Mass. casino law filled with tight deadlines

The gambling commission’s leader says several unrealistic deadlines could force regulators to solicit bids for casinos before they have the expertise to judge the projects or get public input.

Two children found with throats cut in Salem

A Salem mother was in custody early this morning after she set her apartment on fire and slashed her two young children in the throat, officials said.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has vowed to commit at least 4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product to defense spending.

Mitt Romney’s defense budget target is lofty

Romney has vowed to commit at least 4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product to defense spending, but analysts say his goals will be hard to attain.

The GOP’s Richard Tisei is expected to give eight-term Representative John Tierney (above), a Democrat, a tougher race than he faced in 2010.

GOP sees Tierney as wounded, beatable

Dogged by his wife’s legal troubles, observers say Representative John Tierney’s reelection race is shaping up to be the state’s most competitive House election this year.

Bill Greene/Globe Staff

Reality shows vying for Southie’s attention

Producers are scrambling with television bids, but not everyone in South Boston is on board for a revealing look at the neighborhood.

Debo Band branches out from Boston roots

At the South by Southwest Music Festival, Debo Band laid the foundation for what could be a banner year that primes the group for a national stage.

A dot by the fingertip (above) of a person with a white-shelled lobster shows the start of an ailment in lobsters. The disease does not affect safety, taste, or quality.

Scientists look for cause of lobsters’ shell disease

Researchers at the New England Aquarium are concerned that the combination of warmer waters and human-generated pollution are triggering the disease.

Urgent care center trend growing in Eastern Mass.

A national company, Doctors Express, plans to open 19 urgent care centers in Eastern Massachusetts that would treat patients at nights and on weekends.

“In order to do our job well — the main job of making decisions on up to three casinos and a slot parlor — we have a huge amount of work to do.”

Stephen Crosby,  Massachusetts Gaming Commission

Globe Insiders

To Grammar’s House

http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/03/16/BostonGlobe.com/Special/Images/SPRINGCLEANING2.jpg Spring cleaning for grammar rules

Grammar’s House can get a bit cluttered sometimes, often with rules that are capricious, spurious, or flat-out erroneous.

Inside The Boston Globe

Yvette Freeman as the singer title role of Huntington Theatre Company’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’’ a play by August Wilson.

STAGE REVIEW

Wilson’s voice rings clear, strong in ‘Ma Rainey’

G Cover

Challenges behind prenatal exams
Wynton Marsalis (center) performs with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at Symphony Hall.

MUSIC REVIEW

Marsalis, elite jazz orchestra missing a spark

Daily Dose

Skinnier versions of your favorite cocktails
Josh Crary (left) will run one leg of the Marathon with guide Doug Trudel.

Runners in it for the long haul

At Fort Point studios, artists feel betrayed

For the Kennedy clan, he is Generation Next

London getting up to speed for Olympics

Once a model, state medical board lags badly
While the team’s president/CEO may not have officially signed a new deal, Larry Lucchino said, “I’ve reached an understanding on it, for the most part. I’ll just leave it at that.”

Sunday baseball notes

Red Sox CEO Lucchino sees long-term role with team
Stone tools were found at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania that could be 15,000 to 17,000 years old..

Did the Solutreans settle America first?
Egypt protests

The Internationalist

The lost dream of Egyptian pluralism

Metro

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Tens of thousands of revelers descended on the streets of South Boston on Sunday for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.

St. Patrick’s Day parade brings peaceful party

Green was on every street corner Sunday as tens of thousands of revelers thronged South Boston for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Business

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“Right now, we deliver vaccines into muscle . . . Muscle has never evolved to fight off infection.” — Dr. Thomas Kupper (right), chairman of dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Vaccines by skin may work better, study shows

Applying vaccines to the upper layers of the skin could stimulate a more powerful immune system response than injecting a vaccine into muscle, say Boston scientists.

Columnists

Bob Ryan

Wildcats’ run came out of the blue
A glass tunnel connects the new Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum wing to the original Gardner mansion.

Juliette Kayyem

Gardner’s narrative of resiliency

Yvonne Abraham

The road to wisdom

INNOVATION ECONOMY

Not all was lost when Apple bought Quattro

Joanna Weiss | Whitey Bulger: Living large?

Zest up the memoir

Joan Vennochi | Whitey Bulger: Living large?

DiMasi should be so lucky

Gareth Cook

Why do nations fail?

opinion | Jeff Jacoby

On mandate, Romney plays both sides

Brian McGrory

The powerful and the powerless

Christopher L. Gasper

Throwing a net around the Bruins’ problems

Love Letters

Should they get engaged before the move-in?

Adrian Walker

Cooking as rehabilitation

Nation & World

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Charges against soldier are expected this week

Charges against an Army sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians could be filed within a week, and a potential trial would be held in the United States.

Politics

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK

Mitt Romney said President Obama had wanted energy prices to go up, but only recently had ‘‘an election- year conversion’’ to push them down.

Mitt Romney urges firing of energy officials

Romney not only blamed President Obama for the rising gasoline prices, but said that the president should fire three of his Cabinet members who oversee energy issues.

Sports

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NFL notebook

Former St. Louis Rams wide receiver Brandon Lloyd had made no secret of the fact that he wanted to play for the Patriots.

Lloyd, Patriots agree to terms

The Patriots came to terms with receiver Brandon Lloyd, and also signed defensive end/outside linebacker Trevor Scott and receiver Anthony Gonzalez.

Health and wellness

G Force

“Physical exercise works for many, many depressed people and seems to have lasting effects, especially if the exercise regime is continued,” said Dr. Irving Kirsch.

The placebo effect and depression

Dr. Irving Kirsch is associate director of the program in placebo studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.

Arts

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Playing at full volume at South by Southwest

More than 2,200 bands played official showcases at the music festival, not including all the ones who showed up to play day parties and anywhere else with an electrical outlet.

Magazine

The cover for the March 18 2012 issue

Grover Norquist: Emperor of no
The cover for the March 11 2012 issue

Stoughton’s Lori McKenna is writing her heart out
The cover for the March 4 2012 issue

Putting college degrees to work
The cover for the February 26 2012 issue

24 hours in Kendall Square

Opinion

“If the founding of the printed Encyclopaedia Britannica was a milestone of human improvement, its passing is even more so.”

James Carroll 

Ideas

“If the Solutrean hypothesis becomes widely accepted, it would mean that the sea played a central part in human expansion. And in the matter of ‘who came first,’ it would mean that all the Americas have a new origin story to contend with.”

Gareth Cook