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Investigators searching for the fugitive wanted in connection with the double homicide of a elderly Massachusetts couple say the vehicle he was last seen driving in has been found abandoned. Christopher Keeley, 27, of Weymouth, remains on the run Thursday after Carl and Vicki Mattson were discovered "stabbed and bludgeoned to death" inside their home in Marshfield on Tuesday night, according to Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz. "The Jeep has been located unoccupied," Massachusetts State Police tweeted, without elaborating on its whereabouts. "We continue to seek Christopher Keeley." Cruz said Wednesday that the Mattsons, both 70, were found dead...

DUDLEY — Police chiefs in Massachusetts have responded angrily to a remark by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren that the American criminal justice system is “racist ... front to back.” Ms. Warren, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, was speaking before an audience at historically black Dillard University in New Orleans Aug. 3 when she delivered what she called “the hard truth about our criminal justice system: It’s racist ... I mean, front to back.” Ms. Warren cited disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender; and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting even after their...

(Reactions follow) My heart goes out to the family and friends of Officer Michael Chesna, a military veteran, of @WeymouthPD who was killed in the line of duty today. We are with you, Weymouth.

A Massachusetts police officer described as a “great family man and officer” died Sunday after a man attacked him with a rock, then took the cop's gun and shot him in the head and chest, officials said. Weymouth police officer Michael Chesna, 42, was killed after he sustained "life threatening" injuries in the shooting just before 8 a.m., officials. Another woman in her home was also shot and killed when the suspect, Emmanuel Lopes, fired the gun three more times while escaping responding officers. “Officer Chesna was an army veteran. In fact, I was speaking with his mom this morning...

WEYMOUTH - Just minutes after two masked men brandishing handguns robbed Previte’s Marketplace on Friday afternoon on Route 53 in Weymouth, one of the robbers carjacked an 85-year-old woman from nearby Linden Ponds, a nursing home and senior citizens’ residence in Hingham, police said. Police caught and arrested one of the men and are still searching for the man who assaulted the elderly woman and stole the car before abandoning it in Quincy, according to statements from Weymouth and Hingham police.

If there is such a thing as being too liberal for Massachusetts, Rep. Edward Markey may fill that requirement. The 18-term congressman has embraced every far left cause since he entered the House in 1977 and has a voting record among the most liberal in congress. If, as expected, former Senator Scott Brown runs in the special election to replace Secretary of State nominee John Kerry, the contrast between the two candidates would be striking. Boston Herald: A mad scramble by bigwig Democrats to avoid a bloody primary and clear the field for U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey in a...

The NYT is calling Marcus Brauchli, the executive editor of the Washington Post, a liar. The NYT has reported this morning -- in a brief, buried "postscript" in the corrections column -- that it now has evidence that Brauchli lied last July when he told the NYT that he didn't know the paper's controversial corporate-sponsored dinner parties would be off-the-record. The NYT doesn't state flatly that Brauchli lied. But the juxtaposition of the two Brauchli statements in the postscript make clear the NYT's position that he misrepresented the truth in interviews with the NYT. [UPDATE: In an email to The...

The marketing executive at the center of The Washington Post’s discredited plan to charge power-brokers for private dinners with the paper’s publisher and journalists has resigned from The Post, the paper disclosed on Friday. The Post had sent fliers to lobbyists and trade groups, inviting them to pay $25,000 or more to sponsor salons at the home of Katharine Weymouth, the publisher — off-the-record dinners with reporters, editors and government officials. The plan became public in July, drawing sharp criticism from journalists in and out of the paper, and The Post quickly dropped it.

The marketing executive at the center of a controversial series of Washington Post-sponsored dinner "salons" has resigned from the newspaper some 10 weeks after the events were canceled, The Post said Friday. Charles Pelton, who had helped organize and promote the monthly dinners as The Post's newly hired general manager of events and conferences, made no mention of the controversy in his resignation letter to Post President Stephen P. Hills. Instead, Pelton wrote, "Given the current circumstances with regard to the resources needed to launch [an events business], my family and I have decided not to relocate to Washington, D.C.,"...

Beleaguered Washington Post Publisher Katherine Weymouth received some support from a fellow publisher over her attempt to increase revenue by providing access to the Obama administration. From Fishbowl DC On her Facebook profile, Washingtonian President and Publisher Cathy Merrill Williams has posted a letter applauding WaPo's Weymouth for her attempt to find new revenue streams and for trying something new re: the "salon" scandals. Her post below or visit it on Facebook here. New Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth has been taking a lot of flak from journalists and press junkies. Weymouth and her team at the Washington Post proposed...

The Washington Post's ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record "salons" was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions. Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli have now taken full responsibility for what was envisioned as a series of 11 intimate dinners to discuss public policy issues. For a fee of up to $25,000, underwriters were guaranteed a seat at the table with lawmakers, administration officials, think tank experts, business leaders and the heads of associations. Promotional materials said Weymouth, Brauchli and at least one Post reporter would serve as "Hosts and Discussion Leaders" for an evening of spirited but...

The Washington Post's ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record "salons" was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions. Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli have now taken full responsibility for what was envisioned as a series of 11 intimate dinners to discuss public policy issues. For a fee of up to $25,000, underwriters were guaranteed a seat at the table with lawmakers, administration officials, think tank experts, business leaders and the heads of associations. Promotional materials said Weymouth, Brauchli and at least one Post reporter would serve as "Hosts and Discussion Leaders" for an evening of spirited but...

Some time last week the Washington Post issued a flier advertising a "salon" on the health-care issue. Over dinner at the home of the paper's publisher, Katharine Weymouth, participants were promised "a collegial evening, with Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds." The paper's executive editor and its "health-care reporters" would be there too, but not in a "confrontational" capacity, you could rest assured. Everything would be safely "off-the-record." And you could "bring your organization's CEO or executive director literally to the table" for a mere $25,000. Even in Washington, it's unusual to see...

BEFORE Sarah Palin stepped on the story, the talk of the Belt way was Salongate at The Washington Post. The venerable newspaper hatched a scheme whereby it would hold a series of "salons" at the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth in order to sell lobbyists and corporations access to Obama administration officials and the Post reporters and editors who cover them. "Bring your organization's CEO or executive director literally to the table," read a flier for the first event. "Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders . . . Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home...

The Washington Post yesterday initiated internal reviews to ensure that its business practices do not compromise its journalistic ethics when the newspaper organizes conferences or private events funded by sponsors. The reviews follow the revelation last week that The Post was planning private, off-the-record dinners at the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth for which it was seeking sponsors to pay $25,000... Weymouth yesterday appointed the newspaper's general counsel, Eric Lieberman, to review the discussions that led to the controversy. The review, along with a parallel inquiry by Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and Senior Editor Milton Coleman, are is aimed at...

The first reaction of every journalist to the story of the Washington Post's advertiser-cum-salon dinner proposal was probably one of disgust and moral superiority. The second reaction: we've all kinda been involved in situations where that line between what we do and how we are compensated for it blurs a bit -- or is at least visible. We bring attention to our brand by reporting and writing, but we do other things, occasionally, to further the interests of the commercial enterprises that pay us. There but for the grace of our marketing department go we....Reporters often give speeches to private...

Following her letter to reader's yesterday, Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth informed staff this afternoon, in a memo obtained by POLITICO, that general counsel Eric Lieberman will "review recent events to make sure that our business processes are consistent with, and will not in any way compromise, our journalism." Weymouth also said that executive editor Marcus Brauchli and senior editor Milton Coleman will "codify parameters for Post newsroom participation in live events." Brauchli told POLITICO Thursday that the a controversial flier publicizing a July 21 event at Weymouth's house ignored the parameters laid out by the newsroom. According to the...

A Letter to Our Readers By Katharine Weymouth Sunday, July 5, 2009 Dear Reader: I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity. A flier distributed last week suggested that we were selling access to power brokers in Washington through dinners that were to take place at my home. The flier was not approved by me or newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what we had in mind. But let me be clear: The flier was not the only...

I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity. A flier distributed last week suggested that we were selling access to power brokers in Washington through dinners that were to take place at my home. The flier was not approved by me or newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what we had in mind. But let me be clear: The flier was not the only problem. Our mistake was to suggest that we would hold and participate in an...

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said yesterday that a hasty time frame, haphazard planning and miscommunication led to the release of a promotional flier that inaccurately described the newspaper's plans for a series of sponsored "salons" with influential insiders. "We decided to throw this particular event very recently," Weymouth said in an interview. "We said, 'Let's not wait. Let's pick a date and let's go for it.' When you rush like that, you make mistakes." Weymouth said she takes responsibility for the controversy, and she took the rare step of writing a letter to readers, which appears today on the...