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Heavy burden

More than any other city on the East Coast, Boston is addicted to property taxes. Could the Hub be hitting a crippling tax-levy ceiling soon?
In 2012, collections on homes, buildings, and private infrastructure will feed more than 65 percent of Boston's $2.4 billion budget.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | August 17, 2011

Beantown counters

Infographic: Boston's addiction to property taxes
More than 50 percent of property in the city of Boston — state buildings, church grounds, college campuses, etc. — is tax exempt. These charts, stats, and graphs illustrate Boston’s property tax addiction: rising costs, a declining real estate market, and state restrictions on how much cash the city can collect.

By: PHOENIX STAFF | August 17, 2011

Photos: Protests of Fox News and Verizon

From Beacon Hill to Post Office Square | August 4, 2011
Members of the Boston Media Reform Network (BMRN) protest Fox News at Beacon Hill on August 4, 2011; Verizon field workers and their allies protested Verizon at Post Office Square also on August 4, 2011.

By: KELLY DAVIDSON AND TIM KENNEDY | August 10, 2011

Do the fight thing

Bostonians rising in anger -- and action -- against ableism, racism, Verizon, and Fox News
Union flags were flown, loud music roared, and fleets of motorcycles rumbled, as several thousand people marched for civil rights and human dignity, and, in at least one case, to scold moguls for banking gross salaries at the expense of workers.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | August 10, 2011

Whatever happened to Danville's giant mystery monkey?

Unfinished (monkey) business
The giant monkey of Danville was my symbol, back then, of the fin-de-siècle nadir in media fluffery, thankfully obsolesced in one grim morning.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 04, 2011

The Year in Monkey News

Primate dispatches from around the globe
Simian news items, compiled for your reading pleasure.

By: DAVID EISENBERG, JAMES P. FITZPATRICK, NATE HOMAN, AND KATIE LANNAN | August 04, 2011

Holding on

Death’s confluence: Amy Winehouse and the Norwegian terror victims
Of all the details to emerge from the Norway atrocities last Friday, one of the most harrowing was the thought of those frightened, bewildered youngsters leaping from the shores of Utøya, dragging their limbs through the gloppy water as if in some kind of terrible dream, gunfire crackling at their backs.

By: CHRIS WRIGHT | July 29, 2011

Pledge class

This campaign season, you’re not really committed to defending the GOP agenda unless you sign on the dotted line
Whether it's to flags, fraternities, or charities, privileged douchebags love pledging allegiance.

By: CHRIS FARAONE AND DAVID EISENBERG | August 01, 2011

Murdoch & Son

A Scandal of Vatican Proportions
In little more than two weeks, Murdoch's News International (NI) division, the maker and breaker of British prime ministers, has been humbled, and — by extension — its US-based parent, News Corporation, humiliated.

By: PETER KADZIS | July 20, 2011

Showtime for New Boston

With the Urban League conference coming next week, Boston's movers and shakers are scrambling to project a progressive racial image
After years of trying to convince groups with large minority membership that the Hub is now a welcoming, friendly destination for African-Americans, this is the first big organization to test the theory.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 27, 2011

Photos: Boston's Last Clamdiggers

Raking the beaches with clammer John Denehy and his crew
Surrounded by acres of clams? Not so, say diggers.

By: DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN | July 13, 2011

Are Logan Airport pollution and Massport indifference killing Boston's proud clam-digging tradition?

Shucking fit
Denehy and other Boston clam farmers have come to face two seemingly impervious hurdles: a safety expansion at Logan Airport that will deplete two of their richest beaches, and a jet-fuel spill from last October that some allege wiped out half of Boston's soft-shell population.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | July 18, 2011

Up in smoke?

Obama is threatening a medical marijuana crackdown in Rhode Island and across the country. Should Governor Chafee call his bluff?
Ten months after President Obama took office, his Justice Department issued a remarkable directive.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | July 19, 2011

Tom Menino outraged over skate-culture t-shirts on Newbury Street at Nike store

What other vaguely offensive things should Mayor Menino ban next?

Dope smackdown
Boston Mayor Tom Menino doesn't like anyone sending bad messages to the impressionable children of his city — you may recall his outrage over the sale of STOP SNITCHING T-shirts a couple of years ago. Last week, he discovered another sordid example: T-shirts on display at Niketown on Newbury Street, with skate-culture lingo that could be interpreted as pro-drug use.

By: DAVID BERNSTEIN | June 29, 2011

The 14th Annual Muzzle Awards

Our annual look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
To understand just how disappointing Barack Obama has been on civil liberties, you need only consider the case of David House, a founder of the Bradley Manning Support Network.

By: DAN KENNEDY | June 29, 2011

2011 Muzzle Awards: Campus Edition

Another year of crushing free spirits at our colleges and universities
Law school is not known for being fun, so some professors spice instruction with far-fetched hypotheticals. To some students at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware, one longtime criminal-law prof's hypos went too far.

By: HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 29, 2011

Why New York matters to all couples

Speaking for us
When it was announced late Friday that New York lawmakers approved same-sex marriage, I yelled excitedly across the apartment for my wife.

By: THOMAS PAGE MCBEE | June 29, 2011

Summer of the Swedish Nanny

I'll never forget the night Karina Holmer was murdered. How could I? I was one of the last to see her alive.
It's been 15 years since the top half of Holmer's body was discovered in a Fenway dumpster. The crime fascinated Boston, paralyzed its nightlife, and spurred an investigation that sputtered along for years. But the police never caught her killer.

By: SCOTT FAYNER | June 23, 2011

Greatest Hits: Whitey Bulger found

... in the Boston Phoenix archives
... in the Boston Phoenix archives

By: NATE HOMAN | June 23, 2011

In a rundown office, two watchdogs struggle to keep an eye on $2.4 Billion

City sticklers
Steps inside the entrance of 152 North Street, exposed electrical boxes dangle out of a demolished drop ceiling. Dust fills the light beams bouncing through the hallways. There's a layer of gray soot fused into the tiles of the bathroom.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | June 22, 2011

What neighbors helping neighbors can show us about good government

We take care of our own
Montana Phipps was supposed to go out for a run with a friend after school, but the dark storm clouds squelched their plans. So on June 1, she was in her bedroom at the end of Stewart Avenue, with a view across her neighborhood of wide lawns, hedges, and leafy trees in Monson, a town of some 8500 people nestled in a valley about two hours' drive west of Boston.

By: GREG COOK | June 09, 2011

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