--Fraternity brothers at MIT's Delta Upsilon are saying that Robert Wells, who died over the weekend, fell from his window in an accident. [Boston Globe] --Over at the State Senate, Therese Murray has introduced a health-care reform bill. One point of the bill is to demand that health insurance firms explain themselves when they raise their rates. [Boston Herald] --Massachusetts legislators will discuss a bill officially allowing breast-feeding in public because there are still......

--Pants not here, pants not there, pants not anywhere! [Boston Globe, WCVB] --Good thing No Pants 2K8 was yesterday because a nasty snowstorm is coming in overnight, with the worst of it tomorrow morning. We're talking a foot during the commute. Find a way to stay home tomorrow. [WCVB] --Tips on parking, shoveling, etc., in a snow emergency. [Bostonist] --Are you a state employee? Your insurance premiums might be going up soon. [Boston Globe]......

The Herald's front page gives a starring role to Mayor Menino's opposition to new state regulations allowing for in-store medical clinics at CVS locations (a change Bostonist outlined yesterday.) The Herald piece quotes a letter from Menino opining, "Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong." Right or wrong, CVS has been making money off of sick people for as long as it's been functioning as a pharmacy. But despite the state......

There are lot of things to dislike about the waiting room at your doctor's office—germy fellow patients, antiquated reading material, a complete lack of shampoo and energy drinks for sale. CVS will be able to rectify at least the last issue after regulations approved yesterday by the state's Public Health Council will allow the corporation to place small medical centers within its stores. The regulations will also open the door to companies like Wal-Mart who......

Many fans and striking writers turned out for the Writers Guild Rally at the First Parish Church meeting house at Harvard Square at noon today. As his mom Wendy looked on, Max Schapiro, of Needham, toted a sign that said, "My Mom let me skip school to support the WGA!" Other people sported orange-and-yellow wool caps made popular on Joss Whedon's brief television series "Firefly." After the fans and several striking writers filled the pews,......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of readings around the city. Thursday, October 18 Joan Blades, 6:30 pm, Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, Ford Hall Forum Series. Blades is the cofounder of moveon.org, and she's got a lot on her mind besides "General Betray-Us," which Congress gnawed on like they had nothing better to do. She'll be talking about momsrising.org, her organization that pushes for more rights for moms and families. Saturday, October 20 Frank, Mark,......

Current Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is ripping on former Massachusetts governor and political aspirant Mitt Romney over health care. Patrick also pointed out that Romney's "aw, shucks" demeanor doesn't properly advertise the product within the package. Patrick said of Romney, "He's a nice fellow. But a shameless candidate." That line has echoes of the Southern "bless your heart," in which a person delivers an insult and cushions it with the line "bless your heart." The......

No joke - if you have a bag of Veggie Booty at home or in your lunch bag, throw it away NOW! Robert's American Gourmet has issued an immediate recall of Veggie Booty, the incredibly nasty, green version of Pirate's Booty. Veggie Booty has been linked to outbreaks of salmonellosis in 17 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. According......

Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, former mayor of Providence who is currently in the federal pokey for conspiracy, is coming to Boston, and Boston is welcoming him with open arms. Cianci's life story has spawned the rebirth of Providence, a documentary movie, a musical, the christening of a junior-high school on Family Guy, and a pasta sauce. To call him "colorful" would be an understatement. He's going into the boutique hotel business at Fifteen Beacon on May......

This Universal Health Care thing is really working out great. Not only has the Commonwealth Connector board not been able agree on what "affordable" means and what the baseline for required coverage will be, but the Commonwealth hasn't yet begun to collect fees from companies not offering coverage to their employees. The delay from the Commonwealth Connector, the board that is overseeing implementation of the legislation, in determining the baseline of coverage has resulted in......

Healthcare in the Commonwealth is totally affordable, unless you get sick. The Commonwealth Connector is taking up debate on the latest plan to provide the legislative mandate for affordable healthcare. We did some simple math on the issue: $2,000 deductible in a year comes out to about $167 per month (if you hit the deductible that year). The premium would be a lot lower than initially discussed – coming in at around $175 per month.......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

It's not fuzzy math, it's just expensive. The Commonwealth's new universal health insurance law passed last year was touted as a great chance for Massachusetts to become a leader in the nation in universal health care. At the time the talk was about a $200 per month premium. The legislation (let's call it Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 for fun) mandates that all adults in Massachusetts who make $29,412, three times the poverty......

The good news about last night's gubernatorial debate in Springfield was that the moderators and the panelists had the opportunity to remind the candidates that there's more to Massachusetts than Boston. The debate was also a more tasteful affair with a moderator – Jim Madigan of WGBY-TV - who seemed to relish telling people to settle down. The bad news was that the debate wasn't nearly as exciting. The main goal was to keep Independent......

The Church of Christian Science, the Boston-based church, is taking up issue with the Commonwealth's new law on mandatory healthcare coverage. They fear that the way the law is currently written it does not allow for employers to provide an option of faith-based healing. Christian Scientists believe that the power of healing lies in the deity, and through prayer all illness and sickness can be healed. To that end they don't practice medicine or subscribe......

When Bostonist received an e-mail notifying us that the results were in, we were expecting news about a new M&M color being introduced. It turns out the e-mail was referring to the latest survey from Men's Fitness magazine, which once again ranked the Fittest/Fattest Cities in the U.S. While Bostonist’s own fitness routine has dropped off in the last few months, it seems that our city has actually improved in health, moving from the......

Last night PBS premiered “RX for Survival - A Global Health Challenge,” a three-part, six-hour series on worldwide public health. Focusing on innovations in the last century, including vaccines and antibiotics, the series highlights efforts to eradicate disease around the world and comes at a timely moment: The Massachusetts State Legislature is debating a bill that would change healthcare coverage in the state and the White House just yesterday, released a plan to address the......

While Bostonist and, we imagine, most of the rest of the Commonwealth's population, are thinking about Theo Epstein's departure, our legislature is considering a matter that may well affect us more (and Theo not at all): expanding healthcare coverage. You may recall that back in July, the Governor proposed a healthcare plan that would make purchasing health insurance mandatory for everyone. This idea was roundly panned by commentators, but yesterday, Speaker of the House Sal......

A couple days ago, Bostonist's fearless editor sent us an e-mail, as he sometimes does, suggesting a possible post: "Is the morning-after pill something you want a stab at? I think it's worth coverage and if you don't want it I'll take a crack at it." True, we thought, it is frequently in the headlines, and our special job here is to write snide political and legal commentary. But what do we say about the......

What the hell is going on with the economy? Boston was just named one of the 10 least affordable cities to reside. This doesn't mean this is a bad place to live considering most of the other cities on the expensive list (NYC, San Francisco) are a lot more appealing than the affordable cities (New London, Harrisburg). Nevertheless, that doesn't ease Bostonist's fears that the economy hasn't been too sharp over the past few years.......

Having once worked for a labor union, Bostonist knows that relations between workers and management can get more than a little tense. But we were impressed with the audacity of Harborside Healthcare: The Boston company is challenging the results of a union election, saying that the voting was not fair because a union organizer threatened to use voodoo on healthcare workers (most of whom are Haitian) if they didn't vote for the union. Bostonist's......