Published July 3, 2010

A boat with 174 people on board ran aground in Boston Harbor, off Deer Island, and began rapidly taking on water. The Coast Guard said all of the passengers were safely removed from the vessel. Two minor injuries were reported.

At first I heard reports it was the schooner Spirit of Massachusetts, one of Boston’s famed tall ships. In fact, it was the Massachusetts, a tour boat.

Web producer Jess Bidgood and I updated this post with details as they became available throughout the day. I boarded a police patrol boat and was one of three journalists who got up close to the sinking vessel.

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Published July 2, 2010

Yep, it's officially fireworks season. (Craig Stevens/Flickr)

Fourth of July: the big kahuna of summer weekends. Wondering where to watch the fireworks, get the best chowdah or celebrate America’s favorite pastime? We have you covered, whether you want a classic or a contemporary Fourth. (And don’t forget about your Monday off.)

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Published July 2, 2010

Team captain Paul Pierce has re-signed with the Celtics, the Herald reports:

Paul Pierce in June (AP)

The numbers were not available, but Pierce will in the 2010-11 season make significantly less that the $21,513,521 he was scheduled to receive. That will aid the Celtics’ position versus the luxury tax.

You would think he’s getting a raw deal, making less than $21.5 million per year, but Pierce says the move is better for the team and his own future.

On Wednesday, coach Doc Rivers revealed via text message that he’s staying on: “I want another crack at it with this group.”

Update: It’s a four-year, $61 million deal that will net Pierce an average of $15.25 per season, if divided evenly.

Update: A source tells The Boston Globe that the ink is not dry.

Published July 2, 2010

First, let’s set the record straight. These errors have been repeated, including today on NPR:

Correction No. 1: Boston University researchers have not discovered a way to determine whether you’ll live to 100. The researchers have identified a pattern of genes common to most centenarians.

Old people jeans (Fairywren/Flickr)

Correction No. 2: There is no test. The research is not patented, though, so anyone could develop a test. A test to see if you share some of the same genes with 77 percent of centenarians. Correlation is not causation.

As @ianbouchard notes on Twitter: “I bet they also proved that the beginning of the NFL season causes leaves to change color. 100% correlation.”

That said, would you even want to take a test? I admit, when we heard about this study in the newsroom, my colleagues and I had this gut reaction: I wonder if I have the genes! We all wonder how long we might live.

But I doubt a test would be satisfying or at all conclusive. Are you going to discover you have the genes and stop exercising?

DNA Determinism?

[pullquote author=”George Bernard Shaw”]”Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.”[/pullquote]

“Just based upon genetic data alone, we have a pretty good chance of predicting whether a person is a centenarian,” said the lead researcher, Dr. Tom Perls, on Radio Boston yesterday.

“But that doesn’t say anything about the importance of these other factors. For example, I can count on one hand the number of centenarians who smoke or have a history of smoking. They tend to not be obese.”

Dr. Michael Grodin, a medical ethicist at the BU Medical Center, invoked George Bernard Shaw: “Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.”

“Somebody who has these genetic factors could walk out and get hit by a car,” Grodin said. “I think one has to live one’s life and not worry so much about genetic disposition.

And life is not really about longevity, he said. It’s about the quality of your years.

So would you want to take the test?

Coverage around the Hub:

• WBUR’s Curt Nickisch
• WBUR’s Radio Boston interviews the lead researcher, ethicist
• The Boston Globe
• NPR

Published July 1, 2010

Go ahead, have one on Sunday morning. (Kenn Wilson/Flickr)

After trying and failing to buy booze on Memorial Day, I blogged about the Bay State’s last remaining blue laws, one of which prevents you from buying alcohol before noon on Sunday (unless you’re buying Manischewitz, basically).

That law has become a little more relaxed, now that Gov. Deval Patrick signed the fiscal 2011 budget. Now restaurants will be able to serve liquor starting 10 a.m. on Sundays, a move meant to boost brunch business. That means I can enjoy a mimosa with my eggs benny while you sip a Bloody Mary.

By the way, best Bloody Mary’s in Boston are at The Beehive in the South End, where you can also enjoy live jazz while imbibing on Sunday morning.

Published July 1, 2010

When I edited my student newspaper in college, one of my advisers told me to savor the hate mail. “It means people are reading!” he said.

Scott Brown, our junior senator of a few months, seems to be the biggest punching bag in politics these days.

He is the Senate’s pivotal 60th or 41st vote, depending how you slice it. (And with the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate is down one more Democrat.) And he seems to be the most popular politician in America. That’s untouchable prestige in Washington.

Columnist Gail Collins in the New York Times:

We have here a populist man of the people playing the role of friend to the big banks while not being particularly helpful to the long-term unemployed. What can I tell you? The guy is extremely popular in Massachusetts. Maybe it’s because he drives a truck.

Maybe he’ll trade in that pickup. Taxpayer advocacy groups, in partnership with Billionaires Against Regulating Finance (BARF), are presenting Brown with a new BMW today.

“Since Senator Brown is willing to gamble with American consumers, he’s sending the signal that he wants to trade in his iconic truck for something a little more luxurious, something more in line with the kinds of cars that his Wall Street cronies are driving,” the groups said in a statement about the stunt.

And yet, she writes, “No matter what Brown does, he’s a populist hero.”

The Atlantic’s Brian Goldsmith calls Brown’s a “strange populism.” By successfully fighting the $19 billion tax on big banks, Goldsmith writes, the bill might end up raising fees for consumers and hitting a broader swathe of banks.

So Scott Brown the populist crusader, the protector of the middle class, the most popular politician in Massachusetts, has pushed a policy that probably means lower taxes for Wall Street, higher premiums for Main Street banks, and less lending to small businesses.

Everyone wants to pick on Scott Brown. Except the voters who put him there.

Published June 30, 2010

Jenny Thompson in better times (AP)

BROOKLINE (not BROOKLYN), Mass. — Olympic swimmer and Dover, N.H.’s own Jenny Thompson, winner of multiple gold medals, was attacked on her Vespa on Monday night. Police say the thugs tried to steal her bike!

According to a police report, “two [men] got out of the car and Thompson said to them ‘Did you know your headlights are out?'”

One of the men then said to her “your lights are out” and punched her in the face. (WBZ)

A Brookline resident and proud scooter rider myself, I have never been so afraid to ride anywhere as in the Boston area. (And I have done so in both Southern California and Naples, Italy.) In other places, people smile at you. Here, they try to kill you.

The WBUR newsroom is right on the Brookline border, and my green Buddy is parked out front. I hope.

Published June 30, 2010

I smell compromise in the air. Or maybe it’s smoke.

Senate President Therese Murray said the Groundhog Day-style debate (my analogy) on casino gaming will extend into the Fourth of July weekend if lawmakers can’t agree. They’ve used parliamentary procedures to delay debate five times this week. Now, surely no one wants to be cooped up in the State House this Saturday.

They ban it in Atlantic City. (AP)

It’s fortuitous timing that House Speaker Robert DeLeo — who first introduced the expanded gambling bill — is our guest today on Radio Boston. He’ll be taking your calls and comments live in the studio at 3.

One of the sticking points is a proposed ban on smoking inside casinos. Some Democrats had tried to overturn the ban; Sen. Steven Panagiotakos said it would cost the state $94 million in lost revenue. Sen. Susan Fargo, a casino critic, saw his $94 million in lost revenue and raised $6 billion in lost productivity from smoking illness, according to a recent state report.

I have no opinion, because I’m a journalist and journalists are robots without feelings (like Supreme Court justice nominees). But doesn’t it seem to make sense to allow one vice if you’re going to allow another? I don’t smoke, and I don’t really gamble, either, and I don’t think either is “good for you.” Anyway, what do you think? I know, a lot of you don’t support casinos, period. But it appears all but certain that casinos in Mass. are a reality.