With budget pressures threatening to sink the South Shore’s ferries, supporters are giving the MBTA plenty of reasons to keep the routes afloat. They keep cars off the roads, offer commuters a faster route into Boston and provide economic support for businesses near their docks. But there’s another argument for retaining these boats: Unlike other vehicles in the MBTA’s mass transit fleet, the ferries were manufactured here in Massachusetts, by a local company. The T’s buses and rail cars were made out of state, by out-of-state firms. (Although the newer Green Line trolleys were assembled Continue reading >>>

In Eastern Massachusetts, one in nine people uses a soup kitchen or a food pantry. One in nine. I recently attended the monthly operations meeting of the North Shore Hunger Network, a 20-year-old group of people representing agencies from Amesbury to Beverly committed to serving the food insecure. Eileen O'Shea, director of Community Outreach for the Greater Boston Foodbank, was there that day, along with representatives from Our Neighbor's Table in Amesbury, Acord in Hamilton, Beverly Bootstraps, The Adventist Church in Beverly, Haven from Hunger serving Peabody and Salem, and Gloucester's Continue reading >>>

As it prepares its bid for a casino resort in Brimfield, MGM Resorts is working feverishly to accomplish an equally difficult feat: build a Massachusetts Turnpike interchange. It will not be easy. The company is concerned about the rock and ledges at the interchange site. There are wetlands to avoid and nearby neighborhoods that must remain undisturbed. Plus it must navigate a long and complex state and federal approval process that comes with no guarantees. And then there is the cost: an estimated $30 million for roads, ramps, three bridges, and a tollbooth. It Continue reading >>>

With budget pressures threatening to sink the South Shore’s ferries, supporters are giving the MBTA plenty of reasons to keep the routes afloat. They keep cars off the roads, offer commuters a faster route into Boston and provide economic support for businesses near their docks. But there’s another argument for retaining these boats: Unlike other vehicles in the MBTA’s mass transit fleet, the ferries were manufactured here in Massachusetts, by a local company. The T’s buses and rail cars were made out of state, by out-of-state firms. (Although the newer Green Line trolleys were assembled Continue reading >>>

  Editor's note: The following is a press release. It’s hard to miss the neatly stacked cereal, pasta, canned goods and other non-perishable foods piled in the front office of the St. Theresa School. Twice weekly those items are loaded into a car and delivered to a food pantry in Dorchester run by Catholic Charities of Greater Boston.  According to Catholic Charities Director of Community Services Beth Chambers, the bulk of the pantry’s food comes from the Greater Boston Food Bank, but it often isn’t enough to meet the growing need.  Chambers said that the donations from St. Theresa’s Continue reading >>>

With budget pressures threatening to sink the South Shore’s ferries, supporters are giving the MBTA plenty of reasons to keep the routes afloat. They keep cars off the roads, offer commuters a faster route into Boston and provide economic support for businesses near their docks. But there’s another argument for retaining these boats: Unlike other vehicles in the MBTA’s mass transit fleet, the ferries were manufactured here in Massachusetts, by a local company. The T’s buses and rail cars were made out of state, by out-of-state firms. (Although the newer Green Line trolleys were assembled Continue reading >>>

Up is down; down is up Given the Winchester home had just been listed at the height of a hot spring market, you might reasonably expect the sellers to have stuck close to their asking price, especially in the first few days. And you’d think the sellers of the Arlington home would be fairly flexible with the price and terms, especially the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Heck, they might even be desperate. In Winchester, my buyers made their very best offer right from the start, which came in just a little more than 94 percent of the asking price. It was accepted within hours. Continue reading >>>

FORTY YEARS ago, activists from both sides of the Charles came together to sink a pair of ruinous highways. They crossed neighborhood boundaries, bound together and argued that people, not roadways, build communities. And they won. Their victory came before construction crews walled off their neighborhoods with lanes of speeding cars, but after bulldozers had demolished thousands of homes lying in the paths of the planned highways. Instead of running a highway from Hyde Park to Roxbury, state transportation officials built the Orange Line. The subway line, built along Continue reading >>>

Motorists who had their fill of high gas prices a few years ago won’t like what’s over the next rise in the road: potential record-high gas prices by Memorial Day. The statewide average hit $3.60 per gallon yesterday after rising 4 cents from a week ago and 18 cents over the past month, according to a survey by AAA Southern New England. Tensions in the Middle East have driven oil prices higher, which in turn has pushed up prices at the pump and renewed worries about $4-a-gallon gas. “What we’re seeing is pressure and fear from Iran. There’s really not much else to it,” said Patrick Continue reading >>>

Reagle Music Theatre Presents Rachel York and Brent Barrett: Isn’t It Romantic? Love Songs from the Stage and Screen Music Director and Pianist, Eugene Gwozdz; One performance only on February 19 as part of Celebrity Concert Series at Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston, Robinson Theatre, 617 Lexington Street, Waltham, MA; Series continues on April 22 with Mitzi Gaynor in  “Razzle, Dazzle!” Box Office 781-891-5600 or www.reaglemusictheatre.org “Heaven, I’m in heaven…” after spending two hours in the company of Broadway musical theater stars Rachel York and Brent Barrett performing Continue reading >>>