Free Republic

Organizers say the 2012 Democratic National Convention here will contrast the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., a week ago by becoming the most open and inclusive political event in the history of the United States. And despite a shortened schedule running Tuesday through Thursday, Southern hospitality kicked off the week with several parades and concerts on Monday as the one-time first day of the convention was blended with CarolinaFest. Democratic National Convention CEO Steve Kerrigan said in a press conference on Monday that through public invitation and digital engagement, more average citizens will be a part of the action in...

In America, the wide-eyed and innocent believe in unicorns and the Tooth Fairy. In Massachusetts, they believe in “coincidence.” For 10 years a Lowell woman had been getting her welfare benefits at the local office without, she claims, being asked to register to vote. She never bothered to do anything about it until now. What a “coincidence.” So a group headed, “coincidentally,” by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter Amelia files a lawsuit on this woman’s behalf. Now, Demos has filed other such lawsuits in other states and in other years. But the one they filed against Massachusetts just happens to be while...

In America, the wide-eyed and innocent believe in unicorns and the Tooth Fairy. In Massachusetts, they believe in “coincidence.” For 10 years a Lowell woman had been getting her welfare benefits at the local office without, she claims, being asked to register to vote. She never bothered to do anything about it until now. What a “coincidence.” So a group headed, “coincidentally,” by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter Amelia files a lawsuit on this woman’s behalf. Now, Demos has filed other such lawsuits in other states and in other years. But the one they filed against Massachusetts just happens to be while...

In America, the wide-eyed and innocent believe in unicorns and the Tooth Fairy. In Massachusetts, they believe in “coincidence.” For 10 years a Lowell woman had been getting her welfare benefits at the local office without, she claims, being asked to register to vote. She never bothered to do anything about it until now. What a “coincidence.” So a group headed, “coincidentally,” by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter Amelia files a lawsuit on this woman’s behalf. Now, Demos has filed other such lawsuits in other states and in other years. But the one they filed against Massachusetts just happens to be while...

BOSTON — Gov. Deval L. Patrick on Monday signed a comprehensive new bill to control costs in health care, calling it the "next big step forward" in overhauling the health industry. The 349-page legislation is complex enough that several leaders of hospitals in Western Massachusetts said they are unsure of the bill's financial effects on their institutions. "This is your house," Patrick told a crowd that gathered inside Nurses' Hall at the Statehouse to celebrate the signing of the bill into law. "This is your day. This is your bill." The bill, submitted by Patrick in February of last year,...

With more than 130 in attendance and about a dozen onlookers on scene hoping to catch a glimpse of America's first lady, Michelle Obama delivered a stump speech aimed at energizing the local Democratic base as she campaigned for her husband's re-election efforts. Among the attendees joining Obama for lunch in the MassMutual Room of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield on Friday were NBA player Grant Hill, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, State Auditor Suzanne Bump, Congressman Richard Neal, D-Springfield, the recently retired former state Rep. Raymond Jordan, and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno....

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has approved a bill that removes a requirement that food store owners place individual price stickers on each item for sale in their shops. The Democratic governor on Tuesday signed the law, allowing store owners to instead place price scanners throughout their stores. Customers can use the scanners to determine an item's cost. ... But consumer advocates say scanners can be unreliable, forcing consumers to play "guess the price" before heading to the checkout line.

The problem isn’t with private equity or, er, “raping” companies, he says, it’s simply a matter of challenging Romney’s claim of being a job creator. Which, of course, is a lie: Go back and watch Obama’s brutal ad about GST Steel, replete with a worker comparing Romney and Bain to a “vampire.” It’s an attack on Romney’s character, not his job-creating prowess, which is in keeping with the whole tenor of the battle over Bain. Ostensibly it’s an argument over employment numbers but in reality each side wants something deeper out of it. Romney wants voters to come away thinking...

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) defended Bain in an interview with CNN Tuesday, saying, “I respect what Bain does and its role in the free market system.” KING: [Clyburn] said Bain Capital rapes companies. He says he can’t support companies that go around “raping companies.” PATRICK: Look, the question is whether Mitt Romney has what it takes—the preparation and the experience and the empathy—to serve as president of the United States. It’s not about whether Bain is good or bad. I have friends at Bain; I have friends who supported the other candidate in my own campaigns. I respect what...

A state official who opted not to take a key Gaming Commission post amid controversy over past sex allegations will be welcomed back to his old job in the Patrick administration, the governor said yesterday. Gov. Deval Patrick indicated yesterday that Carl Stanley McGee can have his old job back but warned that the state’s powerful Gaming Commission needs to quickly regain its focus. “I think we have had a number of distractions from the central work of the Gaming Commission, and the central work is about getting a new protocol and new framework for expanded gaming up and running,...

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick compared Alabama and Arizona immigration policies to McCarthyism and Jim Crow in a speech Monday to students at Tufts University, according to a story on Boston.com. “The actions of various states to take matters into their own hands have been ham-fisted, self-defeating, and even racist,’’ Patrick was quoted as saying. The tone of Patrick’s speech Monday - he called much of the debate surrounding immigration reform “hysterical and poisonous’’ - has struck some state lawmakers and immigration policy specialists as more vehement than previous speeches, the story said. “The public discourse about immigration is as toxic...

Gov. Deval Patrick, who was first briefed on a long-running EBT-abuse investigation only hours before last week’s raids, defended the taxpayer-funded program again yesterday. Questioned about whether last week’s 53 arrests had changed his view of the program’s problems, Patrick responded: “This is a really important program. I think most people know that it provides modest benefits that help people with their housing, their employment, their education needs and obviously when that’s abused, that’s concerning to me, as it is to anyone else.” In recent weeks, Patrick had dismissed the Herald’s coverage of the welfare card issue as “the Herald...

A deadly armed robber once facing the death penalty, a Dorchester appliance store owner’s killer and a man who did nothing to stop a friend from pumping a Springfield resident full of bullets are the first three “lifers” to be set free since the state Parole Board was revamped by Gov. Deval Patrick following the Dec. 26, 2010, murder of Woburn Police Officer John “Jack” Maguire by a career felon paroled despite serving three life sentences. After 13 consecutive denials of parole applications, the board announced today it will release Vernon Miller, Benley Thompson and Raborn Allah on April 9....

Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday announced that NStar [NST] — as part of its bid to merge with Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities — has agreed to buy 27.5 percent of the electricity that will be generated by the yet-to-be-built Cape Wind project. And by “agreed” we really mean “succumbed to unprecedented pressure from Patrick’s team, designed to ensure that the offshore wind project may some day, with enough government coaxing, actually break ground.”

Hours after Mitt Romney eked out a win in the Iowa caucuses over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Gov. Deval Patrick called the victory for the former Bay State governor a win for the Tea Party. Appearing on the CBS Early Show on Wednesday, Patrick defended President Barack Obama and called the Republican cast of challengers “interchangeable.” “It’s a win last night for the Tea Party agenda. That was really the big winner. I mean the candidates in many respects are interchangeable because they’re all offering exactly the same plan, and that’s a plan that says that everybody in America...

Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation Wednesday adding the words “gender identity” to the state’s non-discrimination laws, a bid to prevent discrimination against transgender residents seeking housing, employment, credit or post-secondary education. The bill also expands the state's hate crimes statutes to include violence perpetrated against transgender men and women. Patrick said he signed the bill as a matter of “conscience” even though lawmakers had stripped a provision that would have required all “sex-segregated facilities” to grant admission to people based on their gender identity, rather than their biological gender. The provision, viewed as a key component by advocates of the...

Deval Patrick is working on a new book — and he wants you to help write it. The forthcoming publication will be about “the politics of conviction,” Patrick wrote in an email to supporters this afternoon. “I want to highlight some of the shining examples of it across this Commonwealth and the country that are strengthening our communities and inspiring the next generation of citizens,” Patrick wrote. “If we believe that there is a different way to do things, if we want to see conviction matter more than convenience in our politics, we need to start making the case for...

Russell and Patricia Caswell are a hard-working couple who may soon have their American Dream taken from them by the unholy alliance of local and federal law enforcement officials seeking to cash in on the Caswell’s property. The Caswells face this dilemma even though they have broken no law and have spent their entire professional career working to combat crime with the very police force that now seeks to take their property though civil forfeiture. What is happening to Russ and Pat, however, is by no means an isolated instance and local law enforcement’s end-run around state laws designed to...

Gulfstream Aerospace has picked Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport as the new site for a $23 million maintenance facility for its new ultra long-range G650 corporate jet. The project, announced Friday, is expected to add 100 jobs to the 130 technicians Gulfstream already employs at the airport. There will be 200 construction jobs associated with the 100,000-square-foot hangar. Construction starts in April and the building is expected to be ready by the middle of 2013, according to Gulfstream, a unit of Virginia-based General Dynamics. Gov. Deval L. Patrick expressed his excitement for the project. “It goes announcement by announcement, ribbon cutting by...

An 11-year-old Ipswich girl was hit and dragged by a truck while riding her bike to school Wednesday. Now, residents say the details surrounding the horrible incident are becoming all too common in the Bay State. Police say the suspect who hit the sixth grader as he pulled out of the driveway of his home is an illegal immigrant who doesn't even have a license. It turns out 35-year-old Wanderson DaSilva-Neto has an outstanding warrant for his deportation back to Brazil.