Examiner.com is the inside source for everything local. We are powered by Examiners, the largest pool of passionate contributors in the world.

Examiners provide unique and original content to enhance life in your local city wherever that may be. Examiners come from all walks of life and contribute original content to entertain, inform, and inspire.

The following is a column by Mayor Thomas Menino: Thanksgiving arrives next week and “Black Friday” marks the official start of the holiday shopping season. As you make your holiday shopping lists, I urge you to skip the midnight lines and mall traffic and explore Boston’s neighborhood retailers. Our Main Streets districts offer a variety of shops and restaurants where you can find unique gifts close to home. The Mayor’s Holiday Special is a great resource for finding deals on holiday events and shopping in Boston. We are also continuing the annual Holidays on Main Streets campaign, Continue reading >>>

  The following article comes from Jeff Lavery on behalf of Heading Home Inc. Heading Home, Inc., one of the Boston area’s largest agencies devoted to helping the homeless, announced Nov. 16 that volunteers from the towns of Concord and Sudbury generously donated their time to move two formerly homeless families into new apartments. The groups participated in Heading Home’s signature volunteer program, “Up Out,” where volunteers help homeless families make the milestone move from shelter to a permanent home. As Up Out volunteers, they coordinated the moves of both families from Continue reading >>>

By Steve Adams The Patriot Ledger Recent changes in mortgage rules are making it harder than ever for househunters to qualify for a loan and threatening to deal another setback to the vulnerable real estate market. On Oct. 1, the federal government lowered the maximum price for conforming loans – those that can be purchased by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae – in hundreds of high-cost housing markets, including most of Greater Boston. The maximum conforming loan limits dropped from $523,750 to $465,750 in Norfolk and Plymouth counties. That means people looking to borrow more than $465,750 Continue reading >>>

TODAY Boston Jewish Book Fair Festival: Diana Henriques (“The Wizard of Lies - Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust’’) and Hank Phillippi Ryan at 11 a.m.; Joseph Finder (“Buried Secrets’’), Leonard Rosen (“All Cry Chaos’’) and Douglas Starr (“The Killer of Little Shepherds’’) discuss thriller novels, with James Fox at 1 p.m.; Adam Schwartz (“A Stranger on the Planet’’), Robert Strauss (“Daddy’s Little Goalie’’), Stuart Hecht (“Transposing Broadway: Jews, Assimilation, and the American Musical), Continue reading >>>

Hands down the most beautiful room in Greater Boston right now is a gallery in the MIT List Visual Arts Center. The gallery is just a small, windowless room. It’s dark, too - or it would be if it were not for an astonishing and constantly changing arrangement of patterned light orchestrated by 83-year-old artist Otto Piene. The light seems to be coming from all directions. It plays across one wall and wanders onto the next, morphing in scale and clarity as it moves. The patterns come and go according to rhythms of their own, but they also work together in unison. Continue reading >>>

Before Michael E. McLaughlin and his $360,000 salary became front-page news, “Political Intelligence’’ told the small-town story about efforts to oust Mary Karabatsos from the Dracut Housing Authority. Low-income residents in the Merrimack Valley town accused the authority’s board of directors of ambushing the popular Karabatsos, after they abruptly voted in late August to seek new applicants for her job as executive director. They were especially galled that one member, Brian Bond, joined in the vote, even though he was at his first meeting after a last-minute Continue reading >>>

POSTED: 10:30 am EST November 19, 2011
UPDATED: 11:00 am EST November 19, 2011

Legal Sea Foods supports Children's Hospital Boston From now through New Year's Eve, Legal Sea Foods will donate a portion of the proceeds from every gift card sold to Children's Hospital Boston. As an added incentive, Legal Sea Foods will grant a ``Lobster Dinner Reward'' voucher (redeemable for a 1-1.25-pound steamed lobster with a choice of two sides) for every $200 worth of gift cards purchased from the restaurants. The voucher is valid from Jan. 1 through March 31, 2012. All 19 Legal Sea Foods restaurants in Massachusetts, including the ones in Framingham and Chestnut Hill, are involved Continue reading >>>

On November 21, when the Patriots host the Chiefs on Monday Night Football, the Patriots will team up with Raytheon to host more than 400 guests from the Wounded Warrior Project. Below are notes about the Patriots' only home primetime matchup this season and the activities surrounding it: The Patriots and Raytheon have donated 300 tickets to the Wounded Warrior Project for injured service members and their guests to attend the game. Additionally, Raytheon will host more than 100 Wounded Warriors and their guests, providing pregame hospitality in The Hall at Patriot Place presented by Raytheon. Continue reading >>>