Look at the jobs numbers since we cut long-term unemployment benefits in January. Do you see a big increase in employment? No, neither do I, even when I squint. Now, cutting off benefits was supposed to encourage all those lazy, unemployed workers to go out and get jobs. Instead, more and more of the long-term […]

Every Monday, the Reverends Emmett Price and Irene Monroe join Jim Braude and Margery Eagan for Open Mic on Boston Public Radio. This past Monday, Price and Monroe discussed racist tweets directed at a black hockey player following a Bruins loss. Emmett Price is an associate professor of music at Northeastern University. Price is the […]

Janet Napolitano, former US homeland security secretary, urged Northeastern University’s 2014 graduating class Friday not to fear life’s “zigs and zags.” “Beware the tyranny of the straight line,” she repeated during her keynote speech at the school’s 112th commencement inside TD Garden in Boston Friday, this spring’s first local college graduation. Using sailboats as a […]

LL Cool J received an honorary degree Friday from Northeastern University. The “trailblazing performing artist, devoted mentor … [and] cultural icon” was named “Doctor” in front of roughly 20,000 faculty, staff, family members and students — the most important being his daughter Italia Smith, who graduated from Northeastern with honors. Also presented with honorary degrees […]

Welcome to City Hall! We’re glad you’ve come to fight a parking ticket! Pay taxes! Obtain a death certificate! Get married! Or find a public restroom! Mayor Martin J. Walsh has stationed greeters — think Walmart or the Apple Store — at the entrance to Boston’s most forbidding building. Look for the bright red fleece […]

It’s college graduation time in Boston and today Northeastern grads had a special guest and honoree. Actor and musician LL Cool J was there to see his daughter graduate and to become “Doctor” Cool J. “I’ve been called a few things, but never a doctor, that’s for sure,” Cool J says laughing. His given name […]

Brian Keegan, a postdoctoral social scientist at Northeastern University, cited the Greek myth of Narcissus in describing the personality quizzes’ attraction. “We like to see our reflections of ourselves through these systems,” he said. “I think people are also motivated by how these systems can be gamed, like how much would you have to change […]

Those shucked oysters that slid down your throat the other night could have helped keep a flood at bay. There are scores of great things about oysters, aside from how they taste doused with hot sauce. Oyster colonies provide habitat for wildlife, filter muck out of waterways, stabilize and raise shorelines, and they can bear […]

Before Aaron Hernandez ended up in his jail, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson was not particularly aware of TMZ. Leaning against the wall of what, until recently, had been the former Patriot’s cell, the 60-year-old sheriff says, “I do know it now.” The celebrity gossip site has all but had Hodgson on speed dial since […]

For most of the year, the broad main streets of High Point, N.C. are quiet and empty, much like any other faded post-industrial town. But for 10-day long stints twice a year, the empty showrooms fill with the latest upholstery fashions, and home furnishings buyers from around the world pack the town’s few restaurants. That’s […]

LL Cool J (inset) is becoming Dr. Cool J. The rapper-actor, who was recently honored by Harvard as the university’s Artist of the Year, will receive an honorary doctorate of arts from Northeastern University at the school’s commencement Friday. Former NFL player Wade Davis, who cofounded the You Belong Initiative, which promotes inclusion in sports, […]

A city-run bus system? Parking meter prices that fluctuate by the hour? They may sound far-fetched, but those are some of the recommendations that have landed on Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s desk. Without fanfare, Walsh’s transportation transition team released a report earlier this month on how to improve the city’s transportation system. Most of the […]