| April 21, 2009 | - Philip Markoff, a 23-year-old medical student in Boston, was arrested on his way to a casino with his fiancée and $1,000 in cash and charged with the murder of one masseuse and the robbery of another, both of whom he arranged to meet via Craigslist. “I think it's really unfortunate that someone that bright would be in this much trouble,“ said professor Frank Hauser, who taught Markoff at SUNY-Albany. ”Since I don't give many A's, he was obviously an excellent student."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 23, 2008 | - A man in Massachusetts died of carbon monoxide poisoning after a raccoon became stuck in his furnace exhaust.
| Source:
The Boston Channel
|
| September 10, 2008 | - Former Massachusetts governor Jane Swift, chair of the Palin Truth Squad, demanded that Obama apologize for saying that McCain's promise to change Washington amounted to putting “lipstick on a pig” and insisted that the pig was Sarah Palin. “As far as I know,” said Swift, “she's the only one of the four... who wears lipstick.”
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| January 27, 2008 | - Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts endorsed Obama, and Fred Thompson and Dennis Kucinich withdrew from the presidential race.
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Sacramento Bee
|
| August 15, 2007 | - A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty to intentionally eating glass in over a dozen restaurants to collect insurance compensation.
| Source:
AP via SFGate.com
|
| April 30, 2007 | - Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon, declared that his favorite books were Battlefield Earth and the Bible.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| February 27, 2007 | - “Perfect hair” was among the potential liabilities outlined in a PowerPoint document leaked from Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. The former Massachusetts governor, according to the document, intends to avoid being called ”Slick Dancing Mitt” or “Flip-Flopper” and will instead promote himself as ”the anti-Kerry,” a “get-it-done CEO” who hates France and possesses ”intelligence,” unlike President Bush.
| Source:
Boston Globe
|
| January 13, 2007 | - Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney attended a gun show. “As a boy, I worked on a ranch in Idaho and shot
rabbits with a single shot .22 rifle,” Romney said. “After a while my cousin said, 'You're not very good at that. Try using this semiautomatic.'”
| Source:
NewsMax
|
| January 4, 2007 | - The 110th Congress convened on Capitol Hill, and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California kicked off her tenure as America's first female speaker of the House with four days of parties dubbed “Pelosi-Palooza.” The festivities included a performance by singer Tony Bennett and an honorary street-naming in Pelosi's hometown of Baltimore. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia disrupted the Congress's opening prayer with shouts of “Yes, Lord!” and “Mmmhmmm!” and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts mimed tipping a bottle to his mouth. Congress's first Muslim member took his oath on a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson, and a Buddhist representative swore in on no book at all.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
CBS News
Source 4:
AZ Central
|
| November 19, 2006 | - Researchers from Vienna and Massachusetts were studying aggression in fruit flies by crushing the heads of female fruit flies and encouraging two males to fight over the corpses.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 18, 2006 | - A Massachusetts
elementary school
banned
tag.
| Source:
CBS News
|
| September 20, 2006 | -
Researchers in Massachusetts successfully gave a mouse a tan without exposing it to the sun; other scientists partially restored the sight of blind rats.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| September 5, 2006 | -
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney refused to guarantee Mr. Khatami's safety during his trip to his state.
| Source:
Boston Herald
|
| July 12, 2006 | - Scientists in Massachusetts implanted sensors in a paralyzed man's brain that allowed the man to check email.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| June 1, 2006 | - The United States declared a moratorium on wind farms in Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
| Source:
PhysOrg.com
|
| June 1, 2006 | - Researchers studying a shipwreck off Cape Cod discovered the remains of a nine-year-old pirate named John King.
| Source:
Los Angeles Times
|
| May 14, 2006 | - A small plane carrying Senator Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) landed safely after being struck by lightning.
| Source:
AP via Yahoo! News
|
| April 12, 2006 | - A poll found that 55 percent of Americans want a Massachusetts-style health care law.
| Source:
ABC News
|
| April 5, 2006 | - The Massachusetts legislature voted to make health insurance mandatory for all state residents by July 2007.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| March 9, 2006 | - A sociology professor at Suffolk University, Boston, was suspended after being caught browsing Internet
porn sites while teaching a class; he was unaware that his computer was connected to a display behind him.
| Source:
7News Boston
|
| February 23, 2006 | - Officials in Malden, Massachusetts, were uncertain what to do about a city-hall bathroom after a gay
website said the bathroom was a good spot for cruising.
| Source:
Boston Herald
|
| February 2, 2006 | - A librarian in Newton, Massachusetts, was being criticized for asking FBI agents to produce a warrant before they impounded library computers. "Getting a warrant," said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, "is very time-consuming."
| Source:
The Boston Globe
|
| January 27, 2006 | -
Massachusetts Junior Senator
John Kerry, in Switzerland for the Davos economic forum, called for a filibuster to stop the nomination of Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court.
| Source:
The Salt Lake Tribune
|
| December 17, 2005 | - It was reported that agents from the Department of Homeland Security visited a college student in New Bedford, Massachusetts, soon after he requested a copy of “Mao's Little Red Book” through interlibrary loan—although many librarians felt the story might be a hoax.
| Source 1:
The Standard-Times
Source 2:
BoingBoing
|
| December 6, 2005 | - In Boston a man named Jason Strickland asked a court to recognize him as the father of 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre after Strickland's wife, who was the aunt and legal guardian of Poutre, shot herself and the girl's grandmother in a murder-suicide. If Strickland, who is accused of beating Poutre into a permanent vegetative state, is recognized as the girl's father, he can order that she be kept on life support and thus avoid a murder charge.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| November 25, 2005 | - State-controlled Venezuelan
oil company Citgo announced that it would provide over 11 million gallons of oil to poor people in Boston and New York.
| Source:
The Sydney Morning Herald
|
| November 19, 2005 | - Representative John Murtha (D., Pa.), called for the halt of U.S. troop deployments to Iraq. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.), seeking to cut off debate over Murtha's statements, countered by proposing a measure that required that U.S. troops be brought home immediately. Jean Schmidt (R., Ohio) addressed Murtha, a decorated veteran and former Marine colonel who previously supported the invasion of Iraq, by quoting a Marine Corps reserve officer who told her that “cowards cut and run.” She was booed by Democrats. “You guys,” yelled Marty Meehan (D., Mass.), “are pathetic!” Harold Ford (D., Tenn.) ran across the House chamber's center aisle to the Republican side. “Say Murtha's name!” he shouted. Schmidt asked that her comments be struck from the record, and Hunter's resolution was rejected 403 to 3, with Murtha among those voting against it.
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| September 16, 2005 | -
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney suggested wiretapping mosques.
| Source:
Democracy Now!
|
| July 8, 2005 | - A Massachusetts
parrot appeared to understand the concept of zero.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| May 11, 2005 | - It was uncertain whether Boston could host a convention for minority journalists in 2008 because the city has a law requiring that all Native Americans who enter the city be arrested.
| Source:
Boston Globe
|
| March 31, 2005 | - A Saudi Arabian princess was arrested for keeping slaves in Winchester, Massachusetts.
| Source:
BostonHerald.com
|
| March 8, 2005 | - Bubba, the 22-pound lobster caught off the Nantucket shore, died, most likely from stress.
| Source:
Toronto Star
|
| March 2, 2005 | - A 22-pound, century-old lobster was caught off Nantucket.
| Source:
CNN
|
| January 10, 2005 | - All 790 men in Truro, Massachusetts, were asked to submit to a DNA test so that they could prove their innocence in a three-year-old murder case.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| January 3, 2005 | -
Boston announced a crackdown on illegally parked garbage cans,
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| October 28, 2004 | - The Boston Red Sox won the World Series.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 17, 2004 | -
Homosexuals were lining up to get married in Massachusetts, and President Bush again called for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
| Source:
CNN
|
| February 5, 2004 | - The Massachusetts Supreme Court ordered the state to permit homosexual marriages; Republicans were delighted.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
