For the past couple of days, at-large Councilor Henry Santana has been listing interesting and fun stuff to do in Downtown Crossing and across Tremont on Boston Common. Read more.

A federal appeals court has tossed a lawsuit by Salem-based Satanists over the way the Boston City Council has local clergy members start its weekly meetings with an invocation - and over the way the city fought the group's efforts to make then Councilor Michelle Wu show up for a deposition way up on the North Shore on the day of the election in which she was running for mayor. Read more.

Though I’ve spent most of my adult life in “Greater Boston” but I don’t feel like I know the granular, “Inside Baseball” of what makes Boston tick. I’ve read ‘Common Ground’ and ‘The Last Hurrah and some basic history, but what are the authoritative books that say who’s who and how things really are? Like what’s the story with the BRA? Is there an Encyclopedia Bostonia? What families have power that you don’t read about in the papers? What are politicians’ long term aims?

US Rep Ayanna Pressley (D-7th) and US Sen. Elizabeth Warren pretty immediately endorsed Kamala Harris for president today: Read more.

A new group called Protect the Lincoln Forest launched itself early this morning when a member climbed up a tree on a quarter-acre site off Rte. 2 and created a "tree-sit" to protest an agreement between Cambridge and a Texas pipeline company to cut down at least 24 trees on a lot meant to protect a major Cambridge reservoir - so the company can park trucks and equipment there while it replaces a pipeline facility next door. Read more.

The Boston City Council today agreed to look at using rodent birth-control pellets to try to control the city's burgeoning supply of rats, by building on a pilot started in Jamaica Plain last year that one councilor said had meant an 80% reduction in the gnawing, long-tailed vermin. Read more.

CommonWealth Beacon reports that Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy, who now cares about Winthrop, too, appeared at a rally against a state mandate there that would require the town to rezone some land to allow for higher density development because it's served by the T. Read more.

CommonWealth Beacon analyzes the multi-billion-dollar bond bill the legislature is considering - including $1 billion or so to help the MWRA connect its water pipes to more towns as an incentive to get them to allow more housing.