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Amazon to collect sales tax in Mass.

The huge online retailer will begin collecting Massachusetts sales tax starting next fall, Governor Deval Patrick’s office said Tuesday.

State fines three utilities for response to 2011 storms

National Grid, NStar, and Western Massachusetts Electric Company were fined a combined $24.8 million for their response to Tropical Storm Irene and a snowstorm in October 2011.

Bank of America gets low customer ratings in survey

The bank’s customer satisfaction level fell to its lowest in more than a decade, lagging other major US banks as well as credit unions, according to a survey.

Mass. pupils near top in math, science

Eighth-graders outperformed most countries on a highly regarded international math and science exam.

Loss of mortgage deduction would be hard hit in Mass.

The deduction could be diminished or eliminated as part of efforts to reduce the federal deficit.

Justice in the shadows | Part 3 — Secret courts

Courts inside prisons, far from public view

Thousands of immigrants find themselves at the mercy of a legal system that, for many, amounts to an assembly line toward deportation.

Video

The Back Story: The immigration system

Dina Rudick talks with reporter Maria Sacchetti about the Globe's yearlong investigation into the US immigration system.

WesWelker cradles the ball as he hits the deck inside the 5-yard line after giving Houston defensive back Kareem Jackson (25) the slip. The play set up the Patriots’ first touchdown.

Dan Shaughnessy | Patriots 42, Texans 14

Patriots look Super Bowl-bound

The statement made in the romp over the Texans was that nobody in the AFC can beat the Patriots in the playoffs.

Texans running back Arian Foster, left, and quarterback Matt Schaub had little to smile about after the loss.

Texans shocked by Patriots’ dominance

“We were really taught what championship football is,” Texans linebacker Bradie James of the Patriots’ big win.

Lori Hartnett, pictured at her Quincy home with her mother, Joan McGregor.

G Cover

Buying gifts for the hard-to-please

Forget the Grinch or Scrooge, the most-dreaded characters this time of year are the Hard to Buy For.

Boston Globe ePaper

ePaper

Read the ePaper edition

The complete print edition, in its exact layout. Browse the print edition page by page, including stories and ads.

Globe Insiders

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//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/12/10/BostonGlobe.com/Arts/Images/p.jpg See a pre-screening of Promised Land

Win tickets for you and a guest to see the new Matt Damon movie before it opens to the public.

Globe exclusives

Texans quarterback Matt Schaub tries to hide but he can’t escape the sack by Rob Ninkovich (50) in the first quarter.

Christopher L. Gasper

Dominant Patriots defense earned the spotlight
Dwayne Moore entered Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

Mattapan juror sent home
“L’EMINENCE GRISE”

Frame By Frame

Poking fun at the powerful — in an artful way

Meet the Fall All-Scholastics

Diversity Boston Roundtable

Boston diversity status check
Dean Zulich’s “Mask 1.”

Exhibit celebrates creativity and talent in Bosnia
Marilyn Riseman has rubbed elbows with the connected since her youth.

Marilyn Riseman central to Boston’s chic society
Among those who have significantly influenced the contemporary television landscape (from top): director Robert Altman, “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling, author Charles Dickens, mockumentary filmmaker Christopher Guest, “Candid Camera” creator Allen Funt, vaudevillians like Fannie Brice, author Edgar Allan Poe, screenwriter Nora Ephron, “Sherlock Holmes” creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and founding Surrealist, Andre Breton.

The towers of TV
Director Peter Jackson.

‘The Hobbit’ emerges
“There is a growing group of folks who are looking at this and realizing we don’t have a lot of cards as it relates to the tax issue before year’s end,” Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker said.

Hopes rise for a deal on tax rates
AnnMarie Duchon challenged pay inequity at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Mass. lags on pay for women in the US

How to donate to Globe Santa

Sports

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Texans running back Arian Foster, left, and quarterback Matt Schaub had little to smile about after the loss.

Texans shocked by Patriots’ dominance

“We were really taught what championship football is,” Texans linebacker Bradie James of the Patriots’ big win.

Metro

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A tollbooth on Interstate 90 in Allston.

Mass. will eliminate toll plazas, collectors

The state plans to switch to a $100 million all-electronic system that would remove toll plazas.

Columnists

Denise Jackson, a Salvation Army bell ringer, outside the Stop & Shop at Vinnin Square in Swampscott.

Kevin Cullen

Stop and hear the bells

Farah Stockman

Food aid fattens up lobbyists

Boston Capital

Mass. biotechs glitter in new golden age

Joanna Weiss

For parents, where to draw the line on risk?
WesWelker cradles the ball as he hits the deck inside the 5-yard line after giving Houston defensive back Kareem Jackson (25) the slip. The play set up the Patriots’ first touchdown.

Dan Shaughnessy | Patriots 42, Texans 14

Patriots look like they’re heading to Super Bowl
Texans quarterback Matt Schaub tries to hide but he can’t escape the sack by Rob Ninkovich (50) in the first quarter.

Christopher L. Gasper

Dominant Patriots defense earned the spotlight

Juliette Kayyem

Qatar arms deals expose limits of US

Tech Lab Plus

Cheap Nikon Coolpix takes classy shots
Matt Schaub and the Texans enter Monday’s game with an 11-1 record.

Dan Shaughnessy

Texans have no chance

Adrian Walker

Worthy battle ends in victory

John E. Sununu

Best energy policy? None

James Carroll

Israel must not dismiss outrage over settlements

Nation & World

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As the Syrian conflict has spilled into Lebanon, soldiers patrolled in Tripoli after clashes there killed at least 17 people.

Syrian rebels capture part of massive army base

The rebels captured part of a military base near the northern city of Aleppo, strengthening their hold near the Turkish border.

Politics

President Obama brought his pressure-Congress campaign to the heart of industrial America.

In Michigan, President Obama affirms tax stand

Obama warned Monday that he ‘‘won’t compromise’’ on his demands that the wealthiest Americans pay higher tax rates.

Business

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Bernard Madoff was arrested four years ago, and is now serving a prison term.

Four years later, still tracking Bernard Madoff’s scheme

So far, $9.3 billion of the estimated $17.5 billion investors put into Madoff’s sham investment business has been recovered.

Arts

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Book Review

Some pieces the late John Updike wrote between 1990-2008 have been turned into his third book of art reviews.

‘Always Looking: Essays on Art’ by John Updike

The posthumous volume of art criticism vividly gambols through three centuries.

Lifestyle

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“The message transmitted through these [works] is that you are now a link in a chain that protects maternal and child health in Mexico,” says Neil Leifer, (above) with a bowl made by a Mexican artisan.

Nonprofit helps artisans in Mexico get the lead out

Neil Leifer founded a nonprofit that helps ceramic artisans from rural Mexico convert from lead-based to lead-free glazes.

Magazine

The cover for the December 9 2012 issue

The drug lab scandal: Who’s cleaning it up?
The cover for the December 2 2012 issue

5 inspired rooms
The cover for the November 25 2012 issue

Cambridge’s Bluefin Labs decodes social media chatter
The cover for the November 18 2012 issue

7 holiday styles that shine

Opinion

“The question is where we draw the line between wise precaution and paralyzing fear.”

Joanna Weiss 

Ideas

“Gift-giving has long been a topic of fascination for experts on human behavior...Their work has produced insights that cast an analytical--and helpful--light on the trials of our yearly quest to delight family and friends.”

Leon Neyfakh on the analyzed gift 

“There are a lot of people who have no idea about the possibility of the mortgage deduction going away. This is a serious issue and it’s real money out of their pockets.”

Marybeth Mills Muldowney,  a Norwell real estate agent