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<p>TEL AVIV, Israel—A U.S. congressman says he's seeking clarification from Israel after an apparent snub by a top Foreign Ministry official. Rep. William Delahunt of Massachusetts is touring the region with a congressional delegation hosted by J Street, a liberal Jewish lobbying group that describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace.</p>

Joseph Kennedy III, the son of former congressman Joe Kennedy, is being tipped to launch a political career soon as insiders mull over who the next Kennedy in public life will be. Kennedy, 29, may be interested in the South Shore-Cape Cod House seat currently held by Democratic Congressman Bill Delahunt, who has not yet committed to a tough re-election fight. “Massachusetts – and Capitol Hill – without a Kennedy is like Fenway Park without the Wall,’’ Dan Payne, a Democratic media consultant, referring to the famous Green Monster told the Boston Globe. “They were meant to be together.’’ Others...

As authorities searched for clues into what could have sent a University of Alabama neurobiology professor on an alleged killing spree, friends and family yesterday described Braintree native Amy Bishop as an awkward introvert on the brink of losing her teaching job. Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, told the Herald his wife had been fighting the university for over a year about a tenure denial, and several months ago received a final decision. She was upset, but not overly emotional, approaching her appeal “like a game of chess,” he said. Police in Huntsville, Ala., charged Bishop, 44, with capital murder after...

By now you've heard all about the University of Alabama shooter, Amy Bishop, the shooting rampage, the old murder she got away with (the "cover-up" and the connection to now retiring Congressman Bill Delahunt), the letter bomb she likely sent... Turns out I have a tenuous connection to this woman. You see she used to be the next door neighbor of a good friend of mine in Ipswich (a north shore Boston suburb) for a few years. At the time I used to hang out at his house quite a bit. This was one of those typical suburban neighborhoods with...

US Representative William Delahunt said yesterday that he is considering retiring from his congressional seat representing the South Shore and Cape Cod, although he portrayed his deliberations as routine and said they are not related to challenges from Republicans who are energized by Scott Brown’s upset victory in last month’s special Senate election.

The Alabama biology professor accused of killing three colleagues in a campus shooting was working on a novel that contained eerie similarities to her own life. Amy Bishop, charged with opening fire Friday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, had an unpublished manuscript for a book titled "Amazon Fever," obtained by the Boston Globe, that focuses on a female scientist, Olivia, who struggles with depression and fears losing tenure. Bishop was denied tenure late last year, though police have yet to identify a motive in the killings. Her book refers to the University of Alabama as the MIT of...

An Alabama college professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting is likely insane, and she can't remember the shootings, her attorney said. Roy W. Miller, the court-appointed attorney for Amy Bishop, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that his client has severe mental problems that appear to be paranoid schizophrenia. Miller discussed the case hours after hundreds of mourners attended the first funeral and memorial services for Bishop's slain co-workers.

If Bill Delahunt had done his job, three Alabama families wouldn’t be in mourning today. Period. If then-Norfolk District Attorney Delahunt, his staff or the police hadn’t been negligent, corrupt or both back in 1986, Amy Bishop would have been prosecuted for killing her brother. Based on what we know now - and what investigators knew then - probably some charge of manslaughter. But at the very least, Bishop probably would have had a felony gun conviction on her record, teaching her a tragic personal lesson. Instead, the political culture of Massachusetts taught her something very different: It’s not what...

The Braintree Police Department, the Norfolk County Prosecutor and the Massachusetts State Police are trying to get their stories down as to why no charges were filed against Amy Bishop in the 1986 shooting death of her brother.  Although the police file that had been missing for more than 20 years was found among the papers of a retired police investigator, now deceased, the case remains highly controversial.  Shortly after being apprehended in ‘86, Bishop was released without being charged. Congressman William D. Delahunt was the Norfolk DA at the time.  The current holder of the post, William R. Keating, is investigating the entire matter. It is...

Professor Amy Bishop, the tenure-seeking neurobiologist who cold-bloodedly killed three of her colleagues and seriously injured several more in her shooting spree, is now claiming indigence and has requested a public defender, rather than shelling money out of her own pocket, or that of her husband, James Anderson... Do you have a job or work for yourself?Does your husband or wife workDo you or your wife receive benefits from any other source?Do you have any money in any bank, savings and loan, credit union or any other place including cash on hand?Do you own anything of value (land, house, car,...

. . . Delahunt’s people have offered one ridiculous excuse after another for his weeklong silence. The congressman, they have said, is traveling in Israel. He was, but it isn’t as though there are no phones there. He doesn’t remember much, they say. Talk to the Braintree police . . . Look, I’ve known Delahunt for years, and I’m not, at this point, reading too much into his actions. But Bishop’s alleged slayings constitute a huge tragedy, and how they happened is a matter of urgent business. There were not just red flags that she was criminally dangerous; there were...

Amy Bishop, neuroscientist, inventor, murder suspect, has become bigger than life, a symbol for those who think that genius is close to madness, or that women cannot get ahead in science, or that tenure systems in universities are brutalizing — or even that progress against fatal diseases is so important that someone like Dr. Bishop should be set free to pursue cures. At least that is what emerges from hundreds of comments on the Internet about Dr. Bishop, the assistant professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville charged with shooting six colleagues — three of them fatally — at...

Tensions are starting to boil between one Boston talk radio host and a local prosecutor in charge when accused Alabama rampage killer Amy Bishop killed her brother with a shotgun blast in their Braintree home in 1986. John Kivlan, a former Norfolk Country assistant district attorney, left an ominous message for WTKK-FM (96.9) yakker Michael Graham during Friday’s show. (Graham is an op-ed columnist for the Boston Herald).

A former Massachusetts prosecutor says there was no reason to believe it was anything but an accident when a professor now accused of killing three colleagues in Alabama shot her brother to death two decades ago. Former assistant district attorney John Kivlan said Tuesday that a joint investigation by state and local police as well as the medical examiner's office all concluded Seth Bishop's 1986 death was an accident. His sister, Amy, is accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Friday and injuring three others. Kivlan is now retired from the Norfolk District Attorney's office. He...

The neurobiologist accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Friday fatally shot her brother in 1986 in suburban Boston, the authorities in Massachusetts confirmed Saturday. [...]Early Saturday, the police in Huntsville charged the neurobiologist, Amy Bishop, 45, with capital murder in the shootings Friday during a faculty meeting that also left three people wounded. On Saturday afternoon, the police in Braintree, Mass., announced that Ms. Bishop had fatally wounded her brother in their home 24 years ago, which The Boston Globe first reported on its Web site on Saturday. Ms. Bishop was not charged...

UPDATE, 6:15 P.M.: An unbylined 11:57 a.m. AP report (i.e., 54 minutes after the time stamp of the original post at BizzyBlog) contains two paragraphs about Delahunt's involvement. Based on a search on Delahunt's last name at about 6:15 p.m., this version of AP's report is either still not at its main site, or has not been indexed by its search engine. Democratic Congressman Bill Delahunt's far from minor role in the 1986 release of Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama in Hunstville biology professor implicated in the murder of three colleagues on Friday, has garnered significant press attention in...

Saturday's Boston Globe reported that Congressman William Delahunt may not run for reelection. "US Representative William Delahunt said yesterday that he is considering retiring from his congressional seat representing the South Shore and Cape Cod, although he portrayed his deliberations as routine and said they are not related to challenges from Republicans who are energized by Scott Brown's upset victory in last month's special Senate election. 'Every election cycle, I take my time, I think it through, and I think, not about whether I can win or lose, but: ‘Am I in a position to make a difference?' Delahunt, a...

U.S. Rep. and former Norfolk District Attorney William Delahunt yesterday backed off earlier claims he didn’t recall the 1986 shooting death of Amy Bishop’s brother, with a top aide now saying police downplayed the need for further investigation. Mark Forest, Delahunt’s chief of staff, said both state and local police told the former top prosecutor they believed Amy Bishop, then 20, had accidentally blasted her 18-year-old brother, Seth, with their father’s shotgun. “They pretty much found the death was accidental and there was no need for further action,” Forest told the Herald. But Republican Joe Malone, a former state treasurer...

Nobody needs another investigation into whether Amy Bishop killed her brother by accident or on purpose when she fired a shotgun into his chest on Dec. 6, 1986. Bishop could have been tried, DA says Report: Bishop held shotgun on police after killing brother The families of the three dead faculty members in Alabama will attest that it’s too late for that now. What we need, though, immediately, is for the governor to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate whether local and state authorities were corrupt or completely incompetent in the way they rushed to exonerate Bishop of criminal responsibility...

Current Norfolk County DA Bill Keating contradicted current Democrat congressman and former DA Bill Delahunt over Delahunt's decision not to charge Amy Bishop regarding the 1986 shooting death of her teenage brother. Late yesterday, Bill Keating's office for the Norfolk district in Massachusetts posted a press release which included analysis of the Amy Bishop shooting death of her brother in 1986, which in turn was prompted by newly received documents from a Braintree municipal records audit . By way of that analysis, which involved the Chief of Homicide and the Chief Appellate Attorney, Bill Keating now believes that Amy Bishop...