Massachusetts

Picture from the Boston Herald.

What a sad day.Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who was elected with a wave of hope, has turned his back on migrants.

Governor Deval Patrick has decided against taking action to allow illegal immigrants to pay resident tuition and fees at state colleges and universities this fall, an administration official said yesterday, crushing advocates who were counting on the governor to deliver on a pledge to support the students.

Maria Sacchetti - Boston Globe (22 May 2008)

This is a sad day for hundreds of migrant youth, whose only hope to go to college this year was crushed.What makes this an even harder pill to swallow is that Patrick is turning his back on a promise he made during his campaign.

We will have in-state tuition for undocumented aliens when I am governor.

Deval Patrick - WBZTV (4 April 2006)

Yesterday, as I sat in the lobby of the Elizabeth Detention Center waiting to testify at a hearing, I learned about the violent incident that took place in Virginia. A small flat-screen television hangs on a wall in the detention center’s lobby. I sat there for almost six hours, each hour getting more and more agitated at the cell phone and video coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. Normally in these situations, I get up and turn the television off. But I was in a situation where I could not get away from the images bombarded at me. CNN shot the ongoing campus scenes throughout the whole day, reiterating over and over again that this was the biggest shooting ever to take place in American history. At first while I listened to the news reporters, I masked my fears, needing to act like I was in control, that everything was okay, and that I was strong enough to stomach the events they televised.

I distracted myself from the flat-screen television and tried to focus on preparing for my testimony. But as the hours went by, officers at the detention center passed by me, shouting out the latest death toll. First 21, then 22, then 29, then 31, then 32, and finally 33. It was impossible to tune out. I felt my mind and my heart drift back to when I was 16 years-old, when I was also on campus during a college shooting rampage. That was almost 15 years ago.

At various times yesterday, CNN provided history and statistical information of previous school shootings like Columbine and The University of Texas massacres. I waited for them to list my alma mater. But one school they didn't list was a small early undergraduate program called Simon's Rock College, tucked away in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This is where a college campus shooting occurred on December 14, 1992, the first shooting to occur in the United States in the 1990s.

Anything short of a miracle!

Completing one of the most extraordinary political journeys the state has ever seen, Democrat Deval Patrick today won a landslide victory over Republican Kerry Healey and two other candidates to become the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts.

And completely amazing:

Coakley faced no challenge in the Democratic primary and coasted to a win tonight. During the campaign, her highest profile moment came when she appeared in television advertisements hailing Deval Patrick's gubernatorial candidacy.

What a night.

Back in October, I wrote about a mini-controversy that erupted when the fact that Catholic Charities in Boston is, in order to comply with the Commonwealth's anti-discrimination laws, facilitating the adoption of hard to place children by gay couples. The four Massachusetts Bishops are none too happy, and are looking for ways to get around the Bay State's laws. Yesterday's Boston Globe reported:

The four Roman Catholic bishops of Massachusetts plan to seek permission from the state to exclude gay couples as adoptive parents, according to two board members of the church's largest social service agency who were briefed on the plan.

The decision follows a three-month study of the theological and practical impact of having Catholic Charities of Boston, the Boston Archdiocese's social service arm, place children with gay couples, given the Vatican's teaching that describes such adoptions are ''gravely immoral."

This decision to seek an exemption from state anti-discrimination rules pits the bishops against the 42-member board of Catholic Charities of Boston, which is made up of some of Boston's most prominent lay Catholics. The board voted unanimously in December in support of continuing to allow gay couples to adopt children.

[Update] Watching the news right now, they're only mentioning a hatchet, and are saying two men are in critical condition. Here's a more detailed article from the Boston Globe. You can even see the suspect's MySpace page here....some disturbing comments from his friends near the bottom of a disturbing page.

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You've got to admit, it's not often you hear about a machete and hatchet attack in a gay bar:

NEW BEDFORD -- Police continued their hunt late today for an armed suspect who shot two people and slashed another inside a popular gay nightclub.

The incident occurred about midnight inside the Puzzles Lounge on North Front Street. A bartender, who asked that his name not be used because he feared for his life, said a man armed with a hatchet, a machete, and a handgun attacked patrons before he fled the bar.

[snip]

The bartender said the man came into the bar, ordered a drink, and asked if it was a gay bar. He was told that it was.