A commitment to change “with urgency” how police respond to mental health crises was made by Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang – a response to to the Jan. 4 killing by police of Arif Sayed Faisal in Cambridgeport.

Two traffic and police issues were put on hold after the removal of a request to look into trying unarmed traffic stops; an order around closing Memorial Drive to car traffic for weekend recreation was also paused.

Three protests against governments in Iran and China and limits on human rights and Taiwanese sovereignty converged Saturday in Harvard Square.

The forming of a 63-member Housing for All caucus in the state Legislature was announced Thursday by Rep. Mike Connolly and Sen. Lydia Edwards.

With strong council leadership, Cambridge can become a role model for innovative, inclusive housing strategies rather than reverting to the 1970s-style high-rise approach advocated by a proposal to revise the Affordable Housing Overlay.

Public meetings this week look at police issues and cannabis fees, a replacement for Mona Lisa Pizza, combined lab-limit plans, a Vassal Lane school name change, Affordable Housing Overlay changes, Alewife zoning and more.

In a look ahead at a week of Cambridge and Somerville events, there’s fairy tale opera, Beethoven and Schubert as well as “Heather, the Musical” and “Waiting for Godot,” plenty of readings, a “Bittersweet” art exhibit, reproductive justice and one-woman dance and Bitch, the musician, performing her “Bitchcraft.”

Third-grade teacher Isabelle Despins has endured months of protests outside her home from a far-right group for reasons that are tenuous at best.

Jonathan Wilson’s “The Red Balcony” applies a novelistic sheen to a true-life, still unsolved murder set in the Palestine of 1933, a moment swastikas flew over Jerusalem.

I am in awe of Alice Wolf and her 16 years in the Legislature after a legendary local political career. She was known for being an issues person, but she was much more.