Back in 2009, we wrote about how, due to a projected $80 million deficit, Brandeis University was poised to sell off the artwork in its famed Rose Museum, a collection including works by Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, de Kooning, and Warhol.

After two years of speculating, PR nightmares, and conflicting statements, we now have a definitive update.

--By Kelly Dickinson

It's almost the Fourth of July in the cradle of the American Revolution. You know what that means: the customary explosion of airborne pyrotechnics and family gatherings centered around the grilling of an animal plus the copious consumption of alcoholic beverages in the name of good old-fashioned patriotism.

It's hard to make stoner jokes about this week's hearing for House Bill 625 (and corresponding Senate Bill 1161), which would “regulate the medical use of marijuana by patients approved by physicians and certified by the department of public health.” Sure some token pot smokers were on hand at the Massachusetts Statehouse, sporting homemade jewelry and Rasta head wraps for their testimonies before the Joint Committee on Public Health

Whether you've been eavesdropping on Southie barstools for the past week or just reading through the Herald's daily Whitey dedication, there's no escaping speculation about what might become of New England's most notorious modern criminal. With that said, as the world waits patiently for updates, we've imagined endings to a saga that's been kindling for decades, and that only now seems to be exploding.

"We are alarmingly unprepared for this," emcee Ryan Walsh announced to his audience on a Sunday night last month at Toad. As if to prove his point, co-host Steve Almond was still trying to figure out his stage persona mid-show. (He ultimately settled on "nonsexual criminal.") But there's no need to fear catastrophic awkwardness here -- welcome to "This Has Been a Disaster - Thanks For Having Us," a monthly storytelling series devoted to real-life tales of gigs gone wrong.

"I have this recurring dream all the time. I see him in New York. I see him walking down the street. And I pull him aside into a doorway. And I ask him, ‘Why? Why would you be an informant? Why would you do that? Something you've always preached against?' And then, that's when I snap his neck."

That's John "Red" Shea, five years ago, describing what he'd do if he ever happened to bump into his former boss and mentor, Whitey Bulger, on the street.

I would not be at all surprised if the feds learned of James "Whitey" Bulger's location well before the latest ad campaign. So why the ads? To disguise the way the feds actually learned of his whereabouts, the timing of the acquisition of said intelligence, and the source of this intelligence. So what they may have done, once they knew where he was hiding, was run a very public and visible campaign involving billboard ads and so forth; they then move in to make the arrest, leaving the world to believe there was an anonymous tip emerging as a result of the campaign.

Last night in Santa Monica, CA, the 16-year-long manhunt for South Boston Irish mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger came to an end. The 81-year-old Bulger was number one on the FBI's most wanted list from 1995 until 9/11/01 for "his role in 19 murders committed from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s in connection with his leadership of an organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals, and other illegal activities in the Boston, Massachusetts, area," according to the Feds.

In 1971, Boston After Dark (the alt-weekly that would eventually become the Boston Phoenix) investigated a particularly whimsical outburst of art activism: Way before the days of Banksy, six rogue Boston artists invaded the MFA's men's room, transforming it into a makeshift gallery. They smuggled in their own work -- via the "Is that a painting in your pants or are you just happy to see me?" method -- and converted the lavatory walls into "the only place in the Museum that exhibits contemporary local art."

Welcome to "Meet the Mayor," a segment in which we interview local Foursquare Mayors in their natural habitats.

J.P. Licks (Brigham Circle)
Craig Collins

I've heard mixed reviews of the cucumber ice cream.
I have not tried that yet. I've heard it's not the greatest, not the worst. I think their biggest flop was creamed-corn ice cream from around Thanksgiving.

Bodega Girls are at Middlesex on Wednesday

Eddie Money | "Free Concerts at the Esplanade" series | Hatch Memorial Shell, Esplanade, Boston | June 23 @ 7 pm | 617.626.4970

Ronald Reagan | Part of "Passim Summer Stage" Series | Palmer Street, by Club Passim, Cambridge | June 23 @ 1 pm | clubpassim.

Get your summer fest on! Summer 2K-11 kicks off this weekend with five New England festivals that will get you chowing down, feeling artsy, and inhaling the smoky scent of some hot, fresh jazz....

1. Provincetown Portuguguese Festival

If you're in on the Cape this weekend, stop by for soup tasting, a clamfeed, concerts, and traditional Portuguese dancing.

As the WikiLeaks saga marches on, federal investigations creep closer to home. And while the courts still have yet to determine how much whistle blowing is and isn't legal, Boston activists are speaking out -- and coming to the defense of Bradley Manning.

Manning, the US Army private accused of downloading and transferring classified government information to WikiLeaks, attended a party in Boston University's "hacker space" just three months before WikiLeaks published the now-infamous "Collateral Murder" video footage evidencing the US military in killings of Reuters journalists and Iraqi civilians.

The cloak of teenage invincibility has left one of the great Jackasses.

Ryan Dunn has been confirmed dead in the wake of an early-morning car crash. He was 34. Quite honestly, it's surprising that death has spared the crew famous for being dumb for so long. However, his death is having a bigger impact on me, as a fan, than I would have ever imagined.