Weekend Redux: What You Missed

Just because you spent all weekend arguing with your family doesn’t mean the world stopped moving. We round up the notable stories you missed.

Thursday
Mitt Romney probably spent his holiday being thankful that Daniel Tavares Jr. was back in custody. The ex-con who was arrested for murdering a couple in Washington last week threatened to kill Romney while he was in jail in Massachusetts.

Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Sal DiMasi probably spent the holiday seething over the governor’s $1 billion biotech proposal. While the two men disagree on the best way to lure biotech companies to Massachusetts, they’re both desperate to lure Genzyme and its 300 jobs to the state before it looks elsewhere.

Friday
Developers want to bring the city to the suburbs, with several huge projects in the works in communities like Westwood and Weymouth. While towns like the infrastructure improvements associated with the project, some residents are upset that their suburban way of life will be disrupted.

The MBTA spent $100,000 to retrofit a bus for its Civil Defense Unit that has only been deployed 10 times and has yet to arrest anyone. But the officers who work with this elite force are ready for battle, whenever it should happen.

On a recent morning, dressed in the unit’s black battle uniforms and packing .40-caliber Sig Sauer pistols, the men showed off their equipment – their long batons, foam, punch-proof vests, and bags full of shin, elbow, and forearm guards.

They demonstrated how they would use bolt cutters and electric saws to defeat efforts by protesters to chain themselves to places where police do not want them.

As he sawed carefully through a PVC pipe concealing a chain, a device protesters outside Boston have used to resist police, Officer Samuel Albany said: “We’re in no rush; they’re not going anywhere.”

Saturday
We hope you were all good little consumers on Friday and hit the big box stores like you were expected to. Retailers reported a seven percent increase over last year’s Black Friday turnout, which dampens our hopes for continued price reductions closer to the holidays. Of course, all of America is a bargain hunting mecca for those who get paid in euros. Scores of Europeans came to area stores over the holiday weekend to buy big-ticket items at a steep discount.

But even euro-toting people must balk at the prices of some tickets to Red Sox home games on StubHub. One Red Sox season ticket is available on the site for $14,500. Thanks, we’ll just watch on TV.

Remember the repairs to the Kenmore Square bus station that were supposed to be finished by now? Yeah, it’s going to look like Jurassic Park for a while longer.

Sunday
Of course, we should just be happy our infrastructure hasn’t completely fallen apart. The MBTA isn’t the only debt-strapped and unpopular transportation agency in the country— commuters in Chicago and New York are also fed up with their unsafe transit systems.

Hey, did you know people in other parts of the country don’t like the Patriots?

Mitt Romney may soon be longing for the days of Seamus. Judge Kathe Tuttman, a Romney appointee, released the convict who killed a couple in Washington last week. Rudy Giuliani has had a field day with the connection, attacking the former governor’s record on violent crime.

The Globe Magazine has a story about the ten year anniversary of the release of Good Will Hunting. Not only does this make us feel really old, it also reminds us that those people who moved to Boston only because they loved that movie still bother us.