The bilingual first-generation former Navy SEAL is a Harvard Business School graduate with a successful business career, some moderate political stances, and a penchant for running marathons. He crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon just a few minutes before the bombs went off last month. While stationed in South America in the early 1990s he met his furutre-wife, who was working in the Peace Corps at a school for students with special needs. “I’m exactly what the American dream is all about,” Gomez said in an April GOP debate against two other Republican challengers.

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Tuesday's primary elections set up an eight-week sprint to the June 25 election.

In Markey, the race pits a longtime liberal politician known for environmental advocacy against Gomez, a fresh-faced social moderate with a distinguished biography and untested political skills. On paper, it looks like a competitive contest, but Republicans quietly concede that Markey is the strong favorite in a state where only around 11 percent of voters are registered Republicans.

"As we've shown before in the state, anything can happen in a special election," said Republican strategist Ron Kaufman, Massachusetts' national committeeman.

Indeed, little-known Republican state Sen. Scott Brown stunned Democrats in his 2010 special election U.S. Senate victory in a contest that became a referendum on Obama's healthcare overhaul. So far, at least, this race has drawn little national interest, even before being overshadowed by the Boston Marathon bombings.

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The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center overnight and was taken to the Federal Medical Center Devens about 40 miles west of Boston.

The facility, on the decommissioned Fort Devens U.S. Army base, treats federal prisoners and detainees who require specialized long-term medical or mental health care.

The 19-year-old Tsarnaev is recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway.

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Earlier in the evening, conflicting reports on Boston police scanners had suspect No. 2 being reported as alive or dead, his legs appearing to move or not from under a backyard boat on a small street in east Watertown, a close-in community in the Greater Boston area. But as a crowd cheered at 8:43, rumors were swirling that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been taken alive.

It is confirmed in east Watertown that the second suspect cornered here has been arrested following a firefight that resumed before 7 p.m. after ending last night. In that time the scene moved a few blocks closer to the tony boutiques of Watertown Square to this relatively small but densely populated residential street of two-family homes off Mount Auburn Street, the main thoroughfare through Watertown.

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Chief Superintendent Julia Pendry of the Metropolitan Police says there will be several hundred more officers policing Sunday's race, as well as more search dogs.

She said Friday that officers in London are in close contact with Boston police and the FBI, but have found "no link whatsoever" between London and the double bomb attack that killed three people and wounded more than 170 at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Police in Massachusetts are hunting a suspect in the Boston bombings, identified as 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev. A second suspect died after clashes with police.

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The same day, in the cities of Baghdad, Fallujah and Kirkuk in Iraq, there were “serial blasts.” Fourteen car bombs and three roadside bombs went off. Thirty-three people were killed and over 160 were wounded.

The two boys understand far too well what it is like in the immediate aftermath of a terror attack. In their lives, there has been numerous acts of violence as a result of terrorism and U.S. forces waging war and occupation.

The boys not only stand in solidarity with the victims of the Boston explosions, but they also empathize because this is what they’ve experienced. Part of this message is being shared with Americans because they want them to know they understand the pain Americans are going through.

The Boston explosions received far greater attention than the attacks in Iraq yesterday. They continue to receive much more attention than the car bombs that went off in Iraq today.

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Dr. George Velmahos said Tuesday that in his opinion the metal fragments came from the bomb and not from the environment.

Velmahos says MGH treated 31 victims of the bombs that exploded in quick succession on Monday. The hospital performed four amputations and he said at least two more patients have legs that are still at risk of amputation.

Dr. Stephen Epstein of the emergency medicine department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center says he saw an X-ray of one victim's leg that had "what appears to be small, uniform, round objects throughout it — similar in the appearance to BBs."

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Three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and more than 150 injured by two explosions just seconds apart near the finish line.

Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers says at a news conference there are no known additional threats.

Police commissioner Ed Davis says it is the most complex crime scene in history of the department.

Authorities are looking for amateur video and photographic evidence that can give clues to who set off the bombs.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley says "what occurred in Boston was an act of cowardice."

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In the hours since the two explosions rocked the streets of Boston, messages of love and support have saturated the internet — but these inspiring and compassionate posts were not universal.

In fact, the commentary streaming across the Twitter feed of the Westboro Baptist Church was both hostile and hateful.

The Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas, is a small, virulently homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group that regularly stages protests or pickets institutions and individuals they think support homosexuality or otherwise subvert what they believe is God’s law.

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Watch Patrick's withering response below:

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Springfield is one of nearly 40 metro areas where Walmart now captures about half or more of consumer spending on groceries, according to Metro Market Studies. Springfield area residents spend just over $1 billion on groceries each year, and one of every two of those dollars flows into a Walmart cash register. The chain has 20 stores in the area and shows no signs of slowing its growth. Its latest proposal, a store just south of the city's downtown, has provoked widespread protest. Opponents say Walmart already has an overbearing presence in the region and argue that this new store would undermine nearby grocery stores, including a 63-year-old family-owned business which still provides delivery for its elderly customers. A few days before the First Lady's visit, the City Council voted 5-4 to approve what will be Walmart's 21st store in the community.

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On "Morning Joe," Frank said: “A month ago, or a few weeks ago, in fact I said I wasn’t interested. It was kind of like you’re about to graduate, and they said: ‘You gotta go to summer school.’ But [the fiscal cliff deal] now means that February, March and April are going to be among the most important months in American financial history."

He added that he has "told the governor that I would now like, frankly, to do that," but that he is only interested in serving for the three-month period before a special election this summer. "I wouldn't want to run again," Frank said.

Watch:

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According to WBUR, Brown has a high favorability rating, despite his loss to Warren, with 58 percent of those polled saying they view him favorably, compared to 28 percent who view him unfavorably.

From WBUR:

MassINC [Polling Group] pollster Steve Koczela looked at how well Brown would fare against four current or former Democratic members of Congress.

“We matched him up theoretically against (U.S. Reps.) Ed Markey, Mike Capuano, Steve Lynch and (former U.S. Rep.) Marty Meehan, and in each one of those cases, he led by between 17 and 19 points,” Koczela said.

Of course, who cares about Brown's favorability when Ben Affleck is maybe going to run.

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Affleck, however, would not confirm or deny the rumor. “That’s not what I’m here to talk about,” he told Politico. “I’m here to talk about what role we can place in making the Eastern Congo a better place.”

But Boston reporter Jon Keller argues that if Kerry's seat does, in fact, open up, Affleck could have a fair chance. Affleck has been active in the Democratic Party for more than a decade, and campaigned for Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who beat Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) in Nov. Any U.S. citizen over 30 years of age who can obtain 10,000 certified signatures can enter this race, Keller noted.

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"Rough" is, honestly, maybe understating it. I cringe at the dramatic sliding and stomping around the stage, the emphatic rhythmic speech slyly turning into a melody, and then into a song that infects innocent bystanders who magically chime in, in perfect synchrony. The transition from daily life to song and dance is the musical's central conceit, but it also feels like a clumsy trick, an uncommonly dorky hustle. I was watching, after all. Everything was normal and then, out of the blue, there's the eruption of choreographed/chaotic collective delusion. This is maybe not the bravest of stances, but I won’t be part of it.

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The Globe cites two anonymous Senate aides who say that Warren will be named to the committee in the new session of Congress:

The appointment has not been formally announced by Senate leaders and will not be final until an official vote on assignments by the members. The pending appointment was described to the Globe by aides who requested anonymity because Senate Majority Leader Reid has not made a formal announcement.

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Investigators and cleanup crews on Sunday returned to the blast area in Springfield, one of New England's biggest cities. The cause of the blast is under investigation. Police say the mayor will meet with investigators Sunday.

Friday night's explosion flattened a strip club and heavily damaged a day care center. It happened after officials evacuated part of the entertainment district because of reports of a gas leak and odor.

Most of the injured were part of a group of gas workers, firefighters and police officers who ducked for cover behind a utility truck just before the blast.

The explosion blew out windows and scattered debris over several blocks.

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Andy Kroll of Mother Jones reports:

 Aides to two senators on the banking committee tell Mother Jones the industry has already moved to block Warren from joining the committee, which is charged with drafting legislation regulating much of the financial industry. "Downtown"—shorthand for Washington's lobbying corridor—"has been going nuts" to keep her off the committee, another Senate aide says.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a banking committee member, has been angling to get Warren on the committee, "but there are many bank lobbyists pushing to keep her off," a top Democratic Senate aide told Politico's Morning Money tipsheet. But the aide added, "If she really wants banking, it will be very tough politically to keep her off."

This would be the second time banks fought a hard battle against Warren, who was blocked from taking a post as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011.

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Right now, most of the speculation is focused on the Pentagon, with Obama preferring to place his longtime friend Susan Rice at State. But Republican attacks on Rice over the Benghazi episode threaten to produce a bloody confirmation battle if Obama taps her. Democrats will have 55 votes (counting Angus King and Bernie Sanders) in the Senate come January, so in theory Obama would have the numbers to win that battle. But some of those Democrats – like, for instance, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin – could face home state pressure to defect if it became a clearly partisan fight.

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Warren, who beat out the incumbent Republican Scott Brown in a bitter election, ran a campaign centered on connecting the dots between economic policies and personal values. A Harvard bankruptcy-law professor, Warren trumpeted a platform that called for economic reform, financial regulation and the protection of Social Security, Medicare and other safety-net programs.

"We said this election is about whose side you're on," Warren told The Huffington Post . "I think of this as an election where we stuck to our values: Make sure Social Security and Medicare benefits are protected, and millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. To me, that's the heart of it. That's really where the basic social contract is reaffirmed.”

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