ONLY A sliver of Brookline residents smoke. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the town's adult smoking rate is a paltry 6.8 percent — far below the statewide rate of 13.7 percent.

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Nikki Haley provoked a backlash when she told Fox News that if she becomes president, she wants to make it illegal to post anonymously on social media.

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BENEATH THE golden dome of the State House on Beacon Hill, the authority wielded by House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka is close to absolute. Within their respective chambers, they invariably get what they want. No proposal comes up for consideration unless they want it to. No bill comes to a vote without their say-so. No budget is finalized until they assent. They and they alone decide who will chair each committee. And they see to it that nearly every important decision affecting the people's business is decided unilaterally or behind closed doors, without public debate or dissent.

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WHAT COMES after the war in Gaza?

Already there has been much discussion of the postwar arrangements. President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, embracing conventional wisdom with both arms, are pushing for a takeover of Gaza by Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority. Far more realistic, however, is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call for Gaza to be "demilitarized, deradicalized, and rebuilt."

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Another daily White House press briefing, another cringeworthy response from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

On Tuesday afternoon, NBC reporter Peter Alexander asked the president's spokesperson for a reaction to the egregious behavior of people ripping down the flyers that show the names and pictures of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas. "Is the White House's view that these actions should be condemned," Alexander inquired, "or that that's a form of peaceful protest?"

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