Weekend Redux: What You Missed

Just because you spent all weekend celebrating civil rights doesn’t mean the world stopped moving. We round up the notable stories you missed.

Saturday
Our papers delight in the news that Amtrak and its employees reached a tentative agreement that will prevent a strike at the end of the month. Had employees walked off the job, it would have snarled travel on highways, buses and the subway. Guess Dan Grabauskas can enjoy his vacation now.

It wasn’t all good transportation news on Saturday. Heavy vehicles were banned from the lanes closest to the Red Line on the Longfellow Bridge after DCR inspectors found rust and decay on that part of the bridge. Officials say it won’t fail in some terrible catastrophe, but if the left lanes start sinking we should start to worry.

Authorities say the woman who was bringing her sister’s children to a tea party last week stripped herself and the children naked and intentionally walked into oncoming traffic on 495.

Are our college students exercising to excess? We’d imagine not. All those empty Bud Light calories have to get burned off somehow.

The Herald did some digging on the woman accusing Randy Moss of battery and found that Rachelle Washington has a history of not paying her rent.

Sunday
Gov. Deval Patrick has made his stand on casinos in Massachusetts, factoring $300 million of licensing revenue into the fiscal year 2009 budget. As promised, gambling opponents in the Legislature are furious.

“Forget the cart, this is putting the entire wagon train before the horse,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop).

The Boston Police department has also decided to crack down. After a violent start to 2008, officers arrested almost 70 fugitives with outstanding warrants on Friday.

It was another case of good news/bad news for former governor Mitt Romney. He won the Nevada caucuses handily, but came in fourth in South Carolina. While much has been made of South Carolina’s history of picking the eventual nominee, Romney remains optimistic.

This weekend, President Bush announced that he’s considering an economic stimulus package that would give taxpayers approximately $800 in fun money to jolt the economy. We’d like to give our refunds to the city of Boston so it can invest in the completely awesome sounding snow melting machines.

During fierce winter storms, cities like New York and Toronto and some local agencies like the Massachusetts Port Authority use snow-melting machines capable of reducing tons of snow to water in a matter of minutes.

No more climbing mountains of snow to get to the T? Sold.