up to all of our attempts to tame it through repetition. Certainly, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus on Sunday sang with a directness and commitment that suggested for these singers, there was nothing formulaic about another performance. Beethoven’s ode to universal brotherhood sounded unbowed by the years.

BU welcomes Class of 2014
By Saba Hamedy and Meaghan Beatley/BU Daily Free Press – September 2, 2010

More than 4,000 freshmen marched down Commonwealth Avenue Sunday afternoon as part of Boston University’s annual matriculation ritual.

The march started at Danielsen Hall in East Campus and made its way to Agganis Arena, where the students were cajoled and counseled by a variety of BU personalities, including President Robert Brown and Student Union president Arthur Emma.

Brown touted the diversity of BU’s student population, and encouraged the new freshmen to take pride in their school.

“Diversity runs through the fabric of BU,” he said. “Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that one day people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin is a reality here.”

BU’s North Star goes dark over Kenmore

By Suzanne Schiavone/BU Daily Free Press – September 1, 2010

Paris has the Eiffel Tower, New York City has the Statue of Liberty and Boston – specifically Kenmore Square – has the CITGO Sign.
On July 23, the lights emanating from the beacon of Kenmore Square went dark to make way for renovations that will make the 45-year-old sign more environmentally friendly and better able to stand up to Boston’s notoriously bad weather.
The sign, first put up in 1940, has long been one of the most prominent features of Boston University’s campus as well as Kenmore Square and Fenway Park, and students cherish the sign as one of the most significant landmarks on campus.

From Universal Hub:Man’s remains discovered by Hatch Shell

Tropical-storm watch issued for Boston area

31 BC – Final War of the Roman Republic: Battle of Actium – off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

1666 – The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St Paul’s Cathedral.  More anniversaries.

Students stranded by off-campus housing
By Natalie Sherman/Boston Herald – August 30, 2010

For Boston, a city with a rental rate about twice the national average, the harried mess of the massive Sept. 1 college lease turnover is practically an annual tradition.

But students say the tight Sept. 1 deadline creates more problems than just overflowing Dumpsters and double-parked cars – it can also leave them stranded.

At Berklee College of Music, where more than three-quarters of students live off-campus, classes don’t begin until Sept. 7, but orientation and peer advising programs started yesterday.

“People that have to be back . . . don’t have any place to stay,” said Bryant Fuhrmann, 21, who is in his final semester there.

Students playing fall sports must also return to campus early, said Jennifer Charness, a Simmons College junior. Charness said the school provided athletes with housing only until Aug. 29, leaving one friend of hers with nowhere to go.

Base camp
By Ira Kantor/Boston Herald – August 30, 2010

One brave Dana-Farber patient got to chase his home run dreams yesterday by retracing the cleat-steps of his favorite Red Sox players at Fenway Park during Jimmy Fund Fantasy Day.

“Batting and running the bases, I felt like Kevin Youkilis,” said RJ Agostinelli of West Roxbury. “I’m the biggest fan in all of mankind.”

RJ, who turns 13 on Sept. 12, has been battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia since July 2008.

“He was smiling ear to ear, which was good to see him doing,” added RJ’s father Ron Agostinelli. “It was quite an event.”

DEATH INVESTIGATION IN THE AREA OF 270 HUNTINGTON AVENUE
Posted by BPD MediaRelations on August 29, 2010

At about 8:43pm, on Friday, August 27, 2010, officers from Area D-4 (South End) responded to a radio call for an unconscious male inside 270 Huntington Ave. On arrival, officers observed and located a 51 year-old male suffering from what appeared to be a head injury. The victim was transported to the Brigham & Women’s Hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced.
The Boston Police Homicide Unit is actively investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident. Anyone with information is strongly urged to contact the Homicide Unit at (617) 343-4470.
Community members wanting to assist the investigation anonymously can either call the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1(800)494-TIPS or text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463). The Boston Police Department is only interested in what you know, not who you are.
[hat tip to Universal Hub - ed]

Fire at BU blocks Commonwealth Avenue
New England in brief – August 30, 2010

Fire officials briefly closed down traffic on Commonwealth Avenue yesterday evening, as they responded to an electrical fire at the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences at approximately 6 p.m. Deputy Fire Chief John Hasson said a panel in the basement of the building ignited fire because of heat conditions. Students and faculty were evacuated from the building and the surrounding area, and the small fire was quickly contained, Hason said. There were no injuries.

From Universal Hub:  What you can do with a tiny plot of land

1967 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  More anniversaries.

What works? – A new study is weighing the success of surgical bypass and banding against intensive lifestyle changes to fight type 2 diabetes and obesity
By Karen Weintraub – Globe Correspondent / August 23, 2010

Colleen Williams is thrilled with the results of her weight loss surgery. Since April, she’s lost 25 pounds and is back in a size 10 for the first time since . . . well, at least since the birth of her daughter 22 years ago. And she just feels better about herself.

ulie Bernard is equally pleased with the diet and exercise program she started around the same time. Like Williams, Bernard was worried that her extra pounds plus diabetes would doom her to ill-health as she ages.

“I went into the program hoping to feel better,’’ said Bernard, 49, of Duxbury, who has lost 16 pounds so far.

Both women are participating in a pilot study by the Joslin Diabetes Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital designed to help patients with diabetes improve their health while reducing medications. Roughly half the 100 people in the SLIMMT2D study will get surgery — either gastric bypass like Williams, or a stomach banding procedure — and half will start with the 12-week “Why WAIT?’’ program at Joslin that was created in 2005 to treat obese patients with diabetes, and which Bernard completed at the end of June.

Hub enrolls coeds in bid to squash bedbugs
By Christine McConville – August 25, 2010

City officials bracing for the annual swarm of college kids are trying to get six legs up on wiping out their potential roommates: bloodsucking bedbugs.

Warning stickers and spray paint failed in years past to discourage migrating coeds from Dumpster diving for furniture and unwittingly spreading the blood-sucking parasites. So city Inspectional Service crews are now on a search-and-destroy mission for couches, beds and other comforts of home left curbside.

As returning and newcomer college students flock to city apartments in the coming weeks, Inspectional Services Department spokeswoman Lisa Timberlake said crews also will be out in force distributing educational pamphlets on pesky bedbugs and how to stop them in their tracks.

‘Abortion’ Googled more in conservative areas
By Renee Nadeau Algarin/Boston Herald – August 25, 2010

A study by two Children’s Hospital doctors has found that Google searches on “abortion” rise in areas with more conservative abortion policies or where the procedure is less available.

Dr. Ben Reis and Dr. John Brownstein of Children’s Hospital Boston Infomatics Program reviewed the abortion rates and policies in 50 states and 37 countries and compared the information against the number of Internet searches for the word “abortion.”

They found more searches in states and countries with more restrictive policies or less access to abortion and lower abortion rates.

‘Proof’ adds up to strong showing by Independent Drama Society
By Jenna Scherer / Boston Herald Theater Review – August 25, 2010

Never doubt the allure of a half-crazed, half-genius mathematician. We are just across the river from MIT, after all. It is, at least superficially, the appeal of David Auburn’s “Proof,” a play about theorems, family and madness that all plays out on one very tortured Chicago front porch.

But in this Tony- and Pulitzer-winning play, machinations both narrative and numerical are beside the point. What it is first and foremost is a character study of its protagonist, Catherine. It’s one of the great female parts of the last decade, one previously filled by the likes of Mary-Louise Parker, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gwyneth Paltrow.

In the Independent Drama Society’s production at the Factory Theatre it’s filled by Kate Daly, a Framingham State student and newcomer to the Boston theater scene. Lucky for us, she’s giving one of the best performances you’ll see on a local stage this year.

[The Factory Theatre is at 791 Tremont Street. - ed]

Cross between a blackout and a brownout in parts of Mission Hill, Fenway, Roxbury last night
By adamg/Universal Hub – 8/25/10 – 7:43 am

OK, this was pretty special
By adamg/Universal Hub – 8/24/10 – 2:05 pm

1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.  More anniversaries.

Fenway’s other athletes – For hawkers, a summer job that is no walk in the ballpark
By Andrew Ryan – Globe Staff / August 17, 2010

Any baseball fanatic dreaming about a lazy summer selling peanuts and popcorn at Fenway Park should know this: Lazy won’t schlep that case of bottled water up and back to the nosebleed seats at the top of the bleachers.

Lazy won’t keep your hair from being singed when you hold that portable hot dog oven over your head.

Lazy certainly won’t cut it on “Hot-dog Christmas,’’ that hallowed 11:05 a.m. game on Patriots Day, when crowds arrive ravenous for lunch and hollering for a taste of summer.

And lazy didn’t earn Fenway hawkers such a vaunted reputation in the industry that a team from Boston recently traveled to Toronto to tutor their Canadian counterparts.

“These guys are probably — and we could get some nonsense for this — some of the best hawkers in the country,’’ said Rich Roper, regional vice president of Fenway’s food provider, Aramark. “I can honestly say that, by the numbers.’’

Markoff scrawled messages in blood – Craigslist suspect wrote ex-fiancee’s name as he took his life
By Maria Cramer and Shelley Murphy – Globe Staff / August 17, 2010

In a macabre twist in the already bizarre tale of Philip Markoff, the accused Craigslist killer scrawled in blood the name Megan, that of his onetime fiancee, and the word pocket on his jail cell wall before dying, four law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case said.

Megan McAllister had broken off the couple’s engagement shortly after Markoff was arrested. There were photos of her placed around the cell, according to one of the officials.

The meaning of the word pocket smeared nearby confounded investigators, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the news media.

The chilling image emerged as authorities disclosed other circumstances of Markoff’s apparent suicide, which came a day after what would have been his one-year wedding anniversary. EMTs arriving at the scene said they found wounds on his neck and ankles, according to Boston Emergency Medical Services officials. Other officials have said Markoff was found alone in his cell with a plastic bag tied over his head and a severed artery.

One of the officials said yesterday that Markoff apparently used a piece of a razor to pierce his carotid artery. Attempts to reach McAllister or the lawyer who represented her last year were not successful.

See also:  Victims ‘cheated’ by Philip Markoff’s death

Pub tiff allegedly resulted in death – DA says beer glass wound was fatal
By Brian R. Ballou and Alex Katz – Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent / August 17, 2010

Mike DiMaria drove to Boston from New York last Friday to meet up with old friends from college, as he often did. Later in the evening, the group went to a popular bar in the shadow of Fenway Park, where they sat at a table and passed the night chatting and laughing.

But at nine minutes after midnight, the get-together took a tragic and bizarre turn. Authorities say Hector Guardiola of South Boston, angry after a brief run-in with one member of the group, hurled a beer mug toward the table, hitting a partition. The impact shattered the glass container, sending shards flying through the air inside the well-lit Lansdowne Pub at 9 Lansdowne St.

One piece struck DiMaria, 23, who worked for a compliance firm on Wall Street, perforating his jugular vein, according to authorities. DiMaria, bleeding profusely, was rushed to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he died less than 30 minutes later. Two of his friends, Danielle O’Brien, a 23-year-old teacher in the New York City public schools system, and Andy Britto, 22, who is studying dentistry in Connecticut, sustained cuts.

O’Brien needed six stitches to close a wound on her shoulder, and Britto was hit in the head so hard by a projectile that he sustained a possible concussion and needed medical staples to close the cut, authorities said.

Magazine ranks Harvard top US college, nods to 8 other schools in Mass.
By Sean Teehan – Globe Correspondent / August 17, 2010

US News and World Report has again ranked Harvard as the best national university, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

The top ranking for 2011, which is to be announced today, returned Harvard to the spot at the top, which it shared last year with Princeton. Harvard took the coveted top position the previous two years.

The US News and World Report annual best colleges list ranks 262 national universities, 266 liberal arts colleges, and 179 northern regional universities. Altogether, 1,477 schools were ranked.

The judgments are based on factors including class size and alumni satisfaction.

Williams College in Williamstown was ranked the best liberal arts college for the second consecutive year. Westfield State University, ranked for the first time this year, was slotted as the best tier-3 university in the Northeast.

Other Massachusetts colleges and universities also received noteworthy positions on the 2011 list. Massachusetts Institute of Technology was number seven in the national universities category. Five other Massachusetts schools (Tufts University, 28; Boston College, 31; Boston University, 56; Northeastern University, 69; and University of Massachusetts Amherst, 99) placed in the top 100 in the category.

Hospitals spent to keep talent – Documents show executives received hefty 2008 payouts
By Robert Weisman – Globe Staff / August 17, 2010

Seven-figure pay packages for several top Boston hospital executives were propped up in 2008 by retention payments, according to a batch of documents filed with regulators yesterday. The hospitals said the lucrative payments were intended to keep academic medical talent in Massachusetts at a time when leading hospitals across the nation were recruiting heavily.

The filings with the state attorney general’s office — the first requiring reporting of compensation by calendar year — showed the highest-paid was Elaine S. Ullian, then Boston Medical Center’s chief executive.

Ullian, who has since retired, earned nearly $4.8 million, including $3.5 million in deferred compensation granted to get her to stay at the Boston University-affiliated hospital.

Retention payouts also figured in the pay packages reported at Partners HealthCare Systems Inc., the state’s largest health care system, and its two founding hospitals in Boston.

Health centers a dose of relief for ailing system
By Christine McConville / The Pulse – August 17, 2010

At 84, Sarah Favuzze has seen her share of hospital rooms and doctors offices, but for a routine checkup, she still heads to the North End Community Health Center.

Situated just a few short blocks from Favuzze’s longtime home, the Hanover Street nonprofit has weathered some seismic shifts in the neighborhood.

The red-brick tenements that once housed multigenerational Italian families now mostly shelter single professionals, but the health center designed with neighborhood folks in mind is still bustling.

If the Obama administration has its way, it will continue to grow.

Yesterday, Dr. Howard Koh, assistant secretary of health for Health and Human Services,dropped by the North End center to detail the government’s plans to help community centers treat 40 million people nationwide by 2015 – more than double what they’re seeing now.

Gov. Deval Patrick: Ethics rules in T chief’s favor
By Jessica Van Sack/Boston Herald – August 17, 2010
Gov. Deval Patrick acknowledged yesterday that the MBTA has a lot riding on the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to halt the proposed Fenway Center – a case that features the wife of the T’s general manager as lead counsel for the plaintiffs.

“We want to win the lawsuit,” Patrick told the Herald, contradicting administration aides who insisted last week that the state’s connection to the suit was tangential. “That’s the first order of business.”

MBTA General Manager Richard Davey disclosed his wife’s key role in the lawsuit on July 29, four months after he was appointed.

Davey’s wife, Jane Willis, a partner at law firm Ropes & Gray, represents HRPT Medical Buildings Realty, a neighbor of Yawkey station – which is set to be renovated as part of the $500 million Fenway Center residential and retail development. The suit was filed in March 2009 against the Boston Zoning Board and takes issue with the board’s approval of the project.

Bad map affects parks, foundation
By John Ruch/Jamaica Plain Gazette – August 16, 2010 – Web Exclusive

A deliberately incorrect map of Jamaica Plain and other neighborhoods produced and distributed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) has skewed major reports from the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and The Boston Foundation (TBF), the Gazette has discovered.

The Parks Department and TBF both told the Gazette that they were unaware that the BRA gave them an incorrect map. TBF is “shocked and appalled” by the situation, said spokesperson David Trueblood.

The incorrect map means that the Parks Department’s inventory of parks—and the way that inventory sets the department’s parks policy agendas for the neighborhoods—is significantly inaccurate. In one example, the inventory describes McLaughlin Playground at the peak of Mission Hill’s Parker Hill as being in JP.

Even more significant is the use of the incorrect map by TBF, a non-profit organization that is perhaps the city’s most influential think tank and source of funding. The incorrect map skews TBF’s data analysis in such major projects as its Boston Indicators Report.

1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.  More anniversaries.