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Last night in East Boston, Massachusetts, a seven-alarm fire broke out, which escalated into an eight-alarm fire. Given the lives of Boston Fire Lieutenant Edward Walsh and Boston Firefighter Michael Kennedy were so recently claimed by a nine-alarm fire in Back Bay, concern was high and news crews were quickly on the scene. They did not expect to find the the following scene… As news crews arrived, local WBZ CBS reporter Katie Brace came upon this BMW 3 Series Coupe, which was parked in front of a fire hydrant. Obviously this was dumb, and the Boston Fire Department quickly dispatched...

A Boston BMW owner made the mistake of parking illegally in front of a fire hydrant, so fire fighters battling an 8-alarm blaze simply smashed a hose through the windows Wednesday night. It appears to be an act of retaliation at first, but firefighters say the fire hose must be as straight as possible to maintain water pressure. And with this multi-home inferno, they needed everything in perfect working order.

Boston Fire battled an 8-alarm fire in the city's East Boston section Wednesday evening. Officials say the fire was reported at 85 Lexington St. just before 7:30 p.m. As of 8 p.m., firefighters were blasting water of the tops of the affected building and surrounding buildings. There's no word yet on any injuries. It's unknown if anyone was in the building at the time and if it's currently occupied. Winds are gusting at 30 mph from the northwest, according to NECN's Joe Joyce.

BOSTON (WWLP) - Immigrants make up a large part of our workforce, but many of them can not get a driver’s license. They either can’t pass the English driving test or they’re waiting on immigration status, and it is making it difficult for them to support their families. “They need to be able to work and get to work. There isn’t enough public transportation in western Mass. and they need to drive,” said Barbara Paul of Holyoke Community College. Immigrants gathered at the State House to push for the right to drive and for more state-funded English programs so they...

Will this lead to busing so liberals can feel good about themselves? A new report from the UCLA Civil Rights Project has named New York’s schools the most segregated in America. Other deep blue Democrat controlled states like Illinois, Michigan, Maryland and New Jersey were cited just behind New York for maintaining the most segregated schools in the nation. While the absence of both Detroit and Washington DC from the top of this list makes its conclusions suspect, the fact remains: New York and the rest of these Oh so Blue states are very segregated. In the latest period for...

**SNIP**The group searched for hours, and just before dusk Tuesday, one of the firefighters found the ring. The Globe reported that the firefighters formed a convoy and rushed the ring to Walsh's wake at a nearby church. The widow was seated a few feet from her husband's casket when she was handed the ring. The Boston Globe reported, "Kristen Walsh took the ring and slid it on her finger. It was big, real big, but it fit in all the ways that matter."

The first chapter is available to read there if any are interested!

BOSTON (AP) — A Saudi Arabian man injured in the Boston Marathon bombings has filed a defamation lawsuit against Glenn Beck, accusing the conservative commentator of calling him "the money man" behind the attack. Abdulrahman Alharbi, 20, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Boston that his reputation was "substantially and severely damaged" as a result of Beck's statements on the air linking him to the bombings. [snip]

Boston Marathon victim sues Glenn Beck for defamation BOSTON (AP) - A Saudi Arabian man injured in the Boston Marathon bombings has filed a defamation lawsuit against Glenn Beck, accusing the conservative commentator of calling him "the money man" behind the attack. Abdulrahman Alharbi, 20, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Boston that his reputation was "substantially and severely damaged" as a result of Beck's statements on the air linking him to the bombings. The lawsuit, which also names the broadcast companies connected to Beck's show, seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages.

Alan Dershowitz told Huckabee tonight that if everything we know about the #FreeJustina case is true, then this is a horrible abuse of human rights and of civil liberties. He said that Massachusetts law is clearly on the side of the parents, pointing out that if there is a conflict in medical opinion over a child under Massachusetts law, the dispute is settled by the parents, not the hospitals or the state. He even offered to help the parents get custody back of their daughter. Watch:

A 9-alarm blaze ripped through a brownstone building in Boston’s Back Bay “like a blowtorch” Wednesday, killing two firefighters and injuring more than a dozen others battling what officials described as one of the fastest-moving fires seen in decades. "We lost two heroes today," Mayor Marty Walsh said. "It's a sad day for the city of Boston.” Fire officials confirmed at a press conference Wednesday night that Lt. Ed Walsh and Firefighter Michael Kennedy died in the fire at 298 Beacon St. Thirteen other firefighters were injured. "Two great firefighters," said Rich Paris, president of the Boston firefighters' union. Walsh,...

The Boston Fire Department is currently battling a 9-alarm fire in the 200 block of Beacon Street in the Back Bay. At least five firefighters have been injured, according to The Boston Globe: Nick Martin, a Boston EMS spokesman, said two firefighters had been transported to Brigham and Women's Hospital, while three others were being evaluated at the scene. It wasn?t clear whether other firefighters might also be injured. Channel 7 reports: Source tells me 2 firefighters suffered 3rd degree burns, 1 went into cardiac arrest, and 1 was reported missing

The F.B.I. agent who fatally shot a Chechen man in Orlando during an interrogation in May about the Boston Marathon bombing suspects has been cleared of wrongdoing by a prosecutor in Florida and by an F.B.I. internal review, according to law enforcement officials.Another review, by the Justice Department, which is almost complete, is expected to conclude that the agent followed proper guidelines on the use of force when he killed the Chechen, Ibragim Todashev, according to the officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to jeopardize their access to classified information.None of the...

It won't be nearly as much fun as eating candy bars, but a big study is being launched to see if pills containing the nutrients in dark chocolate can help prevent heart attacks and strokes. The pills are so packed with nutrients that you'd have to eat countless candy bars to get the amount being tested in this study, which will enroll 18,000 men and women across the U.S. ``People eat chocolate because they enjoy it,'' not because they think it's good for them, and the idea of the study is to see whether there are health benefits from chocolate's...

On this day in 1776, the Siege of Boston ended following the withdrawal of British troops by sea. The Continental Army had surrounded Boston to prevent the British from advancing for almost a year. Finally, Henry Knox's "Noble Train of Artillery" arrived with cannon captured from Fort Ticonderoga in early 1776. After Washington's army fortified Dorchester Heights with the cannon, the British realized their ships were threatened, finally withdrawing after failed attempts to destroy or capture the Continental position.

The dank South Boston warehouse held a chill last weekend when the flatbed arrived, a 20-foot-long landscaping trailer with a wood plank floor stained by dirt. Around the flatbed gathered almost a dozen people — predominantly men from the surrounding blocks — wearing winter coats and work gloves. The job ahead was daunting: transforming the flatbed into a parade float with seven faux cannons. From each cannon would flow a different color of the rainbow — fabric draped over plastic piping — landing in a pot of gold. Randy Foster and Steve Martin had done this before. They built a...

The fight over Southie’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade got frosty yesterday, with Boston Beer Co. pulling its longtime sponsorship from the parade over the organizers’ refusal to let gay veterans march — and one Southie bar fighting back with a vow to boycott the brew. “Sam Adams doesn’t support South Boston. They don’t want to support veterans like my father and uncle, so they can go sell their beer elsewhere,” said Tommy Flaherty Jr., a lifelong Southie resident whose father and uncle own the landmark Cornerstone Pub & Restaurant on West Broadway. Flaherty Jr. said he and his father, Thomas...

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden said today that rather than helping combat terrorism, the U.S. government’s massive surveillance programs have led to “tremendous intelligence failures” and may have contributed to allowing the deadly Boston Marathon bombing to have taken place. “We’re monitoring everybody’s communications, instead of suspects’ communications,” Snowden said during a live video conference at Austin’s popular South by Southwest festival. “That lack of focus has caused us to miss leads that we should’ve had. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the Boston bombers, the Russians had warned us about him… And if we hadn’t spent so much on mass...

"Boston Makes Final Preparations for 2014 Marathon New protocols will "preserve the traditional feel and character of the Boston Marathon" after 2013 bombings." 03/10/2014

A daylight street fight in the Back Bay turned bloody yesterday when a man stabbed two women, leaving one of them in critical condition before fleeing, a witness and police said. Nigel Stone, 18, of North Attleboro said he was on the other side of Hereford Street, about 70 yards away, when two women fighting caught his eye. The women were punching each other and pulling each other’s hair when a man intervened, stabbing the woman winning the scuffle along with a second woman — who was not involved in the fight — but was at her side, Stone said.