Panelist Adam Reilly, a reporter for WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston," asked whether the country should stay the course on sequestration. The $1.2 trillion in federal budget cuts over the next nine years will affect defense, national parks, NASA, and reduced Medicare payments to doctors, and other areas. They took effect on March 1 when the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama could not find an alternative to the plan -- a government-designed penalty in case of inaction during budget talks in 2011. The first set of cuts will total about $85 million during 2013. Reilly asked that with positive Continue reading >>>

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Porter Square Books, which has become an important outpost of literary life in Greater Boston in the past decade, has put itself up for sale. The four owners of the Cambridge store said that their business is healthy but that with most of the group being around retirement age it seemed like the right time to begin looking for a successor. Carol Stoltz, store president, said Tuesday that she and co-owners Dale Sczceblowski, who serves as general manager, Jane Dawson, who is a floor manager and oversees personnel, and Jane Jacobs, a buyer, have worked hard to make the store a community institution, Continue reading >>>

By Allison Thomasseau Statehouse Correspondent BOSTON -- Gov. Deval Patrick, in a rare public appearance before the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, pushed for his $1.9 billion tax proposal on Friday, pitching it as a way to stimulate economic growth and make investments for the state's future. "It's what we need to be economically strong in the future," Patrick said at the final budget hearing in the Statehouse's Gardner Auditorium. "If we want to grow, we need to invest." More than 30 advocacy groups also testified at the committee's final hearing on the governor's $34.8 billion Continue reading >>>

(NECN: Peter Howe, Canton, Mass.) - Like many Greater Boston residents, Harry Falasca and Bob Maffie went to bed Thursday night thinking they might wake up to six inches of snow, maybe twelve by lunchtime Friday. What they got was a storm that dumped twice as much, and well into the late afternoon Friday, adding an extra 21 to 22 inches -- unofficially -- of wet, heavy snow to a long, deep winter. Canton was one of several communities in a pocket of heavy snowfall that included Walpole, Easton, Stoughton, and one 24-inch report from South Continue reading >>>

Gov. Deval Patrick speaks at a news conference at the Statehouse in Boston in January when he unveiled his proposed $34.8 billion state budget, which includes a hike in the income tax rate, from 5.25 percent to 6.25 percent, and a sales tax cut, from 6.25 percent to 4.5 percent. Michael Dwyer / Associated Press file   BOSTON - In an effort to salvage his proposed $1.9 billion tax increase, Gov. Deval L. Patrick testified on Friday that it might be impossible to finance some major transportation projects in regions such as Western Continue reading >>>

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