Let's face it: No one really expected presidential candidate John McCain and aspiring presidential candidate/former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to kiss and make up. But McCain surprised everyone by choosing Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. The local response is, to put it mildly, mystified. Media Nation's Dan Kennedy has already called Palin "Dan Quayle in a Skirt." Bostonist admittedly doesn't know much about Pailn, except that she bears a vague resemblance......

The instant analysis of Senator Barack Obama's vice-presidential pick is that it's at least partially a defense against the perception that Obama is weak on foreign policy. Does newly newsworthy Senator Biden agree? Boston journalist Seth Gitell--who was Mayor Menino's press secretary from 2003 to 2006--unveiled some year-old but previously unpublished comments from the notoriously long-winded Biden when he was running against Obama for the Democrats' presidential nomination: I watched several presidents come in......

The House of Representatives has voted 118-35 to strike down the state's 1913 law that prevents people from getting married here if they couldn't legally get married in their home state. Originally passed as a way of preventing uppity interracial couples from coming here for a quickie wedding, it looked like one of those quaint and ridiculous "no putting squirrels down your pants for the purpose of gambling" laws. Until it became relevant again, when......

Jesse Helms, the much-maligned conservative senator from North Carolina, died today of natural causes. He's been called racist, divisive, and anti-democratic in the past, but today, another former GOP rep from NC deemed him "a patriot in the mold of those great men" (Thomas Jefferson and John Adams), while White House spokesman Scott Stanzel called Helms "a great public servant and true patriot."......

View Larger Map Although the state of Massachusetts is nowhere near the state of Florida in earning its own Fark tag, we moved a little closer today when a story from the Herald reached the Fark front page with the tag "DUMBASS" and the following comment: Boston can't even build a sidewalk without three government agencies suing and fining each other. Alas, it is true, and it's even worse than the summary suggests. The sidewalk......

Now that the major political parties have (pretty much) settled on their presidential nominees, Bostonist has decided to take a look at a vital aspect of election strategy: t-shirts. We really wanted to be fair and balanced in our assessment, and not in a Fox News way, but having perused both candidates official stores and the many user-generated slogans at CafePress, we have to say: Barack Obama is the clear winner of the design......

While Young Hillary Clinton fights on with tenacity, the real Hillary Clinton waffles (mmm... waffles). Several reports this morning indicated that she would concede the Democratic presidential nomination to presumed winner Barack Obama tonight. The AP started the dropout rumors, and the Herald picked it up. Now Clinton's campaign says it ain't so, and the Globe reports on the limbo-like situation. The campaign is now clearly saying it "absolutely" won't concede anything until Obama reaches......

Update:Ted's got good doctors. Word is the surgery was successful. The mass media is abuzz with the news that Senator Ted Kennedy is undergoing surgery on the tumor discovered in his brain. He's at Duke University Medical Center right now. The surgery, which is being led by Dr. Allan Friedman, will take six hours, and he will go through chemotherapy and radiation afterward. Given Kennedy's prominent position, a team of experts flocked to discuss his......

At the moment, it isn't clear that the fatal trolley accident that killed Green Line driver Terrese Edmonds had anything to do with MBTA manager Dan Grabauskas. But the spotlight is on him after so many ugly Green Line incidents, producing an article from the Herald's Dave Wedge indicating that, if Governor Deval Patrick decided he wanted to replace Grabauskas--and he might--it wouldn't be easy: For one, Grabauskas has a contract with two years left,......

--Mayor Menino has suspended one of his own employees, the head of the Department of Public Works, for letting an employee work from her parent's house in Venezuela, which probably wouldn't have been a big deal if the arrangement hadn't lasted for five months. [Boston Globe] --Neil Entwistle is going to trial for the murders of his wife and baby daughter, and the press, both American and British, is expected to swarm. [Boston Herald]......

After a scare that involved a helicopter trip to Mass General, doctors say Senator Ted Kennedy will be all right after having a seizure yesterday morning. Reports indicate that Kennedy is just fine and was watching some of the Red Sox game. If he is still in the hospital this afternoon, the doctors should swiftly wheel the television out of his room, lest he stumble across the Celtics-Cavs Game 7 and get really riled up.......

Update: The Herald's sources say Kennedy showed "stroke-like symptoms." Update to the Update: Kennedy's office has released that he had a seizure. [CNN] The Cape Cod Times is reporting that Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy fell ill this morning at the Kennedy compound and was "rushed" to the hospital. First he went to the Cape Cod Hospital, but then he was taken by helicopter to Mass General. He is 76 years old. He had surgery on......

As the reign of Sal DiMasi as house speaker appears to be in peril, Governor Deval Patrick isn't laughing at his nemesis. He's going out there and reviving the issue of bringing casinos to Massachusetts, which DiMasi squashed so recently. This morning, he brought up the issue again in front of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce. The AP is reporting that "he thinks an unyielding need for property tax relief, the possibility of slot machines......

Yesterday, City Council President Maureen Feeney's civic summit brought about 400 people together to get people more involved in city government. Mayor Menino even showed up, although Michael Pahre noted, "Mayor Thomas Menino breezed in -- and out -- of the convention center probably feeling a little bit unwelcome" since it wasn't his idea. Adam Gaffin at Universal Hub live-blogged the event and summed up the takeaways, with education and crime high on the list......

If House speaker Sal DiMasi really wants to prove he is up to the task of managing this state and fend off those who want his crown, then he better crack down on the shenanigans at the State House. All ethical shadiness aside, yesterday a state rep said that another rep threatened her during the budget debate. Rep. Jennifer Callahan was behind a nurse staffing amendment, which apparently didn't please the other lawmaker: "He leveled......

Remember how we said yesterday that House speaker Sal DiMasi's free ride might be ending? Well, it came to a screeching halt, just as he was named the 2nd most powerful person in Boston. The Herald came out with a summary of potentially shady dealings in which those with ties to DiMasi benefitted. No politician has clean hands, but it's interesting that Governor Deval Patrick faced relentless scrutiny for relatively silly stuff like Drapegate while......

Boston Magazine released its annual power issue, which is an annual must-have for any lifestyle magazine. This power list leads to the inevitable question, what does "power" mean, anyway? Does "power" refer to one's title? If you looked at how Deval Patrick's casino proposal turned out, you might argue that Patrick certainly didn't merit fourth place. But he does get to have "governor" in front of his name. Does "power" refer to popularity? Of course,......

A survey revealed that 72 percent of Bostonians are largely happy with the way mayor Tom Menino has been running things. In fact, the Globe headline declared the city was "smitten," which is not a word Bostonist would use to describe how the city's residents view the mayor. Then again, he appears to be quite a hit with the ladies. Compared to what mayors in other cities get embroiled in (shoutout to SFist!), Mayor Menino......

This Bostonist always pictured solar panels being best-suited to dot the rooftops of sun-baked, equatorial locales. But according to the Associated Press (via the Herald), the Commonwealth is quickly becoming a leader in solar energy. The AP piece talked to one solar executive whose biggest customer is Germany--not a country known for its tropical lifestyle. He says that, "Solar works better when you have cool, sunny days, so a solar system here in Massachusetts,......

Despite evidence to the contrary, we know that the State House is bigger than two men, more than just a turf battle between Governor Deval Patrick and Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. For example: it also includes Speaker Pro Tempore Thomas Petrolati. A day after the House passed Patrick's tax plan (some corporate taxes went up, smokers got another thing to complain about while shivering outside), a key DiMasi legislative ally takes a......

Deval Patrick isn't the first person to get into casino-related trouble, though few of us had to be publicly confronted with our regrettable outcomes the way Deval Patrick did. Eager to move past his failed plan to create much needed revenue for the Commonwealth through gaming, Patrick gave a major economic address yesterday at MIT. Patrick's speech (text here, video here) lists $344 million in budget cuts, a several billion dollar infrastructure improvement plan,......

In March, the Boston Zoning Commission gave the green light to a Boston City Council proposal to restrict the number of college age tenants in a rental unit to four. Now the legality of the plan will be challenged in court. The rationale behind the restriction was that having large numbers of students together in one dwelling leads to raucous partying and ascending rental prices (which could price "traditional families" out of neighborhoods.) But......

The Boston Herald today--in sadly predictable fashion--posted online an article of theirs about a local Youtube star without anywhere linking to the Youtube video in question. (They do have their own embedded version of the video, but this Bostonist couldn't get it to load, and the whole premise of the piece is the unlikely Youtube stardom of a Natick toddler.) Anyway, if you missed it, here's the adorable footage: The Herald reports that the Bay......

Boston may be the Athens of America and the most collegiate of American cities, but our mayor doesn't get by on professorial aloofness. Tom Menino is an old school, roll up the sleeves politician. That being the case, the Globe has some fun (your eyes do not deceive you: fun at the Globe) with the news that he's one of many who have been nominated to be the next chancellor of the University of......

Today's Globe featured a story on the tremendous pull that police and fire unions have on city government. Roderick Fraser Jr. heads the fire department, but Local 718 Ed Kelly has his own ideas for the direction of the fire department. Mayor Menino's disputes with the fire department, particularly over the issue of drug testing after the Tai Ho Restaurant fire, which killed firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne, are notorious. It still isn't clear......

MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas isn't the only one saying that we're broke. The entire state is broke and in even bigger trouble that you might think. Yes, we're talking "broke-ass." If you thought we were in a budget crisis, wait until you read today's paper. Matt Viser at the Globe reports on how Massachusetts' problems are being magnified by the nation's problems. The state is drowning in debt, and it's only going to get......

Charismatic media personality Tom Menino is now doing stints on Michele McPhee's radio show on WTKK-FM (96.9.) Perhaps the mayor is looking for ways to supplement his meager income? The Herald originally reported that Menino would be going on the air once a week, but Boston Daily talked to McPhee and clarified that he'll actually be on once a month. McPhee told them, “We go way back, so this show will be an extension......

--More from the pillow fight! --The fallout continues over Governor Deval Patrick's failed casino proposal and House Speaker Sal DiMasi's success in stopping it. Dan Kennedy has called DiMasi a "Bare-Knuckles Do-Gooder." But the Herald notes that those who voted against the proposal may have received certain rewards. [Media Nation / Boston Herald] --Boston College law professors now want to uninvite Attorney General Michael Mukasey from giving the commencement address since he won't say......

The aide to Governor Deval Patrick who had been accused of sexually assaulting a teen boy at a Florida resort must be a happy man tonight. Charges against him have been dropped, Casey Ross reports that there wasn't enough evidence to prove the boy's story: “There was no physical evidence collected that may have been able to place both individuals together in the steam room, nor are there any independent witnesses that could do so,”......

After all those light-hearted jokes at the St. Patrick's Day breakfast, during which governor Deval Patrick and house speaker Sal DiMasi playfully sparred over the casino issue, Patrick's casino-license proposal got shot down in the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, making Sal DiMasi the winner in this round. A turncoat was in the mix. A state rep from Wrentham, Richard J. Ross, told Patrick he would vote in favor of the casinos,......