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Boston hopes to re-introduce itself with national NAACP convention

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Boston hopes to re-introduce itself with national NAACP convention


Steve Inskeep: It’s Morning Edition from NPR News. I’m Steve Inskeep.

A Martínez: And I’m A Martínez. The 114th annual ACP National Convention is underway in Boston now. Each year, delegates from the nation’s largest and most widely recognized civil rights organization gather to vote on policy platforms and also attend talks by political leaders and artists, among others. For more on this year’s convention, I’m joined by Paris Alston from member station GBH. Paris, The theme of this year’s conference is Thriving Together. So what can attendees expect?

Paris Alston: Well A, right now, as the morning begins, the convention hall is pretty empty and quiet. But soon it will be abuzz with nearly 10,000 people who are expected to be here. And for the delegates in attendance, it’ll be a time to strategize on an agenda that responds to the most pressing issues affecting race and civil rights today. That includes affirmative action, women’s reproductive rights, and safeguarding education in light of things that are happening in places like Florida. Now, for the public, this is the first time the convention will feature in The Hub, a free interactive experience celebrating Black culture and entertainment. Here’s Joclynne Bynoe, the events services manager for the convention, talking about that.

Joclynne Bynoe: It’s going to be an immersive experience for people to experience things from arts, entertainment, sports, health and wellness – all of that, and much more.

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Alston: And that includes an interactive site that will be staged like the NAACP Image Awards, where attendees will be able to take photos as if they were accepting an award themselves.

Martínez: That’s pretty cool. All right. So who are some of the more notable attendees at this year’s convention?

Alston: So it’s business and pleasure here, A. Of course, you have politicians like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, congressmembers Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Justin Jones of Tennessee, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, all of whom are listed as key speakers. But there’s also going to be some celebrity sightings, such as rapper Meek Mill, needing no shout out, Dreams and Nightmares, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who are both said to be in conversation with professor and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Martínez: I saw there’s a big emphasis on the next generation of civil rights leaders at the convention. How are they being spotlighted?

Alston: So every year the convention holds its ACT-SO competition. Now that stands for Afroacademic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics. And it brings youth from all over the country to showcase their talent in everything from culinary arts to drawing and dance. I spoke with one participant, 18-year-old Dallas Wilkins of Newark, New Jersey, who’s competing in drawing and painting, but also thinking about how to channel his activism through that. And as a rising senior, he said he was disappointed when he heard about the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action.

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Dallas Wilkins: It’s already hard for us to be equal in this society, especially when people look at us for our skin color and not really as people. So when a door closes, it just saddens me because then it makes it harder for the next person.

Alston: Other students I spoke with highlighted climate change and justice in policing as pressing issues among their peers.

Martínez: Earlier, I mentioned how the convention is in Boston, and Boston does not always have the best reputation when it comes to race. So is that being discussed there?

Alston: Oh, yes. You know it. So context here: The convention was last held in Boston in 1982, which was right in the aftermath of the forced desegregation busing crisis of the 1970s. Now, a lot has changed here since then with the city having elected its first woman and person of color as mayor and also having unveiled The Embrace monument to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Coretta Scott King earlier this year. And many are hoping with that this is a chance for the city to sort of reintroduce itself. Now, they also are saying that Boston has a rich history in the civil rights movement, and they’re really hoping that attendees will be able to immerse themselves in that while they’re here.

Martínez: That’s Paris Alston from member station GBH in Boston. Paris, thanks.

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Alston: Thank you, A.

Martínez: This is NPR News.





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Boston, MA

Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors: Where to watch free NBA live stream

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Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors: Where to watch free NBA live stream


A pair of division foes in the Eastern Conference meet up on Wednesday, Jan. 15 when the Boston Celtics travel to take on the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on NBC Sports Boston. Fans looking to watch this NBA game can do so for free by using DirecTV Stream, which offers a free trial. You can also watch on FuboTV, which also offers a free trial and $30 off your first month, or SlingTV, which doesn’t offer a free trial but has promotional offers available.

The Celtics are looking for their first winning streak since they beat the Raptors, Timberwolves and Rockets consecutively to end December and start January. Boston enters this matchup at 28-11 while Toronto is 9-31 and winless in two previous matchups with the defending champions.

  • WATCH THE GAME FOR FREE HERE

Who: Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors

When: Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. EST

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Where: Scotiabank Arena in Toronto

Stream: FuboTV; Sling; DirecTV Stream (free trial)

Betting: Check out our MA sports betting guide, where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.

What is FuboTV?

FuboTV is an internet television service that offers more than 200 channels across sports and entertainment including Paramount+ with SHOWTIME. From the UEFA Champions League to the WNBA to international tournaments ranging across sports, there’s plenty of options available on FuboTV, which offers a free trial and $30 off the first month for new customers.

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What is DirecTV Stream?

DirecTV Stream offers practically everything DirecTV provides, except for a remote and a streaming device to connect to your television. Sign up now and get three free months of premium channels including MAX, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME and Starz.

What is SlingTV?

SlingTV offers a variety of live programing ranging from news and sports and starting as low as $20 a month for your first month. Subscribers also get a month of DVR Plus free if they sign up now. Choose from a variety of sports packages without long-term contracts and with easy cancelation.

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Court papers say ex-NBA player Jontay Porter laid out betting scheme in a text; 6th person arrested

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A sixth person was charged Monday in the federal sports betting case involving ex-NBA player Jontay Porter, and authorities disclosed a text message Porter allegedly sent explaining how to cash in on his plans to bench himself in a January 2024 game.

The former Toronto Raptors center already has pleaded guilty in the criminal case and was banned from the NBA for life. He admitted that he agreed to withdraw early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.

Although the new developments don’t affect the legal case against Porter, they put the scheme in what a court document says were his own words.

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“Hit unders for the big numbers,” Porter wrote to an alleged conspirator on Jan. 26, 2024, according to a court complaint against yet another alleged schemer, Shane Hennen. He was arrested Sunday at the Las Vegas airport while boarding a flight to Panama.

“No blocks no steals. I’m going to play first 2-3 minute stint off the bench then when I get subbed out tell them my eye killing me again,” Porter wrote, according to the complaint. It identifies him only as “NBA Player 1” but makes clear through references — such as the details of his guilty plea last year — that it’s Porter.

He had scratched an eye during a game on Jan. 22, 2024, keeping conspirators in the loop by text even from the arena, according to the complaint. But he wasn’t on the injured list when the Raptors faced the LA Clippers four days later.

Porter ultimately played about 4 1/2 minutes in that game before saying he had aggravated the eye problem. Then he pulled out of a March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings after less than three minutes, saying he felt ill. His performance in both games fell well below what sportsbooks had anticipated.

Porter told a court in July that he got involved in the plot to try to clear his own gambling debts. He’s set to be sentenced in May. He could face anything from no jail time to 20 years behind bars; prosecutors have estimated his sentence at about 3 1/2 to four years in prison.

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A message was sent to his lawyer Monday to seek comment on the developments.

Hennen was released without bail after his arraignment Monday in Las Vegas on charges including wire fraud conspiracy. The court complaint alleges that he placed bets through proxies after co-conspirators alerted him to Porter’s plans for the Jan. 26 game, and that he also got a heads-up about the March 20 game and likely told other gamblers about it.

A message seeking comment was sent to his attorney.

Besides Hennen and Porter, four other people also have been charged to date. Two have pleaded guilty, a third has pleaded not guilty, and the fourth hasn’t entered a plea.

The complaint against Hennen alleges there were still more conspirators involved. It’s unclear whether more people may yet be arrested.

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The Associated Press contributed to this article



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Boston, MA

Constantine Manos, photographer for landmark ‘Where’s Boston?’ exhibit, dies at 90 – The Boston Globe

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Constantine Manos, photographer for landmark ‘Where’s Boston?’ exhibit, dies at 90 – The Boston Globe


Constantine Manos, “Los Angeles, California,” 2001. (Constantine Manos/Magnum Photos)Courtesy Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives, Constantine Manos/Magnum Photos

Among Mr. Manos’s books were “A Greek Portfolio” (1972; updated 1999), “Bostonians” (1975), “American Color” 1995) and ”American Color 2″ (2010). Mr. Manos’s work with color was notably expressive and influential.

“Color was a four-letter word in art photography,” the photographer Lou Jones, who worked with Mr. Manos on “Where’s Boston?,” said in a telephone interview. “But he was making wonderful, complex photographs with color, and that meant so much.”

Yet for all his formal skill, Mr. Manos always emphasized the human element in his work. “I am a people photographer and have always been interested in people,” he once said.

That interest extended beyond the photographs he took. He was a celebrated teacher. Among the students he taught in his photo workshops was Stella Johnson.

“He’d go through a hundred of my photographs,” she said in a telephone interview, “and maybe he’d like two. ‘No, no, no, no, yes, no.’ Costa really taught me how to see. I remember him looking at one picture and saying, “You were standing in the wrong spot.’ Something like that was invaluable to me as a young photographer.

“He was a very, very kind man, very generous. But he was very strict. ‘How could you do that?’ He was adored by his students and by his friends, absolutely. We were all lucky to have been in his orbit.”

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Cellist Samuel Mayes and conductor Charles Munch during a Boston Symphony Orchestra rehearsal at Tanglewood, July 25, 1959. (Constantine Manos/Magnum Photos)Courtesy Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives, Constantine Manos/Magnum Photos

Mr. Manos, who moved to Provincetown in 2008, lived in the South End for four decades. The South Carolina native’s association with the Boston area began when the Boston Symphony Orchestra hired him as a photographer at Tanglewood. He was 19. This led to Mr. Manos’s first book, “Portrait of a Symphony” (1961; updated 2000).

Constantine Manos was born in Columbia, S.C., on Oct. 12, 1934. His parents, Dimitri and Aphrodite (Vaporiotou) Manos, were Greek immigrants. They ran a café in the city’s Black section. That experience gave Mr. Manos a sympathy for marginalized people that would stay with him throughout his life. As a student at the University of South Carolina, he wrote editorials in the school paper opposing segregation. Later, he would do extensive work chronicling the LGBTQ+ community with his camera.

Mr. Manos became interested in photography at 13, joining the school camera club and building a darkroom in his parents’ basement. After graduating from college, Mr. Manos did two years of Army service in Germany, working as a photographer for Stars and Stripes. He joined Magnum in 1963. This had special meaning for him. Mr. Manos’s chief inspiration as a young photographer had been Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of Magnum’s founders. He was such an admirer he made a point of using the same equipment that Cartier-Bresson did.

That same year, Mr. Manos entered a seafood restaurant in Rome that was around the corner from the Pantheon. Prodanou, his future husband, was dining with friends. Noticing Mr. Manos, he gestured to him. “Would you join us for coffee?” The couple spent the next 61 years together, marrying in 2011.

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“Lining Up for the Shriner’s Parade, South End, Boston,” 1974. (Constantine Manos/Magnum Photos)Courtesy Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives, Constantine Manos/Magnum Photos

Mr. Manos lived in Greece for three years, which led to “A Greek Portfolio.” He undertook a very different project in the Athens of America. Part of the city’s Bicentennial tribute, “Where’s Boston?” was a slice-of-many-lives view of contemporary Boston.

Located in a red-white-and-blue striped pavilion at the Prudential Center, it became a local sensation. The installation involved 42 computerized projectors and 3,097 color slides (most of them taken by Mr. Manos), shown on eight 10 feet by 10 feet screens. Outside the pavilion was a set of murals, consisting of 152 black-and-white photographs of Boston scenes, all shot by Mr. Manos.

“The most important thing I had to do was to keep my picture ideas simple,” he said in a 1975 Globe interview. “Viewers are treated to a veritable avalanche of color slides in exactly one hour’s time.”

In that same interview, he made an observation about his work generally. “I prefer to stay in close to my subjects. I let them see me and my camera and when they become bored they forget about me and then I get my best pictures.”

Among institutions that own Mr. Manos’s photographs are the Museum of Fine Arts; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Library of Congress; and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

In addition to his husband, Mr. Manos leaves a sister, Irene Constantinides, of Atlanta, and a brother, Theofanis Manos, of Greenville, S.C.

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A memorial service will be held later this year.


Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.





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Boston, MA

Below freezing temperatures again today

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Below freezing temperatures again today


The winds are still going Wednesday, but the air temperatures remain at respectable levels. Highs will manage to weasel up to 30 in most spots. It’s too bad we’re not going to feel them at face value. Instead, we’re dressing for temps in the teens all day today.

Thursday and Friday are the picks of the week.

There will be a lot less wind, reasonable winter temperatures in the 30s and a decent amount of sun. We’ll be quiet into the weekend, as our next weather system approaches.

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With mild air expected to come north on southerly winds, highs will bounce back to the low and mid-40s both days of the weekend.

Showers will be delayed until late day/evening on Saturday and into the night. There may be a few early on Sunday too, but the focus on that day will be to bring in the cold.

Highs will briefly sneak into the 40s, then fall late day.

We’ll also watch a batch of snow late Sunday night as it moves up the Eastern Seaboard.

Right now, there is a potential for some accumulation as it moves overhead Sunday night and early Monday morning.

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It appears to be a weak, speedy system, so we’re not expecting it to pull any punches.

Enjoy the quieter spell of weather!



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