Full-time faculty at area colleges take steps to unionize

The effort involves instructors and lecturers at several colleges who are not on track to receive tenure.

USOC to meet on Boston?s 2024 Olympic bid

Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington will make hour-long presentations Tuesday in Redwood City, Calif.

The proposed site for the new Boston homeless shelter is at 112 Southhampton Street.

Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff

Walsh unveils shelter plans for displaced homeless

Boston plans to soon begin building a shelter in the Newmarket area for the hundreds of homeless displaced from Long Island.

Amid currency meltdown, Russia raises key interest rate

The move comes after the ruble was battered by Western sanctions over Ukraine and a huge drop in oil prices.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/15/BostonGlobe.com/Foreign/Images/2014-12-15T155211Z_1345812472_GM1EACF1U5W01_RTRMADP_3_AUSTRALIA-SECURITY[1]--90x90.jpg Two hostages, gunman dead in Sydney siege

Three people are dead after officers ended a hostage siege in Sydney early Tuesday, police said.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/09/22/BostonGlobe.com/Business/Images/23merchants07.jpg Faneuil Hall vendors air concerns at hearing

The pushcart vendors are concerned about their future as the landlord embarks on an overhaul of the historic space.

Turning to the Web to connect addicts with treatments

A former addict has unveiled plans for an online bed-finder database in response to the opioid epidemic.

Dr. Vivek Murthy?s nomination was held up for more than a year.

Jason Reed/REUTERS

Senate confirms Vivek Murthy as surgeon general

Murthy is a 37-year-old physician at Boston?s Brigham and Women?s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School.

Ian McKellen and Luke Evans in ?The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.?

Movie review

Thankfully, the road does not go ever ever on

?The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies? is a clanging, overcrowded bore that marches off a CGI cliff.

Kelly Olynyk went up with the ball in the second quarter.

CELTICS 105, 76ERS 87

Celtics rout Sixers behind Kelly Olynyk?s 30 points

Olynyk finished with a career high in points, shooting 12 of 17 from the field while adding nine rebounds.

Even though Jon Lester now plays in Chicago, he said, ?Obviously my heart will always be in Boston.? (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

NICK CAFARDO | ON BASEBALL

Jon Lester?s officially a Cub, and it?s time to move on

The lefthander explained his free agency decision, whether Red Sox fans like it or not, at his introduction in Chicago.

Cheryl Strayed, co-host of WBUR?s new podcast ?Dear Sugar Radio.?

?Dear Sugar' ushers in a new era of podcasts at WBUR

WBUR enters the podcast game with ?Dear Sugar Radio,? which focuses on frankly dispensed advice.

BetaBoston

The Download: Jascha Franklin-Hodge

A digital dossier from the movers and shakers in Boston?s tech scene.

Joel Boutin sits outside his home in Durham, N.H.

UP CLOSE

St. John?s Prep teacher is living the simple life in a ?tiny house?

Joel Boutin, a teacher at St. John?s Prep in Danvers, has chosen to live in a 128-square-foot house in New Hampshire with no running water, sewer, heat, or electricity.

Bette Burke-Nash, 78, took her first flight at the age of 16.

For flight attendant of 57 years, a lifetime of lessons

Bette Burke-Nash has been a flight attendant 10 years longer than Ted Kennedy was a US senator, and four years longer than President Obama has been alive.

Opinion

farah stockman

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/16/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/stockman.jpg Keeping the dream of a Palestinian state alive?

The disillusionment with peace talks risks creating disillusionment with the idea of peace itself.

The Big Picture

Residents of the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk queuing to receive food supplies in Damascus, Syria, in a photo taken Jan. 31, 2014.

UNRWA

Best photos of 2014, part 1

Photographs from around the world on a range of topics taken during 2014.