Mild winter a welcome savings

JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

Massachusetts cities and towns have spent a fraction of last year’s total on snow removal, a reprieve that is helping recoup past deficits, catch up on backlogged repairs, and stockpile supplies.

Ice cream shops, builders bask in business

This warm winter has wreaked havoc on businesses that rely on cold weather or snow, but for others, the sunny 50-degree days have been a godsend.

Algeria Marsh, stepmother of deceased Simba Martin, testified during the trial of Dwayne Moore and Edward Washington at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

Officer tells of toddler’s final moments

A Boston courtroom overflowed with emotions yesterday as relatives and police officers testified about the 2-year-old and three adults killed in 2010.

Christopher L. Gasper

Wakefield a loss to Red Sox

Tim Wakefield’s longevity achieved by throwing a pitch so capricious and fickle is a testament to his resiliency and fortitude.

Birth control debate splits GOP in New England

Some Republican moderates — particularly women — say they feel marginalized by the positions taken by Senators Scott Brown of Mass. and Kelly Ayotte of N.H.

Mitt Romney this week accused President Obama of kowtowing to “big labor’’ and slammed Rick Santorum, one of his challengers for the Republican presidential nomination, as “labor’s favorite senator.’’

AP Photo/Idaho Press-Tribune, Adam Eschbach

In Quinn bill debate, Mitt Romney stood by labor

As Mass. governor, Romney fiercely protected a controversial perk for police officers after seeking and receiving the endorsement of the politically influential police unions.

Central Boston a gas station desert

When a wrecking ball levels Grampy’s gas station — and that could happen as soon as next year — it will leave a large swath of the city without a gas station.

Malcolm X house may get makeover

The now run-down Roxbury home where Malcolm X lived in the 1940s could be turned into housing for graduate students in African-American studies or related fields.

“After a major tornado, an earthquake, a hurricane, and an October storm, I’m grateful for any surplus we might have.”

LeeAnn Pasquini,  budget director of Springfield

Globe Insiders

Globe Insider Event | March 5, 5:30 p.m.

http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/02/17/BostonGlobe.com/Special/Images/508746086[1]--90x90.jpg ‘The Real Romney’

Globe editorial page editor Peter S. Canellos moderates a discussion with Globe writers Scott Helman, Scot Lehigh, and Frank Phillips on the Republican presidential candidate.

Metro

Tags in this section:

People gathered outside the home of Kyle Louzada yesterday as they coped with the teen’s shooting death.

Answers sought in Randolph shooting

Investigators probing the death of the 16-year-old have learned he was shot once in the head and have found a gun they suspect may have been involved.

Business

Tags in this section:

Chef serves mislabeled fish to China’s vice president

Ming Tsai, the owner of the Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, served “Soy marinated Alaskan Butterfish” at a State Department lunch, but it was actually sablefish.

Nation & World

Tags in this section:

Syrian refugees and residents living in Jordan shouted slogans during a demonstration against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Wounded Syrian refugees flee dramatic escalation

Syrian refugees fleeing to Jordan for their lives described a dramatic escalation in violence and a mounting toll of dead and wounded in the country’s battered central region.

Politics

Political Notebook

WIn a speech on the Senate floor, Senator Brown called on President Obama to fire Jane Lubchenco, the chief administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has jurisdiction of the country’s fishing fleets.

Brown rips fishing agency over purchase of ‘party boat’

Senator Brown denounced the federal agency regulating fishermen, saying that one of its divisions used what he termed a $300,000 “fishermen-funded party boat for bureaucrats.”

Sports

Tags in this section:

Wakefield announces retirement

Fighting back tears that belied his stoic nature, Tim Wakefield said he was heading home after 19 seasons, 17 of them in Boston.