The Westford Public School system was named the eighth best school district in Greater Boston in the latest “Best Schools” issue of Boston magazine, which hit newsstands on Tuesday, Aug. 27."To assemble this year’s Best Schools list, we spent months compiling numbers—released by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education — from 147 municipalities in Greater Boston,” according to Boston Magazine. “The schools in the cities and towns that topped our proprietary ranking stood out across 20 different categories, including student-to-teacher ratio, average class Continue reading >>>

Devin Hutchinson is part of the next generation of Celtics fans who will more vividly remember the 18th championship the team hopes to win in the future than the 17th banner it hung in 2008. So when the McDevitt Middle School student arrived at the team’s practice facility Thursday with 34 other young basketball players from the Greater Boston YMCAs of Waltham and West Roxbury, he was just as excited to see new Celtics guard MarShon Brooks as he was to look up at all the flags celebrating the team’s past titles. "He’s going to help the Celtics out," Hutchinson said. Continue reading >>>

A Suffolk Downs casino would give the city of Boston at least $32 million annually and the East Boston neighborhood an upfront payment of $33.4 million under an agreement reached with Mayor Thomas M. Menino today. The deal between the mayor and casino developers includes provisions that could increase the annual payment to Boston much higher if the $1 billion casino is highly profitable. The long-awaited deal allows the Suffolk Downs proposal to move towards a referendum vote. And it returns Suffolk Downs to significant contender status for the Greater Boston resort casino license. Despite Continue reading >>>

All photographs by Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Sean Murphy Law enforcement officials converge on the boat in Watertown where Tsarnaev is hiding. It was likely the most terrifying manhunt in Boston history. With the city under lockdown and armored vehicles rolling through Watertown, the alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had seemingly vanished. While the rest of Greater Boston experienced the unfolding dragnet on April 19 as a series of indirect glimpses, Sergeant Sean Murphy, in his assignment as a tactical photographer with the Massachusetts State Police, Continue reading >>>

The number of permits for new, privately owned housing units in Massachusetts soared in July — and many were for multi-unit housing, according to new census data.Last month, building permits were authorized for 1,880 units, compared to 1,724 in June and a mere 715 in July 2012. Nationally, permits for 88,145 units were authorized last month, compared to 83,925 in June and 72,056 in July 2012. Of the building permits authorized statewide last month, 1,193 were for five units or more.“Apartment construction is very hot,” said Gregory Vasil, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. “More Continue reading >>>

Nectir Inc., an emerging national network of staffing firms, announces that it will be opening a branch location in Boston, Massachusetts. Nectir Boston will provide contingent staffing, contract-to-hire services, direct-hire services and rapid deployment staffing for local and regional companies in Boston and the surrounding cities. The branch is expected to be opening by Fall 2013. We are excited about opening a Nectir branch in Boston, Massachusetts. As Nectir continues to expand nationwide, we will leverage the talents and relationships of our local branch managers to help build the Nectir Continue reading >>>

Retired U.S. Rep. Barney Frank wants you to know two things: He has a Netflix subscription, and he has no plans to drift quietly into the Maine wilderness.The Newton Democrat, who splits his time between Vacationland and Greater Boston, wrote a column in last Sunday’s edition of the Portland Press Herald, skewering the Netflix series “House of Cards” for what he called a “fictional misrepresentation of political reality.”Frank, who has said in retirement he planned to write more, was as glib and thoughtful as you may remember him from his decades on Capitol Hill.“ ‘House of Cards,’ ” Continue reading >>>

India Day on move to AndoverAug 22, 2013 (Menafn - Andover Townsman - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Security costs in Boston have led a popular annual cultural event to relocate to Andover next month.Andover High School's Collins Center will play host to the India Association of Greater Boston's annual India Day on Sunday, Sept. 8, from 4 to 8 p.m.The annual event celebrating India's independence from British colonial rule has drawn thousands to the Esplanade in Boston for many years.But costs to continue staging the celebration at the Hatch Shell became prohibitive this Continue reading >>>

WALTHAM — Walter McCarty’s education as a coach came from a very unpopular voice here in Boston. But without it, the former Celtics reserve forward might not be answering questions as a new assistant for Brad Stevens.McCarty — who was hired by Stevens to fill out the Celtics coaching staff with Ron Adams and Micah Shrewsberry, along with holdovers Jamie Young and Jay Larranaga — spent three seasons, starting in 2007, as an assistant coach at the University of Louisville under his former C’s coach Rick Pitino. It was there where he learned the intricacies of what a coach does behind the Continue reading >>>

SOUTH BOSTON -- Parishioners from across the Greater Boston area gathered across the street from their now burned-out place of worship, St. John the Baptist Albanian Orthodox, to commiserate about their past and wonder about the future. Some of those gathered, like Sophia Andon, planned on spending the day in lawn chairs on the sidewalk across from their beloved church. Andon recalled how her father, an immigrant from Albania, was involved in the founding of the church in 1934 and expressed concern about would could be saved from the rubble. "I heard that they're gonna try to save the steeple, Continue reading >>>