As the reign of Sal DiMasi as house speaker appears to be in peril, Governor Deval Patrick isn't laughing at his nemesis. He's going out there and reviving the issue of bringing casinos to Massachusetts, which DiMasi squashed so recently. This morning, he brought up the issue again in front of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce. The AP is reporting that "he thinks an unyielding need for property tax relief, the possibility of slot machines......

Yesterday, City Council President Maureen Feeney's civic summit brought about 400 people together to get people more involved in city government. Mayor Menino even showed up, although Michael Pahre noted, "Mayor Thomas Menino breezed in -- and out -- of the convention center probably feeling a little bit unwelcome" since it wasn't his idea. Adam Gaffin at Universal Hub live-blogged the event and summed up the takeaways, with education and crime high on the list......

If House speaker Sal DiMasi really wants to prove he is up to the task of managing this state and fend off those who want his crown, then he better crack down on the shenanigans at the State House. All ethical shadiness aside, yesterday a state rep said that another rep threatened her during the budget debate. Rep. Jennifer Callahan was behind a nurse staffing amendment, which apparently didn't please the other lawmaker: "He leveled......

Remember how we said yesterday that House speaker Sal DiMasi's free ride might be ending? Well, it came to a screeching halt, just as he was named the 2nd most powerful person in Boston. The Herald came out with a summary of potentially shady dealings in which those with ties to DiMasi benefitted. No politician has clean hands, but it's interesting that Governor Deval Patrick faced relentless scrutiny for relatively silly stuff like Drapegate while......

Boston Magazine released its annual power issue, which is an annual must-have for any lifestyle magazine. This power list leads to the inevitable question, what does "power" mean, anyway? Does "power" refer to one's title? If you looked at how Deval Patrick's casino proposal turned out, you might argue that Patrick certainly didn't merit fourth place. But he does get to have "governor" in front of his name. Does "power" refer to popularity? Of course,......

A survey revealed that 72 percent of Bostonians are largely happy with the way mayor Tom Menino has been running things. In fact, the Globe headline declared the city was "smitten," which is not a word Bostonist would use to describe how the city's residents view the mayor. Then again, he appears to be quite a hit with the ladies. Compared to what mayors in other cities get embroiled in (shoutout to SFist!), Mayor Menino......

This Bostonist always pictured solar panels being best-suited to dot the rooftops of sun-baked, equatorial locales. But according to the Associated Press (via the Herald), the Commonwealth is quickly becoming a leader in solar energy. The AP piece talked to one solar executive whose biggest customer is Germany--not a country known for its tropical lifestyle. He says that, "Solar works better when you have cool, sunny days, so a solar system here in Massachusetts,......

Despite evidence to the contrary, we know that the State House is bigger than two men, more than just a turf battle between Governor Deval Patrick and Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. For example: it also includes Speaker Pro Tempore Thomas Petrolati. A day after the House passed Patrick's tax plan (some corporate taxes went up, smokers got another thing to complain about while shivering outside), a key DiMasi legislative ally takes a......

Deval Patrick isn't the first person to get into casino-related trouble, though few of us had to be publicly confronted with our regrettable outcomes the way Deval Patrick did. Eager to move past his failed plan to create much needed revenue for the Commonwealth through gaming, Patrick gave a major economic address yesterday at MIT. Patrick's speech (text here, video here) lists $344 million in budget cuts, a several billion dollar infrastructure improvement plan,......

In March, the Boston Zoning Commission gave the green light to a Boston City Council proposal to restrict the number of college age tenants in a rental unit to four. Now the legality of the plan will be challenged in court. The rationale behind the restriction was that having large numbers of students together in one dwelling leads to raucous partying and ascending rental prices (which could price "traditional families" out of neighborhoods.) But......

The Boston Herald today--in sadly predictable fashion--posted online an article of theirs about a local Youtube star without anywhere linking to the Youtube video in question. (They do have their own embedded version of the video, but this Bostonist couldn't get it to load, and the whole premise of the piece is the unlikely Youtube stardom of a Natick toddler.) Anyway, if you missed it, here's the adorable footage: The Herald reports that the Bay......

Boston may be the Athens of America and the most collegiate of American cities, but our mayor doesn't get by on professorial aloofness. Tom Menino is an old school, roll up the sleeves politician. That being the case, the Globe has some fun (your eyes do not deceive you: fun at the Globe) with the news that he's one of many who have been nominated to be the next chancellor of the University of......

Today's Globe featured a story on the tremendous pull that police and fire unions have on city government. Roderick Fraser Jr. heads the fire department, but Local 718 Ed Kelly has his own ideas for the direction of the fire department. Mayor Menino's disputes with the fire department, particularly over the issue of drug testing after the Tai Ho Restaurant fire, which killed firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne, are notorious. It still isn't clear......

MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas isn't the only one saying that we're broke. The entire state is broke and in even bigger trouble that you might think. Yes, we're talking "broke-ass." If you thought we were in a budget crisis, wait until you read today's paper. Matt Viser at the Globe reports on how Massachusetts' problems are being magnified by the nation's problems. The state is drowning in debt, and it's only going to get......

Charismatic media personality Tom Menino is now doing stints on Michele McPhee's radio show on WTKK-FM (96.9.) Perhaps the mayor is looking for ways to supplement his meager income? The Herald originally reported that Menino would be going on the air once a week, but Boston Daily talked to McPhee and clarified that he'll actually be on once a month. McPhee told them, “We go way back, so this show will be an extension......

--More from the pillow fight! --The fallout continues over Governor Deval Patrick's failed casino proposal and House Speaker Sal DiMasi's success in stopping it. Dan Kennedy has called DiMasi a "Bare-Knuckles Do-Gooder." But the Herald notes that those who voted against the proposal may have received certain rewards. [Media Nation / Boston Herald] --Boston College law professors now want to uninvite Attorney General Michael Mukasey from giving the commencement address since he won't say......

The aide to Governor Deval Patrick who had been accused of sexually assaulting a teen boy at a Florida resort must be a happy man tonight. Charges against him have been dropped, Casey Ross reports that there wasn't enough evidence to prove the boy's story: “There was no physical evidence collected that may have been able to place both individuals together in the steam room, nor are there any independent witnesses that could do so,”......

After all those light-hearted jokes at the St. Patrick's Day breakfast, during which governor Deval Patrick and house speaker Sal DiMasi playfully sparred over the casino issue, Patrick's casino-license proposal got shot down in the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, making Sal DiMasi the winner in this round. A turncoat was in the mix. A state rep from Wrentham, Richard J. Ross, told Patrick he would vote in favor of the casinos,......

Last Sunday, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner held a soiree in support of Barack Obama's run for president. Photographer Lolita Parker Jr. gave us a little peek of the action, and she has a slideshow of images at Boston Faces Boston Places.......

After six months of political posturing and economic predictions, it appears that King Sal, Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi, will continue to reign over a Commonwealth free from casino wealth. The Globe and the Herald report that Governor Deval Patrick's plan to bring three casinos to the Bay State would almost certainly be defeated in a House vote, if it even survives the Economic Development Committee today. King Sal turned the casino debate......

When one thinks of a precendent-setting local politician with a stake in this year's Democratic primary for president, they probably think of Governor Deval Patrick. But Boston City Council At-Large member Sam Yoon is also in the mix. Yoon became Boston's first Asian American in elected office when he won his seat in 2005. Since then the Princeton and Harvard alum has charted a progressive legislative track that's brought him much positive attention and......

Harvard University Kennedy School of Government professor and Obama adviser Samantha Power, whose events have popped up on Bostonist many times and who has a rep as an extremely smart person, lost some brain cells and called Hillary Clinton a "monster" while a reporter's tape recorder was running. She didn't do Obama any favors. Boston Daily quotes elements of the interview with a Scottish newspaper. The offending lines were mind-boggling: "She is a monster, too......

In the midst of our fleeting lives, one sometimes feels called to take a stand. A meaningless but symbolic stand. Two towns in Vermont, Brattleboro and Marlboro, about two hours northwest of Boston, passed resolutions calling for President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney to be arrested if they ever enter the towns' jurisdiction in southern Vermont. The ballot asked voters to indict our nation's executives for "crimes against our Constitution." The vote......

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......

--The state owes snow plow operators $69 million for their work. Now that's a way to thank them for keeping our roads clean. The state has already--ahem--plowed through its snow-plow budget due to the abundance of snow this year. Sorry. Couldn't resist. [Boston Globe] --Two fires broke out at the same building in Fitchburg on Thursday, 12 hours apart. [WCVB] --An author from Dudley, Misha Defonseca, has admitted that she made up a best-selling memoir......

Well, City Councilor John Tobin has a solution for low voter turnout, and it's not a MoFee Style Public Kvetch-Fest. If Mayor Tom Menino thought he didn't like the idea of Kvetch-Fest 2008, he must have blown his stack when he heard what Councilor Tobin proposed. Tobin wants to limit mayoral and city council terms to 12 years. Menino, who is an institution along the lines of the Old South Meeting House, has already served......

City Council president Maureen Feeney (aka "MoFee") had plans to host a big gathering--or kvetch-fest, if you will--at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. At the time it was originally announced, it was seen as a potential irritant to Mayor Menino and a possible traffic nightmare. Whatever it is, it's on. The Globe describes the gathering thusly: Her goal is to combat the voter apathy displayed in the most recent council election and address a......

There may be no institution in the city as diverse as the Boston Public Library, whose resources entice students, intellectuals, high culture types, the elderly, foreign language speakers, the homeless, and bookworms of all persuasions. Recently, though, the BPL has also been attracting some unwanted attention from Mayor Tom Menino. Menino's administration has taken greater control over how the BPL uses money that has been donated to it by benefactors. According to the Globe, the......

The Commomwealth's Speaker of the House, Sal DiMasi, is well-known for his opposition to Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan. There's no turning back now. The Globe reports today that DiMasi played golf at exclusive South Florida clubs with Joe O'Donnell, owner of Eastie's Suffolk Downs horse track, who wants a gaming license. They also report that DiMasi met the famously rich casino magnate Donald Trump "...at a cocktail party at the Mar-a-Lago Club, an......

Our junior Senator, John Kerry, was on a tour of Afghanistan yesterday when bad weather forced the helicopter he was in to make an emergency landing in a stretch of mountains. He had to wait for three hours, while protected by troops on the ground and a F-16 overheard, until a US convoy was able to take him back to an air base. Kerry was traveling with fellow Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Joe......