By Michael Levenson , Globe Staff

Gabriel E. Gomez, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Massachusetts, is nearly tied with his Democratic opponent, US Representative Edward J. Markey, according to a poll released Friday. Gomez, who scored an upset victory over two rivals in the Republican primary on Tuesday, has the support of 40 percent of likely voters in the June 25 general election, compared to 44 percent for Markey, according to the survey by Public Policy Polling.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

City Councilor Michael P. Ross, among the two dozen candidates running for mayor, is receiving the backing of the union that represents crews on Boston ambulances, a group that in recent years has not endorsed candidates. The union leadership voted unanimously earlier this week to throw its support behind Ross. The union -- the EMS Division of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association -- represents roughly 380 emergency medical technicians, paramedics, lieutenants, and captains that work at Boston EMS.

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

In the first sign that Democrats are preparing to pull out the party’s big financial guns for US Senate nominee Edward J. Markey, Michelle Obama is scheduled to appear at a Boston fundraiser for the Malden congressman later this month, an event that can collect up to $37,600 from an individual donor. The First Lady, who is making her first fundraising appearance since the November presidential election, will headline the party at the Taj Boston on May 29, according to a copy of the invitation that has been sent out to the party’s big donors. “The White House has made it clear it will do anything the Markey campaign wants of it,’’ said one senior Democratic leader who is raising funds for the congressman’s senatorial race.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

The Kazakhstan foreign minister’s office said Thursday that the government was cooperating with US law enforcement authorities on the investigation into two citizens who were charged Wednesday in the case related to the Boston Marathon bombings. “As we have repeatedly stressed, Kazakhstan strongly condemns any form of terrorism,” the statement read. “The Kazakhstan side is cooperating with the U.S. law enforcement bodies in their investigation.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- A group of advisers who helped President Obama win reelection are launching a new consulting firm that will try to translate the skills and technological tools that won political campaigns into a force in the private sector.

The new firm, which will be called Precision, is being started by several top Obama aides, including Stephanie Cutter, a longtime Democratic operative and a Raynham, Mass., native who was one of Obama’s deputy campaign managers; Jen O’Malley Dillon, a former executive director of the Democratic National Committee originally from Franklin, Mass., another of Obama’s deputy campaign managers; and Teddy Goff, who oversaw Obama’s digital strategy.

“Turn your supporters from passive fans to active evangelists,” reads a summary of the new firm’s pitch that was obtained by the Globe.

By Joshua Miller and Evan Allen, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent

Just 12 hours after winning their respective primaries in the race for US Senate, Republican Gabriel E. Gomez and his Democratic rival, Representative Edward J. Markey, wasted no time launching sharp general election attacks. Greeting commuters at the Broadway MBTA station in South Boston early Wednesday, Gomez called Markey the “poster boy for term limits” and challenged him to three debates. He then flatly refused to sign the so-called People’s Pledge, an agreement to keep outside interests from influencing the campaign.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Boston City Councilor Rob Consalvo called on his fellow mayoral candidates today to form a pact that would limit outside money and third-party advertisements in the race to succeed Mayor Thomas M. Menino. Consalvo proposed what he dubbed the “Boston Pledge” to take aim at outside groups running advertisements on television, radio, online, or making telephone solicitations.

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

The House Homeland Security Committee on May 9 will hold the first congressional hearing to probe the Boston Marathon attacks, focusing on the law enforcement and emergency response, the panel’s chairman announced Wednesday. “The Committee is currently examining the events leading up to the attack on our homeland, the genesis of this plot and the reaction by law enforcement,” said Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican of Texas. “Next week’s hearing will provide an opportunity to hear from those who were on the front lines of the response effort and who were present through the attack and its aftermath.”

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

When she came to Boston in 1979 for an internship after her junior year in college, Charlotte Golar Richie’s family worried about her. The city was reeling from a racially turbulent decade defined by the school busing upheaval and questions about whether its white ethnic and African-American working class communities could bridge their differences. African-Americans, in particular, were leery of “the reputation of the city,” she said. Now, as a wife, mother, homeowner, and nonprofit executive, Richie has decided to run for mayor of the city her family once worried would not welcome her.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

City Councilor John R. Connolly raised more than $166,000 in April for his run for mayor, more than double his fund-raising total in any previous month, according to his campaign. The haul brought Connolly’s political account to almost $500,000, according to a statement from his campaign. It kept Connolly near the front of the pack for fund-raising and gave him significantly more money than many of his opponents. The only candidate with a larger bank account is Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

By Wesley Lowery , Globe Staff

The battle for the Democratic Party nomination in a special election to fill the state Senate seat covering South Boston, Dorchester, and Mattapan remained razor close Tuesday night, with state Representatives Linda Dorcena Forry and Nick Collins separated by just a few hundred votes.

With 100 percent of votes counted, results from the City of Boston showed Forry holding a lead of 378 votes out of a total of 21,730 votes cast in the three-way Democratic primary.

Forry stood on stage at the Phillips Old Colony House just after 10 p.m. and declared victory in the Democratic primary for the 1st Suffolk state Senate seat. As of 10:15, Collins had yet to appear at the Blarney Stone, where supporters had gathered.

The Associated Press had declared Collins the winner 45 minutes earlier, but the Forry campaign remained insistent that their campaign held a slight lead.

By Wesley Lowery, Globe Staff

State Representative Linda Dorcena Forry, a Haitian-American from Dorchester, appeared late Tuesday to have won the Democratic nomination for the 1st Suffolk Senate seat, long dominated by Irish-American men from South Boston.

Results from the City of Boston shortly after 10 p.m. showed Forry holding a lead of 378 votes over South Boston state Representative Nick Collins. A total of 21,730 votes were cast in the three-way Democratic primary, which also included South Boston native Maureen Dahill.

Forry stood on stage at the Phillips Old Colony House just after 10 p.m. and declared victory in the Democratic primary for the 1st Suffolk state Senate seat. As of 10:15, Collins had yet to appear at the Blarney Stone, where supporters had gathered.

About an hour after the polls closed, the Associated Press declared Collins the winner, but by 10:30, they had uncalled the race.

By Matt Viser and Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

President Obama said Tuesday that the administration is investigating how counterterrorism authorities handled intelligence about Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother to determine if American can do a better job of preventing future terrorist attacks by self-radicalized individuals. ``When an event like this happens, we want to review every step that was taken, we want to leave no stone unturned, we want to see if there is in fact additional protocols and procedures that could be put in place that would further improve and enhance our ability to detect a potential attack,’’ Obama said in a White House press conference.

WASHINGTON — Former representative Ron Paul says that Americans should perhaps be even more frightened by the police response to the Boston Marathon bombings than the explosions — which killed three and injured scores more — themselves.

In an article called “Liberty Was Also Attacked in Boston,” the former Republican congressman and two-time presidential candidate compares the hunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to “scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic.”

“The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city,” Paul writes. “This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Former Representative Ron Paul says that Americans should perhaps be even more frightened by the police response to the Boston Marathon bombings than the explosions -- which killed three and injured scores more -- themselves. In an article called “Liberty Was Also Attacked in Boston,” the former Republican congressman and two-time presidential candidate compares the hunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to “scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic.”

By Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff

A political ad that features a photo of Governor Deval Patrick posing with Representative Nick Collins is drawing fire from the governor, who called the ad misleading to voters as they gear up to cast their ballots in the special election for the Senate seat in the First Suffolk District.

In a statement Monday, Patrick slammed the ad, which he suggests leaves the impression that he has endorsed Collins. The governor emphasized that he has not endorsed anyone, and will support the successful Democratic nominee during the general election for the district, which includes South Boston, Dorchester, and Hyde Park.

The full-page ad, appearing Thursday in the Bay State Banner, was paid for a group of advocates for minorities that call themselves Communities United Political ­Action Committee, formed several months ago to influence the race.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

Boston City Councilor-at-large Felix G. Arroyo has signed up the Northwind Strategies political consulting firm to run his mayoral campaign.

Northwind, which helped guide both Elizabeth Warren and Deval Patrick to office in their first bids for office, had been courted by several mayoral candidates. The jockeying for the firm’s support became something of a campaign in and of itself, a competition for perhaps the city’s hottest political strategy firm.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin today predicted an overall lower turnout for Tuesday’s special US Senate primary election than in the same contest in 2009.

Galvin said he expected about 550,000 Democratic ballots would be cast Tuesday in the two-person contest, down from the 669,000 in the 2009 US Senate special primary election.

On the Republican side, he said he predicts about 200,000 people will cast primary ballots in the three-person race, up from 165,000 in 2009.

The longtime secretary of state said requests for absentee ballots, a useful metric in predicting voter turnout, were down about 20 percent from the 2009 special.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

The day before Election Day is traditionally conducted at a headlong pitch for most candidates, and US Representative Stephen F. Lynch was set to be no exception today. Lynch had 11 entries on his public schedule, from shaking hands with voters at a train station in Kingston to greeting seniors in Worcester. Now, due to what his campaign said was an illness, most of Lynch’s campaign plans for the day have been erased.

By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff

Key lawmakers said Sunday the suspected Boston Marathon bombers may not have acted entirely alone and that law-enforcement officials continue to investigate the possibility that they received outside encouragement or training. ``There are still persons of interest in the United States that the FBI would like to have conversations with,’’ said Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, speaking on ABC’s ``This Week.’’ Many questions remain about suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s 2012 six-month visit to the Russian state of Dagestan, and whether he received some sort of training from Islamist radicals while there, Rogers added. ``There was outside affirmation of their intent to commit an act of jihad,’’ he said.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

US Representative Stephen F. Lynch, whose primary victory on Sept. 11, 2001 secured his seat in Congress, said on Friday that he worries whether the patriotic surge that exploded voter turnout that day will echo next Tuesday, when voters in both parties will choose their nominees.

Lynch recalled how voters were trickling to the polls early in the afternoon on the Election Day of the 2001 terrorist attacks. But a press conference featuring leaders who urged voters in the congressional district to go to the polls, Lynch said, helped spike turnout to more than twice what analysts had predicted.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

A group of former Navy SEALs and intelligence officers is asking for donations for one of its former members, Republican Senate candidate Gabriel E. Gomez, saying his victory would be “a devastating blow to Barack Obama’s agenda.”

The fundraising letter from the group, known as the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, bashes Obama for his “sheer arrogance” and “radically liberal agenda.”

“This is no game,” writes Ryan K. Zinke, the group’s chairman, in a letter that asks donors to give up to $5,000 to Gomez’s campaign. “We are fighting for the very survival of the nation you and I love.”

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

Republican US Senate candidate Michael J. Sullivan called again Friday for revoking the citizenship of the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings so that he can be treated as an enemy combatant, following news reports that Dzokhar Tsarnaev stopped sharing information after he was read his Miranda rights.

“Tsarnaev acted as an enemy combatant in carrying out terrorist acts against our people. He should have been treated as an enemy combatant, including interrogation and detention by our military officials,” he said in a statement. Only then would we be in a position to decide whether to release him into the civilian court system.”

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

The former chief of the federal government’s information-sharing program said Friday that preliminary signs indicate authorities failed to give proper attention to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects after he was added to a terror watch list by the CIA, months after FBI investigators concluded he did not pose a threat.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Six US House members from New England took to the floor this afternoon to mourn marathon victims, thank first responders, and promise in the words of Joe Kennedy III that “next year on Patriots Day, the marathon will be run more crowded and louder than ever.” The members of congress spoke primarily about the four who lost their lives: Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, and MIT police officer Sean Collier. “We will, never despite how much we have come together, be able to replace” them, Kennedy said. Representative William Keating of Bourne promised that the “lives of these young people...will not be defined by a depraved act of violence of two individuals.”

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick on Friday defended the decision last week to shut down Boston and several area municipalities during the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. “I think we did what we should have done and were supposed to do with the always-imperfect information that you have at the time,” Patrick told reporters after publicly recognizing state executive branch workers who had assisted in the government response to last week’s terrorist attack. At the same press conference, State Police Colonel Timothy Alben rejected the suggestion that there had been a breakdown in data-sharing between federal and state agencies responsible for preventing terrorism.

By Bryan Bender, Peter Schworm,, Globe Staff

A special anti-terror intelligence unit in Massachusetts that is supposed to serve as a clearinghouse for information about potential threats in the state was never notified that FBI agents had examined the activities of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, further evidence of gaps in the network of post-9/11 measures that may have contributed to insufficient scrutiny being placed on the suspected Marathon bomber. The Commonwealth Fusion Center in Maynard was unaware that the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev as part of a three-month investigation after Russia’s Federal Security Service alerted US officials to his increasing radicalization, said the Massachusetts State Police, which oversees the center’s operation.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

Senate President Therese Murray’s office on Thursday pushed back against a Globe article about a federal indictment charging the state’s former probation commissioner with 17 counts of bribing state legislators. Calling the article “misleading and irresponsible,” Murray’s spokesman, David Falcone, pointed out that lawmakers have not been charged in the case against John J. O’Brien, the former probation chief. “Nothing in the indictment says the Senate President was influenced or had any knowledge of an alleged probation department scheme,” Falcone said.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

A political action committee that issued automated campaign calls to boost Democratic US Senate candidate Stephen F. Lynch said Thursday that it would halt the advertising, after Lynch disavowed the message that seized on the tragedy at the Boston Marathon.

“All of us share the shock and sorrow of the recent events in Boston,” said the automated calls, recorded on area answering machines Wednesday. “But as Americans, we’re not going to let the perpetrators of this tragedy or anyone else stop our democracy from moving forward.”

The recording says it was paid for by the “99 Percent PAC,” a political action committee that uses the slogan of the Occupy Wall Street movement to suggest it is speaking for average Americans.

However, the treasurer of the group that paid for the calls is also treasurer of the ironworkers union that endorsed Lynch, the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Union, AFL-CIO.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Russia has informed the United States that it knew of no contact between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and any known terrorist groups during his six-month trip to Dagestan in 2012, according to an official who attended a closed-door Senate briefing Thursday morning by top counterterrorism officials.

Russia provided the information to US authorities five days ago, the official said. The statements could bolster theories that Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were acting on their own when they allegedly planted two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, and not at the behest of any foreign terror groups.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

The House late Wednesday passed its fiscal 2014 budget, a $34 billion document balanced with new taxes and withdrawals from state reserves, on a party-line 127-29 vote.

The House vote was the most recent iteration in a game of fiscal chess between Governor Deval Patrick and legislative leaders. After Patrick stumped for a $1.9 billion tax increase to bankroll transportation and education spending, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray responded with a $500 million tax hike, much narrower in scope than Patrick’s.

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

Russian officials alerted the Central Intelligence Agency about their concerns over Tamerlan Tsarnaev in late September 2011, and a US intelligence official says the agency nominated Tsarnaev for inclusion on a government terror watchlist. “In late September 2011, the CIA received information from a foreign government on Tamerlan that was nearly identical to the information the FBI received in March 2011,” a US intelligence official said Wednesday in a written statement.

The information was transmitted to the CIA by Russia’s Federal Security Service.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

US Representative Stephen F. Lynch’s US Senate campaign on Wednesday denounced a robocall circulated by an outside group promoting Lynch’s working-class credentials. The group, which called itself “The 99 Percent,” referred to “the shock and sorrow of the recent events in Boston” at the beginning of the call before moving on to tout Lynch as a “highly skilled and well-educated ironworker” who put himself through law school before going to Congress. The group did not respond to a voicemail left at a number included in the robocall, which also states that it was not authorized by any candidate or campaign.

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned from a six-month stay in Russia last year “with a willingness to kill people.” In remarks on terrorism made in Brussels, Kerry said in response to a question about disillusioned young people in other parts of the world that similar problems exist in the United States. “We just had a young person who went to Russia, Chechnya, who blew people up in Boston,” Kerry said. “So he didn’t stay where he went, but he learned something where he went and he came back with a willingness to kill people.” Details of Tsarnaev’s trip to Russia remain unclear as to who he met with and what he did. U.S. officials have said they are not yet certain whether the 26-year-old, accused of carrying out last week’s Boston Marathon bombings with his brother, received any formal training by terrorist organizations.

Kerry made his comments during an informal, impromptu question and answer period following his meeting with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

House Speaker John Boehner this morning said he was concerned that federal agencies hadn’t learned their lessons from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he vowed to hold agency heads responsible if they didn’t do enough to stop the Boston bombings. “I have concerns about what agencies knew what -- and the fact that it wasn’t shared,” Boehner said at a press conference. “You know if the information is good enough for one agency of the government, why shouldn’t it be appropriate for other agencies of the government? We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

By Bryan Bender and Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Russian authorities alerted the US government not once but ``multiple’’ times over its concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev -- including a second time nearly a year after he was first interviewed by FBI agents in Boston -- raising new questions about whether the FBI should have focused more attention on the suspected Boston Marathon bomber, according to US senators briefed on the probe Tuesday. The FBI has previously said it interviewed Tsarnaev in early 2011 after it was initially contacted by the Russians. After that review, the FBI has said, it determined he did pose a threat.

In a closed briefing on Tuesday, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee learned that Russia alerted the United States about Tsarnaev in ``multiple contacts’’ -- including ``at least once since October 2011,’’ said Richard Burr, a Republican of North Carolina, speaking with reporters afterward.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

SPRINGFIELD -- The final debate of the US Senate Democratic primary devolved into an exchange of insults and character allegations Tuesday night, as US Representatives Edward J. Markey and Stephen F. Lynch abandoned collegiality for a bare knuckles confrontation with one week remaining in their contest.

Meeting at a Springfield television station, Markey and Lynch feuded over each other’s Homeland Security records, a particularly salient policy topic after last week’s deadly Boston Marathon bombings.

The sharpest exchange, though, came when Markey claimed Lynch’s opposition to federal financial assistance for manufacturers prompted an endorsement for Markey from an automobile workers union. Lynch retorted that he had voted for that bailout, frequently touted by the Obama administration as a successful countermeasure to the recession.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

Republican US Senate candidate Daniel B. Winslow joined a bipartisan group of legislators who today proposed restoring the death penalty in Massachusetts, seizing on terror attacks at the Boston Marathon as an impetus. “After we witnessed all of that carnage last week, who could be against a bill like this?” asked the lead sponsor, Representative James R. Miceli. Miceli, a Wilmington Democrat, had proposed the measure as an amendment to the state budget even before the terrorist attacks, he said.

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

“B Strong,” the banner says. Stripped atop the homepage of the Democratic National Committee, the message, using part of the red Boston Red Sox logo, encourages people to thank the emergency personnel who responded in last week’s Boston Marathon bombings.

But the simple note of gratitude to Boston police, firefighters and EMTs has drawn criticism, denounced by Republicans as a “political ploy” soon after it debuted on Monday.

In addition to writing their full names and an optional message, users must also provide their email addresses and zip codes – valuable currency for a political operation that is in the business of building databases for fundraising and volunteer work. By submitting their information, users agree to grant the DNC permission to use the information for political and advertising purposes.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney this morning announced a series of high-profile speakers who will address a retreat that the former Republican presidential nominee is putting together in June. The list of speakers includes some surprising names, including David Axelrod, one the masterminds behind President Obama’s campaign to defeat Romney last year. At various points during the campaign, Axelrod accused Romney of being secretive, dishonest, and “living on a different planet.” In the announcement, which was included in an email to supporters that was obtained by the Globe, Romney also says the speakers will also include his former running mate, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, as well as Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, who chaired a bipartisan debt-reduction commission.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

The Democratic Senate hopefuls meet Monday night at 7:00 p.m. in their first debate after last week’s Boston Marathon bombings. Representative Edward J. Markey and Representative Stephen F. Lynch are set to go toe-to-toe at WBZ-TV studios in Allston in a debate sponsored by WBZ-TV and The Boston Globe. The debate will be anchored by Jon Keller of WBZ-TV, with Globe Political Editor Cynthia Needham also asking questions of the candidates.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

The Democratic Senate hopefuls meet at 7:00 p.m. in their first debate since last week’s Boston Marathon bombings. Representative Edward J. Markey and Representative Stephen F. Lynch will go toe-to-toe at WBZ-TV studios in Allston in a debate sponsored by WBZ-TV and The Boston Globe. The debate will be anchored by Jon Keller of WBZ, with Globe Political Editor Cynthia Needham asking additional questions of the candidates.

The hour-long debate will air live on WBZ-TV and will stream online at www.cbsboston.com, www.boston.com, and www.bostonglobe.com. It will also air WBZ NewsRadio 1030 AM.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will travel to Cambridge on Wednesday for the memorial service for MIT police officer Sean Collier, whom authorities say was killed in a confrontation with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last Thursday night, a White House official said Monday. Collier’s public memorial will be held at noon on Briggs Field at MIT, according to the school. Collier was shot multiple times after 10 p.m. Thursday, found by other officers in his cruiser, and later declared dead at Massachusetts General Hospital.

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

Senator Rand Paul on Monday called for Congress to focus on strengthening national security before considering comprehensive immigration reform, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings allegedly carried out by a pair of immigrant brothers from Kyrgyzstan.

Paul is the latest in a string of conservative Republicans seeking to use last week’s Boston terrorist attacks to seek a delay in comprehensive immigration reform. The Senate Judiciary Committee continued debating the bipartisan immigration bill on Monday, its second hearing following the bill’s introduction last week. The committee is expected to continue vetting the bill through May, with the full Senate slated to begin debate on the bill in June.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

US Senator Lindsey Graham said this morning that the FBI told him it was initially unaware that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had traveled to Russia early last year because of a clerical error: His name was misspelled. “He went over to Russia, but apparently, when he got on the Aeroflot plane, they misspelled his name,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican said on Fox television this morning. “So it never went into the system that he actually went to Russia.”

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Former governor William F. Weld today endorsed Republican Gabriel E. Gomez for Senate, saying the son of Colombian immigrants would bring a unique perspective to Washington. “After getting to know Gabriel and watching his campaign it is clear to me he is exactly the new American leader that this state needs in the Senate,” Weld said in a statement released by the Gomez campaign. “As a son of immigrants, a Navy SEAL and a successful businessman, Gabriel has a unique set of experiences and skills that will bring an outsider’s perspective to Washington, D.C.”

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

Boston officials said the Tsarnaev brothers were prepared to launch more violent attacks before their odyssey of terror was disrupted last week — given the large quantity of explosives and ammunition they possessed — but that all evidence thus far indicates they were acting alone and were not part of a broader conspiracy. “All of the information I have is they acted alone, these two individuals, the brothers,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said today on ABC’s “This Week.’’

By Globe Staff

President Obama lauded federal, state, and local law enforcement officials Friday night for the rapid-pace investigation that led to the capture of the second Boston Marathon bombing suspect Friday, after his older brother was killed in a gun battle with police Thursday night.

By Christopher Rowland and Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

The uncle of the two suspected Boston Marathon bombers described the young men as “losers’’ and suggested they had trouble assimilating in the United States after their father brought them to Cambridge in early 2003. Asked by reporters outside his suburban Maryland home why brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would plant bombs at the finish line, Ruslan Tsarnaev said his nephews were not radical Muslims or militant Chechens. He attributed their actions to ``being losers, not being able to settle themselves, and thereby just hating everyone who did,’’ Ruslan Tsarnaev said.