Watertown News reports Watertown Police, a local Toyota dealer and a sign painter have teamed up on a free program to spray paint "Property of Watertown Police" on the catalytic converters of older Priuses - which are particularly popular with thieves - in the hopes that will make the expensive devices harder for thieves to resell.
Teddy Kokoros spotted some Vikings rowing up the Charles near the Arsenal Street Bridge on the Brighton/Watertown line this afternoon - perhaps on their way to reclaim their ancient lands along the Charles in Weston. Read more.
Rachel Anne Miller watched the hail come down near Porter Square in Cambridge as the storm moved through around 2:45 p.m. Read more.
Greg Reibman at the Charles River Regional Chamber reports that Gannett will stop printing the Newton Tab, Needham Times and Watertown Tab & Press in May. It shut its paper serving some Boston neighborhoods in December.
The Charles River Watershed Association makes the case for removing dams along the river, starting with the one in Watertown, which long ago ceased to fulfill its original function of powering a grist mill and which now is in bad shape , a fish-species destroyer and a general menace in the event of a major storm.
BAC Library journeyed over to the T's North Cambridge yard today to take one last look at the trackless trolleys before the T starts ripping out all the wires next month in preparation for the arrival of battery-powered buses (with small diesel engines for heat) - in a couple of years or so (in the interregnum, the T will run diesel buses). T workers even rolled out a venerable old non-wire-powered RTS bus (on the right) for inspection.
The Watertown Board of Health has decreed "requiring face coverings for all persons at all times when inside public spaces or private spaces open to the public," effective at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday. Read more.
A federal judge has dismissed Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi's libel suit against United Press International for a headline it ran on an op-ed piece that labeled him as an Iranian spy after he was arrested on charges he didn't register with the US government as a foreign agent for work he did to present the Iranian side of things in Western press interviews. Read more.
The Board of Health order goes into effect Wednesday for everybody over 5, Watertown News reports.
A federal grand jury last week indicted a Watertown man and his two sons for an alleged scheme in which they managed to evade hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes on the $21 million in winning state lottery tickets they cashed in between 2011 and 2020. Read more.
Watertown News reports the attack. which left another dog injured, happened in the area of Walnut Street on Friday night.
Watertown News reports the Charter Commission for the City Known as the Town of Watertown is considering changing the official name to just the City of Watertown.
Watertown News reports (scroll down a few pages) an Elm Street resident who'd had an argument with another tenant in his building called 911 to report the other tenant was in the basement with a gun, threatening people. Several officers arrived, found the alleged gunman on the porch, just sitting there, and, after a brief investigation, found the 911 caller and summonsed him to court for making a false report.
Watertown News has the details on the Arlington Street crash (scroll down a page).
HuffPost takes a look at the background of Benjamin Welton, until yesterday a teacher at Star Academy, which has campuses in Watertown and Wellesley, and a history PhD candidate at Boston University.
Restoration won't include removing the highways, though. 1886 view of the proposed Charles River parks from BPL Leventhal Map Center.
DCR is aiming for a fall start of a pilot program to test various methods for restoring the banks of the Charles River Basin and reducing the amount of invasive trees and other plants along the banks that it says crowd out native species and reduce the vistas of the scenic waterway. Read more.
Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, a former BU professor who has been giving the Iranian side of Middle East issues in articles and interviews since 2007, today sued United Press International and one of its writers for claiming his arrest in January was for being a spy when, in fact, he was charged with a federal law that requires lobbyists getting paid by foreign governments to register with the Justice Department. Read more.
Mary Ellen spotted this green-winged teal on the Charles River in Watertown today, not far from where she spotted a male wood duck: Read more.
Afrasiabi, from interview with Iranian news agency last fall.
The US Department of Justice today charged Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, 63, of Watertown with acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Iranian government. Read more.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
