Elizabeth Weinbloom, running for alderman in Somerville's Ward 6, has her own campaign song, a protest against rising rents performed by Amy Kucharik that harkens back to the original Charlie on the MTA - a campaign song for Walter O'Brien, the Progressive Party's candidate for Boston mayor in 1948.
Jackson, who dropped his first campaign song in 2009, updated his catalog this month with "The Tito Dance:" Read more.
City returns shows first-time challenger Andrea Campbell besting long-serving City Councilor Charles Yancey 58-34 in District 4, which includes Dorchester, Mattapan and small sections of Jamaica Plain and Roslindale. Read more.
The Globe reports on a forum for the districts now represented by Charles Yancey and Tito Jackson - the only ones to have enough candidates to require preliminaries on Tuesday.
Perennial candidate Roy Owens, this time running for Jackson's seat, demanded the city stop asking churches to close on Sunday for "rock and roll."
District 4 candidates: Campbell, Lacet, Williams, Yancey
Most Boston voters will get to ignore the Sept. 8 preliminary elections for city council: Only District 4 (Dorchester, Mattapan) and District 7 (Roxbury) have enough candidates to warrant an election - and neither has any candidate debates or forums scheduled between now and the election. Read more.
City Council President Bill Linehan today blocked a vote to force Boston 2024 officials to show up with secret documents related to Olympic financing - until at least the council's next regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 12. Read more.
The City Council tomorrow is scheduled to consider Councilor Tito Jackson's request to force Boston 2024 officials to show up with a copy of two chapters of their original Olympic bid that they don't want anybody to see. Read more.
Jackson makes a point at morning press conference at City Hall
City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) this morning filed his formal request to ask fellow councilors to order Boston 2024 to hand over two private chapters of its Olympic bid that relate to finances and political support of the proposed games.
City Councilor Tito Jackson gave Boston 2024 until Friday to give him the 100% unredacted version of its "Bid 1.0" for the 2024 Olympics. On Friday, Boston 2024 sent the Roxbury city councilor a note saying, in essence, sorry, Tito, no can do, there's proprietary stuff in there, but we can show you the Bid 2.0 stuff, and it's even better.
Jackson, who has latched onto the fact that one of the few actual powers the City Council has is that of subpoenaing people, has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Monday to discuss what his next steps are in getting the docs that may or may not have committed Boston to something.
City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) acknowledges it's a "pretty radical" idea. But he says the city should consider paying teens identified as being at risk of engaging in violence a monthly stipend to stay out of trouble.
At a City Council meeting today, Jackson said a stipend program in Richmond, CA, in which teens are paid between $300 and $1,000 a month to follow a "life plan" they write with counselors has dramatically reduced that city's murder rate. Read more.
City councilors will haul in executives from Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. for another chat about the way they're running Faneuil Hall Marketplace - this time for their plans to start charging buskers up to $2,500 for performance space. Read more.
The City Council voted 12-0 for a resolution by Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) to block city workers from traveling to Indiana on official business due to its new law allowing companies to discriminate against lesbians and gays.
The council passed a similar resolution related to Arkansas - even as that state's governor was vetoing a similar law.
The resolutions go to Mayor Walsh.
"I don't believe money from the residents of the city of Boston should be expended in those states while these laws are on the books," Jackson said.
City Councilors Tito Jackson (Roxbury) and Steve Murphy (at large) both want to look at alternatives to rebuilding what is now the rapidly disappearing bridge to the shelters and workshops on Long Island.
City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) holds a hearing Monday on his proposal to add a second student representative to the School Committee - and to give both votes on committee business.
The committee currently has a single non-voting student member - Ayomide Olumuyiwa, a junior at the O'Bryant School. Although he took an active role in the committee's questioning of superintendent candidates recently, when the time came to actually vote on a new superintendent, only the adults voted.
City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) is calling for regulations to require stores that buy second-hand cell phones to take steps to help cut down on the trade in stolen phones and give police access to their sales records.
At today's council meeting, Jackson said the theft of fancier phones - and headphones - is no laughing matter: "It's not only electronics, not only petty theft, but people are actually getting hurt." He said BPD statistics show a 207% increase in iPhone thefts between 2010 and 2013.
Several city councilors say new flight paths out of Logan Airport have shifted early morning flights over neighborhoods not used to being awoken at 5:15 a.m. by low-flying jets - and they want the FAA and Massport to explain what they're going to do about that.
"It's really impacting heavily the quality of life of constituents in my area, who are not as familiar with low flying airplanes as they are now," City Councilor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) said, adding he has also heard complaints from neighboring West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.
The Daily Free Press reports BU President Robert Brown and the City Council have reached an agreement under which Brown will discuss the diversity of his school's workforce at a hearing on Dec. 19.
The Globe reports Boston University has gone to court to try to block a City Council subpoena requiring President Robert Brown to show up at a council committee hearing on Tuesday.
The council demanded Brown's presence after Councilor Tito Jackson reported he had been disrespected by Brown when Brown sent him a note the afternoon before an earlier council hearing that Brown could not make it.
The City Council today ordered the president of Boston University to appear before one of its committees on 4 p.m. on Dec. 2 to discuss the university's workforce diversity.
The council unanimously approved the formal summons after Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury), who is studying diversity in post-secondary education in Boston, said Brown stood him up for a hearing on the issue after having agreed to appear.
Jackson acknowledged Brown did send a letter begging off the 10 a.m. hearing - to which his office had earlier agreed. But, he added, "it is unacceptable to send a letter at 4:45 the day before."
City Councilors Charles Yancey (Dorchester) and Tito Jackson (Roxbury) want the council to approve an ordinance requiring all companies with more than 100 employees in Boston:
File a report each year stating the race, gender, number and percentage of Boston workers employed at each level of the company’s operation as well as the racial and gender composition of the Boston workers at each level of the company’s operations.
Interim School Superintendent John McDonough plans to tell the School Committee tonight that he will not support a proposal to arm school police with a form of pepper spray.
In a statement released today, he said:
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