NBC Boston reports on the fire at the old Forbes complex, which brought firefighters from Chelsea and surrounding cities, on Crescent Avenue.

The National Weather Service's Boston-area office says an end to our "red flag" days could be coming mid-week:

A developing low pressure system will likely deliver much needed, widespread meaningful rainfall Wednesday night and Thursday. Showers will linger Thursday night and Friday with potential for some accumulating snow over the highest elevations.

High probability of a half an inch of rain Wednesday into Thursday, with some lighter rain possible even Friday and Saturday, they say.

Wait, did they say "snow"? Yes, but "higher elevations" usually means "Worcester County" or "the Berkshires," not Beacon Hill.

The Boston Fire Department reports firefighters responded to 147 Draper St. in Dorchester for what quickly turned into a two-alarm fire around 12:05 a.m.

The department reports six residents were displaced, but that there were no injuries.

Damage from the fire, which extended from the first floor to the roof, was estimated at $350,000. The cause is under investigation.

The department reports firefighters were able to keep the blaze from spreading to the house next door, although it did set fire to a tree in the neighboring yard.

Two cars crashed at Washington Street and Archdale Road in Roslindale around 7:50 p.m.

Three people were injured; two seriously enough to be transported by Boston EMS to an emergency room for care.

The crash comes a couple week after another crash at Washington and Wellesmere Road that flipped one vehicle and sent the second into a tree.

A couple hundred men, mostly Catholic, mostly from out of town, marched from the Packards Corner Planned Parenthood to the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common today to try to impose their will on a state where abortion remains a right and part of women's health care.

At Kenmore Square, they were met by counter-protesters, with whom police briefly scuffled, knocking some of then - and a Globe reporter - to the ground.

This brought the forced-birth parade to a halt before participants resumed walking to the Common, where they entered a cattle chute made of metal police barriers to get to the bandstand, which was ringed about 40 feet out by two rings of barriers and large numbers of BPD officers and state troopers in body armor, holding long wooden batons.

Walking the chute:

As in Kenmore Square, the men (and three women) were also met there by serious protesters, who booed them, yelled "Shame!" and "Go home, fascists!" and gave them the finger.

But the forced-birth men were also greeted by clowns, from Clown March Boston, attempting to show the ridiculousness of their march through Boston:

Once all the men, mostly in suits, some in clerical garb, were assembled, the men (and a token woman) up on the bandstand began piously calling for all fetuses to be carried to term, although it was hard to hear them past the police barricades because of all the band music, the yelling, the booing, the banging of the outer ring of barriers by protesters.

Forced-birth advocates:

One suited forced birther, carrying a large poster showing what was supposed to be an aborted fetus chopped into pieces, briefly turned towards the protesters. He would clutch his chest, whether because he was experiencing heartburn or to show he was "speaking" from the heart was unclear, then would do a weird sort of wave, possibly of forgiveness towards the demonstrators. Another more obviously prayed at them:

Robby Roadsteamer, who had earlier confronted the marchers at the Planned Parenthood, though, was having none of it. Through his bullhorn, pointed at the men looking his way, he'd adapt songs for the moment, such as "My body, my choice" to the tune of "Sweet Caroline" and "I'm shipping up to Planned Parenthood" to the tune of the Dropkick Murphys song. And then he'd recite a commercial for 1-800-54-Giant and thank people for listening to Oldies 103.3.

When the men and the three women and the three boys had had enough, police lined the cattle shute so they could leave, some towards the intersection of Tremont and Boylston, others back onto the Common along Boylston.

One of the forced birthers, armed with his own loudspeaker, decided to scream back at the protesters standing along the chute, even as police were telling him enough, time to leave. One protester tried to toss some water on him, but the guy evaded getting wet:

Not long after that, police detained two women protesters and led them off the Common, their arms behind their backs in plastic ties.

Among the people taking one of those Freedom Trail tours on the Common today was a woman with a terrier, a terrier wearing a tricorn hat.

The briefly speedy Orange Line is back to its old slow tricks due to signal problems at Forest Hills, at least according to the driver of the train the UHub mobile action news unit is currently on with its doors open and slowly beeping at Ruggles.

A federal appeals court yesterday took several whacks - possibly as many as 41 - at the company that runs a B&B in Lizzie Borden's old home in Fall River, denying its request for a temporary restraining order to get the upstart Miss Lizzie's Coffee next door from glomming onto the gruesome story as its trademark case against the coffee place continues to percolate through the courts.

Sure, the B&B, which also offers tours, and the coffee shop both have an axe in their logos. But as the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston noted, the house's logo shows a simple notched blade, while Miss Lizzie's logo axe has a handle and bright red blood spurting from the top.

The court acknowledged US Ghost Adventures, which owns the house, had proffered some evidence of confusion in the marketplace:

One tour guide explained that guests were frustrated to learn that they could not bring Miss Lizzie's coffee on their tours of the Lizzie Borden House, having bought the coffee under the erroneous impression that the coffee shop was affiliated with the historical site. Another visitor separately attested to his belief that the businesses were affiliated. And Ghost Adventures' director of operations recounted that a Fall River city official had telephoned the company to discuss its "new business in the building next door named Miss Lizzie's."

But in general, the court continued, US Ghost would just have to suck up its wounds because the confusion wasn't widespread, and the coffee shop had put up a sign advising patrons it was unaffiliated with any other Lizzie Borden-related establishments. Also, the coffee shop was clearly paying homage to the basic story of the woman who may or may not have had an axe, which she used to give her mother 40 whacks, which is not trademarkable, rather than to the house's specific "Lizzie Borden" trademark. And the confusion might come not because of the similarity of the names, but because of the general association of Lizzie Borden with that part of Fall River.

Also, the appellate judges continued, they agreed with a US District Court judge who ruled that while both establishments were in the broad category of "hospitality," they were not in direct competition:

Ghost Adventures attracts sophisticated tourists who purchase tickets in advance and travel to Fall River to visit the historical site of the Lizzie Borden House, whereas Miss Lizzie's attracts passersby hoping for a caffeine kick or a bite to eat.

The court also rejected Ghost Adventures' claims that its house had become so associated with the legend of Lizzie Borden that it now, effectively, owned the rights to its name in the "hospitality" sector. Nope, the court said: The story of Lizzie Borden remains very much a public story and that simply because the company has used its trademark for a long time and has a "long history of investing" in promoting its brand does not mean the public now associates the story of Lizzie Borden with the house of Lizzie Borden specifically.

UMass Amherst is telling foreign students and faculty they probably want to be back on campus before the change of administration in Washington - and will provide housing for any undergraduate students who do return back from winter break early without a place to stay.

In an advisory, the school says international students and professors should "strongly consider returning to the United States prior to the presidential inauguration day of January 20, 2025 if they are planning on traveling internationally during the winter holiday break," which runs through the end of January.

[B]ased on previous experience with travel bans that were enacted in the first Trump Administration in 2016, the Office of Global Affairs is making this advisory out of an abundance of caution to hopefully prevent any possible travel disruption to members of our international community. We are not able to speculate on what a travel ban will look like if enacted, nor can we speculate on what particular countries or regions of the world may or may not be affected.

A 16-year-old was arraigned today on charges he opened fire on the Red Line platform at Broadway during rush hour last Friday, sending one man to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his thigh, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

The teen, too young to have his name released, was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and using a firearm in the commission of a felony for the shooting, around 5:30 p.m., the DA's office reports.

According to the DA's office:

Surveillance video shows a group of four males walking down the stairs to the platform and boarding a northbound train. Shortly after, the victim and his friend are seen boarding the train through the same door. The four males are then seen exiting the train, as a southbound train enters the station and the platform fills up with passengers disembarking. The victim and his friend are seen exiting the train and begin to walk back toward the stairs, behind the four males. One of the males, later identified as the 16-year-old juvenile, is seen reaching into his waistband and pointing a gun down the platform before he flees.

Police recovered a flattened, copper jacketed, hollow-point bullet on the northbound side of the train platform.

The other males have not yet been identified. The investigation is ongoing.

The Huntington News reports on a community meeting in South Boston last week about plans to add more BlueBike stations, which some residents boisterously declared would hurt families, young children, senior citizens and people in wheelchairs. A possible site next to the neighborhood Vietnam Veterans Memorial was decried as "sacrilege."

A federal appeals court today agreed with a lower-court judge that the manager of the Coolidge Corner Trader Joe's had a legitimate reason to fire a 77-year-old worker, because she had been caught buying beer for her 19-year-old grandson, who also worked at the store at the time.

Gloria Cocuzzo sued the chain and the store manager in 2022, alleging she was fired because of her age, and despite a long record of outstanding reviews, bonuses and raises.

But in its ruling, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston said that even in looking at the facts in a light most favorable to Cocuzzo, she violated both Trader Joe's policy and state law when when her grandson picked out two four-packs, then handed it to her so she could pay for them at a register.

The court rejected her attorney's argument that bias was proven in several ways, including in the cases of six Trader Joe's employees under 40 who got only reprimands for selling alcohol to minors:

Of those six individuals, five were written up for neglecting to check the identification of underage customers attempting to buy alcohol, and Cocuzzo offers no evidence that these employees knew that the customers were underage. By contrast, Cocuzzo concedes that she purchased alcohol for an individual she knew to be nineteen years old -- a distinction that is sufficiently significant that comparing the five proffered employees to Cocuzzo would be inapt.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury today convicted Brian Joyce, 30, of Dorchester on a charge of first-degree murder for gunning down Marcus Dunn-Gordon, 27, of Randolph in the parking lot of Boston Bowl, 800 Morrissey Blvd. in Dorchester, on Sept. 16, 2019, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Joyce will be formally sentenced next Friday, but the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder is life without parole - although with a review of his case by the Supreme Judicial Court.

According to the DA's office, Dunn-Gordon's death started with an argument between Joyce and Dunn-Gordon's friends inside the bowling alley late on Sept. 16.

Dunn-Gordon and his friends decided to leave without escalating the conflict any further and walked out of Boston Bowl. Joyce and his friends followed them outside and confronted Dunn-Gordon and his friends in the parking lot. A physical fight ensued and Joyce pulled out a firearm and shot Dunn-Gordon. Dunn-Gordon ran across the parking lot and collapsed inside the lobby of the Ramada Inn. He was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead. Joyce and his friends fled in a white SUV and another car. Joyce was on probation during the shooting and was wearing a GPS monitoring device after being convicted with an armed robbery with a firearm subsequent offense in Suffolk Superior on June 17, 2019 and also faced additional drug charges in Suffolk Superior.

Joyce was originally scheduled for trial in November, 2020, but some required hearings before trial and then the trial itself were postponed because of Covid-19. A series of other incidents - including his attorney quitting, Joyce refusing to leave prison for one hearing, his new lawyer failing to show up for yet another hearing - postponed his trial until this month, according to court records.

Boston Mega Praise, headquartered in an office park off VFW Parkway in West Roxbury, today sued gospel performer Phil Thompson - born in Boston and a former member of a group called Ashmont Hill - and his promoter over the more than $460,000 it says it spent to arrange his attendance at a performance at Worcester's DCU Center last year, which he pulled out of at the last minute.

In its suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Boston Mega Praise says Thompson performed in a show in Atlanta rather than in Worcester that day, and charges that his promoter, Faith Collective of Chicago, screwed over Worcester in favor of Atlanta after realizing it had double booked its clients in two cities several hundred miles apart.

According to the suit, the local concern and Faith Collective signed a contract on Jan. 4 of last year to put Thompson on the bill of the Boston Mega Praise 2023 show on June 9, 2023 for a 45-minute set, and Boston Mega Praise sent in a $4,000 retainer. Boston Mega Praise began having ads and fliers printed up and travel and lodging arrangements made to suit Thompson's tastes, as well as arranging to hire the sound equipment and technicians he preferred. On Jan. 16, the suit says, Boston Mega Praise began radio and social-media ads promoting the concert in general and Thompson's set.

But on April 26, the complaint continues, Faith Collective told the local concern that Thompson "chose not to appear" in Worcester, sorry, we can send you back your $4,000 deposit.

Faith Collective's alleged reason for not following through with Phil Thompson at said DCU Center was that Faith Collective had double-booked Thompson, for the same date, and allegedly upon realizing said error, Faith Collective and Phil Thompson deliberately and capriciously chose the other event in Atlanta, Georgia rather than Boston Mega Praise Inc., Worcester event.

Phil Thompson and Faith Collective were involved in the promotion of the Atlanta event before notifying Boston Mega Praise, Inc. of the alleged double booking and Phil Thompson's improper damaging refusal to honor his contract to appear at the Boston Mega Praise's Worcester event.

Boston Mega Praise, which formally charged Faith Collective with breach of contract, misrepresentation, bad-faith dealing and unfair and deceptive practices, is seeking treble damages for its claimed loss, plus interest and attorneys' fees.

Faith Collective and Thompson have until March 17 to answer the complaint.

A concerned resident files a 311 complaint about this relic of the time before everybody had their own personal communications device:

Can this obsolete phone booth please be removed?

It's the latest in a series of complaints from concerned residents across the city about pay-phone booths that long ago ceased to have any meaning.

Earlier:
Citizen complaint of the day: Old payphones never die, they just rust away.
When Bostonians relied on pay phones.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 15, 1942 - a fire broke out in the ceiling above the first-floor kitchen of Luongo's Tap on Henry Street in East Boston - just 2 1/2 hours after some 200 couples had gathered for some dancing in the place's second-floor dance hall. Boston firefighters responded to what grew into a three-alarm blaze in the five-story brick building.

Around 4 a.m, according to an account by the Boston Fire Historical Society, one of the building's walls, without warning, collapsed.

Nearly fifty firefighters were injured or trapped in the collapse. Upon removal of all firefighters present at the scene, six died as a result of their injuries. The six firemen killed in the Line Of Duty at the scene equaled the record number of Line Of Duty deaths suffered by the Boston Fire Department at a single incident in the Department’s history. That incident was the Merrimac Street Fire and Collapse of 1898.

The society's account lists the names and provides photos of the six firefighters who died that morning.

Photo of the scene.

Michael Laurano pays tribute to the firefighters - and the people who rushed to the scene to help pull them out of the rubble:

Clergy entered the still dangerous ruins extending the comforts of faith to those trapped there. As word of the disaster spread by radio, telephone and telegraph wire - then our only means of instant communication - soon at the horrific scene also were multitudes of other responders civilian and military. Coast Guardsmen, Police, ambulance drivers, medical and other support personnel, and newspaper reporters too each played a part by their devotion to duty in East Boston’s epically tragic story of the "Luongo Fire."

Two weeks later, 492 people died in the Cocoanut Grove disaster in Bay Village.

The MBTA is reminding riders that it's halting Red Line service between Harvard and Broadway at 8:30 p.m. this Sunday and continuing through Nov. 23. Well, actually, Nov. 24 - when service will be halted between Harvard to JFK/UMass.

The reason for the latest extended shutdown, of course, is to allow 24-hour repair work to deal with some of the backlog of problems that come with decades of deferred maintenance.

Accessible shuttle bustitution is promised except there will be some issues for people going to or trying to get from Park Street and Downtown Crossing - and the South Station shuttle stop is not where you might expect, the T says:

Riders heading southbound should instead disembark at Otis Street @ Summer Street and use the Winter Street Concourse to travel between Downtown Crossing and Park Street.

Riders heading northbound should instead disembark at Federal Street @ Franklin Street and use the Winter Street Concourse to travel between Downtown Crossing and Park Street.

Shuttle buses will also serve State (on the Orange and Blue lines) and Haymarket (on the Orange and Green lines) for easier connections to other subway lines.

Direct shuttle bus service will operate between Harvard and South Station on weekdays from 6 AM to 8 PM every 15 minutes.

Direct shuttle buses at Harvard will be located at Massachusetts Avenue @ Holyoke Gate.

Direct shuttle buses at South Station will be located at the South Station Bus Terminal (Berths 1 & 2).

The MBTA reports the day started with a switch problem near Wellington on the Orange Line and a dead trolley at Chestnut Hill on the Green Line. Both problems since fixed.