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Jason Varitek is coming back to the Red Sox. The club named its longtime catcher and former captain as a special assistant to the general manager on Thursday, less than a year after his 15-season playing career came to an end. "Jason was one of the most respected players of his era and will be a key voice as we move forward," general manager Ben Cherington said in a statement. "He will be involved in a number of areas, including Major League personnel decisions, evaluations, and mentorship and instruction of young players. We are fortunate to have him in this...

Soon after my original post, Elizabeth Warren’s law license problem, Mark Thompson at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen wrote a post taking an opposite view, No, Elizabeth Warren Did Not Engage in the Unauthorized Practice of Law. That post by Thompson was cited far and wide, including at Memeorandum as well as at friendly conservative blogs which wanted to present the case for Warren to provide balance. In light of my post this morning that Warren represented a Massachusetts client in Massachusetts on an issue related to Massachusetts law, Thompson has concluded in a new post today: Professor Jacobson has...

William Bennett, a onetime student of Dr. Silber’s who served as US secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, praised his mentor’s pedagogic style in a 1986 Globe interview. “It wasn’t intimidating; it was quickening,” Bennett said. “Silber is frank and manly and direct. There isn’t enough of that these days. He believes human beings should be spoken to as if they were human beings, not as if they were flowers.”

Massachusetts will appeal a federal judge's decision to grant a convicted murderer's request for sex reassignment surgery, prison officials announced Wednesday. The state Department of Correction said that it believes the medical care Michelle Kosilek is receiving is adequate and that the court didn't address what it says are legitimate safety concerns of protecting her in prison. U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled this month that the surgery is the only adequate treatment for Kosilek's gender-identity disorder, a condition Wolf said is a "serious medical need." He said denying surgery violated Kosilek's Eighth Amendment rights. It was the first time...

Cherokee chief: Scott Brown staffers ‘racist’ By: Kevin Robillard September 26, 2012 11:25 AM EDT The head of the Cherokee Nation called staffers for Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown “downright racist” Wednesday for making “tomahawk chop” motions and yelling “war whoops” at a rally Saturday for the Republican’s reelection, and called on Brown to apologize. “The conduct of these individuals goes far beyond what is appropriate and proper in political discourse,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker said in a statement. “The use of stereotypical ‘war whoop chants’ and ‘tomahawk chops’ are offensive and downright racist. It is those types...

Dear Friend, Yesterday I enjoyed a busy day in Massachusetts on the campaign trail with Elizabeth Warren -- and the enthusiasm for her is palpable -- and building. Let me underscore two things very quickly: one -- Elizabeth's campaign needs to keep growing its people-powered energy and that means we need your help, and two -- I want you to know why I'm so committed to this race. Donate to Elizabeth's campaign today. As I said in Somerville yesterday morning, I'm not making a case against anyone. I'm making a case for someone -- and that someone is Elizabeth Warren....

Elizabeth Warren Defrauded Asbestos Victims While Practicing Law Without a LicensePosted by Daniel Greenfield Sep 24th, 2012 Laws? They’re for little people. Laws don’t apply to Harvard professors. They apply to Harvard janitors. Compassion? Liberals are great at that. Just ask Elizabeth Warren who was paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars to help Travelers Insurance deny asbestos compensation to asbestos victims… and she did it while practicing law without a license. And wearing a fake Cherokee headdress. After this latest story, I have a feeling that Elizabeth Warren wishes she had run for the Senate in Oklahoma, instead...

Warren faces question over law license in latest accusation to roil Senate racePublished September 25, 2012 FoxNews.com **SNIP** Warren had to have had an active state bar license when applying to try cases before the high court, according to the Supreme Court. So the more questionable issue appears to be whether Warren practiced state-level law from her Harvard office without a Massachusetts license. Warren was paid $212,000 for three years of work in a case that involved thousands of asbestos victims and was “notable because Warren, who has gained fame for defending consumers against big business, was in this case...

Hello, How does Scott Brown plan to win in November? His answer is to talk about anything except how he votes on jobs, education, the environment, oil subsidies, or special deals for Wall Street. Today, he launched a new television ad that doesn't say a thing about the challenges facing Massachusetts families. It's an ugly, nasty attack on my family and our heritage. Today, I'm releasing a new tv ad that sets the record straight about my family. Watch it and share it with your friends to make sure the truth is heard. I don't care how Scott Brown describes...

Staffers for Sen. Scott Brown were caught on video this week at a rally in Boston chanting Indian "war whoops" and making tomahawk chop gestures, mocking Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren. Pictured in the video are deputy Chief of Staff Greg Casey, Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard, and a Republican operative named Brad Garrett, according to Boston's ABC affiliate. A spokeswoman for the Brown campaign didn't immediately return a request for comment.

No matter where you live in the USA, you can make a difference in this election by going to http://www.mittromney.com/call-home-landing. I live in NY, a hopelessly blue state. There is very little I can do locally to help Romney. However, they have an excellent phone-from-home system this year, much better than other phone banks I've done before. I started making phone calls from home for Romney. It is easy, well-supported, and free. It is important to start now so they can target the right people for the campaign. You can get started at http://www.mittromney.com/call-home-landingThey will direct your calls to the...

I didn't think that exchange over her heritage at the debate last week had drawn any blood, but evidently it did. There's no way her team would waste resources in addressing this subject unless they didn't like the feedback they got afterward. And if that doesn't convince you, check out the second clip below: Brown is now running attack ads on it. I wonder what sort of nerve this is hitting in the polling for it to suddenly be injected back into the race. Is it a pure "trust" thing or are her academic credentials more important to her candidacy...

After weeks in which the fate of the Senate simmered at nearly even odds of flipping for Republicans or remaining in Democrats' control, the outlook has shifted dramatically in the Democrats' favor. The incumbent party now has an 80 percent chance of retaining its majority, according to the Signal's prediction model. The break is largely due to critical races in Missouri, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Virginia, all of which have favored the Republican at some point in the past month and now favor the Democratic candidate. ...

Elizabeth Warren Admits She Is Not Licensed to Practice Law in Massachusetts by Michael Patrick Leahy 24 Sep 2012, 7:43 AM PDT Speaking to Boston's 96.9 FM radio program "Jim and Margery" on Monday, Democratic Senate challenger Elizabeth Warren admitted that she is not licensed to practice law in Massachusetts. According to reports from listeners, she claimed that she does not maintain a law practice. She also "said that she gave up her New Jersey license because she could not keep up with the Continuing Education requirements," according to one listener who commented on Breitbart's Monday story, "Does Elizabeth Warren...

The debate last Thursday night between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren covered ground mostly known to voters. But there was one subject most people watching probably did not know about, Elizabeth Warren’s private legal representation of The Travelers Insurance Company in an asbestos-related case. Brown brought the point up late in the debate, and hammered it: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Warren attempted to deny her role, and referred to a Boston Globe article, but the Globe article supports Brown’s account. The Globe article indicated the representation was for a period of three years and Warren was paid $212,000....

Maintained private law practice at Cambridge office for over a decade but not licensed in Massachusetts The debate last Thursday night between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren covered ground mostly known to voters. But there was one subject most people watching probably did not know about, Elizabeth Warren’s private legal representation of The Travelers Insurance Company in an asbestos-related case. Brown brought the point up late in the debate, and hammered it: (video) Warren attempted to deny her role, and referred to a Boston Globe article, but the Globe article supports Brown’s account. The Globe article indicated the representation was...

Children and parents across the country are fed up with the restrictive new school meal regulations implemented by the Department of Agriculture under the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” which has long been touted by first lady Michelle Obama. The standards — which cap meal calories at 650 for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, at 700 calories for middle school students and 850 for high school students — also dictate the number of breads, proteins, vegetables and fruits children are allowed per meal. A spokeswoman for Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, who earlier this month introduced legislation to...

Massachusetts is reeling from a massive scandal in its state crime lab. Details are still emerging about what officials call a "rogue chemist" who may have mishandled evidence in as many as 40,000 cases over 10 years. It could mean the unraveling of countless convictions. Even lawyers prone to hyperbole may not be overstating it when they call the scandal a catastrophic failure and unmitigated disaster. "Any person who's been convicted of a drug crime in the last several years whose drugs were tested at the lab was very potentially a victim of a very substantial miscarriage of justice," says...

By now you've probably grown inured to Harry Reid's oafish hyper-partisanship, but it's still fun to flag instances where it blows up in his face.  In advance of last night's Massachusetts Senate debate, Sen. Scott Brown told local reporters that he might be forced to skip the face-off with rival Elizabeth Warren if his official duties required him to remain in Washington to cast votes.  Reid interpreted this as a sign of trepidation and accused Brown of running scared and deliberately using the Senate calendar as a handy excuse to duck the debate.  Reid ostentatiously canceled the remainder of the...

Clearly, there is not much left of the good-old-boy network when it comes to former governors of Massachusetts. This was made abundantly clear before, during and after the Democratic Party Convention, when Gov. Deval Patrick, who followed Mitt Romney in the governor's office, and former Gov. Michael Dukakis, who preceded him, went after the GOP presidential nominee with a vengeance. Patrick hit him high and Dukakis hit him low. If this were a Sunday NFL game, the referee would have called the two Democrats for unnecessary roughness -- piling on. Dukakis was and is particularly tough on Romney. He has...