BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick is releasing Tuesday what is described as the most comprehensive plan for integrating immigrants into Massachusetts. The director of the state’s Office for Refugees and Immigrants explains how the 131 recommendations would make economic and civic life more inclusive for the immigrant community.

BOSTON — The state’s social workers overwhelmingly voted “no confidence” in Commissioner Anthony “Angelo” McClain of the state Department of Children and Families. McClain said the vote is a wake-up call that he can do a better job communicating, but he does not plan to back down from some of the changes he has been pushing at the former Department of Social Services.

AMHERST, Mass. — As the Obama administration tries to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the town of Amherst is offering a little help. Voters in Amherst this week decided to welcome detainees from Guantanamo who are cleared of terrorism allegations.

BOSTON — Even though housing prices in Greater Boston are down almost 20 percent from what they were four years ago, this region is still one of the most unaffordable places to live in the country, according to a new report.

MONT VERNON, N.H. — A New Hampshire judge is considering whether to release the information that led police to arrest four teenagers for the brutal murder of a Mont Vernon woman this month. It took police two days to make the arrests, but the teen online rumor mill identified the suspects almost immediately.

BOSTON — One casualty in Massachusetts’ budget cuts is the state’s only secure substance abuse treatment center. The center is scheduled to close in five weeks, although a State House hearing on Thursday will review that plan.

BOSTON — Thursday night was supposed to be the last public forum for Boston’s mayoral candidates before the preliminary election, but Mayor Thomas Menino didn’t show.

BOSTON — A boisterous crowd is expected Thursday on Beacon Hill for a public hearing on two major education bills.

BOSTON — There are not many people who can say they have been been able to lift themselves up from being a homeless heroin addict to working as an award-winning journalist, a writing professor at UMass Lowell, an author and, most recently, a Hollywood screenwriter and actor — but Richie Farrell can. Farrell recently took Deborah Becker around his native city of Lowell, to talk about overcoming addiction

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday hears the request for a new trial from the lawyer for defrocked priest Paul Shanley.

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Teachers Association said it supports having students in the state listen to the speech President Obama made at a suburban Washington, D.C., school on Tuesday.

BOSTON — Quick and inexpensive genome sequencing is no longer a distant reality. A company based in Cambridge has created a machine that can read an entire genetic code in just a few weeks, and for less than $50,000.

BOSTON — When the Irish government recently released its report after investigating the abuse of children in Catholic-run institutions there, many questions arose on this side of the Atlantic about whether similar abuse happened here. The Waltham-based BishopAccountability.org is now investigating.

BOSTON — Eunice Kennedy Shriver is best known as founder of the Special Olympics, an organization she founded in 1968 in part because of her mentally disabled sister Rosemary. Bob Johnson, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Special Olympics, remembers Mrs. Shriver as a woman dedicated to proving to the world that “people with intellectual disabilities can do more than they can’t do and are in fact more like us than unlike us.”

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick outlines a plan Thursday that would nearly double the number of charter school seats allowed in the state’s worst school districts, a policy that represents a dramatic departure for the governor. WBUR’s Deborah Becker asked state Education Secretary Paul Reville what’s behind the shift.

BOSTON — This week, the lay Catholic reform group Voice Of The Faithful warned that it might have to close its national headquarters in Needham without $60,000 in donations. WBUR’s Deborah Becker speaks to Boston College religion professor Thomas Groome about what financial shortfall portends for the organization, founded in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. — A new school opening in Massachusetts this fall will be the first boarding school for Chinese students in the United States. The Massachusetts International Academy in Marlboro is designed to prepare Chinese students for college– in this country. WBUR’s Deb Becker reports.

BOSTON — Twelve years after the horrific kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley, his father talks to WBUR’s Deb Becker about his journey from a leading advocate in the fight for the death penalty in Massachusetts to an opponent of capital punishment.

BOSTON — Among the hundreds of high-school graduations in Massachusetts this month was one where every single graduate overcame significant obstacles to receive a diploma. WBUR’s Deborah Becker reports.

BOSTON — The backdrop to former Speaker Salvatore DiMasi’s indictment is the wrangling over ethics reform at the Statehouse. Boston College law professor George Brown tells WBUR’s Deborah Becker what this means for ethics reform as the governor and lawmakers are hashing out their reform proposals.