Arroyo promotes race equity office
District 5 City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo is advancing a hearing order to explore declaring racism a public health crisis in Boston, with an aim toward creating an independent office to assess whether ordinances and executive orders would exacerbate or reduce inequity in the city.

Judges meet with community at RCC
“All of us here in the judiciary are on a journey towards racial and economic justice, and we all are here because we recognize that we have many, many miles to go in terms of getting to where we need to be,” said Gants, noting that community feedback was key to navigating this journey.

Gov. advances minority business contract goals
Joined by state officials, Baker announced the changes at a State House press conference and outlined proposed changes to the way the state handles contracts for construction and maintenance projects that he said would reduce burdens for minority- and women-owned businesses competing for work on state projects.

Dorchester man pushes ballers to be scholars
In 1991 Richards, a life-long Dorchester resident, started the nonprofit No Books No Ball to provide support and opportunities for Boston’s youth both in school and in sports.

College students march on State House
Students, parents and employees from all across Massachusetts marched through the State House on Monday in support of increased funding for public colleges and universities. The “Fund our Future” campaign, which is endorsed by organizations across the state, aims to ensure a debt-free future for students and families.

Warren’s anti-billionaire obsession
Before the Civil Rights Movement got underway with the Birmingham Bus Boycott in 1955, blacks across the country were mobilized to make lynching a federal crime. According to a recent report by the Equal Justice Initiative, there were 4,000 lynchings in the U.

Campaign rhetoric does not equal legislative achievement
An informed and active electorate is a fundamental element of a sound democratic political system. It is important that voters understand even complex issues and base their support on the prospective results. For some reason, analysts underestimate the impact of the personal charisma of a political candidate.

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Bernie breaks socialism stigma
Bernie may or may not beat Trump, but he sure did something a decade or so ago few would have dreamed possible: He made talk of socialism respectable. Recent polls repeatedly show that a majority of millennials think it’s cool. A respectable number in other polls say they have no qualms about voting for a socialist.

IN THE NEWS
At the Black Excellence on the Hill ceremony, Dorchester’s resident Ceferina Murrell (pictured with Sen. Nick Collins and her mother, Phylerine Green) was honored by the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus for her years of advocacy on behalf of people of color and women.

Walsh meets Central American delegates
Delegates from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras visit Mayor Martin Walsh at Boston City Hall..

Parking tickets, accessibility vetted at council
Mejia noted that when she first assumed office as a city councilor, she realized that she had a debt to the city: $159 worth of parking tickets. She said that she began to hear stories of people who struggled to make ends meet as they received more and more parking tickets.

Analysts seek Nubian Sq. revival
The Nubian Square Market Analysis, which takes a comprehensive look on issues facing Roxbury’s largest commercial district and offers recommendations to revitalize the community, was released on Feb. 26. The study was conducted with help from The American City Coalition (TACC), the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and FXM Associates.

Female power takes stage in ‘Norma’ at BLO
Powerful bass-baritone singer Alfred Walker returns to the Boston Lyric Opera as Oroveso in “Norma,” running March 13 through 22. Written in 1831 by famed composer Vincenzo Bellini, the powerful show about love and female power strikes a resonant chord in the ongoing fight for gender equality.

RIDING SHOTGUN IN TEATROCINEMA’S U.S. PREMIERE OF ‘PLATA QUEMADA’
After a dramatic debut to the Boston theater scene in 2016 with “Historia de Amor” the avant-garde Chilean theater company Teatrocinema is back in town with a new U.S. premiere.

‘Differently abled’ and very funny
It kills every time, including last week at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where the world-famous comic and disability advocate delivered an hour-long talk followed by a relaxed conversation with the audience in an extended Q&A session. Zayid then drew a long line of audience members, Elizabeth Warren-style, to come up and pose for a selfie.