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NEWTON, Mass. (WHDH) -- Democratic Representative Barney Frank raised eyebrows during his commencement speech at UMass Dartmouth when he referenced the Trayvon Martin case. Barney Frank, never at a loss for words, drew gasps from the commencement crowd at UMass Dartmouth where his good friend Hubie Jones was awarded an honorary doctorate -- complete with a degree and hood. "When they give you an honorary doctorate they give you one of these and Hubie, I think you now got a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you," Frank said during his speech. The crowd was stunned...

Barney Frank Makes Awkward Trayvon Martin ‘Hoodie’ Joke During Commmencement Barney Frank, the retiring Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, never known to speak anything but his mind, used his address to graduating seniors at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Sunday to make a cringe-inducing joke about hoodies. “I do want to acknowledge a man who has played a major role in diminishing inequality in Massachusetts,” said Frank, referring to the activist Hubie Jones. “He’s a great man and I’ve worked with Hubie for many years. You know he got an honorary degree today. You know when you get an honorary...

UP FOR GRABS (85): Colorado (9) — Long a reliable GOP state, but Colorado's conservative profile is changing. Young professionals and Hispanic voters were central to Obama's victory in 2008, but the sluggish economy has hurt his standing. Female voters in Denver's suburbs could play a big role. Florida (29) — Florida is the prime target for both campaigns. Obama won in 2008, but the housing crisis, high unemployment and gas prices are dogging him. Romney won the primary in January and has picked up the endorsement of GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Obama's organization has a large advantage. Iowa (6)...

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was one of several speakers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth undergraduate commencement that took place this Sunday. Frank was also one of two people that received the Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal at the event. However, Congressman Frank made a controversial comment about Hubie Jones, a black recipient of an honorary doctorate, that elicited an audible gasp from the audience. In reference to the Trayvon Martin case, Frank said "you now got a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you." After the audience reacted, Frank said, "I think you'll feel, I hope,...

I just finished reading Brian Sullivan’s Reform battles rollback as Romney pledges to repeal Obama's financial regulations regarding the differences between Romney and Obama on the financial services regulations known as Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley. Sullivan’s piece is mostly what you would expect from a mainstream media outlet. It’s a topical check list of “On the one hand Romney wants, on the other hand Obama says…” that is just a series of campaign infomercials disguised as balanced analysis. (Please see my personal plea at the end of this article for USA Cares this Memorial Day- and please... give generously)     And it illustrates what’s really...

The new round of national and state surveys this week generally showing President Obama clinging to a tenuous advantage over Republican Mitt Romney reinforce the conclusion that socially liberal, upscale white women may stand as the president's indispensable line of defense in his struggle for reelection. Both the national ABC/Washington Post survey released earlier this week, and the NBC/Marist Polls released Thursday in the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia and Florida show Obama retaining preponderant support among minority voters who were critical to his 2008 victory. Conversely, in almost all of the surveys, Obama faces a consistent pattern of erosion...

Elizabeth Warren can no longer count the Harvard University administrator who listed her as "Native American" among her advocates in the unfolding scandal of her professed minority heritage. In the reaction to the Boston Globe's controversial article on Harvard's EEOC reports which listed Elizabeth Warren as a Native American, one particular revelation has gone largely unnoticed. Alan Ray, the former administrator who filed diversity reports during Warren's tenure, distances the university from any responsibility for erroneously listing her as a Native American.

MIDDLETON, Mass. — As the lone Democrat seeking to challenge Elizabeth Warren in the Senate primary in Massachusetts, Marisa DeFranco has been ridiculed, admonished and, worst of all, ignored. But for the moment, Ms. DeFranco, an immigration lawyer with high energy and a scrappy band of volunteers, is enjoying a burst of momentum. She surprised party insiders by collecting enough valid signatures by the May 1 deadline — more than 10,000, gathered everywhere from town meetings to town dumps — to qualify for the Democratic primary on Sept. 6. If Ms. DeFranco clears one more hurdle — winning 15 percent...

The ragged-looking grass growing up around the veterans’ monument in the center of Avalon Park was getting on Ron Davis’ nerves. That’s why on Friday Davis, who lives across from the park on Revere Street with his wife Barbara, paid a contractor $175 from his own pocket to cut the grass in time for Memorial Day. “I’m not angry at the city,” Davis said. “I just got sick of looking at it.” Patrick J. Sullivan, director of Springfield parks, buildings and recreation management, said he’s also sick of looking at unkempt parks. But budget constraints have forced him to prioritize....

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has voted to renew the license of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth for another 20 years. The agency announced Friday that it has authorized staff to renew the license before it expires on June 8. The NRC voted 3-1 for relicensing, with outgoing chairman Gregory Jaczko the only no vote. Gov. Deval Patrick called the NRC’s decision "extremely troubling." He and other officials sought to delay relicensing until pending safety and environmental concerns were resolved. The NRC says the plant is safe, and the 6 ½ year review of Pilgrim’s application was the lengthiest...

But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves. ... The administrator responsible for Harvard Law School’s faculty diversity statistics from 1996 to 2004, the period in question, was Alan Ray, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who, like Warren, has fair skin, blue eyes, and Oklahoma roots. But Ray, now president of Elmhurst College in...

Some advice to the folks at Marylou’s coffee chain, now under investigation by the EEOC, on how to fight back: Start laughing. Back during the Clinton years the EEOC went after Hooters for its alleged hiring bias (we all remember how hard Bill Clinton was on women... uh, let me re-phrase that). Hooters refused to hire men to wear the infamous “orange short-shorts and white tank-top” ensemble. The EEOC spent four years pressuring them to hire male waiters, which would have ruined the Hooters concept. Hooters tried reasoning and logic. As one would expect when dealing with bureaucrats, they failed...

Some advice to the folks at Marylou’s coffee chain, now under investigation by the EEOC, on how to fight back: Start laughing. Back during the Clinton years the EEOC went after Hooters for its alleged hiring bias (we all remember how hard Bill Clinton was on women . . . uh, let me re-phrase that). Hooters refused to hire men to wear the infamous “orange short-shorts and white tank-top” ensemble. The EEOC spent four years pressuring them to hire male waiters, which would have ruined the Hooters concept. Hooters tried reasoning and logic. As one would expect when dealing with bureaucrats, they...

US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago. But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves. In addition, both Harvard’s guidelines and federal regulations for the statistics lay out a...

An exasperated Elizabeth Warren told reporters Thursday that she’s certain about her Native American roots “because my mother told me so.” Surrounded by a group of reporters, the Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate was repeatedly questioned about why she hasn’t produced documentation to prove that she is part Native American. After several minutes of grilling, Warren said, “I am proud of my family and I am proud of my heritage.” “And does it include Indian background?” one reporter asked, according to the first report by masslive.com that was aired on several local Boston TV stations

On Thursday, Milford police arrested Tigoberto Orellano-Alonso, 25, after he was witnessed driving erratically on South Bow Street. The Mexican national was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol as well as driving without a license. . . According to a police report, Orellano-Alonso led the arresting officer on a short chase and failed to fully cooperate when stopped. An open container of alcohol was also observed inside the vehicle. . . In light of several recent incidents, it would seem that Massachusetts’ roads have become very dangerous . . Denice was hit and dragged close to a...

If there’s any politician that infuriates me more than a carpetbaggin’, recipe-stealing fake Indian, it’s one that unloads her imported BMW 528i just before announcing her candidacy, and then doesn’t even bother to pay the automobile excise tax on her campaign’s new Ford Escape. Yes, Comrade Warren, I’m talking about you. A BMW — how tenured Harvard Law is it? She’d owned it since early 2000, but it had to go. After all, she’s a “fight-ah,” as her new TV ad says. So adios BMW and hello used 2008 Ford — hybrid, of course — which is registered to her...

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren said Thursday that she knows she has Native American ancestry because her mother told her so. Warren’s comments came after nearly four minutes of tense back and forth between Warren and Fox 25 reporter Sharman Sacchetti and 7News reporter Andy Hiller. As both reporters questioned Warren about why she listed herself as a minority in law directories, Warren refused to answer, saying she had already answered questions about her background. Finally, Warren said, “I am proud of my family and I am proud of my heritage.” Hiller followed up: “Does it include an Indian background?”...

South Shore coffee chain Marylou’s is singing the blues over a federal employment-discrimination investigation, crying foul that the feds are going after its long-standing practice of hiring bubbly young bombshells to peddle the shop’s trademark joe. Company vice president Ronnie Sandry told the Herald that Marylou’s hiring is limited by its pool of applicants, who tend to be young women from the heavily white South Shore. ‘When you’re hiring a police officer, certain people show up,” Sandry said. “When you’re hiring a Patriots cheerleader, certain people show up. When we’re hiring, certain people apply, and we have no control over...

The mother of a Cambridge man fatally shot inside a Harvard University residence hall in 2009 is suing the school and its officials, alleging that Harvard negligently allowed the mastermind of the killing to operate a “criminal enterprise’’ in the dormitory that resulted in the killing. Denise Cosby filed the wrongful death suit in Middlesex Superior Court last week, saying that the university and its officials failed to protect her son, ­Justin Cosby, 21. He was shot inside Kirkland Hall May 18, 2009, when a drug rip-0ff turned violent. In a joint phone interview Wednesday, Denise Cosby’s attorneys, Issac H....