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The 12th Annual Muzzle Awards

A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England.
With the era of repression and secrecy fostered by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney finally over, this should be the best of times for freedom of expression, open government, and civil liberties. Yet change comes slowly.

By: DAN KENNEDY | July 10, 2009

Muzzle Awards: Collegiate Division

New England campuses muzzle free speech
In a 1957 Supreme Court decision upholding the free-speech rights of university professors ( Sweezy v. New Hampshire ), Justice Felix Frankfurter quoted prominent South African scholars on the importance of academic freedom.

By: HARVEY SILVERGLATE | July 10, 2009

Weed picking up speed?

Just say now
When the Phoenix published a cover story about the potential tipping point in the fight to end marijuana prohibition, we smelled something in the air: it seemed more than ever that such a resolution might be possible.

By: MIKE MILIARD | July 09, 2009

Asians for Yoon — or maybe the other guy(s)

Electoral Ambivalence Dept.
When you're running against a politician as entrenched, powerful, and seemingly unbeatable as Boston Mayor Tom Menino, it's hard to get your supporters to proudly tout their allegiance.

By: ADAM REILLY | July 10, 2009

Factory food

Why the cheap, mass-produced food we eat is killing our environment, our economy — and us
Since Squanto taught the Pilgrims to plant maize, no food has been more emblematic of the evolution of American eating habits than corn. That's been true from the sepia-tinged golden age of the Midwestern breadbasket to the present day, where those yellow kernels are lab-engineered and recombinated into a dizzying array of futuristic foodstuffs.

By: MIKE MILIARD | June 25, 2009

Jailed HIV-positive pregnant woman released - for now

Judicial Discretion
Quinta Layin Tuleh, the HIV-positive pregnant woman a federal judge in Bangor, Maine, ordered jailed until her baby was delivered, has been released on bail while her appeal of her sentence makes its way through the courts.

By: JEFF INGLIS | June 24, 2009

Guilty until proven guilty

Freedom Watch
The US Supreme Court's June 18 decision denying prisoners access to DNA testing — a procedure that could reliably prove innocence — adds to the high court's decades-long shameful record on criminal-justice issues.

By: HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 24, 2009

White-supremacist code printed nationwide

One man's death spread the numeric code for "Heil Hitler" across the world.
While von Brunn survived to face federal criminal charges and may yet die slowly in federal prison, he did manage to get newspapers around the globe to print a white-supremacist code praising Adolf Hitler right next to his name.

By: JEFF INGLIS | June 17, 2009

Federal judge: more rights for the unborn

Fetal Obligations
A federal judge in Bangor, Maine, has recognized a new right of fetuses that could become a key element in the nation's ongoing abortion debate.

By: JEFF INGLIS | June 11, 2009

The blessing of abortion

Pro-choice provocateur: Meet Cambridge divinity dean Katherine Ragsdale
Abortion is dominating the headlines — and giving new resonance to the radically pro-choice gospel of Katherine Ragsdale, dean of Cambridge's Episcopal Divinity School.

By: ADAM REILLY | June 12, 2009

Sotomayor's mixed message on free speech

Freedom Watch
Minutes after President Barack Obama announced that he was nominating appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, battle lines were drawn on the pre-scripted questions of "post-racial" America.

By: HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 03, 2009

Legalize pot now

With support from the unlikeliest circles, this could be marijuana's moment
The Obama administration, already overtaxed with two foreign campaigns, made headlines this past week when the White House's newly minted director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy called for an end to the "War on Drugs."

By: MIKE MILIARD | June 01, 2009

Dale Bozzio sentenced to jail

Feline Trouble
Two months after being convicted of animal cruelty, new-wave pop icon Dale Bozzio feels trapped in her own personal witch trial.

By: ASHLEY RIGAZIO | May 27, 2009

CVS gripes reach the State House

Retail Details
Change to Win (CtW) is no longer a mere pest buzzing in the ear of CVS management.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | May 13, 2009

Immaculate reception

The New England Patriots played host to a very different out-of-towner last week, as the Dalai Lama made a most incongruous visit to Gillette Stadium
Two Saturdays ago, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama sat cross-legged on the 50-yard line and gently intoned that "the path to happiness in the individual and with society is through inner peace."

By: MIKE MILIARD | May 13, 2009

The rain in Maine

Gay Marriage Ratified — and Jilted
If you're planning a trip to Vacationland this summer, be sure to bring your galoshes — the "gay storm" that's been satirized all over the Internet rolled into Maine last week.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | May 13, 2009

Turkey Terror Tale

Tom Foolery
Violent crime, gang activity, and general thuggery are not recurring themes on the Brookline police blotter. But that civic paradise is plagued by another kind of scourge — one that manifests all three of those crimes in avian form. And it isn't bird flu.

By: LANCE GOULD, WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY EMILY MELLO | May 13, 2009