The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 21

r. --v v- CityRegion Lottery B2 New England News Briefs B2 B6 E10 Deaths Weather The Boston a a October 2 9, 2 0 0 5 Meter maid case is settled Harassment suit also agreed upon N.rl 4. PHOTOS BY JANET KNOTTGLOBE STAFF The Banner is celebrating its 40th anniversary tonight at Boston's Seaport Hotel, and Melvin Miller has been at the helm since the beginning. Raising a Banner celebration By Shelley Murphy GLOBE STAFF The city of Boston has agreed to pay $200,000 to a Boston meter maid who has been out of work since January when an irate motorist allegedly threw hot coffee in her face for giving him a ticket. The payment to Christi Noviello settles a workers' compensation claim she filed after the scalding incident and an unrelated federal lawsuit she filed against the city in 2003.

Noviello's suit asserted that she was harassed by co-workers for reporting a boss who allegedly tore her bra off while they were riding in a city van. Noviello, who will resign as part of the agreement, said she is happy with the settlement. Since the scalding incident, which left her with first-degree burns on her face, she said, she no longer feels safe working as a meter maid, so it is time to move on. "If that happened to me, what could happen next?" said Noviello, whose case garnered national headlines after a man allegedly hurled coffee in her face Jan. 20 because she gave him a $55 ticket for parking his Hummer in a loading zone while he ran into a Starbucks in Back Bay.

"We're not even allowed to carry mace," said Noviello, adding that if she returned to work, she would not be able to walk down the street without looking over her shoulder. "The police are two minutes away, but you could be dead in two minutes." Seth Gitell, a spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said Noviello's decision to resign was a personal one, but that city officials are "absolutely doing everything we can to protect all workers and push for legislation that strengthens the penalties for anyone that does harm to a city worker in the midst of doing their job." Gitell and Boston attorney Kevin G. Powers, who represents Noviello, said the city has not admitted any liability as part of the settlement. METER MAID, Page B4 'I Forty years ago, a black journalist answered the call 1 4 By Adrienne P.

Samuels GLOBE STAFF the Banner," said Darnell Williams, president of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. "It's like equivalent to your grandmother, somebody who has been there, who has seen your ups and your downs and knows where you're going." The past four decades have not been easy, Miller said from his South Boston office, where a picture of legendary spitfire journalist and activist William Monroe Trotter hangs above his desk. "I didn't want to start a newspaper," said Miller, who said newspapers ought not just inform but somehow also improve the life of the reader. "But what happened is it was a time when all the other weeklies disappeared." So Miller learned about publishing and was 1965 the height of the civil rights movement, and his father definitely disapproved. Why would a black man, a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law 1 School, leave his job as a federal prosecutor in Boston to start a weekly newspaper? For Melvin Miller, then 31, the answer was simple.

He didn't want to. He heard the call. The Banner was first published on Sept. 25, 1965, as a 10-page broadsheet. It became a tabloid in 1968.

studied The New York Times to see how newspapers ran. His vision was something akin to The Guardian, a black-focused newspaper in Boston created by Trotter, a family friend known for challenging the mindset of other members of the BANNER, Page B5 Now, 40 years later, the Boston Banner (known outside the Hub as the Bay State Banner) is celebrating a legacy of providing coverage of the black community in a city that at times has been hostile to black people and black business. The paper is holding a 40th anniversary gala tonight at Boston's Seaport Hotel. "I'd say that there are segments of our population who read the Globe, but 80 percent of our folks read HIIIMntllllMIIIIHHIIMHHinilMMIIIIIIMIMMIIIIIIUINIIUMIIIIIIIIIIMIMIIMMIMMIininMHIIiniMMIIIIHIIIIII hi ii Hi illi Him Mil iWiim fllHWill i JWMItiWIW HIIIIHHIlFf These stars light up Boston, but not polls Some city luminaries didn't vote last month In certain cases, a public A endorsement from a public figure is worth more than the one vote that the individual could cast' The Rev. Eugene F.

Rivers III i 4 3 1 By Donovan Slack GLOBE STAFF They are leaders in their fields, from high finance to religion and from the Red Sox to the Boston Pops. They are role models, whether they like it or not, setting examples for others to follow. And like 85 percent of registered voters in Boston last month, some did not go to the polls on election day. Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley said he was under doctor's orders to stay home; explained Rivers, a pastor who is often outspoken about city governance.

"In certain cases, a public endorsement from a public figure is worth more than the one vote that the individual could cast." VOTING, Page B5 Massachusetts Port Authority chief executive Craig P. Coy said he was out of town, and the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III of Dorchester could not immediately remember why he did not vote. "The truth is, we're really busy people," BILL BRETT FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE If forecast seems flaky, remember that it's not supposed to add up Emmett Hayes (left), University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson and former governor Paul Cellucci attended the first UMass Club event.

UMass Club tips hat to alumni (at least those with jackets on) It was on the way yesterday, that four-letter word that always puts New Englanders on edge: snow. Forecasters predicted that the season's first this weekend's wet weather will cap a record-breaking month, forecasters said. "October blew the lid off of just about every Downtown site lets school vie with rivals II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I II I il 1 1 1 III 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 Big Dig changes go unmapped Two years after the Big Dig's tunnels opened, online directions for getting around Boston are slow to catch up, and some even avoid the mega-road project. B3 Flu vaccine shortage in state High demand and stag- i gered shipments are producing shortages of influenza vaccine in Massachusetts that public health authorities expect to be temporary. B5 Mattapan loses a caring leader Lenzer Evans, a businessman considered the heart of Mattapan Square, has died at 82.

Evans ran the neighborhood Brigham's ice cream shop, which serves as a community clubhouse. B7 IIIIUIHIIIIIMIIIIItlMtlMiniMIIIIIMI First snowfall The first snowflakes recorded at Logan International Airport the past five years: Nov. 8, 2004 Dec. 3, 2003 Nov. 16, 2002 Oct.

8, 2001 Oct. 29, 2000 SOURCE: National Weather Service snowflakes could fall by 9 a.m. today in areas of Boston, Worcester, and Springfield, and there's a chance of more snow tonight in higher elevations. "Here we go again," Jonathan Gaines of Roxbury said at a grocery store last evening, as a light drizzle fell. "I'm not ready yet." But don't dust off those shovels just yet.

Any snow is expected to turn into rain, as temperatures reach the upper 40s. Accumulations are expected to be less than one inch. monthly record we had," said meteorologist Mike Jackson with the National Weather Service in Taunton. The average October rainfall in Worcester is 4.05 inches, compared with 15.5 inches this month until yesterday, Jackson said. In Boston the average is 3.27 inches, compared with the 8.96 total until yesterday.

The weekend won't be a complete washout, forecasters said. The sun is expected to come out enjoyed by many of its'brethren. With limited resources and the ever-sticking moniker Zoo-Mass, it has not been easy. But as the university celebrates the official opening of its own private club in Boston's business district today, officials of the public education system say it is poised to capture a chunk of long-delayed prestige. The goal is to make the club a point of pride for alumni, a hub of bonhomie for collegians turned CEOs who, in turn, will be inspired to make hefty donations to UMass.

In an age of streamlined state budgets, administrators say, increased donations are a necessity as the system seeks to build its endowment and wean itself from reliance on public dollars. Still, a members-only club is a tricky maneuver for a system that prides itself UMASS CLUB, Page B4 By Sarah Schweitzer GLOBE STAFF Way above Boston, 33 stories to be exact, 150 power brokers gathered to nibble avocado-crab meat hors d'oeuvres and marvel at how good it felt to hobnob on high, at last, just like the others. "Isn't this great?" Jack Wilson, the beaming president of the University of Massachusetts, said as he waved an arm at the richly appointed, spanking-new University of Massachusetts Club, blocks from the clubs of Harvard University, Boston College, and Boston University. In the constellation of elite colleges and universities that calls Massachusetts home, UMass has long sought the cachet tomorrow with temperatures reaching the mid-60s. Halloween is also expected to be mostly sunny, reaching the 60s during the day and high 40s in the evening.

MEGAN TENCH Last year, the region's first snowflake didn't appear until Nov. 8. But in January, the region was socked with up to 3 feet of snow in one of the biggest blizzards in recent years. Whether the precipitation is frozen or not,.