Welcome to real-life Pitch Perfect where dreams are made by an unmatched pop mash-up, relentless skedaddling, and being an irrefutable and completely reserved a-ca-bitch. It’s your new favorite TV show. You don’t have to thank us. Pop TV is bringing an a cappella reality show to its Wednesday night lineup starting May 13. Sing It On, […]

In 2014, more than 72,000 postings went up online in the retail and hospitality industry across Southeast Michigan. This industry encompasses all customer service occupations, with skills transferable across the retail sector, the hotel industry, food and beverage service, call centers, gaming/casinos and others. With this much demand, and this many open positions, why are […]

A few weeks ago, I was asked to give a presentation to fellow grad students detailing a project I’ve been working on. I was honored to be given the opportunity, but it was scheduled for a Tuesday, one of three “Daddy-Daughter Days” as we call them in our family. I have to be honest, I […]

Now, it will need to face up to its problems, racial and non-racial. Among the most intractable: Thin blue line. Police — regardless of race — often develop an us-vs.-them mindset. Cops work with other cops by day and socialize with them off duty. “No matter their skin color, their uniform is still blue,” Northeastern […]

The reality is that officials not only listen to the views of crime victims but often craft charges and sentencing recommendations in light of what they are told. There is nothing wrong with this practice so long as the government doesn’t simply rubber stamp vengeful and punitive impulses, understandable as they may be, but makes […]

Baltimore and its inner suburbs were once home to the vast manufacturing facilities operated by Bethlehem Steel, General Motors and Martin Marietta, notes Thomas J. Vicino, the author of “Transforming Race and Class in Suburbia: Decline in Metropolitan Baltimore.” In 1970, about a third of the labor force in Baltimore and its first-tier suburbs was […]

Mary L. Bonauto, a prominent gay rights advocate who was instrumental in establishing a right to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, argued first, for 30 minutes. Ms. Bonauto is making her debut at the Supreme Court. A longtime champion of gay rights, she has been one of the rallying figures in the movement. She argued in […]

The world desperately needs new drugs. In the decades since our discovery of antibiotics, disease-causing bacteria have evolved to resist them; at least 23,000 people die in the U.S. each year due to untreatable infections. Fortunately, a pair of local researchers may have found the answer right in our backyard. They’ve identified one potentially game-changing, […]

Bonauto, 53, who lives in Portland, Maine, grew up in Newburgh, N.Y., and graduated from Hamilton College and Northeastern University Law School. In 1990, she joined Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston. She represented clients who had been harassed or fired and helped the city of Cambridge draft its domestic partnership ordinance — […]

The Supreme Court will first hear from civil-rights lawyer Mary Bonauto who is representing 16 gay and lesbian couples forbidden by states to marry. Ms. Bonauto, who is 53, has never argued a case before the Supreme Court, but few were surprised when last month gay rights groups announced her star role in Tuesday’s arguments. […]

This trial is unique for many reasons — particularly because there is a trial at all. Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University, says mass shooters tend to die in the act, plead guilty and beg for the death penalty. Here, there will be a trial spanning six months, with extensive psychological evaluations. “We will […]

“Call Me Lucky,” directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, had its New England premiere on Saturday at the Somerville Theatre as part of the Independent Film Festival. As befits the subject, the documentary almost feels like two films. In the first part we meet Crimmins the caustic left-wing performer, who almost single-handedly created Boston’s comedy scene in […]