Boston Globe -- Yvonne Abraham columns

Redemption, and gratitude

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-25T06:23:51Z

If I could, I’d like to be, a great big movie star... Bobcat Smith stands in a dark apartment in a Roxbury housing development, arms outstretched, singing. Decades of bad decisions may have taken their toll on the rest of him, but his voice is still rich and sweet, like a Neville brother’s.

A reversal of fortune

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-18T06:09:44Z

CAMBRIDGE - It’s about time state Senator Anthony Galluccio’s remarkable good luck finally ran dry.

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2009-11-18T06:09:44Z

Vacillating to victory

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-15T04:33:01Z

It’s been a big week in the race to succeed the late Ted Kennedy in the US Senate.

Leave Ted out of it

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-11T07:34:46Z

Let’s face it: Martha Coakley is no Ted Kennedy. Neither is Mike Capuano. Nor Alan Khazei. Nor Steve Pagliuca.

Ideal role close to home

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-08T04:22:17Z

Ruth Ellen Fitch has traveled worlds beyond the Harrishof Street house in Roxbury where she grew up during the fifties and sixties.

Known as the mayor

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-04T05:00:00Z

Now Thomas M. Menino becomes the standard by whom other mayors are measured. A fifth consecutive term. That’s more than the infamous, beloved James Michael Curley and his formidable machinery could engineer. And more than Kevin White’s vaunted vision could inspire.

Flaherty’s big contribution

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-01T03:59:45Z

Whatever happens on Tuesday, Boston should be grateful to Michael Flaherty. Watching him over the last week, hammering away at Mayor Tom Menino over the state of the schools, the lack of diversity in his top posts, and his autocratic leadership style, I was struck by how remarkable this city councilor’s challenge has been.

A man missed

Yvonne Abraham, Globe columnist — 2009-10-28T06:23:22Z

NEWTON - Everybody in Newton knew Jeff Beatrice because he had coached every kid in town at one time or another. Their mothers would stop his wife, Elinor, in the street to tell her Jeff was the best basketball, baseball, softball, football coach their kid had ever had.

Solution for dropouts

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-10-25T03:38:13Z

EVERETT - Usually, big social problems are so complicated that it’s hard to imagine ever fixing them. And, daunted, we don’t.

No patch for deepest cut

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-10-21T04:16:26Z

CHELSEA - “You threw your life away.’’ That’s what Leslie Niedner’s guidance counselor at Boston Latin Academy told her when she got pregnant at 16.

Beacon Hill’s 7 brave souls

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-10-18T03:40:45Z

Say you’re one of the 135 Democratic legislators who voted to keep Sal DiMasi as House speaker back in January. Right now, you’ve got to be feeling even chumpier than usual, which hardly seemed possible until a few days ago.

Time to help foster parents

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-10-14T03:45:15Z

Sunday’s column on Maria Dickerson , the remarkable woman who took in four young children after their mother’s murder last year, brought torrents of mail from readers offering help and donations.

High time to decide

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-10-07T04:00:00Z

Sooner or later, everybody who runs for citywide office finds themselves standing bleary-eyed beneath the giant clock at the Forest Hills T station.

A little less ‘conversation’

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff — 2009-10-04T03:42:51Z

It was one of the most telling moments in Thursday night’s mayoral debate. Defending his temperament following e-mails revealing that he had reamed out community activist Valerie Burns, Mayor Tom Menino likened himself to a corporate executive.

Anonymity, round two

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-09-30T03:21:20Z

Massachusetts is a study in political ambition right now, with legions of hopefuls up and down the political food chain salivating over possible vacancies.

Bottle bill bottled up

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-09-27T04:00:00Z

What if somebody came to you with a proven way to keep billions of plastic bottles out of our rivers, fields, and landfills?

Electrify the electorate

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-09-23T04:00:00Z

Let’s hope today marks the start of a whole new mayoral race. Until now, the four-way fight for mayor has been by turns a snoozer and an unseemly scrap. Mostly, the campaign has consisted of Menino’s three challengers trying to beat the stuffing out of him, while the incumbent has tried desperately not to slip up.

The missing missives?

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-09-20T03:38:17Z

So Mayor Thomas M. Menino and his go-to guy, Michael Kineavy, have left us wondering what was in all those e-mails that Kineavy was so fastidious about deleting every day - perhaps illegally.

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2009-09-20T03:38:17Z

Let us now praise him

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-09-16T04:00:00Z

He’s a brilliant politician whose name has never appeared on a ballot. He’s a phenomenally successful CEO for an outfit that never turned a cent of profit. He’s the center of the universe for tens of thousands in a city where most people have never heard of him.

Merit over gender

Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist — 2009-09-13T03:55:20Z

A lot of people think they know how I’m going to vote in this winter’s special election for the US Senate, and I find that mighty annoying.