Harvard and Cambridge Public Schools are facing safety concerns today, with Harvard Yard locked down and the nearby science center plaza emptied and a heightened police presence at public schools after a bomb threat appeared on a blog.

City councillor Nadeem Mazen is scheduled to play a prominent role in a Thursday press conference against a controversial government antiterrorism effort called Countering Violent Extremism.

In a series of appropriations votes, it was the $164 million schools budget embedded in a general fund budget item that drew the most comment and weakest approval, with only six of nine councillors voting in favor.

Veolia Energy plans to conduct a procedure known as steam blowing from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at its Kendall Station power plant. It will result in large clouds of steam that sometimes result in emergency phone calls from worried members of the public.

A man with a gun was taken in by law enforcement including Cambridge police, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Worcester Tactical Diversion Squad and the Boston office of the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

True, the ACLU did not single out Cambridge in a report on police militarization in the Commonwealth. This does not mean Cambridge has no cause for concern.

Along with Bruce Springsteen, inventor Dean Kamen and others, social worker Jackie Garrick will be honored at a first-ever awards ceremony in January.

There is a nationwide trend toward militarizing police forces, and Cambridge shouldn’t be part of it. City councillors such as Nadeem Mazen and Craig Kelley are right to push back.

The Boston Marathon bombing was invoked last month by Cambridge police to get nearly a half-million dollars for a full-time bomb squad, but not at the urging of Boston Police.

Just hours after a false bomb threat forced the evacuation of Harvard buildings and locked down two public schools, the City Council shifted nearly a half-million dollars to create a full-time city bomb squad.