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Several years ago, Leslie Wittman combined her interest in cooking with her skills as a professional videographer to found a company called Flavorful Memories, which enables clients to make a professional-quality videos of themselves cooking their favorite foods. Now, a grant from the Bedford Cultural Council is giving Wittman the opportunity to make a video documenting the myriad ethnic backgrounds of her friends and neighbors in Bedford.

Economic belt tightening has the neighboring towns of Hopkinton and Ashland exploring the possibility of merging their fire departments into a regional operation, with officials seeking funds to determine how such a move could be realized. The potential merging of the fire departments is one of several collaborative efforts in the works across Boston’s western suburbs, where regionalization is becoming a more accepted approach for local governments struggling to get by with less.

In the mid-1990s and early 2000’s, Cameron MacDonald combed the playgrounds of neighborhoods from Brookline to Weston to Sudbury. A sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison, MacDonald was looking for nannies and the typically high-earning mothers for whom they worked. Ultimately, MacDonald interviewed 30 working mothers and 50 nannies in the course of her research. Her new book, ‘Shadow Mothers,’ offers surprising and layered insights into a modern mommy phenomenon played out everyday from coast to coast.

The Visiting Nurse and Community Health’s Hospice Care program is seeking volunteers who are able to commit three hours per week to provide compassionate, dependable care to hospice patients and their families.

The Arlington Catholic boys’ hockey team was struggling to score goals against quality opponents. Seeking a spark, head coach Dan Shine made a move that he had patiently resisted the first month of the season. He put talented freshman wingers Ryan Smith and Michael Snow on a line with crafty junior Brendan O’Connell and told the first-year players that they would be on the varsity the rest of the season. The result: the trio accounted for 10 of the team’s next 12 goals.

Former Watertown High basketball standouts Kyle and Cory Stockmal are making their points on the men’s basketball team at New York University. Kyle, a junior captain, was a sizzling 15 of 18 from the floor - including 11 for 12 from beyond the arc - in wins over the University of Chicago and Washington University. His twin, Cory, didn’t miss a shot in the next two games for an NYU squad off to a 15-2 start.

Letters to the editor are published based on space available in each edition.

Players of the Week, Jason Mastrodonato’s Top 10 boys’ and girls’ teams, and a Game to Watch this week from high school hockey teams west of Boston.

In a departure from its usual specific emphasis on Jewish heritage and culture, the Boston Jewish Film Festival presents REELAbilities Boston, a set of films from around the world that each tell the story of a person with a disability, including a blind person, a young woman with Down syndrome, a group of adults with cerebral palsy, and veterans of the Iraq war who have lost limbs. Films will be shown at numerous venues around Greater Boston throughout the course of the week.

Milford Superintendent Robert Tremblay, a Pentucket Regional district assistant superintendent, William Hart, and Dracut’s superintendent, Stacy Scott, have been named the three finalists for the Framingham school system’s top job.

It might sound corny, but entrepreneurial inspiration can pop up from almost anywhere. Coulter and Kristy Lewis say their venture stemmed from a desire for a healthier bag of microwave popcorn. The Lewises, both 31, founded Quinn Popcorn in their Arlington home a year and a half ago. Their story represents a thoroughly modern approach to entrepreneurship, where crowdfunding and crowdsourcing - appeals via social media for both start-up money and product feedback - have played a prominent role in their success.

Warren White of Danvers will be 79 in a few weeks, and like a lot of senior drivers, he has real issues with headlight glare. After hearing White’s complaint, I figured he was talking about Xenon headlights, those stunningly bright, bluish-tinged lamps usually found on higher-end cars. But he said he’s had problems with other headlights, too, so I promised to investigate. Are car headlights brighter than ever? What causes bad glare? And why do older drivers have such problems with oncoming lights?

Beverly Beckham ponders her impending birthday, which comes with reflection and government forms. But it’s still a number to celebrate.

“Dance & Fight Cultural Center’’ promises the sign outside Marcus Coreba’s capoeira studio in Marlborough. Capoeira, a beautiful, lethal blend of music and dance, is part of the American Dream - the South American Dream. Born centuries ago amid slavery in Brazil, capoeira now rivals soccer, samba, and fashion as the country’s biggest export. Ss local ambassadors for capoeira, Coreba and his wife teach classes in Wellesley, Framingham, and Boston, as well as at their Marlborough studio.

In many local towns, single-family home prices are stabilizing and even rising in the teeth of what is still a very tough real estate market, real estate statistics show. Newton, Weston, Needham, Wayland, Lexington, Concord, Sherborn, Dover, and Acton saw prices increase last year, according to The Warren Group, the Boston-based real estate publisher and data firm.

This is a chart for the housing story.

Wayland school officials are pushing a plan that would put a laptop in the hands of every high school student starting next school year. The School Committee unanimously approved Superintendent Paul Stein’s budget Tuesday night that includes $230,000 to lease 900 MacBooks. The budget will now go to the town’s Finance Committee for a recommendation and then Town Meeting for final approval in the spring.

Newton’s mayor, school superintendent, and city human resources and legal staff held the first of several planned meetings Friday afternoon to review hiring policies and training practices in the wake of the arrests of two public employees on child pornography charges this month.