Boston Globe -- Adrian Walker columns

A charisma shortage

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-20T04:26:22Z

Martha Coakley strolled into a union hall in Dorchester Wednesday waving, a little stiffly, to the membership of the Service Employees International Union Local 1199.

An agency in turmoil

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-17T07:05:53Z

Angelo McClain’s homecoming was not supposed to be this rocky. When the longtime social services director - who worked at a caseworker in Roxbury before making his name as a children services executive in New Jersey - was named commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, it was viewed as a happy occasion. But he is spending most of ...

Alimony agony

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-13T04:49:46Z

Rudolph Pierce thought it was time to retire. But as a veteran member of the Massachusetts bar - and a former judge - he must have known that shedding the burden of alimony would never be so easy.

Dichotomy of a poverty foe

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-10T07:01:36Z

Robert Coard’s funeral at Emmanuel Church yesterday drew a telling mix of the powerful and not-so-powerful - fitting for an antipoverty activist far more comfortable than most in the corridors of power.

Lost Marine’s lasting gift

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-06T05:57:29Z

Joan Jose Duran was a guy who was loved for his optimistic spirit. He once served as the punter for the undermanned Boston Latin School football team, and “he wasn’t actually a good punter,’’ said his teammate, Dan Weissman. “But he had this can-do attitude. I never heard him say he couldn’t do anything. He always believed he could get ...

The gift of opportunity

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2009-10-30T03:07:27Z

Robert V. Ward Jr. has a unique perspective on the war between Southern New England School of Law, which seeks to become part of the state university system, and its competitors in Boston, who oppose the idea.

Getting his party started

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2009-10-27T05:01:47Z

Tito Jackson has to be leading the only City Council campaign that has its own dance.

Thanks for the memories

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-12-23T05:00:00Z

Dianne Wilkerson, Chuck Turner, J. James Marzilli, Sal DiMasi. These are just some of the people owed a debt of thanks from all of us who love the foibles of city and state politics. They have made 2008 an unqualified delight.

Governing Patrick

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-12-19T05:00:00Z

For a man charging headlong into a deepening economic crisis, Governor Deval Patrick seemed downright chipper yesterday.

The neediest suffer most

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-12-16T05:00:00Z

Amy Lopes has been an administrator at Bay Cove Human Services for five years, but probably not for much longer.

Lying for love

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-12-12T05:00:00Z

Jake Severino had such a sad, sad story. When I wrote about Severino last summer , he was a promising 24-year-old brought low by a terminal brain tumor. His family and friends had arranged a fund-raiser at Florian Hall in Dorchester. They approached me and asked whether I could help get the word out. They were concerned about making sure ...

Lift to home and health

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-12-09T05:00:00Z

Pedro Cendeño Lora knew something was wrong when he was too tired to keep going to work.

Spin cycle to wind down

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-12-05T05:00:00Z

Chuck Turner has been involved in his share of campaigns, but the Support Chuck Turner blitz leaves them all in the dust.

A messenger of peace

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-12-02T05:00:00Z

A wall at the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in Fields Corner aptly captures the heart of its mission.

A perfect fit for UMass

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-11-21T05:00:00Z

At 6-foot-8, J. Keith Motley is impossible to miss at the front of a room - anywhere in a room. The chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Boston was in his element Monday morning, at an event touting new partnerships between local colleges and the Boston public schools.

Still a center of attention

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-11-14T05:00:00Z

Surrounded by spiffy new housing and aging small businesses, the two vacant lots on either side of Dudley Street sit like open sores on the corridor between Uphams Corner and Dudley Square.

Spotlights and shadows

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-11-11T05:00:00Z

The way he presented himself, Ron Wilburn was a man with a vision. I spoke to the man identified as a federal informant after Dejavu,the supper club he proposed for Crosstown, was denied a liquor license in 2007.

Unthinkable is possible

Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist — 2008-11-07T05:00:00Z

My father was born in rural Alabama in the 1920s, was drafted into World War II as a college freshman, and returned home four years later to a state in which he could not register to vote.