Former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Mitt Romney delivered a thoughtful, moving speech today at the George Bush Sr. Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. Romney delivered points that no one could argue with--namely, that religious liberty is "fundamental to America's greatness." No kidding. Isn't that why the pilgrims came here in the first place? Aside from a few "duh" moments, Romney delivered a solid speech with some quotable lines, particularly: "Americans do......

The American Idea First Parish Church Meetinghouse, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square (Corner of Mass. Ave. and Church St.) Friday, October 19th, 7:00 pm, $5 More info There are a lot of things you could do to celebrate your 150th anniversary. For a magazine, publishing a book seems like a good idea: anthologize the best of your magazine writing in a more permanent format so it can be remembered for all time. And that's just......

--Semi-Finals: Thursday, October 11, Nick's Comedy Stop (Upstairs), 8:30 pm --Semi-Finals: Friday, October 12, Nick's Comedy Stop (Upstairs), 8:30 pm --Finals: Saturday, October 13, Cutler Majestic, 8:15 pm During the last night of the preliminaries, many of the comics tore into their routines like it was the last show of their lives. Everyone is burning out after four days of endless stand-up shows, but the comics of the last preliminary round made it all worth......

A Bentley student has died of bacterial meningitis. 18-year-old Erin Ortiz was hospitalized while visiting family in New Hampton, New York, and she died yesterday. The Herald spoke to Bentley's VP of student affairs, Kathleen Yorkis: She went out to dinner with her family Saturday night and went to bed early, Yorkis said. Sometime after midnight, she woke up her sister and said her “head felt so painful.” “We lost our daughter in 36 hours,”......

The Darfur/Darfur Exhibit will be at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Friday, September 7, in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater. The exhibit of photographs will run from 10 am to 3 pm and is free with regular admission. Tickets to the lecture and Yo-Yo Ma performance are already sold out, but you will be able to hear it outside the ICA. Sometimes "awareness-raising" only goes so far, especially when it comes to......

--Early this morning, two people were shot to death in Roxbury. Another person was shot in the fray and somehow managed to get himself to a police station. He is in critical condition. WBZ says sixteen rounds were fired. --Citizens may have an outlet for keeping an eye on the BPD. Mayor Menino put together a three-member panel that will start looking at complaints from city residents against the BPD. However, the panel doesn't have......

Talk about needless panic, city brass of Boston. We let your sensitivity slide during the whole Aqua Teen Hunger Force lite-brite incident because not everyone knew what Aqua Teen was and all. The city has shut down The 6 House. The Boston Licensing Board shut down the bar and suspended its license. But why would you close The 6 House because of a bar fight with a bad ending? The 6 House is not......

The Associated Press is reporting that the Al-Qaida-linked insurgents who captured three U.S. soldiers in Iraq last month released a video that says that the men - including Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25 and of Lawrence - have been killed. "The Americans sent 4,000 soldiers looking for them," a voice on the video says, according to the AP. "They were alive and then dead." According to reports, the video includes footage of insurgents planning the......

Boston’s major public university made history yesterday by appointing the first black chancellor to a UMass campus. J. Keith Motley was appointed by UMass President Jack Wilson to the post, as part of a flurry of announcements yesterday that sent the current chancellor, Michael Collins, to the UMass Medical School in Worcester, where he will direct health-sciences initiatives for the university. Well known as an inspirational and charismatic leader, the exiting Chancellor’s new appointment likely......

--Next time you think about getting a free pizza by holding up your delivery guy, think again. On Sunday night, the BPD followed a Domino's Pizza guy from South Boston to a Dorchester address that was known for robbing pizza guys. Upon delivery, a man emerged to get his pizza and pulled a firearm from his waistband. Police sprang out and caught the pizza-nabber and his accomplice. We send propers to Universal Hub for an......

The Brattle will kick off the "Hot Fuzztival" today, Friday, March 16. To get a pass to the screening of Hot Fuzz on Sunday, March 25, you'll need to see one of the "fuzztastic" movies picked by the Hot Fuzz filmmakers. It can't be that hard, can it? First of all, not matter how much Hot Fuzz sounds like a porno flick, it's not what you think. The team behind Shaun of the Dead has......

Bostonist was dismayed last Thursday night to see first-hand the effects of the temporary underage concert attendance ban limitations implemented by the Mayor’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing (MOCAL). A couple of WERS staff members were barred from tabling (read: handing out pens and stickers) the Chad Perrone/Mieka Pauley concert at Harper’s Ferry – a show that the station had been promoting – because those staffers were underage. Bostonist understands that the Harper’s crew’s......

The late, great director Robert Altman made some brilliant movies (Nashville, anyone?). He also made some unbelievably crappy ones (Pret-a-Porter). But the Brattle is here to sort the wheat from the chaff and to bring you the best of Robert Altman - at least the '70s Altman, anyway - all week long. Movie buffs, fill out your calendars! Tonight M*A*S*H (1970), 4:30, 7:00 People are so used to Alan Alda as Hawkeye that it's a......

Last Sunday, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey fired off a memo to the Legislature announcing that she would veto the Bicycle Safety Bill, which was established to do exactly what its title suggests. The bill involved training police to assist in enforcing the rules of the road for drivers and cyclists. For more, head over to MassBike, who worked hard to get this bill to pass. They mourn the death of the bill and have a......

MBTA employees are getting their surly on, perhaps because a handful of them got busted for having affairs and running side businesses on company time. It's fine if they're in a crabby mood, but it's not fine if their negligence causes someone to get hurt. Via Universal Hub, Jenny reports a disturbing incident on the Red Line that could have had a terrible ending were it not for some quick-thinking riders. She describes what happened......

Whew! Bostonist was worried for a minute that gay marriage and related issues might stay out of the headlines for too long, but the good folks at the Catholic Church seldom let us down. The bishops of Massachusetts's four archdioceses have announced their plan to seek an exemption for Catholic Charities from the state rule (in .pdf form) forbidding licensed adoption agencies from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. As you might have guessed,......

Update: Life is unfair. Bostonist wanted a regional or local story that would give us an excuse to gripe about the President, and we thought we'd found it (see below). Turns out, it was a hoax. So everything reported below about the U. Mass. student is not true. But President Bush is definitely still a disaster. Bostonist, like the Governor, has lately been checking out of local affairs and focusing on the presidency. But in......

Boston has become home to some Hollywood stars for a few weeks as director Martin Scorsese's new film, "The Departed," finally began filming. This movie is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film, "Infernal Affairs," and will feature some big Hollywood talent. IMDB describes it in the following blurb: "The story, set in Boston, revolves around a gangster (Matt Damon) who infiltrates the police department and a cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) who infiltrates the gangs.......

This morning it wasn’t just Flag Day on Cambridge Common it was a birthday party for the Army. Protests broke out amidst the celebration, though the Army held ground with greater firepower. The protesters asserted that the Army was attempting to recruit more Soldiers for a "useless war." But, Bostonist isn’t really surprised that in Cambridge, or pretty much anywhere in Massachusetts, there might be some protests to go along with a celebration honoring the......

Fearing the worst, Bostonist stocked up on candles this weekend. The news that NStar workers were going approaching a deadlock in negotiations and were going on strike made us feel a little uneasy about the fate of our electricity. Reading the Boston Globe report on the crisis hasn’t calmed fears much: NStar spokeswoman Caroline Allen said early today, "We have qualified managers and contractors ready to step in and maintain critical services for our customers.......

Red Sox officials fielded questions from the city's Consumer Affairs and Licensing Department last week. The Red Sox are contractually prohibited from revealing the name of the band, but everybody knows the Stones are playing. The shows will be on Sunday, August 21 and Tuesday August 23 from 6:30-10:30. Close to 36,000 tickets will go on sale in May. As with the Sprinsteen and Buffet shows in the past, Yawkey Way will be closed......

Bostonist is super-excited about the fact that Martin Scorcese's coming to town to film The Departed, his adaptation of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Hopefully this film will be one of the Boston-based films that will do this town proud. Most Boston-based films are simply about thugs. Or dying collegiates. Or Jimmy Fallon. And while Bostonist agrees that Marty was simply robbed of Best Director a couple of times, (and he tends to lose......

Last night on ABC Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) took his last drink. Well, figurative, of course. For the last decade Andy’s been that "sex symbol" Bostonist couldn’t quite grasp. Like the now departed Detective Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) Sipowisz was an alcoholic cop, he tried his best to stay away from the liquor. Unlike the Briscoesque tongue-in-cheek comments about his drinking, the bottle, and staying sober for Sipowicz the battle to stay away from the booze......