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A Massachusetts man is facing charges of illegal possession of a firearm and failing to secure a weapon after using a shotgun to kill a bear that began chasing him in his own backyard while he was stocking his bird feeders. The man in question is 76 year old Richard Ahlstrand of Auburn Massachusetts and the bear was 7 feet tall and pushing 400 pounds. But despite the reasonable fear that a 76 year old man might feel in such a situation, the local prosecutors have gone after Mr. Ahlstrand with a vengeance. When he went out that afternoon, he...

Seeking a way out of a federal policy that they say mostly deports people without criminal records, activists rallied Wednesday for a bill that would allow police to not enforce immigration detainers “I am so sick and tired of getting calls from constituents saying, ‘My neighbor has been taken away. The mother of the family next door is being deported.’ I’m tired of pediatricians calling and saying, ‘The parent of my child-patient is in deportation proceedings, and the child is suffering because of it,’” Rep. Denise Provost (D-Somerville) said during a rally in front of the State House. “None of...

The article, from the somewhat sordid “Daily Mail,” reprints Italian news reports. In pertinent part: So when the appearance of a disgraced cardinal threatened to cast a shadow over his first engagement, Francis I made sure it couldn’t happen again – by banning him from his own church. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Archbishop of Boston in 2002, after being accused of actively covering up for a litany of paedophile priests.’ Despite the scandal which exploded to engulf the entire church, he was given an honorary position at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, in Rome. Though now retired, the cardinal...

In April, 2011, Wind 1 went online near Falmouth, MA's waste plant. The 262 feet tall structure -- 10 feet taller than the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown -- has blades that extend almost 400 feet, which is about half the height of the John Hancock Building in Boston, reported WGBH-TV. Complaints started almost immediately. According to Fox, Wind 2 is ready to go online but the town said 'enough is enough.' The 262-foot eyesores have created a storm of protests from residents, many of whom blame numerous health problems on the turbine already in use. The blades' low frequency vibrations...

See the happy citizens! Scoff at the whiny loser board selectman! Behold the pontificating prez of the NRA... http://youtu.be/6DSDSNUr6aY

The state’s embattled welfare chief was forced to step down yesterday in the wake of a shocking internal report that found that a staggering 47,000 families receiving taxpayer-funded benefits are unaccounted for — and nearly $30 million in food stamp money went to recipients who were not eligible.

Way too much red tape. That's the complaint of the Gun Owners’ Action League of Massachusetts, a group that is urging passage of a law that would abolish the requirement of having to renew a gun permit every six years, according to the Boston Herald. For comparison, Massachusetts vehicle drivers' licenses need to be renewed every five years. But the league says local police cannot keep up with timely gun permit renewals, and legitimate gunowners go license-less until the cops get time to do the paperwork. The law now allows 40 days for turning around license applications. In Boston, almost...

WORCESTER — The Guns for Goods program succeeded in getting more guns off the streets, but it also netted a piece of history. “We got a very unusual vintage Japanese rifle from World War II with a bayonet,” said Dr. Michael P. Hirsh, chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and Trauma at UMass Memorial Medical Center. The program, which offered both gift certificates from Wegmans and free flu shots to people who anonymously turned in guns, netted 102 weapons in two days. Mr. Hirsh said 34 were collected yesterday to go with 68 collected Dec. 1. The collection yesterday...

There are three chances that Barack Obama’s illegal-alien Uncle Omar will be deported by his nephew’s government. Slim, fat and none.

Expect a pot boom — like the gold rushes of old — as not just dispensers, but pastry chefs, lawyers and even vending machine salesmen all lunge for their piece of the multimillion-dollar medical marijuana business that is about to explode on the scene in Massachusetts, experts said.

Defiant parishioners waging tireless vigils for the churches they love — now eight years and running — are being warned by their archdiocese that the end is near, but they still vow to fight on. “We paid for this church,” said Maryellen Rogers, a parishioner at St. Francis X. Cabrini in Scituate. “We built it. The archdiocese took out a mortgage in the 1970s we paid off. And we believe we are the rightful owners of this church.” But the Archdiocese of Boston has signaled the rogue worshippers are testing the goodwill of the hierarchy. “The cardinal’s been patient,” archdiocese...

Guess what? Firearms ownership by private citizens is at all-time high while violent crimes are near an all-time low. This is not a report from the National Rifle Association, but rather from the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In addition, a recent ABC News Poll showed that nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of the public endorses the Second Amendment, which protects rights of individuals to own guns. This is interesting, the high percentage of ownership, as I know from limited experience there are many gun owners who do not claim ownership as their mate does...

Date State Previous Status New Status Dems Toss Ups GOP 10/29 Massachusetts Leans Dem »»» Toss Up 46* 10 44 10/28 North Dakota Toss Up »»» Leans GOP 47* 9 44 10/28 Ohio Leans Dem »»» Toss Up 47* 9 44

SNIPPET: "New York City is the center of a public uproar as Internet blogger Pamela Gellar rises with an “anti-jihad” ad campaign." SNIPPET: "Gellar and her group are protesting the Jihad, which in definition is the religious duty of Muslims. According to the Dictionary of Islam, jihad is defined as “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” The literal meaning of jihad, according to the British Broadcasting Network, “is struggle or effort, and it means much more than...

Sen. Scott Brown has a 3-point edge over Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren in a poll released Tuesday. Brown leads Warren, 48 percent to 45 percent, in the WBUR poll. A Western New England University poll released earlier this week found Brown trailing, 50 percent to 45 percent.

MA Republican mailer – “Elizabeth Warren: The Native American Scandal”Posted by William A. Jacobson Sunday, October 7, 2012 at 8:30am The Massachusetts Republican State Committee has sent out a mailer, forwarded to me be a reader, which hits Elizabeth Warren very hard on her false claim to be Cherokee. The mailer is very well done because it presents a lot of facts, including a timeline of Warren’s changing self-identifications as White and then Native American, as well as her initial denials.

BOSTON – Arguments in the case of a retired Air Force captain from Springfield charged with a gun violation were heard by the state’s highest court Monday. A lawyer for John McGowan of 15 Garland St., argued that his client took all required precautions to store his gun on Oct. 19, 2008 when city police visited his home and charged him with improper storage of a firearm. Judges in the state’s Supreme Judicial Court are expected to render a decision in the coming months. According to court papers, McGowan’s girlfriend took his gun from the nightstand next to his bed...

-excerpt- Annie Dookhan, 34, of Franklin, was arrested Friday in a burgeoning investigation that has already led to the shutdown of a state drug lab, the resignation of the state's public health commissioner and the potential upending of thousands of criminal cases.

GARDNER, Mass. (AP) -- A Massachusetts woman says her cat went to the veterinarian for a flea bath but was mistakenly put to death.

There have been several polls released recently, showing everything from a virtual dead heat to Elizabeth Warren ahead by low single digits. This was a contrast to pre-DNC polls, which showed Brown ahead by low single digits. Clearly Warren received a convention bounce, almost entirely from increased support from Democrats. Warren supporters in the left-blogosphere have all but declared victory. The question, however, was whether Warren’s convention bounce would last. A U.Mass-Lowell/Boston Herald poll released tonight indicates that perhaps Warren’s lead is not so clear, or that her bounce has faded. Brown is up 50-44 among registered voters and 49-45...