The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that what was once a two-mile road from Carlisle down towards the center of Concord is still legally open to the public and property owners need to stop blocking it with the locked gates and warning signs they first put up in the early days of the pandemic to try to bar hikers out for fresh air. Read more.
The state's list of beaches where you need to not even think of going into the water, include Savin Hill and Tenean beaches in Dorchester, Houghton's Pond in Milton and Walden Pond in Concord.
The cast of Lizzie, The Musical, from left: Temma Beaudreau, Liza Giangrande, Sophia Muharram and Nora Sullivan. Photo by Jim Sabitus.
The grisly Fall River murders have captivated public imagination for over 130 years, with truth often taking a backseat to fiction. That's certainly true of Lizzie, The Musical, which is being performed at the Umbrella Arts Center and reimagines the murders and trials as a riot grrrl power rock musical. Read more.
Michael Sentance watched a troop of Minutemen and followers in Concord on their morning march to destiny to Old North Bridge.
Meanwhile, down in Coolidge Corner, Michael Burstein watched William Dawes sound the alarum that the regulars were coming, on his way from the North End: Read more.
A federal judge has tossed a Concord lawyer's suit against the state court system, which he claimed was trying to torture him, in violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture, by making him don a face mask to enter state courthouses in the days after the courts reopened and before Covid-19 vaccination became widespread. Read more.
Concord Police report three people were struck by water pellets yesterday, possibly as part of a "challenge" involving gel blaster guns: Read more.
Dan Kennedy goes through the trustee list at the Middlesex School to see if any of the trustees might have particular reasons to have pressured the school to uninvite Nikole Hannah-Jones.
WBUR reports on growing outrage among the Boston area's open-water swimming community (yes, there is one) over the state's ban on swimming outside the lines at Walden Pond.
Webster, 70, says the Walden ban effectively restricts swimming entirely, since the small areas roped off for swimming and monitored by lifeguards are crowded with people splashing and bathing.
Effective right this second, DCR is banning all swimming outside designated areas at Walden Pond. And don't even think of sneaking in an open-water swim after the lifeguards leave at 6 p.m., the state says.
Paul Friedmann explains:
I saw a guy IN Walden Pond this afternoon. They had chopped a hole in the ice and he went for a dip. The roundish thing is his head. Then he popped out, dried off and had some coffee.
Veteran bank robber Angel Robles didn't have much time to live it up with the $383.97 he made off with from a Concord bank last November because investigators were able to lift at least one of his fingerprints from the wipe he held during the robbery and then dropped before he ran out of the bank and back to the stolen U-Haul he had parked outside, according to an FBI agent on the case. Read more.
The challenges faced by the Boston housing market have been well documented in 2020. The pandemic has caused massive shifts in urban population distribution in metropolitan areas all across the country, and Boston is no exception. It effectively took one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets and caused it to come to a grinding halt as apartment vacancies soar all over the city.
Walden Pond State Reservation reports the water is once again safe for bathing, after some bad test results a couple days ago.
The bath house is open until 7 p.m., so remember not to urinate while on your swim.
The page content will not surprise anyone, yet the headline is still painful to read on the Town of Lexington's website:
Patriots' Day 2020 Has Been Cancelled
That means no Paul Revere's ride, no battle re-enactments, no pancake breakfasts, no parades, no fifes and drums, no vigils, no Dawn Salute at the rude bridge in Concord -- none of it.
An 18-year-old was fatally hit just west of the the Conant Street crossing around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, according to Transit Police, who say foul play is not suspected.
Boston Red Cloaks spanned the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA to mark the election of a record number of women in midterms 2018 pic.twitter.com/cPCvcHWoY4
— BostonREDcloaks (@bostonredcloaks) November 22, 2018
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today there was nothing unconstitutional about a judge ordering a woman charged with stealing from a dog-walking client to pay for her heroin addiction to undergo drug tests as a condition of letting her go without any jail time - and then ordering her into in-patient treatment when she tested positive. Read more.
Wicked Local Concord reports a woman walked into the town police station with four yellow pills she'd found at a local park:
Each pill had a small picture of Marge Simpson on them. Police checked online and reported the pills were a limited edition Tic-Tac.
H/t Geoff Edgers.
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