Free Republic

Of course it was only by happenstance that former Mayor Thomas Menino died just days before the 2014 election, and that his funeral at Most Precious Blood Parish in Hyde Park coincided with the closing hours of all the campaigns whose outcomes would be decided on Tuesday. But that unplanned juxtaposition couldn't have illustrated more vividly the emotional extremes we resort to when it comes to political figures.A newcomer watching the local TV news broadcasts in Boston early Monday morning might reasonably have concluded that the former mayor had been a hero of mythic proportions, a saint and a superstar whose goodness...

Statement on Howie Carr [View] Wednesday, November 5, 2014 To All Members of The WRKO Listening Family: I'm sad to report our good friend and colleague Howie Carr was injured today in an auto accident. Those of us who know, love and respect Howie and his work recognize what an important day Tuesday was for him and why he toiled through the night to compose his columns and prepare for the post-election radio show today. The Republican surge that swept across America was something Howie predicted and so urgently wanted to share with each of you on the air throughout...

Our roving Radix observer in South Boston writes on the Massachusetts Gubernatorial race: “The news of the day is…Democrat Martha Coakley has attached ‘Thank you Mayor Menino’ signs to all her campaign signs in Boston…it backfired huge as all the people are sickened by her trying to use the mayor when he is literally just in the ground. People are bat [guano] about the Menino sign …he didn’t support her campaign …she is classless using the popularity of a dead mayor who is just in the ground.” Coakley operatives “showed up at midnight to attach the Menino signs …. trying...

The Boston Elections Department has reported that 26,765 people have voted as of 9 a.m., representing 6.98 percent of the registered voters in Boston. This gives us a good indication of how many people will have voted by the end of the day, both in Boston and statewide. There is a fairly stable relationship between the turnout updates and final turnout, both at the city and state levels. This chart shows the projected figures for turnout through the rest of the day in Boston. We will update the chart when the noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. updates arrive from...

A funeral mass for former Boston Mayor Tom Menino is being held [10am] at Most Precious Blood Church in Hyde Park. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, is presiding. Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick offered words of remembrance... According to WBZ-TV, at the request of the family, the live video feed is not showing the distribution of Communion... Rev. John J. Connolly, Jr.: “The reason that Tom Menino is so beloved by so many … is because he recognized that each of us is blessed by God with the gift of life.".. Boston Mayor Martin Walsh:...

<p>I was mad at the State. I was mad at the county. I was mad at the city. I was mad at myself. I was mad at each team member. I was mad at Presbyterian.</p> <p>The idiot 'RAT mayor, among those who have accelerated the descent of Dallas to a third world cesspool is right. He's scared and he is MAD, as in insane. What an idiot but so typical of leftists.</p>

Thomas Michael Menino, who insisted a mayor doesn’t need a grand vision to lead, then went on to shepherd Boston’s economy and shape the skyline and the very identity of the city he loved through an unprecedented five consecutive terms in City Hall, died Thursday. He was 71 and was diagnosed with advanced cancer not long after leaving office at the beginning of this year.

Ross Kerber, Reuters October 28, 2014 A US jury on Tuesday found a college friend of the accused Boston Marathon bomber guilty of lying to authorities in a terrorism investigation. Robel Phillipos, 21, was charged with lying about having visited suspected bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room three days after the 2013 attack that killed three people and injured more than 260. Phillipos and two friends removed a backpack containing empty fireworks shells from the suspected bomber's room. Phillipos, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was on trial for two criminal counts of lying to investigators, one for saying he did not remember the...

Robel Phillipos, a friend of terror suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been convicted of lying to authorities investigating last year’s Boston Marathon bombings that killed three spectators, including an 8-year-old Dorchester boy. Phillipos was accused of lying about being in Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the bombing, when two other friends removed a backpack containing fireworks and other potential evidence, including a laptop. Phillipos' lawyers argued he couldn’t clearly remember what happened because he had smoked marijuana heavily that day. The fate of Phillipos, 19 when he was arrested and who turned 21 this month during his trial at U.S....

BOSTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Former governor of Massacheusetts and 1988 Democratic nominee for president Michael Dukakis took the stand in Boston to testify on behalf of a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Robel Phillipos stands accused of lying to the FBI and local law enforcement about his actions and wherabouts in the three days following the attack that killed three an injured more than 260 people. "[Phillipos] told me he was questioned for five hours by the FBI," Dukakis testified according to the Boston Globe, adding, "he was so confused he didn't know what he said."

In the small, suburban city of Woburn, Mass., some 25 minutes north of Boston, local history will be made. On Thursday, Oct. 9, the Bostonian Society will finally crack open the 113-year old time capsule lodged in the head of the lion statue that typically sits perched atop the Old State House in downtown Boston. The statue, paired with its unicorn counterpart, was hoisted from the city's oldest, continuously used public building as part of a renovation project. It was subsequently decided that whatever goodies are still being kept from the public ought to finally see daylight. Heather Leet, director...

Two park rangers were stabbed on Boston Common Tuesday afternoon, according to a tweet from Fox 25. One of the stabbing victims is reportedly suffering from “serious/life threatening injuries.”

Hazmat crews are currently on the ground at Logan Airport, after five passengers with flu and Ebola-like symptoms landed in Boston. At this moment, specialists are inspecting an Emirates flight at Terminal E at Gate E6 at Logan. Three of the five passengers with symptoms are on their way to Boston Medical Center; details about the other two are unavailable. At 5:20, the other passengers on the flight were allowed off the plane and went through customs. Flu symptoms include a number of similar symptoms to Ebola, including fever, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Officials stated that the passengers in question...

BOSTON —Medical crews in hazmat suits have responded to an arriving plane at the international terminal at Logan Airport. A source told NewsCenter 5 that six passengers on board the flight had become sick. The plane, an Emirates airliner that had arrived from Dubai, was surrounded by ambulances and emergency responders in white and yellow suits. Massport, which runs the airport, did not respond to several phone messages on the nature of the incident. However, international airports around the country are on alert for Ebola, though there was no indication that was related to the emergency response. Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/medical-crews-surround-aircraft-at-logan-airport/29093968#ixzz3G3VSACXb

<p>A patient with Ebola-like symptoms is being taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, according to Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. During a press conference outside of Beth Israel, officials said the patient will undergo an evaluation to determine whether Ebola is a possible cause of the patient’s symptons.</p>

Blacks are more likely to be stopped and frisked by Hub cops in a “problematic pattern” that stops short of “widespread” racial profiling, according to the researcher whose findings the ACLU cited in an explosive report on Boston police tactics.

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is set to open early next year. […] The institute is being built on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The centerpiece is a full-scale representation of the U.S. Senate Chamber. …

Boston City Council approved giving itself a nearly 23 percent pay raise on Wednesday, despite threats of a possible veto by Mayor Martin Walsh. The council voted 9-4 to raise its annual pay from $87,500 to $107,500, a $20,000 increase, effective January 2016. […] Boston City Council salaries already exceed those in other New England cities; only Cambridge councilors, who earn $73,362, come close, according to a 2013 Boston city survey. …

The e-mails threatening death to hundreds of Harvard students and affiliates may not be credible, according to a community advisory from Steven Catalano, Harvard University Police Department’s Public Information Officer. Initial investigation indicates that the e-mails were sent from overseas, undercutting the legitimacy of its authors claim to live in Boston. The threat was sent at approximately 4:45 p.m. Friday, according to initial university police correspondence. While the full content of the message was not provided by authorities, The Crimson student newspaper provided further details about the “racially charged” e-mail: Addressed to “All students at Harvard,” the text of both...

A teenage Boston University undergrad with no driver’s license reached 100 mph Wednesday as he drove his $126,500 Maserati GranTurismo over the rain-soaked streets of the Back Bay, prosecutors said. Zeguang Xu, 19, an undergraduate student at BU’s College of Arts and Sciences, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Boston Municipal Court to charges of operating without a license, providing a false name to police, speeding, failure to stop, and negligent operation. He was released from custody after posting $1,000 bail.