Morning Updates: Is Cambridge about to turn into a ‘Harvard theme park’?
Good morning, Boston. Harvard’s plans to remodel a public space are coming in for criticism, the St. Paul’s School rape case goes to jury, and the rest of the news you need to know today.
The dramatic battle to save the beach on Cape Cod: “Standing on his shrunken front yard in front of the ocean that drowned the public beach in front of his house, retired firefighter Paul Schneider looked at the sand he’d bought and placed on his property after the storm. ‘I didn’t think I’d be spending my retirement money on sand,’ he said.’’ (Boston.com)
Prep school rape case goes to the jury: “For all the evidence—Facebook messages, emails, confusing jokes to friends, and questions about when Owen Labrie lied and why—the case against the St. Paul’s school graduate is really very simple, a prosecutor said Wednesday. ‘We’re here today because [she] said no, and he took what he wanted,’ Joseph Cherniske told jurors in his closing argument.’’ (Boston.com)
Harvard looks to expand on the Square – not without controversy: “Depending on who’s telling the story, the school is either a civic-minded neighbor interested in enhancing public space and adding much-needed restrooms, or a villain intent on turning Cambridge into a ‘Harvard theme park,’ in the words of Harvey Silverglate, a well-known attorney and Harvard Law School graduate.’’ (The Boston Globe)
Tom Brady’s ace in the hole: “After federal judge Richard Berman hammered the NFL on several points in last Wednesday’s hearing, some experts are calling for a Brady victory based on one element: The NFL’s refusal to make executive vice president Jeff Pash, who edited the Wells Report and at one point was called its co-lead investigator, available for questioning.
“‘The Pash issue is the one issue that’s the clear winner for Brady,’ said Daniel Wallach, a federal attorney and expert in sports law.’’ (Boston.com)
Facebook is big. Like, really big: “We just passed an important milestone,’’ Mark Zuckerberg writes on his Facebook. “For the first time ever, one billion people used Facebook in a single day. On Monday, 1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family.’’ (Facebook)
The bizarre yet always entertaining world of Sugar Dating: “Sugar dating is the oldest dynamic around: Rich person contracts poorer but younger/hotter person into some combination of obligations that includes but is only rarely limited to straight-up sex. As long as people have had money and other people have wanted money, this has been a thing. But technology has affected this mini-economy twofold: First, as with any Etsy shop, anyone with a good to sell can now easily intersect with someone who wants this good; and second, it has created a culture of righteous entitlement, in which a fringe thing feels mainstream when you find enough people who participate in it.’’ (GQ)
The Goodbye: Kitties! It’s the 5th annual end of summer, fee-waived cat adopt-a-thon. (Boston.com)
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