Taken for Granite State:

The nation’s first primary is tomorrow and few things are certain—or not. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have comfortable leads in the Republican and Democratic primaries respectively. The media debates whether Hillary Clinton, her husband and her campaign’s increasing sharp tone toward Sanders is helping or hurting, but Sander seemingly faces more scrutiny such as his camp’s use of other groups’ logos. Politico claims that Clinton allies are looking to shake up the campaign after New Hampshire, but Clinton herself downplayed that in an interview with Rachel Maddow. Fueling Sanders’s lead in New Hampshire? Young guys.

We make our endorsemnt for the Democratic presidential nomination.

On the Republican side it is a scramble to…survive. Marco Rubio looked likely to take second and begin paving a path toward being the establishment’s preferred candidate. Then Rubio got filleted at Saturday’s debate, particularly at the hand of Chris Christie. Christie, John Kasich and Jeb! Bush are all maneuvering to get into the “establishment lane” to the nomination, but Ted Cruz also remains a plausible candidate for second place in the primary.

…And the World:

Protests in Hong Kong erupt with the start of the lunar new year, this time over a crackdown on unlicensed food vendors, but there were echoes of 2014’s pro-Democracy demonstrations.

The Knessett suspends several Arab MKs after they meet with terrorist families.

London’s mayoral race is heating up. Labour’s Sadiq Khan seemed to have the upper hand, but Tory Zac Goldsmith has dialed up his campaigning.

The Feds:

The late Buddy Cianci is laid to rest in Providence.

A federal court has invalidated North Carolina’s congressional map, but almost everybody expects the Supreme Court to stay the ruling for 2016 following the state’s appeal. Even if the map is ultimately struck down, it will only affect two elections and few expect it to matter.

After a crane collapse kills one, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announces new safety ruleshttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/nyregion/de-blasio-announces-new-safety-measures-after-fatal-crane-collapse.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fnyregion.

The highest profile Republican in California’s open US Senate race drops out to seek reelection to the state assembly.

The State of Things:

Politico Massachusetts speculates that New Hampshire’s primary might be a dry run for the Massachusetts presidential primary on March 1.

The Commonwealth’s Senior Senator, Elizabeth Warren, remains under pressure to endorse in the presidential primary.

Hampshire County Sheriff Robert Garvey is retiring, marking the second sheriff retirement in the 413.

Our Editor-in-chief Matt Szafranski and Afro-American Point of View Publisher Frederick Hurst join Susan Kaplan for NEPR’s Short List.

City Slickers:

MGM reopens its community engagement office in Monarch Place.

ON Wednesday night, Forest Park residents will see new revised plans for traffic changes at the X intersection. The meeting is at 6pm at the Forest Park Middle School.

Twitter Chatter:

As we have revealed our presidential choice, we join many Massachusetts institutions and individuals throwing their weight behind Hillary Clinton. To that end, we acknowledge that this week’s tweet prize winner is a supporter of Clinton’s. However, Maura Healey’s tweet noting how the campaign is won door by door, voter by vote reflect a truism across the campaign in New Hampshire—both on the Democratic and Republican sides. It differs from how the race will look down the road, when it will shift increasingly, if not completely toward the air. Given polls’ increasingly inaccuracy in elections, it is important to consider what impact this battle on the ground will have on Tuesday’s final results.