Mild winter a welcome savings

JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

Massachusetts cities and towns have spent a fraction of last year’s total on snow removal, a reprieve that is helping recoup past deficits, catch up on backlogged repairs, and stockpile supplies.

Ice cream shops, builders bask in business

This warm winter has wreaked havoc on businesses that rely on cold weather or snow, but for others, the sunny 50-degree days have been a godsend.

Algeria Marsh, stepmother of deceased Simba Martin, testified during the trial of Dwayne Moore and Edward Washington at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

Officer tells of toddler’s final moments

A Boston courtroom overflowed with emotions yesterday as relatives and police officers testified about the 2-year-old and three adults killed in 2010.

Christopher L. Gasper

Wakefield a loss to Red Sox

Tim Wakefield’s longevity achieved by throwing a pitch so capricious and fickle is a testament to his resiliency and fortitude.

Birth control debate splits GOP in New England

Some Republican moderates — particularly women — say they feel marginalized by the positions taken by Senators Scott Brown of Mass. and Kelly Ayotte of N.H.

Mitt Romney this week accused President Obama of kowtowing to “big labor’’ and slammed Rick Santorum, one of his challengers for the Republican presidential nomination, as “labor’s favorite senator.’’

AP Photo/Idaho Press-Tribune, Adam Eschbach

In Quinn bill debate, Mitt Romney stood by labor

As Mass. governor, Romney fiercely protected a controversial perk for police officers after seeking and receiving the endorsement of the politically influential police unions.

Central Boston a gas station desert

When a wrecking ball levels Grampy’s gas station — and that could happen as soon as next year — it will leave a large swath of the city without a gas station.

Malcolm X house may get makeover

The now run-down Roxbury home where Malcolm X lived in the 1940s could be turned into housing for graduate students in African-American studies or related fields.

“After a major tornado, an earthquake, a hurricane, and an October storm, I’m grateful for any surplus we might have.”

LeeAnn Pasquini,  budget director of Springfield

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
Belina Lee, a dancer with the Boston Chinese Dance Troupe, performed a tambourine dance at the Quincy Lunar New Year Festival at North Quincy High School.

Photos

Globe staff photos of week

In Anthony Shadid, a meeting of reporter and assignment
Jeremy Lin has become an NBA sensation while helping lead the Knicks to seven straight wins.

Jeremy Lin: From Harvard to NBA stardom

Warm winter earns rink a cold reception
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

Metro

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People gathered outside the home of Kyle Louzada yesterday as they coped with the teen’s shooting death.

Answers sought in Randolph shooting

Investigators probing the death of the 16-year-old have learned he was shot once in the head and have found a gun they suspect may have been involved.

Business

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Chef serves mislabeled fish to China’s vice president

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

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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Syrian refugees and residents living in Jordan shouted slogans during a demonstration against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Wounded Syrian refugees flee dramatic escalation

Syrian refugees fleeing to Jordan for their lives described a dramatic escalation in violence and a mounting toll of dead and wounded in the country’s battered central region.

Politics

Political Notebook

WIn a speech on the Senate floor, Senator Brown called on President Obama to fire Jane Lubchenco, the chief administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has jurisdiction of the country’s fishing fleets.

Brown rips fishing agency over purchase of ‘party boat’

Senator Brown denounced the federal agency regulating fishermen, saying that one of its divisions used what he termed a $300,000 “fishermen-funded party boat for bureaucrats.”

Sports

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Wakefield announces retirement

Fighting back tears that belied his stoic nature, Tim Wakefield said he was heading home after 19 seasons, 17 of them in Boston.

Arts

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G Cover

Robin Lane helps survivors take flight

With Songbird Sings, the Boston rock icon helps trauma survivors find their voices -- and record them.

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

“Bostonians should be looking forward to the War of 1812 commemoration with the same anticipation that sailors scanned the horizon during the Age of Sail.”

Lawrence Harmon 

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