Tom May is bringing a Fortune 500 company to Boston. Unless Connecticut regulators say otherwise, the executive-suite power behind a merged Northeast Utilities will shift from Hartford to Boston. In NU’s proposed $4.7 billion merger with Boston-based NStar — which May runs as chairman, president and CEO — the company intends to be a utility holding company with dual headquarters, including its top executives having offices and staging meetings in the Connecticut and Massachusetts capitals. “It is important to have a presence in both Hartford and Boston,” said NStar spokeswoman Caroline Continue reading >>>

GREATER BOSTON has one of the most expansive transit services for the disabled in the nation — and it shows in the bottom line. The Ride, the MBTA’s fleet of white-and-yellow cars and vans, is a lifeline for many residents who would otherwise be stranded. But it’s become a financial disaster. The Ride’s costs have quadrupled in a decade, and show no signs of abating. Each trip costs $40. The system carries less than 1 percent of the T’s passengers, but consumes almost 10 percent of its budget. It’s a vital, necessary service, but not sustainable Continue reading >>>

As Marc Zawel was finishing his master’s degree in business at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, he weighed the options on where to locate his start-up, which would offer college admission counseling via the Web. He considered New York. He thought about Silicon Valley. Then he settled on what, in hindsight, was always the obvious choice: Boston. “This is America’s college town,’’ said Zawel, whose company, AcceptU, operates in a 200-square-foot office in the Back Bay. “I don’t think there’s any other place in the country for an ed-tech start-up Continue reading >>>

STEVE HOLT FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE The author’s son has hot cocoa at James’s Gate in Jamaica Plain. One of the biggest cold-weather challenges for families can be finding warm spaces indoors where you can escape when everyone’s a bit stir-crazy. Here’s a spot to add to your family outing list: the pub. You read that right. We picked up on the practice back in our childless days while traveling in Ireland, where pubs are the center of social life and are often full of families playing games, catching up, and yes, drinking. Children are full Continue reading >>>

Rebecca Richards is a 25 year resident of Belmont. Her professional background includes serving as executive director for several small and mid-sized nonprofit arts organizations in the greater Boston area, including StageSource and Women in Film and Video/New England. For ten years she was a contributing features writer and guest editor for “Imagine” news magazine, a media arts publication. Richards is a founding board member of Belmont World Film and director of its Family Film Festival. The publicist for the Belmont Gallery of Art, Richards also sits on its administration committee. Continue reading >>>

A broad variety of indicators illustrate gradual but widespread improvement in the Bay State economy over the last year. Pockets of vulnerability remain in areas such as housing. Job growth remains sluggish, and overseas crises could sidetrack the recovery. But economic experts say the overriding trend points toward strengthening conditions. Massachusetts has weathered the economic downturn better than most states, with an unemployment rate consistently lower than the U.S. average. The state’s leadership in the biotech, high tech and medical industries has helped stabilize the job market, Continue reading >>>

A broad variety of indicators illustrate gradual but widespread improvement in the Bay State economy over the last year. Pockets of vulnerability remain in areas such as housing. Job growth remains sluggish, and overseas crises could sidetrack the recovery. But economic experts say the overriding trend points toward strengthening conditions. Massachusetts has weathered the economic downturn better than most states, with an unemployment rate consistently lower than the U.S. average. The state’s leadership in the biotech, high tech and medical industries has helped stabilize the job market, Continue reading >>>

The energy, joy, and celebration that is Klezmer music will be the featured at the next Munroe Saturday Nights presentation, on Saturday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m. The Shpilkes Klezmer Band, well known in the Greater Boston area for their joyful sounds and their slogan, “Don’t Sit Still,” will take to the stage at the Munroe Center for the Arts, 1403 Massachusetts Ave., Lexington, presenting an evening of traditional and contemporary Klezmer music. Klezmer is the traditional folk music of the Yiddish speaking communities of Eastern Europe and America during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Continue reading >>>

By: Chuck Colbert/TRT Reporter– In a move that further plants its business ethos within the gay community, a local financial institution has appointed three LGBT community leaders to serve on corporate boards. Eastern Bank named Kara Suffredini, executive director of Mass Equality, and Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender as coporators. Eastern also selected Rebecca Haag, president and chief executive officer of AIDS Action Committee, to serve on the board of trustees. News of their appointments came first at MassEquality’s Icon Awards celebration last Continue reading >>>

Massachusetts employers added nearly 30,000 fewer jobs in 2011 than previously reported, according to revised data released by the Patrick administration Thursday, March 8. The new numbers reflect weak job growth during 2011, with employers adding about 1,000 jobs per month –237,500 individuals were categorized as unemployed in Massachusetts in January. “This is certainly a cold shower,” said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. “If you look back at the economic recoveries of earlier times, this is a pale shadow of those.” Most of the year-over-year Continue reading >>>