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Senate Republicans huddled over lunch Friday afternoon in the Capitol to discuss strategy on the House-passed spending bill and other pending legislation, exiting the meeting with a resounding message: Let's get this done and get the heck out of here. But that feeling of optimism was quickly squashed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been negotiating with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Friday afternoon to bring up a vote on the omnibus bill later in the evening, keeping the government's doors open and allowing senators to take the weekend off. Many members on both sides of the aisle were hopeful that...

The Harvard Business School professor who blasted a family-run Chinese restaurant for overcharging him $4 has previously attacked a sushi place in a dispute over a Groupon. -snip- In the email, published by Boston.com, he claimed he would fight to strip the establishment of its alcohol license 'if it does not honor its contractual commitments'. He wrote: 'I call on you to honor my three Osushi Groupon vouchers. 'I also call on you to extend their validity for six weeks to reflect the day imposed by our resolution of this dispute. 'If I don't hear from you within the next...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday morning slammed a provision in the pending spending bill that would repeal a piece of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and expressed doubt that enough Democrats could support the package if that rider remains. “I just spoke to Nancy Pelosi. The Democrats believe this is an odious provision that should not be included. Many of us feel the same way,” said Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “[Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)] can take it out in the bat of any eye, and I hope he will....

FRANKLIN, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A dispute over graduation gowns has begun at Franklin High School. At issue is whether all students should wear the same color robes so others aren't discriminated against. At the high school's graduation ceremony, it has been a long running tradition for boys to wear blue gowns and for girls to wear white. But that tradition is changing "There will be a change, I think," said Peter Light, the school's principal. "We have yet to determine what that change looks like." The call for change started when members of the school's Gay Student Alliance organization became...

If you happen to run into U.S. Sen. Eddie Markey at Whole Foods in Chevy Chase -- as in Maryland -- ask him if he still feels good about giving us Obamacare. Of the thousands of votes he has cast in his 38 years as a member of Congress, first in the U.S. House and now in the Senate, he is "proudest" of his vote in favor of the health-care plan. "It is my proudest vote," Markey said repeatedly in the House, and then again as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2014. The question is relevant in the...

Conservators from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts labored in the chill and snow for hours today to unearth what is believed to be the oldest unopened time capsule in the country, buried under the Golden Dome of the Massachusetts State House in 1795 by then-Governor Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, according to state records. The 219-year-old capsule is made of cowhide and was initially discovered during State House renovations in 1855. When the repairs were complete, the state’s 23rd governor, Henry Gardner, re-buried it in the granite cornerstone of the historic building, adding new items, including coins. Four coins...

Congressional liberals rebelled Wednesday against a must-pass spending bill that would keep the government open past midnight Thursday, complaining that it would roll back critical limits on Wall Street and sharply increase the influence of wealthy campaign donors. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a popular figure on the left, led the insurrection with a speech on the Senate floor, calling the $1.01 trillion spending bill “the worst of government for the rich and powerful.” Congressional liberals rebelled Wednesday against a must-pass spending bill that would keep the government open past midnight Thursday, complaining that it would roll back critical limits on...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren long has been a hero on the progressive left, but her popularity among the Democratic Party establishment is growing rapidly. Ms. Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, now is set to assume a leadership role in her party’s Senate caucus, and the leaders of that caucus say she’s uniquely qualified for the job.“I think [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid, all of us, have confidence that Elizabeth Warren is a great spokesman for our caucus and for our party on a national basis,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Democrat and the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. Mr. Durbin appeared on...

The progressive advocacy group MoveOn.org is preparing to launch a campaign to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren into the 2016 presidential race. MoveOn is conducting a one-day poll of its eight million members that, if they approve, would mark the beginning of a $1 million initial grassroots investment to convince the freshman Massachusetts Democrat to throw her hat into the presidential ring. “There is too much at stake to have anything other than our best candidates in the debate. We are prepared to show Senator Warren she has the support she needs to enter—and win—the presidential race,” said Ilya Sheyman, executive...

Washington (CNN) -- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren -- not Hillary Clinton -- is the top progressive choice for president in 2016, according to a new poll. In fact, Clinton doesn't even make second place. Forty two percent of respondents favor Warren, and Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders also edges out Clinton with 24% compared to her 23%, according to results from the 2016 Presidential Pulse Poll commissioned by progressive grassroots organization Democracy for America. These results come amid a groundswell of activism from the Democratic party's more liberal wing, which has called for a contested 2016 primary and has often...

Senator Elizabeth Warren is bat guano crazy. She is calling on Democrats in the House to oppose the bi-partisan budget bill negotiated by the House and Senate because an obscure rule dealing with derivatives contained in the Dodd-Frank financial regulation reform bill has been removed.If House Democrats follow her lead, the budget bill will fail and the government will be forced to shut down at 12:01 AM on Friday. At present, Speaker Boehner does not have enough votes for Republicans to pass the measure themselves. That’s because some conservatives in the House are also bat guano crazy and insist...

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..that overcharged him $4 Last week, Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, ordered takeout from a local Chinese restaurant. Upon his return, Edelman discovered the restaurant, Sichuan Garden in Brookline, Mass., had overcharged him a total of $4 on his $53.35 order of shredded chicken with spicy garlic sauce, sautéed prawns with roasted chili and peanut, stir-fried chicken with spicy capsicum and braised fish filets and Napa cabbage with roasted chili. Now most people in this situation might call the restaurant to point out the error, get a refund or future credit for takeout, or just swallow...

Minority students at three prestigious law schools say they want to delay final exams because they’ve been busy protesting grand jury decisions in the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, and haven’t had time to study. Student groups at Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Center and Columbia Law School say demonstrations and rallies over the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases have prevented many students from adequately preparing for exams. Cities across the country have seen large-scale demonstrations since grand juries in both cases recently decided...

WEST BARNSTABLE – “I’m racist,” Elenita Muñiz told a crowd gathered at Cape Cod Community College on Tuesday. Muniz, coordinator of the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, said she took an online quiz, showing that even she, a blue-eyed Puerto Rican and human rights advocate, harbors racist views. Muniz served on a panel to observe national Human Rights Day, which is today. The discussion focused on the shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, an unarmed black man killed by Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Missouri, and similar national incidents. Wilson, who resigned from the police force after...

Progressive icon Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently dropped a bombshell in a private meeting with Boston-area donors, according to a report in Politico. The dispatch focuses primarily on WarrenÂ’s candid criticisms of President Barack Obama and his pick to serve as undersecretary for domestic finance at the Treasury Department, Antonio Weiss. This bit of fractious infighting within the Democratic Party will provide pundits with an opportunity to examine the divisions within the Democratic coalition, but Warren also made a more interesting contention in this meeting that merits further review. According to sources who attended that meeting, Warren heavily criticized...

Once upon a time, there was a saying among the young: “The answer is more beer. What is the question?” Substitute the word “government” for the word “beer” and you have what could be the rallying cry for academics today. “As for spurring economic growth in general, there is a near consensus among serious economists about many of the policies that are necessary,” MIT economists Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence wrote in an article which appeared in Foreign Affairs last summer. “ The basic strategy is intellectually simple, if politically difficult: boost public-sector investment over the short and...

In mid-November, conservative news outlets posted multiple videos of Jonathan Gruber, an MIT health economist who worked on Romneycare and Obamacare, crediting the "stupidity" of American voters as one reason that the health law passed. The videos were not flattering for Gruber; Democrats have moved quickly to distance themselves. And, perhaps more consequentially, they have breathed new life into the Obamacare opposition effort. Today, the House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing with Gruber titled "Examining Obamacare Transparency Failures." ... Here'a a quick guide to who Jonathan Gruber is, why he's at the center of this controversy, and what it...

A publicly traded firearm manufacturing and design company announced its pending purchase of Columbia-based Battenfeld Technologies. Smith & Wesson, headquartered in Springfield, Mass., has signed an agreement to purchase Battenfeld for $130.5 million. ...Battenfeld, which employs 62 people, will stay at its Columbia facility... Smith & Wesson ...wants to move all of its accessory business to the Battenfeld facility. “Our intention is that eventually all existing Smith & Wesson, M&P and Thompson/Center Arms accessories will be housed within this new division,”

Mitt Romney held meetings with donors in New York this week that left one attendee convinced he is running for president again in 2016. A member of Romney's inner circle who spoke to Business Insider said the former governor of Massachusetts traveled to New York City on Monday where he met with key financial backers of his past campaigns to lay the groundwork for a 2016 White House bid.