Consumers are flocking to shorter loan terms

More homeowners in Mass. and across the US are refinancing home loans to shorter terms, paying off their debts faster and saving thousands of dollars.

Barely supervised, some housing chiefs stray badly

A Globe review found that Mass. housing directors face little accountability in a system vulnerable to incompetence, indolence, and worse.

A young couple caught up in the middle

Randy and Jessica Wood just wanted the old equation of hard work and opportunity to work for them as it had for generations. But, as for so many, the good life remains just out of reach.

Latest news

 

The capsule and attached helium balloon carrying Felix Baumgartner lifted off in his attempt to break the speed of sound with a free fall from 120,000 feet.

Skydiver begins ascent in effort to break sound barrier

Felix Baumgartner began his daring ascent to 23 miles above Earth, hoping to make a free fall that could make him the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.

Draft experts were surprised when defensive back Tavon Wilson was taken in the second round, but he’s making the Patriots look smart.

KATHY WILLENS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Patriots at Seahawks | 4 p.m. | cbs

Patriots’ Tavon Wilson used football as an escape

The rookie defensive back used football as his refuge from the tough times earlier in his life, including his mother’s death.

The Patriots will be hearing from the fans at CenturyLink Field — the NFL’s loudest.

Dan Shaughnessy

Seattle will be a racket for the Patriots

CenturyLink Field, the home of the Seahawks, is renowned for its raucous fans, who can disrupt enemy offenses by limiting communication.

Elizabeth Warren is known for pushing students without being mean at Harvard Law School.

At Harvard, Elizabeth Warren has warm reputation

The Senate candidate is widely admired by students and faculty at Harvard Law School, where she was known for being tough but fair.

“Mitt Romney is not someone I would have picked, that’s for sure,” says D.J. Moberley, a 30-year-old evangelical Christian who now spends hours chatting up Romney.

In twist, evangelicals now backing Mitt Romney

Long wary of his Mormon faith, the religious right is now rallying to the GOP candidate’s cause in critical swing states.

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From the Archives | Photo gallery

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/10/09/BostonGlobe.com/Arts/Images/13archives1.jpg The Chelsea Fire of 1973

Already the scene of one of the biggest fires in the history of the country in 1908, the city was engulfed anew on Oct. 14, 1973.

Globe exclusives

“The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” a collaboration between the American Repertory Theater and commercial producers, went from Cambridge to Broadway.

Are nonprofit theaters too closely tied to commercial producers?
When the Saints scandal broke, Roger Goodell was in the midst of changing the culture of the NFL as far as player safety.

Sunday Football Notes

Roger Goodell’s Saints bounty ruling still right call
A bike is partly buried in snow while a cyclist shares the road with a bus on Commonwealth Ave.

tom keane | opinion

The problem with bicycling in Boston
The Ontario Hockey League considers itself a primary feeder for the National Hockey League.

Sunday Hockey Notes

Fighting chance to curb fisticuffs in the OHL
Playwright Christopher Shinn and director Michael Wilson at the Calderwood Pavilion.

Christopher Shinn on politics, pain, and ‘Now or Later’
The indie McNally Jackson Books in SoHo has a cafe, spaces for readings and workshops, printers to use for your book, and, yes, books to buy.

travel

48 hours in New York City

magazine

Brian McGrory on life with a dog and a rooster
Red Sox GM Ben Cherington wants more Cody Rosses and Vicente Padillas and fewer Carl Crawfords.

Sunday baseball notes

A few ideas to shore up the Red Sox
Led Zeppelin

movies

‘Celebration Day’ for Led Zeppelin fans
“I knew her as a bright young woman,” Marsie Silvestro said of Alexis Wright, who has pleaded not guilty.

Zumba instructor prostitution story grips Maine town
Richard Nixon gives his famous “checkers speech” on TV.

exclusive sunday preview | book review

‘Just Plain Dick’ by Kevin Mattson
Dancers performed with basketballs in “Hoop Suite.”

Dance Review

‘Hoop Suite’ is an act of healing, still in progress

Sports

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Patriots at Seahawks, 4 p.m. Sunday

Tom Brady will be in Seattle when the Patriots play the Seahawks on Sunday. Will Aaron Hernandez (foot injury) be able to help him?

Patriots’ keys to a win in Seattle

Tom Brady and the Patriots travel to the Northwest to meet the Seahawks. Jim McBride has the scouting report on how they can win there.

Metro

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Elizabeth Marriott in an undated family photo.

N.H. man charged in death of UNH student

Seth J. Mazzaglia, 29, has been charged with the murder of Elizabeth Marriott, 19, a University of New Hampshire student and Westborough native.

Columnists

Kevin Cullen

Accentuate candidates, eliminate the moderator

JOANNA WEISS

Big Bird ad ruffles some feathers

Nguyen Chi Thien, right, spent his life fighting communism. Eric Hobsbawm, left, spent his life as a communist supporter.

JEFF JACOBY

Communism, in life and death

Bob Ryan

There is a lot to like about these Patriots
The Patriots will be hearing from the fans at CenturyLink Field — the NFL’s loudest.

Dan Shaughnessy

Seattle will be a racket for the Patriots

JOAN VENNOCHI

State’s in trouble; where’s Patrick?

Beverly Beckham

When you care to send the very best
Michelle Dipp has OvaScience in line to join the Nasdaq stock exchange.

INNOVATION ECONOMY

Michelle Dipp, 36, reflects biotech’s next generation

CARLO ROTELLA

School is renewed, but there’s hard work ahead

Adrian Walker

The machine and the man

lawrence harmon

Reefer madness

JOSHUA GREEN

Election is a referendum on Obama

Business

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Boston Scientific Corp.’s chief executive, Hank Kucheman, will be handing over the company’s reins on Nov. 1 to president Mike Mahoney under a transition plan outlined a year ago.

Boston Scientific venturing into new territory

The Natick company, which has struggled in recent years, is repositioning itself and its products in a shifting health care landscape.

Politics

Political Notebook

Bruce Springsteen, shown at a 2008 rally for Obama, will work for him again this week.

Springsteen and Clinton to campaign for Obama

Springsteen will join President Clinton at an appearance in Parma, in the swing state of Ohio, on Thursday.

Nation & World

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Don Matyja, a 50-year-old Army veteran, says, ‘‘They figure if they don’t see you, then the problem don’t exist.”

Many new city ordinances targeting homeless

The homeless say the rules are a thinly veiled attempt to push them out of one city and into another by criminalizing the daily activities they cannot avoid.

Arts

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From left: Reed Sturtevant, Liz Coffey, and Gordon Nelson, who will be participating in Home Movie Day on Saturday.

Home Movie Day helps keep Super 8 films alive

Thanks to Home Movie Day, any awkward, nerdy masterpiece can now find a wider audience.

Books

book review

‘The Oath’ by Jeffrey Toobin and ‘America’s Unwritten Constitution’ by Akhil Reed Amar

Two books look at the Constitution and the different ways that scholars, lawyers, and courts interpret it.

Travel

The author’s son, Ben, happened onto a street performer and into the act in Central Park.

Book a hotel or rent an apartment in New York?

A weekend in New York with two kids under 7.

“Mitt Romney is not someone I would have picked, that’s for sure.”

D.J. Moberley,  a 30-year-old evangelical Christian

Magazine

The cover for the October 14 2012 issue

How grocery shopping got personal
The cover for the October 7 2012 issue

AP classes: A problem for Massachusetts high schoolers?
The cover for the September 30 2012 issue

How will independents factor into the Brown-Warren Senate race?

The cover for the September 23 2012 issue

9 hot trends in kitchen design

Opinion

“Unrepentant communists merit repugnance, not reverence.”

Jeff Jacoby 

Ideas

“The strategy that underlies American policy, the Carter Doctrine, is now more than 30 years old, and in dire need of an overhaul. …Today, it drives American engagement in a Middle East that looks far different from the region for which it was invented.

Thanassis Cambanis , on the need for a new Middle East policy