Deval Patrick: Utilities Better Be Ready for Hurricane Sandy

Deval Patrick: Utilities Have Until Friday to Submit Hurricane Sandy Plans. The governor is coming out of the gate tough-talking Massachusetts utility companies, saying “they’d better be” ready if/when Hurricane Sandy hits New England. His warning, of course, stems from the widespread outages in 2011 that resulted from back-to-back hits from Hurricane Irene and the Halloween snowstorm.  [WHDH]

Lanita Cullinane, Boston Police Detective, Honored by Marie Claire. Cullinane is one of the publication’s honorees in the third annual Women on Top Awards, which recognizes women younger than 40 for doing great things. Cullinane, 38, started as a rookie officer in Mattapan and eventually worked her way to become one of just 44 female detectives in the BPD, working in the Crimes Against Children, Human Trafficking, and Domestic Violence units. Marie Claire honored Cullinane for her bravery: “This is a violent job,” she told the magazine, “I’ve been dragged down the street, punched in the face, and cut my arm breaking into a car through a window. But I never cried at work until 2009, when I interviewed a 12-year-old girl who got pregnant after a sexual assault by her father. I wasn’t sure if I could stomach seeing these things all day. But it made me more committed. I like to be the voice for the groups who don’t have a voice for themselves.”  [Marie Claire]

A Brief History of the Heinous Asylums in Massachusetts. Just in time for Halloween is this creepy run-through of Belchertown State School, Fernald State School, Foxborough State Hospital, and Medfield State Hospital—because “… it’s tough to invent anything more messed up than what actually happened at Massachusetts’s network of public mental hospitals.”  [The Phoenix]

Three Neighborhood Newspapers Will Stop the Presses. The South Boston Tribune, the Hyde Park Tribune, and the Argus-Citizen will cease publication, according to the Dorchester Reporter.  [Dorchester Reporter]

Want More Proof of How Massachusetts Feels About Mitt Romney? Statewide, we’re donating twice as much to Obama as Romney, according to Federal Election Commission reports.  [AP]