Massachusetts has a long history of standing up for liberty. Right now, it has the opportunity to become a national leader in fighting invasive government surveillance. Lawmakers need to hear from the people of Massachusetts to say they oppose government use of face surveillance.

Elizabeth Warren took to the senate floor and SLAMMED republicans for the plan to defund planned parenthood as an attack on women's rights. Elizabeth Warren rips republicans for trying to take away a woman's rights to choose for self. The Senate blocked a Republican drive Monday to terminate federal funds for Planned Parenthood, setting the stage for the GOP to try again this fall amid higher stakes — a potential government shutdown

A line is a good sign when looking for something to eat or drink. Waiting is an inconvenience, but when it comes to food and beverage is also emblematic of a product worth sticking around for.

An 1836 petition by Eastham residents concerned about loved ones at sea caused the Boston Marine Society to recommend to the United States Congress the construction of the Nauset Lights. Congress granted $10,000, and the contract was awarded to Winslow Lewis, the lowest bidder at $6549.Three 15-foot high masonry towers were built. The lights soon gained the nickname “The Three Sisters” because from sea they looked like women in white dresses with black hats. '

It’s been almost three years since Massachusetts voters approved medical marijuana by a wide margin. The dispensary in the western half of the state is expected to open soon in Northampton. Wednesday night, it held a coming out party of sorts.

Rainbow colors were in full display Thursday for the annual Carnival parade, where the Candyland theme served up a campy confection for an estimated crowd of 100,000. One of the most over-the-top celebrations on Cape Cod, held the third Thursday of every August, the parade was a block party of creative costumes, thumping music, heat and the usual colorful human wave.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has modernized the standard and process for changing gender markers on birth certificates.  As a result, proof of surgery is no longer required. Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders has worked extensively with advocates and policymakers in Massachusetts and throughout New England to implement this vital change.

The East Street Bridge is well-known to people in the small town of Westwood, but apparently it’s not well known to truck drivers. That’s because trucks slam into the low-lying bridge frequently, and yet, it keeps happening.On Thursday, August 20, it happened again. You can see the food distribution truck ram into the bridge, bursting into pieces. Despite lights and warnings signs, trucks continue to slam into the railroad bridge.

Edward “Ted” Kennedy, the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and a U.S. senator from Massachusetts from 1962 to 2009, dies of brain cancer at age 77 at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Kennedy, one of the longest-serving senators in American history, was a leader of the Democratic Party and a spokesman for liberal causes who also was known for his ability to work with those on both sides of the political aisle.

Hint: there's a lot of sports talk.

The theme park will bring "Bizarro" back to its origins, according to Six Flags spokeswoman Jennifer McGrath. The iconic steel coaster will be re-branded as "Superman: The Ride," similar to "Superman: Ride of Steel," the name is held from 2000 to 2009. While the ride's track and structure won't change, superhero music and other thematic elements will be added.

Ah, freshman college orientation—a time of boisterous dorm rivalries, a capella tryouts, and helping your institution's upperclassmen construct a rickety three-dip roller coaster out of wood. This tradition is particular to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where what is normally a small leafy lawn near the East Campus dorm has become a temporary amusement park.

Salem carried off the neat trick of making Halloween its very special holiday, transmuting its secret shame into its saving grace. By Stacy Schiff.

William Pynchon, earliest colonial ancestor of the novelist Thomas Pynchon, was a key figure in the early settlement of New England. He also wrote a book which became, at the hands of the Puritans it riled against, one of the first to be banned and burned on American soil. Daniel Crown explores.

Driverless train carrying 50 people left a suburban Boston station and sped through 4 stations before it was stopped

Municipal internet is alive and kicking.

The British ship Mayflower docked at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, and its passengers prepared to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony.

Massachusetts, California take the top spots in Bloomberg's index

Critics are blasting a Massachusetts city’s new law that they claim requires residents applying for a license to carry handguns to write “an essay” and pay upwards of $1,100 for training. The new laws take effect this week in Lowell, a city of 110,000 that lies 35 miles north of Boston. Pushed by Police Superintendent William Taylor and passed by the City Council, they require applicants for unrestricted handgun licenses to state in writing why they...

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been “reminded” not to solicit votes near polling sites after President Bill Clinton ventured into a polling location in Boston on Tuesday.

Were you to draw a Venn diagram of Democrats, meritocrats, and plutocrats, the space where they intersect would be Martha's Vineyard. By Thomas Frank.

The government questions whether The Judge Rotenberg Center has been straight with families about the risks of its electrical shock devices and alternative treatments.

A police officer was shot and killed during a traffic stop in a central Massachusetts town early Sunday and authorities are now hunting for the suspect, Fox 25 Boston reported. The murdered officer, Ronald Tarentino, 42, joined the Auburn Police Department two years ago after transferring from the Leicester, Mass., department, Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

Massachusetts is preparing to levy a 5-cent fee per trip on ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft and spend the money on the traditional taxi industry, a subsidy that appears to be the first of its kind in the United States. Republican Governor Charlie Baker signed the nickel fee into law this month as part of a sweeping package of regulations for the industry. Ride services are not enthusiastic about the fee.

Add to the list of Massachusetts’ odd laws. The Codfish State already forbids tomatoes in clam chowder, tattooing and body piercing, dueling to the death on Boston Common on Sundays unless the Governor is present, and playing the fiddle in Boston at any time, according to Only in Your State. The latest judiciary jaw-dropper requires that ride-hail companies subsidize taxi companies, according to Reuters. The new law, just inked by the Massachusetts governor, requires that Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing companies pay a 5-cent fee per ride to taxi companies.

An outbreak of chronic hiccups in teens in Danvers, Massachusetts, site of the Salem Witch Trials, spurred a big investigation. Health officials suspected the culprit was a group psychological phenomenon, but kept that out of the final report. By Dan Vergano.

No politician was more determined than Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts to ensure that secession and war resulted in emancipation.

Ahead of its 300th birthday, we get a special look at the history of America's first lighthouse in Little Brewster Island from its current and first woman keeper.

Witchcraft, trials, death and the Devil: how the long road of history winds from 1692 Salem, Massachusetts to 2015. By “Rachel.”

Sen Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

Massachusetts could become the first state in America to be powered entirely by renewable energy. Lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would require an economy-wide transition to obtaining power via clean sources like wind and solar, and 53 state legislators from both the House and the Senate have shown support for the measure.

A museum at a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts has removed or covered dozens of artwork produced by immigrant artists or donated by foreign-born collectors to illustrate their contribution to the cultural wealth of the United States. The Art-Less project has effectively removed or shrouded 120 works of art, or about 20 per cent of artwork on display in the galleries at Wellesley College's Davis Museum.

It started with a candle in an abandoned warehouse. It ended with the men of the Worcester Fire Department in a fight for their lives. By Sean Flynn.

Thomas Peter Riggs was not like most soldiers. A private in the 54th Massachusetts regiment, his race would have stood out first to contemporary observers: Riggs was black, and his unit was the first to be organized in the North, after President Lincoln and the Union Army acquiesced to expanding the power of the Emancipation Proclamation with African-Americans fighting as soldiers.

In 1637, Mary Dyer of Boston gave a monstrous birth and its midwife was Anne Hutchinson. Both were Puritans of-a-kind… Ed Simon.