Mayor Thomas M. Menino grabbed headlines last week when he chastised the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for adopting a rule that allowed a referee to slap a key penalty on a Cathedral High School player about to score a touchdown. The player’s offense? Raising a fist in triumph while he approached the end zone in the fourth quarter of his team’s Super Bowl appearance - a move that was deemed unsportsmanlike. “I think sometimes these rules are written by frustrated athletes,’’ said the mayor. Yet overshadowed by the tirade was a more fundamental Continue reading >>>

How much does race still matter around here? A lot, if you look in our maternity wards. Every year, about 11,000 babies delivered in the Boston metropolitan area are born underweight. That’s a little below the national average, but it’s still alarming, given the lifelong health problems that can plague these babies. A woman’s education level is a huge factor in whether she’ll have a small baby. The better educated she is, the more likely she is to understand the importance of good nutrition, to live in a safer, less polluted neighborhood, and to live a more Continue reading >>>

How much does race still matter around here? A lot, if you look in our maternity wards. Every year, about 11,000 babies delivered in the Boston metropolitan area are born underweight. That’s a little below the national average, but it’s still alarming, given the lifelong health problems that can plague these babies. A woman’s education level is a huge factor in whether she’ll have a small baby. The better educated she is, the more likely she is to understand the importance of good nutrition, to live in a safer, less polluted neighborhood, and to live a more Continue reading >>>

December 10, 2011COLLEGE BOOT SPOTLIGHT: JEN LEAVERTONMeet the candidates, and vote St. John’s senior forward Jen Leaverton is one of four nominees for Big Apple Soccer women’s college player of the year, and a regional nominee for the Soccer News Net Women’s College Boot, recognizing the national player of the year. Leaverton (Mansfield, Mass./Bishop Feehan/FC Greater Boston Bolts) led the Red Storm in scoring with 10 goals, including six game-winners, and was named to the All-Big East Second Continue reading >>>

For Weston resident Bernadette Rehnert, the holiday season truly is one for giving. A longtime supporter of charities and non-profits, Rehnert, who’s known as Berni, has focused some of her efforts of late on donating turkeys in the greater Boston area, most recently a giveaway in Chelsea last Thursday night that was a collaborative effort in which she purchased some 150 turkeys for low-income families. “I suggested giving turkeys as a way to bring families together and let them know others care,” said Rehnert. Rehnert said her involvement in the Chelsea turkey donation came by way of her Continue reading >>>

North Andover-based Nexamp installs Evergreen Solar panels at a Weymouth Bank branch. (Greg Derr, 2009 photos) At first glance, this sure seemed like a dirty year for the clean-energy sector in Massachusetts. It began with a shutdown order at Evergreen Solar’s publicly-subsidized Devens plant, and ended with Tyngsboro-based Beacon Power’s trip to bankruptcy court. Most of the headlines were grim. But they only told part of the story. The truth is, the green energy industry is still thriving in Massachusetts, with more than 60,000 people either working for alternative energy companies Continue reading >>>

Thursday, Dec. 8 CONVERSATION WITH THE NEW YORKER FICTION EDITOR AND AUTHORS at Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley, on Dec. 8, 6:30 p.m., in Collins Cinema. Deborah Treisman, fiction editor for the New Yorker, will discuss her work with two of her writers, the Bosnian-American novelist and MacArthur fellow Aleksandar Hemon, and New Yorker staff writer and recently named Wellesley College Newhouse Visiting Professor of Creative Writing Hilton Als. The conversation will be followed by an open dialogue with the audience. This event is free and open to the public. Information: newhouse-center.org, Continue reading >>>

BUILD, a successful national organization which uses entrepreneurship to propel disengaged, low-income youth through high school to college success, was launched in Boston on Friday, Nov. 10, with a sold-out benefit dinner in Metcalf Trustee Ballroom at Boston University School of Management.  Daymond John, star of the hit ABC-TV show “Shark Tank” and successful founder and CEO of FUBU, a globally recognized clothing company, was on hand to accept BUILD Boston’s first “Earl G. Graves Sr. Innovation Award.”  BUILD is a four-year college access program that helps at-risk youth launch Continue reading >>>

FREEPORT, Maine — Maine Distilleries, LLC, producer of Cold River Vodka, Cold River Blueberry Flavored Vodka and Cold River Gin is proud to announce that it will be donating one pound of potatoes to prominent food banks in each state for every bottle of Cold River sold in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts during the first quarter of 2012. Maine Distilleries, of Freeport, Maine, in coordination with family-owned Green Thumb Farms, of Fryeburg, Maine, is partnering with The Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn, Maine, The New Hampshire Food Bank in Manchester, NH, and the Greater Boston Food Continue reading >>>

FREEPORT, Maine — Maine potatoes like those used to create high-end vodka and gin soon will find their way to tabletops of the needy in a new program launched by Maine Distilleries. For every bottle of Maine Distilleries’ Cold River vodka and gin that is sold in the first three months of next year in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, the company plans to donate a pound of potatoes to food banks in those states. Consuming about 12 pounds of potatoes for every bottle — which amounts to nearly Continue reading >>>