Mayor increases police oversight
The new members are Christina Miller, a Suffolk University Law School assistant professor and former chief of district courts and community prosecutions with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office; Meredith Paige Shih, a Harvard Law School...

Janey rolls out new City Council committees
Council President Kim Janey finalized this year’s council committee assignments during last week’s meeting. The assignments put women in charge of some of the body’s most powerful committees, including Government Operations, chaired by Lydia Edwards; Education, chaired.

Deval Patrick tours black history sites in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. —Deval Patrick’s presidential race took a brief detour from the campaign trail this week to walk in the footsteps of black history and draw personal and political hope from the stories of resilience of early African American residents of New Hampshire’s largest seacoast town.

Teen Empowerment head helps youth find their way
Today, he is the executive director of the Center for Teen Empowerment, an organization that helps low-income teenagers inspire their urban communities and advocate for change. Forrester helps these teenagers recognize their self-worth and envision crime-free communities.

Franklin Park planning process underway
The city of Boston’s $102 million sale of the Winthrop Square garage provided the funding for the park’s planned renovation. The details of that renovation, however, are yet to be worked out. The Jan. 28 meeting was the first in a series of planned meetings to develop a new master plan for Franklin Park.

An oppressive Iowa law
Iowa is a small, Midwestern state with a total population of only about 3,118,102. With a white population of 90.6% of the total, it is not racially diverse. And it has only one large city, Des Moines, with a population of 682,877. Iowa is by no means representative of the majority of America’s electorate.

Applied lessons from history
Carter G. Woodson, a black alumnus of Harvard University, established Black History Week in 1926. The objective was to record the history of blacks in America, many of whose roots had been lost in the experience of slavery. He stated, “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition.

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IN THE NEWS
Berklee College of Music has named Yoron Israel chair of the Percussion Department. Israel, a drummer, composer, bandleader, vibraphonist, percussionist and author, previously served as the department’s interim chair, and has held faculty positions at Rutgers University William Paterson University, and the Mannes School of Music at the New School.

Black America’s housing crisis
No matter who you are or where you live, there’s a central concern that links consumers all over the country: the ever-rising cost of living. For many consumers, the combined costs of housing, transportation, food and utilities leave room for little else from take-home pay.

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Yes. I think it’s important to come up with someone who’s going to win against Trump..

MBTA approves Fairmount Line pilot program
A Fairmount Line pilot program will commence in May of this year, adding eight trips per day to the commuter rail line, which runs through Mattapan, Dorchester and Roxbury. The project is aimed at providing increased frequency and greater accessibility and permitting CharlieCard usage.

Latino Network reception
Boston Higher Education Resource Center Executive Director Samuel Acevedo, Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, and Vanessa Calderón- Rosado, CEO of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción enjoy a moment during a reception held for Cassellius by the Greater Boston Latino Network at Morgan Lewis.

RCC unveils Smart Building Tech Center
The new program adheres to many of the City of Boston’s environmental goals, including to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Frank Mruk, the executive director of the Center for Smart Building Technology, said that the world is facing a climate crisis.

Why Black History Month is still important
Scholar and historian Carter G. Woodson chose the second week in February, as it contained the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, to bring awareness to African Americans’ role in shaping U.S. history. President Gerald Ford decreed Black History Month a national observance in 1976.

Get out the black vote
“Voter suppression is real, and it is a threat to our entire society,” said Tiiu Lutter, a writer for CompareLifeInsurance.com who frequently works as a poll watcher and vote counter in local elections in Philadelphia. “Voting demonstrates our agency and is the one way we all are equal.

‘Detroit Red’ playwright explores Malcolm X’s Boston years
This month marks the 55th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X. Gunned down on Feb. 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City before an audience that included his wife, Betty Shabazz, and his children, the man known as Malcolm X was murdered at the age of 39.

Dianne Reeves
ianne Reeves, whose voice exemplifies the heart and soul of jazz, arrives in Boston on Saturday, Feb. 8 for one show at the Berklee Performance Center at 8 p.m.

A unified front
Creating a play about a secondwave feminist icon, even one as spectacular as Gloria Steinem, is an endeavor rife with pitfalls. The era of feminism when Steinem rose to fame is known for being exclusive to people of color and other minorities.