A Springfield man who orchestrated a ring of catalytic-converter thieves that operated across two states - including in Newton, Waltham and Needham - was sentenced this week to ten years in federal prison, the US Attorney's office reports, adding the arrests of ring members last year has meant a significant decrease in catalytic-converter thefts. Read more.

Last month, the US Attorney's office announced roundups of alleged members of the H Block and Mission Hill gangs.

The alleged associates of the H Block gang, based on the streets north of Franklin Park, were charged with the sort of gun- and drug-related offenses you'd expect. But their Mission Hill counterparts - based at the Mission Main and Annunciation Road projects - were charged with a different kind of crime with which to support their own violent warring: Heading out into wealthy suburbs and stealing large amounts of mail which they'd rifle for checks, so they could "wash" them with chemicals and make out checks in large amounts to themselves or accomplices. Read more.

Police in Needham are trying to sooth the nerves of residents getting e-mail from somebody who claims to have installed spyware on their phones or computers with which to track their activity on porn sites and who says they will release the information to family and friends unless the residents pay $2,000 in Bitcoin immediately. Read more.

Iconic "You-do-it" electronics store in Needham has announced they are closing. It's been a mainstay of electronics geeks and pros that needed something in a pinch for decades. They haven't announced the final closing date but did say they going to 10am-5pm starting Tuesday and selling the remaining inventory and shelving, etc.

Their nickname was "You-blew-it" so this could be considered the end of an error.

Needham Police report three officers were dispatched this morning to the Pollard Middle School on a report of an owl trapped in a soccer net. Read more.

The Swellesley Report details how just another Friday night in Wellesley, Needham and Dover turned exciting when police blew up a live mortar some guy doing some magnet fishing found in the Charles River where the three towns meet - after they sent out alerts to residents to not get alarmed when they heard something exploding down by the river.

Yesterday afternoon, just before the deluge that gave us That Rainbow, the Long Ditch that connects two loops of the Charles at the Dedham/Needham line (dug by the busy-beaver colonial settlers who also gave us the Mother Brook), had overflowed its banks and was flooding the nearby marshes of Cutler Park. As it was designed to do. Read more.

Mary Ellen crossed the Charles and spotted this deer in Cutler Park on the Needham/Dedham line, across from Millennium Park.

Mary Ellen spotted this eagle, maybe 3 to 3 1/2 years old, across the Charles from Millennium Park today. Bald eagles go fully "bald" when they're about 4 1/2 years, assuming they don't get poisoned by rodenticide first.

A videographer who was fired from his job working on WCVB's "Chronicle" show in 2021 for refusing Covid-19 shots has sued the station and the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance for his firing in November, 2021 and denial of unemployment benefits, saying the station refused his legitimate request for a religious exemption and that the state is also discriminating against him by refusing to pay him unemployment. Read more.