Edwards keeps eye on Suffolk Downs
the 3,443 residents counted in the neighborhood — the HYM Investment Group’s plans for the Suffolk Downs site may not be much different. District 1 City Councilor Lydia Edwards said HYM Investments is planning a neighborhood with rents and condo prices that will exclude most current East Boston residents.

Council to probe ICE, Hub police
“The hundreds of thousands of people in Massachusetts who may not be documented … have every right to be free from persecution, to call the police when they’re the victim or witness of a crime,” Zakim said in a City Council meeting last week, where...

Prayers for victims of New Zealand shooting
Hundreds of worshippers and interfaith leaders turned out for noon prayers at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury Friday in the wake of the white supremacist attack at two New Zealand mosques that left 50 dead and more than 50 injured.

Students demonstrate against climate change
As people around them holding homemade posters spilled off the sidewalk onto Beacon Street, the brothers explained that they had grown up spending a lot of time in nature, and are now studying environmental science in high school, which has opened their eyes to the effects of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases.

Local electeds urge support for immigration fix
James McGovern and Katherine Clark and Mayor Martin Walsh spoke in favor of the Dream and Promise Act, a national bill that would give those immigrants a chance to stay in the country despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the programs that protect them.

A double standard for Ron Sullivan
Americans have the right to a legal defense when they are charged with a crime. The defendant may engage a lawyer of his choice, or accept a lawyer provided by the jurisdiction if the accused is unable to afford one.

Omar’s criticism can’t be confused with anti-semitism
During the Civil Rights Movement Jews and blacks were inseparable allies. Both groups wanted the same result — the elimination of legal support for racial and religious discrimination. With the approval of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, that objective was substantially achieved.

.

IN THE NEWS
Former State Representative Juana Matias has been appointed chief operating officer at the public policy think tank MassINC. Previously a member of the MassINC board of directors, Matias represented the 16th Essex District until this year.

The college cheaters just did what rich whites have done for decades to get their affirmative action
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling was dead wrong when he said, “There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy.” He had just announced the multi-count federal indictment of a bunch of celebrities, professionals and businesspersons in a college admissions scam.

ROVING CAMERA
“It just speaks to people not being able to deal with difference of religion and race. It’s horrible. I think things are getting worse because people don’t understand that you can’t force people into a belief system.”.

Blacks, Latinos face disproportionate stops
The Stanford Open Policing Project, a team of researchers and journalists at Stanford University, compiled state and municipal data from across the country and found that of the more than 200 million traffic stops, black people were more likely to...

White supremacist and neo-Nazi videos take root on YouTube
While the authorities say Tarrant posted his treatise on 8chan — a relatively obscure web forum that attracts trolls, hackers and hardcore white supremacists — the ideas in the document are also circulating on many of the world’s most popular social media platforms.

In 1850s Boston, slave case sparked conflict
Long before the modern fight over safeguarding immigrants from deportation, Massachusetts was the focus of much controversy over its being a sanctuary state. The situation heated up after a new law required law enforcement officers to ignore the sanctuary status, and Boston’s mayor formally announced his intention to comply with the feds.

Coffee is a family business
The Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee farm in Nicaragua is owned by the Ferrey-Machado family and managed by Leana and Carlos, Miriam’s parents. Although the family in Nicaragua has been producing coffee for exportation since 1972, the Morales family has been roasting and selling Recreo’s single-origin coffee locally since 2011.

BIZ BITS
We constantly have to make tough choices with our money. That’s true even at tax time, when the IRS’s sales tax deduction presents this peculiar choice to people who itemize: You can deduct the state and local general sales tax you paid during the year, or you can deduct the state, local and foreign income tax you paid during the year.

From Street to Screen
Over the course of 15 weeks, Michael Sheridan, founding director of Community Supported Film, worked with Boston-area immigrant and refugee filmmakers to make documentaries about their experiences and the issues in their communities.

ARTISTIC LEGACY
he Boston art world celebrated the life and work of local artist Magnus Johnstone at the Nave Gallery in Somerville last week. A visual artist and DJ on WZBC 90.3 FM and WMBR 88.1 FM, Johnstone left behind a powerful legacy when he died at age 60 in 2013.

Idris Elba directs Jamaica crime drama
Dennis “D” Campbell (Aml Ameen) had the misfortune of growing up in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica in the 1970s at a time when the ’hood was infested with drugs. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by an older brother he admired, Jerry (Everaldo Creary).

Visionary women honored in 2019
You may be surprised to hear this, but there was a time, not too long ago, when women weren’t allowed to do things you’d think of as common today. As recently as 1974, women weren’t allowed to get credit cards in their own names.

Who was Melnea A. Cass?
It was in the 1930s that Cass began a lifetime of volunteer work on the local, state and national level. She first contributed her services to the Robert Gould Shaw House, a settlement house and community center. She was the founder of the Kindergarten Mothers.