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A Boston man was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole, hours after a jury found him guilty of beating his 70-year-old father to death, then using a power saw to cut up the body before scattering the remains throughout the neighborhood. Brian Lee showed no outward emotion when the jury returned a verdict of guilty on a charge of first-degree murder for the October 2006 slaying of Edward Lee at the victim’s home in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood, prosecutors said. He declined to make a statement at his sentencing Wednesday afternoon, Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office...

SNIPPET: "A team of researchers convened by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began a series of tests today at 20 MBTA stations to determine how airborne contaminants would spread in a terrorist attack on Boston's subway system." SNIPPET: "The findings will help guide the design of future detection systems and help strengthen evacuation, ventilation, and other emergency response plans on mass transit across the country. "We hope to use the data from the two to come up with a model to predict the behavior (of chemicals) in other subway systems," Lustig said."

It was Christmas, but it didn’t seem like Christmas to me. Traditional lights were glistening everywhere, and churches were abuzz with excitement, but I felt a coldness in my heart akin to the freezing rains that hit me as I trudged uphill to the hospital.

PORTLAND, Maine – A storm packing blustery winds and driving rain knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses in the Northeast on Thursday before giving way to sunny skies and record high temperatures — all in the same morning.

Unions standing in the way of progress? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! The Boston Herald reports that a plan that rewards teachers whose students receive passing grades on Advanced Placement tests — and offers incentives for the students, too — is, predictably, being opposed by the Boston Teachers Union.

Union blocks teacher bonuses By Edward Mason  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage Photo by Matthew West Grinchlike union bosses are blocking at least 200 of Boston’s best teachers from pocketing bonuses for their classroom heroics in a puzzling move that gets a failing grade from education experts.The Boston Teachers Union staunchly opposes a performance bonus plan for top teachers - launched at the John D. O’Bryant School in 2008 and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Exxon Mobil foundations - insisting the dough be divvied up among all of a school’s teachers, good and bad.“It’s insanity,” said Jim...

Classical station has new business model: support of donors Boston is following a trend in radio that’s taking place in other cities across the nation: Its only 24-hour classical music station now depends on listeners - not advertisers - to keep it afloat. Last week’s Federal Communications Commission approval of WGBH’s $14 million purchase of WCRB-FM (99.5) means the classical musical station is now a public broadcaster, with a business model that draws revenue from donations and corporate sponsorship instead of relying on advertising. Because classical music fans tend to be older, and advertisers typically want to court a younger...

Note: The following text is a quote: Ware Man Charged with Illegal Possession of Ammunition and Manufacturing Explosive Materials SPRINGFIELD, MA—A Ware man was charged today in federal court with Possession of Ammunition by a Convicted Felon and Manufacturing Explosive Materials without a License. United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Glenn N. Anderson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Resident Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General, Department of Defense’s...

Here is remarkable video of a Boston woman who was drunk tumbling onto commuter train tracks ahead of an oncoming train. Bystanders began waving furiously to warn the train to stop and the train operator was able to get the train stopped just before getting to the woman. What an outstanding job by the train operator to get stopped! . . . (VIDEO)

A Boston city councilor is fired up over attempts by high-end condo owners to muzzle Old Ironsides’ twice-daily cannon blasts, calling their complaints of excessive noise “absolutely ridiculous” and vowing to push for a city resolution to support the time-honored tradition. “Old Ironsides is part of Boston history,” said Councilor Sal LaMattina, who represents Charlestown, where several residents in a swanky condominium development near the Naval Yard have launched a letter-writing campaign to silence the 44-gun frigate’s cannon salutes.

Anyone here in the Boston area? I just got transferred to this center of loony leftist liberalism and am in desperate need of links with reality. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Old Ironsides’ upscale Charlestown neighbors are trying to pull off what British, French and Barbary pirate guns failed to accomplish in more than two centuries - silencing the cannons of the nation’s oldest commissioned naval vessel. Miffed residents of a posh condo complex have invited the commanding officer of the USS Constitution over for a glass of wine so he can hear for himself that the frigate’s twice-daily cannon blasts - a tradition dating to 1798 - are “more disruptive to the neighborhood than you might have imagined.” Commanding Officer Timothy Cooper received the most recent complaint two weeks ago...

Imagine launching a new restaurant and incurring the scrutiny of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women before it even opens. That’s what happened to the owners of Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ale, a “gastropub” opening this month in Downtown Crossing. Controversy erupted after Stoddard’s sent out a press release last month about its opening that included news of a private, membership-based “gentlemen-only Friday Club” on its lower level. After the plans came under criticism for excluding women - and possibly violating a state law that prohibits discrimination in public places - Stoddard’s “clarified” its policy...

Note: The following text is a quote: West Coast Man Charged with Developing and Distributing Cable Network Hacking Tools BOSTON, MA—Charges were unsealed in federal court against an Oregon man and the company he founded, TCNISO, alleging that they developed and distributed products that allowed users to modify their cable modems and obtain internet access without paying for it. Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer and Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division, announced today that RYAN HARRIS, age 26, of San Diego,...

Beside ads beckoning believers to explore Islam, attend services at the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church, or learn about the healing powers of Christian Science, the walls of the city’s subway cars will make room this month for another creed: nonbelief. A group called the Boston Area Coalition of Reason has spent $11,000 to buy ads on more than 200 subway cars on the Red Line and Green Line to raise awareness about people who believe that God is a myth. Surveys suggest that they account for an increasing number of Americans. The ads, which were unveiled yesterday and will be...

Gentle readers, I’ll bet you’ve never heard of the Secret Six. Neither had I until a few years ago. The Secret Six, as they came to be known, were Boston’s first limousine liberals. Most came from distinguished Boston stock and were all strong abolitionists in the period leading up to the Civil War. They gave money to the militant abolitionist John Brown, who would be considered a terrorist today, knowing he would use the donations in violent ways. When Brown failed, all but one ran like cowards away from their association with him.*** On the evening of Oct. 16, 1859,...

Via ABC News: A pharmacy college graduate made a defiant appearance in federal court Wednesday, hours after being charged with conspiring with two other men in a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq. Authorities say the men's plans — in which they used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said....

BOSTON - A pharmacy college graduate conspired with two other men on a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq, prosecutors said Wednesday. But their plans — in which the men used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said. Tarek Mehanna worked with the men from 2001 to May 2008 on the...

A 27-year-old man from Sudbury has been arrested on charges he planned terrorism attacks inside and outside the United States, according to a spokeswoman for Acting U.S. Attorney Michael K. Loucks. The man was identified as Tarek Mehanna, who was arrested in November of last year for allegedly lying to authorities about a man who trained with al Qaida, federal officials tell the Herald. Loucks and Warren T. Bamford, special-agent-in-charge of the Boston FBI field office, have called a 10 a.m. press conference to discuss the arrest. The announcement will be made at the federal courthouse in South Boston. Developing...

While the naive and ignorant of America continue to drool over America Muslims, facts show us that Muslims here are causing the same problems that Muslims cause across the world. There is a definite uptick in Muslims being busted for plotting terrorist attacks on America. Their immigration is not needed here at all, it is time to end it.

Well, this afternoon I read the criminal search warrant and affidavit and the criminal complaint filed on Tarek Mehanna today (So you wouldn't have to, my possums.) I kept Mr. Mehanna's attorney's admonishment to remember that his client was innocent until proven guilty. I also know that the government is required to prove its allegations in open court. Several things popped out at me.

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It's snowing just outside of Boston. The glaciers will be here soon. We are doomed unless we can get a world class global warming blowhard to visit us.

Opponents rallies against health care reform The nationwide "tea party" movement came to Boston Common on Saturday, as people upset with government spending turned their focus to health care. The rally came as President Barack Obama once again used his web address to push reform. "I'm really opposed to having the government control our health care and rationing health care to people who really need it," Woburn's John Radzikinas said. The group of conservative activists which took to Boston Common on Saturday said health care reform has not worked in Massachusetts, and would be a disaster for the rest of...

Cool shot! Ah, to be 9 years old again, showing off for the cameras!Here's the link again.

Top 9th: LA Angels - B. Abreu doubled to left, E. Aybar scored, C. Figgins to third - V. Guerrero singled to shallow center, C. Figgins and B. Abreu scored, T. Hunter to second

BOSTON -- New evidence has surfaced as the case that has rocked the Boston Police department heads back to the courtroom Monday. The focus of the proceedings at Dorchester District Court will center on cell phone calls and text messages that the alleged victim made. A married pregnant Boston police officer has gone to court to ask for an extension of a restraining order against a fellow officer who she has claimed raped her several times while the pair were at a shooting competition in Connecticut this summer. Newscenter 5 has learned the female Boston officer did not report her...

A Boston police officer has filed a restraining order against another officer in the department, alleging that he sexually assaulted her - possibly impregnating her - and then stalked her, according to court records. The accusation has roiled the department, which is investigating the allegations, according to several law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case. Both officers have been temporarily stripped of their guns and have been asked to stay away from the department during the investigation, but no one has been disciplined, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized...

The day began with a shooting competition in Connecticut. By afternoon, the Boston police officers were drinking beer and margaritas in a nearby parking lot. By the end of the night, they had stopped at two bars, where they downed tequila shots and more beer. Soon afterward, the three officers, two men and a young woman only a couple of years out of the academy, went back to a hotel near Farmington, where they all agreed to share a room. As the woman collapsed into bed, she said she felt someone crawl in next to her. It was one of...

The state Appeals Court asked lawmakers yesterday to take on complex legal questions now surfacing about anonymous sperm donors and the children conceived through science. In a ruling issued yesterday, the court refused to become involved in a Suffolk Probate and Family Court case in which the mother of twin daughters, known only as Jane Doe, is demanding that the New England Cryogenic Center Inc. identify a sperm donor known only as D237... Jane Doe represented herself before the court and could not be reached for comment. ...according to McHugh’s ruling, D237 sold his sperm between 1992 and 1994 when...

Younger Americans just starting out in their careers have always been willing to relocate, but with unemployment high and jobs hard to come by, this mobile generation has become more cautious about making just any move. As a result, cities with staying power and emerging industries may benefit the most once the recession lifts. Leading the list and sharing the number one spot are Washington D.C and Seattle. They're cities with long histories of government jobs and related industries. A Wall Street Journal panel ranked the cities based on job possibilities, affordability and quality of life. One big change, panelists...

BOSTON - Sex in a dorm at Tufts University is fine. Sex in a Tufts dorm with your roommate there? That's a no-no. The Boston-area school has a new policy this semester banning sexual activity while a roommate is in the same room.

The city of Boston spent $431,000 on overtime costs to deploy 629 police officers, 48 firefighters, and a raft of other workers for the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, according to information released to the Globe yesterday under a public records request. City officials said a federal grant for “urban areas security’’ would cover $400,000 of the cost. According to the city’s tabulation, Boston spent $359,714 on 629 police officers, $36,748 on 48 firefighters, $29,572 on 55 public health and emergency medical workers, $4,350 on 27 transportation workers, and $1,293 on six public works employees. The city workers were...

Per Van Sussteren on Fox just now. Developing... WHAT are we going to do? ACORN is stealing this election in broad daylight.

More than 1,000 people rallied today on Boston Common, shouting slogans and holding aloft banners demanding "reform now" in a show of force supporting President Obama's push to overhaul health care. In a refrain that echoed across the grassy lawn, the crowd chanted: "What do we want? Health Care Reform! When do you want it? Now!" Placards read "Public Option = Government for the People" and "Cape Cod will not let Ted's dream die." Members of the crowd said they wanted to push back against vocal opposition to reform as Obama gears up for a major health care address to...

3 great whites are ID’d off coastTags put on 2 sharks; some beaches closed By Meghan E. Irons Globe Staff / September 6, 2009 The fisherman had just one shot to mark the great white. Captain Bill Chaprales walked to the front of his 22-foot harpoon vessel, raised the 12-foot-long tagging pole, and threw it purposefully onto the back side of the enormous shark, which was 4 to 5 feet below the surface. Tagged. “He did it in one shot,’’ said state biologist Greg Skomal, whose team tagged two great whites yesterday. “We don’t swing the bat unless it’s a...

Saturday was the 39th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, at St. Augustine’s Church in Pittsburgh by Bishop John B. McDowell, who is still going strong today. In the Church’s calendar, the feast day for August 29 is the Beheading of John the Baptist. People usually take note when I tell them that I was professed to religious life on Bastille Day, July 14, and ordained on the feast of the Beheading. Not that I am superstitious. On Saturday morning I attended the funeral Mass for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Father Donald Monan, S.J., former president of Boston College,...

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley last night issued a forceful defense of his decision to participate in the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an appearance that has drawn sharp criticism from some conservative Catholics because of Kennedy’s ardent support for abortion rights. O’Malley, writing in his blog, also revealed the substance of a conversation he had with President Obama near the altar of the Mission Church as the congregation assembled for Saturday’s funeral. He said he told Obama that the Catholic bishops are “anxious to support a plan for universal health care, but we will not support a plan that...

Adding former Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s name to Logan Airport is a dumb idea. In a June 19, 1964 plane crash, the senator almost lost his life. The senator’s nephew, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard. Rep. Lori Ehrlich, a Marblehead Democrat, filed legislation today that would rename the airport Logan-Kennedy International Airport. Everybody needs to slow down and take a breath. The Senate Institute at UMass might be nice, then a school here or there and maybe a hospital wing or cancer center, but let’s not overdo it and let’s be smart. Ted's...

Just two years ago, WGBH celebrated the opening of an $85 million state-of-the-art headquarters that symbolized its self-described status as a “public media powerhouse.’’ Today, the nonprofit is coming to grips with the economic realities of operating radio and television stations in a recession. While WGBH produces some of the Public Broadcasting Service’s marquee programming, including “Frontline,’’ “Nova,’’ and “Antiques Roadshow,’’ it must trim about $7 million from its budget this year. That means layoffs, wage freezes, and unpaid furloughs. (snip) The health of WGBH, which started in 1951, is especially important to PBS. The network depends on the station...

SCANDAL AT MISSION CHURCH IN BOSTON The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today decried the scandal which occurred this morning at Boston's most historic Catholic shrine --- the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, known as Mission Church --- where a Mass of Christian Burial was used to “celebrate the life” of one of America's most notorious opponents of Catholic morality, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Senator Kennedy fought for more than three decades to keep the killing of pre-born children legal and unrestricted in the United States. Surgical abortion has claimed more than fifty-one million human...

For those of us on the O’Malley beat, there were lots of interesting moments yesterday, but none more so than the lengthy greeting that Cardinal Sean O’Malley had with PresidentObama. O’Malley, of course, is the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston and has been sharply critical of Obama’s support for abortion rights (“This man has a deplorable record when it comes to prolife issues,’’ O’Malley told me after the election). I asked O’Malley’s spokesman, Terry Donilon, what the two men talked about, and he e-mailed back, “If he chooses to speak about it, he will in the blog, but it was...

Gennaro “Jerry” Angiulo, who ruled Boston’s Mafia with an iron fist for two decades, died today, sources have confirmed. Angiulo suffered a broken hip earlier this month while fighting a losing battle with kidney failure. The ex-gangster was 90 years old. Angiulo had returned to his compound in Nahant upon his release from prison in 2007 after a 21-year stint behind bars for his 1986 conviction on federal racketeering, loansharking and illegal gambling charges. The reign of the former New England La Cosa Nostra underboss was ended by his rivals in the South Boston Irish mob, James “Whitey” Bulger and...

THE DEATH Tuesday of Senator Edward M. Kennedy puts Massachusetts at half strength in the US Senate at a precarious time. Massachusetts lawmakers will only worsen the situation if they fail to take steps to assure a timely replacement......

Boston's two largest talk radio stations have responded to Ted Kennedy's passing by dumping their usual conservative programming and replacing it with local liberal supporters of the late senator. WRKO-AM withheld its standard midmorning and early afternoon lineup of Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh, replacing it with a special show hosted by convicted felon / former House Speaker Tom Finneran, a Democrat best known for circumventing a voter-approved cut in the state income tax. Known as "Tommy Taxes" for that legislative maneuver, Finneran is normally heard in morning drive. A choked-up Finneran told listeners that Kennedy's passing was much more...

The US Department of Justice has launched an inquiry into Boston’s failure to provide necessary language instruction to thousands of students who speak limited English, a violation of federal law that has the district scrambling to hire teachers and expand programs for this fall.

Man, 22, brain dead after alleged beating by 12 in matching red tuxedoes August 24, 2009 11:23 AM By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff A 22-year-old man is brain dead but being kept alive by life support machines today after a vicious beating last week outside a Back Bay nightclub allegedly at the hands of 12 men in matching red tuxedoes.

There are, however, other reasons why minorities seem to be more at risk of swine flu. Low-income parents have a harder time keeping their sick children home from school. "For some parents in lower-wage jobs, if they don't show up at work, they don't get paid, and people may already be on the economic margins," Barry says. "So parents were desperate to get some of these children back in school." As a result, there were many sick, contagious kids in Boston classrooms this spring. Because of the economic pressures and demographics of the Boston school system, most of them turned...

The top FBI agent in Boston said today that the Menino administration should revive a controversial plan to arm neighborhood officers with semiautomatic assault rifles, saying the scarcity of such weapons on the force makes Boston more vulnerable to a terrorist attack similar to the 2008 rampage in Mumbai, India, that killed 166 people.

(CNN) -- The guitarist stands in front of a mirror messing with his mohawk. The drummer strikes a wild tempo. The singer rips off his T-shirt and begins to scream the lyrics. Basim Usmani is bassist for The Kominas, a group that blends traditional sounds with punk rock beats. They're young. They're punk. And they're rocking both their Muslim and American worlds with their music, lyrics and style. "A lot of times people say, 'Oh wow, look, brown people playing music' [but] it's more than that," said 25-year-old Pakistani-American Shahjehan Khan, the lead singer for a Muslim punk band, The...