Free Republic

BOSTON (WHDH) - Police have arrested a man caught taking photos inside the Callahan Tunnel. According to investigators, the suspect claimed it was simple photography, but police are not taking any chances. Massachusetts State Police said they found Muhammad Mamun taking photos inside the tunnel at 5 a.m. on Sunday. "How could taking pictures put me in such a situation?" Mamun said. "People take pictures of Bunker Hill, they don't get arrested. Why did I get arrested?"

Jean Durkee, known and beloved as “Miss Jean” of Boston’s version of the “Romper Room” television series from the late ’50s to the early ’70s, died Tuesday at the age of 90. Born in Lynn and raised in Salem, Durkee started out her career teaching language arts and social studies and serving as the director of girls’ physical education at Lynnfield Jr. High School, before continuing on in Lynn where she taught students with physical disabilities in grades 1-6. When given the opportunity to make the pivot from a traditional classroom to the television screen in 1958, Durkee “was nervous...

More than 200,000 DirecTV customers in Greater Boston have been cut off from channels 7 and 56 since Saturday, and they might miss the Super Bowl unless the satellite provider settles its dispute with the stations’ owner. Disputes over fees paid by cable and satellite providers to TV networks and stations have sometimes resulted in temporary blackouts. Consumers lose access to programs until an agreement is reached. Florida-based Sunbeam Television Corp. - owner of WHDH-TV (Channel 7), WLVI-TV (Channel 56), and a sister Fox affiliate in Miami - blacked out its stations on the DirecTV service as it seeks an...

WHDH-TV acknowledged yesterday what thousands of viewers had already discovered since last Friday’s nationwide conversion to digital television: its Channel 7 signal is hard to get in the post-analog era. The NBC affiliate said yesterday that it has begun simulcasting its signal on Channel 42, its temporary sister digital station, until it works out “signal difficulties” with the Federal Communications Commission. “We are very sorry for the inconvenience to our viewers, and we hope to have this resolved quickly,” said general manager Chris Wayland. In a statement, WHDH blamed the problem on a “power allocation” issue. The station said that...

FYI- WE ARE NOW UP ON CH 42- PLEASE LET OUR VIEWERS KNOW We received your recent e-mail regarding our digital channel. We are now simulcasting our digital signal on Channel 7 and on Channel 42 (our pre-transition digital channel). In order to see us on Channel 42, you will need to rescan again. To rescan, press "menu" on your remote. Then choose "auto-scan" or "installation." This begins the rescan process---it may take several minutes to complete this process. Like a number of other stations in cities across the country, WHDH is experiencing signal difficulties following the transition that took...

Jay Leno fans will be able to catch his new show in his old Boston stomping grounds. The Andover native and Emerson College grad is staying put on Channel 7. The station did an about-face yesterday and said it planned to broadcast Leno’s new 10 p.m. show in September rather than lose Leno for an hour of local news. “Upon further consideration, we have decided to telecast Jay Leno at 10 p.m. starting in September,” WHDH-TV owner Ed Ansin said in a brief statement. “Jay is from Andover, where I went to school. I enjoy his humor. We hope the...

For Boston-area NBC-TV viewers Friday, it was a quadruple-dose of unfounded allegations as news anchors, reporters, commentators and musicians worked overtime to promote racial tensions. WHDH-7's local evening newscast kicked off the guilt-fest, pushing an evidence-less assertion that white America is indifferent to the suffering of a black city such as New Orleans. How does this help the recovery effort? From the transcript of NBC-7 commentator Andy Hiller's unjustified on-air tirade:

Rejoice — Martha Beatriz Roque, an economist and one of Cuba's most famous dissidents, is free (as much as you can be free in Cuba). She was released from prison last week, having been arrested in Castro's March 2003 crackdown. As she walked out of prison, she said to a Lieutenant Colonel Perdomo, "I am leaving free of conditions. I am a dissident and I will continue being a dissident." According to the Information Bridge, "Martha Beatriz requested that we extend her gratitude to everyone in the exile community and in the entire world who provided solidarity in her case,...