--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......

--So, just how many new construction jobs will the casinos proposed by Governor Deval Patrick create? He said 30,000. An independent analyst says no way: "... building three casinos at a cost of $1 billion each in Massachusetts would create a total of 4,000 to 5,000 new construction jobs for the duration of the building period, probably three years." [Boston Globe] --Now this is cool--A look at BNN's studios in an old Roxbury substation.......

--A judge set the bail for Damion Jamaal-Anthony Haley, the man who allegedly fired a gun into a crowd of brawling partygoers at Aria over the weekend, at $1 million. [WBZ] --Four people sustained injuries after trying to get off a train before it stopped at Whitman Station yesterday afternoon. [MetroWest Daily News] --Looks like people are getting the Baby Safe Haven message. Last year, people delivered five newborns (two stillborn) to hospitals. Baby......

--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.......

--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......

--Word is out that former House Speaker and current WRKO radio-show host is going to drop his plans to become a lobbyist, finally realizing that lobbying while being a talking head might be a conflict of interest. Adam G. joked, "The WRKO job must pay more." [Boston Globe, Universal Hub] --Former Massachusetts governor and now former presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he won't try to be vice-president. But he's changed his mind before. [WCVB]......

A few days ago, everyone cared about the Commonwealth. Senator McCain was here, Senator Obama was here, Senator Clinton was in Worcester, the Kennedys were everywhere. Now we won't even have our ex-governor parading around the country insulting us. It all happened so fast. To figure out exactly what went wrong, we headed to the epicenter of right-wing commentary: the National Review. And as it turns out, Romney's defeat was caused by something we're pretty......

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......

Well, at least somebody within the Romney campaign got some good news after Super Tuesday. DA Dan Conley announced that he won't press charges against former Romney aide Jay Garrity. No, Garrity wasn't the Romney aide who put a picture of himself in a hot tub on mySpace. He was the guy who allegedly pretended to be a police officer and hassled a reporter. According to the AP, Garrity was cleared of pretending to be......

UPDATE: Nevermind. The map we looked at this morning clearly said Huck won Salem in their Republican primary. (And yes, we haveth witnesses.) Now the same map says that Mitt Romney has actually won the Republican vote in Salem. This is obviously a case of witchcraft at work. Is it a coincidence that the only Massachusetts city to give the majority vote to Huckabee in the Republican primary was Salem, our Commonwealth's -- lo,......

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......

--If we can't make an event out of a Super Bowl victory, then we'll make one out of Super Tuesday. Get answers to your burning questions, watch McLovin learn to vote, experience the rock-star presence of Barack Obama, and find out where to party. [All links Bostonist] --One of presidential candidate Mitt Romney's fund-raisers, James Sims, has stepped down from his post as a national finance co-chair. It seems that he had trouble paying......

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......

--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......

Somebody better check on Mitt Romney because he's not acting like himself. The campaign bus for Mr. I-Eat-My-Wife's-Granola-Every-Morning pulled into a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Reporters rejoiced. The LA Times declared, "Mitt Romney is human!" That all depends on how you look at it. Plenty of people might argue that eating KFC indicates you actually have a Teflon tummy instead of a human stomach. But when Romney strays from the script, he doesn't go that far.......

Another break-in happened at Romney Headquarters early this morning in the North End. At first blush, it could have been political. The two men arrested by the BPD were from Cambridge, which doesn't exactly show Mitt Romney the love. The pair pled not guilty. According to the DA's Office, they were caught driving from the parking lot after a security guard said he saw them trying to steal computer equipment. When police "removed" them from......

Riding high from his Michigan victory and the continued defeats of rival Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney is on a tear through Florida, and he's trying to connect with the young people. Unfortunately, Romney's pop culture references are stuck as far back in time as his well-preserved face. He buddied up with African-American teens and tried to sling lingo that he thought they would like. In fact, he uttered the immortal line, "Who Let the Dogs......

-- Call him Governor Patrick-agressive. Deval Patrick unveiled his 2009 budget, and it had a little surprise. $300 million of revenue is set to come from taxes on three casinos that do not yet exist. Patrick wants to license casino gambling in Massachusetts but faces heavy opposition in the legislature. It's a battle he has already won in his own mind. Nearly half -- $124 million -- of the speculative funds will shore up a......

Say what you will about Mitt Romney, the man never loses his cool. Even if it seems like he loses his cool, such as in the ad in which he went jogging and his hair got mussed, the stray hairs were on purpose. But a reporter got under Romney's skin at a Staples in South Carolina this morning when Romney said lobbyists didn't run his campaign. The reporter, Glen Johnson, said that was bull. Alas,......

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......

Mitt Romney is pulling out all the stops in order to get votes. First, he's talking about how he's going to rescue the American auto industry from the doldrums.* And now he's letting people leave custom voice-mail messages for their friends, frenemies, or enemies using his voice. You can describe how you know the person who will receive the MittGram and specify exactly how Romney should greet them. Do you want him to say "hello"......

--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......

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Romney is putting his New England Spanking behind him and focusing entirely on winning the Michigan primary. He has pulled advertising from South Carolina and Florida and is going whole hog. Michigan seems to be loving the attention, at least according to the AP. Writer Glen Johnson declared that Romney received a "Hero's Welcome." But it's still not the kind of welcome Romney was expecting only a few weeks......

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......