Kerry typically would have been at the Boston Marathon (Foreign Policy Mag)

[beachmom]

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/15/kerry_typically_would_have_been_at_the_boston_marathon

Secretary of State John Kerry has a long history with the Boston Marathon and has been on the scene several times in the past few years, but this year he was returning from his 10-day trip to the Middle East and Asia.

On Monday afternoon, Kerry was informed of the two explosions that caused at least 2 deaths and dozens of injuries near the marathon's finish line by a senior aide as his plane approached O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, a senior State Department official told The Cable. ...

"While in Chicago the secretary contacted his youngest daughter, Vanessa, a doctor in Boston who has run the marathon in previous years, to confirm that family and friends were safe," the official said. "The secretary has a long history with the marathon, and in fact this morning noted it was one of the few years he wasn't on hand to fire the wheelchair race's starting gun."

[YvonneCa]

1. Just posted and...

...deleted from your other thread. It's a great article.

[Mass]

2. Kerry's statement about the bombing

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/04/live-updates-boston-marathon-bombing-day-2/

“The United States government is appropriately focused on finding the facts hours after the horrific explosions at the Boston Marathon. This afternoon’s attack is deeply personal to all of us who call that city our home,” Secretary of State John Kerry, the former senator from Massachusetts, said in statement. “Today’s attack was an assault on who we are in Massachusetts on a Patriot’s Day that honors where we came from.”