Published October 20, 2010

Ginni Thomas canceled her appearance on NPR’s and WBUR’s On Point — scheduled a week in advance — at the last minute. The interview would have lasted 20 minutes and aired nationally. Thomas’ publicist said she had a “scheduling conflict.”

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with his wife, Virginia Thomas, in November 2007 (Charles Dharapak/AP)

“I’m horribly, horribly sorry,” the publicist said in an e-mail.

The producers “worked tirelessly” to book Thomas for a conversation about her very public involvement in the Tea Party, said John Wihbey, a producer.

But yesterday we learned that Thomas left a voice-mail message last week for Anita Hill, the Brandeis University professor, asking Hill to apologize to her husband for accusing him of sexual harassment almost 20 years ago. Hill, thinking it was a prank, forwarded the message to campus security, which turned it over to the FBI. Thomas confirmed to NPR that she left that message.

Here is a transcript of the message, first provided by ABC News, left 7:31 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 9:

Good morning, Anita Hill, it’s Ginny Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day.

It’s a head-scratcher.

Hill declined WBUR’s request for an interview but provided a brief statement:

I certainly thought the call was inappropriate. I have no intention of apologizing because I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony.

Economist Robert Reich pinch hits in On Point’s first hour today.

Published October 19, 2010

WBUR’s David Boeri filed and won a motion (read on Scribd) in federal court to release video footage that serves as key evidence in the corruption trial of Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner. Prosecutors say the video shows Turner accepting $1,000 from FBI informant Ronald Wilburn. The government alleges the cash was a bribe.

The alleged handoff happens at the 2:33 mark. It happens fast:

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Published October 19, 2010

In the final vignette of our series of citizen-generated stories — “President Barney” — it’s pretty clear a six-year-old got involved somewhere in the middle. WBUR’s resident cartoonist, Chase Gregory, shares her illustrated depiction of the story.

(If you missed that, let me explain: On Saturday, we asked visitors to WBUR’s booth at the Boston Book Festival to contribute to a series of stories on giant pieces of paper. We transcribed and posted the stories on Hubbub earlier today.)

A cartoonist's interpretation of "President Barney," a vignette written by visitors to WBUR's booth at the Boston Book Festival (Chase Gregory for WBUR)

• Read “President Barney”

Published October 19, 2010

Danroy Henry played football for Pace University. (courtesy photo)

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore says she is confident her investigation will reveal exactly what happened outside a bar north of New York City early Sunday morning.

Police shot dead Danroy “D.J.” Henry, a 20-year-old from Easton who played football at Pace University.

The authorities say Henry had been parked in a fire lane outside the bar when he sped away from officers who were rapping on his car window, hitting one who clung to the hood as the sedan barreled toward a colleague. That’s when an officer opened fire.

Mount Pleasant Police Chief Louis Alagno said the officers handcuffed Henry after shooting him — only to discover his condition and then try to save his life.

“This is a nightmare for everyone involved,” Alagno told CNN today.

On Sunday, Boston.com posted a detailed police of the incident:

Police from Mount Pleasant said in a statement that one of their officers approached Henry’s vehicle, which was parked in a fire lane, and Henry sped away when the officer knocked on the driver’s window.

Then a police officer from Pleasantville, another section of Mount Pleasant, then tried to stop the car, according to police. But the driver, identified by Pace as Henry, kept accelerating and struck the officer who landed on the hood of the vehicle.

A second Mount Pleasant officer tried to grab the Pleasantville officer from the hood, police said, but that officer was also struck by the car.

The Pleasantville officer, still clinging to the hood, then fired at Henry, the statement said.

The car headed towards another Mount Pleasant officer, who fired at the vehicle, police said, and the car came to a stop after striking a Mount Pleasant cruiser. Authorities did not identify by name which police officers fired the shots.

Henry was pronounced dead at the scene, police said, and a passenger in his car sustained a minor gunshot wound.

That last detail is key: The passenger in Henry’s car — Brandon Cox — survived, which allows for a different account of what happened. An article in today’s Globe quotes Thomas Parks, Cox’s father:

Parks said the men thought the police wanted them to move because the car was parked in a fire lane.

When Henry began to drive away, a police officer jumped in front of the car, his weapon drawn, Parks said. The officer threw himself on the hood and started shooting, the father said.

The New York state major crimes unit has joined in the investigation. The results of that investigation will be brought before a grand jury to determine whether the officers will face charges, Chief Algano told the Globe.

Related Stories:

• Police Account Of Pace Student’s Death Questioned

Published October 19, 2010

(Tom Adriaenssen/Flickr)

Call it citizen storytelling. Maybe crowd-sourced fiction?

Book nerds and NPR fans converged on Copley Square this weekend for the Boston Book Festival. We asked people who stopped by the WBUR booth to add their own sentence or two to a never-ending story on large sheets of paper. What turned out was a dozen or so vignettes written by You, Our Listeners. Here they are.

Warning: Read at your own risk, as some passages will make your brain hurt. I did light editing. Thanks to intern Nicholas Dynan for his help transcribing.

Continue reading →

Published October 18, 2010

Registration for the 2011 Boston Marathon closed on the same day it opened.

The Boston Athletic Association website, so clogged with people trying to register for the 2011 Boston Marathon, has crashed. The normal website has been replaced with a text-only page, which tells visitors the registration period has ended — on the same day it began.

“The Boston Marathon does not have a waiting list, late registration on race weekend, or race day registration,” the website says.

Last year, the Globe reports, it took two months for registration to fill up. Some 23,000 runners started, and nearly all of them finished.

The BAA will soon publicize the names and bib numbers of all the crazy people who signed up.

Published October 18, 2010

Stage Harbor Light and Ennis Skiff (Christopher Seufert Photography)

Photographer Christopher Seufert was up all night working on a project when he saw the sun rise over the water in Chatham.

So I had a cup of coffee and took my camera out into the marshes. Almost as good a recharge as actual sleep. Really though, glad I didn’t sleep through this one. I was hoping to catch the mist on the water but it burned off before I got set.

This dory is actually an “Ennis Skiff.” The Ennis Skiff is a design developed by Tom Ennis and built, at one time, exclusively by him. According to resident John Geiger, the family still has the original forms and drawings dating back to post WWII when Tom settled in Chatham at Stage Harbor. Tom began as an Oysterman before becoming the owner of Old Mill Boat Yard on the big Mill Pond, and then moving the business in the late 60’s to what is now the town facility on Stage Harbor.

Seufert shot this image Oct. 19, 2006, and recently submitted it to WBUR’s Flickr group. It’s the Hubbub Photo of the Day.