Mass. in spotlight as US adopts health care fee

Policy advocates say the state’s law lays out a finan­cial and moral incentive to get coverage. But it is not clear the approach can be effectively replicated nationally.

Mitt Romney’s team taking fire from right

Prominent conservative Republicans excoriated Romney’s campaign, ridiculing his main advisers and suggesting they are bungling the presidential race.

Homes like this one in Wellesley are putting and end to the idea that prefabs are boxy, cheaply made structures.

Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

Prefab homes go upscale, with prices to match

Manufactured housing, once considered to be cheap, drab construction and tarnished by a trailer-park image, has taken an upscale turn.

Episcopal Bishops Thomas Shaw (left) and Gene Robinson marched in this year’s gay pride parade in Boston

Episcopalians review a new rite for gay unions

Episcopalians are expected to overwhelmingly approve trial use of a new liturgy for blessing same-sex unions.

A knife sharpener was a common sight of the streets of Boston in the decade leading up to the 1940 Census.

Boston Public Library/Leslie Jones Collection

Census records bring 1940s Boston to life

The city was dominated by machinists and mechanics, laborers and craftsmen, the census shows.

Boston Capital

Time to cut off Boston Beer’s investors

Boston Beer and the craft brewing business have a lot to cheer about. But beer fans — investors or drinkers — should know when they’ve had enough.

Pitcher Vicente Padilla handed the ball to Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine after surrendering a grand slam in the seventh inning against the Yankees on April 21.

Red Sox, Yankees to see a lot of each other

From Friday night through the final day of the season Oct. 3, the Sox and Yankees are scheduled to play 16 times.

Efforts to provide an ideal environment for the birds led to the nest building and egg laying, a zoo official said.

In rare event, hummingbird lays egg at Franklin Park Zoo

The zoo’s staff was pleasantly surprised to find an egg early Wednesday morning because the birds rarely breed in captivity.

Politics

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK

Romney ups fund-raising bar with June haul

Mitt Romney’s joint fund-raising committee brought in more than $100 million in June, Politico reported, outpacing the $76.8 million he raised in May.

Nation & World

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Journalists in protective gear toured the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in February. Nuclear power returned to Japan’s energy mix for the first time in months Thursday, as an investigative panel issued a report on the 2011 disaster.

Panel blames Japan nuclear disaster on errors

The nuclear accident at Fukushima was a preventable disaster rooted in government-industry collusion and a culture of conformity, a parliamentary inquiry concluded Thursday.