A group of influential health care executives and academics is finalizing a proposal that would allow Massachusetts hospitals and insurers to try to control rising medical costs on their own for three more years, in an effort to head off more immediate state action. If they don’t succeed, only then could they face possible outside controls. The plan is being developed by the Eastern Massachusetts Healthcare Initiative, which includes the state’s largest hospital and physician networks, such as Partners HealthCare, and insurers, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield Continue reading >>>

03 NOV 2011 London, 3 November 2011: Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo today won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2011 (www.ft.com/bookaward) for Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, published by Perseus Books. The book is a journey into the multi-faceted and complex lives of the poor, based on over fifteen years of work the authors have done with the poor, trying to understand the specific problems that come with poverty - and to find proven solutions. Continue reading >>>

SUNDAY: Charles C. Mann (“1493”) speaks at 4 p.m., at Paul Pratt Memorial Library, 35 Ripley Road, Cohasset; for more information, call library at 781-383-1348. MONDAY: Poets Carol Moldaw and Lisa Olstein read at 8 p.m., at Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 56 Brattle St., Cambridge ($3) … Joan Didion (“Blue Nights”) speaks at 7 p.m., at First Parish Church, 1446 Mass. Ave., Cambridge; tickets ($5) available at harvard.com; Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge; or by calling 617-661-1515 … Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers discuss “The Truth about Girls and Boys,” Continue reading >>>

Want to know who the best football teams are in Eastern Massachusetts? We’ve got you covered. Each Thursday, our Eastern Mass. Football Power Rankings will clue you in on the top teams, players and games, as well as highlight performances from the week before. Think your team has been left off unfairly or deserves a higher spot? Let us know in the comments section below. DIVISIONS 1, 1A 1. (1) Everett (8-0) (1A, Greater Boston League): Quarterback Jonathan DiBiaso broke the 25-year-old state record for career touchdown passes, as the Crimson Tide opened Greater Boston League play with Continue reading >>>

Flooding: This is pretty basic, and it starts with looking out for a sump pump in the basement and signs of water damage, from damaged linoleum to a faint water mark two or three feet up the wall. You don't have to be in a flood plain to wake up one morning and find your basement full of water - an intense rainstorm can do tremendous damage depending on the characteristics of the site your house sits on. Then again, it may be nice to have a scenic river cutting through town, but how often does it overflow its banks and what is the condition of that cute old, 19th century dam? It might not be such Continue reading >>>

Town officials were pleased when a rare October storm brought less than two inches of snow to Braintree last weekend.

“This one was a non-Greater Boston storm with a central Massachusetts trajectory that fortunately missed us,” Mayor Joseph Sullivan said. “Six sanders went out early to pre-treat the majority of roadways throughout town. To avoid this early storm was a good experience. I’m pretty certain we’ll get at least one 20-inch storm this winter.”

For more, read the Nov. 3 Braintree Forum.

Coming into the season, the Cambridge Rindge and Latin girls soccer team had only one goal: making the MIAA tournament for the first time in four years. Mission accomplished. The Falcons, led by a strong, experienced class of upperclassmen, solid goaltending and a freshman phenom finished the season against Melrose last Friday night, and will spend the remainder of the week preparing for their upcoming tournament game. Captains Isabel Koyama, Kayla Blackborow and Mei-Lin Pratt have served as the Falcons’ driving forces all year, while Phoebe Ruben has been solid in goal. Azianna Simmons Continue reading >>>

As a member of the local Hack/Hackers group in Boston (an organization of "hacks" (i.e., journalists) and hackers (i.e., programmers and designers), I had a chance Tuesday night to visit the Boston Globe's headquarters in Boston and take a peek at the newspaper's RD lab, dubbed Globe Lab. The Globe, which has the boston.com website as well as a new paywall-protected site dubbed BostonGlobe.com, is experimenting with all sorts of new social media, Web and mobile technologies in an effort to better deliver its content and engage with readers and serve advertisers. While the Lab engages in basic Continue reading >>>

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The Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® (MAR) announced recently that Paul Yorkis, broker/owner of Patriot Real Estate, Inc., in Medway was selected as the Massachusetts REALTOR® of the Year for 2011.  Yorkis was presented the award at MAR’s Professional Awards Reception, which was held in conjunction with the Association’s 2011 Conference and Tradeshow at the DCU Center in Worcester. The state’s REALTOR® of the Year is selected annually from among the nominees of the 16 local associations of REALTORS® and more than 18,000 REALTORS® in Massachusetts.  Judging for the award Continue reading >>>