Married same-sex couples in Massachusetts live in a state that recognizes their unions. But in the eyes of the US government, they're still bachelors, or bachelorettes. Mary Ritchie and her spouse Kathleen Bush have been legally married for five years. They have two children and Mary is a state police trooper. But there's one thing that makes this typical family different: when they file tax Read more

Su Casa member Whittle03 and her boyfriend just moved to a new apartment near downtown Boston, and although her interior design work is not complete, things are looking great! A successful cohabitation is always a difficult balance when it comes to design, but Whittle03 sounds like she has it under control. She says, "Love is all about compromise. I hate leather, but my boyfriend loves it. So, I Read more

The number of annual marijuana arrests have been setting all-time records lately. Sales and trafficking aside, there are more possession charges nationally than violent crimes combined. Maybe there are a lot more smokers than violent people, or it could be prosecuted disproportionately. The latter explanation is the logic behind several state and local decisions to ease restrictions. On Tuesday, Read more

The school board in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the city of pregnancy-pact fame, is set to vote on a plan to distribute contraceptives to students. If passed, the schools and the students could enter a secret-contraception pact without parents knowing — in other words the schools would distribute condoms and such to students without parental consent. Despite well-publicized rumors that 17 high Read more

Though I don't know of many prisons guarded by the likes of the two pictured below, with the changes happening to crime and punishment in the US, it might not be long. With one out of every 100 Americans behind bars, and prisons turning criminals out to meet their budgets, the debate between what's a human right, and what liberties need be taken away as punishment is a tricky one. Several states Read more

Pregnancy Pact Investigated: Officials in Massachusetts are investigating why 17 teenage girls from the same high school have become pregnant, a number four times higher than the year before. Reports claim the girls, all under the age of 16, entered into a pact to have their babies together. No comment has been forthcoming from the girls or their families. Officials are investigating the ages of Read more

Ever since the sad news of Senator Ted Kennedy's brain tumor diagnosis broke, I've been seeing a barrage of news coverage that seems pretty postmortem. Article topics include: Boston contemplates life after Ted Kennedy Many possible successors to Kennedy A timeline of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's life The coverage makes me think media companies are rolling out their prefabricated eulogies a little Read more