BOSTON/Back Bay - Protesters converged on the Max Brenner chocolate restaurant on Valentine's Day. Approximately 50 human rights demonstrators picketed the Israeli-owned company at its location on Boylston St., Boston. Activists from the Northeastern University Chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine called the demonstration to highlight the support Max Brenner's parent-company, called Strauss Group, has for the Israeli Defense Forces, and in-particular the Golani Brigade. The action was a part of the worldwide Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) campaign against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The three goals of BDS are an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories, full equality for all citizens of Israel, and the right of return for refugees displaced in the conflict.

BOSTON/Government Center—With $1 trillion in potential budget cuts that would devastate social programs and adversely effect economic recovery looming on March 1st, a group of Boston community activists and residents took to the JFK Federal Building to present freshman Senators William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with giant Valentine’s Day cards on Thursday imploring them to do what they can to head off the heavy-handed “sequestration” cuts that become law on March 1st, while protecting medicare, medicaid and vital social programs, cutting defense spending and ending the war in Afghanistan immediately.

BOSTON/Beacon Hill—State and transportation officials marked the memory of Rosa Parks at the State House Tuesday by honoring nine African-American women who advocate for more equitable transportation opportunities throughout the Bay State’s public transit system.

February is Black History Month. Parks would have turned 100 years old on February 4th.

BOSTON/Boston Common - Demonstrators converged on Boston Common on Saturday, February 2nd to protest what they see as a violation of their constitutional rights. A group calling itself Defend the 4th organized the protest calling for an end to bag searches conducted by Transit Police and Transportation Security Administration officals at T stations throughout Boston and surrounding cities. This report features interviews organizers of the demonstration, a high-ranking official with the Transit Police, and the opinions of T users.

BOSTON/Kenmore Square - The reactions to the death of prominent computer programmer and activist Aaron Swartz have ranged from sadness, to calls for investigation, to fiery demands for policy reform.

But for many of the people worldwide who were influenced by Swartz, one very important response has been to get back to work, that is, to start coding.

While protests and legislation plow forward in the aftermath of Swartz’s suicide and preceding criminal prosecution, communities of computer programmers all over the world have started holding “hackathons” in Swartz’s memory, to collaborate on projects related to his work, or even projects he had started himself.

BOSTON/Boston Common - Former Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis called the right to be left alone “the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” It is also the right which is perhaps most often threatened; whether directly, or in the name of safety and security.

A coalition of groups and activists associated with the Occupy Movement gathered on Boston Common on Feb. 2 to protest what they call an encroachment upon MBTA riders’ Fourth Amendment rights: The Transportation Security Administration-assisted baggage inspections of passengers boarding trains at T stations.

BOSTON/Government Center - Labor and tenant organizers gathered in front of the Suffolk County Housing Court Thursday morning to support the family of Dorchester resident Ramon Suero in an anti-foreclosure rally. City Life/Vida Urbana and UNITE HERE Local 26 held the rally and press conference to announce their support of Suero and his family in the fight to keep their home. Their condo unit at 26 Elder Street in Dorchester is worth $80,000 dollars, according to assessments made by contractors working with City Life.

BOSTON/South Boston - Members of the Internet collective known as Anonymous took to the streets of Boston yesterday in memory of fellow activist Aaron Swartz, who took his own life earlier this month, and to protest the criminal prosecution that they believe contributed to this death.

But despite the sinister grins of their characteristic Guy Fawkes masks, the protest had a much more somber tone than many of Anonymous’ previous public actions.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Thirty protesters battled the bitter cold in front of Downtown Crossing's H&M on Monday evening to hold a Martin Luther King Day candlelight vigil to honor fallen sweatshop workers in Bangladesh. They mourned 112 workers who died in a garment factory fire on November 24th, 2012. Similar events took place in front of the Boston- area Walmart, Gap, and other H&M locations, all retail chains that were supplied by Bangladeshi factories where deadly fires have taken place in recent years.* Organizers hope to put pressure on these companies to sign a legally-binding fire safety agreement to prevent future tragedies.

Cambridge, Mass. - Labor activists, Harvard University employees, and friends and family rallied today in Cambridge to protest the laying off of three University Financial Services workers, citing apparent discrimination.

The emergency rally was held with just a day of notice, after Darlene Tate, a Harvard staffer with more than 25 years of experience in accounts payable, was informed Thursday she was being laid off shortly after returning from disability leave.

Tate is the third employee in the department to be laid off in the past six months. All three are people of color, over 40, and two have history with disabilities, according to the statement released by Geoff Carens, a library assistant at Harvard's Lamont Library and union representative with Harvard Union Clerical and Technical Workers/AFSCME Local 3650. Activists are calling for the immediate reinstatement of Tate and the other two employees involved, noting that all Caucasian employees in their unit are keeping their jobs.