WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Carl Stevens reports

“You’ve got to earn it,” Kennedy told reporters after greeting commuters at a train station in Newton, the first of several stops the Democrat planned to make in the reconfigured 4th Congressional District.

Read: Keller @ Large: Kennedy Name Not A Guarantee Of Success

“You’ve got to go out every day and talk to people, listen to their concerns, shake more hands, knock on more doors, take more phone calls.”

Kennedy, 31, is seeking the seat held by the retiring U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.

He released a three-minute video announcement on his website early Thursday before heading out on the tour that also will take him to the largely blue-collar communities of Milford, Attleboro, Taunton and Westport.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Ben Parker reports on Democratic field

The first stop was on largely friendly ground in the upscale Boston suburb.

The redheaded son of former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy frequently flashed a trademark Kennedy-esque grin as he strode along the train platform and chatted up riders waiting for inbound trolleys to the city.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” he told one man who then remarked that a friend knew one of Kennedy’s uncles, a nod to the many personal and political connections Massachusetts voters still have toward the family.

“He’s a Kennedy — no coat,” pointed out one older supporter who wore a Kennedy sticker. John F. Kennedy famously doffed his overcoat on a bitterly cold day during inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C., in 1961.

The late president’s great-nephew wore a dark blue suit and tie on a chilly but not unseasonably cold morning more than half a century later.

Kennedy’s official announcement was largely a foregone conclusion after he said last month that he was forming an exploratory committee to run for the seat.

He later resigned his job as a prosecutor in Middlesex County and moved from Cambridge, outside the 4th district, to Brookline, within the district.

He has already been endorsed by two major labor unions and a recent poll showed him with a commanding early lead over Republican Sean Bielat, who lost to Frank two years ago and is running again.

While the Kennedy name remains a powerful force in the state, Republicans are quick to point to U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s surprising victory over Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election that followed U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy’s death in 2009.

Edward Kennedy had held the seat for nearly a half century, and John F. Kennedy had held it before his brother. The Republican Brown carried several of the communities in the 4th district in the special election.

“I just think the Kennedy name is not enough to elect somebody,” said Mary Thomits, a retired teacher from Brookline who said she “shocked” Kennedy when he introduced himself to her Thursday at a diner near the transit station by telling him that she did not think he was qualified to run.

Thomits, who said she was an independent but planned to vote for Bielat, said she was turned off by the fact that Kennedy was being opportunistic by changing his residence to run in the district. “I think he’s just riding on his name,” she said.

WBZ-TV’s Sera Congi reports:

But Mike Grossman, a 56-year-old Newton resident, said he welcomed Kennedy’s candidacy. Though an independent who had voted for Republicans in the past, Grossman said the Kennedy family had a “legacy” that was positive for the state.

Kennedy defended his qualifications for office, pointing to his experience as a volunteer in the Peace Corps, as legal aid attorney and prosecutor as evidence of his concern for the disenfranchised.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Lana Jones reports from Attleboro

“I think I’ve had an opportunity over the course of my life to see what happens to people who are playing against a stacked deck,” he said.

Kennedy said he was proud of his family’s long record of public service, but his only specific reference to a family member during his first campaign exchange with reporters came on a question about the current partisan deadlock in Washington. He remarked that Edward Kennedy, while being known as a “liberal lion,” was also able to reach across the aisle and forge strong working relationships with Republicans.

“One of his best friends in the Senate was (Utah Republican) Orrin Hatch,” he said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

We saw just a few years back, in the wake of Joe Moakley’s passing, another member of the Kennedy family flirting with a run and then packing it in when it became clear he didn’t have what it took.

This time around, I think there’s more to it.

WBZ-TV’s Jon Keller Is At Large

Joe Kennedy, my sources in the D.A’s office in Middlesex County tell me, had a good reputation there, was well-liked and hard working.

He served his country over in the Peace Corps, and while he’s quite young for a congressional candidate, we’ve seen that before, even sometimes people not named Kennedy have run at young ages and won.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that his name, his political resources make Joe Kennedy an early front-runner in this race.

But, early front-runners don’t always make it across the finish line.

He’ll have to prove it out in the street, in debates, in dealing with the media and that’s a task that not every Kennedy was necessarily was born to succeed at.

It will bear watching. It certainly has a great storyline to start off with.

But with that storyline and with that famous legacy comes a burden and a standard to live up to and a lot of expectations.

Will young Joe Kennedy meet those expectations?

We’re about to find out.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

The marketers will now have to get your permission, in writing or by pressing buttons on your phone, before they can robocall you.

If you don’t give consent, they’ve got to add you to their “do not call” list.

And even if you’ve done business with them before, they still have to get your OK every time they try to robocall you.

The FCC already had some restrictions on this tactic, but they were too loose, circumvented by taped messages and computerized dialing, and as the agency puts it, calls were still bombarding “consumers who don’t want to hear from them.”

Like me, and, I bet, you.

I applaud this crackdown, but I also wonder – did they go far enough?

Guess what still isn’t covered, for legal reasons – robocalls on behalf of political candidates.

Those are the worst robocalls of all.

Talk about being called by someone you don’t want to hear from.

And on those rare occasions when it’s a call from someone you might like to have a few words with, like a former president or Mayor Menino, is there anything worse than the way you feel when you realize it’s not really them, just a phony, mass-produced recording?

Your home is your castle, they used to say in the old days.

So it’s a bit of an aggressively intimate act when you reach into someone’s castle and set the phone ringing.

It’s one thing if it’s you, a real live human, on the phone trying to sell or fundraise.

But to get a robocall – it’s like rushing in from the yard or out of a bath to grab the phone, and it’s the ten-year-old next door asking if your refrigerator’s running, you’d better go catch it.

I guess the FCC’s hands are tied.

But to the pols who still think robocalls are a good idea: you’ll never get my vote, and I know I’m not alone.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Which, in fact, they have been, as they attend a string of public hearings across the state on the proposed public-transit service cuts and 43-percent fare hikes they claim are needed to close the MBTA’s $161 million budget deficit.

But judging from what I’ve seen in the video of some of those rowdy hearings, the realization is starting to sink in that the T brass aren’t the only ones that need some stern feedback.

That huge budget gap is in part a by-product of the T’s staggering $5.2 billion debt, which devours nearly a third of the system’s budget each year.

And that debt is the product of really bad decision-making by the legislature and executive branch in this state, from unsustainable union contracts to the Big Dig fiasco, going back for decades.

The guy at the hearing in Boston Monday night with the Deval Patrick mask blaming the governor and the legislature for our current mess had a point.

They didn’t create the problem, but they’re doing nothing to help solve it.

A few years ago, the governor did propose a gas tax hike – which almost certainly has to be a part of the way out of the woods for the T – but its political failure back then is no excuse for his unwillingness to push for it now, especially since he’s a lame duck with no obvious political risk at stake.

And legislators who say they can’t vote for a gas tax hike or another form of T relief because voters who don’t use public transit will be angry with them aren’t exactly scoring high on the courage meter.

This is not to let the T off the hook.

They could do more to save money through privatization, they should sell off some of their surplus property, and forfeiting a million bucks in liquor ad revenue was foolish.

But this is a problem too big and important for anyone – politicians or taxpayers – to run away from.

And if they’re waiting for a bus to come along and whisk them away from the mess – well, insert your own joke here.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

“I believe this country was founded on a simple idea: that every person deserves to be treated fairly, by each other and by their government, but that’s not happening in America anymore,” Kennedy said in advance of tomorrow’s announcement. “I’ve spoken to people from across the fourth Congressional District – from Newton to Fall River – who believe that Washington no longer works for them. I will work hard to earn every vote and if elected bring that fight for fairness to the US Congress.”

WBZ-TV’s Jonathan Elias Reports

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO endorsed Kennedy Sunday, days before he was set to officially announce his run for Barney Frank’s old seat in the fourth Congressional District.

“I guess the unions like Kennedy’s,” said Boston College political science professor Dennis Hale. “They certainly have plenty of reason to have liked his other family member in the Senate, Edward Kennedy.

Kennedy issued a statement soon after, accepting the endorsement.

“The AFL-CIO has always been a passionate advocate for basic fairness and economic opportunity for its members and working men and women across the country.  I really appreciate this early expression of support,” Kennedy said, in a statement.

“It’s a little strange that they would be jumping so quickly on to the heir apparent,” Hale added. “This is almost like kind of a monarchic system here, where the guy with the name gets the endorsements very quickly.”

Hale believes, however, that even though some organizations might give him a pass because of his name, Kennedy will have to actively campaign to win the fourth Congressional District seat.

Students and other transit riders held a protest outside the Statehouse on Tuesday against proposals offered that would raise fares as much as 43 percent while cutting some bus routes and eliminating weekend commuter rail service.

The MBTA is facing a $161 million deficit.

WBZ-TV’s Jon Keller spoke with Richard Davey

Earlier in the day, legislators whose districts are in the T’s service area met to hear suggestions for closing the gap while also providing more funds for other transportation needs around the state.

Lawmakers have heard some calls for raising the state’s 21-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline, but legislative leaders have indicated that a tax increase is unlikely this year.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum is releasing 20,000 documents from the private papers of Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House Years. Library Director Tom Putnam says, “What these documents really show is what an incredibly confident and substantive and intellectually thoughtful person she was.”

The papers include her speech in Miami after the Bay of Pigs, the itinerary for a trip with her sister to India and Pakistan, and the original designs and plans from her historic restoration of the White House.

WBZ-TV’s Karen Anderson reports

In her hand written notes, you can see her attention to detail and deep knowledge and interest in the restoration. She has extensive notes on the draft of the televised tour script with CBS. Putnam says, “You can see the changes she made, you can see some of the jokes she made, you get a sense of how substantive and thoughtful and engaged she was in the whole process.”

The documents are available for research at the John F. Kennedy Library. They represent about a third of Mrs. Kennedy’s private papers. The rest will be released as they are archived.

The former Massachusetts governor defeated Ron Paul, the only other GOP hopeful competing in the state. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich did not actively participate in the contest.

Party leaders announced the results Saturday. The caucuses began February 4 and continued through the week. Some Maine communities have yet to hold their caucuses, though party leaders say they don’t plan to count those votes.

Romney easily won the Maine caucuses in 2008.

Maine has 24 delegates to the party’s national convention — 21 of them were at stake in a process that began with the caucuses.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The House Constitutional Review and Statutory Recodification Committee recommends the House reject the bill when it meets Wednesday. Rep. Susan Emerson, a Rindge Republican, filed the bill after a discussion with Republican House Speaker William O’Brien over her proposed state budget amendments. She said O’Brien bullied her — something he denies.

Her bill called for the attorney general’s office to investigate complaints.

In the committee’s report, Rep. John Cebrowski, a Bedford Republican, said that the chamber controls its proceedings and should not give a say to another branch of government. He said members who feel wronged have other outlets to make their case,

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The former Massachusetts governor is favored as the Republican presidential nominee by 38 percent of the 3,408 respondents. Rivals Rick Santorum drew 31 percent, and Newt Gingrich was favored by 15 percent. All three candidates addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday.

Romney had encouraged students to attend the convention, and 44 percent of them participated in the poll.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul had 12 percent. He won the straw poll in the previous two years. Paul did not attend the conference to campaign in Maine.

GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said the poll was held online for the first time this year and produced the second highest turnout in the conference’s history.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The Constitutional Review and Statutory Recodification Committee is recommending that the House kill the bill as a possible constitutional conflict between the rights of the individual employee and the health effects on an occasional customer with an allergy to scented products.

The House is scheduled to vote on the bill Wednesday.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Both Senator Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren have been critical of earmarks.

But in an interview with WBZ last year, Warren, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for Senate, said if elected she’d still compete for that targeted funding for Massachusetts.

WBZ-TV’s Jon Keller Is At Large

Brown has been trying to make political hay off of that, even though he once took the same position.

“I think there are a lot of people who have objections to earmarks, and for good reason,” Warren told Jon Keller. “I think they’re creating some real problems in our system. But so long as we live in an earmark system, it is part of the job of each delegation to protect its home state. That’s how the game works.”

Brown has rebuked Warren in press releases linking to that interview.

But when he was asked the same question as a Senate candidate in 2009, Brown’s response sounded a lot like Warren’s.

At the time, Brown said, “I’ll fight for every dollar to come back to Massachusetts as I fought for my district, not only to get the dollars but to retain them.”

In a statement today, a Brown campaign spokesman documented a string of anti-earmark votes by the Senator since taking office, and added, “Scott Brown’s strong record opposing earmarks and supporting a permanent ban of them in the Senate speaks for itself.”

And from the Warren Camp: “Elizabeth will work to end earmarks permanently and supports legislation to do that. But until that happens, she’s going to play by the rules that exist, because that will help Massachusetts.”

Brown argues there are ways to make sure Massachusetts gets it fair share of federal funding without inserting earmarks, and claims that’s just what he’s been doing.

But the tale of the tapes underscores a political reality that undercuts the push for earmark reform: A candidate who vows not to pursue every last dime does so at his or her political peril.

“This waiver will allow us to move on from the broken pieces of No Child Left Behind and focus on true innovation to create a brighter future for our children,” Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

“Massachusetts is already at the forefront of student achievement, and this decision by the Obama Administration gives us the flexibility we need to build on our success and lift all children up.”

The other states to receive the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Kim Tunnicliffe reports

The only state that applied for the flexibility and did not get it, New Mexico, is working with the administration to get approval.

A total of 28 other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have signaled that they, too, plan to seek waivers — a sign of just how vast the law’s burdens have become as a big deadline nears.

No Child Left Behind requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014.

Obama’s action strips away that fundamental requirement for those approved for flexibility, provided they offer a viable plan instead.

Under the deal, the states must show they will prepare children for college and careers, set new targets for improving achievement among all students, reward the best performing schools and focus help on the ones doing the worst.

In September, Obama called President George W. Bush’s most hyped domestic accomplishment an admirable but flawed effort that hurt students instead of helping them.

He said action was necessary because Congress failed to update the law despite widespread bipartisan agreement that it needs fixing.

Republicans have charged that by granting waivers, Obama was overreaching his authority.

The executive action by Obama is one of his most prominent in an ongoing campaign to act on his own where Congress is rebuffing him.

No Child Left Behind was primarily designed to help the nation’s poor and minority children and was passed a decade ago with widespread bipartisan support.

It has been up for renewal since 2007. But lawmakers have been stymied for years by competing priorities, disagreements over how much of a federal role there should be in schools and, in the recent Congress, partisan gridlock.

For all the cheers that states may have about the changes, the move also reflects the sobering reality that the United States is not close to the law’s original goal: getting children to grade level in reading and math.

Critics today say the 2014 deadline was unrealistic, the law is too rigid and led to teaching to the test, and too many schools feel they are labeled as “failures.”

“NCLB accountability requirements have rendered ‘perfect’ the enemy of ‘good,’” Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester said in a statement Thursday.

“A school either made Adequate Yearly Progress or it didn’t – there was no middle ground. As a result, more than 80 percent of Massachusetts schools and 90 percent of districts were tagged as inadequate under NCLB, which flies in the face of common sense.”

Under No Child Left Behind, schools that don’t meet requirements for two years or longer face increasingly tough consequences, including busing children to higher-performing schools, offering tutoring and replacing staff.

As the deadline approaches, more schools are failing to meet requirements under the law, with nearly half not doing so last year, according to the Center on Education Policy.

Center officials said that’s because some states today have harder tests or have high numbers of immigrant and low-income children, but it’s also because the law requires states to raise the bar each year for how many children must pass the test.

In states granted a waiver, students will still be tested annually.

But starting this fall, schools in those states will no longer face the same prescriptive actions spelled out under No Child Left Behind. A school’s performance will also probably be labeled differently.

The pressure will probably still be on the lowest-performing schools in states granted a waiver, but mediocre schools that aren’t failing will probably see the most changes because they will feel less pressure and have more flexibility in how they spend federal dollars, said Michael Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank.

While the president’s action marks a change in education policy in America, the reach is limited. The populous states of Pennsylvania, Texas and California are among those that have not said they will seek a waiver, although they could still do so later.

On Tuesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said states without a waiver will be held to the standards of No Child Left Behind because “it’s the law of the land.”

Some conservatives viewed Obama’s plan not as giving more flexibility to states, but as imposing his vision on them. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the president allowed “an arbitrary timeline” to dictate when Congress should get the law rewritten and set a dangerous precedent by granting the education secretary “sweeping authority to handpick winners and losers.”

Duncan maintained this week that the administration “desperately” wants Congress to fix the law.

In an election year in a divided Congress, that appears unlikely to happen.

A Senate committee last fall passed a bipartisan bill to update the law, but it was opposed by the administration and did not go before the full Senate for a vote.

WBZ-TV’s Jim Smith reports

Kline released a draft of a Republican-written bill to update the law, earning the ire of California Rep. George Miller, the committee’s ranking Democrat.

Miller said such partisanship “means the end” to No Child Left Behind reform in this Congress.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate committee with jurisdiction over education, has said he believes it “would be difficult to find a path forward” without a bipartisan bill in the House.

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Lana Jones reports.

DeLeo’s comment, made in a speech to House members on Wednesday, appears to deal a blow to Gov. Deval Patrick’s plan to raise new revenues by hiking the cigarette tax 50 cents a pack and applying the state sales tax to candy and soda.

The speaker outlined priorities for the remainder of the two-year legislative session during his address.

DeLeo said he believed “broad agreement” could be reached on a plan to reduce health care costs in Massachusetts. He did not specifically endorse Patrick’s plan for creating a global payment system to replace the current fee-for-service approach to paying for health care.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

And that reality is undercutting his effort to cast himself as the inevitable Republican presidential nominee and prolonging a race that each day exposes deep divisions within the party.

Newt Gingrich also now faces a fresh challenge to his claim that he’s the chief conservative alternative to Romney, the GOP front-runner.

Those were the big takeaways from Rick Santorum’s surprise victories Tuesday night in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri — which, for now at least, keep his struggling candidacy alive.

“Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota,” the former Pennsylvania senator told cheering supporters before the Colorado results were known. “I don’t stand here to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama.”

Santorum broke a four-state losing streak by successfully pitching himself as the only true conservative in Tuesday’s races.

The results focus attention on Romney’s and Gingrich’s weaknesses, while underscoring the degree to which the GOP primary battle is likely to stretch well into the spring and perhaps even the summer. The outcomes also are likely to detract from Republicans’ efforts to lambaste President Barack Obama.

While Santorum may get a short-term boost of momentum, it’s unclear whether the cash-strapped candidate has the resources to capitalize quickly on the wins and compete against Romney’s national political machine.

Santorum is a candidate with a post office box as a national headquarters. He’s using volunteers to handle his scheduling. And he has virtually no staff to help turn momentum into votes in the critical Super Tuesday contests that are now four weeks away.

His rivals face problems of their own.

Romney has struggled to win over conservatives, who for years have viewed him skeptically for his shifts and reversals on issues they hold dear, like abortion and gay rights.

Romney hadn’t lost a nomination fight since his second-place finish in South Carolina 17 days ago. He went on to comfortably win the Florida primary and Nevada’s caucuses. And polling in those two states suggested that Republicans of all stripes — social conservatives, tea party activists and those in the mainstream — had finally begun to set aside doubts about his conservative credentials.

Romney used that, and his back-to-back victories, to his advantage. He had started to portray himself as the presumptive nominee as establishment Republicans rallied behind him.

But in recent days, Romney sensed a Santorum surge in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, and started to court social conservatives with get-tough positions against abortion and gay rights as he worked to convince them that he was pure on key issues despite his more moderate positions of the past.

It didn’t work — and he recognized as much in a brief speech to a partially empty room of supporters gathered in Denver as the results came in.

“This was a good night for Rick Santorum,” a more subdued Romney said. But he added, “We’ll keep on campaigning down the road, but I expect to become our nominee with your help.”

Gingrich, for his part, did his best to ignore one of his worst days in the campaign, trailing far behind Santorum and Romney.

The former House speaker spent the day campaigning in Ohio and staying out of sight when results rolled in from Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri. He had no immediate comment on an outcome that put into question his standing in the race.

The first day of multi-state voting in the GOP race exposed a glaring deficiency for Gingrich: He lacked the resources and organization to compete. He’s trying to project strength heading into a series of Super Tuesday elections on March 6, but his decision to barely campaign in the trio of states this week gave Santorum the opportunity to suggest that he’s once again become the anti-Romney candidate.

Both Romney and Gingrich clearly knew it would be a bad day.

Romney political director Rich Beeson released a memo early Tuesday that noted that Arizona Sen. John McCain lost 19 states on the way to capturing the GOP presidential nomination in 2008.

And, on Monday night, Gingrich predicted, “I think that Santorum’s going to have a pretty good day.” Gingrich also started making excuses for a poor showing.

“I stayed in Florida to fight it out,” Gingrich said. “He took the same amount of time and energy and he came to Minnesota and Missouri and Colorado. For him, that was the right decision.”

The race now moves to Maine, whose low-profile caucuses conclude Saturday, before heading to Arizona and Michigan. Romney is poised to do well in Michigan, given his family ties to the state his father once governed.

Ultimately, history may reveal that Tuesday’s results were little more than an embarrassing blip for a Romney campaign that holds massive advantages over underfunded and under-organized rivals. But it may take months to find out.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Steve Peoples covers national politics and the presidential campaign for The Associated Press.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Romney shrugged off his poor showing, but his losses Tuesday in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado laid bare his stubborn weakness just when it looked as if his party was beginning to embrace him. Bringing up the rear of the Santorum surge: Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who mostly skipped the contests and finished at or near the back of the pack in all three states.

Santorum cast the results as a victory for a purer form of conservatism than Romney has offered, heard more clearly by voters across the nation’s midsection without a deafening TV air war that the former Massachusetts governor has dominated.

“Tonight, we had an opportunity to see what a campaign looks like when one candidate isn’t outspent 5- or 10-to-1 by negative ads impugning their integrity and distorting their record. This is a more accurate representation, frankly, of what the fall race will look like,” a jubilant Santorum told a cheering crowd in St. Charles, Mo.

But it was far from clear that the former Pennsylvania senator, who has a post office box for a campaign headquarters and relies on volunteers to handle scheduling, can quickly turn the momentum into the millions of campaign dollars he would need to overcome Romney. Still, he looked past the nomination fight.

“I don’t stand here to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama,” Santorum said. On health care, cap and trade and the Wall Street bailout, he charged, “Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama.”

In Denver, Romney congratulated his rival. The revived questions about Romney’s appeal with conservatives at the party’s core were even sharper in light of his aggressive push to court them in recent days. Santorum’s shoestring candidacy thrived. And the GOP nomination fight many in the party hoped would resolve itself after Super Tuesday now threatened to rumble past March 6 — while Obama watches from his presidential perch in the White House, and waits.

“This was a good night for Rick Santorum,” Romney told supporters in Denver on Tuesday night. He offered a bit of forced optimism: “We’ll keep on campaigning down the road, but I expect to become our nominee with your help.”

Romney added, “When this primary season is over, we’re going to stand united as a party behind our nominee to defeat Barack Obama.”

He wasn’t the only loser.

On the first day of multi-state voting, the trio of contests exposed a glaring deficiency for Gingrich.

The former House speaker lacked the resources and organization to compete just as he’s trying to project strength heading into the Super Tuesday elections. He made only minimal efforts in the three states that voted and stayed out of sight as the results rolled in. Gingrich is focusing on Ohio, where early voting has begun in the March 6 primary.

Texas congressman Ron Paul, meanwhile, reveled in his second-place win in Minnesota and vowed to keep collecting delegates to take to the GOP’s national convention this summer.

To be fair, Tuesday’s contests will have little bearing on the race for delegates. Missouri’s nonbinding primary in particular was little more than an extensive warm-up routine. The state will hold an official caucus in March.

But even symbolic victories can produce or slow down momentum.

Romney’s camp began downplaying the results hours before the voting began. Rich Beeson, his political director, released a memo earlier in the day noting that even Sen. John McCain lost 19 states on the way to capturing the GOP presidential nomination in 2008. And Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, the director of Romney’s congressional endorsements, released a statement as the votes began showing his candidate had lost in Blunt’s home state.

“I congratulate my friend Rick Santorum on his win tonight,” Blunt said. “But the fact remains that this is a nonbinding primary, meaning Missouri’s delegates are still very much up for grabs.”

Following Maine’s low-profile caucuses, which conclude Saturday, the candidates will have an extended lull. Beeson recently noted that momentum would be vital heading into the 17-day period without an election, something he likened to a grand canyon with no precedent in modern presidential politics.

“If you don’t have momentum and resources coming into it, it’s going to be hard to have momentum and resources coming out of it,” Beeson said.

That was a week before he realized his boss would suddenly see his momentum disappear.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The move comes while the U.S. Attorney is investigating the hiring scandal at the Probation Department.

Is there a connection?

WBZ-TV’s Karen Anderson reports

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has no comment on the highly secretive proceedings.

We asked former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, about the process. Sullivan has no involvement with the current investigation, but helped us understand .

Sullivan says, “If Sal DiMasi had some information that the government thought to be potentially useful, I would not be surprised if they did, at a minimum, try to interview him, or secondly try to get him before a Grand Jury.”

DiMasi was named in the scathing Ware Report as having a high success rate placing or promoting candidates in the Probation Department.

Former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan says prosecutors could give DiMasi immunity, or make a deal in exchange for his testimony.

Under federal rules the court may reduce a sentence if the defendant, after sentencing, provided substantial assistance in investigating or prosecuting another person.

Sullivan says if there was any kind of deal, it wouldn’t go before a judge until after a trial was complete: “Because part of the substantial assistance for most defendants is that you have to testify, to provide that testimony before a jury, so the value of the substantial assistance comes at a later time.”

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Karen Twomey reports

Life for DiMasi is drastically different from his days as one of the most powerful politicians in the state.

Sullivan says, “Considering Ware’s report, it wouldn’t be surprising to me if they (prosecutors) had an interest in speaking to Sal DiMasi. The question is whether Sal DiMasi has an interest in speaking with the Government. That’s the $64,000 question.”

DiMasi is listed on the Federal Bureau of Prison’s inmate locator as being “in transit.”

A spokeswoman said the bureau does not provide further specific information on inmates and DiMasi’s lawyer said he could not provide any details on his client’s whereabouts.

DiMasi is serving an eight-year prison sentence.

He was convicted last June of conspiracy, extortion an honest services fraud.

The former speaker reported to the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 30, but had been seeking a transfer to a federal prison in Devens, Mass.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said nomination papers for the Sept. 6 Democratic, Republican, and Green-Rainbow state party primaries will be available on Tuesday at locations around the state.

The nomination papers cover the nine new Congressional districts and the new state Legislative districts created last fall based on the 2010 U.S. Census.

Nomination papers are also available for candidates hoping to run for the U.S. Senate and county offices.

Papers are available at the secretary of state’s offices in Boston, Springfield and Fall River and at more than a dozen city and town halls.

Candidates have until May 1 to submit signed nomination papers to local election officials.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Appearing Sunday on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” Patrick criticized former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who said Obama’s policies have contributed to a shrunken labor force as unemployed workers stop looking for jobs.

Unemployment fell in January to 8.3 percent.

The U.S. Department of Labor also says those not in the labor force increased from 85.5 million in January 2011 to 87.9 million last month.

Patrick focused on falling unemployment.

He said facts are unwelcome to Gingrich and many other Republicans.

The unemployment rate in Massachusetts was 6.8 percent in December.

Patrick says Massachusetts has succeeded by attracting information technology, life sciences and other industries.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

“It would be almost impossible to close this ($161 million budget) gap without some fare increase,” Davey told WBZ’s Jon Keller on Sunday’s Keller @ Large.

MBTA officials have been listening to customers at a series of public hearings before settling on amounts.

“We do have a budget deficit we have to close by statute by April 15. We’re going to continue to have theses hearings and hear from folks,” Davey said.

He told Keller that projections of $4 a gallon gas this summer could also help the T, even if fares go up.

“The last time the T raised fares five-and-a-half years ago, ridership actually ticked up a bit,” Davey said.

Watch Keller @ Large part 1:

As for the controversy regarding the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy (which gets almost half of its total operating budget from the state) and the fight to get them to release their financial statements, Davey was blunt.

“There’s a lack of appreciation that when you receive such significant government funding that we should be subject to open meeting laws, records requests and just have a little bit more of an air of openness, as opposed to, I think, arguing that they’re a non-profit, as opposed to a government entity.”

Davey has suggested the Conservancy wean themselves off state government and public funding by switching to a private funding model.

Watch Keller @ Large part 2:

But the former Massachusetts governor’s win here, coupled with his enormous Florida victory just days ago, proved Republicans have begun to coalesce around his candidacy in earnest. He swept nearly every voting group in Nevada including those that have been slow to come aboard, such as tea party activists and voters who describe themselves as extremely conservative.

And that spells trouble for his remaining rivals who now face a stark question:

How do they stop him?

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum to break through. All trail Romney in money, momentum and organization in upcoming states. And with a calendar of primaries and caucuses favorable to Romney just ahead, no one else has a clear path to the nomination.

“February is really the death march for second and third tier candidates,” Republican strategist Rich Galen said. “If Romney sweeps February, the arc of his effort will be so strong, for most Republicans it will be over.”

A handful of states hold caucuses next week, including Maine, Minnesota and Colorado. Then comes a three week lull until primaries in Feb. 28 in Arizona and Michigan, where Romney grew up and where his father served as governor.

Romney’s confidence was clear as he stepped before cameras to claim his Nevada win, focusing on President Barack Obama.

“I’ve walked in Nevada neighborhoods, blighted by abandoned homes, where people wonder why Barack Obama failed them. Mr. President, Nevada has had enough of your kind of help,” Romney said to cheers.

He barely acknowledged his GOP rivals, Gingrich included.

The former House speaker’s hope for a serious head-to-head contest with Romney diminishes with each loss.

Gingrich is short on cash, and Southern states likely to be most receptive to his candidacy do not hold contests again until Super Tuesday, March 6. Gingrich’s one victory so far came in South Carolina’s primary January 21.

Restore Our Future, the deep-pocketed super PAC backing Romney, continues to pummel Gingrich with television ads attacking his record in Washington. The group has purchased advertising time in Minnesota, Michigan and Arizona.

The candidates will debate just once this month, in Mesa, Ariz., on Feb. 22. That hurts Gingrich, who has seen his political fortunes rise and fall on the strength of his debate performances.

Nevertheless, Gingrich brushed aside all talk of quitting the race, saying he was working to “find a series of victories which by the end of Texas primary will leave us at parity” with Romney by early April. He said he and his aides have spent much of the past four days retooling a campaign that twice has made him a leader in the polls, yet left him with only one victory in five states.

Gingrich may be able to hang on if casino mogul Sheldon Adelson makes another large contribution to Winning Our Future, a super PAC supporting Gingrich. Adelson and his wife have contributed $10 million to the group so far. But even that won’t make Gingrich’s path to the nomination any more plausible.

Paul, who campaigned hard in Nevada and has staked his entire strategy on winning caucus states, may be bordering on irrelevancy as a serious contender after this shellacking. By raising expectations for a strong finish in Nevada — only to place a weak third — the Texas congressman undercut himself going into the next round of caucus states.

Paul’s ultimate goal — keeping his libertarian-leaning platform part of the national political conversation — could also be damaged as his losses pile up.

Santorum has watched his candidacy lose steam since his win in the Iowa caucuses early last month.

The former Pennsylvania senator spent little time campaigning in Nevada; his strong social conservatism was never a good fit in a state best known for drinking, gambling and legalized prostitution. He’s looked ahead to caucuses in Colorado and the non-binding Missouri primary next week instead.

Santorum continues to campaign on the cheap, and is pulling in enough money — $1 million alone last week, his advisers say — to keep his shoestring operation alive. But few states outside of Iowa have proved to be receptive to Santorum’s sharp focus on social issues like abortion.

To be sure, Romney continues to face challenges of his own.

He was at his best as a candidate after Gingrich won South Carolina and appeared to be a real threat going into Florida and beyond. Romney quickly retooled his approach, sharpening his attacks on Gingrich on the campaign trail and in two back-to-back debates.

But without a strong rival, Romney’s weaknesses as a candidate and his propensity for gaffes become magnified.

With the recession-weary public still angry at Wall Street and big business, Romney has struggled to explain how the millions he made at the venture capital firm Bain Capital make him a plausible job creator.

He made an eye-popping unforced error this week, telling CNN “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” He went on to explain himself, saying those most in need can rely on social programs and that he wants to be a champion for the middle class instead.

But the comment, coming from a man of such immense wealth, struck a sour note — particularly as he campaigned into Nevada, which has the highest unemployment and home foreclosure rate in the country.

Romney attempted to clarify his remark later, saying he “misspoke.” But Gingrich has already used it as an attack line, as have Democrats working to weaken Romney.

Still, Romney’s position coming out of Nevada is strong and getting stronger.

“When you match this up with Florida, it may well mean this is the beginning of the triumphant march to the nomination,” said Galen, the GOP strategist.

Beth Fouhy covers national politics for The Associated Press.

Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The regulation also requires employers to cover the morning-after pill, which some religious conservatives say is tantamount to abortion.

Both contraception and abortion are opposed by the Catholic church. In letters to be read or handed out at Mass, the bishops say the ruling forces religious organizations to violate their beliefs or face large penalties.

They say it’s a blow to religious liberty, and they will not “comply with this unjust law.”

Some Catholic groups who oppose the regulation supported Obama’s health care overhaul. But they thought religious groups would be more broadly exempted from the controversial regulation.

The administration says it won’t reconsider the decision.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty, House chair of the Judiciary Committee, made the offer during a meeting of a six-member conference committee trying to bridge the gap between widely differing versions of the bill passed by the House and Senate last year.

“I think there is an opportunity here to reach some common ground on those issues,” said O’Flaherty, a Chelsea Democrat.

The bills approved in both branches include so-called “three strikes” measures that would remove the possibility of parole for inmates classified as habitual offenders because they have previously been convicted of two or more violent crimes.

But the Senate’s crime bill also included a range of other provisions not acted on by the House, including the elimination of some mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. The sentences have been criticized for clogging state prisons with non-violent individuals.

The Senate bill would also grant enhanced wiretapping power for prosecutors, require mandatory post-release supervision for all state prison inmates, and allow for the compassionate release from prison of inmates who are terminally ill.

House leaders have balked at the broader Senate crime bill, suggesting that the two branches limit the legislation to the agreed upon three strikes measure and consider the other elements separately.
(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Warren’s campaign said Friday that of the more than $5.7 million she collected during the last three months of 2011, about 69 percent came from out-of-state supporters. The remaining $1.8 million came from in-state contributors.

Brown’s campaign said that about 75 percent of the more than $3 million in donations he collected during the same three-month period came from donors inside Massachusetts.

At the same time, Brown is relying more heavily on donations from political action committees than Warren.

The most recent campaign finance reports filed by both candidates with the Federal Election Commission show Brown collected more than $1.6 million from PACs in 2011.

That’s more than ten times as much as the $142,000 collected from PACs by Warren, who entered the race in September.

The PACs backing Brown included financial institutions, defense contractors and corporations like Citigroup, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, Microsoft and Google.

Many of the PACs supporting Warren represent labor unions, including the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, the Laborer’s International Union and the American Federation of Government Employees.
(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)