The Angle

With vote to lift ban on gay youth, change in Boy Scouts is coming from inside

Thu, 23 May 2013 23:54:29 GMT

By Michelle D. Holmes GRAPEVINE, Texas — The Boy Scouts of Americas lifting the ban on openly gay youth Thursday came 12 years after I received this charge: "Change will only come from the inside." It came from a silver-haired...

Critics quick to attack Obama administration, but its inquiry into AP was justified

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:17:22 GMT

By Juliette Kayyem As the controversy over the Department of Justices leak probe into the phone lines of Associated Press reporters grows, its important to separate legitimate concerns about the scope of the probe with the clear need for the...

Police and FBI working together is the least the public expects — not something to brag about

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:54:29 GMT

By Lawrence Harmon This mornings update to the press on the Boston Marathon offered little in the way of new details — or comfort for that matter. The central message from Governor Patrick and leading law enforcement officials continues to...

Menino helped move Boston past old fault lines of race and religion

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:48:03 GMT

By Ray A. Hammond When he came to office in 1993 Thomas Menino, may have understood better than many that Boston had to change. He was, after all, a member of an ethnic minority and Bostons first Italian-American mayor. He...

Menino watched over the city's finances

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:49:23 GMT

By John Eade The mayor was always concerned about the little things in the city. I remember getting calls from him at 11pm because a thought had woken him up, something that needed to be looked at or needed to...

Menino welcomed diversity to Boston

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:45:08 GMT

By Charlotte Golar Richie I met Tom Menino in 1993, the year before I won a seat in the state legislature. Ive always admired his straight talk and wry humor, his unpretentious personality and his commitment to public service. I...

Meninos best skill? Staying out of the way of progress

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:37:01 GMT

By Anthony Flint It may all seem like ancient history now — how many young people even know there was such a thing as the elevated Central Artery? — but in the mid-1990s, at the beginning of Mayor Meninos tenure,...

Newton mayor Setti Warren on what Tom Menino taught him about governing

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:05:39 GMT

By Setti Warren When I first became mayor of Newton, I had a chance to meet with Boston Mayor Tom Menino. I thought it was going to be a very brief courtesy meeting. But it turned into a 45-minute talk...

Menino made Bostonians proud of their city

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:20:55 GMT

By Bill Walczak When I arrived in Boston in 1972, it was a decrepit city of the past. Sure, it had great universities and hospitals, but, by and large, residents of greater Boston were ashamed of what it had become,...

Menino made development work for the whole city, not just downtown

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:53:02 GMT

By Paul McMorrow The cranes rising above Bostons Seaport district mark the spot where Boston Mayor Tom Meninos legacy looks to be rising. The Seaport that Menino inherited 20 years ago consisted of hundreds of acres of rotting piers, windswept...

In post-9/11 era, Menino pushed back against federal security officials

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:55:38 GMT

By Juliette Kayyem Though many aspects of Mayor Tom Meninos tenure will be evaluated and reevaluated, one that doesnt get much attention is how often Menino has taken on the federal governments security apparatus — no matter which political party...

Menino made the city his extended family

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:21:34 GMT

By John A. Nucci My years of working with, for, and even against Tom Menino go back four decades, to the days when we would huddle on Sunday nights in a small East Boston room to work out campaign strategy...

A modest proposal: Cities should clear snow from sidewalks instead of plowing streets

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:28:50 GMT

By Zach Youngerman If a snowstorm hits New England on Tuesday, as now forecast, cities and towns should try an unorthodox approach when snow starts piling up on the streets: leave it there, and plow the sidewalks instead. Winter storms...

Can Boston ever be a 24-hour city?

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:59:27 GMT

By Dante Ramos Sometimes, you just want to get a burger, or go shopping, or work out late at night — especially if you've got the kind of job that keeps you at your desk into the wee hours. But...

Manti Te'o might not be guilty of hoax, but his endorsement career has taken a hit

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:54:21 GMT

By Joanna Weiss Manti Teo and Katie Couric have the same publicist, which goes a long way toward explaining how Couric — as opposed to, say, Oprah — landed the first on-camera interview with Teo yesterday on her syndicated talk...

Too bad Zipcar isn't taking over Avis

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:15:49 GMT

By Dante Ramos If Zipcar were buying Avis, instead of the other way around, the Cambridge-based car-sharing company's fans would be happier today than they are. This should be good news. The car rental giant's $500 million purchase of Zipcar...

Narrow focus on New Delhi incident misses scope of India's rape crisis

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:43:08 GMT

By Priyanka Borpujari It is for good reason that New Delhi, the capital city of India, is being hailed by the national media as the "rape capital" of the country. On Monday evening, after a movie trip with her male...

Conn. shooting a reminder of the dangers of gun ownership

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:20:41 GMT

By Derrick Z. Jackson The slaughter on Friday in Newtown, Conn., brought back to tragic life scientific data about the danger of firearm ownership long buried by the gun lobby. All three weapons used by Adam Lanza to murder his...

'Conflicting facts' about Newtown shootings were really unverified rumors

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:30:38 GMT

By Juliette Kayyem There is a saying in emergency management circles that is worth repeating today as the news of the horrors in Newtown, Conn., gets revised, revisited, and completely rewritten. It goes something like this: When the phone call...

Connecticut mass killing must spark gun control push

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:55:16 GMT

By Juliette Kayyem More souls were lost in the school shooting in Connecticut today than in all terrorist attacks combined on United States soil since September 11, 2001. I say this as someone who has worked in homeland security since...

On International Human Rights Day, wars over natural resources must be addressed

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:41:50 GMT

By Priyanka Borpujari Over the last four days, three activists in the Philippines have been murdered in killings apparently linked to their opposition to mining projects. Rolando Quijano, a farmer who had opposed mining and logging proposals, was shot on...

Military fathers want Pentagon to allow daughters into combat

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:45:09 GMT

By Juliette Kayyem On Thursday, I wrote a column about litigation against the Defense Department challenging the female combat exclusion rules. The four plaintiffs are all Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, some have been wounded, and one received the Purple...

Finding the silver lining in the AP's race survey

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 23:03:45 GMT

By Derrick Z. Jackson Just before election day, the Associated Press released a national survey that indicated that general anti-black attitudes among Americans have increased with four years of the first African-American president, Barack Obama. The AP, assisted by researchers...

In his Burma visit, Obama should press generals for genuine democratic change

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 23:20:45 GMT

By Alan Berger When President Obama arrives in Burma Monday for a brief visit, he will have to walk a fine line. He wants to bask in a foreign-policy success, the restoration of relations with the once-outcast nation, but he...

Mass. politics play a role in John Kerrys cabinet prospects

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:22:37 GMT

By Farah Stockman Would John Kerry make a good Secretary of Defense? Forget, for a minute, about his wonky side. Forget the fact that his father was a foreign service officer and that he almost certainly has his heart set...