Energy deal’s a coup, but just a step

The breakthrough deal state officials struck with utilities NStar and Northeast Utilities highlights just how far Mass. must go to achieve its clean energy targets.

Congress passes payroll tax cut extension

The House and Senate passed legislation renewing the tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more through the end of 2012.

Celebrity chef Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger attended a lunch hosted by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping.

Chef Ming Tsai serves mislabeled fish to China’s vice president

Tsai, the well-known owner of the Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, served “Soy marinated Alaskan Butterfish” at a State Department lunch, but it was actually sablefish.

Exclusive Sunday Preview | Globe Magazine

10 ways to update your home without breaking the bank

These home improvement projects – from redoing a bathroom to adding a dormer – will increase your satisfaction with your home, while adding to its value.

Exclusive Sunday Preview | Ideas

The rise of beeronomics

A new field looks at a beverage prized throughout history.

A growing number of academics see beer as something that can tell us important things about the world.

Belgian economist Johan F. M. Swinnen is the editor of a new book, "The Economics of Beer."

This illustration shows men at work in a brewery, circa 1550. Beer was considered a healthy alternative to water.

Cancan Chu/Getty Images/File 2006

People enjoyed beer during the beer freestival in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China. Tastes in China still run toward beer that is cheap and can be quickly consumed.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File 2006

Lagunitas Brewing Company brewer Tim Goeppinger took a sample of beer from a tank at the brewery in Petaluma, Calif. The moicrobrew movement is the fastest-growing segment of the US beer market.

http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/02/17/BostonGlobe.com/Sports/Images/wake1--90x90.JPG Tim Wakefield calls it a career

Wakefield, the third-winningest and longest-tenured pitcher in Red Sox history, announced his retirement at a brief but emotional press conference.

Bob Ryan

Wakefield was unique, and at times, great

Tim Wakefield is one of the more notable Red Sox players we’ve ever known, and his first two months in a Boston uniform were beyond spectacular.

Tim Wakefield’s last appearance came on Sept. 25 at Yankee Stadium.

On Baseball

Well done, Tim Wakefield

Wakefield’s place in Red Sox history is secure. He may have wanted to continue playing, but he also always wanted to retire as a member of the Red Sox.

“We’re dumb, but we’re not stupid.”

Senator John McCain,  on Congress passing payroll tax cut

Globe Insiders

Globe Insider Event | March 5, 5:30 p.m.

http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/02/17/BostonGlobe.com/Special/Images/508746086[1]--90x90.jpg ‘The Real Romney’

Globe editorial page editor Peter S. Canellos moderates a discussion with Globe writers Scott Helman, Scot Lehigh, and Frank Phillips on the Republican presidential candidate.

Inside The Boston Globe

Much data, few answers in dolphin strandings

In Anthony Shadid, a meeting of reporter and assignment

Warm winter earns rink a cold reception
Jeremy Lin has become an NBA sensation while helping lead the Knicks to seven straight wins.

Jeremy Lin: From Harvard to NBA stardom
A container of grape-flavored Infants' Tylenol liquid medicine with the enclosed syringe and flow restrictor.

More Infant Tylenol recalled

School lunch as smart business
Jenny Dell is NESN’s new Red Sox game reporter.

Sports Media

Advice for new NESN reporter Jenny Dell

Art Review

‘Figuring Color’ exhibit shows pigments of their imaginations
Senator Scott Brown, a Republican, has a 9-point lead over Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, in a new poll of 600 people.

In new poll, Brown leads Warren

MOVIE REVIEW

‘Coriolanus’ resonates in 21st century
JetBlue Park, the Red Sox’ new spring training home, is ready for its debut.

Spring training preview

Red Sox set to open spring training

Movie Review

In ‘Rampart,’ Woody Harrelson makes an honest effort

Metro

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Irish prime minister makes the rounds in Boston

Enda Kenny, nearly a year into office as Ireland’s prime minister, arrived in “the next parish over’’ for a two-day visit yesterday.

Business

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BOSTON, MA - 2/2/2006 - Jeremy Allaire, CEO, Brightcove, at the company's offices in Cambridge, MA. GLOBE PHOTO BY ZARA TZANEV Library Tag 02062006 Business/Innovation

Brightcove shares rise in first day of trading

Shares in the Cambridge online video company, which opened at $11 a share, rose to $14.48 at mid day, up nearly 32 percent.

Columnists

ALEX BEAM

Netflix’s northern exposure

Boston Capital

A strange concession

Opinion | Brian McGrory

Politics as usual

Tech Lab

Vita: too big, too pricey, no phone

Yvonne abraham

The senator and the slippery slope

Juliette Kayyem

Bridge to the future

Opinion | Joan Vennochi

Telling the real story of Camelot
Jeremy Lin, right, hit a game-winning shot for the Knicks last night and has become a sensation in the NBA.

Bob Ryan

Lin just latest Ivy Leaguer to shine in NBA

Brian McGrory

A model city councilor
David Ortiz

Christopher L. Gasper

A happy David Ortiz is great for Red Sox

Jeff Jacoby

On birth control, Obama imperiously overreaches
Claude Julien’s Bruins are headed out on a six-game road trip.

Tony Massarotti

Bruins not as good as they think they are

Nation & World

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A Capitol Police officer and K-9 patrol outside the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FBI arrest terror suspect near Capitol

A Moroccan man was arrested today as he was planning to detonate an inert suicide vest given to him by FBI undercover operatives, officials said.

Politics

Senator Scott Brown, a Republican, has a 9-point lead over Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, in a new poll of 600 people.

In new poll, Brown leads Warren

Scott Brown holds a nine-point lead over Elizabeth Warren, his likely Democratic opponent in November.

Sports

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There will be an adjustment period for Red Sox players and their new manager, Bobby Valentine.

Ten questions for the 2012 Red Sox

How will Bobby Valentine be welcomed? Is the rotation deep enough? Is there a shortstop? We take a look at the new season.

Movies

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MOVIE REVIEW

‘This Means War’ a losing battle for Reese Witherspoon

This romantic comedy mixes other movies, television action shows, sitcoms, and comic strips, and features another terrible role for the Oscar-winning actress.

Arts

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CLASSICAL NOTES

Eric Owens’s tour brings him to Boston for Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis.’’ Below: the singer at Carnegie Hall in 2009.

Met star Eric Owens will solo with the BSO

The New Yorker’s Alex Ross called baritone Eric Owens’s performance in the Metropolitan Opera’s “Rheingold’’ the “chief glory’’ of the production.

Magazine

The cover for the February 12 2012 issue

Boston wedding venue guide
The cover for the February 5 2012 issue

What if the lights go out?
The cover for the January 29 2012 issue

Reversing a restaurant curse
The cover for the January 22 2012 issue

The man who crushed the Keystone XL pipeline

Opinion

“Looking through Facebook posts I sometimes wonder if life has ceased to be real to us unless it is shared, ‘liked,’ and commented upon by ‘friends.’”

Roland Merullo 

Ideas

“In the 50 years since the competition, architects have declared Kallmann and McKinnell’s City Hall one of the greatest buildings of the 20th century. Yet its relationship with the people of Boston has remained uneasy, even hostile.”

Leon Neyfakh on Boston’s City Hall