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TRENDING:

House will reconvene Thursday after continued failure in selecting a speaker

House Republicans flailed through a second day of multiple balloting Wednesday, unable to elect Representative Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. In the evening, lawmakers reconvened only to immediately vote to meet again Thursday.
Representative Byron Donalds was getting votes for Speaker of the House. Who is he? Tracker: See the Republicans opposing Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid

ANALYSIS
Four ways the chaos over the House Speaker vote could end
For those watching House Republicans, with their slim majority, struggle to pick a speaker this week, it might seem as if the situation could drag on forever. But here are four ways it could end.

‘Frankenstein created a bunch of mini-Frankensteins’: With GOP speaker battle, Trump loses control of Trumpism
The battle is revealing the limitations of Donald Trump’s ability to reel in his allies and the burn-it-all-down political style he nurtured.

‘There isn’t any House’: Speaker drama ripples throughout basic congressional function

Kevin McCarthy memes flood Twitter after Republican falls short in six House speaker votes

Here’s what AOC was saying to two far-right Republicans during House speaker votes
On Football

Should the NFL reschedule the Bengals-Bills game? Cancel it? No easy answers

Bengals-Bills is a significant game for playoff seeding. It affects both of those teams, and several others.
Robert Kraft donated a specific amount to Damar Hamlin’s fundraiser. Here’s why. Damar Hamlin remains in ICU, but recovery is moving in 'positive direction'

Charlie Baker takes ‘Lone Walk’ out of State House and into the next chapter

Governor Charlie Baker bid farewell to Beacon Hill on Wednesday, taking his first steps back toward life as a private citizen and out of the only job in elected office he’s said he ever wanted.
Yvonne Abraham

The outgoing governor’s ‘number one adviser’: Dad

After two terms, Charlie Baker leaves the job that he hopes has been the distillation of the values his father spent a lifetime imparting to his three beloved sons.

Red Sox reach a landmark agreement with Rafael Devers on an 11-year, $331 million extension

The financial commitment is easily the largest in franchise history and is the sixth-largest in major league history.
Peter Abraham | On Baseball

With Rafael Devers deal done, Red Sox are back in the game . . . or at least they should be

John Henry heard the boos at Fenway Park, then ownership made a statement by delivering the longest, most expensive contract in team history.

Big tests ahead for Healey administration
The new governor will have to deal with issues of transportation, climate, COVID-19, and the economy.

Healey appoints acting secretary for Health and Human Services

Mary Beckman will temporarily oversee the largest single department in the state.
Healey appoints economic development and technology secretaries

Spilka, opening legislative session, proposes free community college

8 found fatally shot in Utah home, including 5 children

Varsity Blues mastermind is sentenced to 3½ years in prison

William “Rick” Singer helped his wealthy clients get their children accepted to elite colleges by cheating on admission tests or posing as fake athletic recruits.

Cambridge police officer fatally shoots man allegedly armed with kukri knife, authorities say

Officers responded to the area of Chestnut and Sidney Street for a report of a man “armed with a machete and in apparent distress,” the Cambridge Police Department said in a tweet posted at 1:46 p.m.

In scathing letter, state watchdog criticizes management of Chelsea veterans’ home

Federal government again rejects Cape bridge replacement funds
Shirley Leung

As Janet Wu and Alison King sign off, they talk about favorite politicians and the future of local TV news

As a new era on Beacon Hill begins, it’s the end of another as two doyennes of the political press corps ― Janet Wu and Alison King — sign off.
MOVIES

First look at ‘Boston Strangler,’ which starts streaming on Hulu March 17

In the film shot in Boston, Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon star as journalists who connected the dots on the 1960s murders.
SURVEY SAYS

Don’t laugh. New travel poll finds Massachusetts families want to relocate to N.H. in 2023.

You have to have thick skin to live in the Granite State and hang around a bunch of Massachusetts people. Turns out, maybe they're just jealous?
Opinion
EDITORIAL

The math is clear: McCarthy should start courting Democrats

The next speaker of the House must work across the aisle if they actually want government to govern.
Joan Vennochi

Has the company building MBTA trains ‘completely abandoned its core responsibilities’?
NEWSLETTER

Most schools celebrate standout students. This one sabotages them.
JEFF JACOBY

Assisted suicide’s slippery slope
SCOT LEHIGH

A new year’s nudge toward political reasonableness

The Emancipator

The art of the denial

Racism denial is a political strategy and a coping tool, used by those who benefit from racism and those unwilling to confront the dire contradictions in our society. Phillipe Copeland walks us through its different forms so we can recognize and counter them.
Mass. coronavirus at a glance
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NOTE: Data updated once per week. SOURCES: CDC, Mass. Dept. of Public Health

Special reports

Boston doesn’t work if the T doesn’t work

Darkness on the edge of the Patriots dynasty

The 2022 Top Places to Work in Massachusetts

More recent News

AG asks high court to restore charges in Soldiers’ Home case
State lawyers asked Massachusetts' highest court to restore criminal charges against two former top officials of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, where at least 76 veterans died from COVID-19.

Violent and property crimes dropped 2 percent in Boston last year, police say
Serious crime dipped by 2 percent in Boston last year compared to 2021, according to Boston police statistics released Tuesday.

Maine teenager charged with attacking NYPD police officers allegedly wanted to ‘kill an officer in uniform,’ court records say
In a two-page affidavit, NYPD Detective Kim Strafella of the Joint Terrorism Task Force wrote that Trevor Bickford, 19, of Wells, Maine, admitted to the burst of violence.

Boston Public Schools teacher injured breaking up fight outside Mattapan school
The teacher was struck and kicked several times while breaking up a fight involving several female students outside the Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot School on Wednesday afternoon, Boston police said.

Police chiefs hail Legislature’s passage of catalytic converter theft bill
The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association on Wednesday voiced support for a bill to clamp down on catalytic converter theft in Massachusetts that the Legislature passed on Tuesday, sending the measure to the governor’s desk to potentially be signed into law.

Would you want to be composted after you die? Mass. lawmakers want to make it an option.
New York on Saturday became the sixth state to allow the practice, which advocates say is better for the climate than either burial or cremation.

Boston Globe Spotlight Team

Send The Boston Globe a confidential news tip
Do you have a tip about something that needs to be investigated? Do you have documents or data we should dig into? We want to hear from you.

Recapping 2022

The 23 best photos of 2022 from Boston Globe photographers

A year in deaths

 Other notable deaths

Dave Barry’s 2022 Year in Review

Recommended reads

The Great Divide

Here’s what is on the horizon for Boston Public Schools in 2023

It will also be the district’s first full calendar year under Superintendent Mary Skipper, who took charge in September.

Gym fees, online shopping, bounced checks: Ex-fiancée of Aaron Hernandez accused of misspending money meant for couple’s young daughter
The fight started when Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez said she couldn’t afford the $10,697 bill for her daughter’s dance lessons. Jenkins-Hernandez denies wrongdoing in the dispute over the late Patriots player’s estate.

GETTING SALTY
Longtime Harvard Gardens bartender Karen Peterson on serving Steven Tyler, her favorite neighborhood dive, and how not to get served
She’s been pouring drinks for thirsty Bostonians for more than 30 years.

Welcome to the great Marblehead newspaper war
Three outlets — adhering to three different business models — are in the unexpected position of battling it out for the readers of the North Shore town.

video

Culture & Lifestyle

First look at ‘Boston Strangler,’ which starts streaming on Hulu March 17

I’m starting the year with ‘The Stress Prescription’

This Lowell native has spent 15 years on a quest to become a McDonald’s ‘super collector’

Eight podcasts to help you achieve your goals for the new year

Special Projects

Two Weeks in America

We sent a dozen journalists on the road across this complex country. They found it’s better than you think.
Globe Magazine

Top Spots to Live in Greater Boston in 2022

A guide to 36 Greater Boston communities where demand — and prices — are surging.
Jeneé Osterheldt

A Beautiful Resistance

Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt.

‘On the Street’: The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods

The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods.

Opinion, ideas, and commentary

SCOT LEHIGH

A new year’s nudge toward political reasonableness

EDITORIAL

Wu’s affordable housing plan needs a reboot
IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

As Turkey turns 100, its democratic future still has not arrived
RENÉE GRAHAM

Remembering Anita Pointer, a country music pioneer
NEWSLETTER

What I learned about Massachusetts playing GeoGuessr
IDEAS | ADRIANA BARTON

The ‘Mozart effect’ is bunk. But your brain on music is still a wondrous thing.

Metro

Cambridge police officer fatally shoots man allegedly armed with kukri knife, authorities say

Officers responded to the area of Chestnut and Sidney Street for a report of a man “armed with a machete and in apparent distress,” the Cambridge Police Department said in a tweet posted at 1:46 p.m.
Live updates: House speaker vote

Stalemate over House speaker will enter third day

We’re gathering the latest news and updates from the vote for the House speaker. Follow along.

Federal government again rejects Cape bridge replacement funds

A plan to replace two aging bridges that carry traffic onto and off Cape Cod was dealt another setback this week as the federal government rejected a significant grant application that sought to fund nearly half of the $4 billion project, officials said.

Spilka, opening legislative session, proposes free community college

Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka kicked off the new legislative session Wednesday by proposing free community college for the state’s residents.

Sports

Georgetown suffers a record 25th straight Big East loss in men’s college basketball

The Hoyas have not won a regular-season Big East game since March 2, 2021.
NFL

NFL players say Damar Hamlin’s injury wasn’t Tee Higgins’s fault

Teammates and other NFL players offered their support, saying Higgins did nothing wrong.
Providence 73, UConn 61

Providence drills No. 4 UConn in men’s college basketball

The Friars won their eighth straight game by dominating the second half.
GIRLS' HOCKEY: WINTHROP 6, MEDFORD 0

Emma Holmes nets 100th career point for unbeaten Winthrop girls’ hockey, and her sister Julia is eyeing the mark too
World Junior Hockey Championships

Canada beats US men 6-2 in world junior hockey semifinals
NFL

Darrelle Revis among finalists for Pro Football Hall of Fame in first year of eligibility

Business

Amazon expands corporate layoffs to 18,000 jobs

Amazon plans to eliminate 18,000 corporate and technology jobs in a significant expansion of its cost-cutting plans, the company’s CEO, Andy Jassy, said in an email to employees Wednesday.

Barstool Sports gets state approval for online betting license

The Barstool Sports sports betting app on Wednesday got the green light from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for an online sports wagering operator license.

Apple’s stock is losing its shine after an ugly month of December
Shirley Leung

As Janet Wu and Alison King sign off, they talk about favorite politicians and the future of local TV news
magazine
Globe Magazine

‘If you want to solve homelessness in Boston, you’ve got to take a look at the real estate market.’
LOVE LETTERS

I moved out of his house. Do I leave all my stuff behind?

CONNECTIONS

My father-in-law recently turned 100. His life has been quietly extraordinary.
YOUR WEEK AHEAD

Five things to do for fun in and around Boston, Jan. 2 - 8

metro

In scathing letter, state watchdog criticizes management of Chelsea veterans’ home

Charlie Baker takes ‘Lone Walk’ out of State House and into the next chapter

Big tests ahead for Healey administration

sports

Celtics left to answer for recent losing efforts, including after giving up 150 points to the Thunder

Girls’ basketball notebook: Even if it means spilling some blood, North Andover’s Hannah Martin embraces a hard-nosed approach on the hardcourt

With Rafael Devers deal done, Red Sox are back in the game . . . or at least they should be

business

GE spinoff has a good first day

Twitter says it will relax ban on political advertising

Credit-reporting firms face more scrutiny as complaints jump

politics

‘A disaster’: Speaker fight exposes GOP leadership vacuum

House will reconvene Thursday after continued failure in selecting a speaker

‘There isn’t any House’: Speaker drama ripples throughout basic congressional function

Nation

Man charged in university student killings arrives in Idaho

Biden promotes bipartisan victories as divisions roil the Republican Party

Fla. surgeon general used ‘flawed’ vaccine science, faculty peers say

World

UN to hold emergency meeting on Israeli visit to holy site

Israel’s new government unveils plan to weaken Supreme Court

Pope praises ‘acute and gentle’ Benedict ahead of funeral

opinion

A new year’s nudge toward political reasonableness

How Michelle Wu can become a global mayor on climate

Remembering Anita Pointer, a country music pioneer

lifestyle

I’m starting the year with ‘The Stress Prescription’

Robert Kraft buys $23.75 million penthouse in Palm Beach

This Lowell native has spent 15 years on a quest to become a McDonald’s ‘super collector’

food & dining

Cuba, modern and graceful, is on the plate at Gustazo

10 simple things you can do to start fresh in the kitchen

Dressing up a salad or leftovers just got easier

travel

Don’t laugh. New travel poll finds Massachusetts families want to relocate to N.H. in 2023.

How the most tragic intersection in Minneapolis became a beacon of hope

Dear member of the flying public, please remember that a happier flight starts with YOU!

Arts

‘The Glory of Handiwork’ gives new meaning to the domestic arts

R.I. engineer is creating live wall art that breathes

At Mass MoCA, Jason Moran’s ‘Black Stars’ pays tribute to the ghosts of jazz history

Books

Here are some of the works that entered the public domain in 2023

In Tracey Rose Peyton’s ‘Night Wherever We Go,’ enslaved women on a Texas plantation struggle with their desperate white captors

Tom Crewe’s memorable debut, ‘The New Life,’ chronicles the fortunes of a gay man and a social reformer in Victorian England

Movies

First look at ‘Boston Strangler,’ which starts streaming on Hulu March 17

Tom Hanks is Forrest Grump in ‘A Man Called Otto’

Here are some of the works that entered the public domain in 2023

Television

Appearances can be quite deceiving in ‘The Capture’

Most cancellations seem warranted. These 3 did not.

This week’s TV: Anne Rice’s ‘Witches,’ the history of soft rock, and the return of ‘All Creatures’

music

Son Rompe Pera give Mexican marimba music a punk edge

Here are some of the works that entered the public domain in 2023

WUMB will stream its Dick Pleasants tribute concert live

Theater/Dance

Instead of waiting for their Netflix moment, Boston comics are creating their own specials

Comedy headliner Lamont Price will let the most wonderful time of the year linger a bit longer

Southie native David Lindsay-Abaire has fashioned a ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ that sings

globe local

Newton City Council approves 50-unit housing, restaurant development

Newton to hold MLK celebration; weeklong community food drive

Restaurant owner toasts staff with trip to Disney World

Obituaries

Walter Cunningham, an astronaut who helped clear the way to the moon, dies at 90

Bill White, who lost a leg in the Marathon bombings, dies at 81

Former R.I. governor Lincoln Almond dies at 86