The battle over global warming is escalating and it's being fought all over the cultural map, most recently in a three state struggle for the "right to dry." The Globe reports today that some environmentalists, specifically a group called Project Laundry List, are pushing for legislation in New Hampshire, Connecticut and Vermont that would guarantee residents are allowed to set up clotheslines. They claim that dryers are a house's second biggest electricity drain (number......

-- Four Salem High School students have pleaded not guilty to charges that they raped a teen girl in a Lynn home late Friday night. The four boys, three 17 year-olds and one 18 year-old, were arraigned Tuesday on charges of aggravated rape. The alleged victim reported the incident to police Saturday morning. [Globe; Herald] -- Derek Boisvert, a 25 year-old convicted child rapist who appeared on the Massachusetts' 10 Most Wanted Sex Offender List......

--A 9-year-old was injured in a hit-and-run in Dorchester overnight. [WBZ] --The BPD put out an alert regarding a man who attempted to kidnap a girl in South Boston on Tuesday. The man attempted to get her into his car, but she ran away. He is described as "a white male, in his late 30’s, with black and gray hair, an oval face, a dime-sized mole under his right eye, long nose and deep voice."......

--Two months since reopening after a five year hiatus and one million dollars of renovations, the Golden Banana strip club's future is in jeopardy after a man was shot in its parking lot last night. He was hit in the shoulder and is expected to survive. The club, however, was closed for code violations in 2003, and could face penalties from Peabody officials who were already leery about the establishment being reopened. [Boston Herald]......

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......

The Savant Project has an unwieldy name for a bistro, and, riding the 39 bus on our way to Brigham Circle, Bostonist kept thinking of idiots. But the name sticks with you, as does the interior of the place, once you've gotten a glimpse. Small, in the way urban restaurants have to be, it had a scattering of tables in the front, under the glow of gold tin walls. The bar lay just past the......

--An MBTA bus driver lost control of his bus this morning in Revere. The driver suffered from an unspecified ailment and went to the hospital, along with two passengers. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald] --A 5-year-old boy died choking on an object while on a school bus in Marlborough yesterday. [WBZ] --A UMass-Lowell student was hit by a truck as she waited for a bus. Police said that this driver might have had an unspecified......

--A man died this morning after being stabbed in Savin Hill. [Boston Globe] --Another man was found dead of a gunshot wound early this morning on Stratton Street. [BPD News] --Also early this morning, in Brockton, a woman led police on a car chase and put a twist in the story by taking her baby along for the ride. A State Trooper pulled her over, but she took off. The car crashed, but no one......

Political junkies have divided the last few months between obsessing over Iowa and New Hampshire and complaining about how much energy is wasted obsessing over Iowa and New Hampshire. Those states, the argument goes, are too white and too small and too rural to represent the country at large. But, while true, it always seems dismissive and elitist (possibly because we're writing this on a iPhone while stopped at a light in a Prius Zipcar.)......

When it comes to the battle of Boston's daily papers, we didn't think that the Metro was in trouble. Sure, the daily papers aren't meaty, but they help while wile away the time on a subway ride. Boston NOW has also had some problems with getting the little things right, such as an unfortunate boo-boo on its front page after the New Hampshire primaries. But the Metro's parent company wants to sell Metro Boston. That......

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
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Continue Reading "Week Around the -Ists"

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......

It seems that Bostonist's call for submissions inspired you. Say hello to Gerard Sloan, who is already working the political beat! And we hope you'll meet more writers in the next week. Interested in joining the team? Read our call for columnists and e-mail jobs@bostonist.com. Despite polls showing large leads for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary, the Granite State used its moment in the national spotlight yesterday to give Hillary Clinton a narrow victory......

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......

--It's warm out. And it's heavenly, but it's a little scary at the same time. --John Tibbs pled guilty to the 1995 murder of Tennyson Drakes. He was sentenced to "9-10 years in state prison that will run concurrent with the 27-year federal prison sentence he is currently serving for another slaying." Another man, Marlon Passley, had been wrongly convicted for the crime and served four years. [DA's Office] --An 87-year-old man has died from......

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......

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......

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......

Victor Thompson of New Hampshire is a bigger Pats fan than you are. Sure, he's never actually been to a game in Foxboro, but he'd like to. But that doesn't matter. Maybe you watch all the games on TV, maybe you own a Wes Welker replica jersey, maybe you've even trekked down to Gillette (or even Schaeffer) Stadium, but you haven't done what Victor's doing: getting a Tom Brady helmet tattooed on his head. The......

Don't cry, Hillary. No, seriously, don't. You probably already heard that Hillary Clinton cried at a campaign event (Globe), and it took Bostonist a while to process. When a woman in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, asked Clinton how she stayed so upbeat, Clinton started crying and said (among other things), "It's not easy. It's not easy. This is very personal for me. It is not just political. It is not just public. I see what's happening.......

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......

It's getting wild in New Hampshire! The primaries are tomorrow, and already some trippy stories are streaming from up north. Here's a few: --Dennis Kucinich proved that Mike Huckabee isn't the only one who has an action hero. Viggo Mortensen is part of the Kucinich "entourage." [Union Leader] --Who knew that John Sununu was a hero? [AP] --Team Weekly Dig is up in New Hampshire, and Chris Faraone enjoys a Bill Clinton Epiphany: "[His words]......

Don't cry, Hillary. No, seriously, don't. You probably already heard that Hillary Clinton cried at a campaign event (Globe), and it took Bostonist a while to process. When a woman in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, asked Clinton how she stayed so upbeat, Clinton started crying and said (among other things), "It's not easy. It's not easy. This is very personal for me. It is not just political. It is not just public. I see what's happening.......

Today Republican presidential candidate/Iowa caucus winner/Romney rival Mike Huckabee faced a heckler who clearly forgot that where there's Huckabee, there's Chuck Norris. The man had a right to speak, but, as Charlie Savage writes, he wouldn't shut up and kept yelling, "Why is Richard Haass, the president of the Council of Foreign Relations, your political adviser?" Then Huckabee unveiled his not-so-secret weapon and said, "Don't make me send Chuck back there!" Chuck Norris still......

--Useful, detailed advice on how to get your car started in the bitter cold. [b0st0n LiveJournal] --Dan Kennedy evaluates all the speeches the winners (and runners-up) gave after the Iowa caucuses. [Media Nation] --A rave review of La Voile in the Back Bay. [Cave Cibum] --And a not-so-rave review of The Publick House for their treatment of people who were just trying to enjoy trivia night and who arrived more than willing to spend money......

The political epicenter has shifted from Iowa to New Hampshire, right next door. The state is erupting in general chaos as the politicians who are still in the race are fighting for attention. Every reporter, pundit, talking head, and his or her brother is in town. Eventually, New Hampshire might regret rolling out the red carpet for some of them. Bill O'Reilly just had a massive hissy fit at Nashua North High and attempted to......

Update: Deval Patrick can rest easy. Obama took 38% of the Iowa caucus vote. For some reason, Bostonist couldn't get Huey Lewis' "If This Is It … Please Let Me Know …" out of their head while watching the Iowa caucus returns on CNN. So many middle-tier candidates will get their rejections over with tonight. CNN and Fox News projected early that Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses with a come-from-behind victory that had little......

Movies Indie Short Film Night, featuring movies by local filmmakers, including the premiere of "Absent Meaning," which vows that "Nothing is as hopeful as a suicidal Belarusian waitress turned punk rocker!" Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline, 9:30 pm, $5. Politics The Iowa caucuses are today. Why should Bostonist worry about what's up in Iowa? Many reasons. First, this is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's first big test. Second, the New Hampshire primaries are......

--Headline on WBZ: "Storm Fails to Break December Storm Record." While we don't want to be too hard on our local weatherheads, shouldn't that really read "Weatherheads Fail to Predict Size of Storm"? [WBZ] --Civil unions will be legal in New Hampshire as of midnight tonight. Yes! Ceremonies will be "subdued" because New Hampshire isn't exactly the Ramrod crowd. [Boston Globe] --Even though the NFL eventually let their rivals air the Patriots-Giants game Saturday,......

Update: WBZ has pictures of an SUV crashing into the bus. Another car plowed into the back of the car that hit the bus. The people involved were lucky--only three people on the bus and four in the SUV were hit. --A car hit an MBTA bus this afternoon while the bus was on American Legion Highway and Mount Hope Road. Three people on the bus went to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. [Boston......