Published January 24, 2011
Isn’t Boston beautiful when the snow is fresh and the sun is shining? Photographer Natalia Radziejewsk got up bright and early Friday to capture it:
Snowy Sunrise (photographynatlia/Flickr)
Submitted to WBUR’s Flickr group.
Published January 24, 2011
No tweets at the State House. (Photo illustration adapted from an image by Martina Oefelein/Flickr)
Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld talked to lawmakers about the Twitter ban on Beacon Hill (a ban I had thought was new but is at least two years old).
“This place has enough distractions already,” Sen. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), told the Herald. “There should be more sites that are blocked. We should also ban solitaire, Bejeweled and Farmville.”
Wait, lawmakers can’t use Twitter at the State House because it’s “distracting?” (Hedlund, by the way, says he uses Facebook, which is not outlawed.)
Not quite. Battenfeld asked the rulemakers to explain the policy:
A spokesman for Senate President Therese Murray said the Legislative Information Services department made the decision to block Twitter, claiming the site is vulnerable to viruses.
Um, no. It’s true, Twitter has been exploited by hackers and spammers before. It’s an ideal medium for sharing nefarious links, cloaked by short URLs like bit.ly and tinyurl.com. But Twitter is inherently no more vulnerable to attack than other social media sites.
Among the many critics of the ban is @mattgriffin, who tweets:
Isn’t email a far more active vector for phishing?
Absolutely. But I doubt Murray will ban e-mail anytime soon. Boston journalism student @Steve_R_Miller laments:
Twitter is already under-utilized by less than savvy Reps. This just does a bigger disservice to MA citizens.
Blogger John Peabody writes:
By banning Twitter from official computers, the Legislature is sending the wrong message to a thriving industry and to an informed citizenry.
Some agencies are using Twitter effectively. @MassGovernor and @mbtaGM are excellent resources — examples of public service made richer and more immediate.
What do you think?
Published January 24, 2011
As I write, Boston has warmed up to a balmy 7 degrees. In the town of Orange this morning, the mercury dropped to 21 degrees below zero. Come on.
Here is a sample of today’s lows across Massachusetts, compiled by WBUR’s Keosha Johnson — wind chills not included.
[googlemap title=”Lows Across Mass. For 1/24/2011″ height=”400″]http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=212115722427213421944.00049a99cb5173ab1fc9a&ll=42.358544,-70.883789&spn=7.451676,10.415039&z=7[/googlemap]
The temperature data comes from The Associated Press.
Published January 24, 2011
New England Patriots linebacker Dane Fletcher celebrates after sacking Green Bay Packers quarterback Matt Flynn with just under a minute remaining on Dec. 19, 2010, in Foxborough. (Charles Krupa/AP)
Thanks to wins over the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New England Patriots have won the 2011 Super Bowl.
Last weekend, the Patriots were awarded both the AFC and NFC Conference championships since they had already beaten the Jets and the Bears, as well.
With a 14-2 regular season record, the Patriots would have hoisted the NFL’s Lombardi Trophy as league champions if the NFL determined championships like the rest of the world does, in soccer. (There are no playoffs in that system; the league winner is the team with the best record at the end of the season.)
For once, Pats fans might wish the Patriots played real fútbol. Or maybe twice in the past four seasons.
Published January 24, 2011
Boston Police report a man on a bicycle was killed this morning after being struck in the South End, near the intersection of Arlington and Tremont.
The cyclist, 34 74, was hit about 8:10 a.m. He was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
Be careful out there.
Update: The BPD corrected the victim’s age. He is identified as a 74-year-old Asian man.
Update, 2/3: The victim is identified as Guo Zhen.
Published January 24, 2011
This polar bear is cold. (ucumari/Flickr)
Good morning! Now this is cold, apparently the coldest day in Boston in more than six years. In some areas, just 10 minutes of skin exposure can result in frostbite. Expect below-zero temps this morning to get into the low teens by the afternoon.
A handful of schools are on cold-weather delay. WCVB has the list. On the MBTA, there are service alerts on 13 bus lines and nearly all subway lines. Commuter trains are delayed 20 minutes. Universal Hub says it best: Like you, the T didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.
Oh, and a major snowstorm is arriving Wednesday.
Expedia is selling flights to Miami, departing from Logan Airport today, for about $235, including taxes and fees.
In other news…
The Globe reporters former gubernatorial candidate and Treasurer Tim Cahill may be under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The federal agency subpoenaed documents about Cahill’s dealings with Goldman Sachs, the investment firm.
The Herald’s Joe Battenfeld talks with lawmakers about the the Twitter ban at the State House. “We should also ban solitaire, Bejeweled and Farmville,” said Sen. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth). People on Twitter are, unsurprisingly, incensed.
The lawyer for ex-City Councillor Chuck Turner is begging mercy for his client, who is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow. As I reported last week, prosecutors recommend three-and-a-half years of prison time for Turner, who was convicted of taking a bribe.
How are you staying warm this morning?
Published January 21, 2011
As you know, we reporters enjoy telling people when it’s snowing outside.
Resident cartoonist and WBUR intern Chase Gregory faced the unpleasant task of collecting “man-on-the-street” interviews about today’s snowstorm. She captured her travails in a comic for your enjoyment, after the jump.
Published January 21, 2011
Prosecutors want former City Councilor Chuck Turner to spend three-and-a-half years in prison. Not just because he was convicted of taking a $1,000 bribe, they say, but because he made a mockery of the system.
“Turner’s conduct has been the [antithesis] of acceptance of responsibility,” say the sentencing guidelines, filed Thursday in federal court.
“Turner’s calculated and persistent attacks on local and federal law enforcement agencies, designed to deflect attention from his own corrupt conduct, have been corrosive to respect for important public institutions and the rule of law.”
The recommended sentence — up to 41 months — is essentially the same as that doled out to ex-state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who pleaded guilty to taking at least $23,500 in bribes in the same case. Wilkerson got 42 months earlier this month.
Turner pleaded not guilty and fought the government, waging a public campaign he likened to the civil-rights struggle.
Prosecutors say they recommend a relatively stiff sentence because Turner perjured himself when he took the stand in his own defense.
Turner was convicted on four counts in October 2010. He faces a theoretical maximum sentence of 35 years at sentencing next week.
Published January 21, 2011
Luigi Manocchio, aka “Baby Shanks,” the reputed former crime boss of New England, was arrested Thursday by federal authorities in a major Mafia sweep. The Independent of London called him “the biggest catch.”
Luigi Manocchio's mug shot (via AP)
But the federal complaint calls Manocchio “Baby Shacks,” not “Shanks,” and the press ran with it. NPR’s Two-Way blog included “Baby Shacks” in a poll of the best Mafia nicknames (which also include Vinny Carwash, Tony Bagels and Lumpy).
The print edition of Thursday’s Miami Herald declares: “Mobster ‘Baby Shanks’ arrested in South Florida” (an AP headline). But the text of that same story reads:
Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio, 83, was arrested on extortion charges.
Even the copy editors are confused.
WBUR’s David Boeri was first to tell me: It’s definitely “Baby Shanks,” a nickname that goes way back, referring to Manocchio’s short legs. Boeri ought to know. He has made a career of reporting on the mob.
So I called up the Justice Department in Rhode Island and asked.
Published January 21, 2011
He saved it for a snowy, er, rainy day. Gov. Deval Patrick will call for a 7 percent cut to non-school local aid. The Globe reports:
He announced that he would propose increases in state aid for schools, special education, and road repairs, as well as a grant program to encourage regionalization. But he said he was cutting unrestricted local aid by $65 million, to $833.9 million.
Administration officials said the reduction would be offset by health plan changes to rein in the exorbitant cost of providing health care to municipal employees, retirees, and elected officials. Health care spending has become a major drag on city and town budgets.
Patrick is proposing a $120 $140 million increase to Chapter 70 education funding, to $4 billion. Chapter 70 money is earmarked for schools and can’t be used for anything else.
Cities and towns can spend non-school aid however they see fit — firefighters, cops, construction projects, etc. That funding got the whack.
But WBUR’s Steve Brown provides some good insight. While a city or town can’t reallocate state money meant for schools, it can choose to cut its own school funding to make up the difference.
Say Lawrence gets $2 million for schools. I’m making this up. Lawrence couldn’t spend a cent of that $2 million on road repairs. But it could cut $2 million from the school budget, thus recovering the cash that Patrick cut. It all comes out in the wash.
Meanwhile, the governor gets political points, because he promised to focus on education in his inaugural address and then boosted education spending.
Patrick is expected to unveil his entire state budget next week. Then he’ll wrangle with lawmakers for a final budget, hopefully in time for July 1 — the start of the 2012 fiscal year.
Update: I updated this post to reflect the fact that he proposed 7 percent cut is to non-school aid. Saying, simply: “Patrick proposes 7 percent cut to local aid” is not accurate or fair.