Health care for all, in practice, with Obama down the street
PORTLAND, Maine — First through the door of the Portland Community Health Center on Thursday morning was a stick figure of a man, oblivious to the homemade signs and the White House advance team across the street. He had a bald eagle drawn on his sweatshirt, a street-hard weariness in his eyes and a throbbing pain in his right hand.
A beautiful weekend
After a week filled with cloudy skies and drenching rain that brought record flooding to much of New England, the Boston area will be treated to a picture-perfect spring weekend. The cutoff low pressure system that brought persistent rainfall earlier this week has moved off the coast, leaving in its wake a high pressure system that will bring sunny skies and warm temperatures to the region.
Shorts (left)
MOSCOW — President Dmitri Medvedev, trying to demonstrate the government’s resolve after a spate of terrorist bombings, made a surprise visit on Thursday to one of the most tumultuous areas of Russia and called for “harsher” tactics to combat the insurgency.
Shorts (right)
BANGKOK — In southern China, the worst drought in at least 50 years has dried up farmers’ fields and left tens of millions of people short of water.
Shorts (left)
A Pakistani court Monday eased some travel restrictions on Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist and pioneer of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, who admitted six years ago that he had been running an illicit proliferation network. But the court maintained a prohibition on news interviews with him about his past nuclear activities, according to lawyers involved in the case.
Female suicide bombers blamed for Moscow blasts
Brazen suicide bombings in the center of Moscow on Monday confronted Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin with a grave challenge to his record of curbing terrorism, and raised the possibility that he will respond as he has in the past by significantly tightening control over the government.
Rainiest March on record?
As you read this, we are surpassing the record for Boston’s rainiest March in the last century. As of last night, we have seen a total of more than 11.2 inches of rain this month, while the rainiest March prior totaled 11.0 inches in 1953. Flooding throughout the region will occur; the NWS has flood warnings out for all of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as much of New York and New Jersey. Today, a strong southerly low-level jet stream from the E/SE feeds lots of moisture over us. Upper level winds slowly push the low pressure system directly on top of us, centering a strong region of convergence right over Massachusetts. We should see the heaviest rain today around noon; totals for the day will be around three or more inches. Surface winds will be predominantly from the north/northwest and reaching a maximum speed of 20 mph.
Delaware and Tennessee win Obama’s U.S. school grants
Delaware and Tennessee beat out 38 other states and the District of Columbia to win a share of $4 billion in federal education grants, convincing the Obama administration that they have bold plans for overhauling their public school systems.
10 Mexican students among dead in drug violence massacre
Mexico reeled Monday from another bloody weekend of drug-related killings that was made even more horrible by the baffling massacre of 10 young people and children traveling in a pickup truck in Durango state.
Shorts (right)
It is not clear what some students at South Hadley High School expected to achieve by subjecting a freshman to the relentless taunting described by a prosecutor and classmates.
Muted speculation about N. Korea’s role in bombing of S. Korean warship
The mystery of what caused a South Korean warship to sink in disputed waters may not be solved for days, with rescuers still hunting for 46 missing sailors and a recovery crane slowly being carried to the site.
In companies tax moves, push on provision of health reform
An association representing 300 large corporations urged President Barack Obama and Congress on Monday to repeal a provision of the health care overhaul that prompted AT&T, Caterpillar and other companies to announce substantial charges for the current quarter.
Questions rise as schools rely on ‘zero tolerance’ suspensions
CHOCOWINITY, N.C. — As school let out one day in January 2008, students from rival towns faced off. Two girls flailed away for several seconds and clusters of boys pummeled each other until teachers pulled them apart.
Shorts (right)
Delegates at a U.N. conference on endangered species in Doha, Qatar, soundly defeated American-supported proposals on Thursday to ban international trade in bluefin tuna and to protect polar bears.
Former rivals Obama & Clinton forge foreign-policy partnership
WASHINGTON — On a snowy Thursday shortly before her weekly meeting with President Barack Obama last month, Hillary Rodham Clinton got a distressing phone call: her husband, Bill Clinton, was in a hospital with chest pains and needed an urgent heart procedure.
Doctor says he warned Pope’s ex-archdiocese about priest
ESSEN, Germany — The German archdiocese led by the future Pope Benedict XVI ignored repeated warnings in the early 1980s by a psychiatrist treating a priest accused of sexually abusing boys that he should not be allowed to work with children, the psychiatrist said Thursday.
Shorts (left)
WASHINGTON — Is Alan Greenspan, famous for his libertarian leanings and hands-off approach to Wall Street, having some second thoughts?
Germany, in a reversal, says Greece should turn to IMF
After weeks of backing a European rescue for financially troubled Greece, Germany shifted course on Thursday, signaling that help should come from the International Monetary Fund rather than Greece’s neighbors.
In search for killers in Mexico, focus on a cross-border drug gang
MEXICO CITY — They carry both U.S. passports and high-caliber weapons, making them the perfect cross-border assassins. They confuse the authorities by using a coded language that blends English, Spanish and the Aztecs’ ancient tongue of Nahuatl. The threat of prison is no big fear for members of the Barrio Azteca street gang, because they consider the cellblock to be home.
Warmth as spring begins
The temperature again today will soar to pleasantly warm levels, thanks to the absence of any major cloud cover. A combination of sunshine and a southwesterly flow will create an even warmer day on Saturday, with the high reaching 70°F (21°C). This type of setup is often seen during the spring months in Boston, where a high pressure center off the coast of the Carolinas sets up a flow from the southwest that draws much warmer air into our region. An approaching cold front will bring cloud cover on Sunday and not allow the temperature to become as warm.