Viewpoints
Senate candidate profile: Scott Brown
My mom was on welfare a little bit, and, you know, I lived with my grandparents, I lived with my aunt, whatever. I was a jerk. I had some issues. You know, I was lost.
Scott Brown, describing when he was 12 years old growing up in Wakefield and drifting into trouble.
He comes across as kind of a guy’s guy, but as I got to know him, my opinion changed quite a bit. When you first meet him, you don’t realize what a compassionate person he is.
Laurie Myers, president of Community VOICES, a group that advocates for tougher sexual predator laws.
Read the whole storySenate candidate profile: Stephen Pagliuca
I looked at the landscape and said, 'I'm the best person to try to fix this.'
Stephen Pagliuca
It was just a great place to work, with great people. Everybody really enjoyed it there. And then Bain Capital came in.
Charlie DeAngelis, who may vote for Pagliuca despite losing his job as a mechanical engineer for Dade International
Senate candidate profile: Alan Khazei
He said: ‘You think it’s your job to make boots and my job to save the world, but you’re wrong. It’s our job to save the world, and I need you to get up from that desk and spend a half day with me doing service.
Jeff Swartz, chief executive of Timberland
My dad revered the Kennedys. I remember listening to those speeches, the idealism, the idea that people could determine their own destiny. . . . Alan fell in love with the idea of America as a kid.
Lance Khazei, the candidate's younger brother
President's pay raises questions about Suffolk U. progress
-- John Nucci, director of external affairs at Suffolk University
Here you have an average university and you’re paying your chief executive more than the best institutions in the world. The fact that anyone would defend that is laughable.
-- Senator Mark Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford and chairman of the Senate committee on bonding, capital expenditures, and state assets.
Senate candidate profile: Martha Coakley
Let's face it, people in this business have pretty good-sized egos. Martha and I were on the same page.
Former US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan about the Big Dig settlements
She was one of those students who talked in paragraphs. Oftentimes, students can give very short answers, but she was one who could explicate what she was talking about.
Donald J. Pecor, who taught Coakley’s honors US history class at Drury High School
Read the whole storySenate candidate profile: Michael Capuano
The way you solve a problem is to pick up a bat. Why don't you try solving your problem with words?
Tracey M. Brown, a owner of a dog Capuano threatened to kill in 1993
I would like you to find the father who would let a rottweiler rip his kid apart. Was I angry? Damn right I was.
Michael E. Capuano, then the mayor of Somerville
Read the whole storyFidelity's flu drug plan draws criticism
-- Fidelity Investments internal memo
The idea of employers stocking antivirals for the indiscriminate use of their employees runs counter to sound public health principles. That’s not how you’re going to keep your workforce healthy.
-- Dr. Lauren Smith, medical director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Cahill says he rebuffed request to be Baker's No. 2
-- Treasurer Timothy Cahill
We intend to select a running mate, but it’s an internal process among the candidates, campaign staff, and consultants. Those are the only people who speak for the campaign, on this or any other issue.
-- Rob Gray, spokesman for Charlie Baker
Coakley decries health care bill
Attorney General Martha Coakley
If she’s not going to vote for any bill that’s not perfect, she wouldn’t vote for any bill in history. She would have voted against Medicare, the civil rights bill. ... Realism is something you have to deal with in Washington.
US Representative Michael Capuano
$9M in stimulus funds targeted for Gillette Stadium footbridge
-- Marc Draisen, director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council
The Kraft Group fully supports the state’s long-term economic growth initiatives and is proud to have already created thousands of jobs while privately investing nearly a billion dollars in the development of Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place.
Kraft Group spokesman Stacey James
Nantucket Sound may get historic listing, delaying wind farm
-- Governor Deval Patrick
It’s heartening. What this is about is where this is being placed. ... We are not against wind power.’’
-- Bettina Washington, tribal historic preservation officer for the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe
Transportation secretary takes parting shot
-- Outgoing Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr.
I think he could have taken credit for his accomplishments without falling into the self-serving trap of denigrating the record that preceded him.
-- Bernard Cohen, who was transportation secretary before Aloisi
Should casinos be allowed in Massachusetts?
-- Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Bob Haynes
Why is this not being considered a consumer protection issue when slot machines are very carefully designed to addict people and then to swindle them for everything they have? … We’re talking here about potentially impacting negatively two out of three people in the state.
-- Evelyn T. Reilly, director of public policy for the Massachusetts Family Institute
Developer eyes Milford as site for resort casino
-- Developer David H. Nunes
What is a particular concern is this is a short-term fix. It will be offset by long-term negative economic impacts to municipalities and to taxpayers.
-- Anti-casino activist Kathleen Conley Norbut
UMass revives plan for public law school
Law is a missing piece of the UMass curriculum. This would fill in that gap and provide an affordable public law school option for students.
Jean MacCormack, chancellor of UMass Dartmouth
I don't know how or why anyone would want to be taking on the cost and responsibility of the creation of a public law school when we're trying our hardest to make ends meet with the higher education systems and institutions that we currently have.
Richard Doherty, president and CEO of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts
Capuano overseas travel cost taxpayers $24,000
Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common sense, a Washington budget watchdog group
If we learned anything from the [Bush] presidency, it is that political leaders must have foreign policy knowledge. That knowledge is enhanced by meeting with foreign dignitaries and the people of other nations.
US Representative Michael Capuano, who is running for the Senate
In politics, money can't always buy you love
Will Keyser, campaign spokesman for deep-pocketed but little-known US Senate candidate Stephen Pagliuca
You can't just spend money and get there; you have to have something to say. The big question is, can he connect with people?
Democratic strategist Robert M. Shrum, who has advised some winning and losing self-funding candidates
Police halt immigrant scrutiny
It doesn’t benefit the Police Department to engage in deportation and immigration enforcement. We’re done. I told them to come get the computers.
Framingham Police Chief Steven Carl
They should be putting more of an effort to go after them. They could be pulling them in every minute of the day.
Jim Rizoli, spokesman for a Framingham group called Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement.
Read the whole storyToo much nightlife in the North End?
Matt Conti, a neighborhood council member whose six-month-old website, northendwaterfront.com, keeps residents informed
Boston is crippled by our post-Puritan trappings, and we should be embracing life after midnight, not hobbling it.
A reader who commented on Conti's blog
State's health system popular?
DisinterestedObserver
Where do all you commenters come from? The MA health insurance system is much better than anything available in other states.
brufleth
State high court overturns Lowell youth curfew ordinance
Supreme Judicial Court Justice Robert J. Cordy
This whole ordinance was enacted to protect children, to keep them safe and keep them out of an environment where harm could come to them. This wasn't done to infringe upon anybody's rights.
Lowell Police Superintendent Kenneth E. Lavallee
Brandeis president announces unexpected departure
Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz
I think that some people will regrettably focus on the past year, but if you look over his whole time at Brandeis, it’s really an impressive record.
Jack Connors, vice chairman of the university trustees
Brides, golfers livid over closure of North Shore country club
Margaret Leavitt, whose daughter's wedding was scheduled for this Saturday at the Georgetown Club
We were doing well until the economy crashed. ... It is a business that has run into severe financial crisis.
Dr. Peter Wojtkun, managing partner of the country club
Are perks too cushy at quasi-public agencies?
Stephen Crosby, dean of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and chairman of the special panel that reviewed the pay.
Our bonus plan does not provide automatic bonuses on an annual basis. Only when the fund exceeds its investment objectives do we even talk about bonuses. If the commission were assembling information this fiscal year, there would be no bonus information for Michael Travaglini.
Michael Travaglini, executive director of the state’s Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, whose $45,000 bonus boosted his pay to $367,000.
Votes are lined up to appoint senator
-- Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei
I feel quite optimistic that we have the votes on the Senate side. People have thought about the significance of it and people have started moving in a position in support of it.
-- State Senator Robert O' Leary, a Barnstable Democrat
State tells city to seize aide's computers, recover missing e-mails
-- Secretary of State William F. Galvin
That’s how Michael [Kineavy] is. He’s hugely organized and very diligent. He cleans his desk every night with Windex.
-- Dot Joyce, spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino
Kerry joins the call for interim senator
Democratic US Senator John F. Kerry
If Kerry Healey were governor today, would you be here advocating as strong as you are now?
Republican State Representative Paul Frost of Auburn
Immigration activists urge census boycott
Fausto da Rocha, a Brazilian immigrant leader in Boston
It’s always disappointing to hear that any individual or organization would suggest to someone not to participate in the census when there’s so much at stake. We hope that people will participate in the census so we’ll have our fair share in Boston and throughout the state.
Kathleen Ludgate, regional director for the census in Boston.
Prep school plans bookless library
-- James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing Academy, proponent of the bookless library
There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books. There is a kind of deep-dive, meditative reading that’s almost impossible to do on a screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author’s ideas.
-- William Powers, author of a paper published at Harvard called “Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal”
Scholars ponder Kennedy's correspondence with pope
The letters reflect the cordiality and mutual respect that ought to characterize relationships within the Catholic community, even when there are serious differences.
-- Rev. Thomas P. Rausch, a professor of Catholic theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
It's not an endorsement of someone's politics, but a kindness to someone who wrote the Holy Father a heartfelt letter. When someone knows they're nearing death, and they're writing, this really is a time when you're praying for someone's eternal life. What's happened on earth has happened -- that chapter is written -- and this is the next chapter, and we need to pray.
-- Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Most localities resist the call of the tax hike
-- Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, announcing increases in hotel and meals taxes
We had no arguments in favor of raising the taxes. The rationale is that the town has very few restaurants -- four, to be exact -- and the additional taxes wouldn’t have gotten us very far. The selectmen decided the businesses were already in tough enough shape that they didn’t want to add to the burden.
-- Hopedale Town Administrator Eugene Phillips
Famous voices at Kennedy funeral
He's the greatest guy I ever met. He's just the greatest American. He did more for the United States than all the presidents put together
Singer Tony Bennett
We revere him. We all have our stories. The number of times I asked him for help when I was governor, it was never a question. If it was the best thing for the Commonwealth, he was for it
Former Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts
Kennedy remembered as a 'great American hero'
When his brand of liberalism fell out of favor -- and some Democrats fell all over themselves to escape the 'liberal' label -- he continued to wear it proudly. That took courage.
John Sasso, Democratic political consultant who worked on Kennedy's 1980 presidential campaign
We have lost a great American hero.
US Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts
Read the whole storySummer of surprise standstills
-- Jay McQuaide of Andover, corporate communications manager
While I’m not in any way minimizing the traffic impacts, the result of all this construction is going to be a much better state highway system.
-- Luisa Paiewonsky, commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway Department
Controversial cartoons cut from book
-- Yale University Press director John Donatich
The metaphor I use is the monster in the woods: You can’t see it at night but you know it’s there, and if you provoke the monster, it’s your responsibility.
-- Brandeis University political scientist Jytte Klausen, author of “The Cartoons that Shook the World"
Lockerbie case release sparks local anger
-- Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill
Megrahi showed no compassion to the innocent passengers and Scottish villagers he murdered; he should not receive our compassion now. Justice is ill-served by his early release.
-- US Senator John F. Kerry
Beachfront preachers in Falmouth hit rough waters
I thought this would be a nice way to engage people without being confrontational. When someone walks by, we would just say, ‘Is there anything in life we can pray for?’ If the person says, no. that’s it. If the person says, ‘Yeah, my grandmother is really sick,’ then we can open a conversation.
-- Rev. Ed de la Cour, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pocasset
Churches should reach out to people on their own property. I found the public venue of this disturbing and distracting. What happens when another group comes in and another and another?
-- The Rev. Deborah Warner, rector of the Church of the Messiah in Woods Hole
Arm police officers with assault rifles?
All things being equal, if a terrorist decides, 'OK, we're going to do something like what took place in Mumbai,' well, where would you go? If you have a choice of a metropolitan city, would I go to New York, with 40,000 police officers, would I go to Los Angeles, with 8,000, or would I go to Boston, with 3,500 ... and I know there's no assault rifles in the Boston Police Department?
-- Warren T. Bamford, special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office
The mayor has made it clear, and I agree, that this is not a weapon that an average patrol officer should have in his car or slung over his shoulder.
-- Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis
Readers react to e-mail barrage in transit flap
Commenter gfkr2
Governor, I voted for you. I will again. But please, these amateur hour theatrics emanating from the corner office, your staff, appointees and political advisors has to stop as its continuing to creak open the door for some seriously incompetent men named Baker, Cahill and Mihos.
Commenter Debra13
City urged to fix, add more signals that aid blind
-- Bob Hachey, president of Bay State Council of the Blind.
We really rely on people who use these signals to let us know if they aren’t working. If we know about them, we’ll get them fixed.
-- Jim Gillooly, deputy commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department
Judge strikes down Boston's hybrid taxi mandate
Why can't Boston do what it wants with its taxis? It's for the environment.
-- US District Judge William G. Young's 10-year-old grandson, as quoted in the judge's ruling
The answer, Cam, is that the Congress of the United States, pursuing national goals it considers important, has forbidden Boston from taking this initiative on behalf of its citizens.
-- Young's answer to his grandson in the ruling
Critics say White House set up Malden girl's query
As we always like to point out: There are no coincidences in Obama world.
Michelle Malkin, a conservative columnist on a question asked by Julia Hall, 11, at a town hall Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H.
A 100 percent flat denial, completely.
Manning Hall, responding to accusations that her daughter was used as a plant by the Obama administration.
Read the whole storyArrest students with objects that could be used as weapons?
-- Lynn school safety and emergency planning officer Robert Ferrari
Virtually any object, such as a shoe, could be used to attack another person. If the ordinance doesn't clearly delineate specific weapons they have in mind, it has the potential to be overly broad.
-- Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts
Controversy swirls over Grabauskas ouster
-- Governor Deval Patrick
-- Former MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas
Eunice Kennedy Shriver remembered as 'an example to others'
She was always an example to others, as she dedicated herself to the social Gospel, the Gospel of Life. Her commitment to this Gospel was evidenced in her remarkable work with Special Olympics.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley
Eunice was in many ways the heart and soul of the Kennedy family.
Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian at Rice University
Town in tears over terminated turkey
It's like losing a member of the community. Like losing a friend.
-- Debra Grunin, one of the founders of a Facebook page for Freddy the Turkey
We've gotten a lot of angry calls. People wanted us to relocate him, tranquilize him, give him a college education and free medical care. But he had become a menace.
-- Easton Police Sergeant James McAvoy
Bikers behaving badly?
-- Jeff Bradford, a frequent cyclist
We have aggressive road conditions. The bikers are bad, the pedestrians are bad, and so are the drivers.
-- Nicole Freedman, Boston's director of bicycle programs
Should the state stop testing Massachusetts Bay?
We don’t want to do monitoring that we don’t think needs to be done.
-- Michael J. Hornbrook, chief operating officer for the water authority
How the ocean interacts with things we are putting in it like effluent must be understood. To do that, we need ongoing sampling.
-- Charles “Stormy’’ Mayo, senior scientist at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies
Harvard moves to trademark phrases
-- Harvard computer science professor Harry Lewis
You need to reserve something in case you intend to use it. We’re strategically protecting it for use at some point down the line.
-- Rick Calixto, director of the Harvard Trademark Program
Steroids scandal hits home
-- David Ortiz's statement
He was a hero to a lot of us, and now it feels diluted somehow. It just doesn't feel good.
-- Chris Healy of Norwich, Vt.
Two candidates spar over taxes
I'm a no-new-taxes candidate. ... Yeah, read my lips. No new taxes.
-- Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker
That's a message that is stuck in the past, that is stuck in rhetoric.
-- Democratic Governor Deval Patrick
Support slipping for T manager Grabauskas
-- Letter written by three MBTA board members to Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr.
I think people see this for what it is, which is just more obvious politics from the Patrick administration and his appointees.
-- MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas
To share or not to share digital music?
-- Cara Duckworth, recording industry spokeswoman
-- Harvard professor Charles Nesson's blog
In tough times, taking on roommates to make ends meet
-- John Murphy, 51, of Milton
I probably should have said no right away, but I thought about it.
-- Gayle White, 43, of Boylston, on a prospective roommate who disclosed that he was a nudist
Should the president have a brew with Gates and Crowley?
-- Michelle Freeman, 28, Jamaica Plain
I think this will be good effort to defuse the situation. Any effort to reach out to the individuals is a good idea.
-- Shemetra Owens, 42, Roxbury
Too much of a caffeine buzz?
-- Dudley-Charlton School Superintendent Sean Gilrein
Energy drinks are safe. But like any other food or beverage, they need to be consumed sensibly.
-- Tracey Halliday, spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association
Should the president have spoken out on Gates arrest?
I don't think it was the president's place to interfere. He's creating a racial divide, and I think it's totally inappropriate.
-- Joan Van Dorn, Cambridge resident
What the president said was right on. When you're dealing with a sensitive racial situation, you have to know how to deal with it professionally. One would hope Cambridge would be better at this than other places, but there's no evidence that it is.
-- Daniel Klubock, Cambridge human rights commission member
Quotes of note after the Gates arrest
“I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."
President Obama
"I think he is way off base wading into a local issue before knowing all the facts."
Sergeant James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department
A study for a tunnel going nowhere?
-- Senator Steven A. Baddour, co-chair of the Transportation Committee
Obviously, we want to see this project built, but it can’t get there without design and engineering.
-- Noah Chesnin, program assistant with the Conservation Law Foundation
Read the whole storyOn The Beat

Reporter
John R. Ellement reports that state Senator Anthony D. Galluccio vowed today to focus "on a number of life issues and personal issues."
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