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Roberto "Kiko'' Pulido, the rogue Boston police officer who enlisted two fellow patrolman in a brazen scheme to escort trucks bringing cocaine into the city, was sentenced today to 26 years in federal prison by a judge who said the defendant had disgraced his badge. "The people who wear that badge have a sense of honor,'' US District Judge William G. Young said, staring at Pulido, the ringleader of one of the most notorious police corruption scandals in recent Boston history. "You are ... dead to that sense of honor.''

“Legal Dramedy”, is how Wikipedia defines the format of the TV series Boston Legal. Living TV describes the show as a “… critically acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning quirky legal drama …” That is a good summary of why I first became enamored with this brilliantly entertaining program. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly common to hear the production characterized as “shamelessly liberal”. With that, Boston Legal’s brilliance and entertainment value has continued to decline and its charm is rapidly fading for me. Ironically, in a recent episode, entitled “Tabloid Nation”, Boston Legal, itself, addresses my very concern. In that episode, during...

Artist's flair makes names of victims hard to forget Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + Globe Staff / The book has no title, no author, no explanatory words - just a few quotes from The Bible, and page after page of first names. Keith Robert Jeffrey Michael Michael Kim Curtis Richard Scott John Steven Peter Michael Jackie Robert Wayne Stephen Paul Linda Much ink has been spilled over the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the last six years, but this work is different: a hand-painted list of 1,476 men and women who have reported being sexually abused by a Catholic...

BOSTON (WBZ) ― WHDH Channel 7 announced Thursday that general manager Randi Goldklank is now undergoing medical treatment after an allegedly drunken tirade Sunday night that ended with her arrest at Logan Airport. "The unfortunate events of last Sunday night were unanticipated and Ms. Goldklank is deeply regretful," said Ed Ansin, president of Sunbeam Television Corp. in a prepared statement. Mike Carson, the station's previous general manager will take over on a temporary basis while Goldklank remains on administrative leave. According to a State Police report, Goldklank, 40, of Boston, threatened to put a trooper on TV and ruin his...

Anybody watching Boston Legal right now? First time i have seen this show. This lawyer is at the Supreme Court and is bashing the Conservatives. Not once doe's he point out a lib. This show always like this?

A doctor at the renowned Children's Hospital Boston has launched a new program to drug children to delay puberty so they can decide whether they want a male or a female body, according to a report today in the Boston Globe. Pediatric endocrinologist Norman Spack, 64, says he started the Gender Management Service Clinic because he found himself encountering 20-somethings who were "transgendered" and in good shape socially, "but they were having trouble getting their physique to conform to their identity. "I knew the 20-somethings could have better chances of passing if they were treated earlier," he said. "We don't...

Secular progressives, especially those in the Boston media, are having a field day dredging up the whole pedophile priest controversy here at its epicenter. While the mainstream media’s been giving us wall-to-wall all-Pope, all-the-time coverage, many here in the Boston area are well into their sixteenth minute of fame, and bashing the Pope for avoiding our city on his America tour. While he has publicly acknowledged the scandal, and now met with some of the victims, enough is not enough for these professional victims. "I acknowledge the pain of the Church in America is experiencing as a result of sexual...

WASHINGTON -- Pope Benedict XVI, in a dramatic move likely to alter forever the image of his pontificate, met this afternoon with five victims of clergy sexual abuse from Boston. The private meeting, which was first reported by the Globe this afternoon and has since been confirmed by the Vatican, was brokered by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston.

Federal authorities issued a flurry of subpoenas across the city yesterday as they launched a grand jury investigation of disability abuse in the Boston Fire Department, including whether dozens of firefighters faked on-the-job injuries to significantly enhance their pensions, according to several officials briefed on the probe.

Growing up as an evangelical in rural South Carolina, I’ve heard plenty of rabid denunciations of the Catholic church and the corrupt scheming of its untrustworthy pope. But to hear these angry rantings from Catholics, I had to come to Boston. My good friend and colleague, Margery Eagan, is in a righteous rage over the positive media coverage Pope Benedict XVI is receiving on his first - and likely only - trip to America. Watching his warm reception in Washington, many local Catholics are surly and sulking. Much to Margery’s chagrin, Americans - particularly Catholics - seem to like the...

The new Yankee Stadium may be cursed! A devilish Boston fan working on a concrete crew at the $1.3 billion stadium covertly buried a Red Sox T-shirt under what will become the visiting team's locker room to jinx the Yanks, two construction workers told The New York Post yesterday.

A caller to Rush Limbaugh said his daughter brought home an assignment that described the Boston Tea Party. In it, the throwing of the tea overboard was changed to "some of the tea accidentally fell overboard" Can this be right? Anyone else's kid being fed this watered down version of historical facts?

Owning a home in Boston is about 70 percent more expensive than renting an essentially identical home. Therefore the government should stop trying to keep owners in homes and instead let more people return to renting. So says a new study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The study joins a growing chorus making the point that home ownership is a misnomer in many cases. The point is particularly directed against government efforts and proposals to help owners stay in homes by rewriting the terms of unaffordable mortgages. The housing coalition views this as misguided in markets where renting...

PRESERVING Boston Common should mean much more than keeping the grass green ("Large events may become uncommon at city's beloved park," Page B1, March 20). The Common was America 's very first public grounds and the city should not regulate away the right of the people to assemble peaceably there for the sake of a greener lawn. If greener grass is what the city wants, they can achieve that by not allowing dogs to urinate on the grounds. Boston Parks Department maintenance people have told anyone who asks that dog urine, not peaceable assemblies, is what damages the grass most.

Boston police officials, surprised by intense opposition from residents, have significantly scaled back and delayed the start of a program that would allow officers to go into people's homes and search for guns without a warrant. The program, dubbed Safe Homes, was supposed to start in December, but has been delayed at least three times because of misgivings in the community. March 1 was the latest missed start date. One community group has been circulating a petition against the plan. Police officials trying to assuage residents' fears have been drowned out by criticism at some meetings with residents and elected...

A recent study conducted by the University of New Hampshire confirms what curmudgeons in these parts have been complaining about for a long time: The Granite State may be turning into a suburb of Boston. more stories like thisThe report, "The Changing Faces of New Hampshire: Recent Demographic Trends in the Granite State," released last month by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, indicates that nearly 25 percent of New Hampshire residents were born in Massachusetts, and Internal Revenue Service data indicate that the largest source of new migrants to New Hampshire is Greater Boston. According to...

Does anyone know who this thinner, older imposter is doing on the Guy from Boston website? It is not Joe Ligotti, the conservative ranter. I know he was banned from YouTube for a ridiculous reason, but now someone else is masquerading as the Guy from Boston. What is going on here?

FORT MYERS - The Red Sox’ trip to Japan has already hit a major snag. During a players-only team meeting at City of Palms Park this morning at 8:30, the players decided unanimously, according to more than one player, that the Sox would not take the field for their scheduled 12:07 p.m. exhibition game against the Blue Jays today unless there was a resolution to MLB’s decision not to extend an appearance fee of $40,000 to all team coaches making the trip to Japan. All players are receiving the $40,000 appearance fee for the Tokyo trip. According to one player,...

One day after Boston fire union officials stormed out of talks with the city over drug testing, a uniformed jake was arrested in Dorchester when cops spotted him allegedly smoking a joint inside a department car, police said. Anthony Gaston, 47, a 25-year veteran of the Boston Fire Department, was arrested for possession of marijuana, and illegal possession of prescription drugs, police said. Gaston is a fire prevention officer and is assigned a Fire Department car for his job inspecting gas stations and oil tanks to ensure code compliance, said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald. MacDonald said Gaston was...

WASHINGTON - Internet users should be free to surf where they want and download what they please. But shouldn't the owners of the networks that make the Internet possible also have rights? That, in a nutshell, is the topic of debate at a special public meeting of the Federal Communications Commission at Harvard Law School on Monday. Recent events involving Comcast Corp. and Verizon Wireless have raised questions about network owners interfering with customer traffic flow. The meeting also is expected to attract a rally on minority media ownership. The session is the agency's most serious public discussion to date...

http://media.wrko.podzinger.com/archive/Reese_Hopkins/2008-02-21_Barack_Obama_Rap.mp3

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston has more than a feeling that he's being ripped off by Mike Huckabee. In a letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, Tom Scholz complains that Huckabee is using his 1970s smash hit song "More Than a Feeling" without his permission. A former member of the band, Barry Goudreau, has appeared with Huckabee at campaign events, and they have played the song with Huckabee's band, Capitol Offense. Scholz, who said Goudreau left the band more than 25 years ago after a three-year stint, objects to the implication that...

Bad news for fans of Boston fans of Bill Bennett, Dennis Praeger, Mike Gallagher, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, and Hugh Hewitt: WTTT AM 1150 has apparently changed its format from conservative talk to Spanish language religion. Salem Communications also owns WEZE AM 590 and WROL AM 950 in town but I don't believe any of the shows will wind up there (we'll see). Boston still has WRKO AM 680 (mostly conservative), WTKK FM 96.9 (mostly conservative), and WBZ 1030 at night (middle of the road)

Phil Lawler, editor of Catholic World News and former editor of Catholic World Report, has posted the opening chapter of his book, The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Catholic Culture, which will be published next month by Encounter Books. Click here to read it. Encounter Books has this description of the book: The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture, traces the rise and fall of the Catholic Church as a cultural dynamo in Boston, showing how the Massachusetts experience set a pattern that has echoed throughout the United States as religious institutions have lost social influence in...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Two men broke into Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's Boston campaign headquarters early on Thursday, the second break-in of the offices in five months, a spokesman for the local prosecutor said. Boston police arrested Daniel Bradley, 28, and Michael Sauer, 30, as they tried to leave the office complex's parking lot. A security guard spotted them trying to steal computers on a surveillance tape and called police, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney. "There was some computer equipment that was recovered. There is no indication this was politically motivated," Romney spokesman Eric...

BOSTON–Contractors will pay more than $450 million (dollar figures U.S.) to settle the state's lawsuit over a fatal tunnel collapse and to cover leaks and design flaws in the Big Dig, officials said Wednesday. Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consortium that oversaw design and construction of the country's costliest public works project, has agreed to pay $407 million, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said in announcing the deal. Several smaller companies will pay about $51 million collectively. "The citizens of Massachusetts entrusted Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff to act as their eyes and ears on the Central Artery Project," Sullivan said. "They grossly failed to meet...

A dreadlocked street artist’s effort to cash in on last year’s light-board bomb scare has one high-ranking Hub official vowing she’ll reach into the jokester’s pockets to grab a share of any profits for the city. Boston City Council President Maureen Feeney told the Herald last night she “cannot believe” guerrilla marketer Peter Berdovsky is now selling art spliced with scenes of the chaos he cooked up. “He continues to poke a finger in the eye of the people of Boston,” said Feeney. Feeney, who said she’s still offended by the Jan. 31 cartoonish caper that cost $2 million, said...

Some 700 bags of drugs are missing from a Hyde Park evidence warehouse, a 14-month-long audit has revealed, and now police have launched a criminal probe into officers who had access to the facility. The audit found that, in addition to the missing drugs, someone had tampered with another 265 evidence bags, in some cases replacing prescription narcotics with aspirin tablets. The scandal creates a nightmare legal scenario for prosecutors and could be a ticket to sentence reduction and early release for repeat offenders, said criminal defense lawyers. If a person was convicted using the now missing or tainted evidence,...

When the clock runs out on 2007, Boston will quietly mark the end of one of the most tumultuous eras in the city's history: The Big Dig, the nation's most complex and costliest highway project, will officially come to an end. After a history marked by engineering triumphs, tunnels leaks, epic traffic jams, last year's death of a motorist crushed by falling concrete panels and a price tag that soared from $2.6 billion to a staggering $14.8 billion, there's little appetite for celebration. Civil and criminal cases stemming from the July 2006 tunnel ceiling collapse continue, though on Monday the...

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino says the Boston police lieutenant who is serving 18 months court-ordered probation for punching his girlfriend off a Baltimore barstool is a “coward.” “(Police Commissioner Edward) Davis has assured the mayor that he will do everything in his power to hold this coward accountable for his actions,” said Menino’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce. “Domestic violence is a huge problem in our society. No one should be able to get away with raising a hand to anyone, especially a defenseless woman.” Lt. David Murphy was suspended for 30 days on Dec. 19 but will only serve five...

Legendary Boston politician Albert Leo “Dapper” O’Neil, a blustery 14-term councilor famous for his unapologetic disgust for liberals and political correctness, has died. O’Neil, who was 87, passed away in his sleep early this morning at a West Roxbury nursing home. He had survived a heart attack and prostate cancer. O’Neil was known for his kindness, conservatism and dedication to his constituents, Murphy said. He did not care who he offended. “He’d be kind and generous to so many people and then would fearlessly and deliberately violate the rules of political correctness,” Murphy said. O’Neil retained his ornery spirit up...

This morning Fr. Connolly announced (to the throngs in attendance at the 10 o'clock Mass) that after his consultations with His Eminence, he (Fr. Connolly) has decided that the Tridentine Latin Mass will again be celebrated weekly at Holy Trinity. He mentioned that it remains for us to work out a schedule of clergy to enable us to have the priests necessary to ensure proper coverage. There also will be careful consideration as to the time the Mass will be celebrated. The possibility of having the Latin Mass take place before the [current 10:00AM] Novus Ordo one is under active...

Shot in Boston, with a cast of 42, it's a wonderful Kwanzaa December 16, 2007 While the Christmas film has been a staple of American cinema since George Bailey discovered it's a wonderful life, the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa, observed from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 each year, has been around for only about 40 years, and the cinematic pickings are much slimmer. That's why a Boston-based independent filmmaker believes he's breaking new ground with his movie. "Kwanzaa with the Jones's" will have its premiere Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. The film is the...

BOSTON (AP) - A Democratic presidential debate scheduled for next week in Boston has been scrapped because of the earlier-than-usual Iowa caucuses, a spokeswoman for CNN, one of the event's organizers, said Monday.

. With any luck, the dirigible will be in the Washington, D.C., skyline sometime in the afternoon on Monday..... The plan is to have it floating over Boston Harbor by the weekend of Dec. 15, where Paul supporters will reenact the Boston Tea Party and hold a large rally at Faneuil Hall.....

A Boston firefighter is mending from what could have been deadly stab wounds he suffered early yesterday morning when he was allegedly jumped in East Boston while off duty by a group of Hispanic males who told him they "don't want any gringo here." Though police are not classifying the incident as racially fueled, the Boston Police Department's Community Disorders Unit is investigating. The 32-year-old jake, whose name officials were not releasing, is white. Ironically, the firefighter's life was likely saved because he sought refuge from his alleged assailants at Engine 5 on Saratoga Street - the station house he's...

Makeshift signs honoring soldiers must be removed from highways By Associated Press | Tuesday, December 4, 2007 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage BOSTON - Those homemade signs, banners and American flags honoring soldiers must come down from highway overpasses in Massachusetts. So says the state highway department, which is concerned that the patriotic displays could fall from their perches and cause a hazard to drivers. Since September 11, 2001, the signs and flags have been placed on bridges to welcome soldiers home, or sometimes to remember fallen servicemen. Ramon Jimenez says he doesn’t understand why the signs have to be...

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner yesterday called for a hearing on a controversial new policy allowing police to go door to door, asking permission to search for guns. “While I understand and share the concern . . . regarding the spread of guns and the use of guns in the city, especially by teenagers, I do not believe the warrantless-search approach is an appropriate response,” Turner said in a statement. Turner could not be reached for comment and Council President Maureen Feeney did not respond to inquiries about what they would consider an appropriate response to the 49 homicides that...

The recent outrage against Constitutional liberty by the Boston Police raises some very interesting questions. Can we voluntarily give up our Constitutional rights? Further, can government legally violate our rights even if we ask them to do so? These are questions that we all need to consider before allowing police into our homes, invited or no. Last week The Boston Globe reported that the Boston police are about to launch a program in "high-crime neighborhoods" where a roving band of policemen will walk door-to-door and ask parents if they have permission to search the home for guns. These police squads...

Howie made his grand return to radio on Nov. 18. In this weekly thread we follow his show plus I'll post interesting columns by him, etc. There are usually daily pings Mon.-Fri. and Sun with his column.

Associated Press BOSTON — Boston police will ask parents in high-crime areas to let detectives search their children's bedrooms for guns without warrants in a new anti-crime program. Police believe parents are so worried their teenagers will be caught up in gun violence that they'll be willing to allow police into their homes. If the parents say no, the police will leave. "They don't know what to do when faced with the problem of dealing with a teenage boy in possession of a firearm," police Commissioner Edward Davis said of parents. We're giving them an option in that case." Davis...

Three former leaders of a defunct Boston-based Islamic charity are scheduled to go on trial today in federal court, accused of lying to the government to win tax-exempt status for the charity and then using the nonprofit to distribute publications promoting jihad and to support Muslim militants overseas.

Several years ago a very beautiful Au Pair (From Sweden I believe) disappeared from a night club in Boston on Landsdowne Street.Some weeks later her torso was found in a dumpster behind Beacon Street.I called the BPD this afternoon and they haven't solved the crime, at least they took the time to tell me it hadn't been solved. But I have to wonder how that poor young lady's family must feel.It seems sad that with all the useless crap that the BPD spends their time on that they can't do anything about this.Part of me wonders now, if by calling...

Drug use, identity theft described in testimony The federal trial of a rogue motorcycle cop threatens to blow the lid off alleged widespread corruption within the Boston Police Department as a key witness drops daily bombshells implicating unindicted officers allegedly involved in illicit drug use, identity fraud and wild sex romps. Roberto “Kiko” Pulido, 42, an 11-year veteran of the force, is on the hot seat in U.S. District Court charged with attempted possession and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He and two other officers, Nelson Carrasquillo and Carlos Pizarro - both of whom have since pleaded guilty to like offenses...

BOSTON - The elegant iron-railing balconies were once catwalks where guards stood watch over the inmates to make sure they didn't try to break out. If you look closely, you can still see the outline of the holes from the iron bars on the windows. ADVERTISEMENT At the newly opened Liberty Hotel, it's hard to escape what this building once was: a decrepit jail where Boston locked up its most notorious prisoners. But that's just the point. After a five-year, $150 million renovation, the old Charles Street jail is now a luxury hotel for guests who can afford to pay...

NEW YORK -- A Boston priest has been arrested on charges of stalking late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien by writing him threatening notes on parish letterhead, contacting his parents and showing up at his studio, prosecutors said Wednesday. "I want a public confession before I ever consider giving you absolution -- or a spot on your couch," wrote David Ajemian, who signed the notes "Padre," said Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office. Ajemian was arrested last week while trying to enter a taping session of NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" at 30 Rockefeller Plaza,...

WBZ) BOSTON 5 crew members of a U.S. Airways flight became ill on a flight to Boston Monday morning. The airline says the two pilots and three flight attendants were working on Flight 2022, a Star Alliance shuttle from Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C. to Logan Airport when they got sick. The flight landed at Logan without incident. The crew was treated by emergency medical services at the gate. EMS told WBZ it took the five to Massachusetts General Hospital with symptoms similar to carbon monoxide poisoning. There were 81 passengers on the plane. None of them were ill. A...

Lawyers for accused Logan airport bomb prankster Star Simpson have asked that a judge, not a jury of her peers, decide the MIT sophomore’s fate. But they’re also hoping Simpson’s Dec. 3 bench trial date in the East Boston Division of Boston Municipal Court won’t be necessary. Defense attorney Thomas Dwyer Jr. this morning filed a motion to dismiss the single charge of possession of a hoax device Simpson, 19, faces. He argued that no reasonable person could have believed the getup that nearly got his client killed by state police on Sept. 21 “could function as such a machine.”...

FOREST HILLS, Mass. -- Catholics in this part of the Boston archdiocese are seeking historic landmark protection status for St. Andrew the Apostle Church. While two local historical societies say the church warrants protection for architectural aesthetics, a Catholic group wants it preserved lest a dark chapter in the history of the Boston church is forgotten. St. Andrew was served by the serial pedophile, former priest John Geoghan from 1974 to 1980. The archdiocese has closed the parish and is trying to sell the property, five buildings on a 3.1 acre lot. Survivors of Geoghan’s abuse want a memorial on...

Looking for good ethnic food? Sample San Antonio. Attractive people? Head to Minneapolis. A romantic escape? Try Santa Fe. They may not be the most obvious choices, but lately they have all out-ranked Boston. Once deemed the most European city in America and routinely ranked as a top travel destination, Boston's place in the minds of travelers has been eclipsed by up-and-coming cities in recent years. When Travel + Leisure rated the best cities in North America earlier this year, Boston wasn't even on the list. Condé Nast Traveler's "Reader's Choice Award" this week put Boston at No. 10, a...