The Irish Heritage Festival, which for the past three Columbus Day weekends has transformed Dorchester's Adams Corner into a block party celebrating the richness of Irish arts, culture and music in Boston, will not take place this year.

But organizers are already looking ahead to bringing back the event for 2013, and recently announced a date of October 13 for next year.  Read more

After two months of preparing for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Vietnamese American Community Center on Sept. 29, Nam Pham has many people to thank.

The executive director of the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (Viet-AID), the non-profit organization which operates the center, explained: “We will celebrate the contributions of everyone who makes Fields Corner a better place.”  Read more

A Dorchester man with a long record for breaking and entering was arraigned yesterday on charges related to the dozens of purloined items from suburban homes police say they found in his apartment during a search earlier this summer, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office says.  Read more

Ross Wilson wears a sense of relief that’s currently in fashion inside City Hall and the Boston Teachers Union on Mt. Vernon St.

The 36-year-old assistant superintendent was a member of Superintendent Carol Johnson’s negotiation team that worked to hammer out a teachers’ contract after more than two years of tense talks. Last Thursday, a day after a resolution was announced, Wilson sat in his office, recalling how it came to fruition.  Read more

The presence of prostitutes on Dorchester Avenue will be the focus of a Monday night meeting at Saint Mark’s church hall. The neighborhood-wide meeting, set for next Monday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m., is being put together by District 3 Councillor Frank Baker’s office.

“In response to numerous constituent calls I have received regarding this matter, I feel as though it is necessary to get the whole community together in an effort to find out what is being done to curtail this major problem,” Baker wrote in a letter to constituents. Boston Police Department officials will attend, he added.  Read more

Boston Public Schools officials plan to roll out several proposals to refit the school assignment policy on Monday by presenting options to a mayorally appointed advisory committee at the Frederick Pilot Middle School on Columbia Road at 6 p.m.

“They’re going to lay out three or four plans, I believe, that will be discussed,” Mayor Thomas Menino told the Reporter this week. “And after they get back the feedback on that and maybe some adjustments, they’ll go to a plan that the school committee will eventually approve.”  Read more

It was still in the early innings of a Saturday morning baseball game at Town Field when Jim Collyer – Dorchester’s answer to Johnny Pesky – went over to the first base line and opened up his fold-up chair. Soon after, one of the players, a five-year-old T-baller, came over to Collyer and said, “You got old. How come you got old?”

The question drew a laugh from the 84-year-old Collyer, who has been playing or prowling the coach’s circle in this Fields Corner yard for more than six decades. He has seen and heard a lot.
“It made me feel good,” he said, “because I’m thinking, ‘Hey, I was old last year too!’ But I guess I didn’t look old then. Kids have such wisdom at that age.”  Read more

Nearly two weeks after Mayor Thomas Menino sent them back to the drawing board, the City Council on Wednesday voted 7 to 6 in favor a map crafted by City Councillors Tito Jackson and Matt O’Malley and aimed at redrawing the boundaries of council’s 9 district seats.  Read more

The Boston Public Health Commission said today that a Dorchester man had contracted West Nile Virus— the second confirmed human case in a Boston resident this year. The man in his 40s was hospitalized, but has been released. It is unclear at this time where he contracted the infection, which is carried by mosquitoes, according to city officials.  Read more

Michael Ahern, 46, of Dorchester, was arraigned today on charges he ran over and killed a man riding his bicycle down Morrissey Boulevard early last Friday morning.

Doan Bui, 63, was pronounced dead at the scene following the 12:30 a.m. crash near Malibu Beach. Bui was riding home from a fishing trip when he was struck from behind near the Beades drawbridge that spans Dorchester Bay.  Read more

A man riding his bicycle southbound on Morrissey Boulevard was thrown from his bicycle and killed early Friday morning, State Police report.

The collision happened near Malibu Beach around 12:30 a.m. No charges have been filed against the driver.

Mounting concerns about pedestrian safety on Morrissey Boulevard prompted a roadside huddle this afternoon featuring elected officials, State Police and state transportation officials, who promised to "immediately make improvements" at the intersection of Morrissey and Bianculli Boulevard.

Senator Jack Hart, Rep. Marty Walsh and City Councillor Frank Baker met on site today with senior officials from the Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, UMass Boston officials and State Police.

Reporter editorial: Long view, fast action needed to fix Morrissey  Read more