An Illinois lender yesterday sued the city of Boston, a Charlestown towing company and the Registry of Motor Vehicles over the way Boston lets tow companies not just seize cars on the order of Boston Police but sell them off without giving lenders the chance to get the car back first, which it charges is a violation of several of its constitutional rights. Read more.
A disgruntled resident files a 311 complaint about the ice-cream truck whose driver keeps parking in a bike lane at Green and Elm streets in Jamaica Plain: Read more.
A new group called Protect the Lincoln Forest launched itself early this morning when a member climbed up a tree on a quarter-acre site off Rte. 2 and created a "tree-sit" to protest an agreement between Cambridge and a Texas pipeline company to cut down at least 24 trees on a lot meant to protect a major Cambridge reservoir - so the company can park trucks and equipment there while it replaces a pipeline facility next door. Read more.
The Boston Licensing Board today gave La Union Market, 105 Chelsea St. in East Boston, to expand its alcohol selection from beers and wine to harder drinks, such as aguardiente from Colombia and flor de fuego from El Salvador. Read more.
The Boston Licensing Board deferred a vote today on a request from an East 8th Street market to let it sell beer and wine, so that board members can consider whether South Boston is on the verge of having too many places that sell adult beverages. Read more.
The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let somebody buy ODB Liquors, 1253 Hyde Park Ave. in Hyde Park, and change its name to the more prosaic Hyde Park Liquors. Read more.
The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let the operator of the existing indoor golf-simulator joint near City Hall expand into a second location at 311 Summer St. in Fort Point and buy the liquor license from a South End seafood tapas place. Read more.
Routes of new electrical lines; new substation is pink rectangle on right; existing substations are orange triangles.
The state Energy Facilities Siting Board recently approved plans by Eversource to build a large new underground substation in Kendall Square and 8.5 miles of new high-voltage lines connecting it to other Eversource substations in Brighton and Somerville to deal with growing demand from new construction and electric vehicles - and Vicinity Energy's plans to convert its Kendall Square steam-generating boilers to electric power. Read more.
Acklerley Communications of Massachusetts yesterday sold the small parcel where it had a billboard on Washington Street in Egleston Square to the city of Boston for $300,000, according to Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records. Read more.
Mike Feudale reports he's retiring July 1 after 30 years selling and repairing guitars, first at Sandy's and then, after he took over the business, at his Mike's Monster Guitar on Mass. Ave. in Central Square.
Via Biblioquetress, who sighs: "Sad to lose a good independent instrument shop."
Brandon watched the action as a utility pole at Pearl Street and Putnam Avenue burst into flames and exploded several times.
Eversource reports about 1,750 businesses and homes are without power (and AC); estimates restoration by 5:15 p.m.
One of Allston/Brighton's larger landlords, Samia Cos., today sued another one of the neighborhood's larger landlords, Anwar Faisal, over two condos Samia owns in a building Faisal's company manages on Gordon Street in Allston. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today reinstated the bulk of a suit against the owner of Dunkin' Donuts franchises in Worcester because of the way one of its employees allegedly reacted to a Black man who ordered food by first delaying his order and then, when he and other employees asked about the delay, tossed the food - and a racial epithet - at him. Read more.
Woodman, spare those trees, well, some of them. Map shows trees to be chopped (blue), saved if possible (red) and left alone (yellow).
Cambridge and Algonquin Gas Transmission today filed a plan that will let the pipeline company use part of a quarter-acre city parcel off Rte. 2 in Lincoln to haul in new equipment for a pipeline facility on the company's adjoining lot. Read more.
Boston Restaurant Talk reports the June 22 end of Savenor's on Charles Street. The Harvard Square outlet will remain open.
Baker describes cat cafe as one cat describes its disinterest.
Update: Food-serving license approved.
The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to grant a food-serving license to A Sanctuary Cafe, 80 Charles St. on Beacon Hill, which will combine a place for people to play and visit with 10 to 15 cats, sip coffee and eat pastries and browse books for sale - although not in the same room. Read more.
A Hyde Park homeowner and a Cambridge resident last week filed what they hope will be a class-action suit against Eversource for what they charge is constant false advertising and marketing about the supposed environmental and health benefits of natural gas, claims they say are belied by recent scientific studies and even the company's own statements, even if buried away in footnotes in documents most people will never read. Read more.
A group of Tesla owners who feel deceived that their electric cars don't get the range they were promised last week sued Elon Musk and his family trust for taking advantage of them. Read more.
The owners of the violence-plagued Garage on Linden Street and the group that once hoped to turn it into a hi-fi club are now battling in court over the space, even as the Boston Licensing Board plans to consider whether the space still warrants a liquor license. Read more.
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