Plenty of spark in nearby parks – City and state sites are booming in popularity
By Meghan E. Irons – Globe Staff / August 16, 2010

Hyde Park’s Ross Playground has always hosted a fairly steady traffic of joggers and dog walkers on summer evenings, but this year they have a lot of company. Crowds have come to play, bike, swing, and lounge. Most nights and weekends, the baseball diamonds are full, as are the basketball courts and the soccer fields.

“There is definitely a lot more activity here,’’ said Dana Bennett, 39, a carpenter from Mattapan who plays softball there with coworkers.

And, mystifying most everyone, the same increase in activity is happening at parks across Boston and the state.

Boston officials say that park usage — as measured by vendor sales, permits for organized activities, and the amount of garbage left behind — seems to be spiking this summer, with estimated increases of 10 percent at some parks up to 25 percent at others.

Department of Conservation and Recreation officials say statewide numbers show a jump of about 25 percent. And noticeably bigger crowds are in city parks from Cambridge to Worcester, where officials had to order additional trash pick up on weekends and ask lawn crews to add garbage collection to their mowing duties.

Mass. hospitals say funding squeeze will destabilize system
By Michael Norton / State House News Service – August 15, 2010

Massachusetts hospitals say they are facing slashed payments on multiple fronts, cuts that executives predict will destabilize the health care delivery system.

The state plans this fiscal year to cut reimbursements by $75 million in its main contract between hospitals and MassHealth, according to the Massachusetts Hospital Association, which cited “discussions” with the state in outlining the proposed cut to its members over the weekend.

The association said pay-for-performance programs would continue in 2011 but that instead of additional funding being paid to hospitals, MassHealth would withhold 2 percent of all hospital inpatient and outpatient payments and hospitals would then need to earn the payments back. Executives say the approach likely means 2011 rates “would likely be paid sometime in September 2012.”

Also, a new federal Medicare rule has cut payments to hospitals by $3.7 billion nationwide, with a $94 million reduction for Bay State hospitals this fiscal year, according to the association.

Stuart Street Playhouse is marquee destination for art-house cinema fans
By Brett Michel/Boston Herald – August 15, 2010

The Stuart Street Playhouse, the only art-house cinema in Boston proper, is nestled away on the corner of Charles and Stuart streets in the Theater District. It’s one of Boston’s newer – and simultaneously older – moviegoing destinations.

The site had been dormant since 1996, when the former Cinema 57 went dark after final showings of “The Great White Hype” and “Original Gangstas.”

It wasn’t always this way.

When Ben Sack originally opened the twin-screen Sack Cinema 57 in 1971, it featured some of the era’s biggest hits. Such films as “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Exorcist” had their local premieres here, as seen in the gallery of photos adorning the lobby of the renovated Stuart Street Playhouse, as it’s now known. The pictures showcase the movie-theater marquees of a thriving, bygone era in a city that once offered film lovers more than a dozen theater options – from the Astor to the Beacon Hill, the Saxon to the Cheri, the Savoy to the Music Hall.

1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.  More anniversaries.

Back Bay development downsized
By Thomas Grillo / Boston Herald – July 29, 2010

A plan to extend Newbury Street’s toney shopping district to Massachusetts Avenue has been downsized in response to a lawsuit from neighbors.

Kensington Investment Co., owners of Grand Circle Travel, have reduced the scale of the project at 93 Massachusetts Ave. Under the revised plan filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority today, the developer will renovate the existing four-story brick retail building and construct a four-story addition at the rear on Newbury Street. The previous plan called for improvements to the older building and a five-story addition.

In 2008, the BRA and the Zoning Board of Appeals approved the original plan. But abutters, including the Eliot Hotel and the Harvard Club of Boston, filed suit against the ZBA in Suffolk Superior Court. They argued that the new retail development would exacerbate traffic in a congested part of the city, increase shadows, eliminate views of Newbury Street and diminish property values.

The new plans do not require ZBA approval because they comply with zoning rules. Under the revision, the total square feet of the retail development will be reduced to 30,000 square feet from nearly 49,000 square feet.

See also:  Kensington scales back Mass Ave project

Landmark decision – Not all notable Boston buildings should be preserved
By Paul McMorrow – July 30, 2010

THE BOSTON Landmarks Commission will soon grant landmarks status to the Christian Science Center. That outcome is all but assured. What follows looks far less certain, and in that uncertainty, lurks trouble.

This current round of landmarking is a relatively quiet affair. The Christian Science Center complex is a beloved public gathering space. Architects admire the space for its detailing and for the way its geometry harmonizes with the historic neighborhoods around it.

Not all projects of the 1960s were designed as well, though. Several of the concrete-heavy modernist structures in Boston’s urban core choke off street-level vitality, sever neighborhood connections, and impede rational patterns of real estate development. They’re not just ugly; they’re also anti-urban.
[snip]

“The worst thing would be for us to learn the wrong lessons from landmarking the Christian Science Center,’’ said George Thrush, director of Northeastern University’s school of architecture. “I do not think we’re saying all Paul Rudolph buildings, all I.M. Pei buildings, all steel-reinforced concrete buildings built in the 1960s, deserve to be preserved as a keeper of the flame of that era. Are we going to make permanent the errors we made in the ’60s?’’

Deaf, blind promised a better film experience – Theater chains add captions, narration
By David Abel – Globe Staff / July 30, 2010

Josh Pearson, who has been blind since shortly after he was born, has always loved going to the movies.

The 18-year-old from Barre appreciates the sound and how the play of light sparks his imagination. He usually goes to movies with sighted friends, who whisper plot details in his ear, but that has its cons.

“There have been too many times where people say at the end of the movie that I ruined it for them,’’ he says. “It can be an unpleasant experience.’’

Now, however, Pearson and thousands of other blind and deaf residents of Massachusetts will have more opportunity to experience movies independently, in a way closer to that enjoyed by those without disabilities.

After more than six months of negotiating with national movie theater companies, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced yesterday that three of the state’s largest chains agreed to increase the number of theaters equipped with devices that help the deaf and the blind enjoy movies.

In a settlement to avoid a lawsuit, Regal Entertainment Group, National Amusements, and American Multi-Cinema, or AMC, promised that over the next three months they will increase the number of accessible theaters to 34 across the state and that the number of auditoriums featuring films in those theaters would increase from 14 to 63, ensuring that 15 percent of all auditoriums in the state will have equipment that projects text, including captions, onscreen for the deaf and provides narration for the blind.

In Boston, the AMC Loews theater off Boston Common and the Regal theater in the Fenway will have three accessible auditoriums each. In Cambridge, the AMC theater in Harvard Square will have two, while the AMC theater in Chestnut Hill will have one. Theaters in Dedham, Revere, and Swansea will have one accessible auditorium.

YMCA to train staff on nursing – Raising awareness on breast-feeding
By Kathy McCabe – Globe Staff / July 30, 2010

The Greater Boston YMCA will train its 1,500 employees in Eastern Massachusetts on a state law protecting mothers’ right to breast-feed in public, after an employee at its Woburn facility told a mother to stop breast-feeding her baby because doing so violated the Y’s policy against eating food in a child care facility.

Elizabeth Gomez, a mother of three from Medford, said she was told by a Y employee to leave the baby-sitting area of the North Suburban YMCA after starting to breast-feed her 3-month-old son earlier this week.

“She said there is no eating or drinking within the [baby-sitting] area,’’ Gomez, 36, said in an interview yesterday. “She told me I had to go out into the hallway. . . . I said, ‘I have a lawful right to be here.’ ’’

A YMCA spokeswoman said the part-time employee, who was not identified, has been disciplined.

“The employee misinterpreted this as a public health issue,’’ said Kelley Rice, vice president of external affairs of the Greater Boston YMCA. “It is not. . . . We support a woman’s right to breast-feed in our facilities.’’

A state law protects mothers who breast-feed in public. It states that a mother “may breast-feed her child in any public place which is open to . . . the general public’’ and where the mother and child are lawfully present.

Focus on the family – Nicholas Nixon’s photos of his wife, their children, and her sisters offer a rare sense of intimacy at the MFA
By Mark Feeney – Globe Staff / July 30, 2010

Nicholas Nixon first came to public prominence 35 years ago. He was one of 10 photographers in what would come to be seen as a landmark exhibition. “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape’’ looked at the interaction of settlement and environment. It was nature photography that encompassed both the man-made and natural.

The Boston cityscapes that Nixon had in that show seem very far, except geographically, from the 75 black-and-white images in “Nicholas Nixon: Family Album,’’ which runs through next May 1 at the Museum of Fine Arts. It’s a long overdue MFA recognition for Nixon, who has taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design since 1975. The temptation to hail him as a local hero is great, except that Nixon stopped being local in reputation almost as soon as he moved here, in 1974. He had his first Museum of Modern Art show in 1976. He’s had subsequent solo exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, MoMA again, and numerous other museums.

Yet if “New Topographics’’ has nothing in common visually with the MFA show, which consists of photographs of Nixon’s wife, their children, and her sisters, they share a fundamental thematic bond. Lives lived together and how they shape the emotional setting where they’re lived are at the heart of “Family Album.’’ Those issues no less apply to the much larger family album his work comprises: projects he has done over the years about people on their stoops, AIDS patients, the elderly, schoolchildren. Is it ungrateful to complain that this fine show couldn’t be larger, a career retrospective, and encompass them, too?

From Universal Hub:  Legislature agrees to let city rent out two old buildings on Common, in Fens for restaurants

762 – Baghdad is founded by caliph Al-Mansur.  More anniversaries.

Parking bargain lures efficient vehicles – Scooters get 25-cent slots in the Back Bay
By Peter DeMarco – Globe Correspondent / July 29, 2010

Newbury Street, of all places, now offers the best parking deal in town, 25 cents an hour. But there is a catch: You have to ride a scooter or motorcycle to fit in the parking space.

In response to last year’s scooter parking debate, the Boston Transportation Department has taken six parking spaces on Newbury and Boylston streets and divided them into the city’s first metered bike slots. By 3 p.m. today, some 39 slots will be available to bikes in front of the Apple store, Starbucks, and other hot spots, each with meters that either a scooter or motorcycle can be chained to for safety.

Cars pay 25 cents for just 15 minutes to park. In addition to being cheaper, bike meters will not have time limits, meaning that bike-riding commuters can arrive at 8 a.m., feed the meter, and stay all day.

By creating the bike slots, city officials, including Mayor Thomas M. Menino are signaling a commitment to ecofriendly transportation, with many scooters getting 100 miles to a gallon. Parking signs for the slots are appropriately green, and if the slots are well used, more may pop up in other Boston neighborhoods next year.

At House of Blues, Robyn soars and Kelis bores
By James Reed – Globe Staff / July 29, 2010

Robyn has come this close to becoming a mainstream pop star in this country — twice, even. The Swedish singer-songwriter had two Top 10 hits in the mid-’90s — “Show Me Love,’’ “Do You Know (What It Takes)’’ — and for her second act, she resurfaced in 2005 as an electro-pop diva with a hardened outlook on love and a whole new fan base.

At the House of Blues Tuesday night, it was clear that Robyn doesn’t need to top the charts ever again. She seems fully formed — a dance-pop dynamo who wears her heart on her sleeve — and she’s more than content with a devout following that nearly sold out the venue and kept her dance party bobbing till the last encore.

Playing songs from her new album, “Body Talk Pt. 1,’’ Robyn walked a fine line between heartache and defiance. “I’m in the corner/ Watching you kiss her/ I’m right over here/ Why can’t you see me?’’ she sang on “Dancing on My Own.’’

That was a fleeting moment of self-doubt, though; Robyn was more interested in survival on songs such as “Cobrastyle’’ and “Dancehall Queen.’’ As her two drummers and two keyboardists cued the beats, she rolled with the jittery bounce of “Konichiwa [Expletive],’’ boasting, “You wanna rumble in my jungle/ I’ll take you on.’’

Students to ‘pop up’ clothing shop on Newbury Street
By Donna Goodison/Boston Herald – July 29, 2010

A temporary boutique showcasing underground Boston clothing brands will pop up on Newbury Street for an eight-week run.

The Concrete Jungle Boston “pop-up” store opens tomorrow, featuring “brands that embody the creative spirit of the city.”

The 297 Newbury St. store originated with Matthew Osofisan and Michael Toney of Annie Mulz Ltd., the metropolitan casual wear brand that they started last year.

The Northeastern University students secured $10,000 in venture funds as winners of the Inter-Disciplinary Entrepreneurship Accelerator’s inaugural Gap Funding Event at the school in April. Designed to drive sales and create excitement about Annie Mulz, the pop-up store was a key part of their winning business plan pitch, according to Osofisan.

Profits fall for Shaw’s parent company
By Donna Goodison/Boston Herald – July 29, 2010

The 18-week strike at Shaw’s Supermarkets’ Methuen warehouse cut into the bottom line of parent company SuperValu Inc.

The Minneapolis grocery giant’s latest earnings report showed the Shaw’s labor strife was a key contributor to sharp drops in quarterly sales and profit. SuperValu also cut its full-year profit forecast.

Local 791 of the United Food and Commercial Workers picketed Shaw’s stores while on strike from March 7 to July 8, when they agreed to a new, four-year contract with the West Bridgewater-based chain.

Roxbury film fest opens with ‘Speed Dating’
By Brett Michel/Boston Herald – July 29, 201

Celebrating its 12th year, the Roxbury International Film Festival kicks off tonight and continues through Sunday, offering four days of movies, networking and community-based programming for families and filmmaking enthusiasts.

New England’s largest film festival celebrating persons of color takes place at several venues in and around the Roxbury community, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall, Annex Auditorium at Wentworth College and the Haley House Bakery Cafe.

This year’s schedule of more than 50 films – including features, shorts, documentaries and youth-produced works – is expected to draw more than 4,000 people to see work from around the globe (hence the addition of “international” to the name).

MIT-made fabric can hear, make sounds
By Sarah Wright/Boston Herald – July 29, 2010

Shhhh! Your bikini might hear you. And someday, your beach towel may talk.

Thanks to remarkable acoustic fibers created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists, the fabrics of the future may be able to detect and produce sound.

The fibers could be made into fabrics that monitor bodily functions, with tiny filaments picking up sounds that indicate changes in blood flow or pressure on the brain. (The fibers can already convert sounds into electrical signals and transmit those to a computer.) One day, clothing could be a weave of listening, speaking threads.

MIT professor Yoel Fink and his research team announced the milestone earlier this month. His lab has devoted the past 10 years to creating fibers that can interact with their environment somewhat as human senses do.

New England in Brief – July 29, 2010
2 hit by car, injured near Remy’s tavern
Two pedestrians were struck by a vehicle outside Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar and Grill on Boylston Street last night, police said. Officer David Estrada, a Boston police spokesman, said officers responded to 1265 Boylston St. at about 9:45 p.m., and two people, whose ages and genders were not available, were taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

From Universal Hub:  Power problems on Mission Hill and in Fenway

1958 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  More anniversaries.

A family is haunted by son’s illness and crime
By James Alan Fox – Globe Correspondent / July 25, 2010

In a rare interview since their son John was convicted of murdering James Alenson, 15, his Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School classmate, Paul and Dorothy Odgren met recently with Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox. A frequent commentator on criminal justice issues who also blogs for Boston.com, Fox disagreed with the life sentence for Odgren, and had expressed sympathy for the way Odgren had been bullied in school.

The Odgrens accepted Fox’s interview request, and talked with him about their son’s mental illness, the warning signs they wish they had seen, their visits with him in prison, and their surprise at the outpouring of support they have received. Fox provided the Globe this account of his meetings this summer with the couple.

Catching the upbeat to a new movement
By Jeremy Eichler – Globe Staff / July 25, 2010

I have never seen Symphony Hall erupt the way it did that night in 2007, with Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra onstage. It was not the precision and polish of the group’s Bartok or Beethoven that set off the crowd, but the sheer expressive potency and exuberant physicality of the performance. My guess is that the music meant more to those in the audience that night because, at its core, it meant more to these players, some of whom had risen up beyond violent streets and poverty. Taking their final bows, musicians lofted their violins, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, and flutes high above their heads, as if to simply say, “Here they are: the instruments that saved us.’’

After witnessing scenes like this, it’s easy to see why El Sistema, the famed Venezuelan music program that reaches some of the country’s poorest children while producing world-class youth orchestras like the Simon Bolivar, has been capturing the imagination of performers, educators, and audience members far and wide. Last month, the inaugural class of 10 musicians and teachers known as Abreu fellows graduated from a program at New England Conservatory sponsored by El Sistema USA — the first such training program in the country — and fanned out across the United States to begin spreading the Venezuelan approach in community music programs.

That music educators and classi cal music advocates are looking elsewhere for inspiration may come as little surprise. In many US cities, orchestras are watching their sense of broader cultural relevance diminish, classical music is vanishing from television and the airwaves, and its audiences are shrinking and graying. For their part, music educators often feel embattled, watching funds being sliced from public budgets, as arts education is viewed as fat we can afford to trim.

Roxbury film fest expands reach – This year’s event brings milestones and 50-plus films
By Loren King – Globe Correspondent / July 25, 2010

Instead of bemoaning the under-representation of people of color both onscreen and behind the camera, the Roxbury Film Festival 12 years ago took matters into its own hands and established an event where such visibility is not a novelty but the norm. The festival has grown steadily. In 1999, when it was called the Dudley Film Festival, it showcased 14 films; this year’s event boasts more than 50. It continues to expand in scope and ambition as it balances community outreach with an increasing global vision.

This year’s event runs for four days beginning Thursday, with a lineup that includes dramas, documentaries, comedies, shorts, and youth-produced works, screened at various venues in Boston. The festival also serves as a forum for sharing information about creativity and craft, including events such as this year’s Conversation With Peter Allen, co-writer of the crime thriller “Takers,’’ set for theatrical release in late August. Allen will discuss the business of screenwriting and the process of getting a film produced Saturday morning at the Wentworth Institute of Technology Auditorium.

This year also marks a milestone for the festival, which recently officially became the Roxbury International Film Festival. “We’ve been international for some time now, but the name change is very important as we expand on a global front,’’ says Lisa Simmons, co-producer of the RIFF. “Now we have an even greater visibility. We’ve focused on creating a festival that celebrates people of color and we’ve kept to that theme. We’re now the largest festival of its kind in New England.’’

1788 – Wolfgang Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K550).  More anniversaries.

‘You’re part of something bigger’ – Inspired by a Venezuelan music program, two prepare to bring its benefits to Boston kids

By Jeremy Eichler – Globe Staff / July 18, 2010

Last year, somewhere in the mountains of Peru, pigs wandered outside an Internet cafe as Rebecca Levi sat at a terminal with an antiquated headset, listening to the speech that first prompted her to redirect her life.

David Malek was working at a community center in Los Angeles in 2007 when he stumbled onto a YouTube video of Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra performing a sizzling, incredibly joyful rendition of Bernstein’s “Mambo’’ — musicians dancing in their seats, twirling instruments in the air — at the Proms in London. It was both thrilling and perplexing, he recalled.

“I had never seen an orchestra — let alone a youth orchestra — do anything like that,’’ he said. “And I thought to myself, ‘What the hell is happening in Venezuela?’ ’’

What was happening was, in short, El Sistema, the legendary music education program founded in 1975 by economist and musician José Antonio Abreu, which uses musical immersion to buoy the lives of hundreds of thousands of poor Venezuelan children. The most advanced students in the country play in the orchestra Malek saw on YouTube. And what Levi heard was a speech in which Abreu, accepting a major prize, called for art to be put “at the service of the weakest, at the service of the children.’’

Moved by what they had seen and heard, Malek and Levi sought out a new organization called El Sistema USA, based at New England Conservatory and dedicated to importing the principles of the Venezuelan program to this country. Last month, they graduated from the group’s one-year Abreu fellowship alongside eight others in the inaugural class.

T still pursuing ways to stop illegal parking at bus stops
By Eric Moskowitz – Globe Staff / July 18, 2010

Three weeks have passed since I wrote about the mixed success of the campaign to keep people from parking at bus stops, and the comments keep coming in. Some readers sent photos of offenders, including one that showed an SUV stamped MAYOR’S OFFICE occupying a bus stop on Brookline Avenue near Fenway Park.

The state last year enacted a law and mounted a public relations campaign to discourage motorists from parking at bus stops, calling it a civil rights issue because many riders with wheelchairs, strollers, or sight impairments can board safely only when a bus is able to pull flush with the curb. The law replaced a sporadically enforced ticketing system and fines that varied from town to town with a new statewide fine, set at $100.

MBTA police have increased their ticket-writing fivefold, but the department’s limited resources mean the effectiveness of the law is contingent on awareness by drivers and cooperation from municipal police and parking departments in the 47 communities with T bus service, and in other parts of the state served by regional transit authorities.

Readers wrote in citing a variety of continued problem areas, including Boylston Street by the Prudential, where Linda P. says the “most egregious violators’’ are cabdrivers who spill over from a taxi stand at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.
Linda, who uses a cane, said cabdrivers have laughed, or worse, at her requests that they move. She said she has seen Boston Transportation Department officers ask them to leave but not ticket them, emboldening drivers to return later.

Duxbury boy takes mound after cancer curveball
By Natalie Sherman/Boston Herald – July 18, 2010

When William Leonard threw out the opening pitch at Fenway Park last night, he was pitching more than a baseball. He was striking out a year of cancer.

Last October, on a Tuesday morning, the Duxbury 12-year-old made his first visit to Children’s Hospital Boston. The diagnosis was grim: Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the immune system all over the body. A tumor just a little bigger than a baseball was growing around his heart and pressing against his lungs.

“All I knew was that it was a tumor and it was really bad,” Leonard said.

Doctors extracted bone marrow and a lymph node. He began weekly chemotherapy treatments and spent New Year’s Eve in the hospital with his parents and his twin sister, Annie. He woke up the next morning without a spleen.

Leonard’s community rallied around. His older brother’s hockey team created green “Will Power” stickers and “love strong” bracelets. A Web site his family created to chronicle his illness got thousands of hits, some from as far away as Turkey.

While he was still recovering, Leonard learned that his doctors had submitted his name to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Universal Hub links to the official trailer for The Town, which disrupted the West Fenway for more than a week last year during filming around Fenway Park.

1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.  More anniversaries.

Circus dropped over treatment of animals
By L. Finch – Globe Correspondent / July 14, 2010

Northeastern University will no longer invite the UniverSoul Circus to perform on campus, breaking with a two-year tradition amid questions about the organization’s treatment of animals, college representatives said.

The university made the decision after receiving several complaints, including a letter from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, about the welfare of the circus’ animals, said Renata Nyul, a spokeswoman for Northeastern.

“We researched the issue and we were not happy with what we found,’’ Nyul said. “So we made the decision to not host the circus.’’

The Atlanta-based circus concluded a 13-day performance on Northeastern’s campus Saturday. The circus had last performed at the university in 2008.

PETA contacted Northeastern after it had received phone calls from local residents who had seen the circus set up in one of the university’s parking lots, said Lisa Wathne, a spokeswoman for PETA. Residents could see UniverSoul’s tigers in their travel cages and feared for the animals’ well-being in the heat, she said.

UniverSoul executive vice president Jackie Davis said she wasn’t aware of Northeastern’s decision. The circus passed all animal regulatory inspections while in Boston, she said.

BU scientist wins Microsoft research fellowship
Globe Staff – July 14, 2010

Boston University said that one of its faculty members who specializes in algorithms and data mining has been awarded a Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship grant.

Evimaria Terzi, an assistant professor of computer science in BU’s College of Arts & Sciences, is one of seven young researchers from around the world will share in a total grant distribution of $1.4 million, BU said.

Boston crime: ‘It’s a war zone’ – Tourist areas see big spike
By Richard Weir, Marie Szaniszlo, Joe Dwinell and Edward Mason/Boston Herald – July 14, 2010

Tourist hot spots such as Newbury Street, the North End and the Navy Yard, home of Old Ironsides, which attract out-of-towners by the droves, also are drawing vicious thieves and mayhem-minded thugs in a crime wave that has alarmed merchants and visitors fearing for their safety.

“It’s a war zone. There’s a battle here every day,” said Karl Volker, 54, owner of Super Socks in Downtown Crossing, who blames roving bands of teens for the nearly 20 percent spike in larcenies in the area.

“The little monsters ruin your day every day. It creates a bad culture and there’s no consequences for these kids who travel in packs,” Volker said.

[snip]
As the tourist season hits its peak, a Herald review found:
31 reports of violent crime, including aggravated assault, in the Newbury Street shopping district, up from 19 over the same period last year; and 19 robberies, up from 11 in the first half of 2009;

City says Newbury St. DeLuca’s sold food salvaged after fire – From hard luck to yuck
By Donna Goodison / Boston Herald – July 14, 2010

Four days after a four-alarm blaze ravaged the 105-year-old DeLuca’s Market on Charles Street, the Boston grocer was having a “fire sale” of sorts seven blocks away – at least until a tipster dropped a dime.

The city’s Division of Health Inspections shut down the DeLuca’s Market on Newbury Street on Monday for selling potentially unsafe food from the burned-out store. That food included produce, canned Del Monte green beans and 17 cases of bottled water.

The food had been embargoed by health inspectors after the fire, and the state sanitary code prohibits its resale, according to spokeswoman Lisa Timberlake.

“These products were contaminated by fire, smoke and water,” Timberlake said. “The (Charles Street) building was legally posted with an order stating that food products cannot be removed without the permission of the Division of Health Inspections. (They) are a possible danger to the public health.”

‘Town’ actors dish on Affleck
By Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein – Globe Staff / July 14, 2010

Jon Hamm of “Mad Men’’ and Rebecca Hall of “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,’’ who costar in Ben Affleck’s upcoming crime thriller, “The Town,’’ grace the cover of the August issue of W, which hits stands July 20. The issue features a steamy spread of the gorgeous actors by photographer Nathaniel Goldberg, as well as interview dish about what it was like to work with Affleck as a director in his hometown. “He’s kind of what you expect: He’s incredibly smart; he’s good fun,’’ Hall tells the magazine. “It’s got to be odd being that famous, especially in Boston, where he can’t walk a block without having to put his hood up. He is Mr. Boston.’’ Hamm adds, “I mean, the guy is a patron saint of that city. [When you’re] walking around with him, everybody of every walk of life is like, ‘Hey, Ben!’ ’’

B&E Suspect Caught Stealing from Church
Posted by [BPD] MediaRelations on July 13, 2010

Last night around 10:43PM, officers from District B-2 (Roxbury) were in the area of 1547 Tremont Street in the Mission Hill area responding to another call when they observed an individual running behind the Mission Church holding what appeared to be a white bag.

Officers’ attention alerted, they shined their flashlight on the suspect and attempted to stop him in order to further investigate. The suspect continued running despite officers’ commands to stop. Officers pursued the suspect as he continued to elude them by jumping over a wall into a barricaded construction site at 90 Smith Street.  As officers pursued the suspect, they observed him dropping a number of items and leaning over to pick up those same items. Numerous units responded to assist the units who initiated the investigation.

Those officers surrounded the fenced-in construction site and there saw the suspect drop numerous bills of US currency and continue running into the construction to elude officers.
Officers were able to locate the suspect hiding behind an electrical box and as they approached the suspect and ordered him to get down, he charged at officers at officers while wildly flailing his arms exclaiming, “[Expletive] you!”  A sustained and violent struggle ensued between officers and the suspect as officers tried to subdue him. The suspect continued to resist officers until he was finally placed in handcuffs.

Officers then searched the area where the suspect had run to avoid officers and they located numerous US currency bills and metal object in the location where the suspect had initially jumped the wall to get into the construction site. Officers continued their search and were able to find a white cloth filled with large amount of US currency and a few prayer slips inside. Based on the money found, the prayer slips, and the proximity of the incident to the Mission Church, officers decided to further investigate to find out where the suspect had gotten the money and the source of the prayer slips.

[hat tip to Universal Hub]

1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.  More anniversaries.