House agrees to payroll tax cut deal
Backing down under pressure from the president and Senate leaders, House Speaker John Boehner agreed to a two-month extension to the tax cut while lawmakers negotiate a long-term proposal.
Child gets hepatitis C from transplant at Boston hospital
Due to a testing error, a child treated at Children’s Hospital Boston was infected with hepatitis C by a piece of a blood vessel that was transplanted in September.
Murray asks ‘black box’ data from car crash be released
Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray today asked police to release the car’s data from his Nov. 2 crash.
Mark Palermo, 24; kept optimism in face of deadly disease
Palermo, a Medfield native, wrote eloquently on his blog of all things food-related, and of living with his disease.
PETER IOVINO/WEINSTEIN COMPANY
Exclusive Friday Preview | Movie Review
‘The Artist’ is close to perfection
The silent film isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough to make just about anyone who sees it ridiculously happy, says Globe critic Ty Burr.
Movie Review
Classic Hollywood rides again in ‘War Horse’
Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” is full-throated Hollywood classicism that looks back to the craftsmanship and sentimentality of the studio era.
Movie Review
Trio shines in ‘A Dangerous Method’
David Cronenberg’s sex drama is about repression and release as played by three people who appear to arrive at their theories by practice.
‘‘We don’t have another Ronald Reagan, and I don’t think we’ll find one.’’
Lonnie Bauerly, a Tea Party activist
Inside The Boston Globe
Columnists
Metro
Springfield man gets nearly 14 years in church burning
The man was convicted of setting fire to a predominantly black church in Springfield after President Obama’s election.
Business
Calif. biotech moving to Mass.
Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals Inc., a California start-up working to bring a pair of hemophilia treatments to market, will be setting up shop at One Kendall Square.
Politics
Voter excitement scarce as Iowa caucus draws near
Interviews with voters this week and recent polls reinforce the sense that Iowans, with less than two weeks until their caucus, are uninspired by the Republican Party’s offerings.
Nation & World
Wave of bombings in Iraq kills at least 69
A wave of 16 bombings ripped across Baghdad today in the worst violence in Iraq for months.
Sports
Red Sox notebook
Red Sox coaching staff nearly done
The team is expected to announce that ex-Royals pitching coach Bob McClure will be hired to serve Bobby Valentine in the same role.
Lifestyle
Gift ideas for drinkers of spirits and liquors
In the spirit of the season of giving, here’s a basic roadmap to help navigate the liquor store with suggestions for those who wish to splurge and those who wish to save.
Arts
BOOK REVIEW
‘Pogo: Through the Wild Blue Yonder’ by Walt Kelly
Years in the making, “Pogo: Through the Wild Blue Yonder’’ collects the daily and Sunday panels of the earliest years of Walt Kelly’s celebrated comic strip.
Best of the new
Best of the New
Boston’s best people and ideas of 2011
Safer neighborhoods, quieter commutes, and one really brainy historian.
Opinion
“A president who let opponents on the right convert ‘hope’ into ‘hopeless’ and ‘change’ into ‘socialism’ could lose.”
Joan Vennochi
Ideas
As tempting as it might be to imagine the Christmas trees we see today in public parks and central plazas as a quaint relic of small town life, it turns out that our modern public trees have politics woven right into their roots.
Leon Neyfakh