Boston, MA

Who is Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson’s husband Tanzerious?

Published

1 year ago

December 6, 2024

Who is Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson’s husband Tanzerious?

A Boston City Council member was arrested on federal public corruption charges, and her husband is already in jail for murder charges.

City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested Friday morning on federal corruption charges. Fernandes Anderson is accused of taking a $7,000 kickback and hiring family members. Her husband, Tanzerious Anderson, is already in jail after he was found guilty of murder in the first degree in 2002.

What happened to City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson?

At about 7 a.m. Friday, FBI Boston posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, that special agents had arrested a city councilor “on federal public corruption charges.” The agency held a press conference at 9:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Boston.

Fernandes Anderson, 45, who represents Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and parts of the South End, was charged with five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft around programs receiving federal funds.

The indictment alleges that Fernandes Anderson started a kickback scheme after hiring a relative who “was not an immediate family member” in 2022. Fernandes Anderson is also accused of hiding that she was related to the staff member.

Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson at City Hall on October 25, 2023. She was arrested on December 6, 2024, on federal fraud charges.

AP Photo/Steven Senne

She allegedly agreed to pay the familial staffer a large bonus on the condition that a portion would be returned to her.

According to text messages, the city councilor allegedly accepted $7,000 in cash back during a meeting in a bathroom at Boston City Hall in 2023.

“All of that money was funded by the taxpayers of the city of Boston,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced at the press conference.

The city councilor allegedly told her staff that they would all be receiving bonuses but that the staff member she’s related to would receive a larger amount because she wanted to pay them “for their prior volunteer work.”

At the time, Fernandes Anderson was allegedly having money problems, partially due to a $5,000 sanction imposed by the State Evidence Commission and other “financial hardships.” She is paid $115,000 a year as a city councilor.

“When faced with financial hardship and that $5,000 State Evidence Commission sanction, Ms. Fernandes Anderson chose to violate her fiduciary duty and fraud the city of Boston, the indictment alleges, rather than finding the legal means to pay off that debt,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “Public service is a privilege, and all of us in public service have a duty to act with integrity and fairness in all that we do.”

Fernandes Anderson is scheduled to appear in Boston federal court at 3 p.m. on Friday.

Why is Tanzerious Anderson in jail?

Tanzerious Anderson, the city councilor’s husband, is in jail for murder in the first degree, armed robbery and illegal possession of a firearm. He was found guilty as a principal and joint venturer in the crimes.

According to court documents, on March 25, 2000, Anderson and 16-year-old Joleena Tate broke into a condominium in North Conway, New Hampshire, that belonged to Tate’s father. They stole firearms and ammunition, including a .357 Magnum revolver.

Two days later, Anderson brought Tate to the home of Edward Gauthier, whom he knew through Jason Robinson, the man Anderson was working with.

“The group was in Gauthier’s room playing video games and together smoked three or four ‘blunts,’ cigars stuffed with marijuana,” the court documents read. “At some point in the evening, as the defendant was preparing to leave, Tate asked him if he wanted to ‘rob someone.’ The defendant agreed.”

The court documents state that Anderson, Tate and Robinson decided to contact a Lebanese immigrant and ask him to meet. Tate would bring the victim to the apartment in Brighton, where Anderson and Robinson would be waiting.

The victim took Tate out to dinner, and then Tate requested that he drive her to the designated building. When Anderson and Robinson showed up, Tate said to the victim, “We’re being robbed,” and then walked to a nearby playground.

A few minutes later, Tate heard “a very loud noise,” and when she met up with her accomplices, Anderson said “He’s murked (dead)” and that “I got my body for the summer.”

“The medical examiner determined that death was caused by the victim’s heart stopping as a reflexive reaction to the gunshot, and that death was instantaneous,” the court document reads.

Anderson was arrested on April 4, 2000. In court, he had argued that the victim died “instantaneously” and that with no evidence of defensive wounds, there was insufficient evidence.

There was another trial in 2017, but Anderson was still found guilty.

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Boston, MA

Boston woman flummoxed after rat makes a home in stroller she left on porch

Published

5 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Local News

Boston Reddit did not mince words when it came to the best way of evicting this brazen stroller squatter.

A Boston woman is dealing with an unwelcome tenant on her front porch — a rat that has turned a baby stroller into a cozy winter hideaway.

The woman shared her ordeal Thursday on the r/Boston subreddit, explaining that she had left her stroller, complete with a muff, on her second-floor porch. When she checked on it later, she discovered a rat had moved in.

“I stupidly left our stroller with a muff out on the porch,” she wrote. “Today I found a big rat is nested in there. I can’t see clearly, but it seems it has chewed up the muff lining and is using the filling for a nest.”

The woman said she’s called a few pest control companies, but instead of offering immediate removal, they just tried to sell her a long-term bait boxing service.

“…Which is fine, but I urgently need someone to just safely remove the rat and the nest so I can clean or dispose of the stroller if needed,” she wrote, adding that she couldn’t secure a next-day appointment and felt Monday was too far away.

Turning to Reddit for advice, the woman asked whether she should attempt to remove the rat herself, saying she was worried about being bitten or contracting a disease. “Which professional can I call?” she asked.

Redditors reacted with a mix of humor and practical advice. The top comment began, “Sounds like it’s their porch now,” before offering an elaborate plan involving a bucket trap and joking that the rat could then “go on to be a Michelin star chef at a French restaurant,” a nod to the 2007 film “Ratatouille.”

Others suggested she evict the rat by vigorously shaking the stroller or whacking it with a broom, while many urged her to cut her losses entirely and throw the stroller out.

“I honestly wouldn’t ever use it for a small child after a rat had been cribbed up there,” one commenter wrote.

Pest control experts generally advise against handling rats without professional help. According to Terminix, rodents can become aggressive and scratch when threatened and may carry diseases such as hantavirus and leptospirosis.

“When it comes to getting rid of a rat’s nest in the house, DIY treatments won’t cut it,” the company warns on its website.

Boston has been grappling with heightened rat activity in recent years, prompting a citywide rodent action plan known as BRAP. City officials urge residents to “see something, squeak something!” and report rodent activity to 311. Officials said response teams are typically dispatched within one to two days.

Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.

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Boston, MA

Boston’s new city council president talks about election and upcoming term

Published

17 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Boston’s new city council president talks about election and upcoming term

The Boston City Council is setting out on a new two-year term with a new council president at the helm.

City Councilor Liz Breadon, who represents District 9, won the gavel on a 7-6 contested vote, cobbling together her candidacy just hours before the council was set to vote.

“An opportunity presented itself and I took it,” Breadon said. “We’re in a very critical time, given politics, and I really feel that in this moment, we need to set steady leadership, and really to bring the council together.”

The process apparently including backroom conversations and late-night meetings as City Councilors Gabriella Coletta Zapata and Brian Worrell both pushed to become the next council president.

Breadon spoke on why support waned for her two colleagues.

“I think they had support that was moving,” said Breadon. “It was moving back and forward, it hadn’t solidified solidly in one place. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the moment.”

Political commentator Sue O’Connell talks about the last-minute maneuvering before the upset vote and what it says about Mayor Michelle Wu’s influence.

Some speculated that Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration was lobbying for a compromise candidate after Coletta Zapata dropped out of the race. Breadon disputes the mayor’s involvement.

“I would say not,” said Breadon. “I wasn’t in conversation with the mayor about any of this.”

Beyond the election, Breadon took a look ahead to how she will lead the body. Controversy has been known to crop up at City Hall, most recently when former District 7 Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges tied to a kickback scheme involving taxpayer dollars.

Breadon said it’s critical to stay calm and allow the facts to come out in those situations.

“I feel that it’s very important to be very deliberative in how we handle these things and not to sort of shoot from the hip and have a knee-jerk reaction to what’s happening,” said Breadon.

Tune in Sunday at 9:30 am for our extended @Issue Sitdown with Breadon, when we dig deeper into how her candidacy came together, the priorities she’ll pursue in the role and which colleagues she’ll place in key council positions.

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