In the five-way race for the Suffolk County district attorney office, candidates made their case for election at a public debate last week hosted by the “What a Difference a DA Makes” campaign, a voter education campaign launched by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

It is time for African Americans to understand that the performance of whites is no longer the gold standard of academic and professional achievement. Their ice is actually not colder.

Mayor Martin Walsh’s Housing Innovation Lab hosted a housing affordability panel event at the 86th annual U.S. Conference of Mayors that took place in Boston over the weekend. The panel highlighted the iLab’s current pilot programs that aim to address the city’s housing affordability crisis.

Dorchester residents and business owners gathered at the Erie Ellington Community Center on Saturday for a Boston Ujima Project assembly where through a participatory process, attendees helped draft an investment plan for a new local economy.

Around half-past eight, in Naalehu, Hawaii, I walked into Shaka, the southernmost bar and restaurant in the United States.

In 1630 this area was part of the settlement of Roxbury It was so named because of the natural rocky surface filled with a rock called puddingstone. The original boundaries of Roxbury included the present day Fenway, Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, Roslindale and West Roxbury neighborhoods.

You can see its pointed, pencil-shaped top from Columbus Avenue and Ruggles Street, from Roxbury Crossing and from Jackson Square. The Standpipe is a brick and stone structure rising 133 feet above the ground. It sits right in the middle of Roxbury High Fort in the Highland Park section of Roxbury.

Roxbury retains historical buildings and sites going back to its founding in the early 17th century.

Roxbury residents share reminiscences of growing up in a tight-knit community where neighbors looked out for each other.

In reaction to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s suspension of an important fair housing rule, a groundswell of national advocacy has emerged calling to preserve the rule and its goals of fair housing for all.  To date, and in separate actions, both cities and states are speaking up for the 50-year old Fair Housing Act and the goals that it has yet to achieve.

At the First Parish Church in Cambridge, artist Lonnie Holley sits next to the stage, molding a small piece of wire. While his manager, Matt Arnett, extolls Holley’s virtues to the audience, Holley remains quiet. When Holley finishes his miniature sculpture, he rises slowly and takes his place on center stage. When he opens his mouth to sing, it is as though an otherworldly force has overtaken the silent man, using him as a conduit for the music and the message.