In a series of tweets and Facebook posts, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday pounded away at GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Borrowing a page from Trump’s rhetorical playbook, Warren called the Republican frontrunner a loser, a cheat, a bully, and a bad businessman.

“But just because Trump is a loser everywhere else doesn’t mean he’ll lose this election. People have been underestimating his campaign for nearly a year – and it’s time to wake up,” she said in a Facebook post. “Donald Trump stands ready to tear apart an America that was built on values like decency, community, and concern for our neighbors. Many of history’s worst authoritarians started out as losers – and Trump is a serious threat. The way I see it, it’s our job to make sure he ends this campaign every bit the loser that he started it.”

Trump on Saturday called Warren a fraud for masquerading as an Indian, and he returned to that theme on Monday when a reporter asked him about Warren’s attacks. “Who’s that?” He asked. “The Indian? You mean the Indian?”

Trump then seemed to tire of the trash talk. “The problem with the country right now [is] it’s so divided, and people like Elizabeth Warren really have to get their act together because it’s going to stay divided. And that includes Hillary and probably includes me,” he said.

Most news outlets took Warren’s comments about Trump at face value, meaning the senator is worried that Trump could win the presidency and doing everything she can to stop him. But the Boston Globe’s Annie Linskey went a step further, suggesting that Warren is building a case for being selected as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate.

In her front-page story, Linskey notes that Warren and Trump have at least two things in common: an antipathy to big banks and Wall Street and a strong base of support among white, lower middle-class voters who have been hammered by the Great Recession. Linskey suggested Warren could be an invaluable asset to Clinton, who needs help appealing to the Reagan Democrats who are fueling Trump’s campaign and the supporters of her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.

Whether Warren will provide that help is unclear. Even as she wades into the Trump muck, she’s continuing to remain neutral in the Democratic presidential contest. “I’m not ready to endorse,” she told Masslive on Sunday. “I just don’t think it’s the right time yet.”

–BRUCE MOHL

 

BEACON HILL

Speaker Robert DeLeo pens an op-ed celebrating the bipartisan collaboration that produced the recently-signed opioid legislation. (Milford Daily News)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Lawrence City Council President Modesto Maldonado slams Mayor Daniel Rivera’s costly legal battle with a former landlord of the school department as a “stupid decision.” (CommonWealth)

In the second of a three-part look by the Boston Herald’s Jack Encarnacao at the attack on Ted Landsmark 40 years ago on Boston City Hall Plaza, Landsmark talks about the city’s turn toward healing racial wounds following the iconic moment. (Boston Herald)

Mayor Marty Walsh defends his decision to call a snow day for Boston schools yesterday. The city made the call at about 5:30 pm on Sunday and by 10 pm forecasters were already saying the city was not likely to see significant snowfall. (Boston Globe)

A Medway selectman admitted he “sounded like someone at a Trump rally” and apologized for remarks he made that some interpreted as borderline racist. (MetroWest Daily News)

A Provincetown tow company has filed suit against the town of Truro saying officials there are showing favoritism in whom they call for tow service, costing the Ptown company and customers money. (Cape Cod Times)

A Peabody woman sets up a nonprofit to care for and find homes for a growing feral cat population. (Salem News)

Worcester is finally putting out the welcome mat for food trucks. (Telegram & Gazette)

The Springfield City Council approves the $7 million purchase of a food warehouse and production facility for the city’s schools. (Masslive)

CASINOS/GAMBLING

DraftKings and FanDuel are suspending their operations in New York to give time for state lawmakers to develop legislation addressing the fantasy sports sites. (Boston Globe)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
At least 28 people are dead after explosions hit a subway station and the international airport in Brussels. (New York Times)

President Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro hold a historic joint press conference in Havana. (New York Times)

The US Supreme Court votes 6-2 to reject an attempt by Nebraska and Oklahoma to shut down legalized marijuana sales in Colorado. The states argued marijuana was flowing out of Colorado to other states and claimed that if Colorado was south of the nation’s border the federal government would prosecute it as a drug cartel. (Governing)

ELECTIONS

The Washington Post releases a transcript of its editorial board meeting with Donald Trump. He talks about his foreign policy team, his hands, and some other baffling issues. He even called one editor “beautiful.”

How the Massachusetts delegates to the National Republican Convention get chosen is a convoluted process — and it may not work to Trump’s advantage if Charlie Baker’s party minions have a say in it, writes MassINC Polling Group president Steve Koczela. (WBUR)

GOP voters are embarrassed by their party and the campaign, according to a new poll. (New York Times)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Apple unveils its new iPhone SE, a smaller, lower-cost smartphone with most of the features of the pricier iPhone 6. (Boston Globe)

The Justice Department says it appears to have found a way to unlock an iPhone connected to one of the spree shooters in San Bernardino, California, and will drop the court effort to force Apple to devise a program. (New York Times)

State officials have shut down a New Bedford strip club for failing to buy workers’ compensation insurance. (Standard-Times)

Developer Sal Lupoli unveils designs for Thorndike Mill in Lowell, a reimagining of the old Comfort Furniture site off Thorndike Street. (The Sun)

EDUCATION

Brockton officials are pleading with Gov. Charlie Baker and the president of Massasoit Community College to reconsider the decision not to site a new school building downtown after Baker froze higher ed projects that had been approved by former governor Deval Patrick. (The Enterprise)

Boston has yet to take steps to begin establishment of a public-private network of high-quality preschool programs 15 months after a city-appointed panel recommended that it do so — and the Walsh administration tried to keep the report under wraps but the Globe was successful in obtaining it under an appeal to the state under the Public Records Law.

A Boston high school program lauded for its success in helping students at risk of dropping out is on the chopping block because of budget cuts. (Boston Globe)

Pioneer Institute’s Jamie Gass and Charlie Chieppo say the state plays politics too often in the review of charter school proposals. (Boston Herald)

Boston University sells the long-time home of the Huntington Theater. (WBUR)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

A report from the state Health Policy Commission says lower-cost community hospitals continue to get squeezed by costlier teaching hospitals, which are grabbing a larger share of hospitalizations. (Boston Globe) The same report says more than 70 percent of pregnant women on the South Shore travel outside the region to deliver their babies, bypassing nearby hospitals with maternity wards. (Patriot Ledger)

State officials say they were wrong when they sent a letter demanding action by Pembroke Hospital to address patient safety issues, saying the facility’s eligibility for Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement is not at risk. (Patriot Ledger)

TRANSPORTATION

The new Government Center MBTA station gets rave reviews. (Boston Globe)  It’s so clean. (State House News) Now about that $7 billion state-of-good-repair backlog…

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Luis Crispin, a football star at Lawrence High School, is sentenced to 2½ years in prison for trafficking in heroin. (Eagle-Tribune) Police and federal agents arrest two residents of Haverhill for selling heroin and take a boy into state custody. (Eagle-Tribune) North Shore heroin overdoses are on the rise; Beverly reports five overdoses in five days, one of them fatal. (Salem News)

A Herald editorial decries the US Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment protects rights to stun guns.

Former FBI agent Robert Fitzpatrick, facing charges that he lied on the witness stand during the Whitey Bulger trial, also lied about his role in the investigation of the Martin Luther King assassination, say prosecutors. (Boston Herald)

MEDIA

The Gannett Co. invests in the parent company of Billy Penn, the Philadelphia-based news site. (Billy Penn)

Gawker jury adds $25 million in punitive damages to its $115 million compensatory judgment in the Hulk Hogan sex video case. (The Daily Beast)