New Covid-19 cases among Cambridge residents climbed to 48 on Tuesday, bringing the total in the past two days to 92 infections. That increase would have been unheard of last week and far exceeds new cases in most of the spring surge.

With schools on the verge of closing because of skyrocketing Covid-19 cases, the mayor and vice mayor made an impassioned plea to move toward working with surrounding communities to close down indoor activities, only to have it blocked by one councillor.

City councillor Tim Toomey prepares to use his “charter right” Monday on orders about coronavirus. As the city reported 30 new cases of Covid-19 Thursday, the largest daily jump since the spring, officials also announced that the program to test Cambri …

Though the past several City Council election seasons have seen sharp debates over candidates taking donations from developers, an attempt at campaign finance reform was stopped Monday on its way to committee – because it was overly focused on those same developers.

City councillors who have been demanding access for months to notes of the city’s Covid-19 Expert Advisory Panel were told they could finally see them – thanks to a citizen’s public records request.

Longer terms for city councillors, direct elections of a “strong mayor” and various other options for forms of government came up Wednesday during officials’ first step toward modernizing Cambridge’s charter. But then a basic question got asked: Was the current charter working as intended? 

After city councillors spent a half-hour voting not to reconsider their week-old vote on extending the city manager’s contract, they spent the next hour Monday talking about it. The details of the contract first debated Sept. 14 remain the same.

Reconsideration was filed Wednesday by city councillor Patty Nolan on an 18-month contract extension offer to the city manager. There was too much confusion the previous day for her to be comfortable with the process, she said.

An 18-month contract extension offer for City Manager Louis A. DePasquale was approved Tuesday late in an eight-plus hour meeting, with city councillors arguing over a document that included typos and unanswered mysteries despite not being under an actual deadline to do so.

Under the pressure of a rejected budget item, the city has committed to a long-awaited feasibility study of creating a municipal broadband network to provide residents with cheap, fast Internet access.