Massachusetts Democrats hope to tie GOP Gov. Baker to Trump

Massachusetts Democrats are hoping to take a notch out of Republican Gov. Charlie Baker's sky-high popularity numbers by lashing him to Donald Trump's incoming administration. In a series of tweets and in an online petition, the Massachusetts Democratic Party has called on Baker to denounce a string of top Trump advisers and Cabinet picks.

Obama lines up a meeting with lawmakers, a speech in Chicago

Eager to stop Republicans from destroying his signature health care law, President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers will meet next week to try to forge a common strategy. Obama also plans a major valedictory speech in Chicago, his hometown, shortly before his presidency ends.

Look back at the Clinton campaign in cartoons: Darcy cartoon gallery

Hatchimals were the hot Christmas toy this season that left many parents and kids hot and bothered when the toy didn't perform as advertised. Just as some Hatchimals failed to fully hatch, so to did the Hillary Clinton coronation campaign, leaving all involved with egg on their faces.

Why celebrate the New Year? Under President Trump, 2017 could be even worse

Though 2016 has been, for many, one of the most harrowing and depressing years in recent memory - with the deaths of many beloved entertainers and artists, the rise of far-right populism throughout the Western world, and the ongoing geopolitical crises in the Middle East, to name just a few reasons - there is little reason to celebrate the year's end this weekend, or to be hopeful for 2017.

The top 10 stories of 2016

Donald Trump The top 10 stories of 2016 Four Cabinet spots still open in the Trump administration McCain: There must be a 'price to pay' for Russian hacking MORE announced his bid for the White House in June 2015, the effort was widely dismissed as a self-promotional gambit by the New York property developer. Instead, Trump vanquished a huge Republican primary field that included big names such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio The top 10 stories of 2016 #Rexit: Tell Senate to reject Rex, confirm Romney for Secretary of State.

White births, migration explain why Texas remains a red state

Erika Jaramillo, center, and others hold signs supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a Democratic National Convention watch party in San Antonio on July 26. In Texas, where 39 percent of the population is Hispanic, Democrats have been shut out of statewide elections for decades. That is likely to occur for decades to come if the statistic bear out.

Ex-POW from Hillary Clinton campaign ads dies

Joel Sollender, a Jewish World War II veteran and former prisoner of war, who appeared in an ad on behalf of Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, September, 2016. Joel Sollender, a World War II prisoner of war who appeared in television ads for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, has died.

Putin’s Not-So-Secret Weapon

Long regarded as the understudy of the infamous KGB and its successor services, Russian military intelligence is now front and center in the Moscow-Washington showdown. It says something about the ingrained rivalry between the various fiefdoms of Russian espionage that the founder of Soviet military intelligence, Leon Trotsky, had an ice-ax driven into his head in Mexico by an agent of Stalin's foreign intelligence service.

The GRU You Never Knew, the Russian intel agency that Obama just hit

Long regarded as the understudy of the infamous KGB and its successor services, Russian military intelligence is now front and center in the Moscow-Washington showdown. It says something about the ingrained rivalry between the various fiefdoms of Russian espionage that the founder of Soviet military intelligence, Leon Trotsky, had an ice-ax driven into his head in Mexico by an agent of Stalin's foreign intelligence service.

Steve Chapman: The triumph of falsehood

In 1644, the English poet John Milton made an eloquent case against censorship. Freedom of thought and inquiry was not only a God-given prerogative but also the best protection against error: "Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?" Milton was fortunate enough to live before the internet.

Globalization took hits in 2016; Will 2017 lead to more?

The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and Britain's decision to leave the European Union have raised questions over the future of tariff-free trade and companies' freedom to move production to lower-cost countries. "We want our country back" was the rallying cry of those backing Brexit, a sound bite that had echoes in Trump's "Make America great again."