Schuyler Towne (Andrea Shea/WBUR)
Like hackers, 25-year-old Towne has an affinity for cracking security systems. For him, it’s not code but mechanical tumblers and pins. “It’s very tactile, it takes a lot of patience,” he says. “It’s the sort of thing that I like to do down at the bar with some friends — having a beer and picking some locks.”
Bucking the national trend, the state jobless rate in October dropped to 8.9 percent, down from 9.3 percent in September. But Massachusetts actually lost jobs in October -- 900 in all.
Boston's public schools are in for a shakeup. Superintendent Carol Johnson has laid out a five-year timetable for bringing the whole district up to par with 14 schools listed for restructuring.
BOSTON — 2010 will be a big party year at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires. Musicians, composers, conductors and alumni will toast the 40th anniversary of the Tanglewood Chorus, the organization’s all-volunteer, 300-member choir. And prolific Hollywood composer John Williams celebrates his 30th anniversary.
House leaders are ordering their staff members to take five furlough days, although lawmakers won’t have to take them themselves.
The dean of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences said he will reduce the number of professors to help balance a $110 million deficit.
BOSTON — Elected officials gathered with artists Thursday on Beacon Hill to talk about their role in the state’s creative economy.
BOSTON — Beneath the positive news that the Massachusetts unemployment rate fell last month lurks a very troubling figure that is not getting better: the number of the underemployed. Those are people who are working part-time, only because they can’t find full-time work.
Sen. John Kerry’s oldest daughter was arrested in Hollywood on drunk driving charges.
Boston’s public schools are in for a shakeup. Superintendent Carol Johnson has laid out a five-year timetable for bringing the whole district up to par with 14 schools listed for restructuring.
Swine flu is now so widespread in Massachusetts that flu activity is the highest it’s ever been in recorded state history.
CONCORD, N.H. — The New Hampshire attorney general’s office says another arrest has been made in connection with a home invasion resulting in the death of a Mont Vernon woman.
BOSTON — A new report shows a significant drop in the number of public high schools in Massachusetts that teach sex education, which has health officials worried about the possibility of more teenagers engaging in risky sexual behavior.
BOSTON — Sen. John Kerry and Reps. Barney Frank and James McGovern wrote a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick saying a public law school “will be another example of how this university strategically helps our region.”
BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick urged the Massachusetts Legislature on Wednesday to suspend its rules and stay in session as long as needed to pass an education-overhaul bill, but the House speaker balked.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device. Again, a Massachusetts Maritime Academy graduate was involved.
All four democratic candidates sparred over environmental issues at a forum sponsored by the Environmental League of Massachusetts. It looked at everything from green jobs to culling seals.
BOSTON — A Rastafarian baggage screener at Logan Airport can keep his dreadlocks. In a ruling Monday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the religious rights of Josue Brissot were violated when his supervisors pressured him to cut off his locks, which are important in Rastafarian belief.
