Free Republic

BOSTON — Gloucester attorney Edward O'Reilly has cleared an important hurdle in his bid to challenge U.S. Sen. John Kerry, filing with state officials nomination papers containing more than 11,636 signatures. O'Reilly, a Democrat, on Wednesday turned in more than the minimum 10,000 signatures required of U.S. Senate candidates and submitted them nearly a month before the June 3 deadline. "This shows I'm serious," O'Reilly said. Since announcing his candidacy last year, O'Reilly has crisscrossed the state, meeting voters in more than 110 communities and collecting signatures. He also hired Spoonworks, a Brookline firm that gathers signatures for political candidates....

Well, now in Massachusetts they are looking to tax college endowments, university endowments that have more than a billion dollars in it. They say that by doing this, they can put more than a billion dollars a year into the state revenue. Legislators have asked state finance officials to study a plan that would impose a 2.5% annual assessment on colleges with endowments over a billion dollars. Now, the universities are very upset and here's quite possibly -- I want to frame this. I want to frame this. I want this on my wall of my office. When a nonprofit,...

IS IT getting too expensive to build affordable housing in Massachusetts? more stories like this Emergency Hub ranks high on inner city business list What happens when doctors want to get a life? American pilots blame management for delays, poor service American pilots to protest at Logan On average, it costs more than $200,000 a unit to build such housing and many projects cost significantly more. A new proposal in the state Senate would make those projects even more expensive. The Senate housing bill would require nonprofit entities and for-profit firms that build most of the region's affordable housing to...

Massachusetts lawmakers desperate for additional revenue are eyeing the endowments of deep-pocketed private colleges to bolster the state's coffers by more than $1 billion a year, asserting that the schools' rising fortunes undercut their nonprofit status. more stories like this Legislators have asked state finance officials to study a plan that would impose a 2.5 percent annual assessment on colleges with endowments over $1 billion, an amount now exceeded by nine Massachusetts institutions. The proposal, which higher education specialists believe is the first of its kind across the country, drew surprising support at a debate on the State House budget...

DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- A new gambling study shows some Massachusetts residents who have not supported casinos in the past may be changing their minds. "Fifty-seven percent of Massachusetts residents still favor two or more resort casinos in the state of Massachusetts. That number is actually four percent higher than when we last did this poll in September," said Dr. Clyde Barrow, a public policy analyst at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. The study was funded by a real estate development firm with land interests in the proposed Palmer and New Bedford casino sites. The research showed that as the state's deficit...

The rising price of gas for buses and food for cafeterias is forcing Bay State schools to either pass the cost on to students this fall or cut staff and programs. “Districts are facing a lot of tough choices as they make their budgets this year,” said J.C. Considine, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. “Everyone agrees kids have to get to school, and it’s essential that kids are properly fed at school. The question is how to pay for those things when the price of gas and food keeps going up.” In Boston Public Schools - with...

BOSTON —— The Massachusetts Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to raise the cigarette tax by $1 a pack and close hundreds of millions of dollars in so-called corporate tax loopholes. The House passed a similar tax package last month. Gov. Deval Patrick generally supports an increase in the cigarette tax, but the $1 boost will be tied up in negotiations over corporate tax rates before it reaches his desk. The Senate tax package, which passed 31 to 6, would raise nearly $472 million in revenue next year. The House passed a tax package last month that would bring in $80...

Remarkable news from Massachusetts, of all places. Car insurance premiums are going down. For three decades a Bay State regulator has set the price of car insurance, leading to an annual tussle between insurers and consumer groups over the size of the increase. This led to some of the highest insurance rates in the country. Because there was no price competition, some of the biggest insurers wouldn't do business in the state. During this exercise in central planning, the number of insurers dropped to 18 last year, from more than 70 three decades ago. But as of April 1, the...

Caption this pic of Kerry:

Rioting lesbians have stormed a speech by "Born Gay Hoax" author Ryan Sorba on the campus of Smith College in Massachusetts, shutting down his address, according to two major pro-family organizations, Americans for Truth and Mass Resistance. "Beware lesbians with frying pans (if you care about free speech)," AFT said in his announcement. "Lesbian activists at Smith College just couldn't stand by and let a young critic explain his views about the supposed innateness of homosexuality – so they stormed Ryan Sorba's speech on the 'Born Gay Hoax' and forced him to end it prematurely." "Thus they decided for everyone...

Together, you and we cleared the first 4 hurdles to putting the END the Income Tax Initiative on the November 4th Ballot. First, we wrote the legal language for the Initiative - and got it legally certified by the Attorney General's Office. Second, we collected 76,085 certified petition signatures to qualify our END the Income Tax Initiative for legislative action - and move it toward the ballot. Third, we survived an under-the-radar, stealth campaign run by the Massachusetts Teachers Union to disqualify our ballot initiative. Fourth, although the Massachusetts Constitution requires the state legislature to take testimony on and vote...

Dozens of lesbian activists at Smith College climbed in through windows and stormed the podium in a riot scene shortly after Ryan Sorba began a speech on his upcoming book, The Born Gay Hoax. The melee forced an end to the speech before a packed hall in the library on the Northampton campus. Uniformed police officers and a plainclothes security guard were in the room but mostly just stood and watched. Rather than take action against the rioters, the officers and a university official walked to the podium and ordered Sorba to leave the room “for his own safety.”

NEW YORK (AP) -- After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as "exciting" and "brilliant." Appearing on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press. A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair...

Campus activist Ryan Sorba delivered his "born gay hoax" lecture at the notoriously pro-homosexualist Smith College in Massachusetts last night. You can see leftist/homosexualist reaction in the blogosphere and watch a video of the rabid activists that refused to let Sorba deliver his blockbuster speech. Here is a pdf of his upcoming book: http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/08a/born_gay_hoax/TheBornGayHoax.pdf And here is audio from a previous speech at Framingham State University: http://www.massresistance.org/media/audio/2008/BornGayHoax_033108.m3u

Almost two years ago, I warned those who longed for a Democrat president to compliment a Democrat House and Senate, look no further than the great example that would be the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Start with carpetbagger Governor Deval “Together we can” Patrick and a fiscally undisciplined legislature, and the money mess was the writing on the wall. While overturning previous Romney-era fiscal vetoes, that gave us a billion dollar-plus surplus, and giving us an almost billion dollar deficit overnight, Massachusetts is eagerly looking for more businesses to soak for revenue, and justified or not, they now have their eyes...

The parents of Jeffrey Curley, the 10-year-old Cambridge boy raped and smothered by two men who lured him into a car, have dropped their federal lawsuit against a group that advocates sex between men and boys, which the parents contended had incited their son's 1997 murder. more stories like thisLawyers for Robert and Barbara Curley filed papers Tuesday in US District Court in Boston ending their wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit against the North American Man/Boy Love Association and 18 reputed members after almost eight years of litigation. Robert Curley said his lawyer recently told him that the plaintiffs...

The Massachusetts Democratic primary, along with nearly two dozen other primaries and caucuses, was held on Feb. 5. Hillary Clinton won it by 15 points, one of her best showings anywhere this year, and Michael Dukakis voted in it—but he won’t say for whom. [SNIP] Mr. Dukakis has maintained an adamantly neutral public stance throughout the campaign, hoping instead to sell both candidates and their campaigns on the need for assembling a massive grassroots organizing effort—a captain and six block leaders in all 200,000 precincts in the country—for the fall. But he also said that Barack Obama will probably be...

All morning one cool, drizzly April Sunday, cars pull up to the Reseska Apiaries warehouse in Holliston - one driven by an attorney, one carrying a plumber and a machinist, another a yoga studio owner. The occasion is the arrival by truck of 270 three-pound boxes of honeybees from Georgia, all ready for pick-up by a diverse and burgeoning cadre of backyard beekeepers. "When I signed up for bee school, I thought there would be six people," says Kristina Ward, a 38-year-old landscape designer from Norfolk. "It turned out there's a whole subculture." Subculture indeed. Ward is among almost four...

Springfield's men in black are returning. The city's new police commissioner, William Fitchet, says members of the department's Street Crime Unit will again don black, military-style uniforms as part of his strategy to deal with youth violence.

On Dec. 3, 1943, a B-24D Liberator bomber with two Army airmen from Massachusetts flew a stealth mission to destroy Japanese war vessels in the Bismarck Sea. The mission turned out to be a success. The crew found a Japanese convoy and bombed it.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Massachusetts finds both potential democratic presidential candidates ahead of John McCain by double-digits. Hillary Clinton leads the Republican 55% to 36%, while Obama leads 51% to 39%. Both races are close among male voters in the Bay State and both Democrats enjoy wide leads among women. ... Just 34% of Massachusetts voters think McCain should select former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as his running mate.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Philanthropist David Rockefeller donated a record $100 million to Harvard University's undergraduate program, the largest gift by a Harvard alumnus in the history of the oldest and richest U.S. college. About $70 million will be used to expand Harvard's student travel and study abroad programs and $30 million will go to arts education, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school said in a statement on Friday. Rockefeller, 92, the last surviving grandchild of billionaire oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 150 wealthiest Americans, with an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion. He graduated...

Feminism on Red Alert by: Deborah Lambert, April 25, 2008 Question: What would inspire a conference on feminism at Harvard to feature conservative viewpoints? Answer: When it’s organized by Professor Harvey Mansfield’s Program on Constitutional Government. The flyer told the tale, saying: “a genuine debate with DIVERSITY of views on THE LEGACY AND FUTRE [sic] OF FEMINISM” adding that “Ladies Receive an Additional 50% off" (at the free conference)…” According to Anthony Paletta, some of the guests at this unusual forum were taken aback at the sights and sounds of conservative speakers like Jennifer Roback Morse, Wendy Shalit and Christina...

[Debra Kozikowski, an undecided superdelegate from Massachusetts, has started a blog inviting supporters of Clinton and Obama to make their case for her vote, "with civility and grace."] FROM: ImUrGrrl TO: DebraKozikowski@MassDem.Net Ms. Kozikowski: I just read the story about you, an undecided superdelegate from Chicopee, soliciting blog postings from Democrats in support of their candidates. I see that you’ve received hundreds of comments from supporters of Sen. Clinton and her opponent. As a fellow woman - dare I say “Sister”? - I think your innovative idea demonstrates the kind of fresh leadership that a strong woman can bring to...

BOSTON (WBZ) ― WHDH Channel 7 announced Thursday that general manager Randi Goldklank is now undergoing medical treatment after an allegedly drunken tirade Sunday night that ended with her arrest at Logan Airport. "The unfortunate events of last Sunday night were unanticipated and Ms. Goldklank is deeply regretful," said Ed Ansin, president of Sunbeam Television Corp. in a prepared statement. Mike Carson, the station's previous general manager will take over on a temporary basis while Goldklank remains on administrative leave. According to a State Police report, Goldklank, 40, of Boston, threatened to put a trooper on TV and ruin his...

When you're a Clintonite, you're a Clintonite all the way. From your first Monicagate defense, To Hil's last primary day.—with apologies to Leonard Bernstein Look next to the definition of "Clinton loyalist" in the dictionary, and you're likely to find a photo of Lanny Davis. The man who would have put Baghdad Bob to shame for his unflinching flackery during Bill's Monica mess is back on the beat for Hillary. Yesterday, Davis wrote a HuffPo column purporting to set forth 10 Undisputed Facts showing Obama's weakness as a general election candidate against John Mccain. As Jake Tapper has observed, some...

Bartenders serve up drinks, customs checks Policy at 2 halls called unfair to immigrants Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Maria Sacchetti Globe Staff / April 24, 2008 All the 33-year-old illegal immigrant wanted was a beer. After nearly a decade in this country, the Irish national knew to steer clear of police and federal agents. But he was stunned this month when a bartender at the Orpheum refused to serve him because his passport lacked a US Customs stamp.

The general manager of WHDH Channel 7 was arrested after an allegedly drunken, obscenity-laced tirade at Logan International Airport in which she threatened to call a news crew and put a state trooper "on TV and ruin [his] life," according to a police report. Randi Goldklank flailed her arms and screamed at State Police when they took her into custody after her Delta flight landed Sunday night, according to the report. She had to be helped off the plane by two crew members, according to the report, and struck a trooper in the chest, breaking the prescription glasses in his...

Barack Obama, meet John Adams. Adams noted during the Boston Massacre trial that “Facts are stubborn things.” And it appears that, for the moment, the facts have caught up with Obama here in Massachusetts. How else to explain the amazing, astounding and unthinkable results of the latest SurveyUSA presidential poll: Republican John McCain is tied with Barack Obama in the Bay State. The last Republican to win Massachusetts? Ronald Reagan. The last Republican before that? Dwight Eisenhower. Even George McGovern managed to carry Massachusetts in 1972, the one Democratic holdout in Richard Nixon’s 49-state landslide. Replace “McGovern” with “MoveOn.org” and...

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry on Monday pinned the Purple Heart on Private First Class Sean Bannon in a pregame ceremony at the mound as Curt Schilling stood beside them. Bannon, 22, of Winthrop, Massachusetts, was critically wounded by an IED in Iraq. He has spent the last month at Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington, D.C. Bannon requested that Kerry, a fellow Purple Heart recipient, do the honors of presenting him with the medal and asked that the Senator ask the Red Sox if he would be able to receive the award at home plate. The Red Sox organization was...

NEW YORK CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI will always have his detractors, but even his toughest critics will admit that this past week the aging pontiff brought the need to heal the clergy sex abuse crisis high up onto his papal platform.Whether one believes that reform is coming or that Benedict’s speeches are merely words on a page, the pontiff has confronted the thorny issue in ways that defied expectations.Before the Holy Father set foot on American soil, he told reporters aboard the papal airplane that pedophile priests left him “deeply ashamed.� During his homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral...

A doctor at the renowned Children's Hospital Boston has launched a new program to drug children to delay puberty so they can decide whether they want a male or a female body, according to a report today in the Boston Globe. Pediatric endocrinologist Norman Spack, 64, says he started the Gender Management Service Clinic because he found himself encountering 20-somethings who were "transgendered" and in good shape socially, "but they were having trouble getting their physique to conform to their identity. "I knew the 20-somethings could have better chances of passing if they were treated earlier," he said. "We don't...

"This isn't conjecture. Its happening now" A doctor at the renowned Children's Hospital Boston has launched a new program to drug children to delay puberty so they can decide whether they want a male or a female body, according to a report today in the Boston Globe.

Islamofascism: Separate gym hours for Muslim coeds. Calls to prayer. Lectures on Shariah finance. A campus in the Mideast? Nope. It's all happening at America's pre-eminent college.Over the past few years, Harvard University has received millions in endowments from rich Saudi and Emirate sheiks. Now it's returning the favor by Islamizing its campus and promoting the Shariah agenda of its new Arab masters. Recently, the Ivy League school has made special accommodations for the religious needs of Muslim students, including, and rescheduling of exams to observe Islamic holidays. And this weekend it hosted a $400-per-person conference on Shariah finance led...

Lexington - Last month the Lexington Public Schools unveiled a formalized diversity curriculum to be rolled out next year, when four to five short units will be piloted in each elementary grade. The curriculum, according to schools Superintendent Paul Ash, will include books, materials, and discussion points that “help children feel welcome and allow them to talk about their families and the families of their friends.” It includes units focusing on families of other races and lifestyles, but the most controversial element is the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual families.In our highly unscientific poll last week, we asked...

Presumably because April 20 is a Sunday, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) today introduced his briefly anticipated marijuana decriminalization bill. Dubbed the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008, it would eliminate federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams (about three and a half ounces) of marijuana and the nonprofit transfer of up to an ounce. This is similar to the change recommended by the Nixon-appointed National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (a.k.a. the Shafer Commission) 36 years ago. As in the case of online gambling, Frank sounds libertarian on this issue: To those...

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=d328d259-7c45-49ff-a14e-c14c182cb9c7 MA: Clinton 56 McCain 41 Obama 48 McCain 46 SurveyUSA is a fairly reliable polling firm this cycle. This is not the first time they showed a tie between Obama and McCain in Massachusetes. Remember Clinton beat Obama by 15 pts in this state. I believe many MA residents are fed up with their first black governor & Obama's buddy who's been incompetent through and through. Deval ran the same empty platform as Obama, and his performance has been dismal so far.

Federal authorities issued a flurry of subpoenas across the city yesterday as they launched a grand jury investigation of disability abuse in the Boston Fire Department, including whether dozens of firefighters faked on-the-job injuries to significantly enhance their pensions, according to several officials briefed on the probe.

We know that children must feel safe and welcome in the classroom to reach their academic potential. To feel safe, welcome, and ready to learn, all children, and especially young children, must be able to discuss themselves and their families in a manner that is caring and respectful. Our tradition of creating an inclusive environment and embracing diversity is consistent with our core purposes: Commitment to academic excellence, respectful and caring relationships, and a culture of reflection, conversation, collaboration, and commitment to continuous improvement. These core purposes have been supported by our School Committee and have been the cornerstone of...

Growing up as an evangelical in rural South Carolina, I’ve heard plenty of rabid denunciations of the Catholic church and the corrupt scheming of its untrustworthy pope. But to hear these angry rantings from Catholics, I had to come to Boston. My good friend and colleague, Margery Eagan, is in a righteous rage over the positive media coverage Pope Benedict XVI is receiving on his first - and likely only - trip to America. Watching his warm reception in Washington, many local Catholics are surly and sulking. Much to Margery’s chagrin, Americans - particularly Catholics - seem to like the...

“Risky as hell.” That’s how the Heritage Foundation’s David John describes U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s mortgage bailout program. He’s an economist who takes the consequences of this taxpayer-backed bailout seriously. Unlike, oddly enough, Frank himself. The Hill recently quoted Frank as saying it’s “irrelevant” how many people are actually helped by his $300 billion plan. “I would hope a million would benefit. There’s no downside. Why not try?” Only a Bay State pol could hand out $300 billion in taxpayer promissory notes and then say “What’s the downside?” It’s like Tip O’Neill getting the go-ahead on the Big Dig and...

A construction worker's bid to curse the New York Yankees by planting a Boston Red Sox jersey in their new stadium was foiled Sunday when the home team removed the offending shirt from its burial spot. After locating the shirt in a service corridor behind what will be a restaurant in the new Yankee Stadium, construction workers jackhammered through the concrete Sunday and pulled it out.

Can a Republican presidential candidate win Massachusetts? In most years, because of the state's dark blue reputation, the answer clearly would be no. But if the race is between John McCain and Barack Obama, there is an opportunity for a Republican to claim Massachusetts's 12 electoral votes. This opportunity exists because of the respective appeal of McCain and Obama to the true dominant political "party" in Massachusetts - the independents.

BOSTON - Two years after the state's landmark health law was signed, the cracks are starting to show. Costs are soaring and Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing a dollar-a-pack hike in the state's cigarette tax to help pay for a larger-than-expected enrollment in the law's subsidized insurance plans. But that hasn't dampened enthusiasm at the Statehouse. Leaders there boast that in the two years since former Gov. Mitt Romney signed the law with a choreographed flourish at historic Faneuil Hall, the number of insured residents has soared by nearly 350,000. Along the way the law has been scrutinized by other states,...

Three F-16s roared toward Fenway Park, flying wingtip to wingtip. Suddenly a fourth F-16, trailing behind the formation, caught up, flew under the three F-16s, then looped up and over the formation to take its rightful spot for a perfect V formation. The maneuver, performed during the Red Sox Opening Day game Tuesday, came just as the Boston Symphony Orchestra finished playing the national anthem. It elicited roaring applause and cheers from the full-capacity crowd, which clearly appreciated what it thought to be great showmanship. But as it turns out, the maneuver was improper and the Vermont Air National Guard...

On Monday, March 3, 2008 Gun Owners' Action League took the next step in our attempt to hold the state accountable for its firearm licensing system. As our members know, GOAL has been seeking the Patrick's administration's assistance in enforcing the firearm licensing laws as they pertain to the illegal actions of local licensing agents. Unfortunately this administration has expressed little interest in protecting the civil rights of lawful citizens. GOAL has also sought to rectify the problems by asking the Massachusetts Inspector General's Office to investigate these illegal activities and to take action against rogue agents. Although that office...

Lexington superintendent threatened by radio host By Ian B. Murphy and Bryan Mahoney/Staff Writers Mon Apr 07, 2008, 12:12 PM EDT Lexington - Lexington - Lexington superintendent Paul Ash has been threatened by a New Jersey radio host urging listeners to “use threats and violence” against Ash for the school district’s new diversity curriculum. Web radio host Hal Turner, a white supremacist whose show is broadcast at www.halturnershow.com, says on his site he “advocate[s] parents using FORCE AND VIOLENCE against Superintendent Paul B. Ash as a method of defending the health and safety of school children presently being endangered through...

TO HIGHLIGHT China's repressive policies, protesters are attacking the Olympic torch as it wends its way to Beijing and the summer games. It's embarrassing for the moment, but China knows the real score. In the long run, the drive for human profit always beats the drive for human rights. Massachusetts offers a tiny but telling glimpse into that broad economic reality. On April 1, University of Massachusetts president Jack M. Wilson announced an agreement with Chinese officials to offer government-sanctioned online classes in the communist nation of 1.3 billion. The deal, UMass officials said, could generate up to $5 million...

Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials yesterday arrested 32 people in Boston and around the state, breaking up what they described as an organized gambling syndicate that earned more than $1 million a year.

To All, After two years, the real story of the Pendleton 8 is finally coming out. A select few are in possession of the documents that show not only the actual events of that night in Hamdania, but the trail of corruption, incompetence, and blatant disregard for the lives of Marines under fire that resulted in unjust imprisonment and convictions or plea bargains for so many men. It's all on paper, it's all verified, and it's all coming out. The documents and the story they tell will be appearing on Euphoric Reality beginning today with the first installment: Part 1...