Report sheds light on Boston’s tree canopy growth
Overall, the March 5 report found that between 2019 and 2024, the city’s tree canopy grew by 1,064 acres. At the same time, it also lost 913 acres, for a net gain of 151 acres overall, a 0.5 % increase since 2019. While that may seem small, that is equal to about 114 football fields.

Pressley denounces poor conditions after visit to ICE Field Office in Burlington
Pressley, who represents Massachusetts’ 7th congressional district which includes parts of Boston and surrounding communities with high numbers of immigrants, has been outspoken against the second Trump administration’s rigorous and unforgiving immigration enforcement.

Community demands body cam footage after police killing of unarmed Black man in Roxbury
A day after a Boston police officer was charged with manslaughter in connection with the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Stephenson King, organizers with the Roxbury-based Black Community Information Center on Friday called for the release of police body camera footage.

Trailblazing actress Judy Pace has died
In a 2023 interview with The Actor’s Choice, Pace revealed that through her leading role as Pat Walters, she became the first Black actress starring in a series whose title bears the name of their character. As Vickie on “Peyton Place,” she was the first Black teenager to play a recurring.

State turns to community colleges in push to train clean energy workforce
Browning the Green Space, a Boston-based nonprofit, received a nearly $219,000 MassCEC grant to develop, along with Roxbury Community College (shown above) and Holyoke Community College, a program that exposes students and local youth to careers in clean energy.

As Benjamin Healthcare sale prepares to close, questions on charitable funds remain
The Edgar P. Benjamin Healthcare Center on Mission Hill, shown March 6. In a court proceeding March 11, staff overseeing the receivership of the Edgar Benjamin said the sale of the facility to Allaire Health Services was nearly ready to be finalized..

Swift charges in fatal police shooting signals positive historic shift
James Bowden, 1975. Elijah Pate, 1983. Accelyne Williams, 1994. Eveline Barros-Cepeda, 2002. Each name and date from past decades conjures memories of prominent police shootings of Black Bostonians that critics called homicides and defenders called justified.

“Yeah, one can only hope!“
“I hope that one day we can raise our child in a city where white police are not allowed to shoot Black people.”.

Equality is being eclipsed by zoning
Boston’s housing crisis demands urgency—but not at the expense of equality. Squares + Streets zoning is a case in point. According to Greater Boston Legal Services, this zoning probably undermines affordable housing production and accelerates displacement and gentrification by allowing unrestricted development.

IN THE NEWS
Dr. Erica R. Edwards, the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of English and Black Studies at Yale University, stands as a transformative figure in contemporary literary criticism and African American studies. Her scholarship meticulously unpacks the relationships between state power, cultural production, and the gendered labor of leadership.

What Women’s History Month means to me
My mother-in-law died last week. She would have turned 97 in July. And I am sitting with a particular kind of grief — the kind that is also gratitude, also inheritance, also the quiet recognition that the woman who first taught me how to raise millions of dollars did it when I was 22 years old and still in college.

Before the Civil Rights Act, my great-uncle from Roxbury took on Pullman in 1954 — and won
As Black History Month marks its centennial, we celebrate towering figures and landmark Supreme Court rulings. We quote speeches delivered on the steps of monuments and honor presidents whose names fill our textbooks. But civil rights history was not written only in Washington.

Lawsuit settlement mandates release of long-delayed prison voting data
Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin will be required to produce legally mandated data about voting in jails and prisons following the settlement of a lawsuit against him.

Movies, music, meaning as our culture moves forward
USA Today culture columnists Clay Routledge and Paul Anleitner write, “The most powerful films move us through the portrayal of moral beauty and human goodness. They showcase personal sacrifice and heroism that remind us of humanity’s capacity for courage.

Venezuela beats USA for world title
With the start of the 2026 Major League Baseball season upon us, we need to take a moment to look back at the recently concluded World Baseball Classic, won on March 17 by Venezuela over the United States.

Cinderella shows up for the dance
In the men’s division, number one seeds Arizona, Michigan and Duke advanced while defending champion and number one seeded Florida was upset by ninth seeded Iowa.

War with Iran could cost U.S. families thousands
On Saturday, February 28th, Americans woke up to find their country at war with Iran. Breaking news alerts carried word that the United States had joined Israel in an unprecedented joint military operation aimed at overturning the Iranian government.

Local Black-owned lending firm offers new loan product with a focus on rental property owners
Lenders decide if “the property’s rental income covers the proposed loan payment, as these loans are designed for real estate investors, not owner-occupants.” Unlike a conventional loan, this loan product qualification is based on rental income, instead of W-2s or tax returns.

Book lover bringing Black books to Boston, one event at a time
While attending the Black Romance Book Fest in Atlanta a year ago, Dominique Calixte kept hearing the same thing from Black authors when she asked what it would take for them to come to Boston: There is not a market for them to push their publishers to send them here.

A supper club for women serves up food and friendship
Four times a month, Rachel Amiralian, the founder of ladies-only supper club Amie, gathers a small group of women at a trendy Greater Boston restaurant for a meal. The results are magic.

The rise of great replacement theory
Ibram X. Kendi discusses his new book examining global authoritarianism

Largest Latino arts center in New England opens in Boston this spring
After seven years of uncertainty, fundraising, permit headaches and construction chaos, community development corporation Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) has a new home. La CASA: The Center for Arts, Self-determination and Activism will open in May.

BU School of Law screening of film ‘Shared Legacies’
The BU School of Law hosted a screening of the civil rights film “Shared Legacies.” Shown here are attendees, including (from left) Professor Nancy Harrowitz, director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University; Robin...

Lunar New Year & Black History Month Celebration
Revelers gathered at Caveu in Boston for the Lunar New Year and Black History Month celebration. Shown below are honoree, Akiba Abaka of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, along with Polly Yang of HealthEdge and Get Konnected’s president and CEO, Colette Phillips.

Massachusetts Trial Court Women’s History Month celebration
The Massachusetts Trial Court celebrated its Sixth Annual Women’s History Month Celebration. On hand were SJC Chief Justice Kimberly Budd; honoree Denyse Bardouille, SJC Suffolk Clerk Allison S. Cartwright and Pamerson O. Ifil commissioner of probation..

Robert Parish at Wellesley Books
Former Boston Celtics center Robert Parish signed copies of his memoir ”The Chief” at the Wellesley Books..

New Balance launch
New Balance celebrated the launch of their new Rev X and Rev iQ football cleats with NFL stars Jalen Milroe, Marvin Harrison Jr., Chase Young and Jeremiyah Love..