The Globe reports on the lawsuit by Pasquale Capogreco of Winthrop, who alleges the DA dropped drug charges against an East Boston acquaintance because the guy's brother is East Boston state Rep. Carlo Basile. DA Dan Conley and Basile both deny the charges.

Faegirl took this cool photo of downtown Boston from the Madonna Shrine in East Boston.

Fabulously Out There reports on a wonderful thing outside her East Boston home:

... The old gentleman was standing there with his shovel and had this mountain of icy snow in front of him, tough to do for even a young men. And I am not exaggerating when I say that other people came running with their shovels.

There must have been 5 men shoveling his spot free.

That almost made me cry. Maybe I am sometimes built a little close to water, but that just made me really happy. ...

Anthony Giacalone reports that banks are beginning to unload foreclosed properties at reduced prices - especially if they're in need of some work:

... At 212 Chelsea Street, a bank owned brick three family is on the market for $189,900. This property sold in December 2005 for $430,000. ...

Faegirl lists them, including the one thing that only East Boston residents have - special sound-proof windows paid for by Massport:

Massport windows are among the best inventions in the world. They keep out the noise, the cold, and don't shake nearly as bad as other windows.

Instructables .com has this post on how to rip apart an electric toy piano and wire it into a shirt turning your chest into a playable instrument, and your outfit into yet another way to get arrested at Logan Airport by over reactive under trained security personnel, who will not drop charges when they make a false arrest.

It has 8 keys from Do to Do, 1 octave. You can play simple music by wearing the shirt and pushing the fabric button on the shirt. All the components from the toy piano - batteries, speaker, and circuit board - are placed on the shirt and connected with poppers. All these hard

Channel 4 reports on the early-morning fire at Heritage Apartments, an elderly housing project on Jacobbe Road.

EaBo Clipper reports on today's anti-toll protest in East Boston, which he says included City Councilor Sal LaMattina thundering:

Governor Patrick tear down these tolls!

Because now he's getting hosed by a different MTA, the Mass. Turnpike Authority. A group called Stop the Pike Hike (appropriately led by a guy from East Boston) is holding a rally tomorrow to, well, try to stop the Pike hike. It's at the parking lot at Ecco Restaurant, 107 Porter St., East Boston, MA – near the airport tolls. Starts at 4 p.m. and former turnpike board member Christy Mihos will be there.

Jimbo runs across a site that has copies of some post cards showing East Boston scenes 100 years ago.