By Scott Zoback

• CARLO'S WAY: The name Kevin Carlo may sound familiar. Not only did the Worcester County correctional officer allegedly run down and beat a 19-year-old over the head with a 15-inch flashlight last weekend, he's a regular man about town. A quick bio: In the mid-1990s, Carlo was a star running back for Grafton, where he also played some basketball. He continued on to Fitchburg State College, where he was the backup running back, and the punter/kicker. In 2004, Carlo was arrested after fighting another man outside the now-defunct On the Rocks on Park Avenue at closing time. Carlo tried fleeing police after that incident. In 2005, he was sworn in as a correctional officer. In 2007, Carlo (legally) fought City Councilor Rick Rushton as an exhibition fight on the undercard of the Butterbean fight at The Palladium. Oh, and Carlo is the owner of Fat Tony's Pub in Webster Square.

• LONGER TRIPS ON TIME: One week in, it looks like the lower standards for commuter trains might be making a dent in the on-time performance. According to statistics from the MBTA, in the first six days of the new schedule (Tuesday through Sunday), on-time performance was an outstanding 91%. And that includes an unheard of 100% on-time performance last Thursday. But it hasn't all been sunshine. On Monday of this week a CSX signal near the Westboro and Ashland stations failed, says MBCR spokesman Scott Farmelant, delaying all morning commute trains. And according to the daily commuter rail blog Train Stopping, at least three of the author's inbound and outbound trips have been substantially behind schedule in the past week. Still, the numbers are an improvement over January's 69% on-time performance. Of course, that doesn't mean the trains are actually getting there faster, just that they're doing a good job of meeting the new longer schedules.

• AUCTION OFF: A couple weeks ago, we reported on the scheduled fire sale auction of the University Park Lofts, the loft-condo development in the old Crompton & Knowles factory behind University/Crystal Park. Twenty-nine of the 37 units have gone unsold, and an auction was scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 27. But, as some current owners had feared, that auction looks like it was called off, at least as of press time. According to a post on Bermanauctions.com, the auction is "on hold," despite the fact that on Monday, the president of Berman Auctions told Banker and Tradesman that the auction was a go; a Wednesday Telegram and Gazette article indicated the same thing. But the project's developer, HE&PG Realty LLC principal Brett Levy, told Banker and Tradesman that the auction was a no-go; he wouldn't give any explanation. "I'm not telling you that. I am telling you that if you print something that says the auction will happen and it doesn't happen, you will have an issue," he told the paper.

• PLAYING A STACKED DECK?: A few days ago, the FCC held a hearing at Harvard to investigate whether or not Comcast has been throttling broadband Internet speeds for some users on specific applications, specifically person-to-person file-sharing and transfers. While esoteric sounding, it's a big deal that effects end-users and content providers alike. One of those who bridges the gap between both is the widely popular and Worcester-based Internet TV software Miro. Nicholas Reville, the executive director of the foundation behind Miro, says the hearing — and the throttling of p2p Internet traffic — is a huge deal. "It affects our ability to provide a good product for our users," says Reville. "The most important thing is that it affects free speech for independent publishers .... If you're blocking bit torrent [a file sharing protocol], you're blocking their speech." It goes beyond that, though. "Not only that, Comcast is competing with those people. So you basically have a company that's part of competing on video also controlling who gets the video. So it's a totally stacked deck in Comcast's favor. Certain people's voices are getting through, and others are getting blocked." Reville, and fellow independent media activists, are calling for strong legislation preventing broadband throttling by Internet providers.

• VACANT = FINE: In what City Councilor Joff Smith called another potential "arsenal in our toolbox," several councilors proposed another idea on Tuesday night to deal with vacant properties and absentee landlords. Councilor Joe Petty sponsored the item, which asked the city administration to look at the feasibility of fining landlords of vacant properties 10% of their total value if they stayed vacant for a year past an unspecified "warning" from the city.

• DOES BIOTECH NEED OUR HELP?: Once they got past the School Committee's request for $5 million in additional funding, the big City Council debate on Tuesday revolved around whether or not the city should be involved in helping to coordinate biotech and life sciences groups. Councilor Rick Rushton proposed an item that would, in part, ask the administration to "bring together the community stakeholders" of biotech/life sciences. Rushton said the item was in response to finding out that the heads of Abbott Laboratories and UMass Medical hadn't talked in years before a recent event; he said better communication was necessary, and it was the city's place to help make sure it gets done. But not everyone agreed. Mayor Konnie Lukes claimed the groups she talked to said they were already meeting, and didn't need the city's help. "Perhaps next time, we ought to ask to see if our help is needed," she said. Rushton countered, stating that maybe Lukes should have spoken to more than three groups.

• 1,000,000 LIVES HERE: And at press time Wednesday, Charter Communications celebrated its one-millionth national Charter Telephone customer; go figure, it was a Worcester family who just upgraded their cable service to include telephone. The company has a history of celebrating milestones. In 2000, they honored their one-millionth digital video customer in Gwinett County, Ga.; in 2002 it was their one-millionth cable modem installation in Kalamazoo. o