John O'Toole received quite a shock on May 13 when he discovered that neighbors, fellow civic leaders and even his family had been plotting behind his back. The former president of Cedar Grove Civic attended Tuesday's meeting to receive a Good Neighbor award as a thank you from his peers. Instead, O'Toole got a surprise visit from Mayor Thomas Menino, city councillors Maureen Feeney and John Connolly and State Rep.  Read more

A trio of bills aimed at stopping an expected wave of thousands of foreclosures this year went before a Beacon Hill committee this week as the City Council appeared poised to okay its own legislation.

The three bills, sponsored by state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, would ban evicting tenants from foreclosed properties without "just cause," create a 180-day moratorium statewide on foreclosures and set up a judicial process.  Read more

A growing coalition of healthcare leaders, Caritas Carney Hospital employees, elected officials and others have called a community-wide meeting to gather ideas and voices to aid the hospital's survival.

"This meeting is for us to take the message much more public, inviting civic groups, the public, Carney employees and elected officials," said Dan Driscoll, CEO of Harbor Health Services. "Closing Carney is a bad idea from an economic point of view, a pubic health point of view and a physician retaining point of view."  Read more

State Rep. Marty Walsh won't be the only delegate from Dorchester heading to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August, after all. State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and Reps. Willie Mae Allen and Linda Dorcena Forry will also be part of the group.

Walsh is a supporter of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, while Wilkerson, Allen and Dorcena Forry are supporters of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. The three were elected as pledged delegates to the Illinois senator last Saturday, when the state Democratic Party met in the IBEW Local 103 Hall in Dorchester.  Read more

Many were from Dorchester. But they were also from Back Bay, Roslindale, Brighton and Mattapan. Most of the 450 attendees, many of them leaders in their communities, stayed at the unprecedented civic summit through the drizzly Saturday afternoon, trading business cards with each other and taking in workshops on fundraising, zoning, communication and voter education.  Read more

From the Old Colony Correctional Center where he is currently serving a 15-year sentence, Anthony Warren apologized and then thanked the little Dorchester girl he shot and paralyzed in 2003.

"I have been blessed to be forgiven by a beautiful person like Kai Leigh. It has made me want to change," Warren said. "It has made me accept the change. It has shown me that forgiveness is good. And I appreciate the opportunity Kai Leigh has given me to grow as a person."  Read more

The wheels of progress roll on at Dorchester's new Pope John Paul II Academy parochial school system. A new regional director has been chosen, a new pastor was appointed for St. Gregory's, and media photographers dodged dirt thrown by third graders on Columbia Road as they broke ground for the Columbia Campus' renovation and its new gymnasium and Cafeteria on Monday afternoon.  Read more

City workers pull a junked car out of the mud behind 14 Hannon Street last Tuesday.

In a situation inspectors called "unbelievable," over 17 cars and trucks were hauled out of a residential backyard in Mattapan on Friday. The "junkyard," as assistant commissioner Darryl Smith called it, broke several zoning codes and presented a fire and safety hazard, he said. Neighbors said they had lived with it for more than 20 years, but never knew it was illegal.  Read more

The fire is out but the smoke has yet to clear from neighborhood disagreements over the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development's (Viet-AID) imminent sale of St. William's Church on Dorchester Avenue.

Thursday morning last week, Viet-AID leaders and members of the Church of Seventh-Day Adventists signed a purchase and sale agreement for St. William's. It is the last step before the actual $2.5 million transaction will take place, and it is legally binding for both parties.  Read more

City Council President Maureen Feeney wants to be clear: when it came to Boston magazine ranking the 50 most powerful people in the city, she had nothing to do with coming in at No. 32.

"I did not nominate myself," she says with a laugh. She came in ahead of Arline Isaacson, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus and Alan Solomont, CEO of Solomont Bailis Ventures and heavy Democratic fundraiser (#33 and #34), Cardinal Sean O'Malley (#36), MIT President Susan Hockfield (#38) and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (#43).  Read more

A proposal before the Boston City Council to provide bilingual ballots and translate candidates' names into Chinese characters appears poised to reignite debate over the practice as the state's chief elections officer says he remains opposed to the translating.

As part of a 2006 law stemming from an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, Boston provides bilingual ballots for Chinese and Vietnamese-speaking voters.

But the agreement expires in December 2008, which has prompted Sam Yoon, councillor at-large, to file a bill making the agreement permanent.  Read more