Benjamin A. Smith II was mayor of Gloucester in 1955, the year that a right end wearing number 88 snagged the Harvard Crimson's only touchdown in a 21-7 whipping at the hands of the Elis in The Game.  Read more

Joe Chaisson, neighborhood activist and lifelong Dorchester resident, is the 2008  Dorchester Day Parade's Chief Marshal. At 76, he turns to the proverbial rocking chair and says "I'm not getting into you," choosing instead civic duties to stay young. Chaisson has been a fixture at Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association meetings for decades and has run the Dorchester Day Salute to Seniors since 1993.  Read more

It won't hit stores until after Labor Day. Yet, reviewers have already received their advance copies of The Given Day, the new novel by Dorchester's dean of letters Dennis Lehane.

That kind of lead time says something about the book's heft. It clocks in at just over 700 pages, for one thing. But it also dramatizes an increasingly distant, yet momentous slice of Boston history: the 1919 Boston police strike. It's a moment in the city's history that Lehane says should be given the same historical heft as the trauma of the busing crisis in the mid 1970s.  Read more

The Friends of the Lower Mills Branch Library hope to change things up at this year's annual fundraiser on Saturday, June 7 by allowing neighbors to get their antiques appraised and giving local merchants and organizations a chance to introduce themselves to the community.

This year's Library Extravaganza has expanded to include a silent auction, face painting and crafts for the kids, as well as blood pressure and sugar screenings by Carney Hospital nurses.  Read more

Three new farmer's markets are cropping up in Dorchester this spring, and they, along with other stands already selling fresh veggies, may soon take EBT food assistance on the spot with the city matching up to $5 per purchase.

"It may be coincidence but I think a couple forums have happened and people are much more aware of the poor health in the city related to nutrition," said Cammy Watts, a lead organizer in the initiative who works at Dorchester's The Food Project near Uphams Corner. "Many people in urban areas live in a food desert."  Read more

The new mayor of Dorchester, Ryan Woods, says he's always on the go and ready to lend a helping hand to his hometown. While the 24 year-old Dorchester native says he enjoys an occasional movie or a game of golf, what pleases him most is community service.

On May 17, Woods hosted a dance at the Blessed Mother Teresa school, which raised over $17,000 [Woods collected a total of $24,259 for the Dorchester Day Parade] earning him the honorary title - Mayor.

Reporter: Where did you grow up in Dorchester and go to school?  Read more

The third-floor hallway outside the Massachusetts House of Representatives is a waiting area outside a delivery room. Inside are the people doing the work, and outside are those hoping for happy news.

Expectants stand in pinstripes and pantsuits, with skirts and throbbing BlackBerrys, conducting casual asides that look like grave discussions and serious policy disagreements that look like back-slapping.  Read more

Who says that a dance at the schoolhouse gym can't help pay the bills.

Ryan Woods, whose campaign collected more than $17,000 in one night at his May 10 dance-fundraiser at the Blessed Mother Teresa school on Savin Hill Avenue, was declared the winner of the 2008 Mayor of Dorchester contest on Monday evening. Woods tallied a total of $24,259 in contributions for the Dorchester Day Parade Committee.  Read more

While community leaders hold a public meeting to discuss strategies to keep Caritas Carney Hospital as an acute care facility tonight, executive members of Caritas Christi Healthcare's Board of Governors will also be briefed on a long-anticipated consultant's report on the future of the financially-challenged hospital.  Read more

On May 13 Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of the legendary rap duo Run DMC personally congratulated Mattapan's very own Dwayne "Dagah" Simmons for winning a rap competition that was judged by DMC himself.  Read more

With a yew and haw and a black cohosh, neighbors of the Shawmut T station on the Red Line celebrated the culmination of an over a decade-long struggle last Saturday. Where once stood decrepit warehouses and flooded sidewalks now grows a medicinal herb garden with informational plaques and 36 plant varieties.  Read more

By his own account, developer and Boston firefighter Timothy O'Callaghan's finances are spread out a bit too thin these days. At a number of his Dorchester construction sites, unfinished plywood paneling bleaches in the sun and weeds grow up through tire ruts where construction vehicles once roamed. He said he has a plan to find the funds to start work again, but considering the cost of a good attorney, this may take a while.  Read more