The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is now in the Supreme Court's hands, but it seems that the health care reforms then-Governor Mitt Romney implemented in Massachusetts will continue to haunt the GOP contender for the remainder of the campaign. MIT economist Jonathan Gruber joins us to discuss the economics of health care reform, in Massachusetts and on the national level. Professor Gruber also penned a graphic novel on the subject, titled "Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It's Necessary, How It Works."

In his final days of office, then-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney spent over $100,000 to replace the computers in the governor's mansion and to wipe the hard drives of existing computers. Not just his own, but those of eleven members of his staff. While not illegal the move is considered "unprecedented" and has been criticized by both the left and the right.  

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has filed a suit against Bank of America, JP-Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and GMAC Mortgage, accusing them of "unfair and deceptive business practices." She is seeking damages for borrowers who were hurt by these banks foreclosure practices, which range from filing fraudulent legal paperwork to the use of so-called "robo-signers" and refusing to follow lending laws.

Elizabeth Warren announced her bid for the Massachusetts Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Scott Brown (and formerly by Democrat Edward Kennedy) just over two weeks ago. Since then, she's obtained widespread support from top Democrats and has created a moderately viral video.

Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren officially announced her candidacy for Senate in Massachusetts on Wednesday. Warren was the driving force behind the creation of the Consumer Protection Agency, and has been a lightening rod for Congressional Republicans. She'll be challenging Senator Scott Brown, who was elected in a special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in 2010. (You can watch her official announcement after the jump.)

In 2007, Governor Deval Patrick became the first black governor of Massachusetts. In his first term, Patrick oversaw the implementation of the state's 2006 health care reform program, defended the legality of same-sex marriages and increased the state's sales tax to 6.5 percent. Now in his second term, the man born into poverty on Chicago's South Side has written a memoir called “A Reason to Believe: Lessons From an Improbable Life.” Governor Deval Patrick joins The Takeaway to talk about his path to the governor's mansion —and the road ahead.

The suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince in January made international headlines and changed the way that Massachusetts schools view and prosecute bullying in schools. What was described by state District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, initially, as a “nearly three-month campaign” of “relentless” and “torturous” bullying, may in fact have been a more nuanced and complicated case with an emotionally disturbed teenager at its center. 

They’re back: Massive homes, heavy on square footage and sometimes light on architectural style, are seeing a resurgence in certain Boston-area communities.

Today our partner WGBH Radio begins an investigative series about the growing national and international criminal enterprise of human and sexual trafficking, and examines how nail salons in Massachusetts and Rhode Island are being used to hide and legitimize illegal activities. Women are being trafficked to work in salons during the day and then pulled into prostitution at night, and because a salon is a cash-based business, it is a perfect place to launder the money brought in through prostitution. 

The case of the failed Times Square bombing and its accused perpetrator, Faisal Shahzad, is rapidly expanding in reach. Late Thursday the Pakistan government said it had arrested a man who claims to have acted as an accomplice to Shahzad. And here at home, federal agents raided homes in suburban Massachusetts and Long Island, New York. The details of the Massachusetts and New York raids are still developing.

Many states across the country are struggling with billions of dollars in budget gaps and several of them are considering expanding some form of gambling to generate much needed revenue. Lawmakers in Massachusetts today are expected to begin debating a bill to license two resort-style casinos in the state and to introduce slot machines at the state's racetracks. Proponents of the plan say expanded gambling in Massachusetts could create as many as 15,000 jobs and reduce the state's buget deficit.

Although the campaign for health care reform may be in its final stretch, even reform supporters are having to plan very carefully for how we would pay for the changes, should they happen. 

Republican Scott Brown's victory in Tuesday's Massachusetts Senate race proved the power of independent voters, and the degree to which they are shifting away from the Democratic party, only a year after they helped propel Barack Obama into the presidency. We speak with Jay Campbell, a vice president at Hart Research, and with Ross Baker, professor of political science at Rutgers University.

Republican Scott Brown has won the late Ted Kennedy’s former Senate seat after a heated battle in Massachusetts. Brown handily defeated Democratic candidate Martha Coakley. The win for Brown is a major defeat for Democrats, who can no longer muster 60 votes to overcome frequent Republican filibusters in the Senate.

President Obama completes his first year in office today, and the excitement and euphoria that characterized his inauguration has turned to skepticism and doubt about his agenda.

Today, Massachusetts voters decide who will fill the Senate seat of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

There is no doubt: Losing a Massachusetts Senate seat to Republicans on Tuesday would be a devastating defeat for Democrats. It will be a repudiation of President Obama's domestic agenda, a sucker-punch for health care legislation, and a blow to Senate Democrats and their 60-vote lock against filibusters.

But would a Martha Coakley loss to State Sen. Scott Brown really debilitate Obama's agenda in 2010? The answer to that is a lot less clear than you think.

Voters in Massachusetts will vote for a new Senator tomorrow: The two candidates vying for the seat long-held by Democrat Ted Kennedy are now polling in a dead heat. The seat could be the key 60th vote needed for Democrats to pass a health care bill in the Senate... or the key to Republicans' efforts to stymie it.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) may be best known as the first openly gay member of Congress. But he has been representing Massachusetts's Fourth Congressional District since 1981 and has a long history of speaking his mind rather ... frankly. As the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, he was also one of the central architects of the $700 billion foreclosure "rescue plan."

All of these details have been well-known for years; other details in a new biography on Frank have not been as widely reported. We talk with Stuart Weisberg, the biographer behind "Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman" about his book — and the scandals, secrets and accomplishments that have shaped Frank's life and career thus far.

To see Rep. Barney Frank in a recent rambunctious moment, watch this clip from a health care town hall in Dartmouth, Mass.:

As announced yesterday, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat in the U.S. Senate will be filled by long-time family friend and former chair of the Democratic National Committee Paul Kirk. Will soon-to-be Sen. Kirk provide the much-need 60th vote to push health care reform through the Senate? The Takeaway's Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich gives us his insights.