Senate approves bill to fund government through Feb. 8

President Trump has not yet said he will support the measure, which does not include $5 billion that he wants for a border wall.

12/19/2018 ROXBURY, MA Political activist Mike Heichman (cq) of Dorchester, spoke against the school closings during a Boston School Committee meeting held at the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Roxbury. (Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)

Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe

Boston School Committee votes to close two high schools in West Roxbury

Over the objection of outraged students, teachers, and parents, the Boston School Committee voted Wednesday night to close two high schools in West Roxbury over the next two years.

Traders at the New York Stock Exchange listen as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is seen on a video screen giving a news conference from Washington after the Fed announced a rate increase, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Seeking middle ground, Fed raised rates, will be careful with increases next year

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates as expected, indicating that it sees the economy growing fast enough to merit a tap on the brakes. But it also dropped the number of expected rate increases in 2019.

Senate President Karen Spilka

Senate readying bill to extend benefits for locked-out National Grid workers

The Massachusetts Senate is teeing up a bill for Thursday designed to extend by several weeks the unemployment benefits for 1,250 workers locked out by National Grid.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/20/BostonGlobe.com/Foreign/Images/09ec5a10c5ea4797be826058c6c3f1bd-09ec5a10c5ea4797be826058c6c3f1bd-0.jpg N. Korea says it won?t denuclearize unless US removes threat

North Korea said it will never unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons unless the United States first removes what Pyongyang called a nuclear threat.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/19/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/everett1.jpg Everett official shot to death, allegedly by estranged husband

A member of the Everett Board of Assessors and second cousin to the city?s mayor was shot, allegedly by her estranged husband, as she sat in her car in her parents? driveway.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/20/BostonGlobe.com/National/Images/59f36a39d3e841f18f2d1922550740be-59f36a39d3e841f18f2d1922550740be-0.jpg Mueller asks House committee for Roger Stone transcript

Stone has been under suspicion because of his proclamations about connections to WikiLeaks and predictions about hacked Democratic emails.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/19/BostonGlobe.com/ReceivedContent/Images/PreciousWallaces.jpg Officials investigating whether toxic exposure played role in death of 11-year-old Haverhill girl

Grief counselors are at a Haverhill middle school today to help students and staff deal with the loss of an 11-year-old girl described by a school official as ?beautiful and well-loved.?

US forces, accompanied by Kurdish People's Protection Units fighters, drove armored vehicles near the northern Syrian village of Darbasiyah, on the border with Turkey.

4 things to know about Trump?s decision to withdraw from Syria

Here are four things to know about the latest news, which reportedly caught the Pentagon unawares.

Police search Merrimac property as part of ongoing investigation

Law enforcement officials searched a Hadley Road property in Merrimac Wednesday as part of an ongoing investigation, according to police.

Cambridge, MA, 12/19/2018 -- Santa Ed Donlan chatted with Keeley Arnold, 3, of Danvers (R) during an office Holiday party at a local tech company called Vertica. (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff) Topic: 20badsantas Reporter:

Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

We seem to be in the midst of a Santa shortage

When everyone wants a visit from Kris Kringle, the going rate soars and the pickings can get, well, slim.

Boston, MA 12-19-18: The Celtics Kyrie Irving (right) plays some aggresive defense from around the back of the Suns Devin Booker (left) as he drives to the hoop in the fourth quarter. The Phoenix Suns visited the Boston Celtics for a regular season NBA basketball game at T.D. Garden. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

Suns 111, Celtics 103

Kyrie Irving not enough to lift shorthanded Celtics over Suns

The guard scored 29 points, but lacking three of their top interior players, the Celtics were pounded on the boards and lost their second straight.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/09/28/BostonGlobe.com/Business/Images/FenwayTheaterGroundView.jpg Red Sox have a plan to improve bleacher seats at Fenway Park

The team also wants a new function room that?ll provide ?sweeping views? of the playing field, and a 5,000-seat theater alongside the ballpark.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/13/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/Boghosian_depression10_MET.jpg Depression, ranging in severity, shadows old age for nearly a third of Mass. seniors

Diagnoses, spanning in severity from mild seasonal affective disorder to major depressive disorder, affects 31.5 percent of people over 65, according to a new UMass-Boston report.

Photo by Michael Swensen for The Boston Globe

Speculation builds as Newbury College announces it will sell its campus

It?s not often that 10 acres of prime real estate in Brookline go on the market. But that?s what will happen when Newbury College closes next spring.

Tufts football players Tim Reitzenstein and Dan Dewing congratulated each other during their final game together against Middlebury College.

Kevin Cullen

Differing viewpoints, different colors, same team

Two Tufts student-athletes? differing politics, like their different skin color, doesn?t get in the way of their friendship. In fact, by accepting their differences, they have become closer.

TARA SULLIVAN

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/19/BostonGlobe.com/Sports/Images/AFP_1BP26C.jpg Penny Marshall and the lasting impact of ?A League of Their Own?

The film has visceral connections to what women are capable of, what women were once denied, what women can overcome, and how women can connect.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn speaks during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 18, 2016. He used his prime-time speech to lead the crowd in a chant of

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

JOAN VENNOCHI

?Lock him up!? is bad karma for Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn?s ?Lock her up!? chant about Hillary Clinton comes back to haunt him.

Editorial

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/19/BostonGlobe.com/EditorialOpinion/Images/20Editorial.jpg Federal pot bills an easy bipartisan win for 2019

Warren-Gardner bill would take pot shops out of legal limbo and clear the way for access to banking and credit care services.

Podcasts

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/18/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/gladiator%20pic5.jpg Aaron hernandez and Football Inc.

The story of a profoundly troubled young man and the ugly underside of America?s most popular sport.

Special reports

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/15/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/Rinaldi09acton02-HERO.jpg After suicides in Acton and Boxborough, a communion of sorrow

The unthinkable has been an all-too-common companion in two small neighboring towns, where six young people took their lives in the short span of 30 months. The questions keep coming: What is happening? Why? When will it stop?

Newsletters

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/17/BostonGlobe.com/Sports/Images/basketball-25069-U831060564319fkD--90x90@BostonGlobe.com.jpg Court Sense

Follow the Celtics? quest for a title and other NBA news both on and off the court. Sign up here.

The Big Picture

David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

The Big Picture

Globe staff photos of the month: November 2018

Here?s a look at some of the best images taken by Globe photographers last month: a colorful sunrise, Christmas tree lightings, and high school sports.

Nation & World

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//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/12/18/BostonGlobe.com/National/Images/181205injectionchurch0459-1600x900.jpg Recovery experts set up new ?religion? in Maine that may skirt drug laws

The Church of Safe Injection illegally distributes clean syringes. Branding as a ?religion? may offer some legal protection.

Love Letters: The Podcast

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2018/08/29/BostonGlobe.com/Lifestyle/Images/200_love_letters_bonus.jpg Love Letters: Until next year, my sweetheart

In a special bonus episode, Meredith Goldstein explores what happens to summer romance when the summer ends, and ?Wet Hot American Summer? creator David Wain shares a girl-crazy memory from his own camp days.

Listen:   Apple Podcasts   |   Stitcher   |   RadioPublic