The last line of a news article is often the most telling: "Talks with the firefighters are delayed until the union's lawyer returns from a vacation after the July 4 holiday, officials said." That says it all! Boston Mayor Tom Menino has some real trouble on his hands now that John Kerry and Ted Kennedy have dropped out of the U.S. Mayors Conference here today, because of the picketing (though not striking) police and firefighters, who are hoping to embarrass the city into a 17% raise. Hmmmmm...while I don't think it's fair for these city workers to continue for years without a contract, I'm not so crazy about unlimited overtime and a fraudulent higher education scheme for cops either -- not to mention last night's possible excessive force incident, and the plague of homicide and street violence breaking across the city (oops, I mean across certain parts of the city, where it doesn't even merit the front page). I'd say all sides need to clean up their act.