--Why does Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray have all this money in his coffers? Might the Herald be right in wondering if Deval Patrick will take a post in a potential Obama cabinet? [Boston Herald] --Elsewhere in the Patrick administration, Deval Patrick is taking a sick day. Quick--cross-check his calendar with Obama's! [Boston Globe] --Meanwhile, Patrick's frenemy, House Speaker Sal DiMasi, has been talking about the proposal to repeal the state's income tax, calling it......

While we assume that not everyone who planned the Big Dig were drinking at the time they did it, the news that the design prevents inspection of the bolts makes us wonder. Casey Ross at the Herald (who is afire lately with the MBTA ride-hide story) reports that not enough crawl space exists around the bolts. Even if inspectors wanted to check the ceiling bolts, they couldn't fit: The tunnel’s design blocks access to 4,000......

Carl Stanley McGee, a high-profile aide to Deval Patrick, is on an unpaid leave of absence after being accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy at a Florida resort. Casey Ross at the Herald considers the political impact of McGee's departure. While Bostonist uses the term "high-profile" because McGee was one of the Globe's most stylish people, he was more than just a fashionable face who put off a strong Tim Gunn vibe (in this......

State legislators are busy people. Once elected, they have to figure out how to keep their jobs, how to get re-elected, how to advance, and how to keep their peers from stabbing them in the back. (Presumably, they govern in the midst of all that. Oh, who are we kidding?) Such is the case of House speaker Sal DiMasi, who, according to Casey Ross at the Herald, informed two underlings yesterday to pretty please stop......

The Longfellow Bridge, which looks a little busted, is in terrible condition, the Herald's Casey Ross reports. Of course, anyone who has seen the bridge could have told you that. The state has already made $2 million in repairs. And it still seems a little busted. Here's the details on what's been done and what will be done: [Rick Sullivan of the Department of Conservation and Recreation] said DCR has spent $1.2 million since August......

Somebody's in trouble. The trucker who took a turn too fast in Everett and caused the tanker explosion and fire that left 60 people homeless at last count had a lead foot. Casey Ross at the Herald writes: Chad LaFrance, 30, of Dover, N.H., has three speeding violations between 2000 and 2002 in New Hampshire, with one citation for going 83 mph in a 55-mph zone in 2001, according to a spokeswoman for N.H.......

--A former MBTA employee is in trouble for allegedly selling fake discount passes. Casey Ross reports that Giovanni Francis, 19, was selling discount passes for the elderly and blind to people who a) weren't old and b) could see just fine. T police caught them trying to sneak through on those passes, and video of the fake blind people is available on WCVB's site. Francis used to be a sales associate for the T. He......

Governor Deval Patrick has expressed hopes of replacing police officers on construction sites with flagmen. Police details are one of the oldest--and most controversial--local traditions, and Patrick won't have an easy time getting this done. The detail is great for police officers in that they can make more cash, but it hits taxpayers hard. As Casey Ross at the Herald points out, "We are the only state that does not use flagmen." There will always......

--Early this morning, a 22-year-old man was found shot in the head on Bowdoin Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene. --Last night, the Codman Square Safe Street Team heard shots fired at Dunlap and Washington. They soon found the alleged shooter, Oscar Mohamed, 19, of Jamaica Plain. Mohamed had shot two men. Both sustained non-life-threatening injuries. One of them didn't waste any time and took a cab to the hospital before emergency reinforcements......

Governor Deval Patrick is mulling over an idea that would lease bridges and roads to corporations. Casey Ross at the Herald has the details: If approved, a deal to privatize could mean leasing the Massachusetts Turnpike, Tobin Bridge or Big Dig tunnels to for-profit companies that would pay billions of dollars for the right to collect tolls from motorists for their use. Under such arrangements, the company leasing the road or bridge is responsible for......

We thought Jay Garrity, Mitt Romney's former pretend police officer and factotum, was creepy. But Garrity loses to another Mitt Minion - Will Ritter. Casey Ross at the Herald had the best journalism job ever when he got to write about Ritter's self-described shenanigans. On MySpace, Ritter claimed he was in "special ops" yet he still had time to party it up in a hot tub. If he's so important, why does he have so......