Bay Staters have a sense of decency

By adamg - Wed, 03/12/2025 - 8:41pm

In 1954, Joseph Welch, an attorney with the Boston firm of Hale and Dorr, began demagogue Joseph McCarthy's downfall when, representing the Army, he tore into the bully from Wisconsin and his toady, Roy Cohn, for going after a young associate at Hale and Dorr as an alleged Communist. "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" Welch began.

Yesterday, US Rep. Bill Keating, who represents areas south of Boston, reacted similarly when a Magat Republican from Texas misgendered US Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware: Read more.

BPD officer charged with domestic violence on Christmas

By adamg - Fri, 12/27/2024 - 4:25pm

WCVB reports Terrence Murray, a four-year BPD veteran, is on "administrative duty" following his arrest in Hull.

Innocent, etc.

Night drone over Plymouth

By adamg - Sat, 12/14/2024 - 10:26pm

Mary Ellen, spending some time in Plymouth, looked up around 6:30 p.m. and spotted a drone flying overhead. No, not a whole flotilla like the ones allegedly peering down on New Jersey, just the one (with apparent white lights on a couple of its tips and a flashing red light on the bottom).

Apex predators, assemble!

Eagle atop Flag Rock and a dolphin swimming near it
By adamg - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 2:05pm

Mary Ellen was down in Plymouth this morning and spotted an eagle eating breakfast atop Flag Rock and a dolphin swimming nearby. And then a lobster boat puttered by.

More (caveat: some blood and guts): Read more.

No-fault engagement rings: Court decides you have to return the ring if you break up before the wedding and your former heartthrob asks for it back

By adamg - Fri, 11/08/2024 - 11:07am

The Supreme Judicial Court today broke with earlier case law and declared that engagement rings have to be returned on request in the event of a pre-marriage breakup regardless of who might be at fault in the parting of ways. Read more.

South Shore political spotlight battle resumed tonight at one town's water tower

By adamg - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 10:11pm

The Trump fan who'd been beaming his logo on the Hanson town water tower only to have the town bring in an even more powerful white spotlight to drown it out was back at it again tonight after he noticed the town had removed its spotlight, so the town hauled it back and turned it on again.

In a statement tonight, Town Administrator Lisa Green said: Read more.

Beantown Home Services sues Beantown Home Improvements for trademark infringement; neither concern is actually located in Beantown

By adamg - Thu, 10/24/2024 - 9:47am

A company in Plymouth called Beantown Home Services yesterday filed a federal trademark-infringement suit against a company in Middleboro called Beantown Home Improvements. Read more.

Hulluva sunset

Sunset over Hull
By adamg - Thu, 10/17/2024 - 8:40pm

Joe Kidston took in the sunset from Hull this evening.

South Shore hamlet might have to buy a bigger spotlight

By adamg - Sat, 10/12/2024 - 7:32pm

On Friday, some guy began using a spotlight to show the Trump logo on the town water tower. The town responds it's not putting up with nonsense like that so now town DPW workers have wheeled in a bright white spotlight of their own to try to blank out the Trump message - and the town attorney is getting ready to dun the guy $100 a day until he quits.

Town Administrator Lisa Green says the town is looking at buying a more powerful spotlight: Read more.

EEE virus cancels outdoor concerts in Plymouth park

By Ron Newman - Wed, 08/28/2024 - 2:52pm

An email from the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation: Read more.

At least we got a beautiful sunset out of that second storm

Sunset over Boston and the water from Hull
By adamg - Fri, 06/14/2024 - 10:29pm

Joe Kidston watched the sun go down over the water and way out there, Boston, from Hull this evening.

How a thumb-sized climate migrant with a giant crab claw is disrupting the Great Marsh ecosystem north of the Cape

Male fiddler crabs are small, with one oversized claw
By David Samuel Johnson - Sat, 12/30/2023 - 10:19am

Nine years ago, I stood on the muddy banks of the Great Marsh, a salt marsh an hour north of Boston, and pulled a thumb-sized crab with an absurdly large claw out of a burrow. I was looking at a fiddler crab – a species that wasn't supposed to be north of Cape Cod, let alone north of Boston.

As it turned out, the marsh I was standing in would never be the same. I was witnessing climate change in action. Read more.

Feds charge some Massachusetts liquor-store and market robberies this year were actually part of an elaborate immigration scheme; two arrested

By adamg - Fri, 12/29/2023 - 11:56am

The US Attorney's office in Boston charges two men figured out how to profit from a visa program available to non-citizens who are victims of certain violent crimes and then help police: Stage gunpoint robberies at their workplaces and then have them tell police they were robbed. Read more.

Charon doesn't run the T's Boston Harbor ferries, so they're all canceled for tomorrow's morning storm

People boarding Charon's ferry across the Styx
By adamg - Sun, 12/10/2023 - 3:16pm

The MBTA reports it's canceled its morning ferries tomorrow due to anticipated high winds and rough seas.

The Hingham ferry should resume service at 11 a.m., the Hingham/Hull/Logan ferry at 2 and the Charlestown ferry at noon, the T says.

Temples in Hingham, Needham cleared after bomb threats yesterday

By adamg - Mon, 11/20/2023 - 10:10pm

WBZ Newsradio reports on what turned out to be hoax calls to Congregation Sha’aray Shalom in Hingham - which prompted police to evacuate both the temple and nearby houses - and Temple Beth Shalom in Needham.

Firewater in Hull

Sunset over Hull and the water
By adamg - Fri, 11/10/2023 - 4:55pm

"Not a bad view from Hull this evening," Joe Kidston reports.

South Shore school system had right to fire teacher who posted or endorsed racist, transphobic and anti-immigrant TikTok messages, judge rules

By adamg - Mon, 09/25/2023 - 1:29pm

A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit by a new teacher in Hanover who claimed her First Amendment rights to disparage transgender people, immigrants and Blacks were violated after school officials fired her after learning of her thoughts - in memes she posted after she won election to another town's school committee in an uncontested race. Read more.

Court orders woman to return $70,000 engagement ring to man who bailed out before their wedding

By adamg - Thu, 09/14/2023 - 3:03pm

The Massachusetts Appeals Court yesterday ordered a woman to return the $70,000 engagement ring her former beau bought her - but also ruled he would have to pay interest on the $43,000 a judge had already ordered him to pay for dental-implant surgery he had promised to cover during their engagement, for which she had her front teeth removed shortly before he broke things off. Read more.

Instead of trying to fight back the rising tides, some begin to think of moving back from the water

By adamg - Mon, 08/28/2023 - 1:53pm

CommonWealth whets our interest in "managed retreat" - the idea that as sea levels continue to rise, the long-term answer might be to move homes and other buildings away from the water, rather than trying to build seawalls or other measures, for example, for Hampton Circle, an area in Hull with water on two sides.

The stories some Providence Line riders could tell, of their ride that turned into the journey from hell

By adamg - Thu, 07/06/2023 - 7:54pm

MBTA Commuter Rail reported at 7:47 p.m. that a train that left Wickford Junction at 4:35 p.m. remained stuck in Sharon, more than two hours after it was supposed to pull into South Station, because of a dreaded "mechanical issue," and now the crew and passengers are waiting for the 5:48 p.m. train from Wickford Junction to arrive and try to push it all the way into town, or off the tracks or something.