Life may soon be a little less sweet for city employees in Boston, as officials consider the idea of curbing — or even completely cutting — sales of sugary drinks on city-owned property. [More]
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Judge Slashes RIAA's $675,000 File Sharing Award To $67,500
By 7.10.10
A federal judge yesterday bench slapped the Recording Industry of America, calling a jury’s $675,000 verdict against file sharer Joel Tenenbaum both eye-popping and unconstitutional. The judge struck a strikingly populist tone in reducing the verdict to $67,500, arguing that the same legal reasoning that protects large corporations from excessive punitive damages also protects “ordinary people” like Tenenbaum. [More]
Hey Boston, You Want FiOS? Too Bad
By 3.29.10
If you live in the city of Boston, those “FiOS Guy” commercials are about close as you’re going to get to Verizon’s fiber-optic cable/phone/internet service in the foreseeable future. [More]
Boston Bridal Show Was Massive Scam That Duped Over 6,000 Victims
By 3.3.10
This weekend was supposed to be the Boston 411 Spring Home & Bridal Show, but it was cancelled at the last minute. Now police are saying that the entire thing was an elaborate scam that pulled in money from attendees and vendors, raking in more than $150,000 over the past five months. The scammers used a website, Facebook page and Twitter account to promote the event, used PayPal to accept payments, sold fake hotel room reservations and issued fake conference passes. Boston police and the FBI are investigating, but so far nobody has been taken into custody. [More]
Heads-Up FedEx Driver Makes Bonus Delivery Attempt
By 12.15.09
Reader Chris and his girlfriend were spared a long rush-hour drive through hideous Boston traffic because a FedEx driver making a large delivery to a single location had the good sense to load up his spare truck space with packages bound for nearby addresses. [More]
Hyatts In Boston Decide To Outsource Housekeeping
By 9.17.09
Housekeepers at three Hyatt hotels in Boston made over $15 an hour and had benefits like 401(k) retirement plans and health insurance. On August 31st, Hyatt laid them off en masse—after first having them train their replacements under the guise of creating a holiday fill-in staff—and turned the housekeeping duties over to an outside firm.
30 Songs? That'll Be $675,000
By 8.1.09
A Boston jury yesterday ruled that file sharer Joel Tenenbaum would have to pay the Recording Industry of America $675,000 for sharing 30 copyrighted songs. The hefty award was all the more surprising because Tenenbaum was represented by a crack team of legal eagles from Harvard’s law school. The trial didn’t unfold nearly the way they planned…
Boston Police Department: We Will Let You Know When The Zombies Come
By 5.20.09
The first surprising part of this story is that the Boston Police Department has a Twitter feed. They use it to post breaking police-type information that’s useful to the public, such as roads closed due to car accidents, crime data, big arrests, etc. Sometimes they also reply to reader questions. And that is how TruTV learned that the Boston police will not hide the zombie invasion from the public.
Ride For Free On Jet Blue (If You Can Get Yourself "Trapped" In The Cargo Hold)
By 4.2.09
A Jet Blue employee hitched a free flight from JFK Airport in NYC to Logan Airport in Boston this past weekend, after getting trapped in the cargo hold before takeoff. Police aren’t charging him with a crime, but they told the Boston Globe that, “Even after talking to him, we were a little uncertain as to how it happened.” He apparently called the company from the cargo hold once the plane was in the air—which is exactly what we would do to deflect suspicion in a scheme like this. Tokyo, here we come via new part-time job as a baggage handler!
Fake Repairman Preys On Powerless Worcesterians
By 12.15.08
After ice storms slammed Boston and left thousands without power, one opportunist saw a chance to make a buck in the dark.
Try Consumer Reports' Website For Free And Increase Your Shopping Abilities
By 12.4.08
Consumer Reports has set up some cute mall kiosks in the Boston Area so that shoppers can research products while they are shopping, but if you can’t get to Boston you can still give the website a try.
Inside The Mind Of A Liquidator
By 12.4.08
Interesting facts from a Boston Globe article profiling a member of the Tweeter liquidation team, David “The Junkyard Dog” Spehar:
By 12.1.08
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If you’re in the Boston area, be sure to check out Consumer Reports’ Holiday Smart Labs. There’s a kiosk where shoppers can access ConsumerReports.org and take away a free 24-hour access pass to the site. The kiosks will be open at the North Shore Mall in Peabody, South Shore Mall in Braintree and Burlington Mall in Burlington from 12/4 – 12/7.
Christmas Creep: Radio Stations Are In Full Holiday Mode
By 11.10.08
If you thought that you could avoid Christmas Creep by staying out of stores — think again. It’s annoying you on the radio as well.
Update: 41 46 Million Americans Drink Pharmaceutical Waste
By 9.13.08
If you weren’t one of the 41 million Americans drinking water contaminated with sex hormones and pharmaceutical waste, welcome to the club! Testing prompted by the AP’s damning investigation has revealed that another five million people, including residents of Reno, Colorado Springs, and Chicago, now sip the potentially dangerous pharmaceutical soup.
AirTran Agent Screams, Curses At Travelers While Supervisor Looks On
By 8.25.08
Forget about those dowdy old-school Olympics. What we need is an international competition to see which airline can suck the most, since everyone is getting so good at it. In the category of Random Rudeness, this AirTran agent and her equally hostile supervisor would have a good shot at the gold—especially since they aimed their hostility at a honeymooning couple.
Will Uno Chicago Grill Be The Next Restaurant Chain To File For Bankruptcy?
By 8.13.08
At the risk of inviting another pointless “this pizza is better than that pizza” debate in the comments, we feel it is necessary to inform you that Uno has run into some nasty looking debt problems and some people are speculating that they may be the next restaurant chain to go under.
