Senate approves fiscal deal; House may vote today

The Senate overwhelmingly approved a deal early Tuesday that would prevent automatic income tax increases and briefly delay deep spending cuts.

With any fiscal deal, payroll tax apt to rise

Even if Congress passes a fiscal deal, most employees will take home less money in 2013 because a temporary cut in payroll taxes is scheduled to expire Tuesday.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, urged his fellow legislators to quickly pass tax relief measures.

Susan Walsh/Associated Press

Impact of deal on most taxpayers may be limited

Under a deal presented to legislators, the Bush-era tax cuts would remain in place for all but the wealthiest taxpayers, with the top tax rate rising to 39.6 percent.

Boston Capital

Economy poised to grow, if the politics abate

There are a number of potential 2013 developments that the Globe’s Steven Syre is watching. Here are a few.

First Nighters ring in 2013 around Boston

Revelers in the Hub cheered the arrival of the New Year under a fireworks display that burst over Boston Harbor as the clock began ticking on 2013.

Fireworks exploded over Boston Common Monday night as revelers crowded Boston for the annual First Night celebration.

MATTHEW J. LEE/GLOBE STAFF

Fireworks exploded over Boston Common Monday night as revelers crowded Boston for the annual First Night celebration.

Organizers expected more than a million people to take in the sights and performances.

Matthew J. Lee/globe staff

Organizers expected more than a million people to take in the sights and performances.

Lion dancers with the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association performed on Boylston Street.

Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff

Lion dancers with the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association performed on Boylston Street.

Mark Chenevert played saxophone with the Hot Tamale Brass Band.

yoon s. byun/globe staff

Mark Chenevert played saxophone with the Hot Tamale Brass Band.

Onlookers crowded Boylston Street to see the New Year’s parade.

yoon s. byun/globe staff

Onlookers crowded Boylston Street to see the New Year’s parade.

An inflatable dinosaur was seen in Boston.

Yoon S. Byun/globe staff

An inflatable dinosaur was seen in Boston.

Lee Fields and the Expressions performed at Jordan Hall in Boston.

Aram Boghosian for the boston globe

Lee Fields and the Expressions performed at Jordan Hall in Boston.

Lucinda Briggs of Wellesley was in Copley Square earlier in the day.

Bill Greene/globe staff

Lucinda Briggs of Wellesley was in Copley Square earlier in the day.

Confetti rained on revelers at midnight in Times Square in New York.

gary hershorn/reuters

Confetti rained on revelers at midnight in Times Square in New York.

Revelers in New York’s Times Square took in the festivities.

Tina Fineberg/associated press

Revelers in New York’s Times Square took in the festivities.

Fireworks lit up the sky and Big Ben in London just after midnight there.

Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Fireworks lit up the sky and Big Ben in London just after midnight there.

Fireworks exploded over the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

/Pilar Olivares/reuters

Fireworks exploded over the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

A ferris wheel was ablaze in Dusseldorf, Germany.

DANIEL NAUPOLD/epa

A ferris wheel was ablaze in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Pakistani youths celebrated early on Jan. 1 on a street in Lahore.

Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani youths celebrated early on Jan. 1 on a street in Lahore.

Top row: Kevin White, Helen Gurley Brown, Phyllis Diller, George McGovern. Middle: Mike Wallace, Nora Ephron, Rodney King, Dave Brubeck. Bottom: Chuck Colson, Whitney Houston, John Silber, Don Cornelius.

Enduring memories of luminaries lost in 2012

The Globe remembers some of the notable figures, locally, nationally, and internationally, who passed away in 2012.

Brenda Van Der Merwe, a real estate agent, says she is not making any resolutions. “You should already be doing it,” she said.

Many not making New Year’s resolutions

The abstainers fall into two categories: those who say the annual rite is for wimps and those who have been repeatedly burned by their own failings.

Homicides decrease in Boston for third straight year

Homicides have been driven downward by solid police work, an aging population, and better trauma care, officials and specialists said.

Rebecca Davila and her family live in a housing authority apartment. With her, from left, are Genesis, 11 (with their dog Woody); Luis, 13; and Priscilla, 7. Luis has asthma.

Asthma reduced in Boston public housing

Boston health officials say new city data indicate that asthma incidences have dropped nearly by half since 2005.

Boston Globe ePaper

ePaper

Read the ePaper edition

The complete print edition, in its exact layout. Browse the print edition page by page, including stories and ads.

Globe Insiders

Editorial Event | Jan. 19, 2 p.m.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/12/27/BostonGlobe.com/Special/Images/brooklyncastle_onesheet_final_27x40_alt.jpg Exclusive Screening of Brooklyn Castle

See the film and participate in a talk with cast members, moderated by Boston Globe movie editor Janice Page.

Globe exclusives

Jimmy Craig (left) and Justin Parker. The duo behind Fatawesome, who have been friends since high school, had a viral hit with the video “Cat-Friend vs. Dog-Friend,” which spurred some national attention.

G Cover

Trying to ride viral videos to wider fame
Hugh Jackman plays Jean Valjean in the film adaptation of Les Miserables.

Opinion | Jennifer Graham

The faith personified in ‘Les Miserables’
In 2011, hundreds of people took advantage of unusually mild temperatures on the first day of the year during the L Street Brownies plunge.

In winter swims, the pain is real
Irving Berlin is one of a large group of Jewish composers who made it big on Broadway.

Television Review

Jews amid the culture of the Broadway musical
Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum in a scene from the 1947 film noir ‘’Out of the Past,’’ directed by Jacques Tourneur.

Critic’s Notebook

Let us now praise (not quite) famous men

G Cover

Practical tips for a healthier 2013
The Appleton Tracy pocket watch, serial number 50141, was a rare size 20, rather than the more common size 18.

Lincoln, a watch, and a link to history
America’s most controversial reality TV star this year was a 7-year-old beauty-pageant contestant from rural Georgia whose real name is Alana Thompson.

Opinion

A 2012 dictionary (abridged)
Defense lawyers want separate trials for former state probation commissioner John J. O’Brien (left) and his codefendant, former Treasury aide Scott S. Campbell.

One trial in lottery job case, judge says
Michelle Kosilek, a convicted murderer, sued for a sex change operation. Her defense team is seeking legal fees.

Challenges to inmates’ gender cases costly to Bay State
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones performing at the House of Blues during their Hometown Throwdown on Saturday.

Music Review

Bosstones throw down at House of Blues

Hometown Heroes: the best local albums of 2012

Sports

Tags in this section:

Josh McDaniels lost 17 of his 22 final games as head coach of the Broncos, and was fired in 2010.

Patriots’ Josh McDaniels won’t head elsewhere

The offensive coordinator dismissed suggestions he could be a head-coaching candidate, and said he’s focused on the playoffs.

Metro

Tags in this section:

Stephen Bresnahan cleaned under the family house on Plum Island after it was undercut by waves at high tide Friday.

Plum Island homeowners pin hopes on sandbags

Homeowners stared at the churning sea and hoped for a change in sand patterns after last week’s devastating storm.

Columnists

Peyton Manning and Tom Brady could face each other again in the AFC Championship game.

Dan Shaughnessy

Get ready for Brady vs. Manning for AFC title
A dancer performs in a New Year’s Eve celebration in Bali Monday.

James Carroll

A new year of pluralism

Boston Capital

Economy poised to grow, if the politics abate
Bobo’s device measures heart rate.

Innovation Economy

A heart rate sensor that’s easy to wear

Tech Lab Plus

Meet the scale that talks to your phone
Rob Gronkowski scored a touchdown for the Patriots in the fourth quarter against the Dolphins.

Christopher L. Gasper

Worth the risk to play Rob Gronkowski
President Barack Obama greets Chief Justice John Roberts before delivering his State of the Union Address on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2012.

Joan Vennochi

Bipartisan bright spots, met with derision
Congressman Ed Markey won’t be facing the name power of Ben Affleck—who announced he won’t be running—but he still has the chance to act like a star.

Joanna Weiss

Ed Markey needs to find his inner celebrity
In recent years, Boston has reveled in championships by the Bruins, Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics — but it certainly appears that this widespread “golden era” is over.

Bob Ryan

State of Boston’s sports teams in 2013
The Super Bowl is exactly 11 years after the Pats won their first title.

Christopher L. Gasper

Patriots tough enough to make it back to Super Bowl

JEFF JACOBY

Kerry’s ‘realist’ approach slips into callousness

INNOVATION ECONOMY

Early adopters could give Boston entrepreneurs a boost

Nation & World

Tags in this section:

A man mourned amid debris after a car bomb attack Monday in Hillah, south of Baghdad.

Widespread insurgent attacks kill 28 in Iraq

The attacks primarily targeted Shi’ite communities and pilgrims and killed at least 23 civilians and five police officers.

Politics

Hillary Clinton had planned to step down as secretary of state at the beginning of President Obama’s second term.

Blood clot formed in Hillary Clinton’s skull

The secretary of state developed a blood clot in her head but did not suffer a stroke or neurological damage, her doctors said.

Business

Tags in this section:

Ashley Morehouse and Michal Grabias dined at the Wasabi sushi restaurant at the Natick Mall after shopping earlier this month.

Quirky kiosk restaurants drawing in mall shoppers

The unique restaurants are popping up in unexpected places at the mall, snagging shoppers lured by high-end fare in open-air kiosks

Arts

Tags in this section:

Book Review

‘Refugee Hotel’ by Gabriele Stabile and Juliet Linderman

The book is an up-close, sometimes raw evocation of the refugee experience in America.

Lifestyle

Tags in this section:

Musician Julio Fernandez during a music session at Montclair State University.

Helping veterans reintegrate through music

Organizers of a pilot program in New Jersey hope to use music to ease veterans’ reintegration into civilian life.

Magazine

The cover for the December 23 2012 issue

Bostonians of the Year: Raisman and Harrison

The cover for the December 16 2012 issue

Best of the New: Diversions
The cover for the December 9 2012 issue

The drug lab scandal: Who’s cleaning it up?
The cover for the December 2 2012 issue

5 inspired rooms

Opinion

“The human future is full of possibility — because wondrous, once unimagined possibilities have already been realized.”

James Carroll 

Ideas

“An ending has more life in it, more story in it, and is far more instructive than a beginning.”

James Parker, on the things, phenomena, and ideas that ended in 2012 

“I have lived in BHA housing all my life, and if you want the BHA, or someone, to do something, you have to call; otherwise it’s not going to happen.”

­Rebecca Davila,  a 34-year-old mother of three