Local activist and author Veronica De La Croix held a book signing co-hosted by the Haitian Harvard Alliance (HHA) on December 3 for her recently published text “Presenting My Hero: Toussaint L’Ouverture”. As its namesake indicates, De La Croix introduces Toussaint L’Ouverture, a leader of the struggle for Haitian independence and abolition of slavery, with her own historical assessments. The book includes addendums such as poetry, photography, and statistics on Haiti’s 18th century economy. The central fixture of the book is L’Ouverture’s autobiography.

Five Haitian-American candidates running for City Council seats in Boston, Malden, Brockton, and Randolph are teaming up to shovel some cash into their coffers. A 6 p.m. fundraiser is planned for Aug. 30 at Lantana in Randolph. Jean-Claude Sanon, a Mattapan community activist, is running for one of the four City Council At-Large seats in Boston, while Fred Fontaine and Marc Lucas are both looking at seats in Brockton. Nekita Lamour is running for a seat in Malden, and Ricardo Bonachy Telemaque has his sights set on a council slot in Randolph.

With the fate of health insurance for 30,000 legal immigrants hanging on the choices legislative leaders will make in the coming days, House Speaker Robert DeLeo said Gov. Deval Patrick made a "good and compelling case" for maintaining the coverage. He added, though, that lawmakers were still concerned about financial constraints and had yet to finalize plans for dealing with budget issues.