Published May 7, 2010

Andrew asked, “What’s the hubbub, bub?” To which my first response is: “Bub. Now is that a non-gendered term?” I’ll resist the urge to get sucked into linguistic minutiae, but I’d welcome input from ’BUR Nation grammarians.

Now, as for the Radio Boston hubbub this week, guests from our weekly news roundtable thought a few non-Page 1 stories deserved to bubble to the surface.

A new artist’s rendering of “The Lady of the Dunes” haunted Commonwealth Magazine associate editor Alison Lobron. The victim was found about a mile from Race Point Beach in 1974. She’d been mutilated and nearly decapitated and impossible to identify. Until now, hopefully. Forensics experts from the Smithsonian and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children combined forces to produce a new facial reconstruction of The Lady. Cape police hope it can bring a much needed break in the case. Time, we say, for CSI: P-Town.

Boston Globe political editor Scott Helman just couldn’t get enough of the story of Biff Michaud. Fixed to the back of Michaud’s Escalade is a plate that would make Jay-Z green with envy. It’s the number one. That’s it. Just “1”. But, the plate belongs on a bus. And when the Registry of Motor Vehicles found that the plate was on Michaud’s Caddy, it suspended the plate.

Did Michaud bend to the RMV’s will? Oh, no. This is Massachusetts. Michaud went the way of highminded defenders of democracy. He got the Massachusetts legislature to change the law. As the Globe notes: “House lawmakers, prodded by Michaud’s state representative, fought back, quietly passing a bill last month that would forever designate the Bus 1 plate for Biff Michaud and permit it on any type of vehicle he chooses — bus or no bus.”

I mean, why worry about things like the budget when you can pass a law about a license plate from a defunct bus line?

My own bit of hubbub for the week comes from the Bay State Banner and its reporting on tensions between MBTA police and teen riders. The Hyde Square Task Force is set to release the results of a major survey of Boston teens and how they view MBTA police. Answer? Not good. Teens claim being frequently searched, harrassed and thrown out of MBTA stations. On the other hand, violence on the T is not unheard of, and with the majority of public high school students in Boston taking the MBTA to school, both sides want the relationship to be as cordial and cooperative as possible.

We’ll be going deeper into this story soon on Radio Boston.

But before that, Radio Boston kicks off its new daily format Monday, May 10. We inaugurate the show with a series of conversations with each of the Massachusetts gubernatorial candidates. Charlie Baker is up first. What’s your question for him? Post them here, and I’ll pose some of them to him.