A money-crush, at least. The Herald reports that Bay Staters gave the most money per capita to Obama's campaign of any state, at $1.583 each. Vermont and Illinois were close, with $1.580 and $1.558 per capita respectively, but nobody ponied up as much dough as we did. The Herald points out that this is a little odd, considering Obama didn't even win the primary here. But apparently we've got enough rich-folks-getting-richer who don't want a......

Suzanne Vega Documentary! Awesome! Still and doc from Chris Seufert Olympic medalist Shawn Johnson is made of both butter and gold. [KCCI] A new plan for development in Kenmore Square. [Herald] Donnie Wahlberg is not crying about being divorced. [TMZ] The Taliban attacked a U.S. military base, killing 10 French soldiers and wounding 21 others. [NYT] Russians detained Georgian soldiers. [NYT] If you want to feel really old, think about the incoming class of......

Image tagged Bostonist by shoothead Get your Free Vicente Lebron t-shirt before they release him! [Somerville Blog] Coolidge Corner Arcade owner Earle Leeder has died. [Brookline TAB] What do John McCain, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears have in common? Plenty, it turns out! [Jezebel] Watertown councilor Marilyn Devaney will get probation and apologize for her beauty store assault and battery charges. [Wicked Local Cambridge] Boston Magazine releases its "Best of Boston 2008" five months......

Sources say Mitt Romney is near the top of John McCain's vice presidential running mate list. If Obama picked Patrick (not looking at all likely), we'd have quite the Massachusetts Governor showdown in the elections. Some say businessman Romney would provide the economic knowledge McCain seems to lack; others point out that Romney's not been nearly as successful in business as someone like Michael Bloomberg (even though Bloomberg was once targeted as a possible Obama......

Image of Apple-mania by M.V. Jantzen from photos tagged "Bostonist" on Flickr. Sen. John Kerry ripped his friend, John McCain, on "Face The Nation" yesterday. On his supposed flip-flopiness as a presidential candidate in '04, Kerry states that McCain is even flip-floppier. [CBS] Congrats to Christopher’s of Maynard for their repeat victory in yesterday's Chowderfest. [Boston Herald] A marine from Wilmington has died in a Bangkok hospital; cause of death is unknown at this......

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......

--The investigation into why a commuter rail train crashed into a loose boxcar in Canton, injuring 150, is turning toward brakes not being set on a car at a lumberyard in Stoughton. Also, even if the train was on the loose, "The car should have been stopped by a derailing device where the siding meets the main track. A source close to the investigation said the derailing device worked properly when tested Wednesday morning......

--The Red Sox just broke up with Mirabelli ... we are processing this. It is hard. --Boston has good roads? Hold up. Did the people who determined this actually come here? [WBZ] --Not everyone loves a stripper, especially in Milford. [Boston Globe] --The BU Biolab just got put on notice. [White Coat Notes] --Pianist Anton Kuerti is the coolest dad ever, at least where the BSO is concerned. [AP/Boston Herald] --Is Mitt Romney going......

--The factory that exploded in Danvers just happened to have more than twice the approved amount of flammable materials. [Boston Herald] --A grand jury is looking into steroids use in the Boston PD. [Boston Globe] --"Paper or...?" A State Senator wants to impose a tax on plastic grocery bags that will eventually top out at 15 cents. A City Councilor wants to ban them in Boston. [Boston Globe] --Another City Councilor wants to cap......

--Are you freaking out over the fact that the St. Patrick's Day parade falls on the same day as Palm Sunday, March 16? 'Cause the press sure seems to be making a fuss. [Boston Herald, Boston Globe] --The local papers are bombarding us with Foreclosure Doom. Foreclosures in Massachusetts are up 128% in January. Bus tours of foreclosed homes might reflect a corresponding increase. [Boston Globe] --A Globe blog post headlined "Suburbs, the future......

Elections are expensive this year, and it turns out that former Massachusetts governor and former presidential aspirant Mitt Romney paid a pretty penny for each delegate he received before dropping out of the race. Foon Rhee reports that Romney put in $42.3 million of his own money into his presidential campaign. As of last October, he had already put in $17.5 million, suggesting that he made a massive money push in the last days.......

It's not often that a musician can, with one letter, slam both a presidential candidate and an former bandmate. But apparently Tom Scholz is out to remind us that he's not your average longtime bassist rocker. Scholz, of Boston (the band) fame, recently sent a letter to Mike Huckabee to express his "shock" and displeasure over the politician's use of the Boston song "More Than a Feeling." When we began to read the letter, we......

--MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas has received plenty of angry e-mails in his time, and should be able to take some serious heat. But he is furious about an e-mail from a Department of Corrections employee that got way too personal. Grabauskas is gay, and the e-mailer used anti-gay slurs about Grabauskas when describing MBTA service. Now Grabauskas is upset with Deval Patrick and his administration for not doing something about it sooner. The......

--The BPD gathered together owners of establishments that sell liquor in response to the two incidents in which a creep offered women rides, took them to Charlestown, and sexually assaulted them. According to the BPD, both crimes "originated in the State Street area." At the meeting, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) gave advice to bar and club owners on how to stop these assaults before they start. [BPD News] --Early this morning, a......

We meant it as a joke when we said that former Romney aide Jay Garrity was the only one on the team having a good week. But it might be true. WBZ is reporting that Romney is "suspending" his campaign. Leave it to Romney to use the euphemism "suspend" instead of "drop out." WBZ explains that he can keep his delegates "if something happened to front-runner John McCain's campaign." The language makes the situation sound......

Republican presidential aspirant and former Massachsuetts governor Mitt Romney is the projected winner of the state of Massachusetts over John McCain this Super Tuesday, according to CNN. And that victory was by no means a given since Romney didn't exactly leave Massachusetts wanting more. However, Romney is still fighting for states, and Mike Huckabee (plus buddy Chuck Norris) is racking up enough votes that neither one can catch up to the front-runner, John McCain. Huckabee......

Is it even an argument at this point? Boston's Mayor Menino caused the Patriots' loss by planning the city's victory party a little too early and much too transparently. Last Wednesday, well before the unthinkable happened, the Herald was already proclaiming, "Tommy, you might as well have suited up for the hated Giants." While the mourning (and the blame game) continues, political life must also go on. With the Massachusetts primary being held tomorrow, the......

With Rudy Giuliani out of the way, the remaining Republicans were free to catfight at the Reagan Library last night. Much of the debate involved front-runners John McCain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney trying to out-Reagan one another. No matter what they said, each moment felt like this: Romney: "I'm more like Ronald Reagan than you are!" McCain: "No, you're not, you helmet-headed bitch!" Romney: "Nancy just checked me out, so that proves......

The state of Michigan has performed CPR on the flagging presidential campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, according to MSNBC and CNN. He is the projected winner of the state's primary. John McCain came in second. Maybe it was Romney's Michigan roots? Maybe it was his business experience? Maybe it was Muffy? Maybe it was the MittGram? He needed this one. It was obvious from the banner on his official campaign homepage, which......

Celebrity sightings in New Hampshire were common. For example, the ubiquitous Chuck Norris was with Mike Huckabee, and Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins were with John Edwards. And we all know about "Cooter." However, the New York Times was privy to a few wacky rumors: One man telling his friend that Curt Schilling, the Boston Red Sox pitcher, had been in the state campaigning for Senator John McCain. The friend then said he had also......

Update: No winner for the Democrats yet, which makes CNN look bad because they were calling it for Obama all day. But, even more embarrassing, Rudy Giuliani is thisclose to getting beaten by Ron Paul, 9% to 8% as of 10:00 pm. Update to the Update: CNN has projected Hillary Clinton as the winner of the New Hampshire primary, a huge comeback after Iowa. (The "Iron My Shirt" dudes can stuff it.) Obama wasn't far......

Anticipation, anticipation … Let's see what fresh weirdness is unfolding up in New Hampshire. You can bet there's a lot of it. For starters, Dan McCarthy at the Weekly Dig witnessed the Republican debate at St. Anselm's and finds that no one will understand how much McCain despises Romney unless they see it in person. And the press area at the debate was "more ghetto than our hotel, the Econo Lodge, on Manchester's west......

Former Massachusetts governor and political aspirant Mitt Romney faces one of his greatest challenges with the New Hampshire primary. After coming in second in Iowa to the Mike Huckabee/Chuck Norris ticket, he is an underdog in a race that should have been a breeze for him since he governed in Massachusetts. Even though Massachusetts wasn't exactly thrilled with him when he left, he was still a familiar name and could have scored votes on that......

HubTrotter has a great report from New Hampshire. He paid close attention to the license plates and spotted a trend: "Looking around at the cars parked at the Clinton rally, there were quite a few out-of-state plates. Probably no more than two-thirds (and I think it was closer to one-half) of cars had "Live Free or Die" on the plates. And as is the case at many rallies, there seemed to be two reporters......

--New England Confectionery Co., aka NECCO, was sold to a company in Bethesda, Maryland. So, will the name be changed to Maryland Confectionary Company, or MACCO? We certainly hope not. [Boston Globe] --More reasons to give up your car. On New Year's Day, tolls at the Allston-Brighton and Route 128 plazas will go up from $1 to $1.25. The price jump is even higher for the Ted Williams Tunnel and the Sumner Tunnel: $3 to......

Bostonist has always been a little creeped out by Kerry Healey, icy ex-lieutenant governor and former gubernatorial candidate. She is best known for staying politely in Mitt Romney's shadow during his stint as governor and for getting into madcap verbal spats with rival Christy Mihos during the governors' debates. (Seriously, their fights were comic gold.) Healey lost for many reasons. For starters, the victor, Deval Patrick, was dynamic, whereas Healey had all the pizzazz of......

As the primaries approach and now that they've given John McCain their endorsement for Republican candidate for president, the Herald has whipped off the gloves and is going after former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney. Dave Wedge ladles a heaping helping of sarcasm when describing the latest development in the Romney vs. Huckabee Catfight Extraordinaire: In an amazing coincidence, Romney’s family tale of animal kindness [in which his kids rescued some birds]emerged......

There's so much to say about former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney's looks. His political views may be ever-changing, but one things for certain--some people find him attractive. And some people like to get a little closer. First, an Iowa tweenager probably just becoming acquainted with her hormones got close enough to Romney to ask to touch his hair. Romney took her hand and placed it, probably to make sure that she......

--After the panic, let's think about the fun aspects of winter--sleighs, end-of-year parties, presents, twinkling lights, and the general atmosphere of coziness. --This just in: The Patriots win, and the world learns that referees are sensitive about snowballs. More from the Redux tomorrow. --In Massachusetts' ongoing effort to get as far ahead of the political primary process as possible, the Globe has endorsed Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee and John McCain as the......

--The following falls more in the "Don't Panic" category instead of the "Blotter" category. If you stuck a TV set on top of a light pole at the corner of Main Street and Bishop Allen in Cambridge this morning, the Cambridge Police Department would like to have a word with you. You caused quite the freak-out. [Cambridge Chronicle] --The Christmas tree at the State House is covered blue light-emitting diodes," which conserve energy. However, the......