Snow emergencies have been declared in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. Here's the dirt on parking and getting around: --T alerts: This should come as no surprise, but all T lines are experiencing delays of 30 minutes or more. The MBTA website has been blinking in and out, but we did get an alert that the Silver Line Routes 742 (SL2) and 743 (SL3) are being diverted and that all buses are "omitting 88 Black......

People are taking the incoming snow seriously. Bostonist heard word that state employees are leaving work early, at 1:00 pm, because of the weather. Adam's French Toast Alert is on high. And he's selling T shirts. The weather guy on NECN said several times that he wasn't messing around and that people should stay off the roads. The National Weather Service advises: "It is recommended that if possible all travel be completed by 1:00 pm......

If you dare to venture out that way--and you may not want to after this morning and the storm that is coming in--Green Line Service is back up. Or, in the lingo of the T alert system: "Green Line service is running with residual delays as a result of an earlier medical emergency at Boylston station." If you hadn't already heard, Trolleys Collide, Closing Green Line This Morning A side note: A commenter let us......

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryant Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

--Screenwriters, get your pens. A boy finagled his way into becoming an exchange student at the all-female Wellesley College. Ready … set … go! [Boston Globe] --Barack Obama and his supporters didn't let the weather stop their gathering at the Park Plaza Castle. He joked that "the name of my cousin, Dick Cheney, will not be on the ballot.” Now when's Oprah coming? [WCVB, Harvard Crimson] --Dr. Ruth was in town. Laurel Sweet describes her......

If the amount of T alerts entering our inbox is any indication, the new T Alert system appears to be working just fine. In fact, it proves what we already knew--that the green line is a sluggish nightmare thanks to disabled trains. An alert appears when a 15-20 delay happens. But one commenter, boston_sean, left us a note that the T Alert system needs a little work when it comes to the commuter rail: I......

The next time the MBTA shuts down due to a trash fire, riders might get some advance warning of a problem through the brand-spanking-new MBTA alert text messaging service. The Metro is reporting that a pilot program will start this week. After the widely rejected "innovation" of T Radio, it seems that the MBTA brass has gotten the message and is rolling out something that is useful for its customers. Alerts will be sent out......

Unusually quiet on the local sports scene yesterday. Sure, the World Champion Red Sox dispersed to the talk show circuit. At various times last night, and for the next few days, you can see members of the hometown team doing walkons with Letterman, Leno, O'Brien, "The Daily Show", "Nightline", "The NFL Today", "Thomas the Tank Engine", "The Iron Chef", "CSI: Miami", and "Deadliest Catch". Check your local listings. But in terms of actual, on-the-field, recappable......

A tipster just alerted us to the fact that Yahoo! sports text messaging update service sent out at about 9:40 p.m. tonight an alert that tonight's baseball game began at 8:40 p.m. Dear Yahoo!: Sox won in four. Season's over. Love, Bostonist......

Donnie Darko American Repertory Theatre Based on the screenplay by Richard Kelly Adapted and directed by Marcus Stern October 27 - November 18 Zero Arrow Theatre, Cambridge Ticket and performance information Bostonist has always wanted to speak with someone who actually saw Richard Kelly's 2001 drama "Donnie Darko" in a movie theater during its original run. Given the fact it was only shown on 58 screens nationwide during that brief October 2001 run, our odds......

Halloween weekend is upon us, and much like last year's festivities there are far too many options to choose from. In addition to that, Boston has gone completely bonkers over the Red Sox kicking ass in the World Series, so you can be sure to find extra excitement in every neighborhood you party in over the next few days. (pssst! click image for larger flier) THUNDERDOME VIII Friday, October 26th Greek American Political Club 288......

Are random bag searches on the T back? The Crimson reports that the MBTA has embarked upon its first random bag searches at the Harvard Square T stop last Thursday. Security didn't rummage through any bags, but "the handles and zippers are swabbed with a special test strip which is then fed through an explosives detection machine." Lt. Salvatore Venturelli also told the Crimson that the T is using a "random mathematical permutation" to make......

Maybe someday, when all this is over, we'll sit down with (or maybe without) Terry Francona and we'll all have a good laugh out of all of this. Because when it became obvious that Curt Schilling didn't have it (and he was OK, but clearly didn't have his A game, or even the B+ game he's been getting by with), maybe a different manager would have gone to Jon Lester, or Julian Tavarez (whoops! he's......

--Now we have a possible motive regarding the beat-down rained upon Massachusetts resident Carlos Ortez when he was leaving a New York bar. The cause wasn't a fight over the Red Sox or the Yankees--it may have been the other big reason for barroom brawls--a woman. --Late-breaking news: This afternoon, one person got shot in the leg during an apparent drive-by in Roxbury. Police say witnesses saw a white car leaving the scene. --The BPD......

Update: We spoke to a patient MBTA customer-service rep who said that she didn't know how long Park Street Station would be closed. She said that the decision to reopen it was entirely up to the fire department. Update to the Update: A tipper going from downtown to Cambridge let us know that a red line train actually made it through, and the doors opened at Park Street, so the T appears to be functional......

Sit back and imagine that you're with the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure, and it's your job to distribute disks chock-full of names and addresses for those who have professional licenses in the state of Massachusetts. You distribute these disks because marketing firms want them thanks to the public records law. That doesn't sound so hard. So you use the office's new software to gather and generate this information. Then you let it run and......

Alert! Alert! All units copy! FNX radio is bringing grungy Canadian youngsters Tokyo Police Club and hard-rocking locals Tiny Whales to The Harp tonight. It's a free show--just sign up for an FNX card and you're in the door. Can't beat that! While almost any music is enjoyable when it's free, these bands are actually good enough to pay for. Perennially picky Pitchfork gave Tokyo Police Club's newest release, A Lesson in Crime, a......

This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King and appreciated their beautiful skyline. Chicagoist knows what it's like to like the Cubs. But naming your kid Wrigley Fields? At least they can breathe a little easier now that Grossman's out and......

After the swift response to MIT student Star Simpson's infamous arrival at Logan Airport, the united front of law enforcement against the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and the mailing of empty pill boxes to residents, imagine our surprise upon hearing that Massachusetts would be unprepared in the event of a terror attack. Boston proves that just because you're easily frightened doesn't mean you can protect yourself if something really bad happened. Governor Deval Patrick's team......

--A man in Plymouth was arrested for beating up a kitten in a CVS parking lot. Robert J. Frates, 25, blamed the cat for his despicable actions, claiming the cat peed on him. The poor cat, whose owner is unknown, had to be put to sleep. --Drivers, brace yourself, and watch the skies. Pumpkin-tossing season is coming. Cretins are warming up by tossing rocks off an overpass above Route 24 in Bridgewater, and police are......

A steam pipe burst downtown today. LiveJournal poster bluerose_x reported "amazing amounts of smoke shooting up from the manhole." A Bostonist tipper noted "a questionable brown substance all over a pick-up truck and at least one guy." That substance likely contains asbestos. WHDH also has video and reports that some people had to be decontaminated because the pipes had asbestos, and the area is covered with debris. Hence, hazmat will be involved. Myfoxboston had raw......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

Former MIT professor and business whiz John Donovan Sr. has been found guilty for staging his own shooting in 2005, wasting a hell of a lot of Cambridge's time, and irritating state Attorney General Martha Coakley. Supposedly, his motive for such weird behavior was that he wanted to get revenge on his son by saying his son had hired Russian hit men to kill him. Donovan went on trial last week for filing a false......

Douglas Brinkley will read at Porter Square Books tomorrow, July 2, at 7:00 pm. Just what did Ronald Reagan think about? Gorbachev's birthmark? Bonzo? Anything? He must have been deep in some way. The actor-turned-politician still has a grip on American politicians, who are trying to imitate his winning folksy formula. Historian Douglas Brinkley is the man who knows what was going on in Reagan's skull, as he's edited Reagan's diaries. And Reagan had a......

Ah….. summer in Boston: Lobster rolls, ice-cold Sam Adams, and teen-agers shooting each other on the subway. Boston.com issued a breaking news alert today at 2:44 PM: “Police Search for 2 Suspects after Teen Shot on Orange Line Train.” According to the story by Mac Daniel, at about 1 p.m. a teenager exited the outbound train at Ruggles and pulled a gun on another “18 to-19 year old” male, who was still on the train.......

When we first heard that one of Boston's city councilors proposed putting protective plastic cocktail covers on cocktail lids. We thought, "Oh, no. This is just too embarrassing. This is late-night talk-show-host fodder." Councilor Stephen J. Murphy has good intentions - he thinks the lids would discourage perverts from slipping date-rape drugs into the beverages of women who may leave their glasses unattended. That sounds like a nice gesture, although not all women are helpless......

The documentary Have You Seen Andy? will air on Cinemax tomorrow, Tuesday, June 12, at 7:00 pm. In an age of Amber Alerts, JonBenet Ramsey, and images of missing children on all the 24-hour news channels, it's difficult to imagine a disappearance that wasn't resolved. But 10-year-old Andy Puglisi, who vanished in 1976 from a Lawrence swimming pool, has never been found. One of his childhood friends, Melanie Perkins, grew up to be a......

When The Boston Phoenix hit newsstands on Thursday, a month and a day had passed since Kelly Wallace was killed at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Harvard Avenue in Allston. Wallace was riding her bicycle when the accident occurred on May 6 - her death marked the second Boston bicycle fatality in about a month. Two lives, two scenes, two ghost bicycles. According to the Phoenix story that ran late last month, Wallace wrote......

This from WBZ: A two-alarm fire that started at about 8:20 pm shut down the Longfellow Bridge. Trains were stopped, traffic was diverted, and heavy smoke forced the Charles-MGH station to shut down. The MBTA has posted the alert on its website and offered a few terse details: "A homeless man started a fire underneath the Longfellow Bridge. As a result the Boston Fire Department has stopped all traffic. Subway Red Line service is being......

Another sexual assault took place in early yesterday morning in Medford, prompting police to send out warnings to local residents. The victim of the second assault got lucky - the suspect grabbed her, but a car passed, and he ran off. Tufts sent out a notice saying that three attacks of that nature have happened before April 23. Here is the police's description of this individual: "The attacker is described as white, heavy set, in......