Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who seriously injured his knee just days after winning an unprecedented fifth term in office, wrapped up 10 days in the hospital yesterday and went home to Hyde Park, where he is expected to continue recuperating for at least another week, according to his spokeswoman. Menino fell and severed a tendon in his left knee on Nov. 8. The next day, he underwent surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital to reattach the tendon, and a few days later he was transferred to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. The mayor's spokeswoman, Dot Joyce, said yesterday that Menino has a large brace on his leg and is using crutches. ``As soon as he's comfortable making his way around on crutches, he'll be making his way back to City Hall,'' Joyce said. She said he will continue intensive therapy at home, working with physical therapists. ``He needs to keep his leg completely straight, so it's difficult to navigate,'' Joyce said, adding, ``He's happy to be out of the hospital.'' Joyce sai

Councilor at Large Michael F. Flaherty Jr., a mild-mannered boxer who got clocked in his bid for mayor, was out swinging again yesterday, saying he is going to remain involved in politics and continue to press the issues he raised in his campaign. ``It's not over for Michael Flaherty,'' he said, a day after losing his bid to unseat Mayor Thomas M. Menino, 57 to 42 percent. Flaherty, 40, suggested that he may not wait four years for another mayoral contest. He said this year's special election for US Senate - in which the Democratic candidates include two incumbent officeholders, Attorney General Martha Coakley and US Representative Michael E. Capuano - could lead to openings that would be appealing to Flaherty or his campaign ally, Councilor at Large Sam Yoon. Same-sex marriage proponents in Maine pledge to continue fight. B4 Setti Warren of Newton part of trend of Iraq veterans seeking office. B4 ``Hypothetically, if one of the seats could open up there, that potentially could be attr

Councilor at Large Michael F. Flaherty Jr., a mild-mannered boxer who got clocked in his bid for mayor, was out swinging again yesterday, saying he is going to remain involved in politics and continue to press the issues he raised in his campaign. ``It's not over for Michael Flaherty,'' he said, a day after losing his bid to unseat Mayor Thomas M. Menino, 57 to 42 percent. Flaherty, 40, suggested that he may not wait four years for another mayoral contest. He said this year's special election for US Senate - in which the Democratic candidates include two incumbent officeholders, Attorney General Martha Coakley and US Representative Michael E. Capuano - could lead to openings that would be appealing to Flaherty or his campaign ally, Councilor at Large Sam Yoon. Same-sex marriage proponents in Maine pledge to continue fight. B4 Setti Warren of Newton part of trend of Iraq veterans seeking office. B4 ``Hypothetically, if one of the seats could open up there, that potentially could be attr

Mayor Thomas M. Menino is expected to be hospitalized at least through Thursday after undergoing emergency surgery yesterday to repair a knee injury he sustained in a fall at his son's home in Hyde Park. Menino, 66, was recovering at Brigham and Women's Hospital last night after the operation to repair a severed tendon in his left knee. He may need to use crutches for several weeks, said orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Thornhill, who reattached the tendon without incident during the roughly 90-minute surgery yesterday. The mayor fell Sunday while carrying trays of food upstairs outside his son's home at about 5:30 p.m. Menino ``missed a step,'' said his spokeswoman, Dot Joyce. Family members helped him into the house and summoned paramedics, who rushed the mayor by ambulance to Brigham and Women's Hospital, according to EMS records. Thornhill said the tendon connecting Menino's thigh muscles to the top of his kneecap was completely torn away. During the surgery that began at about 10:30

A partial list of those who attended Sen. Edward Kennedy's funeral in Boston. A partial list of those who attended Sen. Edward Kennedy's funeral in Boston on Saturday:

The math is impossible: several thousand requests for 1,450 seats at tomorrow's funeral for Senator Edward M. Kennedy at the Mission Church. And that's not counting the pressing demand to attend a smaller private service tonight at the John F. Kennedy Library. There's an A-list for high-demand events, and then there's an A-plus-list for the funeral of the larger-than-life torchbearer of the Kennedy political dynasty. For appeal, the funeral has dwarfed the pressing scramble for tickets to the Kennedy tribute at Symphony Hall during the 2004 Democratic National Convention and the 2000 presidential debate at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. As a result, a small army of 50 current and former members of the senator's staff huddled in two rooms at the Kennedy Library yesterday to pore through lists and pare down the roster. The work was expected to continue late into the night and through today, aided by the meticulous lists that Kennedy kept of the friends, acquaintances, and sup

One day after Mayor Thomas M. Menino hired a computer forensics firm to try to retrieve e-mails that were deleted by one of his top aides, the mayor's chief lawyer acknowledged that a partner in the firm has ties to City Hall. Anthony C. Jordan - a Boston-based partner in the firm, the StoneTurn Group - sits on a Boston Public Library committee and is also on the board of the Boston Public Library Foundation, which raises money for the library; the library depends on Menino for two-thirds of its $30 million budget. In response to inquiries from the Globe, corporation counsel William Sinnott said yesterday that Jordan would not participate in the firm's work to retrieve e-mails deleted by Menino's chief policy aide, Michael J. Kineavy. Sinnott said he wants to avoid any perception that Jordan's ties to City Hall might skew the results of the probe in Menino's favor. ``He has been walled off from any work on this case out of an abundance of caution,'' he said. Jordan said in an interview

One day after Mayor Thomas M. Menino hired a computer forensics firm to try to retrieve e-mails that were deleted by one of his top aides, the mayor's chief lawyer acknowledged that a partner in the firm has ties to City Hall. Anthony C. Jordan - a Boston-based partner in the firm, the StoneTurn Group - sits on a Boston Public Library committee and is also on the board of the Boston Public Library Foundation, which raises money for the library; the library depends on Menino for two-thirds of its $30 million budget. In response to inquiries from the Globe, corporation counsel William Sinnott said yesterday that Jordan would not participate in the firm's work to retrieve e-mails deleted by Menino's chief policy aide, Michael J. Kineavy. Sinnott said he wants to avoid any perception that Jordan's ties to City Hall might skew the results of the probe in Menino's favor. ``He has been walled off from any work on this case out of an abundance of caution,'' he said. Jordan said in an interview

Conn. man whose family was killed in home invasion faces long death-penalty court battle. At 52, Dr. William Petit faces years ? perhaps decades ? of emotionally draining court hearings before the two men charged with murdering his family in a 2007 home invasion may be convicted and executed.

Conn. man whose family was killed in home invasion faces long battle in death penalty case. At 52, Dr. William Petit faces years ? perhaps decades ? of emotionally draining court hearings before the two men charged with murdering his family in a 2007 home invasion may be convicted and executed.

Boston's public schools have failed to provide any formal instruction in physical education to about 25 percent of the city's students, despite a state law that requires physical education be taught to all students in all grades. Nearly 7,700 students at 15 public elementary schools went without phys-ed instruction during the 2007-08 academic year, according to the city's school department. Nearly 4,800 students at more than a dozen high schools also were denied access to phys-ed, as were more than 1,400 others at two K-8 schools and smaller learning centers. School officials released the findings last week after City Council president Michael P. Ross provided the Globe a survey he conducted in the 2008-09 academic year that cast a similarly bleak portrait of physical education in the city's schools. The systemic failure shows that the crisis in Boston public school athletics runs deeper than ill-prepared students participating on teams plagued by inadequate funding, facilities, and eq

For years, the chiseled sea nymphs and other Parisian-styled gods have existed in an ignominious purgatory in which their glory has been relegated to a perch for pigeons. The only time the bronze statues have water sluicing through their pipes is when it rains. The inglorious fate of the 141-year-old Brewer Fountain has long irked city officials and others who have admired its bygone grace near the northeast edge of the Boston Common, in the shadows of the State House. Now, after years of effort to raise money since it ran dry in 2003, the city's oldest fountain is about to undergo a major restoration. But the work comes at a steep cost for a city in financial straits. The budget for the project now stands at more than $630,000, which could rise depending on what contractors find when they examine the fountain more closely. About half of that money will come from city coffers, the rest from the federal government and private donors. ``The renovation of Boston Common is very important,

Sotomayor's views on death penalty could get early test on Supreme Court. As a director of a Puerto Rican advocacy group in the 1980s, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was part of a three-person committee that equated capital punishment with racism.

Boston police officials are working to stave off layoffs of 67 police officers and are hunting for $600,000 that would allow the department to continue sending officers on horseback to patrol the Public Garden and other parks. Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis described the plan during a City Council budget hearing yesterday. The city is hoping to avoid laying off officers by using federal grants, delaying the staff reductions until October when the city will find out how much money it will receive. President Obama has revived the COPS program, which had helped the city beef up its force during the Clinton administration. Responding to resident complaints, Davis said he was also open to finding money to save the city's horseback patrols. Additionally, Davis said the department had cut down on cost overruns in its overtime budget by adjusting schedules. Mayor Thomas M. Menino has been urging city unions to accept one-year wage freezes or face layoffs. He included police layoffs in the

The narrow paths and crooked corners of Boston's Victory Gardens were inviting territory for burglars and drug pushers when the cavalry rode in, literally, and the Boston Police Department's mounted unit began patrolling the area. Now gardeners are worried about crime returning if the historic unit is disbanded to save cash. They are part of a large network of mounted-patrol enthusiasts, including horse lovers, neighborhood activists, and Boston history buffs, who have helped drive an online petition to save the program. It had garnered nearly 2,000 signers by yesterday afternoon. And now City Council President Michael P. Ross and Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, who is chairman of the Public Safety Committee, say they want to save the mounted patrol, too. Supporters of the city's 12-horse mounted patrol will urge city councilors to preserve the force today in a hearing at City Hall on the Police Department's budget, which calls for eliminating the unit as part of $6.7 million in savings i