The YMCA of Greater Boston is pleased to announce a new addition to its executive staff with the recent hire Scottie Biggers to fill the role of executive director at the Thomas M. Menino YMCA. In his third role as a YMCA executive director, Biggers, 44, brings 17 years of Y experience to the position. From 1995 to 2009, Biggers moved up the ranks at YMCA of metropolitan Los Angeles, starting as a Healthy Lifestyles Counselor, and ending his fourteen year run as executive director. During that time, Biggers’ developed personalized fitness programs, provided cross-functional HR leadership, Continue reading >>>

Increasingly, the Patrick administration has offered a three-letter magic solution to a variety of transportation challenges in Greater Boston: DMU. Short for diesel multiple units, DMUs are essentially little trains, which can use the same tracks and stations as big commuter rail locomotives, but would be quieter, cleaner, cheaper, and more suitable for frequent service on routes with stations close together. The recently announced plan for a new “West Station” in Allston is the latest project that relies on such trains. State officials foresee frequent DMU service Continue reading >>>

Marsha Coakley — she was attorney general before she wasn’t attorney general before she was attorney general.After all these years as a “prosecutor,” Marsha is baffled by a mystery of her own making. In a one-on-one debate with her Republican opponent Charlie Baker yesterday, Marsha flatly stated that she was not the 
attorney general of the commonwealth in 2008.But somebody named Coakley was.Which raises the question, if she didn’t cash the checks, who did?Was this a case of identity theft, which is a federal crime, at least if you’re a U.S. citizen? (If you’re an illegal, well, Continue reading >>>

Ballybofey, Co. Donegal's Ireland's Jason Quigley will appear on "Monster Brawl", a co-promotion between Golden Boy Promotions and Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys, the third such collaboration in the greater Boston area. Thursday, Oct. 30 at Plymouth Memorial Hall in Plymouth, Mass., Quigley will open the televised portion of the FOX Sports 1 and FOX Deportes broadcast. Despite his two-fight professional resume, Quigley (2-0, 2 KOs) is becoming known as a fighter to watch. The first Irish fighter to win a silver medal at the World Amateur Championships last year, Quigley was recently Continue reading >>>

Twelve hours after their first televised debate Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley bitterly sparred this morning over Super PAC attack ads and the embattled Department of Children and Families.With just 27 days until voters elect their next governor, Republican Baker, 57, and Democratic Attorney General Coakley, 61, took full advantage of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Forum at the Westin Copley Place hotel in Back Bay. Afterward, Coakley pooh-poohed today’s Herald story showing some Democratic power brokers are throwing their money and support behind her rival.“Absolutely Continue reading >>>

Republican Charlie Baker and Democrat Martha Coakley participate in a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce debate Wednesday. WBUR’s Bob Oakes, right, moderates. (Jesse Costa/WBUR) BOSTON — Barely 12 hours after a televised gubernatorial debate, Republican Charlie Baker and Democrat Martha Coakley debated a range of issues in front of Boston business leaders Wednesday, this time squaring off head to head without the three independent candidates. In the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce forum moderated by WBUR’s Bob Oakes, Baker and Coakley dove deeper into some of the same issues Continue reading >>>

BOSTON — Massachusetts gubernatorial candidates Republican Charlie Baker and Democrat Martha Coakley were in combative moods as they met on stage Wednesday morning for the second time in 14 hours. Coakley said Baker's economic plan "basically gives tax cuts to corporations and hopes that will trickle down. ... We know that doesn't work," Coakley said. Baker said Coakley's plan "is not written down anywhere, and it's not terribly specific." At a forum at the Westin Copley sponsored by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and focused primarily on business issues, the two argued over their plans Continue reading >>>

The toughest challenge for backers of a Boston Olympics in 2024 may be persuading city residents that new sports venues would not ruin their neighborhoods or lengthen commuting times after the games are over.To try to win over skeptics, organizers are developing a high-tech tool to forecast the effects of potential sports venues and proposed transportation improvements, years before they are built. Continue reading below They call the tool the “regional smart model” or just “the model.” It is a 3-D, digitized version of Greater Boston, rendered in meticulous Continue reading >>>

Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse and EJ Gallo Winery joined forces this football season to fight hunger in Boston.Gallo will donate meals to the Greater Boston Food Bank on behalf of the Taste of the NFL for every bottle of selected wines sold by Davio’s restaurants (www.davios.com) in Massachusetts: Back Bay, Chestnut Hill, Foxboro and Lynnfield.Davio’s chef-owner Steve DiFillippo has represented Boston and the New England Patriots for the last several years at the Taste of the NFL. It’s a star-studded fundraiser each year the night before the Super Bowl that features a marquee chef Continue reading >>>

GLOUCESTER — Dan Ryan looks at an empty plate the same way a painter considers a blank canvas: a starting point for something delectable. But what was once an exciting moment for the chef is now a symbol of anxiety. He constantly worries that he cannot put food on the table.After being diagnosed with advanced melanoma in 2010, Ryan, 48, a former chef at The Franklin Cafe in the South End and Gloucester’s Franklin Cape Ann, underwent several surgeries and chemotherapy that drained his family’s savings and forced him to quit his job. He and his wife, Tammy, slashed Continue reading >>>