Year in Review: Community

Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander and her husband, former Tuskegee, Ala., Mayor Johnny Ford, pose for a photo at a gala celebrating Alexander’s Feb. 1 retirement. The event capped Alexander’s career as the longest-serving magistrate judge in the history of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. (Sandy Middlebrooks photo)

Newton Mayor Elect Setti Newton is all smiles after attending a meeting with Gov. Deval Patrick at the State House for newly elected mayors. (Lolita Parker Jr. photo)

Staff Sgt. Joan Duran of Roxbury was killed in a non-combat related incident while serving in Iraq in 2007.  Friends and former schoolmates came together to form a scholarship in his honor. (Photo courtesy of the Joan Duran Committee)

Flanked by state Rep. Willie Mae Allen and City Councilor Charles C. Yancey, Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined members of the community to celebrate the official opening of the new Mattapan branch of the Boston Public Library on Feb. 28, 2009. (Don West photo, www.donwestfoto.com)

In this Oct. 27 photo, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino stands with Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree Jr. and Michael Flaherty before a mayoral debate. On November 3, Menino won an unprecedented fifth consecutive four-year term. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole, File)

Five of six Senate candidates gather at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass., on Nov. 8. The six candidates were vying for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. From left to right are Republicans state Sen. Scott Brown, Jack E. Robinson and Democrats U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, Alan Khazei and Stephen Pagliuca. Brown and state Attorney General Martha Coakley and Libertarian candidate Joseph L. Kennedy (no relation) won their party primaries Dec. 8 and will face off in a special election on Jan. 19. (AP Photo/Nancy Palmieri))

Scores of Boston Public Schools students rallied at the State House in Boston on May 20 and called for state legislators to increase funding for education. The system faced a budget deficit that has led district officials to lay off more than 500 employees, including 134 teachers, to make ends meet.
(Yawu Miller photo)

Radio host Jose Masso introduces a song during the bilingual “Con Salsa!” radio show on WBUR 90.9 FM in Boston on Jan. 24. For many prisoners, radio shows like “Con Salsa!” are their only connection to family and friends outside prison walls. The callers, girlfriends, fathers, wives, brothers and mothers, dedicate songs, make confessions, give news, send love, even put the voices of their children on the air. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Moderator Gwen Ifill shakes hands with Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as Palin’s Democratic counterpart, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, looks on following the vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., on Oct. 2, 2008. (AP photo/J. Scott Applewhite)