--Massachusetts earned a C in state government from the Pew Center. Given the state of the Big Dig, is it any wonder? [Boston Herald] --The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA, which includes Calderwood Pavilion and the Cyclorama) is undergoing a sudden change in leadership. [Boston Globe] --Glenn Ordway, local sports radio host on WEEI, is taking some time off the air because his wife and daughter sustained injuries during childbirth. [Boston Herald] --In related......

In his appearance last week on Radio Boston, Dan Grabauskas didn't discuss the issue of violence on the T. No one else asked him about it, either. But he has a lot to do now that a 15-year-old named Tiara Amarante documented the perils of riding the 23 bus. People riding the 23 are living in fear of thugs who pack heat, fight and intimidate riders on a daily basis. Amarante is a freshman at......

The big movie news this week was the rock-bottom ratings for the Oscar telecast. People just didn't tune in. Maybe it was the fact that the big movies weren't money-makers, but do the masses really expect the Academy to nominate Spider-Man 3 for an Oscar? No. However, nominating Ratatouille for best picture instead of limiting it to the animated section might have at least piqued the interest of moviegoers. One movie that will not get......

We were in Detroit for the weekend, and the most frequently asked questions about Boston were "What happened in the Super Bowl?" and "Is that Big Dig thing finally finished?" The latter is easier to answer: No. The Globe reports today--months after the official ending--that there are some 2,000 tasks of varying importance that have yet to be completed by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's contractors. The MTA says that while the Big Dig is functional......

Radio Boston had MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas on the air on Friday, and he took questions from callers about the T. He likely realized that he was about to put his feet to the fire, as Radio Boston began the show with a few quotations, such as "I hate the people on the T, I hate the service, I hate everything about the T." When Grabauskas had his turn at the mike, he repainted......

Be warned, Starbucks addicts and people who like free bathrooms: The coffee shop will be closed tonight between 5:30 and 9:00 for an emergency training of its employees, or "baristas," as they are known. In a city where the Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts battle rages, Dunkin' Donuts is staking its claim by cutting prices on its small drinks to 99 cents until 10:00 pm, WBZ reports. Dunkin' Donuts is declaring coffee war, and it's......

For some of you, welcome back from a long weekend. In case you missed it, the Herald ran a shocking story about the MBTA cutting rides from its schedule without telling riders about it. They did it on purpose to save money, effectively punking riders who are told a bus or train will come at a certain time, only to wait for a ride that will never arrive. Bostonist already posted on the subject when......

--A brawler went crackers at 10 City Square in Charlestown--yes, that's Olives, owned by celebrity chef Todd English. This perp gave employees a hard time by "starting fights with several patrons and urinating in the bar area." People pee in public all the time, but at Olives? Did he not like the squab and chanterelle mushroom risotto with corn foam? Alleged disrespectful foodie urination wasn't enough for this guy, and he perp grew increasingly bold.......

Manchildren Founder of K Records and former member of Beat Happening, Calvin Johnson mastered precious naivete decades before it became the default indie mode. His off-kilter baritone is what sold it, and he's bringing his voice and an acoustic guitar to Cambridge tonight. Teenbeat Records founder Mark Robinson also performs as Cotton Candy. Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, 7:00pm, $10. Men With Children Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers is returning to......

Awkward Lectures Cory Arcangel's best known artwork Super Mario Clouds turns the world's first scrolling video game into a digital environment of placid repetition. It percolated on the internet and spilled into the Whitney's Biennial, making Arcangel a digital art superstar. But his true calling may have been as a lecturer. Whether the topic is hacking old electronics or copyright; his willful ignorance of art history or his place in it, Arcangel always entertains.......

Unfortunately National Pancake Day is not a federal holiday--yet! National Pancake Day just commemorates all the pancakes gave their lives 20 years ago today at John Candy's house. You still have time to make a snack or meal out of a short stack (3) of pancakes. Every year IHOP gives away pancakes in hopes of guilting you to give some cash to support local children's hospitals. People actually gave $625k last year, not counting......

--Matt O'Malley offers a ward-by-ward breakdown of how the city of Boston voted in the Democratic primary. [Matt O'Malley] --Barstool Sports is calling for a boycott of the Boston Herald "except the Inside Track" because of sportswriter John Tomase's story about the Patriots videotaping the Rams. [Barstool Sports] --Massachusetts will be representing on reality TV when Big Brother airs--but will they be representing well? [Third Decade] --Valentine's is coming up, and one local website offers......

Music Cat Power will be at the Orpheum. Last time Bostonist saw her, she seemed a little plowed and, with her dark glasses, she resembled country singer Ronnie Milsap. Since then, she's been hanging out with Karl Lagerfeld. She's different every time, but the music is always memorable. 7:30 pm. It's cosmopolitan night at the MFA, and we aren't talking about drinks. The uber-sophisticated Keren Ann and Dean & Britta will perform. MFA, Remis Auditorium,......

People, so many people, mostly young people, people everywhere. There were so many people waiting in line for Senator Barack Obama's rally at the Seaport World Trade Center last night that the campaign turned the queue into a phone bank, handing out lists of voters and asking people to use their cell phones to plead for support. There were so many people waiting in the cold that a nearby Dunkin' Donuts had to prematurely......

--Cambridge was the scene of a violent attack on a homeless man. Early on January 29, the man was walking with his girlfriend in Central Square on Norfolk when three men attacked him, and one of them stabbed him in the back. [Cambridge Chronicle] --Although the incident happened in June, Dorchester is still reeling from an online video showing local Vietnamese American teens and young adults brutally beating a teenage boy and a teenage girl......

Charlie Card machines throughout the MBTA service area completely crapped out at rush hour. The system crashed intermittently for five to seven minutes at at time. Nothing like not being able to add value to your card on the first of the month, is there? Some T employees left one gate wide open like a hooker, realizing that things were going to get all Gattica fast if they didn't. And, what did the little......

Star Simpson, the MIT student whose light-up T-shirt caused a panic when she wore it to Logan Airport, appeared in court today. She asked for the charges to be dropped because the shirt was a form of free speech and that she had worn it days before without it causing a problem. Here's the update from the AP/WBZ: Thomas Dwyer Jr., a lawyer for Simpson, said his client didn't think her shirt would scare anyone.......

Super Bowl Media Day is the professional football equivalent of the annual family reunion. A bunch of people get together, often traveling long distances, for the purpose of catching up. There's little that they have in common, but since they sort of fall under the same name, everyone has to make nice. The hijinks on display makes for a hilarious time for those not directly involved. People make nice and dumb down the stories of......

Our two local papers enjoyed a Super Bowl-scale brawl yesterday when the Track Girls chided the Globe for selling a book on the Patriots' undefeated season. As if it's a crime. Bostonist loves the Track Girls, but how do they think teams get their championship T-shirts and caps so quickly? A wizard waving a wand? People print them beforehand, just like they print books beforehand, and the Globe had the foresight to get ready for......

Vaudeville This event sounds freaking crazy, even crazier than Sxip's Hour of Charm, and that was a grand old time. "Titler" will host a show featuring Red Peters from "Howard Stern," comedian Shane Mauss, and the Yo-Yo People, who do exactly what you think they will do. The Beehive, 10 pm-midnight. Cheap Thrills Boston has an interview with "Titler" in which you hear what the guy is all about. Burlesque After a two-month hiatus,......

People Magazine is reporting that the former five hardest working kids in show business might just become the five hardest working middle-aged men in show biz. That's right - New Kids on the Block are reportedly planning to follow in Extreme's footsteps as the latest former Boston glory band returning to the spotlight. Just how long has it been? Bostonist remembers back when teen mag pin-up boy Joey Joe McIntyre (who has subsequently dropped the......

Guess the Metro really is in trouble. Without a buyout from the Examiner, they are cutting staff positions, including a sports editor, and the publisher has resigned. People make fun of the Metro, but it's a part of any commuters' daily life. Most people get their news first from the Metro and some even become buddies with their morning vendors. The New York Times Company, which owns the Globe, has a 49 percent stake in......

Worcester's American Sanitary Plumbing Museum has decided to flush itself out of the city, but it's not going into the crapper just yet. The museum will relocate to the more appropriately named Watertown. Worcester might consider this development perfectly potty, but at least the collection is staying in Massachusetts. The owners of the museum, the Manoogs, are retiring and have donated everything to the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of Greater Boston, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports.......

Gus Rancatore, owner of Toscanini's, which was seized by Massachusetts for nonpayment of taxes, is launching an effort to save the beloved ice-cream store, and he's taking his efforts to the media. A website has been started to help raise money for Toscanini's. As we learned from the Cambridge Chronicle, Rancatore owes a considerable amount in unpaid taxes, and the company must provide a down payment before re-opening. If you want to contribute to the......

A New England Patriots fan told Joe Fitzgerald at the Herald that some overzealous Pats fans beat up him, his friend, and his cousins, who happened to be Jaguars fans and who were wearing Jaguar gear, after the Pats-Jaguars game. Brian Wormstead recounts the appalling pummeling he received in the parking lot after a brief exchange with the Pats fans: "I just know I’ve got a punctured eardrum and lumps all over me; Chris has......

No better icebreaker exists than taking off your pants in a crowd. People who normally would never speak to each other on an MBTA train had plenty to talk about once they "depantsed" on Saturday afternoon for Boston's first annual No Pants 2K8. At first, when aspiring pants-free T riders gathered at Alewife station, the event was at risk of being a bust. The area between the gates and the stairs was packed with people,......

Thespians stopped by Boston this week to read for the miniseries that will be based on BU professor and left-wing darling Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. And here's what happens when an intellectual heavyweight's work gets mixed up with this thing we call pop culture: --Somehow, it just doesn't seem right to call noted author Howard Zinn the "Zinn-Meister." It makes us think of the SNL skit with Rob Schneider at......

On the surface, Gary Zerola's story looks no different from a blotter entry about a scumbag who attempts to rape women. Zerola allegedly raped two women in Massachusetts. Then, while out on bail, he allegedly drugged and raped another woman in Miami. But Zerola is different because he became the person he used to defend in court. He went from dashing, respected lawyer--a former assistant DA for Suffolk County--to alleged rapist. Zerola was a lawyer......

It's baaaaaack. Norovirus has brought "gastrointestinal misery" to Brigham and Women's, Mass General, and Children's Hospital Boston daycare, according to the Globe. People aren't washing their hands as much as they should be, and norovirus loves dirty hands. Last year at this time, 3,700 people went to local emergency rooms thanks to norovirus. Since we're experiencing déjà vu, we'll go all out and repeat the tips we read from the CDC on fighting norovirus: --Frequently......

Birthdays The King's birthday is today! All hail Elvis! Dick's Last Resort, where they tend to celebrate everything Elvis, will be hosting a birthday bash including an Elvis Impersonator contest and a jelly-donut eating contest. Faneuil Hall. 6:00 pm. And keep looking for a post on what to eat tonight in honor of the king … Politics If you see some lost-looking drunk people in suits, it's either campaign workers or reporters who have gotten......