Free Republic

Massachusetts does not need a climatologist; it needs a psychiatrist. That is what should be part of Gov. Deval Patrick's last televised State of the State speech that he will deliver tonight before a joint session of the Legislature. The governor, as part of his proposed $52 million boondoggle of a program to help cities and towns fight climate change -- which used to be called global warming -- is calling for the hiring of a $100,000-a-year climatologist to tell us which way the wind is blowing.

--Decision seen hurting Healey-- Bolting from the Republican Party, wealthy businessman Christy Mihos said yesterday he will run for governor as an independent, a decision that delivers a blow to GOP chances of victory in November. Mihos concluded that the Republican Party establishment and its party rules for qualifying for the ballot were stacked against him, said a Mihos adviser who asked not to be named. Christy Mihos (right), Deval Patrick, and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey at a Massachusetts Biotechnology Council gubernatorial forum yesterday. (David L. Ryan/ Globe Staff) Mihos's presence on the November ballot is widely expected to draw...

In caucus, leads Reilly almost 2-1. In his first test as a candidate for governor, political newcomer Deval Patrick scored a sweeping victory at Democratic caucuses yesterday, trouncing Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, a two-term statewide office holder. Delegate slates pledged to Patrick, the former top federal civil rights prosecutor and business executive, rolled up margins at local party meetings that will give him close to a 2-to-1 advantage over Reilly in the count of committed delegates, according to several Democratic Party strategists around the state.