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.

District 4 of the Boston Police Department is looking for volunteers to help in a one-day cleanup of the Cathedral Development in the South End. “Cathedral Shines,” taking its motivation from the “Boston Shines” program in which volunteers help to “deep clean” a neighborhood in conjunction with City workers, plans for this event to take place on Saturday, July 10, from 8 a.m. to noon.

If you want to be part of this, contact Sgt. Provenzano in the D-4 Community Office at 617-343-4457, or email him at Provenzanog.bpd@cityofboston.gov. You might also contact Joei Sanchez, who is the Boston Housing Authority Manager for the Cathedral Development by sending her a note at Joei.Sanchez@BostonHousing.org. Or just show up at 42 Harrison Archways, across the street from the District 4 office, at 10 a.m. on July 10 ready to go to work.

1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.  More anniversaries.

Parents hope for clues in college student’s slaying
By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff – May 20, 2010

On the second anniversary of the death of Rebecca Payne, her parents plan to visit the Mission Hill apartment where she was killed today in hopes of raising awareness of her unsolved slaying and convincing anyone with information to contact police.

“Maybe that one person with information can help with the case,” Nicholas Payne, of Connecticut, said this morning.

Payne said police have told him that they are close to solving the case, that they have a person of interest, “but they still need some more information to close the case.”

Rebecca Payne was a 22-year-old Northeastern University student when she was found by the building manager of her Parker Hill Avenue apartment the morning of May 20, 2008, with gunshot wounds to her chest and legs.

Witnesses told police after the body was discovered that they had heard several shots earlier in the morning but never thought to call 911. Police also searched for a black van that may have fled the area around the time the gunshots were heard.

Slain student’s dad: Suspects in cops’ sights
By O’Ryan Johnson/Boston Herald – May 20, 2010

Rebecca Payne was shot several times and left to die in her Mission Hill apartment two years ago today and finally, family members say, police have made progress in tracking down her killer.

“They say they are close,” said Nicholas Payne, the father of the slain woman. “They have some persons of interest. They’re clear she was not the intended target of the murderer.”

Payne and his wife, Virginia, will return to their daughter’s apartment building today – as they did last year – to pay respects to her memory and will leaflet the neighborhood where she lived, hoping that two years after her slaying, someone may now be willing to step forward.

City Council head condemns Fire Dept. deal – Threatens to vote no if concessions are not made
By Andrew Ryan – Globe Staff / May 20, 2010

Opposition began mounting on the City Council yesterday against an arbitration award for Boston firefighters, with Council President Michael P. Ross threatening to vote against the contract unless the union makes “meaningful concessions.’’

“If they don’t, I believe we have no choice — on behalf of the residents of this city — but to reject the award,’’ Ross said in a heated speech at City Hall, describing what he called palpable “public outrage’’ over the settlement. “Seventy-four million dollars. A 19 percent increase. Paying fire-fighters to come to work sober.’’

Ross’s threat to vote to kill the deal — which the council has the power to do if a majority of its 13 members oppose it — is the most significant hint of opposition yet to the controversial award, which was granted by a labor arbitrator earlier this month.

The award would give firefighters an additional raise on the last day of the contract, June 30, in exchange for undergoing random drug and alcohol testing, a bump the city says will cost $4.3 million next year alone.

Three other councilors spoke yesterday after Ross and gave the impression that they may also vote against the award, indicating there may be enough “no’’ votes on the council to reject the deal and send the city and firefighters back to the bargaining table.

Beth Israel, Anna Jaques in deal
By Robert Weisman – Globe Staff / May 20, 2010

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has negotiated a clinical affiliation with Anna Jaques Hospital of Newburyport, a 123-bed community hospital serving 17 cities and towns in the Merrimack Valley, the Boston health care provider said yesterday.

Under the agreement, Beth Israel Deaconess, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, will provide medical services currently unavailable to Anna Jaques patients, such as specialty cardiovascular and high-risk pregnancy care.

Anna Jaques will remain an independent nonprofit hospital under the alliance, which is part of a larger trend of community hospitals in eastern Massachusetts striking partnerships with Boston’s academic medical centers.

Suicidal man puts bite on his rescuer
By Laurel J. Sweet/Boston Herald – May 20, 2010

A car salesman bent on suicide and resisting efforts to save him on the roof of a Northeastern University art gallery took his pound of flesh from a hero campus cop, chomping down hard on the officer’s left arm, police said.

“A large human bite” was imprinted on the long arm of the lawman Tuesday by the 25-year-old man, according to a Boston police report.

The would-be jumper, whose name investigators declined to release because he threatened to kill himself, will be summoned to court, likely on a charge of assault and battery on an officer, police said.

Red Sox pitcher Manny Delcarmen signs deal with New Balance
By Thomas Grillo/Boston Herald – May 20, 2010

Hyde Park native and Boston Red Sox [team stats] pitcher Manny Delcarmen has signed a multi-year endorsement contract with a Boston-based sneaker giant.

Under the deal, New Balance will be Delcarmen’s official footwear and off-field apparel provider. The company will also partner with him as sponsor of his Annual Bowlin’ Strikes for Schools event benefiting Boston Public Schools next month.

“I am really excited that New Balance is joining me in support of my charity, which is very important to me,” Delcarmen said in a statement. “The New Balance cleats are light and comfortable; hopefully they will help me strike guys out all season.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Delcarmen wears the New Balance 1101 baseball spike. Dubbed a “running shoe on spikes.” The shoe features high performance running technology to eliminate spike pressure and give an athlete unparalleled comfort and fit on the diamond, New Balance said.

Bowlin’ Strikes for Schools will be held on June 28 at 6 p.m at Jillian’s Boston at 145 Ipswich St. The event will feature guest appearances by local athletes, appetizers, entertainment, bowling, auctions and raffle prizes, with proceeds going to Boston Public Schools.

1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.  More anniversaries.

Council President Ross threatens to reject fire arbitration award
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff – May 19, 2010

City Council President Michael P. Ross today threatened to reject the firefighters’ arbitration award unless the union makes “meaningful concessions” to reduce the cost.

“If they don’t, I believe we have no choice — on behalf of the residents of this city — but to reject the award,” Ross said in a fiery speech that described palpable “public outrage” over the settlement.

“Seventy-four million dollars,” Ross said. “A 19 percent increase. Paying firefighters to come to work sober.”

Ross’s position marked the most significant opposition to date to the arbitration award, giving the strongest indication yet that the 13-member council could vote against funding the contract.

Three other councilors followed Ross and gave the impression that they may also vote against it. Several other councilors have previously made it clear that they plan to support the award, but none of them spoke at today’s meeting.

Edward A. Kelly, president of Local 718 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, sat in the front row of the council chamber and told reporters that the union had no plans to offer concessions.

Attitudes at altitudes
By Brian McGrory – Globe Columnist / May 19, 2010

Among the many calls I didn’t expect to get last week was the one from Paul Levy, the chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who, having successfully saved his once teetering hospital, is currently trying to save his job.

Levy was involved in what has been very politely described as an “inappropriate relationship’’ with a female underling, a woman who, as it happens, he hired and later fired. And they say chivalry is dead.

Levy called to say that he liked a column I wrote earlier this month in which I suggested that questions about his relationship needed to be answered, questions like: Did Levy squander Beth Israel funds in hiring, promoting, and firing her? Fortunately, the state attorney general has stepped in to pursue the financial issues that the hospital’s board of directors failed to publicly address.

So I found myself in Levy’s office on Brookline Avenue on Monday afternoon, face to face with a man who is widely considered to be among the most charming members of Boston’s leadership elite. I came away with two distinct thoughts: This guy is good, and he just doesn’t get it.

The good part: Levy is thoughtful, he is expansive, he is conciliatory. He has been a force of nature in returning Beth Israel to the powerhouse that it is today.

A reflection of the times – Boston church plans user-friendly revamp of famed pool, plaza
By Matt Byrne – Globe Correspondent / May 19, 2010

The Christian Science Church is launching a major redevelopment of its Back Bay headquarters, with plans to remake one of Boston’s most famous landmarks: the 686-foot-long reflecting pool that anchors the church’s sprawling concrete plaza at Massachusetts and Huntington avenues.

The church plans to build a more modern, shallower version of an infinity pool. But most significant will be the addition of a 20-foot wide path across the pool, built so that, from a distance, people crossing it will look as if they are walking on water.

“When we started this process, people said: ‘It’s so beautiful. Why would you want to change anything?’ ’’ said Barbara Burley, the church’s senior manager for real estate planning and operations. “Times are different than they were 40 years ago. It really matters to have more trees and more places to sit.’’

Another change the church will encourage: ice skating in winter on one section of the divided pool.

The new pool is part of a massive redevelopment the Christian Science leadership has been working on for more than a year. Its current plan is to build three buildings, with one taller than 500 feet. Proceeds from the lease or sale of the buildings would be used to finance the estimated $40 million redesign of the plaza and pool.

There is no firm timetable yet for beginning construction, but the church expects to release more details this summer after it concludes working with a citizens group in a process organized by City Hall.

You might also be interested in this Boston.com photo gallery.

Man vs. measures of masculinity
By Cate McQuaid – Globe Correspondent / May 19, 2010

A cockfight, a strutting wrestler, a pyramid of Budweiser cans, a brawl. These are not the usual things you see in the refined space of an art gallery, but they all make an appearance in “Man Up.’’ The group show at Judi Rotenberg Gallery puts the microscope on expressions of masculinity fueled by high-octane testosterone.

The exhibit was organized by gallery co-director Kristen Dodge, who plans to open a New York space in the fall, after Rotenberg closes next month. Her exit is a loss for Boston.

The dark, occasionally giddy “Man Up’’ has edge and elegance. At the center hangs Jesse Burke’s montage of color photos that spotlight intensely masculine themes with self-consciously artful beauty. The portrait of the smudgy football player in Burke’s “Post Game’’ looks positively beatific. Shot-gunning beer, which involves shaking the can and poking a hole in it to shoot the foaming brew into your mouth, is a recurring motif, with inevitably sexual overtones. There’s also the image of a deer carcass, and “Open Country,’’ a starkly lit image of a bare-chested man in a hunting mask known as an executioner’s hood. The images tell stories of vulnerability and aggression, toeing the thin line between them.

All the works here grapple with that theme. Rune Olsen’s remarkable motion-filled sculptures, made of masking tape and paper on steel armatures to resemble drawings, come vividly to life, capturing moments of fierce assault, when the assailants see only red. Most of Steve Locke’s lush, economical paintings address a masculine companionability that is both exposed and competitive.

Source: Dorchester man’s jump from bridge was bid to save pal
By O’Ryan Johnson and Laura Crimaldi/Boston Herald – May 19, 2010

A Hyde Park man intent on suicide last night lept from the Massachusetts Avenue bridge and his Dorchester friend jumped in the frigid, swirling, blackness in a failed attempt to save him, a law enforcement source said.

The would-be rescuer was saved by quick-thinking State Trooper John Dwyer, who heard screams when troopers arrived at the scene at about 11:03 p.m., state police said. Dwyer threw his police cruiser’s spare tire into the river to help one of the men, who he could hear but not see, state police said.

That man tried several times to grab onto the tire, which was caught in a current, state police said. Once he got hold of the tire, Dwyer threw a rope to him and brought him to shore.

State police said the survivor is a 27-year-old Dorchester resident, who was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for evaluation after spending about 20 minutes in the water.

Both men jumped into the river at about 11 p.m. The body of a 28-year-old Hyde Park man was recovered by Cambridge firefighters and the state police Marine Unit at about 12:20 a.m., state police said. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was notified.

Teen job wasteland – Great Depression conditions spark fear of summer trouble
By Jay Fitzgerald/Boston Herald – May 19, 2010

The Bay State’s summer youth jobs picture is worse than even during the Great Depression, with only 28 percent of teens able to find a job, according to a Northeastern University study released to the Herald.

“We’ve had the greatest collapse in the teen labor market in history,” said Andrew Sum, author of the study and director of Northeastern’s Center for Labor Market Studies.

Sum, who has long studied teen-labor market trends, said employment for teens across the country – where only 26 percent on average have a job – and in Massachusetts have sunk to levels at or below the painful years of the 1930s.

The prospect of thousands of Massachusetts young people without a summer job – and with plenty of time on their hands – has officials and activists worried.

Sally Collura, an at-large Waltham city councilor, said: “There’s nothing more disappointing than a young person coming in and looking for a job and the store owner saying they are not hiring.”

1820 – Launch of HMS Beagle, the ship that took Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage.  More anniversaries.

Woman mauled by chimp is evaluated at Brigham
By Elizabeth Cooney – Globe Correspondent / May 11, 2010

A Connecticut woman who was mauled and blinded by a chimpanzee last year arrived at a Boston hospital yesterday morning to be evaluated for possible face and hand transplants.

Charla Nash, whose hands, nose, lips, and eyelids were ripped off in the attack, is undergoing two days of tests at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to determine whether she could be helped by a team that performed its first face transplant in April 2009.

It would be the first hand transplants at the hospital.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,’’ transplant team leader Dr. Bohdan Pomahac said in an interview yesterday.

Over the weekend Nash moved to an assisted-living center in the Boston area to continue her rehabilitation. On Thursday, she was discharged from the Cleveland Clinic, where she has had multiple surgeries following the February 2009 attack at a friend’s home in Stamford, Conn. The Cleveland Clinic performed the first face transplant in the United States in 2008, five months before doctors at the Brigham did theirs.

Endlessly devoted to his music
By Joan Anderman – Globe Staff / May 11, 2010

LENOX — He has 21 Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, and five Oscars. He has composed music for four Olympics, the “NBC Nightly News,’’ President Obama’s inauguration, the Statue of Liberty’s rededication, and Darth Vader’s entrances. “Star Wars’’ is one of more than 100 film scores he’s written, and with 45 Oscar nominations, he is the second-most nominated person after Walt Disney.

Of course John Williams knows how he should be memorialized on the occasion of the Boston Pops’ 125th anniversary.

“Put in a couple of sentences between Fiedler and Lockhart,’’ he suggests, teacup delicately in hand and ego typically in check.

Williams, who spent 14 seasons on the Symphony Hall podium as the Pops’ music director and is celebrating his 30th anniversary with the orchestra this year, is back in Massachusetts for his four-night “Hooray for Hollywood’’ film-music series with the Pops at Symphony Hall, tonight through Friday. He’ll return for the month of August to perform at Tanglewood, where he is artist in residence.

Williams has come here every year since 1981, and every year the kind proprietors of the Blantyre Hotel, an opulent country estate near Tanglewood, shuffle chairs and sofas in Williams’s favorite cottage to make room for the Steinway grand piano he has delivered for the duration of his stay.

World premieres highlight Huntington season
By Joel Brown – Globe Correspondent / May 10, 2010

Artistic director Peter DuBois will mark his third season with the Huntington Theatre Company by directing two world premieres for the 2010-11 season, which will also include last year’s Pulitzer Prize-winner for drama and a Shakespearean residency with Britain’s Propeller Theatre Company.

DuBois will direct “Vengeance Is the Lord’s,’’ a drama by Bob Glaudini about a “Sopranos-like’’ family of New England petty criminals at the Boston University Theatre, Nov. 12-Dec. 12. And DuBois will direct “Sons of the Prophet, a comedy from Stephen Karam, March 25-April 24, 2011, at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.

“I think these are two of the sharpest new plays in the country right now,’’ said DuBois, who directed Glaudini’s “Jack Goes Boating’’ in New York in 2007 with Philip Seymour Hoffman.

“Ruined,’’ the 2009 Pulitzer winner by Lynn Nottage, focuses on a woman making do in the midst of the brutal civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Directed by Liesel Tommy, it will play the BU Theatre Jan. 7-Feb. 6, 2011.

Edward Hall’s all-male Propeller Theatre Company makes Boston a stop on its US tour, performing “Comedy of Errors’’ and “Richard III’’ in repertory May 18-June 19, 2011, at the BU Theatre. DuBois said the productions are faithful to the text but have a contemporary sensibility.

MIT labor relations prof to review BFD contract
By Dave Wedge/Boston Herald – May 11, 2010

An MIT labor relations whiz is being brought in to sift through a state arbitrator’s complex and costly award to the Boston firefighters as the City Council mulls whether to fund the controversial deal.

Council President Michael Ross tapped Professor Thomas A. Kochan, a labor relations professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, to conduct an independent review of the contract. The raises in the deal have been estimated to be worth anywhere from $39 million to $74 million. Kochan will be unpaid.

“This is a critical issue,” Ross wrote to Menino yesterday, informing the mayor of Kochan’s review. “The question before the council should be whether or not to fund the award, not whether the appropriations figure is correct.”

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has called the deal a budget-buster, while Boston Firefighters Local 718 President Ed Kelly has said the city has exaggerated its fiscal woes and can afford the package. The council can vote to fund the contract or block the deal, which would send the two sides back to the negotiating table.

Body pulled from Charles River
By Laura Crimaldi/Boston Herald – May 10, 2010

An autopsy is planned for the body of a man in his 40s that was pulled from the Charles River lagoon today near Fairfield Street in the Back Bay.

The body was spotted floating in the water at about 5:45 a.m., said Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

It was pulled from the water by Boston firefighters, who said it was fully clothed, said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald.

Wark said state police homicide detectives did not observe any “obvious trauma or signs of foul play.” He said an autopsy and investigation are planned to determine the cause and manner of death.

‘Med’ gives an X-ray view on Boston hospitals
By Tenley Woodman / Boston Herald – May 11, 2010

Get ready to scrub in this summer.

The Hub’s medical community takes center stage on ABC’s eight-part documentary series “Boston Med,” premiering June 24.

The docudrama is a follow-up to ABC’s 2008 award-winning medical reality series “Hopkins.”

“I don’t think there is any city that comes close to the kind of magnitude of the medical establishment here,” said Dr. Andrew Warshaw, surgeon-in-chief at Massachusetts General Hospital and one of the many medical providers trailed by cameras. “We are a very logical focus.”

The struggles and triumphs of patients, doctors and nurses from Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital are highlighted.

Letter to the editor: Students should know their civic rights
by Jordan Clark/Huntington News – February 25, 2010

Have you ever heard of racial profiling? What about student profiling? You know, like when a Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD) officer stops you on a Saturday night and demands that they see the contents of your backpack as you walk to your freshman residence hall. Despite the fact that you have been in the library all night studying for you mid-term the following Monday, they assume you have some sort of alcohol in your bag because it is a Saturday and you are a college student and thus you must be heading to a party to indulge in copious amounts of underage drinking.

Incidents like these happen all the time; an officer asks to look in a student’s bag or demands you open the door without a warrant or probable cause. Regardless of whether or not your bag contains your biology book or a 30-rack, students do not shed their Constitutional rights when they agree to attend Northeastern, thus it is important to note that you don’t have to let the officer search your bag. You can say no and ask why; it is your Constitutional right and civic duty to question authority when you feel you are being mistreated.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I am supportive of police officers, but they are not perfect, and it is a sad reality, but police officers on colleges campus’s often take advantage of the fact that students may not be as familiar with their civil rights.
I bring up this topic as I recently filed a report against an NUPD officer for making, what I perceived to be threat; and after failing to provide me with his badge number (though I asked numerous times) I filed a grievance against him with NUPD.

I found this process to be quite troublesome as I not only felt threatened, but was also subjected to intimidation by an officer who, while I was writing the report at the station, proceeded to try and convince me I had no right to make such a claim. As an empowered and educated student who studies political science and taught a semester of civics in a high school, I would like to think I have a basic sense of my civil rights. So, if an officer engages you in any way, and you feel like you are being mistreated; you reserve the right to ask for his badge number. This way, if the officer violates procedure or infringes on your rights, you have the information you need to report a claim.

– Jordan Clark is a junior political science major and a Student Government Association Senator