Town Meeting members passed a local-option tax on restaurant meals and an increase in the local hotel tax during Monday's session.

A tale of dread and mayhem is told from the point of view of a suitcase. But, is what the suitcase sees what is really happening? After all, it is a suitcase.

Luke Cooper, managing director of New England Food Service, a division of Deal Metrics, which owns the Brigham's restaurant chain, told the Herald that he expects to file for bankruptcy protection by week's end.

At least that's Maria Muldaur's take. "Jug band is the perfect good-time music for economic hard times," said Muldaur, who began her singing career 46 years ago with the Even Dozen Jug Band and, more famously, with Boston's Jim Kweskin Jug Band.

Residents of an Arlington street are complaining about noise coming from Somerville High Schoola s home football field.

At 71 years old, retired Newton educator Robert Zeeb wasn't slowing down. He was gearing up to ride his bicycle across the country.

When the Board of Selectmen makes its choice later this month for a new town manager, for the first time in the town's history the top executive will be a woman.

As the economic crises in Eastern Europe worsened, Mikail Gorbachev made it clear, at least inside the Warsaw Pact leadership, that the Soviet Union encouraged economic experimentation and would not prop up the satellite countries with force like it had in 1953 , 1956 , 1968 and, through threat alone, 1981 .

President Barack Obama signs the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009.

Bill Would Help Cover Cost of Hearing Aids for Children The following announcement is from State Representative Sean Garballey : Representative Sean Garballey testified Wednesday on behalf of legislation that would require insurance companies in Massachusetts to provide coverage for hearing aids for children.

To see our photo gallery of the Forest-Peirce Project, click here . Affordable housing advocates Thursday commended the Housing Corporation of Arlington at the unveiling of its Forest-Peirce Project.

What's the deal with him and best-selling mystery novelist Linda Barnes? "They ask, 'Do you know you are mentioned in every one of her Carlotta Carlyle books?' " Smither said by phone last week from the airport in Los Angeles.

Polls will be open in Lawrence on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Here are the poll locations: District A/Distrito A B1: M.I. Residential Community Inc., 189 Maple St.

Orchid lovers and vendors from as far away as Michigan attended the Massachusetts Orchid Society's annual show and sale at Tower Hill Botanic Garden this weekend.

Medford and several other communities will receive state funding for a variety of road projects, Governor Deval Patrick and the state Executive Office of Transportation announced this week.