Jose Valenzuela saw something missing from the city’s youth sports offerings. It seemed to him that Boston wasn’t ready to support wrestling on its own the way it had supported other sports.

It was this void that drove Valenzuela, 27, who wrestled from 7th to 12th grade at Boston Latin School and then for another four years at Williams College, to start the Boston Youth Wrestling program a year ago.

“I really saw a need for more wrestling,” Valenzuela said. “And as a coach myself, I started a team five years ago at TechBoston Academy in Dorchester.”  Read more

City Councillor John Connolly and his wife Meg at his announcement on Tuesday. Connolly for Boston image

John Connolly didn’t get much sleep on Monday night. A few hours, tops.

On Tuesday morning, before driving to Brighton for the announcement of his mayoral bid, the 39-year-old city councillor at-large drove his kids to school and then headed back to his West Roxbury home to practice the speech in front of his wife, Meg. Then, shortly after 10 a.m., with about 30 Boston parents behind him outside of Brighton High School, Connolly took the plunge, becoming the first heavyweight to enter in this year’s race for mayor and opening up one of the four at-large seats on the council.  Read more

Looking to make the city’s school system the focus of his campaign, City Councillor At-Large John Connolly launched his mayoral bid on Tuesday morning outside of a Brighton school. He said he plans a “bottom-up” campaign, with a community organizer’s mindset, similar to President Obama’s campaign for the White House.

In a conversation with reporters on Monday, Connolly said he is ready to “ask every voter I can meet to consider me.” Connolly has spent months building up his campaign kitty and he said last week that he was seriously considering a mayoral bid.  Read more

Awash in data and comments from the school department, parents, and outside groups, the panel tasked with revamping the city’s school assignment system will meet at City Hall for a Saturday morning (Feb. 23) discussion. A vote is still planned for Monday night (Feb. 25) at Suffolk University.

The 27-member panel appears to be leaning toward the “home-based” models as they look to make a recommendation to Superintendent Carol Johnson and the School Committee, according to its members.  Read more

City councillors plan to review the city’s response to the two feet of snow that hit Boston earlier this month at a hearing on March 4. The northeaster and City Hall’s clean-up efforts prompted responses of praise and criticism, and councillors are expected to delve into the issue at a session of the City, Neighborhood and Veterans Services Committee.  Read more

City Councillor At-Large John Connolly yesterday acknowledged what has been apparent to close observers of campaign finance filings: He is considering a run for mayor this year regardless of what Mayor Thomas Menino decides to do.

“I’m actively starting to call supporters and opinion leaders,” said Connolly, who has been on a fundraising tear in the last few months. According to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance’s website, he has raised $103,969 in 2013, and has an ending balance in his campaign account of over $300,000.  Read more

Male called “pushy” in this white-crested hornbill couple. Franklin Park Zoo photo

While many humans spent their hard-earned cash on chocolate, flowers, heart-shaped balloons and other Valentine’s Day paraphernalia last week, many animals at the Franklin Park Zoo, and around the world for that matter, spent the day of love expressing themselves physically. They just do it – they’re not shy.

The post-Valentine’s Day lecture, Sex at the Zoo, returned this year, educating lovebirds and reporters alike in the ways of animal courtship and mating. Jennifer Gresham, Zoo New England’s Director of Education, hosted the evening that began innocently enough.  Read more

City councillors are pushing the school department to increase the number of teachers of color, citing a federal court order that requires the department to maintain the number of black teachers at 25 percent, at a minimum. “That is not the case today,” District 7 Councillor Tito Jackson said at an Education Committee hearing last week.

“This is not our suggestion; there’s a court order on the books that we as a city – I can’t say we’re ignoring – but we’re definitely not following,” he added.  Read more

UPDATED Fri., Feb. 22— This event has been postponed due to inclement weather. It has been re-scheduled for Sun., March 10 at the same venue. Tickets sold for Sunday's event will be honored on that date.- Ed.

Michael McLaughlin: Reps Co. Donegal and DorchesterA middleweight bout between Adams Corner-based boxer Michael Owen McLaughlin and South Boston’s Jimmy LeBlanc leads a Sunday evening Pro-Am boxing event at Dorchester’s Victory Road Armory. The fights start at 5 p.m. at 70 Victory Rd. Tickets will be available at the door.

McLaughlin, the former light Welterweight amateur champ in his native Ireland, has been training with the Dorchester Boxing Club in recent months. He is coming off a big win in Rhode Island, according to fight promoter and DBC owner Danny Kelly.  Read more

The advisory panel tasked with overhauling the city’s school assignment system is expected to choose a new plan next week after pushing off a vote on a model several times. A vote is tentatively scheduled for Monday (Feb. 25) at 6 p.m. at Suffolk University.

Four models remain on the table, advisory panel members say: a 10-zone, an 11-zone, and two “home-based” models that have no zones, instead relying on algorithms to determine which students go to what school.  Read more

After more than two years at National Journal as chief analyst, deputy daily briefings editor and White House correspondent, Jim O’Sullivan is returning to Massachusetts to fill the Political Intelligence post held until recently by Glen Johnson, who left the paper to work for Secretary of State John Kerry.  Read more