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AFTER more than 200 years as a wholly family-owned company, Crane & Company, a famed producer of fine stationery based in Dalton, Mass., sold a minority share to the New York investment firm Lindsay Goldberg last summer. The sole paper supplier for United States currency, the company has been on a deal-making spree. Last May, it signed an agreement to produce stationery under the Disney brand. And in December, it purchased Atlanta-based Visual Physics, whose anticounterfeiting technology will allow Crane to enhance the security of paper money in the United States and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports that Ken Powers, a sportswriter for "The Worcester Telegram & Gazette" in Massachusetts, was fired after the newspaper determined that he had plagiarized a column in "Sports Illustrated" magazine and had lifted material from other publications at least six times. Meeting between editor Harry Whitin and Powers; Results of further investigation.

Throws light on the recycling of the old worn out bills discarded by the Federal Reserve, by Crane & Company, the Dalton, Massachusetts, concern, involved in making stationery. Focus on the letterheads released by the latter.

Reports about Boston University's filed suit against several companies in different states, charging them with illegal selling of term papers over the Internet. Charges placed by the Federal court in Boston on the companies; Features of term papers sold by companies; Amendment protecting companies; Cost of term papers sold.

The official newspaper of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Boston has apologized for a column that said that homosexuality is caused by Satan. The column's author, Daniel Avila, is a lawyer and policy adviser at the Catholic bishops' conference in Washington, where he works in the office that opposes the spread of same-sex marriage. Mr. Avila wrote, ''The scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil.'' The church's Boston newspaper, The Pilot, apologized for ''having failed to recognize the theological error in the column before publication,'' and it deleted the column from its Web site. A spokeswoman for the bishops' conference said that Mr. Avila's column was not approved by the bishops, and that the church does not have a definitive theory on the origins of same-sex attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When local bloggers rallied last week in an online forum about how to save the embattled Boston Globe, readers offered loads of sympathetic advice and surprisingly little of the ''let 'em rot'' attitude that has colored so much debate over the future of newspapers. Ever since The New York Times Company threatened 11 days ago to sell or close The Globe unless it accepted deep cost cuts, Boston has been in a state of near shock. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports that the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts has upheld a $2 million libel verdict in a lawsuit against the newspaper "The Boston Herald" and one of its reporters. The lawsuit concerns a series of articles and columns about Judge Ernest B. Murphy of the Superior Court in Massachusetts. The articles said that Murphy made disparaging comments about crime victims and was lenient with criminals.

The article cites a report which states that warnings were issued to construction officials in Boston, Massachusetts in 1999 and 2000 about the safety of tunnels in the city.

Presents a travel guide to attractions at the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts. Hours and admission at the Arrowhead farmhouse; Direction in reaching the location of the Crane Museum of Papermaking; Rate of admission at The Mount.

Reports on the conversion from a factory building of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Installation of the room "Corpus" in the largest of the museum's galleries; Interior design of the balcony; Number of cone-shaped speakers move up and down in 15-minute cycle in the main room.

Discusses the release of documents held by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts in the court cases against Father Paul R. Shanley and other priests accused of sexually abusing young children. Documents that allegedly show that top ranking church officials, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law, knew more about cases of sexual abuse than they said; Documents that allege Boston officials placed an incoming priest they knew had just been treated for pedophilia; Recommendation that Father Robert Brown not be placed in a situation where he could be around children; His placement as pastor of a Boston church where he would be in contact with children.

Discusses the release of documents held by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts in the court cases against Father Paul R. Shanley and other priests accused of sexually abusing young children. Documents that allegedly show that top ranking church officials, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law, knew more about cases of sexual abuse than they said; Documents that allege Boston officials placed an incoming priest they knew had just been treated for pedophilia; Recommendation that Father Robert Brown not be placed in a situation where he could be around children; His placement as pastor of a Boston church where he would be in contact with children.

Provides information on a document at the archives of the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in which the university's administration methodically harassed a number of young men for being gay.

Reports the plans of the officials of Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts to install scanners that can check the authenticity of driver's licenses and passports.

Reports the publication of a photograph of the severed head of Daniel Pearl, newspaper reporter of 'The Wall Street Journal,' by 'The Phoenix' in Boston Massachusetts on June 6, 2002.

Focuses on the documents which show that the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts knew the psychiatric problems of priest Paul R. Shanley, an accused child molester, in 1991.

Focuses on the editorial of the March 14, 2002 issue of 'The Pilot,' the official newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese in Massachusetts, which reflected on issues about celibacy of priests.

Reports on the contents of documents regarding the pedophilia of a priest in Boston, Massachusetts. Preoccupation of the Roman Catholic archdiocese in the area with avoiding scandal; Allegations of the church's knowledge of the pedophilia; Public apology made by Boston cardinal Bernard F, Law.

Reports that the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began accepting online Internet applications by way of a process called, Grad Advantage, which was developed by John Pyrovolakis, an MIT graduate. What was the motive for the online applications; Comments from Rod Garcia, Sloan's director of admissions; Sloan's web site address.

Reports that according to a statement from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, photographs claiming to show two of the Rembrandt paintings stolen from this museum in March 1990 have been obtained by two news organizations. Comments made by the museum's director, Anne Hawley; Identity of the news organizations that has the photographs.

SUDBURY, Mass. -- William H. Fitzhugh, the cantankerous publisher of a journal that showcases high school research papers, sits at his computer in a cluttered office above a secondhand shop here, deploring the nation's declining academic standards. ''Most kids don't know how to write, don't know any history, and that's a disgrace,'' Mr. Fitzhugh said. ''Writing is the most dumbed-down subject in our schools.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profiles scientist Erik Demaine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is the leading theoretician in the emerging field of origami mathematics. Published papers on the formal study of what can be done with a folded sheet of paper by Demaine including landmark results about the theory of folded structures; Background on Demaine and his precocious education; Expert in algorithms, Demaine who became an MIT professor at 20; His new work on protein folding.

The Telegram & Gazette, a newspaper in Worcester, Mass., that is owned by The New York Times Company, said it would begin charging readers to view some of the local news articles that appear on the paper's Web site. Starting on Monday, the paper will introduce a metered pay wall model that will allow readers to view 10 local news articles free each month. Once they reach that threshold, they will be able to buy a variety of online subscriptions, ranging from a $14.95 monthly pass to a $1 day pass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having given up on selling The Boston Globe, The New York Times Company said Monday that it had also decided not to sell another Massachusetts newspaper, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Two potential buyers had emerged for the Worcester paper, though it was not clear how much they were offering. A group led by Harry T. Whitin, a former Telegram & Gazette editor, and Ralph D. Crowley Jr., an executive of a bottling company, had been seen as the top contender for months. And recently, Jeff Greene, a billionaire real estate investor based in Florida, expressed interest in the paper, which has weekday circulation of 73,000. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Representative Michael E. Capuano said he had taken out nomination papers and would announce next week whether he will join the race to succeed Edward M. Kennedy in the Senate. Mr. Capuano, a six-term Democratic congressman, said that of any candidates mentioned so far, he most closely mirrored Mr. Kennedy's positions on issues of war and peace. He is the second member of Congress to draw nomination papers. Representative Stephen F. Lynch did so last week. Attorney General Martha Coakley was the first declared Democratic candidate to succeed Mr. Kennedy, who died on Aug. 25. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

States that Ethan Becker, son of Marion R. Becker who wrote the original cookbook `The Joy of Cooking' with her mother Irma S. Rombauer, donated the papers of the two authors to the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College. Details on the papers; Information on the library; Detailed information on the revised edition of `The Joy of Cooking.'

The article discusses changes to the headquarters of the newspaper "The Boston Globe" in Boston, Massachusetts, noting the decision to reconfigure the space to serve and engage the community. It addresses downsizing at the newspaper due to decreased readership, the management of "Boston Globe" publisher Christopher M. Mayer, and attempts by the paper to reach out to the local community.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has received a bonanza from one of its longtime trustees, according to a report in The Boston Globe. Saundra Lane has given the museum 6,000 photographs, 100 works-on-paper and 25 paintings. Included in the donation is the entire photographic estate of Charles Sheeler, which amounts to some 2,500 photographs, along with the same number of images by Edward Weston. There are also 500 photographs by Ansel Adams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BOSTON -- Andy Gomez, a ninth grader at Brighton High School, was not sure why hamburgers and meatballs had disappeared from the cafeteria, but he was not happy about it. ''Today I just ate peanut butter and jelly,'' he said. ''I don't like the chicken patty.'' The absence of ground beef at lunch last week -- at Brighton High and 43 other public schools here -- could be explained by a peek into the freezer, where 21 boxes of ground beef products sat, cordoned off from the rest of the meat by a clinical-looking cover of white paper reading ''Do not use.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WITH her coordinated zebra-striped scarf, tights and arm warmers (arm warmers?), spiky out-to-there hat and pierced tongue, 34-year-old Danah Boyd provides an electric Gen Y contrast to the staid gray lobby of Microsoft Research in Cambridge, Mass., which she enters in a flurry of animated conversation, Elmo-decorated iPhone in hand. In a juxtaposition that causes her no end of mischievous delight, her laptop bears a sticker of Snow White, whose outstretched arm gently cradled the Apple logo. But Dr. Boyd -- a senior researcher at Microsoft, an assistant professor at New York University and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard -- is a widely respected figure in social media research. With a number of influential scholarly papers under her name, she travels relentlessly, tweets under the handle Zephoria and has fans trailing her at TED conferences, at South by Southwest and elsewhere on the high-tech speaking circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ON paper it resembles a subplot from David Foster Wallace's deliriously satiric novel ''Infinite Jest'': a billionaire heiress builds a spectacular art museum on family property somewhere in the Deep South and gives it the suspiciously New-Agey name Crystal Bridges. But this is nonfiction. On Nov. 11 Alice Walton, daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, will unveil the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in the small city of Bentonville, Ark. Ms. Walton will always be remembered by New York's cultural custodians for absconding six years ago with Asher B. Durand's ''Kindred Spirits,'' a key piece of Hudson River School painting. (The New York Public Library let it go for about $35 million.) But Ms. Walton, 61, is no harebrained carpetbagger. A serious, lifelong art collector, she intends to make Crystal Bridges a major comprehensive repository of American art from Colonial to contemporary. In 2005 she hired the distinguished art historian and former National Gallery of Art curator John Wilmerding to advise on acquisitions and went on a buying spree that netted a George Washington portrait by Gilbert Stuart; Norman Rockwell's ''Rosie the Riveter'' (1943); Jasper Johns's ''Alphabets'' (1960-62); and a 2009 portrait of Bill Clinton, a friend of Ms. Walton's, by Chuck Close. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Prosecutors and the lawyer for James (Whitey) Bulger sparred in court papers on Wednesday about whether the government should be allowed to drop one of two federal cases against Mr. Bulger, a former mob boss. The lawyer, Peter Krupp, said prosecutors were trying to manipulate the process of randomly assigning judges to cases by seeking to dismiss a 1994 indictment on extortion and loan-sharking charges in favor of a later indictment in 19 murders. United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz said the motion carried no weight since Mr. Bulger had yet to be arraigned on either indictment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wellesley, Mass. DESPITE overwhelming evidence to the contrary, roughly one in five Americans believes that vaccines cause autism -- a disturbing fact that will probably hold true even after the publication this month, in a British medical journal, of a report thoroughly debunking the 1998 paper that began the vaccine-autism scare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BOSTON -- A spin of the marketing wheel has brought abstract painting back into the spotlight, and much of the new stuff turns out to be rewrapped old stuff. At the same time there are enough artists seriously rethinking existing models that very basic definitions -- What does abstract mean? What qualifies as painting? -- are in flux. Mark Bradford, a 49-year-old Californian, is one of these rethinkers, and a lean, bright 10-year survey of his work at the Institute of Contemporary Art here gives a sense of what he's been up to. Mr. Bradford first gained national attention in 2001 in ''Freestyle,'' the self-designated ''post-black,'' new-talent survey at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He was one of the oldest people in the show, but his art looked fresh, and it came with an intriguing history. He had a graduate degree from the California Institute of the Arts, known for its theory-intensive curriculum. But he supported himself as a stylist in his mother's beauty salon in South Central Los Angeles and used hairdressing supplies -- curling paper, gels -- in his art, the large abstract collages that he called paintings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the Art of the Americas installation is the main event, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is using the special exhibitions gallery in the new, Norman Foster-designed wing to spotlight another of its institutional strengths: Asian art. In 2006 the museum invited nine Chinese artists and a Chinese-American artist each to select a work from the collection and create a response to it. Both the pieces chosen and the new art have been assembled in an ingenious and engrossing show called ''Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition'' (through Feb. 13), organized by the museum's curator of Chinese art, Hao Sheng. Some pairings are straightforward, others oblique. The youngest artist, Qiu Ting, born in 1971, chose a misty Northern Song landscape from the museum's great Chinese holdings and made his own version of it. Two artists, Li Huayi and Zeng Xiaojun, went for masterpiece gold in the form of Cheng Rong's renowned ''Nine Dragons'' and came back with landscapes, but in unorthodox formats: Mr. Li's stretches over several large sheets of paper; Mr. Zeng's is framed as a free-standing screen. Li Jin updated an 11th-century scroll of scholars at a gathering by adding his Falstaffian self to the company. The show's sole female artist, Yu Hong, paid homage to the 12th-century scroll ''Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk'' by -- beautifully -- transforming its figures into contemporary women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WASHINGTON -- In Massachusetts, which has had a government-run health insurance marketplace for four years, people typically file paper applications for subsidized coverage offered by one of five state-approved insurers. In Utah, employees of small businesses can go to a state Web site and sign up for insurance over the Internet, almost as easily as they download music from iTunes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As feuds go, this is not the biggest or most easily understood, but when a government agency uses phrases like ''hyperbole, fiction and innuendo,'' ''dark, dirty and poorly lit newsroom'' and ''dying medium'' to describe a newspaper, it is bound to get attention. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette in Massachusetts has been at odds with that city's Police Department over, among other things, access to records of police disciplinary investigations; the paper's reporting on the overtime earned by the police chief's brother, a department officer; and, most recently, its critique of the academic credentials that officers cite to increase their pay. (The Telegram & Gazette is owned by The New York Times Company.) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A 28-year-old computer hacker pleaded guilty on Friday to some of the largest identity-theft crimes on record and left a federal judge struggling with how to compensate the hacker's millions of victims. Court papers filed last month had already shown that the hacker, Albert Gonzalez of Miami, would plead guilty to federal charges in Massachusetts and New York that he helped lead a worldwide ring that stole more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from major retail chains. He faces similar charges in New Jersey. Mr. Gonzalez faces up to 25 years in prison as part of a plea deal. Judge Patti B. Saris set a sentencing date in December, but first intends to review how the authorities might compensate his victims. The authorities confiscated cash, computers, a condominium and a handgun from Mr. Gonzalez, together worth more than $1.6 million. ''I have a sinking sensation that the number of victims may exceed the available recovery,'' Judge Saris said in court. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Try to read a good newspaper every day -- at bedtime or at breakfast or when you take a break in the afternoon. If you are interested in art, literature or music, widen your horizons by poring over the science section. In the mood for spicy scandals? Read the business pages. Want to impress your poli sci prof? Read columnists. The newspaper will be your path to the world at large. At Williams College, where I was a student in the 1930s, we read the alarming reports in The Times about Germany's brutal onslaught against peaceful nations. In the spring of 1938, we burned Hitler in effigy -- and made Page 11 of The Times! In June 1940, as France fell to Nazi troops, hundreds of graduating seniors urged compulsory military training, and provided another Williams story to the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Representative Stephen F. Lynch took the first official step toward running for the Senate seat that opened last week after Edward M. Kennedy's death, indicating he would become the second major candidate to join the race. A representative for Mr. Lynch, a Democrat from South Boston who was elected in 2001, picked up nominating papers from the secretary of state's office to run in the special election, scheduled for Jan. 19. Mr. Lynch, 54, said in a statement that he would finalize his plans ''over the next week or so.'' He would face Attorney General Martha Coakley, who announced her candidacy on Thursday, in the Dec. 8 primary. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 1835 three vellum-bound books with smudged handwritten pages have been lingering on shelves at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. The volumes, with lists of names, dates and prices scrawled on foot-tall sheets of rag paper, puzzled the few scholars who paid any attention to them until just last year. This month the solution to the mystery is being announced with fanfare: Nathaniel Gould, a cabinetmaker in Salem, Mass., wrote those entries, and they represent thousands of furniture commissions shipped worldwide. Gould was previously thought to have produced perhaps a few dozen pieces. The ledger discovery could change attributions of carved mahogany, walnut and cedar objects for scores of museums, private collections and stores. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ELLEN SPERTUS, a graduate student at M.I.T., wondered why the computer camp she had attended as a girl had a boy-girl ratio of six to one. And why were only 20 percent of computer science undergraduates at M.I.T. female? She published a 124-page paper, ''Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists?'', that catalogued different cultural biases that discouraged girls and women from pursuing a career in the field. The year was 1991. Computer science has changed considerably since then. Now, there are even fewer women entering the field. Why this is so remains a matter of dispute. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THE club kid got the Harvard job. At least so it might appear from the paper -- recognized in the academic vernacular as Diane Paulus's curriculum vitae -- that so impressed the university's search committee in its 16-month quest for a new artistic director for the resident American Repertory Theater that in May it offered her the position, starting this fall. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The youngest daughter of Gov. Deval Patrick said in an interview that she was gay, and that she came out to her parents after lawmakers voted to kill a proposal that could have outlawed gay marriage in the state. The daughter, Katherine Patrick, 18, said her father responded to her announcement by giving her a bear hug and saying, ''Well, we love you no matter what.'' Ms. Patrick made her revelation public in an interview with her family in Bay Windows, a weekly Boston newspaper. The governor told the paper his family agreed to the interview to make the news public on their own terms. Ms. Patrick said she told her father and her mother, Diane Patrick, of her sexual orientation on July 3, 2007, about three weeks after the legislature rejected an amendment opposing same-sex marriage to the State Constitution. Mr. Patrick supports same-sex marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on the mission carried out by the nonprofit Green Restaurant Association. The association, based in Sharon, Massachusetts and founded by Michael Oshman, helps restaurants figure out how to be more environmentally responsible and ultimately secure its certification. It encourages the use of energy-saving light bulbs, water- and energy-conservation programs and napkins made of unbleached paper.

Reports that Mike Barnicle, the columnist who resigned for "The Boston Globe" newspaper in 1998, has been hired as a columnist at the "The Boston Herald." Barnicle's resignation in 1998 after failing to credit comedian George Carlin as the source of a series of jokes in one column and for his failure to verify the identities of two cancer patients in another; Work done by Barnicle for "The Daily News" of New York after his resignation from the Boston, Massachusetts paper.

Discusses the controversy over Peter Manso's book 'Ptown: Art, Sex and Money on the Outer Cape.' Overview of the book, which offers a gossipy history of Provincetown, Massachusetts; Reactions of residents, including author Norman Mailer, who are writing protest letters to the local paper; How the book has created problems, including its impact on a child custody case; Comments of residents; Background on Manso; Details of Manso's feud with Mailer.

When Bain Capital sought to raise money in 1989 for a fast-growing office-supply company named Staples, Mitt Romney, Bain's founder, called upon a trusted business partner: Goldman Sachs, whose bankers led the company's initial public offering. When Mr. Romney became governor of Massachusetts, his blind trust gave Goldman much of his wealth to manage, a fortune now estimated to be as much as $250 million. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports that Framingham, Massachusetts-based office supply retailer Staples has narrowed a review for its television creative account.

Features the Japanese postcard collection of Leonard A. Lauder shown at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Schedule for the exhibition of the postcard collection; Research made on the Japanese artists who made the postcards; Views of Joe V. Earle, chairman of the department of art at the Museum of Fine Arts, regarding the style used to create postcards.