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Bostonians rising in anger -- and action -- against ableism, racism, Verizon, and Fox News
Union flags were flown, loud music roared, and fleets of motorcycles rumbled, as several thousand people marched for civil rights and human dignity, and, in at least one case, to scold moguls for banking gross salaries at the expense of workers.

DROPPING BOMBS After being snubbed by the Urban League, advocates for disabled minorities gathered near the State House to demand a seat at the table.

Boston burned last week, with pandemonium blazing from Beacon Hill to Dorchester's foreclosed ghettos. Union flags were flown, loud music roared, and fleets of motorcycles rumbled, as several thousand people marched for civil rights and human dignity, and, in at least one case, to scold moguls for banking gross salaries at the expense of workers.

>> SLIDESHOW: Protests of Fox News and Verizon <<

According to the Cambridge-based National Bureau of Economic Research, which determines when recessions start and end, the meltdown that began in 2007 cooled off last year. But despite that rosy reassurance, the unemployment rate has hovered at around nine percent for 28 months, and is showing no real sign of recovery. Just this past week, Wall Street suffered its biggest drop since the peak of economic wreckage three years ago.

To worsen matters, the recent debt-ceiling quagmire reminded Americans that they're governed by a callous brood of bozos. If there was ever faith — on the left or the right — that either Barack Obama or the Tea Party would steer us onto a more comfortable course, it's flown the way of the bald eagle.

Boston feels the pain. In addition to an awful rash of violence — 159 shootings and 34 homicides so far this year — vacant storefronts and suspended building projects add insult to tragedy. There have been small victories; last week, for example, the perpetual protest group City Life/Vida Urbana, along with more than 100 picketers, stalled an eviction on Normandy Street near Franklin Park. But this is a long war, with countless theaters and no apparent end. Here's a view from the front lines.

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A Scandal of Vatican Proportions
In little more than two weeks, Murdoch's News International (NI) division, the maker and breaker of British prime ministers, has been humbled, and — by extension — its US-based parent, News Corporation, humiliated.

UNDER ATTACK As her husband is pied by a protestor, Wendi Deng (bottom left corner, seen from shoulders up) prepares to defend him. Her fierceness would make her a fit candidate to clean up News Corp's mess.

As a public spectacle, Great Britain's phone-hacking controversy, which triggered the close of Rupert Murdoch's gutter-tabloid, News of the World (NoW), is particularly baroque.

In little more than two weeks, Murdoch's News International (NI) division, the maker and breaker of British prime ministers, has been humbled, and — by extension — its US-based parent, News Corporation, humiliated.

In the public eye, Murdoch is News Corp and News Corp is Murdoch, so this loss of face is punishing and public.

Murdoch is a member of an exclusive cohort. Perhaps only investor Warren Buffett and entertainment titan Sumner Redstone are in the same league. The founders of Google and Microsoft may have changed history, but they are essentially hedgehogs who knew one big thing. Redstone, Buffett, and Murdoch are foxes. They have hunted on wider and more varied terrain. Buffett and Redstone have suffered their own reversals, but never a disgrace of Murdochian proportions.

The essence of the uproar is this: as allegations emerged that NoW regularly and criminally invaded the privacy of people ranging from celebs to a murdered child, NI was forced to scuttle a $12 billion cable-television deal.

This, however, is just the overarching narrative. Each granular development seems worthy of its own banner headline.

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