Public meetings this week look at golf course reuse, finding new city managers, clerks and auditors; updates on housing progress; a Youth Resource Officers Program; BioMed’s 585 Third St. tower in Kendall Square; bike lanes through Porter Square; and more.

People first brought exotic mute swans to North America in the 1870s to decorate country estates, city parks and zoos, and those we see in Massachusetts today are probably descended from birds that escaped from New York – now considered an invasive species by many and huntable in most states.

After a 30-month hiatus and with little notice or explanation, the state has put on the table a changed plan to reconstruct Memorial Drive to improve bike and pedestrian paths and restore landscaping along the Charles River.

There was as much sewage-contaminated water discharged into the Alewife Brook last year as in 1997, before the implementation of a $200 million plan to modernize the area’s antique combined sewer systems – but 2021 was the 16th wettest year ever on record, a Cambridge official notes.

Where have all the eastern cottontail rabbits gone in the past several weeks? Why do rabbits have such large ears? Why won’t you won’t see references to “rabbits” in works before the 18th century? There’s a lot to know about our urban rabbits and their relatives.

I may not be willing to dine indoors during Covid, but am more than happy to support my local restaurants via takeout orders. If only the resulting plastic trash heaps didn’t leave me wracked with guilt. I am begging Cambridge restaurants: Please stop packaging takeout food with so much plastic!

In this tale of two kinds of wildlife, Thomas Morton created a colony like no other in the North America of the 1600s – opposed to slavery, rejecting religious conservatism and filled with pleasure – then wrote the first book banned in the Americas. One volume had the first recorded documentation of the green-winged teal in the future Massachusetts.

Can we thank or blame one Shakespeare buff named Eugene Schieffelin for all the starlings in America? Maybe not. But they’ve been cast in a villainous role by officials who have spent millions of dollars trying to eradicate them — and must curse the name of Schieffelin and others who thought like him in the 1800s.

Three residents write to urge support of the 100 Percent Clean Act to transition Massachusetts to 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 and 100 percent clean heating and transportation by 2045. The House version was filed by state Reps. Marjorie Decker and Sean Garballey.

For some early settlers in North America, this bird’s bright red feathers made them think of the robes and caps of Roman Catholic church officials. The name cardinal was born, and to this day, some collective nouns for a flock of cardinals are a conclave, Vatican or college of cardinals.