Violent Video Games Pulled from Public Rest Stops

Violent Video Games Removed from State-Operated Rest Stops. In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, Andrew and Tracey Hyams, of Newton, noticed that shoot-em-up style arcade games in public rest stops not far from Newton, Conn., felt wrong. So, they wrote an email to the Department of Transportation, which removed nine violent games from rest stops in Charlton, Ludlow, Lee, and Beverly. “It didn’t get to my desk,” Transportation Secretary Richard Davey told the Globe. “My guys well below me were making the right call on this one. I’m just happy that folks in this organization are thinking and making swift changes when appropriate.”  [Globe]

Ben Affleck Wins Best Director at Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. Take that, Academy.  [Rolling Stone]

MBTA May Cancel Deal with South Korean Firm Building $190 Million Worth of Double-Decker Rail Cars. Hyundai Rotem received a letter dated December 21, 2012, from MBTA Chief Financial Officer Jonathan R. Davis, which included the T’s lengthy list of frustrations with the company’s poor workmanship and failure to deliver the cars on time, according to the Globe.  [Boston.com]

Is A&E’s ‘Southie Rules’ Reality Show Scripted? John Libonati, who owns a business on West Broadway, says the show’s producers called him and asked that he interview a cast member for a job … then “turn him down for the job that didn’t exist in the first place.”  [BostInno]

Mayor: Somerville Will Be America’s Greatest Urban Living Experience. “For years, we’ve invested heavily in West Somerville while the eastern part of our city soldiered on as a great but underfunded neighborhood,” Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone said during the 2013 State of the City address. “I am here tonight to declare quite unequivocally, it’s East Somerville’s turn.”  [Wicked Local]