--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......

--The Herald followed up on the story that New England Patriot Nick Kaczur allegedly turned informant after getting busted with oxy. They stated the obvious--being an informant can put one in a dangerous position. [Boston Herald] --House speaker Sal DiMasi's buddy Richard Vitale has refused to attend a hearing about whether or not he was a lobbyist for the Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers. While all charges are alleged, thumbing one's nose at a......

--So NOW Sal DiMasi wants to strike a deal on gambling? Guess we've learned one thing during the recent DiMasi stories. What happens in the State House stays in the State House. [Boston Herald] --McCourt Construction Company has pled guilty to overbilling for the work of Big Dig employees. What they billed, though--$314,494--seems like small potatoes compared to the alleged spending shenanigans of other Big Dig contractors. [Bloomberg/Boston Globe] --Traffic is down a little......

--Sacre bleu! Beamer drivers like finding items at the town dump! [Boston Globe] --Speaking of reusing instead of building new stuff, an architect is fighting to save and restore City Hall, reminding us that at one point people thought it was beautiful. Then again, people liked shoulder pads, too. [Boston Herald] --House speaker Sal DiMasi's buddy and mortgage fairy, Richard D. Vitale, is in still more trouble. He said he wasn't a lobbyist for......

--Manholes are demanding attention! Two workers were injured in an explosion today in Quincy. [WBZ] --A comprehensive wrapup of the mess the Herald found itself in after its writer John Tomase popped the cork on VideoTapeGate. [Media Nation] --If you get luxury seats at Gillette Stadium, you better make sure you can actually pay up because the stadium will get that money from you somehow. [AP/Boston Globe] --Massachusetts high schoolers are flunking physical fitness.......

--Mayor Menino hops on a bike in honor of Bike Week. [Boston Globe] --Local residents with family in China react to the news of the recent earthquake. [Boston Herald] --House Speaker Sal Di Masi is mad as hell at the suggestion that his ethics are a little shady, and he's not taking it anymore. [Boston Globe] --Two recipients of kidneys from a homeless man infected with LMCV, a rodent virus, have died. [Boston Globe] --Parts......

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......

--House speaker Sal DiMasi has put the Ethics Committee to the task of investigating the alleged threat against Rep. Jennifer Callahan. The words "State House" and "Ethics Committee" sound funny when put together, don't they? [Boston Globe] --If the counter at the gas pump starts moving before gas comes out, you should complain. [WBZ] --A pug who had been doggie-napped in East Boston has been reunited with its owner. If you kidnap a dog......

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 is a city that plays fast and loose with traffic laws, but the city needs money, so that's about to stop. The City Council is considering increasing fines for jaywalking and actually enforcing the rules. [WCVB] --After Caddygate and Drapegate and the casino mess, Governor Deval Patrick probably thought the media was going easy on his nemesis, House Speaker Sal DiMasi. But the free ride might be over. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald] --Norman......

--Thanks to the recession we're not in, teens will have fewer summer jobs. And bored teens sometimes become restless teens whom no one wants in their yards. [Boston Globe] --Mayor Menino testified before congress yesterday that there needs to be "common sense federal action" to keep illegal guns off the streets. [Boston Globe] --The game of chess between Governor Deval Patrick and House Speaker Sal DiMasi continues. DiMasi wants to cut the $213 million......

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......

We feel an illogical sense of pride when our local politicians are covered in the national media. It validates our process somehow. Not to get carried away, but maybe one of these years a Massachusetts leader will even run for President! Perchance to dream. Governor Deval Patrick is the subject of a story in today's New York Times, which contrasts Patrick's growing mainstream profile as a Barack Obama friend, surrogate and rhetorical inspiration with......

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......

Last week, all of the talk was about Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi's demolition of Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan. He was credited with spearheading the movement against what had been the highest profile piece of the governor's plan to boost the Bay State economy. In the wake of his defeat, Patrick sent an e-mail Saturday to supporters from his election campaign that didn't mention DiMasi by name but suggested that the process......

--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......

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,......

After six months of political posturing and economic predictions, it appears that King Sal, Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi, will continue to reign over a Commonwealth free from casino wealth. The Globe and the Herald report that Governor Deval Patrick's plan to bring three casinos to the Bay State would almost certainly be defeated in a House vote, if it even survives the Economic Development Committee today. King Sal turned the casino debate......

For this one green day every year, Southie becomes the center of Boston's cultural and political life, and the Dropkick Murphys get more work than Eliot Spitzer's call girl. (Cue rimshot/hysterical laughter.) The annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast turns everyone into a comedian, as our favorite politicians gather to roast each other and celebrate all things Irish. The Dropkick Murphys did a couple of numbers, but the big story--with casino hearings planned for this......

We can barely muster the energy to post again about the great 2008 casino debate. If only we could focus on the important issues facing our society, like the profound need for healthier donuts. The buzz today is about meetings that Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi has been having with fellow lawmakers in advance of next week's casino hearings. Pro-casino forces claim that DiMasi is "strong-arming colleagues into killing the proposal." Here's a......

On Tuesday we wrote about how Governor Deval Patrick's intellectually lazy casino job creation numbers gave ammunition to the skeptical of gambling Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. Yesterday, however, Patrick got some good news from the Chamber of Commerce, who released numbers much more helpful to his cause. The previous criticism was related to Patrick's projection that the three proposed casinos would create 30,000 new construction jobs, while a more balanced analysis in......

The Commonwealth's Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi has long been seen as the biggest obstacle in the way of Governor Deval Patrick's plan to build three luxury casinos in the Bay State. DiMasi lived up to that reputation yesterday by delivering a blistering attack against the governor's projections for how many jobs the initiative would create. A Globe piece made clear on Sunday that Patrick's numbers are lazy at best, and exceedingly misleading......

The Commomwealth's Speaker of the House, Sal DiMasi, is well-known for his opposition to Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan. There's no turning back now. The Globe reports today that DiMasi played golf at exclusive South Florida clubs with Joe O'Donnell, owner of Eastie's Suffolk Downs horse track, who wants a gaming license. They also report that DiMasi met the famously rich casino magnate Donald Trump "...at a cocktail party at the Mar-a-Lago Club, an......

Whatever your thoughts on presidential candidate/political rock star Barack Obama borrowing a few points of Deval Patrick's rhetoric, you have to think it's good for the Governor. He's getting nation-wide press and it's not his fault that his speeches are so catchy and profound that Obama can't help copying them. Meanwhile, even a new gubernatorial haircut can lead to a stretch of publicity. In more substantial news, the House and Senate passed Patrick's plan to......

--Old hotness: Late trains on the Worcester-Framingham line. New hotness: Changing the timetables so they don't look late anymore. [WBZ] --House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has offered up a budget with a sizable tax cut for corporations that would drop the percentage from 9.5 percent to 7 percent. Let's see--the state is in a budget crunch, so he wants a tax cut? The budget also didn't include casino licenses, which sets up another Battle Royale......

While some Bostonians dismiss the Herald as a tabloid rag, we read the paper everyday. There's often more energy and swagger on the cover of the Herald than in whole sections of the Globe. For better and for worse, the Herald wields its front page like a blunt object. Previously we discussed how the Herald topped Heath Ledger's death and Tom Brady's ankle with the shocking news that Detroit's casinos were underperforming--and that that spelled......

--Are you a smoker? House Speaker Sal DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray are considering raising the cigarette tax. [Boston Globe] --The head of the firefighters union is blaming the press for their current bad reputation. Would it be too terrible of a pun to say, in defense of the media, that where there's smoke, there's fire? [Boston Globe] --An 83-year-old woman was crossing train tracks in Medford when she was hit by an......

Massachusetts' legendary senior Senator and national liberal icon, Ted Kennedy. Massachusetts' junior Senator and the 2004 Democratic nominee, John Kerry. Massachusetts' precedent-shattering Governor, Deval Patrick. None of the endorsements were enough for Barack Obama to win the Massachusetts primary. While we gave a lot of attention yesterday to Senator Obama's epic Boston rally, Seth Gitell was reminding people that--press attention and celebrity status aside--the two strongest political machines in the state belong to Boston's......

Deval Patrick has been making news lately with the State of the Commonwealth and his public support of presidential candidate Barack Obama. But what of Massachusetts' other top dog, Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi? Bostonist read Paul McMorrow's lengthy Boston Magazine profile of the Speaker of the House and found the article too interesting not to sum up. McMorrow shows how DiMasi's success has been the result of good instincts, understated intelligence, a quick......