Free Republic

Two former leaders of a Massachusetts veterans care home where at least 76 people died of the coronavirus have been charged in the deadliest known outbreak of the illness at a long-term care facility in the US, the state’s attorney general said Friday. Former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Superintendent Bennett Walsh, 50, and ex-medical chief David Clinton, 71, were indicted by a grand jury — and each charged with five counts of criminal neglect and five counts of serious bodily injury.

New York's top terrorism official says there's evidence that members of anarchist groups from outside the city intentionally planned to incite violence at protests calling for justice in the death of George Floyd. Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said there is a high level of confidence within the NYPD that these unnamed groups had organized scouts, medics, and supply routes of rocks, bottles and accelerants for breakaway groups to commit vandalism and violence. There are strong indicators they planned for violence in advance using at times encrypted communications, he said. One out of every seven arrests, of...

Investigators in Massachusetts are seeking the public’s help to solve a horrific mystery and identify a little girl whose body was found in a trash bag on the shoreline of a Boston Harbor island. Though her remains were discovered last week by a woman out walking her dog, no one has come forward to report a child missing. A computer-generated composite image of the girl—dubbed “Baby Doe” –was created by the national Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Does Mike Huckabee really hate Mitt Romney so much he'd run for president just for the chance to throw haymakers at his old rival? As a new poll shows the two Republicans running neck and neck against President Obama in the 2012 presidential race, the rivalry between Romney and Huckabee that began during the 2008 campaign resurfaced Monday when Politico published a story titled "Huckabee throws a Mitt fit." Click to enlarge Associated Press Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee From the archive News analysis: Analysis: Why Jon Huntsman Jr. may be running for president – Jan. 31, 2011 Huckabee: Israel...

<p>BOSTON (AP) — U.S. defense contractor Raytheon announced a series of layoffs Tuesday just days after Gov. Deval Patrick denied asking it to delay terminations until after the state elections.</p> <p>The announcement follows three other rounds of layoffs announced by Massachusetts employers in the immediate aftermath of last week's elections.</p>

Scott Brown’s improbable win and the energy of the Tea Party movement that helped to sweep him into office have stirred the imagination and creativity of the electorate. Mainstreet America will not sit by and let the debate be dictated by the left. Incumbents, regardless of party, should fear a well-informed and politically active public.

Is *any* news org showing updating voter exit interviews?

In a press conference, Harry Reid (Cadaver-NV) said, “Now I believe myself that the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and you have to make your own mind as to what the President knows, that this election is lost, and that this campaign (with the President, Senator Kerry (Pussy-MA), SEIU members and false advertisements) is not accomplishing anything according to the enthusiasm in Worcester.” He added in later remarks, ”As long as we follow the President’s path on health reform, this election is lost, and possibly the 2010 elections themselves, but there is still a chance to change course.”...

President Obama probably never thought he'd be in Massachusetts on Sunday night. But with Republican Scott Brown surging in the polls two days before the special election for Ted Kennedy's senate seat, Obama has scheduled a last-minute trip to Boston to headline a rally for Democrat Martha Coakley. Even before Obama scheduled his trip, however, campaign lawyers in both political parties had begun quietly cramming for the colossal legal battle that could ensue should Brown pull off a stunning upset in one of the nation's bluest states. Republican lawyers fear that if Brown wins, Democrats will use stall tactics to...

The ultra-leftist Huffington Post thinks Scott Brown is a bad guy … for opposing taxpayer-funded sex-change procedures demanded by a convicted murderer. According to the Huffington Post, it’s bad enough Brown opposes homosexual “marriage” -- but then they go on to list this as another of his bad deeds: “The two-time incumbent [Brown] took a firm stance on opposing the request of a convicted murderer for a sex-change operation.” Huff Post brands this "engaging in the culture wars," and that's a no-no. (They want conservatives to just shut up.) But Brown was courageous enough to stand up against the leftist...

"With all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy seat and it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat."

Long before he was a politician, the Republican candidate vying for Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat posed nude for the centerfold of Cosmo. Scott Brown won our “America’s Sexiest Man” contest and appeared in the June 1982 issue. In those days he was a 22-year-old law student at Boston College who was cramming for finals just days before stripping down for our photographer. “Here at Cosmo we’ve had bachelors go on to be actors, models, and reality show stars, so we’re thrilled that one has gone on to become a politician,” says Kate White, Cosmo’s editor in chief. Obviously we...

Paul Kirk will be named to fill the vacant Massachusetts Senate seat. Announcement likely tomorrow.

Harry Reid (D-NV), current Senate Majority Leader, is concerned that the RNC may actually try to dethrone him in 2010. In a recent Las Vegas Review Journal article, Reid noted he is trying to raise a paltry $50,000 by midnight,December 31 – he currently has $2,750,000 in elections funds, most of the money coming from the gaming industry. This amount of cash on hand is a small sum to wage a “war” should the RNC launch a serious attack. Compared to John Kerry (D-MA), who recently won re-election, and is in “safe” state for Democrats - he has a decent...

Associated Press BOSTON — Boston police will ask parents in high-crime areas to let detectives search their children's bedrooms for guns without warrants in a new anti-crime program. Police believe parents are so worried their teenagers will be caught up in gun violence that they'll be willing to allow police into their homes. If the parents say no, the police will leave. "They don't know what to do when faced with the problem of dealing with a teenage boy in possession of a firearm," police Commissioner Edward Davis said of parents. We're giving them an option in that case." Davis...

SHREWSBURY, MA - The full weight of state and local bureaucracy is coming down on Helen Jarzobski and her buddies at Francis Gardens in Shrewsbury. “Why should I be expected to change now?” asked Ms. Jarzobski, a rather precise senior who cited her age at 92 and a half. “I’m going to be gone soon. If they keep pushing this, I’ll be gone even sooner.” Ms. Jarzobski sat with me Tuesday afternoon on her small backyard deck, which contains two comfy wicker chairs and a glass table. The grandmother of eight likes to relax there every morning with her coffee....

NEW YORK — With his confident style and crowd-pleasing smile, Ames, Iowa, straw-poll winner Willard Mitt Romney looks like a formidable contender for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. If he's lucky, he can leave voters so dazzled that they ignore his record. Rather than see stars, Andrew Sum and Joseph McLaughlin of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Boston's Northeastern University placed Romney's rule as Massachusetts governor beneath their statistical microscope. Let's hope what they discovered is not contagious. "Our analysis reveals a weak comparative economic performance of the state over the Romney years, one of the worst in...

"We insist that everybody who drives a car has insurance. And cars are a lot less expensive than people." --Gov. Mitt Romney Massachusetts will likely soon become the first state in the nation to force everyone living within its borders to buy health insurance or pay a tax for walking around uninsured. Gov. Romney says by signing such a mass mandate into law, he will achieve the Democrats' goal of universal health coverage on Republican market-oriented principles. Uh-huh.

Bay State officials seeking to save a coveted congressional seat are turning for help to residents who can’t even vote: illegal immigrants. A census of the often-maligned underground residents - who face constant calls for their deportation - could be critical to reaching a population total that could preserve the seat. “We need to chase them,” Secretary of State William Galvin said yesterday, stressing the need for an “all local” hunt for everyone living here. Crucial to the census success: Convincing the estimated 150,000 to 200,000 illegal immigrants that they will simply be counted, not arrested. “This is for real....

Bay State officials seeking to save a coveted congressional seat are turning for help to residents who can’t even vote: illegal immigrants. A census of the often-maligned underground residents - who face constant calls for their deportation - could be critical to reaching a population total that could preserve the seat. “We need to chase them,” Secretary of State William Galvin said yesterday, stressing the need for an “all local” hunt for everyone living here. Crucial to the census success: Convincing the estimated 150,000 to 200,000 illegal immigrants that they will simply be counted, not arrested. “This is for real....