PORT-AU-PRINCE— Repeating their stance from last year's annulled election, Haitian voters appear to have reached outside the intrigue-heavy political class to pick a first-time candidate to steer the deeply divided country as president for the next five

State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry will host a discussion on the response to Hurricane Matthew and the cholera epidemic in Haiti at the State House on Friday, Oct. 14.

For the first time ever, registered voters in Boston — and across the state — will have the opportunity to cast their ballots ahead of the Nov. 8 elections during an early voting period.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that it was widening efforts to deport Haitians, a response to thousands of immigrants from the Caribbean nation who have overwhelmed California border crossings with Mexico in recent months.

State Rep. Dan Cullinane secured his 12th Suffolk District seat on Sept. 8, beating out second place finisher Jovan Lacet by more than 800 votes after a low-turnout primary.

City Councillor Andrea Campbell last week pitched Mattapan community members on a November ballot question that would institute a city tax surcharge that would provide funds for historic preservation, parks, and housing. 

Jovan Lacet, who is challenging incumbent state representative Dan Cullinane for the 12th Suffolk State Representative seat in the Sept. 8 primary election, points to his experience as a US Marine veteran and a former Boston Police officer in his campaign materials.

What is not mentioned in that dossier is Lacet’s termination from his job as a Boston Police officer in 2004 in the aftermath of a murder investigation and prosecution in which his brother was the chief suspect and defendant in a fatal 1998 shooting in Mattapan. His brother was found not guilty.

This week, a Boston Police spokesman told the Reporter that Lacet was terminated because he “committed perjury.”

The MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board today approved the ground lease at Mattapan Station to the partnership of Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation and the Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc. (POAH). Nuestra and POAH will be developing a mixed-used project, including affordable housing and commercial space, in the long-underutilized River Street parking lot next to the station.

Mice, cockroaches, mold, shut-off heat, no electricity, jammed doors, open gasoline canisters. This is what we live with, said the tenants of several dilapidated Dorchester and Mattapan properties as they loudly protested on Monday evening week against the ownership of a notably negligent landlord, Uwa Lawrence.

“One, two, three, four. No more constables at our door. Five, six, seven, eight. Don’t evict, negotiate,” they chanted outside Lawrence’s property at 91-101 Waldeck St. amidst an array of colorful signs emblazoned with the words “People Before Profit” and “Stand Up! Fight Back.”