Our Popular Mayor has been shelved by an impending knee surgery and will be back in Mayoral action by Monday morning, at the earliest, according to the Herald. The arthroscopic surgery, which will take place Friday morning, is required to repair damage to the knee sustained when Menino committed a costly error during the October 2007 Red Sox World Series rally, dropping the World Series trophy.......

In an era when everyone bemoans the future of journalism, NECN founder Philip Balboni thinks he has figured out a way to make money from it. According to Forbes, Balboni's new venture, GlobalNews Enterprises (GNE), plans to revive journalism by--wait for it--helping journalists make money. You don't say! With the markets in meltdown, will journalism become the new i-banking for smart young Ivy Leaguers? GNE plans to station journalists around the world, bringing back the......

-- When you're not getting your news from Bostonist, NewsCred might offer the best articles available on the Web. [Blogstring] -- Apparently the T has set up a radar gun to monitor the Green Line speed at Packard's Corner. Lo and behold, someone caught the trolley going almost twice the speed limit. [Universal Hub] -- Someone at the Smithsonian wonders which museum is better: the MFA or the the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She's......

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill is of the completely outlandish opinion that the Turnpike Authority should auction off its mysterious money eating machine as a condition of any state bailout. [Globe] Possible future Turnpike employees have little regard for probability, hubris. [Herald] As if drops in funding and circulation numbers weren't enough, d-bag hackers ran up a $15,000 phone bill at the Duxbury public library. [WBZTV] WGBH's massive traffic hazard landmark television screen could......

Updates on two big stories from yesterday: Senator Kennedy is out of MGH, and the woman found dead in Mission Hill has been identified as a Northeastern student. Kennedy's apparently planning his course of treatment as though it was a legislative bill, grilling experts and seeking out multiple options. There is no indication that he would have to step down as senator, but if it were to happen, there'd be a special election to fill......

Citizens of the Commonwealth, please stay calm. I have already received pleas and entreaties asking why I allowed something so earth shattering to occur. How could I, guider of planets and stars, seer of all things known and to be known, and memorizer of at least 3 different Dr. Seuss poems (The Lorax is impossible by the way) permit such a volatile combination of powerful forces that are borderline nuclear? I must be honest,......

Dreamboat Baby (pictured, in utero) is the growing child of Tom Brady & Bridget Moynahan. He reads at a collegiate level and his organs are made of gold. He blogs about his life, his physical development, his parents, and their paramours at his blog. But, his intelligence being boundless like the drops of water that fill the very ocean, he comments on the news of the day for Bostonist. This is his first installment. See......

Today's Globe featured a story on the tremendous pull that police and fire unions have on city government. Roderick Fraser Jr. heads the fire department, but Local 718 Ed Kelly has his own ideas for the direction of the fire department. Mayor Menino's disputes with the fire department, particularly over the issue of drug testing after the Tai Ho Restaurant fire, which killed firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne, are notorious. It still isn't clear......

The aide to Governor Deval Patrick who had been accused of sexually assaulting a teen boy at a Florida resort must be a happy man tonight. Charges against him have been dropped, Casey Ross reports that there wasn't enough evidence to prove the boy's story: “There was no physical evidence collected that may have been able to place both individuals together in the steam room, nor are there any independent witnesses that could do so,”......

A four-alarm fire broke out at the Mandarin Hotel construction site this morning, and it was so strong that it shut down Boylston Street. The fire's origins have been located in "some cabinets on the fourth floor of the 15-story hotel," WBZ reports. The cabinets were part of a fitness room. WBZ has some scary footage of the smoke going up in the sky. Only one construction work sustained "minor burns." That's a true stroke......

--As if it couldn't get any worse for the MBTA. Hackers have been playing with the Charlie Card. [Boston Herald] --The owner of Tai Ho Restaurant, where Boston firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne died, wants to reopen. It's worth remembering that the fire gathered in the ceiling because grease accumulated in the vents. [WBZ] --A task force has decided, after much back and forth, to take down the homemade signs on highways thanking......

You'd think that Boston College would know to steer clear of controversy after the Condoleezza Rice Fiasco. But Boston College Law School invited Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who won't say that waterboarding is torture, to speak at their commencement, and not everyone is happy about it. As a compromise, Mukasey will get to speak, but he won't get a Founder's Medal from BC. Then again, it could have been worse. They could have invited Alberto......

The tag line for Chuck E. Cheese is "Where a kid can be a kid." It should be amended to say, "Where a kid can be a kid, and where an adult can be an asshole." Massachusetts just came one harrowing step closer to getting its own FARK tag with this tale of two moms who duked it out at a Chuck E. Cheese in Natick. The moms started fighting during a child's birthday party......

--Leading off with a happy story: officers in East Boston responded to a car where a woman was in labor. After her water broke in their presence, the police helped deliver the baby, put the baby in a blanket, checked that the baby was breathing properly, and then made sure the family arrived safely at Mass General Hospital. Somebody deserves a raise. [BPD News] --Authorities are investigating a string of robberies targeting illegal immigrants......

--Five men were arrested for the stabbing death of Terrence Jacobs, 16, last May. Everyone arrested is from Dorchester, except one man from Brockton. [Boston Globe] --In a follow-up to the case in which a man stabbed his ex to death, stabbed another woman 8 times, bit a man, and then stabbed himself to death in New Bedford, Jane Doe Inc. notes that the incident marks the sixth domestic violence homicide in Massachusetts this year.......

--Two people were killed in a brutal murder-suicide in New Bedford yesterday. A man stabbed a woman with a steak knife before stabbing himself to death. The man also went after the woman's roommates, stabbing one and biting another. [Boston Globe] --Che Sosa, a convicted rapist who is notorious for attacking his own defense attorney in the courtroom with a knife, returned to court yesterday. This time, he was accompanied by well-armed and well-covered guards......

As more concerns rise about the Big Dig bolts, the Green Line goes on the fritz, and the fact that our tunnels don't have sprinklers, Amtrak is adding its own small voice to the mix. Amtrak must replace railroad ties made of concrete that is starting to crack. The company says that replacing the ties will cost "tens of millions of dollars." Here's the insulting part--Amtrak put the ties in during the 1990s. They should......

--The body of a dead woman was found in a car in Malden. Police are treating the case as a homicide but have not yet disclosed many details about what might have happened. The family of a woman who has been missing since February 13, the owner of a Malden hair salon, say they are "99 percent sure" it is her. [Boston Globe, WBZ] --A Westfield 14-year-old has miraculously emerged from a long coma......

Turns out Green Line service is down between Government Center and Lechmere. Here's the T Alert that was sent out: Green Line - Due to a wire problem at North Station. A substitute bus shuttle is operating between Government Center and Lechmere making all local stops. Passengers should utilize Orange Line service to make connections for Haymarket, North Station or Back Bay (for Copley area). Please allow extra time for your commute. 2/28/2008 11:01 AM......

--The search for the Northeastern student who had been missing since the day after the Super Bowl has ended. BPD detectives tracked him to Paris, France, and he has now contacted his parents to let him know that he is well. He better bring some baguettes back for his parents and the BPD. [BPD News] --A South End woman and her friend allegedly lured a Brockton man back from a nightclub to her apartment,......

-- Update on the stabbing in Revere. Police have identified the suspect. 23 year-old Cory Roche, of Lynn, allegedly stabbed his mother to death in her home yesterday. Police responding to the incident shot Roche in the torso after he allegedly refused to drop a knife. Roche has a long criminal history and probably suffers from mental illness, according to court papers. A 2004 mental evaluation noted that he claims to hear voices. No motive......

A Boston pharmaceutical sales rep who is on this season's cycle of "Big Brother" went to the hospital after having an allergic reaction to "slop." Allison Nichols had to eat the aforementioned "slop" as a punishment. (As far as Bostonist is concerned, being on or watching "Big Brother" is punishment enough.) Her lips swelled and she said her throat closed up. Meanwhile, another contestant had a seizure, Reality TV World and the New York Daily......

--Revere police arrived to a crime scene today at 3:15 p.m. They reported a fatal stabbing and a non-fatal shooting. There aren't many details available at this point, but a source tells the Herald that the victim was attacked by her son. [Boston Herald] --A Brookline teen was charged with drunken driving after hitting a 21-year-old pedestrian on Comm Ave between Exeter and Fairfield in the Back Bay at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday. He......

--A judge set the bail for Damion Jamaal-Anthony Haley, the man who allegedly fired a gun into a crowd of brawling partygoers at Aria over the weekend, at $1 million. [WBZ] --Four people sustained injuries after trying to get off a train before it stopped at Whitman Station yesterday afternoon. [MetroWest Daily News] --Looks like people are getting the Baby Safe Haven message. Last year, people delivered five newborns (two stillborn) to hospitals. Baby......

--Violent revelers turned a party for "Girls Gone Wild" at Aria on Tremont Street into a full-on fracas early this morning: "Two people were shot, a state trooper broke his arm and a Boston police officer was in a cruiser crash." A brawl involving 20 to 35 people swinging champagne bottles broke out, and then one armed man started firing into the crowd. [Boston Herald, BPD News] --Police are looking for a former student at......

--Terry Francona will stay with the Red Sox through 2011. [Boston Globe Extra Bases] --The New York Times glad-games the Greenway, asking if it was worth the trouble given the issues of the Big Dig. [New York Times] --A student at Bentley College is being treated for bacterial meningitis. Last year, a Bentley freshman died from bacterial meningitis. [WCVB] --If you feel the need for speed, squelch it if you are passing through Marshfield,......

--Some none-too-bright teens robbed a pizza delivery guy of his pie yesterday in Dorchester. After scoring their pizza, they took off, and the BPD had the easiest time ever finding them. For starters, they left footprints in the snow, and they dropped pizza crusts in their building. [BPD News] --A heroic mother in Dorchester contacted police after suspecting her 15-year-old was hiding a loaded weapon in her home. Police searching the home came up with......

--Someone kept the President's Day spirit going a little too long, allegedly robbing a Bridgewater bank yesterday while wearing an Abraham Lincoln mask. Police have apprehended a suspect who they think actually robbed the same bank once before (though not donning the Honest Abe facade for that caper.) [Boston Globe] --A Haverhill woman was convicted of drug trafficking and given 15 years after she was tied to 51 kilograms of cocaine, with a street......

Elections are expensive this year, and it turns out that former Massachusetts governor and former presidential aspirant Mitt Romney paid a pretty penny for each delegate he received before dropping out of the race. Foon Rhee reports that Romney put in $42.3 million of his own money into his presidential campaign. As of last October, he had already put in $17.5 million, suggesting that he made a massive money push in the last days.......

--The biggest crime at the gas station is usually related to the price of petroleum. But police in the South End found two men fighting yesterday at a Mobil after an alleged carjacking. The victim claims that his car was stolen when he went to pay for his gas. After chasing the alleged suspect, he was punched by the man and the two engaged in fisticuffs until the BPD arrived. [BPD News] --A 38-year-old......