Free Republic

Massachusetts retained its status as the most violent state in the Northeast, according to a report released Tuesday morning by public health advocates and based on statistics compiled by the FBI. In its biennial report that studies health care trends in the state, the Massachusetts Health Council said approximately 30,000 violent crimes were committed in Massachusetts in 2009 or 456 violent crimes per 100,000 people, making it the highest per capita crime rate in the Northeast. The report looked at the six New England states, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The violent crimes include murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery,...

Former Gov. Mitt Romney is down-sizing his stake in Massachusetts. He sold his Belmont mansion and bought a townhouse in a condo development. And now he more often resides in his $12 million mansion in La Jolla, Calif., or his $10 million house on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Ever since Romney won just 51 percent in the Massachusetts GOP presidential primary, he has seemed less enamored with this state. And as a GOP presidential candidate for 2012, he apparently wants to distance himself from so-called RomneyCare, the Massachusetts health insurance program that became a model for so-called ObamaCare, the...

Conservative superstar Sarah Palin opened the door today to joining forces with Mitt Romney for a 2012 White House run - a hot ticket that has some Republicans licking their chops at the prospect of unseating President Obama. “Sounds pretty good,” Palin declared at today’s Tea Party Express rally on the Common when asked about pairing up with the former Bay State governor - giving the idea a big thumbs-up as she left the stage after her headline speech. Earlier tonight, as Palin stopped for cannoli at Mike’s Pastry in the North End, she said she was “serious” about the...

Various representatives of the Barack Obama administration were out on the Sunday talk shows in the U.S. today, trying to spin the election of Senator Scott Brown (R -MA) [and how often do you see that abbreviation?] as being an endorsement of the Obama agenda, particularly with regard to health care. I witnessed the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, on "Fox News Sunday," trying to do this very thing. Gibbs was making the very same kinds of arguments to host Chris Wallace as Howard Dean tried making a few days ago to MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Wallace was a lot...

Oh, that’s quite good. Promoted from diaries. - Moe Lane If he doesn’t pull out a win in Massachusetts I’m gonna pull out all the stops to get him to move to Arizona. VIDEO His website is here… You can contribute here… even if John Cornyn won’t. Or especially since John Cornyn won’t. And finally, you can volunteer - EVEN if you don’t live in Massachusetts, you can make calls for Scott - here.

There is Scott Brown the Senate candidate in Massachusetts, and there is Scott Brown, the musician in New Zealand. They each have Twitter accounts, but the Scott Brown from Down Under laid claim to @ScottBrown first, and the Senate candidate had to resort to @ScottBrownMA. As the Boston Globe reports, in the past few days, as @ScottBrownMA has gained momentum through bloggers and twitterers and other social media, @ScottBrown has been inundated with people seeking @ScottBrownMA. Here is one of the tweets by @ScottBrown about the flood of contacts: Despite, or maybe because of, Martha Coakley's high profile as Massachusetts...