Ed. board picks Mass. veteran
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education recommended Jeff Riley, Lawrence public school superintendent, as the state’s next education commissioner in an 8-to-3 vote on Monday. Education Secretary James Peyser will make the final decision.

Council to take on tough issues in 2018 hearings
demand will be able to house our poor, working class and middle class,” Edwards said in her first speech from the floor of the council’s Iannella Chamber. “Let me be clear, I do not believe we can build our way out of this housing crisis and I am a skeptic of trickle-down housing policies.

Mass. named worst state for Latinos
According to the data, the median white household in the state earns $82,029 a year, whereas the median income for Hispanic households is just $39,742. Furthermore, 26 percent of Hispanic heads of household own their homes, compared to 69 percent white homeownership.

Ed reform think tank declares Hub unified enrollment plan dead
A year ago, members of the Boston Compact, a team of city, charter school and BPS officials, said they would soon release a plan for unified enrollment, a one-stop process through which parents signing their children up for BPS schools would also be added to the charter school application process.

Another national embarrassment
Many Americans think of Africa as a country. This misunderstanding is acceptable from the average citizen, but it is intolerable for Donald Trump or any chief of state. Africa is a continent, not a country. In fact, Africa has a land mass that is almost three times greater than the U.

A job well done!
Everyone who has benefitted from the public service of Linda Dorcena Forry should be delighted with her opportunity to join private industry. People sometimes forget that in the original design of the republic, public service was supposed to be required only until the next election.

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IN THE NEWS
MassHousing’s Board of Directors voted to appoint Chrystal Kornegay as the agency’s executive director. Kornegay, who currently serves the Baker-Polito administration as undersecretary of Housing and Community Development, will assume the executive director role following a brief transition period.

ROVING CAMERA
Finding a way to control rents. It’s been out of hand for quite some time. They’re putting up new buildings, but who’s getting them? We need to bring back rent control..

Protesters demand Harvard divest from Baupost
The coalition of activists demonstrating last Wednesday at the school’s campus included groups such as Community Labor United, The Hedge Clippers, Raices Boriken Collective, Harvard Student Labor Action Movement, Center for Popular Democracy and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice.

Democratic caucuses kick off year of high-stakes campaigning
This year’s state convention will be held June 1-2 at the DCU Center in Worcester, where thousands of Democrats from across the state will come together to endorse Democratic candidates for statewide office, including Constitutional Officers and gubernatorial candidates.

MLK Celebration
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) employee Philly Laptiste was honored as a YMCA Achiever for her accomplishments and dedication to growing her career and communities at BIDMC’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration..

Dorcena Forry leaves Legislature after 12 years in office
State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry announced last Thursday that she is resigning to take a job with Suffolk Construction as the company’s new vice president of diversity, inclusion, and community relations. As a Haitian-American, Forry was the only black state senator in Massachusetts.

Making it in real estate
Now, as a real estate broker for Coldwell Banker, Bernat puts her skills to work for both buyers and sellers in Boston’s superheated housing market. Sunday, she checked in on a client whose Roxbury home recently sold. The house, which had sustained damage to its water and heating systems, sold above asking price.

BIZ BITS
Apple recently announced that its version of the smart speaker, the “HomePod,” will be released on Feb. 9. Apple originally planned for the speaker to be released before the end of 2017, but delayed the release in mid-December. The Apple version is focused on music and sound quality, instead of intelligence like other smart speakers.

Rivaldo Soares scores 1,000 points
Rivaldo Soares is presented a banner congratulating him on reaching 1,000 points Jan. 24 at the O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science from headcoach Drew Brock.

Performance review prep
Just as job seekers must prepare before going to an interview, employees should also be ready before sitting down with the boss for their end-of-year performance review. Think of it as a kind of follow-up job interview. But this time, you want to convince them that you’re doing a great job.

BPD helps celebrate Catholic School Week
Officers with the Boston Police Department School unit joined students at the John Paul II Academy in Dorchester during an event celebrating Catholic School Week..

The Strong Sister
The island of Curacao, located in the Caribbean just off the coast of Venezuela, represents a unique melding of cultures. The native inhabitants, the Amerindian Arawaks, migrated from South America 6,000 years ago. Latin American influence is still an essential part of the nation.

‘Where’s Daddy?’
Today, there’s a cultural consensus that the criminal justice system aggressively targets and imprisons African Americans.

The Rainbow is Enuf
“For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf,” produced by Praxis Stage, opens at Hibernian Hall on Feb. 15. This celebrated choreo-poem by Ntozake Shange tells stories of the black female experience in a series of vignettes by characters identified as colors of the rainbow.

‘Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba’
Zenzile Miriam Makeba had the misfortune of being born black in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1932, which relegated her to second-class citizenship. In fact, she spent the first six months of her life behind bars with her mother, a sangoma (witch doctor), sent to prison days just after her birth.

Cast-iron cooking
very action figure has a special tool that defines who they are, by virtue of what they do. A construction worker may carry a hammer, a wizard wields a magic wand. And if there were kitchen action figures, each would carry a special utensil as well. One might brandish a chef’s knife, while another holds a submersible blender.

FOOD
Eating a diet high in tomatoes and fruits can help repair the lung functions of ex-smokers, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their study found that the natural decline in lung function over a 10-year period was slower among former smokers with a diet high in tomatoes and fruit.

Boston Public Library celebration
Mayor Martin Walsh joins the Boston Foundation and board members of the Boston Public Library in celebration of David Leonard’s first year of work as BPL President..

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