--Logan Airport is getting wind turbines. And we look to opponents of Cape Wind to ask, "So, what's your issue with wind power again?" [Boston Globe] --Governor Deval Patrick is putting his weight behind a bill that will protect transgendered people. [Boston Globe] --Brigham & Women's will be the first hospital in the United States to perform partial face transplants. [Boston Globe] --Anyone hear a sizzle? Live wires fell on an MBTA bus today......

For all those who have wondered why the United States doesn't have a viable third party, the wait is over. The state of Massachusetts has been busy building a new third party from the ground up, and you didn't even know it! In fact, many voters who belonged to that party didn't know it, either. The Globe reported on Saturday that several people who planned to vote in the primary discovered they had been registered......

Veggiest Quick Hits -- Happy Valentine's Day! For us being vegan is all about the love. We love our bodies and want to keep them healthy and strong and free of animal products. We love the environment and want to protect it from the extremely destructive practices of factory farming. We love animals and don't want to see them mistreated. You'll most certainly be doing your heart a favor. Heart disease is still one......

--Keith Ryan, the son of Globe sportswriter Bob Ryan, was found dead in Pakistan. He was an attache for the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Reports indicate he had shot himself. An investigation will follow. [Boston Globe] --Commuters aren't exactly flocking to use the new Greenbush line. [Boston Globe] --Speaking of the MBTA, financial shenanigans led to $55 million in borrowing costs, according to the state auditor. [Boston Globe] --Comments for news......

You heard that right--"on our lawn" as opposed to "off our lawn." We're serious! Turns out that Boston--Boston, home of constant tension between college students and permanent residents--is one of the best 100 communities in the United States for children and young people. America's Promise Alliance spotlights the "best places for young people to live and grow up." Mayor Menino is already touting the development in a press release. Some of the city's programs that......

Massachusetts is the hot battlefield for wind energy. What happens here will no doubt impact how seriously wind is taken as an alternative energy source in the rest of the United States. And, last week, a lot happened regarding wind energy that didn't have anything to do with Cape Wind. Hull, which already gets 12 percent of its energy from wind power, is hoping to install four turbines off shore, which will eventually lead to......

Update: Bostonist contacted the American University International Human Rights Law Clinic to see how people can help. They have contacted Senators Kennedy and Kerry, and you can let our senators know how you feel as well. Contact info, as well as information on what else the law clinic is doing to help Enwonwu after the jump! A Nigerian man who served as an informant for the United States' war on drugs might be deported to......

The American Kennel Club released the most popular dog breeds, not just in the United States, but in the major American cities. Here's the list out of Boston: 1. Labrador Retriever 2. German Shepherd 3. Yorkshire Terrier 4. Golden Retriever 5. Boxer 6. Bulldog 7. Pug 8. Dachshund 9. Poodle 10. Pomeranian Boston is following a trend since the AKC notes that Labrador Retrievers have been the most popular dog in America for 17......

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival Various Showings, January 16-20 Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Peabody Essex Museum It can be easy to get caught up in local and national news, especially when election coverage is hot and murderous Marines are being sought. But even in the face of exciting events, we shouldn't lose sight of larger, less glamorous issues like human rights. Human Rights Watch has been keeping an eye on international abuses......

--Alexander Pring Wilson, who was convicted of manslaughter for the 2003 stabbing of Michael Colono in Cambridge and then tried again, has pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He will serve two years and one day. [Boston Globe] --The three men behind Massachusetts Care International, which was accused of using its money to fund writings that supported Islamic militant groups, were found guilty yesterday of conspiracy to defraud the United States. [Boston Globe] --A woman......

Thespians stopped by Boston this week to read for the miniseries that will be based on BU professor and left-wing darling Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. And here's what happens when an intellectual heavyweight's work gets mixed up with this thing we call pop culture: --Somehow, it just doesn't seem right to call noted author Howard Zinn the "Zinn-Meister." It makes us think of the SNL skit with Rob Schneider at......

Birthdays The King's birthday is today! All hail Elvis! Dick's Last Resort, where they tend to celebrate everything Elvis, will be hosting a birthday bash including an Elvis Impersonator contest and a jelly-donut eating contest. Faneuil Hall. 6:00 pm. And keep looking for a post on what to eat tonight in honor of the king … Politics If you see some lost-looking drunk people in suits, it's either campaign workers or reporters who have gotten......

Let's be honest. We've long known that Boston is at least on the short list for Sports City of the United States. The passion felt by Boston sports fans has long been either heralded or chastised, depending on your point of view. But if you'd told us at the dawn of 2007 that we were entering one of the best years Boston sports teams and fans would ever experience, we would have laughed. Long. Hard.......

--Yesterday afternoon, a man was shot to death on Geneva Avenue in Dorchester. According to WBZ, police are looking for a bronze or gold Lexus with three black men inside. The Globe noted that this was the third fatal shooting at that address since 1990. Another person was killed in a shooting last night at 68 Cedar in Roxbury. However, details are sketchy. However, the Herald sees a glimmer of hope in the shootings--Boston went......

Cape Wind has already suffered delays galore as opponents figure out what else they can study about the wind farm in Nantucket Sound--and they've received another delay for Christmas. The United States Minerals Management Service, which has the authority to yay or nay the project, announced yesterday that it will delay its report on Cape Wind until next year, the AP reports. Even though contributions to the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the project's main......

The Eight Saturday, December 10, 9:00 pm T.T. the Bear's 10 Brookline Street, Cambridge (T: Central Square) $12 advance / $15 at the door More info Taglit-Birthright Israel and JDub Records is hosting a Hanukkah rock concert that will be held in cities all over the United States. Boston will represent at T.T. The Bear's this Saturday. The Boston celebration will be split between rock and electronica. The Brakes are straight-up pop-rock, and press for......

Iranian Film Festival The Red Card (Carte ghermez) Mahnaz Afzali, 74 minutes, documentary, Persian with subtitles Saturday, November 17, 3:15 pm Remis Auditorium, MFA, Boston $10, Tickets and More Info While Iran's culture seems largely shut off from the United States or represented by the face of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the culture shares two strong similarities with that of America--celebrity worship and an attraction to bizarre crimes. The documentary The Red Card is like the OJ......

--Deval Patrick has signed a bill that expands buffer zones around abortion clinics. Anyone who protests must stand at least 35 feet away from entrances and driveways to the clinic. [WBZ] --Three men are being tried for funneling profits from charity to promoting jihad. [Boston Globe] --The injury toll for yesterday's fire in Mattapan has risen to 16, and the 2-year-old baby rescued in the fire is in critical condition in the hospital. [Boston Globe]......

Pope Benedict XVI may have flirted with Boston and batted his eyelashes a little, but he dumped us for New York and DC when he comes to visit the United States in April. At first, we thought maybe the alleged exploits of Father David Ajemian somehow got back to Pope Benedict XVI, and he decided he'd finally had it up to here with Boston. No amount of pleading from Cardinal Sean O'Malley was going to......

Update: The disorderly conduct charge against Hillel Neuer has been dropped. Remember that guy who freaked out the employees at the Stone Hearth Pizza after a 78-year-old man was beaten to death in Needham? Turns out that he was a perfectly normal guy who just happened to be changing his clothes in the bathroom. Franci R. Ellement at the Globe writes that Hillel Neuer is a human-rights activist who is the executive director of UN......

The United States has a lot to be afraid of: the war in Iraq, the mortgage crisis, wildfires, the gulf between the haves and have nots, and Dick Cheney. But former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney thinks that the nation should really be afraid of Hillary Clinton. In an attempt to celebrate Halloween and trash an opponent at the same time, Mitt Romney told an audience in Iowa, "What do you think about Hillary's House of......

Czech Dream Friday, October 26, and Saturday, October 27 ICA More info on screening times Official site Czech documentary filmmakers Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda wanted to find out what kind of impact capitalism and consumerism had on the formerly Communist Czech Republic. Instead of just asking people what they thought about the transition, they created a stunt to see just how much people had invested in the freedom to shop. The results appear in......

We're a day late on Authorial Intent, our wrap-up of the week's readings. That's largely because we were talking to two of the authors who will be in town tomorrow night, which seems to be the night that the stars aligned and all writers thought it would be a good idea to visit Boston. So, without further adieu … Thursday, October 11--Today, Super Thursday! Robert Reich, 6:00 pm, Swedenborg Chapel (via Harvard Book Store), 50......

It was bound to happen that someone was going to comment on the looks of former First Lady of Massachusetts and aspiring First Lady for the United States Ann Romney. Mitt and Ann Romney are good-looking in that ever-so-wholesome, corn-fed kind of way. It's also not surprising that Playboy tackles the subject of First Lady Hotness by asking which one is sexiest. But it is surprising that they included Bill Clinton in the poll......

A Quincy resident was killed in action in Afghanistan on Thursday. Specialist Ciara Durkin was in the National Guard and part of a finance unit. She was 30. Via the Patriot-Ledger, RTE of Ireland is reporting that she was shot in the head inside Bagram Air Base. Her sister told the Globe, "She was in a secure area of the compound, which, even though the investigation is not complete, leads the family to believe it......

This week, the Brattle Theatre presents a series called "Cult Double Vision," a trio of double features that should satisfy the completist neural pathways in the brain of even the most OCD film buff. Today, the Brattle screens Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, the pair of gutbusting slapstick spoofs that made a name for director Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The Wednesday offering is Danny Boyle's pair of......

And the Tasergate saga continues. The tasering of a University of Florida student at a John Kerry event has become big news around the United States and the world, and the expected and subsequent backlash has been pretty intense. After delving deeper into the story it seems the whole scandal is not a cut-and-dry case of campus police over-stepping their bounds. Turns out that the ubiquitous video making the rounds in the interweb only shows......

Writers are taking a second look at Jack Kerouac's On the Road in light of the fiftieth anniversary of the novel's publication. Lowell, Kerouac's birthplace, has hosted several events and is presenting the original Kerouac scroll. And why not? People named Kerouac's book as an inspiration that liberated them from the daily grind and fed the counterculture movement. But is Kerouac's famed book all that inspiring? Or is it more inspiring in hindsight, once people......

Steve Almond's (Not that You Asked) will be sold in bookstores starting today. He will be reading at Brookline Booksmith on Thursday, September 13, at 7:00 pm. Almond spoke with Bostonist right after Karl Rove resigned, so we caught him when he really raging against The Man. He resigned from Boston College when BC invited Condoleezza Rice to speak at their commencement, so he didn't mince words when it came to Rove or any other......

Junot Díaz will read at the Brattle Theatre on Wednesday, September 12, at 6:00 pm. Tickets are $5 and are available through Harvard Book Store. Some books are interesting. Some books are memorable. Some books may eventually win prizes. And then there are the books that, one day, will be taught in classrooms as an example of how writing is really done. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by author and MIT prof Junot......