Monday, October 28, 2013
Tufts Health Plan CEO no longer in running for Social Security post
"WASHINGTON -- As fitting as it may have been to have a Roosevelt oversee the Social Security Administration, Tufts Health Plan chief executive James Roosevelt Jr. has quietly pulled himself from consideration to run the program his grandfather, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed into law in 1935."
Love story spans Red Sox-Cardinals history
"Bob and Jean Hannon had their first date at Fenway Park. The tickets were $2.50 each, and even though the Red Sox were playing the St. Louis Cardinals in a World Series game, Bob was able to get bleacher seats at the gate.
He was 24, working for New England Telephone. She was 20 and had skipped classes at Emmanuel College to go to the game. “Wow, did you see that 4-6 double play?” she exclaimed.
Impressed with her baseball knowledge, Bob said he remembers thinking, “I’m going to marry that girl.”
At funeral, Colleen Ritzer’s passion for teaching recalled
"ANDOVER — With hundreds of students in the pews, beloved Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer, who was allegedly murdered by a student last week, was mourned in a funeral Mass this morning at St. Augustine’s Church.
An estimated 1,000 people, including 400 students, attended the service, which began at about 10 a.m. after her casket was carried into the church by her cousins.
In a eulogy, one of her cousins, Gina McDaniel, described Ritzer’s passion for education as one of the hallmarks of the 24-year-old’s life."
UMaine opening autism institute
"A new institute is opening at the University of Maine’s Orono campus for educators and others who work with children with autism and post-secondary students seeking to work with such children. The Maine Autism Institute for Education and Research will open Jan. 1. Maine families will also be able to get services and resources through the institute to help them better understand autism. Institute staff plan to host professional development workshops and webinars, create road maps of the various services available from birth to adulthood, and provide family-to-family mentoring. It is a partnership of the Maine Department of Education and the university’s College of Education and Human Development."
Man convicted of murder in 2011 death of Revere group home worker
" Suffolk Superior Court jury today convicted Deshawn James Chappell of first-degree murder for killing Stephanie Moulton inside the Revere group home for the mentally ill where Chappell was a client and Moulton worked.
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Sentencing for Chappell is expected to take place this afternoon in Judge Jeffrey Locke’s courtroom. Chappell faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The murder occurred Jan. 20, 2011. Moulton, an aspiring nursing student who was engaged to be married, was months into her job as a social worker at a group home in Revere run by the North Suffolk Mental Health Association, a state contractor, the Globe has reported."
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Jose Iglesias’s error proves costly in Tigers’ loss
"It was by no means a routine play, but it was the kind you could essentially pencil Jose Iglesias in for.
There was one out in the seventh inning, and the Tigers were clinging to a 2-1 lead in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday night. Jonny Gomes had already reached on a double. Xander Bogaerts had worked his second walk of the night, and Jacoby Ellsbury was at the plate.
When Ellsbury sent a ball skipping up the middle, Iglesias’s mind was already on turning the double play that would have gotten them out of the inning.
“He hit it pretty good,” Iglesias said. “So I thought I had the double play.”
From the dugout, Tigers manager Jim Leyland was picturing the same thing.
“I think we could have,” Leyland said. “It was hit pretty hard, but that’s part of the game. I have no problem with that. Probably could have turned that, even though Ellsbury runs good. I think we doubled him once this series.”
Bill Belichick disagrees with flag
"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said he didn't believe his team committed a penalty on a pivotal missed field goal attempt in Sunday's 30-27 overtime lossto the New York Jets.
Nick Folk's missed 56-yard field goal try was nullified due to an unsportsmanlike penalty call on defensive tackle Chris Jones for pushing a teammate in an attempt to block the kick.
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Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe/Getty ImagesBill Belichick argues with officials following a critical overtime penalty on the Patriots.
The officials ruled that Jones was a second-level defender that pushed teammate Will Svitek from behind, a violation of Rule 9, Section 1, Article 3 that states: "Team B players cannot push teammates on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation."
Though Jones did appear to push Svitek, he was originally lined up on the line of scrimmage. The violation is said to occur only when the pushing player starts at the second level of the defense, which is what Belichick took exception to.
"You can't push on the second level," he said. "I didn't think we did that."
New York, given new life, ran the ball three times to set up Folk's game-winning 42-yard field goal.
Referee Jerome Boger explained his decision after the game.
A strange penalty helped the Jets beat the Patriots in OT Sunday. Is New York for real? What about New England?
"The call was that No. 94 [Jones] on the defense pushed his teammate into the formation," he said. "That is a rule change for 2013 that a teammate cannot push a teammate into the opponents' formation."
Patriots fall to Jets after critical penalty
"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — As rookie teammate Chris Jones found himself pressed into his locker by a throng of media members asking about the critical penalty called on him in overtime, Patriots captain Matthew Slater was at his own stall just a few feet away.
“It’s not on him,” Slater said of Jones. “There were 20, 30 plays throughout the game that could have gone differently. You guys are asking Chris a lot of questions, but it’s not his fault. We lost this game as a team.”
The Patriots fell to their AFC East rivals, the Jets, Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, 30-27, in OT. It was the second loss of the season for New England, and snapped a five-game win streak against New York.
The play in question, the one that led to Jones getting so many questions, came during Jets kicker Nick Folk’s game-winning 56-yard field-goal attempt.
Lined up behind Will Svitek, Jones can be seen on replay pushing Svitek forward at the snap and into the Jets’ Damon Harrison. A flag immediately went up into the air, and even though Folk’s long attempt was wide left, the infraction meant he’d get a second chance."
Marvin Lewis
"Marvin Ronald Lewis (born September 23, 1958) is the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League, a position he has held since January 14, 2003, making him the 2nd longest tenured head coach in the NFL behind New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Previously, he was notable as the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, whose record-setting defense helped them win Super Bowl XXXV 34-7 over the New York Giants."
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Rajon Rondo: Why would I want out?
"Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo said that he is embracing the challenge of a rebuild and hopes to aid the team in that process.
Rondo, speaking to reporters Tuesday night at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston after formally announcing he has joined the ANTA shoe brand, dispelled the notion that Boston's roster overhaul this past summer, which included trading away Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, might leave him yearning to join a contender rather than endure another rebuilding process.
"I love it here. The fans are great here," Rondo said, according to Comcast SportsNet. "And [president of basketball operations] Danny [Ainge] has been straightforward with me. This is my team. Why would I want to leave? Why would I want out?"
Rob Gronkowski: Still 'day-to-day'
:FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Amid reports that the New England Patriots are optimistic that Rob Gronkowski will make his season debut Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, the tight end reinforced on Thursday that his status remains day-to-day.
After all he's endured, Pats tight end Rob Gronkowski has the right to be cautious about his return, writes Ashley Fox.
"It's basically nothing new," he told reporters. "I mean, I'm just working hard every week, working hard out at practice, and nothing's changed, we're day by day, like we've been from the very beginning."
Asked what he and doctors need to see in order to know he is ready to return to the field, Gronkowski replied, "[I'm] really just taking it each day at a time and just trying to improve each day at a time. And that's all."
On Wednesday, quarterback Tom Brady said that he's not riding the emotional roller coaster attached to speculating on Gronkowski's return date.
"We've kind of talked about it a lot the last five weeks," Brady said. "If he's there, he's there. If he's not, he's not. We're going to try to go win anyway," he said.
Brady's comments came on the heels of remarks by coach Bill Belichick, who reiterated that Gronkowski's status is day-to-day but did not elaborate."
Obama, GOP escalate the rhetoric on shutdown
WASHINGTON — President Obama and House speaker John A. Boehner amped up their rhetoric Tuesday as the standoff over the shutdown and a potential default on the nation’s debt reached a new level of discord and uncertainty.
Even a temporary route to break the logjam — the possibility of raising the nation’s borrowing authority for a few weeks to stave off economic calamity and allow time for substantial negotiations — did not win any agreement, despite offering an opportunity for both sides to save face.
Obama and Boehner had a brief phone conversation Tuesday morning, then followed that up with dueling press conferences that revealed how deeply the two sides remain divided.
“If reasonable Republicans want to talk about these things again, I’m ready to head up to the Hill and try,” Obama said during a press conference. “I’ll even spring for dinner again.”
But, he added, “I’m not going to do it until the more extreme parts of the Republican Party stop forcing John Boehner to issue threats about our economy. We can’t make extortion routine as part of our democracy.”
The economic warning came Tuesday as stocks fell sharply and consumer confidence, as measured by Gallup, has fallen by more than it has in any week since the Lehman Brothers collapse of 2008, the beginning of the global economic crisis.
The Obama administration has warned that the nation faces default on its credit beginning Oct. 17. Republicans have pounded Obama for days for refusing to negotiate terms for an end to the dispute. Obama, in a press conference lasting more than hour, went to extraordinary lengths to explain to ordinary Americans why he believes “paying ransom’’ in exchange for raising the debt ceiling is “nonnegotiable.’’
Cantor calls White House meeting useful
"WASHINGTON — Urgent efforts to prevent an economy-tanking U.S. default rose and then retreated with astonishing speed Thursday, as House Republicans floated a compromise and the White House appeared amenable, only for Senate Democrats to declare it unacceptable.
‘‘Not going to happen,’’ declared Majority Leader Harry Reid, standing outside the White House after he and fellow Democrats met with President Barack Obama. The Republican plan would leave the 10-day-old partial government shutdown in place while raising the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt limit and setting up negotiations between the GOP and Obama over spending cuts and other issues.
Heartened by any hint of progress, Wall Street chose to accentuate the positive. After days of decline, the Dow Jones industrial average soared 323 points on hopes that the divided government was taking steps to avoid a default. Reid’s dismissive comments at the White House came at the end of the trading day."
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